"December, 2003" / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-223) / vii, 270 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Graduate School of Education, 2004

Although the percentage of Aboriginal youth who leave school prior to completion is declining, it remains higher than that of non-Aboriginal students. The following research questions frame this narrative inquiry:<p> 1. What are the stories of six Aboriginal students who graduated from an urban provincial high school?<p> 2. What factors do they perceive as contributing to their success in completing an academic grade twelve?<p> 3. What recommendations do they have for educators and schools, which would benefit current Aboriginal students?<p> The six participants are introduced with a narrative account of the interviews between the researcher and each participant. The researcher looked for commonalities that emerged from the participants' stories and grouped them into three broad themes: Our Environment, Our Relationships, and Ourselves. Within the themes the researcher commented on specific experiences and opinions expressed by the participants. A number of the participants' original stories are combined and included to allow their voice to authenticate the findings.<p> Participants revealed how interconnected relationships contributed to their academic success. Positive relationships with family, friends, and teachers were factors participants expressed most frequently as contributing to their success. Some of the participants, however, identified negative peer pressure, lack of family and school support, and discrimination, but all participants showed ability to cope with adversity. The values and inner strength participants maintained emerged in their stories demonstrating the strong relationship they had with their inner selves.<p> A list of recommendations for high schools, generated by participants, accompanies each theme. Recommendations included recognizing and taking action toward issues such as discrimination, gangs, and lack of student involvement in school activities. Participants recommended alternative counselling and academic support programs. Recommendations aiding in the development of positive student-teacher relationships were generated from the descriptions of effective and ineffective teaching practices. The most significant recommendations rising from the stories of the six participants focused on building community in the school and bridging families and local resources with the school. Most importantly, participants acknowledged the need for schools to be conscious of the diversity in traditional practices, home life, and culture among urban Aboriginal students.

Although the percentage of Aboriginal youth who leave school prior to completion is declining, it remains higher than that of non-Aboriginal students. The following research questions frame this narrative inquiry:<p> 1. What are the stories of six Aboriginal students who graduated from an urban provincial high school?<p> 2. What factors do they perceive as contributing to their success in completing an academic grade twelve?<p> 3. What recommendations do they have for educators and schools, which would benefit current Aboriginal students?<p> The six participants are introduced with a narrative account of the interviews between the researcher and each participant. The researcher looked for commonalities that emerged from the participants' stories and grouped them into three broad themes: Our Environment, Our Relationships, and Ourselves. Within the themes the researcher commented on specific experiences and opinions expressed by the participants. A number of the participants' original stories are combined and included to allow their voice to authenticate the findings.<p> Participants revealed how interconnected relationships contributed to their academic success. Positive relationships with family, friends, and teachers were factors participants expressed most frequently as contributing to their success. Some of the participants, however, identified negative peer pressure, lack of family and school support, and discrimination, but all participants showed ability to cope with adversity. The values and inner strength participants maintained emerged in their stories demonstrating the strong relationship they had with their inner selves.<p> A list of recommendations for high schools, generated by participants, accompanies each theme. Recommendations included recognizing and taking action toward issues such as discrimination, gangs, and lack of student involvement in school activities. Participants recommended alternative counselling and academic support programs. Recommendations aiding in the development of positive student-teacher relationships were generated from the descriptions of effective and ineffective teaching practices. The most significant recommendations rising from the stories of the six participants focused on building community in the school and bridging families and local resources with the school. Most importantly, participants acknowledged the need for schools to be conscious of the diversity in traditional practices, home life, and culture among urban Aboriginal students.

Thesis (EdD.)--Open University.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-164). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 271-299). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-164). Also available on the Internet.

A current national priority is improving secondary school mathematics performance. National initiatives have attempted to help improve student achievement through curricular changes and stringent testing requirements; yet, these initiatives fail to consider the importance of student-teacher relationships in student motivation and achievement. High school students' trust in their mathematics teachers can lead to better relationships and increased feelings of competence, or mathematics self-efficacy, which is consistently linked to achievement. Student trust is based on perceptions of a teacher's competence, benevolence, openness, reliability, and honesty. The aim of my study is to determine the effect of trust in a teacher on student mathematics self-efficacy over the course of a school year, accounting for differences between individual students. The sample consisted of 230 ninth through twelfth grade students (57% girls) from a large high school in central Texas. Students reported their trust in their math teachers and their math self-efficacy at 4 time points. Growth curve modeling was utilized to model the effect of trust on self-efficacy over time. The results indicate that trust predicted self-efficacy over the course of the school year such that for a one point change in trust there was a corresponding .4 point change in self-efficacy. Gender was also a significant predictor of self-efficacy, with girls reporting lower self-efficacy on average. However, girls did not report lower trust, and the relation between trust and self-efficacy was not moderated by gender. Inasmuch as future studies should seek to expand on these findings, this study is an important first step into investigating the link between trust in teachers and self-efficacy. The results of this study serve to inform teachers, researchers, and policy makers of the importance of recognizing student-teacher relationships as an important factor in building student confidence and motivation. / text

New evidence suggests that African American children’s mistrust of European American teachers plays a role in sustaining racial achievement gaps. However, racial mistrust may also play a protective role for stigmatized children by facilitating perceptions of discrimination in the event that they encounter racially biased feedback. The present study investigated the relations among African American children’s racial mistrust, perceptions of discrimination, and academic achievement. Participants included 67 elementary school-age children (ages 6-11 years) who completed two lab sessions assessing their mistrust of European American teachers, attributions to discrimination during a mock drawing contest designed to appear racially biased, and semester grades. I predicted that racial mistrust (1) is present among many African American children at the beginning of formal education, (2) predicts perceptions of discrimination, and (3) shows a quadratic relationship to African American children’s academic achievement, such that extreme (very high and very low) levels are associated with negative academic outcomes, whereas moderate levels are associated with positive academic outcomes. Contrary to expectations, results showed that African American children expect European American teachers to be biased in favor of African Americans. Specifically, African American children expect European American teachers to show more warmth than punitiveness across their interactions with African American and European American students, but they expect the warm-punitive differential to be even more pronounced with African American students. In addition, young African American children appear highly unlikely to attribute negative feedback from European American teachers to racial discrimination, even when such a bias appears likely. Finally, neither the expectation of racial bias nor perceptions of racial discrimination predicted African American children’s academic outcomes in this study. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed in the concluding chapter. / text

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / Parents are less involved and less committed in the education of their children. As a result, it is difficult for the school to function properly. The South African Government has promulgated the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 and introduced White Paper 6, in 1995, as a way to encourage parental involvement in schools. This study was undertaken to determine the involvement of parents in a secondary school in Northern Cape.