Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Selfies As Postfeminist Pedagogy: The Production Of Traditional Femininity In The Us South, Mardi Schmeichel, Stacey Kerr, Chris Linder

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This article describes a study of selfies posted on Instagram by a group of predominantly white, college women at a large public university in the US South. Selfies are used as data to explore how performances of traditional femininity are legitimated, authorized, and reinscribed through photo-posting practices. The authors argue that these performances circulate a public pedagogy of femininity and contribute to notions of traditional gender roles and physical attractiveness that reinforce classed and raced norms of beauty. The selfies, which idealize the southern lady [McPherson, Tara. 2003. Reconstructing Dixie: Race, Gender, and Nostalgia in the Imagined South. Durham: …

Googly Eyes And Yard Signs: Deconstructing One Professor’S Successful Rebuffing Of A Right-Wing Attack On An Academic Institution, Theresa Catalano, Ari Kohen

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Right-wing populism is on the rise worldwide, and political attacks against universities have increased in the United States since the election of Donald Trump. In 2017, an incident occurred at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln which resulted in accusations of hostility toward conservative students. Just over a year later, political forces again attempted to denigrate the university’s reputation, but this time they did not succeed. This (multimodal) positive discourse analysis/ generative critique combines collaborative auto-ethnography to describe the way these events were represented in the media, deconstructing a professor’s methods of countering a right-wing attack on an academic institution. Findings demonstrate …

Transformative Interviewing And The Experiences Of Multilingual Learners Not Labeled “Ell” In Us Schools, Theresa Catalano, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Kara Mitchell Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Recent research has documented the ways that schools adapt to increasingly multilingual and multicultural student bodies. This qualitative study explores the schooling experiences of nine K-12 multilinguals not identified as English language learners in US schools. Using “deep interviewing” strategies, the authors expose the racializing function of language, but also semiotic processes such as markedness, iconicity, and erasure and sociological concepts such as habitus that are revealed through analysis of the participants’ discourse about language and schooling. Additionally, the authors illustrate how transformative interviewing practices can spur development of learners’ own agency in creating more equitable learning contexts for themselves.

Navigating Multiple Worlds Of Ghanaian-Born Immigrant Adolescent Girls In Us Urban Schools, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Adaurennaya C. Onyewuenyi, Alex Kumi-Yeboah, Anthony Mawuli Sallar

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

African immigrant populations are among the fastest growing immigrant populations in the United States, yet they are understudied and are invisible immigrant group in the educational literature, particularly, in the context of educational discourses in the United States urban schools. Drawing on Phelan et al.’s multiple worlds model, we analyzed individual and focus group interviews of forty students, thirty-six parents, and twelve teachers from two schools. Findings showed that Ghanaian-born immigrant students undergo several complex transitional paradigms combining two worlds (school and home) of Ghanaian culture, past educational experiences, family values, and adapting to new school environments to achieve success …

Identity Negotiation In Multilingual Contexts: A Narrative Inquiry Into Experiences Of An African Immigrant High School Student, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, James Oloo

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Background/Context: Inclusion of African immigrant youth voices in educational and research discourses remains rare despite the steady growth of this population in the United States over the past four decades. Consequently, the multilingual abilities of these youth remain typically unnoticed or ignored in the classroom, and little is specifically known about their histories, cultures, expectations, and achievements.

Purpose: Using the narrative inquiry approach and the Natural, Institutional, Discursive, Affinity, Learner, and Solidarity (NIDALS) theoretical lens, we explore the lived experiences of one African immigrant high school student in the midwestern United States.

Research Design: Using narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, …

Digital Storytelling With English Language Learning Families, Stephanie Wessels, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we examine the design process and outcomes of a digital storytelling with elementary-aged English Language Learning Families. The program was iterated through a multi-step design process to integrate the use of digital storytelling on mobile devices with family literacy. In this chapter, we explain why adults and children needed worktime separately before they collaborate and that a focus on funds of language, culture and relevance foster willingness to engage with digital literacy. In working with English Language Learning Families, we found the following themes: when it comes to schooling, everything is in English; confidence in learning about …

Influence Of The Sources Of Science Teaching Self-Efficacy In Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Identity Development, Deepika Menon

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this mixed-methods research was to investigate changes in preservice elementary teachers’ science teacher identities and self-efficacy beliefs as they participate in a field-based science methods course. A total of 121 preservice teachers participated, four of which were purposefully selected who held varied initial levels of science content preparedness and confidence to teach. Data sources included pre- and post-course administrations of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-B, an open-ended questionnaire, two semi-structured interviews with selected participants, written teaching reflections, classroom observations, and artifacts. Data analyses included a pre-post repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) design, and the case …

Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Vennie Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy S. Williams

Publications and Research

The SUMMIT-P project is a multi-institutional endeavor to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the teaching of undergraduate mathematics courses in the first two years of college. One goal of this work is to establish collaborative communities among the institutions involved. As part of the project, institutions visit one another on site visits that are structured according to a common protocol. The site visits have been valuable to the project. Participating institutions report the exchange of actionable ideas and feedback; members of the grant leadership team have used the site visits to direct the overall project, and evaluators have …

The Explosion Of The Steamer Eclipse, Dieter C. Ullrich

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

An article describing the history and tragic explosion of the steamship Eclipse on January 27, 1865 across from Johnsonville, Tennessee on the Tennessee River.

Two Roads Diverged: Iaas @ 50, Sue Norton

Articles

This article joins others in The Irish Journal of American Studies reflecting back on the history of the Irish Association of American Studies and the teaching of American literature and American Studies in Ireland.

After The Golem: Teaching Golems, Kabbalah, Exile, Imagination, And Technological Takeover., Temma F. Berg

English Faculty Publications

The golem is an elusive creature. From a religious perspective it enacts spirit entering matter, a creation story of potential salvation crossed with reprehensible arrogance. As a historical narrative, the golem story becomes a tale of Jewish powerlessness and oppression, of pogroms and ghettoization, of assimilation and exile, and sometimes, of renewal. As the subject of a course in women, gender and sexuality studies, the golem narrative can be seen as a relentless questioning of otherness and identity and as a revelation of the complex intersectionalities of gender, class, sexuality, race, disability, and ethnicity. As a philosophical motif, the ambiguous …

The Use Of Differentiated Instruction By Teachers Of The Columbia Union Seventh-Day Adventists, Jennifer Jill Bianco

Dissertations

The Problem

Teachers in the Columbia Union of Seventh-day Adventists were provided training in differentiated instruction training during the summers of 2013-2016. However, there were no formal follow-up communications to report or to share their experiences with implementing the newly learned method of instruction. The purposes of this study were (a) to describe the teachers' beliefs and levels of practice of differentiated instruction after completing the training; (b) to determine if there are differences in beliefs and practice; and (c) to describe methods of support for implementation of differentiated instructions.

Method

This study used a mixed-method design. The quantitative section …

The Relationship Between Teacher Perceptions Of Professional Learning Communities And Shared And Supportive Leadership, Alicia Hunter

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study is an exploration of leadership practices that develop and sustain a professional learning community (PLC). It explores teacher perceptions of these leadership practices. Findings include descriptions of teacher perceptions of leadership practices as they relate to shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice. This study utilized the five Madison County (KY) middle schools to assess the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of shared and supportive leadership practices and the other indicators of an effective Professional Learning Community. The characteristics evaluated included teachers’ perceptions of professional learning through PLCs along with …

Incorporating Environmental Arrangement Strategies Into Classroom Activities, Brandy M. Denton

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Individuals with extensive support needs, including those who have autism spectrum disorder and are classified as level 3 in the area of social communication, are more likely than same-age peers to display delays in age-appropriate social communication and engagement in activities. To address these issues, special education teachers, in collaboration with related-service providers, should create social communication and engagement objectives. Once objectives are identified, teachers can plan for and implement environmental arrangement (EA) strategies to promote these behaviors in a natural context. EA strategies are a long-standing approach to creating a communication-rich environment and can be used alone or paired …

Professional Growth Among Mentor Teachers In A Co-Teaching Model Of Preservice Education, Katya Aguilar

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Moments Of Reflection: A Phenomenological Study Of Preservice Teacher Reflection, Jane Ferris

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Transitioning from their training programs to their own classrooms, new teachers may feel a disconnect between what they learned and what they experience. To help with this transition and to promote teachers’ abilities to respond to the varying and unique needs of their students and schools, teacher training programs, beginning in the 1980s, have incorporated the use of reflective practice. Reflection provides teachers an opportunity to engage with their experiences in such a way that prereflective understandings, assumptions, biases, and beliefs may be identified. Reviewed literature suggests that teacher training programs do not clearly define and implement reflection instruction into …

Reframing Professional Learning To Analyze Teacher Practice And Promote System-Wide Change, Jennifer Smerecky

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The present study examined teachers’ perceptions of targeted professional learning experiences offered within their educational agency. This study focused on teachers' perceptions of the planning, delivery, and follow-up support from teacher professional learning sessions. The teacher participants shared their perceptions of professional learning, implementation of new strategies, barriers to implementation, and support needed from their administration in order to grow as educators. This focus of this study aims to reframe professional learning by forming cooperation between administrators and teachers within education organizations to reform professional learning opportunities. This study advocates for further development in the collaboration of a system-wide change …

Critical Black Feminist Mentorship: A Review Of A Middle School And University-Sponsored Program For Adolescent Black Girls, Dyann C. Logwood

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation study aims to illuminate the creation of safe spaces for marginalized youth through mentorship initiatives. Likewise, the study examines the roles of mentorship programs in transforming the lives of Black adolescent girls by providing them with tools to change the narratives depicted by society. A qualitative design was employed that used phenomenological interviewing techniques and ethnographic observations to explore the experiences of the Black adolescent girls in one university-sponsored mentorship program. The findings illustrate what is coined through this research—a critical Black feminist mentorship model that emphasizes an intersectional identity development, the actualization of voice, the creation and …

Wartime Teachers: Stories From The Front, Rachel K. Turner, Eliel Hinojosa Jr.

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

In the early 1990s, Dr. O.L. Davis of the University of Texas at Austin sought evacuee teacher and student recollections in England during World War II. The overarching purpose for Davis was to gain an understanding of the effect on schooling and education, specifically as it relates to the curriculum for students. This article continues where he left off and places focus on teacher evacuees. Of the several hundred responses from student evacuees, we utilized ten of the thirty teacher evacuees who responded to Dr. Davis. The purpose in this research endeavor seeks to discover the impact evacuations in England …

Professional Noticing On A Statistical Task, Courtney Nagle, Stephanie Casey, Michele Carney

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explores secondary in-service mathematics teachers’ professional noticing of student work on a statistical task involving informally placing a line of best fit. The manuscript describes how teachers interpreted student work on the line of best fit task, how teachers responded to the student work, and associations between their interpretations and consequential responses. Findings related to teachers’ interpretations of student work revealed that teachers were often evaluative and tended to describe both students’ processes and underlying understanding, although the descriptions of understanding were frequently unsupported by the work. Teachers’ responses to students were typically open-ended but infrequently showed promise …

Misunderstandings Of Teachers Applying Icap Theory Into Practice, Jesse Ha, Man Su, Michelene Chi, Catherine Cullicott

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Interactive-constructive-active-passive (ICAP) is a theory of learning that differentiates students' engagement primarily on behavior. ICAP postulates that interactive engagement is superior for learning than constructive engagement. This paper discusses misconceptions of teachers during a 5-year project that attempted to translate ICAP into instruction. Teachers successfully implemented active mode but struggled to design appropriate constructive or interactive lessons.

An Exploration Of The Pedsacademy Internship's Influence On Aspiring Educators' Preparation To Teach Children With Chronic Illnesses, Karla A. Sanabria Matos

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The increased emergence of childhood chronic illnesses in the United States of America has created a need for educational support in this unique student population. Research trends have showcased how the child's emotional health and vacancies in legislation are some of the affecting factors when discussing the level of academic aid these children receive from the state. Some other factors that come into play when ensuring children with chronic illnesses are not excluded from receiving quality education are their learning environment, school reintegration process, and evaluating pre-existing hospital-school programs which are all themes covered in this narrative. Teacher preparation programs …

Exhibit Curriculum For Fighting For Democracy: Unit Two, Sarah Aponte, Martin Toomajian

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Fighting for Democracy: Dominican Veterans from World War II.

Students in Global History and U.S. History courses often spend extensive class time studying World War II. Dominicans were involved in virtually every facet of the U.S. war effort. The Dominican Studies Institute's exhibit highlights Dominican veterans who served in both the European and Pacific theaters, in multiple branches of the U.S. armed forces. These same veterans, like other people of color, faced discrimination as soldiers in the U.S. An exploration of these veterans' experiences would be memorable and valuable for secondary …

Exhibit Curriculum For Fighting For Democracy: Unit One, Sarah Aponte, Martin Toomajian

Open Educational Resources

Exhibit curriculum for the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute exhibit, Fighting for Democracy: Dominican Veterans from World War II.

Students in Global History and U.S. History courses often spend extensive class time studying World War II. Dominicans were involved in virtually every facet of the U.S. war effort. The Dominican Studies Institute's exhibit highlights Dominican veterans who served in both the European and Pacific theaters, in multiple branches of the U.S. armed forces. These same veterans, like other people of color, faced discrimination as soldiers in the U.S. An exploration of these veterans' experiences would be memorable and valuable for secondary …

An Exploratory Case Study Of Teachers' Literacy Orientations And Early Literacy Curricula Preferences, Stacy Escobedo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In this exploratory case study of two Florida charter schools, early literacy teachers' (prekindergarten through third grade; N=9) instructional literacy orientations were explored. The Literacy Orientation Survey (Lenski et al., 1998) was viewed through the lens of early literacy teachers' curricular preferences and practical use of curriculum. Descriptive results were analyzed, indicating that most teachers identified as preferring an eclectic rather than traditional or constructivist approach to instruction. However, one-third of teachers' literacy orientation beliefs and practices were not aligned, meaning what they believed about literacy and what they practiced as teachers (when choice was an option) were incongruent. Additionally, …

Co-Teaching In The Inclusive Math Classroom, Kylie Marie Kallman Moore

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This literature review examined various aspects of co-teaching math in inclusive classrooms. Research has shown varying results on the effects of student achievement for general education students and students with special needs in co-taught math classes. School-based differences may have an effect on these outcomes and should be examined further. Continued efforts to provide students with special needs the least restrictive environment for learning, ongoing co-planning, co-assessing, and reflection are key components for a successful co-teaching pair. Additionally, administrators should recognize the role they play in helping teachers’ planning efforts. Using a combination of the six models of co-teaching with …

Acceleration Of Coronal Mass Ejection Plasma In The Low Corona As Measured By The Citizen Cate Experiment, Ignacio Birriel, Jennifer J. Birriel

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

The citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment was a new type of citizen science experiment designed to capture a time sequence of white-light coronal observations during totality from 17:16 to 18:48 UT on 2017 August 21. Using identical instruments the CATE group imaged the inner corona from 1 to 2.1 RSun with 1 43 pixels at a cadence of 2.1 s. A slow coronal mass ejection (CME) started on the SW limb of the Sun before the total eclipse began. An analysis of CATE data from 17:22 to 17:39 UT maps the spatial distribution of coronal flow velocities from about …

A Structural Equation Modeling Investigation Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior Applied To Accounting Professors’ Formal Enforcement Of Cheating Rules, Stephen S. Brigham

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

This study investigates factors that influence accounting professors’ formal enforcement of academic misconduct rules using the Theory of Planned Behavior (“TPB”) as a theoretical framework. Obtaining a better understanding of formal enforcement will inform efforts to improve it. We emailed survey requests to 8,663 accounting faculty in 35 countries and received a reasonably representative sample of 1,207 (13.9% response rate) complete surveys from 23 countries— exceeding sample-size requirements for structural equation modeling to test our TPB model, which explains 43.3% of the variance in Formal Enforcement Behavior and 52.4% of Intention, consistent with past TPB studies. Results indicate that of …

Comparative Gene Expression Profiling Between Optic Nerve And Spinal Cord Injury In Xenopus Laevis Reveals A Core Set Of Genes Inherent In Successful Regeneration Of Vertebrate Central Nervous System Axons, Kurt M. Gibbs

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

Background: The South African claw-toed frog, Xenopus laevis, is uniquely suited for studying differences between regenerative and non-regenerative responses to CNS injury within the same organism, because some CNS neurons (e.g., retinal ganglion cells after optic nerve crush (ONC)) regenerate axons throughout life, whereas others (e.g., hindbrain neurons after spinal cord injury (SCI)) lose this capacity as tadpoles metamorphose into frogs. Tissues from these CNS regions (frog ONC eye, tadpole SCI hindbrain, frog SCI hindbrain) were used in a three-way RNAseq study of axotomized CNS axons to identify potential core gene expression programs for successful CNS axon regeneration.

Results: Despite …

The Impact That Student’S Homelife Have On Their Ability To Achieve Success In School, Annmarie T. Umland

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The homelife of an adolescent has a profound impact on their ability to find success in school. Students who come from a family that is made up of a single parent, divorced parents, homelessness, and some other non-traditional family configurations are more likely to be unsuccessful in school and develop unwanted psychological adjustments. This research explores how a student’s homelife affects their success in school from the views of both a traditional and non-traditional family type. It also focuses on the impact that teachers and school communities can have on a student’s success, regardless of their upbringing. Through this research, …