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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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    FROM VISION TO PRACTICE: A CASE STUDY OF WRITING PROJECT TEACHERS
    (2019) Singleton, Elizabeth M.; O'Flahavan, John; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation examines the experiences of three practicing teachers involved in a professional learning program focused on writing instruction as they envisioned and enacted new practices for teaching writing in their classrooms. A secondary aim of the study was to uncover the supports and barriers the teachers encountered as they attempted to implement their new ideas for improving their students’ writing in the midst of a reform-oriented literacy initiative in their high-needs school district. This study employed a qualitative multi-case study methodology to take an in-depth look at each teacher’s vision-to-practice process. Data sources from an examination of the visions, practices, and reflections of each of the three case study teachers included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and analysis of documents produced during the professional learning program that captured teachers’ visions of good teaching. Findings lend insights into the dilemmas that teachers experience assimilating new teaching practices within their existing theoretical perspectives, beliefs, and established principles of practice. Teachers selected new practices that were aligned with their theoretical perspectives of writing development which informed their beliefs about students’ writing challenges and guided their implementation efforts in their classrooms. While beliefs about students’ challenges remained mostly unexamined, teachers developed new practices to address their beliefs about how they could help students improve as writers. Teachers engaged in productive struggle to balance the competing demands of content coverage, fulfilling their professional responsibilities, and meeting their students’ needs. Although teachers made different instructional decisions, they each prioritized preparing their students for their futures over other considerations. Teachers did not find many supports in their schools to encourage their efforts, and they experienced a lack of professional learning opportunities and a data-driven culture as barriers. Findings suggest that teachers require supports to enact professional identities as learners, knowers, and leaders within reform-oriented contexts. The study findings support the utility of teacher vision as a lens for examining practicing teachers’ professional learning and growth.
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    Who Governs Educational Change? The Paradoxes of State Power and the Pursuit of Educational Reform in Post-Neoliberal Ecuador (2007-2015)
    (2016) Baxter, Jorge Grant; Klees, Steven J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study identifies and compares competing policy stories of key actors involved in the Ecuadorian education reform under President Rafael Correa from 2007-2015. By revealing these competing policy stories the study generates insights into the political and technical aspects of education reform in a context where state capacity has been eroded by decades of neoliberal policies. Since the elections in 2007, President Correa has focused much of his political effort and capital on reconstituting the state’s authority and capacity to not only formulate but also implement public policies. The concentration of power combined with a capacity building agenda allowed the Correa government to advance an ambitious comprehensive education reform with substantive results in equity and quality. At the same time the concentration of power has undermined a more inclusive and participatory approach which are essential for deepening and sustaining the reform. This study underscores both the limits and importance of state control over education; the inevitable conflicts and complexities associated with education reforms that focus on quality; and the limits and importance of participation in reform. Finally, it examines the analytical benefits of understanding governance, participation and quality as socially constructed concepts that are tied to normative and ideological interests.
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    Education Amidst Transition: The Case of Romania
    (2010) DiGiacomo, Francis Anthony; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    After enduring centuries of colonialism, followed recently by the exogenous forces of globalization and isomorphism, Romania and other countries in Eastern Europe have had unique opportunities amidst formidable challenges since they began their transitions toward democracy. In this case study, I explore these forces and resulting challenges that influenced the Romanian education system between 1989 and 2007. With this approach, I try to elucidate the difficulties endured by the Romanian political and education elite when transitioning the country from totalitarianism toward democracy. I conducted an extensive literature review and document analysis, coupled with in-depth interviews with the Romanian bureaucratic education elite who influenced the country's education reforms. My research investigated the complicated manner in which education plays a role in supporting a country in transition. Two central questions drove my research: (1) What factors impacted Romania's transition from a totalitarian regime toward democracy? (2) What role did education play in Romania's transition from a totalitarian regime toward democracy? My findings suggest that too many poorly constructed short-term focused reforms, developed by an elite deeply entrenched in its communist past, slowed significantly the development of a democratic education system in Romania. Exogenous forces such as colonialism, globalization and isomorphism further compounded the challenges of Romania's political transition. The elements of these findings, in addition to domestic factors such as Romania's history and culture, coupled with its nascent political system and colonized mentality, partially explain the reasons for the core of the education system remaining largely status quo.
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    Teachers and Teaching: Conceptualizing Quality Education in Rural Nicaragua
    (2009) Sanyal, Anita; Klees, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Policy discourses reflected in the World Declaration on Education for All (EFA) (Inter-Agency Commission,1990) and the subsequent Dakar Framework for Action and EFA: The Quality Imperative (UNESCO, 2001, 2004), have called for the improvement of the quality of basic education. These discourses emphasize student-centered pedagogical approaches in an effort to improve quality of education at the classroom level. The Nicaraguan government has sought to improve educational quality through the promotion of such pedagogies (MECD, 2000, 2001, 2006a). However, research on teaching in contexts of reform asserts that many factors influence how teachers understand and implement instructional reform, and highlights the difficulties in challenging existing teacher-centered practices (Cohen, 1990; O'Sullivan, 2004; Smylie, 1996). This dissertation relies on case studies of four primary school teachers to explore how each teacher conceptualizes and enacts "quality" instruction in the context of reform in rural schools in Nicaragua. Findings from the case studies illuminate the complexities that teachers face in their daily work. Each of the four teachers, to varying degrees and in somewhat different ways, was committed to adopting or adapting the reform pedagogies. However, for them, what happens in the classroom is largely informed by local contextual factors. These findings offer insights into how teachers understand and enact "quality" teaching. Such insights can be used in planning and implementing professional development and other initiatives, especially as the Ministry of Education and international donors continue to promote initiatives aimed at improving the quality of education at the classroom level. This study also can inform the process for evaluating policies by providing an in depth description of teaching and the challenges that teachers face in putting into practice ideas being promoted globally as critical for quality instruction. Finally this study contributes to theorizing and research concerned with teachers' ideas and practices, by examining key issues in a context that is less-often in focus in the literature - rural teachers in a developing country context.