Browsing by Subject "Education"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 187
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    Adventure, Inquiry, and Technology as Driving Forces in Sustainability Education
    (2016-06) Henrickson, Jeni
    Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has increasingly taken on importance around the world, in part due to the growing awareness of environmental concerns such as climate change, and in part due to a challenge set forth by the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. There is, as a result, a growing body of ESD literature (e.g., see Blum, Nazir, Breiting, Goh, & Pedretti, 2013; Chalkey, 2006; De Hann, Bormann, & Leicht, 2010; Eilam & Trop, 2011; Green & Somerville, 2014; Karatzoglou, 2013; Kemmis & Mutton, 2012; Reunamo & Pipere, 2011; Rieckmann, 2013; Walshe, 2008; Weaver, 2015), and many places in the developed world have begun to establish policies addressing ESD. Adventure has been incorporated into sustainability education in a variety of ways throughout history: through literature, outdoor and physical education, field-based exploration and research, and most recently, technology, which has, for example, allowed learners to journey virtually along with explorers and scientists on expeditions to the far-reaches of the world. Technology has also enhanced and expanded the types of adventures we can engage in today, such as through advances in equipment and tools that allow us to explore regions of the planet that were previously inaccessible, and to participate in events previously unimagined, via the personal computer, the Internet, and mobile devices. The three related studies that comprise this dissertation focus on the use of adventure learning as a driving force in inquiry-based sustainability education. These studies examine three different online adventure learning projects. Paper 1 shares research conducted on the role of adventure in the GoNorth! adventure learning series, and advances suggestions for how adventure might be employed in distance, online, and mobile learning in ways that promote experiential learning and sustainability education. Paper 2 examines to what extent an informal online learning environment such as WeExplore might provide a technology-fueled classroom tool for teachers that fosters inquiry and creativity while allowing learners to design authentic transdisciplinary experiences grounded in contemporary issues. Paper 3 shares data and narratives from six Earthducation field expeditions and examines how education might influence sustainability in differing contexts and geographical locations. Findings from the studies indicate adventure learning is a promising model that educators and designers can draw from in both formal and informal learning settings as a means to fuse inquiry, sustainability education, and technology in a pedagogically meaningful way that engages learners and teachers alike. The studies advance our understanding of how we might better design technology-enhanced learning environments that foster engagement and creativity while encouraging learner curiosity and wonder and cultivating inquiry and collaboration.
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    Agendas, Actions, and Accountability in International Development: A Case Study of the USAID Education Strategy for 2011-2015
    (2014-12) Willis, Garth
    Beginning in 2010, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented a series of institutional reforms designed to rebuild USAID as the world's premier development agency. This research examined one component of this larger reform effort, the USAID Education Strategy for 2011-2015: Opportunity Through Learning. The purpose of this research is to examine how the current agenda for basic education was determined, what actions occurred based on this agenda, and how USAID will be held accountable for results. The problem is that while new strategies are routinely developed and implemented, without accountability for results lessons learned to do not inform future policy. The education strategy is an exemplary case study to examine USAID's redesigned approach to international development as: 1) it is the first sector strategy developed under Administrator Rajiv Shah and paved the way for future strategies, 2) it resulted in significant changes to priorities and programs in education, and 3) it represents an unprecedented commitment by USAID to be held accountable for results. This case study of the 2011 Education Strategy provides insights into USAID's new operational model and the implications the model poses for international development assistance. Lessons learned can also inform other global agendas including the design of education indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals. The research uses a framework of agendas, actions, and accountability to analyze the political context and alternative agendas that are the drivers of strategy development and implementation at USAID. This research highlights how agendas are formulated and strategies developed, how ensuing actions depend on both bureaucratic and political processes to deliver results, and how accountability for results is an ambiguous process that has profound implications for the development agenda. Through a document review and interviews with policy specialists and technical experts at USAID, this research adds to existing research by examining and critiquing the policy processes of agendas, actions, and accountability in the context of international development, where decisions are shaped by a global set of actors and contexts.
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    American Indian Teachers' Perspectives: Effective Teaching Practices and Influences on American Indian Education
    (2002) Ackley, Victoria Ann; Hermes, Mary R.; Guldbrandsen, Frank; Peacock, Thomas
    With increasing numbers of children of color in public schools and predictions that these students may comprise up to 46% of our country's overall student population by the year 2020 (Howard, 1999), teachers need to reflect upon what it means to be the teacher of children of color. The U.S. educational system is not producing large percentages of American Indian teachers, and so there continues to be many non-Indian teachers of American Indian students. American Indian students, as a group, continue to lag significantly behind their non-Indian peers in school. While there are many reasons for this occurrence, this study chooses to focus on what does work. After a review of the literature, I analyze in-depth interviews with three American Indian teachers of an urban school district. The purpose is to examine what Indian teachers have to say about their experiences as Indian teachers, how to make education more meaningful to American Indian students, and to also provide insightful recommendations on what motivates American Indian students to become successful academically.
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    American Indians in St Paul: A Preliminary Data Report
    (2000) Fitzgerald, Patricia; Martinez, Cecilia
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    American Indians on the East Side of St Paul
    (2000) Community Outreach Partnership Center; American Indian Research and Policy Institute
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    An Americanization Teaching Program
    (1920-06) Speaker, Gladys Florence
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    Analyzing the Impact of Education Reforms on the Achievement Gap: an Analysis of Teach for America
    (Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 2009-10-09) Anderson, Brett
    The Coleman Report’s (Coleman et al. 1966) influence on education, even to this day, cannot be understated. As the largest, most well known and most influential educational study conducted in the U.S, the Coleman Report laid the foundation for how we look at equality in education and what we know about the effects of various influences within education. Its central findings underline two of the most intractable problems the field of education faces: (1) family background or SES is the prime predictor of achievement and (2) large achievement gaps between groups of students from different SES backgrounds. The finding that family background, or SES, is the main predictor of educational outcomes was a direct contradiction to what many were expecting the Coleman Report to find, which was that disparity in inputs or resources was the main cause for the existing minority achievement gaps. And while the study did also find some support for the effects of teachers and the student body composition, these were much smaller than those of family background.
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    Athletic Training Students' Academic Preparation in Healthcare Documentation
    (2015-05) Brugge, Amy
    Documentation is fundamental to all patient encounters across health professions, including athletic trainers. The athletic training education competencies delineate five competencies and one clinical integration proficiency specific to documentation knowledge, skills, and abilities. There is little research regarding athletic training students� preparation in performing patient documentation and suggestion that recent graduates and employers have identified the domain of healthcare administration as a perceived deficit in professional preparation. A descriptive study was undertaken to ascertain students� reports of their preparation in healthcare documentation in didactic, laboratory, and clinical education. The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which final-year athletic training students report having received instruction, having rehearsed, and having been assessed on the documentation-related competencies in athletic training. An electronic survey was sent to final-year athletic training students across the United States currently enrolled in professional programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). A 16.9% response rate was obtained via 185 survey participants. These participants were from all ten districts of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Findings suggest that final-year students report appropriate levels of instruction, rehearsal, and assessment of their knowledge and skills in medical terminology and the security, privacy, and confidentiality of medical records, but that foundational knowledge in the use of procedural and diagnostic coding and performance of third party reimbursement activities may be lacking. Only 7% of final-year students reported having used their documentation to communicate with insurers and bill for services. Additionally, students enrolled in professional programs at the post-baccalaureate degree level reported the inclusion of academic electronic health records in didactic coursework at statistically significant greater level than their baccalaureate degree peers. Athletic training educators should consider the timing and placement of documentation-related competencies in program curricula in order to allow for adequate instruction, rehearsal reinforced through clinical education experiences, and appropriate assessment of documentation knowledge, skills, and abilities prior to graduation. The future of the athletic training profession is dependent upon a workforce that excels in documentation in order to support outcomes-based clinical research and successfully obtain payment for services rendered.
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    Autodidacts: Eighteenth-Century Progress Narratives and the Limits of Enlightenments
    (2023-05) Choudhury, Moinak
    This project describes how eighteenth-century progress narratives conceived the autodidact as an antagonist. Before the nineteenth century transformed it into an emblem of self-reliance, it was a reminder of the perils of undisciplined learning. This errant character diverged from literary experiments with liberal individualism to highlight its anxieties about self-governance. In this regard, I suggest that the autodidact was a marginal figure at two junctures in the eighteenth century: hierarchies of position—the metropole and the periphery; and debates on scientific methods of inquiry. These two critical approaches, I propose, will expand autodidacticism's literary history and contribute to eighteenth-century and postcolonial studies.
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    An autoethnography of working-class education
    (2013-04) Moyer, Krista E.
    This thesis tells the story of the author's elementary and secondary education in public school in southwestern Pennsylvania, through anecdotes and first-person narration. In analytical chapters, the author examines the events through the lens of critical literacy education theories, including those of Paolo Freire, Valerie Walkerdine, Timothy Lensmire, and others. With a particular emphasis on the ways in which social class influenced her education, she also examines the effect of the label "gifted" on her educational outcomes, including her participation in the Pennsylvania Governor's School program for intellectually gifted students. She concludes by considering the importance of education in the lives of working-class students who will not pursue intellectual career paths and offers advice to teachers for reaching these students.
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    Beyond The Barriers: Women-To-Women Mentoring In/To Secondary School And Central Office Leadership
    (2015-04) Anderson-Hume, Bobbi
    Despite the fact that the pool from which most school leaders come is made up of a majority of women, most school leaders are men. Notwithstanding extensive research regarding this issue, the number of women principals in secondary schools and in the office of the superintendent remains low. The barriers, for those women not hired, identified by the reviewed literature can be classified as issues of job structure, age, and career paths. Because these issues are ones connected to women's family and domestic responsibilities, a simple solution for increasing the number of women school leaders has remained elusive. However, one barrier, a lack of mentors, has not been as widely explored. The impact a mentor has is undeniable and having a role model serves to make positions of school leadership more achievable. Further, having a woman mentor not only identifies the barriers, but also allows an aspiring women school leader assistance in their navigation. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the concept and practice of women-to-women mentoring through the perceptions of women school leaders who were seated secondary school principals, assistant principals, and superintendents, and are or were mentored by other women school leaders. Specific questions included: 1) How do study participants perceive the concept and practice of mentoring? 2) What are the lived experiences of women who have been mentored by women school leaders? 3) Why and how are or are not study participants supporting, through mentoring, other women who aspire to school leadership? This qualitative study, used interviews, observations, and documents/artifacts to gather data regarding the concept and practice of women-to-women mentoring. A phenomenological approach, including bracketing and reduction, was used to bring forth the prominent themes. Findings emphasized and illustrated original learning in the areas of: 1) mentor theory, 2) the practice of mentoring school leaders, 3) women-to-women mentoring, 4) the specific needs of women school leaders, 5) the gender of the mentor, 6) benefits to mentoring for women, 7) misuses of mentoring, and 8) a seated woman leaders choice to mentor.
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    Black Worldliness: Poetic Knowledge in Education
    (2022-12) Sims, Noah NuhuBabuKubwa" Isaiah"
    Black Worldliness is an amalgamation of stories and experiences from a Black male charged with teaching white people how to be more racially and culturally conscious. It is a critical and auto-ethnographic project that is deeply informed by the Black Radical Tradition. The manuscript centers around a 2-year research study of equity work in education that is filtered through the lens of Black Radicals and Afro-Surrealism. I spend significant energy trying to demonstrate what an Afro-surrealist would say about the system of public education in the U.S. How would they critique it? How would imagine something different? This work is about spending time and building an intimate knowledge of a system so that, like W.E.B. Dubois informs us, any critique comes from a space of knowing the system inside and out.
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    Building Evaluation Capacity in Educational Organizations: A Longitudinal Case Study of One Metropolitan School District
    (2016-07) Rohmer-Hirt, Johnna
    Although evaluation capacity building (ECB) is relatively prevalent in the literature, there is not an extensive empirical body of work related to the topic. The purpose of this study was to add to the existing literature through a 30-year historical longitudinal case study of a large metropolitan school district from the perspective of its leadership. This research examined the longitudinal evidence of the context, processes, and activities that impact ECB within a K-12 educational setting. In addition, it traced the development of an internal evaluation department and the steps to build supports for data use and evaluation in the midst of accountability, using process use as the primary strategy toward ECB. The study consisted of interviews with 14 district leaders, along with document reviews over the years 1985 to 2015, encompassing significant legislative enactments such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the public accountability era in K-12 education. The district leadership was found to value data use across time, along with community involvement and input, and demonstrated a strong legislative awareness and presence. The leaders who were interviewed also viewed evaluation as mission and vision critical across time. Substantial changes were made over the 30-year time frame in the number and types of staff members in the department, the internal process and activities of the department, how the department collaborated with others across the organization, and the organizational reporting structure. In addition, organizational factors such as the shift from evaluation for mandatory reasons (such as grants and legislative requirements) to evaluation for internal decision making and inquiry occurred over the 30-year span, along with important changes in technology and data integrity, accessibility, and understandability. Eight key recommendations to propel ECB emerged from the research: 1) attend to data integrity, accessibility, and understandability – including technology; 2) capitalize on one-time and special funding; 3) recognize that leadership matters and change is disruptive; 4) hire the right people; 5) remember that disposition/personality matters; 6) make ECB an intentional, ongoing focus; 7) work toward consistency, not the new next best thing; and 8) build on previous work instead of completely starting over.
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    Certain Characteristics of a Group of Overage Pupils
    (1923-12) Anderson, Albert
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    Chicanas/os in Contested Spaces: Communal Forms of Resistance and the Creation of Underground Calmecacs
    (2016-04) Rodriguez, Reina
    This dissertation focuses on how Chicana/o graduate students negotiate the need to feel connected to family, community and cultural ties while engaging in research and writing that acknowledges the contributions of all of their sources of knowledge—including those outside of the academy. This research is important because it offers critical interventions into how to improve equity and diversity for students of color and their communities in the university setting and also pushes the field of feminist studies by centering theories that embrace corporeal and material realities as central to feminist political ideology by insisting, as women of color feminists have, that family, community and culture cannot be separated from educational and academic spaces. It also introduces the concept of an Underground Calmecac Resistance as a means for survival for Chicana/o graduate students. This research is carried out through interviews, questionnaires, experiential knowledge and by highlighting the significance of mainstream (im)migration narratives and language for Chicana/Chicano graduate students while using work by key theorists, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, and bell hooks.
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    Classification According to Intelligence Tests
    (1922-06) Ziegler, William Arthur