Education Commons^™

Decentering The Writing Program Archive: How Composition Instructors Save And Share Their Teaching Materials, Stacy Olivia Nall

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation decenters the writing program archive through research on instructors’ digital archives. Artifacts of composition instruction are no longer saved to print archives alone; rather, digital technologies expand the locations where artifacts of writing pedagogy can be archived and accessed. The following archival ethnography, focused on a community engagement writing course in the Introductory Composition at Purdue (ICaP) program, finds that many digital archives of composition are hidden to outside researchers or not sustained (which are theorized as either “abandoned” or “pop-up” archives). At the same time, some pedagogical materials are publicly visible by virtue of personal web spaces …

A New Reality: Funding Formula Changes And Property Tax Caps And Their Effects On The Role Of The School Superintendent In The State Of Indiana, Patrick L. Gentry

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how school superintendents were using general fund referenda to meet their school district’s operational budgets. However, after interviews began it became clear that the superintendents wanted to tell a different story and that was how the current school funding mechanism and property tax caps has changed the job of the school superintendent. The research consisted of one-on-one guided interviews of a mixed qualitative methods framework combining theories of hermeneutics and phenomenology. The interviews combined open-ended, guided questions and conversations and were with superintendents who were leaders of school districts that have …

Examination Of Decision-Making Processes For Resource Allocation At The College-Level And School-Level Within An Academic Unit, Amy L Childress

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the quantitative and qualitative factors used when deciding how to allocate resources within a single academic unit and three subunits, and who was involved in those decision-making processes. It focused on the College of Engineering and three Schools of Engineering at Purdue University from 2000 – 2007, when Dr. Martin C. Jischke was president. The university underwent institution-wide strategic planning and increased use of metrics in decision-making under his leadership. Financial data from the college and three schools were collected and analyzed. An interview protocol was developed and piloted before implementation in …

Factors That Affect The Outcome Of A General Fund Referendum In Indiana, Andrew Charles Sargent

Open Access Dissertations

School finance elections in Indiana were a relatively rare occurrence prior to a series of new legislation enacted in 2008 that, through the imposition of property tax caps statewide, resulted in sweeping reforms to education funding. These new laws coupled with a national recession resulted in many school districts not having the necessary financial resources to maintain programming and personnel consistent with their needs. With this in mind, many of these districts turned to the General Fund referendum as a mechanism to raise more revenue for their districts through an increase in local property taxes as decided by the voters …

Factors That Contribute To Principal Trust In The Principalteacher Relationship, Eric Melnyczenko

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study sought to use qualitative research methods to answer the overarching question: Why do principals trust teachers? This study was generated from a lack of research noted by Wahlstrom, Leithwood, Louis, and Anderson (2010). I created open-ended questions to interview each participant regarding his/her lived experience with trusting teachers. ^ The qualitative data were collected from six principals of the Illinois Principals Association, two from each of the following three categories: zero to three years of their career principalship; four to six years of their career principalship; or, seven or more years of their career principalship. …

Exploring Literacy And Technology With Middle School English Teachers: Articulating Understandings Of Knowledge And Teaching Practices, Benjamin A. Boche

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate five middle school English teachers' understandings of literacy and technology. In particular, how do they define literacy, view literacy and technology learning and teaching, and how do they use (or not use) technology to enact their views of literacy in their classrooms. This narrative inquiry qualitative study consisted of three open-ended interviews, written literacy narratives, and multiple classroom observations with each participant as well as the collection of various teacher documents, such as lesson plans, presentation notes, rubrics, and student handouts. Narrative methods were used in the data analysis. ^ Findings were …

The Composition Of First-Year Engineering Curricula And Its Relationships To Matriculation Models And Institutional Characteristics, Xingyu Chen

Open Access Dissertations

The preparation of technically excellent and innovative engineering graduates urges for a reform of the engineering curriculum to meet critical challenges in society (National Academy of Engineering, 2005). An examination of the current engineering curricula is needed to offer a baseline to further discuss if the curriculum reform meets the critical challenges. Meanwhile, concern about engineering retention prioritizes a review of the first-year engineering curricula. The existing literature does not include a nationwide examination of the first-year engineering curricula and introductory engineering courses. This study aspired to fill the gap by providing a detail description of the composition of first-year …

The Relationship Between Teacher Collaboration And Student Achievement, Davin E. Harpe

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this concurrent embedded mixed-methods study was to develop an instrument to measure principals' perceptions of teacher collaboration in their schools. The study further examined the relationship between perceptions of teacher collaboration and student achievement as measured by the Indiana "A-F" Accountability Model. Four key components of teacher collaboration were identified through a review of the literature. Those key components of teacher collaboration included 1) Job-Embedded Collaboration Time; 2) Common Goals; 3) Results Orientation; and 4) Working Interdependently. ^ Using a survey, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 359 Indiana elementary and middle school principals. Quantitative data …

The Relationship Between Teachers' Perceptions Of The Feedback They Receive And Their Teaching Efficacy In High-Performing Schools, Joshua D. St. John

Open Access Dissertations

As reform efforts are prescribed in every state through mandates and regulations in an effort to better prepare students to compete in a global economy, and as states like Indiana implement new evaluation plans for teachers based on a rigorous rubric and objective measures of student achievement, close attention to the ripple effects must be involved. While efforts such as professional learning communities and instructional coaches are aimed at building teacher capacity, maximum results can only be achieved when school leaders balance how they leverage their evaluative power while promoting these formative experiences. Absent in the drive for heightened accountability, …

Quality By Association Across North-South Divides: United States Accreditation Of Mexican Institutions Of Higher Education, Gerardo Blanco Ramírez

Open Access Dissertations

Institutional accreditation in higher education presents a dual reality: Accreditation is intended to hold colleges and universities accountable through external evaluation and, at the same time, accreditation constitutes an opportunity for higher education leaders to assess, improve, and communicate the quality of their undertakings. In an increasingly global field of higher education, quality practices become diffused across national boundaries. U.S. institutional accreditation is one of the quality practices embraced around the world; institutions of higher education, particularly in the Global South, aspire to obtain U.S. institutional accreditation. While important, this phenomenon has gone largely unexamined in research. This study follows …

Place And The Politics Of Knowledge In Rural Bolivia: A Postcoloniality Of Development, Ecology, And Well-Being, Karen Marie Lennon

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of the dynamics of place and people in a rural municipality in southeastern Bolivia. A study of the dialectical relations between knowledge, ecology, and culture that are manifest through the daily life of the municipality, it is an ethnography that illuminates the multiple discourses of colonialism, nationalism, modernity and decolonization that overlay one another. The contradictions and tensions produced through these intersecting discourses represent major obstacles to the project of "decolonization" and the formation of viable and equitable "intercultural" relationships, as promoted by the indigenous leadership which is the governing party of the Bolivian state …

Mitigating Negative Externalities Affecting Access And Equity Of Education In Low-Resource Countries: A Study Exploring Social Marketing As A Potential Strategy For Planning School Food Programs In Malawi, Martha Magreta-Nyongani

Open Access Dissertations

School feeding programs enhance the efficiency of the education system by improving enrollment, reducing dropouts and increasing perseverance. They also have the potential to reach the poor, directly making them an effective social safety net. In many low-resource countries, school feeding programs are designed to protect children from the effects of hunger. Unfortunately, the continuity of such programs is threatened by over-reliance on external funding. Given the patterns of withdrawal of external support, countries that rely on donor funds to implement such programs need to develop plans that will move them from external to localized support. It is well documented …

A Professional Development Program For The Mother Tongue-Based Teacher: Addressing Teacher Perceptions And Attitudes Towards Mtbmle, Rebecca J. Paulson Stone

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates teacher attitudes about language and education. The purpose of the study is to help program designers develop professional development efforts that successfully address some of the major identified challenges teachers face when transitioning into Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTBMLE), including negative attitudes. It also suggests protocols and issues that trainers should consider when designing professional development for MTBMLE teachers.

The research question guiding this study is:

1. Do teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge about mother tongue-based instruction change after they participate in professional development that is consistent with good professional development practice?

a. What were teachers' …

Latinas In The Pipeline To Baccalaureate -Prepared Nursing: Challenges And Supports In Persistence To Degree And Professional Licensure, Cheryl Ann Sheils

Open Access Dissertations

The United States is rapidly becoming a more racially diverse nation. Racial minority groups are projected to make up 47% of the total population in 2050 and if current population trends continue, they are projected to surpass the non-minority population by the end of the twenty-first century. Furthermore, the Latino population, already the nation's largest minority group, is expected to triple in size and is projected to account for 29% of the total U.S. population by 2050. Unfortunately, the educational pipeline has created a shortage of Latinos in higher education. At the same time, the United States is suffering from …

Policy Options To Finance Public Higher Education In Afghanistan, Frank Mcnernery

Open Access Dissertations

While recovering from decades of conflict and trying to adjust to an incipient free market economy, public higher education in Afghanistan is currently confronted with rapidly increasing enrollment and inadequate government financing. The imbalance between high demand for and insufficient supply of higher education has led to a decrease in the quality of education and an urgent need to develop non-state sources of funding. Using Johnstone’s (1986) diversified funding model as the conceptual framework, this exploratory case study reports actors’ attitudes and perceptions of the financing policy options for Afghan public higher education and the impediments to introduce this model …

Leadership Continuity: Enhancing The Cycle Of Leadership In Academic Departments, Nancy Buffone

Open Access Dissertations

In the corporate world, leaders typically plan for succession, carefully grooming their heir apparent. In academia, however, it is rare for such planning to occur at the institutional level, much less the departmental level. This multiple case study explores how twelve department chairs in one public research university think about leadership development for their departments. While succession planning - as defined in traditional management literature - does not occur in academic departments, current chairs are active in promoting leadership continuity - purposefully preparing and cultivating potential leaders who have the skills and knowledge to most readily step in as chair …