UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Uncovering Critical Considerations: Using a Culturally Relevant Analysis to Reveal Teachers' Diversity and Equity Beliefs within Visions and Practice(2015) Yee, Laura S.; De La Paz, Susan; Valli, Linda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The primary purpose of this study was to examine teachers' beliefs about diversity and equity through a culturally relevant analysis of their visions of teaching and practice. The secondary purpose was to identify how centrally located these beliefs were within their visions. Participants included a Black British female second grade teacher, a White Cajun-American male pre-kindergarten and a White American female art teacher within one public elementary school in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Using qualitative case study methodology, participants' visions and practices were collected through individual interviews and observations of teaching over the course of one unit of study. Data included interview transcripts, observational field notes and teaching artifacts (e.g., lesson plans, student work). Using Atlas.ti Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software, data were analyzed using teacher vision and culturally relevant teaching (CRT) frameworks. Both open and a priori codes were assigned to data for each case analysis. Findings reveal underlying positive beliefs for all three teachers as evidenced by the presence of culturally relevant elements in their visions and practice. All teachers also held these elements centrally within their visions of teaching and their practice. The framework for this study as well as its findings demonstrate how vision and CRT may be used to reveal underlying asset rather than deficit teacher beliefs about students.Item Investigating Two Teachers Teaching of Multicultural Literature to Diverse Students: Perspectives and Practices(2010) Priestly, Nicole Michelle; Van Sledright, Bruce A; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates how two teachers teach multicultural literature to diverse students using culturally relevant teaching practices. The student demographic is becoming increasingly diverse and alternative teaching methods of students of color must be explored to increase student participation and student achievement. During a three week period observations, anecdotal notes, interviews, and teacher created supplements were gathered to explore teacher practices as it relates to culturally relevant teaching. The results showed that a teacher of color was more able to demonstrate culturally relevant teaching strategies due to similar experiences of the students and characters in the text as well as having extensive teaching experience as part of her background. The other teacher who was not a person of color demonstrated fewer of the culturally relevant strategies due to more limited capacity to relate to her students and the characters in the text as well as having only a few years of teaching experience. The results of the study are discussed with regard to race, teacher experience, and staff development and education.Item Transformative Black Teachers and their Use of Computer Related Technologies in Urban Schools(2004-11-02) Frederick, Rona Monique; Price, Jeremy N.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the last decade, the Internet and other computer-related technologies have become ubiquitous to many U.S. schools. However, little is known about the ways Black educators working in urban schools integrate computer technology into their classroom practice. Although studies have been conducted on successful urban schoolteachers and their pedagogical philosophies, few explore how instructional computers are used to meet diverse students' personal and cultural needs. Furthermore, rarely do reports seek to highlight the stories of exemplary Black urban schoolteachers who use technology in spite of limited and out-dated resources. In response, this research, utilizing interpretive case study methodology, examined how four Black teachers integrated the Internet and computer-related technologies into their teaching practices in ways that transformed the thinking and lives of their Black students. Tenets of Critical Race Theory, an analysis of race and racism in the law and in society, was used to examine these Black teachers' classroom practices. This research occurred in two phases. First, I situated the historical, social and political context of Roosevelt City and the emergence of its Black schooling system. This account provided a context for understanding the historical struggle of its Black community to access knowledge within a city based on racial domination and subordination. I analyzed archival data, newspapers and articles, to capture the historical and current atmosphere of Roosevelt City Public Schools. During the second phase, I chose four "transformative" Black teachers to participate in 1) a formal interview about their life story and their teaching philosophies using computer technology; 2) a series of on-going classroom observations in which I examined the classroom dynamics, discourse patterns, activities and the physical setting; and, 3) a series of informal interviews about specific interactions in the classroom. Through the use of ngona, counter-storying, I documented their teaching practice over the course of one thematic unit. Overall, the findings suggest that computers and related technologies 1) assisted teachers in engaging in meaningful instruction about the Black experience, 2) served as an intellectual partner where Black students constructed knowledge; and, 3) became a medium for legitimizing Black student' real life experiences in the "official curriculum."