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theses

This qualitative case study analyzes a Protestant/Evangelical Christian school located in a metropolitan area within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States that purposefully and typically includes students who are traditionally marginalized. The participants’ perceptions in conjunction with school operations, amongst other factors, provide answers to how the administration, faculty, and parents understand the concept of inclusion and provide for students who are impoverished or of color. Private tuition-based schools, to a degree, choose their constituency and have different obligations and operations than that of public schools. This study’s narrow focus on a private Christian school and its participants can provide insight that has broad implications. This study enriches the bodies of research by broadening the understanding of how educational professionals and other schools who value all students can provide inclusivity. By considering the historical evolution of Christian schools, participants’ individual and collective worldview lenses, societal shifts, and the Protestant Christian approach to social justice, this study examines how the school and its stakeholders understand inclusivity and how it impacts practice. Both theoretical and practical implications brought to light in this study, will embolden private, especially religious, schools to choose to include more marginalized children. This study is for all educators committed towards the common good; because, it encourages schools to examine how underpinning beliefs and understandings promote and delimit practices of inclusion in schools. Thus, this study contributes to a richer understanding of how institutions that purportedly care about all students as a core value extend this commitment to everyday practice.

ETD_7940

doi:10.7282/T33T9M05

Ed.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Mark Allen Stanton

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.