Education Commons^™

A Hidden Culture Of Carelessness: A Comparative Qualitative Study Of Gender Inequality And Its Implications For African American And South African Black Women Higher Education Administrators, Dawn S. Singleton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and compare the lived and career experiences of Black women higher education administrators in the United States and South Africa. This comparative study elucidated the women’s experiences while giving voice to Black women, whose experiences and status are often further marginalized under new managerial practices. This research used the theoretical lenses of intersectionality and carelessness, a new managerial practice within higher education, to uncover the challenges, opportunities, and contexts experienced by these women within gendered, racialized organizational structures and practices. A major finding of the research is that Black women shared …

A Phenomenology Study Of First-~Year Teachers Looking At The Shared Lived Experience Of Learning To Grade, Brandon Lee Yost

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study describes the phenomenon of how first-year teachers learn to evaluate students learning by (letter) grades. Grades seem simple enough; but in reality, each grade carries serious consequences with it – for either good or bad. For example, grades affect benefits/consequences at home; they affect placement in remedial or advanced courses; they affect grade level promotion; they affect participation in programs, i.e. extracurricular activities like sports; they affect high school graduation, college acceptance, and scholarship eligibility (Brookhart, 1991; Marzano, 2000).

Despite the extreme importance of grades and how they can influence a person’s life over a period of time …

Examining Gifted Students' Transition To University And Its Influence On Learning, Adrienne E. Sauder

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This phenomenological study examined the first-year university transition experience of 39 gifted students and the impact of this transition on their beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of learning through a multiple methods design via semi-structured individual interviews, focus groups, and survey instruments, specifically the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory and the College Survival and Success Scale. In addition, an autoethnographic component was incorporated in order to (a) frame the researcher’s bias, and (b) provide a means of eliciting analytic insights that connect personal experience to broader theoretical issues. The theoretical framework for this study incorporated three complementary theories, symbolic interactionism, role …

Lived Experiences Of Beginning Counselors In Harmful Supervision, Alessandra Joy Rhinehart

Doctoral Dissertations

When supervision moves beyond poor oversight to inciting personal and professional impairment, it becomes harmful. Although there is much in the literature regarding ineffective supervision in general, empirical data explicating harmful supervision is significantly less available. In fact, the negative effects of harmful supervision may be notably more severe than those reported of ineffective supervision (Unger, 1995). The purpose of this study was to provide rich description and meaning of beginning counselors’ experiences in harmful supervision. The research question addressed was, “What is the lived experience of beginning counselors in harmful supervision?” Transcendental, existential phenomenology (van Manen, 2014; Thomas & …

Mothers Who Choose Traditional Public Education In Times Of Economic Stress, Criticism, And District Reform, Brian W. Davis

Dissertations

As districts attempt to achieve higher accountability for student results while making complex decisions to balance budgets, it has become increasingly more common to restructure or reorganize educational delivery systems in ways that affect children and their families. Understanding how families and, in particular, mothers translate their experiences with structural and other changes enacted by the schools serving their children can assist in defining a new strategic direction of renewal, growth, and revitalization.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of 18 mothers, and their children, who were participants in multiple school reform initiatives in an …

Science Teaching And Learning As Transformation: Making Meaning With My Students, Megan Marie Leider

Dissertations

As a classroom science teacher, I have experienced firsthand the disengagement and disinterest students have with science. Students often struggle to retain information from year to year, feel comfortable in the science classroom, and see the connections between the science taught in the classroom and their lived experiences. It is obvious to me that we could do more for our students. One way in which to assist students with science learning is through the incorporation of Sci-YAR (Science Youth Action Research). Sci-YAR is a curricular framework and instructional strategy that places the student at the center of their learning. It …

What Is It To Be An Ethical Engineer? A Phenomenological Approach To Engineering Ethics Pedagogy, Valorie Troesch

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Two concerns are prominent in engineering ethics pedagogy and, together, pose a conundrum for ethics educators: 21st century technologies raise daunting ethical questions that require a strong engagement with and understanding of ethics by engineers; at the same time, however, engineering students don’t care much about studying ethics. Ethics instruction, however, seems nonresponsive to these issues. It continues to rely on Western ethical theories using case studies to analyze professional engineering conduct. And, although instructors want better student learning outcomes, assessment continues to use quantitative measures of ethical knowledge and ethical reasoning skills which disregard students’ emotional engagement with ethics …

Phenomenological Study Of Urban Elementary Principals: Reading-Proficient Students With Learning Disabilities, Elizabeth Theis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the demands on educational leaders have necessitated shifts in the roles and responsibilities of school principals. Meeting the needs of students with disabilities is among the critical challenges that administrators face today. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of elementary school principals where students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) demonstrate reading proficiency. Phenomenological research was conducted to identify the themes associated with effective school leadership, related to this specific population, students with SLD. Informal, non evaluative observations were conducted in conjunction with analysis of leadership summaries that were submitted by teachers who were …

School Violence And Teacher Resiliency At A Midwest Elementary/Middle School, Jounice Blackmon Wright

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate, from the perspective of teachers, the possible effect of school violence on teacher resiliency. School violence has been studied with respect to student behavior and academic success, as well as socioeconomic influences, but not with respect to teacher resiliency, as expressed by teachers themselves. Resiliency theory was the conceptual framework. Participants were all teachers of Grades 2-8 at an elementary/middle school in the Midwest. Twelve in-depth interviews were transcribed into text data and analyzed for common themes. Using NVivo, Version 10, I was able to more easily manage the volumes of …

Hmong Americans In Higher Education: Exploring Their Sense Of Belongingness And The Concept Of The American Dream., Janet Daugherty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I conducted this study to examine Hmong American college students' perspectives on sense of belongingness and their idea on the American Dream. The college experience can serve as a precursor to improving the social and economic situation of the Hmong students when aligned with the personal desire to gain upward mobility and motivation to circumvent social and academic inconsistencies. The methodology of the study was designed for one-on-one phenomenological informal interviews with Hmong American college upper-classmen using a two-part interview protocol to elicit demographic and experiential information. Moustakas' approach to the analysis of data provided guidelines to review individual transcripts …

Serious Fun: The Perceived Influences Of Improvisational Acting On Community College Students, Ruth H. Yamamoto

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research in extracurricular activities and arts education demonstrate how experiences in those areas contribute to the well-being and ongoing development of students in higher education. Although practiced and performed across the United States, theatrical improvisation, as an art form or extracurricular activity, lacks investigation within the context of higher education. Without an understanding from the student perspective, higher educational stakeholders miss an opportunity to incorporate experiences that address the institutions' mission and learning goals or worse, inadvertently produce student disenfranchisement. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe the experience of improvisational acting training, practice, and performance …

White Privilege In Teacher Education : A Critical Analysis Of Discourse, Kenneth P. Sider

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This inquiry seeks to understand how preservice teachers interact with White privilege during a teacher education course dedicated to diversity and teaching. By pairing grounded theory with phenomenology, insights into participants’ pre-existing beliefs around race and Whiteness are examined. Given the cultural mismatch between an increasingly diverse public school student population and the historically stable White preservice teacher population, a closer look at persistent and resistant linguistic phenomena undergirding White dominance in the educational setting is useful. Participants’ pre- and post-term papers are used to anchor the research, and an asynchronous, online, peer-mediated discussion of bell hooks’ autoethnographic essay “Learning …