Culturally Responsive Educational Leadership: A Qualitative Study Of Indigenous Innovations, Bert Klunder

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study of culturally responsive educational leadership (CREL) explores noteworthy cases of system-wide innovation spanning decades through interviews with seven education professionals active within Indigenous movements and organizations driving Native Hawaiian education and the revitalization of Hawaiian language and culture. The research focus includes the Na Honua Mauli Ola Guidelines (and Pathways) for Culturally Healthy and Responsive Learning Environments, along with the preceding Kumu Honua Mauli Ola Philosophy Statement. Interviewees, all with direct connections to these innovations, illuminate their local and global significance through personal accounts of their development and implementation. The study’s uniquely situated methodology yields rich data …

From The Igloo To The School, Jessica Sw Ford

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Ten Inuit Elders currently living in Qamani’tuaq, Nunavut who were born and raised on the Land who then were relocated from the Land to the fixed Community of Qamani’tuaq shared some of their Learning experiences and Stories on the ways in which they acquired Inuit Knowledge. I am originally from the Community of Qamani’tuaq, and spent some of my Childhood there, but have not lived there for many years. I have extended Family members who still live in the Community.

For each of the interviews, I began with three research questions: 1) what are the customary Inuit practices of …

The Impact Of Video Self-Reflection On Teacher Practice, Michelle Grantham-Caston

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this research study was to analyze the teacher’s ability to utilize video self-reflection as a structured learning tool to enhance their teaching practice and CLASS scores. Research has demonstrated that teachers are better able to be self-reflective when provided with a framework (Calandra, Gurvitch, & Lund, 2008). Literature has documented video self-reflection and CLASS as links for growth in children and professional development support for teachers (Pianta, Mashburn, Downer, Hammer, & Justice, 2008). Results from the present study indicated that the teachers became increasingly aware of the CLASS Toddler tool criteria through scoring their own behaviors, which …

Local Implementation Effectiveness Of A Multi-Tier System Of Support In Elementary School Settings, Terry P. Houlton

Student Work

Ensuring all students learn at high levels is demanding. Multi-tier systems of supports (MTSS) has shown promise as a way to promote high levels of learning for all students while catching students who are struggling to learn. However, implementing MTSS models in school districts and schools has seen its challenges. The context of an individual school impacts efforts related to implementation especially related to implementing a system such as MTSS. During the 2016-2017 school year, using program theory-driven evaluation methods a program theory for MTSS was developed with input from members of the research school district. Then a questionnaire was …

Online Vs. Blended Learning: Differences In Instructional Outcomes And Student Satisfaction, Genoa Occhipinti

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Satisfaction of delivery models between online and blended doctor of education courses were examined. Graduate students were generally satisfied in online and blended courses in relation to the instructor and the course, but the blended model was preferred and statistically significant compared to the fully online model. No relationship was found between cumulative grade point average and student satisfaction with the instructor, the course, and delivery models; however, cumulative grade point averages (CGPAs) were found to be high for both delivery models. When overall student satisfaction and instructor ratings were compared from blended and online courses, significant differences were found …

Moments, Tiffany Bouchard

Theses and Dissertations from 2017

Moments is a series of creative nonfiction essays depicting life with a child who is severely autistic. I compare events from my life prior to having children with life events after I became a mother. My goal is to present a side of autism that is not always seen – the meltdowns, the aggression, the injurious behavior. My desire is to show that, despite the obstacles this life has presented us with, I have been able to experience life with a beautiful, misunderstood human who has changed my life for the better.

The Relationship Between Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports And School Climate/Culture In Elementary Schools, Zaheerah Nadiyah El-Amin

Doctoral Dissertations

Based on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates, weakened climate/culture, decreased academic scores, and endangered job security, the implementation of a successful behavioral intervention program within the school setting was a necessity (Homer & Sugai, 2000). Quantitative data were obtained from two assessment tools, the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) and the School Climate Assessment Instrument (SCAI). To determine the levels of implementation of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and if there were significant differences in the levels of the participating schools' climate and culture, the following research questions were answered: (a) What is the level of implementation …

Understanding The Right To Education In The Early 21st Century South African Context, Robert T. Zipp , '18

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Evaluating the implementation of human rights norms as broad as the right to education at the domestic level requires the use of supplemental analytical frameworks. In this project, I discuss the implementation of the core norm of the right to education as it manifests in the prescriptive norms guided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Using the framework set forth by Betts and Orchard, I find that the current structural and ideational factors influencing access to primary education in South Africa are impacted by the country's historical legacy of racial inequality and the economic decisions of the post-apartheid government in …

Investigating The Transnational Identities Of Filipina/O/X Youth In Toronto Urban High Schools: A Critical Ethnographic Study Of The Impact Of Canada’S Live-In/Caregiver Program, Jessica Ellen Ticar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates the impact of transnational family separation and reunification through Canada’s Live-in/Caregiver Program (L/CP) on the educational experiences of Filipina/o/x newcomer youth in Toronto urban high schools. I draw on theories of identity and belonging, intersectionality, and postcolonial and transnational feminism to understand the experiences of Filipina/o/x youth. This is in relation to the migration trajectories of their mothers and the impact that these have had on their identity and belonging, as well as their experiences of schooling in Canada. Utilizing a critical and performance ethnographic approach, the youth engaged in oral history and memory through the use …

Measuring The Longitudinal Communication Growth Of Learners Who Are Deafblind, Kristi M. Probst

Theses and Dissertations

The field of deafblind (DB) education has a long and rich history which includes a lack of qualified personnel to meet the needs of the population of learners. In addition, the literature base is small, lacking evidence for effective practices or methods of assessing and tracking growth with these learners. The ability to adequately track student growth is key when IEP teams are making educational decisions. Therefore, it is important to investigate the longitudinal growth of learners who are DB and the possible effects of service provision (number, type, and intensity) on communication growth. This research began the process of …

Discovering The Leader Within: An Autoethnophenomenographic Study Of Mindfulness In Educational Leadership, Alyssa Fraser

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study combined autoethnographic and phenomenological methods to examine a researcher-leader’s attempt to cultivate cognitive, relational, and emotional capacities through regular mindfulness practice, and how the cultivation of such capacities aligns with the enactment of leadership. The interrogation of lived experience and self-analysis was entered with the intention to better understand the promise of mindfulness as a resource for the development of educational leaders. This study explored the perceived connections between mindfulness practice and the enactment of educational leadership by examining internal and external perspectives of an individual leader’s practice. Methods of self-observation, including both interval and occurrence recording …

Implementing For Success And Sustainability, Michele Paulo

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Nurses, including those with additional education and training as professional development specialists, face challenges to implementing evidenced-based practice changes effectively and efficiently. Nurse bedside performance can drift away from evidence-based practice (EBP) and revert to methods previously taught when the strategy, planning and implementation lacks resources to support sustainable change. While knowledge and skills attainment are important, they do not ensure the successful transition in practice change at the point of care. An intervention has been developed that integrates several evidence-based implementation concepts and frameworks into a single framework named the Identify and DRIVE framework. Additionally, the Identify and DRIVE …

A Case Study Of The Relationship Between Professional Learning Communities And Teacher Efficacy, Rebecca Carter

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

Traditionally, professional development opportunities to improve teaching and learning have been practiced through isolated events that do not allow learning to happen within the context of the school. Research showed schools are beginning to implement professional learning communities. This descriptive single case study addressed the questions: (a) What are teachers’ perceptions regarding the relationship between a professional learning community and teacher efficacy? and (b) From teachers’ perspectives, in what ways, if any, do professional learning communities impact teacher efficacy? The case study examined the relationship between professional learning communities and teacher efficacy as well as the impact of professional learning …

Elementary Administrators’ Mathematics Supervision & Self-Efficacy Development, Kelly M. Gomez Johnson

Student Work

Mathematics curriculum reform is changing the content and resources in today’s elementary classrooms as well as the culture of mathematics teaching and learning. Administrators face the challenge of leading large-scale curricular change efforts with limited prior knowledge or experiences with reform curricula structures. Administrators, as the bridge between district and building-level initiatives, are in a unique position to impact and drive change. However, they face increasing responsibilities in their demanding roles and draw on their beliefs and leadership abilities to take action. Increased beliefs in their abilities as leaders, known as self-efficacy, guide administrators to commit and persevere during times …

Behavior Modification: Addressing The Challenging Behaviors Within An Early Childhood Program, Marie Gewiss

Graduate Education Student Scholarship

Addressing challenging behaviors in our Early Childhood Programs will always be a topic of concern for the teachers as well as for the students. One solution in avoiding misbehavior is to find the antecedent before the behavior can begin to be a disruption. A discussion of the consequences are also important aspects for children and adults to understand when thinking about how to control an unwanted act of aggression. “Aggressive behavior usually follows an event that the patient perceives as provocative. Types of provocation include perceptions of disrespectful treatment; unfairness/injustice; frustration/interruption; annoying traits, and irritations” (Daffern & Tonkin, 2010, para. …

The Lived Experiences Of Counseling Graduate Students And The Impact Of Their Studies In Their Marital Satisfaction, Vania S. Palacios

Theses and Dissertations

Due to high levels of stress that students find throughout graduate programs, professional and personal lives are at times not prioritized. The heuristic study focused on analyzing common themes among counseling graduate students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the coping mechanisms students have used to improve their marital/relational satisfaction, and common stressors in their marriage as a reflection of the counseling graduate program. The researcher provided a personal narrative for the study and analyzed transcriptions of the interviews of four counseling graduate students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Education: Ancient And Modern, Kyle Edward Eidson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

John Dewey’s progressive education differed from the classical model. The entrenchment of Dewey’s progressive education at all levels of education has led to a decline in academic performance. The modern ideas of American education hardly resemble the ones it was founded on. This paper looks at a model of classical education adopted by the American founders—as well as classical education itself—and to Dewey, the preeminent scholar and philosopher of American, progressive education, whose aim was to develop an egalitarian society trained in non-traditional academics. The paper also looks at Dewey’s child-centered model that contributes to sinking academic performance, and to …

Best Practices For Differentiated Learning Among Third Through Fifth Grade Ell Students, Tara J. Macias

Masters Theses

With the increase of second language English learners in U.S. kindergarten through twelfth grade schools and the continued achievement gap between these students and English speaking students, educators and administrators need to develop, implement and support best practices for differentiation among English Language Learners. ELL students are often categorized as special education students while their only barrier to learning is language acquisition. On the other hand, ELL students may have additional learning difficulties that are not identified because there is an assumption that language acquisition is the single challenge to their learning. Educators often engage in whole group instruction with …

Employing Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis To Better Understand The Relationship Between Individuals’ Anthropogenic Climate Change Acceptance And Belief In Anti-Climate Change Dissenter Messages, Andrew Phillip Keller Bentley

Dissertations

Organized climate change dissention groups spend a considerable amount of time and energy developing messages designed to convince the public that anthropogenic climate change is neither a reality nor a threat. These messages work against the efforts of climate educators and can be divided into two categories; messages that provide alternative explanations for warming, or messages that attack the work of scientists studying anthropogenic climate change. There has been a lack of research regarding any correlation between individuals’ agreement with these messages and their rejection of anthropogenic climate change. Establishing a correlation would be an indication that educators should take …

Contrast Dependent Knowledge Development In Contrast Supported Scientific Observation, Maura B. Foley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge of contrasts between phenomena can influence how people think and reason about them, so learning contrasts is important in school science. Building knowledge through a process of construction is a common framework through which school science is taught. However, telling phenomena apart through differentiation also plays an important role in learning and may be underused as a teaching framework. An effective way to learn contrasts is to use them to perceptually differentiate similar-looking phenomena presented side-by-side. However, little is known about the persistence/usefulness of knowledge generated during perceptual differentiation over short periods of time and its usage in student …

Liminal Surfaces, Georgina E. Grenier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The poet Ben Okri wrote: “Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations.” (Stibbe)

In the early 21st Century we are facing numerous environmental problems that are being caused by human activity. This era is termed the Anthropocene , a time when accumulated pollutants are causing detrimental ecological change. Ocean creatures are threatened by increasing seawater temperature, acidifying pH levels and melting ice. On land we are experiencing droughts, alteration of biomes, extinctions and an atmosphere that contains less oxygen per breath than …

Evaluating The Policies That Lead To Stem Educational Attainment At The University Of Arkansas For Transfer Students, Bryan Hill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The US has a critical need to produce more STEM graduates and that need is exponentially more critical in Arkansas. Arkansas currently ranks last in the percent of STEM degrees conferred compared to overall degrees awarded. Students intending to pursue a STEM four-year college degree who start at a two-year college are significantly less likely to succeed in earning that degree. Arkansas passed Acts 672 and 182 aimed at strengthening the success of students who transfer from two-year colleges into four-year institutions. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the Acts by determining if the University of Arkansas (UA) …

A Testimonio Reclaiming Acceptance Of My Esl Experience: Trauma, Tex-Mex And Third Space, Cinthia E. Bernal

Theses and Dissertations

Language is a tool that brings all of us together, yet at the same time it also sets us apart. For many of us, it is important to be bilingual and biliterate, but for others, bilingualism is something that is pulling this country apart. Many people, after all, view Spanish as a powerful language that can harm this country, a language that has motivated people to attempt to make English the only language. Ana Celia Zentella tell us “Latina/os, who also have a long history in the United States and became the largest minority in the nation in 2003, are …

Testing Acceptance Of Language Difference In Academia: Perceptions In A First-Year Composition Classroom, Crystal Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

In response to Bawarshi’s collective call for educators to be “more responsive and responsible users and teachers of English,” and motivated by the research of Michelle Hall Kells, I argue that it is necessary for educators to introduce first-year writing students to the historical and sociopolitical aspects of language use in academia through implementing lessons that focus on facets of language diversity. After describing a lesson plan focused on language diversity, I then analyze student feedback using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis as a lens. I also discuss the results of a Likert scale implemented during the three-phase study. Student …

An Ethic Of Love: A Frommean Critique Of Education, Katrina E. Dillon

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation is centrally concerned with the ways in which Erich Fromm’s critical analysis of society can be applied to education, specifically looking at the ways in which Fromm’s conceptualizations of freedom, ethics, and love can be used both to critique education and to provide an alternative vision of education through an ethic of love. With its focus on humanization and freedom, critical pedagogy offers a powerful critique, but its liberatory potential has yet to be fully realized, largely because of the ways in which critical theory has been engaged in the work of critical pedagogy. Fromm’s work offers a …

Causality: A Comparative Study Of A Current Causality Model To That Of Synchronized Analysis Model (Sam) In A Rural Elementary School, Matthew L. Williams

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The field of K-12 education has undergone an ever increasing strain to improve student and school performance in the last few decades. Many schools have failed to improve despite the attention they have been given.

The purpose of this study is to compare an elementary school’s current model of causality to the Synchronized Analysis Model (SAM) and Kaizen’s five why’s in determining low school performance. Using a qualitative instrumental case study design, surveys, interviews, and a focus group as the method of inquiry, nine employees were surveyed, four teachers and a principal were interviewed, and three leaders participated in a …

Meeting Yourself Without Rose Colored Glasses: An Urban Charter, Apryll L. Mendez Gaskew, Shenelle M. Dubose

Dissertations

Abstract

The impact of a culturally relevant professional development series on classroom teacher’s cultural lens was determined. Fifty teachers from two different school districts participated in 16 hours of professional development in an attempt to impact their understanding of how culture and instruction are connected.

During the professional development, participants took part in activities, dialogues and reflections designed to impact their cultural competency. The content of the four professional development sessions included (a) videos on culturally relevant teaching; (b) discussion of cultural identity of participants and how it surfaces in the classroom; (c) discussion of the culture, values, and beliefs …

Implicit Bias In Pre-Service Teachers: A Mixed Methods Approach, Tara Pepis

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Goals/Questions Colleges of Education, through educator preparation programs, have applied a scattershot approach to addressing diversity through multicultural teacher education programs. These programs have not been shown to reduce bias levels in pre-service teachers and are not systematic or uniform. (King & Butler, 2015). This study focuses on an alternative approach to preparing pre-service teachers to work with diverse populations. It measured the levels of implicit bias in a sample population of pre-service teachers and attempt to reduce their implicit bias levels. The aim of the dissertation was to answer the following questions:

1. Can a brief, computer-based intervention decrease …

A Program Evaluation Of A Worksite Wellness Initiative For Weight Loss, Nicholas Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation of ACME’s worksite weight loss initiative and collect evidence relative to the efficacy of the program. An anonymous online survey was administered to participants of the weight loss initiative. The survey was designed to gather information relative to the research questions, which explored the initiative’s barriers to participation, alignment of initiative with the goals of participants, utilization of initiative resources, overall strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement for the weight loss initiative, as well as the respondents’ general profile for the six dimensions of wellness. Reporting of data included …

Exploring Bilingual Teachers' Beliefs About Academic Language Development In Mathematics Teaching: Implications For Bilingual Teachers' Professional Development, Viola Canales-Vela

Theses and Dissertations

The achievement of mathematics within Hispanic youth is of great concern across the nation. In order to improve student achievement in mathematics, the nature of a mathematics teacher’s complex belief system must be understood (McGee &Wang, 2014). The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to investigate the K-5 bilingual teachers’ beliefs about how to develop the academic language of mathematics in Spanish and English in the context of dual language programs at the elementary school level and bilingual teachers’ perceptions on the impact of professional development design for bilingual teachers to meet the needs of their students’ academic language …