Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / This dissertation presents an institutional and historical analysis of the emergence of new graduate schools of education, or nGSEs. A controversial reform in the field of teacher preparation, nGSEs offer teacher preparation, state certification, and master’s degrees in a variety of new non-university contexts. With bipartisan support and philanthropic backing, the nGSE phenomenon has gained traction quickly. Today, 11 nGSEs, some with several branches, are operating in 16 different states. The dissertation examines the emergence of nGSEs using concepts from sociological neoinstitutionalism through primary document analysis and institutional analysis to answer the following questions: (1) What is the nature of nGSEs as organizations, including their historical features, funding models, and organizational environments? What changes have occurred in these features since the inception of nGSEs? (2) What institutional logic animates nGSEs as organizations? (3) What happens to teacher preparation in market-organized environments? Analysis revealed that nGSEs have diverse organizational origins and that they have largely reconfigured time and place for teacher preparation. As organizations that have moved the bulk of teacher preparation to K-12 schools and/or the internet while evolving rapidly in different environments, nGSEs naturally have different cultural-cognitive schemata. However, market logic is evident in some form, though to varying degrees, at each new organization. nGSEs tend to be private sector solutions to problems in the public education system, and they enjoy the support of education philanthropists who fund alternatives to the public education bureaucracy. I show how nGSEs are fundamentally responses to specialized, and oftentimes regionalized, circumstances that create demand for new kinds of teacher preparation programs. nGSEs are tailored for particular contexts and conditions—some nGSEs serve certain geographical communities while others serve certain kinds of school communities or pedagogical movements. I argue that this has led to the creation of highly specialized niches in the 21st century market for teacher preparation. Though they all constitute one reform, namely the relocation of teacher preparation from universities to new and different kinds of organizations, nGSEs are remarkably different from one another and from the wider field of teacher preparation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Teacher education programs have long grappled with the disconnects between campus and classroom in the preparation of teacher candidates. Both are important sites of learning for teacher candidates, and yet the design of conventional teacher education programs leaves little room for teacher candidates to explore theory and practice simultaneously in ways that recognize the multifaceted nature of learning how to teach. In addition, teacher educators are faced with the complex demands of being responsive to the needs of teacher candidates while at the same time challenging assumptions and beliefs in order to ensure new teachers are responsive to the diverse needs of their students. Teacher educators, too, need to make their own dilemmas and tensions of practice observable both to teacher candidates and to one another as they consider and interrogate their beliefs and assumptions about teaching. This study explores Link2Practice, a partnership between the University of Victoria and SD 62 (Sooke) which was organized to provide a campus and classroom experience for Elementary Post-Degree Program students from the beginning of their program. A group of participants involved as teacher educators in Link2Practice engaged in a self-study with the purpose of examining how sharing leadership in teacher education provided the participants the opportunity to engage in conversations about the partnership, and how our professional learning, understandings of teacher education, and understandings of ourselves as teacher educators were informed through the research. / Graduate

Educational literature has established that over half of all teachers leave the profession within 3 years. Exploring the 1st-year teacher transition and its inherent challenges has been necessary to educational stakeholders seeking to achieve national standards and improve the educational environment, student achievement, and teacher retention. This study's purpose was to investigate 1st-year teacher induction programs; determine the type of support components included, whether from administrators, mentors, or colleagues; and identify which components 1st-year teachers perceived as most effective. The professional development models of Wong, of Johnson and Kardos, and of Curran and Goldrick provided the conceptual framework. The guiding research question focused on discovering new teacher perceptions of induction program components. Participants anonymously responded to a 68-item survey of nominal and Likert-scale items about induction program components and their effectiveness. Descriptive statistics indicated the most commonly included and effective components were assignment in certification area and providing a mentor, formal administrator evaluations, and campus/district orientation sessions. The most effective mentor support components were treating mentees with respect and being accessible. Administrators were most effective when providing clear expectations, constructive performance feedback, and help with discipline matters and parents. Colleagues were effective at integrating novices into the teaching community. Recommendations include enhancing relationship development, providing cooperative planning, and integrating teacher expertise locally. This study promotes social change by empowering administrators to improve 1st-year teacher induction programs, mentorship, and administrative support.

Educators in a low socioeconomic urban school district have been concerned with the quality of professional development (PD) training provided by the district. This issue affects students, parents, and teachers. Guided by the educational philosophy of inquiry and community, which hold that empowering teachers with validated PD could improve teacher pedagogy and perhaps academic outcomes, this project study examined (a) what benefits a standardized professional development content validation program for the 21st century can provide and, (b) what standardized professional development content validation for the 21st century looks like. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was used on a purposive sample of 8 teachers, who participated in semistructured, open-ended interviews. A quantitative questionnaire collected perceptions of teachers at the school. Interview data were analyzed via an inductive analysis approach, and survey data were analyzed via descriptive statistics. The findings of this sequential mixed methods research revealed that the content of PD activities often lacked structured validation for teachers to master important skills in their content area, new skills were undiscovered, and their pedagogy was underdeveloped. The outcome was a 3-day workshop designed to provide PD content validation for educators in 1 district in Washington State. Positive social change implications include teachers who can engage students in an informed, confident, professional manner, and increased teacher satisfaction at the research site as well as in other rural schools. Implementing this workshop will provide useful knowledge for policymakers, educators, and other researchers who are looking for a clearer definition of PD content for the 21st century.

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Problem. When considering specific instructional areas associated with the performance of teachers, do teachers and administrators in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) school system differ in their perceptions regarding the appropriateness of inservice education programs? Procedure. Three sample groups were derived from the population of SDA educators in California. These groups included: administrators at the district level; administrators in elementary and secondary schools; and elementary and secondary teachers. Of the 298 questionnaires distributed, 86.9 percent were returned. Various statistical procedures were used to determine if perceptual differences existed between: administrators and teachers; elementary and secondary teachers; male and female teachers; to determine if years of experience and teachers' perceptions of the appropriateness of inservice programs were related; and to determine if significant differences existed within various teaching subject areas at the secondary level. Findings. Of the 120 possible comparisons that could be made between the perceptions of administrators and teachers as to the value of selected inservice programs, 16 showed significant differences. In each of the 16 comparisons, administrators rated the inservice programs significantly higher than teachers. Though not at significant levels, administrators' ratings were equal to or higher than teachers in 87 other comparisons. Other findings showed some significant differences: between male and female teachers; among various secondary teaching areas; and between elementary and secondary teachers. There was no correlation between years of experience and perceptions. Conclusions. The workshop was generally considered the most preferable by all groups; the greatest numbers of significant differences did not occur between administrators and teachers, but among the various groups of teachers; and, secondary teachers' perceptions varied to a greater degree than did the administrators'. Recommendations. The inservice education of SDA teachers should accentuate the professional responsibilities of teachers; factors to consider in planning inservice are (a) the group to be involved, and (b) teacher needs or problems as they perceive them; expectations of certain supervisory functions should be clarified; and, leadership and expertise of teachers should be encouraged.

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<p>Smoking is still the leading cause of death and illness in Canada today (Wong, 1990). The process of addiction begins for many as early as 12 years of age (Health Canada, Canadian Association for School Health, Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, Heart and Stroke Foundation, 1991), and currently, only 3% of people ever begin smoking beyond their teens. King and Coles (1992) established that by age 15,22% of males and 29% of females are occasional or regular smokers. These and other statistics clearly establish that smoking is a major health care concern. In order to effectively reduce or eliminate this problem, the root causes or determinants of smoking behaviour must first be recognized. The various demographic, socioeconomic, personality and biologic factors (Flay, d'Avernas, Best, Kersell & Ryan, 1983) must be addressed by comprehensive strategies which include the goals of promotion, prevention, intervention and support. These goals should be achieved by means of appropriate instruction, social support, support services and physical environmental intervention (Council for a Tobacco-Free Ontario [CTFO], 1991; Garcia, d'Avernas & Best, 1988).</p> <p>The focus of this paper is instruction, which is defined to include a well developed curriculum, relevant teaching and learning materials and appropriate teacher preparation. The principles of a Social Influences Approach are applied to the development of TOBAC-NO!, a grade six smoking prevention curriculum unit for the Hamilton Board of Education.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)