Heroes Like Harvey Milk: Using Lgbtq-Themed Literature To Promote Critical Literacy And Social Justice In Fifth Grade English Language Arts And Social Studies, Jamie Carmack

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

The purpose of this curriculum development project is to help practicing English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers in grade 5 construct and develop content-area curriculums that reinforce and support both critical literacy and social justice pedagogical frameworks for teaching and learning. This particular curriculum development project also addresses the ways in which English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers in grade 5 can use LGBTQ-themed curricular materials to not only promote critical literacy and social justice frameworks for teaching and learning but to also meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) for English Language Arts, Ohio’s Learning Standards …

Building Support Systems For High School English Language Learners: A Developmental Program Evaluation, Manuel Ferreras

Dissertations

The graduation rate of English Language Learners (ELL) is lagging behind the general school population graduation rate. The purpose of this study is to address the needs of ELL students for improving the graduation rate of ELL students. The context of this inquiry is a high school with a large ELL population located in one of the state’s largest school districts. My study demonstrates outcomes of a lack of a shared vision and attention by the school administrators on addressing the needs of ELL students, ineffective remediation strategies and tools used to guide ELL students, and the potential impact high-stakes …

Hazy Team Composition Processes: Shared Team Leadership, A Strategy To Team Excellence In Higher Education, Pervaiz Masih

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teamwork is an emergent property of efficacious organizations. Team-based and result-oriented organizational structures are gaining momentum, increasing 6% each year. Over 80% of organizations globally deploy teams by putting ordinary people to work together for extraordinary performance. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is a unique institute that teaches foreign languages in an immersive and team-based environment. This mixed-methods research study investigated (a) the teaching team composition processes, (b) the applicability of trust and diversity in team composition, and (c) the impact of shared team leadership in the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. Data were collected from 82 …

Critical Language Awareness In The Multilingual Writing Classroom: A Self-Study Of Teacher Feedback Practices, Emma R. Britton

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the increasing amount of ethnolinguistic diversity in US schools and universities, traditional approaches to university writing instruction continue to advance the teaching of standard written American English (SWAE) from uncritical ideological standpoints (Bommarito & Cooney, 2016). To disrupt the naturalization of monolingual and standard language ideologies, existing scholarship shows the potential of critical language awareness (CLA), as a pedagogical approach which aims to develop students’ awareness of the relationships between languages, language varieties, language ideologies, power, and social inequities, alongside the teaching of SWAE (Fairclough, 1992). Because the production of student texts is central to a CLA pedagogy (Gilyard, …

A Systematic Literature Review: The Modalities, Pedagogies, Benefits, And Implications Of Storytelling Approaches In Early Childhood Education Classroom, Xinyu Du

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

The purpose of this systematic literature review was to investigate and synthesize several aspects of storytelling in the reviewed scholarly research, providing a holistic summary and potential insights for early childhood educators. The study asked: (1) What are the various forms, modes and media, and involved pedagogies that storytelling in early childhood education can take? (2) What are the reported benefits of storytelling in early childhood education? (3) Based on the literature, what understandings and pedagogical implications are enriched for early childhood educators to utilize storytelling in their pedagogies? Using a theoretical framework based in multimodal literacy and sociocultural …

Embodying Resilience In The Writing Center: A Study Of Tutor Training Handbooks And Videos Towards An Understanding Of The "Ideal" Tutoring Session, Katelyn Emily Parsons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines two distinct datasets (handbooks and videos) to explore whether writing tutors embody their training. This research project was grounded in Bruffee’s (1984; 1995) work with collaboration and its link to conversation (both verbal and nonverbal communicative acts) to analyze the peer-to-peer relationships that are observable in writing center tutorials. Research on collaboration and conversation provided a useful framework for qualitatively coding six (6) tutor training handbooks and sixteen (16) tutor training videos. In taking up Thompson’s (2009) and Olinger’s (2014; 2020) calls for further research on writers’ embodied understandings of language, the video component of this research …

Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural Competence Through Collaborative Online International Learning (Coil) And A Collaboratively Created Assessment Tool, Wes Armstrong

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Many Japanese universities have been undergoing processes of internationalization to mitigate demographic realities that conspire against robust student enrolments. These internationalization initiatives often attract students from other Confucian-based contexts who are expected to move away from their homeland and fully integrate into an unfamiliar, Japanese environment. Resultantly, international student needs are often camouflaged by cultural similarities that favour group harmony and collectivism over more equitable approaches to learning. Therefore, this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to serve student needs by fostering the development of intercultural competencies through a pilot collaborative online international learning (COIL) project open to all students, and …

Meeting The Needs Of Adult Language Learners: A Focus On Communication And Literacy, Jessica Hercules

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s perspectives and reflections about teaching and language acquisition during her time in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University. The portfolio includes samples of writing on a variety of topics surrounding second language teaching and acquisition developed through study and teaching experience.

This collection of papers begins with the author’s perspectives on teaching, including a description of her desired professional environment, a reflection on her experiences observing other language teachers, and the author’s teaching philosophy statement. In the second section, the author presents two research papers and …

Balancing The Double-Edged Sword Of Implementation: An Eclectic Approach, Spencer R. K. Chun

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation which expresses the author’s perspective on necessary considerations for teachers when implementing ideas in the classroom. The thoughts and perspectives showed in this portfolio have been shaped by the author’s previous formal and informal teaching experiences and the opportunities to further his understanding of teaching and research during his time in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU).

This portfolio is comprised of two sections: The first section consists of Teaching perspectives, which include the author’s desired professional environment, his teaching philosophy statement, and observations obtained through observing other …

Teaching In The Digital Age: Creating A Student-Centered Classroom, Becca Huber-Jackson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio compiles the work of the author during her time as a student in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It highlights her personal pedagogy as well as provides supporting research. The different components of this portfolio are separated into two sections: teaching perspectives and research perspectives.

In the teaching perspectives section, she introduces her desired professional environment, outlines her teaching philosophy statement, and provides an analysis based on teaching observations. Research perspectives consist of two research papers and an annotated bibliography written throughout the course of the program that support the …

Mental Health Awareness Training Manual: For Faculty To Help Students, Ricardo Vega

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mental health issues and stigma can affect students in many ways. The teacher-student relationship can be affected by the fear and inconsistent thoughts to be successful in college settings caused by mental health issues. First-generation college students face mental health issues due to support, education degree expectations, inhibition of uncertainty, and resources (Pascarella et al., 2004). This project is about providing communication strategies for faculty to help reduce stigma and provide students with resources to support their mental health.

Reproducing The Status Quo In The Middle School English Classroom: A Critical Examination Of Literacy Learning Via Personalized Learning Technology, Michele Mcconnell

Dissertations

Personalized learning technology (PL Tech) is a growing educational reform movement supported by federal grant dollars. As a bourgeoning educational movement, no research has been conducted to explore the potential effects of such structures in supporting student literacy learning. Additionally, current education reform research often lacks the perspective of the students experiencing the reform. Therefore, this study sought to examine the lived experiences of middle school students using PL Tech to understand what structural and cultural arrangements influenced students’ literacy learning.

Portraiture, a qualitative methodology, was employed to conduct the study at a charter school in Fresno, California implementing PL …

Response To Intervention 2 Easycbm And Aimsweb Intervention Programs How They Relate To Student Growth, George T. Hopson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This researcher aimed to determine how data collected from computer-based assessment programs, specifically EasyCBM and AIMSweb, was used in data-driven instruction and used to identify risk levels in math and reading areas proficiency. Data from intervention programs were collected from six participating high schools. The data collection included math and reading universal screening scores and levels of risk indicators from Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels of their response to intervention (RTI) programs. Section A included math data within a baseline score and a risk indicator level. Section B had reading scores with a baseline score and a risk indicator …

Front-End-Connective Phonics Effectiveness In Reading And Spelling In Fifth Through Seventh Grade Students, Bridget Weber

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This 2021 study experimentally investigated the impact five front-end-connective phonics had on the academic performance of middle school students in reading and spelling DIBELS nonsense words. In the upper grades, students depend on whole-word instruction instead of phoneme awareness. My focus was on whether or not front-end-connective phonics instruction played a significant role in the outcome of students’ scores on reading and spelling tests. Participants were assessed twice in both reading and spelling. The participants took an assessment at the beginning of the study and then a final assessment at the end of the study. The research took place in …

A Corpus-Based Investigation Of Phrasal Complexity In L1, L2 Phd Students, And Expert Writers In Education Field, Hani Albelihi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study compared 11 noun modifiers, adopted from Biber et al.’s (2011) index, in the writing of English native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS) graduate students in Education field and compare them with the frequencies found in published writings. Also, it investigated how the language background influences NP complexity in academic writing. The findings showed compared to the expert writers, the student writers used different amounts of phrasal modifiers in their dissertations (e.g., premodifying nouns). Then, a Chi-square test and residual analysis were run to explore how language background influences the noun phrases. Four particular noun modifiers were influenced …

Impact Of An Emergent Reading Skills Intervention On Letter Recognition And Phoneme Identification In Pre-Kindergarten Children, Laura K. Simmons

LSU Master's Theses

Research in the field of early literacy has demonstrated that letter recognition and phoneme identification are two necessary components of emergent reading skills (Casbergue & Strickland, 2016). Emergent literacy refers to the reading and writing skills that young children develop prior to learning traditional literacy skills and has been linked to increased literacy achievement (Justice & Pullen, 2003). This study focused solely on emergent reading skills. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of a targeted multi-sensory intervention on the emergent reading skills of letter recognition and phoneme identification using a multiple baseline design (Kazdin, 2011). …

Language Learning Effectiveness (Outcome) Of An Online Synchronous Efl Program Compared To An Esl Face-To-Face Program, Eduardo L. Trindade Ph.D.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Abstract

To provide English learning opportunities to International students while in their home countries, I designed an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) synchronous online program delivered via videoconferences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an Online EFL program when compared to a regular in-person Intensive English Program (IEP) where students are immersed in the American culture. The control group was composed of 88 students from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in South America that took the IEP offered by a private university in Kentucky in the past five years. Students in the control group had …

“Let Me Talk My Shit”: Exploring Raciocultural Trauma Through Embodied Arts, Andrew Brian Torres

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on a qualitative study drawing on critical ethnography in conjunction with the self-reflective components of autoethnography, the critical race methodology of racial and counter-storytelling (Johnson, 2017; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), and youth-centering components of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) (Cammarota & Fine, 2010; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Torre et al., 2012). The purpose of this study was to explore the complex relationship between trauma, the lived realities of racially minoritized youth, and the arts. As theory-building research, this study sought to expand trauma theory toward raciocultural perspectives of trauma while expanding performance arts theory into an embodied …

Social Studies Literacy, Justin Hingst

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The field of education is constantly evolving. It is the role of professionals in education to provide students with the best opportunity to be successful learners. One major element of modern American Education, literacy instruction in the content areas, has become a key point in the discussion of how to best educate students. For the better part of one hundred years, the notion that every teacher is a teacher of literacy has been considered best practice. Within the last thirty years, alternative methodologies for literacy instruction within the content areas have become more prevalent as the literacy scores of American …

Exploring Students’ Cosmopolitan Perspectives In An Undergraduate, Intermediate Spanish-Language Class, Erin Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how SPAN 121 might be designed to foster and support students’ development of cosmopolitan perspectives. Specifically, it explored how English-speaking students might demonstrate cosmopolitan perspectives in response to activities engaging them in Spanish with global Spanish speakers as part of their undergraduate, intermediate Spanish-language class. Theories of cosmopolitanism value responsible, global citizens engaged in open and respectful dialogue across geographic boundaries to learn about themselves and the world and may guide undergraduate college students in intercultural interactions. Through teacher action research utilizing qualitative case study, this study explored which activities might foster …

The Impact Of Reading Intervention Supports On Adolescent Reader Identity, Erin Christine Doty

Theses and Dissertations

This case study research aimed to uncover how adolescent students describe their experiences with reading intervention and what aspects of their school experiences they see as contributing to their reader identity. Previous research done with or about adolescent students in reading intervention programs has demonstrated a need for a deeper understanding of students’ perspectives of reading intervention and its impact on reader identity as well as an understanding of how these interventions position students as learners. Using a case study approach, data was collected with three eighth grade students who have participated in reading intervention programs for more than three …

“I’M Just A Middleman": A Phenomenological Study Of Specialized Literacy Professionals' Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Michelle L. Arnold

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Specialized literacy professionals (SLPs) are an integral part of schools, serving as interventionists, coaches, coordinators, and more. They are called on to guide reading and writing in their schools, helping to build academic success for students. However, these individuals are asked to do so much in schools that they have difficulty meeting the expectations set for them. The International Literacy Association has spent decades creating and revising standards for literacy professionals helping to delineate roles for SLPs so that they have set responsibilities that they can focus on. Despite these efforts, SLPs continue to serve a multiplicity of roles. During …

Does A Schoolwide Silent Reading Initiative Make A Difference In The Reading Habits Of High School Freshmen: A Mixed Methods Study, Stephanie Trzeciakiewicz

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation describes a study that investigated the degree to which a Schoolwide Silent Reading Initiative (SSRI) impacted high-school students’ motivation, attitudes toward, and amount of time spent reading for pleasure both in and outside of school. Multiple methods were used to collect and analyze data, however the data collection window was drastically shortened and unexpectantly closed due to Covid-19. Close analysis of the limited student data available revealed that some adolescents find reading self-selected material enjoyable and spend some of their free time doing so, while most teens report they don’t find reading to be a pleasurable activity and …

Using Transcendental Phenomenology To Explore Elementary Teachers’ Experiences With Struggling Readers During The Social Restrictions Precipitated By The Covid-19 Pandemic, Wyann C. Stanton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a window into the experiences of elementary teachers with their struggling readers during the largest world-wide interruption to education that has ever been seen. This study gives insight to educational leaders and educators as they assist their struggling readers in rebounding from the disruption to school caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and as they work to improve the quality of schooling for struggling readers. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there had been a growing body of educational literature in pandemic-related information, practice, and research. Yet, there was a need to bring to light the phenomenon of …

Critical Multicultural Engagement With Children's Texts: Perspectives, Power, And Positioning, Jasmine A. Robinson

Doctoral Dissertations

While critical approaches are an accepted teaching philosophy (Aukerman, 2012; Behrman, 2006; Luke et al., 2010), there requires further inquiry of theoretical and pedagogical practices for critical multicultural teaching of culturally diverse literature in the elementary context. The problem is not just about what we read with students, but how we critically and multiculturally read and use children's literature for promoting an understanding of social constructs. The essential question that guides this dissertation is: What does critical multicultural engagement with children's texts offer students as they read and respond to texts? This critical ethnography argues that pedagogy centered on critical …

"Take It With You": Humanizing And Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies As Racial Literacy In Undergraduate Education, Robert Jamaal Downey

Doctoral Dissertations

Given the current racially charged climate around the world, but more specifically in the US and on college campuses, we as instructors of undergraduates are vastly underserving our future generations by avoiding tough questions in the classroom surrounding race. Without the proper language and space to discuss issues surrounding race, students are left behind without the words to express how they are thinking, feeling, and dreaming. The purpose of this qualitative critical ethnographic study through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework is to examine the ability of humanizing and culturally sustaining pedagogies to elicit racial literacy in three White undergraduate …

Effects Of Simultaneously Integrating Sel And Culturally Responsive Pedagogy On Students' Perceptions About Themselves And Their Abilities, Daniele J. Jacob

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to understand what happens to students' perceptions about themselves and their abilities when social and emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) are simultaneously integrated into an elementary gifted and talented classroom setting. Prior to this research, a structured approach to addressing students' social and emotional learning needs did not exist. Additionally, culturally responsive practices were not being used purposefully or with intent. This left the researcher to wonder how the lack of these practices may be negatively impacting students. How SEL and CRP can positively affect students' perceptions about themselves …

The Facts Of Life: Professional Identity Narratives Of Expatriate Language Instructors In Egypt, Sierranicole Butler

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses a narrative approach to investigate the lived experiences of two expatriate TESOL instructors at a private university in Egypt. Through the use of observations and interviews, the researcher analyzed how the emotions and beliefs of experienced expatriate TESOL instructors influence, shape, and are shaped by their Language Teacher Professional Identities. Farrell’s (2011) Professional Role Identities codes were used. The study revealed that expatriate language instructors face a number of trying experiences when teaching students, interacting with colleagues, and taking on various leadership roles within their institutions based on a number of factors including their own beliefs, backgrounds, …

Examining Strategies That Promote Success For Adult Basic Education Students: A Professional Development Seminar For Educators, Andrew Brottlund

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

ABE writing courses have historically helped students develop White, westernized cultural capital. Yet they often fail to acknowledge community cultural wealth that students bring with them to the classroom or build upon these strengths that students possess, and this has a negative impact on student persistence. This dissertation argues that to increase retention and persistence, ABE writing instructors must look at how curriculum can center a diverse range of identities and better reflect the lived experiences of all their students. To address this problem of practice, this dissertation is divided into three parts. First, it explores ABE legislation and critiques …

Ontario High School Science Word List (Ohswl), Mohamed Mahfouz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research aims to explain the development of an Ontario High School Science Corpus and subsequently an Ontario High School Science Word List (OHSWL). The OHSWL is a list of the most frequent technical words in the Ontario high school science curriculum. The science corpus was compiled from Ontario science textbooks and public written lecture material. A total of 803 lemmas were identified as part of the OHSWL. The coverage of the OHSWL in the science corpus vs non-science corpus is 7.79% and 1.52% respectively. The high frequency vocabulary (top 3,000 words) of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) …