Education Commons^™

From Becoming To Being: How Stem Teachers Develop Leadership Identities, Kelsey Quaisley, Wendy M. Smith, Brett A. Criswell, Rachel Funk, Anna Hutchinson

Secondary Education Faculty Publications

The development of STEM teacher leadership identity empowers K-12 teachers to make changes to improve teaching and learning. Identity development might not be productively supported in all school settings, however. Hence, external professional development programs should offer opportunities to supplement this identity development. We construct and propose a Can't-to-Becoming-to-Being model to describe STEM teacher leadership identity development as a progression of stages from weak to strong identity. Using interview data over two points in time with 127 STEM teacher leaders, we illustrate four stages of development: Can't, Can, Should, and Being. We also elucidate the conditions that teachers identify as …

Transformative Social Emotional Learning: A Call To Heal The Effects Of Racial Trauma On Identity And Self-Efficacy, Elizabeth Trostle

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Growing up I was never a child that loved school. I fell in love with learning in environments that did not look or feel like classrooms. And in 2005 I learned that I had a passion for learning about pedagogy. I entered the classroom again this time as a teacher, ready to engage students in learning. What I was offered was curriculum and learning standards that left little room for experiences. Despite my efforts, and after a decade of experience, I was still baffled by the resistance to learning.

I wanted to understand this because I saw that education—when you …

Grades Do Not Define You: Mindfulness-Based Intervention Effects On College Students' Self-Efficacy, Health, And Wellbeing, Jayla Godfrey

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Abstract

This thesis explores the punitive grading norms and lack of support from institutions and how it effects college students. More specifically, how it effects college students’ self-efficacy, self-esteem, health, and wellbeing. Through the lens of critical action research this thesis investigates the experiences of stakeholders and will integrate research and methods that have been supported by seasoned scholars. In this thesis, a two-part program focusing on imposter syndrome, fear of failure, grades, mindfulness, and improving student’s self-efficacy and wellbeing is proposed. The leadership of this programmatic intervention relies on the facilitator and focuses on mindfulness-based interventions and group discussions. …

Black Men Can: Change The Narrative Of Black Male Students, Levi Tucker Ii

West Chester University Master’s Theses

The master narrative about Black male students has impacted their experience in the education system from the early elementary level through undergraduate studies. This narrative was birthed out of the same racial attitudes that deemed the Black community inferior in every aspect of society. The idea that Black men are academically inferior is backed by research that focuses on Black men who are failing to graduate from college. This type of research and reporting perpetuates the idea that Black men can’t be successful at anything outside of athletics and entertainment and if they are not good at that they are …

Implementing Content Literacy And Disciplinary Literacy: A Mixed Methods Study Of Middle School Teachers' Pedagogical Dispositions, Madison Weary

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Researchers uphold that teachers' beliefs toward reading influence their planning and implementation, and that content area teachers are often reluctant to implement literacy strategies and skills within their instruction (Ness, 2009; Nourie & Lenski, 1998; Richardson et al., 1991). Much of this reluctance stems from teachers’ lack of familiarity with content area and disciplinary literacy or misconceptions surrounding instruction that supports literacy implementation (O’Byrne et al., 2020). However, within the field of literacy, there are tensions between the implementation of content area versus disciplinary literacy (Graham et al., 2017).

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school content …