Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons^™

In Pursuit Of Democratic Practice: Self-Study As A Democratic Approach To Teaching Social Studies, Andrew L. Hostetler

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Dewey (1916/2009) viewed democracy as a “path or journey”. This suggests that there is no mutually agreed upon end. Similarly, in teaching and teacher education, if viewed as a learning problem, the end is the process according to Ritter (2010) “[t]eaching others how to teach for democratic citizenship represents a process that righteously lacks a conclusion” (p. 90). Without a definitive conclusion there are many potentially valuable conceptions and enactments of democratic living and learning.

Discussing these strong connections between democracy in social studies and self-study, Powell (2010) argues “when social studies teachers engage in ‘reflectively pragmatic’ study of their …

Supporting Professionalism In Educational Development In Irish Higher Education, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Higher education, in Ireland and globally, is undergoing profound change influenced by a variety of factors. In conjunction with these changes many initiatives to improve teaching and learning and the quality of graduates in higher education have been introduced in recent years. The changes and expansions in the sector has enabled growth of new roles in higher education described as ‘third space’ professionals by Whitchurch (2008).

This paper describes the struggle of those in third space professions, such as academic development, to establish a professional identity in higher education. The benefits of these contemporary roles to higher education are …

South Mississippi High School Seniors’ Perceptions Of Civic Duties And Responsibilities, Chelsea L. Lewis

Honors Theses

Former United States Representative Lee Hamilton once explained what it takes to be a citizen of the United Stated. He stated, “Citizenship requires both knowledge about government and the ability to be involved in governance. It means knowing how to identify and inform oneself about issues, explore and evaluate possible solutions, and then act to resolve problems. It demands that you know how to interact respectfully with others. And it asks that you accept responsibility for meeting your community’s and the nation’s challenges.” (Hamilton, 1) This quote comes from a well-known civics program used in American high schools today called …

Making Room For Formative Assessment Processes: A Multiple Case Study, Rob Mcentarffer

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

This qualitative instrumental multiple case study (Stake, 2005) explored how teachers made room for formative assessment processes in their classrooms, and how thinking about assessment changed during those formative assessment experiences. Data were gathered from six teachers over three months and included teacher interviews, student interviews, participant-observation notes, videos of classroom experiences, and classroom artifacts. These data were analyzed using a category construction method (Merriam, 2009) that involved open coding, axial coding, and finally a cross-case analysis that grouped axial codes according to themes relating to the two research questions. Four case studies describe the process of co-created work with …

African American Male Elementary Teachers' Perceptions On Factors That Influence Their Retention And Attrition: A Qualitative Study, Lemanski Chante' Walker

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and explore American male elementary teachers’ perceptions on factors that contribute to decisions to remain in or exit the teaching field, specifically elementary education. Ten African American male elementary teachers participated in the study. The theory from this study was the Motivation–Hygiene theory (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 2010). The study was conducted on the basis of Phenomenology with the use of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1954). Research yielded African American males’ perceptions. Data were collected consisting of one on one interviews. The interview data were analyzed and collected using Colaizzi’s …

A Multi-Site Case Study Investigating Teacher Perspectives Of Standards Based Reform And Gifted Students, Amy Valadez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The push by the Federal government to directly increase and positively impact achievement since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2001) gave rise to the educational design known as standards based reform (SBR). This legislation impacted all sub-groups by measuring growth for sub-populations to determine yearly adequate progress. The growth of the sub-population of gifted students, however, was not included in the determination of a school's or county's success, so the impact of standards based reform on the gifted student is lacking. Therefore, this case study examined educators' perspectives of standards based reform on the gifted child in …

Augustinian Philosophy: Between Critical Pedagogy And Neo-Scholasticism, Emad Francis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Augustinian thoughts have been widely revered for their great influence on the development of Western philosophy. While most of St. Augustine's ideas were adapted in various fields of modern thought, his ideas on education have been rarely discussed. In reality, one should recognize that St. Augustine, being one of the greatest teachers of the church and a towering figure in all ages of Western philosophy, had implicitly detailed in his works and portrayed in his colorful life important ideas of teaching on education. Although this may be open for arguments and debate, this study set out to examine Augustinian ideas …

Movement In Learning: Revitalizing The Classroom, Marcus Van

MA TESOL Collection

Movement is a vital part of our every day lives, and it is also important for a healthy brain. The following paper examines the shift from movement based learning to a more restrictive rote format, which often has adverse effects on learning. This work discusses the ways in which teachers are under pressure to “teach to the test” instead of creating student-centered classrooms. Some of the side effects of a test-centered approach are low self-esteem (from not meeting strict academic requirements) and behavioral problems in students.

Adding more movement to lessons can provide variation and relief from the rote-only system. …

Educando Para El Futuro Mapuche: Un Estudio De Caso De La Enseñanza Intercultural En Nivel Media En La Ix Región De Chile, Henry Edelstein

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este estudio se trata de la educación intercultural en un liceo técnico de la novena región de Chile. Analiza la educación como una herramienta de la preservación y revitalización de la cultura mapuche. El proyecto intenta buscar una respuesta a la pregunta de si se puede educar a los jóvenes para que adquieran una identidad clara mapuche con que puedan vivir en el mundo globalizado. Se usa métodos de observación, y los hallazgos muestran mucho sobre los éxitos, desafíos, y métodos utilizados en el liceo. Además ofrecen opiniones variadas sobre las posibilidades de aplicación del modelo de este liceo a …

Educación Intercultural Y Bilingüe Para Todos: Espoleando Para Un Quiebre Potencial En Las Normas De La Sociedad Chilena, Elizabeth Bickley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este trabajo aborda la interrogante sobre a quien está dirigida la educación intercultural y bilingüe (EIB) puesto que la sociedad chilena es multicultural y por lo tanto el desafío de rescatar las lenguas originarias y reconocer identidades culturales originarias son importantes. Para abordar esta cuestión, este estudio se enfoca en la población Mapuche, en tanto sujetos representativos de la población indígena en Chile. Se investiga en la ciudad de Santiago debido a que es la ciudad que agrupa a la mayor cantidad de población descendiente de pueblos originarios y en consecuencia expresa una mayor diversidad de fenómenos culturales, sociales y …

Engendering The Classroom: A Look At Constructions Of ‘Gender’ And Empowerment Within Teachers’ Trainings In Northern India, Martha Snow

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Education for girls in India has been a crucial area of study for the past 20 years; however, the main focus of attention has been on issues of girls’ access to school only. This study moves beyond this, seeking to gain critical insight into how ‘gender’ is being understood within the classroom via teachers. Teachers’ trainings conducted by the government and by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were examined through interviews with teachers and coordinators of teachers’ trainings, along with experts on gender and feminism in Delhi and Jaipur, Rajasthan. These interviews focused on the content and quality of teachers’ trainings, and …

“A Place For The Grassroots”: Examining The Role Of Community Participation And Local Governance In Providing Mid-Day Meals In Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh, Anderson Tuggle

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS)—the world’s largest school lunch program—was launched by India’s central government in August 1995 with the lofty goals of “enhancing enrollment, retention, and attendance while simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.”[1] 17 years later, particularly following prominent Supreme Court orders in November 2001 and April 2004, MDMS has become a key program for the government, now serving about 105 million primary and upper-primary schoolchildren in 1.2 million schools.[2] When implemented properly, MDMS has had a noticeable positive impact on student attendance and enrollment, alongside a reduction in teacher absenteeism. Yet grave disparities in application …

Two Sides Of The Megalopolis: Educating For Sustainable Citizenship, Alexander Pope, Timothy Patterson

Education Faculty Publications

Despite widespread focus on literacy and math at the expense of other subjects, citizenship and environmental education have an important role in American public education. Citizenship and environmental education are broadly tasked with helping students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to shepherd the body politic and natural world, respectively, into the future. For educators and administrators concerned with instructional efficiency, educational farm visits offer one means of pairing these two approaches into a unified learning experience. This paper presents findings from a qualitative case study analysis of two such programs, incorporating interviews with and observations of visiting students, …

The Tower Builders: A Consideration Of Stem, Stse And Ethics In Science Education, Astrid Steele, Christine R. Brew, Brenda R. Beatty

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The call for the integration of ethical considerations in the teaching of science is now firmly on the agenda. Taking as illustrative a science lesson in a pre-service teacher class, the authors consider the roles of STSE (science, technology, society and environment) and the increasingly influential heavily funded STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education initiatives. The origins and foci of both initiatives are discussed, as are their disparate ontological foundations. The use of Habermas’ knowledge theories in conjunction with ethical frameworks is posited as a way of considering both STSE and STEM perspectives and their implications for strengthening science …

The Effect Of Implementing School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports On Student Misbehavior In A Large Urban High School, John Power

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effect that implementing School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) had on student misbehavior as determined by Office Discipline Referrals, chronic student misbehavior, In School and Out of School Suspensions assignments, and student tardy referrals in a large urban high school. School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports is a systematic, proactive, preventive, research-based approach that has shown to reduce student misbehavior when implemented with fidelity. The study focused on the Primary Prevention Tier of SWPBIS to prevent and reduce student misbehavior. The study attempted to answer the question is School-wide …

Single-Sex Education Versus Coeducation In North Georgia Public Middle Schools, Catherine Blake

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The U.S. Department of Education is giving more liberties to school districts to offer single-sex schools in order to adequately serve the needs of students. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to test the theory of students' performances based on their educational environment by comparing students who received instruction in a single gender classroom in a public middle school compared to students who received instruction in a mixed gender classroom in a public middle school. The achievement test, Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test, was used with each site school. There were two years of data collected with the …

A Review Of Teaching As A Moral Practice: Defining, Developing, And Assessing Professional Dispositions In Teacher Education, Barbara S. Stengel

Democracy & Education

A review of the book Teaching as a Moral Practice: Defining, Developing, and Assessing Professional Dispositions in Teacher Education, by Peter C. Murrell Jr., Mary Diez, Sharon Feiman-Nemser, and Deborah L. Schussler (Harvard University Press, 2010).

Codes Of Ethics In Australian Education: Towards A National Perspective, Daniella J. Forster

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teachers have a dual moral responsibility as both values educators and moral agents representing the integrity of the profession. Codes of ethics and conduct in teaching articulate shared professional values and aim to provide some guidance for action around recognised issues special to the profession but are also instruments of regulation which position teachers in sanctioned roles. This paper offers a rationale for reviewing the purposes of codes of ethics in Australia as instruments which profoundly influence teacher morality and have significant educational implications. As one of the first comparative reviews of Australian state and territory codes of ethics and …

Challenging Student Satisfaction Through The Education Of Desires, R Scott Webster

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article challenges the practice of encouraging teacher educators to strive and raise the levels of student satisfaction in their classes as if such a criterion provides a measure of good teaching. Such a practice involves what Giroux describes as ‘corporate pedagogy’ which conforms to the neoliberal inclination to meet the demands of the customer in the market. However it is argued in this paper that educative teaching, as especially described by Dewey, ought to challenge and re-evaluate the expectations and desires that students bring with them to class. Rather than aiming to satisfy customer expectations, teacher educators ought to …

Maori Education: The Politics Of Reconciliation And Citizenship, John P. Hopkins

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

The meaning of citizenship for many Indigenous peoples has historically entailed assimilation into the nation-state through colonizing education policies and practices. Several democratic nation-states are now seeking reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and redefining the meaning of citizenship within their borders. Using recent multicultural education and the politics of reconciliation research, this paper examines the possibility of reconciliation between nation-states and Indigenous peoples, focusing on the Maori of New Zealand and their quest for full inclusion and citizen rights. The paper illustrates why the politics of reconciliation is viewed as necessary to construct a political partnership that fosters a new meaning …

The Oppression Of Experience. A Book Review Of Beyond Learning By Doing: Theoretical Currents In Experiential Education , Paul A. Michalec

Democracy & Education

A review of the book Beyond Learning by Doing: Theoretical Currents in Experiential Education, by Jay W. Roberts (Routledge, 2012).

A Book Review Of Healing The Heart Of Democracy: The Courage To Create A Politics Worthy Of The Human Spirit, Bruce L. Mallory

Democracy & Education

A review of the book Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit, by Parker J. Palmer (Jossey-Bass, 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 …

Unalienated Recognition As A Feature Of Democratic Schooling, Alison Rheingold

Democracy & Education

The current era of standards and accountability in U.S. public schooling narrows recognition and assessment to an almost exclusive focus on the production of test scores as legitimate markers of student achievement. This climate prevents rather than encourages democratic forms of exchange within and across social worlds. Via a case study of one student’s experience in a project on the civil rights movement, I present the concept of unalienated recognition to describe a form of democratic exchange that centers on what students produce through community-based projects.

Social Networking Systems As A Vehicle To Promote Sense Of Community And Performance In Online Classes, Jonathan Mark Woodward

Dissertations

Academicians are navigating through the intersection of information technology and social change. The path that educators choose will help determine the future of higher education in traditional and online settings. The journey of teachers is clouded by the abundance and rapid creation of emerging technologies, but the trends of Net Generation students offer direction. Among Web 2.0 applications, social networking systems (SNSs) offer students a new approach to communicating, learning, and collaborating.

The sociocentric view of knowledge and learning and the theories of Vygotsky and Dewey are helping to drive educators to look for a solution to a missing link …

Practitioners Or Researchers: Ed.D. Or Ph.D.? An Analysis Of Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs, Michael Dwyane Kennedy Jr.

Dissertations

This mostly descriptive study was conducted to analyze differences in doctoral degrees in educational leadership programs across the United States based on U.S. News and World Report (2011) rankings for Graduate Schools of Education. Specifically, this study explored admission, program, and final requirements as well as curriculum and faculty roles to determine the trends that have been evolving, increasing, decreasing, or remaining consistent in certain schools of the United States since the release of the Levine study of educational leadership programs in 2005. Five groups were used: 1) higher ranked 20; 2) lower ranked 20 graduate education schools; 3) top …

Creating Opportunities Or Building Barriers: Framing Policy For Placement Testing As An Impactful Part Of The First-Year Experience, Megan Beach, Karin Ann Lewis

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

Placement tests are an integral aspect of the first-year experience. As policymakers seek to raise high school standards and ensure that more students graduate prepared for the academic rigor of college, placement tests are being called upon to serve new purposes. Placement tests are touted for their ability to predict college success, but do these tests really measure student attainment of specific college readiness skills? How can they fit with or contribute to institutional initiatives?

O Colégio Da Bahia E O Ensino Superior: A Formação Da Elite Na American Portuguesa, 1572 A 1759 [The College Of Bahia And Higher Education: Educating The Elite In Portuguese America, 1572 A 1759], Karl M. Lorenz, Ariclê Vechia

Education Faculty Publications

An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the X Conference of the Iberoamerican Society on the History of Latin American Education, held in Salamanca, Spain in July 2012. The paper discusses the efforts of the Society of Jesus and the City Council of Salvador, the capital of the northeastern state of Bahia, to elevate the status of the College of Bahia to that of a university. It discusses the nature and the evolution of the studies of the College, noting the addition of advanced courses of study in philosophy and theology to the traditional study of the humanities. …

Pedagogy Of Promise: The Eschatological Task Of Christian Education, Jason Lief

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Basic Literacy Or New Literacies? Examining The Contradictions Of Australia’S Education Revolution, Rachel Buchanan, Kathryn Holmes, Gregory Preston, Kylie Shaw

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In 2007 the Labor Government came to power with the promise to bring to Australia an ‘Education Revolution’. More than four years later we are still waiting for the full impact of this series of policy initiatives. Among the various facets of the Education Revolution was the assurance that the Education Revolution would focus on the most fundamental skills – literacy and numeracy, and that it would offer world-class teaching and learning through a ‘Digital Education Revolution’. The digital education revolution aims to foster the development of 21^st century learning skills in students, skills which seem at odds with …