Digital Commons Network^™

A Case Study On Teacher Perceptions Of The Wisconsin State Educator Effectiveness Requirement: Mandates And Results, Daniel Unertl

Dissertations (1934 -)

Teachers are the essential element in improving student learning in education. The State of Wisconsin requires public school teachers to participate in the Wisconsin Educator Effectiveness System. There is limited research on the links between required participation with the State of Wisconsin’s Educator Effectiveness System and on the experience of teachers and their outcomes for students (Dvorak et al., 2014; Jones, 2017). This qualitative case study explored, through semi-structured interviews, the experiences of Wisconsin educators who engaged with the EE System, teachers’ connections with EE and subsequent changes to their practice. The study addressed whether teachers’ felt the technical elements …

A Case Study On Teacher Perceptions Of The Wisconsin State Educator Effectiveness Requirement: Mandates And Results, Daniel Unertl

Dissertations (1934 -)

Teachers are the essential element in improving student learning in education. The State of Wisconsin requires public school teachers to participate in the Wisconsin Educator Effectiveness System. There is limited research on the links between required participation with the State of Wisconsin’s Educator Effectiveness System and on the experience of teachers and their outcomes for students (Dvorak et al., 2014; Jones, 2017). This qualitative case study explored, through semi-structured interviews, the experiences of Wisconsin educators who engaged with the EE System, teachers’ connections with EE and subsequent changes to their practice. The study addressed whether teachers’ felt the technical elements …

Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions (Hsis): Disrupting Institutional Whiteness, Jacqueline Black

Dissertations (1934 -)

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) educate disproportionately large percentages of Latinx and other underrepresented minority (URM) postsecondary students. But as most HSIs are also Historically White Colleges, whiteness permeates their campus structures, cultures, and practices. This study bridges gaps in our understanding around how legacies of historical whiteness on campuses that have recently become or are emerging as HSIs affect their efforts to serve Latinx/URM students. The project focuses on the perspectives of those faculty, staff, and administrators most intimately involved in “servingness” work on these campuses: HSI specialists. Employing a critical qualitative approach and guided by Critical Whiteness Studies and Omi …

A Public Policy Analysis Of An Allied Health Career Pathway Model At A Local Technical College, Rebecca A. Garcia Sanchez

Dissertations (1934 -)

Policymakers, philanthropists, and related stakeholders assert that education is “the civil rights issue of our generation” (The White House, n.d). In turn, a career-based business model where “career and technical education encourages employability” (Wilder, 2013) has been implemented, providing readily accessible post-secondary opportunities to address perpetual societal inequality. Many stakeholders perceive the two-year institution as helping bridge the perpetual equity gap by creating access streams needed to acquire good-paying jobs. Because of the diverse socioeconomic student narrative within the Midwestern technical college, a study inquiry was conducted to ascertain the institution’s ability to reproduce the desired results advertised by public …

Exploring Validation And Success Among First-Generation College Students In First-Year Writing, Jenna Green

Dissertations (1934 -)

This qualitative case study examines connections between student writing and student success, specifically among first-generation college students, a growing student population who are less likely to graduate college than their multigenerational peers. First-generation college students are more likely to come from working-class, low-income backgrounds, identify as racial or ethnic minorities, live at home and/or have significant family and work responsibilities (Bond, 2019; Engle & Tinto, 2008). Due to the confluence of barriers many face, first-generation college students exhibit higher attrition rates, contributing to persisting inequities in higher education. Leveraging Rendón’s (1994) validation theory, this study explored how first-generation college students …

Improving Communication Access With Deaf People Through Nursing Simulation: A Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, Jamie L. Mccartney Ph.D., Tracy Gidden, Jennifer Biggs, Kathy Geething, Karl Kosko Ph.D.

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Baccalaureate nursing and sign language interpreting students participated in a pediatric discharge simulation with a deaf person playing the role of the baby’s parent. At the conclusion of the simulation, participants were emailed a consent letter and a link to a 17-item questionnaire developed by the authors. Responses were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, whereby nonparametric statistics were calculated to examine Likert-scale items. A Mann-Whitney test statistic was calculated, instead of an independent samples t-test, given the smaller sample in the current study (n = 26). A question was posed to participants that evaluated their self-perception of the effectiveness of …

“Handicap Removed”: An Alternative Path To The Social Model, Craig M. Rustici

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

This article identifies an expression of a social model of disability in a 1966 film promoting Hofstra University’s Program for the Higher Education of the Handicapped and traces that model back to books published by the pioneering rehabilitation physician Henry H. Kessler in 1935 and 1947, decades before the UPIAS (Union of the Physically Impaired against Segregation) Fundamental Principles of Disability (1976). In light of Kessler’s articulation of social and minority models, identification of contrasting religious, charity and medical models, and discussion of disability stigma, this article reassesses Ruth O’Brien’s critique, in Crippled Justice (2001), of Kessler and the twentieth-century …

Trauma Exposure And Resident Assistants: A Study Of Meaning Making, Sarah Ann Olejniczak

Dissertations (1934 -)

Resident assistants are at the front line of crisis management within college campus residence halls. As such, it is imperative that student affairs professionals consider the specific needs of this paraprofessional group and build networks to guide these student leaders through the traumatic occurrences to which they respond through their roles. This dissertation studies the impact of resident assistants' exposure to traumatic occurrences and the meaning making that happens following these experiences, in an effort to expand a knowledge base that will support future student development practices. This dissertation employs a phenomenological approach to qualitatively understand the impact of trauma …

Those Who Came Before: Learning From Native American College Alumni About Walking The Path Of Persistence, Jacqueline Schram

Dissertations (1934 -)

The very low college success rate of American Indians and Alaska Natives has inspired a scholarly literature that seeks to explain this outcome and, more recently, to account for why some Native students persist in college. Few studies, however, look at Native students who actually have graduated from college, and these rarely reflect Native voices or examine the life histories of Indigenous students. To achieve a broader understanding of successful educational trajectories, this qualitative exploration moves beyond the category of students currently attending college and examines the lives of five Indigenous Marquette University alumni. Employing an archival oral history method …

Adolescents' Retributive And Restorative Orientations In Response To Intergroup Harms In Schools, Laura Pareja Conto, Angelica Restrepo, Holly Recchia, Gabriel Velez, Cecilia Wainryb

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

This mixed-methods study examined how adolescents understand and evaluate different ways to address intergroup harms in schools. In individual interviews, 77 adolescents (M age = 16.49 years; 39 girls, 38 boys) in Bogotá, Colombia, responded to hypothetical vignettes wherein a rival group at school engaged in a transgression against their group. Adolescents reported that students who were harmed should and would talk to school authorities, but also noted they would likely retaliate. In terms of teacher-sanctioned responses to harm, youth endorsed compensation most strongly, followed by apologies, and rated suspension least positively. Youths' explanations for their endorsement of different …

Primary Grade Students’ Achievement Given Differentiated Process Writing Instruction In A Summer Learning Program, Kathleen F. Clark, Karen S. Evans, Christine M. Reinders, Kathleen A. O'Dell

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Struggling writers often need more instructional support than is present in commercially available process writing curricula. In this study, we employed a one-group, pretest–posttest design to evaluate whether 41 struggling primary grade writers who attended a university-based summer learning program would increase in writing ability, given a commercially available process writing unit differentiated to provide more support. A Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) unit was modified for use in the program: The content was streamlined, the volume of writing was reduced, the instructional explicitness was strengthened, increased feedback and student product goals were integrated, and the instruction was …

Sexual Health Education And Life Satisfaction For People With Congenital Neurological Disabilities, Alie Kriofske Mainella, Susan Miller Smedema

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

People with disabilities are sexual beings, yet there is little research on sexuality in this population. The present study explored the impact of sex education for people with congenital neurological disabilities, largely, spina bifida and cerebral palsy, on sexual self-concept and life satisfaction. This study included 104 adults with spina bifida, cerebral palsy, and other congenital neurological disabilities. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between demographic variables, sexual health education variables, and outcome variables (sexual self-concept and life satisfaction). Serial mediation analysis was conducted to examine the mediating relationship of sexual self-concept variables (sexual anxiety and sexual …

Relationship Of Spirituality, Self-Awareness, And Effective Leadership Among Lay Catholic High School Leaders In Nigeria, Emmanuel I. Ugwejeh

Dissertations (1934 -)

First, this research measured the spirituality, self-awareness, and leadership effectiveness of 70 lay Catholic high school leaders in Nigeria to gain insights into these leaders' self-awareness, spirituality, and effectiveness. Second, using multiple regression analysis, it also tried to determine if an association exists between lay-Catholic high school leaders’ self-rated spirituality, self-rated self-awareness, supervisor-rated self-awareness, and supervisor-rated effectiveness of the same Catholic high school leaders. Third, it also tried to determine if self-rated self-awareness, self-rated spirituality, and supervisors’ rated self-awareness would together predict leadership effectiveness among the same lay Catholic high school leaders. The study suggests mixed results. Whereas the supervisor-rated …

Latinas’ Use Of Spirituality As A Coping Mechanism, Ashley Lauren Faytol

Dissertations (1934 -)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread public health concern with consequences that negatively impact many areas of survivors’ functioning (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017, 2019; Ellsberg et al., 2008; Gorde et al., 2004; Kelly, 2010a). The negative impacts of IPV are more severe for Latinas than their White counterparts (e.g., Bonomi et al., 2009; Kelly, 2010b; Stockman et al., 2015), causing IPV to be considered a health disparity within the Latina community (Caetano et al., 2005). While spirituality has been shown to be an effective coping mechanism for many stressors in Latinas’ lives, it has not …

A Grounded Theory On Becoming A Revolutionary Latinx Student Leader, Eva Martinez Powless

Dissertations (1934 -)

Research on the leadership experiences of Latinx college students and diverse populations suggests differences in the way these populations experience leadership on the college campus when compared to their White counterparts. These differences put Latinx students and other diverse student populations at a disadvantage and on the margins of leadership education. This qualitative, grounded theory study explored the leadership experiences of 11 undergraduate Latinx college students in the United States. The theory inducted from the data, and the three-stage model, brought to light three themes and 19 processes that explain how Latinx students become “revolutionary leaders” in college. A revolutionary …

Messaging And Action Around Race And Inclusion At A Predominantly White Institution: Perceived Dissonance Of Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color Students, Gabriel M. Velez, Jody Jessup-Anger

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

As college has increasingly become part of emerging adulthood for United States youth, Predominantly White and Historically White Institutions (PWI/HWIs) have faced pressures to diversify and address problematic racial/ethnic campus climates. Within the rich and evolving literature, there is room for better understanding how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) emerging adults experience institutional messaging. This report draws on environmental press and meaning making to explore this experience for 21 BIPOC students at an urban, Midwestern PWI/HWI. In focus groups, students highlighted the role of the university’s messaging around race/ethnicity and inclusion as problematic: negative descriptions about the urban …

Peacebuilding Through Education: The Case Of Cameroon’S Anglophone Crisis, Thomas D Aquin Mbatna Taiwe

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study explores peacebuilding promotion in Cameroon's schools amid the Anglophone crisis. The crisis is characterized by a violent social rebellion affecting education and society in Cameroon (Egoh, 2020). The theoretical framework for the study is critical peace education. According to Zembylas (2018), critical peace education must consider revising peace education curricula in former colonies, enriching them with local cultures to develop sustainable peace.I conducted a multiple case study inquiry in four Cameroonian schools using semi-structured interviews and observations and analyzed documents. The logic of replication was used, and a cross-case analysis and discussion led to recommendations for peacebuilding, including …

Using An Integrated Stem Methods Course To Prepare Pre-Service Teachers For Ambitious Stem Instruction, Leigh A. Van Den Kieboom, Jill Mcnew-Birren

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Over the past decade, like other teacher preparation programs across the U.S., we have redesigned our teacher education curriculum to include a practice-based approach that engages pre-service teachers (PSTs) in learning about and rehearsing ambitious instruction. A critical component of our redesign includes an Integrated STEM Methods course. Built upon research from mathematics and science teacher educators (Ball & Forzani, 2009; Windschitl et al., 2012), the course prepares PSTs for ambitious instruction (Lampert, 2013) using pedagogies of practice to provide PSTs multiple opportunities to examine, decompose, and approximate (Grossman et al., 2009) four practices: (1) teaching to the “Big Ideas” …

Prayers And Mindfulness In Relation To Mental Health Among First-Generation Immigrant And Refugee Muslim Women In The Usa: An Exploratory Study, Karisse A. Callender, Lee Za Ong, Enaya Othman

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

The goal of our study was to explore how first-generation immigrant/refugee Muslim women experience prayer and mindfulness in relation to their mental health. Participants were nine women from an urban city in the Midwestern USA. The women completed a structured demographic survey and a virtual semi-structured interview in a focus group. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we obtained four overarching themes from the data: (a) Prayer helps to build community, (b) Prayer promotes wellbeing, (c) Prayer increases faith, and (d) Prayer encourages intentional awareness. The findings demonstrate that prayer involves awareness and has a strong influence on the mental health of …

Making Meaning Of Covid-19: An Exploratory Analysis Of U.S. Adolescent Experiences Of The Pandemic, Gabriel M. Velez, Madeline Hahn, Brian Troyer

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic will mark the lives and trajectories of adolescents who lived through it. The pandemic upended social contexts, disrupted schools, and, for many, impacted the physical, financial, and psychosocial health of themselves, their families, and their communities. Contextual changes, however, are not solely deterministic of developmental outcomes. As Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and Spencer’s Phenomenological Variant of the Ecological Systems Theory demonstrate, young people interpret, make meaning, and respond to socioecological contexts as part of their developmental processes. The current study explored meaning making qualitatively through how adolescents in the United States were experiencing COVID-19. Participants were asked …

Making Meaning Of Peace: A Study Of Adolescents In Bogota, Colombia, Gabriel Velez

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

In post-conflict and transitional settings, adolescents are important civic and political actors as potential peacebuilders. Policy and programming often focus on promoting prosocial outcomes for these younger generations, but there has been growing attention to their perspectives and psychological development. Drawing on theory in developmental psychology, adolescents interpret and respond to context in forming ideas about key concepts like peace, understanding society and their place in it, and constructing their orientations toward peace. This study extends current literature by exploring how Colombian adolescents describe peace within the context of a peace process in their country. Ninety-six 15- to 18-year-olds in …

Developing In A Dynamic World Harnessing Psychology To Support The Covid-19 Generation, Gabriel Velez, Laura K. Taylor, Seamus A. Power

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and other social dynamics created a myriad of challenges and changes for individuals, groups, and societies. The impacts on youth are particularly noteworthy given developmental processes of adolescence and emerging adulthood. As psychologists, we have much to offer in studying how 2020 influenced their development and in shaping effective supports. To be useful, the work must be nuanced, iterative, and attentive to their lived realities. We argue for a dynamic research framework to study these developmental processes. Through such an approach, psychological science can provide insight into diverse young people’s experiences of COVID-19 with a …

Ap Physics Course Enrollments: The Impact Of Middle School Algebra And Physics First, Judi G. Luepke

Dissertations (1934 -)

The position of the United States in the global STEM economy is being challenged by other countries. There is national concern that the STEM pipeline be strengthened to ensure more students pursue STEM degrees and join the STEM workforce. Although it is important to inspire youth in STEM programs, it is also important to provide all students access to the STEM gatekeeper courses of calculus, chemistry, and physics. This study determined if taking algebra in middle school and Physics First impacted AP Physics enrollments in a suburban high school. Taking physics in ninth grade, or Physics First, is part of …

How Diversity Fails: An Empirical Investigation Of Organizational Status And Policy Implementation On Three Public Campuses, Derria Byrd

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Although diversity has been a guiding preoccupation in higher education for several decades, organizational diversity practice, i.e., what happens when colleges and universities implement diversity plans, is rarely a subject of inquiry. As a result, there is relatively little empirical understanding of why diversity has failed to significantly advance racial equity on college campuses. In response, this ethnographic, collective case study draws on interviews with 54 respondents, archival and organizational documents, and campus observations to interrogate diversity practice on three campuses of different status in one public system in the U.S. This study employs Bourdieu’s theory of practice, specifically …

Marquette Presidents, Brad Stratton, Digital Scholarship Lab, Marquette University, Marquette University

Digital Scholarship Lab

Former Senior Editor of Presidential Communication in the Office of the President, Brad Stratton, researched and documented past presidents biographies and events that occured during their tenure at Marquette. In late 2022, he approached the University Archives for advice about using these documents to display the history of the President's Office. In association with the archives, Stratton, and the Digital Scholarship Lab, we created a page to display his work as a timeline of the University's history.

This site is available at presidents.raynordslab.org

Ethnic Discrimination, Social Cohesion, And Mental Health Among Latinx Adults, Lucas Torres, Jaclyn Pachicano, Claire Maria Bird, Lisa Edwards

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

The negative effects of ethnic discrimination on depression symptoms have led researchers to identify potential risk and protective variables of this relationship. While some studies have focused on individual level factors, little research has explored the role of community-level variables, or the combination of both. The present study of Latinx adults (N = 304) tested a moderated mediation model to examine if alcohol use was a mediator of ethnic discrimination and depression under certain levels of social cohesion. Results found that alcohol use was a mediator between ethnic discrimination and depression symptoms and social cohesion moderated this relationship, such …

Field Social Psychology, Séamus A. Power, Gabriel Velez

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Field social psychology is a conceptual and methodological approach to describe, examine, and explain psychological phenomena at multiple levels of analysis with emphasis on the sociocultural environments in which people are embedded, the unfolding of psychological processes over time, and the use of ecologically valid multiple methods in conjunction. In this essay, we first define a contemporary form of field social psychology from its roots in the history of psychological study. Second, we argue for the necessity of the reemergence of this approach given the limitations of the dominant current social psychological paradigm exposed by the replication crisis. Third, we …

Change In Self-Compassion, Psychological Inflexibility, And Interpersonal Courage In Intensive Ptsd Treatment: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis, Peter Philip Grau, Timothy Melchert, Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal, Lynne M. Knobloch-Fedders, Chad T. Wetterneck

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Objectives

Despite numerous advances in the understanding of the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), current research is often narrowly focused on symptom reduction. Despite this, the impact of PTSD also extends into areas such as interpersonal relationships, pursuit of valued activities, and self-acceptance. These processes appear to be especially relevant in chronic/complex PTSD but are rarely represented in controlled trials. As a result, there is a need to expand the focus of PTSD research beyond symptom reduction to include processes of well-being.

Methods

Using a latent growth curve analytical approach, this study examined the impact of change …

With Due Respect For Humanity: Engaging Affectivity Through Simulation In Catholic Seminary Formation, Marie Diane Pitt-Payne

Dissertations (1934 -)

Since 1992, Catholic seminaries have approached the education of future priests through a lens of four areas of formation: intellectual, human, pastoral, and spiritual. Although human formation is considered foundational in the formation process, it has not been effectively integrated into seminary curriculum. The language of integral personalism was introduced into the formation landscape by Pope John Paul II, but this anthropology has not sufficiently informed seminary pedagogy. There is a still a subordination of the affective sphere in seminaries, particularly in intellectual formation. Medical schools have developed a pedagogical method that inserts real emotion into the educational process. This …

Inequalities Of Intradistrict School Choice In A Mid-Sized Urban School District, Jacob Konrath

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores inequities created by intradistrict school choice policies in a mid-sized urban school district. Five years of parent intradistrict school choice forms, totaling 6,245 submissions, were reviewed and coded to highlight themes pertaining to why parents utilize the intradistrict school choice program. Current student enrollment was pulled and analyzed to show student movement trends based upon demographics such as ethnicity, special education status, and socio-economic levels. This data was utilized in interviews with building principals to determine if perceived inequities posed real consequences to their buildings. The findings suggest inequities in the intradistrict school choice process. Specifically, BIPOC …