Teaching is professional work that as an occupation is characterized by many of the same rules of employment as other white-collar jobs. It is typically steady work with predictably rising pay, requires limited physical effort, a fixed amount of work time, and occurs in organizations that are rule-bound. Teaching is also uniquely complex, in that it requires a high degree of autonomy, responsibility for others, and extensive management activities. It is also work that has been the focus of significant public criticism for more than twenty-five years as students test scores have declined, the achievement gap among the races has widened, and student discipline problems have increased. Most importantly, it is work that is attracting fewer and fewer new entrants into its ranks at the same time it is losing teachers at a higher rate than other occupations. The purpose of this study was to better describe the complexity of the school staffing problem by examining teacher migration, one form of teacher turnover. The synthesis of research to date indicates that turnover destabilizes schools and that such instability has a direct effect on the success of students. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, the personal characteristics of teachers who migrated during a four year period within the Duval County, Florida public schools were identified as were the organizational characteristics of the schools from which they migrated. Factors that influenced the decision to migrate were analyzed to determine the ways in which personal characteristics or school characteristics were associated with migration or influenced the decision to migrate. The findings of this study indicate that teachers migrated almost equally for personal reasons and because of the conditions and characteristics of the schools. Teachers migrated more frequently from poorer schools or lower-achieving schools due to an imbalance they experienced among the hard work that teaching in poorer schools takes, the time away from home that working so far away requires, and the kind and quality of administrative support that was received.

The curriculum studies field has much to gain from an analysis of black women rappers texts. The knowledge black women rappers offer through their songs is worthy of study in schooling spaces and is too valuable for educators to continue to ignore if they want to become better teachers. Through their lyrics, black women rappers situate themselves in a public context and construct texts that represent young black womens complex identities. Black women rappers create a space in hip hop discourse from which their stories enrich and complicate the public conversation about the representation of black womens identities. This study of black women rappers representations, which builds on and extends the scholarship of curriculum theorists who write about popular culture and pedagogy, is an examination of the song lyrics of eight mainstream contemporary black women rappers: Missy Misdemeanor Elliott, Eve, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Trina, Mia X, Da Brat, and Queen Pen. This study is an effort to enable teachers to understand the critiques black women rappers make about young black womens experiences, deconstruct black women rappers representations of black womens identities, expose the contradictions in black women rappers texts, and value black women rappers texts as pedagogical. A textual analysis centered in a black feminist theoretical framework was used to examine the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality in black women rappers representations of black womens identities. The analysis reveals that black women rappers teach important lessons about the representation of black women around questions of black womens sexuality usually defined in terms of male desire, mainstream beauty standards, the roles of black women in heterosexual relationships, control over black womens bodies, the privileging of heterosexuality, the connection between sexual freedom and black womens ownership of capital, and the necessity of black women writing their own representations rather than being defined by others.

Few people realize that in Louisiana land is lost to open water at about a rate of 24 square miles a year, faster than anywhere else in the world (Barras, Beville, Britsch, Hartley, Hawes, Jonston, Kemp, Kinler, Martucci, Porthouse, Reed, Roy, Sapkota, & Suhayda, 2003). Not only is the public low to moderately environmentally literate, there is a need to reach students early on to ensure the greatest benefit. This is the main reason why Louisiana Sea Grant¡¦s Coastal Roots Wetland Seedling Nursery Project (Coastal Roots) came into inception. The goal of the project is to improve environmental literacy of participating students, by fostering a sense of ownership through raising wetland plants. An environmentally literate person combines his/her knowledge of ecology with values that will lead to action (Morrone, Mancl, & Carr, 2001). The addition of a formal education component to Coastal Roots was needed increase students¡¦ environmental knowledge. Therefore, six lesson plans were developed by the researcher to give students a broad view of Louisiana wetland habitats and deltaic geology and administered by teachers in three middle schools. The 7 and 8 grade classes were purposefully selected based on roughly equivalent ability of the teacher and students. Teachers were observed teaching lessons to their treatment classes. Students were pretest and posttested and 4 treatment students from each school participated in a group clinical interview. Pretest and posttest results were examined using the statistical randomized block design with repeated measures showed a significant (t ¬ 0.0001) improvement of knowledge for the treatment group. There was no statistical difference among schools or between grade levels of students. The results from the qualitative dimensions support the classroom-tested, innovative unit materials developed for this study appear to be applicable to similar environmental science learning situation throughout the Deep South. These results supports the hypothesis that included educational unit can improve the environmental literacy of students¡¦ participation in Coastal Roots.

The purpose of this exploratory research was to study how students learn photosynthesis and cellular respiration and to determine the value added to the student's learning by each of the three technology-scaffolded learning strategy components (animated concept presentations and WebQuest-style activities, data collection, and student-constructed animations) of the BioDatamation (BDM) Program. BDM learning strategies utilized the Theory of Interacting Visual Fields (TIVF) (Reuter & Wandersee, 2002a, 2002b; 2003a, 2003b) which holds that meaningful knowledge is hierarchically constructed using the past, present, and future visual fields, with visual metacognitive components that are derived from the principles of Visual Behavior (Jones,1995), Human Constructivist Theory (Mintzes & Wandersee, 1998a), and Visual Information Design Theory (Tufte, 1990, 1997, 2001). Student alternative conceptions of photosynthesis and cellular respiration were determined by the item analysis of 263,267 Biology Advanced Placement Examinations and were used to develop the BDM instructional strategy and interview questions. The subjects were 24 undergraduate students of high and low biology prior knowledge enrolled in an introductory-level General Biology course at a major research university in the Deep South. Fifteen participants received BDM instruction which included original and innovative learning materials and laboratories in 6 phases; 8 of the 15 participants were the subject of in depth, extended individual analysis. The other 9 participants received traditional, non-BDM instruction. Interviews which included participants creation of concept maps and visual field diagrams were conducted after each phase. Various content analyses, including Chi's Verbal Analysis and quantitizing/qualitizing were used for data analysis. The total value added to integrative knowledge during BDM instruction with the three visual fields was an average increase of 56% for cellular respiration and 62% increase for photosynthesis knowledge, improved long-term memory of concepts, and enhanced biological literacy to the multidimensional level, as determined by the BSCS literacy model. WebQuest-style activities and data collection provided for animated prior knowledge in the past visual field, and detailed content knowledge construction in the present visual field. During student construction of animated presentations, layering required participants to think by rearranging words and images for improved hierarchical organization of knowledge with real-life applications.

If place is crucial to understanding the self and society, then it is central to curriculum studies that relate the individual and the social. This theoretical autobiographical research seeks to encourage progressive conversation and social political movement in the South by attending to the anomalous forms of Southernness that emerge in the interrogation of feeling Southern. Toward that end, in this dissertation I explore and foreground a marginalized Southern curriculum of nostalgia, homeplace, grace, and queerness. I investigate aspects of Southern place and feeling Southern that are submerged in conventional white patriarchal notions of Southern identity. My narrative allows some of these anomalous forms of Southernness to surface and, out of these forms, create a Southern curriculum of place. This work is necessary for displacing the dominant, race-, class-, and gender-constricting conception of Southernness that perpetuates itself. The politics of place inform individual and collective Southern identities. As examining Southern place and conventional traits of Southern identity reveal a greater complexity to feeling Southern, attending to anomalous forms of Southernness creates conversation about the progressive transformation of Southern place. The forms of Southernness for which I have created curricular forum are as follows: 1) unsettling prohibitive nostalgia so as to disrupt rather than solidify identity/place norms; 2) homeplace as a site for the interrogation of the construction of identity rather than the consoling, pacifying mirror of identity 3) queer Southernness, exemplified in the conjunction rather than the opposition of fundamentalism and queer desire; 4) grace that shatters rather than absolves traditional raced, classed, and gendered notions of Southern identity. This study elaborates a curriculum of Southern place; the study is a journey of selfa self situated squarely in Southern place and the raced, classed, gendered, religious sensibilities of the place. In relation to place and self, this research uncovers sites of subjective and social transformation within the American South. Transformation is not a destination, but is itself a passage, forward motion that requires a continuing disruption of traditional Southern codes that leave the South with nostalgia, guilt, and pain.

This research explores the relative impact of Balanced Reading instruction upon Hispanic students in a highly culturally diverse elementary school. This case study inquiry focuses on Hispanic students learning to read in English in kindergarten, first and third grade, how these Hispanic students are affected by the classroom setting within the context of the Balanced Reading instructional framework of each respective grade, and what are the similarities and differences in the learning methodologies and strategies that impact the learning curve of these Hispanic students. The researcher collects qualitative data to determine the methods and strategies found to be most effective and frequently used in reading of Hispanic students. Data includes documentation: field notes, observations, interviews, questionnaires, and archival information. This multiple case study inquiry focuses on six Hispanic students: two in kindergarten, one in first grade, and three in third grade. Stratified purposeful sampling is used to facilitate comparisons. Spradley's Developmental Research is used for componential analysis of the three case study groups and the Constant Comparative Method Analysis for analysis of interviews and questionnaires of both administration and teachers. Lastly, cross-case analysis is used to arrive at a more systematic and comprehensive instructional approach for Hispanic students in a highly culturally diverse elementary school. The findings of the case study conclude the Balanced Reading instructional framework is appropriate for educating Hispanic students in a highly culturally diverse elementary school and these Hispanic elementary students are able to acquire a second language, English, by means of a set of appropriate and effective teaching methods and strategies across the curriculum and diverse elementary grades from certificated teachers who use only English instruction without instructional support. These students are Spanish-speaking students upon entering elementary school and are taught only in an English-speaking environment without the use of translated instructional materials. The use of these methods and strategies across the curriculum and grade levels validates the theoretical claims that with appropriate teaching all students, no matter their cultural background, can achieve academically (Carlo, August, & McLaughlin, et. al., 2004; Luftig, 2003; Collins & Cheek, 2000; Garcia, 1999; Banks, 1994).

This research study was designed to investigate correlations between invented spelling patterns and beginning reading for low-performing and on-level boys and girls in kindergarten. Two research questions were examined: (1) Is there a statistically significant relationship between invented spelling as displayed in task and reading skills as measured by DIBELS? and (2) Does the performance displayed in task and reading skills as measured by DIBELS differ significantly for boys and girls in kindergarten? Student performance data was gathered using extant school Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) benchmarks at collected at midyear of kindergarten. It was hypothesized that kindergarten students who scored below DIBELS benchmark at midyear would not perform as well as kindergarten students who scored on or above DIBELS benchmark at midyear on the invented/temporary spelling and reading tasks. It was further hypothesized that gender would not significantly affect task and beginning reading performance as measured by DIBELS for the kindergarten students in this study. Data revealed on-level kindergarten participants performed significantly better than low-performing kindergarten participants on the invented/temporary spelling and word-learning tasks. However, there was very little or no statistical correlation between performance among male and female participants on the temporary spelling tasks and the word-learning tasks.

This study examined the psychometric properties of a revised measurement, the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey, devised for teachers of 3- to 5-year-old children. The measure was designed to reflect the concepts of DAP (developmentally appropriate practices) as presented in the revised 1997 NAEYC guidelines and consisted of 2 scales. Three hundred seventy five surveys completed by public kindergarten teachers in Southeast Louisiana were utilized in the study. Reliability was examined using internal consistency method. Cronbach¡¯s ¥á was .858 for the Beliefs Scale and .787 for the Instructional Activities Scale. Validity of the measure was examined in its content, criterion, and construct (Carmines & Zeller, 1979). Content validity was enhanced by reflecting the feedback from the nationwide experts in early childhood education on the survey before administering the measure to the targeted teachers. Criterion-related validity was supported when the findings showed that one of the sub-measures, the measure of the developmentally inappropriate practices, showed a high correlation with the score from the observed classroom practices. The following results support construct validity: first, the factors uncovered in the survey matched the important concepts of DAP in the guidelines; second, predictors of DAP found to be significant from previous studies were also significant in both of the subscales; third, the low but significant correlation between the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey score and a theoretically related measure, the Teacher Educational Attitude Scale (Rescorla et al., 1990) was found. Considering the psychometric properties, the Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey appears to be a promising measure for critically examining teachers¡¯ beliefs about and practices of DAP.

Inspired by philosopher Richard Rortys assertion that we need poetic imagination to move beyond modernity, this pragmatist inquiry seeks to understand the poetic, not as it is rationally defined, but rather as a historically situated discursive practice. In western cultures modernist discursive practices are characterized by rationalist reasoning. Traced to Aristotelian re- interpretations of mimesis (this is that), which structure modernist forms of representation, mimesis operates on a principle of equivalency between the specific and the universal, based on Euclidean, geometric reasoning. Likewise, mimesis underlies poetic representation as an imaginative expression of an objective reality, ideally, a form that moves one to think in universal terms. Obscured from a modernist view of the poetic is a prior pre-Socratic mimesis, in which are embedded the concepts of poiesis (to create, to make, to do) and paideia (cultural education). Mimesis here is linked to poetic re-presentations as performances of epic poems. Poiesis, etymological root of the word poetic, is related to making meaning through interactions with others, with the environment/ cosmos, and reflexively to develop a sense of being-in-relation. Knowledge, in this schema, is fluid, evolving, situated, communal, and is based on patterns. As a form of reason, pragmatist logic addresses the failure of modern rationalism to theorize the implications of evolution, creativity and entropy; it also questions logical relationships that exist between representation and mathematics, and the metaphysical assumptions underlying them. Pragmatist logic, based on triadic reasoning, draws on poiesis as an organizing principle of reason and its representation, and is a bridge to complexity theory. Findings of this inquiry suggest (1) re-reading progressive educationist John Dewey in light of poiesis, rather than modernist or Aristotelian views of the poetic; and (2) consideration of a poiesis of curriculum, one that emerges as a complex living process, out of guided inquiry, and from the reflections of students on their interactions with their environment, with others, and with the greater world outside the classroom.

Place is central to the study of the American South. The question of the meaning and power of place underpinned the earliest efforts to define and understand the region, and place remains a crucial concept in an ongoing process of regional identification and inquiry. This study explores southern place autobiographically, historically, and theoretically in order to illuminate the subjective and social dimensions of place and to promote progressive conversation in the region. My inquiry is interdisciplinary. It draws on psychoanalysis, Southern studies, and the philosophy of place-as well as on theories of curriculum, literature, and art. If places can inspire thought and reflection, they can also palliate and conceal subjective and social conflicts that call for our attention. I show that the dominant conception of southern place compensates for a sense of insufficiency in white men, thus supporting collective belief in the adequacy of white masculinity and the coherence of southern community. In its most rigid form, this cultural rhetoric demands the adherence of individuals to dominant cultural values and excludes questions of racial justice and gender equity from the public sphere. To unsettle the dominant conception of southern place, I examine the fundamental trope on which it relies, the white male southerner in his relationship to the land. Interpreting literary texts that address and transform this trope, I demonstrate a process of working through a cultural symptom, a process necessary for social psychoanalytic insight and progressive social change. This process requires that we acknowledge particular experiences of loss as they emerge from conditions of racism and gender discrimination; identify the social forces that perpetuate these losses and injustices; and cultivate understanding of unconscious aspects of the self and world.