Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item PRIVATIZATION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AFGHANISTAN(2021) QARGHA, GHULAM OMAR; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates the trends, nature, and driving forces behind the privatization of primary and secondary schools in Afghanistan. More specifically, this research investigates the role of national decision-makers and international donor agency representatives in influencing privatization policies. The study focuses on 20 years, starting with post-Taliban initiatives in 2002 to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the resumption ofof Taliban rule in August of 2021. An instrumental case study approach that combines a review of available policy documents and interviews with key national and international stakeholders is used to conduct this investigation. Interviews are the primary instruments used to collect data. The study draws upon international literature on privatization and aid dependency. Theoretically, this study uses a combination of Kingdon’s (1995) Multiple Streams Framework and the education policy transfer literature to understand the liberalization of private school policies and the discussion surrounding them in Afghanistan. The study uses Dolowitz and Marsh’s (2000) continuum of policy transfer to determine the level of coercion in educational policy transfer. It uses Cairney’s concept of ‘policy transfer window’ to operationalize the synthesis of the Multiple Streams Framework with the educational policy transfer literature. The study found that events in the problem and political streams opened a policy transfer window that allowed for the liberalization of private school policies in Afghanistan. These findings contribute to policymakers’ and other stakeholders’ understandings of the education policy transfer in fragile, aid-dependent nations. Moreover, this study is one of few in the field to focus on the critical role of policy entrepreneurs in joining together the multiple streams while also providing a nuanced view of the educational policy transfer process in a fragile state environment.Item CHOICE IN TURBULENT TIMES: A CASE STUDY OF REFUGEE STUDENT EXPERIENCES IN QUASI-MARKETIZED EDUCATION SYSTEMS(2021) Reedy, Timothy D; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Across the face of the globe, there have been unprecedented levels of migration from displaced men, women, and children due to political, economic, or religious persecution. Nearly half of the 70.8 million people that are forcibly displaced globally are school-aged children under the age of 18. In the context of the United States, a portion of the refugees granted status are resettled to urban areas whose school districts implement varying degrees of school-choice, market-based educational reform. Especially for those refugee families which are newcomers to the district/marketplace, the process of selecting a specific school is likely wrought with gaps in information and/or misunderstandings regarding educational pathways. Coupling actor-network theory with critical theory, this dissertation focuses on refugee students’ experiences navigating, accessing, and attaining desired curricular opportunities within Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS)—a large, quasi-marketized, school-choice district in St. Louis, MO. Using narrative inquiry, rich data were gathered from refugee participants regarding their pre-and post-resettlement educational experiences through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Analysis of participant narratives revealed a parallel process of school-choice for many refugees and several crucial findings emerged that highlight the extent to which refugee students’ understandings regarding school options and educational pathways are rendered (in)visible for some, are racialized for others, and further demonstrates how underlying inequalities already present in under-resourced, urban school districts are often exacerbated by the introduction of neoliberal notions of choice and competition.Item LGB TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS FROM 1970-1985(2019) Mayernick, Jason M; Hutt, Ethan; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the activities and organization of six LGB teachers’ organizations which were active between 1970 and 1985. LGB teachers’ organizations located in California, New York City, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association are each examined in respective chapters. Each of these chapters focuses on a specific theme that is apparent throughout the histories of these groups. These themes include: professionalism, community, negotiation, and the portrayal of LGB teachers. This dissertation is an inquiry into the first time in American history when LGB people who were K-12 teachers came out in large numbers, the first time they were seen as being not heterosexual without being forced out of America’s schools, and the first time these teachers acted in groups to protect themselves and LGB students from an educational system that was openly hostile to anyone who did not appear to be heterosexual. LGB teachers were among the first LGB people to organize professional groups and they were among the first LGB people to secure commitments against discrimination from national level labor unions. Working first to protect their employment rights and later to ensure the educational rights of LGBT students, LGB teachers’ groups were at the forefront of shifting American schools toward greater inclusivity. By examining these groups through the perspectives of education, labor, and LGBT history this dissertation will argue that the relevance of these LGB teachers’ groups extends far beyond the individual experiences of LGB teachers and their schools and can be used to discuss broad expectations that Americans held, and continue to hold, for their schools and teachers.Item “THE VERY MESSENGERS OF GOD”: THE TEACHERS OF ALABAMA’S FREEDPEOPLE, 1865-1870(2017) Jordan, Sylvia Alyssa; Rowland, Leslie S.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Using Freedmen’s Bureau records, the papers of the American Missionary Association, and other materials, the author identified 585 individuals who taught ex-slaves in Alabama between 1865 and 1870. The thesis describes their sex, race, and geographical origins, their motives for teaching, the high rate of turnover, and a growing number of black teachers. It examines the teachers’ work in the classroom and the many challenges they faced. It argues that the schools survived only because of the ex-slaves’ own commitment to education and the lengths to which the teachers went in order to keep their schools in operation. Finally, the thesis explores the teachers’ interactions with their surrounding communities. While some white Alabamians were supportive, others expressed hostility through social ostracism, physical assault, arson, and even murder. Especially in the face of such white opposition, the teachers relied heavily upon freedpeople to help build, maintain, and protect the schools.Item The Institutionalization of Photojournalism Education: Bringing the Blue-Apron Ghetto to American Schools of Journalism(2017) Paddock, Stanton M.; Chinoy, Ira; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As journalism educators wrestle to keep programs up-to-date in an evolving news landscape, there is value in understanding how education in an early form of multimedia journalism — photography — came to be. Little attention has been paid to the intersection of journalism education and photojournalism. This subject furnishes a unique perspective on photojournalism’s professionalization. This dissertation examines the history of university-level photojournalism education in the early and mid 20th century by asking what influenced the creation, diffusion, and adoption of photojournalism pedagogy in American higher education and what the consequences were. Neo-institutional theory’s focus on legitimacy supports exploration of evolving organizational norms in photojournalism education. Contemporary writings on higher education, journalism education, and photojournalism reveal important environmental conditions. Shifting educational principles are tracked via records of journalism education groups. Analysis of textbooks elucidates evolving practices and opinions. Archival case studies of journalism programs at the University of Maryland and the University of Georgia provide detailed examples of evolving approaches to photojournalism education. Illuminated are deep-seated issues: the struggle for legitimacy, tension between practical skills and critical thinking, and the relationship between textual and visual journalism. Efforts to establish photojournalism education occurred well after the establishment of textual journalism education. Both faced similar challenges, including concerns about skill-based learning in higher education. But photojournalism education’s acceptance was initially hindered because it clashed with journalism education’s hard-won image as suitable in liberal arts institutions. Later, rapid expansion of interest in providing photojournalism courses promoted homogenization. The changing environment featured constant uncertainty. This perpetuated isomorphism in which the initial range of approaches narrowed and photojournalism offerings became more alike. This dissertation concludes that choices at both the local and national levels in photojournalism education were made to project outward legitimacy. The resulting curricula were not necessarily the best, most useful, efficient, or practical. Local factors — staffing, accreditation, location, mission, school type, and receptivity to innovation — were influential. Wider environmental factors also played a role as journalism education was institutionalized. Today, in facing the challenge of incorporating new reporting methods, journalism educators must recognize the wide variety of factors and influences that may be involved.Item Someone Else's Textbooks: German Education 1945-2014(2016) Abney, Ann; Kosicki, Piotr; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the 20th century, German education repeatedly transformed as the occupying Americans, Soviets, and western-dominated reunification governments used their control of the German secondary education system to create new definitions of what it meant to be German. In each case, the dominant political force established the paradigm for a new generation of Germans. The victors altered the German education system to ensure that their versions of history would be the prevailing narrative. In the American Occupation Zones from 1945-1949, this meant democratic initiatives; for the Soviet Zone in those same years, Marxist-Leninist pedagogy; and for the Bundesrepublik after reunification, integrated East and West German narratives. In practice, this meant succeeding generations of German students learned very different versions of history depending on the temporal and geographic space they inhabited, as each new prevailing regime supplanted the previous version of “Germanness” with its own.