Digital Commons Network^™

What's Hope Got To Do With It? A Narrative Inquiry Into The Hope Levels Of High School Students Diagnosed With Soft Disabilities, Cynthia Norbeck

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This two-phase qualitative study was designed to explore the hope levels of high school students receiving special education services for mild intellectual disabilities or emotional/behavioral disabilities using a narrative inquiry approach. In order to better understand how student participants perceived their special education experiences and how their individual perceptions related to their hope levels, the Adult Hope Scale (AHS) was administered to seven students and scored during the study’s first phase. Semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted with five high school students chosen from the original group for the study’s second phase. Interviews were reported in narrative form and key common …

The Rise Of Neoliberalism - A Transrational Analysis: Towards A New Vision For Urban Education, Dennis Kevin Gregory

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

I was driven to this study by witnessing dramatic changes in urban education in recent years and began to ask the questions: What is going on? And why now? This dissertation will show that an extremely powerful and pervasive global ideology known as neoliberalism is at the core of the answers to these questions. As a result, understanding the Rise of Neoliberalism has become a passionate mission for me.

Ferguson (2009) argues that a different approach to the study of neoliberalism is needed because the current scholarship is unsatisfactory; generating common pejorative and unsurprising conclusions like ‘it is bad for …

In The Service Of What? A Phenomenological Exploration Of African American High School Students' Self-Efficacy In Service Learning, Charemi A. Jones

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored how African American high school students from a large Midwestern city make meaning of their service learning experiences within the framework of mandated service learning participation required for high school graduation, and how their lived experiences inform their self-efficacy development. Scholars have previously posited, “student voice in service learning projects positively correlated with improved self-concept, political engagement, and tolerance” (Morgan and Streb, 2001). Within this context, voice is synonymous with students’ self- reflection.

One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted utilizing a pre-printed protocol consisting of open- ended questions designed to elicit authentic responses, allowing the voice of …

Bridging The Digital Divide Were Any Divides Bridged, Andrew Gibbs

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The K-12 schools offer professional development (PD) and technology resources for teachers every year that cost schools billions of dollars. The tools provided in the PD to teachers are typically quickly forgotten, and the schools administration moves forward with other pressing issues. What if we were to look at schools several years after a PD program was implemented and the technology resources were provided to teachers, would we see any effect? This study looks at three schools that participated in a PD program that had an influx of technology resources placed in the school in 2002. The data collected demonstrates …