The Pennsylvania State University
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education A CURRICULAR POLICY FORTY YEARS IN THE MAKING: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY COURSE IN THE PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL DISTRICT A Dissertation in Education Theory and Policy by Felicia C. Sanders © 2009 Felicia C. Sanders Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 The thesis of Felicia C. Sanders was reviewed and approved* by the following: Dana L. Mitra Assistant Professor of Education Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee David Gamson Associate Professor of Education Professor-in-Charge, Education Theory and Policy Program Kimberly Griffin Assistant Professor of Education Emilie Smith Professor of Health and Human Development *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT African American students are among the lowest achieving minority groups in the United States public school system. Multicultural education literature argues that such a curriculum could help increase the academic achievement of Black students; however, there is very little evidence of this claim. In 2005, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission mandated that all high school students take a newly developed African American history (AAH) course as graduation requirement beginning with class of 2009, after 40 years of community request for such a course. Through a qualitative case study research approach, and using the theory of social construction of target populations (Schneider & Ingram, 1993) and a framework that explains common impediments to educational policy implementation (Shulman, 1983), this study seeks to examine why the District implemented the AAH course as a graduate requirement, how the District designed the course, and how the course was implemented by social studies teachers. The use of the theory of social construction of target populations provided a framework for understanding the decisions District administrators made in regards to requiring the course and how they designed the course. The findings from this portion of the study suggest that the District administrators’ goals for requiring the course focused on their social construction of Black youth, but the design of the course focused on the perceptions of teachers’ strengths and weaknesses. The administrators’ assessment of teachers’ capacities contributed to a disconnect between what teachers needed to teach the course and what they were provided. Lee Shulman’s (1983) impediments to policy implementation provided a framework to examine and explain the challenges teachers experienced in implementing the curricular policy. This dissertation concludes that the Philadelphia community won a political victory in terms of the inclusion of the AAH course in the District’s curriculum. However, as a result of the disconnect between the administrators and teachers, the course was implemented poorly and cannot be considered an educational victory. i Table of Contents ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... i LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 2 Purpose of the Study and Research Questions ................................................................ 7 Organization of the Study ................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review ................................................................................ 10 School Reform ............................................................................................................... 10 Multicultural Education ................................................................................................. 13 Intended Effects of Multicultural Education ............................................................. 17 Policy Implementation ................................................................................................... 25 Will to Implement Policy .......................................................................................... 26 Capacity to Implement Policy ................................................................................... 30 Variation is the Norm ................................................................................................ 33 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER THREE: Theoretical Framework ................................................................... 40 Social Construction of Target Populations .................................................................... 40 Core Principles of Social Construction of Target Populations .................................. 43 Education Research & Social Construction Theory .................................................. 46 Impediments to the Simple Solution ............................................................................. 52 Applications to Current Study ....................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER FOUR: Methodology ...................................................................................... 59 Research Design and Rationale ..................................................................................... 60 Sample Selection and Access ........................................................................................ 62 Sampling Strategy ..................................................................................................... 65 ii Participation Selection and Recruitment ....................................................................... 66 Data Collection and Protocol ......................................................................................... 71 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 73 Threats to Validity ......................................................................................................... 77 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 79 Significance of the Study and Methods ......................................................................... 80 Presentation of Findings ................................................................................................ 81 CHAPTER FIVE: Historical, Political, & Educational Context of AAH Policy .............. 83 Community Control in Philadelphia: 1960s .................................................................. 84 Learning Communities: 1988-1995 ............................................................................... 90 Children Achieving: 1994-2001 .................................................................................... 92 The Policy Window is Open: 2001-2005 ...................................................................... 94 Community and National Response to the Reform ................................................... 99 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 104 CHAPTER SIX: AAH Course: The Purpose, Design, and Vision ................................. 106 Social Construction of Black Youth in Philadelphia ................................................... 106 Social Construction of Black Youth in Philadelphia ............................................... 107 Positive Personal Development ............................................................................... 109 Decreasing the Achievement Gap ........................................................................... 112 Providing youth with the best quality education ..................................................... 115 Development of AAH Course and Social Construction of Teachers .......................... 117 Administrators’ Perception of Teachers .................................................................. 117 Textbook Development ........................................................................................... 121 Curriculum Development ........................................................................................ 125 Professional Development and Student Learning Outcomes .................................. 129 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 134 CHAPTER SEVEN: Policy Implementation from the Perspective of Teachers ............ 138 Inconsistencies among Mandates: Teachers’ Perceptions of the Purpose of the AAH Course .......................................................................................................................... 139 Racial Composition ................................................................................................. 139 Positive personal development ................................................................................ 140 Multicultural Education