Term of Graduation

Spring 2007

Date of Publication

6-12-2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership: Curriculum and Instruction

Department

Educational Leadership

Language

English

Subjects

Middle school students -- Pacific Northwest, Phenomenology and art -- Pacific Northwest, Alternative education -- Pacific Northwest, Progressive education -- Pacific Northwest

DOI

10.15760/etd.7998

Physical Description

1 online resource (2, x, 145 pages)

Abstract

Since the beginning of public school as a social institution early in the nineteenth century, the voices of children have been missing from the discussion about school. From the progressive era to the current standards based movement, structures of education have been premised on the ideas of what adults think are the best ways for children to learn. But educators and other adults are recognizing the importance of student perspectives by providing children opportunities to participate in critical reflection about school. By including children of all ages in this discussion, educators, policy makers and researchers may begin to examine their own assumptions about student learning, subject matter and educational policy.

A phenomenological approach was used to describe the lived school experiences of five 6th grade children attending an arts magnet school in the Pacific Northwest. Phenomenology focuses on the individual lived experiences of the study participants and how their understanding of those experiences shape the phenomena under study. The research question was this: How do children perceive and describe their experiences of school? Data were collected through three in-depth interviews of each participant. An iterative process of questioning, information giving, analysis and verification was characteristic of the entire study. Through a process of phenomenological reduction, 5 themes emerged from the data: (a) Feelings, (b) Learning, (c) Relationships, (d) Time, (e) Orderliness. Limitations of the study included the small sample size and the possibility of researcher influence on participant responses because of perceived adult/child power differentials.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Comments

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38585

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