Educational Studies

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10066/6953

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 57

"I'm Tellin' Because it's Mine and I Can": Digital Storytelling Projects in Two Different Elementary Age Communities
(2012) Hamilton, Hilary; Gladstein, Jill M., 1968-; Anderson, Diane Downer
Digital storytelling, a project designed to build communities and develop multiliterate community members, has been reserved almost exclusively for adults. This practitioner research project challenges this practice by bringing the project to two groups of elementary school students under the assumption that students from diverse backgrounds would be able engage productively with the medium. While running these two workshops over the summer, a pre-service teacher collected data on her students’ experiences using ethnographic methods. This study looks at how these students engage with digital storytelling, what stories they decide to tell, and how they give and receive feedback. Ultimately, this study suggests that teachers need to do three things. They must recognize the complex process that takes place when students respond to one another’s stories. Teachers must create spaces in their classrooms where students can develop skills through creative work. And finally, teachers must challenge who gets to use what tools while also thinking critically about where these tools fall short.
Self-Perception in Youth With HFA/AS
(2012) Moats, Gabriela Echavarria; Gillham, Jane; Renninger, K. Ann
The literature on youth with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) suggests that they have limitations in how they see themselves, but that many are aware of how they are different from the norm. This has been found to contribute to the development of low self-esteem and high rates of depression and anxiety that are so prevalent in this population. Little research has been dedicated to examining ways in which youth with HFA and AS can be encouraged to feel more positively about themselves. Exposure to peers with similar diagnoses has been found to be helpful in other special populations, but has not been thoroughly studied in youth with HFA/AS. The present study measured youth’s perceptions of themselves before attending a summer camp exclusively for youth with social difficulties, immediately after attending the camp, and several months later. Mirroring the findings of previous studies, these campers displayed awareness of their social difficulties, and were able to reflect on what makes them feel proud. This contrasts the belief that youth in this population are unable to engage in self-reflection. Results from standardized measures did not reveal changes in youth’s perceptions of themselves after being at camp. However participants’ responses to open-ended questions suggested that campers experienced profound changes in their perceptions of their social competence, self-confidence, selfreliance, and sense of belonging. These findings have implications on effective interventions for this population, as well as on accurate methods of assessment of change in this group.
Between Drama and Danger: The Effects of Latino Second Graders' Identities on Gendered Patterns in School Success
(2013) Panepinto, Samantha; Smulyan, Lisa; Viscelli, Steve
In this study, I used participant observation in a second-grade Sheltered English Immersion classroom to investigate how race and gender identities in elementary school may be affecting the gendered achievement gap among Latino students in high school. I spent two weeks working closely with the teacher in this classroom, and gathered data on standardized test scores, discipline in the classroom, and achievement in the classroom as they related to gender. I found that, while boys and girls acted out at about an equal rate, boys who acted out did so frequently and severely, while nearly all girls acted out, but less intensely. This led to the impression of boys being more troublesome, even though half the boys in the class were not disciplined at all while I was there, and all but one ofthe girls were. Behavior was also not linked to academics; students navigated behavior and school success independently, allowing some students to behave badly yet achieve highly, or vice versa. The patterns of behavior, however, fed back into a loop ofteacher expectations that classified boys as aggressive and girls as subdued, yet dramatic and catty. These classifications may be seen as precursors to patterns found among Latino adolescents; that boys are dangerous, and girls are sexualized and social. In order to work towards providing more equal access to school success for all genders and ethnicities, teachers should try to provide multiple definitions of "success" in the classroom. Positive feedback should be balanced between academics and behavior, both in terms ofprevalence and publicity.
Envisioning Community: The Promise of Teacher Leadership for Career Sustainability
(2013-05-27T13:43:14Z) Jones, Spencer; Jones-Walker, Cheryl
This thesis explores the sustainability of the teaching profession by examining teachers’ professional identities and goals and their work conditions. The author concludes that most teachers, while committed to their classrooms, cannot remain teachers in public schools for many years because there are too many structural conditions that compromise their morale and energy. The author further explores teachers’ visions for their careers – primarily opportunities for professional community and collaboration and teacher leadership. Stronger professional communities and more access and opportunities for teacher leadership in the realms of curriculum development, professional development, assessment, and teacher evaluation will benefit schools and student achievement. Implementing these visions of professional community will also better prepare white teachers to serve the needs of minority students.
The Rationalized Yet Unnecessary Policy: The Consequences of Zero Tolerance Discipline Policies in U.S. Public Schools
(2014) Kelley, Catherine; Willie-LeBreton, Sarah; Costelloe, Sarah
The goals of this thesis are to highlight the unintended consequences of zero tolerance policies in U.S. public schools and the context surrounding the initial use of zero tolerance policies in schools by uniting existing bodies of research from the past two decades. The prominence of zero tolerance policies has led to the overuse of out-of-school suspension for nonviolent offenses such as tardiness and classroom disruption. It has further led to minority students, especially African American students, being disciplined at higher rates compared to their white peers. I argue that zero tolerance policies are not inherently racist or discriminatory policies, yet their varying implementation in schools has led to a severe discriminatory effect in suspension rates, high school completion, and the number of students referred to the juvenile justice system. Therefore, the influence of zero tolerance should be eliminated from school discipline policies in favor of highly effective alternative policies, specifically System-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and restorative justice practices.
The Path of Resilience: Processing Trauma through Learning, Social Emotional Support, and Empowerment
(2015) Gonzales, Sarah; Jones-Walker, Cheryl; Smithey, Lee A.
In this thesis I research how educators and communities can respect the feelings and realities of those experiencing trauma. I look at the ways we can frame learning experiences so that they empower people; allowing them to process their trauma safely and develop resilience. I describe three experiences I have participated in over my time attending Swarthmore College. These separate excerpts are interconnected in the ways that participants entered into an opportunity to constructively process their trauma, with the social emotional support of community members, and were therefore able to become agents of self-advocacy and change.
Teaching for Social Justice in Rural Dominican Republic
(2015) Sacks, Isabel Miranda; Smulyan, Lisa; Machuca-Galvez, Milton
This thesis explores how teachers at Escuela Cat61ica de los Bateyes (ECB), a rural school in the Dominican Republic, define and enact social justice education. The research is based upon semi-structured interviews with four teachers and the author's field notes during her work with nine ECB teachers on her Lang Opportunity Scholarship project in the summer of 2014. She finds that local and national contextual factors, including the Catholic mission of the school, the rural poverty of the area, and the presence of undocumented Haitian students in the school, were crucial to how the teachers viewed social justice education. Rather than the Freirean aims of consciousness building, uprising, and liberation, ECB teachers saw the central goals of social justice education as creating convivencia (living in harmony in community and society), instilling valores (morals and values), and ensuring their students' right to education.
"A Door to a Good and Happy Life": Building Social and Cultural Capital in a College Success Program
(2015) Kronstat, Zachary; Smulyan, Lisa
This thesis aims to answer the question of how the people involved in a college success program’s middle school component understand the work being done at their site. Using data from two and a half months of participant observation, interviews, and materials collection at the site, the author concludes that this program is an intentional community of practice aiming to close the opportunity gap through developing the social and cultural capital of low-income students of color. The author finds that the site understands the development of social and cultural capital to create career choice and a happy life through college success.
Arts-Based Education for Social Justice
(2015) Stevens, Samantha; Allard, Elaine; Fraga, Christopher Michael
This thesis explores the arts as a potential framework for achieving social justice through the system of education. The author uses her experience as a student-teacher in a charter school with an arts-based social justice framework as a springboard for discussion, identifying points of tension that arise as educators translate social justice theory into practice in today’s schools. Faced with the challenges of oppression and systemic inequality, educators work to transform schools into vehicles for social justice. Some teachers turn to the charter school model in an effort to sculpt environments fit to meet the needs of students form marginalized populations. The author explores theoretical differences in conceptualizing what it means to work for social justice, claiming that the arts is particularly well-suited as a framework for social justice work.
Revolution in Education: Learning Resistance in Cuban Schools
(2015) Epstein, Amanda; Brenneman, Elaine; Sharpe, Ken
"Breaking Out of the Bubble": Becoming self-reflexive in community-based learning classes at Swarthmore College
(2015) Choi, Natalia; Nadkarni, Maya; Brenneman, Elaine
In my Sociology/Anthropology and Educational studies thesis, I explore the processes of self-reflexivity in the context of community-based learning (CBL) classes at Swarthmore College. Drawing upon interviews with professors and students in CBL classes, written materials such as syllabi and students’ reflections, and participant observation in CBL classes, my findings suggest that professors have a critical role to play in supporting students’ process of becoming more self-reflexive. By pairing students’ experiences with critical reflection in the curricula and leading by example, professors can guide students to have profound learning experiences about themselves as well as other communities. Such engagement in self-reflexive practices can enable students to work with (not for) communities in a meaningful way.
Learning Shakespeare Shouldn't Hurt: An Engaging 4-Week Othello Curriculum for 9th Graders
(2015) Kucic, Amelia; Song, Eric; Brenneman, Elaine
Shakespearean literature is an essential component of American literature and cultural consciousness, discusses material that is highly relevant to modern adolescents, and presents an ideal platform for creative learning across multiple intelligences. However, intimidated students are often reluctant to engage with this material. This Othello curriculum draws on progressive educational theory, strategies for teaching literacy to English Language Learners and Special Education students, and existing creative methods of teaching Shakespeare to circumvent this intimidation and engage 9th graders with Othello through the exploration of relevant themes, utilization of students' natural propensity for creative expression, and development of traditional English literacy skills.
Graphic Novels in the English Language Arts: Teacher Use of Multiple Texts and Literacies in the Classroom
(2015) Talian, Emmy; Schmidt, Peter, 1951 December 23-; Anderson, Diane Downer
This thesis examines the how and why of use of graphic texts in the teaching practice of six secondary English teachers. Through a semi-structured interview study, I investigated how they discussed their use of graphic texts, focusing on how they taught the visual portions, why they chose the texts they did, as well as how these texts fit into their larger curriculum. I found that teachers' attention to visual and multimodal potential in graphic texts exists on a spectrum, ranging from a lack of focus to primary focus in the course. Their reasons behind using these texts included the importance of the visual, accessibility, content, and transferability of skills. Teachers articulated the paradox of adherence to and a resistance of hierarchical notions of text and literacy within the classroom. Finally, while most saw the incorporation of graphic novels as a resistance of traditional hierarchies of literature, their use of these texts often reflected hierarchical notions of text forms and literacies, demonstrating the inescapability of hierarchical organization of texts and knowledge of text within the English discipline. However, I ultimately conclude that the inclusion of graphic texts into the curriculum and teachers' practice can result in expanded opportunities for students to engage with a range of texts as well as increase teachers' creativity and intentionality in their teaching.
"Very different from most other people": Identity Exploration and Development in Queer and Ally Youths in Out of School Programs and on Social Media
(2015) Huang, Joan; Smulyan, Lisa; White, Patricia, 1964-
This thesis explores what elements of programming at the Attic Youth Center, a LG BTQ youth drop in center in Philadelphia, encourage identity development for both LGTBQ and ally youths. Through interviews and field notes, it argues that the Attic is a unique context for identity development because it not only provides space for youths to explore all elements of their personal and social identities -- not just their gender and sexuality, but more importantly because it equips youths with the skills needed to shape their own space, at the Attic and on social media.
Angular Scale Expansion of Adults and Children
(2015) Oh, Jaehyun; Durgin, Frank H.
Autonomy of the Student: Maintaining Ballet's Relevance as an Art Form Through Pedagogy
(2015) Cho, Daniel; Brenneman, Elaine
In response to the negative critique that denounces ballet as an irrelevant art form, I was interested in analyzing alternative methods of teaching classical ballet. Comprised of a brief history of classical ballet, a literature review of writings within the fields of modern educational theory and dance pedagogy, and interviews of students and teachers, my inquiry argues that the autonomy of the student needs to be maintained within the classroom for classical ballet to maintain its relevance through pedagogy.
We Are (Not) Here to Teach You: Talking Race and Racism on Tumblr
(2016) Uruchima, Tania; Mayorga, Tania; Johnson, Nina
Scholars have been increasingly optimistic regarding how young people of color push back against mainstream racial discourses using social media tools. However, young people on the micro-blogging site Tumblr who do so are heavily criticized by other young people for engaging in ways seen as superficial, too emotional, and even hostile towards white people. In my thesis, I look at over 50 race-themed blogs, supplemented with interviews with blog moderators to see why their conversations are so controversial. Ultimately, I argue that these race-themed blogs are, for people of color primarily, community-oriented instructional spaces that critique damaging racial narratives. Further, the conversational themes reflect a collective action mindset, though youth are already taking action to transform this platform to support communities of people of color.
Femicide in Buenos Aries: Social Change Through Interpersonal Education
(2016) Bleskachek, Mckinley; Schuetze, Christine; Liu, Roseann
This paper explores the trajectory of social thought concerning femicide, particularly as it relates to the 2015 #NiUnaMenos movement in Buenos Aires. Through framing gender as a social construct, this paper illuminates the connection between cultural, structural and personal violence. In this framework, individual murders become a social phenomenon. The critical consciousness fostered by the #NiUnaMenos movement reveals the potential of interpersonal education to effect social change.
Using Student Epistemologies of Modeling in Biology to Inform In-Class Teaching Practices
(2017) Gerardi, Haley
An examination of student's epistemologies revealed a central theme around explanation and communication that was at the center of how students conceptualized models and their roles in biology. This theme emerged as students shared thoughts about models that existed within a larger discussion around, and centered on the notion of a model's purpose. Central to their epistemological beliefs was the ability of a model to accurately represent and explain the real world. It is under this unifying notion of purpose that I have characterized students' epistemologies to state that models should represent a complex reality with a level of detail that is explanatory without being distracting or occluding the general idea being communicated
The Impact of Community Building on Student Achievement
(2017) Sun, Kathy; Mayorga, Edwin; Kuperberg, Mark
This thesis looks at the impact of community building on student achievement. The theoretical framework stems from Akerlof and Kranton's paper on how student identity impacts schooling outcomes. By combining economic and sociological theories, they argue that community building increases student identification with school and student achievement. Through a literature review, I categorize the ways that schools build community. I then test Akerlof and Kranton's theory that community building increases student identification and achievement through a review of the literature and my own quantitative analysis. I ultimately find that while community building increases student identification, it does not increase achievement.

Browse

Browsing Educational Studies by Issue Date

Results Per Page

Sort Options