Education Commons^™

Malice In Wonder-How-This-Happened Land: Falling Down The Political Rabid Hole Of Academia, Denise Mcdonald

The Qualitative Report

Spiritedly inspired by the well-known, nonsensical children’s stories Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, this satirical narrative describes common academic experiences within a fictitious frame. Many children’s stories present a foundational basis for the early life lessons of justice, truth, fairness, and how power corrupts. Therefore, regression to a simpler understanding of complex social interactions potentially frees one’s thinking, which frequently becomes muddled in adult-acquired ego, hubris, and sense of status. So, when adults act illogically (or like children), sense can be made of unreasonable juvenile actions by re-storying irrational episodes through the logical lens of …

The Rose Who Grew From Concrete: A Black Female Administrator's Perspective Of The Public School Experience For Black Girls Who Attend A Predominantly White Middle School In Southeast Georgia, Latashia S. Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the educational experiences of Black girls who attended a predominantly White school in Southeast Georgia from the perspective of a Black female administrator. Using Critical Race Theory (e.g. Bell, 1987, 1992, 1995; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Solorzano & Yosso, 2001) and Black Feminist Thought (e.g. Hill Collins, 2000; hooks, 1984/2000) as theoretical frameworks and memoir (Angelou, 1969/2009; Hurston, 1996) and fiction (Bell, 1992; Morrison, 1970/1993) as methodology, I explore ways in which Black girls are oppressed when they attend majority White public schools.

Six meanings emerged from this inquiry: (1) Writing my memoir has allowed me to …

A Fiction Of Fragmented Falsehoods: Curriculum Of Unwanted Roads Traveled, Katherine Wyatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an inquiry centered on lived ‘otherness’ in different social experiences. Fiction and illustrations are both creative outlets that provide opportunities of curriculum growth by offering the viewer realistic portrayals dealing with truth and factors that make us fundamentally human. “Fiction elicits an interpretation of the world by being itself a worldlike object for interpretation” (Dillard, 1988, p. 155). This study uses fiction and illustrations as vehicles of communication to provide an awareness regarding social issues in everyday lived experiences, exposing the reader to the social, cultural and historical realities persistently impeding the shared constructs of human experiences. Structuring …

"We're In The Business Of A Good Education": Schooled To Profit Or Educated To Create?, Nicole Nolasco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this inquiry, I ask the questions: What could my career, my life, and the world be like in the future? How could public education be impacted by the frenzy over accountability, standards, and the belief that competition and unrestricted capitalism will reform American schools, especially for students of color and from the working and lower classes? How can I, a high school English teacher, address pressing social and educational issues to affect change? I explore these questions through a work of fiction I have created. Theoretically drawing from critical pedagogy, I use arts based research and fiction as methodology …

Analysis Of Middle Level Trade Books With Gender And Sexual Minority Content, Jena Borah

Masters Theses

Middle school is often the time students become aware of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and in many schools, perceived nonheteronormative behavior is penalized through bullying. One way schools can reduce bullying and increase successful learning environments is to include trade books that feature gender and sexual minorities. State and national standards set expectations for social and emotional learning as well as critical analysis of high quality reading materials. This research analyzed trade books from the 2013 and 2014 Rainbow Lists which were chosen by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association as …

Becoming Opianchoctalirican: A Black Man In A Multiracial World, Michael Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry explores my journey of understanding my multiracial identity. Being multiracial by heritage, but identified and labeled Black socially and governmentally, contradicts my racial identities. Who am I? What am I? These are the questions that have plagued the back of my mind as I become multiracial, more accurately, Opianchoctalirican. I am mixed with racial heritages, partially Ethiopian, partially Native American, partially Italian, and partially Puerto Rican. I am OpianChocTaliRican.

Theoretically, I draw upon many theorists’ work on the fluidity, complexity, and dynamics of racial identities (e.g., Baldwin, 2008; Bhabha, 2004; Coates, 2015; Fanon, 2004, 2008; Gaztembide-Fernandez, 2009; Ibrahim, …

Powerful Print: Identifying The Influence Of Narrative Reading Over Student's Opinion Formation, Sarah A. Lord

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the ways in which reading works of fiction affects the formation of student’s opinions and attitudes by using literature circles discussions and journal writing. It uses Louise Rosenblatt’s (1938) Reader Response Theory supported by Lev Vygotsky’s (1962) writings about the social dynamics of language development. Methodologically I followed the example of literature circles set forth by Janice Almasi and Linda Gambrell (1994, 1995).

Participants were fifth grade students in a rural South Georgia elementary school who participated during the 2010-2011 school year. The students participated in small peer-led discussion groups. The students chose the books they would …

The Voices Of Reason: Counterstories Of The Urbanization Of A Suburban Black School In Georgia, Shana Hunt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry explores the discrepancy of educational opportunities in a Black suburban public school near Atlanta, Georgia. Predominately Black suburban schools in the South have become increasingly similar to Black urban schools. Both Black urban and suburban schools have become places of complacency for teachers and students. There is an incessant fluctuation of teachers and an increase in low expectations for academic success in Black suburban schools. Both Black urban and suburban schools have limited funding while White schools, many times less than ten miles away, experience the benefits of magnet programs, cutting-edge technology and rigorous curricula. Many Black suburban …