Digital Commons Network^™

Relational Literacy, W. Kurt Stavenhagen

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

In this paper, I propose literacy practices that further shift us from subject-object dichotomies and exclusive language practices to a focus on relationships and multimodality. Based in large part upon Indigenous Scholar Shawn Wilson’s concept of relationality, I define a relational literacy wherein we counter an undue abstraction of the environment by mapping interspecies relationships and placing them within kinship narratives.

Dilemma And Knowledge - Book Review Of Re-Imagining Utopias: Theory And Method For Educational Research In Post-Socialist Contexts, Jessica Zychowicz

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Justice Citizens, Active Citizenship, And Critical Pedagogy: Reinvigorating Citizenship Education, Keith R. Heggart, Rick Flowers

Democracy & Education

Recent surveys have indicated a worryingly low level of support for democracy among Australian youth and around the world. For example, in the 2017 Lowy Institute Poll, 36% of Australians indicated that, in some circumstances, a nondemocratic government is preferable. Such concerns, while hardly new, have triggered calls for more civic education and civic involvement. Linked to these concerns are discussions about the way new media (including mobile accessibility, the internet, and social media) is reshaping our understandings of public participation in democracy, especially the way that we conceive of the public sphere. Schools are often seen as important sites …

Are You Listening? How Listening Skills Help Students Become Informed And Engaged Citizens In A Culturally Diverse World, Nicole Schwaben

Honors Projects

The ability to listen is vital for good communication to exist and flourish. Without properly developed listening skills, one may unintentionally create roadblocks when communicating with others. Good communication will allow for the spread of differing ideas and perspectives. The social studies classroom is a place in which students have the opportunity to develop skills to become good citizens. These skills include the ability to make reasoned and informed decisions and interact with a culturally diverse and interdependent world. In order to achieve these skills, students must engage in discussion with their peers. While there is a focus on the …

Assessing Study Abroad Relationship With Perceived Global Competence Levels Of Undergraduate Business Students, Pavla Ozkul

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Educating for global competence is vital if college graduates are to thrive in today’s technology driven and globally competitive world. One strategy for introducing students to unknown cultures and gaining important life skills is participation in a study abroad experience.

The purpose of this exploratory quasi-experimental research design study was to assess the relationship between perceived global competence levels and participation in study abroad experiences of business undergraduate students. The study assessed three dimensions of personal development: cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal in a multicultural environment using a total of six global competence scales. Data were gathered from business undergraduate students …

Bring In The Culture To The Science Classroom ; Bring In The Science Classroom To The Culture, Ying-Chen Lin

Senior Theses

Middle school science has a stigma of being a boring subject area from the student’s perspectives due to the spoon-fed characteristics and the lack of real-world connections in the curriculum design. The low-level student engagement and motivation in the science classroom often contribute to students’ low academic achievement, especially those who have been underserved in the educational system. In addition, with a view to addressing the increasing diversity in the classroom, teachers are encouraged to practice culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in the lessons so they can reach every student and make the class learning experience more meaningful and relevant to …

Teaching Critical Reading: Media Literacy In The High School Classroom, Alisha Reed Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The present qualitative action research study was conducted to examine student- participant perceptions and performance in a critical media literacy unit in an Advanced Placement English Language and Composition (AP ELC) classroom. Critical media literacy skills and, specifically, rhetorical analysis skills, are tested on the end-of-course AP ELC exam. The teacher-researcher designed a four-week unit, Reading Mass Media, and implemented it with 38 student-participants in two sections of AP ELC taught by the teacher-researcher in a racially and economically diverse rural South Carolina high school. The purpose of the present action research is to describe student-participants’ performance and perceptions …

From Rationality To Relationality: Teacher-Student Relationship As Unknowing, Shaofei Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reimagines the teacher-student relationship through a philosophical approach that draws on Laozi, Karen Barad, Deleuze & Guattari, and Emmanuel Levinas. The teacher-student relationship is normally considered a relationship of the knower (teacher) and the unknower (student) based on the modern western tradition of episteme. This dissertation interrogates the modern binary of the teacher/student, subject/object relationship by bringing ontology and ethics into educational discourse. The problematic practices of modern schooling include the reduction of teaching to knowledge transmission, and the rigid dichotomy of a subject/object relation between teacher and student. Following a Taoist Way of philosophical thinking, this work …

Using From The Heartland In The First-Year Writing Classroom: Measuring Instructor Reception Of The Customized Textbook, Sarah Cohen

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The aim of the first-year writing program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is to equip students with critical reading and writing tools and strategies to advance effective written communication well into their future. This study examines and measures attitudes of UNO composition instructors – who come from a variety of pedagogical and theoretical backgrounds – toward the efficacy of UNO’s self-published Composition I textbook, From the Heartland: Critical Reading and Writing at UNO. In many ways, From the Heartland embraces what Richard Fulkerson refers to as “a critical cultural pedagogy” which encourages students to consider personal …

Performing Research: Contemplating What It Means To Be A "Man", George Belliveau

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Sharing research in performative modes opens new possibilities for meaning making. This article offers a monologue that explores my experience of working on a theatre project with military veterans. The impact of working on the creative process with veterans inspired this performed piece, and provided an opportunity to contemplate what it means to be a ‘man’ in today’s society. The article first situates performed research within current arts-based literature prior to sharing the creative piece, which is at the heart of this offering. The piece then concludes with how performed research opens the possibility for different forms of engagement and …

Creating A New Normal: Language Education For All, Aleidine J. Moeller, Martha G. Abbott

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Challenge: Language educators play a significant role as agents of change both within our classrooms and beyond. How can we position languages and help policy-makers and administrators at the local, state, and national levels to value multilingualism and multiculturalism as an integral and essential part of every learner’s education? What will that “new normal” look like?

Abstract: How close are we to the reality of all students having the opportunity to learn another language and gaining support for these efforts from the general public? The answer has a long history, which we point out by referencing articles that span the …

Missing The (Turning) Point: The Erosion Of Democracy At An American University, Anthony Fucci, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

On August 25, 2017, student members of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing conservative organization who advocates for smaller government and free market enterprise, recruited on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) campus. Members of the UNL community protested nearby. Part of the protest was recorded on video and released to social media leading to harsh public criticism that accused the university of restricting free speech and being an unsafe environment for conservative students. Drawing on cognitive linguistics (e.g. metonymy, framing) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), this paper explores how the TPUSA incident at UNL was recontextualized in local and …

Where Do We Go From Here? Culturally Responsive Teaching And Literacy Among African American Males, Denise Evelyn Cyrus

Education Dissertations and Projects

Literacy skills impact academic achievement for school-aged children and almost every facet of modern day life thereafter. Low literacy achievement affects college acceptance, college completion, employment, housing, and socioeconomic status to name a few (Ford & Moore, 2013). Regrettably, the literacy skills gap between Black and White students in America has remained virtually the same for the past 20 years. Factors such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and teacher quality contribute to the sustainability of literacy gaps. Scholars such as Ladson-Billings (1995a), Gay (2010), and Hammond (2015) endorse the use of culturally responsive pedagogy as an approach to reduce achievement …

Student Led Area Measurement Assessments Using Virtual Globes And Pictometry Web-Based Interface Within An Undergraduate Spatial Science Curriculum, David Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger, Yanli Zhang

Faculty Publications

The use of Virtual Globes and Pictometry continues to expand and develop in undergraduate spatial science education. Spatial science undergraduates measured the area of 30 rectangles on the earth’s surface and compared them to Pictometry hyperspectral imagery measurements within a web-based interface and the Google Earth interface compared to ArcGIS Explorer, Map Developers and ArcMap using the ArcMap 10.5.2 interface. An analysis of variance of the absolute mean area errors (p-value of 0.009271) concluded the accuracy of the five area measurements were statistically different at the 95% confidence interval. A Tukey pair-wise test found that the Pictometry and Google Earth …

Student Perceptions Of Required Volunteerism, Ann L. Denton

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

An applied project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Education Specialist at Morehead State University by Ann L. Denton Committee in 2019.

Ua45 2019-2020 Four-Year Degree Paths, Wku Registrar

WKU Administration Documents

An addendum to the 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog

The purpose of the Four-Year Degree Path is to assist undergraduate students in determining a timeline for completion of their undergraduate degree program. Each path displayed within this website provides students with the anticipated order in which a degree would typically be completed in a timely fashion at Western Kentucky University.

The Degree Paths show appropriate timing and spacing of general education, core course requirements, elective suggestions, prerequisites and displays how each of these requirements may be met during a four-year time frame.

The Degree Path is simply a guideline and might not …

The Oasis Skateboard Factory: Return To The One-Room Schoolhouse, William Robertson

Departmental Papers (TE)

How can you get young people interested in science and mathematics? What efforts are there to integrate the experiences of high school students into the things they need to do and learn in school? How can action sports, like skateboarding be used to teach science, mathematics, language arts, history and help at-rick and marginalized students to grow in their engagement and motivation in high school, as well as to graduate? This is in part answered at the Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF) an alternative high school in Toronto, Canada. The factory, under the direction of founding teacher Craig Morrison, has enjoyed …

Towards A Critical Game Based Pedagogy, Justin K. Egan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis outlines and examines core concepts of game-based learning as identified by James Paul Gee, and Kurt Squire, among other scholars. These findings are then connected to the contemporary, transformative threshold concepts of composition—as explored in Naming What We Know. This connection seeks to argue game-based pedagogy may be an invaluable tool for introducing critical perspectives to composition students in order to better equip them with critical thinking strategies and cultural critiques, while improving their writing skills. A theoretical framework is presented in the form of four “Pillars” of a Critical Game-Based Pedagogy: Literacy, Identity, Social Learning, and Multimodality—all …

Using The Enrichment Triad Model To Explore Place And Support Curriculum In One Rural Gifted Program, Myriah Mae Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Using narrative inquiry, this case study explored how one teacher, who had deep connections to place, learned and utilized the place-based Enrichment Triad in her rural Appalachian elementary gifted program. Data collected included teacher, student, and parent interviews and classroom observations. Data were analyzed using a socio-cultural narrative analysis and narrative thematic analysis. Results from analysis created thick descriptions of the teacher’s journey to teaching, her existing practices, her experiences learning and implementing the framework, and her future curricular intentions. Developments in the teacher’s practice included establishment of scope and sequence, a sharing of power, and embracing students’ identities through …

Untapped Communicative Resources In Multilingual Classroom Settings: Possible Alternatives, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, James Alan Oloo

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This paper presents a critical review of literature relating to language policy and literacy practices in education, with a particular focus on multilingual Kenya. Existing research on schooling in Kenya often draws attention to the use of languages that are distanced from students’ daily realities and localities. This article synthesizes research on literacy practices in Kenyan primary classrooms to explicate the current language-in-education policy and practices, and, to discuss their impacts on literacy access and knowledge production in the classroom. We argue that Kenya’s language-in-education policy, which informs curricula and teaching, and is itself grounded in monoglossic orientations, inhibits students’ …

Democratic Contribution Or Information For Reform? Prevailing And Emerging Discourses Of Student Voice, Jennifer Charteris, Dianne Smardon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While a range of typologies frame and critique the scope, purpose and power relations of different student voice approaches, it is timely to look at the direction that student voice literature has taken in recent years and map dominant discourses in the field. In the article the following questions are addressed: (a) What are the dominant discourses in student voice literature? (b) What are the ways forward, to ensure there is both systemic quality assurance and democratic (if not radical) student participation? The discourses named and interrogated in this article include: governmentality; accountability; institutional transformation and reform; learner agency; personalising …

Does A “Science, Technology And Social Change” Course Improve Scientific Habits Of Mind And Attitudes Towards Socioscientific Issues?, Muammer Çalik, Faik Özgür Karataş

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The study aimed at exploring whether a “Science-Technology-Social Change” course improved pre-service social studies teachers’ (PST) scientific habits of mind and attitudes towards socio-scientific issues. Within a pre- and post-course experimental design, the study was conducted with 135 second-year PST (68 males and 67 females) from two classes at Department of Social Studies Teacher Education in a large-size university, Turkey. Two different Likert type scales, Scientific Habits of Mind Scale and Attitudes towards Socioscientific Issues Scale, were employed to collect data before and after the course. The data were imported to SPSS 15^TM for descriptive and inferential statistics in …

New Approaches To Literacy Problems: Multiliteracies And Inclusive Pedagogies, Rachel J. Drewry, Wendy M. Cumming-Potvin, Dorit Maor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper is based on a qualitative study examining multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996, 2000) and inclusivity. Underpinned by a socio-cultural approach, the study examined ways to facilitate meaningful literacy learning for students experiencing challenges in print-based, classroom activities. Key to this research was an analysis of how scaffolding was used to bridge home and school communities. This paper focuses on one of the study’s students, Hannah, who exhibited extensive engagement with multiliteracies at home - driven through the Arts (e.g. graphic design, singing and music). In contrast, Hannah’s literacy experiences in the classroom were, at times, challenging and …

Come Together: Inclusive Leadership And Public Relations Education, Heather Paige Preston

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Multiple voices from educational and professional arenas have called for change in the way in which public relations undergraduates are prepared to navigate complex communication challenges in the 21st century. Some scholars have advanced leadership as a way to address this change, identifying the undergraduate public relations curriculum as the ideal place to introduce future practitioners to leadership as a way to better prepare them to initiate and participate in positive social change in complex contexts. However, scholars have neither made in-depth connections with leadership theory and practice, nor provided a framework for designing a curriculum for incorporating leadership into …

In-Between Epistemic Paradigms Of Disablement: A Reflective Journey, Daniel James Mcnair

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The author explores feelings of in-betweenness, hybridity, and dislocation (Aoki, 2005; Bhabha, 2007/1994; Saïd, 1994) as he contemplates the meaningfulness of a liminal placement between two epistemic worlds—that of his more recent experiences as a curriculum studies scholar and his previous training as a postpositivist practitioner of school psychology. This self-study engages pedagogical possibilities of in-between spaces (Aoki, 2005; He & Ross, 2012; Baszile, 2006) to construct a lived curriculum that challenges traditional stereotypes of autism and postsecondary disability services. To guide this critical self-reflective inquiry, the author applies the concepts of Joseph Schwab’s (1973) curriculum commonplaces along with William …

Introduction To Constellar Theory In Multicultural Education Pedagogy, Antonio Garcia

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

The majority of education and social science ideas subscribe to a hierarchical ideology that not only necessitates but also obligates an always-already dialectic. Such a dialectical fetish and intellectual relegation is grounded in Marxist ideology, which has influenced a vast majority of cultural studies and social science theories. Constellar Theory challenges the hierarchical model ideology in concept and pedagogy to complicate and exhibit a more intricate matrix of considerations to move the multicultural education discourse in possible new directions.

The Effect Of Competency-Based Education On Medical And Nursing Students' Academic Performance, Technical Skill Development, And Overall Satisfaction And Preparedness For Future Practice: An Integrative Literature Review, Haris Saud, Ruth Chen

International Journal of Health Sciences Education

Purpose: This article provides an integrative review of competency-based education (CBE) in medical and nursing programs and examines the effect of CBE on students’ academic performance, technical skill development, and overall satisfaction and preparedness for future practice.

Background: In recent decades, CBE has increasingly been discussed in medical and nursing education programs. The impact of the CBE curriculum on learning outcomes including academic performance, technical skill development, overall satisfaction, and preparedness for future practice has not been fully elucidated.

Method: A review of the literature was conducted, and multiple databases were searched for studies that analyzed the impact of CBE …

Literature In The World: A Critical Discourse Study Of World Literature Pedagogy, Elisa Cogbill-Seiders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

“Literature in the World” is a critical discourse analysis of world literature pedagogy in U.S. higher education. It investigates the ways discourse communities in higher education produce and shape the field of world literature. The dissertation begins by establishing and analyzing the generic conventions of university mission statements, finding they are primarily dominated by discourse on global learning. It follows with an analysis of world literature course descriptions from the same schools. World literature course descriptions alternatively replicate, resist, or subvert global learning discourses. The last chapter uses findings from the first two chapters to trace how university and instructor …

Limited By Design: Expanding The Boundaries Of Schooling Policies From Demanded Passivity To Transformative Practice, Natalia T. Carvalho-Pinto

Masters Theses

Schooling is often imagined as the great equalizer and the primary venue towards personal and collective liberation. However, hegemonic ideals and practices have limited the ability for educators to craft and utilize policy in a way that best benefits their students. In this thesis, I utilize the state of Michigan’s Common Core curriculum to examine the limits beyond policy and practice. Specifically, I argue that the demands for student passivity and institutional measurable as signs of success, prohibit student growth. Throughout the document, I describe hope in the ability to instill a variety of transformative educational theories and practices that …

Woke Pedagogy: A Framework For Teaching And Learning, Altheria Caldera

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

The sociopolitical context of schooling demands that teachers acknowledge the ways their students’ and their own experiences are shaped by the intersections of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other discriminatory factors. This is especially true during times of heightened civil unrest resulting from pervasive and persistent injustice experienced by minoritized populations. To engage students in pedagogy that connects with their lived experiences and that equips them to critically examine inequities, teachers must refute colorblind pedagogy in favor of woke pedagogy. Woke pedagogy, like critical multicultural education, is defined by teaching practices that integrate critiques of contemporary justice-related issues with academic …