Language: Dutch

Language: Dutch

Abstract/Notes: Public school integration has been a wrenching process in a number of American cities during the last half of the twentieth century. In few cities, however, has the process been so heavily litigated, so rife with controversy, so costly, so lengthy, or, ultimately, yielded results so mixed as in Kansas City, Missouri. This dissertation analyzes the troubled course of integration in the Kansas City public schools and the numerous forces that influenced that course. In short, this dissertation is a case study of one district's struggle to formulate an integrated school system and the manner in which changing legal standards, shifting demographic patterns, pressure from various community groups, financial limitations, and other political considerations have shaped public policy choices regarding integration in the Kansas City schools. During the fifty year period between 1949 and 1999, racial issues have figured prominently, and at times dominated, the policy making process in the Kansas City schools. In 1955 the city's public schools were integrated, but the extent of integration produced by the initial desegregation plan failed to satisfy the black community and the district faced several lawsuits seeking additional steps to promote integration. The paucity of integration in the Kansas City schools also drew criticism from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In the mid-1970s, under pressure from HEW, school officials in Kansas City initiated a busing plan that produced more extensive integration. However, by the mid-1980s, the school district was again a defendant in a desegregation suit. The school district was found liable for the vestiges of segregation that remained in the public schools and a sweeping remedy was ordered by the court. in a series of rulings announced in the mid-1980s, the district court approved a remedy providing for educational enhancements, massive improvements to the district's schools, and the establishment of the nation's most expansive and expensive magnet schools system for purposes of integration. The magnet plan, however, failed to meet the ambitious goals established by the district court, and the remedy was continually attacked in the courts by the state of Missouri and disgruntled taxpayers. In 1995, the United States Supreme Court overturned much of the remedy and four years later the case was dismissed.

Language: English

Published: Manhattan, Kansas, 2000

Abstract/Notes: More than ever before, schools and societies are looking to educate children in and for a global world. In the United States, these efforts have taken the form of increased interest in incorporating global or international perspectives into educational curricula, programs, and policy over the past decade (Hayden, 2011; Parker, 2011; U.S. Department of Education, 2012). Despite this interest in what I call global education, ambiguity remains regarding what it means to provide an education for a globalized world, both in terms of its underlying motivations and its ultimate execution in practice (Ortloff, Shah, Lou, & Hamilton, 2012).Two components often placed at the heart of these efforts in the United States—second/foreign language and digital technology—both reflect and contribute to understandings of global education. This study, rooted in an ecological theorization of discourse, asked how different school actors (teachers, administrators, parents, and students) position these two components in education today, how these positionings differ across groups, and what this means for understandings of global education. These questions were investigated through two complementary approaches: a survey distributed to a large cross-section of schools around the United States and an in-depth focal case study of one school. The survey was distributed to teachers, students, parents, and administrators at a broad range of U.S. secondary schools and assessed perceptions of second/foreign language and digital technology in education today. The focal case study focused on two secondary classrooms at a multilingual immersion K-8 school in the western US over a four-month period; data collection included field notes, analytic memos, and audio/video recordings from participant observations as well as multiple rounds of interviews with five students, four teachers, two administrators, and three parents. Data were analyzed using iterative rounds of inductive and deductive coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Saldaña, 2009) and critical discourse analysis (Blommaert, 2005; Fairclough, 2001).Findings suggest that second/foreign language and digital technology were positioned in a range of different ways that had concrete ramifications for schools and that built up divergent understandings of global education. The survey component of the study highlighted common discourses reproduced across groups, including: second/foreign language learning as a way to promote cultural understanding and awareness as well as economic opportunity; or digital technology as a threat to learning and as an omnipresent necessity. The focal school offered a more detailed look into these different discourses and their reproduction across groups. Analysis revealed trended similarities and differences across groups. For example, even though parents, teachers, and administrators often articulated a similar understanding of second/foreign language and digital technology, parental actions suggested more alignment with economic-based understandings of these two components. These differences in how second/foreign language and digital technology should be positioned within a global education created a “battle” between parents and the focal school as well as tension within the learning environment. The impact of these discourses and battles on students was unclear: while students at times voiced the discourses that their parents, teachers, and administrators reproduced, data also suggests that students were influenced by outside sources. These findings suggest that resulting understandings of global education were multiple and divergent across school groups. Data analysis also revealed the potential that anxiety, concern, or even fear of globalization and its effects could undergird adult understandings of second/foreign language and of digital technology: beneath economic as well as cultural motivations for second/foreign language and for digital technology learning resided trepidation about a changing world, changing identities, and the unknowns that lay ahead. This suggests that, underneath multiple and complex discourses, there can be a singular discourse that manifests in different ways, nuancing understandings of ecological approaches to discourse. It also suggests that different understandings of global education could stem from the same place: fear or anxiety in the face of a globalizing world. These findings highlight the need for a global education that equips students to navigate a changing world, its challenges, and any potential fears that may arise from these changes and challenges. The study concludes with a pedagogical framework built around discourse analysis that could offer students tools to understand their globalizing world.

Language: English

Published: Berkeley, California, 2017

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of this action research project was to see if a program through Conscious Discipline called Connecting Rituals would decrease the number of verbal conflicts in a Montessori preschool classroom. Conscious Discipline is a non-punitive, non-adversarial behavior program that is backed by current brain science. One aspect of the Conscious Discipline model is Connecting Rituals. Connecting Rituals are short games, nursery rhymes, and finger plays that adults and children do together in large or small groups. The Connecting Rituals would increase self-regulation and social skills in a Montessori preschool classroom. The study was conducted in a Montessori preschool classroom at a small Montessori school in the Midwestern United States with 23 preschool children, 2.5-6 years old children. Data was collected over a 4 week period using tally marks to record the number of conflicts, a large group discussion, a teacher daily journal and a post-connecting ritual form. Every day the researcher did a Connecting Ritual at the large group gathering with all the children before lunch and at least one Connecting Ritual with each child during the morning work time over a two week period. The study found that the Connecting Rituals did decrease the number of verbal conflicts, but the results were not significant. Further study is needed to understand the long term effects of using Connecting Rituals in the classroom.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2020

Language: English

ISSN: 0571-1142

Language: English