Date Approved

5-31-2000

Embargo Period

6-17-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Educational Administration

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Capasso, Ronald L.

Subject(s)

Atlantic City High School--Curricula; World of Difference Program; Multicultural education

Disciplines

Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to develop aggregated understandings of bias and how it affects violence in a school's culture using action research. The study, through A World of Difference Program's Anti-Bias Study Guide and peer interventions, will result in improved cultural relations. At this stage in the research, bias is studied and acknowledged.

A fifty thousand-dollar grant was awarded to Atlantic City's Board of Education, with one school piloting the program. The A World of Difference Program focuses on training, education, and interactive activities. Student and teacher volunteers who do the work will recognize and realize, through communications, that we are not so different. As an established program, it has its own built-in longitudinal study designs. Within one year, two needs assessments will be conducted. Evaluation of the program is based on peer training, teacher and parent components, and a sense of renewed relationships. Recruiting new change agents is primary to creating something positive within the organizational culture of this facility.

In concluding, students are less rigid and independent than adults and more apt to participate in new ventures. Organizational culture, leadership roles and decision-making suffer as a result of rigidity. In adults, rigidity and independence run rampant.

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