Education Commons^™

A Bathroom Break For Teachers: An Institutional Ethnotheatrical Inquiry, Jonathan M. Coker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the teacher bathroom dilemma, a term I coined to describe teachers not having adequate access to the bathroom during their workdays. While this issue is widely known by those in the profession, only a handful of articles have been written on this topic. The teacher bathroom dilemma is part of a litany of working conditions that have intensified due to the neoliberal turn in education, forcing teachers to perform precarious actions that endanger their physical and psychological health. This dissertation explored how the teacher bathroom dilemma impacted teachers’ work and personal lives. …

Color Defined: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of How Race, Trauma, Gun Violence, And Grief Connect For A Black Mother, Kokita Dirton Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black mothers are disproportionately affected by fatal shootings and the need for making meaning and finding purpose remains overlooked as a vital component of building resilience in their grief journey. The purpose of this study was to (a) reflect on being a Black mother of a fatal shooting victim; (b) understand the grief and healing process that follows; (c) connect my experiences to those within the larger Black grief community, and (d) by example, help other grieving mothers navigate through their grief struggles. I used two research questions: 1) How can I learn about my grief process by using personal …

Deaf Lesbian Identity, Noël E. Cherasaro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deaf lesbians are a population that is underrepresented in the academic literature. Through the use of narrative inquiry, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with a woman who self-identified as Deaf and lesbian. She shared her experiences growing up as a woman who is Deaf and later in her life, realized she is lesbian. The researcher juxtaposed her experiences as a hearing, lesbian woman and an ally to the Deaf community to better illuminate the Deaf lesbian experiences. The research delved into how these dual minority identities have affected the Deaf lesbian participant as she makes her way in the world …

An Intersectional Examination Of Disability And Lgbtq+ Identities In Virtual Spaces, Justine E. Egner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a multi-methodological project that examines the experiences of being both LGBTQ+ and disabled from an intersectional perspective through narratives constructed in virtual spaces. In this project, I address the question ‘how do individuals who identify as both disabled/chronically ill and LGBTQ+ negotiate these often contradictory identities?’ I also complexify this intersectional analysis by examining how LGBTQ+/disabled identities are constructed in relation to race, class, and gender. Additionally, by conducting virtual ethnography as the primary method of data collection, I explore questions pertaining to how members of LBGTQ+ and disability online communities engage in virtual identity construction and …

Coloring In The Margins: Understanding The Experiences Of Racial/Ethnic And Sexual/Gender Minority Undergraduates In Stem, Jonathan D. Ware

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Extensive research has documented the experiences and outcomes of women and certain underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups in STEM educational programs. This paper contributes to current conversations by focusing on the experiences of individuals that identify as both a racial/ethnic and sexual/gender minority (SGM). This paper has two major objectives in mind: (1) provide one of the first empirical studies examining the experiences of SGM students in STEM and (2) interrogate the intersection of racial/ethnic identity and sexual/gender identity within the context of these programs. In order to provide a more robust understanding in these areas, this paper is guided by …

“I Use To Pray And Ask God To Give Me Another Chance”: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Males’ Journey Attending An Alternative School, Jimmy R. Caldwell Jr

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that there still exists a disproportionate number of Black males who have contact with juvenile justice systems across this nation (Nance, 2016). The disproportionate placement of students of color, specifically, Black American males in alternative schools, serves as the gateway to the school-to-prison-pipeline (Pelzer, 2012). This study examined the lived educational experiences of two Black American juvenile males, who enrolled in an alternative school in the Southeast. This study incorporated phenomenological and narrative methods and provides rich, descriptive analyses of the participants’ experiences while attending an alternative school. Findings from this study revealed instability among the participants’ home …

In Search Of The Artist: The Influences Of Commercial Interest On An Art School - A Narrative Analysis, Michael Leonard Sette

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study will investigate how identities and roles of the artist converge with competing identities and roles fostered at the institutional level within an art college as revealed through the marketing literature that they produce to attract students and business partnerships. The sociological focus for this proposal is the tension between art as a creative expressive endeavor and art as a commodity that has entered into social transactions unintended by the original expression of the artist. The researcher documents and describes (via narrative analysis) how an art school negotiates competing relationships between the pressures to teach and promote art …

Navigation And Immersion Of The American Identity In A Foreign Culture To Emergence As A Culturally Relative Ambassador, Lee H. Rosen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Globalization is forcing many American college students to re-evaluate their perspective on foreign travel. If they are offered an opportunity to improve their cultural relativity skill set by immersing themselves into a new culture, the more astute students might choose to embark on that journey especially if it would result in resume enhancement. This paper focuses upon a group of twelve community college students' cross-cultural experiences, navigation techniques, and adaptation methods as student interns teaching conversational English in Changchun, China for a period of nine to thirteen weeks in spring 2011. Several areas of interest emerged from their experiences …

Exploring The Motives, Perceptions And Constructed Identities Of The Facilitators For One Regional Council Of A Positive Youth Development Program: Girls On The Run, Ashley Ann Gallentine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the coaches' perceptions, motives and constructed identities by participating in a regional physical activity-based positive youth development program. There is growing evidence that suggests the success of positive youth development (PYD) programs depend on the environment that is created by caring adult mentors. These coaches are the delivery vehicles for these programs and play an essential role in the development of participating youth. As a result, the characteristics these coaches possess are critical to the success of the PYD implementation. Based on the application of anthropological methods and theory, this study seeks …

It's A Support Club, Not A Sex Club: Narration Strategies And Discourse Coalitions In High School Gay-Straight Alliance Club Controversies, Skyler Lauderdale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School reform efforts, such as those to form high school gay-straight alliance clubs (GSAs), are often met with resistance by school personnel and local community members. Using a sample of newspaper articles related to school reform GSA controversies in two Southern states (N=83) drawn from an initial sampling frame of GSA controversies receiving newspaper coverage between January 2006 and August 2011 (N=631), I use narrative analysis-- including a discourse coalitions approach--to identify common themes of resistance in the narration of characters, plot, setting, and morals which GSA members and allies must overcome to successfully form GSAs. Substantively, I locate four …

Caregiver Training: Increasing Generalization Of Parenting Skills Through Teaching Caregivers To Recognize Child Behavior, Mary Rachel Sawyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of a behavioral parent training program for increasing the accuracy of trained skills; however, few studies have examined the extent to which those skills generalize to the natural environment (i.e., the home) and are used with the target individual (i.e., the child). In addition, little is known about the direct effect that caregiver implementation of the skills has on child behavior. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to (a) assess caregiver accuracy with implementation of three parenting skills, and (b) assess subsequent effects of the parenting skills on child behavior. Results demonstrated …