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The present dissertation about teachers’ cultural diversity beliefs and culturally responsive practices includes a general introduction (Chapter 1), a systematic literature review (Chapter 2), three empirical studies (Chapter 3, 4, and 5) and it ends with a general discussion and conclusion (Chapter 6). The major focus of investigation laid in creating a deeper understanding of teachers’ beliefs about cultural diversity and how those beliefs are related to teaching practices, which could or could not be considered to be culturally responsive. In this dissertation, I relied on insights from theoretical perspectives that derived from the field of psychology such as social cognitive theory and intergroup ideologies, as well as from the field of multicultural education such as culturally responsive teaching.
In Chapter 1, I provide the background of this dissertation, with contextual information regarding the German educational system, the theoretical framework used and the main research objectives of each study.
In Chapter 2, I conducted a systematic review of the existing international studies on trainings addressing cultural diversity beliefs with pre-service teachers. More specifically, the aims of the systematic literature review were (1) to provide a description of main components and contextual characteristics of teacher trainings targeting cultural diversity beliefs, (2) report the training effects, and (3) detail the methodological strengths and weaknesses of these studies. By examining the main components and contextual characteristics of teacher trainings, the effects on beliefs about cultural diversity as well as the methodological strengths and weaknesses of these studies in a single review, I took an integrated approach to these three processes. To review the final pool of studies (N = 36) I used a descriptive and narrative approach, relying primarily on the use of words and text to summarise and explain findings of the synthesis.
The three empirical studies that follow, all highlight aspects of how far and how teacher beliefs about cultural diversity translate into real-world practices in schools. In Chapter 3, to expand the validity of culturally responsive teaching to the German context, I aimed at verifying the dimensional structure of German version of the Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale (CRCMSES; Siwatu, Putman, Starker-Glass, & Lewis, 2015). I conducted Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and run correlations between the subscales of the CRCMSES and a measure of cultural diversity- related stress. Data (n = 504) used for the first empirical study (Chapter 3) were collected in the InTePP-project (Inclusive Teaching Professionalization Panel) in which pre-service teachers’ competencies and beliefs were assessed longitudinally at two universities: the University of Potsdam and the University of Cologne.
In the second empirical study, which forms Chapter 4, the focus is on teachers’ practices resembling school approaches to cultural diversity. In this study, I investigated two research questions: (1a) What types of descriptive norms regarding cultural diversity are perceived by teachers and students with and without an immigrant background and (1b) what is their degree of congruence? Additionally, I was also interested in how are teachers’ and students’ perceptions of descriptive norms about cultural diversity related to practices and artefacts in the physical and virtual school environment? Data for the second empirical study (Chapter 4) were previously collected in a dissertation project of doctor Maja Schachner funded by the federal program “ProExzellenz” of the Free State of Thuringia. Adopting a mixed-methods research design I conducted a secondary analysis of data from teachers’ (n = 207) and students’ (n = 1,644) gathered in 22 secondary schools in south-west Germany. Additional sources of data in this study were based on pictures of school interiors (hall and corridors) and sixth-grade classrooms’ walls (n = 2,995), and screenshots from each school website (n = 6,499).
Chapter 5 addresses the question of how culturally responsive teaching, teacher cultural diversity beliefs, and self-reflection on own teaching are related. More specifically, in this study I addressed two research questions: (1) How does CRT relate to teachers’ beliefs about incorporating cultural diversity content into daily teaching and learning activities? And (2) how does the level of teachers’ self-reflection on their own teaching relate to CRT?
For this last empirical chapter, I conducted a multiple case study with four ethnic German teachers who work in one culturally and ethnically diverse high school in Berlin, using classroom video observations and post-observation interviews.
In the final chapter (Chapter 6), I summarised the main findings of the systematic literature review and three empirical studies, and discuss their scientific and practical implications.
This dissertation makes a significant contribution to the field of educational science to understanding culturally responsive teaching in terms of its measurement, focus on both beliefs and practices and the link between the two, and theoretical, practical, and future study implications.
Background: Societies worldwide have become more diverse yet continue to be inequitable. Understanding how youth growing up in these societies are socialized and consequently develop racial knowledge has important implications not only for their well-being but also for building more just societies. Importantly, there is a lack of research on these topics in Germany and Europe in general.
Aim and Method: The overarching aim of the dissertation is to investigate 1) where and how ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) happens in inequitable societies and 2) how it relates to youth’s development of racial knowledge, which comprises racial beliefs (e.g., prejudice, attitudes), behaviors (e.g., actions preserving or disrupting inequities), and identities (e.g., inclusive, cultural). Guided by developmental, cultural, and ecological theories of socialization and development, I first explored how family, as a crucial socialization context, contributes to the preservation or disruption of racism and xenophobia in inequitable societies through its influence on children’s racial beliefs and behaviors. I conducted a literature review and developed a conceptual model bridging research on ethnic-racial socialization and intergroup relations (Study 1). After documenting the lack of research on socialization and development of racial knowledge within and beyond family contexts outside of the U.S., I conducted a qualitative study to explore ERS in Germany through the lens of racially marginalized youth (Study 2). Then, I conducted two quantitative studies to explore the separate and interacting relations of multiple (i.e., family, school) socialization contexts for the development of racial beliefs and behaviors (Study 3), and identities (Studies 3, 4) in Germany. Participants of Study 2 were 26 young adults (aged between 19 and 32) of Turkish, Kurdish, East, and Southeast Asian heritage living across different cities in Germany. Study 3 was conducted with 503 eighth graders of immigrant and non-immigrant descent (Mage = 13.67) in Berlin, Study 4 included 311 early to mid-adolescents of immigrant descent (Mage= 13.85) in North Rhine-Westphalia with diverse cultural backgrounds.
Results and Conclusion: The findings revealed that privileged or marginalized positions of families in relation to their ethnic-racial and religious background in society entail differential experiences and thus are an important determining factor for the content/process of socialization and development of youth’s racial knowledge. Until recently, ERS research mostly focused on investigating how racially marginalized families have been the sources of support for their children in resisting racism and how racially privileged families contribute to transmission of information upholding racism (Study 1). ERS for racially marginalized youth in Germany centered heritage culture, discrimination, and resistance strategies to racism, yet resistance strategies transmitted to youth mostly help to survive racism (e.g., working hard) by upholding it instead of liberating themselves from racism by disrupting it (e.g., self-advocacy, Study 2). Furthermore, when families and schools foster heritage and intercultural learning, both contexts may separately promote stronger identification with heritage culture and German identities, and more prosocial intentions towards disadvantaged groups (i.e., refugees) among youth (Studies 3, 4). However, equal treatment in the school context led to mixed results: equal treatment was either unrelated to inclusive identity, or positively related to German and negatively related to heritage culture identities (Studies 3, 4). Additionally, youth receiving messages highlighting strained and preferential intergroup relations at home while attending schools promoting assimilation may develop a stronger heritage culture identity (Study 4). In conclusion, ERS happened across various social contexts (i.e., family, community centers, school, neighborhood, peer). ERS promoting heritage and intercultural learning, at least in one social context (family or school), might foster youth’s racial knowledge manifesting in stronger belonging to multiple cultures and in prosocial intentions toward disadvantaged groups. However, there is a need for ERS targeting increasing awareness of discrimination across social contexts of youth and teaching youth resistance strategies for liberation from racism.
Education in knowledge society is challenged with a lot of problems in particular the interaction between the teacher and learner in social networking software as a key factor affects the learners’ learning and satisfaction (Prammanee, 2005) where “to teach is to communicate, to communicate is to interact, to interact is to learn” (Hefzallah, 2004, p. 48). Analyzing the relation between teacher-learner interaction from a side and learning outcome and learners’ satisfaction from the other side, some basic problems regarding a new learning culture using social networking software are discussed. Most of the educational institutions pay a lot of attentions to the equipments and emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in learning situations. They try to incorporate ICT into their institutions as teaching and learning environments. They do this because they expect that by doing so they will improve the outcome of the learning process. Despite this, the learning outcome as reported in most studies is very limited, because the expectations of self-directed learning are much higher than the reality. Findings from an empirical study (investigating the role of teacher-learner interaction through new digital media wiki in higher education and learning outcome and learner’s satisfaction) are presented recommendations about the necessity of pedagogical interactions in support of teaching and learning activities in wiki courses in order to improve the learning outcome. Conclusions show the necessity for significant changes in the approach of vocational teacher training programs of online teachers in order to meet the requirements of new digital media in coherence with a new learning culture. These changes have to address collaborative instead of individual learning and ICT wiki as a tool for knowledge construction instead of a tool for gathering information.
This book examines why Japan has one of the highest enrolment rates in cram schools and private tutoring worldwide. It sheds light on the causes of this high dependence on ‘shadow education’ and its implications for social inequalities. The book provides a deep and extensive understanding of the role of this kind of education in Japan. It shows new ways to theoretically and empirically address this issue, and offers a comprehensive perspective on the impact of shadow education on social inequality formation that is based on reliable and convincing empirical analyses.
Contrary to earlier studies, the book shows that shadow education does not inevitably result in increasing or persisting inequalities, but also inherits the potential to let students overcome their status-specific disadvantages and contributes to more opportunities in education. Against the background of the continuous expansion and the convergence of shadow education systems across the globe, the findings of this book call for similar works in other national contexts, particularly Western societies without traditional large-scale shadow education markets. The book emphasizes the importance and urgency to deal with the modern excesses of educational expansion and education as an institution, in which the shadow education industry has made itself (seemingly) indispensable.
This book:
• Is the first comprehensive empirical work on the implications of shadow education for educational and social inequalities.
• Draws on quantitative and qualitative data and uses mixed-methods.
• Has major implications for sociological, international and comparative research on the topic.
• Introduces a general theoretical frame to help future research in approaching this under-theorized field.
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the developmental dynamics between interest, motivation, and learning strategy use during physics learning. The target population was lower secondary school students from a developing country, given that there is hardly in research that studies the above domain-specific concepts in the context of developing countries. The aim was addressed in four parts.
The first part of the study was guided by three objectives: (a) to adapt and validate the Science Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ-II) for the Ugandan context; (b) to examine whether there are significant differences in motivation for learning Physics with respect to students’ gender; and (c) to establish the extent to which students’ interest predicts their motivation to learn Physics. Being a pilot study, the sample comprised 374 randomly selected students from five schools in central Uganda who responded to anonymous questionnaires that included scales from the SMQ-II and the Individual Interest Questionnaire. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analyses, t-tests and structural equation modelling in SPSS-25 and Mplus-8. The five-factor model solution of the SMQ-II fitted adequately with the study data, with deletion of one item. The modified SMQ-II exhibited invariant factor loadings and intercepts (i.e., strong measurement invariance) when administered to boys and girls. Furthermore, on assessing whether motivation for learning Physics varied with gender, no significant differences were noted. On assessing the predictive effects of individual interest on students’ motivation, individual interest significantly predicted all motivational constructs, with stronger predictive strength on students’ self-efficacy and self-determination in learning Physics.
In the second part whilst using comprised 934 Grade 9 students from eight secondary schools in Uganda, Latent profile analysis (LPA) - a person-centred approach was used to investigate motivation patterns that exist in lower secondary school students during physics learning. A three-step approach to LPA was used to answer three research questions: RQ1, which profiles of secondary school students exist with regards to their motivation for Physics learning; RQ2, are there differences in students’ cognitive learning strategies in the identified profiles; and RQ3, does students’ gender, attitudes, and individual interest predict membership in these profiles? Six motivational profiles were identified: (i) low-quantity motivation profile (101 students; 10.8%); (ii) moderate-quantity motivation profile (246 students; 26.3%); (iii) high-quantity motivation profile (365 students; 39.1%); (iv) primarily intrinsically motivated profile (60 students,6.4%); (v) mostly extrinsically motivated profile (88 students, 9.4%); and (vi) grade-introjected profile (74 students, 7.9%). Low-quantity and grade introjected motivated students mostly used surface learning strategies whilst the high-quantity and primarily intrinsically motivated students used deep learning strategies. On examining the predictive effect of gender, individual interest, and students’ attitudes on the profile membership, unlike gender, individual interest and students’ attitudes towards Physics learning strongly predicted profile membership.
In the third part of the study, the occurrence of different secondary school learner profiles depending on their various combinations of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategy use, as well as their differences in perceived autonomy support, intrinsic motivation, and gender was examined. Data were collected from 576 9th grade student. Four learner profiles were identified: competent strategy user, struggling user, surface-level learner, and deep-level learner profiles. Gender differences were noted in students’ use of elaboration and organization strategies to learn Physics, in favour of girls. In terms of profile memberships, significant differences in gender, intrinsic motivation and perceived autonomy support were also noted. Girls were 2.4 - 2.7 times more likely than boys to be members of the competent strategy user and surface-level learner profiles. Additionally, higher levels of intrinsic motivation predicted an increased likelihood membership into the deep-level learner profile, whilst higher levels of perceived teacher autonomy predicted an increased likelihood membership into the competent strategy user profile as compared to other profiles.
Lastly, in the fourth part, changes in secondary school students’ physics motivation and cognitive learning strategies use during physics learning across time were examined. Two waves of data were collected from initially 954 9th students through to their 10th grade. A three-step approach to Latent transition analysis was used. Generally, students’ motivation decreased from 9th to 10th grade. Qualitative students’ motivation profiles indicated strong with-in person stability whilst the quantitative profiles were relatively less stable. Mostly, students moved from the high quantity motivation profile to the extrinsically motivated profiles. On the other hand, the cognitive learning strategies use profiles were moderately stable; with higher with-in person stability in the deep-level learner profile. None of the struggling users and surface-level learners transitioned into the deep-level learners’ profile. Additionally, students who perceived increased support for autonomy from their teachers had higher membership likelihood into the competent users’ profiles whilst those with an increase in individual interest score had higher membership likelihood into the deep-level learner profile.
Does youth matter?
(2022)
This dissertation is a compilation of publications and submitted publication manuscripts that seek to improve the understanding of modern partnership trajectories. Romantic relationships constitute one of the most important dimensions in a person’s life. They serve to satisfy social and emotional needs (Arránz Becker, 2008) and have an impact on various other dimensions of life. Since the 1970s, partnership formation has been characterized by increased heterogeneity, has become less ordered and much more diverse in terms of living arrangements and the number of unions across the life course (Helske et al, 2015; Ross et al, 2009). This dissertation argues that while partnerships have become more unstable, the need for attachment and the importance of relationship have remained high, if not increased, as evidenced by the prevalence of couple relationships that have remained quite stable (Eckhardt, 2015). The life course perspective (Elder, 1994; Elder et al., 2004; Mayer, 2009) offers an appropriate framework for the understanding of partnership formations throughout the life course. This perspective stresses the path dependency of the life course as well as the interdependencies of life domains (Bernardi et al., 2019). Thus, it can be argued that conditions, resources, and experiences in youth have a substantial influence on later life course outcomes. Given the increasing heterogeneity of partnership trajectories, research to understand partnership processes cannot be based only on single events (e.g., marriage or divorce) or life stages, but must be explored in a dynamic context and over a longer period of time. In sum, this thesis argues that partnership trajectories have to be considered from a holistic perspective. Not only single transitions or events are useful to describe modern partnership histories adequately, but rather the whole process. Additionally, as partnership trajectories are linked to various outcomes (e.g., economics, health, effects on children), it is therefore highly relevant to improve our understanding of partnership dynamics and their determinants and consequences. Findings in this field of research contribute to a better understanding of how childhood and youth are of prospective importance for the later partnership trajectories and whether there are any long-term effects of the conditions and resources formed and stabilized in youth, which then help to understand and explain partnership dynamics. Thus, the interest of this thesis lies in the longitudinal description and prediction of the dynamics of partnership trajectories in light of the individual resources formed and stabilized in youth, as well as in the investigation of the consequences of different partnership trajectory patterns on individual well-being. For these objectives, a high demand on the data is required, as prospective data at the beginning of the partnership biography are needed, as well as data on current life dimensions and the detailed partnership history. The German LifE Study provides this particular data structure as it examines life courses of more than 1,300 individuals from adolescence to middle adulthood. With regard to the overall aim of this dissertation, the main conclusion is that early life conditions, experiences, and resources influence the dynamics of individual partnership trajectories. The results illustrate that youth matters and that characteristics and resources anchored in youth influence the timing of early status passages, which sets individuals on specific life paths. However, in addition to personal and social resources, partnership trajectories were also significantly influenced by individuals’ sociodemographic placement. Additionally, individual resources are also linked to the overall turbulence or stability of partnership trajectories. This overall dynamic, which is reflected in different partnership patterns, influences individual well-being, with stability being associated with greater satisfaction, and instability (women), or permanent singlehood (men), having a negative impact on well-being. My analyses contribute to life course research by examining path dependency against the background of various individual factors (socio-structural and psychological characteristics) to model decision-making processes in partnerships in more detail. They do so by including also non-cohabitational union types in the analyses, by accounting for pre-trajectory life conditions and resources, and, most importantly, by modeling the partnership trajectory in a holistic and dynamic perspective, applying this perspective to appropriate and modern statistical methods on a unique dataset.
The collaboration-based professional development approach Lesson Study (LS), which has its roots in the Japanese education system, has gained international recognition over the past three decades and spread quickly throughout the world. LS is a collaborative method to professional development (PD) that incorporates multiple characteristics that have been identified in the research literature as key to effective PD. Specifically, LS is a long-term process that consists of subsequent inquiry cycles, it is site-based and integrated in teachers’ practice, it encourages collaboration and reflection, places a strong emphasis on student learning, and it typically involves external experts that support the process or offer additional insights.
As LS integrates all these characteristics, it has rapidly gained international popularity since the turn of the 21st century and is currently being practiced in over 40 countries around the world. This international borrowing of the idea of LS to new national contexts has given rise to a research field that aims to investigate the effectiveness of LS on teacher learning as well as the circumstances and mechanisms that make LS effective in various settings around the world. Such research is important, as borrowing educational innovations and adapting them to new contexts can be a challenging process. Educational innovations that fail to deliver the expected outcomes tend to be abandoned prematurely and before they have been completely understood or a substantial research base has been established.
In order to prevent LS from early abandonment, Lewis and colleagues outlined three critical research needs in 2006, not long after LS was initially introduced to the United States. These research needs included (1) developing a descriptive knowledge base on LS, (2) examining the mechanisms by which teachers learn through LS, and (3) using design-based research cycles to analyze and improve LS.
This dissertation set out to take stock of the progress that has been made on these research needs over the past 20 years. The scoping review conducted for the framework of this dissertation indicates that, while a large and international knowledge base has been developed, the field has not yet produced reliable evidence of the effectiveness of LS. Based on the scoping review, this dissertation makes the case that Lewis et al.’s (2006) critical research needs should be updated. In order to do so, a number of limitations to the current knowledge base on LS need to be addressed. These limitations include (1) the frequent lack of comparable and replicable descriptions of the LS intervention in publications, (2) the incoherent use or lack of use of theoretical frameworks to explain teacher learning through LS, (3) the inconsistent use of terminology and concepts, and (4) the lack of scientific rigor in research studies and of established ways or tools to measure the effectiveness of LS.
This dissertation aims to advance the critical research needs in the field by examining the extent and nature of these limitations in three research studies. The focus of these studies lies on the LS stages of observation and reflection, as these stages have a high potential to facilitate teacher learning. The first study uses a mixed-method design to examine how teachers at German primary schools reflect critically together. The study derives a theory-based definition of critical and collaborative reflection in order to re-frame the reflection element in LS.
The second study, a systematic review of 129 articles on LS, assess how transparent research articles are in reporting how teachers observed and reflected together. In addition, it is investigated whether these articles provide any kind of theorization for the stages of observation and reflection.
The third study proposes a conceptual model for the field of LS that is based on existing models of continuous professional development and research findings on team effectiveness and collaboration. The model describes the dimensions of input, mediating mechanisms, and outcomes in order to provide a conceptual grid to teachers’ continuous professional development through LS.