Digital Commons Network^™

Answering The Call Through An Inquiry Circle : English Educators Embark On A Journey To Become Antiracist, Lisa V. Kenny

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study examines a group of four English educators, two women of color and two white women, who self-identified as teachers for social justice as they formed a teacher inquiry group, called a teacher inquiry circle, as they attempt to become antiracist. The purpose of the inquiry circle was to answer the call to action for more equitable racially just schools that permeated the nation during the Covid-19 pandemic and after the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. To conduct the study a feminist practitioner action research methodology was used, and a racial literacy framework was applied …

Towards A Pedagogy Of Human Connection : Understanding Teachers’ Experiences Of Connection During A Pandemic, Michael Diamond

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools shuttered quickly and re-opened slowly. These decisions impacted the well-being of teachers and students. Upon re-opening, schools in New Jersey adopted a range of instructional approaches—including virtual and hybrid models—that prioritized safety and diminished human connections. This came at a time when rates of isolation and loneliness were increasing and the US was already experiencing a crisis of connection. To understand teachers’ experiences with human connection during the winter and second spring of the COVID-19 pandemic, this dissertation study recruited nine high school teachers from one school in New Jersey who …

Faculty’S Experiences Teaching English Language Learners In Higher Education, Chedia A. Ayari

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Conducted in a large size four-year state university, the purpose of this qualitative study was to learn how faculty of multiple disciplines examined and made meaning of their instructional practices and decisions when teaching ELL students, how they modified their instruction to meet the needs of ELLs, and what they saw as areas of struggle when working with this student population. Critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970) was used as a theoretical framework to further investigate the complex nature of how higher education faculty make meaning of their instructional experiences when teaching ELLs within the hierarchical structures inherent in higher education and …

Healing That Leads To Action : Restorative Justice, School Leadership, And Institutional Change, Jose B. Celis

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

When immigrant youth are harmed by institutional policies and practices that reinforce idealized notions of nationalism and assimilation through subtractive and coercive strategies, school leaders can turn to restorative justice as a technology of resistance. This participatory action research study, with the author as a participant, captures four school leaders from Colorado, New York, and New Jersey, who interrogated institutional policies and practices and promoted authentic inclusion and equity for immigrant youth through restorative justice. As we participated in a process of collective restorative contemplation, we engaged in a form of personal healing that guided intentional and thoughtful action to …

“How Am I A Maker Making A Makerspace?” : A Focus On Teachers In Practice Self-Authoring As Makers In Constrained K-8 Spaces, Bridget Looney

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Although there has been an abundance of empirical inquiry into making in recent years, interestingly, and despite growing interest in the integration of making into N-12 education, little seems to be known empirically about the ways in which teachers are implementing making and creating makerspaces in their own classrooms. Very little direct attention has been paid to ‘pioneer’ N-12 teachers who are engaging students in making. This gap in the research obscures our understanding of how teachers think about making, how they practice as teachers and makers, and how their school context might influence their teaching and making practices. This …

Sensemaking For Equity And Agency : Stem Teacher Learning Through A Community Of Practice Model, Karen Anne Woodruff

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The current vision for science education is to improve learning for all students by enacting teaching practices that make rigorous science content accessible to diverse learners. Science education, as a field, is shifting focus to be practice-based and equity-centered as students and their ideas become the focal point of the profession. The enactment of this vision calls for professional learning opportunities for teachers that support sensemaking and enactment of reform-based practices. This design-based study is an exploration of how ten science teachers negotiate issues of equity and professional agency in their teaching of the science and engineering practices through identified …

Queering Feminist Facilitation : A Culture Circle Discusses Gender & Sexuality, Kelly E. Lormand

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study examines the collaboration of fifteen high school educators who came together to dialogue addressing patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, and heteronormativity in our practices, curriculum, classrooms, and school. Additionally, this practitioner action research study examines my attempt to queer and disrupt feminist facilitation. The study was situated in a competitive and economically privileged school district in the Northeast with district-wide goal dedicated to cultural diversity and anti-biased language. Using Paulo Freire’s (1970/2004) model of culture circles and Souto-Manning’s (2010) critical cycle, the group transformed a traditional professional learning community (PLC) into a feminist, queer, and activist community. The group engaged …

Fostering Mathematical Creativity Among Middle School Mathematics Teachers, Ceire H. Monahan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this research was to understand in-service teachers’ experiences with and ideas about mathematical creativity after participating in a targeted professional development program. The professional development program encouraged participants to think creatively and foster students’ creativity. In this study I present the results from the main unit of analysis, 12 participants in a professional development program, along with a deep analysis of three exemplar teachers from each of the identified groups, adherence to traditional teaching practices (traditional), appreciation for teaching for creativity (creative but hesitant), and teaching for creativity (creative). The findings of this study highlight the combination …

Teaching The New Majority : Addressing Race And Racism Through Culturally Responsive Teaching, Graziela Lobato-Creekmur

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Studies have shown that culturally responsive teaching and its praxis appear very differently in various K-8 classrooms, while addressing race and racism are often absent from the classroom. However, these studies also support that pedagogical theories and practice such as these address the needs of students of color. Therefore, through a critical race theory lens, I explored teachers’ life history, how this influenced their classroom practice, and how they addressed race and racism in their professional lives. Narrative inquiry methods were used to uncover answers to addressing race and racism in the classroom through three teachers’ culturally responsive instruction. The …

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy : The Views Of Latinx Students Inform Teacher Professional Development On Critical Consciousness, Florita Cotto

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The number of Latinx K-12 students has grown dramatically over recent years. There are approximately 12.5 million Latinx students in U.S. public schools. Despite these large population gains, inner city Latinx students continue to struggle academically. Their dropout rate is almost two times higher than that of white students, making it the highest of all ethnic and racial groups. In the past several decades, there has been a focus on accountability, school choice, and various other educational reforms that have been implemented with an aim to improve student performance. However, these reform efforts have not yielded the desired change and …

Institutional Racism And The Transformative Practices Of Black Women Educators In New York City Alternative Education, Gail M. Perry-Ryder

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

How does a teaching practice meet structural violence and oppression? And, how do teachers navigate systems they wish to change, in which they are also participating? This study is a qualitative investigation of institutional racism and power in U.S. alternative educational settings, and the knowledge and experiences of six Black women educators working to counteract the problem from the inside. There is a vast literature on preparing teachers for diverse classrooms; however, it has not adequately represented teachers who deploy transformative practices to directly challenge institutional racism in nontraditional educational settings, nor has it addressed the costs associated with doing …

Everyday Enactments Of Resistance : Portraits Of Secondary Public School Teachers Navigating New Professionalism, Susan D’Elia

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

New professionalism has changed the roles and responsibilities of teachers. It has created a professional culture that prioritizes managerialism, bureaucracy, standardization and assessment, and performance review. This shift has created tension and anxiety amongst teachers, but a population of teachers continue to openly question, resist, or protest directives that do not align with their goals and values. The goal of this study was to gain understanding of the lived experiences of veteran, secondary, public school teachers who have attempted to find ways to navigate and resist new professionalism. Using Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s portraiture method, participants’ narratives bring life to the ways …

Online Connectivity : A Social Study Of Educators’ Affinity For Teaching And Learning Using Social Media, Beverly R. Plein

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study investigated an online space for educators, known as #sschat, for the purpose of helping to inform and shape more formal professional learning experiences. Participants were able to engage in asynchronous and synchronous discussions related to social studies education by interacting in any of the four hashtags associated with the #sschat affinity space (i.e., #engsschat, #hsgovchat, #sschat, #worldgeochat), the #sschat Facebook page, the archived #chat sessions, and/or by contributing to the creation of the weekly #worldgeochat questions.

Seven common elements of Gee’s affinity spaces conceptual framework were used to frame this study. This framework drew attention to the …

Learning To Teach Physics : Exploring Teacher Knowledge, Practice, And Identity, Nellista E. Bess

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Urban and rural high schools in the United States often struggle in regard to the staffing of their physics classrooms with qualified teachers. Some states have responded to this challenge with education policy as a means of addressing the critical shortages of physics teachers by permitting inservice teachers to attain physics certification through endorsement programs. Although research on alternative certification typically evaluates and compares diverse models, this study focuses on teachers’ own perceptions of their experience in the aforementioned program, as well as their learning and development in and beyond preparation for physics endorsement.

In this qualitative multiple case study, …

Collaborative Teacher-Driven Professional Development : The Documented Journey Of A Practitioner Action Research Teacher Study Group, Brenna D. Bohny

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Laws such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act have shaped the landscape of education in many ways, including how professional development is structured. As a result, professional development has become increasingly limited to training teachers to carry out top-down mandated reforms based on subject-knowledge rather than concentrating on teacher learning efforts focused on the growth of adults as learners (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2006, 2009; Hirsch, 2006; Mertler, 2010). Organic, teacher-driven professional development, such as action research, provide teachers with opportunities to disrupt the often paternalistic power structures that currently exist. …

Teacher Preparation For Linguistically Rich Classrooms : A Qualitative Study Of Take-Up In Relation To Linguistically Responsive Teaching, Melissa A. Collucci

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study followed four urban early childhood teachers through their participation in a teacher education program designed to enhance their linguistically responsive teaching and into the first four months of the new school year in an effort to identify what the teachers indeed “took up” from the opportunities presented to them regarding linguistically responsive teaching. The sociocultural concept of funds of knowledge was used to frame this study and to ensure that each teacher’s work was analyzed with the understanding that individuals bring to each learning moment unique knowledge and knowhow that impacts learning and practice. All was undertaken …

Investigating Educator Identity-Construction : A Qualitative Study, Jonathan Dils Rogers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation uses a qualitative approach to examine the sources informing professional identity development in pre-service teachers. The central questions which guided this study are grounded within a few separate bodies of literature: moral education, identity theory, teacher education, and educational policy.

The data of this study revealed a trend among participants: Pre-service teachers view teaching first and foremost as a moral act. The study found that the beliefs and attitudes held by pre-service teachers about the identity of educators can be conceptualized in sixteen separate ways, across three separate codes toward teaching. In addition to teaching as a moral …