PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the lived experiences of African American retired female teachers who have prior experience with educating urban African American students in public schools. Also explored are the experiences of active African American female teachers of urban African American students and comparisons are analyzed. The research questions explore how retired African American educators perceived and describe their experiences with urban students and how their experiences can be used to improve teacher training programs designed to help teachers adapt to school reform. Conceptually, this study was framed within the context that stories are an effective way to communicate experiences, as supported by Dewey and Erickson. Data was collected through a series of interviews. Initially, a line by line analysis was conducted on the responses of 6 respondents, 3 retired and 3 active African American women, who were chosen from a large metropolitan area based upon their designation as retirees and their willingness to participate. Each interview question was coded for specific information. Each code was derived as a result of repetitive analysis with a goal of identifying patterns and drawing out as much information as possible about the respondents' lived experiences with urban educational. The results of the study suggest that listening to retirees is an effective way to evaluate previous pedagogues and practices, from the perspectives of those who lived through them, information about how they were implemented. The retirees were eager to use their experiences to convey messages of hope and give advice to pre-service and active teachers about strategies to use when adapting to educating urban African American students. This study contributes to positive social change by providing suggestions to improve professional development programs, which could lead to better teaching experiences for pre-service and active teachers and higher recruitment a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vanessa Allen-brown Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Dorothy E. Battle Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lionel Brown Ed.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Sunderland Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2008, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

This exploratory and descriptive study illuminates the lives of African American female teachers who lived in the upper Ohio River Valley between 1875 and 1915. Existing current research depicts teachers in the South and urban North during this period. This study highlights teachers from northern, small to midsized cities in order to bring them into the historical record and direct attention to their contributions to education. The focus of this historical, intrinsic, embedded, single-case case study was on the social profile, educational opportunities, teaching experiences, and support networks of Pocahontas Simmons Peyton, Susie Simmons (Jones?), Bernadine Peyton Sherman, Mary Peyton Dyson, Anna Stevens Posey, and Elizabeth Jennie Adams Carter. Three additional themes emerged from the data. They involved inconsistent community attitudes, male-defined perspectives, and multigenerational connections and successes.The case for this study was bounded by time, place, race, gender, and occupation. The units of analysis were selected from a pool of 27 names using the maximum-variation purposeful sampling method. The central research question asked how the women operated within the educational systems of the three-state area of western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio. The researcher employed multiple methods of data collection in order to triangulate the data and provide rich description of the women within the context of the bounded system. The findings suggest that these women were part of a tradition of exemplary service to education. Although they were unique, these women shared characteristics with teachers in other areas of the country. With one exception, they worked in segregated schools with poor to adequate resources. Each woman had a range of educational options open to her, but not all options were available in each location. The women were skilled at using support networks and their own abilities to navigate within the educational (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David F. Bower Ed.D. (Committee Chair); Rosalie Romano Ph.D. (Committee Member); Adah Ward Randolph Ph.D. (Committee Member); James O'Donnell Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Black History; Education History; Womens Studies