Education Commons^™

Teaching Solidarity: Popular Education In Grassroots U.S. Social Movements, Tenaya Summers Lafore

Doctoral Dissertations

Fifty years after he wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s work is as relevant as ever. But while many of Freire’s ideas are well known in the United States, there is limited research on their application in social movement settings, a practice commonly known as popular education. This comparative case study draws on Freire’s theory of popular education to analyze two U.S.-based grassroots education programs, one with low-income residents in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco and one with front-line hospital and public school employees on the East Coast. Through six months of participant observation and …

"Two Crowds": Adolescents From Military And Nonmilitary Families, Michal Setti Parnes

Educational Studies Dissertations

Abstract

Children from military families comprise nearly 4% of the entire school-age population of the United States, and over 80% of those children attend public schools serving both military and nonmilitary student populations (Ruff and Keim, 2014). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain an understanding of how high school students from military and nonmilitary families experience their social interaction. Primary data sources included individual interviews with 14 current or recent students of both groups and a focus group interview with nine current or recent high school students. Thematic analysis of the data led to four findings that …

Combatting The Drive Deficit: An Exploration Of Conative Skill Inclusion In College And Career Readiness Policy, Vanessa Hein

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

A major area of inquiry, which has persisted throughout the history of public education, is how to best prepare our students for both post-secondary education and future employment through college and career readiness (CCR) initiatives. Much of the foundational knowledge and skills that are included in such standards and policy, rest upon cognitive and affective processes. Equally important is the inclusion of conative skills, which are internally derived and managed by conative processes and include self-awareness (inclusive of culture and identity), self-direction (inclusive of agency and autonomy), and self-management (inclusive of motivation, persistence, and resilience). However, there is also prevalent …

Democratic Education And An Urban Teacher Residency: A Case Study, Bryan P. Arnold

Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of American schooling scholars note that democratic education and citizenship have not been abandoned, but perhaps marginalized or pushed aside, as test scores and achievement have become the most desired outcomes. Democratic education must move out of the margins and into high priority. The current political climate of increased division and divisiveness could not illustrate this need any more. Another well-documented challenge within the American educational system, particularly in high need areas is the need for highly qualified teachers. Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) programs have offered a possible solution to this growing problem in recruiting, training, and …

Research On Communicative Practices In An Alternative Classroom, Maria Alice Bonilha

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies communications in an alternative classroom in the United States. Using an ethnographic approach and drawing from conversation analysis, the study describes the school’s model of education and analyzes students’ classroom initiations, particularly those in which students responded to the teacher’s question with a question.

"We Are...": Creating Discursive Spaces For The Construction Of Counter Narratives Through Photovoice As Critical Service Learning, Amanda F. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Broader social issues that affect students’ lives manifest in the classroom and the current neo-liberal reform structures in education (e.g., the accountability movement combined with punitive discipline measures and structural classism/racism) fail to acknowledge the impact of these issues on student identity within school and community. While this era of standardized testing has brought about anti-democratic realities in schools of all sorts, it is also the case that schools that pass tests often enjoy a more liberatory climate while schools struggling to meet testing requirements are more likely to possess oppressive qualities. Not coincidentally, the more oppressive schools are often …

How Do Teachers Challenge Neoliberalism Through Critical Pedagogy Within And Outside Of The Classroom?, Rezvan Shahsavari-Googhari

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses the qualitative case study approach to investigate current strategies and skills four Ontario public secondary school teachers apply both within and outside of the classroom to enhance students’ critical consciousness. The focus is on teachers’ pedagogical work in the era of neoliberal restructuring in order to provide a rich account of how neoliberalism challenges and affects their teaching. Existing literature shows a crisis of identity and political agency among youth in many Western societies, characterized by individuals’ inability to think critically about social, political and economic issues, which is rooted in neoliberal education reforms. Adopting a critical …

Democratic Implementation Of Anywhere, Anytime, Anyway Learning Through Blended Synchronous Delivery In A Postsecondary Institution In Canada, Donald Moen

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

This organizational improvement plan considers the implementation of anywhere, anytime, anyway learning in the context of competing stakeholder values in a postsecondary institution in Canada. Quinn’s (1983) competing values framework is used to juxtapose the values of students, faculty members, innovators and administrators in the context of educational technology implementation (Yang & Melitski, 2007). A case for anywhere, anytime, anyway learning through web-conferencing in a blended online format is made to each group in the context of that group’s value system. Bourdieu’s (1984) forms of capital are used: administrators valuing economic capital, faculty members valuing cultural capital, and students valuing …

Engaging Engagement: Framing The Civic Education Movement In Higher Education, Chad Woolard

Theses and Dissertations

Civic education in higher education is housed in various types of institutions (i.e. community colleges, four year universities, public and private institutions), institutional offices, academic departments, and larger, cross-campus initiatives and organizations. Civic education programs promote numerous activities to foster student engagement both inside and outside the classroom. Many in higher education have embraced the civic education movement; however, as with other social movements, the civic education movement is still a contested area. Defining civic education (i.e. civic engagement, service learning, political engagement, community engagement, etc.) becomes problematic because there seems to be as many terms for civic education as …

Teacher Candidates' Attitudes Toward Immigration And Teaching Learners Of English As A Second Language, Midena M. Sas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While in theory, democratic ideals promise the equal participation of all its citizens in the decisions that affect them, in practice some populations, i.e., those who do not possess membership to the dominant cultural group, often miss out on the privileges a democratic society is supposed to ensure. Critical theorists pointed out that "democracies like ours exhort equal opportunity but often ignore ways in which our schools operate unconsciously and unknowingly to guarantee that there will be no real equality" (McLaren, 2007, p. 176). In the education arena, inequitable treatment has received significant attention, perhaps due to the glaring repercussions …

The Democratic Purpose Of Postsecondary Education: Comparing Public, Private Nonprofit, And Private For-Profit Mission Statements For Expression Of Democratic Social Purpose, Lon Youngberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thomas Jefferson envisioned a symbiotic relationship between democracy and public education because he considered educated citizens to be the critical ingredient of a successful democracy. Nevertheless, political and educational reforms over the past two centuries have not always been kind to the relationship that Jefferson envisioned. This study examines frequency that postsecondary education institutions declare a democratic social purpose in their mission statements. The DSP definition, data instrumentation, and theoretical lens for this study were situated from the Jeffersonian perspective.

Although the primary concern for this study was publicly funded/subsidized postsecondary education, recent enrollment growth in private education and privatization …