College of Education
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1647
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item TEACHING CITIZENSHIP & DEMOCRACY IN A NEW DEMOCRACY: PEDAGOGY, CURRICULUM & TEACHERS’ BELIEFS IN SOUTH AFRICA(2017) Fogle-Donmoyer, Amanda; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 2014, twenty years had passed since the first free elections, the birth of democracy and implementation of transitional educational reforms in South Africa. While efforts to create an education system based on human rights, democracy, equality, and unity were made, questions remain about how teachers should address these principles in their classrooms. It is difficult to determine, therefore, how citizenship and democracy education should be taught and how teachers perceive their role as educators of South Africa’s new generation of democratic citizens. Using Davies’ and Jansen’s concepts of post-conflict pedagogy, this dissertation investigates how teachers responsible for citizenship and democracy education in South Africa perceive the abstract topics of citizenship and democracy and how their beliefs, backgrounds, and life experiences influence how they present the national curriculum to their learners. In order to answer these questions, a multiple and comparative case study of sixteen teacher participants at three schools was carried out in Durban, South Africa. Using in-depth interviews, classroom observation, and document review as data collection methods, the dissertation investigates how teachers’ beliefs, the national curriculum and teaching methods intersected. Data analysis was conducted through thematic coding. Results suggest that teachers’ beliefs and experiences with democracy shape how they teach civic education topics, especially concerning their racial background and experiences during apartheid and the democratic transition. Inequalities in school resources also limit pedagogical choices, especially in methods designed to educate active and informed citizens.Item Promoting Citizenship in a Postcolonial Space: A Study of Teachers' Beliefs and Practices in Jamaica(2011) Williams, Dierdre Alicia; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Evidence suggests that the values, attitudes and skills teachers emphasize in preparing students to participate as adult citizens in wider society are informed by the meanings teachers ascribe to citizenship and these meanings can in turn be traced to the contexts of teachers' lives. Given that teachers' practices are informed by their beliefs, these beliefs must first be understood. However, few studies have examined teachers' beliefs about citizenship or the underlying factors that inform those beliefs. This research examined the beliefs about citizenship espoused by a group of secondary teachers in the nation-state of Jamaica and the factors informing those beliefs. This qualitative case study utilized an analytic framework incorporating literature on conceptions of citizenship; and literature on teacher beliefs, including belief formation. The findings of the study highlight the ways in which the postcolonial context of Jamaica problematizes these teachers' understandings of citizenship and this in turn has implications for research and practice in the field of citizenship studies. The study illuminates the connections among: (i) teachers' beliefs about citizenship and about their students' needs, abilities, and life trajectories; (ii) teachers' lived experiences; and (iii) traditional race and class hierarchy in postcolonial Jamaican society.Item Engaging in Community Service and Citizenship: A Comparative Study of Undergraduate Students Based Upon Community Service Participation Prior to College(2008-05-06) Bonnet, Jennifer; Jones, Susan R.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study addressed community service participation and citizenship among undergraduate students, based upon participation in community service prior to college. In particular, this study investigated three service groups: mandatory volunteers in high school, non-mandatory volunteers prior to college, and students who had never volunteered prior to college. Gender, race/ethnicity, and parent(s)/guardian(s) education were also examined. Data were collected from 47,898 undergraduate students at 52 institutions across the U.S., as part of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. Two four-way analyses of variance were conducted to evaluate differences in college 1) community service participation and 2) citizenship, when considering service group, gender, race/ethnicity, and parent(s)/guardian(s) education. Regarding community service participation, significant main effects emerged for service group, gender, and race/ethnicity. Results for citizenship evidenced significant main effects for service group and race/ethnicity, and interaction effects for parent(s)/guardian(s) education by race/ethnicity by gender, and parent(s)/guardian(s) education by race/ethnicity by gender by service group.Item Developing Citizenship Through Community Service: Examining the Relationship Between Community Service Involvement and Self-Perceived Citizenship Among Undergraduates(2006-05-22) Smist, Jennifer Anne; Jacoby, Barbara; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis investigated the relationship between community service involvement in curricular and cocurricular community service and students' self-perceived citizenship. Community service involvement was addressed through four methods: community service as part of a class, with a student organization, as part of a work-study experience, and on one's own. This study used data collected from 1,205 undergraduate students at the University of Maryland in spring 2006 as part of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. The instrument employed in this study was based on a revised version of the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS-Rev 2) and was designed to assess student leadership development within the framework of the social change model of leadership development (Higher Education Research Institute, 1996). Self-perceived citizenship scores differed significantly based on whether students participated in community service during college. Community service through student organizations and work-study experiences were found to be significant predictors of self-perceived citizenship.