Digital Commons Network^™

Developing Cultural Competency In Anesthesia Through Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Emma To

Doctoral Projects

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are the main anesthesia providers in over 70% of rural hospitals providing anesthesia. Each year, over 2,000 student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) graduate and continue as licensed CRNAs. This Doctor of Nurse Practice (DNP) project emphasizes the importance of developing culturally competent providers in anesthesia by promoting early outreach in cultural competence education of SRNAs. Cultural competence is described as possessing characteristics of congruent attitudes, awareness, and conduct that provides and enables effective skills in cross-cultural encounters. Encompassing cultural competency education early in the SRNAs profession may provide valuable lifelong cultural skills that will benefit …

Developing Identity Among Third Culture Kids, Amy Carol Rustine

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore experiences that influence the identity development among Third Culture Kids (TCKs). TCKs in this study are individuals that spend part of their developmental years in a county other than the parents’ home country requiring travel overseas. Participants in the research were adults ranging in age from 19-22 attending college in the United States. Data was collected through individual interviews. Themes emerged after developing codes and analyzing the transcripts with codes. Emerging themes reveal TCK’s tremendous struggle within awareness of difference, struggle to fit in and struggle to belong. Teachers and peers …

Parenting, Identity And Culture In An Era Of Migration And Globalization: How Bangladeshi Parents Navigate And Negotiate Child-Rearing Practices In The Usa, Mohammad Mahboob Morshed

Doctoral Dissertations

Globalization puts into challenge the singular notion of identity and culture. Immigrant parents must navigate multiple cultural systems and constantly redefine their identities in order to cope with a new way of being. This dissertation is aimed at learning about this cultural encounter faced by Bangladeshi immigrant parents living in Western Massachusetts region of the USA. More specifically, I studied immigrant Bangladeshi parents’ identity negotiations, their navigation of transnational spaces, and cultural negotiation in relation to their children’s schooling. My research is informed by cultural theories of immigration and globalization. Guattari’s concept of ‘existential territory’ (Guattari, 1995, 2000), Appadurai’s ideas …

Cultural Priming And Psychosocial Factors In The Achievement Of Hispanic And White Students, Richard Peters

Educational Studies Dissertations

The rationale for this study is that the achievement gap between Whites and Hispanics can be influenced by reconceptualizing the learner process as one that integrates culture, motivation, and psychosocial variables, with academic performance. The study investigated the role of three psychosocial variables in achievement: familism, academic self concept, and ethnocentrism. It also reconceptualized one’s culture as a toolkit for instrumental use on tasks in another culture, adopted the dynamic constructivist approach to culture’s influence, and applied the original definition of acculturation, of mutual influence of groups in contact, to achievement. A pretest/posttest comparison group design was used. White and …

Perceptions Of Educators Regarding The Impact Nonprofits Have On Academically Unacceptable Schools In An Urban Louisiana Community: A Case Study, Frederic D. Washington

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored the perceptions of educators regarding the impact nonprofit sanctioned programs and services have on schools rated as failing, or academically unacceptable by the Louisiana Department of Education during the 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017 school years. The schools represented in this study are in an urban Louisiana community, serving grades K-8. Each of the schools represented in this study partnered with at least four nonprofit agencies that provide services in after school enrichment, community learning centers, fight diversion programs for students, mini grant programs for teachers, and sex respect/teenage pregnancy prevention for middle school campuses. This …

Authentic Learning Environments: Designing A New Standard For Public Education, Stephanie Griffith, Stephanie J. Griffith

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The intention of this thesis is to explore the architectural problems of public primary school learning environments and propose possible solutions. This thesis draws from various public blog and public web article accounts and experiences of those working in or studying the institutions of primary education and the problems they are struggling to address. The architectural focus brings to light that while most educators argue that teaching can happen anywhere, this body of research will propose an optimal learning environment in which a set of ideal values are defined as authentic learning and is used to encourage and support a …

Resisting Essentialism In Cultural Research: A Participatory Action Research Study Of Parent Involvement In Education Among Spanish-Speaking Students And Families, Michael J. Frank

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to investigate a locally-driven action research project to improve connections between Spanish-speaking Latinx parents and the high school that their children attend. Using Participatory Action Research (PAR), the study sought to create a collaborative research agenda that would empower the participants to study their own culture and practices at the school, and how the two combined to create a home-school partnership. Six parents and two members of the school’s bilingual staff comprised the PAR team, with a total of nine members including the principal investigator. The project began with the creation of a public sphere in …

Learning Lessons From The Impacts Of Relocating Indigenous Scholars For Academic Appointments, Andrew Judge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In 2014 and 2015, significant efforts were made by colleges, institutes, and universities to overhaul Indigenous post secondary education in Canada. For universities, the reasons are clear. University achievement rates for Indigenous peoples living in the sixty-five closest communities to where the 15 research intensive universities in Canada (U15) are located is five times lower then the national average. Three major documents outlining strategic plans identified a need to increase Indigenous faculty who represent just .3% of total academic staff at U15. To better grasp how increasing IUI numbers at U15 will impact them a multisite exploratory case study grounded …

Performance Feedback: How Structure, Culture, And Agency Affects Feedback, Angelica Sleiman

Dissertations

Federal and state mandates have placed an added pressure on teachers to demonstrate “effective” instructional practices. These mandates also affect the role of a principal, as an evaluator of “effective” instructional strategies, and as an instructional leader who continuously needs to build teacher capacity to satisfy these mandates. Accountability mandates promise to improve students’ academic performance but they have lacked professional development that would provide the support teachers and principals need to achieve success. Feedback is arguably a valuable mechanism to build teacher capacity and respond to accountability pressures, however, the implementation of feedback and its consequences for teacher’s professional …

“The Lolelaplap (Marshall Islands) In Us: Sailing West To East (Ralik→Ratak) To These Our Atolls (Aelon Kein Ad) Ad Jolet Jen Anij (Our Blessed Inheritance From God)”, Desmond N. Doulatram

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper discusses the expansion of Oceania through a Marshallese indigenous lens as a focal point. It explains that decolonizing methodologies allows reclaiming of space for mental liberation and reassurement of constitutional rights. It highlights similar occurrences of decolonization practices meeting resistance in the 21st century all while strengthening the human right argument that no human deserves any less than their fellow human brothers and sisters. It argues that an indigenous imagery can only be viewed through an indigenous lens where the researches’ level of purity is retained and unfiltered. It nevertheless argues that Marshallese ethnolinguistics reveal the same cultural …

The Application Of The Specific Learning Disability Exclusionary Clause As Practiced By Virginia School Psychologists, Kaitlynn Carter

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

When special education eligibility is being determined under Specific Learning Disability, the exclusionary clause needs to be carefully considered. The current study was concerned with the exclusions of cultural factors, environmental or economic disadvantage, and limited English proficiency. The study used a semi-structured interview to explore when and how the exclusionary clause is considered by school psychologists in Virginia and what type of impact it has on eligibility decisions. Ten school psychologists were contacted via the email database of the Virginia Department of Education and completed a phone interview. Grounded theory was used to investigate the themes and ideas regarding …

Contexts And Perspectives For Foreign Language Learning And Teaching, Kimberly Paige Fallis

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio highlights what the author believes are important facets and implementations of second language teaching and second language learning. This portfolio is grounded in two elements: second language acquisition theory and the author’s first-hand observations as a student in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. The target languages focused in this portfolio are English and French.

This portfolio is divided into three main sections. The first section contains the author’s teaching philosophy statement with focuses on student and teacher roles, tasks in the classroom, and the author’s experiences teaching English. After the teaching philosophy statement, there are …

Myths, Risks, And Ignorance: Western Media And Health Experts’ Representations Of Cultures In Ebola-Affected West African Communities, Samson Wonnah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 2014 Ebola outbreak, mostly affecting Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, is the largest ever recorded. The Ebola response encountered resistance in some affected communities, where some residents accused relief agencies from the Global North of denigrating local cultures. This thesis examines mainstream Western media and health experts’ representation of culture in the Ebola-affected region and employed Foucauldian analysis of discursive power to discuss the impact of such a representation on the concerned communities. Through a content analysis of selected journal and news articles by Western scholars and media and official reports by some relief agencies involved with the Ebola …

Embracing And Creating Culture: Exploring The Role Of Culture In Secondary Reading Education, Christina E. Ibsen

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis explored the role of culture in secondary reading education, especially as it relates to educating struggling readers. Through an extended review of literature, this thesis first explores the statistics surrounding struggling readers in the state of Florida, along with the demographics of struggling readers. Next, student and teacher culture is explored as it relates to their perspectives of and interactions with academic content and other students. Finally, this thesis proposes the use of embracing and creating culture in secondary reading classrooms through multicultural education and classroom culture and community in order to improve proficiency.

Perceptions Of Primary School Principals In Singapore About Their Role As Justice Agents, Kit Wah Antonia Teng

Doctoral Dissertations

Justice in school is central to both the Catholic church and the government of Singapore. Both institutions have expectations of principals as justice agents to serve the needs of every student by means of equality and equity in educational provision to all students. There is limited research on how principals of Catholic and government primary schools in Singapore perceive their role as justice agents and how they fulfill this expectation.

This qualitative research examined the experiences of primary school principals in Singapore in their enactment of educational leadership for justice. Of the 10 principals interviewed, 4 were principals of Catholic …

Mediation In The Mediterranean: Italy As A Crucible For Immigration And Intercultural Mediation, Nicole Patteuw Abetti

MA TESOL Collection

Europe is again in an intense state of migration influx. While some European countries have historical precedence for these types of population shifts, Italy has largely remained outside the modern phenomenon, since it did not experience the economic boom of post WW2 and the subsequent demand for migrant workers, nor did it experience the pull effect of language migrants after the decolonization of Africa. Italy therefore also missed the second surge of migration during the 70’s and 80’s when families of these immigrants began arriving in Europe. What Italy did experience throughout the 20^th century, and continues to experience …

Perceptions Of American Latino Families Of Their Children's Education: Stories From One Suburban Middle School, Jeffry Prickett

Dissertations

The immigration debate in the United States has been ongoing for decades. While the outcome of the debate means more for some than others, one thing is always a constant: there are families behind every story of immigration. To uncover some of these stories, four American Latino immigrant families were interviewed about their experience with assimilation and factors associated with the academic success of their children. The children of the families attended a rapidly diversifying mid-western suburban middle school. The primary research question was: what are the perceptions of Latino parents regarding their children’s education in their neighborhood school? Themes …

Linguistic Interactions Of Spanish Speaking Mexican American Families, Adelfio J. Garcia

Dissertations

This study explored the bilingual linguistic interactions in Mexican families and their impact on children’s language and literacy development. This qualitative study gathered data using different methods, namely, interviews, direct observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts to examine parents’ perceptions of their own educational path in comparison to their children’s educational path in an American school system, together with their daily linguistic interactions in various social contexts, and the features, themes and roles of linguistic interactions participants. Study results assisted in gaining deeper understanding of daily conversations happening in different social contexts and their impact on the language and literacy …

The Curriculum Of Cultural Reconciliation At West Virginia State University And The General Education Curriculum, Michael Carpenter Harris Ii

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This qualitative study examined the perceptions and experiences of the faculty and students involved in the creation and administration of the General Education program at WVSU. This study focused on the themes of the creation of the original General Education curriculum that included the Origins and Race, Gender, and Human Identity classes, the redesign of the curriculum due to the state mandate, and how the new version of the General Education curriculum compares to the original. The findings provide insight into strengths and weaknesses of the program, faculty and student perceptions, government policy affecting education, and possible pathways forward to …

American Nursing Students' Immersion Experience In Ghana: A Qualitative Study, Srijana Bhandari

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Health care providers are more than ever challenged to care for patients due to multicultural nature of American society. Studies report that health care disparities widely exist in our health care system and patients of different racial and cultural backgrounds do not receive adequate health care. Nurses are in the position to prevent and eliminate such disparities by providing individualized care to these patients. Nurses must be well equipped with knowledge and training to deliver care that is relevant and within the cultural context of patients they encounter. Studies have identified study abroad program as one of the approaches to …

Program Evaluation Of The Leader In Me In A Rural Elementary School With Emphasis On Hispanic Students, John Shepard

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of The Leader in Me (TLIM) program and philosophy on a highly diverse, rural elementary school in North Carolina. TLIM is a program for school-wide transformation that seeks to teach all students 21st century leadership and life skills. TLIM is based on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey (1989) and is an integrated approach to teaching leadership development. The study took place at School X, which has over 440 students. School X is diverse: 46% of the students are Hispanic; 41% are White; and 13% are Asian, …

Understanding Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Diversity, Catherine Moss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Diversity is a positive aspect of a student's educational experience. Current literature supports the value of diversity, confirming that skills are developed within a diverse learning environment that prepares students to thrive in a competitive global economy. The leadership at University X (UX) had implemented various initiatives to improve diversity, yet the problem addressed in this study was that students perceived differently, citing that diversity growth lacked progress. The goal of this single case study was to bring forth change with a specific intervention created to elevate diversity and a positive campus climate. Maslow's hierarchy of needs was used to …

A Reflection Of Adults As Child Participants In Commercial Activities, Janette Angella Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children are being used as marketers and consumers for the purpose of financial gain. Although much research exists about children's stance as consumers, very little is known about their role as marketers. Such lack of information indicates that children's authentic voices about their experiences are seldom articulated, heard, listened to, and acted on. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological heuristic study was to explore the lived experiences of former child participants in commercial activities in order to understand their perceptions as well as, the meaning, and impact of the experiences on their childhood development. The theoretical framework used included the …

Social Capital And Academic Achievement Of African American Male High School Students, Sabreen Ayesha Mutawally

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although more researchers have focused on academic deficits of male African American students, it is also important to understand the social factors that contribute to those who perform at a proficient level. Drawing on social capital theory as forwarded by Coleman and Putnam, this qualitative case study of 3 African American male high school students examined how their parent(s), teacher, mentor, peer or sibling, and pastor or community leader influenced the creation of social capital surrounding the students' academic achievement. Interview protocols and research interview instruments were developed and used to collect data from a total of 16 research participants, …

The Evolution Of Architecture Faculty Organizational Culture At The University Of Michigan, Linda Mills

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding and navigating the multiple academic disciplines and administrative subcultures, which operate within higher education institutions, is challenging for both internal and external stakeholders who may be unfamiliar with the disparate normative, regulative, and cultural cognitive systems that guide social behavior of each area. Higher education leaders need to understand the cultures operating within the organizational groups and subgroups in order to coordinate, integrate, and foster collaboration toward organizational and institutional goal attainment activities. This case study, which focused on the emergence and evolution of the organizational culture of the architecture faculty at the University of Michigan, provides insights into …

Effects Of Work Physical Activity Culture And Basic Needs On Physical Activity Outcomes, Erica Marie Thomas

Wayne State University Dissertations

Background: Physical activity (PA) levels of adults are low, and workplaces have been identified as an ideal place to promote PA. Participation in workplace programs continues to be low. Self Determination Theory (SDT) has been used to guide both PA and workplace research, but not both together. Culture has been linked to workplace behaviors, but not PA behavior. The purpose of this study was to test SDT and examine if employee perceptions of the workplace PA culture have statistically significant effects on PA behavior and PA attitudes, as mediated by the three basic psychological needs. Methods: Both salaried (N= 237) …

The Effects Of College Diversity Education On Ethnocultural Empathy, Addison Dean Monroe

Online Theses and Dissertations

Gains in ethnocultural empathy are one way to establish positive changes in social attitudes. The goal of the present study was to assess changes in ethnocultural empathy among students in a wide range of diversity courses. Preliminary data was collected from two groups of undergraduate students at a large, public university located in the Southeast (n = 47). Pre and post-test measures of ethnocultural empathy (EMC/RSEE) were completed by both the control group (i.e., undergraduate psychology students) and the experimental group (i.e., students enrolled in a diversity course). Post-test, qualitative data related to student perceptions and empathy was also collected …