IN THESE BONES THE ECONOMY OF THE WORLD: A MULTI-LOGICAL, MULTI-REPRESENTATIONAL CULTURAL STUDY
Year of Dissertation:
2011
In this work I offer critical interpretations of street skaters, images in schools, collaborative writing and discourses on Muslims in schools. Employing a phenomenological, hermeneutic approach, I have thought back on my experiences, made claims and supported them hermeneutically. As I have (in the tradition of critical pedagogy) told stories of being in the world, a critical perspective has anchored these stories to broader social, political and economic frameworks. Axiological concerns are at the forefront of this work, and the "so what?" question implicitly weaves through it. I do not seek to provide the answers, but rather to illuminate, through example, that asking questions of that which is taken for granted and connecting these questions to issues of power is a valid undertaking. In a world of truncated educational "accountability" this work joins those that seek to offer a counterpoints.
Left Behind: Children of Dominican Deportees in a Bulimic Society
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Advisor:
Nicholas Michelli
The United States has always taken great pride in its children's protection programs that have served as an example to developing countries. As a beacon of opportunity to poor and underdeveloped countries, the country is also known amongst third world nations, as the only hope to achieve social mobility because of its educational and labor market opportunities. Recently, in an apparent contradiction to its protection programs, social, and economic opportunities, the nation has instituted laws that undermine the welfare of children of immigrants and immigrant children by deporting people, regardless of their immigration status.
Assessing Emergent Bilinguals: Teacher Knowledge and Reading Instructional Practices
Author:
Laura Ascenzi-Moreno
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Assessments are viewed as primary vehicles for improving the educational outcomes of all students since they can lay the foundation for effective teaching practices. However, assessment can only achieve this effect of supporting student learning if the knowledge that teachers gain from using them is put into direct use in classrooms. This process of administering assessments, analyzing them, learning from the results, and subsequently tailoring instruction based on what has been learned about students is referred to as the assessment-instructional cycle.
IMPROVING THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SCIENCE IN A SUBURBAN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL:ACHIEVING PARITY THROUGH COGENERATIVE DIALOGUES
Year of Dissertation:
2010
The research in this dissertation focuses on ways to improve the teaching and learning of science in a suburban junior high school on Long Island, New York. The study is my attempt to find ways to achieve parity in my classroom in terms of success in science. The goal of parity is for all students to have equal opportunity to enjoy a basic education of high quality, achieve at high levels, and enjoy equal benefits from education. I was specifically looking for ways to
Being, Doing, Knowing, and Becoming: Science and Opportunities for Learning in the Out-of-School-Time Setting
Year of Dissertation:
2010
This dissertation addresses the question of how structured out-of-school-time settings, such as afterschool programs and summer camps, are positioned to support children's engagement and learning in science. This study addresses a gap in the research literature that does not fully specify the nature of the out-of-school-time (OST) setting and that generally does not position learning and development in relationship to one another, instead focusing on one or the other. As a result of an incomplete conceptualization of the OST setting as a site for learning and development, the OST field is becoming increasingly academicized, and its developmental qualities and benefits for children are under siege.
Teaching style: an investigation of New York City public high school teacher dress practices
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Advisor:
Nicholas Michelli
In recent decades there has been increasing interest in regulating teacher appearance in the schools. While there is a great deal of anecdotal data available about what dress standards for teachers should be, to the best of the researcher's knowledge no one has undertaken scholarly research to investigate teacher attitudes towards their constructions of self, self-as-teacher, and educational philosophies as expressed by dress practices.
Real-World Contexts in Urban High School Mathematics Lessons
Year of Dissertation:
2013
This study analyzes the uses of real-world contexts in mathematics lessons in the classrooms of four teachers across two school years at an urban high school. Drawing upon a framework of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy, this dissertation focuses on how real-world contexts are connected to teaching mathematics for understanding, centering mathematics instruction on students' experiences and classroom participation, and developing students' critical consciousness. Analysis of real-world contexts in lessons focuses on the extent to which they are adapted from curricular sources and the role that lessons play within the lesson. For those real-world contexts which are at the center of a mathematics lesson, the nature of the mathematical modeling in which students engage is analyzed. Finally, the extent to which students and the teacher participate in the process of elaborating key features of the context whether in terms of experiences, perceptions, or opinions, is also considered. These different categories for real-world contexts are then used to compare three different measures of the lesson. These include the cognitive demand of the main mathematical task, different ratings of the instructional environment, and the distribution of class time in terms of the participation categories offered to students. Results point at the promise of real-world contexts as the basis for motivating metaphors to explore noncontextualized mathematical procedures and concepts, the need to structure lessons so that students can develop models rather than apply given models, and the importance of elaboration in supporting student understanding and participation.
Racialized Identities in a Colorblind Context: Filipino American Youth Negotiating Discourses of Race, Identity, and Diversity in School
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This dissertation is an ethnographic study that examines the discursive process by which 1.5 and second generation Filipino American students construct racial and ethnic identities in the context of school. Using a theoretical framework that focuses on the racialization of immigrant students, this study investigates some of the underlying assumptions about race, ethnicity, culture, and diversity that impact the institutional discourses in a large, northeastern high school. It explores the discordance between a context in which race is not supposed to matter and students' experiences with race everyday. Findings suggest that at the institutional level, race is viewed as polarizing, rooted in bias and prejudice, and a threat to community. Thus, discourses are aimed to defuse and downplay race by calling for students and faculty to put racialized differences aside. In contrast, race proved to be a significant factor in youth participants' daily school experiences. They participated in activities bounded and defined by race, and dialogued with their peers about ethnic and racial categorical meanings, which manifested in conversations as cultural stereotypes, yet verged on outright racism. Findings also show how Filipino youth found innovative ways to offer alternative representations to dominant perceptions of culture. Traditional notions of culture and identity as fixed were challenged and instead are shown to emerge as socially-embedded systems of meaning.
Open Admissions and Remediation: A Case Study of Policymaking by the City University of New York Board
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Advisor:
Nicholas Michelli
An open admissions policy for the City University of New York was approved by the University's Board of Higher Education in 1969, ushering in a new era of greater access to college for the city's poor and working class Blacks, Latinos, and white youth. This policy change was made in response to demands from students, civil rights organizations, minority elected officials, and civic organizations for access to higher education for historically underserved populations in the city. It also satisfied the political exigencies of the time, allowing the city and Mayor John Lindsay, who was seeking to tamp down civil unrest, to support open admissions as a response to the demands of the civil rights movement. As part of the implementation of open admissions, CUNY developed an infrastructure to support remedial work for students starting college without adequate academic skills.
The Comprehensive High School in Transition: A Study of Small Learning Community Reform
Year of Dissertation:
2009
Advisor:
Nicholas Michelli
For over forty years, the dominant secondary high school model in urban school districts was the comprehensive high school. As various attempts to turn around failing high schools in the 1970s and 1980s failed, increasing numbers of educators, researchers, and policy makers began to question whether the comprehensive high school model was viable. The history of small school reform over the last two decades represents an ambitious attempt to remedy the perceived disconnect between school structures and desired outcomes. But while hundreds of small schools have been created in New York City over the last two decades, small high school reform as an exclusive response to underperformance has increasingly been seen as untenable. As a result, there has been renewed interest in structures which allow for more personalized educational experiences while maintaining large schools intact. Small Learning Communities represent one such structure and this study examines an attempt to create semi-autonomous institutes within a comprehensive high school.