Education Commons^™

Charter School Leaders And Their Students’ Resilience, Katy Bridget Angelone

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this multiple composite case study was to develop descriptive accounts of the thoughts, beliefs, actions, and assessments of charter school leaders regarding their efforts towards students’ resilience-building. Survey results from 46 participants identified eight Massachusetts charter school leaders who prioritized resilience-building within their schools. Semi-structured interviews with eight participants inquired about their reasons and methods for resilience-building in their schools and the factors and conditions that inhibit and foster their efforts. The qualitative data analysis yielded five findings. Participants operated from two orientations: resilience empowers learners and cultivates self-directed learning; and resilience is needed to manage traumatic …

Student Agency And Collective Bootstrapping In Integrated Career And Technical Education: A Photovoice Project, Panagiota Athinelis

Educational Studies Dissertations

Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides students with a full education in academic areas as well as a career area of interest, allowing students to apply their school-based learning in the real world through work-based learning. At the same time, urban CTE adolescents have historically been marginalized and placed in a deficit model. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the ways in which student agency is co-created in an urban, transdisciplinary CTE high school program, as well as to identify the institutional systems and structures that support or hinder the development of student agency.

Eight students …

The Principal’S Role In Expanding Multicultural Understandings In Predominantly White, Rural, Middle School Grades, Jacquelynne Chase

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the principal’s role in expanding multicultural understandings in predominantly White, rural, middle school grades. A review of the literature provided information on three areas: (a) benefits of expanding multicultural understandings, (b) implementing multicultural understandings, and (c) school leaders’ role. The literature did not include information to address a prevalent problem in Massachusetts: Principals of rural, predominantly White schools with middle grades typically do not consider expanding multicultural understandings a priority. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study used a closed-response survey and in-depth interviews with principals across Massachusetts. The survey was sent to …

Harmonies And Dissonances: The Relationship Between Values Taught And Values Experienced In Three Values-Oriented High Schools, Barbara Merson

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the relationship between values taught and values experienced in three values-oriented high schools, i.e., high schools whose educational philosophy and objectives include an emphasis on specific values. The research questions focused on description of values taught and experienced within the schools, the perception of leaders and teachers about this relationship, and the theories of action developed by school leaders and teachers to enhance the relationship. Primary data sources included interviews with leaders and teachers, observations of classrooms and public spaces, and document reviews in each school. Data were analyzed both within each school and across the …

Queer Teachers In Catholic Schools: Cosmic Perceptions Of An Easter People, Kevin Stockbridge

Educational Studies Dissertations

Queer-teacher lives aren’t easy! They experience isolation and bifurcation of their lives on a daily basis. How much more difficult must life be for these teachers in the theologically heteronormative context of the Catholic school? Yet, these teachers remain educators in these institutions, sensing goodness in what they are doing and in the future of these schools. Inspired by this interesting reality of tension, this study asks two important questions. First, how do queer teachers understand their identities as constructed in a Catholic school? Secondly, it wants to know what action teachers will take when they have come to an …

Nontraditional Student Risk Factors And Gender As Predictors For Enrollment In College Distance Education, Tammy Crews Pao

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine whether nontraditional student age, female gender, and the possession of nontraditional student risk factors predict enrollment in distance education college courses. This dissertation used data from the most recent National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12), which consisted of approximately 95,000 undergraduate students who were enrolled in higher education in 2011-2012. The results of a logistic regression analysis indicated that both nontraditional student age and female gender were strong predictors of enrollment in distance education, whereas the number of nontraditional student risk indicators was a partial predictor. As leaders in higher education are …

Taking Charge: Second Graders Negotiate Ownership Of Their Expressive Writing, Susan Douglas Fleming

Educational Studies Dissertations

This ethnographic study of a single, second grade, public school classroom explores students' ownership of their writing as they negotiate their dual roles of active writer and compliant student.

Writing process advocates such as Calkins (1987), Graves (1983), and Murray (1968, 1985) stress the need for student writers to assume ownership of their work by writing from personal experience and by making the decisions governing direction of the text. This involvement encourages awareness of self as learner and as person, and stimulates cognitive and identity development. Robert Brooke (1991), in a study of college students, points out that the power …