College of Education

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

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    INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL EXCHANGES AND GLOBAL CLASSROOMS: EDUCATING GLOBAL CITIZENS FOR PEACE
    (2024) Weaver, Gregory; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The outbreak of a global pandemic in the form of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the ever-increasing xenophobia on immigration policies have called for a need to reexamine how universities can internationalize beyond traditional classroom instruction methods. Virtual exchanges have been shown to provide students with a more equal opportunity to develop their global competencies and cultural skills than study abroad. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of virtual classroom exchanges in higher education for global citizenship development and peace education at a public institution in the United States. It examined university administrators, faculty, and student experiences, perceptions, and voices on global citizenship and peacebuilding within virtual exchange/global classrooms. The study utilized a qualitative case study approach. The qualitative approach consisted of interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis allowing for students and faculty to share their experiences of learning and teaching in the virtual global classroom respectively, and administrators managing the virtual global classroom. The research found that university and departmental administrators served as curators of virtual exchange enabling global citizenship development by providing support via funding, pedagogy models, and navigating several of the international partnerships. Faculty served as facilitators of global citizenship development both within the classroom and outside of the classroom, shaping the project-based projects and challenging their students to think in a non-local mindset. The student participants in the virtual exchanges experienced development of cultural competencies for global citizenship by gaining direct, collaborative experiences working with students of other countries. Promotion of peace education within the virtual exchanges can happen. Albeit as unintentional outcome, students were able to develop much-needed peacebuilding skills that otherwise would not have been possible due to this being the sole form of internalization open to them and their community at the time of the study.
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    AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE PHENOMENA: GLOBALIZATION AND SCHOOL VIOLENCE, AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM AS PERCEIVED BY VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS FROM A SUBURBAN COMMUNITY IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
    (2020) James, Veronica; Ginsburg, Mark; Klees, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The present study is an exploratory one which investigates the perceptions of the members of a suburban community, Sanaata, in Trinidad and Tobago, regarding the phenomena, school violence, globalization, and the relationship between them. It seeks to answer the questions: 1. How does the community of Sanaata in Trinidad and Tobago perceive the phenomenon of school violence in the country? 2. How does the community of Sanaata perceive the phenomenon of globalization? 3. How does the community of Sanaata view the relationship between the two phenomena, globalization, and school violence? 4. What other factors (besides globalization) do various stakeholders in Sanaata perceive as contributing to school violence? Apart from the theoretical concepts of the local and global, colonialism and postcolonialism, and dominance and subordination, the study is also based on discourses and theories of macro-social development, ecological perspectives, and developmental behavior. I used qualitative methodology inquiry for the study, employing methods of open-ended interviews, questionnaires, (limited) participant observation and document analysis to collect data for the study. Students, teachers, parents, and community members living or working in the vicinity of School S and School U communicated their perspectives via interviews or self-administered questionnaires. The findings of the study reveal that the respondents of Sanaata perceive that globalization can influence children to engage in school violence. In addition to globalization, it was found that other factors can also act as triggers for school violence. These include home socialization of children, teasing and rough playing in school, verbal abuse, abuse in the home, drugs and crime in the community, lack of good role models and lack of social services in the neighborhoods.
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    PERCEPTIONS OF GLOBAL MINDEDNESS IN THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAMME: THE RELATIONSHIP TO STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS
    (2014) Lope, Marjorie Dana; Klees, Steve; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate student perceptions of global mindedness between students who participate in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) compared to students who do not participate in the MYP or who are new to the MYP in the 9th grade. The study further analyzes the relationship between these students' perceptions of global mindedness and academic performance and course enrollment. It also explores teacher perceptions of global mindedness and relates the findings to specific teacher characteristics. There are mixed findings on student acquisition of global mindedness when comparing MYP students to non-MYP students suggesting that student development of global mindedness could evolve over time and is not significantly impacted by one experience, as previous research also suggests. Teacher and student understanding of global mindedness in the MYP could be underdeveloped and focused on global centrism and cultural pluralism. Findings from this research suggest that students participating in the MYP score highest on the global mindedness subscales of global centrism and cultural pluralism. The MYP could unintentionally be more explicitly focused on academics compared to explicitly teaching, learning, and assessing global mindedness because there was a significant relationship between participation in the MYP and academic performance and course enrollment over time. There are specific teacher characteristics that predict global mindedness and vice versa and these findings are aligned with previous research. The participant sample was from one school district and the survey was done at one point in time, which created certain limitations. The mixed findings of this exploration suggest that more research is needed to better understand the relevance and development of global mindedness on student and teacher perceptions in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme.
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    A HALF BILLION DOLLARS ADDING UP TO SMALL CHANGE: THE PROMISES AND PITFALLS OF CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY TO SUPPORT GLOBAL EDUCATION
    (2011) van Fleet, Justin William; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    At the start of the 21st century, the international community pledged an increase in volume, predictability, and coordination of external financing and monitoring for Education for All goals. Yet despite, this commitment, the global community has fallen far short of mobilizing enough resources to finance basic education for all children by 2015. Estimates support an approximate $16.2 billion in external resources needed to achieve basic education goals; the estimate increases to $25 billion if lower secondary schooling in also included. This study examines the role of U.S. corporate philanthropy to support education in developing countries. The purpose is to map the volume and focus of U.S. corporate philanthropy directed to education in developing countries, highlighting the scope and the limitations of corporate resources for realizing global education goals. The study used a mix-method design combining quantitative and qualitative survey data with qualitative interview data to answer two questions: 1. What is the volume and focus of U.S. corporate philanthropy directed toward education in developing countries? 2. How do corporate contributions to education in developing countries align with the private interests of corporations? This study finds that U.S. companies give a half billion dollars in contributions to education in developing countries annually, spanning multiple themes and targeting over 100 countries. Contributions focus heavily on emerging economies and do not target countries in most need. Additionally, U.S. companies have a variety of business motivations that drive the contributions to education in developing countries. Despite the unique assets of corporate philanthropy which make it an interesting source of financing, there are several limitations and critiques of these contributions. The contributions are typically small, short-term grants to non-profits and very few companies coordinate with governments, donors or other corporate philanthropists. There are also contradictions in the way philanthropy is conducted and tensions between the role of government and corporate resources for education. The study concludes that while corporate philanthropy in its current form may not be an effective source of sustainable financing for education in developing countries, several modifications can be made to improve its effectiveness as a global education financing partner.
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    Re-Making the Namibian Teacher: A Study of Teacher Reflection in an Era of Social Transition and Policy Reform.
    (2008-12-15) Ralaingita, Wendi D.S.; Klees, Steven J; Spreen, Carol Anne; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    After achieving independence from South Africa in 1990, the Namibian government began sweeping educational reforms. These reforms were built on a new philosophy of education that envisaged education as playing a transformative role in post-apartheid Namibia. New teacher education programs have been the cornerstone of these reforms and focus on learner-centered pedagogy, placing emphasis on critical reflection - a drastic change from the teacher-centered education previously found in Namibian classrooms. Recent research in Namibian classrooms indicates that teachers communicate an understanding of pedagogical principles endorsed in official policy, but this often does not translate into observable differences in classroom practice. This study examines this situation from a new perspective, moving beyond teachers' understanding of the technical aspects of methodology to focus on the beliefs they hold about education and teaching. Literature on teacher thinking, learning, and change tells us that teachers' beliefs are integral to teachers' practice and to changes in practice. These beliefs may be influenced by multiple, sometimes conflicting, messages that teachers receive through policy declarations, teacher training programs, and discussions with education officials, colleagues and parents. This study examines the meaning teachers in the Namibian context have made of such messages and the beliefs they have developed about the purposes of education, the role of the teacher, and the meaning of quality teaching, as well as the connection of these with their practice. Qualitative methods were used, including teacher and principal interviews and focus groups, classroom observations, interviews at the ministerial level, and document analysis. Deductive and inductive coding was used to generate and analyze themes in order develop a picture of the ways in which the purpose of education, the role(s) of the teacher, and the meaning of quality teaching are portrayed among teachers and at the policy level. Variations among teachers and comparisons between teachers and policy documents were examined. The findings show that teachers' beliefs often concur with ideas espoused in policy documents, though with differences in some key areas. The study also explores the challenges that teachers face in trying to teach in accordance with their beliefs, and implications for professional development are discussed.