Education Commons^™

Enriching Teacher Self-Efficacy Through A Support Centric Evaluation Model: A Mixed Methods Study Of Team's Impact On Teacher Self-Efficacy, Elizabeth Marie Norton

Doctoral Dissertations

The effectiveness of teacher evaluation systems is determined by the extent to which they can support improved instructional practice. Research suggests that implementation factors such as attitudes of school leaders (Kimball & Milanowski, 2009), perceptions of fairness (Delvaux, Vanhoof, Tuytens, Vekeman, Devos, & Petegem, 2013), the relationship of the evaluator and the teacher (Weber, 1987), and the quality of the feedback provided can all impact the effectiveness of the evaluation system (Conly & Glasman, 2008; Danielson, 2012; Delvaux et al., 2013; Weber, 1987). This mixed methods study attempted to determine the extent to which these implementation characteristics occurring within the …

Social Justice Teacher Educators Of Color: Their Work, Perspectives, And Insights, Nini V. Hayes

Doctoral Dissertations

For the first time in the US, the majority of public school students are students of color in addition to being culturally and linguistically diverse (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). Yet many teacher educators and teachers do not reflect this diversity (U.S. Dept. of Education, 2013). The overwhelming majority of teacher educators and teachers in the U.S. continue to be mono-racial, mono-linguistic, mono-cultural, and of a middle-class background; a workforce that misrepresents the demographics of this nation (Ladson- Billings, 2005). Students deserve educational settings that are a reflection of society’s diversity and also them. Therefore, diversifying the teacher workforce …

Slavery On Their Minds: Representing The Institution In Children's Picture Books, Raphael E. Rogers

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines how slavery is represented in contemporary children’s picture books. Given that many primary and secondary school teachers are committed to using picture book fiction to teach students about slavery, it is necessary to explore how slavery is depicted in these texts. One of the goals of this study is to contribute to the discussion about how the featured picture books engage with and respond to the early historiography of slavery, which asserted that Black slave were content and docile and that slave owners were kind and paternalistic. This study seeks to analyze how the picture books that …

Performing Critical Consciousness In Teaching: Entanglements Of Knowing, Feeling And Relating, Kathleen A. Mcdonough

Doctoral Dissertations

At a time when education reform is guided by neoliberalism, accountability and standardization have reshaped teaching as highly technocratic and threatened the democratic possibilities of public education. Even so, many teacher education programs have taken up the call to prepare teachers to teach for social justice, whether framed as multicultural education, critical literacy, or critical pedagogy. A construct that ties these pedagogical approaches together is critical consciousness, with the aim of some teacher education efforts to evoke critical consciousness among preservice teachers. This study focuses on exploring how nine educators from elementary grades to higher education experience and enact critical …

Expanding Democracy In Classrooms: History Teacher Candidates' Perceptions Of Student Feedback As A Democratic Teaching Practice, Irene S. Laroche

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the perceptions of middle and high school history teacher candidates about the use of student feedback as a democratic teaching practice. It explores preservice teachers' responses when asking students to comment about the use of interactive, student-centered teaching. In a collaborative action research approach, qualitative research methodologies were used to document experiences of candidates as they designed and implemented student surveys in classes and responded to what students said. Participants included 14 history teacher license candidates at a public university in the Northeast United States who were completing their pre-practicum and student teaching field experiences in history …

Reading Queerly In The High School Classroom: Exploring A Gay And Lesbian Literature Course, Kirsten Helmer

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how teaching an English literature curriculum centered on the stories, experiences, cultures, histories, and politics of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) people constitutes a meaningful site for teaching and learning in a high school classroom. The dissertation offers insights on how the teaching of LGBTQI-themed texts in English language arts classes can be reframed by bridging the goals, practices and conceptual tools of queer theory to critical literacies teaching. The project follows principles of critical qualitative research and employs an ethnographic case study approach with the purpose of transforming educational …

Postive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In Out Of School Time: Providing Professional Development Via Consultation And Performance Feedback, Sheera Hefter

Doctoral Dissertations

American youth are in need of supervision after the school day concludes. After School Programs (ASPs) provide students with safe and supportive venues that have the potential for encouraging student growth and development. ASPs across the country struggle to find high quality professionals to staff their programs; adequate training for these professionals is also limited. There is also significant evidence linking strong teacher-student relationships to both academic and social success. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a framework that has a strong evidence base to support success in promoting a proactive approach to behavior management within school settings. The …

Using Systemic Functional Linguistics To Inform A Language Pedagogy In A Middle School English Classroom A Case Study, Holly I. Graham

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative case study analyzes how a middle school teacher used the tools of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and genre based pedagogy (GBP) to support linguistically and culturally diverse students in analyzing informational texts critically in the context of curricular and school reforms in the United States. Using a combination of ethnographic case study methods (Dyson, 1993; Davies, 1999; Merriam, 2005; Dyson & Genishi, 2005) and critical discourse analysis (Eggins, 1999; Fairclough, 1995) the teacher collected an extensive corpus of diverse data over a school year. Focused data collection consistent with case study methods included instructional materials, paper and electronic …

Catch The Bus: Investigating The Correlations Between Teacher Collaborative Action-Taking And Self-Efficacy, Tara B. Brandt

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the correlations between particular teacher collaborative actions and teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Additionally, descriptive analyses provided a snapshot of current collaborative action-taking across US schools, and elucidated teachers’ present sense of self-efficacy. This study utilized existing data from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (sponsored by the OECD), which was completed by 1,926 lower secondary teachers from just over 120 different American schools. Multivariate correlational analysis confirmed that frequency of US teachers’ participation in collaborative actions significantly correlated to higher levels of teacher self-efficacy. Actions with the highest correlations included: taking …

A Discourse Analysis Of Beginning English Teachers' Identity Development, Joshua Peter Johnston

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation was a discourse analysis of how beginning English teachers’ talk contributes to the development of their teacher identities. The study drew on the epistemological and ontological assumptions of discursive psychology, and as such it used methods consistent with discursive psychology and conversation analysis. The data for the study were comprised of twenty-one audio-recorded meetings of eight student teachers in a year-long internship and their field supervisor, who was also the researcher. Orienting to the construct of identity as socially negotiated, unstable, and multiple, the study sought to identify specific discursive strategies that beginning English teacher’s employ to negotiate …

Coaching Conversations: Discourse Within Reading Recovery Teacher Leader Training, Kristi Dawn Swafford

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the discourse of literacy coaching conversations within the Reading Recovery Teacher Leader training year. Both Reading Recovery and literacy coaching have been well researched, however there were gaps in the literature concerning the role of the Reading Recovery Teacher Leader within Reading Recovery and the details of literacy coaching interactions, specifically the language of coaching sessions. This study sought to address these gaps in the literature by examining the discourse of Reading Recovery Teacher leaders and their coaches as they participated in literacy coaching sessions during their 2014.2015 training year. Eleven coaching …

“Beyond The Four Walls Of My Building”: A Case Study Of #Edchat And The Power Of Connectedness, Virginia G. Britt

Doctoral Dissertations

Professional development is an important aspect of all teachers' careers as a way to continually grow and enrich his/her craft. It is particularly important for K-12 American teachers because of the continual push to increase student achievement. With the introduction of social media networks, teachers are able to connect and learn from others outside their school building to those across the world. While we know Twitter and other social media sites have grown in popularity with educators, we still do not know what is happening within this online space and how it supports teachers. The purpose of this case study …

The Relationship Between Demands And Resources And Teacher Burnout: A Fifteen-Year Meta-Analysis, Tammy Marie Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis explored the phenomenon of teacher burnout— the biggest contributor to teacher attrition (Owens, 2013; Unterbrink, 2014; Yu, 2015). The focus of this study was to use meta-analytical procedures to explore the relationship between burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of personal accomplishment) and specific demand and resource correlates. Demand correlates included work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and student misbehavior. Resource correlates included peer support, supervisory support, and decision-making. This meta-analytical research method encompassed fifteen years of published and unpublished studies from January 2000 through January 2015. A total of 116 studies met the following inclusion …

#Learningtoteach: Using Instagram To Elicit Pre-Service Teacher Reflection, Monica Thomas Billen

Doctoral Dissertations

The ability to reflect has been identified as a crucial element of teacher expertise. In the past, teacher education programs have encouraged pre-service teachers to become reflective practitioners by keeping journals, creating portfolios, and/or engaging in conversation. However, these methods do not allow individuals to utilize parts of the brain that process visual information. This qualitative study investigated the reflective practice of fourteen pre-service teachers who utilized visual information through photos on Instagram. The purpose of this naturalistic qualitative study was to describe and better understand the development and reflective practice of beginning teachers through observation, interview, and documents. Specifically, …

What Middle Schoolers Want: An Analysis Of The Most Circulated Texts In A Public School District, Kimberly Flanders Mccuiston

Doctoral Dissertations

In today’s climate of education reform and the classroom concentration on texts that are academically rigorous, it is easy to forget the importance of encouraging voluntary reading for adolescents. Understanding students’ interests in texts can provide teachers with the knowledge to promote voluntary reading within the classroom. This embedded case study examined the popularity of texts in a public school district’s middle school libraries through quantitative data drawn from library circulation records. The records from 12 public middle school libraries from a school district in the southeastern United States were used to determine the 10 most frequently checked out books …

Principals’ Perceived Influence Over New Teacher Retention, Meredith Coates

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Studies report that nearly a third of novice teachers leave the field before their third year of service (Ingersoll, 2002), and almost half of novice teachers leave the field before completing their fifth year of service (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003; Johnson, 2004). These rates of turnover have remained steady (NCES, 2011). Schools are workplaces where teachers face a multitude of factors that collectively contribute to job satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Generally, research has indicated that administrative support has a profound effect on the experiences of new teachers (Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004). The purpose of this phenomenological study is to examine 6 principals’ …

Comprehensive Self-Selected Reading And Student Engagement With The Novel: A Program Evaluation, Jennesis Kathleen Jensen

Doctoral Dissertations

Not reading (Krashen, 2009) is a phenomenon widely noted in students assigned to read as a part of school curriculum. A solution to the many criticisms and deficits cited in the literature surrounding the practice of not reading may lie in the CSSR (Comprehensive Self-Selected Reading) program chosen for focus in this study. In this high school student-reading program, incoming students are guided through a process of textual self-selection and evaluation in an enthusiastic, engaging, and motivating manner. During an eight-month study duration, thirty-two 10th grade students actively read a total of 24,419 pages collaboratively, and 763.09 pages on average. …

Catholic Secondary School Principals' Perceptions Of The Qualities Of Effective Catholic Secondary School Teachers, Theresa Greene Henning

Doctoral Dissertations

Church documents and scholars have affirmed that the success of Catholic schools is largely dependent on the effectiveness of their teachers. Teacher effectiveness in general has also been correlated with various aspects of school life such as student learning and achievement, teacher leadership, and school effectiveness. However, there is little research of what constitutes effective teaching in a Catholic school. The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of importance that Catholic secondary school principals of the Archdioceses of Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York (N=166) attribute to the five qualities comprising Shimabukuro’s (1993, 1998) typology of …

Latina Immigrant Mothers' Counterstories Of Education: Challenging Deficit Myths, Nancy Aileen Mcnee

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite major gains in working-class Latin@ immigrant graduation rates and college attendance in recent years, most educators and administrators still perceive Latin@ students with deficit mindsets. Majoritarian storytelling perpetuates deficit myths about working-class Latin@ immigrant students and their families not valuing education. This study joins a growing body of research that uses counterstories to challenge deficit mentalities in education toward working-class Latin@ immigrant students and their families.

This qualitative study involved individual, focus group, and member checking interviews with four Latin@ immigrant mothers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the study was to learn about the following …