Education Commons^™

Leadership Influence On Collective Teacher Efficacy In Multi-Cultural Teams: A Mixed-Methods Study, Yaru Zhou

Education Dissertations

As evidence for positive effects of collective teacher efficacy on student performance and teacher well-being grow, increasing efforts have been made worldwide to understand how teachers’ beliefs in the team’s capacity form in schools. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach; 90 teachers from seven international schools in China participated in the survey, and eight teachers from these schools joined focus group interviews. This paper seeks to understand the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of instructional school leadership and collective efficacy, and how individual leaders’ character strength of encouragement and structural factors, including school levels and cultural dimensions, affect the relationship. Quantitative …

December 2021 Report: Examining The Continued Impact Of The Pandemic On Student Achievement In Gvsu Charter Schools, Kiel Mcqueen, Grand Valley State University

Charter School Research Reports

In March 2021, Basis Policy Research (Basis) released a report examining the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures on student achievement in Grand Valley State University (GVSU) charter schools. Findings revealed adverse effects from the pandemic were concentrated in math; achievement in fall 2020 was between 2 to 12 percentile points lower than the previous fall, with differences in math achievement greater in grades three through five. Basis researchers also found that students made gains in both math and reading; however, math growth was lower since the onset of the pandemic as compared to a typical year.

This report continues …

Through Critique And Beyond: Speculative Fiction As A Tool Of Critical Pedagogy, Syd Thorne

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field projects centers around the issue of hopelessness among teachers and students and examines the genre of speculative fiction as a potential tool for cultivating critical hope in the classroom and as an asset to critical pedagogy. Utopian pedagogy and critical pedagogy make up the theoretical framework of this research and project development. The research explores the use of speculative fiction in three areas: activism and identity, student engagement, and utopian performance. The review of the literature demonstrates that the use of speculative fiction in the classroom has the potential to engage students in conversations about social justice and …

School District Leadership And Racial Justice: Examining The Use Of A Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Framework To Advance Equity Between Black And White Student Populations Within New York State Public Education, Diane M. Wynne

Education Doctoral

The current climate in the United States reflects a heightened focus on examining and challenging systemic inequities that have long impacted Black individuals. Culturally responsive education efforts have increased as schools experience increasingly diverse populations. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how district leaders are implementing the New York State Education Department (NYSED) Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) Education Framework in advancing equity between their Black and White student populations. Challenges and barriers experienced in the implementation of this framework, and approaches and strategies needed to overcome these were also explored. Interviews with six school district leaders …

Are Psychological Barriers An Unseen Threat To Women In Leadership? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis On The Underrepresentation Of Women Chief Executive Officers In Healthcare, Nikia M. Dennis

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this qualitative study, using an interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology, was to identify if six women CEOs in New York State, who worked in the for-profit, not-for-profit, ambulatory and hospital, and nursing home healthcare subsectors of the healthcare industry encountered psychological barriers, such as low self-efficacy, low self-confidence, and low self-esteem, in their ascension to the CEO role, and if so, what strategies did they use to overcome those barriers. The semistructured interviews of the CEOs were analyzed and the findings revealed four concepts reflected in Bandura’s four sources of influence: performance, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and psychological …

A Framework For Moving Beyond Awareness: Exploring How School Building And District Level Leaders Address Implicit Bias Through Professional Learning Structures, Susan E. Lohret

Education Doctoral

The descriptive phenomenological design of this study explores the phenomenon of addressing implicit bias through professional learning structures. The study examines the lived experiences of educational leaders through their reflections of the experiences and how they make sense of the experiences. Participants were included with the following criteria: a) professionals with district level leadership or school building leadership in New York State public schools and b) participation in addressing implicit bias through a formal program, curriculum, initiative, or informal structure. Focus group and semistructured interviews were conducted and the data collection tools were field tested. Data was transcribed, coded, and …

New York State Comprehensive Higher Education Institutions: A Grounded Theory Study On Budgeting For Faculty Innovation To Survive The Looming Enrollment Crisis, Crystal Hallenbeck

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to gather faculty chairpersons’ perceptions on higher education budget models and their impact on faculty innovation. The focus was on comprehensive higher education institutions (HEIs) within the State University of New York (SUNY) schools. Ten faculty chairpersons were selected through random sampling. Each selected participant was tenure-tracked, had been at their institution for a minimum of 3 years, and had an interest in innovation. Semi-structured interviews and document reviews were used to gather data. The gathered data from the interviews was analyzed and used to develop a grounded theory relating to how …

The Impact Of Incarceration On The Family; Perceptions Of Fatherhood By Incarcerated Fathers In A New York Jail: A Phenomenological Study, Priscila Echevarria De Sepulveda

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this study was to understand and explore, through a qualitative phenomenological design, the lived parental experiences of incarcerated fathers in a Northeastern New York jail. For this research, an incarcerated father will be defined as a father who has a child 18 years or younger and is confined to a jail. This research project sought to gain knowledge in this area, and this study’s results will inform policymakers who create policies and programs that may address the sustainability and development of an incarcerated father’s parental identity. The study population comprised of nine incarcerated fathers, between the ages …

Perceptions Of Collaboration Between Special Education Teachers And Parents Of Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder In The Elementary Setting, Melissa M. White

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this qualitative, semi-structured interview, phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions of collaboration between a total of 10 special education teachers and parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the elementary setting. This study’s data was collected from five special education teachers and five parents of children diagnosed with ASD. Results from this study revealed that both groups viewed communication as important to facilitating collaboration. When thinking of barriers to collaboration, both groups viewed the lack of experience or training geared toward collaboration relating to students with ASD, whether teachers or parents, as a …

Exploration Of Covid-19’S Impact On Communication And Decision-Making Of First-Year College Students’ Enrollment For Fall 2020 And Their Final Postsecondary Plans, Ritza Falcon-Santiago

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the extent that the COVID-19 pandemic had on first-year college enrollments for the fall 2020 semester and the alternate plans that were made by Northeastern United States students. The general research question was, “What motivating factors contributed to recent high-school students’ decisions to take a gap year during the COVID-19 global pandemic?” To build an answer, this study was conducted to identify and explore the perceptions of 10 young adults who were accepted and committed to a 4-year college or university after high-school graduation, but they did not accomplish enrollment for …

Employee Engagement: Exploring Principal Dispositions In Turnaround Schools, Leah Kedley

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to gain more knowledge about leadership dispositions of school principals who could give insight into helping failing schools succeed. High-poverty, low-performing (HPLP) environments with chronically underperforming schools are identified as schools needing a “turnaround.” By learning more about the experiences of teachers and administrative leaders working with school principals in low-performing schools, a better understanding emerged of the leadership dispositions that can engage employees in a successful school turnaround. Three themes emerged based on the experiences from six teachers and four supervisors of school principals regarding the principals’ leadership dispositions and their …

Akwesasne Kanien’Kéhaka Isten:'A Tiatate'ken:'A (Akwesasne Aunties): An Ethnographic Journey Of Decolonial Healing, Konwahahawi Sarah Cecelia Rourke

Education Doctoral

Using a theoretical framework of survivance and strategic social change theory, the purpose of this ethnographic qualitative study was to explore and understand the Akwesasne Kanien’kéhaka Aunties regarding healing from colonialism through storytelling and photo sharing of their material culture and visual representations of their lived experiences. The re-search focused on Akwesasne Aunties, ages 30–39, and their stories regarding leadership, healing from colonialism, and trauma. The Aunties discussed their roles and responsibilities, normalizing decolonization, creating cultural connections, and the impact of the colonial mindset. Recommendations that make practical use of the findings in this study include revitalization of the Kaienkeha’ka …

On Analysing Student Resilience In Higher Education Programs Using A Data-Driven Approach, Audrey Tedja Widjaja, Ee-Peng Lim, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Analysing student resilience is important as research has shown that resilience is related to students’ academic performance and their persistence through academic setbacks. While questionnaires can be conducted to assess student resilience directly, they suffer from human recall errors and deliberate suppression of true responses. In this paper, we propose ACREA, ACademic REsilience Analytics framework which adopts a data-driven approach to analyse student resilient behavior with the use of student-course data. ACREA defines academic setbacks experienced by students and measures how well students overcome such setbacks using a quasi-experimental design. By applying ACREA on a real world student-course dataset, we …

Statistical Moderation: A Case Study In Grading On A Curve, Manoj Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There is a negative perception about “grading on a curve,” because of the feeling that the cohort strength may skew the final grades one way or another. However, given the difficulties in ensuring absolute uniformity in assessment across the years, especially when taught and assessed by different instructors under different settings, grading on a curve may be a necessary evil. Once we accept this type of statistical moderation as the last line of defense in standardizing the final scores so that student cohorts from different terms or sections or schools may be compared, we have to implement it well. In …

Staff Perceptions Of Standards-Based Grading Prior To Implementation, Steven K. Perkins

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate the perceptions of a group of middle school teachers regarding changing to standards-based grading (SBG). Data were collected from the transcripts of two different focus groups and analyzed. Study results indicated that SBG measures were not well known by all staff, and many clear resistance points were present. Resistance points centered around five key themes: fear of loss of rigor, community pushback, lack of SBG practices knowledge, lack of supporting infrastructure, and extra time and work required. Recommendations that flow from these results are that, prior to implementing SBG, comprehensive data …

Student Engagement And Equitable Student Learning Outcomes, Douglas K. Harter

Dissertations

Student engagement is consistently shown by research to be a critical component of student learning. An opportunity to link variables of perceived student engagement, perceived student-teacher relationship and clarity, an in-person learning format, and a remote learning format presented itself when, in March of 2020, all Illinois public schools were mandated by Governor J.B. Pritzker to teach in a fully remote structure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Student survey data results were examined using Wagner et al’s (2006) 4 C’s model to determine if there were statistically significant differences among student engagement and student-teacher relationships when compared across in-person and …

The Interdependency Of Impactful Teacher Induction Programs And Teacher Retention, Wendy M. Duroseau

Dissertations

The goal of new teacher induction programs was to improve the instruction of new and beginning teachers through ongoing professional development and instructional coaching with the hopes of retaining highly-qualified teachers and improving student learning. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of new teacher induction programs based on teacher satisfaction and retention rates. This study addressed the following research questions: (1) What are the known qualities of a highly-effective teacher induction program? and (2) What can school district leaders do to improve a teacher induction program to increase teacher satisfaction and retention rates? The context of this inquiry was …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of The Student-Teacher Relationship On Student Achievement And Behavior, Sarah James

Dissertations

Researchers have documented the importance and value of the teacher-student relationship for over 20 years. The purpose of my study was to determine if teachers who had a positive and highly effective relationship with their students, as documented with informal and formal observations, also had higher student achievement and a lower discipline referral rate when compared to their non-highly effective peers. The context of this inquiry was kindergarten through eighth grade teachers in one public school district. In my study, I demonstrated both quantitative and qualitative data which matched current research to support teachers who are highly effective with building …

The Virtual Education Setting In Grades 9-12: How The Practices For Online Teacher And Learning Impact Student Achievement, Kimberly Acosta

Dissertations

Countless virtual school options are in operation all around the world. A growing number of teachers and students throughout the nation, continent, and world are working and learning online. With virtual learning steadily increasing, it is critical for educators to establish and implement the best online teaching and learning practices. The purpose of my study was to identify and explore the practices of effective teachers in the virtual school setting and how those practices impacted student achievement outcomes. The context of this inquiry was full-time national virtual public high school charter schools operating under the umbrella of the same national …

The Impact Of Using Avid And Avid Schoolwide On Achievement, Equity, Access, And Opportunities For High School Students: A Program Evaluation Project, Patra Cooks, Patra W. Smith

Dissertations

The purpose of my research was to determine if the use of AVID strategies had any impact on academic achievement and college and career readiness. Additionally, I evaluated whether AVID school-wide can support all students. The context of this study included AVID Teachers and AVID Coordinators across the United States. The outcomes indicated that 80% of AVID students enrolled in the AVID Elective successfully completed rigorous course work. Furthermore, the study outcomes disclosed which strategies supported students the most with academic success. The AVID coordinators often used writing strategies, while the AVID teachers used collaborative strategies to support student learning.

Supporting New Teacher Development Through A Quality Beginning Teacher Mentor Program, David Kostopoulos

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to evaluate the perceptions of beginning teachers and mentors to improve the components and supports provided to mentees through Birch Lake School District (BLSD) induction and mentoring practices. Qualitative data was collected through transcripts of 5 separate focus group sessions that included 9 mentees and 7 mentors. Quantitative data was collected through a survey that included 10 mentees and 13 mentors. Study results indicated that impactful components revolved around seven key themes: program set-up, materials, collaborative session dates/locations, assignments, activities observational coaching, mentor/mentee meetings/interactions, content of the sessions. Study results indicated that …

Radical Inclusion: An Engagement Model For Accountability Redesign, Natalie Neris

Dissertations

To ensure that Chicago Public Schools’ school accountability policy is equitable and representative of the insights and perspectives of those most impacted, this study advocates for CPS to enact a Radically Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement (RISE) policy to enforce a more inclusive policy redesign process. This policy advocacy document examines the history of school accountability through five intersecting domains: education, economics, social context, political context and moral/ethical considerations. Reflecting on my experience as a third-generation CPS student, a CPS parent, former teacher and school leader, I challenge the reader to consider the intention and impact of school accountability on Chicago’s students …

Focus, Drive, And Motivation In Secondary School Populations, Lakeshia Cook

Dissertations

This study, Focus, Drive, and Motivation in Secondary Populations, addresses the topic of middle and high school student motivation to succeed in school. The aim was to discover what motivates and inspires student success. In this study, I delved into issues of low levels of student motivation, drive, and focus and the relative effect of these issues on school performance. The central purpose of this research was to find ways to foster greater levels of student focus, drive, and motivation during their middle and high school experience. The context of the study was a medium-sized charter middle school and a …

Remembering The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Missouri Education Policy And Lessons For Covid-19, Phi Nguyen

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Amid the disruptions of COVID-19 are opportunities to reimagine schooling and education. Taking a historical perspective, this article analyzes education policy following an earlier pandemic, the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, to explore if and how educational change might be possible. Drawing on primary source analysis of Missouri education policy, I argue that influenza-related policy talk was practically non-existent, and the talk that was present mainly focused on how the flu disrupted, but not changed, school operations. Without policy talk advocating for change, policy action the years following the influenza pandemic continued along the lines of Progressive reforms that were already …

Cariño Pedagogy: A Framework Of Corazón, Ferial Pearson, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Gabriel Gutiérrez

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Change in the world of education has never been new or unexpected. However, the pandemic that swept the world at the beginning of 2020 caused our world to spin off its axis and force its practitioners into quickly re-evaluating their praxis, their priorities, and their professional responsibilities. Through this reflection, three BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) colleagues in the Teacher Education Department at a midwestern state university examine twelve months of teaching during the pandemic and the strategies they turned to, to stay true to their pedagogical values to ensure their students were taken care of personally and …

The Pandemic Teaching Journey: Challenges, Lessons Learned, And Opportunities, Janice Garnett

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This paper aims to highlight the challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education, pivoting from in-person to remote course delivery. The information shared is based on the experience of an instructor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), College of Education, Health and Human Sciences' Department of Educational Leadership. In addition, this document will explore how teaching and learning shifted during the pandemic and potentially reimagined for virtual environments focusing on the role of faculty and engagement of students, emphasizing professional students.

Adapting To Covid-19: Exploring The Relationship Between Integrating Microteaches During Field Experiences And Pre-Service Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Paula M. Jakopovic, Jennifer L. Lemke, Tracie Reding, Sheryl Mcglamery

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on PK-16 education in the United States. In- person teaching and learning opportunities have been disrupted and as a result, schools and institutions of higher education (IHE) have resorted to creative solutions to adjust and adapt to remote learning and social distancing. In particular, teacher preparation programs have wrestled with the limitations put in place by IHE as well as PK-12 school districts while trying to maintain high quality field experiences for pre-service teachers. In this action research report, we examine the implementation of a hybrid field experience model in a teacher preparation …

The Covid-19 Impact On Induction Support, Christina L. Wilcoxen

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

For beginning teachers, Fall 2020 provided an unforgettable first year. The previous spring had brought abrupt and unexpected changes to teaching. Schools closed without notice, student teaching experiences stopped midway through, and teachers were thrown into situations they had never been trained to address. This led to difficult decisions and new obstacles as the world fought to manage COVID-19 and the associated fallout. Teacher candidates graduated with incomplete student teaching experiences and gaps in understanding. Induction programs support beginning teachers as they transition into their own classroom and provide guidance in meeting performance standards. As a result, seven local school …

Perceptions Of Self-Efficacy & Support Among Secondary Early-Career Teachers And Their Principals During The Covid-19 Pandemic, James A. Martinez, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Frances E. Anderson, Frederick L. Uy

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

In response to challenges faced by middle and high school educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, a study was conducted in the Spring of 2021 involving 33 early-career mathematics teachers and eight supervising school principals in the State of California. These participants completed detailed surveys which provided demographic information, as well as perceptions of support, efficacy and job satisfaction. Findings show a variety of associations among teacher perceptions of support and their efficacy and job satisfaction in the face of challenging circumstances. As it related to principal support and recognition, principal participants expressed confidence in their ability to support teachers as …

A Whole New World: Prek-12 Teachers' Perceptions Of Instruction During A Pandemic, Frances A. Hamilton, Dana L. Skelley, Kimberly A. Hile

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This manuscript explores educators’ perceptions about professional and personal challenges and successes with virtual instruction, along with their concerns about the impact on students and student learning in a virtual environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers from seventeen school systems in Tennessee and Alabama were invited to participate in the study with sixty-seven participants completing surveys. A phenomenology design model was used, and In Vivo Coding was conducted to analyze the data. Results revealed four main themes related to teachers’ experiences with virtual learning: personal perceptions, instruction, impact on students, and communication. Discussion of the results and their implications are …