published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

This dissertation examined changes in urban youth's attitude towards science as well as their perception of the informal science education setting and third space opportunity provided by the BioBus, a mobile science lab. Science education researchers have often suggested that informal science education settings provide one possible way to positively influence student attitude towards science and engage marginalized urban youth within the traditional science classroom (Banks et al., 2007; Hofstein & Rosenfeld, 1996; National Research Council, 2009; Schwarz & Stolow, 2006; Stocklmayer, Rennie, & Gilbert, 2010). However, until now, this possibility has not been explored within the setting of a mobile science lab nor examined using a theoretical framework intent on analyzing how affective outcomes may occur. The merits of this analytical stance were evaluated via observation, attitudinal survey, open-response questionnaire, and interview data collected before and after a mobile science lab experience from a combination of 239 students in Grades 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 from four different schools within a major Northeastern metropolitan area. Findings from this study suggested that urban youth's attitude towards science changed both positively and negatively in statistically significant ways after a BioBus visit and that the experience itself was highly enjoyable. Furthermore, implications for how to construct a third space within the urban science classroom and the merits of utilizing the theoretical framework developed to analyze cultural tensions between urban youth and school science are discussed. Key Words: Attitude towards science, third space, mobile science lab, urban science education

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

Esta pesquisa Políticas Públicas para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos na RMSP: O caso do ProJovem (2005-2007) resgata a história das políticas públicas para a educação de jovens e adultos no Brasil a partir da primeira campanha oficial de educação de adultos (1947) idealizada pelo poder público considerando os aspectos de conjuntura política e econômica. Investiga também a redefinição do papel do Estado no enfrentamento dos problemas educacionais deste segmento social após as mudanças na educação da década de 1990 bem como caracteriza as diferentes táticas de ação pelo Estado no combate à problemática do analfabetismo. O Programa Nacional de Inclusão de Jovens ProJovem apresenta-se como a forma mais recente de política pública para educação de jovens e adultos elaborada em esfera federal destinada para implementação, a partir de 2005, nas capitais e regiões metropolitanas, além das cidades com 200 mil habitantes e mais. Com base nestas características analisamos o processo de implementação do programa nos dez municípios da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo - RMSP. Considera-se também neste estudo, os interesses antagônicos políticoideológicos presentes no interior das esferas públicas e suas implicações elucidados durante as ações do poder público, neste caso, o ProJovem. Finalizamos a pesquisa apresentando uma breve avaliação prospectiva dos municípios tendo como base as opções profissionalizantes de cada município nestes dois últimos anos de implementação do ProJovem. / This research Políticas Públicas para a Educação de Jovens e Adultos na RMSP: O caso do ProJovem (2006-2007) (Public Policies for National Adult and Youth Education in Public Schools of São Paulo city: The Pro Youth case (2006-2007)) brings about the history of the public policies for adult and youth education since the first official campaign for this education segment (1947) idealized by the government considering aspects of the political and economic circumstances in Brazil. It also investigates the redefinition of the State role facing the educational problems in that social segment after the 1990s changs in Educational, as well as it characterizes the different strategies used by the State to fight against the illiteracy problem. The National Youth Inclusion Program ProYouth - presents itself as the newest form of public policy for the education of adult and young people in national sphere. This program was intended for implementation in 2005 in metropolitan towns, capitals and cities with 200 thousand citiziens or more. Bearing those characteristics in mind, this work analyses the implementation of the program in ten towns in São Paulo City. It also considers the ideological and antagonic interests displayed within the public areas and how these interests implicate the execution of the proposed actions in the Pro Youth Program. Finally the research presents a brief prospective evaluation of the involved towns based on their professional choices during the implementation of the Pro Youth Program.

This thesis considers the role of parents, teachers and peers in the school decision making processes of children at the end of compulsory education in England. This stage represents, in fact, the first and most important school transition when pupils will have to choose whether to enter post-secondary education or not, and in cases where they do, whether to choose an academic course or a vocational one, knowing that this will affect their next transition at the age of 18. This thesis is amongst the ones to most fully analyse the role of significant others in children’s education. All the quantitative analyses in this thesis are done using the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). Most of the statistical modelling of this data is done using multivariate regression analysis. Some of the results are also based on evidence from qualitative interviews with children in their last year of GCSEs in two comprehensive schools in England and children attending an apprenticeship scheme in the London area. With regards to educational aspirations, minority students are those who show the highest and most stable aspirations during years 9 to 11, while White English working class students, especially boys, have lower and unstable aspirations. Among the explanatory factors for these results, along with social class and ethnicity, parental aspirations, friends’ plans and individual attitude to education have the strongest correlation with the intentions to stay on in school after year 11. Moreover, parental aspirations did not appear to differ with regards to social class, suggesting a different mechanism than the one indicated by Breen and Goldthorpe (B&G) (2000). Also, the fact that minority students have very high aspirations (and are high achievers), do not confirm the principles of the relative risk aversion theory by B&G. Among the types of parental involvement in children’s education, participation in school-related activities and feelings towards school and supervision of children’s school work seemed to have a positive impact on children’s entering A-levels in year 12, although the results did not highlight differences with regards to social class and ethnicity. Evidence from the qualitative interviews showed different results with regards to helping with homework - only educated parents do that – and with regards to supporting and encouraging their children’s aspirations, which is more effective with minority and middle class parents. Considering peer relationships, the evidence from qualitative interviews suggested a very small influence of peers, especially schoolmates, in children’s school decision processes; peers are, in fact, perceived as someone to share plans and common interests with, but not as well-informed and trustworthy sources such as family. Moreover, interviews suggest that school choices are not the results of long-term plans, and children treat school transitions as separate stages. This does not support Morgan’s model of prefigurative and preparatory commitment.

China’s radical social transformation, brought about by its rapid economic growth, has placed more of its youth at risk. There has been an increase in juvenile delinquency, internet addiction, school bullying, and gang involvement. Research on this subject in China has attributed the problem to lower socioeconomic status of students’ families, faulty parenting style, academic failure, and aggressive personality. However, the dominant discourse virtually ignores the lives of young people within their context and fails to examine what a deviant lifestyle means to them. This research addresses this limitation by examining the process through which unprivileged students navigate through the problems they face in secondary schooling and construct a deviant subculture. This was accomplished through an intensive fieldwork in an urban secondary school in southeast China with participant observation and interview methods to collect data on a range of students, their parents and teachers over an eight-month period. The results of the data analysis reveal that school plays a critical role in the formation of students’ deviant identities. Its preoccupation with academic performance and bureaucratic management pushes students who bear with cumulative disadvantages inherited from their families and community to a more marginalized position. Deviancy develops from a label to a response. The key manifestation of this is the creation and development of a ‘muddling’ subculture as their strategy to survive schooling. Although the ‘muddling through’ strategy may not provide them with better chance of employment for them to jump out of working-class, nor give much hope for access to the cultural mainstream of society, it still has some positive aspects. The subculture not only offers an alternative way to safeguard their psychological well-being and hone their interpersonal skill, but also facilitates them to gain more social space and resource in the subordinate situation. This finding coincides with selected sociological studies of deviant students in the West but also aligns with the special context of contemporary China. First, the Chinese society is evolving even faster after the establishment of Deng’s economic model. It is a broadly accepted fact and a roaring public concern that the gap between the poor and rich in China is heading towards a new class structure. In this context, schooling doubtlessly plays a role in the social reproduction. This study claims that lower class students’ deviant subculture is not simply an oppositional culture to the value of school education as argued in Western literature; rather, it is a strategic negotiation with the social structure in order to ‘muddle through’ their lives. Second, the nature of this ‘muddling’ subculture has strong links with a pragmatic social ethos that glorifies monetary success. When “whatever works to become rich” is the dominant “Chinese dream”, other forms of social recognition, value and well-being attached to formal school education can appear as overwhelmingly irrelevant to the eyes of those students who inherited a social class they did not choose and an educational system that tells them little. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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This study examines the mathematics education of youth at-risk in South Africa. It explores how two learners at the margin understand and perform in mathematics in two radically different educational environments. It also examines what provisions, if any, are incorporated into the mathematics curriculum to accommodate these pupils. One of the research participants attended Thuthukani, a residential school for youth at-risk and the other was based at Sanville Secondary, a mainstream school. The differences between the two contexts were in the scarcity of resources, limited space and class sizes. The qualitative case study, which was the preferred method of choice, was carried out in two stages. Observation of learners at the residential school was stage one. Stage two was the observation of a learner at the margin in a mainstream school. Observations were captured through audio and visual recordings and photographs. Pupils' written reflections and workbooks, combined with the information acquired through interviews, informal discussions and a research diary, supplemented the instruments to produce a rich data for analysis. The analysis suggests that each of the components of this study, namely: the educational environment (context), the mathematics curriculum, the teacher and the learner at the margin influence the teaching and learning in the classroom. The study concludes with the researcher's recommendations on the mathematics education of learners at the margin. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

This study investigated the effects of choice making on the on task behavior of two students with learning disabilities in the inclusionary setting. These participants were given choices from menus of academic tasks, all of which were pertinent to their educational objectives in this particular spelling class. A reversal design demonstrated that on-task behavior increased when students were given a choice of academic assignments. The acceptability of the treatment was also positive from the general education teacher and the students themselves. The findings show that choice does promote on-task behavior for students with learning disabilities in the inclusionary classroom. / Department of Special Education

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1989 / Pacific Islands Studies