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University of Massachusetts Amherst

Doctoral Dissertations

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Avatars & Choice: Fostering Student Agency, Engagement, And Equity In Assessment, Sandra M. Sweeney Sep 2022

Avatars & Choice: Fostering Student Agency, Engagement, And Equity In Assessment, Sandra M. Sweeney

Doctoral Dissertations

Provision of item choice and use of digital avatars in reading assessment contexts may play a critical role in fostering student agency, engagement, and equity in assessment. Using a mixed methods approach, this study was conducted over four phases within an equity framework. Phase I consisted of a survey, during Phase II an iOS software application and reading test was developed, Phase III was an experimental study, and during phase IV post-experiment interviews were conducted. Research questions for this study (1) explored student interests and experiences related to assessments and technology use, (2) investigated the effect of item choice and …


Professional Learning Cultures At Work: How Principals Serve As Catalysts For Learning, Christopher J. Tranberg Jun 2022

Professional Learning Cultures At Work: How Principals Serve As Catalysts For Learning, Christopher J. Tranberg

Doctoral Dissertations

Principals are an influential factor in a child’s academic success (Manna, 2015; Louis et al., 2010; Waters et al., 2003). Although the path of influence is often indirect, principals affect student learning by developing and sustaining strong professional learning cultures (Hattie, 2009; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2012). As a result of the complexities surrounding principalship, a desire to understand the attributes, skills, and leadership actions of successful principals persists as an international focus of educational research. This study examines principalship through the experiences of various stakeholders within a school system utilizing a descriptive single case study ethnographic qualitative approach. This approach …


Active Choice Or Default Decision? When Families Who Reside In A Competitive School Choice Environment Enroll Children In Their District Schools, Julie Spencer-Robinson Jun 2022

Active Choice Or Default Decision? When Families Who Reside In A Competitive School Choice Environment Enroll Children In Their District Schools, Julie Spencer-Robinson

Doctoral Dissertations

The expansion of public school choice was an important component of the sweeping educational reforms enacted in the United States at both the state and federal levels during the 1990s. At that time, it primarily took the form of charter schools and inter-district open enrollment programs. Scholars have thoroughly studied the multitude of effects on students who exit their geographically-assigned schools and on those who are left behind. However, there has been little investigation of the school enrollment decision making processes of families who live in competitive educational environments and send their children to the district schools. Such scholarship is …


Who Benefits From Deferred Entry To College?: Exploring The Relationships Between College Deferment, Postsecondary Academic Success, And Institutional Selectivity, Gabriel Reif Jun 2022

Who Benefits From Deferred Entry To College?: Exploring The Relationships Between College Deferment, Postsecondary Academic Success, And Institutional Selectivity, Gabriel Reif

Doctoral Dissertations

Prior research on delayed entry and gap years have produced conflicting results on the relationships between deferring entry to college and postsecondary academic success. Specifically, studies on delayed entry have linked the phenomenon to lower attainment rates, while the literature on gap years has shown a positive relationship with college GPA. These conflicting findings make it unclear for students, families, counselors, administrators, and policymakers to understand whether deferring entry to college is an opportunity that should be pursued by more individuals or if it is something to be avoided. The focus of this dissertation was to bring prior findings on …


Quality Of Life For Women With Chronic Lyme Disease: A Socioeconomic Investigation, Dale M. Jones Jun 2022

Quality Of Life For Women With Chronic Lyme Disease: A Socioeconomic Investigation, Dale M. Jones

Doctoral Dissertations

This is a mixed methods investigation of how chronic Lyme disease, including Lyme-like diseases and co-infections, affects the quality of life of women who have chronic Lyme. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used during three phases of research: a 91-question survey instrument followed by focus group discussions and written narratives. The research considered the socioeconomic impact on quality of life in five areas: obtaining a diagnosis, relationships and personal support systems, struggles with the medical system, the ability to work, and access to treatment. There were 500 responses to the survey, of which 373 were analyzed; 11 participants in …


Examining Parents Who Are English Language Learners With Reading Difficulties: Their Experiences Of Their Diverse Children's Literacy Learning, Ellen Ho Jun 2022

Examining Parents Who Are English Language Learners With Reading Difficulties: Their Experiences Of Their Diverse Children's Literacy Learning, Ellen Ho

Doctoral Dissertations

Insufficient parental support can cause English language learners (ELLs) with reading difficulties (RD) to drop out from school. Students with RD might result from genetic influences. Their parents who also have RD may be less involved in children's education. Understanding diverse parents' experiences can help promote their motivation of parent involvement. According to the previous studies, parent involvement is a major indicator of their children's academic achievements. Therefore, knowing the needs of ELL parents with RD can lead to identifying ways to support such parents, and eventually alleviate the national crisis of dropout rates for ELLs with/ without RD. However, …


Class, Family Involvement, And Asian American Four And Two-Year College Students’ Experiences Of Advantage And Disadvantage, Blair Harrington Jun 2022

Class, Family Involvement, And Asian American Four And Two-Year College Students’ Experiences Of Advantage And Disadvantage, Blair Harrington

Doctoral Dissertations

While the significance of familial support in college receives substantial and growing attention, Asian American college students’ experiences of such support remain unclear. In a series of three articles that draw on a total of 140 intensive semi-structured interviews, this dissertation explores the effect class has on students’ experiences of three different types of familial support: 1) students’ receipt of parental support, 2) students’ provision of parental support, and 3) students’ receipt of sibling support. The first article The Power of Class and Not Institution Type: Asian American Four and Two-Year College Students’ Receipt of Parental Support” employs a …


New Ways Of Being And Knowing: Women Ph.D. Students Exploring Embodiment Through Feminist Phenomenological Photovoice, Anna Fox Reilly Jun 2022

New Ways Of Being And Knowing: Women Ph.D. Students Exploring Embodiment Through Feminist Phenomenological Photovoice, Anna Fox Reilly

Doctoral Dissertations

Being a Ph.D. student is a privilege in many ways, and it is not easy. Mind-body dualist patterns of thought and behavior within academia ignore the embodied experiences of being a woman Ph.D. student. Mental health, sexual harassment, family planning, and social relationships are among the challenges that women are often expected to handle on their own or are ignored altogether. With 20 women Ph.D. student participants, this feminist phenomenological photovoice project answers the questions: For those who self-identify as women, what is the essence of the embodied Ph.D. experience? To what extent does the experience of being in a …


Developing New Teachers' Pedagogical Content And Relationship Knowledge (Pcrk) During A One-Year Urban Residency Teacher Preparation Program, Daryl Essensa Jun 2022

Developing New Teachers' Pedagogical Content And Relationship Knowledge (Pcrk) During A One-Year Urban Residency Teacher Preparation Program, Daryl Essensa

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined how participation in a full public school year-long urban teacher residency program influencedthe perceptions of 17 new middle and high school teacher candidates about the use of affective qualities of learning within their classroom practices as teachers—Pedagogical Content and Relationship Knowledge (PCRK).The preservice teachers in this study explored the relationship between pedagogy and student learning of subject matter through a variety of course-related assignments, which included classroom-based application of the pedagogical strategies learned in coursework, readings, and reflections. Individual interviews were used to evaluate how the course and the assignments influenced the instructional practices of the preservice …


Education Assemblage: Tracing And Undermining Raciality In The Era Of Standardization And Accountability, Chalais Carter Jun 2022

Education Assemblage: Tracing And Undermining Raciality In The Era Of Standardization And Accountability, Chalais Carter

Doctoral Dissertations

While many education scholars have discussed the racist and neoliberal capitalist relations that operate through education reform with impunity, the concept and tracing of raciality illuminates ethical, juridical, and economic dimensions that shape how one comes to know and intervene in the lives of the so-called educationally disadvantaged. In this dissertation, the researcher traces how the arsenal of racial knowledge works with/in and through US neoliberal education reform by studying out of school learning contexts. Teaching for the 21st Century (T4C), as a focus of this dissertation study, is a targeted intervention summer learning program that is designed to reduce …


An Endarkened Autoethnographic Approach To Peer Co-Curricular Dialogue Facilitation Training, Amari L. Boyd Jun 2022

An Endarkened Autoethnographic Approach To Peer Co-Curricular Dialogue Facilitation Training, Amari L. Boyd

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative study drawing on endarkened feminist epistemology (Dillard, 2001), autoethnography (Jones, Adams,& Ellis, 2013), and Blackgirl autoethnography (Boylorn, 2016), each of which challenges the traditional roles between researchers and the researched, educators and students, and in the case of this study, dialogue facilitators in-training, and their dialogue facilitation educator. The purpose of this study was to capture the ways in which six Peer Dialogue Facilitators (PDFs) and myself, a Black woman and facilitation educator, perceive ourselves as facilitators of color and navigate facilitation obstacles amidst our new global pandemic reality. This study will utilize group interviews …


A Comparison Of Guided Reading And Systematic Phonics Approaches To Supplementary Reading Instruction, Madeline R. Berkowitz Jun 2022

A Comparison Of Guided Reading And Systematic Phonics Approaches To Supplementary Reading Instruction, Madeline R. Berkowitz

Doctoral Dissertations

Early mastery of reading fundamentals is essential. However currently there is a debate on the best way to teach reading. Across the US schools are choosing to use varying forms or reading curricula aligned with different pedagogies. However, not all curricula are based in empiral science. This study compares two approaches to supplementary reading instruction: guided reading and explicit phonics. A randomized controlled design was used, and first grade students were assigned to receive either explicit phonics or guided reading intervention three days per week for approximately thirty minutes each lesson. Reading fluency and a broad reading measure served as …


Conceptualization And Operationalization Of College Readiness For Students With Learning Disabilities: A Grounded Theory Study With Transition Stakeholders, Jordan A. Abbott Jun 2022

Conceptualization And Operationalization Of College Readiness For Students With Learning Disabilities: A Grounded Theory Study With Transition Stakeholders, Jordan A. Abbott

Doctoral Dissertations

The poor success rates of students with learning disabilities transitioning to postsecondary education signal that special education transition services, as currently delivered, are failing to prepare students adequately for the demands and expectations they face in college. To date, transition research has provided limited guidance for IEP team members and other stakeholders charged with preparing students with learning disabilities for success in higher education. Furthermore, existing literature is nearly silent on the process of postsecondary education transition service decision-making, and team member understanding of college readiness. I use constructivist grounded theory and semi-structured interviews to explore the question, “How do …


Alt-Education: Gender, Language, And Education Across The Right, Catherine Tebaldi Mar 2022

Alt-Education: Gender, Language, And Education Across The Right, Catherine Tebaldi

Doctoral Dissertations

I explore the ideologies of gender, language and education in conservative, Christian Nationalist, and White nationalist mothers groups. I draw on my own family history, as well as on two years of blended ethnographic research in online right wing communities and one year of fieldwork in New Orleans, Louisiana, to look at homeschooling, online schools, and public teachers’ social, linguistic, and educational practices -- what I call Alt-Education. Alt-education is of course a play on alt-right, and refers to the far-right ideology; but it also refers to an alternative to mainstream education, and to education through a broader range of …


Examining Small-Group Discourse Through The Lens Of Students’ Beliefs About Mathematics And The Instructional Triangle, Jennifer Ericson Mar 2022

Examining Small-Group Discourse Through The Lens Of Students’ Beliefs About Mathematics And The Instructional Triangle, Jennifer Ericson

Doctoral Dissertations

Standards-based mathematics instruction [SBMI], with opportunities to engage in high-quality mathematical discourse about meaningful tasks, leads to increased student achievement. However, not all students participate in mathematical discourse with high-quality. Esmonde & Langer-Osuna (2013) found that students participate in discourse with various degrees of engagement based upon individual beliefs. Boaler (2006b) found that SBMI in a detracked setting improves students’ beliefs about mathematics. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to illustrate the phenomenon of incongruent written curricula commitments across grade bands in a school district by examining small-group discourse and students’ mathematical related beliefs. This study compared students’ …


Building Together: Problem Solving For Sustainability Consciousness, Paul M. Bocko Mar 2022

Building Together: Problem Solving For Sustainability Consciousness, Paul M. Bocko

Doctoral Dissertations

BUILDING TOGETHER: PROBLEM SOLVING FOR SUSTAINABILITY CONSCIOUSNESS FEBRUARY 2022 PAUL M. BOCKO, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE M.S., ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY NEW ENGLAND M.Ed. ANITOCH UNIVERSITY NEW ENGLAND Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Linda Griffin This case study examined the relationship of problem-based learning (PBL) and sustainability education in a combined fifth and sixth grade classroom in the northeast U.S. Research questions focused on PBL instructional strategies that promote sustainability education, skills and understandings promoted by PBL, and the extent that PBL affects students’ sustainability consciousness. One teacher and eleven students participated. Problem-posing, reconstructionist, and sociocultural theories framed …


Utilization And Effect Of Multiple Content Modalities In Online Higher Education: Shifting Trajectories Toward Success Through Universal Design For Learning, Catherine A. Manly Mar 2022

Utilization And Effect Of Multiple Content Modalities In Online Higher Education: Shifting Trajectories Toward Success Through Universal Design For Learning, Catherine A. Manly

Doctoral Dissertations

The idea that offering multiple means of representing course content will assist students of all abilities constitutes one pillar of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework intended to address needs of students with disabilities while also holding relevance for all students. The efficacy of this UDL guideline lacks a verified empirical basis and therefore merits rigorous examination. My dissertation investigates the effect on learning outcomes of students using multiple modalities while learning course content (e.g., text, video, audio, interactive, or mixed content), targeting improving educational success for non-traditional online students. I investigate this effect for older undergraduates from a …


The Critical Workshop: Writing Revision And Critical Pedagogy In The Middle School Classroom, Andrea R. Griswold Mar 2022

The Critical Workshop: Writing Revision And Critical Pedagogy In The Middle School Classroom, Andrea R. Griswold

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the question of whether focusing on revision in writing instruction can be a form of critical pedagogy in middle school classrooms. Building on the work of A. Suresh Canagarajah, Lisa Delpit, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Kay Halasek, Joseph Harris, Amy Lee, Timothy Lensmire, Min-Zhan Lu, Peter McLaren, Richard Ohmann, Ira Shor, and others, I explore and challenge commonly held attitudes about revision and language, primarily that the goal of revision is to correct errors and that language and its conventions should be thought of in terms of correctness. I explore the ways in which traditional writing workshops …


Black Organizations As A Way To Increase Black Students’ College Attendance Rates By Improving Their Academic Performance At Primary And Secondary Schools, Leydi Mercedes Vidal Perlaza Oct 2021

Black Organizations As A Way To Increase Black Students’ College Attendance Rates By Improving Their Academic Performance At Primary And Secondary Schools, Leydi Mercedes Vidal Perlaza

Doctoral Dissertations

The racial academic achievement gap between Black students and other students is one of the most pressing education-policy challenges faced by the United States. This gap refers to the disparities in standardized test scores between these groups of students. Decades ago, Fordham and Ogbu’s theory about the “burden of acting White” was one of the most cited studies indicating the causes of this achievement gap. This theory indicates that Black students who do not perform well academically, do not want to achieve success at school because it is considered as acting White. However, this is an old way of thinking …


Teacher Collaborative Action-Taking And Instructional Practices Supportive Of Social-Emotional Learning: A Correlational Study, Ann M. Leonard Oct 2021

Teacher Collaborative Action-Taking And Instructional Practices Supportive Of Social-Emotional Learning: A Correlational Study, Ann M. Leonard

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine possible correlations between collaborative action-taking and instructional practices supportive of student Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) among U.S. lower secondary-level teachers. This quantitative, ex post facto study utilized existing data from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Descriptive analyses provided a snapshot of current collaborative action-taking and instructional practices supportive of SEL across U.S. schools among lower secondary teachers (grades 7-9). Correlational analyses identified the relationships between the independent variables, types of teacher collaborative action-taking, and the dependent variables, specific instructional practices …


Language Ideologies And Bilingual Education Policies In A Dual Language Classroom, Eirini Pitidou Oct 2021

Language Ideologies And Bilingual Education Policies In A Dual Language Classroom, Eirini Pitidou

Doctoral Dissertations

Dual language programs have been considered by many scholars as the epitome of bilingual education models as they promise bilingual competence, academic success and cultural awareness for both majority and minority language students attending the program. Research has shown that they also tend to promote equity and establish social justice among all students, and students have reported improved self-esteem and bilingual pride among other benefits. The three guiding principles or pillars of dual language education are bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism. Recently, critical consciousness has been proposed as the 4th pillar as an establishment of the promotion of social justice …


Measurement Invariance Across Immigrant And Non-Immigrant Populations On Pisa Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Scales, Maritza Casas Oct 2021

Measurement Invariance Across Immigrant And Non-Immigrant Populations On Pisa Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Scales, Maritza Casas

Doctoral Dissertations

International large-scale educational assessments (ILSAs) have played a relevant role in educational policies targeting immigrant students across countries as their results are used by governments as input for decision-making purposes. Given the potential impact that ILSAs can have, the psychometric features of these assessments must be carefully assessed and empirical evidence about the extent to which the inferences made based on test results are valid must be collected. To do so, the first step is to determine if the test results have the same meaning across countries and groups of examinees that is, if the measures are invariant so that …


Using Generalizability And Rasch Measurement Theory To Ensure Rigorous Measurement In An International Development Education Evaluation, Louise Bahry Oct 2021

Using Generalizability And Rasch Measurement Theory To Ensure Rigorous Measurement In An International Development Education Evaluation, Louise Bahry

Doctoral Dissertations

Between the United States and Great Britain, over 30 billion USD was spent in 2018 on international aid, over a billion of which is dedicated to education programs alone. Recently, there has been increased attention on the rigorous evaluation of aid-funded programs, moving beyond counting outputs to the measurement of educational impact. The current study uses two methodological approaches (Generalizability (Brennan, 1992, 2001) and Rasch Measurement Theory (Andrich, 1978; Rasch, 1980; Wright & Masters, 1982) to analyze data from math and literacy assessments, and self-report surveys used in an international evaluation of an educational initiative in the Democratic Republic of …


Financing Public Higher Education In Afghanistan: Alternative Sources And Options, Hassan Aslami Oct 2021

Financing Public Higher Education In Afghanistan: Alternative Sources And Options, Hassan Aslami

Doctoral Dissertations

Adequate financing is key to achieving the priority goals of higher education – access, quality, and relevance. In Afghanistan, the demand for higher education has increased remarkably while public higher education institutions still rely heavily on inadequate government funding. In addition, the constitutional provision guaranteeing free higher education up to the bachelor’s level in public institutions, the overall weak economy of the country, and the lack of institutional autonomy, contribute to financial austerity in public higher education institutions. This study explored alternative funding sources and options for financing public universities in Afghanistan. An integrated theoretical framework guided this study as …


The Voices And Lived Academic Experiences Of International Doctoral Student Mothers, Mishka Murad Oct 2021

The Voices And Lived Academic Experiences Of International Doctoral Student Mothers, Mishka Murad

Doctoral Dissertations

Given that there is no research that focuses exclusively on the experiences of international doctoral student mothers, this study chose to explore the challenges and supports that ten of these women experienced at one U.S. university. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with open ended questions, it explored the triumphs and trials of these students in their academic journeys in regard to their performances in the classroom, and their relationships with faculty and peers. It also brainstormed the ways in which faculty, advisors and peers, might consider changing their practices and behaviors in classrooms and on campus, to allow these participants to …


Shifting To Critical Empathy: Exploring The Ideological Becoming Of Secondary Teachers During Critical, Dialogic Professional Development, Maria Mcsorley Oct 2021

Shifting To Critical Empathy: Exploring The Ideological Becoming Of Secondary Teachers During Critical, Dialogic Professional Development, Maria Mcsorley

Doctoral Dissertations

The limited research concerning empathy within secondary education continues to focus on student empathy, rather than shifting the gaze to teacher empathy. Moreover, while teacher empathy is generally conceptualized as an innately positive quality, skill, or disposition, the research (while limited) suggests that empathy without deep understanding of social and structural inequity has demonstrated risk. Teachers who, for example, develop and express empathy across lines of difference without knowledge of systemic inequality (particularly about how inequity shows up in schools) have the potential to oversimplify or overidentify with an “other’s” experience (Boler, 1999). This can lead to the false confirmation …


Critical Language Awareness In The Multilingual Writing Classroom: A Self-Study Of Teacher Feedback Practices, Emma R. Britton Sep 2021

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, …


“Let Me Talk My Shit”: Exploring Raciocultural Trauma Through Embodied Arts, Andrew Brian Torres Jul 2021

“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 …


Critical Multicultural Engagement With Children's Texts: Perspectives, Power, And Positioning, Jasmine A. Robinson Jun 2021

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 …


Making Meaning Of Equity In A Computer Science For All Research Practitioner Partnership, Itza D. Martínez Jun 2021

Making Meaning Of Equity In A Computer Science For All Research Practitioner Partnership, Itza D. Martínez

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explored how a Computer Science for All (CSforALL) Research Practitioner Partnership (RPP) conceived of and addressed equity through their professional learning community (PLC) structure. Through an adapted equity framework, I analyzed qualities of equity literacy, as defined by Gorksi and Pothini (2018), as well as access and participation of three centrally located PLCs. Using qualitative methods, I examined the meeting artifacts, such as agendas, meeting notes, and video recordings, in order to understand how equity literacy developed over time. I also examined if and how established protocols, commonly used to facilitate collaborative work in PLCs, promoted equity literacy. …