Education Commons^™

Mainstream Teachers Learning To Teach English Language Learners : Uncovering The Systems Of Teacher Professional Learning, Alma Morel

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this qualitative study, I followed three teachers as they participated in a sheltered English instruction professional learning initiative planned and implemented by their school district for purposes of preparing middle school science and social studies teachers to teach English language learners (ELLs). I explored the professional learning process of these teachers and how the ideas to which they were exposed in the professional learning initiative moved into their classroom practices, if at all. The study was guided by a complexity perspective, from which teacher professional learning was conceptualized as emerging from nested systems. In general, the study sought to …

Supporting In-Service Literacy Teacher Reflective Practice Through Graduate Coursework : A Qualitative Study Of Building Literacy Teacher Reflective Practice In A Masters Reading Course And In-Service School Contexts, Gary V. Pankiewicz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This small qualitative research study examined the role of the reflective supports a teacher-researcher explicitly put in place in order to explore the usefulness of these supports in a graduate course taught to a group of in-service literacy teachers. More specifically, this study examined how nine in-service literacy teacher/graduate level students considered and analyzed and reflected in light of the context of their own classrooms in their unique school contexts and, furthermore, how they engaged in social action, or acts which take into account the actions and reactions of others, in the graduate course in creating a revised or reconstructed …

Hidden In Plain Sight : Knowledge Broker Teachers And Professional Development, Margaret M. Jusinski

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study was prompted by initiatives that addressed the need for teachers to engage in professional development that enables them to be 21st century ready. Recommendations put forth by government and business have stressed that professional development foster connected teaching and create networked educators by emphasizing peer-topeer collaboration and sharing. Despite this focus, little attention has been paid to the role that regular teachers play in becoming professional developers for their colleagues. My study investigated how four K-12 teachers, that I termed “knowledge broker teachers,” created new pathways for informal, teacher professional development in their schools.

Extending on the …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Engagement In A Discourse About Integers From A Sfardian Perspective, Douglas M. Platt

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study describes the way 14 pre-service teachers engaged in discourse about integers. The discourse being examined is framed by Sfard’s view of a discourse as being composed of the four elements word use, visual mediators, routines, and narratives (Sfard, 2008). These elements combine to form a means for people to exchange and preserve ideas and coordinate actions within a society. Each of the participants in this study engaged in a seven question, semi-structured interview (Merriam, 2009), which included prompts for the enactment of computations modeled with colored chips and the number line, in addition to written and spoken representations. …

Online Connectivity : A Social Study Of Educators’ Affinity For Teaching And Learning Using Social Media, Beverly R. Plein

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study investigated an online space for educators, known as #sschat, for the purpose of helping to inform and shape more formal professional learning experiences. Participants were able to engage in asynchronous and synchronous discussions related to social studies education by interacting in any of the four hashtags associated with the #sschat affinity space (i.e., #engsschat, #hsgovchat, #sschat, #worldgeochat), the #sschat Facebook page, the archived #chat sessions, and/or by contributing to the creation of the weekly #worldgeochat questions.

Seven common elements of Gee’s affinity spaces conceptual framework were used to frame this study. This framework drew attention to the …

Learning To Teach Physics : Exploring Teacher Knowledge, Practice, And Identity, Nellista E. Bess

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Urban and rural high schools in the United States often struggle in regard to the staffing of their physics classrooms with qualified teachers. Some states have responded to this challenge with education policy as a means of addressing the critical shortages of physics teachers by permitting inservice teachers to attain physics certification through endorsement programs. Although research on alternative certification typically evaluates and compares diverse models, this study focuses on teachers’ own perceptions of their experience in the aforementioned program, as well as their learning and development in and beyond preparation for physics endorsement.

In this qualitative multiple case study, …

Cultivating Success : How Two General Education Teachers Created Inclusion Classrooms For Their Students, Natalie A. Lacatena

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study examined the beliefs, instructional practices, and classroom climate of two general education inclusion teachers working in a single-teacher context. For purposes of this study, a single-teacher context was defined as a classroom in which a general education teacher instructed general education students and students with identified needs without the collaboration of a special education teacher. Two general education middle school teachers, nominated by their colleagues as successful at working with included students, completed a belief survey, participated in three one-on-one interviews, and were observed on eight separate occasions. A Disability Studies in Education lens was used as …

State Of Mind : A Poststructural Analysis Of Governmentality And Teacher Education Professionalism Using Policy Texts, Todd A. Bates

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation comprises a multilayered inquiry into the complex interplay between governance and teacher education. It adopts Goodlad’s (1990/1994) stance that teacher education best serves democratic society when it is self-governing and maintains decision-making authority with respect to the preparation of teachers. However, pervasive and prescriptive state and federal policies create a regulatory context that supplants the ability of teacher educators to exercise authority over fundamental aspects of their work, including the identification, recruitment, preparation, and assessment of future teachers.

Bacchi and Goodwin (2016) argue that prevailing educational policy critiques underexamine governmentalities—mindsets that render individuals and societies governable (Foucault, 2007). …

Collaborative Teacher-Driven Professional Development : The Documented Journey Of A Practitioner Action Research Teacher Study Group, Brenna D. Bohny

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Laws such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act have shaped the landscape of education in many ways, including how professional development is structured. As a result, professional development has become increasingly limited to training teachers to carry out top-down mandated reforms based on subject-knowledge rather than concentrating on teacher learning efforts focused on the growth of adults as learners (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2006, 2009; Hirsch, 2006; Mertler, 2010). Organic, teacher-driven professional development, such as action research, provide teachers with opportunities to disrupt the often paternalistic power structures that currently exist. …

In Their Own Words: Teachers Make Meaning Of Participation In A Community Of Practice, Laura Lee Ripley

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Recent studies on effective professional development in schools have paid attention to the concept of learning done in professional communities, but ignore teacher recommendations and voices. This case study focused on the meaning teachers made from participation in a community of practice in a school implementing reforms.

Founded in Wenger and Lave’s concept of the community of practice, defined as groups of people who come together routinely and who learn to do things better as a result, this study follows a community of practice in the face of a significant school reform where very little other professional development had been …

Teacher Preparation For Linguistically Rich Classrooms : A Qualitative Study Of Take-Up In Relation To Linguistically Responsive Teaching, Melissa A. Collucci

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study followed four urban early childhood teachers through their participation in a teacher education program designed to enhance their linguistically responsive teaching and into the first four months of the new school year in an effort to identify what the teachers indeed “took up” from the opportunities presented to them regarding linguistically responsive teaching. The sociocultural concept of funds of knowledge was used to frame this study and to ensure that each teacher’s work was analyzed with the understanding that individuals bring to each learning moment unique knowledge and knowhow that impacts learning and practice. All was undertaken …

Negotiating A Mentor Practice In An Age Of Reform, Linda Whalen Abrams

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation builds on a theory of situated social practice, which holds that social practices, such as mentoring, can be transformed in and through relationships among people who are engaged in activities in the socially and politically structured world (Arnseth, 2008; Kemmis & Smith, 2008; Freire, 1970). A participatory action research study grounds this work and adds to a nascent line of empirical research on mentoring in urban teaching residency programs (UTRs) by asking how inquiry supported mentors and teacher educators in recognizing, negotiating, and naming a mentor practice for their hybrid, practice-based, district- and university-sponsored, teacher preparation program.

I …

Encouraging Teachers To Design Their Own Professional Learning Through Inquiry : An Elementary Principal Conducts Practitioner Action Research, Michael G. Ryan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Imagine school-based meetings that encourage faculty to design and direct their own professional learning during the course of a school year. This is the type of structure I implemented at Lakeside Elementary School during the 2013-2014 school year. With this practitioner action research study, I seek to add to the research related to the ways inquiry is presented and used as a professional learning structure within schools. I examine the way I, an elementary school principal, established a series of faculty meetings called “Design Your Own Learning” in which teachers were responsible for planning and carrying out professional learning based …

Investigating Educator Identity-Construction : A Qualitative Study, Jonathan Dils Rogers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation uses a qualitative approach to examine the sources informing professional identity development in pre-service teachers. The central questions which guided this study are grounded within a few separate bodies of literature: moral education, identity theory, teacher education, and educational policy.

The data of this study revealed a trend among participants: Pre-service teachers view teaching first and foremost as a moral act. The study found that the beliefs and attitudes held by pre-service teachers about the identity of educators can be conceptualized in sixteen separate ways, across three separate codes toward teaching. In addition to teaching as a moral …