Education Commons^™

“I’M Listening, Auntie” A Study On The Experiences Of Black Women Earning A Doctorate Degree In Education At A California State University, Parker Rugeley-Valle

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Black women face barriers to higher education that include systemic racism and sexism that lead to self–doubt, discrimination, and familial and community support. They battle barriers to and within academia through the intersectionality of their sex and racial identity groups. As a response to the barriers they face in higher education, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Black women navigating a doctoral program in education at a California State University. To explore the experiences of the participants, I used a qualitative study with a Heideggerian phenomenological approach and a Black feminist lens. A three­–question interview, …

Representation Counts: Intern Teachers Of Color And Their Perspectives Of Teaching In A California County, Girlie M. Hale

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Intern teachers are more likely to be placed in hard-to-fill content areas, such as math, science, and special education, which exacerbates their initial teaching experiences as teachers of record. For new teachers in their intern credential program, these factors compound the stress of attending coursework while managing their experience as a novice in the classroom. Without proper mentoring and support in these placements, teachers of color may perceive themselves as feeling less successful in the classroom. In this mixed methods study, the researcher investigated the types of support intern teachers of color need in successfully completing their teacher preparation program. …

All In Pix Ypar: A Youth Participatory Action Research Study Of Students With Significant Disabilities In High School, Jessica L. Jennings

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Education facilitates community involvement, participation, and acceptance, but not for students with significant disabilities who are taught in separate settings. The policy of separate education derives from arcane beliefs, limited research, and misconceptions that result in people with disabilities having choices made for them not with them. The All IN Pix YPAR asked six high school students with significant disabilities to photo document a week in their high school yearbook class. Each day after school, the students discussed a single photo using a modified photovoice method in structured interviews using the SHOWeD questioning protocol. After data capture, during a Zoom …

Disappearing Acts: The Declining Numbers Of African American Teachers In Public School Settings, Catherine F. Lewis-Brownfield

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

African American teachers are slowly leaving the classroom, causing an imbalance in the student/teacher ratio (NCES, 2019). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, African American teachers make up 3% in California and 7% nationally. This study sought to understand the reasons for the decline in the number of African American teachers in public school settings. Due to the decline in their numbers, African American students have suffered high dropout rates, low standardized test scores, and low college attendance (Gershenson, Hart, Hyman, Lindsey, & Papageorge, 2017). This qualitative study examined the obstacles current African American teachers face and the …

Self-Advocacy For Postsecondary Students Who Use Mobility Aids, Erin Moore

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Students who use mobility aids add to the diversity of postsecondary institutions. They provide a unique and important lens on postsecondary campuses. When students who use mobility aids arrive on campus, they need to ensure they have access to classes, services, and resources on campus. Because of their varied needs and varied access from campus-to-campus, students who use mobility aids must advocate for themselves so their needs are met. This phenomenological study examined the role of self-advocacy for postsecondary students who use mobility aids.

Five postsecondary students who use wheelchairs were interviewed using a semi-structured interview process that asked questions …

Supporting Instructors To Promote At-Promise Students’ Success: How Faculty Coordinators Facilitate Tslc’S Ecological Validation, Jonathan Toccoli

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of research and billions of dollars spent per annum to promote at-promise student—that is, low-income, first-generation, and/or racially/ethnically minoritized students—college success, at-promise students continue to be retained and graduate at lower rates than their traditionally college-going peers. The purpose of this study is to investigate how faculty coordinators in the Thompson Scholars Learning Community (TSLC) facilitate and integrate instructors into the program’s ecological validation which has been found to promote at-promise student success. This study is framed by the ecological validation model of student success in conjunction with a systems theory perspective of faculty roles to investigate how …

The Importance Of Administrative Support For Special Education Teachers, Shari E. Lujan

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Since the inception of special education laws in the 1970’s, special education teachers have been given the responsibility of educating children with exceptional needs. Those needs range from children with mild to moderate disabilities to children with moderate to severe disabilities. There are 13 categories that a child can qualify for special education services through an Individual Education Program (IEP). The majority of children with exceptional needs are educated on general education campuses. With high stakes testing and the push for academic excellence, one may wonder how a child with exceptional needs fits into a general education campus. The Education …

Chicanas Completing The Doctorate In Education: Providing Consejos De La Mesa De Poder, Sandra J. Castañón-Ramirez

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study described four testimonios from Chicanas who have successfully completed a doctorate in education degree, both Ph.D. and Ed.D. The literature reviewed three important areas of study. The first is a review of the systemic challenges that Chicanas must hurdle; cheap labor, segregation of schools and neighborhoods, being silenced through English-only education, and deficit thinking. The second area of review focused on ways that Chicanas create strategies for success to overcome these challenges. The third was a review of the theoretical literature through a distinctly and relevant Chicana feminist lens.

Chicanas’ strategies for success were collected as testimonios. …

The Relationship Between Mentoring And Instructional Leadership Effectiveness: Gender Differences Between School Site Leaders, Kristina Britton

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Less than 25% of superintendent positions, the highest level of educational leadership, are occupied by women. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that over 75% of the nation’s teaching force are women. A significant barrier cited in the literature is that there is a deficiency in the support needed for women to successfully promote into higher-level administrative positions. Although mentoring has been shown to be key factor for female administrators’ success in educational administration, this study provides quantitative data to demonstrate the need for quality mentoring opportunities for school site administrators.The purpose of this research study was to …

The Effects Of Peer Administered Methods For Increasing Social Interaction Between Young Handicapped And Nonhandicapped Children, Marilyn Kathleen Errett

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to compare the use of peer administered contingent reinforcement for social interaction with the use of play materials that facilitate interaction. The subsequent effects on the social interaction of mainstreamed preschool handicapped children with their nonhandicapped peers was examined. Three nonhandicapped kindergarten children were paired with three moderately mentally handicapped preschool children and trained to initiate play. A single-subject, alternating treatment design with a withdrawal phase was used to compare the effects of the two treatments. Generalization immediately following each treatment was also examined as was maintenance over time. Observers used an interval recording …

The Effects Of An Enriched Educational Program On The Academic, Intellectual, And Behavioral Functioning Of Underachieving, Culturally Disadvantaged, Mentally Gifted Minors, Douglas Charles Widdup

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. This study was designed to investigate the effects of a special remedial program on the intellectual, academic, and behavioral functioning of underachieving, culturally disadvantaged, mentally gifted minors. The study also concerned itself with student school attendance and parent attendance at parent-teacher conferences. Variables. The selected variables for this study were IQ, academic achievement, student behavior, student attendance, and parent attendance at teacher conferences. IQ was measured with the Stanford-Binet LM intelligence test. Academic achievement was measured with two instruments, the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills in Reading, Language, and Arithmetic, and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test in Reading Recognition, …

Educationally Handicapped Children: A Comparative Study Of Academic Achievement, Creativity And Locus Of Control With Students In Learning Disability Groups And Special Day Classes, Grades Three And Four, Rodney Tognetti

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to survey ·learning disability students and students in special day classes and to compare them on select characteristics to each other and to children attending regular day classes.

VARIABLES: The selected variables. for this study were creativity, locus of control, and academic achievement. Each of these variables was divided into sub-parts permitting a more inclusive consideration. Creativity was measured for the factors of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Locus of control was separated into three parts, each measuring one of the following: student responsibility for academic failure, (I-); responsibility for academic success, (I+); …

A Study Of Early Reasoning Skills In The Trainable Mentally Retarded : As Related To Piaget's Seriation Theory, Robert William Ginther

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

In terms of Piaget's theory of cognitive development and the relationship he attributes between reasoning and the development of classification and seriation skills, the following questions arise: can early reasoning ability be enhanced through training? If IQ tests are accepted as measures of intellectual function, do they then contain a significant number of seriation type questions? If so, will the seriation test be an accepted measure of intellectual function?

A Survey Of Speech Therapy Programs Of Selected School Districts Within A One Hundred Mile Radius Of Lodi, California, Edward O. Tempel

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Recognition of the need for special education for school children with speech handicaps was first made in Potsdam, Germany, in 1896. Twelve years later in 1908 the first public school class in speech correction in the United States was organized in New York City, Programs of speech and hearing re-education in the public schools of the United States have expanded from this single metropolitan system in 1908 to a nation-wide effort in little more than fifty years.

In the United States today more than two million school children require remedial services from competently trained speech clinicians. In California public schools …

What Parents Of Mentally Retarded Pupils Think Of Their Children's School Program, Forrest Duane Boots

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

What do the parents of mentally retarded children in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District think of the school program for their children? The purpose of this study was to assist the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in evaluating its program for the mentally retarded in the light of parents’ reaction.

A History Of The Development Of Speech Correction In The San Francisco Unified School District, 1915-1956, Alfred Donald Cross

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Public school speech correction programs have existed for many years throughout the United States. Most of these programs have been involved. in one or more of the following experiences: expansion, enrichment, curtailment, and. withdrawal.

Statement of the problem, It is the purpose of this study (l) to investigate the historical development of the speech correction program in the San Francisco Unified School District; (2) to determine the major factors that influenced the direction of the development of the program; and. (3) to ascertain the positive determinants of improvement in the further development of the San Francisco public school speech correction …

Pupil Retardation In The Elementary Public Schools Of Stockton,California, Elsie Copeman Mclerie

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The problem is this study is to locate and analyze the retarded pupils in the Stockton Elementary Public Schools. A retarded pupil is defined as one who is eight years or over in the first grade; nine years or over in the second grade; ten years or over in the third grade --- and so on. The following chart shows the ages that are considered normal for each grade: [see PDF]