Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item INVESTIGATING DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP PRACTICES OF ELEMENTARY PRINCIPALS IN A LARGE SCHOOL DISTRICT(2019) Williams, LaTonya C.; Eubanks, Segun; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the past few decades, the job of school leadership has become increasingly more demanding, creating a need to further understand how principals utilize leadership practices that support them on the job. The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which principals report distributing leadership responsibilities and tasks in their schools, the ways in which they distribute these responsibilities and tasks, and the extent to which teacher leaders are afforded opportunities to assume leadership responsibilities and tasks in their schools. The study also explored the barriers and supporting factors that contribute to implementing distributed leadership practices at the school level. This mixed-methods study utilized a web-based survey and semi-structured interviews to explore the following research questions: (1) To what extent do elementary principals report distributing leadership responsibilities and tasks to others in their schools? (2) What structures, processes, and tools do principals report using to distribute leadership in their schools? (3) To what extent do teacher leaders report assuming leadership responsibilities and tasks in their schools? (4) What do elementary principals perceive as the major barriers and supporting factors of implementing distributed leadership in their schools? During the 20182019 school year, 111 elementary school principals and 115 teacher leaders or Instructional Lead Teachers (ILTs) participated in the study. The principals and teachers were at comprehensive model schools serving grades PreK5 and PreK6. Findings from the study revealed principals distribute leadership to a variety of leaders in their buildings, specifically assistant principals and ILTs. Principals and teacher leaders both describe implementing organizational structures, processes, and tools to support distributed leadership in schools. Principals identified in both the survey and interview portion of the study reported that a lack of time to develop the capacity of teacher leaders, and to allow teacher leaders to practice leadership skills, was a major barrier to distributing leadership in schools. Data from principals showed that district level support was beneficial in helping principals engage in distributed leadership practices by providing professional development and other systemic initiatives that were implemented in their schools.Item AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE SUBJECTIVE EXCLUSIONARY DISCIPLINE PRACTICES IN A LARGE SCHOOL DISTRICT(2019) Walls, Anita C; Snell, Jean; McLaughlin, Margaret; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The problem investigated for this dissertation was the overuse of exclusionary discipline practices across a large, suburban school district adjacent to a major metropolitan area. The purpose of this descriptive, mixed methods study was to examine within five elementary schools if and how student discipline referrals varied across the subgroups of grade, race/ethnicity, and gender, and the reasons teachers gave for subjective discipline referrals. In addition, this study inquired into principals’ processes for determining when a subjective student discipline referral warrants a suspension, and how their perspectives, beliefs, and experiences influence their use of exclusionary discipline actions. Student discipline referrals and suspension data were collected and reviewed from five elementary schools in Success Public Schools, as well as interviews from the principals in the identified schools. The findings from the examination of the sampling of classroom referrals and suspension data revealed that African American male students had two to three times as many student discipline referrals and suspensions as African American females in each school. Across the total population of all five schools for student discipline referrals, there were 49% for subjective offenses and 51% for objective offenses. In addition to examining the student discipline referrals, this study also investigated the principals’ beliefs. All of the principals who were interviewed for this study reported that they believe that suspensions should be implemented as a last resort and that alternatives should be considered, such as the following: after school detention, positive behavior intervention supports, and restorative practices. This study confirms and highlights that students who are referred for subjective discipline offenses are suspended from school about half of the time. In addition, descriptions of behaviors that triggered a discipline referral for a subjective offense reveal that the interpretation of student behaviors heavily relies on teachers’ judgements and their perceptions of what constitutes disrespect and disruption. Moreover, the study revealed that how administrators respond to subjective student discipline referrals varied from school to school.Item Examining How Undergraduate STEM Degree Production is Influenced by State Higher Education STEM Policies Across States: A Panel Data Analysis(2019) Knepler, Erin Denise; Titus, Marvin A.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The United States is not producing enough college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields (Kuenzi, Matthews, & Mangan, 2006; Chen & Weko, 2009). By 2025, there will be over three million STEM jobs to be filled in the United States and more than two million may remain unoccupied (Giffi et al., 2018). This study explores how undergraduate STEM degree production is influenced by state higher education STEM policies, and uses a microeconomic conceptual model rooted in two theories derived from economics and political science: principal agent theory and production function theory. Panel data over a 17-year time period from all 50 states were analyzed to address two questions: 1) How is undergraduate STEM degree production within a state related to state economic and higher education finance variables? 2) Controlling for state economic and higher education finance variables, how are states’ undergraduate STEM degree production influenced by state higher education STEM policies? The study found that state undergraduate enrollment per full-time equivalent (FTE) and state expenditures for need-based aid per undergraduate FTE influence state STEM degree production. Different time lag models were used to analyze the effect of state STEM policies. Two variables representing state STEM policies, incentives for STEM and articulation agreements in STEM influence STEM bachelor’s degree production in a state when no time lag is applied. Three variables representing state STEM policies (i.e., incentives, articulation agreements, and scholarships), however, influence STEM degree production in a state when lagged by five years. Results from this study contribute to both literature and policy. The conceptual model combines two theories to higher education literature providing a useful framework for analyzing the effects of various state actions on STEM degree production. Potential policy implications also emerged: 1) policy-focused research can inform stakeholders and the public of what are the influencers of STEM degree production and the impact of policy on STEM degree production; 2) data can be used to drive policy development focused on meeting state completion objectives and economic goals; and 3) understanding what drives policy adoption is useful context for states looking to affect STEM policy development.Item THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CRYSTALLIZED CROSS-DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE AND FLUID RELATIONAL REASONING ABILITY TO NINTH- AND TWELFTH-GRADE STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE ON SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE AND CONTENT-SPECIFIC ACHIEVEMENT MEASURES(2019) Baggetta, Peter; Alexander, Patricia A; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated how measures of both crystallized cross-domain knowledge and fluid relational reasoning abilities contribute to high-school students’ scholastic aptitude and content-specific achievement. The participants for this study were 211 ninth-grade and 76 twelfth-grade students enrolled in an all-male parochial high school. A series of multivariate multiple linear regression tests were conducted to examine the ability of the three crystallized cross-domain knowledge predictor variables (i.e., Language Skills, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension) and fluid reasoning ability predictor variable (Test of Relational Reasoning - TORR) to predict performance of ninth-grade students’ scholastic aptitude (Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test - PSAT), and content-specific achievement (Social Studies, Algebra, and Spanish final examinations); and performance of twelfth-grade students’ content-specific achievement (Advanced Placement Psychology examination). Results of these analyses revealed that fluid relational reasoning was the strongest unique predictor of performance for ninth-grade students on the PSAT, Algebra and Spanish final examinations, and for twelfth-grade students on the AP Psychology examination. Crystallized cross-domain was found to be not as strong of a predictor as fluid relational reasoning on the five outcome measures. Results from this study suggest that students who have greater fluid relational reasoning abilities may perform better on these assessments. The research also includes delimitations, practical limitations for educators, and suggestions for future research to expand the scope of this study.Item THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MILITARY BRATS OF COLOR IN COLLEGE(2019) Peralta, Alicia Marie; Hultgren, Francine; Fries-Britt, Sharon; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Military children of color live in various cultural contexts, often outside of mainstream U.S. society, leading to questions about their experiences as young people of color in college settings. To this end, this dissertation asks: What is the lived experience of military brats of color in college? This dissertation explores the experiences of seven military children of color in college settings as they navigate leaving their unique military context, encounter identities they did not know they had, and individuate from their families and the military context. The phenomenological questioning of identity coupled with conceptions of home and belonging shine a light on the bittersweet experience of the military brats of color feeling like strangers in their own country. These experiences are uncovered using Gadamerian (1975/2004) horizons and Heidegger’s dasein (1927/2008b) in addition to O’Donohue’s (1997, 1998) philosophical writings on belonging and home. The thematizing process brought forth experiences of attempting to forge an identity in the midst of preconceived ideas about who and what you should be as a person. The process of forging identity includes the transition from the military community to college; a settling into college; and a choosing of identity. Pedagogical insights include a critique of identity and how it is constructed, specifically because military children of color are never of a place, but move with and in spaces. I also consider concepts of home, and how higher education practitioners can work with military students of color while respecting their lived experience.Item A CASE STUDY OF PRESERVICE WORLD LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF MENTOR TEACHERS(2019) Ditter, Margaret; Peercy, Megan; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This case study examines the identity development of two preservice world language teachers during student teaching, and the role that mentor teachers play in their identity formation. Using situated learning theory and symbolic interactionism as complementary theoretical lenses, this study adds to the limited work on world language teacher identity development and the ways in which mentor teachers impact this development. Data sources include interviews with preservice and mentor teachers, classroom observations, and observations of coaching sessions between preservice world language teachers and their mentors. Findings from this study indicate that the preservice teachers were afforded opportunities to develop and take on a world language teacher perspective during student teaching and their assuming of this perspective supported their negotiation and formation of their identities as teaching professionals. Moreover, consistent with the literature on the identity development of preservice teachers, this study also illustrates that the negotiation of their identity-shaping experiences enabled them to gain confidence and become respected authority figures in the classroom. Lastly, expanding our understanding of previous scholarship on language teacher identity, the current study revealed that mentor teachers provided the preservice teachers with opportunities to form their identities in four key ways: by giving the preservice teachers autonomy, offering them support, transferring authority to them, and sharing ownership of the class. This study builds upon previous findings and provides a unique perspective and contribution to the literature expanding our understanding of mentoring and identity construction directly to the world language field, while identifying the critical impact that mentor teachers have on the identity development of preservice teachers. This study provides implications for preservice world language teacher education and offers guidelines for improving the selection and training of mentor teachers, as well as for enhancing preservice teachers’ professional identity and increasing teacher retention. Teacher educators have the opportunity to support the continued language skill development of preservice teachers and build the confidence they need to be language teachers. Ultimately, this dynamic relationship will encourage preservice teachers to acquire their own unique identity positions in ways that have the potential to improve the state of language teaching.Item PANCAKES, DUCKLINGS, THINKING IN YOUR BRAIN: MANIFESTATIONS OF 4-YEAR-OLDS’ EMERGING METACOGNITION DURING JOINT PICTURE BOOK READING(2019) Faust, Brecca Berman; Afflerbach, Peter; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Developmental psychologist John Flavell (1979, 1981) used the term metacognition to encompass any form of thinking about one’s thinking. Flavell did not consider this second-level capacity to be a regular part of the thinking and learning of preschool children. However, research using developmentally-appropriate tasks, especially early literacy tasks, has suggested otherwise. Therefore, through this qualitative and exploratory study, I investigated whether and how seven 4-year-olds attending full-day preschool were metacognitive as they read narrative picture books with me in their classroom. Over the course of their pre-kindergarten school year, during free choice morning centers, I engaged the participants in three joint readings of commercially available, narrative picture books. Throughout the informal dialogue of each joint reading session, I posed questions meant to encourage metacognitive processing. I transcribed the dialogue from these sessions and coded each researcher and participant speech turn. I then utilized a constant-comparative process to analyze transcriptions throughout the data collection process while referring to Flavell’s (1979, 1981) conceptualization of metacognition and prior studies of metacognition with preschool participants. This process resulted in the articulation of seven categories of metacognition relevant to preschoolers’ joint reading processes: Feeling of Knowing Story Content, Judgment of Difficulty, Reflecting on Reading, Verbal Self-Revising, Expanding Storytelling, Task Planning, and Justifying Verbalizations. Participants engaged in a total of 219 instances of these forms of metacognition. Approximately 60% of these instances were prompted—occurring in response to a question that I posed within the joint reading dialogue. However, approximately 40% of recorded instances of metacognition occurred spontaneously. All seven participants were metacognitive in at least five of the seven categories, across all four books, and through both prompted and spontaneous verbalizations. Consistent with Flavell’s (1979) conceptualization, metacognition functioned as a transactionally-relevant resource for each joint reading participant, manifesting in ways that reflected varying efforts to participate in the task and construct meaning from the story. My results challenge the notion that metacognition has limited relevance before proficient or conventional print reading (Baker, 2005; Hacker, 1998; Pressley & Gaskins, 2006; Veenman, et al., 2006) and provide further support for Whitebread et al.’s (2009) conclusion that underappreciation of the metacognitive capabilities of preschoolers is becoming an “increasingly untenable” position (p. 64). Given my findings, I discuss implications for metacognitive theory and for future research on reading-relevant metacognition with preschool children.Item Exploring the civic potential of places: Place-based education as a tool for youth civic engagement(2019) Sinclair, Kristin; Malen, Betty; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative case study examined how place-based education (PBE) (e.g. Gruenewald, 2003a, Sobel, 2004), might provide opportunities for young people from marginalized backgrounds to develop civic engagement attitudes, behaviors, commitments and skills. This study investigated personally responsible and participatory civic engagement (e.g., Westheimer & Kahne, 2004), but focused on critical or sociopolitical action and justice-oriented civic engagement (Watts & Flanagan, 2007). Grounded in a conceptual framework encompassing PBE’s theory of change, critical theories of place, and youth sociopolitical development (Watts & Flanagan, 2007) this study drew on documents, observations, student work, and interviews with administrators, teachers and 11th grade students at Greenfields Public Charter School during the three month long food justice project (FJP). The FJP was an interdisciplinary, experiential project wherein students researched a local food justice issue through community- and school-based fieldwork. Teachers’ goals for the FJP included that students would gain data analysis and research skills, understand the impact of their individual choices, and develop a set of skills and dispositions for engaging in critical social action, specifically a “sense of their own agency.” Even with a favorable school environment, supportive and flexible administrators, and dedicated teachers, the FJP’s outcomes were ultimately disappointing. Findings suggest that while most students gained research skills, only some developed a sense of agency and civic engagement attitudes, behaviors, and commitments. Students who completed projects that investigated school-based issues demonstrated participatory behaviors and skills. Students who studied neighborhood-based issues, however, were the only ones who demonstrated gains in justice-oriented civic engagement. They reported changes in their attitudes towards other marginalized groups, a greater awareness of structural explanations for injustice, and expressed newfound commitments to “be more active” in their communities. This study identifies conditions under which PBE might foster youth civic engagement. Primarily, it argues that the spatial context of PBE – defined as the arena (i.e., school, neighborhood, or city) in which projects are situated and the meanings of place a project invokes (e.g., place-as-container versus place-as-content and context) – may mediate PBE’s impact on civic engagement. Implications for practice, suggestions for future research, and potential refinements to the conceptual framework are discussed.Item The Student Perspective on Maryland's Associate of Arts in Teaching Degree(2019) Weisburger, Anita Hawner; Valli, Linda R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation study investigated the student perspective on Maryland’s Early Childhood Education/Special Education Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree: the factors that affected their experience, especially with the transfer process, and whether their experiences differed by institution. Using a conceptual framework of social constructionism, viewpoints were gathered through focus groups and individual interviews of 18 community college students in their final semester before transferring to a Maryland university to complete their BA and teaching certification. In addition to focus groups and student interviews, this investigation included interviews with program coordinators, discussions with state administrators, observations of state meetings, and a review of program and state/local policy documents. This study made contributions around issues of diversity, the Praxis Core Exam, online courses in ECE, and as the first study of the student perspective across multiple two-year institutions. It reports that participants had positive feedback about their teacher education programs but agreed on the need for more practical experience, especially regarding special education content. A clear concern about online coursework in ECE was also expressed. Factors affecting the student experience included misadvising and confusion around transfer that continued after moving to university programs. Administrators and faculty also acknowledged a number of challenges associated with advising, programming and implementation. Students highlighted differences between institutions but noted that most issues could be resolved through better communication, collaboration, and coordination. This analysis of the student perspective provides a clearer picture of the obstacles and advancements experienced by preservice teachers pursuing an AAT in ECE/SpEd. Since student voices were largely absent from the research on the AAT, this study is useful to two-year programs working to improve retention and transfer, as well as universities working to support transfer students. More research is needed on internet-based classes in teacher education as well as proactive advising (a preemptive approach to working with students). Further investigation of individual programs, coordination, mandatory advising, and mentor programs is also warranted. Given the complexity of the transfer process, especially in EC programs, further research is needed beyond Maryland on the student experience and on potential solutions offered here.Item THE PERSISTENCE AND SUCCESS OF UNDERGRADUATES IN REMEDIAL MATHEMATICS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY ON MATHEMATICS SOCIALIZATION AND SEGREGATED SPACES IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION(2019) Stoltz, Angela; Brantlinger, Andrew; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This explanatory sequential mixed methods study (QUAN-QUAL) was developed to investigate the question: “How do sociohistorical, intrapersonal, and institutional factors relate to the persistence and success of undergraduates enrolled in remedial mathematics classes at a four-year university?” To understand this complex phenomenon, I employed Martin’s (2000) Multilevel Framework for Analyzing Mathematics Socialization and Identity Among African Americans for both streams of data collection and analysis. I collected and analyzed departmental and survey data quantitatively, to identify broader patterns of relationships that existed among the participants’ intrapersonal factors, demographic characteristics and their persistence and success (n=316). The participants’ high rates of persistence (92%) and success (68.4%) could partially be explained by enrollment in a corequisite versus emporium remedial mathematics course, but also institutional (non-randomized sorting and placement into course type by placement test score), sociohistorical (primarily advanced high school mathematics course-taking) and intrapersonal (perceptions of the teacher) factors. Age, gender, African American identity, first-generation status, and high school mathematics course-taking all contributed to persistence and success to some degree, but gender was a stronger predictor of persistence and success than minority or first-generation status, and high school mathematics course-taking was the most influential demographic predictor of persistence, when course enrollment was excluded from the regression model. The intrapersonal factor, perceptions of the teacher, was also a significant predictor of persistence, and to a lesser extent, success. This finding led me to select extreme perception of teacher cases (n=5) for the qualitative portion of the study. The qualitative data revealed that several institutional and classroom factors impacted the emporium participants’ experiences, beliefs and perceptions and ultimately, their persistence and success. These participants presented negative perceptions of their emporium course’s online instructional platform and revealed the negative impact the course structure had on teacher behaviors, their relationship with their teacher and the classroom environment overall. The three STEM majors had more negative socio-academic experiences at the university than the two non-STEM majors because their placement into remedial mathematics was a barrier that prevented them from declaring and pursuing coursework for their STEM degree. Socio-economic factors, such as not having the financial means to live on campus and having heavy work and family responsibilities, compounded the adverse effects of remedial mathematics placement for two of the STEM majors, and the two female STEM majors were diverted out of STEM altogether. The two non-STEM participants who persisted through their emporium courses reported leveraging a variety of intrapersonal, academic and social assets, such as their financial motivation, the socio-academic support of their peers and advisors, their parents’ positive perceptions of their academic abilities, and university academic supports, when they were faced with challenges in their emporium classes. Although the STEM majors did not persist, they were nonetheless actively engaged in agentive behaviors dedicated to their degree attainment.