This interpretive case study used Black Critical Patriotism (Busey & Walker, 2017) as a theoretical framework to make meaning of two Black men secondary social studies teachers' thoughts on American citizenship, the purposes of social studies education, and the extent to which they taught for social justice amid anti-CRT legislation and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the perceptions of participants of PeaceJam towards personal and collective power, service learning, social justice and democratic education as examined through participant observations, interviews, focus groups, artifacts, and documents of individuals engaging with the non-profit…

This dissertation focuses on implementing problem-based learning as an instructional intervention in a middle school civics classroom. This action research study responds to the observations of the teacher-researcher who noticed that her students were not make meaningful connections to the practice of citizenship. The problem of practice was…

Historically, traditional education systems and most scholarship have focused on the academic outcomes of schooling as well as the economic benefits of education for individuals (such as earnings) and societies (such as economic growth). While acknowledging the importance of such outcomes, this study instead focuses on the "social outcomes of…

This phenomenological study examined how eighth grade students in a privileged suburban community and school district understood their civic identities and saw their roles and responsibilities as citizens. Through analyzing artifacts the student participants generated in their eighth grade civics social studies class and conducting semi-structured…

A number of social and ecological justice educators have long recognized the need for educational institutions to foster the development of a critical interest in civic engagement. They also have recognized the lack of appropriate education for students who are already civically engaged. One popular way to address this context in higher education…

Which programmatic principles of community engagement have a higher potential to irritate the beliefs that college students hold regarding their own power, privilege, understanding of social justice? This study takes a qualitative approach to the exploration of three groups of students representing curricular community engagement, co-curricular…

Rapidly increasing migration to urban areas in the 21st century has resulted in the rise of megacities. These megacities are defined by their dialectic conditions of massive economic, social, and political power and the marginalization and exploitation of these migrants and other oppressed communities. These communities are increasingly living in…

This study examined social studies teachers' conceptions of human rights education (HRE), with a focus on the connection between HRE and global citizenship education (GCE). These conceptions were studied through a Critical Race Theory framework. This study took place in a small city in North Dakota and utilized a collective case study approach.…

In this dissertation I present the main findings of a multiple case study using an ethnographic approach to explore high school teachers and students' understandings and practices of citizenship and citizenship education in a public, a private-subsidized, and a private independent school in Santiago, Chile. The study showed how citizenship…

Research suggests that teachers who exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors positively affect student achievement. Additionally, leaders can influence school climate by establishing perceptions of justice and a school structure that is enabling. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational citizenship…

The use of community service to promote learning and civic responsibility in higher education has blossomed since the 1980s. The problem addressed in this study was that although the X University initiated the required community service program in 2004, it had not assessed the effectiveness of the program from students' perspectives. Using Kolb…

Service learning is a pedagogy designed to teach democratic skills to prepare students to become civically engaged members of society. One of the challenges in the field of service learning is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this pedagogy. Common methodological problems include small sample sizes, difficulty differentiating correlation from…

Given the tormented history of development projects around the globe and the fact that global service learning and engineering-for-development often engages students in development interventions, it is critically important to explore the impact of global service learning projects and partnerships not only on student learning, which has received…

In an interdisciplinary, hermeneutical study using primary and secondary documents from history, philosophy, political theory, and critical pedagogy, the dissertation focuses on dialogue, friendship, and citizenship. The philosophical foundations of friendship in the works of Epicurus and Ralph Waldo Emerson are discussed. Included in the study is…