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 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 "Being the Faculty Face:" A Grounded Theory of Living-Learning Program Faculty Motives and Experiences(2012) Drechsler Sharp, Marybeth Joy; Quaye, Stephen J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Few evident incentives exist for faculty to become involved with living-learning programs. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to investigate the motives and experiences of faculty members working with living-learning programs at doctoral-granting research institutions. Illuminating the experiences of living-learning faculty is necessary, because for these environments, their participation is a signature element. An enhanced understanding of what motivates faculty members to participate in living-learning programs can help administrators recruit and retain faculty partners, allow administrators to better structure opportunities to meet faculty's needs, and provide voice to living-learning faculty to potentially yield new theoretical understanding. The findings of this study revealed participants' different paths into and through work with living-learning programs. A grounded theory approach resulted in a model to guide practice for living-learning practice and research. The subsequent theory suggests that faculty members' interactions with living-learning environments are propelled by personal motivations and attributes, academic environment, and perceived advantages and disadvantages of involvement; these factors are depicted in the model by overlapping gears. In the model, a large gear represents living-learning faculty members' experiences, including their different roles and varied responsibilities, assorted challenges they navigate, and perspectives they hold about living-learning environments. For administrators seeking to involve faculty, the study's findings regarding what motivates faculty members to work within living-learning settings and their perspectives on their experiences can help with recruiting new faculty, assisting faculty with the transition to living-learning work, incentivizing living-learning involvement for faculty, developing relationships with faculty participants, and providing necessary support for faculty. For involved faculty, this study may help them investigate their own motives with an eye toward improving their living-learning experiences, point them toward resources or approaches they can integrate in their work, and promote self-exploration of what makes living-learning involvement meaningful to them.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.