No description available.

Disabled students� experiences of working with teacher aides constitute a recent focus of international inquiry. To date in New Zealand, there has been no specific investigation of this aspect of education, despite the widespread reliance on teacher aide support as the primary means of responding to disabled students� presence in schools. Similarly, there are very few New Zealand studies in which teacher aides are the primary participants. This thesis seeks to address this absence in New Zealand educational research by exploring students� and teacher aides� experiences of working together, in order to understand the impact of assigning responsibility for students who have complex learning support requirements to teacher aides who require no qualification, training, or experience to work in this role. This interpretive qualitative study is positioned in a multi-dimensional framework of current disability, social justice, and sociology of childhood theorising. A series of semi-structured meetings were held with ten students, aged eight to seventeen years, who attended schools in the South Island of New Zealand. As well, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen teacher aides who worked in a range of primary, intermediate, and secondary schools in the same geographic area as the student participants. Data were interpreted utilizing both inductive and deductive means of analysis. Students� participation in the research and their contributions to the findings demonstrated their competence, agency, and heterogeneity. Students conveyed a sense of the importance and value of the teacher aide�s role, if clearly defined and carried out in a positive, professional manner within the context of supportive schools. The findings relating to teacher aides� experiences highlighted the diverse, ambiguous nature of their roles, conceptualised as a continuum of support ranging from aiding teachers in inclusive contexts, to aiding students in assimilationist circumstances, to assuming the role of teacher or babysitter for students in exclusive educational environments. Analysis of teacher aides� experiences revealed the fundamental importance of relationships in coming to know students in terms of their humanness and competence, and in underpinning teacher aides� efforts to do the right thing by students. Participants also identified the need for all adults involved in the policy and practice of education to develop shared understandings of respectful, socially just ways of thinking about disability and childhood as the foundation of a common commitment to teach all students well. The insight generated by participants, who represent perhaps the least powerful of students and employees in New Zealand schools, illuminates some of the most significant changes that need to occur in the thinking and practices of people involved in educational policy-making, teacher and teacher aide education, and schools. Addressing these educational deficits may contribute to the development of a socially just education system that is respectful of and responsive to human difference while recognising and respecting our mutual humanness.

Eight years after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 105-17), there still appears to be gaps in the efforts to ensure that students with disabilities are given a free and appropriate public education. While the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 aims to create school environments where teachers and paraprofessionals are highly qualified for all students, the issue of having adequately trained paraprofessionals assisting in physical education continues to be ignored. The purpose of this study was to determine the basic profiles of paraprofessionals assigned to physical education and to conduct a needs assessment for training. Participants (N=76) were comprised of paraprofessionals from city and county public schools grades Pre K -12 in Northwest and East Central Indiana, and Northwest Ohio. A twopart questionnaire was given to paraprofessionals in the classrooms to assess current responsibilities in physical education as well as identify training needs they might have in physical education. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequency counts, and measures of central tendency (means) to answer all research questions. Results indicated that paraprofessionals who assisted in physical education perceived themselves to be adequately trained despite not having much professional training. Paraprofessional responsibilities in physical education remained vague and unclear; however, results showed paraprofessionals were willing to receive training depending on training length of time and training topics offered. / School of Physical Education

Disabled students� experiences of working with teacher aides constitute a recent focus of international inquiry. To date in New Zealand, there has been no specific investigation of this aspect of education, despite the widespread reliance on teacher aide support as the primary means of responding to disabled students� presence in schools. Similarly, there are very few New Zealand studies in which teacher aides are the primary participants. This thesis seeks to address this absence in New Zealand educational research by exploring students� and teacher aides� experiences of working together, in order to understand the impact of assigning responsibility for students who have complex learning support requirements to teacher aides who require no qualification, training, or experience to work in this role. This interpretive qualitative study is positioned in a multi-dimensional framework of current disability, social justice, and sociology of childhood theorising. A series of semi-structured meetings were held with ten students, aged eight to seventeen years, who attended schools in the South Island of New Zealand. As well, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eighteen teacher aides who worked in a range of primary, intermediate, and secondary schools in the same geographic area as the student participants. Data were interpreted utilizing both inductive and deductive means of analysis. Students� participation in the research and their contributions to the findings demonstrated their competence, agency, and heterogeneity. Students conveyed a sense of the importance and value of the teacher aide�s role, if clearly defined and carried out in a positive, professional manner within the context of supportive schools. The findings relating to teacher aides� experiences highlighted the diverse, ambiguous nature of their roles, conceptualised as a continuum of support ranging from aiding teachers in inclusive contexts, to aiding students in assimilationist circumstances, to assuming the role of teacher or babysitter for students in exclusive educational environments. Analysis of teacher aides� experiences revealed the fundamental importance of relationships in coming to know students in terms of their humanness and competence, and in underpinning teacher aides� efforts to do the right thing by students. Participants also identified the need for all adults involved in the policy and practice of education to develop shared understandings of respectful, socially just ways of thinking about disability and childhood as the foundation of a common commitment to teach all students well. The insight generated by participants, who represent perhaps the least powerful of students and employees in New Zealand schools, illuminates some of the most significant changes that need to occur in the thinking and practices of people involved in educational policy-making, teacher and teacher aide education, and schools. Addressing these educational deficits may contribute to the development of a socially just education system that is respectful of and responsive to human difference while recognising and respecting our mutual humanness.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 30, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-73).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York College at Brockport, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-89). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York College at Brockport, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-89).

Zugl.: Wuppertal, Univ., Diss., 2006