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Journal of Research Initiatives

2023

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Elementary Education and Teaching

A Digital Qualitative Ethnographic Study Of Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives And Experiences Of Teaching From To-Be Teachers, Mohamed Abdullahi Ali Dec 2023

A Digital Qualitative Ethnographic Study Of Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives And Experiences Of Teaching From To-Be Teachers, Mohamed Abdullahi Ali

Journal of Research Initiatives

This digital ethnographic study aimed to understand how and why college students decide to be teachers while many trained teachers leave the profession every year in the United States. A purposive sampling technique enabled 30 prospective teachers in a college of education to participate in this study. The research questions that guided the study were: 1) How and why did preservice teachers choose teaching as a career? 2) How did preservice teachers' perception of the drawbacks of teaching and the opportunities to support them in becoming teachers influence their decisions? The conceptual framework to understand the phenomena came from educational …


The Impact Of Teacher Preparedness And Professional Development On Fourth-Grade Students' Science Achievement, Craig L. Mayo, Faye Bradley Dec 2023

The Impact Of Teacher Preparedness And Professional Development On Fourth-Grade Students' Science Achievement, Craig L. Mayo, Faye Bradley

Journal of Research Initiatives

Science scores among US fourth-grade students have declined compared to their international counterparts in recent years. Recent results show that teachers are the most impactful influence on student success and accountability. Teacher preparedness and professional development are two key areas that serve as indicators of providing relevant and essential information for students' success. A correlational quantitative study was conducted to assess the relationship between teacher preparedness and professional development on fourth-grade students’ science achievement. The TIMSS 2019 data were secured from the Boston College, TIMSS, and PIRLS International websites. The data was evaluated using the SPSS 27 Hierarchical Linear Regression. …


Healing Racial Trauma From Public School Systems, Lisa Y. Collins Aug 2023

Healing Racial Trauma From Public School Systems, Lisa Y. Collins

Journal of Research Initiatives

Oregon needs Black educators in the K-12 public school system. In 35 school districts throughout the state, the number of students of color has risen by over 40% in recent years (Oregon Chief Education Office, 2019). The number of educators of color in the state is under 10%. The number of Black educators is even lower. Research has shown that Black educators improve all students' academic, cultural, and social aspects, especially Black students. Nationally, Black educators were impacted by the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. At that time in history, Black communities fought for civil rights as they experienced …


Practical Strategies For School Leaders To Improve African American Males’ Reading Achievement, Faye C. Bradley Jul 2023

Practical Strategies For School Leaders To Improve African American Males’ Reading Achievement, Faye C. Bradley

Journal of Research Initiatives

The study identified parental involvement activities that significantly influenced the reading achievement of the African American male learner. Teachers and administrators were surveyed using an instrument adapted from Epstein's School, Family, and Community Partnership Survey, The Virginia Standards of Learning reading and language arts assessments provided data for reading achievement of fourth-grade African American males. Significant differences were found between principals and teachers in their ratings of Teacher Reports of Total School Program to Involve Families. A correlation was found between teacher estimates of parents' involvement and the mean SOL English score for African American male fourth-grade students.


The Association Of Neighborhood Schools Assignment Plan With Economic, Racial And Academic Outcomes In One North Carolina District, Theodore Kaniuka Jul 2023

The Association Of Neighborhood Schools Assignment Plan With Economic, Racial And Academic Outcomes In One North Carolina District, Theodore Kaniuka

Journal of Research Initiatives

When unified status was granted to numerous school districts, school boards developed redistricting plans to implement neighborhood schools. Social justice advocates decried these plans as they reversed over 40 years of progress, as many of these efforts resulted in resegregating schools homogenously grouped by race and wealth. Using piecewise and Difference in Difference regression with publicly facing data, this study assessed the association between neighborhood school attendance plans, school racial and economic balance, and student reading achievement. The results indicate that in one North Carolina school district over 15 years, (a) schools became more racially segregated, and (b) the achievement …


Leading The Initial Implementation Phase Of Tandemed In Relationship With The Pittsburgh Public Schools, Brian C B Barnes Feb 2023

Leading The Initial Implementation Phase Of Tandemed In Relationship With The Pittsburgh Public Schools, Brian C B Barnes

Journal of Research Initiatives

TandemEd facilitates Black communities to create campaigns that highlight their positive racial identity and self-defined educational purpose. This article examines leadership of the initial implementation phase of the TandemEd community initiative in relationship with the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) focusing primarily on the interactions with the superintendent and executive director of the superintendent’s office. The results included ongoing support from PPS as TandemEd formed a citywide steering committee of highly community legitimated persons, executed a leadership and campaign academy for thirty-five Pittsburgh youth, and facilitated design and delivery of various cable television commercials on identity and purpose in the Greater …


Conceptualizing Lifelong Learning For K-12 Education, Betsy Ng Feb 2023

Conceptualizing Lifelong Learning For K-12 Education, Betsy Ng

Journal of Research Initiatives

In this era of rapid evolution, education in the twenty-first century must strive to develop students to be lifelong learners. Students should possess goals and life-ready competencies for continuous learning during formal, non-formal, and informal education. Within a globalizing world, lifelong learning skills enable students to manage difficulties and challenges. Lifelong learning for K-12 education may shape our students’ values and behavior, as well as build resilience in the face of challenges ahead. To date, educational research related to lifelong learning across varied contexts of K-12 education is still in its infancy. The present paper contributes to the conceptualization of …


A Conceptual Exploration Of Anti-Fragility In The Context Of Confucian Heritage Culture Education, Alwyn Lau Feb 2023

A Conceptual Exploration Of Anti-Fragility In The Context Of Confucian Heritage Culture Education, Alwyn Lau

Journal of Research Initiatives

It is a common but not unrealistic stereotype of Asian students that educational success is a matter of personal identity and status. As such, achieving distinctions in as many subjects as possible (the popular target of becoming a ‘straight A’ student) is usually a non-negotiable objective nurtured by both parents and educators. Such an obsessive pursuit of academic excellence produces both laudable outcomes (e.g. the tendency of Asian students to outperform their counterparts) as well as dangerous ones (e.g. worrying rates of mental health problems). This theoretical paper hopes to apply the concept of anti-fragility developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, …


How Do They See Me? Examining The Experiences Of Faculty In The Context Of Classroom Whiteness Factors, Papia Bawa, Diantha Watts Dr. Feb 2023

How Do They See Me? Examining The Experiences Of Faculty In The Context Of Classroom Whiteness Factors, Papia Bawa, Diantha Watts Dr.

Journal of Research Initiatives

Today polarized attitudes and aptitudes have created a subtle but steady paradigm shift in the way equity, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) issues are seen by stakeholders. As a result, focusing on critical aspects of equity relationships and the fallout from discriminatory attitudes towards marginalized groups has become ever more needed. While diversity issues exist in all societal, professional, and personal realms, its impact within educational institutions is perhaps the most deeply profound. This Hermeneutic Phenomenology study examines the experiences of six higher education faculty who teach predominantly white student classrooms to identify issues and recommendations with respect to their relationship …