Secondary Education Commons^™

Charter School Leaders And Their Students’ Resilience, Katy Bridget Angelone

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this multiple composite case study was to develop descriptive accounts of the thoughts, beliefs, actions, and assessments of charter school leaders regarding their efforts towards students’ resilience-building. Survey results from 46 participants identified eight Massachusetts charter school leaders who prioritized resilience-building within their schools. Semi-structured interviews with eight participants inquired about their reasons and methods for resilience-building in their schools and the factors and conditions that inhibit and foster their efforts. The qualitative data analysis yielded five findings. Participants operated from two orientations: resilience empowers learners and cultivates self-directed learning; and resilience is needed to manage traumatic …

Student Agency And Collective Bootstrapping In Integrated Career And Technical Education: A Photovoice Project, Panagiota Athinelis

Educational Studies Dissertations

Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides students with a full education in academic areas as well as a career area of interest, allowing students to apply their school-based learning in the real world through work-based learning. At the same time, urban CTE adolescents have historically been marginalized and placed in a deficit model. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the ways in which student agency is co-created in an urban, transdisciplinary CTE high school program, as well as to identify the institutional systems and structures that support or hinder the development of student agency.

Eight students …

Book Groups And The Relational Engagement Of Sixth-Grade Readers, Kathryn Contini

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this mini-ethnographic case study is to determine the factors that impact the relational engagement of middle-school readers in a student-facilitated book group. This is achieved by considering how students relationally engaged with texts, peers, and a teacher while participating in a student-facilitated book group for three months. As the understanding of academic engagement has broadened to include relational engagement, it is necessary to examine how this theoretical construct impacts reading instruction. While educators have long known learning is social, classroom success is most often measured by independent achievement rather than by social engagement. For these reasons, it …

Practitioner Research In Schools: Revealing The Efficacy Agency Cycle, Edward Resnick

Educational Studies Dissertations

Years of high stakes testing and managerial directives to improve student test scores created a trend of teachers’ declining sense of efficacy and agency. Researchers have yet to examine the perceptions of teachers following requirements to improve student engagement and school climate in an effort to improve academic performance following the authorization of local and national educational accountability reforms. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers perceive their efficacy and agency in response to the addition of nonacademic measures and the requirement of documented input from teachers and other stakeholders into educational policy planning procedures. Veteran K-12 …

A Tradesperson’S Transition To Vocational Technical (Vt) Teaching, Susan J. Sylvia

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study examined survey and interview data collected from tradespeople who transitioned to vocational technical (VT) teaching in regional vocational technical schools in Massachusetts. This study included two research questions that inquired about how tradespeople’s prior experiences, beliefs, and thoughts influenced or inspired them to pursue a transition to vocational technical (VT) teaching and about how their anticipated transitional experiences aligned with their actual transitional experiences. The survey phase included 170 respondents. Survey responses provided an overview of participants, which was integral in identifying four interview participants who were digitally recorded during one-to-one interview sessions. A multiple Case Study …

Steps Towards Personalized Learning Using Online Asynchronous Technology: A Study Of 7th, 10th And 12th Graders At A Small Rural School In Massachusetts, Michael Raymond Farmer

Educational Studies Dissertations

Adolescents’ use of technology is an integral part of their lives. They use it for communicating, archiving, socialization, identity exploration, and a range of other purposes. As a tool for adolescent academic learning, contemporary technologies target the brain’s recognition, strategic, and affective networks. Synthesizing adolescents’ affinity for technology with proven educational practices, knowledge of the brain’s workings, and an understanding of contemporary technologies’ capabilities, leads to the conclusion that technology-enabled personalized learning approaches can result in successful outcomes for students. This dissertation outlines findings from a 6-week mixed-methods study of 7th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students attending a small rural school …

Understanding Students' Chosen Literacy Practices During Non-Academic Times: An Ethnographic Teacher-Research Inquiry, Justin Robert Moyer

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation aims to illuminate the literacy practices that a group of “struggling” students undertake during unstructured times of the school day. The study aims to extend prior theoretical work on literacy (Street, 1984; Weil, 1993; Luttrell & Parker, 2001; Kinloch, 2010; among others) to identify the ways these students engage in literacy practices for deeply personal reasons. Further, this dissertation intends to dispel some of the many myths that surround students in special education settings and, in the case of the focal students in this study, alternative schools. Students reveal: (1) the literacy practices in which they participate, (2) …

Masculinities, Gendered Expression, And The Social, Emotional, And Academic Well-Being Of High School Boys, Cynthia Bazinet

Educational Studies Dissertations

There has been longstanding concern over the seemingly intractable problem of boys’ academic achievement. Despite extensive research, there is little consensus among researchers and educators regarding best practices and approaches in mitigating and remediating the problem. This mixed-methods study sought to illuminate the issue further by focusing on the meaningful lived experiences of six young men aged 18 to 24 who attended and graduated from a central Massachusetts public high school. The study asked participants to reflect through prompted writing upon the stresses and pressures as well as the factors and conditions that affected their abilities to manage their performativities …

Factors Affecting The Retention Of First-Career And Second-Career Science Teachers In Urban High Schools, Rosemary C. Rak

Educational Studies Dissertations

The turnover of high school science teachers is an especially troubling problem in urban schools with economically disadvantaged students. Because high teacher turnover rates impede effective instruction, the persistence of teacher attrition is a serious concern. Using an online survey and interviews in a sequential mixed-methods approach, this study investigates the perceptions of high school science teachers regarding factors that contribute to their employment decisions. The study also compares first-career and second-career science teachers' perceptions of retention and attrition factors and identifies conditions that urban school leaders can establish to support the retention of their science teachers. A purposeful sample …

Joining The Academic Chorus: The Success Of First-Generation Female Students At Private Four-Year Institutions Of Higher Education, Sally A. Buckley

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the experiences of first-generation female students at four-year private institutions of higher education. Improving student retention and degree-completion rates has been a long-standing goal of the higher education community. Despite the attention devoted to student retention since the 1970's, only half of the students who enroll in institutions of higher education obtain a degree within six years of initial enrollment. This study considers the experience of college success, interpreted as degree completion, at four-year private institutions of higher education of nine first-generation female students. The results of nine in-depth interviews illuminate …

Aesthetics Of Listening: Creating Spaces Of Learning, Lisa Donovan

Educational Studies Dissertations

In this study with 9th-12th grade students in an urban Massachusetts school, I consider the question 'How can theater education develop a sense of voice and identity in adolescents?' Students in a drama class engaged in a variety of performance techniques including: interview theater, improvisation, and pantomime while considering the concept of voice/identity development. They then created an interview based script focused on an issue of their choice: the rules of the school and how they were enforced.... Data collection included video-taped class sessions, interviews with the drama classroom teacher, student peer interviews, and a final focus group session six …

Identity Formation And Collaboration Inquiry In The Zone Of Proximal Development: Eighth Grade Esl Students Doing Research - A Teacher Research Study, Carol Irene Bearse

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study is an ethnographic investigation of a Grade Eight ESL IV class conducting research with topics of their own choosing from October, 2001 through May, 2002. This investigation is conceived as a qualitative teacher-research study: an ethnographic examination of collaborative inquiry in the ESL classroom setting where the majority of the students are Brazilian.

Case Study Of Assessment In A High School Classroom: The Impact Of Changes In Assessment On Curriculum, Instruction, Teachers, And Students, Deborah A. A Brady

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study examined the impact of changes in assessment on curriculum, instruction, teachers, and students. The study describes the complex, developmental process by which a particular course, teachers, and a class evolved, articulated goals and standards, and assessed their learning. My co-teacher and I used a variety of assessments: conferences, peer review, reflections, portfolios, group projects, and presentations in addition to traditional tests and quizzes. The methodology was a qualitative study by a teacher/researcher in a high school Humanities class.

Three High School Teachers' Conceptions Of The French They Teach, Patrick R. Moran

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates secondary French teachers' conceptions of the French they teach.