The current music education paradigm may be considered an oppressive experience for both students and teachers through its historical foundation, standardized nature, and focus on Western art repertoire and its associated skill building. Realizing the oppressive nature of many aspects of music education, some scholars and practitioners have sought…

This dissertation explores the dynamics of a formal classroom and an informal nature-based learning environment, focusing on their impact on student subjectification and knowledge authority. The study, conducted with a cohort of 27 fifth-grade students and their teacher, employs a comparative case study methodology to analyze how teaching…

The Critical Literacy (CritLit) project promotes using critical texts to engage readers in examining their lived experiences and understanding of social justice issues. This study used a qualitative participatory approach with a narrative design to research the students' engagement in a book club using critical texts. Participants were fourth- and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to use an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach to discover generative instructional and assessment practices of teachers in the language arts classroom at a 5th and 6th grade low socioeconomic public school campus in Texas that earned five distinctions or three consecutive years. The study sought to design a…

Student engagement in the learning process drastically declines as students make their way through the education system from fifth grade onward. Student disengagement increases the likelihood a child will eventually drop out of school. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the promotion of student engagement,…

Educational neuroscience (EN) is a transdisciplinary convergence of neurosciences, education, and psychology that has gained international momentum. Its purpose is to advance the application of neurosciences in P-12 education as a way to improve the design of instructional environments and practices that support the multidimensional social,…

Who are talented and gifted (TAG) students and how do we meet their unique needs in the elementary school setting? The body of literature clearly articulates the unique intellectual, social and emotional needs and characteristics of TAG students. Additionally, the literature supports the implementation of differentiated teaching strategies and…

The problems addressed by this study are (a) the significant rise in specific learning disabilities referrals and identification and (b) the inability to identify effective strategies for reducing the number of referrals and identification using Rtl models in fifth and sixth grades. A review of the literature indicated a compelling need to study…

A recent law in a New England state allowed public schools to operate with increased flexibility and autonomy through the authorization of the creation of Innovation Schools. This project study, a program evaluation using a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, allowed for a comprehensive evaluation of the first Innovation School…

This dissertation research adds to the literature base by exploring the attitudes of regular education teachers about the inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Consistent with the framework of Pierre Bourdieu, the school was conceptualized as a field of struggle. The investigation focused on fifth grade…

This study is a transcendental phenomenological study that described the experience of students' interest in science from elementary school through middle school grades and the identification of the factors that increase or decrease interest in science. Numerous researchers have found that interest in science changes among children and the change…