Education Commons^™

“Holla If You Hear Me”: A Conversation With Black, Inner-City Youth On Career Preparedness Programs, Theressa N. Cooper

Doctoral Dissertations

This research study specifically addressed; how vocational preparedness programs effect the career aspirations of Black youth, within the context of the Middle Tennessee Council Boy Scouts of America’s Exploring program. The goal of this research is to represent Black youth participating in a vocational preparedness program. Interviews, journals, and rich, thick descriptions are utilized in this work.

Using the lens of narrative inquiry and cultural studies, I hoped to further the field of career development through the experiences of some of its key players, African American youth. Within the context of their stories five major themes surfaced around the ideas: …

Grass-Roots Struggle In The "Culture Of Silence": Collective Dialogue And The Brazilian Landless Movement, Genny Petschulat

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

African-American Males’ Perception Of Factors Involved In Their Resilience And Academic Success, Johnnie Thomas

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the factors that contribute to the educational success and failure of African-American males continues to be a topic of current research. Frequently, educational performance outcome data, report African-American males as low performers. Some African-American males are able to overcome family issues, community violence and school dysfunction, and achieve academic success. They are resilient. Masten, Best, and Garmezy (1990) define resiliency as “the process of, capacity to, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances” (426). In this study, the internal and external factors motivating the academic success of five African-American males who grew up in Chicago, Illinois’ …

Teaching For Social Justice With Students From Privileged Groups: Integrating Social Justice Into Middle School Curriculum, Bong Seok Jang

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation research focuses on the teaching for social justice with privileged middle school students. A need for this research was established based on the limited findings specific to teaching for social justice in mathematics.

This research was implemented with junior high level students in a public charter school. The socio-economic status and ethnic diversity of the class in which this study took place is primarily middle to upper middle class and ten percent nonwhite.

Qualitative research methods were used because this study focuses more on human interactions in the natural setting of a classroom. First, my observations of the …

Stereotype Threat’S Effect On Women’S Achievement In Chemistry: The Interaction Of Achievement Goal Orientation For Women In Science Majors, Janice M. Conway-Klaassen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

"Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group" (C. M. Steele & Aronson, 1995, p. 797). A stereotype threat effect then is described as the detrimental impact on a person's performance or achievement measurements when they are placed in a stereotype threat environment.

For women, the negative stereotype that exists in our culture states that women are typically not as capable as men in mathematics or science subjects. This study specifically explored the potential impact of stereotype threat on women who have chosen a science-based college major. They were tested in …

Preparing A Student With A Disability And Their Family For Transition Into Adulthood, Katherine Matwiczak-Weber

All Graduate Projects

As a student with a disability makes the transition from high school to adult life, together the student and the family are faced with decisions and challenges outside the support of the school system. There are certain time lines and criteria that need to be fulfilled in order to make the change successful as well guarantee the student's rights and entitlements both financially and vocationally from the federal government and other community based systems. Transition-focused educators have long advocated for a vision of post-school life for the young adult with a disability that includes community and social interactions in addition …

A Teacher’S Guide For Increased Parent Involvement In Low Socioeconomic And Highly Diverse Areas., Alyssa Katheryn Newby

All Graduate Projects

Secondary research was performed to obtain an overview of parent involvement in schools with low socioeconomic status and ethnically diverse populations. Within the project, different ethnicities' typical values and perceptions of appropriate involvement in a child's education were presented. These perceptions often contradict educators' perceptions of parent involvement, which generally takes on a white, middle class perspective. The purpose of the project is to better inform educators about the variety of ethnicities. As a result, this project addressed challenges to parent involvement and suggested possible solutions/interventions to bridge the gap between educators and families.

Understanding Multiple Perspectives Of African American Males In A Suburban High School, Ravi Hansra Matrenec

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Research on African American males in high school often looks at their experiences from a deficit perspective, and is often conducted in low resourced, high-risk settings, thus perpetuating the image of failure in school. We know less about how African American males experience education in well-resourced schools. In an attempt to fill this research gap, this qualitative inquiry study explores the schooling experiences of African American males at a predominantly White, affluent, and suburban high school of a major metropolitan city. The focus of this study was to understand how the participants made sense of their schooling experiences, paying special …

Court-Involved African American Males And Social Capital Within Chicago Public Schools, Troy Harden

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores how eleven court-involved African American males in Chicago Public Schools gain entry and access into mainstream society via schooling, exploring their choices, interactions and networks in the context of schooling, and how they develop trust or the lack thereof in the educational process. Five themes emerged from interviews of the eleven young men, including school engagement, neighborhood bonds, school exclusion, purgatory and social capital reconceptualized. The young men in this study reported their trajectories associated with schooling, including how they were often “pushed out”, in part by their own behavior and attitude towards schools, and school …

Cultures In Our Community A Social Studies Unit, Anna Louise Buglino

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to create a yearlong unit for social studies that any teacher could pick up and implement into their classroom. It was designed using second grade standards, but can be modified for use in other grade levels. The units are integrated into all subject areas with the goal of teaching students about the community in which they live. It also was designed to create in the classroom an understanding of cultures different from their own. This will create a deeper understanding and awareness of diverse populations and their differences. The instruction of social studies education …

Superintendent Perceptions Of The Accreditation Process In The State Of Mississippi, Betty Mae Merhundrew

Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provides guidelines that all public schools in the United States must follow. Provisions of this law require that specific assessments be given to all students in schools across the United States and that individual states establish one system of accountability for all schools. Although much is being done, public schools are still lacking in the area of accountability reform. Many states set their own achievement goals and standards for which schools within their states are measured and then held accountable for students’ performance. This study examined the perceptions of all Mississippi school …

Emotional Antecedents Of Preprimary Teacher Learning, Elizabeth Anne Beavers

Dissertations

A study of the relationships between emotional understanding, the dispositional attributes to think critically, receptiveness to new learning and willingness to change using structural equation modeling was conducted. Data from 186 preprimary teachers were analyzed to confirm the relationships between the constructs yielding four key findings addressing the individual and collective relationships between the variables expressed. Specifically, the findings and interpretations of this study produced the following conclusions: 1) one’s willingness to change may stem directly from the individual’s emotional understandings; 2) there is a strong relationship between emotional understanding and critical thinking dispositions; 3) receptiveness to new learning precedes …

Failure Is Not An Option: A Look At The Dropout Crisis In America, Aida Mogos

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract not Included

Effects Of Social Story Interventions On Preschool Age Children With And Without Disabilities, Cori Michelle More

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

More children are receiving care outside of their home under the age of six (Childstats.gov, 2007). The quality of these programs has a direct impact on student’s readiness for school (Burchinal, Roberts, Nabors, & Bryant, 1996). Social readiness is the foundation for school readiness and academic achievement (Blair, 2002; Brigman, Lane, Lane, Lawrence, & Switzer, 1999; Raver, 2004). Acquisition of social skills plays a key role in preschool age children’s readiness for school, thus interventions that teach young children social skills are of importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Social Story interventions on preschool …

An Investigation Of Exemplary Teaching Practices Of Teachers Of Native American Students, William M. Young

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation traces the historical roots of indigenous education from the violation of treaty rights of the late 1800's to the staggering rates of non-persistency facing Native American students today. While many factors are outside of the classroom teacher's scope of influence, teacher candidates should be trained in culturally responsive methods to address factors that are within their control and which can be addressed in the classroom.

The study was conducted using a mixed-methods design employing Creswell's (2008a) sequential transformative strategy. STS is a multi-phase study with an implicit theoretical lens. In this study the researcher is situated at an …

Making Waves With Critical Literacy, Carolyn Fortuna

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A qualitative study undertaken in 2007 that explores the application of critical literacy pedagogy within English language arts classes of an upper middle class public high school. Results demonstrate that when students recontextualize their own modalities, literacies, and cultures as part of their learning experience, they begin to understand the concept of social justice for all.

The Professional Master's Occupational Therapist: Developing An Emerging Professional Identity, Bonny F. Jung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study is to explore the emerging professional identity of the professional master’s entry-level occupational therapist. The questions are: 1) What does it mean to be a professional as an occupational therapist? 2) How do professional identities emerge for the professional master’s entry-level occupational therapist? From a professional perspective as an occupational therapist and educator, helping clients and students find meaning in their occupations is an integral part of my ontology of practice. To conduct this study, I used a constructivist paradigm within qualitative research as my primary lens and constructivist grounded theory as my methodology to …

The Implementation Of A Conceptually Coherent Curriculum Within A Constructivist Preschool Environment, Heather Jones, Sarah Post

Psychology and Child Development

Creating a learning environment that enchants children’s curiosity and sparks exploration, discovery, and thought does not require a great amount of financial resources. Rather, one must concentrate on observation and focus on building on children’s existing interests in the natural world. The research and theories of Swiss psychologist and philosopher, Jean Piaget, and Russian Psychologist, Lev Vygotsky provide a concrete look into a child’s cognitive and social development and can be informative in creating such environments. Using the developmental knowledge presented in these theories, programs such as the Reggio Emilia program, the Preschool Pathways to Science program (PrePS), and the …

Teaching For Social Justice With Standards-Based Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum, Alison George Dover

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Teaching for social justice is the attempt by classroom teachers to use their position in the classroom to promote social and educational reform within and despite current educational conditions and mandates. However, while a growing number of K-12 teachers have published anecdotal reports of their attempts to teach for social justice in secondary classrooms (e.g., Bender-Slack, 2007; Christensen, 2000; Singer, 2005), there is great variability among these accounts, and scant evaluation of their impact on specific academic, behavioral/motivational, and attitudinal outcomes (see Grant & Agosto, 2008; Kelly & Brandes, 2008; Poplin & Rivera, 2005).

This qualitative study addresses this research …

From Frat To Fraternity: An Evolutionary Model For 21st Century Greek-Letter Organizations, Matthew Charles Brinton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fraternities and sororities have been fixtures of American collegiate campuses since the founding of Phi Beta Kappa in 1776. Since that time the wants, needs, aspirations and desires of the college student has continually evolved. In an effort to keep up with the evolution of the student, Greek-letter organizations (GLOs) have needed to find ways of evolving as well. As we jump head-first into the 21st century and beyond these great bastions of the collegiate experience are again in need of a face-lift to meet the needs of the latest generation of students. Now, more than ever, it is time …

Response To Intervention: Raising The Achievement Of Struggling Readers, Sarah Ellen Littmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two purposes guided this concurrent nested mixed methods research. It examined and described the processes followed and experiences had by the administrators, teachers, and specialists involved in designing and implementing a new Response to Intervention (RtI) model at an elementary and examined the effectiveness of the RtI model on raising achievement scores in reading after its first year of implementation.

Qualitative findings revealed two challenges encountered by district level personnel. First, administrators felt pressured to put RtI into effect quickly due to the needs of students in the district and new educational policies mandating immediate changes to long-standing practices. Second, …

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos' classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …

Narrowing Of Curriculum: Teaching In An Age Of Accountability, Donna Kay Newberg-Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation made clear the need for increased accountability of U.S. public schools in 2002, there has been a trend toward narrowing curriculum in social studies and other core subjects to focus predominantly on what is tested through state exams. Concerns exist regarding the unintended consequences of curriculum narrowing on low, middle and high socioeconomic status (SES) students in public schools.

The Center on Education Policy (CEP) and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have been tracking the effects of NCLB since it took effect in 2002 and found that 71 percent of districts nationwide …