Education Commons^™

Multiple Imputation And Higher Education Research, Catherine A. Manly, Ryan S. Wells

Ryan S. Wells

Higher education researchers using survey data often face decisions about handling missing data. Multiple imputation (MI) is considered by many statisticians to be the most appropriate technique for addressing missing data in many circumstances. However, our content analysis of a decade of higher education research literature reveals that the field has yet to make substantial use of this technique despite common employment of quantitative analysis, and that many recommended MI reporting practices are not being followed. We conclude that additional information about the technique and recommended reporting practices may help improve the quality of the research involving missing data. In …

The Silent Majority: An Examination Of Nonresponse In College Student Surveys, Ethan A. Kolek

Open Access Dissertations

Nonresponse is a growing problem in surveys of college students and the general population. At present, we have a limited understanding of survey nonresponse in college student populations and therefore the extent to which survey results may be biased. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore three facets of nonresponse in surveys of college students in order to strengthen our empirical and conceptual understanding of this phenomenon. This dissertation seeks to contribute to our understanding of who participates in surveys and who does not, how students experience the process of being asked to complete surveys, and whether or not …

Understanding Internalized Oppression: A Theoretical Conceptualization Of Internalized Subordination, Teeomm K. Williams

Open Access Dissertations

Internalized oppression is one of the conceptual foundations of social justice education. Though the literature on internalized oppression is rich with descriptive data, little theory has been developed in this area. To date, the field of Social Justice Education has been limited by this oversight. Drawing upon the work of theorists who have examined this topic across a variety of social identities, this study presents a generalizable framework for understanding and analyzing internalized oppression. More specifically, this research focuses on the internalized oppression of subordinant groups, also known as internalized subordination. The framework presented within this study identifies internalized oppression …

Supporting Public High School Teachers In A Context Of Multiple Mandates: A Social Justice Approach To Professional Learning Communities, Philip J. Harak

Open Access Dissertations

Although public school teaching by its inherent nature presents numerous classroom challenges, the public high school teacher today is faced in addition with multiple external mandates from several outside stakeholders. Given the established track record of professional learning communities (PLCs) to provide teacher support and development, I created a PLC that would serve as an intervention designed to support teachers in their classroom work and with their multiple mandates as well. This enhanced PLC was informed by interviews with administrators, researched best practices of traditional PLCs, and uniquely, by what teachers told me they needed in an optimal PLC experience. …

The Rise Up And Leadership In Community Service Classes And Their Impact On The Relationships, School Retention And Persistence Of Marginalized Students At One Level Four School, Heather A. Batchelor

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation studies the impact of two courses, “Rise Up” and “Leadership in Community Service,” at a Level 4 high school in Massachusetts. The school, which had a higher than average level of student dropout, implemented the two courses developed by the researcher to address student retention, academic performance, and connection to school. Students in grades 9-12 took one or both of the semester-long classes, which used community building activities, group discussions, democratic teaching principals, community service–learning, and goal setting to address the needs of marginalized students. Students who participated in the classes showed increased connections to peers, teachers and …

Research As Praxis In Esl Teacher Education, Elizabeth Anne Robinson

Open Access Dissertations

In July of 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) determined that Massachusetts had violated the civil rights of its English Language Learners (ELLs) by placing them in classes with inadequately prepared teachers. Massachusetts is the contextual background for this study but it also serves as an example of the challenges across the U.S. in preparing teachers to meet the diverse needs of the growing population of ELLs within a national context of increasingly standardized curriculum and testing. The U.S. Secretary of Education, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, policy makers, teacher educators, and academics are all looking to educational research …

Movements Of Diverse Inquiries As Critical Teaching Practices Among Charros, Tlacuaches And Mapaches, Stephen T. Sadlier

Open Access Dissertations

This year-long participant observation qualitative case study draws together five social practices of mid-career elementary school educators in the Mexican southeastern state of Oaxaca: a protest march, a roadblock, the use of humor, a school-based book fair and alternate uses of time and space in school. The title terms of charros, tlacuaches and mapaches represent some of the diverse sites of friction where teachers interact. Additionally, movements of diverse inquiries is derived from the definition Michel Foucault gives to "critical" which leads to the primary guiding question: how have Oaxacan teachers engaged in critical pedagogical practices? The study finds that …

Student Recognition Of Visual Affordances: Supporting Use Of Physics Simulations In Whole Class And Small Group Settings, A. Lynn Stephens

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate student interactions with simulations, and teacher support of those interactions, within naturalistic high school physics classroom settings. This study focuses on data from two lesson sequences that were conducted in several physics classrooms. The lesson sequences were conducted in a whole class discussion format in approximately half of the class sections and in a hands-on-computer small group format in matched class sections. Analysis used a mixed methods approach where: (1) quantitative methods were used to evaluate pre-post data; (2) open coding and selective coding were used for transcript analysis; and (3) comparative …

Examining Perceptions Of Practices And The Roles Of Special Education Leaders Through The Distributed Leadership Lens, Patrick Ryan Tudryn

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the perceptions of distributed leadership held by 15 administrators of special education and 15 special education teacher leaders invited to perform a Q-sort, rank ordering 40 statements representing distributed leadership attributes. The research questions that guided this investigation included: 1) Are there any clusters of participants who ranked the leadership statements similarly and differently; 2) Are the clusters related to demographic or personal characteristics associated with the participants; 3) Were there similarities as to how the items were ranked by the participants among the clusters; 4) Are there themes depicting the clusters …

Personal History And Present Practice: A Cross Cultural Study Of The Influences On Arts Integration In The United States And Japan, Jana L. Silver

Open Access Dissertations

Through observations, life history research, and qualitative data analysis, this study seeks to answer the question: Who and what influences elementary school teachers to ultimately use or not use art in their current classroom practice? This study examines the personal histories of nine elementary school general education teachers in the United States and Japan. Through reflections upon life history, pre and post teacher education this study investigates what influences the use of the arts in teaching practice and what influences the recognition of the arts as a vehicle for learning in a cross cultural context. In order to have a …

Demand- Side Financing In Education: A Critical Examination Of A Girls' Scholarship Program In Malawi- (Case Study), Abraham Sineta

Open Access Dissertations

Despite the push for universal education, many disadvantaged and poor children in developing countries still do not have access to basic education. This among other reasons is due to poverty where poor families cannot afford the cost of basic education even when it is `free' of tuition (McDonald, 2007). Demand-side financing interventions such as scholarship programs are promising to be viable financing interventions of reaching out to the poor and marginalized children in order for them to access basic education. Although such financing strategies have been praised as having worked in mostly Latin American countries, very little is systematically known …

Goals, Principles, And Practices For Community-Based Adult Education Through The Lens Of A Hatcher-Assagioli Synthesis, Andrea Shepard Ayvazian

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines how adult education can facilitate learning towards the full realization of human potential. It synthesizes two theories of human development, and applies this to the practice of community-based adult education carried out by trained facilitators who do not have formal degrees in the field of mental health. The first part of the methodology used modified analytic induction to carry out a synthesis between the works of William Hatcher (1935-2005) and Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974). The second part of the methodology works with the goals, principles, and practices which emerged from the "lens" provided by this synthesis, and applies …

In Pursuit Of A Balanced System Of Educational Assessment: An Evaluation Of The Pre-Kindergarten Through 8th Grade Math Assessment System In One Massachusetts Regional School District, Rita Joyce Detweiler

Open Access Dissertations

School leaders in the United States live in an educational era characterized by a desire for and expectation that all students attain high levels of academic proficiency. There is an increased reliance on all types of educational assessment as a key component to help school leaders attain that goal. The purpose of this study is to understand how school administrators can foster a balanced system of assessment at the local level to genuinely harness the power of assessment to enhance student learning. The significance of the study rests in the fact that there is a general failure of states and …

Getting Beyond What Educators See As Wrong: How Understanding The Strengths Of Low-Income Puerto Rican Families Can Help Urban Schools Improve, Paul Hyry-Dermith

Open Access Dissertations

Parent involvement is one of the factors to which student achievement is consistently and strongly linked in educational research, and is perceived by teachers as a core factor affecting student achievement. Therefore more and higher-quality engagement with students' families has the potential to make a positive difference in urban schools. However, a tendency among educators to focus on perceived family deficits, without a clear understanding of students' families' strengths, may limit urban schools' ability to develop effective family engagement programming. This study involved faculty and staff members at an urban K-8 school in systematically identifying strengths of the low-income Puerto …

A New Approach To Using Photographs And Classroom Response Systems In Middle School Astronomy Classes, Hyun Ju Lee

Open Access Dissertations

This study reports middle school astronomy classes that implemented photographs and classroom response systems (CRSs) in a discussion-oriented pedagogy with a curriculum unit for the topics of day-night and cause of seasons. In the new pedagogy, a teacher presented conceptual questions with photographs, her 6th grade students responded using the CRSs, and the teacher facilitated classroom discussion based on the student responses. I collected various data: classroom observation with field-note taking and videotaping, student pre- and post-conception tests, student attitude survey and classroom short surveys, and teacher interviews. Classroom video recordings and teacher interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with …

Beyond The Stereotype Of Black Homophobia: Exploring The Potential Of Black Allies For Lesbian, Gay And Bisexual Students, Kyle Oldham

Open Access Dissertations

Beyond the Stereotype of Black Homophobia:

Exploring the Potential of Black Allies for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Students

Strides at the federal and state levels are being made to improve the overall climate for gay rights and relationships across the country. However, despite greater acceptance, legislative victories and visibility of gay rights and relationships, homophobia is still widespread in American society (Fone, 2000; Jenkins, Lambert, & Baker, 2009; Schroeder, 2004). No matter the environment, homophobic attitudes permeate all aspects of the US culture, leading to prejudicial attitudes and inequalities that affect everyone in society. Unfortunately, some of these prejudicial attitudes …

Evaluating The Role Of Principals In Teacher Teams: A Longitudinal Analysis Of Principal Involvement And Impact In A District-Wide Initiative To Increase Teacher Collaboration, Craig Michael Outhouse

Open Access Dissertations

Principal leadership is one of the most heavily researched topics in the field of education and is a key to increasing school effectiveness and stimulating school change. One of the most important principal roles that have emerged in the literature is the facilitation of a collaborative culture. Teacher collaboration has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes such as improved instruction and student learning. Research indicates that collaboration is most effective when it is part of a district's professional development. Using a theory-driven approach, the present study evaluated a four-year collaboration initiative aimed to increase student learning in one …

Afro-Peruvian Perspectives And Critiques Of Intercultural Education Policy, Luis Martin Valdiviezo

Open Access Dissertations

Based on intercultural education, socio-cultural analysis, and decolonization and critical pedagogy perspectives, this dissertation explores contradictions in Peruvian intercultural education policy and examines the potential role that African and Afro-Peruvian thought may have in the reform of this policy.

Despite redefinitions of the Peruvian state as multicultural/multilingual and the adoption of intercultural concepts in Peruvian education law, the official interpretation of intercultural principles has tended to undermine the social transforming potential implicit in intercultural education. First, official Peruvian education policy overlooks the historical and cultural contributions of non-European and non-Incan social groups. Second, it fails to address inequality and inequity …

Unpacking Voice And Silence: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Women And Latinas In College Classroom, Shelly A. Perdomo

Open Access Dissertations

Unpacking Voice and Silence: A Phenomenological Study of Black Women and Latinas in College Classrooms

Place And The Politics Of Knowledge In Rural Bolivia: A Postcoloniality Of Development, Ecology, And Well-Being, Karen Marie Lennon

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of the dynamics of place and people in a rural municipality in southeastern Bolivia. A study of the dialectical relations between knowledge, ecology, and culture that are manifest through the daily life of the municipality, it is an ethnography that illuminates the multiple discourses of colonialism, nationalism, modernity and decolonization that overlay one another. The contradictions and tensions produced through these intersecting discourses represent major obstacles to the project of "decolonization" and the formation of viable and equitable "intercultural" relationships, as promoted by the indigenous leadership which is the governing party of the Bolivian state …

Mitigating Negative Externalities Affecting Access And Equity Of Education In Low-Resource Countries: A Study Exploring Social Marketing As A Potential Strategy For Planning School Food Programs In Malawi, Martha Magreta-Nyongani

Open Access Dissertations

School feeding programs enhance the efficiency of the education system by improving enrollment, reducing dropouts and increasing perseverance. They also have the potential to reach the poor, directly making them an effective social safety net. In many low-resource countries, school feeding programs are designed to protect children from the effects of hunger. Unfortunately, the continuity of such programs is threatened by over-reliance on external funding. Given the patterns of withdrawal of external support, countries that rely on donor funds to implement such programs need to develop plans that will move them from external to localized support. It is well documented …

The Role Of Education In An Historically Challenging And Politically Complex Environment: The Response Of Public Universities To The September 11 Attacks, Nigar J. Khan

Open Access Dissertations

The dissertation critically analyzes the response of a major research public university to the attacks of 9/11 in order to gain a deeper understanding of public universities’ stance on the relevance of Middle East studies, particularly in the context of the serious and far-reaching impact of 9/11. The absence of an articulated position of the U. S. universities in recognizing this need suggests the perpetuation of the dominant discourses of power and centrality of Western knowledge in the academy—the discourses that historically led to the marginalization of Middle East studies in the U. S. universities during the Cold War period. …

A Professional Development Program For The Mother Tongue-Based Teacher: Addressing Teacher Perceptions And Attitudes Towards Mtbmle, Rebecca J. Paulson Stone

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates teacher attitudes about language and education. The purpose of the study is to help program designers develop professional development efforts that successfully address some of the major identified challenges teachers face when transitioning into Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTBMLE), including negative attitudes. It also suggests protocols and issues that trainers should consider when designing professional development for MTBMLE teachers.

The research question guiding this study is:

1. Do teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge about mother tongue-based instruction change after they participate in professional development that is consistent with good professional development practice?

a. What were teachers' …

Production Of Third Spaces For Immigrant English Language Learners: (Re)Negotiating Identity And Discourse In The Secondary Classroom, Andrew W. Habana Hafner

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores theoretical and pedagogical implications of space, language, and power in renegotiating identity for immigrant English Language Learners (ELLs) in secondary schools in the United States. The primary research question explored in the study is: How does spoken and written language and discourse shape the production of third spaces for renegotiating immigrant student identity in the ELL writing classroom? I adopt an epistemological lens of space from a postmodern geographic perspective that contends that space is socially produced and is co-constituted by material, abstract and lived spaces. The theoretical framework draws on constructs of social space, space-time, and …

The Intersectionality Of Race, Adoption And Parenting: How White Adoptive Parents Of Asian Born Children Talk About Race Within The Family, Jen H. Dolan

Open Access Dissertations

Transracial adoption has been a controversial form of adoption since it came into vogue in the United States in the 1950s. In 1972, The National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) established a decree stating transracial adoption was akin to cultural genocide because they were concerned that under the tutelage of White parents, Black children would not learn the skills needed to survive in a racist society. Whereas the NABSW was looking out for the well being of domestic children of color, there was no corresponding advocate for children of color adopted internationally. Recognizing that large numbers of children are …

They Chose To Major In Engineering: A Study Of Why Women Enter And Persist In Undergraduate Engineering Programs, Adrienne Yvette Smith

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that lead female undergraduate students to pursue an academic major in engineering and to persist in their engineering studies. This research focuses on women who are currently studying in the fields of engineering in an effort to determine whether or not common themes emerge that impacted their decision to major in these academic programs. Specifically, this study aims to better understand what factors exist that influence women to study engineering. Despite the fact that research has been conducted in this area, the findings from these studies do not appear to …

Beaver Dams Maintain Native Fish Biodiversity Via Altered Habitat Heterogeneity In A Coastal Stream Network: Evaluating Gear, Quantifying Fish Assemblages, And Testing Ecological Hypotheses, Joseph Michael Smith

Open Access Dissertations

Understanding the relationship between heterogeneity, biodiversity and ecosystem function is an active focus of ecological research that has direct applications to the formulation of sustainable, science-based, watershed conservation plans. Here, I applied ecological theory on heterogeneity to the expansion of North American beaver to test hypotheses about physical habitat and fish biodiversity at a riverscape scale. To test these hypotheses (Chapter 4), I first addressed two methodological issues (Chapter 2, 3). By evaluating three types of gear at three levels of effort in a randomized block design over 4 replicate days, I show that 10 minnow traps, 2 hoop nets …

An Empirical Examination Of The Impact Of Item Parameters On Irt Information Functions In Mixed Format Tests, Wai Yan Wendy Lam

Open Access Dissertations

IRT, also referred as "modern test theory", offers many advantages over CTT-based methods in test development. Specifically, an IRT information function has the capability to build a test that has the desired precision of measurement for any defined proficiency scale when a sufficient number of test items are available. This feature is extremely useful when the information is used for decision making, for instance, whether an examinee attain certain mastery level. Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is one of the many examples using IRT information functions in test construction. The purposes of this study were as follows: (1) to examine the …

Umass School Of Education Receives Funding To Support Higher Education In Afghanistan, Joseph B. Berger

Center for International Education Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Beyond Pronade: Ngos And The Formal Education Sector In Guatemala, Jacob A. Carter

Master's Capstone Projects

In Guatemala, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is overburdened with challenges;these include the most basic provision of services and support for public schools across the country. In the absence of a capable state presence, countless nongovernmental organizations (NGO) have sprung up to provide, sustain and/or take over basic education services. These NGOs come in all shapes and sizes, with different motivations, from different countries and receiving funding from a variety of national and international sources. The combination of rapidly increasing numbers of NGOs along with minimal state coordination means that the Ministry is unaware of the number of NGOs operating …