Master of Science

The primary problem associated with this study was that guidance competencies perceived as being relevant to inner city teachers of vocational and technical education had not been delineated. Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions: 1. What vocational guidance competencies were deemed most important to inner city teachers of vocational and technical education in the District of Columbia? 2. What differences existed in the perceived importance of the guidance competencies by teachers in various service areas? 3. What differences existed in the responses of the teachers as related to years of teaching experience? One hundred ninety-nine full-time vocational and technical education teachers participated in this study. Each participant provided biographical data and indicated their degree of importance with 35 vocational guidance competencies. Analysis of data consisted of descriptive statistics to provide a respondent profile and answer the first research question, factor analysis to determine what underlying relationships existed among variables, and post-hoc comparison statistics to determine the difference in the responses made by the study participants. A questionnaire, with a Likert-type response format, was utilized with response intervals on a continuum of "Very Important," "Important," "Unimportant," and "Very Unimportant." The weighted values were four, three, two, and one. The research utilized a panel of experts and a pilot test of the research instruments. Factor analysis revealed five factors categorized as: (1) Career Development/Job Placement, (2) School/Community Involvement, (3) Guidance and Counseling, (4) Vocational Education Programs: Communication/Coordination, and (5) Competency-based Education. A major conclusion of this study was that vocational guidance competencies are perceived as important by vocational teachers in the District of Columbia schools. / Ed. D.

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

The thesis focuses on a group of programme-specific subject teachers working in the upper secondary school child recreation programme. The aim has been to study who is appointed to these positions, and ways in which their work is affected by national and local requirements. An additional aim has been to examine the factors which affect the teachers' professional identity, and the position which they have acquired at upper secondary school. The theoretical frameworks used are profession theories, discourse theories, Bernstein's curriculum theory, Bourdieu's cultural-sociological concept, and gender theory. The study is qualitative in nature and the empirical data consists of the written accounts and diary entries of ten teachers. The teachers and three school principals were interviewed in autumn 1998. In addition to government reports and guidelines the data also include questionnaire responses from 184 upper secondary teachers. The results indicate that decentralisation has caused many of the tasks and responsibilities generated by the upper secondary reform of the 1990s to become invisible. The teachers, who form a heterogeneous group, are responsible for both a broad multi-disciplinary subject area and work-place teaching for which none of them has been fully trained. The complexity of the student groups, with many students experiencing study difficulties, has imposed considerable demands on the teachers, who have developed approaches and pedagogical techniques for dealing with the students' needs. The teachers' work with students and their experience of cooperation, team work and alternative working methods in line with government aims has proved successful, according to National Agency for Education reports and statements by school principals. Their care-oriented approach has also fitted in well with the government aim of a school for all. In this respect they are clearly professional. However, the teachers do not appear to have established a particularly prominent role for themselves in the upper secondary school system. They are very much seen by others and themselves to occupy a low-status category and to have developed their professional identity within a generalist ideal, whereas the norm at upper secondary school is still characterised by a specialist ideal. / digitalisering@umu

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study examined the initial expectations of secondary vocational educators toward hypothetical labeled handicapped students under consideration for placement in regular vocational classes. Regular secondary vocational teachers from school districts in Southern Arizona were randomly assigned to six treatment conditions, two levels of behavioral description X three levels of labeled conditions. The purpose of the research was to examine the impact of a labeled condition and varying behavioral descriptions of a tenth grade male student on the initial expectations of the teachers in the study. Teachers responded to a questionnaire concerning the child that contained four subscales: (1) academic potential, (2) behavioral qualities, (3) teacher's appraisal, and (4) stereotype. Results indicated that the labels EMR and LD and behavioral descriptions had significant impact on the initial judgments of teachers. Implications of the findings of the study are discussed.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-126). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 97-104).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-138).