Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item Going to the Source: A Case Study of Four Faculty and Their Approaches to Writing Instruction(2015) Callow, Megan; O'Flahavan, John; Malen, Betty; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines four college professors’ approaches to writing instruction in the disciplines of history and engineering. An investigation of writing instruction in two disparate disciplinary contexts contributes to our understanding of how instructors approach writing instruction in the disciplines, and which factors encourage and inhibit writing instruction. This study proposes and assesses the validity of a guiding conceptual framework, which posits that the primary factors influencing faculty’s approaches to writing instruction are academic biography, disciplinary identity, and educational ideology. The study employs a qualitative case study methodology, and data sources include in-depth interviews, field observations, and analysis of documents such as syllabi and writing prompts. This dissertation is founded on a premise that the instructor is an under-studied but essential player in the Writing in the Disciplines movement. The study reveals more about the nature of discipline-based writing instruction, and proposes a conceptual framework for future research on instructional approaches to disciplinary writing.Item Teacher Seeks Pupil--Must be Willing to Change the World: A Phenomenological Study of Professors Teaching for Social Justice(2005-06-30) Pigza, Jennifer M.; Hultgren, Francine F; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the lived experiences of faculty who teach for social justice in the context of higher education. The tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology grounds this inquiry (Gadamer, 1960/2000; Heidegger, 1971/2001, 1977/1993; Levinas, 1969). The phenomenological research activities designed by van Manen (1990) provide the methodological framework for entering the study. By calling upon the philosophical traditions and methodological guidelines of hermeneutic phenomenology, the research begins to name what it means to teach and be for social justice in higher education. This study involves conversations and classroom observations with five faculty members representing three colleges and universities. Among the participants are three women and two men; three faculty with tenure, two without; two people of color; Jewish, Christian, seekers, and unnamed; one person who self-identifies as gay; and, ages mid-30s to early 60s. They are grounded in more than five different disciplines, and teach in at least seven departments, at three types of institutions. Through this hermeneutic phenomenological exploration, the lived experience of teaching for social justice in the context of higher education shows itself in two main themes. The first theme reveals elements of articulating social justice through speaking-teaching-being. Within this theme, sub-themes are present, such as troubling language, currency and curriculum, and reading the world-word. The second theme refers to a sense of wide-awakeness in the pursuit of social justice and its teaching. Sub-themes here include the notion of taking attendance and being attentive, linking seeing with doing, and serving and sustaining a vision. The first set of pedagogical implications of this study focus on the influence of culture, the notions of liberal and conservative ideas, speaking truth to power, and crafting a language of longing to teach for social justice. A second set of pedagogical implications emerge from the proposed idea of a currere communis for social justice. The research suggests the development of communities that support transformative learning for faculty and other educators in higher education. The currere communis for social justice also extends to suggest implications for the teaching of students and the teaching of the general public, as well as directions for future research.