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Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research has shown that a disconnect exists between individuals’ belief in feminist ideology and their willingness to identify as a feminist. Based on this incongruence, research on feminist identification has focused on social-demographic predictors and the thought processes that lead to self-identification. However, not much is known about how the recognition of discrimination is related to feminist self-identification. Research has suggested that part of identifying as a feminist involves the recognition of discrimination. Further, it is suggested that system-justifying ideologies (e.g., meritocracy beliefs) are used to deny the presence of discrimination. The current study further explored this relationship by looking at meritocracy and egalitarian beliefs and how they affected perceptions of discrimination, belief in feminist ideology and identifying as a feminist. Results revealed that participants’ meritocracy and egalitarian beliefs had relatively no effect on their levels of perceived discrimination, belief in feminist ideology or identifying as a feminist.

The purpose of the study is to develop both a descriptive and critical understanding towards the phenomenon of femicide in Turkey. First, the answers to the questions who commits femicide, where it takes place, what the ages of the victims and perpetrators are, in what ways femicide is committed and what are the &#039 / reasons&#039 / of committing femicide will be revealed through news reports of incidents of femicide. Second, the news texts of incidents of femicide will be analyzed based on the framework of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA). The discourse of framing the incidents will be identified. In particular, &#039 / justifying discourse&#039 / in the language of the news reports will be examined.

A local urban school district recently reported that 86% of third graders did not demonstrate proficiency on the Math Standardized Test, which challenges students to solve problems and justify solutions. It is beneficial if these skills are developed prior to third grade. Students may be more academically successful if kindergarten teachers have moderate to high self-efficacy when teaching lessons that focus on justifying solutions. Bandura's self-efficacy theory was incorporated into this study as the conceptual framework lens. Research questions were designed to investigate kindergarten teachers' instruction in mathematics that focused on justifying solutions, their self-efficacy in challenging students to justify solutions, and the identification of professional development. Voluntary participants for this study were selected from the 11 elementary schools in the district. Within the 11 elementary schools, there were 33 lead teachers who were invited to participate in the study and 7 agreed to participate in interviews and observations. The data were analyzed using both situation and strategy coding. The analysis of the data revealed a connection between professional development, self-efficacy, and instructional strategies. A relationship was identified between professional development and the teachers' ability to challenge students to problem solve and justify solutions. These findings may be valuable for early childhood stakeholders within the education field. Professional development tends to improve the self-efficacy of teachers and the instructional strategies they incorporate.

The purpose of this action research study was to investigate the affects of teaching through a situative perspective with story problems on students' understanding of fraction concepts and operations in my fifth-grade mathematics classroom. Students participated in twelve weeks of instruction. Data was collected in the form of pre and post tests, audiotaped and videotaped recordings of instructional sessions, and student work samples. Data analysis revealed that my students constructed their own knowledge about various fraction concepts and operations because students engaged in discussions, after solving story problems, that developed, extended and restructured their knowledge. One example of this occurred after students had solved an equal-sharing problem. Two students came up with different answers and another student explained why both answers were equivalent. Student work samples and post test results indicated that the one student's explanation was understood, adopted and extended by all the students in my class. The data also revealed that students' pictures typically represented the context and action of the story problems. For example, subtraction problems dealing with length were usually represented by number lines or horizontal rectangles with crossed-out markings to show the subtraction operation. Throughout this research study, I discovered that my students were capable of learning from each other and solving problems for which they have no preconceived algorithm. I also learned that analyzing students' work and listening to their discussions in ways that focused on their thinking, not their answers, provided me with information about what my students were grasping and not grasping.