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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 …

The Muted Expert: A Qualitative Study On The Principals’ Perceptions And Experiences Of The Current Teacher Evaluation System, Denitra Griffin

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Principals are responsible for evaluating millions of teachers through a formal teacher evaluation process (US Department of Education, 2012a). Students’ achievement relies on effective teachers (Danielson & McGreal, 2000; Darling-Hammond, 2015), and principals are expected to use teacher evaluation systems to accomplish that goal.

This qualitative study examined how five principals perceive the current teacher evaluation system to support and develop teachers. It also explored their experiences implementing it. Three themes emerged from the interviews: principal into coach, increased principal-teacher communication, and empathy about challenges. Based on the data, findings were analyzed through the lens of Bass’ Transformational Theory (1985) …

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 …

Beyond Race: A Quantitative Study Of The Discipline Gap Among Predominantly Black High Schools In Chicago, Felipe Ignacio Agudelo Acevedo

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Exclusionary discipline in schools has been proven to develop negative consequences in the life of students who are exposed to this kind of punishment in schools. Research in this area has shown that Out of School Suspensions (OSS) more frequently affect Black male students. During this research I argue that OSS are not necessarily caused by the race of the student but by some other factors that make some predominantly Black high schools more likely to use OSS than others. A question to be answered in the area of school discipline is related to what contributes to the odds that …

Empowering School Leadership Across Nations: A Comparative Study Of Differences Between Leadership Practices And Their Relationships With Empowerment Amongst Administrators And Teachers In Eight Large Urban Secondary School Districts In The United States And Canada, Anya Niazov

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

U.S. schools have been shown to underperform other industrialized nations on tests of academic achievement. Canada is a higher-performing nation on international assessments and has a similar educational system to the United States. This study aims to determine if there are differences between urban U.S. and Canadian secondary schools and specifically addresses school leadership in these schools. The study employs transformational leadership theory to assess cross-district and cross-national differences in leadership behaviors. In this quantitative study, I characterize differences in administrator and teacher leadership behaviors, teacher satisfaction and empowerment, and their correlations within North American schools. Survey data were collected …

Living Out Faith: Reflections On Motivation For Academic Achievement And Career Choice, Felicia D. Richardson-Mcgee

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

It has often been said that conversations concerning religion, sex and politics should be avoided in most, if not all social settings. In general, it was believed that discussions on these topics could lead to very heated and argumentative debates as the participants openly expressed their views on these subjects. Increasingly, however, religion has become a popular discussion topic in many areas, such as politics, health and medicine, and even the business world. This is likely because religion, for many, is an important part of daily life. It shapes how individuals see themselves and others in the world and may …