M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purpose of this study is to better understand the classroom experiences of current secondary school students, in light of the present policy drive towards participation. Using an approach with ethnographic intent (participant observation, interviewing, shadowing and field notes) this research explores six students’ experiences, in one secondary school in Scotland. Emerging themes from the literature, regarding participation and participatory approaches, suggest that these can be understood in different ways, ranging from economic instrumentalism to democratic renewal. This study took a fresh theoretical approach, employing an ecological, temporal-relational understanding of the achievement of agency. This understanding acknowledges a young person’s awareness of, and capacity to engage with, a range of different possible actions, by means of a particular context at a particular time. This approach provided theoretical tools, with which to interpret aspects of these students’ school experiences. The findings are detailed in terms of teacher-student relationships, the cultural realm, and young people’s aspirations. Students’ achievement of agency in the school setting is complex, but one major finding is that the quality and type of teacher-student relationship are significant in enabling these students to achieve agency. Peer relationships and ties beyond the school gates are also significant. The ecological understanding of agency provides a basis for educators to better understand the interdependence of the individual and the environment and to explore how participation might afford a wider range of possibilities for young people. This reflection on participation is important if we want to shape educational ecologies to encourage practices which facilitate the achievement of agency by young people.

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Charles Gause; submitted to the Dept. of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 28, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-152).

I conducted the research reported in this portfolio at the large western suburbs primary school of which I am the principal. My interest in the sense children make of their everyday school experiences results from having spent most of my life in schools, initially as a student, then as a primary school teacher and now as a school principal. My long term involvement in primary schools has led to my awareness that adults do not ask children about their perceptions of their schools. My observations have been confirmed by researchers who have shown that students' perspectives, especially those of primary school age children, have been under-researched. / In my research I focus on children's perspectives by inviting them to represent through artwork and photography the school places they like and those they want to talk about. I further explore children's understandings of the relationship between the physical places of their school and their positioning within that school by asking them to interpret their photographs. I then enable children to identify the places in their school they want to change and to action those changes. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2007.

Michael Fullan (1991) commented that little was known about how students viewed educational change, as no one had thought to ask them. By 2004 there was a small but growing literature seeking the views of students on a range of issues associated with schooling. This thesis presents the findings and analysis of a study of students’ perceptions of educational change. Much educational change involves shifts in power and responsibilities between the different actors, such as governments, school administrators, teachers, parents, the community and students. Despite widespread interest in educational change it is usually the macro-level policy elite who exert the most influence, using their power, privilege and status in order to propagate particular versions of schooling; students continue to be the ‘objects’ of policy initiatives, submerged in what Freire referred to as a ‘culture of silence’. Students are frequently excluded as participants in both the process and decision making phases of change. This research was based on exploring the exclusion of students from the processes of change in schools, resulting from a top-down policy initiative by the State department of education in WA, the Local Area Education Planning (LAEP) Framework. How policy is defined and acted on is explored, and the roles students could have, but often do not, are highlighted. An eclectic hybrid conceptual framework drawing on both critical theory and a postmodern policy cycle approach was used to analyse the LAEP Framework policy processes and students’ perceptions of the changes that ensued. The research comprised in-depth case studies of three schools undergoing substantial educational restructuring as the result of the macro-level LAEP Framework policy in the State of WA. Key elements of the policy were school amalgamations, closures and the creation of Middle Schools. Data collection methods included focus group and semi-structured interviews with students from the three schools, as well as document analysis, staff interviews and field notes. The research found that students were very perceptive about educational change, that they were deeply impacted by educational change and that they wanted to participate in restructuring agendas. Several meta-level themes emerged from the students’ ‘voices’, including issues associated with disempowerment, and competing social justice and economic discourses. The findings foreground the often messy and contradictory tensions evident in policy processes. The thesis concluded by developing theory on ways in which students could be included meaningfully as participants in educational change

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Andy Anderson.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 1973. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-131).

Thesis (M.Ed. (Educational Management))--Mahidol University, 2007. / LICL has E-Thesis 0024 ; please contact computer services.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 17, 2009). "College of Education." Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-100).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).