Given my experiences as a young conservation advocate, I saw a need to teach students the importance of interconnectedness, cultural awareness and systems-thinking skills through a spatial lens. I believe these skills are required for holistic, equitable and sustainable conservation decision-making in local and international contexts. This thesis uses geospatial tools to teach conservation ecology vocabulary and concepts from high school environmental science curriculum in two online resources. The purpose of my lesson plan is to show students how conservationists address complex conservation and land-use challenges using the Jane Goodall Institute’s community-centered conservation approach as a case-study. My hope is that these lessons empower students to become change-agents in their communities.

It was a goal of this study to identify factors affecting African-American enrollment and intent to enroll in an advanced placement program and other select variables such as prior course work, teacher expectations, academic motivation, peer affiliation, counselor advisement, teacher perception, and student self-efficacy. Pearson correlations, ANOVA, Post Hoc and regression tests were used to analyze the data that had the greatest significance on African-American enrollment in an advanced placement program. The researcher concluded that teacher expectations, peer affiliation, and student intent to enroll have the greatest significance on African-American enrollment in an advanced placement program. Recommendations were suggested for classroom teachers, educational leaders, and future researchers.

Millions of United States citizens are functionally illiterate. Included are persons who cannot read or write or perform simple arithmetic at all. The reasons for failure of voluntary literacy are reviewed, and consideration given to mandatory literacy as a solution to the problem. The effect of functional illiteracy on the military is examined, as well as the relationship of illiteracy to poverty and crime. A survey of educators reveals an awareness among them of this illiteracy problem, and also reveals that some of these educators favor mandatory literacy. The issue of civil rights in relation to mandatory literacy is discussed, along with the dangers and drawbacks of functional illiteracy. Suggestions are made for initiating a campaign to eradicate functional illiteracy from American society.

Despite a century of educational reforms, no matter how achievement is measured, learning and opportunity gaps can still be predicted by race and socioeconomic status. Teachers and schools are blamed for functioning to reproduce social inequality. This study investigated teacher agency and transformative potentials. It considered how teachers modified their pedagogical practices when teaching low-income and high-poverty students. In order to capture teacher beliefs and logic, a qualitative approach was used involving in-depth interviews of a small number of participants. The research used the context of the dislocation of students from high-poverty Orleans Parish schools in the year following Hurricane Katrina and their absorption into often higher income schools to understand middle-class teachers’ perspectives on their new students’ learning needs and how they adjusted their practice. Participants were middle-school mathematics teachers ranging in experience and orientation. Evacuees had weaker mathematics backgrounds (often two years below grade level). In all cases, evacuees were in classes with non-evacuees. Teachers made different pedagogical choices: continuing to use diverse methods aimed at higher-order understanding, or moving to direct instructional strategies; remediating or accelerating students with below-grade-level mathematics skills; and whether or not to help students acculturate (code-switch) from one set of classroom norms and etiquettes to another. Key factors influencing choices included: socioeconomic makeup of their classes; teachers’ level of mathematics expertise; emphasis on test scores; teachers’ views of students’ culture; and teachers’ peer environments. The study provides insights into teacher and classroom mechanisms that contributed to Katrina evacuee multi-year achievement gains.

Marseille, été 2004, un conflit éclate entre des locataires et leur nouveau propriétaire, un fonds d’investissement international, venant d’acheter sur la rue de la République plus d’un millier de logements et 50 000 m2 de surface commerciale. Le propriétaire exige que tous ses locataires, modestes, quittent leur appartement alors que le quartier fait l'objet d'une requalification soutenue par la puissance publique dans le cadre de l'Opération d'Intérêt National Euroméditerranée. Une mobilisation prend alors forme et accompagne l'émergence du problème de la rue de la République... La rue de la République constitue alors ce genre d'intervalle où il est possible d'observer un moment de ressaisie collective attenant à la confection d'un problème public. Parler de problème public situe en effet un processus dynamique porté par une enquête, cet "art" de créer et de résoudre des problèmes. A travers une ethnographie fine, cette thèse entend explorer les lignes de fragilité du public, conduisant à réinscrire l'enquête dans une continuité affectant toute appréhension globale, ferme ou définitive du problème et de ses horizons de régulation. / At Marseilles, in Summer 2004, a struggle emerged between the tenants and their new owner, an international investment fund, which bought about a thousand of apartments and 50.000 m2 of commercial area on the République Street. Although the district was subject to a redevelopment project supported by public authorities in the frame of the National Interest Euroméditerranée Project, the owner required that all the tenants, most of them in poverty, leave their apartments. This struggle led to the emergence of what is publicly called the République Street Problem. The République Street is then a place where it is possible to observe a moment of collective effervescence contributing to build a public issue. Talking about public problem is to refer to a dynamic process supported by an inquiry, taken as an "art" in creating and solving problems. Through a fine tune, this thesis aims to consider the fragility of the public, leading to a continuous inquiry that can destabilize the understanding and the definition of the problem and its issues.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between participation in CTE programs and students’ graduation rates and rates of CTE students’ entrance into postsecondary education or employment after graduation. Possible differences between students’ enrollment in urban and rural school districts and their graduation, participation, and secondary placement rates were also considered. Publicly available data on high school students in the state of Tennessee were analyzed to compare the graduation rates of CTE participants with the graduation rates of non-CTE participants in the state as a whole and in nine selected urban school districts and nine selected rural school districts for the school years 2009-2010, 2010- 2011, and 2011-2012. Research cited in this study indicated that CTE participation could increase students' graduation rates. Some research also indicated that rural students were more likely to complete CTE concentrations than urban students and that other differences might exist in the CTE experiences of urban and rural students. Six research questions were created and their null hypotheses tested with a series of z-tests. Analysis of publicly available data for the selected school systems and for the state as a whole found slightly higher rates of graduation among CTE concentrators than among non-concentrators and higher rates of CTE participation among rural than urban high school students, but these differences were not statistically significant. Differences between urban and rural schools systems' graduation rates and their rates of postsecondary placement of CTE concentrators in education, the military, or employment were also found to be statistically insignificant.

Since the beginning of her teaching career, the writer has cherished the hope that the day would come when opportunity and freedom would be given whereby the classroom teacher might saturate her teaching, and that without fear, with those values that exalt and refine the life of each youth that she endeavors to guide. That day has dawned! During recent years seminars, workshops and conferences have been held and the Kentucky program for Moral and Spiritual Education has been recognized as providing a formula which is acceptable to public schools. It is true that spiritual values have always been taught but from many sources there has come the conviction that the confused and complex scenes about us today call for a rededication to those early values our forefathers of the New World cherished. The challenge is ours. In accord with the foregoing statement it is therefore appropriate and timely that some phase of "Spiritual Values" should be selected as a topic for this particular study. It has been the author's endeavor to offer suggestions and to present fine practices whereby the program may be made more effective. Therefore, it is with pleasure that this paper is presented as a means of further guidance and emphasis on these very important aspects of our educational responsibility.

I shall approach this study, both from a survey of the vocation that the students have followed when out of school, and by what they have recommended to be offered in high school. By listing the subjects most needed when out in life, and also a list of the subjects that they would take, should they have their high school days to go over again, should help us to determine just what curriculum to offer.

In order to educate my students in my first year of teaching, I embarked upon a research project that would allow me to get to know their strengths and needs in addition to identifying my own possible biases and pre-conceived educational ideas. My research spreads from my own life to the lives of three focus students from various populations: one English learner, one student who receives special education services, and one student who has had significant life experiences that might contribute to his academic work. I interviewed all three students and their families to develop an action plan to help support their work this year. In an effort to better understand their lives, I also researched the school itself and the surrounding city by interviewing community members and referencing statistics online. Ultimately with all of this information I was able to create an action plan for each student using educational strategies from various sources that supported their academic growth this year.

Understanding the practical implications of work-based learning opportunities (WBLOs) is complex. Although WBLOs are not new learning environments, understanding and clearly defining them is increasingly necessary. In Kentucky, WBLOs are part of the political discourse in post-secondary education. The Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and local/regional economic and workforce development agencies have incorporated strengthening and growing WBLOs into their strategic plans. By interviewing students that have completed WBLOs at three colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), this study intended to explore student perspectives of WBLOs by asking the following research questions: 1) What role do WBLOs play in transmitting dominant workplace cultural capital and how has that transmission impacted student career pathway decisions? 2) What impact do WBLOs have in developing workplace expectations post-graduation? The dissertation is produced in three manuscripts, including a companion piece written in collaboration with Lauren McCrary, examining faculty perspectives of WBLOs in Kentucky. The second manuscript is an essay addressing the concept of workforce mis-alignment between the skills possessed by post-secondary graduates and the need of industry. The third manuscript is a review of the research, which was conducted to explore student perspectives of WBLOs in relation to the research questions.