Education Commons^™

Exacerbating Inequality: Public Schooling In The Era Of Neoliberal Standardization, Johanna Panetti Barnhart

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work is inspired by Jean Anyon’s (1981) landmark ethnographic study, “Social Class and School Knowledge” in which she detailed the differential and class-based constructions of knowledge across five elementary schools. While this research study in no way aims to be a revision of Anyon’s work, it uses her findings to set a foundational premise that curriculum and instruction often work to contribute to the reproduction of social class. Further, this research builds on these findings to examine and analyze social class reproduction in the current neoliberal policy context of standards-based reform. A key policy shift since Anyon’s research is …

Using Authentic Inquiry To Unpack Emotions And Thorny Issues Within Teaching And Learning, Leah Denise Pride

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This manuscript-styled dissertation embodies the theoretical and methodological framework of authentic inquiry (Tobin, 2006). In the holistic context of this dissertation, authentic inquiry as a theoretical framework encompasses deep epistemological and ontological questions such as: What is knowledge and how is it informed by research? Who may engage in research? How does positivism compare to authentic inquiry? What are thorny issues and how do they relate to authentic inquiry? How do we research thorny issues in classrooms? What mindfulness practices may be used to research emotions when discussing thorny issues? How do we nuance “safety” in learning spaces where emotions …

Perspectives From The Streets And The Classrooms In The Same 'Hood: Linguistic Landscapes Of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Luis Guzman Valerio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the linguistic landscape of the neighborhood of Sunset Park, in Brooklyn, New York by taking into account both a main commercial avenue and a public school with a dual language bilingual program in English and Spanish. Sunset Park is a multi-ethnic and immigrant neighborhood (Hum, 2014). While research has been done into the linguistic landscape of streets, cities, and communities, on the one hand, and about the linguistic landscape in education, on the other, the co-existence of these two in the same context has barely been studied (cf. Maldonado, 2015). This dissertation makes a contribution to the …

Hierarchical Meta-Analysis: A Simulation Study Comparing Classical Random Effects And Fully Bayesian Methods, Nancy R. Andiloro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Meta-analytic data have a natural hierarchical structure to them, where individuals are nested within studies, and have both within-and between-study variation to model. A random-effects hierarchical linear model is useful to conduct a meta-analysis because it allows one to appropriately parse out the two components of variation that exist within and across studies to determine an observed effect. Empirical Bayes estimation considers the reliability of variance estimates; when the reliability of the effect size estimate for a study is high, substantial weight is placed on that estimate. However, problems with estimation arise when the number of studies and their sample …

The Effects Of A Longitudinal Patient Experience On The Enhancement Of Empathy In First And Second Year Medical Students, Susan Kane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the effects of a longitudinal patient experience on the enhancement of empathy in first and second year students attending Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC). The Longitudinal Educational Experience Advancing Patient Partnerships (LEAP) is a new required program at WCMC. Entering Medical students are matched with chronically ill patients whom they will follow throughout medical school. One of the objectives of the LEAP program is to create an experience that will create more empathic medical students. Empathy is an attribute that is considered essential for a strong doctor-patient relationship. With the development of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy …

Research On Communicative Practices In An Alternative Classroom, Maria Alice Bonilha

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies communications in an alternative classroom in the United States. Using an ethnographic approach and drawing from conversation analysis, the study describes the school’s model of education and analyzes students’ classroom initiations, particularly those in which students responded to the teacher’s question with a question.

Exploring Shifting Moments Of Remediation: An Analysis Of Policies Of Developmental Education Policies In The City University Of New York, Charles Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For decades the City University of New York has served as a model for public higher education in the United States. Since 1969, CUNY has attempted to construct policies that support the postsecondary ambitions of New York’s underrepresented students. The era of Open Admissions that ushered in the 1970s remains one of the greatest social experiments in the history of higher education, permitting access to the university to all local high school graduates. Through fiscal erosion and shifts in legislative policy, the open admissions period devolved into a period of stagnation and low standards over the next thirty years. By …

“I Am Going To College…Now What?!”: Becoming A College Student, Renata Strashnaya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

College enrollment rates are increasing across the nation at both 2-year and 4-year institutions (NCES, 2015). Nearly two-thirds of undergraduate students are under the age of 25 and enrollment numbers are increasing for every racial and ethnic group (NCES, 2012). The first year of college is often a critical time for growth and development for students who are transitioning from high school to college. As such, there is a call to restructure the first year of college by finding new ways to support student success (Tinto, 1993, 2002). This call is, however, in response to limited knowledge of the transition …

Nursing Students At The Helm: A Study Of The Effect Of A Health Literacy Module (Helm) On The Health Literacy Knowledge, Skills And Attitudes Of Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Joy G. Borrero

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: Effective communication is a foundation of high-quality, patient-centered health care. Understanding health literacy is an essential attribute that health care professionals need to possess in order to promote effective partnerships with patients and their significant others. Nurses, especially, need to be involved in addressing the epidemic problem of low health literacy in the United States because they are responsible for the majority of patient, caregiver and community health education and communication. Nurses play a key role in providing health care information to individuals, families and groups in a variety of settings and therefore should be educated about the essentials …

“I Feed You. I Clothe You. I Send You To School”: Barriers To Involvement Of Low-Income Minority, And Immigrant Parents For The Academic Achievement Of Their Children, Myrtle Dickson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Parental involvement has long been held as a critical variable in the academic outcomes of students. While research in this area consistently cites the positive impact of parental involvement across all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups, much still remain to be discovered regarding the parental involvement as well as the cultural parental practices that are unique to low income African American, Hispanic, and immigrant parents and families. Furthermore, this population of parents faces barriers to involvement that provide challenges not only for families but also for schools. Administrators and teachers in the k-12 settings must still consider the forms of capital …

Pipeline To Failure: Social Inequality And The False Promises Of American Public Schooling, Adia Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My experience as a New York City public school student was absolutely electrifying, though filled with many trials. While my mother would have preferred to put me in private school, having access to some of the world’s greatest institutions and resources offered unique opportunities and exposures. The performing arts provided me with an outlet to express myself and build skills and confidence. In particular, dance education kept me occupied and disciplined in a large city full of danger. Every so often, I witnessed hostile, or even violent exchanges between students, or students and staff. While some of my schoolmates became …

Teachers Have Emotions Too: An Intra | Interpersonal Approach To Exploring Emotions In Teacher Preparation Courses, Shequana Wright

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The essential focus of this dissertation is the exploration of emotions in response to stressors that may emerge as preservice teachers interact in teaching and learning spaces. My experiences as a teacher and teacher-educator | researcher have influenced an interest in presenting autoethnographical studies. In each autoethnography, I explicate my personal journey in exploring emotional responses with preservice teachers during teacher preparation courses.

I describe this work as an autoethnography for two reasons. First, to avoid the false claim that my research is an objective approach to investigating emotions. Second, to illuminate the intra- and interpersonal dialectic that is embedded …

New Dyes For Cancer Theranostics, Waqar Rizvi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Porphyrinoids are robust heterocyclic dyes studied extensively for applications in medicine and as photonic materials because of their tunable photophysical properties, diverse means of modifying the periphery, and the ability to chelate most transition metals. Commercial applications include phthalocyanine dyes in optical discs, porphyrins in photodynamic therapy, and as oxygen sensors. Most applications of these dyes require exocyclic moieties to improve solubility, target disease, modulate photophysical properties, or direct self-organization into architectures with desired photonic properties. The synthesis of the porphyrinoid depends on the desired application, but the de novo synthesis often involves several steps, is time consuming, and results …

A Democratic Conundrum: A Study Of Online Student Performance At Community Colleges, Lavita Mcmath Turner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Online education at community colleges has the potential to further democratize education by expanding access through the availability of anytime/anywhere courses for people who might be unable to attend college otherwise. However, the literature reveals the existence of performance gaps between online and face-to-face courses at community colleges, ones that can have negative consequences on the upward mobility of its diverse student population. This study investigates such a trend at one urban university. The study shows complexities in the relationship between online learning at community colleges through a mixed methods study of online performance at a community college. The findings …

Alternative Futures: The Creative Reconsideration Of Fashion Objects, Kathryn Roberts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is the beginning of what I intend to be a larger, evolving work that seeks to marry the theoretical with the practical when considering fashion objects that have “served their purpose”. The object at the project’s focal point: a worn out pair of blue jeans. My particular focus on jeans is based on the fact that they, alongside the t-shirt, are one of the most ubiquitous and commonly owned pieces of clothing for people all over the world. This wardrobe staple transcends age, race, and class, as it occupies an iconic status that has made them invulnerable to …

The Bronx Was Brewing: A Digital Resource Of A Lost Industry, Michelle Zimmer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Bronx: a bucolic oasis laden with history, a suburb within city-limits, an urban warzone, and thanks to the recent renaissance, a phoenix of progress rising from the proverbial ashes of the fires that burned through the borough in the 1970’s. But many people are unaware that the Bronx also brewed.
Uncovering the brewing industry of the Bronx tells not only the story of the lost industry, but it also communicates the narrative of the development of the Bronx. The brewers were German immigrants who developed a thriving industry by introducing lager beer to the United States by taking advantage …

Education And Civil Conflict: The Negative Effects Of Intolerant Curricula In Kosovo, Pakistan, And Sudan, Nicholas A. Jaspers

Dissertations and Theses

Education has long been used as a tool for national identity formation and social cohesion. However, in diverse communities across the globe, the question must be asked: are educational institutions creating citizens with a narrow view of “us vs. them” or an identity built on multiculturalism and acceptance? Through past research, it is obvious that education has either acted as an instigator or mitigator of civil conflict, though to what extent is still largely unknown. In this thesis, I argue that both the extent and quality of education in a country can instigate or, at least, exacerbate the outbreak of …