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Full-Text Articles in Education

Youth Producing Voice: A Video-Cued Ethnography Of A Media Education Classroom, Isabel C. Castellanos Aug 2023

Youth Producing Voice: A Video-Cued Ethnography Of A Media Education Classroom, Isabel C. Castellanos

Doctoral Dissertations

From mini screens on our cell phones to large flat screens hanging in institutional hallways, visual digital media are part of our everyday lives. This is especially true for youth, who in their leisure time increasingly spend time watching and making video content. Yet there are few opportunities for youth in either their community or school settings to access formal instruction in digital media literacy, including video production. In this dissertation, I examine the possibilities and challenges for doing youth media inside schools. What do youth allow themselves to say when doing media production in school and how do they …


Examining Small-Group Discourse Through The Lens Of Students’ Beliefs About Mathematics And The Instructional Triangle, Jennifer Ericson Mar 2022

Examining Small-Group Discourse Through The Lens Of Students’ Beliefs About Mathematics And The Instructional Triangle, Jennifer Ericson

Doctoral Dissertations

Standards-based mathematics instruction [SBMI], with opportunities to engage in high-quality mathematical discourse about meaningful tasks, leads to increased student achievement. However, not all students participate in mathematical discourse with high-quality. Esmonde & Langer-Osuna (2013) found that students participate in discourse with various degrees of engagement based upon individual beliefs. Boaler (2006b) found that SBMI in a detracked setting improves students’ beliefs about mathematics. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to illustrate the phenomenon of incongruent written curricula commitments across grade bands in a school district by examining small-group discourse and students’ mathematical related beliefs. This study compared students’ …


Agential Schooling: Posthumanism, Ypar, And Spooky Entanglements, Thomas Albright Jun 2021

Agential Schooling: Posthumanism, Ypar, And Spooky Entanglements, Thomas Albright

Doctoral Dissertations

This yearlong ethnographic project, building upon three years of work within an Ethnic Studies program, examined schooling through a posthumanist lens to better understand the intra-actions between humans, nonhumans, and discourses in a public high school along with an afterschool youth participatory action research program in Western Massachusetts. Intra-action here refers to the way that the bodies are co-constitutive. A posthuman framing of schooling, what I label agential schooling, demonstrates how schooling is protean, and shifts as we seek to understand and challenge it. To shed light on this issue of examining agential schooling, and YPAR as a possible intervention …


Educators Perceptions Of Ebd, Inclusion, And Evidence-Based Practices, Andrea Larmon Apr 2021

Educators Perceptions Of Ebd, Inclusion, And Evidence-Based Practices, Andrea Larmon

Doctoral Dissertations

The field of education has been changing with regard to inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Not only are we seeing more students with disabilities being educated in public schools, but we are seeing students with more significant special education needs. Although schools are expected to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), many of the staff within the school, such as special education teachers, general education teachers, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and even administrators, aren’t sure how to provide the services and implement the strategies to allow the students …


“I Missed A Lot Of Childhood Memories”: Trauma And Its Impact On Learning For Formerly Incarcerated Adolescents In The Age Of Zero Tolerance Policies, Alberto Guerrero Jul 2020

“I Missed A Lot Of Childhood Memories”: Trauma And Its Impact On Learning For Formerly Incarcerated Adolescents In The Age Of Zero Tolerance Policies, Alberto Guerrero

Doctoral Dissertations

The literature makes abundantly clear that trauma has a detrimental impact on students’ academic and behavioral efforts. It also challenges the notion of zero tolerance disciplinary practices being effective in redirecting student behaviors, making schools safer, and creating an environment that is conducive to learning. Yet, our current school climate consists of educators who have not been exposed to trauma-informed learning, while also incorporating disciplinary practices that are both draconian in nature and push students out of their learning spaces. This unfortunate reality is felt even more harshly by students who return to schools following an incarceration. This phenomenological study …


“In Our Very Flesh, (R)Evolution”: An Exploration Of Secondary Education Teachers, Otherness, And Embodiment, Ryan Ambuter Jul 2020

“In Our Very Flesh, (R)Evolution”: An Exploration Of Secondary Education Teachers, Otherness, And Embodiment, Ryan Ambuter

Doctoral Dissertations

In education, the proliferation of a mind/body dualism leaves the pedagogy of the body undertheorized, and its impact on education disregarded. While there is not an absence of research on the body within the field of education, what exists is limited in scope. Little has been written about the connections between teachers’ bodies, pedagogy, and politics at the level of secondary education. This research specifically focuses on teachers who are visibly other, critically conscious of their bodies, and find power in their difference. The purpose of this study is to make meaning of the stories, experiences, and potential of teachers …


The Institutional Pillars Of China's National College Entrance Exam: A Case Study Of Gaozhong High School And Ncee Reforms, Mei Lan Frame Jul 2020

The Institutional Pillars Of China's National College Entrance Exam: A Case Study Of Gaozhong High School And Ncee Reforms, Mei Lan Frame

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is based on a case study of a Beijing high school (referred to as “Gaozhong”) during the initial wave of reforms to the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE). Using the conceptual framework of Richard Scott’s “three pillars” of institutions (2008) to analyze stake holder perception toward the NCEE (administrators, teachers, parents, and students), this study identifies and examines the regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements that comprise the NCEE. Congruent with Scott’s theory that these the combined strength and interdependency between institutional elements prevent institutional change, this study also analyzes the three pillars as barriers to the implementation of …


What's In A Label? Unpacking The Meaning Of Achievement Labels From Tests, Francis O'Donnell Mar 2020

What's In A Label? Unpacking The Meaning Of Achievement Labels From Tests, Francis O'Donnell

Doctoral Dissertations

As a result of federal accountability policies, achievement level labels from statewide assessments are ascribed to public school students 17 times between grades 3 and 12. Depending on students’ performance and state of residence, they may be labeled inadequate or in need of support, below proficient or approaching expectations, level 3 or on track—to name a few examples. These labels are delivered through individual reports for students and parents as well as group reports for teachers. In spite of their widespread use, research on how achievement level labels are interpreted is minimal. The aim of this …


When Healing And High-Stakes Meet: Restorative Justice In An Era Of Racial Neoliberalism, Dani O'Brien Jul 2019

When Healing And High-Stakes Meet: Restorative Justice In An Era Of Racial Neoliberalism, Dani O'Brien

Doctoral Dissertations

Based on a 3-year ethnography, this dissertation documents the story of Presente, an explicitly critical youth-led restorative justice group attempting to dismantle the school-prison nexus and create a more youth-centered culture at their high-reform high school. This dissertation addresses the questions: How does serving as a restorative justice peer leader impact students? What challenges and opportunities arise as the school tries to transition to more restorative practices? And how do the values central to restorative justice come up against, challenge, and get challenged by neoliberal education reform?


Why Education Matters: Political Participation And Interpretive Experiences At High School, Samuel V. Stoddard Oct 2018

Why Education Matters: Political Participation And Interpretive Experiences At High School, Samuel V. Stoddard

Doctoral Dissertations

Political scientists have long recognized educational attainment as a strong predictor of voter turnout, but the mechanisms through which educational experiences lead voters to the polls remain under-explored. This research begins the process of opening the proverbial black box of education to understand the specific types of scholastic experiences that encourage voting. Grounded in previous findings by scholars of policy feedback and political socialization, I use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data analyses to reveal that nonacademic high school experiences can have powerful and lasting interpretive effects. Results show that participants in performance and service-based extracurricular activities are commonly …


Female Students’ Academic Engagement And Achievement In Science And Engineering: Exploring The Influence Of Gender Grouping In Small Group Work In Design-Based Learning Contexts In High School Biology, Miancheng Guo Oct 2018

Female Students’ Academic Engagement And Achievement In Science And Engineering: Exploring The Influence Of Gender Grouping In Small Group Work In Design-Based Learning Contexts In High School Biology, Miancheng Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past 30 years, although much effort has been made to narrow the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), females are still largely underrepresented in some important STEM fields, such as physics and engineering (NSF, 2007). To deal with this situation, people from different sectors have long reached a common understanding: Educators must improve school girls’ interest, participation and engagement in STEM subjects (e.g., Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2013). In the K-12 classroom, small group work has been shown to promote an equitable environment for girls’ learning in science and have a positive impact …


Teacher Education And Professional Development On Classroom Assessment In Bangladesh: Exploring Policy And Practice Through A Vertical Case Study, Sumera Ahsan Oct 2018

Teacher Education And Professional Development On Classroom Assessment In Bangladesh: Exploring Policy And Practice Through A Vertical Case Study, Sumera Ahsan

Doctoral Dissertations

Formative Classroom Assessment (FCA) can be the single most powerful activity to promote students’ learning (Hattie, 2009). In Bangladesh FCA is not in practice (Ahsan, 2009). Policies and teacher preparation on FCA are the two factors that influence the practice of formative assessment in classrooms (Stiggins, 1999; Plake, 1993). In my research I aimed to learn how different actors, discourses, and materials come together to produce policies on FCA in policy network and translate the policies in a Teachers’ Training College (TTC), and in classrooms in an urban school. I used ‘critical socio-cultural approach to policy as practice’ (Levinson, Sutton …


Exploring Experiences, Perspectives, And Identity (Re) Formation Processes Of African High School Students In U.S. Public Schools, Brenda M. Muzeta Jul 2018

Exploring Experiences, Perspectives, And Identity (Re) Formation Processes Of African High School Students In U.S. Public Schools, Brenda M. Muzeta

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the experiences of African high school students in U.S. public schools. Specifically, the study explores how African students negotiate their identities in a new education environment. Drawing on Asante’s (1980) Afrocentric theoretical framework, Erikson’s (1968) theory of identity and Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) social identity theories, this interview-based qualitative study seeks to describe and interpret how African high school students make sense of their new schooling experiences. One of my major goals of the study is to honor, recognize and bring to life the voices of African high school students. Their experiences are often minimized, their voices …