Education Commons^™

Culturally Relevant Practices And Community: Increasing Minority Leadership In School Administration To Improve School Climate, Cassandra Suggs, Joy N. Rogers

Dissertations

This dissertation and research looks into the area of Culturally Relevant Practices and Leadership in K-12 schools and the potential effect on all students in having minority leadership present. The research dives into interviews of teachers, hiring leaders, district leaders and building leaders. It also uses survey results from over 700 students, with the central theme of the questions around school safety, climate, culture, support, academics and a sense of belonging. The research purpose was to look into the potential positive effect on students and staff, if Culturally Relevant Practices and hiring of minority leadership was in place within school …

How Do Teachers’ Pedagogy Influence The Ways In Which African American Males Are Disciplined? A Case Study Examining Discipline In A High School Setting, Kimberly Kimbrough

Dissertations

This qualitative study was conducted to examine the pedagogies of high school teachers who have demonstrated success in working with African American male students and to determine which factors influence the way African American male students are disciplined. The rationale behind this research was based on the researcher’s direct observation of the many challenges African American male students encounter while navigating high school. The study was guided by a case study methodology to gather information about the shared experiences of the five teacher participants via interviews. Results showed African American male students experience high success levels when working with teachers …

Humanity In The Classroom: An Exploration Of Race In Teacher Behavior And Interaction With Students, Briellen Elizabeth Griffin

Dissertations

The hyper-surveillance of Black students has been well documented by educators and researchers across disciplines and reflects an increase in calls for research that examines the reproduction of racial inequality in educational spaces. To contend with the presence of antiblackness in the classroom is fundamentally about recognizing the humanity of Black students and interrogating the ways that they are dehumanized by racialized structures and social interactions. To examine antiblackness and humanity in the classroom, I conducted a critical collaborative case study with six teachers from an elementary school in a diverse Midwestern school district. I engaged BlackCrit Theory to examine …

The Impact Of Instructional Technology On Lesson Effectiveness And Obstacles To Incorporating Technology Into Lesson Design As Perceived By Elementary School Teachers, Sarah Loring

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the impact of instructional technology on lesson effectiveness and obstacles to incorporating instructional technology into lesson design as perceived by elementary school teachers.

Methodology. A qualitative ethnographic method was used in this study. Triangulation was accomplished through the collection and analysis of direct interviews, and artifacts shared by educators and strengthened by information-rich data provided in direct observations.

Findings: Major finding of the study showed high student engagement with the use of technology, and unavailability of the internet/Chromebooks as a big obstacle to technology integration.

Conclusions: Based on …

Instructor Sense Of Community And Instructional Practices As Predictors Of Student Sense Of Community: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analysis, Laurie K. Burgess

Dissertations

A positive sense of community (SoC) in the college classroom supports student learning and increases student engagement and motivation. While previous research has examined SoC, studies have typically investigated students’ perceptions. This quantitative cross-sectional study investigates both instructor and students’ perceptions of SoC in traditional undergraduate classrooms. Study participants include full-time instructors, and students from 36 undergraduate classes in three institutions located in a Midwestern state. Students completed Rovai’s (2002a) Classroom Community Scale; instructors completed a remodified Classroom Community Scale and the Postsecondary Instructional Practices Survey (Walter, Henderson, Beach, & Williams, 2016).

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to …

Do Faculty In-Class Incivility Behaviors Predict Type Of Out-Of-Class Interactions Between Faculty And Students?, Trudy-Ann Crossbourne

Dissertations

The present study explored relationships between two larger streams of research—faculty-student interactions and destructive leadership embodied in faculty incivility towards students. While interactions with faculty outside of class offer tremendous benefits for students’ intellectual and socio-emotional development, avoidance is one of the demonstrated outcomes of destructive leadership on followers and of faculty incivility on students. The theoretical basis for this study was the premise that faculty incivility displayed in class, as perceived by students, could predict the frequency and type of interactions in which students engage with professors outside of the classroom. To test this conjecture, a sample of 785 …

How Does The Classroom Teacher Promote Academic Success In The Spanish Native Speaker Class: A Study Of Classroom Teachers' Perceptions Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In The Spanish Native Speaker Course At The High School Level, Michael Angelo Ayala

Dissertations

The achievement gap between Latino and White students is a significant problem, prompting the need to address the cultural conflicts that hinder relationships and compromise learning opportunities for Latino students in the United States. This exploratory qualitative study focused on Spanish Native Speaker (SNS) teachers' perceptions and use of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) at the high school level. Framed with theory related to CRP, data were collected through interviews and classroom observations with four SNS teachers who teach a SNS class at various high schools in the suburbs of Cook County. A thematic analysis and an analysis using Herrera's (2010) …

16th Century Shakespeare And 21st Century Students, Sheridan Lynn Steelman

Dissertations

Drawing on examples from the author’s and colleagues classrooms, this dissertation shows how an historical approach to teaching Shakespeare, drawing on primary documents from the period, opens meaningful interpretations, issues and questions for secondary students. Chapter One reviews current pedagogical approaches to teaching Shakespeare, close reading, reader response, and performance to set forth the rationale for teaching Shakespeare using primary documents. Chapter Two highlights ninth grade students studying Romeo and Juliet and includes classroom stories about engagement with documents about gender, sexuality, violence, and potions. Chapter Three describes two general English 11 classes and their successes and challenges with Hamlet …

Developing A Blended Learning Model In Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Programs: Faculty Development Through Action Research, Eugene Basil

Dissertations

Public institutions of higher education in Kentucky have been experiencing cuts in state budgets. Kentucky lawmakers have moved state colleges to a performance-based form of budgeting. In this new budget paradigm, an institution’s funding is based on a metric that significantly considers student outcomes. Technical college programs are not currently meeting the quantity, and in some cases quality, outputs required to sustain the economic growth in the community. To increase the capacity, quality, and accessibility of technical programs, the faculty members of the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies division of the Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College implemented a blended learning approach …

Meeting Yourself Without Rose Colored Glasses: An Urban Charter, Apryll L. Mendez Gaskew, Shenelle M. Dubose

Dissertations

Abstract

The impact of a culturally relevant professional development series on classroom teacher’s cultural lens was determined. Fifty teachers from two different school districts participated in 16 hours of professional development in an attempt to impact their understanding of how culture and instruction are connected.

During the professional development, participants took part in activities, dialogues and reflections designed to impact their cultural competency. The content of the four professional development sessions included (a) videos on culturally relevant teaching; (b) discussion of cultural identity of participants and how it surfaces in the classroom; (c) discussion of the culture, values, and beliefs …

Pedagogical Moves As Characteristics Of One Instructor’S Instrumental Orchestrations With Tinkerplots And The Ti-73 Explorer: A Case Study, James L. Kratky

Dissertations

Those supporting contemporary reform efforts for mathematics education in the United States have called for increased use of technologies to support student-centered learning of mathematical concepts and skills. There is a need for more research and professional development to support teachers in transitioning their instruction to better meet the goals of such reform efforts.

Instrumental approaches to conceptualizing technology use in mathematics education, arising out of the theoretical and empirical work in France and other European nations, show promise for use to frame studies on school mathematics in the United States. Instrumental genesis is used to describe the bidirectional and …

From Novice To Independent Researcher: A Content Analysis Of Phd Student Blogs, Sarah J. Cox

Dissertations

The work of completing a PhD is complex, requiring a student to make sense of many uncertain processes in multiple contexts as they move toward independent scholarship. A setting that provides support in learning the tasks of PhD-related work is the informal learning environment of the Internet. Social media sites, such as blogs and wikis, supply a vast number of resources related to PhD work. Of particular interest to this study, are blog sites maintained by students who are sharing practices related to PhD work. It is possible to use a qualitative method to explore what blogs show us about …

Culturally Relevant Education For Rural Schools: Creating Relevancy In Rural America, Joshua J. Anderson

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I investigate the ways in which culturally relevant pedagogy is conceptualized and implemented by two secondary English Language Arts educators in one school district with a strong sense of rural identity. Culturally relevant pedagogy is considered by many professionals in the field of education to be an effective philosophy to inform instructional practices for narrowing the achievement gap of historically marginalized groups (Cummins, 1990; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 2000). A careful review of the literature on culturally relevant pedagogy reveals the discourse surrounding culturally relevant pedagogy has largely been dominated by urban voices (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Esposito & …

A Comparison Of How Three Four-Year University Teacher Education Programs Prepare Pre-Service Teachers To Use Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Yvette Lawary

Dissertations

While many pre-service teachers successfully passed the state licensure test, a large percentage of students from diverse school districts continue to score below average on their ending standardized state test. Instruction in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) might diminish the discrepancy between student performance and teacher performance. The research question was: How do the three university teacher education programs prepare pre-service teachers to teach CRP? The purpose of this qualitative study was to compare three distinctive TEPs regarding how they prepare pre-service teachers to respond to the learning needs of culturally diverse student populations using CRP. Three distinct Midwest TEPs participated …

Researching The Real: Transforming The Science Fair Through Relevant And Authentic Research, Rosemary Mcbryan Davidson

Dissertations

This teacher research study documents the processes used to help students in an all-female, religious-based high school create science fair projects that are personally meaningful, scientifically sophisticated and up-to date in terms of science content. One-hundred sixteen young women in an honors chemistry class were introduced by their teacher to the methods used by science journalists when researching and crafting articles. The students then integrated these strategies into their science fair research through collaborative classroom activities designed by their teacher. Data collected during the process included audio and video tapes of classroom activities, student interviews, process work, finished projects, email …

Giving My Heart A Voice: Reflection On Self And Others Through The Looking Glass Of Pedagogy: An Autoethnography, Vera L. Neyman

Dissertations

To improve students academic outcomes this auto-ethnographic dissertation examines my teaching practice in the Ukraine and in the United States, and the similarities and differences between the two educational systems. This study, designed in the form of auto-ethnographic vignettes, explores the effect of my personal and professional metamorphosis on the academic advancement of my students, and investigates the conditions that molded me into a teacher I am today. Through the reflections on the process of self-development as an individual and a teacher, I discovered that building the relationship of trust between school and family is an underlying condition for improving …

Professional Development In College Science Teaching, Aimee Kathryn Thomas

Dissertations

Graduate students earning a doctorate in the sciences historically focus their work on research and not professional development in college science teaching. However, for those who go on to a career in academia, a majority of their time will be dedicated to teaching. During the past few years, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) have been prepared to teach by attending a daylong workshop that included logistical information, but left pedagogy largely unexplored. Since that time, a seminar has been added to provide an introduction to pedagogical theory and practices and to provide practice teaching in the biological sciences laboratory course. Yet, …

Pedagogy And Primary Sources: Outcomes Of The Library Of Congress' Professional Development Program, Teaching With Primary Sources At Loyola, Michelle Fry

Dissertations

Until recently, few K-12 teachers outside of social studies have integrated primary sources in classroom instruction. Integrating primary sources in educational practice does require an uncommon pedagogical understanding. Addressing this K-12 educator need is the Library of Congress. Recently, the Library implemented a national educator professional development program, Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS).

The TPS program operates at multiple universities and colleges, including Loyola University Chicago. This program aims to educate K-12 educators of all subject-areas to integrate online, digitized primary sources into classroom practices. This study addressed questions related to the outcomes of teacher participants' classroom practices after completing …