Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: Equity
- Creators: Kozleski, Elizabeth B.
- Creators: Schmidt, Margaret
Description
Teacher learning is a complex and important idea, given the proposed centralized role these individuals have in eradicating the inequitable school outcomes for students of color. It is necessary that researchers document the complex trajectory of learning that occurs as teachers engage in critical reflection on their practice. In the current study, white, female teachers examined the ways their own beliefs, assumptions, and values impacted classroom interactions with students of color, as well as the ways power, privilege, and whiteness manifested in the classroom. Utilizing Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a framework for understanding teacher learning as product and process, as well as whiteness and feminist theories as interrogative tools, the complex and iterative learning trajectories of two elementary school teachers are described in detail. The participating teachers engaged in critical reflection in the context of collaborative interviews, in which they reflected upon excerpts from classroom videos using the lenses of whiteness, power, and privilege in order to consider their own and others' teaching related to deeply held beliefs, assumptions, and values.
ContributorsMruczek, Cynthia (Author) / Swadener, Beth B. (Thesis advisor) / Kozleski, Elizabeth B. (Thesis advisor) / Scott, Kimberly A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
ABSTRACT
Closing the achievement gap between low-income, marginalized, racially, and linguistically diverse students has proven difficult. Research has outlined the effects of funding on student achievement in a manner that focuses the attention on dollars expended, in order overcome barriers to learning. Arizona has long been recognized for its education funding disparity, and its inability to balance fiscal capacity in a manner that serves to improve educational outcomes.
This dissertation examines how Arizona funds its education system. It measures horizontal inequity in a robust manner by examining those fiscal capacity resources directly related to learning and poverty. Recognizing districts with higher concentrations of special needs students will impact fiscal capacity at the district level, this dissertation applies a non-linear analysis to measure how English language learners/ limited English proficient (ELL/ LEP) student proportionality impacts federal and state revenue per pupil, ELL expenditures per pupil, and total expenditures per pupil.
Using the Gini Ratio, McCloone Index, Coefficient of Variation, and Theil inequality index, this dissertation confirms that significant education funding disparity exists across Arizona’s school districts. This dissertation also shows the proportion of English language learners is negatively related to local revenue per pupil, and ELL expenditures per ELL pupil.
Arizona has characteristically funded the public education system inequitably and positioned its students in a manner that stratifies achievement gaps based on wealth. Targeted funding toward ELLs is in no way meaningfully related to the proportion of ELLs in a district. Conceptually the way in which equity is defined, and measured, may require re-evaluation, beyond correlated inputs and outputs. This conceptual re-evaluation of equity must include the decision making process of administrative leaders which influence the quality of those resources related to student learning.
Closing the achievement gap between low-income, marginalized, racially, and linguistically diverse students has proven difficult. Research has outlined the effects of funding on student achievement in a manner that focuses the attention on dollars expended, in order overcome barriers to learning. Arizona has long been recognized for its education funding disparity, and its inability to balance fiscal capacity in a manner that serves to improve educational outcomes.
This dissertation examines how Arizona funds its education system. It measures horizontal inequity in a robust manner by examining those fiscal capacity resources directly related to learning and poverty. Recognizing districts with higher concentrations of special needs students will impact fiscal capacity at the district level, this dissertation applies a non-linear analysis to measure how English language learners/ limited English proficient (ELL/ LEP) student proportionality impacts federal and state revenue per pupil, ELL expenditures per pupil, and total expenditures per pupil.
Using the Gini Ratio, McCloone Index, Coefficient of Variation, and Theil inequality index, this dissertation confirms that significant education funding disparity exists across Arizona’s school districts. This dissertation also shows the proportion of English language learners is negatively related to local revenue per pupil, and ELL expenditures per ELL pupil.
Arizona has characteristically funded the public education system inequitably and positioned its students in a manner that stratifies achievement gaps based on wealth. Targeted funding toward ELLs is in no way meaningfully related to the proportion of ELLs in a district. Conceptually the way in which equity is defined, and measured, may require re-evaluation, beyond correlated inputs and outputs. This conceptual re-evaluation of equity must include the decision making process of administrative leaders which influence the quality of those resources related to student learning.
ContributorsMartinez, David G (Author) / Pivovarova, Margarita (Thesis advisor) / Berliner, David C. (Thesis advisor) / Dorn, Sherman (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The purpose of this study was to determine how I, as a future teacher, can best combat inequities in technological access and fluency in my future classroom. In this study, I explored a range of literature on the role of technology in the classroom, the digital divide in home and school settings, and variance in digital literacy. Additional insight was gained through interviews and observing school faculty in three public school districts in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. This provided a better understanding of local context in order to gain a sense of the national and local realities of the digital landscape as they relate to educational equity in the educational settings where I aim to serve as a certified teacher.
ContributorsJakubczyk, Nicole Marie (Author) / Foulger, Teresa (Thesis director) / Barnett, Juliet (Committee member) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Inclusive education has become a global movement through the policies of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (e.g., Salamanca Statement). These policies led many developing nations to adopt these policies in their national policy agendas. Turkey has developed inclusive education policies that deal with the education of students with disabilities (SwD). However, although SwD are the largest group who are marginalized and excluded from educational opportunities, there are other groups (e.g., cultural-linguistic minorities) who experience educational inequities in access and participation in learning opportunities and deal with enduring marginalization in education. This study examined a) Turkish teachers’ and parents’ conceptualizations of inclusive education for diverse groups of students, namely SwD, Kurdish students (KS), and girls, who experience educational inequities, b) how their construction of students’ identities influenced students' educational experiences in relation to inclusive education, c) how their stories revealed identities, differences and power, and what role privilege played in marginalization, labeling, and exclusion of students within conceptualizations of inclusive education. I used cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999) and figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998) to understand the teachers’ and parents’ interpretations and experiences about inclusive education. This qualitative study was conducted in four different schools in Maki, a small southwestern city in Turkey. A classroom photo, with a vignette written description, and a movie documentary were used as stimuli to generate focus group discussions and individual interviews. I conducted classroom observations to explore the context of schooling and how students were positioned within the classrooms. Classroom artifacts were additionally collected, and the data were analyzed using a constant-comparative method. The study findings demonstrated that students had different equity struggles in access, meaningful participation, and having equal outcomes in their education. The education activity system was not inclusive, but rather was exclusive by serving only certain students. SwD and girls had difficulty accessing education due to cultural-historical practices and institutional culture. On the other hand, Turkish-only language policy and practices created tensions for KS to participate fully in education activity systems. Although stakeholders advocated girls’ education, many of them constructed SwD’s and KS’ identities from deficit perspectives.
ContributorsKilinc, Sultan (Author) / Arzubiaga, Angela (Thesis advisor) / Kozleski, Elizabeth B. (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Elizabeth Blue (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This study compares course enrollment data for student-group equity variables for a newly developed and implemented schedule: the Equity Plan, with implemented traditional alternating day schedules. The study compares two implemented Equity Plan schedule frameworks and twenty traditional alternating day schedules over 11 years. The school-based schedule data were from two diverse New York public middle schools in the same school district, a total of 22 complete schedule data sets. Courses analyzed include health, music, physical education, and visual arts. The represented student variables were: all students, English as a new language (ENL), students with disabilities (SWDs), gender, and ethnicity. The compiled data included 255,365 rows and 13 columns for a total of 3,319,745 cells of data, representing 19,822 student schedules. Equitable course enrollment was defined as no more than a 5% difference of enrollment between student groups.The data analysis revealed that ENL students and SWDs were consistently excluded from health, music, and visual arts courses. The Equity Plan schedule was the only implemented schedule framework that has equitable course enrollment for ENL students and SWDs in health, music, physical education, and visual arts. Physical education almost always had equitable enrollment for all student groups. Females and males were equitably represented in band, while females were overrepresented in chorus and orchestra. Students grouped by American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Multiracial, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander generally had low enrollment representation in school populations and were often not equitably included in courses. ENL students and SWDs may be disproportionately excluded in many schools due to additional mandates for these groups. This identified issue may be widespread throughout the nation. The author recommends that all schools conduct an equitable course analysis using the 5% standard to determine if student groups are disproportionately being excluded from courses. Implementation of an intentional administrative strategy focusing on equitable course enrollment such as the Equity Plan schedule framework is recommended to address equity and inclusion challenges.
ContributorsBrancato, Vincent (Author) / Sullivan, Jill M (Thesis advisor) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Spindler, Lisamarie (Committee member) / Stauffer, Sandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Institutions, including collegiate schools of music, tell stories about the ways in which they have transformed to include and support diverse students, but what do students say about their institution? Collegiate music students possess powerful and intimate knowledge, and their stories can reveal the lived reality of their experiences of equity and justice within the institution. The purpose of this study was to gain understanding of the ways in which music students experience equity and inequity within their school of music and to learn from them how their institution as a system impacts their experiences. The research puzzle comprised, in part, the following questions: In what ways do music students experience equity and inequity?; What institutionalized systems facilitate or hinder their sense of inclusion?; How do their stories bump up against the stories the institution tells itself about equity?To explore these questions, I engaged in a qualitative study grounded in narrative inquiry that placed the counterstories of music students in dialogue with the story of diversity and inclusion as told by their collegiate institution. Eight university music students who each self-identify as being from a marginalized group participated in conversations and ongoing dialogue with me. As this study was premised on promoting equity, participants collaborated in the writing and selection of their narratives.
Placing the students’ stories and the institution’s story of equity side by side highlighted the misalignment between the institution’s espoused values and the students’ experiences. The stories raised further questions, such as: How and when do students feel silenced or empowered to speak? What makes it possible for them to challenge an institution (or not)? How do students want faculty and administrators to engage with them? In what ways does their engagement in issues of equity and justice make them susceptible to risk, and what is the risk? Through narrative inquiry, I contribute a complex and nuanced understanding of how one institution, including its school of music, perpetuates oppressive practices, opening space for students who live these experiences to lead the interrogation of—and resistance within—this and similar places.
ContributorsAlekna, Mallory A (Author) / Schmidt, Margaret (Thesis advisor) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Lerman, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Thompson, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021