Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2002. / "Publication number AAT 3076836 "

Diss. Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg, 2008.

<p> As restorative justice gained popularity in schools as a potential strategy for helping to reverse the deleterious effects of zero-tolerance policies, numerous misunderstandings and misapplications have emerged. This study focused on the experiences of school-based restorative justice practitioners and sought to foreground their voices and perspectives to highlight what is necessary for restorative justice work in schools to be effective. Critical narratives were used to elucidate participants&rsquo; perspectives and to allow their voices to serve as the focal point for the study. Findings were as follows: (a) the depth and ongoing nature of preparation practitioners undertake to sustain restorative justice work must be emphasized; (b) rather than a program or set of steps, restorative justice must be experienced as a set of principles or a philosophy grounded in genuine care and concern for individual people; (c) a cultural, political, and social shift is required for restorative justice to be implemented with integrity; and (d) restorative justice is a project of humanization and re-establishing democratic ideals. As such, educators in the field are encouraged to embrace the depth and complexity of the philosophical underpinnings of restorative justice and to acknowledge the personal, internal work that must be undertaken to serve a transformative function in school communities.</p><p>

This study is a conceptually driven exploration of the life worlds of male Physical Education teachers and the social construction of masculinity. Its focus is twofold: Firstly it asks questions of what gendered resources Physical Education teachers draw on in their teaching? How do they obtain and deploy these resources? What is their social significance? It asks these questions of a cohort of student male Physical Education teachers, as they pass through their teacher education year. Secondly, it asks how might we best represent these gendered masculine resources in social terms? Can we assemble alternative ways of articulating the masculine body-self-society complex in this context? The methodological approach is qualitative, social constructivist and employs a life history strategy. The participants were purposefully sampled and interviewed in depth, as they made the transition from student teacher to teacher. The study draws on the empirical data to illustrate and develop conceptual understandings of the problematic. In so doing, it highlights the social importance of remote and current gendered biography as a resource for action in teaching. These men's biographys are shown to link them to their gendered life experiences, which centre on a lifetime of successful involvement in the culturally dominant masculine arenas of sport and Physical Education. The linkages are expressed as a set of intellectual and embodied dispositions that provide the resources for action - the habitus. Furthermore, these men are shown to be sensitive to the presentation of their masculine selves and possess multiple masculinities, which they deploy according to their interpretations of the specific contexts in which theyfind themselves. The contention here is that the deployment and display ofparticular forms of masculinities are contingent on the possession of the necessary alternative resources in their habitus - which are very often missing. As a consequence, we see dominant masculine displays being drawn on as a default, or master identity in teaching. This perspective suggests implications for the social reconstruction of legitimatized gender ontologies being presented to children. The conclusion makes some conceptual suggestions on how we might use these insights to address the deficits in gendered resources that are available to these men and others like them, in order to allow them to express broader ranges of masculinities through their teaching.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2007. / "Publication number: AAT 3345026."

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-138).

Thesis (PH.D.)--Syracuse University, 2003. / "Publication number AAT 3081643."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-292).

<p> The number of homeless children and youth in the United States is on the rise (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2016). Between 2016 and 2017 in the Los Angeles County Homeless Count, there was a 41% increase in the number of homeless minors (The Los Angeles Service Authority, 2017). Education is key to bringing people out of poverty and ending the cycle of homelessness. </p><p> Using a socio-psychological lens, this case study examined the perceptions of six of the staff and volunteers at one site of the Griffon Learning Center, an organization trying to close the educational gaps of homeless children and youth. It also includes the perspectives of 12 children and youth who utilized their services. The data of this study include interviews, observations of a participant observer, ethnographic field notes, journal reflections, and document analysis. An examination of the relevant literature is included. </p><p> Although this study cannot end the cycle of homelessness, it hopes to shed light on the issue and makes recommendations to organizations, school districts, politicians, and legislatures, and educational researchers. </p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of professional learning communities (PLCs) on elementary school students&rsquo; performance in reading and mathematics using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (ECLS-K). This study also investigates whether PLCs have differential effects on student performance based on student characteristics such as socioeconomic status (SES), race, and whether they are academically at-risk and school characteristics such as school type, school size, minority enrollment, and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL). PLCs are seen as a promising way of remedying the traditionally isolated nature of teachers&rsquo; work by facilitating a network through which teachers can share expertise, receive support, and disseminate effective practices. The underlying theory is that by facilitating teachers&rsquo; access to a network of their peers, they will be able to improve their instruction, which will ultimately lead to improved student achievement. This study addresses the need for more empirical evidence on the impact of PLCs on student performance using a large, national dataset. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify correlated PLC items from the ECLS-K teacher questionnaire. Hierarchical and cross-classified random effects modeling (HCM) was then used to analyze the impact of student-, teacher-, and organizational-level variables&mdash;including two PLC variables&mdash;on students&rsquo; reading and mathematics performance. The analysis found that teacher collaboration had a significant positive effect on growth in reading and math scores, while a positive school climate was associated with significantly higher initial reading scores. Rarely did either PLC variable show differential effects based on student- or school-level characteristics.</p><p>