This article presents findings from a qualitative study of first-year elementary teachers who assessed the strengths and weaknesses of their preservice student teaching experiences vis-a-vis their inservice realities. Specifically, the study explores opportunities to learn across student teaching placements and analyzes the degree to which…

In recent years, school counseling has trended away from some of the vital attributes of the heart, including passion. In this qualitative study, the authors employed a grounded theory and phenomenological approach to understand how school counselors develop and maintain passion over the span of their professional careers. Humbleness and…

Using a grounded theory qualitative research approach, this article examines the experiences of 28 adjunct faculty members who work at the same university, exploring their views on whether periodically meeting face-to-face with management and peers has the potential to affect their motivation on the job and consequently the quality of education…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how 15 graduate students enrolled in a US school leadership preparation program understand issues of social justice and equity through a reflective process utilizing audio and/or video software. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on the tradition of grounded theory. The researcher…

Although service learning provides unparalleled real world experiential student learning opportunities and benefits to four major constituencies--student, faculty, community and institution, it takes place in an uncontrolled environment introducing uncertainty into the instructional process. Faculty might avoid this valuable approach to…

This dissertation describes a formative experiment that investigated how strategy instruction paired with collaborative blogging could promote disciplinary literacy among eighth-grade students in a social studies classroom and among pre-service teachers in a social studies methods course. Qualitative methods were utilized to collect and analyze…

Educators have been challenged for many years to engage their students, but often students still seem to be disengaged (Klem & Connell, 2004). Research indicates student engagement is critical to student achievement and success in school (Appleton, 2008; Connell, Spencer, & Aber, 1994; Easton, 2008; Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris,…

This qualitative study examines the unique challenges of multilingual students (referred to in the study as "L2 students") in a first-year writing class at a large public U.S. university. Following a case-study approach, the experiences of three L2 students, three native English-speaking students (referred to in the study as "L1…

While the literature on institutional civic engagement is quite extensive, the community perspective on such endeavors remains an under-developed area of study. This is particularly true of academic outreach programs meant to support the college preparation of underrepresented students. The purpose of this study was to explore the motivations of…

This dissertation examined the performance outcomes of public management networks (PMNs) in the disaster management context. The effectiveness of three disaster response sub-networks in the area of evacuation were examined and compared using the case of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, Louisiana in August 2005: Citizen Protection:…

This study explored what graduating seniors and university staff perceived contributed to high college completion rates of African American and Hispanic students at George Mason University (Mason). To understand what Mason may have been doing to support African American and Hispanic students toward college completion, in-depth interviews were…

In this paper, I examine the utility of a mathematics learning trajectory as a tool to support teachers' attention to students' mathematical thinking. I present findings from one second grade teacher's use of a learning trajectory as she planned a sequence of three mathematics lessons. Findings suggest learning trajectories support teachers in…

This study examines how a group's dynamic changes under the influence of different leadership styles, and determines what leadership style works best in a large group expedition. The main question identified was "What roles can a leader play in affecting the dynamic of a large group while partaking in a field expedition?" The following…

This paper describes the findings of a one-year collaborative research project funded by the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS). The paper is derived from a Short Report on this study prepared for SCoTENS on 16th May 2012. The study examined the role of physical education (PE) teachers as mentors to new members of…

The study presented in this paper integrates data from four combined research studies, which are both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The studies describe freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. These freshmen intend to become teachers in Germany in one of four science teaching domains (secondary biology,…