Educational assessment is an ever-present component of any formal learning environment that has critical consequences for students.  Despite this relevance, there is a gap in knowledge regarding one of its foundations --namely, assessment fairness.  In particular, social class-based fairness of classroom assessment practices has been understudied at the higher education level.  We know little about how fairness is threatened due to class-related issues, and which strategies are deployed, by instructors and college students, to counter those threats.  Also, a gap in empirical knowledge exists regarding how working-class students resist those potentially unfair assessment practices. Therefore, the purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore how social class-based fairness was enacted in classroom assessment, and how working-class college students reacted when confronted with unfairness.  Data collection took place at two different Chilean universities: one affluent and one non-affluent university, in which I interviewed thirty faculty members and working-class students, and analyzed course syllabi, examples of assessment instruments, and examples of written feedback.  Guided by a conceptual framework formed by three bodies of theories and research (fairness in educational assessment, social reproduction in education, and student resistance), I conducted qualitative analyses that uncovered the findings of this study. I found that important threats to class-based fairness were present in all the phases of the assessment cycle (i.e., assessment construction, examination, grading, and provision of feedback), at both the affluent and the non-affluent institutions (although the threats were more prevalent in the former than in the latter).  At the same time, I found that instructors and students deployed a wide array of strategies in order to counter those threats, but their effectiveness varied.  However, some of the class-based threats to fairness did not have strategies countering them, leading me to conclude that unfair classroom assessment practices make higher education harder for working-class students than for their more affluent peers. Finally, I found that working-class students engaged in actions aimed to resist the classroom assessment practices that they perceived to be unfair. They exhibited conformity, conformist resistance, and transformational resistance, and engaged in both subtle and more disruptive forms of resistance.  Important differences between students in the affluent and the non-affluent universities emerged, regarding their perspectives, actions, and forms of resistance.  This study offers a number of strategies that faculty members could adopt to achieve fairer assessment, as well as an array of situations that constitute threats to class-based fairness and which they should avoid.  This study also highlights areas of training and reflection (such as provision of quality feedback and self-reflection on class privilege and ingrained stereotypes toward working-class students) that university administrators should include in faculty development initiatives.

This study utilizes qualitative narrative inquiry methods to explore the cultural experiences in higher education of rural students from poor and working-class backgrounds. These explorations occurred through individually interviewing seven rural, poor and working-class student participants, conducting focus group interviews with all participants, and reading through journal entries written by each participant, all centered around their journeys to and through college. Drawing upon cumulative disadvantage theory and definitions of and theory around culture across psychology, sociology, and anthropology, this study engaged a cumulative disadvantage, culture-based framework – intertwining cultural flexibility, cultural integration, and cultural capital and wealth – to explicate the higher education experiences of students who held the dual and compounding identities of being both rural and poor or working-class. Through doing so, this study addresses: 1) how rural, poor and working-class students culturally experience – both uniquely and collectively – higher education; 2) how, if at all, rural, poor and working-class students transition into and navigate higher education institutional cultures; and 3) how, if at all, such cultural experiences, transitions, and navigations play a role in those students’ higher education attainment. This study’s findings included two components. First, a narrative was written about each student’s experience coming from their rural, poor and working-class family and community into and through higher education. These narratives offered unique stories about the students’ personal experiences in higher education, including their academic, co-curricular, social, and professional experiences. Second, paradigmatic analysis was conducted, highlighting shared themes across the narratives. Through explicating the narratives and themes through a cumulative disadvantage, culture-based framework, this study suggests that: 1) rural, poor and working-class students hold two disadvantaged identities and background factors of being both rural and poor or working-class, which are minoritized and marginalized by higher education institutions; 2) as students with these dual rural and poor and working-class identities and background factors experience, transition into, and navigate higher education, they traverse campus cultural contexts that feel different from and at odds with their rural, poor and working-class upbringings; 2) the cultural experiences for rural, poor and working-class students in college are complex, as these students engage in cultural flexibility and cultural integration, while also gaining cultural capital and utilizing cultural wealth; 3) such cultural processes can play a role in higher education attainment for rural, poor and working-class students, given that they utilize various cultural tools to find success in higher education all the way to completion of their degrees. This study concludes with implications for theory, research, and practice and policy. In particular, this study contributes to cumulative disadvantage and cultural theory, as well as future research ideas around how to study rural, poor and working-class students in higher education and the cultural experiences of other minoritized and marginalized student populations. Regarding practice and policy, I note the importance of higher education practitioners and policymakers recognizing and valuing rurality and social class, communicating higher education norms and processes to rural students from poor and working-class backgrounds, continuing outreach and support programs for rural, poor and working-class students, creating and fostering community for this population, and acknowledging the compounding and cumulative nature of rurality, social class, and additional social identities. Keywords: higher education, culture, cumulative disadvantage, rurality, social class, college attainment

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Submitted by JULIANA HENRIQUE SILVÉRIO BERNARDO null (jujusilverio25@gmail.com) on 2016-07-02T12:20:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Finalizada Juliana Bernardo 2 .pdf: 3326819 bytes, checksum: 8a3ac2aff70fd699947d7facdf1c6a42 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-07-06T18:10:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 bernardo_jhs_me_bauru.pdf: 3326819 bytes, checksum: 8a3ac2aff70fd699947d7facdf1c6a42 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-06T18:10:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 bernardo_jhs_me_bauru.pdf: 3326819 bytes, checksum: 8a3ac2aff70fd699947d7facdf1c6a42 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / Dentre um rol de variáveis que interferem na qualidade da educação, a precária formação docente para atuar junto aos alunos público-alvo da Educação Especial tem sido apontada pela literatura da área da Educação Especial e de Educação como uma das questões que mais dificultam o processo de inclusão escolar. Tendo em vista essa máxima, o presente trabalho teve o objetivo de analisar um estudo de caso de inclusão escolar de uma aluna público-alvo da Educação Especial com deficiência intelectual e produzir conhecimentos e reflexões na forma de videodocumentário sobre a experiência de ser professor regente nessa situação. Para tanto realizamos uma pesquisa utilizando o método de estudo de caso. O material analisado foi constituído de gravações de vídeos e áudios, entrevistas semiestruturadas com diversos representantes da escola e com a avó paterna da aluna, além dos registros do diário de campo da professora, que neste estudo também é a pesquisadora participante. A partir dos procedimentos sistematizados de análise nos materiais selecionados, elencamos trechos das falas dos vídeos; das aulas com a professora/pesquisadora e dos participantes para a elaboração de um videodocumentário para o objetivo proposto; os quais foram organizados em 5 eixos temáticos: Práticas Pedagógicas (analisando a regência da professora da classe comum do ensino regular); Atendimento Educacional Especializado (o que é e de que forma acontece nas escolas); Gestão Democrática (observação da gestão para o processo de inclusão); Inclusão Escolar (quais os percalços deste processo) e Projeto Político Pedagógico (Formação de professores e gestão escolar). Observa-se pela análise do material coletado, que o processo de inclusão escolar ainda permanece aquém dos parâmetros estabelecidos nas legislações vigentes; constatamos nesta pesquisa um recorte da realidade do processo de inclusão com sugestivas falhas no planejamento e na prática docente para o atendimento aos alunos público-alvo da Educação Especial. Como produto final deste trabalho organizamos um Videodocumentário contendo reflexões sobre este processo. Concluímos que a inclusão escolar não está mais a margem das escolas públicas, ele é um processo complexo e gradativo, não se efetivará por imposição legal. Todavia, há que se planejar ações coletivas de formação continuada envolvendo a gestão escolar, os professores regentes e de educação especial, bem como as famílias. Ademais consideramos essencial políticas públicas que favoreçam a transformação desta escola que ainda é excludente, para uma escola que promova a aprendizagem de todos os alunos, ou seja, que de fato a educação seja de qualidade com equidade. / Among a list of variables that affect the quality of education, poor teacher training to work with Students of Special Education has been identified by the Special Education and Education literature as one of the issues that make the process of school inclusion more difficult. In view of this principle, this study aimed to analyze a school inclusion study case of a Special Education student with intellectual disabilities as well as to produce knowledge and reflections in the form of video documentary about the experience of being a classroom teacher in that situation. In order of that, we conducted a search using the case study method. The analyzed material consisted of video and audio recordings, semi-structured interviews with several representatives of the school and the paternal grandmother of the student, in addition to the records of the teacher`s field diary, who is also a participant researcher in this study. From the systematic procedures for examining selected materials, we selected excerpts from speeches of the videos, lessons with the teacher / researcher and participants for the development of a video documentary for the proposed goal, which was organized in five thematic areas: Pedagogical Practices (analyzing regency professor at common class); Educational Service Specialist (what it is and how it happens in schools); Democratic management (observation of management for inclusion process); School Inclusion (with the mishaps of this process) and Educational Policy Project (teacher training and school management). It is observed by the analysis of the collected material that the school inclusion process still remains below the set parameters in the current legislation, we found in this study a cut of the process of inclusion reality with suggestive failures in planning and teaching practice to meet the Special Education students. As a final product, a video documentary containing reflections on this process was organized. We conclude that school inclusion is no longer the margin of public schools, it is a complex and gradual process that does not become effective through legislation. However, it is necessary to plan collective actions of continuing education involving school management, school teachers and special education as well as families. Furthermore we consider public policies that favor the transformation of this school essential to a school that promotes learning for all students, which is truly an education with quality and equity.

The thesis ``Activising methods in education and their influence on the climate in class{\crqq} is based on activising methods and their influence on the climate in class. The purpose of this work is measuring the climate on class, using of activising methods and then a consequent measuring of the climate in class. The results have been compared, the hypothesis analyzed and so found the influence on the climate in class. In the theoretical part are explained the basic terms connected with the subject (education method, activising education methods, environment, atmosphere, climate in class). Then is the problematic of researching the climate characterized, other methods of observation etc. The practical part offers a review of methods of investigating the climate, subscription of some chosen methods and the process of the research. The obtained entries are utilized, analyzed and enlisted in charts and graphs, which provide better evaluation of the whole climate in class and the particular parameters of the climate in class (concern of the student for school work, relationships between the schoolmates, teacher{\crq}s help to the students, orientation of the students on homework, arrangement and organization, clearness of the rules). The object of exploration have been especially the finding and comparing of the whole climate in class before and after using of the activising methods in education.