<p> The purpose of the proposed project was to establish the need for trauma-focused school-based program for at-risk urban youth, to identify a well-matched funding source, and to write a grant with the likelihood of being awarded funding. It is well established that youth who have experienced traumatic life events are more likely to suffer from mental and physical health problems. Experiencing childhood trauma puts youth at risk of negative life outcomes, such as self-harm behavior, delinquency and perpetration of violence, low educational attainment, unemployment, poverty, and dependence on public assistance. To address this social problem, the proposed treatment program is a school-based, trauma-focused, cognitive therapy-based intervention with proven success rates. </p><p> The Ralph Parsons Foundation was identified as the most suitable funding source for this project because the goals of the project align with the foundation&rsquo;s areas of focus for at-risk youth. </p><p> Along with identifying the needs of underprivileged groups and advocating for services to meet those needs, strong grant writing skills allow social workers to attain the funds necessary to support these services. The actual submission for funding of this grant proposal was not a requirement for the fulfillment of this thesis.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to conduct a policy analysis of Seth&rsquo;s Law 2012. Bullying on school campuses is a severe and pervasive problem that has been shown to cause detrimental risk factors and negative outcomes for many LGBTQ youth. This study utilized a qualitative design, collecting data from primary and secondary sources that addressed this legislation. Results indicate that LGBTQ youth are bullied at higher rates than heterosexual youth. Additionally, the results indicated that stricter anti-bullying legislation that holds the Department of Education and its school districts accountable for following such laws is needed. Implications for social work practice, policy, and research were discussed.</p><p>

<p> A study of the Holocaust is a challenging task. Schools often dedicate little time to the study of the subject, and teachers are often largely unprepared in regard to their content mastery of the subject, as well as the appropriate pedagogical tools to help guide students through the study of intellectually and emotionally difficult material. Whereas best practice in the field of Holocaust education prescribes the use of primary sources in the teaching of the Holocaust, few studies exist which explore the ways in which teachers select and implement primary sources in their teaching of the Holocaust and the impact it has on what students come to understand about the event. </p><p> A case study of one tenth grade World History II classroom provided qualitative data to help explore the ways primary sources were used in the teaching of the Holocaust. This research describes the relationship between the use of primary sources in this classroom and the development of historical thinking skills among students. The data interpreted in this study indicated that the curation choices of the teacher influenced what students came to know and understand about the Holocaust. Additionally, students demonstrated an ability to develop and practice lower order historical thinking skills related to sourcing, as a result of their use of primary sources in a study of the Holocaust. </p><p> Findings emerged which indicated that the teacher and her students had unique relationships to the content of the Holocaust and to the study of history more broadly. This study offers insight into the intersections of difficult knowledge, Holocaust education, social studies pedagogy, source curation, and discussions of the skills necessary to learn history meaningfully and critically.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of what it means to be a Latino police officer within the theoretical foundation of the Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit). The research questions focused on how Latino police officers lived experiences influence their ability to maintain ethnic self-identity and assimilate into the police organizational culture. This study examined Latino police officers who have an intersectional status when their identity as an ethnic minority is in competition with their professional identity status as a police officer. The study was composed of Latino police officers who shared a common connection in the use of the Spanish language. The researcher used a convenience sampling strategy based on current or past membership within the Arizona National Latino Police Officer Association (AzNLPOA) who represented various police agencies in the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan area. In person, semistructured, open-ended interviews served as the data collection instrument, while a modified van Kaam phenomenological approach was used to analyze the transcripts. Results indicate that the police organizational culture was the most influential factor in what it means to be a Latino police officer, but challenged the beliefs that the police organizational culture will eventually strip away the racial identity of an individual. For these Latino police officers, the use of the Spanish language caused them to maintain a heightened sense of awareness of their Latino ethnic self-identity, yet allowed them to succeed and thrive within the police organizational culture and the Hispanic or Spanish speaking community.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to identify whether parenting characteristics that make up the overall parent-child relationship differ between foster parents and traditional parents in relation to their care for their children. In sum, 127 foster and traditional parents participated in this study. Each participant completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Third Edition Parenting Relationship Questionnaire, which measured seven parenting characteristics deemed critical to the overall parent-child relationship. A MANOVA was conducted showing that foster parents rated their relationship with their foster child significantly lower than traditional parents rated their relationship with their biological child. Specifically, foster parents rated themselves significantly lower in relation to Attachment, Communication, Discipline Practices, Parenting Confidence, and Satisfaction with School. The results of the study add to the literature regarding parent-child relationships for foster children and provide an opportunity for foster care agencies and community resources to develop collaborative relationships in an effort to support foster parents and enhance outcomes for foster children.</p><p>

<p> The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, is home to approximately 3.4 million U.S. citizens. The literature on Puerto Rican national identity (PRNI) describes how and why it has been debated on the island for more than five hundred years throughout the colonial trajectory, once under Spain and now as a commonwealth of the United States. </p><p> The education system in Puerto Rico, and particularly the social studies curriculum, has been used to promote particular ideologies regarding national identity. This study identifies what middle school teachers teach about PRNI and how seventh grade students identify themselves in terms of national identity. The investigation of curriculum delivery examines the elements that foster the Puerto Rican national character. Social studies educators who neglect the multiplicity of Puerto Rican identities fail to acknowledge that educational practices should be inclusive of the diverse understandings of PRNI. Such an acknowledgment needs to be incorporated to social studies classes where teachers discuss Puerto Rico&rsquo;s relationship with the United States. Examining social studies classes in Puerto Rico becomes the ideal context to develop conjectures about PRNI that include a transnational identity beyond the nation-state paradigms.</p><p> Using a mixed method approach with a concurrent embedded strategy, I identified student perceptions about PRNI, which differ from those of educators. Teachers&rsquo; perceptions, citizenship, ethnic identity, and political ideology become intertwined with the delivery of social studies classes. Nevertheless, students develop their own perceptions of PRNI with only minor reference to the social studies class.</p><p> Students express dissatisfaction with their social studies classes. They also assign a high level of importance to PRNI, express a strong feeling of belonging to the Puerto Rican nation, and describe markers of national identity. The previous categories become pivotal considerations for the assessment of content-rich social studies lessons.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative multi-case study investigated strategies social studies teachers use to incorporate historical thinking skills in fourth and fifth grade classrooms to support the development of skills needed for understanding historical concepts. Three fifth grade teachers and one fourth grade teacher from four school systems participated in the study. Teachers completed an initial questionnaire to assess their use of historical thinking strategies. This was followed by a series of interviews and observations to determine how teachers incorporated these strategies. Constructivism was the theoretical basis for this study, and centered on how learners construct knowledge of the world around them. Three interviews and three observations were completed. Field notes were taken during observations and student work samples were collected. Information obtained through discussions with the participants revealed five overall themes: tools teachers used, ways to help students connect to history, critical thinking, helping develop student engagement, and processes leading to historical thinking. Historical thinking strategies the participants used assisted students in connecting with history and increased their engagement in the content. Findings suggest the participants wanted experiences that kept their students interested and engaged in learning. Throughout the study, participants worked to provide experiences for their students that were meaningful and helped them connect to history.</p><p>

In this dissertation, I used practitioner research to examine the process of revising a civics course to better emphasize justice. This dissertation relies on the central idea that civics education can be transformed by redefining “good” citizenship and adopting an action-oriented approach to civic education and civic life. This study used an embedded mixed methods design and explored the following research question: What are the experiences of teachers when they implement a curriculum built on justice-oriented compelling questions and how did their students experience this curriculum? This study explored three sub-questions. The first sub-questions that I explored was: How did teachers react to the process of changing the curriculum towards civics for justice? The second sub-question was: Did a shift toward justice-oriented curriculum change the teachers’ understanding of the purpose of civics? If so, how? The third sub-question was: Did a shift toward justice-oriented curriculum influence the teachers’ experiences? If so, how? These questions allowed me to explore if and how teachers and students can shift from thinking about “good” citizenship in terms of personal responsibility to thinking about it in terms of participation in civic life and activism for justice. It also allowed me to evaluate the extent to which teachers can successfully use a justice-oriented action civics project in a time when democratic institutions are in crisis. As part of a team of three U.S. government teachers, I designed new compelling questions to reflect a justice orientation, created lessons and activities that sought to build justice skills and knowledge, and implemented an action civics project consistent with participatory and justice-oriented definitions of “good” citizenship. I examined the impact on our teaching practices and the learning of our students. I found that our curricular shift allowed the teachers to provide more opportunities to students to practice justice-oriented skills including vision and strategic action. I also found that the students experienced an increase in civic efficacy and agency because of this change. Additionally, I found that teachers experienced a renewed sense of purpose and a redefined idea of rigor after participating in this study. While locally generated, these findings have global implications for teaching civics for justice and democracy. The findings in this study also have implications for educational research and democratic professional development.

<p> This qualitative research of the life stories of ten spiritual healers is focused on the threads of their journeys that led them to this unusual line of work, and their descriptions of their inner experiences while they do their work. Spiritual healers use some form of prayer, a communication with the world of spirit, as a significant part of their healing practices. Their stories reveal their controversial beliefs in invisible dimensions and how and why they believe they interact within these dimensions to experience their own mental, emotional, and spiritual healing, and offer this to others. A recurrent theme throughout participants&rsquo; lives is their ability to find positive meaning and personal growth through unusual adversity. They all have a strong sense of calling, of life purpose, that drew them to this work in divergent and fascinating ways, many having this awareness even as young children, with self-actualization as an expected purpose and outcome in life.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how instructional technology impacts teaching and learning. Specifically, in this study I show how learning analytics could be implemented to encourage student responsibility for learning and identify effective faculty course designs that help. Typically, learning analytics focuses on data mining student use of an online learning management system (LMS), the most widely used instructional technology in higher education. However, key challenges include a relative lack of empirical studies, the field&rsquo;s predisposition toward prediction vs. intervention, and a lack of understanding about the role of faculty LMS course design on student usage. Accordingly, I explore how system-generated feedback to students about their LMS use compared to peers can serve as a metacognitive &ldquo;nudge&rdquo; toward improved responsibility for learning and academic performance. I also explore how this approach might shine light on effective faculty LMS course designs. I show how analytics provides both a theoretical and methodological foundation for implementing interventions based on the learning sciences, including self-efficacy, self-regulated learning and instructional technology. Finally, my findings contribute to the dialogue about scalable institutional approaches to improving student retention, persistence and success. Learning analytics is made possible through the technology of data mining, but I believe it also serves as a mirror to reflect (if not assess) the impact of instructional technology on teaching and learning.</p>