This dissertation in practice employed a multiple case study design to better understand how two executive directors within a national network of arts and technology educational organizations defined, nurtured, and measured empathy with in their students. Empathy can connect diverse people and improve relationships, and it has been proven to…

Action research is a growing tradition for improving teachers' practice and students' learning outcomes, and it draws from a variety of methods for collecting and analysing data. In this article, phenomenography is proposed as an innovative approach for enhancing action research. With an emphasis on mapping variations on students' experience,…

This article explores student empowerment in a restructured urban Title I middle school. The study includes data from eight participants in an action research project that involved a critical inquiry unit in an eighth-grade language arts class that asked students, "How are you empowered and disempowered by school?" Findings reveal that…

English language learners (ELL) are students with a primary language spoken other than English enrolled in U.S. educational settings. As ELL students take on the challenges of learning English and U.S. culture, they must also learn academic content. The expectation to succeed academically in a foreign culture and language, while learning to speak…

Charter schools are publicly-funded educational entities that operate independently from local school districts and are exempt from certain state and local requirements, particularly with regard to teacher personnel policy. In exchange for this flexibility, charter schools are held more accountable for results and may be shut down if they fail to…

Lean is regarded as a systematic approach to maximizing value by minimizing waste, and by flowing the product or service at the pull of the customer demand. These key concepts of "value," "flow," and "pull," align with the ultimate lean goal: "perfection," or a continuous striving for improvement in the…

Adolescents have a unique perspective on their own development. However, educators have not fully considered the role of students' meaning making in the provision and receipt of school-based supports. To address this gap, this article draws on photographs and in-depth interviews that explore urban middle school students' experiences with learning…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the perceptions of former and current foster youth on the barriers, supports, helps, and strategies they encountered during their K-12 education, and to learn how these contributed to their ability to enroll in post-secondary education. The study included in-depth interviews of 11…

This article reports on a narrative study of university EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers' research practices and their identity construction as researchers in China. Drawing upon data from narrative frames among 104 teachers and in-depth interviews with four teachers, the study reveals that teachers' increased research engagement, as…

Now, more so than in the past, children have been deprived of the opportunity to learn and exercise effective interpersonal communication skills. Interpersonal communication skills, for elementary students, are important in the development of a student's ability to self-advocate. The purpose of this study is to identify techniques in which…

Much research into doctoral student-supervisor relations focuses on developing positive interactions. For many students, however, the research experience can be troubled by breakdowns in communication and even the loss of the supervisor(s), turning the student into a doctoral "orphan" and impacting on their academic identity and ability…

This study involved examination of the processes employed in tailoring fourth-grade reading instruction to increase levels of student motivation. A participatory action research approach was utilized to design and conduct reading instruction that fourth-grade students perceived to be motivating. The reading instructional program was designed using…

Traditionally, the status of workers in early childhood services in England has been low. Foundation degrees and the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS, from September 2013 Early Years Teacher Status) were established with a view to improving the skills and standing of early years practitioners. There appears however to be an ongoing…

Teachers who have inadequate training often feel unprepared to teach English language learners (ELLs). This qualitative case study's purpose was to reap a rich understanding of middle school teachers' perceptions, perspectives, and prior teaching experiences concerning their capacity to instruct ELLs in the mainstream setting. The overarching…

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore rural high school graduates', teachers', and administrators' perceptions of student voice on academic success. This study was designed to examine the following three questions: What were the common beliefs regarding opportunities for input, or student voice, on the educational…