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Full-Text Articles in Education
Under The Radar: Legislative Intent To Silence Critical Race Theory, Meg Hazel
Under The Radar: Legislative Intent To Silence Critical Race Theory, Meg Hazel
West Chester University Doctoral Projects
Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public education is a hotly contested issue across the nation. Since 2020, multiple legislators in several states have introduced legislation that would ban the instruction of CRT in public universities. This qualitative study explored Discourse models supported and upheld by these bills along with Whitelash strategies used to promote them. I examined 53 bills proposed by lawmakers, most of which contained lists of phrases usually called “divisive concepts” or “discriminatory concepts” that professors were prohibited from discussing in their classrooms. In addition, I analyzed 26 statements made by supporters of the bills that provided justification …
Resisting Neoliberal Policy And The Intensification Of Racial Capitalism Through Fostering Critical Awareness: A Series Of Educational Workshops To Occur Within Social Justice Unions, Chloe Polentes
West Chester University Master’s Theses
This is a master’s thesis that focuses on neoliberal policy within the education system. In this thesis I prove that neoliberal policy intensifies the current overarching framework of racial capitalism. I explore central elements of neoliberalism and racial capitalism to bridge understanding of how the two are intertwined with the goal of providing the reader an understanding of how neoliberal policy is detrimental. After an introduction to my thematic concern, an in-depth analysis of theoretical frameworks that helped shaped my understanding of my concern, and a historical and literature review focused on central elements of my concerns, I propose of …
Well, What Are You Going To Do With That?: Combating The Corporatized University Through Transformative, Holistic Career Education, Alexandra Karlesses
Well, What Are You Going To Do With That?: Combating The Corporatized University Through Transformative, Holistic Career Education, Alexandra Karlesses
West Chester University Master’s Theses
The corporatization of the university has brought with it a neoliberal ideology of belief that students should be funneled through systems of market-determined success that engineers its students to serve as human capital. Nowhere is this more evident than in career centers, which, due to declines in state education funding, have become chief sources of revenue for universities, and therefore have an increased dependence on employers to dictate university operations. The purposeful shift to a neoliberal, corporatized university model has removed focus from student-centered, holistic advising. Coupled with declines in funding, public perception, and extreme racial bias, the university has …
The Neoliberalization Of Higher Education: Paradoxing Students' Basic Needs At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Megan A.K. Schraedley, J. Jacob Jenkins, Molly Irelan, Megan Umana
The Neoliberalization Of Higher Education: Paradoxing Students' Basic Needs At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Megan A.K. Schraedley, J. Jacob Jenkins, Molly Irelan, Megan Umana
Communication and Media Faculty Publications
Millions of college students in the United States lack access to adequate food, housing, and other basic human needs. These insecurities have only been exacerbated in recent decades by the country's neoliberal approach to higher education, with disproportionately negative consequences for historically underserved populations (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, low-income students, and first-generation college students). For each of these reasons, this study explores the organizational paradoxes faced by students attending a public, 4-year Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in southern California. Drawing upon 30 semi-structured interviews with undergraduates who self-identified as historically underserved, our three-stage conceptualization of data analysis revealed three specific paradoxes: (1) …
Severing Ties With Traditional Service-Learning In A Neoliberal Society: Implementing Transformational Service Through Moral Reasoning, Feminist Ethics Pedagogy, And Critical Consciousness, Abigail Demcher
West Chester University Master’s Theses
This thesis critiques traditional service-learning from a neoliberal perspective. More specifically, I address how whiteness and competitiveness insert themselves into traditional service-learning in colleges and universities revealing their connection to neoliberalism. This Critical Action Research thesis explores reaching Transformational Service through models and theories of moral reasoning, feminist ethics pedagogy, and critical consciousness. In this thesis I propose a Social Change and Awareness Pilot Program for fourth-year students, which will impel them to understand and target their passions of social justice and dispel toxic traditional-service-learning ideologies. Solid leadership of this program would involve long-term collaboration and effective communication with communities, …
Mass School Closures In The School District Of Philadelphia: Personal Narratives And Impacts, Cristina Utti
Mass School Closures In The School District Of Philadelphia: Personal Narratives And Impacts, Cristina Utti
West Chester University Doctoral Projects
This dissertation examines the lived experience in a receiving building during and after the mass school closures in the School District of Philadelphia from 2012-2014. Qualitative data was gathered both by means of semi-structures ethnographic interviews of participants and an autoethnographical account of the self as a teacher in the district at a receiving building during and in the aftermath of the closures. The data found uncertainty to be a major theme among all participants as to what was happening in the School District of Philadelphia as a whole and within the individual school buildings during this time. The notion …
Identity Development As A Pathway To Self-Authorship: A Restructure Of Neoliberal Programming Practices, Christopher Mychajluk
Identity Development As A Pathway To Self-Authorship: A Restructure Of Neoliberal Programming Practices, Christopher Mychajluk
West Chester University Master’s Theses
The original purpose of student affairs was to help develop the whole student outside of just academics. I argue that to develop the whole student, student affairs professionals must aid in students’ exploration of self-authorship. Student affairs professionals do this work by putting on programs that allow students to explore their identities. I explore how this work is compromised by neoliberalism and as a result silos students’ ability to explore their whole self. To mitigate this issue, I propose a two-part intervention that restructures student affairs programming budgets as one shared budget in order to facilitate the formation of large-scale …
Re-Storying The Cost Of Higher Education: A Narrative Approach To Addressing The Racial Disparities In Student Loan Debt, Sarah Yaskowski
Re-Storying The Cost Of Higher Education: A Narrative Approach To Addressing The Racial Disparities In Student Loan Debt, Sarah Yaskowski
West Chester University Master’s Theses
This thesis investigates educational debt as a racialized construct resulting from deeply entrenched disparities expounded by the current marketization of higher education. Once hailed as a pathway to the American Dream, pursuing a college education meant access to the middle class which promised greater social capital and socioeconomic mobility. Yet for many students, specifically minority students of color who carry disproportionate amounts of educational debt fueled by this false promise, the realities of this pursuit are far direr. By framing the discussion through the theoretical lens of Critical Race Theory, this research attempts a more critical review of the discriminatory …
Leading For Change: Incorporating The Values Of The Liberal Arts In Student Affairs Practice, Ben Shalk
Leading For Change: Incorporating The Values Of The Liberal Arts In Student Affairs Practice, Ben Shalk
West Chester University Master’s Theses
Higher education, once a public good, has undergone a period of systemic divestment. The business model of the university, perpetuated by neoliberalism, has changed the values of higher education. Traditionally, the core mission of higher education created critically-engaged citizens who sought to democratize society. In its current state, higher education has lost its status as a public good that benefited all of society. The liberal arts can reinvigorate higher education by reengaging students through contemplative methods. Student affairs educators live in a world of limited budgets and neoliberal practices. The connection of neoliberalism to their work in student affairs will …
I Don’T Really Work Here: Part-Time Faculty And The Adjunctification Of Higher Ed., Maggie Cawley
I Don’T Really Work Here: Part-Time Faculty And The Adjunctification Of Higher Ed., Maggie Cawley
West Chester University Master’s Theses
This critical action research thesis will explore the 40-year rise of adjunctification, the term coined to describe the increased reliance on adjunct and contingent labor in institutions of higher education. This thesis will examine adjunctification’s detrimental effects on teaching in higher education as a profession, on adjuncts and contingent teachers, and on students. Institutional overreliance on adjunct faculty as cheap, ad hoc labor flies in the face of the role that education should play in society: to develop student potentiality and capacity for critical thought. I believe that the casualization of teaching and the subsequent rise of adjunctification preclude these …
Back To Our Roots: Revolutionizing Black Greek Letter Organizations To Dismantle Racism In Higher Education, Ashley Lyles
Back To Our Roots: Revolutionizing Black Greek Letter Organizations To Dismantle Racism In Higher Education, Ashley Lyles
West Chester University Master’s Theses
Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) started appearing across college campuses in the early 1900s at a time when racism was widely spread and accepted in society and institutions of higher education. Over time, BGLOs that existed at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) were forced to assimilate to the norms of the dominant culture as a way to mitigate the acts of racial bias and discrimination that these organizations were often subjected to. Throughout generations, BGLOs have continued to be deculturalized and therefore have moved further away from their intended purpose of fighting racial inequality and promoting racial uplift. This thesis seeks …