A qualitative study on the impact of teacher-facilitated advising on sense of belonging and student achievement for minority females in high school
Year: 2023
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Closing achievement gaps have been the focus of schools around the country for decades within the United States. Legislations have been written, federal and state funding has been provided, companies and ed-tech companies have been created with the number one task of educational leaders: reduce achievement gaps. The purpose of this study is to see if there is a different way of looking at academic achievement gaps; not as an academic problem but as a social-emotional problem. Participants in Cycle 1 consisted of interviews of eight minority females in grades 9 or 10 who shared their feelings on how the relationship between teacher and student directly impacts their engagement within the classes. In addition, all eight students shared that they would not engage in the class if they perceived the teacher as not liking them. Action steps based on implementing teacher-facilitated advising sessions to strengthen students' sense of belonging to the school as a system of support in efforts to reduce achievement gaps were planned, implemented, and analyzed during Cycle 2. Findings included: 1. teacher-facilitated advising improved student-teacher relationship and met the individual academic needs of students 2. teacher-facilitated advising sessions are a strong systematic approach to increasing students' sense of belonging and 3. teacher-facilitated advising sessions increased student academic outcomes because of specific accountability measures and increased student engagement. Implications include continued work on researching how to scale the work completed in this study to include the larger body of students on a given campus and understanding what professional development the teachers would need to ensure the success of the advising sessions for a larger population of students.--Author's abstract
DOI: 10.17760/d20481307
Author: Elizabeth A. Kennedy
Institution: Northeastern University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4388761719