Thesis (M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

The problem of the study was to determine if differences exist, and if so to what extent, in the perceptions of school board presidents in selected Texas school districts with and without community education programs with respect to six basic components of community education programs commonly identified by experts in the field.

Please read the abstract (Summary) in the section, 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

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The problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of community education in Texas as perceived by the superintendents, community education directors, and selected laymen in the participating school districts. The sources of data included a review of the literature and supplemental materials. The survey technique, employing a jury—validated questionnaire, was used to collect the perceptions of superintendents, principals, teachers, and college professors in the State of Texas. A total of 121 educators and lay participants responded to the questionnaire. As a result of the study, it appears that according to the perception of those surveyed, that the community education programs in Texas are accomplishing at least 83 percent of all the goals purported in the nationally-circulated literature. Based on the study, it appears that the ongoing community education programs in Texas are perceived to be effective by those most closely associated with them and therefore deserve to continue to receive special considerations and funding.

From 1965 through the 1980's, community education was endorsed and promoted in Indiana by the C.S. Mott Foundation of Flint, Michigan. The Mott Foundation issued nearly $2 million in grant money to the Institute for Community Education Development (ICED) at Ball State University to encourage local communities in Indiana and a four-state region to develop community education programs and processes. This money was granted to Ball State University and the ICED for several purposes: 1) to promote the concept of Community Education, 2) to provide and manage seed money incentive grants made to local public school corporations who adopted the concept, 3) to provide training and academic programs to local program leaders, and 4) to support the development of Community Education in the state through consultant services and other appropriate forms of assistance. After twenty-two years of activity and investment, the Mott Foundation-focused development of community education in Indiana through the Institute for Community Education Development (ICED) was phased out.This research was conducted using an Oral History methodology in which a thorough literature review was completed, ICED yearly reports and other literature provided background and triangulation, and eight interviewees were interviewed and audio-recorded for a total of twenty-one interviews. Recordings were each transcribed and stored by the principle investigator. Participants were interviewed a total of one to three times each, dependent upon the information obtained during each interview.This study provides a written historical report of some of the developments of community education in the State of Indiana that were due, in part, to the ICED consultants. This study also describes the community education development strategies in Indiana by the ICED staff. Additionally, this study reports some of the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies utilized by ICED professionals in Indiana's development of community education as reported by the interviewees. Those interested in educational development may utilize this study to gain insights from some of the lessons found in Indiana's Community Education development experience from 1965 through 1987. / Department of Educational Studies

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2006. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-154).

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRLiterature shows that exposure to community development projects is a way for people to realize, enhance and improve their own value. The Words open Worlds (WOW) project, part of Stellenbosch University’s community interaction projects, tries to uplift the lives of people through recruitment actions, retention programs, as well as well-structured partnerships with suitable role players. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions regarding the WOW project of undergraduate Stellenbosch University’s students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences who come from schools that are actively involved with the WOW project. An interpretative research paradigm and a case study were utilized in order to collect qualitative data from focus groups. The data, which was analyzed through the process of content analysis, demonstrated that the support to prospective WOW students as well as the mentoring and retention programs for current WOW students, made life easier for the participants. Improvements mentioned, included more frequent meetings with current WOW students and the cultivation of a greater awareness of the possibilities which the WOW project offers to students. This can be achieved by improved collaboration with education departments, synergies with similar school outreach projects, extended mentorship programs and more social gatherings organized for WOW students. From the results of the data analysis it became apparent that the perceptions regarding the WOW project of the target focus groups were positive. Due to the restricted participation, however, the results cannot be generalized. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verskeie bronne wys daarop dat die blootstelling aan gemeenskapsontwikkelingsprojekte ’n manier is om mense hul eiewaarde te laat besef en uitbou. Die Woorde Open Wêrelde (WOW)-projek, ʼn Universiteit Stellenbosch gemeenskapsinteraksieprojek, streef daarna om met projek-aksies soos werwingsuitreike en retensieprogramme, asook deur gestruktureerde vennootskappe met geskikte rolspelers, ʼn positiewe verskil in mense se lewens te maak. Die doel van dié studie is om die persepsies aangaande die Woorde Open Wêrelde-projek te bepaal van voorgraadse studente aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch wat afkomstig is van skole waar die WOW-projek werksaam is, en wat tans binne die Fakulteit Lettere en Sosiale Wetenskappe studeer. ʼn Interpretatiewe navorsingsparadigma en ʼn gevallestudie as navorsingsontwerp is gebruik om kwalitatiewe data met fokusgroepe te versamel. Die data, wat verwerk is deur die proses van inhoudsanalise, het getoon dat die deelnemers se lewens aansienlik vergemaklik is deur die ondersteuning wat verleen is aan die voornemende WOW-studente, asook deur die mentorskaps- en retensieprogramme vir huidige WOW-studente. Meer gereelde ontmoetings met studente en ’n groter bewusmaking van die moontlikhede wat die WOW-projek vir studente bied, was voorstelle vir verbetering van die WOW-projek. Dit kan teweeg gebring word deur groter samewerking met onderwysdepartemente, sinergieë met soortgelyke skoolprojekte, uitbreiding van die mentorskapprogram en deur meer sosiale ontmoetingsgeleenthede. Uit die resultate wat die analise van die data opgelewer het, het duidelik geblyk dat die persepsies van die betrokke teikengroep wat aan fokusgroepe deelgeneem het positief is jeens die WOW-projek. Weens die beperkte steekproef kan hierdie resultate egter nie noodwendig veralgemeen word nie.

This is an ethnographic, auto/biographical study of Sure Start Greendale which is situated on the outskirts of a seaside town in the south east of England. I undertook the research while I was Director of the programme. The thesis is written from the perspective of key participants in the programme, as well as my own learning biography, background in health visiting and practice as leader of a new high profile government initiative called Sure Start. It is highly reflexive and written in a narrative genre. Sure Start aims to give young children living in communities similar to Greendale a better start in life by creating opportunities for them and their parents and by eradicating child poverty. This research explores, through auto/biographical and focus group interviews with parents, community workers and representatives from partner agencies, perspectives of the Greendale area prior to Sure Start, the impact of the Sure Start programme and the new building, and their notions of community prior to and post the establishment of the Sure Start programme. The voices of parents, community workers and partner agencies are heard through an interpretative, analytical approach in a process of shared learning. Issues relating to insider research are discussed in detail. Auto/biographical interviews indicate the challenges of partnership working, the impact of poverty on children and their parents, and the complex ways in which Sure Start helped to renew a sense of community. The main finding of the research was that the Sure Start Greendale programme was able to engage to varying degrees a suspicious and sceptical community and support parents to access services and develop relationships with other parents. Sure Start Greendale was the enabler of communication in the estate and the community workers played a major role in building social capital and reducing social isolation. This research is important as it is the only ethnographic, auto/biographical, insider researcher’s account of a Sure Start Programme, covering a period of eight years. The study adds to the body of knowledge about Greendale and similar communities and factors that assist community renewal.

In the early 1960s, civil rights organizers in American cities designed a novel response to the urban and educational crises unfolding around them: hiring local residents, primarily the mothers of schoolchildren, to work in public schools. Local hiring, they argued, would improve instruction, connect schools to communities, and create jobs. Working with allies in antipoverty programs and teacher unions, they created demonstration programs and pushed funding for them into federal law. American school districts responded by hiring half a million community-based paraprofessional educators between 1965 and 1975. Today, despite the waning of the movements that created their positions, over one million paraprofessionals work in public schools. “The Work of Education” explores the lives and labor of community-based para-professional educators from 1953 to 1983. These educators took part in struggles to create their jobs, and once hired, they made themselves essential to students, parents, and teachers. They built on these classroom solidarities to secure and expand community-based educational work through unionization. Their campaigns transformed the social geography of public schooling and expanded the social welfare state in an era of scarcity. Their work generated new pedagogies and curricula, new models for teacher recruitment, and new opportunities for progressive politics and labor organizing in the 1970s. This project reveals a structural, job-creating side of the War on Poverty and an understudied legacy of black and Hispanic freedom struggles led by women. Community-based educators imagined a more equitable, democratic future for American cities. Their ideas and organizing strategies might yet inspire those who seek such a future today.