Education Commons^™

Re-Envisioning Self And Community: The Experiences Of Pilipina American Students With Colonial Mentality And Decolonization, Kristine Angelica Din

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the invisibility of Pilipina American narratives in higher education by investigating colonialism and colonial mentality and how they may shape the experiences of Pilipina American undergraduate students in higher education. This study was framed by Pinayism (Tintiangco-Cubales, 2005; Tintiangco-Cubales & Sacramento, 2009), Strobel’s (2001) decolonization framework, and the Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) (David & Okazaki, 2006b). Participants reflected upon their life stories to explore and make meaning of the ways their lives have been informed by events that have occurred and the messages they received from their families, peers, teachers, and communities. Participants also engaged with indigenous, …

Professional Identity Development Of Asian American & Pacific Islander Aanapisi Staff, Sara Boxell Hoang

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

In spite of a swiftly growing AAPI undergraduate student population, higher education staff remain predominantly White with AAPIs significantly underrepresented within the field. The underrepresentation of AAPI professional staff is a problem not only because it may represent a lack of a career pipeline for AAPIs entering the workforce, but it also negatively impacts the large population of AAPI students who struggle to access and succeed in higher education. Contrary to prevalent stereotypes and misconceptions, many AAPI undergraduates are first-generation college students, come from low-income backgrounds, and struggle to obtain bachelor’s degrees (Maramba, 2011). Although AAPIs in predominately White fields …

The Boston Opportunity Agenda: A Historic Case Study Of Public-Private Partnership In Education (2007-2019), Timothy M. Lavin

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This historic case study studied the development of the Boston Opportunity Agenda (BOA), a public-private educational partnership, from 2007-2019. Despite significant prominence, influence, and investment from the partners involved, public-private educational partnerships in Boston have been understudied. The intention of this dissertation was to bring an understanding of how this urban educational public-private partnership developed; the motivations of the partners to participate; the partner perceptions of the successes and challenges of the partnership; and the extent of the partnership's influence on the Boston Public Schools.

This case study utilized qualitative methods of document analysis and semi-structured interviews of partnership leaders …

Don’T Ignore My Voice: A Call To Action By And For Gender-Expansive Youth, Sam Hoyo

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Gender-expansive youth are regularly discriminated against because they do not fit into the socially constructed gender binaries of the schools they attend. Nor, typically, do they have a general sense of personal safety, often feeling socially and academically excluded from their dominant heteronormative school culture. This youth participatory action research mixed method study advocates for the academic success of gender-expansive youth by documenting how gender expansive young people embody damaging educational experiences and to what extent these experiences can also lead to solidarity, resilience, and perseverance. The research findings include that gender expansive youth feel tolerated but not supported by …

Daring To See: White Supremacy And Gatekeeping In Music Education, Brian A. Gellerstein

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Music education in the U.S. maintains a legacy of cultural hegemony that has historically and systemically benefited the White students it was designed to serve, at the expense of Black and Brown students and teachers. As a subdiscipline concerned with cultural production and reproduction, the persistence of White supremacy within music education contributes to its indefatigability within the broader society.

This study is cast within a theoretical framework that connects critical race theory and critical pedagogy in order to address the ways in which music teachers make meaning of gatekeeping practices mediated within hidden structures of White supremacy. This inquiry …

Painting The World Crimson: The Global Spread Of Graduate Management Education As Facilitated By Harvard Business School, Keshav Krishnamurty

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The growth and spread of business education worldwide is a phenomenon of contemporary interest, because it has enabled the expansion of a global managerial class that operates as social and economic elites worldwide in a time of growing inequality. I take a historic approach to this contemporary phenomenon by examining the role that Harvard Business School (HBS) played in the 1950s and 1960s in the conceptualization and launch of the now very prominent Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. Using the archival materials at the Special Collections of the Baker Library at Harvard Business School, my research uncovers which …

Reimagining The Discourse: Media Representation Of Women In Boston Public Schools' Superintendency, 1991 - 2016, Lisa M. Cullington

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the relationship among public discourse, power and leadership for women superintendents in Boston Public Schools. For this qualitative study, I use a feminist poststructural discourse analysis (FPDA) to examine newspaper articles from The Boston Globe from 1991 to 2016. Through a FPDA, I illuminate the ways in which women superintendents have been discursively produced amidst neoliberal educational reform movements. In this study, I focus on how the superintendent’s role was conceptualized as a male endeavor in The Boston Globe, and the implications of this for current educational leaders.

Two major discursive stages frame the study’s time period: …

Unescorted Guests: Yale’S First Women Undergraduates And The Quest For Equity, 1969-1973, Anne G. Perkins

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

“Unescorted Guests” provides a richly detailed portrait of a fundamental change at one US institution: Yale University’s 1969 transition from an all-men’s to a coed college. This study disputes several dominant narratives about the 1970s youth and women’s movements, and deepens our understanding of three core issues in higher education research: access, the experiences of previously excluded students, and change towards greater equity. I contest the myth of alumni as foes to coeducation, and show that the greatest opposition to equity for women came instead from Yale’s president and trustees. I document how women students, absent as powerful figures in …

The Formation Of Scholars: Critical Narratives Of Asian American And Pacific Islander Doctoral Students In Higher Education, Liza A. Talusan

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the formation of scholar identity as informed by an identity-conscious approach to doctoral student socialization, doctoral student development, and racial identity as expressed through the critical narratives of Asian American and Pacific Islander doctoral students in the field of higher education. The study explored the intersections of race, doctoral student socialization, and doctoral student development – three areas that have been approached as separate entities in existing literature. By using life history methodology and narrative inquiry, this study contributed to a more thorough understanding of racialized experiences in doctoral studies. Critical narrative was used as a methodological …

Unique And Diverse Voices Of African American Women In Engineering At Predominately White Institutions: Unpacking Individual Experiences And Factors Shaping Degree Completion, Ellise M. Davis Lamotte

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

In 2012, 1% of the African American women who enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program four years prior graduated, amounting to 862 African American women graduating with engineering degrees. This qualitative study, anchored in interpretive phenomenological methodology, utilized undergraduate socialization with an overarching critical race theory lens to examine the manner in which African American women in engineering, such as the 862, make meaning of their experiences at predominately White institutions.

The findings of the study are important because they corroborated existing research findings and more importantly, the findings in this study emphasize the importance of faculty and institutional agent …

Fostering The Spiritual Development Of Undergraduates Through Service-Learning, Michelle C. Sterk Barrett

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

By integrating spiritual development theories with Sanford's theory of challenge and support and study findings, this mixed methods study examines how spiritual development may be occurring through service-learning. The relationship between service-learning participation and spiritual growth is analyzed by addressing the following research questions: 1) Does spiritual growth occur among undergraduates participating in service-learning? 2) Which aspects of the service-learning experience relate to the occurrence of spiritual growth? 3) What role do "challenge" and "support" play in the process of spiritual growth?

The 272 study participants are drawn from the Boston College PULSE Program, a service-learning program that requires 10-12 …

Spirituality As A Viable Resource In Responding To Racial Microaggressions: An Exploratory Study Of Black Males Who Attended A Community College, Lloyd Sheldon Johnson

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Upon entering college, Black males must negotiate a system that assumes they are in need of academic remediation and are lacking in higher-order critical thinking skills (Washington, 1996; Brown II, 2002; Harper, 2012). The low enrollment levels of Black males in college and their disenchantment with their college experiences has increased the likelihood that they will not be in classrooms with a diverse student population and a climate where they could feel comfortable (NSSE, 2008; Harper, 2006A; Harper, 2012). Black males who have enrolled in college must shoulder the stresses that accompany perceptions and stereotypes on campus about who they …

Bridging Worlds: Advocacy Stigma And The Challenge Of Teaching Writing To Secondary Ell Students, Laurie Zucker-Conde

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Standardized interviews with nine high school ESL teachers in nine Massachusetts high schools were conducted. The study examined current writing practices and teacher beliefs about ELL student capacity to achieve higher-level writing ability in the current high-stakes writing environment in urban public schools. Four major research questions were addressed: (1) How do teachers think about their role as advocates for ELL students? How do their classroom practices respond to the stigmatized position of ELL students? (2) How does ELL teacher advocacy influence how ELL teachers teach writing to ELL students? (3) How do teachers enable the higher-level writing abilities of …

Institutionalization Of Women's Studies Programs: The Relationship Of Program Structure To Long-Term Viability, Ann Froines

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the institutional viability of three interdisciplinary women's studies programs in public universities to determine whether interdisciplinary programs are marginal or fragile. The research question has three related parts: (a) What factors influence assessments of institutional viability? (b) do assessments of institutional viability vary significantly according to differences in program structure? and (c) what strategies have emerged to maintain program viability over the next ten or 20 years?

A conceptual framework of three domains was utilized in this qualitative case study: (a) program history, (b) organizational effectiveness of program, and (c) alliances built by program leaders. Organizational effectiveness …