Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Education

Teaching For Social Justice In The Secondary English Language Arts Classroom: Case Studies In Independent Schools, Alexandra Lyon Perelman Aug 2023

Teaching For Social Justice In The Secondary English Language Arts Classroom: Case Studies In Independent Schools, Alexandra Lyon Perelman

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers in independent K–12 schools are well-situated to teach for social justice as they do not face the same constraints prevalent in many public schools, such as restrictive curricular mandates, high-stakes testing, and legislation resulting from the weaponization of critical pedagogy. Thus, secondary ELA teachers often have the liberty to craft their own curricula and use literature, verse, and other media as vehicles for teaching social justice. Despite an increase in empirical research examining social justice teaching in various contexts throughout K–12 education, there was a gap in the research focused on social justice teaching …


Student And Educator Perceptions Of The Implementation Of A Social-Emotional Learning Approach: A Mixed Methods Study Of A Catholic School, Dorothy Balfe Jun 2023

Student And Educator Perceptions Of The Implementation Of A Social-Emotional Learning Approach: A Mixed Methods Study Of A Catholic School, Dorothy Balfe

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this mixed methods study was to examine educator and student perceptions of the implementation of social-emotional learning (SEL) and the RULER (i.e., recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating) approach in a Catholic school. The study investigated the perceptions of teachers, staff, and students about the implementation of SEL and RULER across elementary and middle school grade levels. The RULER approach is a K–12 SEL initiative designed to build the emotional intelligence and social-emotional competencies of all members of a school community. Data were gathered over a 4-month period through interviews with teachers and students, an educator survey, …


The Path To Full Reparations: A Community-Driven Model Of Education Reparations For Black Youth In Los Angeles County, Phase I (Early Learners), Andrew S. Murphy Apr 2023

The Path To Full Reparations: A Community-Driven Model Of Education Reparations For Black Youth In Los Angeles County, Phase I (Early Learners), Andrew S. Murphy

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The unresolved long-term effects of slavery and past and ongoing systemic racism directed toward Black Americans can be seen in the devaluing and aggressively racist treatment of Black students in Los Angeles County schools. Through qualitative interviews with Black education community members in Los Angeles County, this study collected Black education community members’ perspectives on the need for a multiphase education reparations system for Black youth, beginning with early learners (ages 0 to 8), and what components such a system should include. Participants overwhelmingly supported an education reparations system due to the over-policing and criminalization of Black students and the …


Making Worth, Making Sense Of The Sacrifice: Examining The Career Education Trajectories Of Economically Marginalized, First-Generation Latina Graduates, Alexia Fernanda Pineda Soto Apr 2023

Making Worth, Making Sense Of The Sacrifice: Examining The Career Education Trajectories Of Economically Marginalized, First-Generation Latina Graduates, Alexia Fernanda Pineda Soto

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to assess the ways current higher education approaches to career education, counseling, and preparation models served, or disserved, economically marginalized first-generation Latinas (EMFGL) and their career identities. In centering EMFGL-identifying college graduates, this study used interviews to glean an understanding of what the EMFGL career education experience was like and how forms of career preparation in college equipped, or unequipped, students’ career pathways. Driven to assess how higher education institutions can come to eradicate the generalization of their career counseling and education practices and ideologies, this work further uncovers how EMFGL graduates use …


Raising The Roar: A Case Study Of Early Adolescent Student Voice On Service-Learning And Catholic Identity, April Beuder Apr 2023

Raising The Roar: A Case Study Of Early Adolescent Student Voice On Service-Learning And Catholic Identity, April Beuder

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined early adolescent students’ perceptions of their service-learning program experiences at one Catholic elementary school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (ADLA). The purpose of the study was: (a) to understand how the powerful tradition of the Church related to doing works of social justice and outreach was experienced by students in one ADLA Catholic elementary school in the form of experiential service learning, and (b) to explore whether associations exist between the students’ perceptions of their Catholic identities and their service-learning experiences. This study gathered research from student voice and work samples and utilized Carver’s …


Crisis Leadership: Voices From The Field, Corinne Brion Apr 2023

Crisis Leadership: Voices From The Field, Corinne Brion

Journal of Catholic Education

This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach and the Marianist characteristics as a conceptual framework to understand the experiences of six lay Marianist educational leaders during COVID-19. Findings indicated that during the pandemic leaders were faced with challenges pertaining to receiving an excess of information, inequity in technology, serving students with various learning needs, and the socioemotional health of students and teachers. Despite these difficulties, these leaders were able to uphold the Marianist characteristics of educating for adaptation and change, educating in family spirit, and for formation in faith. This study is significant because it provides the unique perspectives of …


Assessing The Costs And Benefits Of Principal Time Usage And Ohio's Edchoice Scholarship, Adam J. Dufault Ed.D. Apr 2023

Assessing The Costs And Benefits Of Principal Time Usage And Ohio's Edchoice Scholarship, Adam J. Dufault Ed.D.

Journal of Catholic Education

This study explored the experience of Catholic school principals in Ohio whose schools have participated in the EdChoice Scholarship program. The researcher employed the lens of principal time usage to examine the experiences of Ohio Catholic school principals with EdChoice, with a focus on the direct experiences of principals participating in the program, the principal’s role in the supervisory aspects of operating the program at a school, and on the connections between workload and principal perceptions of the EdChoice program. The research questions were explored through semi-structured interviews with eight Catholic school principals and three administrative designees at those schools. …


Data At The Diocesan Level: Common Data Practices And Challenges Among U.S. Catholic School Superintendents, Julie W. Dallavis Apr 2023

Data At The Diocesan Level: Common Data Practices And Challenges Among U.S. Catholic School Superintendents, Julie W. Dallavis

Journal of Catholic Education

Accountability pressures in education have risen steadily over the last two decades and public schools and districts now track school- and student-level data in response to state and federal mandates. Catholic schools and dioceses have not faced the same level of regulation over this period, and less is known about data access and use in the Catholic sector. This descriptive and exploratory research draws on survey and interview data from a national sample of Catholic school superintendents to examine data practices in diocesan central offices as well as barriers faced in the use of data. Findings suggest that although considerable …


A Professional Profile Of Culturally Responsive Continuation High School Principals, Benjamin Charles Wardrop Apr 2023

A Professional Profile Of Culturally Responsive Continuation High School Principals, Benjamin Charles Wardrop

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

With more than 10% of all high school age students taking classes at a continuation school at some point in their high school career, this normally forgotten alternative learning environment is one that serves many of our most historically marginalized student groups: Black, Latinx, those with learning differences, and English Learners (Ruiz de Velasco et al., 2012). Leadership in schools is the difference-maker in student learning efficacy (Wahlstrom et al., 2010; Whitaker, 2020). This qualitative study was situated on the theoretical framework created by Madhlangobe and Gordon (2012), Culturally Responsive Leadership (CRL). The aim of this study was to build …


Are The Teachers Alright?: High School Teachers’ Use Of Emotional Labor Strategies In The Covid-19 Context And Its Effect On The Profession’S Sustainability, Nina C. Benegas Apr 2023

Are The Teachers Alright?: High School Teachers’ Use Of Emotional Labor Strategies In The Covid-19 Context And Its Effect On The Profession’S Sustainability, Nina C. Benegas

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Teacher burnout during the pandemic has resulted in a mass exodus of teachers that, compounded with consistently low enrollment in teacher preparation programs, has caused a severe and catastrophic teacher shortage. This qualitative study investigated teacher perceptions of pandemic-related workload and emotional stress and their effects on job satisfaction and burnout. The dissertation study consisted of semi-structured interviews of sixteen current or former high school educators who taught before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggest a wide range of disruptions to teachers’ preexisting professional responsibilities and additions to what has been considered to constitute a teacher’s typical workload, particularly: …


Leading In Liminality: Implications On Individual And Collective Identity, And Knowledge Creation For School Leaders, David Sorkin, Melodie Wyttenbach, John Reyes, Michael Warner Jan 2023

Leading In Liminality: Implications On Individual And Collective Identity, And Knowledge Creation For School Leaders, David Sorkin, Melodie Wyttenbach, John Reyes, Michael Warner

Journal of Catholic Education

In the spring of 2020, schools of all sectors across all nations were forced to close their doors as COVID-19 rippled through communities. Drawing upon the concept of liminality, which refers to a stage, state, or period of transition (Soderlund & Borg, 2017), this study investigated the intersections of the experience of liminality during the pandemic and functioning for Catholic school leaders. Interviews with urban school leaders were analyzed to understand key characteristics of liminality as experienced by school leaders within organizations. Findings indicate that school leaders responded to the liminal experience by sharpening the focus of work, which simultaneously …


We Do The Work. You Check The Box: Unearthing The Impact Of Racialized Stress And Trauma On Black Women Community College Educators Leading Dei Work, Brandi Renee Avila Jan 2023

We Do The Work. You Check The Box: Unearthing The Impact Of Racialized Stress And Trauma On Black Women Community College Educators Leading Dei Work, Brandi Renee Avila

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Since the summer of 2020, following the execution of Mr. George Floyd, many institutions of higher education established or strengthened their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In attempting to create more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and antiracist campuses to foster student success and belonging on campus, another inequity is born. Higher education institutions have failed to center the wellbeing of educators tasked with leading these efforts. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with 10 Black women leading DEI efforts throughout the California Community College system to explore the impact of racialized stress and trauma on holistic wellbeing. Central questions guided …


Moral Formation In A Culture Of Relativism: Correlates Of Universalism And Relativism In The Moral Outlooks Of Emerging Adults, Steven Crawford Hayward Jan 2023

Moral Formation In A Culture Of Relativism: Correlates Of Universalism And Relativism In The Moral Outlooks Of Emerging Adults, Steven Crawford Hayward

Journal of Catholic Education

This study explores some of the demographic, personal, and experiential factors of emerging adults that correlate to a spectrum of moral outlooks ranging from moral universalism to moral relativism. Data was gathered from 466 volunteer undergraduate students. Respondents’ demographic, experiential, and personal factors served as independent variables. The relativism index score form Forsyth’s Ethics Position Questionnaire (1980) served as the dependent variable. Results suggest several conclusions: First, adults in the life of youth are a significant factor in moral outlook, exerting influence in both universalistic and relativistic directions. Second, religious practice and involvement contribute to a universal moral outlook. Third, …


Becoming A Stem-Focused Catholic School: Insights Into Adopting A Curricular Specialization, Julie W. Dallavis Jan 2023

Becoming A Stem-Focused Catholic School: Insights Into Adopting A Curricular Specialization, Julie W. Dallavis

Journal of Catholic Education

School choice policies seek to increase access to educational opportunities and stimulate innovations in schooling. This study examines the early stages of one such innovation—school-wide curricular specialization—in three Catholic elementary schools adopting a STEM focus and uses interviews to consider how and why different levels of support exist for the shift and under what conditions private and religious schools are prepared to make significant changes in instructional practice. Findings suggest that school resources—material, human, and social along with professional development—play an important role in shaping engagement in the adoption of a school-wide curricular focus.


Streaming With Butterflies: A Whole School Stream Project, Carey L. Averill, Janet M. Herrelko Jan 2023

Streaming With Butterflies: A Whole School Stream Project, Carey L. Averill, Janet M. Herrelko

Journal of Catholic Education

This study explores the commitment of a school faculty to use the pedagogical practices needed to employ a project-based unit of Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STREAM). The unit of study concentrated on environmental sustainability of butterflies through project-based learning (PBL). Teacher interviews were analyzed to reveal the similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses in the teachers’ reactions to implementing a cross-curricula content unit designed for a pre-kindergarten (PK) to eighth grade school. Analysis of teacher data and classroom artifacts provided evidence of: content mastery at the student levels; implementation of scaffolding for developmental levels; and the need …


(Re)Inventing Ourselves: An Asiancrit Analysis Of Counternarratives Of Asian American Women Who Lead In K–12 Public School Systems, Ella Farinas Jan 2023

(Re)Inventing Ourselves: An Asiancrit Analysis Of Counternarratives Of Asian American Women Who Lead In K–12 Public School Systems, Ella Farinas

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Despite what is known about the importance of diversity in the educator workforce, Asian American women (AAW) are not named in conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in leadership. The purpose of this qualitative study was to build on the limited research on AAW in social justice leadership (SJL), explore the lived experiences of AAW educators, and elevate their voices. I sought to answer the research questions: (1) What affordances and challenges do AAW experience in choosing and enacting SJL in K–12 public school systems? (2) How do the intersectional positionalities of Asian American women affect the way they …