Education Commons^™

Environments Of Excellence: Two Literate Homes And Teachers' Perspectives, Tracy Swinton Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

African American children and other children of Color and children living in low-income areas are not performing at the same academic level as their European American counterparts. Some educators have blamed those children and their families for their failure. However, studies show that teaching and learning is happening in all familial settings, and that environments of excellence where the characteristics, conditions, dispositions and practices support student academic success are being established and maintained in all communities, including low-income African American communities. Disregard for this fact has led to a challenge for marginalized children and a widening of the gap between …

Building Resiliency: Supporting Elementary School Students Through Parental Bereavement, Sandra Kerr Ray

Theses and Dissertations

This study employed qualitative methods to learn what understandings, practices, and interventions were used by educators from one elementary school to support bereaved children in the classroom and as members of a school community. Educators reported uncertainty about how children grieve, how to talk with children about a deceased parent, how to talk with the bereaved child’s peers about parental death, and how to balance the bereaved child’s emotional and academic needs. Educators were also uncertain about how to recognize and intervene when a parental death was remote in time and the child’s grief response was attenuated (e.g., anxiety, disengagement, …

Identifying And Encouraging Math In Children's Out-Of-School Activities In The Rural Lowcountry Of South Carolina, Sherry Carillon Hyatt

Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that children of different backgrounds and cultures learn and perform differently in mathematics despite similar intelligence levels and mathematics instruction (Alvarez & Bali, 2004). Ethnomathematics strives to explore and explain such phenomena in terms of the complex role culture plays in one's background experiences and perceptions that influence cognition and how school is experienced (Ascher, 1991; Barton, 1996; Bishop, 1994; D'Ambrosio, 1994). The importance of recognizing and utilizing the mathematical concepts imbedded in students' everyday activities is stressed in the field of ethnomathematics (Ascher, 1991; Bishop, 1994; Presmeg, 1998). In order to relate students' out-of-school experiences to content …

Generational Differences In Motivation To Attend College, John Michael Cote

Theses and Dissertations

The National Center for Education Statistics recently released a report indicating that the amount of full-time students attending college has increased by 45 percent over the past ten years. While many reasons assist in explaining this increase in college attendance, this study explored the differences in motivations for attending college amongst generations. This quantitative study used secondary data collected by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman survey to explore the differences in reasons for attending college amongst the Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Millennial generations and predict reasons that may be important to future generations of college students. These …

"The Constellations Were In A Different Place": Using Blogs To Understand Student Learning During Study Abroad, Leslie Pitman

Theses and Dissertations

While a great deal of research has been done on the pedagogical implications and uses of blogging, and even more research has been done on the effects of study abroad, few studies has investigated the use of blogging as a way that learning is processed during study abroad. This study sought to understand how students use blogs during a study abroad semester and the ways in which the blogs reveal evidence of learning. Eleven blogs, written by students at the University of South Carolina (USC) during their respective semesters abroad, were read, coded, and analyzed in order to answer the …

Cortisol And Working Memory In Boys With Fragile X Syndrome, Jessica F. Scherr

Theses and Dissertations

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder and the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability. Although FXS is associated with global cognitive impairments, specific deficits in working memory have been reported in young males with FXS. Working memory is an important cognitive process that involves the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information over a short period of time. Deficits in working memory can negatively impact an individual's academic, behavioral, and social functioning. Chronic stress can adversely influence working memory performance and can be measured physiologically through salivary cortisol. It is important to study the complex relationship of …

Lessons In Success: A Multi-Campus Study Of Factors Influencing Academic Accomplishment Among High-Achieving African American Students At Private Liberal Arts Colleges, Ryan Andrew Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the academic experiences of highly successful African-American male graduates of small, private liberal arts colleges using a qualitative approach. Fourteen highly successful alumni from selective, private colleges were purposefully selected for the study, including seven African-American males and seven white males. In semi-structured interviews, participants retrospectively described positive experiences they associated with their academic success in college. The study observed the importance of the small college in creating a deep sense of connection across the campus, empowering students to take risks that helped them succeed academically. This research also explored the idea …

The Glass Cliff: An Examination Of The Female Superintendency In South Carolina, Blanche Boyd Bowles

Theses and Dissertations

South Carolina public school districts are confronted with a series of difficult circumstances and rely more on female superintendents than the national average. The investigation of female South Carolina superintendents was guided by the glass cliff conceptual framework. The glass cliff represents situations where females are promoted over males to risky or precarious leadership positions where the chance of failure is high

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to examine the relationship between the sex of South Carolina public school superintendents to (a) self-reported transformational leadership behaviors and (b) select district indicators indicative of the difficult circumstances confronted …

The Financial Nexus Of College Choice And Persistence At For-Profit Institutions, Benjamin James Bryan

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined student persistence to attainment at for-profit institutions of higher education using the financial choice-persistence nexus theoretical framework (St. John, Paulsen, & Starkey, 1996). Nexus theory predicts that when students' experiences are not consistent with expectations, students perceive that their implicit contract with the institution has been violated and may choose to leave. This phenomenon has not previously been studied in the for-profit sector. This study examined how students' expectations of college, related to their choice of institution, subsequently impact their persistence decisions at for-profit schools, and how students' expectations affect the way that financial influences such as …

International Graduate Students' Experiences With Race, Racial Identity, And Racialization At Home And In The United States: A Comparative Case Study, Ashlee Amanda Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

As the number of students studying in the United States (U.S.) has risen, scholars have increasingly paid attention to multiple aspects of the international student experience. Despite a proliferation of studies generally addressing the topic of international students, few studies have explicitly addressed the ways in which international students' sense of identity may be complicated during their time living and studying in the U.S. Scholarly inquiries into how international students experience racialization and the American racial paradigm have been missing from the overall discourse around "the international student experience."

This dissertation study contributes to that discourse by examining international graduate …

An Examination Of Significant Factors Distinguishing Successful, On-Time High School Graduation Rates Among Black Males At A Large South Carolina High School, Sherry Mitchell Eppelsheimer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine what students see as significant factors that impact their successful high school on-time graduation rates, particularly among Black males in a large South Carolina high school with respect to No Child Left Behind requirements. Through a comparative case study, qualitative research methods were used to identify significant factors, supports and/or barriers to Black male success and achievement of on-time graduation. Through individual interviews and observations of a subgroup of 7 Black males between the ages of 17 to 19, commonalities emerged that led to high school graduation. A comparison using a grounded …

A Teacher's Perceptions Of Inquiry: Where Inquiry Experiences, Beliefs And Practice Intersect, Michelle Avila Vanderburg

Theses and Dissertations

Linda Darling-Hammond (2008), a member of President Obama's education transition team, published a collection of chapters, each written by prominent researchers in the field of education. Throughout this compilation, the idea of using inquiry in the classroom was heralded again and again. Darling-Hammond argued for the "implementation of inquiry-based curriculum that engages children in extended, constructive work, often in collaborative groups, and subsequently demands a good deal of self-regulated inquiry" (p. 13). Significant in Darling-Hammond's message was that educators need to provide students with experiences that allow them to become inquirers who can construct their own knowledge. However, while the …

An Assessment Of Instructional Coaching: Results Of A Survey Of Selected School Districts In South Carolina, Heather Clayton Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine teachers' perceptions of instructional coaching. Four research-based instructional coaching best practices were identified for the development of a survey. The four instructional coaching best practices were: collaborating with teachers to address school-wide instructional concerns and practices, collaboratively planning with a teacher to identify when and how an instructional intervention might be implemented, modeling instructional practices in teachers' classrooms, and observing teachers and providing teachers with feedback. Data were collected through the researcher constructed Teachers' Perceptions of Instructional Coaching survey. Elementary teachers in four school districts in the Upstate of South Carolina participated …

"Makin' It": A Study Of First Generation College Graduates Lives Out Of Poverty, Sharla Benson-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars across various disciplines concur that poverty , especially when experienced generationally, is difficult to escape (MacLeod, 2009; Bowles & Gintis, 2002; Nieto, 2005; Corak, 2006; Sawhill & Haskins, 2008). Yet, while much is known about the existence and persistence of poverty, we know less about how and why those individuals who successfully escape poverty are able to do so (Hardaway & McLoyd, 2009).

Guided by critical social and institutional theory this qualitative study, examined the experiences of individuals who grew up in generational poverty (with parents who had no high school diploma), yet became first-generation college graduates, and entered …

Public Education In A 'Religious State': South Carolina Responds To Engel V. Vitale (1962), Abington V. Schempp (1963), And Murray V. Curlett (1963), Jessica Kathleen Sweeney

Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception in the mid-1800s, public education has been one of the most contested arenas in American life. Among the battles fought in this domain, none have been more heated than the appropriate role of religion in the public schools. From the 1844 Philadelphia Bible Riots, to the 1925 debate over Darwinism and Creationism, to recent skirmishes regarding the Pledge of Allegiance, these and other disputes have been the subject of considerable scholarship. In South Carolina, however, one controversy regarding the intersection of religion and public education has received little attention, namely the trio of harshly criticized Supreme Court …

A Constructivist Examination Of Counselors' Conceptualization Of "Sexuality": Implications For Counselor Education, Wenndy Dupkoski Mallicoat

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the dialectical dilemma between meeting the demands of the managed health care industry through the adherence to the medical model while promoting an emphasis on wellness, the counseling profession does not promote a consistent definition of sexuality. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach from a constructivist lens, this study was conducted to examine the construct "sexuality" and "sexuality counseling" from counselors' perspectives. One synchronous online focus group and two online individual interviews were conducted with counselors predominantly in the Southeastern United States. Themes from the data include: Sexuality is multi-dimensional; sexuality is developmental; sexuality counseling is dialectical; and sexuality …

The Relationship Of South Carolina Teachers' Work-Related Stress With Years Of Experience, Feelings And Coping Strategy, Michelle Munnell

Theses and Dissertations

Background. Stress has been found to affect workers in various occupations, and teaching appears particularly stressful. Work-Related Stress (WRS) affects teachers and people with whom they interact. Previous research suggests WRS may be related to characteristics including teaching experience, feelings, and coping strategy. Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate further the relationship of teacher stress, while expanding the investigation in several areas: utilizing a different geographic population, broadening the focus to generic WRS, and including teachers with less experience. Current model builds on Kyriacou and Sutcliffe's (1978) and Tolbert's (2007) teacher stress models. This study examined relationships …

Professional Conversations About Race, Culture And Language In Early Childhood Literacy Education: An Administrator's Journey, Sabina Maria Mosso-Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Year after year, children of Color, speakers of languages other than English, and children of poverty are served less well in public schools then their White, middle-class peers. The lives of children from White, middle-class homes are regularly normalized as they are described by teachers, administrators, policy makers, and educational programs as those with the most worth and knowledge. In all too many settings, cultures and languages outside this narrowly-defined norm are perceived from deficit perspectives. This hierarchy perpetuates a status quo that privileges and therefore supports the success of some, while devaluing and contributing to the failure of others. …

The Relationship Of Principal Conflict Management Style And School Climate, Miriam Miley Boucher

Theses and Dissertations

Using a mixed-methods design, this study examined conflict management styles of elementary school principals in South Carolina and the relationship of conflict management style and school climate. The Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II,

Form B, which identifies five styles of managing conflict, was used to determine principal conflict management style preferences. Eight indicators on the South Carolina school report cards were used to measure school climate. Seven principals were interviewed to obtain additional information on conflict management style preferences. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Spearman's rho statistic. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed to provide qualitative data. Principals …

Major Adjustment: Students' Transition Experiences Leaving Selective Undergraduate Degree Programs, Helen Mulhern Halasz

Theses and Dissertations

This multi-campus, qualitative study investigated how undergraduate students previously enrolled in selective majors described coping resources utilized during the transition of leaving their previous major and selecting a new academic degree program. The study also examined which resources students identified as most valuable, and coping resources most influential in their retention decisions. Research about students in selective degree programs has been absent for the last 20 years, and previous research studies have not given voice to the experiences of students in transition between majors. The conceptual underpinning of this study was the 4 S System (Goodman, Schlossberg, and Anderson, 2006), …

A Case Study Of Principals' Knowledge Of Early Childhood Literacy, Christine Elizabeth Leblanc

Theses and Dissertations

Nationally approximately 40 percent of third grade students do not read at grade level. Principals play a critical role in providing leadership in the implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) to ensure that students not making adequate yearly progress receive targeted instruction to address their deficiencies. The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of five principals through an investigation of their understanding of the reading process as it relates to the implementation of RtI in their schools. I specifically wish to understand: What do principals know about early childhood literacy and how do they use that knowledge …

Impact Of The Child Development Program On Reading Achievement Of Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade Students In An Urban School District, Tai Elizabeth Lynch

Theses and Dissertations

Educational leaders are charged with making informed decisions regarding various aspects of schooling that affect the overall achievement of students. Numerous legislative ideas, funding initiatives, programming standards, and practicing guidelines for early childhood education programs have been introduced (Buyssee & Wesley, 2006). Early care and education have become significant components of social policy due to the increase in the number of individuals in the workplace and the increasing roles of government in education and reform, as well as the continued concern for school readiness and achievement (Urban Institute, 2009). Americans often state that children are “our most precious natural resource” …

Variability Across Repeat Assessment Of Working Memory And Processing Speed In Referred Populations, Dawn Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Developmentally, it is expected that the processes of working memory and processing speed will improve throughout childhood as a child's brain develops. However, students with learning, attention, and other childhood disorders often display difficulties in these areas. This study investigated the use of repeated measures to ascertain variability over time of two important cognitive processes: Working Memory and Processing Speed in a clinically referred population as measured by the WISC-IV to determine if a significant discrepancy exists between administrations. The study also investigated whether differences in Working Memory and Processing Speed from administration to administration would be greater in children …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Gordon Allport's Contact Hypothesis Ability To Increase Cultural Openness In First Year College Students, David Alan Kahn

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to test Gordon Allport's theory of Contact Hypothesis about cultural attitude change in college students. Participants were college First year students participating in First year seminar classes in a small southeastern liberal arts university. The treatment group of randomly selected First year seminar classes was exposed to a one-week seminar designed to address the issue of cultural diversity. A non-treatment group received the standard instruction on this issue. The content of the seminar included exposure to multicultural issues that include Allport's most important tenants for changing prejudicial attitudes. For this study components of Allport's …

School Counselors' Perceptions Of Their Role In Assisting Students With College Preparedness, Tabatha Mcallister

Theses and Dissertations

Access to quality precollege counseling is a crucial component of students' post-secondary educational planning. High school counselors provide educational planning and guidance to students which make them a valuable commodity to obtain information for students contemplating their postsecondary options (Hoyt, 2001). School counselors are situated as the focal point for students and their parents to obtain the information needed for academic and financial college preparedness. The research problem was ascertaining a descriptive definition of the elements that comprise the roles of the school counselor in student post-secondary preparedness. As well as determining if there are factors that enhance or inhibit …

An Examination Of Middle School Counselors' Comfort With Technology, Patricia Christina Roddy

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the differences in comfort with technology in middle school counselors in South Carolina. The researcher’s goal was to determine the effects of years of experience, technology training, gender, and age on middle school counselors’ comfort with technology.

After a review of literature, it was determined that this study was warranted to determine middle school counselors’ comfort with technology. As technology progresses, it is critical that school counselors are appropriately trained to utilize technology in their work. Their comfort levels with technology should be as strong as their ability to use a …

Re-Examining The Past And Rethinking The Future At Mount Mulanje Forest Reserve, Malawi: New Directions For Local Engagement, Mary Christian Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1980s, broad recognition has been given to the need for and the benefits of aligning the protection of biodiversity in threatened forest ecosystems with measures to address the needs and desires of people living near and depending on those ecosystems. With this research project I focus on one such ecosystem found at the Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve (MMFR) in southern Malawi. Large amounts of money and time have been put forth by local, national, and international donors and conservation organizations to support the goals of biodiversity conservation and social development at MMFR. In order to explore how managers …

Perceptions Of Elementary School Principals: Turning High Poverty Elementary Schools In South Carolina Into High-Performing Elementary Schools, Katie Wall Barber

Theses and Dissertations

There is no question that economic deprivation has an adverse impact on student achievement. In the United States, the gaps in achievement among poor and advantaged students are substantial. Through multiple studies, the United States Department of Education (2006) indicated results that "clearly demonstrated that poverty adversely affected student achievement." Closing the achievement gap and achieving success for all students presents a challenge for schools, particularly those located in high-poverty areas (Brock & Groth, 2003). Current research illustrates that some schools, often referred to as high-performing, high-poverty schools, have led their low-income student populations to high levels of achievement, matching …