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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Item Learning Together: The Lived Experience of Bridging in Scholars Studio(2023) Nardi, Lisa; Hultgren, Francine H; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This hermeneutic phenomenological investigation tends to the connections made in Scholars Studio—an interdisciplinary learning community for first-year students at a public Historically Black College and University (HBCU). In this study, I ask, What is the lived experience of bridging in Scholars Studio? I conceptualize bridging as a pedagogical orientation characterized by making connections across disciplines, between theory and praxis, across time and distance, and with one another. Bridging creates dynamic spaces that resist binary relationships, thus creating the potential for transformation. This study is grounded in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Mariana Ortega, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Edward Casey, and David Michael Levin, and follows the methodological structure set forth by Max van Manen. This research captures conversations that bridge the experience of twelve participants—including faculty, students, and staff—who partook in a learning community focused on Black men in education. Through these conversations, the participants affirm the importance of curricula grounded in African American and African history and culture. As participants cross the metaphorical bridge, they consider the “edges” they encounter that are both full of risk and possibility. These edges push them outside of their comfort zones in search of wholeness and create potential sites for improvisation. I end by opening new possibilities for Scholars Studio, including grounding the work in African principles and considering future directions.Item GUIDED DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES SUPPORTING MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING IN CHILDREN(2018) Daubert, Emily; Ramani, Geetha B; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Early numerical knowledge lays the foundation for later mathematics achievement, career advancement, and daily functioning. Therefore, it is troubling that mathematics achievement in the United States is especially poor. For this reason, it is crucial that ways to improve learning outcomes in young children, particularly in the area of mathematical development are explored. Mathematics is a complex process, which requires flexible thinking, exploration and analysis of novel, complicated, and real world problems. Guided discovery is a pedagogical context, which is adult-initiated and child-directed and promotes flexible thinking, analysis of complex problems- the same skills required for early mathematical learning. The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of one element of guided discovery- dialogic inquiry- for improving children’s numerical knowledge when used in a guided discovery setting. Dialogic inquiry is the practice of asking questions that lead children to think differently about the mathematical concepts at hand or act differently on the objects in their environments. Ninety-four preschoolers played a life-sized linear number board game under three conditions and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: math-related dialogic inquiry, math statements, and positive encouragement. Children’s learning from pretest to posttest was compared on four numerical knowledge outcomes: number line estimation, magnitude comparison, arithmetic, and ordinality. Additionally, children’s mathematical talk and behavior during board game play were compared across conditions. Children in the dialogic inquiry condition improved more than children in the math statements and positive encouragement conditions on arithmetic performance. Children in the math statements condition declined in performance on magnitude comparison significantly more than children in the dialogic inquiry and positive encouragement conditions. Lastly, children in both the dialogic inquiry and math statements conditions outperformed children in the positive encouragement condition on ordinality. There were no significant differences between conditions for mathematical talk and behavior. Understanding the specific mechanisms, such as dialogic inquiry, which contribute to the effectiveness of guided discovery will improve the implementation of guided discovery pedagogies aimed at improving numerical knowledge.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 Dwelling in a Pedagogy of In-Between: A Phenomenological Study of Teachers of Writing(2007-04-29) De La Ysla, Linda S; Hultgren, Francine; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This phenomenological study explores "in-between" as a pedagogic site in the teaching of writing at two large public universities. The writings of Ted Aoki, Edward Casey, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Hans Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, and Max van Manen orient the study philosophically and methodologically. The notion of in-between is grounded in the author's life experiences, and is metaphorically suggested by her knowledge of scuba diving. Six teachers of writing, who are also writers, are engaged in individual and group conversations to bring forward the lived dimensions of their pedagogy as teachers of writing. The rendering of audio taped conversations suggests themes of a paradoxical nature that might yield insights into the teaching of writing: knowing and not knowing whether one's teaching makes a difference for student writers; comfortable to be uncomfortable as it relates to the creation of a classroom atmosphere where writers are willing to take risks; as teachers, taking attendance and being in attendance of student rosters, both seen and unseen; process under pressure as a pedagogical dimension where writing detours and bewilderment coexist with personal and institutional resistance; the sustenance of response, including a revisioning of judgment and the virtue of failing together; successful risk and other blessings for writing teachers who are at once avenging angels and sympathetic souls; and the pleasures of paradox: dwelling in the I-You relationship, nurturing the presence of the absence, and loving one's work in all its imbalances. Dwelling in the tensions suggested by these themes has the possibility of moving teachers of writing toward acceptance and exploration of their pedagogic identity. Furthermore, writing teachers who articulate and value the centering power of both/and are more attuned to coach students in becoming stronger, and more courageous, writers. A pedagogy of "equilibrium in motion" has the potential to re-vision teacher preparation--as well as curriculum in university writing classrooms.Item USING HUMANIZING PEDAGOGY TO RE-VISE THE POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ABOUT EXPLORATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF SELF(2005-12-01) daniel, omari; Jeremy, Price; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: USING HUMANIZING PEDAGOGY TO RE-VISE THE POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ABOUT EXPLORATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF SELF Omari Colley Daniel Dissertation directed by: Doctor Jeremy Price Department of Curriculum and Instruction This study explores my engagement with a humanizing pedagogy in a culturally diverse high school poetry classroom. Students' ideas, thoughts, feelings, and need for self expression have been marginalized or silenced, and depending on their access to race, class, and gender privilege the marginalization becomes more or less intense. Given that problem, studying students' experiences of poetry in my classroom through an action research study became my theoretical, pedagogical and methodological focus for my dissertation. I used action research as a methodological tool to study my teaching and develop richer understandings of students' lives and experiences. In researching my own poetry classroom, I was able to transform my teaching. I found out that poetry taught in humanizing ways had the potential to engage students in critical reflection about their own lives. I learned that students could carve out self-images that they found empowering and begin to recognize their agency in their lives. My students established human connections with each other and with, which allowed a loving, critical dialogue to take place. My classroom became a place where students could empower themselves through lived classroom experiences. In this study, I documented and examined the journey toward self expression, self love, critical literacy, and transformation that my students embarked. This study provides an insider view of poetry instruction, in terms of curriculum design, pedagogy, poem selection, and teacher-student relationships. This study offers insight, not only for poetry teachers and action researchers, but also for educational policy makers, who need to revise curriculum in order to alienate fewer students.Item Unfolding the Blanket of Understanding in the Listening Space: A Phenomenological Exploration of 'Being-With' in the Nursing Student-Teacher Relationship(2004-05-12) Packard, Mary T.; Hultgren, Francine H.; Education Policy, and LeadershipThis hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry is called by the question, What is the lived experience of 'being-with' in the nursing student-teacher relationship? I engage with eight senior baccalaureate nursing students in teaching and learning together in a psychiatric-mental health nursing course. Text is gathered through their narrative work in reflective journals and taped classroom conversations, as well as through taped individual hermeneutic conversations. The exploration into the phenomenon of 'being-with' is philosophically grounded in the work of Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and David Levin. The framework of activities as identified by Max van Manen (1990) brings the research to a practical possibility. As the students and I dwell together through listening, 'being-with' in the context of our pedagogical relationship is opened up for our understanding. Accounts of lived experiences are offered and become opportunities for deep interpretation. Through this hermeneutic work experiential structures of the phenomenon of 'being-with' are brought forward and named in the presence of listening. Students and teacher alike risk vulnerability, enter into silence, and engage in profound meaning making of being in teaching and learning together. 'Being-with' in the nursing student-teacher relationship unravels as the following dimensions: creating soul space, flowing and blending in community, soul-friendship, hand of comfort in the midst of anxiety, opening an inn-between, and holding eternal echoes. Transformation through the experience and language of 'being-with' offers up possibilities for being in pedagogy and curriculum. This hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into the phenomenon of 'being-with' in the nursing student-teacher relationship unfolds as a blanket of understanding and necessarily leads toward a pedagogy of 'being-with' the world of nursing education.