Education Commons^™

Leadership And Teacher Agency For Inclusive Classrooms: Insights About Integrating Students With Disabilities Into Inclusive Classrooms From Teachers And School Leaders In Three International Schools, Chad Wood

Dissertations

As international schools continue to flourish, they must consider how to be inclusive and meet the needs not only of multicultural populations of students, but also the needs of students with diagnosed learning difficulties (i.e., students with special needs). Promoting teacher agency is a potentially important component in successfully implementing inclusive practices given that teachers are key actors in the implementation process. Currently, however, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the interconnectedness of teacher agency and inclusion of special needs populations in international schools.

This qualitative research explores the role of school leaders in promoting teacher agency to support the …

Teacher Initiated Collaboration In Community: A Case Study Considering Communities Of Practice At A Title I Middle School, Katherine Stewart

Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigates how faculty members in a Title I middle school engage in collaborative practices to enhance professional growth without formal professional learning. Framed within a descriptive lens (Merriam, 1998) and informed by Brown and Duguid's Community of Practice (CoP) framework (1991), the study addresses two research questions: (1) How do teachers collaborate to improve their practice outside formal professional learning? (2) In what ways do these methods reflect the elements of CoP: working, learning, and innovating? Through data analysis, the study reveals that teachers predominantly collaborate on student behavior and classroom management, with curriculum being a …

Implementing A Professional Learning Community In A Private School In The Dominican Republic: An Instrumental Case Study, Miguelina Adelaida Coronado Cornelio

Dissertations

The initiative of turning schools into Professional Learning Communities (PLC) is being implemented by many schools and school systems in different countries. PLC processes have shown to be successful in enhancing teachers’ and students’ learning (Gumus, 2013; Michalak, 2009; Mullen & Schunk, 2010). The fact that the Dominican Republic (DR) is committed to improving the quality of education, the implementation of PLC processes seems to be a compelling option to reach this goal. The Dominican Ministry of Education has followed the guidelines that research in the U.S. and other countries have set and has recently adopted PLCs’ features and processes …

Trust In Leadership To Develop Collaborative School Culture And Effective Implementation Of Professional Learning Communities, Kara Mieszanek

Dissertations

DISSERTATION: TRUST IN LEADERSHIP TO DEVELOP COLLABORATIVE SCHOOL CULTURE AND EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Kara N. Mieszanek National Louis University

ABSTRACT

In education, we are constantly working toward increasing student achievement. Often, we pursue technical elements such as implementing programs, data analysis, utilizing assessment tools, embedding evaluation systems, etc. However, there is another critical element that may all too often get overlooked—the culture. The purpose of this study was to strip away all the layers required to achieve systemic change by observing what is at the core of it all: trust. Through qualitative and quantitative research, I took …

Co-Teaching As A Vehicle To Inclusion In A Diverse Suburban Middle School: A Case Study, Luis Correa

Dissertations

Many school districts across the United States have adopted, or are considering adopting, full inclusion to meet academic and social-emotional needs of increasingly diverse student populations. Co-teaching has become a popular approach for districts committed to inclusion. This study is about a Midwestern school district which more than 10 years ago committed itself to inclusion and co-teaching. The primary research question was: How do we make co-teaching more effective in the Fairview School District? A survey was sent to 120 co-teachers from three middle schools about their experiences with co-teaching in the areas of sharing responsibilities, co-teaching relationships, planning time, …

A Comparison Of Cooperative Learning And Collaboration In High School Geometry Classes Including Geometry In Construction, Shelley Gates

Dissertations

Currently offered at over 450 high schools in the United States, Geometry in Construction is an interdisciplinary course that provides students with the opportunity to learn Geometry content through the process of constructing a single-family home. Highly functioning cooperative groups are a critical element of the Geometry in Construction program. Cooperative learning is an effective instructional strategy that increases student achievement (Slavin, 2011) and also provides opportunities for students to develop collaboration and teamwork skills. Collaboration and teamwork are critical 21st century skills that are highly valued by employers and therefore worthy of consideration as foundational skills to be taught …

Leadership Practices That Create A Sustainable Collaborative Community, Regina Tillman

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the principal leadership practices perceived as supporting the development of professional learning communities and a sustainable collaborative culture. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to examine principal leadership practices school teachers in Antelope Valley School Districts perceive as important to creating a sustainable professional learning community. This study contributed to the literature to understand the important leadership practices that support the implementation and sustainability of professional learning communities. The participants in the present study were elementary principals and teachers implementing professional learning communities in Antelope Valley elementary school …

Transforming Conflict: A Grounded Theory Study Of Six Behavior Domains Of Leaders In Five Different Fields, Scott A. Dick

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this grounded theory research consisting of five collective phenomenological studies was to generate a theory that explains how exemplar leaders from five different fields use six domains of conflict transformation behaviors to establish common ground and produce breakthrough results. The six domains of behavior are communication, collaboration, ethics, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and process. Methodology: The sample was composed of 75 exemplar leaders from five different professional fields and included an analysis of over 1,300 pages of interview transcripts as the main data source for the study. Findings: The results found that exemplar leaders establish, build, …

The Effectiveness Of Digital Leadership At K-12 Schools In Mississippi Regarding Communication And Collaboration During Ccrs Implementation, Lin Zhong

Dissertations

Successful CCRS implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate at the local, state, and national level. Technology plays an important role in successful CCRS implementation. This study aims to investigate how digital leadership improves communication and collaboration at K-12 schools in Mississippi regarding implementation of CCRS as well as the effectiveness of different ways of supporting communication and collaboration regarding CCRS implementation. Mixed-method was chosen to investigate the research questions. Ten public school principals from two school districts were interviewed and observed at qualitative stage and two hundred fifty-four public schools teachers participated in the survey at quantitative stage. Interviews …

Teacher Leadership: Developing The Ability Of Teachers To Move Forward Independently—A Delphi Study Of Selected Secondary Teachers In Riverside County, California, Marilyn M. Saucedo

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the key learning opportunities necessary to build teacher leadership, the most difficult barriers to overcome, and the most important facilitators as identified by teacher experts. This study also sought to determine the best approaches to implementation of identified learning opportunities, the most effective approaches for overcoming identified barriers, and the most effective approaches for implementing facilitators that support teacher leaders.

Methodology: Consistent with a Delphi method, the instruments used within this study collected perceptual data from an expert panel of high school teachers from Riverside County, California, through an electronic format …

The Logistics Of Implementing A Field-Based Comprehensive School Reform Initiative, Dawn E. Reeves

Dissertations

This research is a qualitative, reflective case study regarding a cohort in the form of a district-university partnership between the Oak Park Schools in Oak Park, Michigan and the College of Education at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The initiators of the program envisioned a more successful urban school district by offering training beyond the traditional professional development to district teachers with an incentive of a Master’s Degree. The criteria of this particular initiative mandated that the program be field-based where all courses met in district buildings and be non-traditional, where all content was focused on the needs of …