Education Commons^™

Highlighting Teacher Voices: Discussions On Race And Racism In The Elementary Classroom, Carrie Lynn Buckner

Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout my career in education, I have observed that teachers are challenged by engaging in discussions involving race and racism. This study seeks to understand teachers’ feelings further when discussing race and racism in the elementary classroom by answering the research question: How do elementary teachers experience race and racism in their schools and classrooms?

This qualitative, critical narrative inquiry dissertation focused on three participant interviews with public-school elementary teachers in Tennessee. The data generated from these interviews informed narratives and were then analyzed through the lens of Critical Race Theory. This was followed by In Vivo and structural coding …

Acculturation And Identity Development Of Deaf Ethnic Minorities, Glennise Candice Schlinger

Masters Theses

This study examined whether experiences in the family and the education systems could influence Deaf ethnic identity development. Data were collected via administration of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS). Participants’ responses were assessed as outlined by the developers of the DAS (Maxwell-McCaw & Zea, 2011). Results suggested that parents’ attitude towards their child’s deafness may affect the deaf individual’s identity development. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with four deaf ethnic minority participants: One Venezuelan American and three African American. Two hearing parents (both mothers) also participated in the interview: one Venezuelan American and one African American. Thematic analysis was used …

The Intersection Between Home And School: Developing A Scale To Measure Parental Perceptions Of Childhood School Stress, Teresa Marie Henke

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Parents in the home and educators in the schools are key adults in the most important contexts in the daily lives of school-age children. In the demanding, achievement, and accountability oriented culture of today, it is expected that children experience normal everyday stressors as they move between these two environments. The impact of stress related to daily hassles has been reported to have both cognitive and physical effects on the present and future well-being of children. This study represented an attempt to advance the understanding of childhood stress in the intersection between school and home by investigating the perceptions …

Pretending Teaching Is A Profession: Why Public School Teaching Will Never Be Considered A True Profession, Melissa Ann Harness

Masters Theses

My endeavor in this thesis is to discuss why teaching is not, and has never been considered, part of the true professions. Although much rhetoric is aimed at classifying teachers as true professionals and the teaching field as a true profession, the historical, sociological, and societal means that govern the ideological foundation of a true profession are lacking in the field of education. By using a historical, sociological, philosophical, and linguistic analysis of the words “true profession”, along with “unions”, private teaching organizations, etc., I am able to demonstrate not only why teaching is not a profession, but that …

Decolonial Multiculturalism And Local-Global Contexts: A Postcritical Feminist Bricolage For Developing New Praxes In Education, Katharine Matthaei Sprecher

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a conceptual bricolage that explores complex, reflexive, and interrelated dimensions of educational praxes. My work is grounded in the assertion that the ever-changing, local-global nature of contemporary societies requires new approaches to curricula, pedagogies, policies, and practices in U.S. schools to meet the challenges and opportunities of a global era. Presenting my research and findings as four articles, I begin with a dialectical analysis of theoretical and pedagogical literatures to develop an adaptable framework for decolonial multicultural education. In Article 1, I demonstrate how this framework synergizes aspects of social reconstructionist and critical multicultural, global, and …

Attrition And Mobility: Analysis Of The Educational And Employment History Of Teacher Education Graduates At The University Of Tennessee, Knoxville, William B. Wishart

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the employment retention and mobility patterns of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s fifth year post-baccalaureate intern program completers with those of the alternative C licensure program participants employed between 2001 and 2005 in Tennessee public schools. A comparison of program groups was conducted from the perspective of attrition, as well as mobility, and how this related to teacher preparation variables including grade point average, Praxis scores, and program type. Attrition was measured for each year as the number and percentage of each group or cohort not returning the following year to teach …