Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Student Engagement And Action In Classroom And Community: Place-Based Education And Social Action For The High-Achieving Student, Rachel M. Jank

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This paper briefly discusses the work done in a college-preparatory, Senior English class to combat the disengagement present in many educational institutions. This disconnect does not allow for learning retention and, therefore, does not allow for students to apply the moment of learning to life outside of the secondary classroom. The work I do is based off of Jessica Singer Early, Bruce Bigelow, Linda Christensen, and many other master teachers who work with the educational designs of Place Consciousness and Social Action within their respective classrooms. The theories of John Dewey and Paulo Freire suggest that a non-traditional style of …

Moving Toward Equitable, Accessible, And Relevant Mathematics For All. A Book Review Of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice By The Numbers, Lauren Provost

Democracy & Education

A book review of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers, edited by Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson.

Nonviolent Action As A Necessary Component In Educating For Democracy, Barbara A. Peterson

Democracy & Education

Educating for democracy, seen within a liberal democratic framework, requires that students develop the requisite knowledge and skills to recognize injustice and work effectively to oppose it. Stitzlein’s notion of dissent is examined in conjunction with Kahne and Westheimer’s argument for teaching democratic capacities by actively engaging students in addressing real world problem. This paper further suggests that for active dissent to lead to real change, we must extend our notion of dissent to include the knowledge and skills to influence the balance of power. Teaching students for democracy requires teaching them theory, history, and techniques of nonviolent action so …

Fearless: Professor Hakim Williams, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

SURGE

With his consistently energetic and enthusiastic personality, his progressive teaching methods using discussion and debate in the classroom, and his desire for his students to develop more comprehensive understandings of the problems facing education in a global context, Dr. Hakim Williams fearlessly uses his passion for change and justice in education to enlighten his students, sharpen their critical thinking skills, and change their outlooks on the future. [excerpt]

Cit Extended Campus : Case Studies On Engaged And Entrepreneurial Universities, Daithi Fallon, Irene Sheridan

Case studies

In 2011 the Department of Education and Skills in Ireland published its forward looking document ‘National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030’. That document focused on restructuring the higher education system as a key action in ensuring Ireland’s Economic Development and the creation of an ‘Innovation Island’. The Strategy document stated that ‘Engagement with the wider community must become more firmly embedded in the mission of higher education institutions’. The same document proposes the designation of some institutes of technology as Technological Universities and emphasises that the new universities should have ‘very strong links with enterprise to create programmes informed …

An Engineering Journey: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Of African-American Engineers' Persistence, Kristy Somerville-Midgette

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This transcendental phenomenological research study examined the perspectives and lived experiences of African-American female engineers related to the factors that led to their persistence to enter, persist through, and remain in the field. The study was guided by four research questions: (a) How do K-12 experiences shape African-American female engineers' decisions to enter the STEM field? (b) What persistence factors motivated African-American female engineers to enter the engineering profession? (c) What are the factors that shape African-American female engineers' persistence to progress through postsecondary engineering programs? (d) How do professional experiences shape African-American female engineers' persistence in the field? Cognitive …

On Being Transminded: Disabling Achievement, Enabling Exchange, Anne Dalke, Clare Mullaney

Literatures in English Faculty Research and Scholarship

We write collaboratively, as a recent graduate and long-time faculty member of a small women’s liberal arts college, about the mental health costs of adhering to a feminist narrative of achievement that insists upon independence and resiliency. As we explore the destabilizing potential of an alternative feminist project, one that invites different temporalities in which dis/ability emerges and may be addressed, we work with disability less as an identity than as a generative methodology, a form of relation and exchange. Mapping our own college as a specific, local site for the disabling tradition of “challenging women,” we move to larger …

Health + Equality + School Engagement: Scenarios Usa Reinvents Sex Education, Rafael Mazin, Andrea Lynch

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of Quality/Calidad/Qualité highlights the experience of Scenarios USA, an innovative nonprofit program that has integrated a gender and rights perspective—and a critical-thinking approach—into sex education curricula, while fostering new pedagogies and greater awareness among teachers. Scenarios USA approaches sexual health not as a stand-alone issue but as intertwined with young people’s overall lives and agency. As such, the organization’s “sex ed” work is part of a broader strategy of fostering self-expression, leadership, and advocacy among youth, especially among those living in marginalized communities. The approach has made Scenarios a vanguard in the field of sexuality education. Scenarios’ experience …

Behind The Mirrors: Examining The Role Of African American Cosmetologists And Salons In Domestic Violence Advocacy And Education, Pangela H. Dawson

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

African American beauty salons across the country have historically served as settings for social interaction, political activism, and community organizing in the African American community. These settings often offer opportunities for intimacy between cosmetologists and their clients. Research findings suggest that the unique bonds between women in salons can be a viable option when providing health intervention and education to large numbers of women. Data indicates that salon campaigns and promotions which focused on health issues such as stroke and diabetes education, breast and cervical cancer awareness, healthy living, and smoking cessation, have been efficacious in changing unhealthy habits or …

An African-Centered Approach To Land Education, Salvotore Engel-Dimauro, Karanja Keita Carroll

Publications and Research

Approaches to environmental education which are engaging with place and critical pedagogy have not yet broadly engaged with the African world and insights from Africana Studies and Geography. An African-centered approach facilitates people's reconnection to places and ecosystems in ways that do not reduce places to objects of conquest and things to be exploited for profitability and individual gain. Such an approach offers effective critiques of settler coloniser perspectives on the environment and deeper understandings of the relationship between worldview and ecologically sensitised education. Through examples from Africana Studies and Geography, this article provides an introduction to how an African-centered …

Chaos Theory, Theology, And Curriculum: Striving Towards The Impossibility Of The Gift, Thomas B. Jones

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

It was once thought that small influences could not have a large impact on a grand scale. However, in the 1960s Edward Lorenz discovered that very small disturbances in weather conditions could have a great effect on huge weather systems. With an understanding of chaos theory, which posits that everything matters, I argue that a life based on the lessons of a theology inspired by postmodernism can provide a lens through which to see and act in this chaotic world. By living by this belief, the ability to give the true gift, which is an impossibility and is always to …

The Relationships Between `Push' And `Pull' Factors Of Millennial Generation Tourists To Heritage Tourism Destinations: Antebellum And Civil War Sites In The State Of Arkansas, Kayla Diane Kesterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated `push' and `pull' motivational factors which influence Millennial Generation tourists' decisions to visit heritage tourism destinations and their knowledge of Civil War and Antebellum heritage sites within the state of Arkansas. A descriptive, six-section survey was distributed to Millennial students from varying degree fields at three universities within Arkansas. Four hundred twenty-four participants completed the questionnaire with measures of demographic information, visitation and frequency to heritage tourism sites, push factors, pull factors, heritage tourism sites in Arkansas, and historic preservation participation.

The results of this study showed that although Millennial students do not visit heritage sites frequently, …

Enhancing The Academic And Social Learning Of Irish Undergraduates Through Emotional And Social Skills Development., Aiden Carthy, Celesta Mccann, Sinead Mcgilloway, Colm Mcguinness

Articles

This paper considers the potential merits of emotional competency coaching for undergraduate students. We outline the findings from our previous work which showed, for example, that a sample of First Year undergraduate students failed to engage with coaching primarily because it was not a mandatory aspect of the curricula. An analysis of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) - which details the specific learning outcomes that must be achieved by all Irish academic syllabi found that this framework makes scant reference to the development of social and emotional skills. Therefore, a revised working model of the NFQ is proposed, which …

Degree Program Changes And Curricular Flexibility: Addressing Long Held Beliefs About Student Progression, George Dante Ricco

Open Access Dissertations

In higher education and in engineering education in particular, changing majors is generally considered a negative event - or at least an event with negative consequences. An emergent field of study within engineering education revolves around understanding the factors and processes driving student changes of major. Of key importance to further the field of change of major research is a grasp of large scale phenomena occurring throughout multiple systems, knowledge of previous attempts at describing such issues, and the adoption of metrics to probe them effectively. The problem posed is exacerbated by the drive in higher education institutions and among …

An Open Letter To The Class Of 2013, Center For Public Service

SURGE

Upon graduation I will have received no honors. After four years of college, thirty-seven courses, ten labs, two sets of major requirements and several almost complete minors, I have won the ultimate consolation prize: a diploma. I know that not everyone has the privilege of going to college and I also know that those who start college do not always make it to the end, some not even through the first week. However, in the world of academia, students are pushed to strive for the best grades. Even at Gettysburg College where global awareness, critical thinking and an integration of …

Incarceration, Identity Formation, And Race In Young Adult Literature: The Case Of Monster Versus Hole In My Life, Tim Engles, Fern Kory

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Akin House Curriculum Development And Living History Programming, Amanda Brown, Charlotte Fitts-Sprauge, Andrew Gray, Maya Himmelsbach, Abbey Hood, Meghan Richards, Brianna Riposa, Arnold Robinson

Education

This unit plan is comprised of a variety of inquiry-based lessons that explore the culture and way of life of the Native Americans who occupied New England. After studying the Akin house documents, materials, and narratives, I chose to focus my unit on the land and the people who came before the Akin family so that students will learn the long-view of our rich New England history.

Chinese Students' Perceptions Of Their Creativity And Their Perceptions Of Western Students' Creativity, Bingxin Wang, Kenneth M. Greenwood

Research outputs 2013

This paper applies the Four C Model of Creativity ('Big-C, little-c, mini-c and Pro-c') to determine Chinese students' perceptions of their own creativity and their perceptions of Western students' creativity. By surveying 100 Chinese students and interviewing 10 of them, this paper discovered that Chinese students generally perceived their creativity to be less than that of Western students. Differences on mini-c and Pro-c were larger in the direction of Western students being superior, and the items that differed in the opposite direction and those which did not differ were part of the subset of little-c items. The perceived superiority of …

The Relationship Between Teacher Classroom Practices And 21st Century Students' Academic Dishonesty At The Secondary Level, Marguerite Beth Bellipanni

Dissertations

With the rise in the number of high schools students admitting to academic dishonesty on national surveys, educators must examine what is happening in the classroom to determine a cause for this increase. Past research has shown that students cheat for a variety of reasons. Much of it has shown that students are able to neutralize their cheating to external reasons such blaming the teacher, competition for good grades, or not understanding the task at hand. The literature has also revealed that students cheat because they feel that there is no enforcement of consequences for academic dishonesty.

The purpose of …

Variation In Standards In Pakistani School Examination Boards, Thomas Christie

Examination Board

No abstract provided.

Students’ Views Of Impact Of Textbooks On Their Achievements, Riaz Hussain

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

The history of curricula and textbooks development in Pakistan has remained contentious particularly during Zia Ul Haq era (1977- 1988) and after. There have been quite a few reviews of the curricula and textbooks undertaken both by Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan and independent researchers. These reviews have mainly employed document/textbook analysis methods and few of them explored teachers or students’ views of curricula and textbooks. This paper argues that since teachers and students are the ultimate users and beneficiaries of textbooks so their views are worth exploring before suggesting or initiating any change process including curricula and textbooks …

Knower’S Roles Of Autonomy For Knowledge Construction : A Case Of International Baccalaureate (Ib) Curriculum, Raheel Tajuddin Lakhani

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

A Book Review Of Teaching About Hegemony: Race, Class, And Democracy In The 21st Century, Jennifer A. Tupper Dr.

Democracy & Education

A review of the book Teaching About Hegemony: Race, Class and Democracy in the 21st Century, by Paul Orlowski (Springer, 2011).

Heeding Woolf’S Great Teacher: Uncovering And Defusing An Education In “Unreal Loyalties”, Stacy Otto

Democracy & Education

In her 1938 epistolary novel and educational treatise, Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf discusses “freedom from unreal loyalties” as key to educating for peace rather than for war, as was the concern in Woolf’s time and remarkably remains of serious concern seventy-odd years later. This essay analyzes how modern-day, post-9/11 U.S. public education is influenced by a whole range of unreal loyalties and, in fact, how we as educators reify and reinscribe these. The argument uses Woolf’s text as a theoretical frame to analyze select aspects of U.S. public education, concluding with an exploration of the meaning and value of …

A Pilot Study: The Use Of A Survey To Assess The Food Knowledge Of Nutrition Students At Various Levels Of Nutrition Education, Chante Chambers

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A working definition of a concept known as ‘food literacy’ encompasses using basic food preparation knowledge that has been learned, understood, and practiced to make better food decisions. To advance these skills for client service, a post-secondary nutrition program would need to include objectives that allow application of knowledge. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to determine the difference in knowledge and application among students in 100, 200 and 400 level college nutrition course(s). A survey was developed to measure the food knowledge of these college students as they prepare for careers as health care professionals. The …

Genocide In The Classroom: How Transitional Societies Are Affected By The Quality Of Genocide Education, Leah Oppenheimer

Honors Scholar Theses

Recognized as a legal term since 1944, genocides have been an unfortunate occurrence since the beginning of world history. However, many countries have failed to properly educate students about genocides that have taken place in their own countries by either not providing accurate or consistent information about what took place or denying the genocide outright. Additionally, in many countries, relations between formerly warring ethnic groups have not improved, despite the often large amount of time that has passed since the end of the genocide. This study examines how history education, both accurate and inaccurate, has affected the current social situation …

An Examination Of Newbery Medal Books From The 1920s Through The 2000s: Biblical Perspective, Kimberly Fleming

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Content analysis was conducted to determine the frequency of the presence of positive Biblical virtues and paired opposite traits across 18 Newbery Medal books from the 1920s through the 2000s because the Newbery Award is a prestigious honor bestowed upon children's literature, and the criteria for selection among books specifically precludes the necessity of good character. The fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 served as the rubric by which the characters' thoughts, dialogue, and actions were measured. Consensus data was recorded, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted after three readers examined the presence and frequency of each …

Case Study Of A Participatory Health-Promotion Intervention In School, Venka Simovska

Democracy & Education

This article discusses the findings from a case study focusing on processes involving pupils to bring about health-promotion changes. The study is related to an EU intervention project aiming to promote health and well-being among children (4–16 years). Qualitative research was carried out in a school in the Netherlands. Data sources include project documents, interviews, and observations. Thematic analysis was carried out combining the different data sources. The case study shows that, if given sufficient guidance, children can act as agents of health-promoting changes. The main arena for youth influence was the pupil council. Pupils were meaningfully involved in two …

There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective, Cleveland Hayes, Brenda Juarez

Democracy & Education

In this article, we are concerned with White racial domination as a process that occurs in teacher education and the ways it operates to hinder the preparation of teachers to effectively teach all students. Our purpose is to identify and highlight moments within processes of White racial domination when individuals and groups have and make choices to support rather than to challenge White supremacy. By highlighting and critically examining moments when White racial domination has been instantiated and recreated within our own experiences, we attempt to open up a venue for imagining and re-creating teacher education in ways that are …

Welcome, Patricia R. Renick Ph.D.

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Welcome to the Fall/Winter 2012 edition of The Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education.

This quarter’s edition continues the international emphasis on inclusion with articles from Japan, New Zealand, Israel, the USA , Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Each research piece deals with another aspect of inclusive education from bullying to foreign language acquisition.

Mr. Asim Das and Dr. Toshiro from Hiroshima University, Japan explore views concerning the effectiveness of Certificate in Education courses for preparation to teach in inclusive classrooms. This study reveals that lack of content in special educational needs is the main impediment to competent teaching in inclusive classrooms in …