Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item WHITE RACIAL ALLYSHIP AMONG STAFF AT TRADITIONALLY WHITE INSTITUTIONS(2024) McGuire, Teon Donté; Fries-Britt, Sharon; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Interrupting Whiteness at Traditionally White Institutions (TWIs) is first and foremost a White problem. Those who have been unjustly privileged due to their race (i.e., White people) have both the resources and primary responsibility to challenge and interrupt the very systems that unjustly oppress People of Color. This study sought to understand the experiences of White staff members at TWIs who intentionally challenge racism and interrupt Whiteness. This study used a multiple case study design with White staff members as the unit of analysis and data were collected through semi-structured interviews and journals from seven White staff members at working at TWIs across the U.S. White staff member practiced racial at the intrapersonal (i.e., working on themselves), interpersonal (e.g., educating students, serving as a resource Students of Color, and being an amplifier), and organizational and institutional (e.g., via hiring and participating in DEI initiatives) levels. Additionally, their actions revealed multiple forms of Whiteness such as, preference of White centric course content, tokenizing People of Color, shifting the blame from racism to those challenging racism, and unfair reward processes.Item Relational Dynamics in Teacher Professional Development(2013) Finkelstein, Carla; Valli, Linda R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Teacher professional development (PD) is considered essential to improving student achievement toward high standards. I argue that while current notions of high quality PD foreground cognitive aspects of learning, they undertheorize the influence of relational dynamics in teacher learning interactions. That is, current conceptions of high quality PD may be necessary but insufficient to engender teacher learning, and attention to relational dynamics may be essential to leveraging teachers' engagement and productive participation in learning opportunities. A review of the literature from related fields provides preliminary recommendations for addressing affective concerns and relational dynamics in learning, but extrapolation of these recommendations for PD is problematized by particular considerations of teachers as learners, including bureaucratic presses and hierarchical school contexts. A conceptual framework that incorporates power/knowledge considerations may allow for investigation of relational dynamics in PD interactions in a way that takes into account the participants' individual characteristics as well as institutional context. This study uses discourse analysis to examine interactions between three focal teachers and their PD facilitators in a science learning progressions project and a literacy coaching cycle. Examining moments of tension or questions raised by the focal teachers, my analysis finds that close attention to both verbal and nonverbal discourse moves in PD interactions illuminates the ways in which relational dynamics were consequential to the teachers' participation and can help explain the progress or lack of progress for each teacher.