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Full-Text Articles in Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching

Promoting Positive White Racial Identity Development In K-12 Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study, Johnny Cole May 2024

Promoting Positive White Racial Identity Development In K-12 Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study, Johnny Cole

Educational Studies Dissertations

The process of racial identity development (RID) is widely agreed to be the process by which an individual comes to understand the role race plays in their sense of self, how it influences their ability to acquire information and reach goals, how it affects their interpersonal interactions with others, and the manner in which it assigns group membership in the larger society. The formative years students spend in K-12 educational environments can play an important role in their RID; thus educators’ awareness of these developmental processes can potentially help dismantle the systems of inequity within a critical race theory framework …


The Principal’S Role In Expanding Multicultural Understandings In Predominantly White, Rural, Middle School Grades, Jacquelynne Chase Aug 2019

The Principal’S Role In Expanding Multicultural Understandings In Predominantly White, Rural, Middle School Grades, Jacquelynne Chase

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the principal’s role in expanding multicultural understandings in predominantly White, rural, middle school grades. A review of the literature provided information on three areas: (a) benefits of expanding multicultural understandings, (b) implementing multicultural understandings, and (c) school leaders’ role. The literature did not include information to address a prevalent problem in Massachusetts: Principals of rural, predominantly White schools with middle grades typically do not consider expanding multicultural understandings a priority. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study used a closed-response survey and in-depth interviews with principals across Massachusetts. The survey was sent to …


Practitioner Research In Schools: Revealing The Efficacy Agency Cycle, Edward Resnick Apr 2018

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 …


Middle School Teacher Collaboration: The Intersection Of Teacher Domain And Administrative Purview, Jessica Rintoul Jan 2017

Middle School Teacher Collaboration: The Intersection Of Teacher Domain And Administrative Purview, Jessica Rintoul

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study examined the experiences and perspectives of twelve urban public middle school teachers and one focused instructional coach in one district in a New England state involved in a district-mandated change to professional learning communities as their form of teacher collaboration. It explored teachers’ reasons for engaging in collaboration, their understanding of the administration’s expectations for their collaboration, the factors and conditions that influenced their collaborative work, and the perceived effects of collaboration on their teaching practices and professional identity. This qualitative phenomenological study employed a purposeful sampling strategy and both interviews and field observations to uncover teachers’ perceptions …


Masculinities, Gendered Expression, And The Social, Emotional, And Academic Well-Being Of High School Boys, Cynthia Bazinet Apr 2015

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 …


Shaking It Up: Challenging Veteran Teachers To Change, Evelyn Baker Lang Jan 2003

Shaking It Up: Challenging Veteran Teachers To Change, Evelyn Baker Lang

Educational Studies Dissertations

My research, conducted at a 600 student middle school, explored the conditions and factors needed by veteran teachers to learn about and implement educational change, either mandated or teacher-initiated. Qualitative research methods used included in-depth interviews of veteran teachers and observations in classrooms, cluster meetings and professional development workshops. Five factors appeared to facilitate the change effort for this group of teachers. They are: An understanding that the change process is a challenge in itself. A school culture that is conducive to change. A school principal who supports, inspires and encourages teachers. Appropriate professional development is offered to teachers. Teachers …