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Item Critical settler consciousness in community of practice and Indian Education for All implementation: a narrative inquiry in thresholds of transformation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2023) Watson, Sidrah Morgan Gibbs; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Carrie B. MyersVery little work examines the role of Indian Education for All (IEFA) in shaping the college learner environment beyond teacher education programs. In fact, many faculty may not even consider implementing IEFA as a part of their teaching expectations. Despite Montana's legal mandate for "every educational agency" and "all educational personnel" working as "related to the education of each Montana citizen" (MCA 20-1-501) through IEFA, several factors may hold faculty from fulfilling this responsibility through curricular IEFA implementation at postsecondary institutions in Montana. One, IEFA is unfunded at the college level. Two, traditionally, faculty work autonomously in a system that values academic freedom. Three, most disciplines work within a traditional western paradigm that honors positivism, which may be at odds with Indigenous Knowledge Systems that center relational, spiritual, and subjective ontologies and epistemologies. Addressing this requires a system of change that can take shape through faculty communities of practice. This critical narrative inquiry delves into the experiences of non-Indigenous engineering faculty who worked within a learning community while approaching how to integrate IEFA into their curriculums. One-on-one interviews narratively encouraged participants to share their stories of implementing IEFA and their experiences engaging with an intimate, discipline designed learning community. Using the Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model (TIPM) layered with critical settler consciousness (CSC) and Culturally Disruptive Pedagogy (CDP) as a lens to participant experiences, the learning community provided a space that sparked engagement with their CSC in ways that allowed participants to move toward authentic IEFA implementation and employing transformational pedagogy. Communities of practice may be employed to help non-Indigenous settler scholars move toward authentically implementing IEFA. For these faculty, the learning community provided a space to engage in CSC development and pushed them to address their own resistances and responsibilities while in relationship with each other, working together as experts and novices to find ways their disciplines will need to engage IEFA. This project may serve as a tool or heuristic for non-Indigenous people beginning to engage their CSC in meaningful ways and requires desettling of the self and responsibility to Indigenous peoples to face and combat damage done by white supremacy and colonialism.Item Measuring elementary educators' understanding and readiness for implementing a new framework in science education(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2014) Nollmeyer, Gustave Evan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Arthur W. BangertThe NRC's (2012) report, A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, ushered in a new era of science education. It is unclear how prepared elementary educators are for the framework. This study sought to establish measures for assessing inservice educators' self-reported understanding of the new framework and readiness to implement the ideas in their science instruction. Designing and validating an instrument to assess these constructs followed procedures established in the literature. First, literature on science education was examined to identify themes that could be used in constructing instrument items. This item pool was examined and modified through expert review. Next, the modified instrument was piloted with a small sample, N = 13, of inservice educators. After final adjustments to the instrument, it was used in a large scale validation study. Inservice elementary educators from four states, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah participated in the validation study, N= 167. Since understanding and readiness were determined to assess separate constructs, the two were handled individually during statistical analyses. Exploratory analysis on both scales, understanding and readiness, revealed stable factor models that were further validated through confirmatory factor analysis. The internal consistency reliability of the scales were determined through Cronbach's Alpha. With solid statistical evidence, conclusions were drawn from the study. Each instrument could be used in similar contexts to measure elementary educators' understanding of or readiness to implement the new framework for science education. The unique factor structures of the two scales suggests important differences between understanding and readiness. These differences should inform professional development efforts.Item Borrowing modernity : a comparison of educational change in Japan, China, and Thailand from the early seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2005) Batchelor, Randal Shon; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Marilyn Lockhart.In the pre-modern era, the Japanese, Chinese and Siamese sustained sophisticated educational systems that buttressed complex political, social, and cultural institutions. In the nineteenth century, the rise of Western imperialism threatened the survivals of all three realms. Unlike their East Asian neighbors, Japan, China, and Siam preserved a large measure of self-rule though they had to cede significant amounts of sovereignty. To defend their societiesα interests, their leaders sought to modernize their political, social, and economic structures. In the process, they abandoned existing educational systems in favor of Western models and practices. The purpose of this comparative study was to better understand the motivations, methods, and results of their educational modernizations by examining their educational development from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century. The study answered four main questions: (1) What motivated these societies to modernize their educational systems using Western models and practices? (2) How did they accomplish their educational modernizations? (3) How did they adapt Western models to suit their political, social, economic, and cultural circumstances? (4) What were the broad results of their educational modernizations? Although the inquiry heavily relies on English secondary sources, some primary-source and Japanese materials were considered. The analysis employed such recognized qualitative/historical methods as constant comparison, triangulation, negative case analysis, and internal criticism. The study found that the Japanese, Chinese, and Siamese made the adoption of European and American educational approaches a central component of their modernization strategies. While employing similar borrowing methods, namely textual study, foreign experts, study abroad, and external help, they incrementally rebuilt their educational systems through trial and error experimentation. In adapting Western models, all three added elements of their traditional ideologies. Although each nation recovered their full sovereignty, the political, social, and economic consequences of their educational modernizations differed. Nonetheless, educational reform was uniformly a catalyst for far-reaching change. Ultimately, their eclectic borrowing and shrewd adaption of foreign ideas and practices allowed the Japanese, Chinese, and Thais to create their own versions of modernity. Without the successful creation of modern educational systems, these three societies could not have become the strong nations they are today.