The purpose of this qualitative research study is to explore and describe the experiences of transformative learning in seminary students and clergy who have participated in a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) residency program while providing pastoral care to patients in an acute care hospital setting. This research focuses on the affective…

This dissertation reports on a qualitative investigation of two research questions: What experiences lead secondary social studies teachers to become passionate and committed to teaching toward social justice? How do these teachers conceptualize and practice teaching toward social justice in the social studies? The study, which employed a life…

Gender and achievement is controversial. Social and cultural concerns about who boys are and who they should become is tied closely to how both coeducational and single-gender schools function, and how they approach literacy issues. Currently, there is little understanding of social and cultural influences on students' experiences with discourse…

The humanist tradition in Western education systems is increasingly coming under critical scrutiny by posthumanist scholars, arguing that Enlightenment humanism accommodates a number of serious shortcomings such as being essentialist, exclusive, and unable to meet its own criteria of value pluralism, tolerance, and equity for all. This article…

This paper unearths the improvisational nature of Irish state exigencies and their central contribution to racialisation in and through schooling. The analysis unravels white-Irishness through gender and Traveller membership, in terms of its links to the state's early efforts at intelligibility and associated politics of desirable and viable…

In Sociocultural Theory, mediations in second language learning include (1) mediation by others (2) mediation by self (3) and mediation by artifacts, which incorporates brilliant insights for EFL contexts (Lantolf, 2000). Putting these ideas in a task-based method, the present study aimed at examining the contribution of scaffolding and private…

This thesis explored the history of calculator usage in mathematics classrooms in the United States since 1975 with a focus on the attitudes of parents, educators, and national organizations. The influence of historical events, people, organizations, research, and trends was explored in depth. Studying the changes that calculators have brought to…

While many may disparage the online website Rate my Professor, it remains a popular public evaluation site for students to post their evaluations and commentary on their professors. What implications can be drawn about students' perceptions of instruction and what are the implications of students' perceptions for professors and their work? Using…

The UK higher education community is well served for news and policy discourse by the weekly "Times Higher Education" ("THE"). "THE" also provides a window into the conduct of this community. Concern about the contribution of research to the wider society beyond academe has risen along with its scale and cost. Views…

This article considers some of the ways in which the transformative power of Web 2.0 digital technology is reconfiguring learning, knowledge and academic identities in the contemporary university. Through a focus on five specific examples, we consider the impact of virtualization processes on spatiality, materiality and embodiment, and pedagogic…

Background/Context: Even though not fully realized, in legislation and theory, the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act have created pressure to address the historical inequity in educational opportunity, achievement, and outcomes, as well as disparities in achievement between…

Recent research indicated that students' ability to construct evidence-based explanations in classrooms through scientific inquiry is critical to successful science education. Structured argumentation support environments have been built and used in scientific discourse in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, no research work in the…

Education policy is characterized by struggles over meanings of key concepts related to schooling, teaching, and learning, especially as these meanings affect practice. In this study, I examine the notion of "accountability" as a floating signifier, analyzing its usage by the proponents of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and…

The purpose of this study is to explore education policies formation during two administrations (1983-1998) in the province of Cordoba, Argentina through the comparison of policy documents. The profound connections of the social, cultural, economic, and educational processes impact of Argentina's educational reforms during the last two decades of…

This dissertation investigates Wolof Sufi oral narrative structure and its relationship with the context of production of the narratives. The findings of this study indicate that the structure of these narratives is characterized by (1) the salience of the complicating action, (2) the presence a pre-story stage, which announces the general topic,…