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- Creator:
- Jara, Shawntanet
- Description:
- Social emotional learning (SEL) has emerged as a major thematic and programmatic emphasis in American education today (Hoffman, 2009). SEL is increasingly influencing the day-to-day practice of schools and communities (Elias, 1997). At the same time, increasing proportions of the student population in the United States comes from homes that are culturally and linguistically diverse (Orosco & Aceves, 2009). A contributing factor to the success of SEL is Culturally Responnsive and Sustaining Teaching (CRST) because culture is at the heart of all we do in the name of education. The impact of educator and parent perceptions at the intersection of SEL and CRST may hinder efforts of supporting students to thrive academically and socially. Futhermore, CRST has commonly been examined from the lens of low income and academically struggling schools, with limited research from the lens of affluence and academic prosperity. The purpose of this study explored and described how three affluent, resource-rich, and academically thriving Kindergarten-3rd grade schools support and/or inhibit SEL and CRST its impact on how student experience school. Affluent districts with high test scores may perceive themselves to be protected from the need to address culture head on. The majority of research regarding CRST is in low-income, urban communites, isolating upper middle income communities and perpetuatung the assumption that CRST does not apply to them. I challenge this dominant discourse as culture belongs to everyone and should be accessible in discourse in our schools. Our students are growing up in a diverse world and their successful navigation through it depends on the decisions our educators make in normalizing culture and emotions, take in and explore perspectives, and engage in daily reality checks. In affluent districts (and districts in general) where the majority of educators are white and female there is privilege that comes with that status and even more privilege when that status is placed within an affluent setting. Unless educators make a concerted effort to challenge their assumptions about what it means to be white, what it means to be a person of color and the impacts of being either on learning, working, relationships, behavior, etc. we will not properly equip students with the SEL competencies needed to make academic strides. Among this exploration was to understand what factors shape beliefs and practices of educators and parents regarding SEL and to what degree CRST practices contributed to these factors. SEL is comprised of five competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Exploring how educators enact these competencies in an effort to know students and develop sustained authentic relationships is critical to social and academic success of every student. Drawing on parent and educator surveys, semi-structured interviews with teachers, classroom observations, student focus groups and student surveys, I attended to the beliefs, practices, knowledge, and attitudes that contributed to or withheld ways in which SEL and CRST work in tandem. I aimed to illuminate beliefs and practices in order to further understand how SEL and CRST practices correlate, interact and if not, why the lack of integration. Key words: Social Emotional Learning; Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Teaching; SEL Beliefs; SEL Practices; CRST Beliefs; CRST Practices In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels. -Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence)
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Clark, Jane
- Description:
- A growing population, Hispanic English learners enrolling in our schools are struggling academically. Learning gaps begin to surface for Hispanic English learners at the elementary level (Gandara, 2012; Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Saunders, & Christian, 2005; Grasparil & Hernandez, 2015, Umansky & Reardon, 2014). Increasing the level of academic success of Hispanic English learners is a national imperative. The role of the principal has been linked to student success since, through their beliefs and behaviors, principals construct conditions in their schools that shape student learning (Chrispeels, 1992; Marks & Printy, 2003; Supovitz, Sirinides, & May, 2010). Grounded in a strengths-based theoretical construct— cultural growth mindset, positive school leadership, and strengths-based instructional leadership— this case study was organized under a mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design to answer one overarching question and two sub-questions. Two elementary school principals from schools with high populations of English learners were studied. This study explores teacher perceptions of principal behaviors, and principal leadership practices with teachers directly influencing the academic performance of Hispanic English learners. Phase One included an analysis of quantitative results from a survey administered to 35 teachers, 19 from one school, and 16 from the other. In Phase Two, qualitative data contributed to the research as a narrative unfolding through the interviews and observations of the principal participants, a teacher focus group at one school, and a school counselor at the other. Significant themes emanating from this case study were principals’ high learning expectations and a strong belief in students’ ability to succeed. Students’ first language was considered an asset and students’ diverse backgrounds were valued. In addition to strong parental involvement, student emotional well-being was a priority. Principals supported teacher collaboration and demonstrated high trust in teachers’ ability to impact the learning of Hispanic English learners. Collection and analysis of key student data was a principal practice. Integration and interweaving of cultural growth mindset, positive school leadership and strengths-based instructional leadership were essential lenses to fully understand the achievement gains made by the students. The implications this case study presents for educational research, policy, equity, and social justice are discussed. Limitations of the study are addressed.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Penuliar, Jonathan Bernard
- Description:
- English learners are one of the most rapidly growing student demographics in the United States. However, school systems have historically fallen short in providing English learners with adequate academic support. A review of the literature sheds light on academic tracking as a major factor in restricting access to the rigorous coursework English learners need to achieve at levels commensurate with their English-only speaking peers. Students tracked into the English language development pipeline have difficulty exiting. Those who do not reclassify and persist in this track experience lower levels of high school graduation and college completion. Several recent shifts in educational policy are seeking to address this problem. New language and curriculum standards, as well as detracking practices, have given rise to a more distributed approach to teaching English learners where all teachers have a responsibility to support this population. Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study examined the social networks a school has built around teaching English learners and how those networks impact the flow of social capital used to support this demographic of students. Research questions include: 1. Who do educators turn to for advice and information regarding the education of English learners? 2. How do social networks shape opportunities for educators to build social capital around teaching English learners? The first phase collected survey data in order to highlight advice and information seeking behaviors. After social network analysis, the results from phase one informed phase two. The second phase included interviews from salient actors to provide further depth into creating a rich description of the ELD networks at the research site and how they impact the English learner experience.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Barmak, Shant A.
- Description:
- Despite high enrollment rates of Post-9/11 U.S. Military Student Veterans in higher education, identification of effective institutional practices that promote successful outcomes is an understudied topic. Although some studies have addressed the transition from military into postsecondary education, more research is needed to improve our knowledge about the experiences of student veterans and how non-profit higher educational institutions, especially student support services, can better help student veterans succeed. Through the lens of university student support staff, as well as student veterans, this qualitative study examines which factors student veterans and support staff perceive in contributing to successful attainment of a baccalaureate degree. For this study, in-depth semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with a diverse group of 12 student support staff and 6 junior and senior undergraduate student veterans at a four-year public university in California. This study applied the Schlossberg Transition Conceptual Model by extending the support factor to include the critical role of four types of student support services: academic, mental health, disability, and career services. Several major overlapping and non-overlapping themes emerged from both student and staff interviews. The most salient theme was the critical role of the Veterans Center. The Center assists student veterans in their transition and adjustment to the university. It plays a central role in providing a physical space, a hub that facilitates connectedness and student engagement on campus and assist with access to vital services and resources on campus, as well as off campus. The assistance of the Veterans Center is critical in ensuring that students receive their financial benefits, as well as verifying their coursework, so they get the courses needed for graduation and meet all GI Bill requirements. Additionally, many of the on-campus services have liaisons between the Veterans Center and their corresponding service department, where identified liaisons help ensure student veterans receive the necessary support when needed. These findings can help inform higher educational institutions, its staff, faculty, and administrators about the best practices in serving the needs of veterans toward successful transition to college, retention, and undergraduate degree attainment, as the number of student veterans in higher education is growing nationally.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Kiani, Mona
- Description:
- There is a growing concern around the stress and anxiety that permeates the educational landscape today and its proliferation foreshadowed in the future. At-risk students endure increased levels of stress, including those that materialize from many life factors including poverty, racism, and challenges within the household. To seriously address the achievement gap that persists between at-risk students and their more privileged counterparts, the emotions of schooling must be addressed. Emotions have been largely avoided in educational organizations that which has led to an overreliance on cognitive factors in standards and curricula. However, as research in this field expands from psychology, to business, and now to education, it can no longer be ignored. Being in school is an emotional experience for both teachers and students and studies show that negative emotions and misunderstandings are magnified in high school math classes. Increasing one’s emotional intelligence can help both parties better navigate their experience at school and their relationships with one another. A review of the literature shows that emotional intelligence is a predictor of academic success and success in life. This study explores the phenomenon of in-school emotional experiences for at-risk students who have failed math class and how emotional intelligence and deeper connections with math teachers can mitigate many factors that would attribute to their predicted trajectory of failure. Through a phenomenological design, this qualitative research uses the student voice to explore what at-risk students who have failed math class want their teachers to know and do for academic success. This study finds that being emotionally intelligent with a culturally intelligent lens will help support a healthier relationship and schooling experience for at-risk students. Interview data from this study purports that student emotional intelligence can help at-risk students become more academically successful by helping them break patterns of failure, developing emotional self-efficacy, and teaching them to perceive, manage and use their emotions more effectively. Furthermore, this study shows that at-risk students want their teachers to foster an emotional connection with them, care about them holistically, and repair their trust and confidence.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Schwartz, Drew E.
- Description:
- Today, society is facing a collective onslaught of mental and social challenges which include increased instances of depression, anxiety, bullying, and suicide. An interconnected approach to wellbeing, as this paper presents, reimagines these problems not as separate issues that are effectively addressable through band aid solutions and isolated initiatives, but rather as the manifestation of interrelated root causes. This multiphase, mixed methods study which included 154 students and 12 educators, explored the effectiveness of an integrative approach to wellbeing in schools called 1-2-3 WellnessTM and helped identify themes and propellants of wellbeing. Four fundamental findings rose to the surface within this study. First, the 1-2-3 WellnessTM program is effective in propelling wellbeing among students and educators with significant increases in mindfulness and social and emotional learning (SEL). More broadly, the program serves as an illustration of the power and potential of integrative approaches to wellbeing and has application for families, schools, organizations, and communities. Secondly, five essential elements of school wellbeing were identified: safety, connection, routines, purpose, and choice. Thirdly, the paper introduces the concept of collective limbic regulation to refer to the dynamic which occurs when healthy micro interactions between a group of people helps group members cultivate and sustain a state of wellbeing. The paper suggests that collective limbic dysregulation, rather than regulation, is at the root of many of society’s growing problems, and that intentional efforts to cultivate collective limbic regulation hold promise for initiating solutions. Lastly, based on the findings, along with other cutting-edge research, wellbeing is reimagined with a new definition: the expression of interdependent systems of connection working in harmony. Along with the aforementioned findings, this new conceptualization offers a new lens to view societal problems and potential solutions related to wellbeing. Such a reimagined lens leads to the conception that selfless- actualization, rather than self-actualization, is the epitome of human flourishing and wellbeing and a gateway to solutions. The paper concludes by discussing implications of the study and by offering ideas to support policy makers, researchers, and educators in navigating future efforts to promote wellbeing in communities. Ultimately, we reimagine wellbeing through a lens of human flourishing and connection, and discuss implications of this new lens for society moving forward.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Cheers, Kala-Le
- Description:
- The decision on where to educate students with disabilities (SWD) has been and continues to be a debated topic. While the approach to special education has changed with the Disabilities Studies which pushes for inclusive practices, the continuum of special education placement continues to be used in some schools. SWD educational placement is measured by time spent in the classroom with their general education peers. SWD that spend less than 100% of their time in general education settings are receiving special education services in more restrictive settings. This study looked to examine if and how SWD autonomy, competence and relatedness, all components of intrinsic motivation based on the Self-Determination theory, is impacted by the percentage of time spent in general education classrooms. The study examined high school students and used a mixed method approach that aimed to understand how the location students receive their special education services impacts their autonomy, competence and relatedness, and what are the supportive and constraining factors involved. The findings highlight the importance of inclusive teaching strategies and relationships have for a SWD educational experience and feelings of competence and relatedness.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Komatsubara, Kristin Mie
- Description:
- Mathematics education continues to be a critical equity issue in the United States. Traditional teacher-directed math instruction reveals disproportionate numbers of students of color and students of lower socio-economic status struggling to engage and identify as mathematicians (Boaler, 2014). The recent implementation of Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association, 2010) requires significant changes in mathematics instructional pedagogy, content knowledge, assessment, and curriculum. Yet, this shift can result in declining teacher efficacy, leaving teachers feeling overwhelmed and questioning their capacity. The emergence of lesson study approach holds the potential to impact teacher sense of efficacy as teachers collaboratively build mathematics content knowledge, skills, classroom culture and resources. This mixed methods multiple case study examined whether and to what extent lesson study approach as professional development affected mathematics teachers’ sense of efficacy and the social networks of students in their classrooms. It included sense of efficacy surveys from 24 middle school mathematics teachers. Five case study teachers were individually interviewed and social network surveys were collected from the students of their classrooms. This study supports earlier findings on teacher efficacy but offers new insights into the influence of lesson study approach on teachers’ sense of efficacy. Teachers reported four sources of efficacy from lesson study, lesson study shifted the focus from teacher performance to student thinking, and an increased efficacy that they could effectively engage students, utilize student-centered instruction and manage their classroom. Lesson study structures that supported teacher efficacy included sharing a student-centered focus, situating learning with a classroom context, and framing the lesson study. This study also presents a new awareness of help-seeking networks of students in diverse middle school mathematics classrooms. Although teachers did not identify direct links between lesson study and their efficacy to manage student relationships, notable differences in student help-seeking networks emerged. Although there are limitations on generalizability, the findings are especially useful to teachers. Understanding the mechanisms of relationship ties can help teachers attend more intentionally to social participation of students, particularly students of color, English learners, and students with designated disabilities. This study arises at a critical time in education that may have implications for the types and likelihood of teacher collaboration and school policy.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Rodriguez, Stanley
- Description:
- Indigenous populations around the world face the culturally devastating prospect of language loss. In the United States, Native communities are at risk. This study examines the challenge of language loss for the Kumeyaay Nation, located in southwestern portion of the United States. It explores the language loss experienced by the Kumeyaay people, as well as the impact this loss has had on its people in San Diego, California, and Baja California, Mexico. This is a uniquely Indigenous study: the author is a Kumeyaay tribal member and fluent language speaker, and Kumeyaay elders provide insight for policy recommendations. Interviews with extant Kumeyaay speakers reveal their small number and the difficulties of language transmission for the individual, family, and community. Perceptions of Kumeyaay elders about language atrophy are mapped onto UNESCO factors of language loss and are placed in the context of language socialization literature. The practices of extermination, containment, and later, of assimilation are shown to have directly and indirectly threatened the Kumeyaay language. Interviews show that elders’ perceptions about the state of the language are accurate, and they support the UNESCO supposition that small numbers of speakers and a lack of intergenerational language transmission can produce language atrophy. Prospects for current revitalization of the language depend upon an inventory of Kumeyaay language assets and innovative language transmission programs tailored to Native Kumeyaay communities.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education
- Creator:
- Campbell-Cunefare, Tiffany
- Description:
- The research supporting the importance of high school programming in the entrance and persistence of students into higher education is dense and varied with several studies directly noting the importance of College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) courses specifically in the college admissions process. With typically smaller class sizes, more experienced teachers, and students with stronger academic backgrounds, those taking AP courses benefit from a perceived and actual AP advantage in both high school and subsequent higher education endeavors. Traditionally, however, there has been a significant gap within the make-up of students who enroll and succeed in AP courses. Despite the recognition of the import of AP coursework to future academic effort and dedicated efforts by educational and government entities to increase the number of students entering the AP program, Black and Latinx students remain significantly less likely to enroll in AP classes, take fewer associated national AP exams, and score lower on said exams than their White and Asian peers. A problem connected to students of color, the various issues associated with race and ethnicity have been identified as primary influences in the academic achievement gaps between Black and Latinx students and their White peers. Much research exists to support the reasons why students of color are failing to enroll in AP courses at the same rate as their White and Asian peers; less so, however, exists that discusses these students’ experiences while enrolled in AP class, thus limiting our understanding of the elements that interact to hinder their engagement and achievement in class and in the subsequent national AP exam. Using a theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory and Figured Worlds from Holland et al, this study presents the cases of five Latinx and Afro-Latinx students navigating the particularly complex world of Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH). The research focused on how their experiences shaped their academic identity, how they were positioned and positioned themselves within the class as a result of their academic identity, and how their interactions with their teacher, their traditional and nontraditional peers, and the curriculum influenced their engagement and achievement within the class.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Education