Education Commons^™

Organizational Supports Of Rape Culture In Higher Education, Mary Beth Seller

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Rape culture has roots in our gendered history of the United States which manifests itself on college campuses as well. Attending college has been found to be the riskiest time for women in terms of sexual assault, as up to 1 in 4 women may experience some type of sexual assault or attempt during their collegiate years. This study explored how one college campus, the University of Vermont (UVM), has organizational policies, procedures and values that are perceived to support rape culture on campus.

Guided by critical feminist theory as its epistemological foundation, this qualitative study uses an applied thematic …

Hina Hanta: The Circle Of Metacognition, Tina Bly

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The articles of this dissertation combine to make an autobiographical written study, a Scholarly Personal Narrative of life writing. The work culminates with a research study by way of a Talking Circle among a group of scholarly elders who gathered to share guidance for Indigenous scholars navigating colonial structures in our sites of knowledge production. Utilizing a Mixed-Methods approach, this sharing was transcribed, coded, and examined via Western thematic analysis. Through stories, casting an international light, analyses reveal a work of written guidance not only for Indigenous scholars, but also for education stakeholders, for those claiming diversity, equity, and inclusion, …

Envisioning Equitable Access To Secondary Literacy Learning Through Sociocultural And Critical Approaches To The Implementation Of Multitiered Systems Of Supports, Audrey Flynn Richardson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

The acquisition and operationalization of literacy are of critical importance to all learners. The use of literacy and language abilities including reading and writing as well as critical thinking and communication are essential to accessing one’s human and civil rights (Goodwin & Jiménez, 2019). Because the acquisition of these skills and abilities does not always happen with automaticity or in the same way for all students, public schools are asked to provide layers of comprehensive support for students in their literacy learning. Since the reinstatement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, state and federal educational …

Making Meaning Through Leadership: An Exploration Of College Men, Masculinity, And Motivation To Lead, Katharine Stango

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In my previous role as the Assistant Director for Campus Programs at the University of Vermont, (UVM) I noticed fewer and fewer college men pursing leadership opportunities during their time in college. Student affairs practitioners and scholars recognize the benefits and enhanced outcomes students gain by participating in meaningful activities in college (Astin, 1984; Dugan, 2006; Komives et al., 2005; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Quaye et al., 2019; Tinto, 1987). When college men are responsible for higher numbers of conduct violations, sexual misconduct issues, and high risk drug and alcohol use in college (Harper & Harris, 2010; Young et al., …

Black Resilience And Empowerment Through Self-Affirming Self-Care At Predominately White Institutions Of Higher Education, Vicki L. Garrison

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The institution of higher education, especially predominately white institutions of higher education (PWIHE), perpetuates the subjugation of Black people through the existence of traditional societal ideologies, values, and practices that function with and reinforce racism as the norm. Limited research exists about self-care strategies that assist Black students with navigating PWIHE. The purpose of this study is to explore strategies of self-care that can assist Black students to more healthily and successfully navigate a PWIHE. This qualitative narrative study illuminates Black experiences, empowers Black voices, and validates Black truth while extracting and capitalizing on Black agency to generate knowledge for …

The Performing Arts: An Equalizer In Education For All Students, A Teaching Artist’S Perspective, Annalisa Ledson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the topic of performing arts integration in public education from the perspective of a teaching artist. The writing is comprised of a series of personal narratives woven together with scholarly references addressing education policy, applied behavior analysis, inequities in exclusionary practices and Autism Spectrum Disorder research. The intention is to draw awareness to the accessible role of teaching artists in public schools, the benefits of performing arts integration in education, and potential education policy shifts that could allow for students to learn empathy, vulnerability and sense of belonging. These narratives are used to support my position that …

Recalibrating Our Moral Compass: How America's Narrowing Value System Is Erasing Lgbtq+ People In Schools, Andrew Levalley

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis bridges the effects of society—meaning politics, policies, norms, and values—and school on LGBTQ+ students. Paramount educational philosophers, namely Dewey, Freire, Berliner, and Illich, understood that schools are a reflection of the communities they serve. I apply this common philosophy to the LGBTQ+ community to uncover the systems of inequalities that have negative effects on LGBTQ+ youth in order to promote better systems that include both LGBTQ+ youth and the larger LGBTQ+ community. To illustrate the effects of society and school on the LGBTQ+ community and youth, I use traditional peer reviewed researched data, current events that showcase America’s …

A Midlife Educator’S Story Of Change: How Learning To Live For Compassion, Meaning And Leadership Transformed Me, Alan Shashok

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

What are a person’s core beliefs? What do they hold dear and to be true? How does one go about examining their ideals and challenging them risking discovering there is a different way of living, thinking, or showing up? These questions and more are what drove me to enroll in the University of Vermont Graduate College and the Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) program. I probably could have attended a few self-help seminars, paid a life coach or seen some type of counselor to help me explore these issues. Doing the exploring via higher education and the IDS program seemed much more …

From There, To Here, Now Where? My Journey Of Vulnerability Toward Interdisciplinary Teaching, Jennifer Lyn Way

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Few words have the power to make people both cringe in fear and lean forward, fascinated to know more. This thesis focuses on one such word: vulnerability. Through the Scholarly Personal Narrative writing format, I explore what vulnerability means to me and how my understanding has changed. I examine how vulnerability in my life helped refine me into a wiser, more compassionate, teacher.

Teaching requires vulnerability, a willingness to risk failure and accept mistakes for what they really are: lessons to create a connection among other humans. This thesis portrays how I have come to understand and accept vulnerability as …

Master's Project: Burlington Geographic: A Place-Based Landscape Analysis And Community Engagement Project In Burlington, Vt, Sean R. Beckett

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Community health surges when inhabitants share a rich sense of place, a quality emerging when people are deeply engaged in understanding their complex and layered landscape. Wendell Berry advises, “if you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” But how does a city converge around a collective “where” that authentically represents its diverse stories and perspectives? Answers to this question become tools for growing sustainable communities.

As a program coordinator for the UVM/Shelburne Farms PLACE (Place-based Landscape Analysis and Community Engagement) Program, I orchestrated a city-wide celebration of integrated natural and cultural history called Burlington …

Hiding In Plain Sight: How Binary Gender Assumptions Complicate Efforts To Meet Transgender Students' Name And Pronoun Needs, Dot Brauer

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Existing literature about transgender college students calls upon higher education organizations to support trans students' use of self-identified first names (in place of legal names, given at birth) and self-identified pronouns (in place of assumed pronouns based on sex assigned at birth, or other's perceptions of physical appearance), but that literature lacks guidance on how to achieve this work, which is deceptively complex. This study addressed this gap in the literature in two ways. First by using critical theory to show how hegemonic, binary notions of gender shape intellectual, social, and regulatory dimensions of higher education in ways that complicate …

Vermont's Sacred Cow: A Case Study Of Local Control Of Schools, Michael Steven Martin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

When it comes to school governance, the concept of "local control" endures as a powerful social construct in some regions of the United States. In New England states, where traditional town meetings and small school districts still exist as important local institutions, the idea of local control is still an important element of policy considerations, despite increasing state and federal regulation of education in recent years.

With its small school districts and myriad governance structures, Vermont represents an extreme case example of the intersection between participatory democracy and the local control of schools. With nearly 285 school boards composed …

Prejudice Against Black Americans Versus Black Africans In College Admission, Asia Mccleary-Gaddy

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Three studies examined prejudice as an explanation for the overrepresentation of Black Africans and the under-representation of native-born Black Americans in Ivy League institutions. I hypothesized admission officers may use Black Africans as a "cover" for their prejudice against Black American natives. The admission of more Black Africans may allow admission officers to express their prejudice toward Black American natives while maintaining an egalitarian image. In Study 1, although the Black African applicant was evaluated as more likable, competent, and had a greater chance of being admitted than the Black American native applicant, differences were only significant when compared with …

Cultivating Well-Being And Contemplative Ways Of Knowing Through Connection: One Woman's Journey From Monastic Living To Mainstream Academia, Krista Hamel

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines how different types of connection – intimacy, community, and compassion – can positively impact the cultivation of well-being and ways of knowing. Using Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology (narrative storytelling supported by scholarship) I describe my journey from the 15-years I lived as a monastic yogic nun, followed by a period of heartbreak, to my recent experience as a tip-toeing Buddhist and mid-life graduate student who yearned for community, a place to belong, and an opportunity to be heard, seen and valued. I explore how the pain and suffering of loneliness, grief, loss, and change, when met by …

Gendering Fiction: A Mixed Methods Examination Of The Influence Of The "Boy" Book/ "Girl" Book Phenomenon On The Willingness To Read Of Young Adolescents, Megan Farley Munson-Warnken

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Well-meaning educators often recommend more "boy" books to increase reading motivation amongst boys. This experimental mixed-methods study investigated the influence of the "boy" book/ "girl" book phenomenon on willingness to read using a researcher-designed instrument called the Textual Features Sort (TFS). The TFS measured two attitudinal constructs—gendered beliefs about texts and willingness to read—in relation to individual textual features of selected young adult novels. Data came from 50 sixth and seventh grade students at a mid-sized public school in a rural New England state. Mean scores, frequencies, and percentages were analyzed using independent samples t-tests, paired t-tests, and Fisher's exact …

Boys, Writing, And The Literacy Gender Gap: What We Know, What We Think We Know, Nancy Disenhaus

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The existence of a persistent gender gap in literacy achievement, and particularly in writing, is not in dispute: boys trail girls in every assessment at state, national, and international levels. Yet although this basic fact is not in dispute, nearly everything else concerning the gender gap in literacy achievement--its causes, consequences, and potential solutions--remains hotly contested, particularly in the public and professional discourse. Scholarly research offers insights that frequently challenge the prevailing public discourse, but this research has been conducted primarily in the U.K., Australia, and Canada, leaving the experiences of U.S. students largely unexplored. Herein lies the problem: an …

The Passion Within: Challenging The Feminine Mystique By Educating Midlife Women To Fulfill Their Career Dreams, Kelly Depaolo

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This study is a very personal reflection. The purpose of the study is to illuminate how following the calling of my heart led to a deeper passion in my own work whereupon I realized my natural and limitless creative potential. It is a blending of my narrative with research conducted over a ten year time period on midlife women, work, and the search for passion within. The capacity and fostering of creativity became a focus in my writing because that is exactly where my spirit has led me. It has been my personal joy to put something in this world …

Out Of The Closet And Into The Woods; Nature As A Model For Resilience During Gay Identity Development., Lance Johnson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Navigating the process of coming out led to feelings of isolation, depression, and a loss of self-worth that were compounded by a period filled with negative social media and mainstream messaging. This thesis explores how an understanding of the systems and processes of nature as well as physical exposure to nature offered a place of healing and an avenue for understanding my identity as a Gay man: from identity confusion all the way through to identity synthesis. Using Scholarly Personal Narrative Methodology, I will interweave poetry and counter narrative storytelling to illustrate the significance of nature during my identity development. …

Damned If You Do--Damned If You Don't: A Queer Woman Of Color's Journey Of Trauma, Agency, And Leadership, Windy Paz-Amor

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Navigating systems of leadership in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in higher education as a Queer Woman of Color can be a challenging and complex process--one that integrates identity, experience, expertise, knowledge, patience, and most importantly the ability to risk; while remaining authentic and professional. It is a balance, which in my own experience and expertise requires constant reflection, evaluation, and adaptation. A negotiation of owning that one has power and agency, while realizing that the many intersecting identities that one holds influences how dominant culture perceives that power and agency. To reach authentic reflection and evaluation in leadership it …

Letters From An Interdisciplinary Artist: Illuminating Korean Adoptee Identity Through Mentors And Metal, Tonya Ferraro

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Interdisciplinary integration and practice through meaning making and context can contribute to the reconsideration and revolution of research by supporting narrativesand creating space for public discourse. In researching my heritage as a Korean adoptee, I found that the literature has been predominantly from adoptive parents' perspective,focusing primarily on child and adolescent development. Lacking in the literature is the adult adoptee perspective, and specifically their experiential voices.

This interdisciplinary thesis has three major purposes (1) to explore how transracial transnational Korean adoption affects identity formation, (2) to illustrate how mentoring relationships can be a means to address and reframe the theme …

Campus Climate Perceptions Of Queer College Students Of Color: Disidentifying The Rainbow, Khristian Kemp-Delisser La'mount Kemp-Delisser

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explored the experience lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer students of col-or. Influenced by the Queer of Color theoretical framework, this dissertation employed multiple methodological traditions (namely qualitative and Scholarly Personal Narrative), to deepen the exploration and unlock multiple dimensions of experience of queer college students of color.

Analysis of the student interviews produced 29 themes. The results are, framed by four categories of campus climate (behavioral, socio-historical, psychological, and structural or compo-sitional (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, & Allen, 1998).), and offer a glimpse into the inter-locking dynamics of racism and homophobia that the queer students of color navigate in …