Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Education, Secondary|Education, Social Sciences'

The effects of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Free Secondary Education Policy (FSEP) on access to secondary school education in Kenya’s Yatta sub-county have not been adequately explored in available public policy literature. Hence, this qualitative multiple-case study was designed to understand the effects of the 2 policies on both enrollment and dropout among secondary school age children in Yatta. The study was conducted in 1 mixed-boarding secondary school and 1 secondary day school in Yatta. The study was built on an adapted Huisman and Smits’ theoretical model on dropout among students in developing countries. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 14 purposefully selected participants: 2 principals, 2 deputy principals, and 10 parents whose children had benefited from the CDF bursary scheme. Interview data were inductively coded and then subjected to Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis procedure, which aided in identification, analysis, and reporting of patterns (themes) in the data. Results showed that the CDF had contributed significantly to the improvement of enrollment with the establishment of new day schools that are more affordable, hence making secondary school education less costly and thus more available to low income families. The study’s findings also showed that student dropout had declined with both the CDF and FSEP. The positive social change implications of this study are that it provides evidence for advocacy among policy makers for increased allocation of resources to the education sector through the CDF and FSEP. Increased allocations will contribute to Kenya’s progress toward universal access to secondary education.

Detracking is an often misunderstood and ill-characterized education reform movement in the United States. Yet, as public educational spaces become more diverse, the relevance of detracking as a viable solution increases. However, secondary education teachers today are often ill-prepared to implement detracking. The purpose of this study was to better understand how secondary education social studies teachers develop perceptions of detracking. In this study, I collected four secondary education social studies teachers’ life stories. These life stories were synthesized into case study narratives and a cross case analysis to understand how these teachers developed perceptions of detracking. I found a teacher’s orientation towards social studies influenced their perceptions of detracking, but was limited by external factors such as training in heterogeneous instruction, misconceptions of detracking, and critical reflection. I also reaffirmed detracking as a complex/complicated concept and call to the field of education to expand discipline specific critical reflection and training in heterogeneous instruction.

Keywords: Detracking, Social Studies, Secondary Education, and Narrative Inquiry

This study explored the current state of secondary social studies in Western New York (WNY) through the lens of social studies orientations, specifically the traditional, disciplinary, and progressive strands (Fallace, 2010), and their alignment with the K-12 Social Studies Framework , approved by NYS’s Department of Education in 2014, with new NYS Regents assessments to begin in 2019. It was, therefore, important to collect baseline data on secondary social studies teachers’ social studies purpose, practices, and knowledge of NYS reforms.

A mixed-method study began in the spring of 2017, which collected data from the WNY S4 survey and two focus groups. Survey participants totaled n = 136, representing six counties in WNY; focus group members totaled n = 9. The WNY S4 replicated survey items from a nationwide instrument, Survey on the Status of Social Studies–S4 (Fitchett & VanFossen, 2013) and analyzed data with descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher developed a semi-structured interview guide to collect focus group data, which were analyzed by the long-table approach (Krueger & Casey, 2009).

Major survey findings were: (1) 99% reported an unawareness of their state/district standards; (2) 100% reported developing critical-thinking skills, while 64% reported content knowledge as primary goals; and (3) top-ranked instructional practices were 87% teach political history; 83% teach social history; and 82% examine sources. Analyses of t-tests indicate gender and grade level-band indicators are influential to instructional practices. For example, female and high school teachers seem to engage students more often in non-history content emphases, such as diversity of religious views, economics, and historiography while also de-emphasizing the lecture; hence aligning more with the disciplinary strand and less with the traditional strand.

Focus group results pinpoint a struggle between participants’ intentions versus actual practice which may impact alignment to NYS social studies reforms. Misalignment attributed to teacher’s purpose being overshadowed by their own instructional choices or outside factors, such as assessments, time, and other school district issues. Five out of nine focus group participants associated with the hybrid disciplinary-progressive approach, suggesting that secondary social studies teachers do not situate themselves to a single social studies orientation; and also consistent with past studies (Long, 2017; Vinson, 1998).

Overall, WNY S4 data suggests when purpose and practices are more closely aligned to the disciplinary and progressive approaches, secondary social studies instruction may find greater success with NYS social studies education reforms. In addition, gender and identified grade level-band (middle school and high school) differences provide insights for developing and tailoring professional development for different groups of teachers.

Two recommendations for policy and practice include: (1) refine the social studies orientation model into a continuum, and (2) apply the Social Studies Purpose Compass developed by the researcher to guide instructional alignment with NYS social studies reforms.

Sociological and cultural analysts have noted the reticence of public secondary schooling to recognize and build academic activities around the participatory culture in which adolescents are so readily involved (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton & Robison, 2009). Despite the Common Core State Standards having required students to demonstrate they can maximize technology to perform a range of skills involving targeted specialized research, organized writing, and visually intentional presentation (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA], Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010), very few classrooms have followed through. The avoidance and or failure of these educational technology integrations in secondary subject content classes raised questions. A survey of the literature showcases the many ways in which technologies were not fully matched to the tasks, expectations, or teacher skills. The mystery of epic technological classroom can be resolved if we apply the lens of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (Shulman, 1986; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) which speaks about the interactions and alignment tensions among these three areas. When one has applied this TPACK lens we can best understand a range of surveyed literature that speaks to disconnect among technology affordances, teacher pedagogies, and requirements of content knowledge. Among a range of TPACK research emerges a sub-set that advocates for the value of cognitive scaffolding through hard scaffolds and soft scaffolds (Saye & Brush, 2002). Previous research has suggested the hard scaffolds can offer a built pedagogy filled with student project expectations and that soft scaffolds can provide specific practices support that is customized and relevant for participants. This research study engages in design-based research to refine hard and soft scaffolds to support high school social studies students through a multi-phase oral history project. Engaging 2 sections of students at a progressive public high school, the researcher engaged in a two-iteration cycle of design activities between November 2014 and March 2015. A student work digital portfolio was turned in after students used the first iteration scaffolds. After a teacher-provided analysis of student work using the researchers provided rubric, tweaks were made to the scaffolds. A post-interview with participant teachers provided further refinement.

This dissertation was a case study of student perceptions in two history classrooms in a large suburban high school. In each classroom examined for this study the teacher was committed to using social studies inquiry and mobile technology in their instruction. Students were also expected to complete assignments and conduct inquiry with mobile technology. The purpose of this study was to examine the voice and experiences of high school students, and how high school students construct meaning through inquiry and mobile technology in the social studies classroom. 109 students participated in observations, focus groups, personal interviews and submitted completed examples of inquiry with technology. There were four general themes uncovered in the data for this study. The four themes that generated the findings for this study are that students engaged in inquiry using mobile technology (a) embraced the availability of resources and information when planning and conducting inquiries (b) reflected on communication with teachers and peers during the inquiry process (c) expressed that mobile technology provided opportunities to engage in learning and enhance knowledge outside of prescribed assignments (d) and used various creative outlets of mobile technology to communicate outcomes.

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, is home to approximately 3.4 million U.S. citizens. The literature on Puerto Rican national identity (PRNI) describes how and why it has been debated on the island for more than five hundred years throughout the colonial trajectory, once under Spain and now as a commonwealth of the United States.

The education system in Puerto Rico, and particularly the social studies curriculum, has been used to promote particular ideologies regarding national identity. This study identifies what middle school teachers teach about PRNI and how seventh grade students identify themselves in terms of national identity. The investigation of curriculum delivery examines the elements that foster the Puerto Rican national character. Social studies educators who neglect the multiplicity of Puerto Rican identities fail to acknowledge that educational practices should be inclusive of the diverse understandings of PRNI. Such an acknowledgment needs to be incorporated to social studies classes where teachers discuss Puerto Rico’s relationship with the United States. Examining social studies classes in Puerto Rico becomes the ideal context to develop conjectures about PRNI that include a transnational identity beyond the nation-state paradigms.

Using a mixed method approach with a concurrent embedded strategy, I identified student perceptions about PRNI, which differ from those of educators. Teachers’ perceptions, citizenship, ethnic identity, and political ideology become intertwined with the delivery of social studies classes. Nevertheless, students develop their own perceptions of PRNI with only minor reference to the social studies class.

Students express dissatisfaction with their social studies classes. They also assign a high level of importance to PRNI, express a strong feeling of belonging to the Puerto Rican nation, and describe markers of national identity. The previous categories become pivotal considerations for the assessment of content-rich social studies lessons.

A study of the Holocaust is a challenging task. Schools often dedicate little time to the study of the subject, and teachers are often largely unprepared in regard to their content mastery of the subject, as well as the appropriate pedagogical tools to help guide students through the study of intellectually and emotionally difficult material. Whereas best practice in the field of Holocaust education prescribes the use of primary sources in the teaching of the Holocaust, few studies exist which explore the ways in which teachers select and implement primary sources in their teaching of the Holocaust and the impact it has on what students come to understand about the event.

A case study of one tenth grade World History II classroom provided qualitative data to help explore the ways primary sources were used in the teaching of the Holocaust. This research describes the relationship between the use of primary sources in this classroom and the development of historical thinking skills among students. The data interpreted in this study indicated that the curation choices of the teacher influenced what students came to know and understand about the Holocaust. Additionally, students demonstrated an ability to develop and practice lower order historical thinking skills related to sourcing, as a result of their use of primary sources in a study of the Holocaust.

Findings emerged which indicated that the teacher and her students had unique relationships to the content of the Holocaust and to the study of history more broadly. This study offers insight into the intersections of difficult knowledge, Holocaust education, social studies pedagogy, source curation, and discussions of the skills necessary to learn history meaningfully and critically.

This study addresses how my freshman world history students come to understand controversial issues as provocative within the secondary social studies classroom, and in what ways does their engagement with provocative issues influence their understanding of the content and the world around them. In addition, this research study seeks to discover in what ways does the teaching of these provocative materials inform and influence my curricular decisions, my pedagogy, and my relationship with my students. The three research questions were established to guide this study.

1. How do my world history freshman students come to understand provocative materials in regards to the historical content?

2. How does my students' engagement with these provocative materials influence their understanding of historical events and the world around them?

3. In what ways does the teaching of these provocative materials inform and influence my curricular decisions, my pedagogy, and my relationship with my students?

Self-Study methodology was selected as a way to personally explore and examine my students understanding of provocative issues as well as my instruction. Grounded theory was utilized exclusively as a coding and analyzing device. To address these questions, thirteen student participants were selected for this study based on the criteria assumed by the questions. Data was collected from individual interviews, group interviews, student blog posts, and my own journal.

As the data was analyzed and coded, nuanced constructs of the students' thinking began to coalesce on three distinct perceptions of provocative issues which evolved into the findings of this study. The first finding involved students who advocated for the inclusion of provocative issues. Their rationales for this inclusion were; Real World Phenomenon, Provocative for Grade Sake, Provocative for Interest Sake. A second finding involved a student who opposed the inclusion of provocative issues. This student's rationales were labeled Oppositional. The first two findings were partnered with the six students' rationales. The third finding involved the other seven students who had a varying range of nuanced articulation, varied their opinion across time, or lacked a clear robust rationale. This finding was labeled developing rationales. These students' perspectives were labeled other voices.

In addition to the student data, journaling was utilized to explore my own rationale for using provocative issues within my world history classroom. These journals provided a space for reflection on my practice in regards to the teaching of provocative issues, thus addressing my third research question. The journals, like the other data sources, were coded using grounded theory as the main analytical device. Upon completion of the data analysis of my journals, themes began to emerge that progressed into findings. The self-study findings were categorized as; The Closed Space of Sexuality, The Banality of Violence, and Anti-Americanism Linked to Racism to Foster Critical Thinking.

There has been very limited research on the possible role religion has in its influence on teacher choices, especially within a Social Science classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treat religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions influence their curricular choices. The following research question informed the study: How are teachers’ religious identities, affinities and positionality revealed in their curricular choices?

Through the use of the multiple case study model using interviews, observations and artifacts, this dissertation examined how secondary Social Studies teachers explicitly and implicitly treat religion as a factor in the teaching of history and how their own affinity with/to a religion and beliefs about religious institutions influence their curricular choices. Using the lenses of positionality and presence, while explicitly being aware of American Civil Religion, religious hierarchies and Christian Privilege, this study examined two Atheist/Agnostic teachers in a comprehensive urban high school settings.

The findings are presented as single case studies with a cross case analysis. The analysis of findings found that both teachers did not include religion as a significant factor of history and therefore, did not privilege religion as a topic in their classes. The data showed that both teachers, despite their religious identifications, had internalized Civil American Religion and its alignment with Christianity.

The ultimate goal of teaching history to young people is to create effective, responsible citizens (Fallace, 2009). Despite such ambitious goals, the traditional teacher-centered method of instruction has not proven to have engaged students. As a result, students often rank history as their least-liked subject, particularly at the secondary level. One instructional strategy that may ameliorate this problem is the incorporation of primary sources. Identifying the inhibitors and inducers of primary sources, the researcher in this study explored and described the elements of successful primary source use in the secondary American and world history classrooms of three teacher participants in a qualitative, semester-long case study. Student and teacher perspectives of the impact of primary sources were also considered. In contrast to some of the existing literature, primary sources can be employed successfully and consistently in the secondary history classroom as demonstrated by the three teacher participants in this semester-long study in a large suburban Atlanta, Georgia, school district.

This dissertation reports the results of a qualitative research project investigating an approach to composition instruction in a high school social studies course that is based on the Upanishadic concept of tat tvam asi (you are that). Research for this study was conducted while I taught a section of Non-West History to high school juniors and seniors. This dissertation addresses the issues involved in the teaching of writing in a high school social science course. Specifically it focuses on the issues involved when a teacher attempts to construct a class that engages students to read and write in ways that promote empathic understanding of the other. To make this argument, I collected data in the Non-West History courses that I taught in 2012. The data consists largely of writing prompts I gave students dealing with literature we read and films we watched as well as their written responses. This dissertation argues that writing in a social science class should not be limited to research papers and essay tests. Further, this dissertation argues (citing the work of Jeremy Rifkin, J. Krishnamurti, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, Thomas Merton, and S. Radhakrishnan) that writing assignments should also be given that promote the empathic awareness that the self is the other. Further, I will offer a counter notion that writing in Social Studies classes should not be just about "conveying information" or "demonstrating knowledge" (cf. Kiuhara et al. 150). Instead, writing should be used to give students the opportunities to creatively develop new insights about their place in the world. Thus, this dissertation concludes by proposing a new model for the teaching of writing in a high school social science course.

Today’s high school students will face a host of economic problems such as the demise of the social safety net, mounting college student debt, and costly health care plans, as stated in the rationale for financial literacy provided by the Council for Economic Education’s National Standards for Financial Literacy. These problems are compounded by growing income and wealth inequality and the widespread influence of neoliberal ideology. Although one of the major goals of economics education is to teach students to make reasoned economic choices in their public and private lives and provide the skills to solve personal and social economic problems, little empirical research has been conducted on how these goals are addressed. Secondary economics education research has primarily focused on measuring students’ grasp of neoclassical economics while a separate body of literature provides theoretical critiques of that approach. This study responds to the gap presented by these separate camps by capturing the economics discourse of a high school economics and personal finance course in relation to the role of economic decision-making in a democracy, and the space to hold values discussions. Using case study methodology that included analysis of student and teacher interviews, classroom observations, the standards and official curriculum, lesson plans, and student-produced documents, the study provides deep, context-dependent knowledge about how the official curriculum is manifest in the classroom.

Findings reveal that the role of economic decision-making and values discussions were given very little space. The discourse was heavily focused on the acceptance of the science and mastery of technical knowledge about personal finance for the dual purposes of preparing students to succeed on the W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test and preparing students to navigate and succeed in a fixed economic reality firmly committed to neoclassical economics. The role of economic decision-making was diminished by the foregrounding of financial literacy over economics, which served as a mechanism of power to send the silent message that economic circumstances (such as wealth inequality) change through individual choices and that economic and social phenomena can be understood and addressed through the application of technical approaches.

This qualitative study sought to examine the Holy Cross Immersion, a service-learning trip for senior boys at Holy Cross School, New Orleans, Louisiana. The specific focus of the study is whether the experience increased the participants’ awareness of social justice issues, leading to future civic involvement. Individual interviews were conducted with nine young men who participated in an Immersion service-learning experience as seniors in high school between the years of 2011 and 2014. A focus group followed with three of the participants. I kept a journal throughout the interviews to document observations. Data were collected from the journal and interviews and analyzed using qualitative phenomenological methods. Findings of this study suggest that the Holy Cross Immersion service-learning trip is effective in helping adolescent males understand the marginalized in society, increasing their awareness of social justice issues, and contributing to their desire to volunteer.

This mixed methods case study documents an effort to implement authentic science and engineering instruction in one teacher’s ninth grade science classrooms in a science-focused public school. The research framework and methodology is a derivative of work developed and reported by Newmann and others (Newmann & Associates, 1996). Based on a working definition of authenticity, data were collected for eight months on the authenticity in the experienced teacher’s pedagogy and in student performance. Authenticity was defined as the degree to which a classroom lesson, an assessment task, or an example of student performance demonstrates construction of knowledge through use of the meaning-making processes of science and engineering, and has some value to students beyond demonstrating success in school (Wehlage et al., 1996). Instruments adapted for this study produced a rich description of the authenticity of the teacher’s instruction and student performance.

The pedagogical practices of the classroom teacher were measured as moderately authentic on average. However, the authenticity model revealed the teacher’s strategy of interspersing relatively low authenticity instructional units focused on building science knowledge with much higher authenticity tasks requiring students to apply these concepts and skills. The authenticity of the construction of knowledge and science meaning-making processes components of authentic pedagogy were found to be greater, than the authenticity of affordances for students to find value in classroom activities beyond demonstrating success in school. Instruction frequently included one aspect of value beyond school, connections to the world outside the classroom, but students were infrequently afforded the opportunity to present their classwork to audiences beyond the teacher.

When the science instruction in the case was measured to afford a greater level of authentic intellectual work, a higher level of authentic student performance on science classwork was also measured. In addition, direct observation measures of student behavioral engagement showed that behavioral engagement was generally high, but not associated with the authenticity of the pedagogy. Direct observation measures of student self-regulation found evidence that when instruction focused on core science and engineering concepts and made stronger connections to the student’s world beyond the classroom, student self-regulated learning was greater, and included evidence of student ownership.

In light of the alignment between the model of authenticity used in this study and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the results suggest that further research on the value beyond school component of the model could improve understanding of student engagement and performance in response to the implementation of the NGSS. In particular, it suggests a unique role environmental education can play in affording student success in K-12 science and a tool to measure that role.