Browsing by Subject "School culture"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Indian American identity formation as conceptualized through interactions in the schooling space(2016-05) Ramaprasad, Venkat Raghavan; De Lissovoy, Noah, 1968-; Brown, Anthony; Browne, Simone; Salinas, Cynthia; Urrieta, LuisThis dissertation presents a six-month study using critical case studies to gain insights into how the schooling experiences of five Indian American students inform and shape their self-conceptualizations of their Indian racial and cultural identities. The research questions focus on aspects of identity related to schooling interactions with educators, peers and curricula, and how participants resist schooling mandates and prescribed ways of being particular to school culture when self-authoring their identities. To this end, this study uses a multilayered theoretical framework incorporating postcolonialism, bodies of color as “space invaders” in institutional spaces, cultural identity in diaspora, and youth agency/resistance. Data was collected through interviews and classroom/school observations to understand participants’ perceptions of their schooling experiences and gain first-hand observations of classroom contexts. The findings are presented in three chapters. Chapter four presents participants’ social lives at Cresthill High School (CHS). As CHS contains a student population composed of mostly Asian and White students, a dual-tiered social hierarchy emerged where achieving and Whitewashed students were placed at the top and all remaining groups relegated to the bottom. The borders around being Indian/Indianness were used to form social groups, position students within the social hierarchy, and contained heavy links to achievement. Chapter five presents key findings from interactions in formal educative spaces with teachers, peers and pedagogy, demonstrating how pedagogical contexts solidified/destabilized participants’ Indianness related to achievement, how achievement itself became a racializing device, and how Orientalized curricula made it difficult for Indian American students to to see themselves positively in classroom contexts and learning activities. Chapter six presents participants’ home contexts and the different ways their Indian racial and cultural identities were informed through diasporic networks, parental expectations around achievement and dating, consuming transnational media, and the consuming and production of Indian culture through food and native language practices. General conclusions include the flexibility of Indian/Indianness as a positioning device requiring the need to carefully self-regulate one’s outward displays of Indianness to mitigate difference, and how interactions in home and community underpinned participants’ formation of hybridized identities that were time-, place- and space-specific.Item Instruction for discovery learning : levels of implementation exhibited by a sample of algebra I teachers(2013-05) Hoffman, Shannah Kathryn; Petrosino, Anthony J. (Anthony Joseph), 1961-; Daniels, Mark L.One type of instruction that is of particular interest in STEM education is instruction that actively engages students in inquiry and discovery. The author develops an operational definition of instruction for discovery learning (IDL) that adopts some of the fundamental commonalities among many reform-oriented instructional frameworks such as inquiry-based and project-based instruction. Four teachers—who received their bachelor’s degree in mathematics and teacher certification from the same undergraduate teacher-preparation program—and their Algebra I classes were observed with the focus on how particular features of IDL were being implemented in their classrooms. To gain further perspective on classroom practices and interactions, student surveys were administered to a total of 142 students and each teacher was interviewed. The student surveys focused on student orientations toward IDL, attitudes toward mathematics, and their perspective of IDL implementation in their class. Student survey data was analyzed through ANOVA, post hoc tests were used to identify significant pair-wise differences between teachers for which the ANOVA identified significance, and a factor analysis was used to evaluate the component loadings for the survey questions. The surveys revealed significant differences between perceived activities in the classes (p<0.05), but did not show very significant differences between student orientations toward IDL. All four teachers expressed familiarity with and commitment to reform-oriented frameworks such as inquiry-based and project-based instruction, and certainly experienced inquiry-based learning as students themselves in their undergraduate program. However, only one teacher—the one teaching in a New Tech high school that was structured on the framework of project-based instruction (PBI)—showed consistent differences in both student perspectives of IDL and observed implementation of IDL. The author discusses the levels at which these teachers implemented IDL, the differences among student perceptions across the classes, teacher orientations toward mathematics and learning, and the importance of a supportive school culture and administration in order to fully implement IDL and influence both student and teacher orientations toward reform-oriented pedagogy.Item Superficial ideologies of children : influencing perceptions and shaping ethnic identity through school culture(2008-05) Parker, Amber Danielle; Williams, Jerome D., 1947-Culture integrates more than ideology and tradition. These cultural elements are supplementary factors that unite under certain conditions to assist in the development and understanding of what is right, wrong and/or expected within a group. Ideology specifically has been found to influence and construct societal norms, and play a vital role in the conscious and subconscious interactions of individuals. These ideologies (superficial and non-superficial) have implications for the interpersonal interactions between individuals within and between the same cultural groups, as well as implications for organizational and professional development within academic and professional settings. This study will examine culture and ideology through an investigation of environment and its relationship to ethnic identity development. In addition, the study will investigate the possible relationship between ethnic identity and perceptions of credibility. Findings suggest that culturally related materials in an academic setting are not related to strength of ethnic identification with regard to ethnic identity- behavior; yet ethnic identity- achievement may be slightly related to school environment. Further, ethnic identity and school environment are not influential in the perception on credibility of people of divergent skin-tones. The research explores practical and theoretical implications, discusses the limitations of evaluating skin-tone of African Americans, and suggests proposals for future research.Item Turnaround principals : perceptions of effective district supports that lead to successful and sustainable change(2018-05) Hernández, Susan Yarbrough; Olivárez, Rubén; Bukoski, Beth; Cantú, Norma; Sharpe, Edwin R.; Pringle, PatEducators and politicians have grappled to discover and implement strategies to improve student achievement results. Districts’ efforts to recruit and retain effective principals and teachers are crucial because of the positive influence these educators have on student achievement. However, highly qualified teachers and principals are hard to come by, especially in areas where low-performing schools are nestled. The main purpose of the study was to understand the district supports turnaround school principals perceive as necessary to achieve sustainable success and to describe the experiences of the principals during at least their first year in the turnaround school setting. An interpretive research approach within phenomenological methodology allowed for understanding how each principal lived the turnaround school experience and how the supports they had and strategies they employed impacted school turnaround. The questions for turnaround leaders receiving campus SIG funds were as follows: 1. What do the turnaround principals perceive as successful strategies for school turnaround? 2. To what extent do turnaround principals perceive their districts helped or impeded their turnaround efforts? 3. How do participants make sense of being a principal at a turnaround school? Turnaround for this study was defined as a school for 2 years or more not meeting state standards, and effective school turnaround was defined as a school reaching the met standard status after 1 year of leadership. Five participants were recruited who had been the lead campus administrator for at least two years, and during their tenure, had led their campus out of improvement required (IR) status. Interview transcripts were coded using elaborative methods. The major themes were the following: (a) Successful Turnaround Strategies that was supported by seven subthemes, (b) Effective District Supports that was supported by two subthemes; (c) Lack of District Support that was supported by two subthemes, and (d) Making Meaning of the Turnaround Principalship that was supported by eight subthemes. Chapter 5 contains the adapted theoretical framework, implications, and recommendations.