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- All Subjects: Teacher
- Creators: Fischman, Gustavo
- Creators: Allen, Angela
- Status: Published
This study finds that despite cultural differences, teachers are likely to share some commonalities with respect to their instructional decisions, understanding of student thinking and curricular knowledge. These similarities may reflect the convergence in teaching practice in the U.S. and China and the dedication the two countries make in improving math education. This study also finds the cross-country differences and cross-SES differences regarding teachers' PCK. On the one hand, the U.S. and Chinese math teachers of this study tend to diverge in valuing different forms of representations, explaining student misconceptions, and relating functions to other math topics. Teachers' own understanding of functions (and mathematics), standards, and high-stakes testing in each country significantly influence their PCK. On the other hand, teachers from the higher SES schools are more likely to show higher expectations for and stronger confidence in their students' mathematical skills compared to their counterparts from the lower SES schools. Teachers' differential beliefs in students' ability levels significantly contribute to their differences between socio-economic statuses.
Minority mental health patients face many health inequities and inequalities that may stem from implicit bias and a lack of cultural awareness from their healthcare providers. I analyzed the current literature evaluating implicit bias among healthcare providers and culturally specific life traumas that Latinos and African Americans face that can impact their mental health. Additionally, I researched a current mental health assessments tool, the Child and Adolescent Trauma Survey (CATS), and evaluated it for the use on Latino and African American patients. Face-to-face interviews with two healthcare providers were also used to analyze the CATS for its’ applicability to Latino and African American patients. Results showed that these assessments were not sufficient in capturing culturally specific life traumas of minority patients. Based on the literature review and analysis of the interviews with healthcare providers, a novel assessment tool, the Culturally Traumatic Events Questionnaire (CTEQ), was created to address the gaps that currently make up other mental health assessment tools used on minority patients.
This qualitative study explores the intersection of mindfulness and K-12 teaching. Four K-12 teachers who self-identified as mindfulness practitioners were interviewed, and their lived experiences as mindfulness practitioners and teachers are explored throughout this study. Through in-depth, phenomenologically-based interviews, the participants' life histories in relation to becoming mindfulness practitioners and teachers are uncovered, as well as their experiences as mindfulness practitioners in the classroom, and their reflections upon what is means to be a mindfulness practitioner and a teacher.
For the participants in this study, they believed their mindfulness practices helped them cope with the demands of teaching. The participants also viewed mindfulness practices as a pedagogical tool for promoting their students' social and emotional well-being. As one of the first studies to explore teachers who have personal mindfulness practices and how those practices transfer or do not transfer into their professional experiences, it adds teachers' voices to the mindfulness in education phenomena.