Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sociology of Education'

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of professional learning communities (PLCs) on elementary school students’ performance in reading and mathematics using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (ECLS-K). This study also investigates whether PLCs have differential effects on student performance based on student characteristics such as socioeconomic status (SES), race, and whether they are academically at-risk and school characteristics such as school type, school size, minority enrollment, and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL). PLCs are seen as a promising way of remedying the traditionally isolated nature of teachers’ work by facilitating a network through which teachers can share expertise, receive support, and disseminate effective practices. The underlying theory is that by facilitating teachers’ access to a network of their peers, they will be able to improve their instruction, which will ultimately lead to improved student achievement. This study addresses the need for more empirical evidence on the impact of PLCs on student performance using a large, national dataset. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify correlated PLC items from the ECLS-K teacher questionnaire. Hierarchical and cross-classified random effects modeling (HCM) was then used to analyze the impact of student-, teacher-, and organizational-level variables—including two PLC variables—on students’ reading and mathematics performance. The analysis found that teacher collaboration had a significant positive effect on growth in reading and math scores, while a positive school climate was associated with significantly higher initial reading scores. Rarely did either PLC variable show differential effects based on student- or school-level characteristics.

Post-secondary student retention and persistence is on the minds of professionals at various higher learning institutions due to the disparities in educational attainment. These disparities may lead to inhibited social mobility, and lack of cultural and social capital. This study examined what factors Southern Connecticut State University sophomore students perceived as aiding or impeding their degree path. It questioned how underrepresented students shaped their perception on their educational attainment and how this compares to the existing research and literature on the success practices of underrepresented students in higher education. The study was conducted using open-ended semi-structured interview questions administered to second year sophomore students at Southern Connecticut State University. Specifically, they were underrepresented students defined as being low-income, racial minority, and first-generation students. This study aimed to explore the narrative of underrepresented students by exploring why college access doesn’t necessarily result in college completion.

Research shows that out-of-school factors potentially have a greater impact on student outcomes yet our interventions remain focused on in-school factors. This thesis proposes that education reform efforts should learn from the widely accepted social determinants of health framework. The social determinants of health framework has lead to great strides in health equity in the us. Us education however remains deeply rooted in inequitable origins despite centuries of efforts to improve outcomes. Through a literature review of the impact of social forces on educational outcomes a “social determinants of education” framework is proposed. The social determinants of education are proposed to be economic, food, physical environment, social environment, and health. This framework aims to coalesce education reform conversations around a common language of equity.

Racial microaggressions are present in daily classroom interactions between White teachers and students of color. White teachers, however, may be oblivious to the types of racial microaggressions they exhibit and how they perform them in their classrooms. Using autoethnographic research methods, this study seeks to expose implicit racial bias into explicit moments of teacher decision-making, transform dysconscious racism into conscious and concrete thoughts, and interpret previously unseen racist acts into seen and recognizable activities. The study asks the following research questions: (a) When and how do I permit my racial microaggressions to emerge and transgress in my classroom? And (b) In what ways, if at all, can a White teacher use autoethnography to detect and examine her racial microaggressions toward her students of color? Later, the study explores the ways in which critical self-reflexivity might promote an evolving anti-racist teaching identity.

The researcher, a classroom teacher, gathered data using daily reflective self-observations, daily reflexive field note journals, and periodic videotaping of her practice. She commenced the study with an introductory culturegram positioning her racial and cultural self-identity and concluded it with a final self-interview to complete the data-gathering. The researcher categorized each microaggressive event by form, medium, and theme using Sue’s (2010b) “Taxonomy of Microaggressions.” Findings reveal (a) uninterrogated Whiteness dominates all aspects of the researcher’s classroom, extending from her teaching to her White students’ behaviors and (b) transitional time, non-academic teacher talk, and other unstructured time remain especially hazardous for students of color in terms of receiving teacher-perpetuated racial microaggressions.

Contemporary research in veterinary medical education indicates alarming rates of depression and anxiety among veterinary students. Yet, the focus of this scholarship is primarily on mental illness as effects of a social and relational process, rather than interrogating the affectual nature of the process. Medical education has a long history of interrogating various facets of socialization as largely embedded in the hidden curricula—the tacit culture of a social entity, and repository for values and norms of conduct. Unfortunately, scant scholarship explores the hidden curricula of veterinary medicine. Recently, an anonymous letter signed Young Veterinarian was published on a public website, and opened an electronic dialogue regarding the nature of affects imbedded in professional socialization. Many themes of the letter referred to issues imbedded in the literature. This study followed this online dialogue, and initiated one in a College of Veterinary Medicine. Centering this letter, object-focused interviews were conducted to explore how members of this community are affected by the anonymous letter. Analytical insights suggest three broad areas of affects related to the hidden curricula: Onto-epistemic tensions; affective neutrality; and freedom, debt, and hopelessness. Implications for research and professional practice/curricula are discussed and deliberated.

Within this qualitative multiple case study the ways in which music education specialists construct meaning out of their attitudes and beliefs concerning student musical aptitude and ability while assessing American-born and international students in the New England boarding school population were explored and explained. A phenomenological approach to data analysis was used in order to understand better the experiences of music education specialists within New England Boarding Schools and their attitudes and beliefs concerning musical aptitude and ability concerning the culturally and ethnically diverse students that they teach.

Eight overarching themes emerged during the process of analyzing data: (a) formative factors and influences, (b) acquisition of beliefs, (c) musical mastery and student needs, (d) music mastery and flexibility, (e) instructional approaches. (f) experience valued over formal education, (g) the benefits of autonomy, and (h) international student musical aptitude were identified as contributing to the process in which the participants constructed meaning out of their attitudes and beliefs concerning student musical aptitude and ability. The implication of this study for practice illustrates the need to create opportunities for music education specialists in which they can reflect and become more self-aware about the unconscious biases that they bring to their educational context particularly due to the diverse nature of the music programs within New England Boarding Schools. Recommendations for future research are: (a) whether the music programs in specific nation-states foster higher levels of musical aptitude and ability among students who participate in them; (b) exploration of the methods that school leaders in New England Boarding Schools utilize to better support teachers of diverse students in the adoption of inclusive, intercultural instructional strategies; (c) the policies that school leaders in New England Boarding Schools utilize to better support teachers of diverse students in the adoption of inclusive, intercultural instructional strategies, and; (d) the benefits of offering undergraduate music performance majors coursework focused on the literature and pedagogy of the instrument that they are studying in their degree program.

The disproportionate nature of special education, notably with African American students, is longstanding and most pronounced in judgmental eligibility categories such as intellectual disability and emotional disturbance. Numerous studies on disproportionality conclude there is not a single causative factor, but point to the multifactorial nature of the issue and the complex interplay among different factors. Research related to the role social factors exhibited in an institution have on special education referral and eligibility determination is more limited. This is important since practices employed during the eligibility process take place within the institution?s social environment and are underpinned by the beliefs and values of those that administer the process. By employing a mixed methods study design, the author examined the following questions: 1) are minority students, particularly African American elementary school students, more likely to be disproportionately represented in special education eligibilities across school districts in the county, and if so which ones; 2) within the referral and eligibility process employed, what criteria are used to determine the eligibility emotional disturbance; and 3) do the commonly held perceptions and practices present within the school district?s culture influence the process and decision-making for eligibility? Quantitative data were obtained from appropriate Illinois State Board of Educations (ISBE) websites and through a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Board of Education for specific data and statistics related to the special education population for 116 elementary school districts in a suburban midwestern county. Data showed 11 school districts demonstrated disproportionality, a risk ratio >3.0, for years 2011-2013. Of these, eight involved the African American student, with six school districts disproportionality centered on emotional disturbance thereby qualifying as potential candidates for Phase 2. Important to note, unlike previous research on disproportionality that examined school districts with predominantly Caucasian or even more diverse student populations, this study?s school district was primarily Hispanic, 94%, with African Americans making up 2% of students. This provided a unique opportunity to study two minority populations. The second phase of the study employed a qualitative approach of in-depth, semi-structured face-to-face interviews of key professionals involved in special education eligibility determination from the selected school district. Findings revealed two broad points related to the social environment of the school district that appeared to impact the referral and eligibility process. First is the strength of administrative leadership vis-a-vis process implementation and second is the sociocultural environment of the district. In this case, leadership was passive when it came to ensuring fidelity to tiered intervention plans, a critical component of the referral process. Basically leadership allowed fidelity and accountability to the intervention process by teachers to be lackluster at best or worst case absent. Consequently, teachers more resistant to engaging in the intervention process tended have higher student referrals. The sociocultural environment of the school district studied is comprised basically of two divergent economic classes, the middle class predominately Caucasian educators/administrators and the student population who are of low to very low economic status and predominately of two racial/ethnic minorities. Comments consistently emerged from interviewees regarding differences seen between the Hispanic and African American students culturally, their perceived value structures, and observable behaviors. A key insight from this research was being a racial/ethnic minority does not per se lead to disproportionate representation in the emotional disturbance eligibility, the dominant culture of the social composition of the student population influences the perceptions and understanding of the educators and professionals who, for the most part, are Caucasian, middle class and more often than not female. Basically, there is an acclimatization of the educators to the culture, behaviors and values of the dominant group against which other racial/ethnic behaviors and values are positioned and judged. The culture, values and behaviors of, in this case, Hispanics students were perceived to be different than that of the African American student and less tolerated. The intent of this researcher was to provide data that advanced the knowledge of how the social environment of a district interplays with its? professionals? belief to shape decision-making and how, in turn, this impacted the issue of overrepresentation of African American students in special education, specifically emotionally disturbed. This study has shown primary contributors to referral and eligibility was poor school leadership over intervention implementation and differences between the social norms and cultural perspectives of the school environment stakeholders and those of African American students. It is critical from both scholarly and applied practice perspectives that an ongoing effort to implement culturally responsive pedagogy within the school environment. Similarly, research focusing on interventions designed to shape teachers? perceptions of student behavior is essential to ensure not only equitable educational opportunities, but also eradicate disproportionality.

To what extent is it possible for a social movement to transform a public education system in order to promote an alternative social vision? Under what conditions can this implementation occur within the bureaucratic state apparatus, at the regional and national level? How does state-society collaboration develop, in contexts where civil society groups and the state have opposing interests? This dissertation addresses these questions through an investigation of the educational initiatives of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST), a national social movement of rural workers struggling for agrarian reform. MST activists have been able to implement educational proposals in rural public schools that encourage youth to stay in the countryside, foster a sense of belonging to the movement, promote collective forms of work, and practice participatory governance.

Part I provides an overview of the multi-level and multi-sited political ethnographic approach used to conduct this research. It then reviews the literature on social movements and state-society relations, and considers how a Gramscian framework can be used to analyze how social movements implement educational proposals in public schools that are opposed to the interests of the dominant class. Part II examines the history and national expansion of the MST's educational initiative: how activists first developed their educational proposals; why the movement went from promoting popular education to participating in the public educational sphere; and why and how the federal government appropriated these ideas as a new approach to rural schooling, known as Educação do Campo (Education of the Countryside). Part III explores the MST's attempt to transform public schools in three state educational systems and two municipalities, and why the MST's success differs drastically across the country depending on the state capacity, government orientation, and level of MST mobilization in each region.

Comparison of the outcomes in these subnational cases yield new and unexpected insights into the relationships and conditions that lead to or impede participatory governance: (1) low-capacity governments and weak institutions can offer unusual openings for social movements to implement participatory initiatives; (2) high-capacity state antagonism negates the positive effects of mobilization; (3) not-so-public forms of contention are an effective strategy that social movements can use to engage the state and participate in the provision of public goods; (4) technocracy is a significant barrier to participatory practices, even among supportive governments; and, (5) state-society collaboration is not possible if the leadership of a social movement does not have a strong connection to its base.

Significantly, this research shows that the implementation of a social movement's goals through the state apparatus does not always lead to movement cooptation or decline. Additionally, public schools, normally institutions reproducing state power, can be used by marginalized communities to support alternative social visions. However, the case of the MST also illustrates that this process is never straightforward, easy, or permanent, as it requires communities to first develop a common vision, and then work with, in, and through the ever-changing power structures to implement this vision.

Previous research has identified student engagement as an important antecedent to student learning in higher education. Although student engagement is viewed as important for learning, a significant number of college students still report frequently feeling bored in their courses. The use of music as a pedagogical tool is believed to be beneficial for promoting student engagement and student learning in higher education sociology courses, yet it has been suggested that sociology faculty members do not commonly incorporate the technique into their courses. The purpose of this comparative interview study is to explore higher education sociology faculty members' understandings of the use of music as a pedagogical tool, and the perceived importance of student engagement to student learning among higher education sociology faculty members.

In this study, it is found that higher education sociology faculty members believe student engagement can lead to increased student learning. It is also found that higher education sociology faculty members generally identify music as an effective pedagogical tool for promoting student engagement and learning in higher education sociology courses. Interestingly, participants believed the use of music as a pedagogical tool to be an uncommon practice in higher education sociology courses in the United States. As part of their efforts to explain their choices to use or not use music as a pedagogical tool, faculty participants described potential barriers that may impact faculty member choices to use music in their higher education sociology courses.

Sociology faculty participants in this study agreed that a lack of discussion of pedagogical tools among colleagues and in teaching courses might serve as a potential barrier for the use of music as a pedagogical tool. Higher education sociology faculty participants also identified a lack of knowledge of how to use music as a pedagogical tool as a potential barrier for the use of music in sociology courses. This research suggests that the lack of faculty knowledge of music as a pedagogical tool may be due to the lack of discussion of pedagogical tools both among colleagues and in the teaching courses completed by higher education sociology faculty members.

Past research has suggested that sociology faculty members need to create an environment that encourages students to be active and engaged participants in their own learning through building a community of learners. This study suggests that higher education sociology faculty members may successfully build a community of learners through using music as a pedagogical tool in their courses. This study recommends that changes at the departmental level need to occur in order to make it easier for sociology faculty members to gain the knowledge required to use music effectively in their courses. Suggestions for practice and future research are provided.

Higher education can present many challenges for students including managing and scheduling classes, assignments, projects, and professional and social obligations. This experience can be even more difficult for students living with chronic illness, many of whom face the additional challenges of debilitating pain, fatigue, social misconceptions, and frequent medical care. To succeed some students with chronic illnesses will need support and accommodation in order to achieve their goals and complete their degrees. In this thesis I explore the barriers I faced as a student with chronic illness in higher education and what accommodations may help remove those barriers for future students. With this thesis I hope to participate in social, political and academic conversations as a means to increase understanding among fellow students, faculty, staff, and administrators. It is my hope that these conversations will contribute to a movement that will help support and encourage students with chronic illnesses.

The purpose of this dissertation is to extend General Strain Theory (GST) to examine prosocial, asocial, and antisocial behavior in response to bullying. In GST, Agnew (1992; 2001; 2013) asserted that negative emotions can lead to criminal or aggressive coping but there are a number of factors that increase or decrease the propensity to respond aggressively (Agnew, 1992; Richman & Leary, 2009). In this dissertation, I examine whether and how rejection (operationalized as bullying victimization) is associated with aggressive responding as opposed to prosocial (e.g., befriending others) or asocial (e.g., avoiding people and social events) responding. This dissertation consists of three studies testing theoretical variables of bullying victimization as well as behavioral responses to four types of bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and cyber. Study 1 of this dissertation examines risk and protective factors for types of bullying victimization. Study 2 applies GST to test the effect of social support, or the availability of alternative relationships (i.e., having others to count on or turn to for social support), on responses to four types of bullying. Study 3 tests the effect of power dynamics on responses to physical and relational bullying. In conducting this research, I hope to: 1) integrate interdisciplinary bodies of literature to examine risk and protective factors of bullying victimization and behavioral responses to bullying and 2) improve understanding of how these experiences are affected by the power dynamics involved in bullying. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that types of negative emotions and behavioral outcomes vary by type of bullying victimization. Cyber bullying was found to have more negative consequences than any other form of bullying. Across all four forms of bullying, social support was found to be associated with an increased likelihood of youth engaging in prosocial behavior. Implicit power, or the perception that one’s bully has a high social standing at school, significantly influenced responses based on the type of bullying. However, even when controlling for power dynamics, social support was still associated with increased prosocial behavior in response to bullying victimization. Theory and policy implications are discussed.