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"Oye Mi Voz!" (Hear My Voice!): The Perceptions Of Hispanic Boys Regarding Their Literacy Experiences, Rubylinda Zickafoose

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to uncover the perspectives that pertain to the literacy experiences of young Hispanic boys. Hispanic boys will be asked to describe, feel, judge, and make sense of their public and private literacies (Faulkner, 2005). This phenomenological study embraces two methods of data collection, participant focus groups and individual interviews. The primary question guiding this inquiry was: What are the perceptions of adolescent Hispanic boys who are considered low level readers (by state achievement tests) regarding their literacy experiences?

In order to help provide background information and set the stage for future work when considering …

Designing An International Friendship Model For Children, Charlotte Martins

Theses and Graduate Projects

In 2006 this writer traveled to Windhoek, Namibia to take the course Walking the Truth; Culture, Gender and HIV/AID,S in Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of that class each student was assigned to work with an organization or individual whose mission was working with HIV/AIDS patients or there families. It was from this experience that the project was born. The purpose of this project is to design a friendship model that links children of middle school age from different cultures and different nations together through letter writing.

Institutional Culture, Performance, And Learning In A Two-Year Technical/Community College, Vicky Maloney

All Dissertations

The environments of higher education institutions have undergone significant changes in the past twenty years as a result of concerns expressed in prominent reports. These external concerns and initiatives reflect contemporary criticisms by the public about the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of institutions. The response from research, legislatures, and the institutions has been to implement practices aimed at improvement and borrowed from business and industry. Research indicates that this performance orientation to change in higher education has largely failed, due in part to the lack of attention given to the culture of the institution.
Emerging research indicates a …

Culture In A Box: Experiencing Kyrgyzstan Through An Interactive Learning Center, Mary Elizabeth Mccune

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The goal of this project is to use creativity to produce an interesting and fun learning experience about the foreign country Kyrgyzstan. Using current research on the best ways to structure a learning environment, a display was created in which people of high school age and above can participate and learn new information. Kyrgyzstan was chosen as the topic of the learning center because it is a relatively unknown country to most Americans, yet a look into its culture produces a greater understanding and appreciation for the creativity of the people living there.

Critical Voices In Action: Teaching For Social Justice In Community-Based Art Education, Catherine A. Driskell

Art and Design Theses

If community is defined as a group of teachers, learners, and others who collaborate to achieve common goals, art education that is based on the interests and needs of that community can be identified as community-based art education (CBAE). CBAE programs often have goals that are congruent with educational theory or pedagogy for social justice. In this study five CBAE programs were examined for purposes, goals, instructional methods, and curriculum in order to determine how pedagogy for social justice could be applied to art education in community-based settings. The five CBAE programs were evaluated with a rubric integrating social justice …

Role Of Perceived Partner Responsiveness On Mexican American Males' Pain Severity And Depressive Symptomatology, Carolyn M. Freedman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of cultural indicators in moderating the influence of perceived partner responses and relationship satisfaction on pain severity and depressive symptomatology among a sample of 62 married and cohabiting Mexican American men, the majority of whom were first generation Mexican Americans, with chronic back and/or neck pain. The cultural indicators were not found to act as moderators in the analyses that involved pain severity and depressive symptomatology as outcome variables. Nevertheless, this study's findings are an important initial step in understanding the relationship dynamics among an understudied population with chronic pain and raise many important questions …

The Contemporary Perspective Of Wellness Through The Voices Of The Kūpuna, Anne P. Odell Phd

Dissertations

Few studies successfully explain the decline of Hawaiian health, nor provide enough insight to the cultural determinants that affect Hawaiian wellness. For over two hundred years, Hawaiians have been influenced by a changing landscape mostly imposed upon Hawaiians and Hawaiian lands as a consequence of being conquered by powerful Western cultures. This grounded theory study utilized video elicitation and focus group methodologies to examine the perspective of wellness in a group of Hawaiian elders known as kūpuna. Following the viewing of a documentary film designed to elicit culturally based memories, a series of interview questions were asked to foster group …

Influence Of Overseas Travel Experiences On The Worldviews Of U.S. Backpackers, Mark Kanning

All Dissertations

Backpacking as a type of overseas travel has become a global phenomenon represented by people of various nationalities forming a postmodern dynamic, nomadic global community of travelers influencing, and being influenced by, each other and the locales in which they visit. Typically associated with overseas budget travel, backpacking has become an important component of global travel and tourism. However, research on backpackers. from the United States have not been well represented in the travel and tourism literature. Recent publication has called for research to be conducted on backpackers originating from around the world including the United States. This dissertation addresses …

Honor Killings: Cultural And Legal Implications In Jordan And Its Obligations Towards International Human Rights Law, Rana Dino

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to discuss and examine the practice of honor killings with a special focus on Jordan and its violation of international human rights law specifically women's right. After discussing the relationship between violence against women, discrimination against women and their link to honor killings, the discussion will focus on honor killings in Jordan and the local policies used in Jordanian legislations that discriminate against women and imply governmental tolerance of discriminatory acts against Jordanian women.

Equity Pedagogy In The Secondary Mathematics Classrooms Of Three Preservice Teachers, Pamela Annette Seda

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

In the United States, diverse learners, defined by race, ethnicity, language, and socioeconomic status, do poorly in mathematics in disproportionate numbers. Research suggests that teachers who use instructional practices that build on the cultural strengths of racial and ethnic minorities can increase academic achievement for these students. Using culturally relevant pedagogy as a theoretical framework, this qualitative case study investigated the equity pedagogy of three secondary mathematics student interns in an alternative teacher preparation program during their student teaching experience. The following research questions were also investigated: What school factors do the interns perceive to influence their decisions in implementing …

Exploratory Study Of Construction Safety Culture Through Systems Thinking, Charles J. Jr Benford

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Since its conception, in 1986 after the Chernobyl accident, the term "safety culture" has gained major popularity throughout many systems, especially the construction industry. Although this concept has gained much popularity over the course of two decades, it remains a heavily debated topic between advocates and skeptics for various reasons. Much of the skepticism is due to the failure of proponents of the concept to clearly define and provide an understanding of those factors that comprise what "safety culture" is, and how it can be achieved. A system (particularly a construction system) that possesses a safety culture is one in …

Poppe Culture, Jaq Greenspon

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

We open in Venice Beach, with the hung-over Skids Poppe (30's). Skids, a former biker, is now a cult journalist for a variety of magazines. He still retains his dubious friends, one of which, Guantanamo Bey (30's), is an ex-military loafer who's sleeping on Skids' floor. Skids refers to Guantanamo as his "faithful sidekick." So, when another old friend, Bernie, calls Skids up and says he needs help, Skids and Guantanamo figure they'll get a free breakfast out of it at their favorite hang-out, the Sidewalk Cafe, a Venice Beach landmark; Skids says he knows better, but he still agrees …

The Effects Of Trauma Experiences In Maltreated Adolescents With Respect To Familial And Cultural Variables, Amie Marie Lemos-Miller

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Child maltreatment is a societal problem that affects thousands of youths in the United States. Substantial amounts of youths affected by child maltreatment develop Posttraumatic Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Depression, maladaptive cognitions, dissociation, and anger are symptoms often associated with presentations of PTSD. Specifically, these PTSD-related symptoms may influence development and maintenance of PTSD. This study examined PTSD-related symptoms and PTSD associated with child maltreatment within a culturally competent, ecologically-based framework; The first hypothesis was that family expressiveness, cohesion, control, conflict, and independence would mediate the relationship between (1) PTSD-related symptoms of depression, dissociation, maladaptive cognitions, and anger and (2) PTSD …

The Influence Of Cultural Diversity On Initial Decisions To Trust In Newly Forming Teams: A Policy Capturing Approach, Heather Priest Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of diversity on the decision to trust at team formation when no history or prior relationship exists. The study consisted of two phases: 1) a selection phase and 2) a policy capturing phase. The first phase consisted of demographics, propensity to trust, and prejudice scales that were used to select participants for phase 2. The second phase consisted of a full factorial design, policy capturing study which consisted of 64 scenarios which varied the level (i.e., high and low) of 6 variables: cultural diversity, attribution, perceptions of risk, trustworthiness, third party information, and role clarity. …

Debating Identity: Urban Indians In The Healthcare System, Erin J. Klahn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent years, the public health sector has recommended that healthcare practitioners become culturally competent in order to reduce health disparities in minority groups. It was reported later in the Surgeon General's Report (1999) on mental health, that culture shapes the healthcare experience for minority groups and in turn may influence the treatment course. Cultural competence models have been proposed in conjunction with the development of ethnic-specific mental health clinics, where practitioners and patients are ethnically similar, and programs are designed with the groups’ unique cultural needs in mind. This poses a particularly unique dilemma for urban Indians as their …

Memories And Milestones: The Brighton Seminole Tribe Of Florida And The Digitization Of Culture, April Van Camps

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project discusses individual photographs of the Brighton Seminole Tribe of Florida from the early 1900s to the current period, each organized by way of their institutional significance, not their place in chronological history. Following Jean Mohr and John Berger's model in Another Way of Telling, I create a narrative for the pictures with a discussion of historical information, current data from interviews, Tribal members' stories, and my own personal story as it is tethered to the tribe. The research addresses the following questions: Can photography offer a technological means to communicate culture in a vital, organic way? Can …

Stranger In A Strange Land: The Struggle For Cultural And Personal Identity In Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World, Laura E. Smith

Honors Theses

In order to explicate Murakami's version of the official culture, I have analyzed the novel with the works of several different theorists. Primarily, I drew my own understanding of the official culture from Raymond Williams's examination of culture in Marxism and Literature. His terminology became helpful in writing about the operation of the System and the Town, though it did not define that operation precisely. Williams's work also introduced me to the theory behind the official culture's manipulation and exclusion of historical aspects in order to create their "official" version of history, from which the official culture draws its identity. …

Alzheimer's Caregiving Appraisal, Andre' Fortier

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge base of AD caregiving appraisal by understanding a connection of factors that influence caregiving appraisal. It is important for the profession of social work to understand the complexities which may impact the level of care and/or appraisal. A combination of research questions and hypotheses were devised to determine the influence of each factor and/or a combination of factors on caregiving appraisal. The survey comprises of six sections: demographics and stage of AD, burden, resilience, family strengths, ethnic awareness, and caregiving appraisal. The overall survey was designed by the researcher; …

Walden Pond And The Performative Touristic Gaze, Daniel Christopher Bono

LSU Master's Theses

This is an ethnographic study of tourism at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. I argue that Walden Pond operates as a site that creates tensions among visitors due to the ways that time has transformed the once serene landscape into an overcrowded swimming pool. These tensions, however, fall under the expectation that the State Reservation of Massachusetts (re)creates Thoreau’s Walden as suggested in his discourse, but the performance of history is enacted through the creation of meaning among visitors engaging in a dialogue that references the past, talking about a space that has cultural significance. Exploring the touristic experience and …

Culturally-Constructed Barriers, Hae-Jung Lee

LSU Master's Theses

I have traveled to and lived in many different countries outside my native country of Korea. These opportunities have allowed me to meet diverse people and learn about their unique cultures. While living in the United States, I have experienced culture shock in such everyday activities as observing students eating food during class, wearing pajamas at school, and other similar displays of informal behavior. I was taught to follow Confucian ideas; the basic principles being to respect one¡¯s elders and to be considerate of other people. Compared to Korean culture, Western culture seems very open-minded and individualistic. Adjusting to the …

Bringing African Dance And Drumming To Rural Northern Colorado, Melissa Claeys

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

For my Final Creative Project, I set out to bring change to a rural Colorado school. I was to propose and pilot a unit in African Drumming. My eventual goal was to have this class offered for the fall of 2008 in the student class handbook and be able to teach this course. I began my process in the summer of 2007 engaging in conversations with my future colleagues asking for their support in this goal. We were able to come upon an agreement that I would be able to write and propose a new course with an accompanying curriculum …