Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

The Relationship Between Role Models, Socioeconomic Mobility Beliefs, And Academic Outcomes, Christian Koeu, Marisol Espinoza Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Objective: This study aims to provide insights into the relationships between role models, socioeconomic mobility beliefs and the education outcomes of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. While previous studies highlight the positive influence of role models on academic and career aspirations, the specific relationship between role models and socioeconomic beliefs remains unexplored. Our study addresses this gap by examining whether the presence of role models relates with more optimistic socioeconomic beliefs and how these beliefs, in turn, affect academic outcomes (academic engagement, academic intentions, and grade point average [GPA]). Additionally, we investigate the influence of role model characteristics to …

Shakamohtaa: Connecting And Coming Together To Support International Student Career Readiness, Sabreena Macelheron

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Abstract

In the evolving Canadian landscape, permanent residency acquisition has undergone a transformative shift from land sales to educational credential procurement. Canadian higher education markets post-secondary qualifications to international students (IS) seeking migration routes, posing nuanced challenges. IS, despite holding higher education credentials, often find themselves relegated to non-field specific jobs due to existing disparities in the Canadian job market. Amid this equation, IS grapple with the essential need for pre-and-post graduate career experiences to fulfill eligibility criteria for permanent residency application. This pursuit extends beyond merely aligning with their credentials, requiring conformity to approved national occupation codes aligned with …

Portraits Of Hispanic And/Or Latino Leadership Development In The Military, Michael Lugo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The study presented denotes a continuous transition among the Hispanic and/or Latino demographics in the military and the cadet accounts of military inequality incidents while in the military (Cabrera et al., 2017; Eckel & King, 2004). To assist Hispanic and/or Latino needs based on demographics and environment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Military leaders contribute to growing a diverse, inclusive, and equitable military force for all ethnic groups. The Department of Defense (DoD) is the most racially and ethnically diverse workplace in the United States (Daniel et al., 2022). Nevertheless, racial/ethnic harassment and discrimination in the military continue …

Examining Systemic And Dispositional Factors Impacting Historically Disenfranchised Schools Across North Carolina, Raketa Ouedraogo-Thomas

Dissertations

This mixed method sequential explanatory study provided analysis of North Carolina (NC) school leaders’ dispositions in eliminating opportunity gaps, outlined in NC’s strategic plan. The study’s quantitative phase used descriptive and correlation analysis of eight Likert subscales around four tenets of transformative leadership (Shields, 2011) and aspects of critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 2006) to understand systemic inequities and leadership attitudes.

The qualitative phase comprised three analyses of education leadership dispositions and systemic factors in NC schools. The first analysis of State Board of Education meeting minutes from 2018–2023 quantified and analyzed utterances of racism …

Transforming Land And Home Ownership: Emergent Strategy And Community Cultural Wealth In Developing Community Land Trusts, Ahmed Naguib

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the transformative potential of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in reimagining land and homeownership within the context of capitalist real estate markets. Utilizing a qualitative research framework that combines narrative inquiry with Emergent Strategy and Community Cultural Wealth theories, this study explores the intricacies of developing CLTs as a counter-narrative to traditional models of property ownership. Through extensive narrative analysis of four distinct CLTs in California, this research highlights the complex challenges and innovative strategies employed to scale CLTs in competitive urban markets. The findings reveal how CLTs leverage emergent strategy and community cultural wealth to navigate and …

"Shut Down And Closed Off": A Routine Activity Approach To Investigating The Relationship Between Covid-19 School Closures And Child Sexual Abuse Report Characteristics In Georgia, Spencer E. Riner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 created a public health crisis that led to an unprecedented number of school closures. A major concern raised by child advocates, law enforcement, and social service providers was the possible increase in undetected child abuse and maltreatment. Undergirding this concern was the belief that this mitigation effort might place child abuse victims and offenders within proximity for extended periods of time. While this was a significant concern, it has rarely been analyzed empirically. To address this gap in the literature, this thesis investigates how school closures impacted the characteristics of child sexual abuse (CSA) reports …

The Overture! Then Is Here-And-Now: Hindsight Is Twenty, Twenty?, Elena Kydd

Music Therapy Theses

My existence and presence as a Black woman and graduate scholar in music therapy have allowed me to share my experience of racial trauma and oppression in the hallways of GCSU’s music therapy program. Autoethnography is the method I use to write my thesis on the relationships between Blackness, pedagogy, and music therapy. Thus, I perform an evocative autoethnographic study that allows me to share my personal experience of racial trauma and oppression within the culture of music therapy and to critique the larger social structures of whiteness that disenfranchise and dominate me and other Black student music therapists (SMTs). …

“No One’S Hearing Me”: A Grounded Theory Case Study Of One University's Institutional Discourse And Women Staff Perceptions Of Campus Climate, Lorianne Crowder

Student Theses

This qualitative case study explores the relationship between institutional discourse and women staff perceptions of campus climate at one public university. Through a critically informed grounded theory approach, findings revealed how ambiguous institutional values functioned as empty signifiers which, while aimed at creating the image of inclusivity, were subject to various interpretations that may have fostered conditions for the dismissal of care ethics and relational knowledge expressed by women staff. Embedded hierarchies also persisted, shaping recognition of women staff along gendered, racialized, and professional lines. Despite exclusionary discourse cultivating climates of epistemic marginalization, women staff exhibited agency through connection and …

Digitally Rural: Identifying How Technological Inequity Impacts Rural Students In First-Year Writing Courses, Jo Anna M. Nevada

English Language and Literature ETDs

To teach composition in this era means to engage students with technology; it is all but an unspoken requirement at the majority of universities. This dissertation theorizes, however, that the imbricated use of technology in first-year writing (FYW) classrooms places rural students at an inherent disadvantage, with issues of inadequate technological proficiency and inconsistent access causing a substantial learning disparity between this student population and their urban peers. Through mixed-methods data analysis of student survey responses and final FYW course portfolios, this study reveals that the expectation of technological access and presumption of digital literacy is detrimental to rural student …

Strength, Rurality, Identity, Diversity, Elevate (Stride) Project, Lindsay R. Anderson

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Science by Lindsay R. Anderson on July 13, 2023.

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

Beyond Carceral "Solutions": Using Transformative Human Rights Education In Domestic Violence Prevention, Alli E. Rios

Master's Projects and Capstones

Domestic violence is a choice a person makes to gain and exert absolute power and control over another person. Unfortunately, the predominant structure for addressing domestic violence - the criminal justice system - is rife with problematic social and structural constructs, like patriarchy, white supremacy, and neoliberalism, which are themselves rooted in issues of power and control (Acheson, 2022). The influence of these factors, which are largely defined by exploitative hierarchies, helps to explain why domestic violence remains prevalent. To more effectively address and prevent domestic violence, research suggests that comprehensive policy and curricular reform are necessary on multiple levels …

Perceptions Of Student Loan Debt: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Black Undergraduate Students' Experiences., Pilar Prather

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rising cost of higher education concerns many families in the United States, especially those from historically underrepresented backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of Black students' perception of their student loan debt and how their financial knowledge influences their decisions at a public institution. This qualitative research provides space to empower individuals to share their stories through semi-structured interviews to get an account of their experiences. Grounded in Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Theory, the study seeks to capture the unique ways Black students make financial decisions. The dissertation is divided into five chapters: …

Hispanic Human Capital And Financial Aid Application In The West Census Region, Benjamin Lundy-Paine

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

As of 2021, very few Hispanic residents in the United States held a college degree in comparison to non-Hispanic residents. Research has shown that, particularly for Hispanic students, financial aid increases college persistence. Hispanic Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submission rates rank among the lowest, preventing many Hispanic students from receiving financial assistance. This issue is most prevalent West Census Region (WCR), where there is the highest concentration of Hispanic residents. To understand what barriers may be preventing Hispanic submission in the WCR this Capstone used logistic regression models to analyze student-level data from the National Center for …

Coup De Grâce, Violet Rea Mass

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project, composed of an introduction and a fiction piece, explores the complex power dynamics at play on the university stage put into perspective of the Human Rights study. The fiction follows young Olive as arrives for her first term at a university in a secluded valley where she must come to terms with a darkness greater than she had ever imagined.

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Undergraduate University Students With Part-Time Jobs, Miguel F. Bernard Bravo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored how the pandemic and the shift to online learning impacted university students’ experiences of learning and working, and how students’ capital and other resources impacted their university experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen undergraduate students who had paid employment in the last 12 months were recruited. In interviews participants were asked about their experiences with work, schooling and balancing the two with the pressures of the pandemic. Students cited financial concerns, as well as challenges with difficulties with online learning, motivation, and isolation. Importantly, this study found that students experiences differed in accordance with their capital and …

Effects On Youth Experiencing Homelessness In Public Schools, Abby Golish

Counselor Education Capstones

Abstract

An examination of the issues of youth who are experiencing homelessness is crucial in supporting this vulnerable population. Public schools have a responsibility to assist these students in their academic, career, and social-emotional development. With unique, personal needs, students who are homeless must be understood by school counselors and other school personnel to be appropriately supported. Homelessness can be identified through many characteristics and identified needs. It is key for school counselors to recognize these characteristics and consider the impacts that the school and resources can make on the student’s life. Throughout the paper, the causes of homelessness, potential …

Economic Disadvantage, Nativity, And Academic Performance And School Punishment Among Latino/A Children, Yolanda Chavez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultural explanations of how familial resource inequality negatively impacts the academic well-being of a Latino/a child saturate the literature. This study examines the relationship between economic disadvantage and academic performance and school punishment through Family Stress Process Theory, providing a contextual analysis of resource instability. The additional myriad of legal and social constraints that parental nativity provides for family members can moderate this relationship. Data was drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal measure of U.S. couples and their children in 20 large U.S. cities. Regression models indicate the relationship between economic disadvantage and academic performance …

Present Limitations And Future Projections: Food Insecurity, Housing Insecurity And Optimism Among College Students, Amber Obermaier

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the last decade, research has identified wide-ranging disparities in access to basic needs among university students. These differences, such as a lack of adequate food and housing during university, provide a negative environmental experience with potential to limit one’s optimism or hope for the future. This research explores how basic needs insecurity and social vulnerabilities among college students are related to subjective assessments of their prospects for the future. The present study utilizes survey data from a random sample of college students (n=300) enrolled at an urban university in the Midwest region of the United States of America. Logistic …

The Bursting Of The Non-Profit Bubble: Why Non-Profit Kids Simply Won’T Catch A Break, Jederick Estrella

Senior Theses and Projects

Studying conceptions of success within nonprofit and boarding school students and how they envision their future. Through an understanding of students' individual conceptions of success, one can start to analyze how reliant students were on elite educational institutions and nonprofit scholar programs to make them worthy of sponsored mobility through their track record of success.

Maternal Wellness: Self, Matrescence, Obstetric Violence, And Self-Care, Vanessa V. Vales-Lewis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I engage in a self-study through an examination of my experience of matrescence (i.e., the transition to motherhood). I discuss my praxis in the development of a self-study on maternal wellness as it applies to my well-being as both a researcher and the researched. In Chapter 1, I preface this study by highlighting critical scholars and the bricoleurs who have been foundational in my undertaking of this work on a narrative study on maternal wellness. Using bricolage as part of a research methodological framework that involved key scholarly methodologies of authentic inquiry, emergence and contingence, and narratology, …

Healing Racial Injustice With Mindfulness Research, Training, & Practice, Danielle "Danae" Laura

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This thesis offers a collection of authors and studies in support of improved research, training, and practice connecting mindfulness with racial justice through intergroup applications. The paper identifies barriers at work (e.g., colorblindness, spiritual bypass, white fragility, and implicit bias) in contemplative science, Western Buddhist communities, and secular mindfulness centers, which block the sizeable contributions possible in studying the intergroup application of mindfulness practice—specifically Lovingkindness Meditation, among others—when used as an intervention with anti-racist aims. Through secondary qualitative research, I reviewed six key works from Black authors on mindfulness and race, as well as six sample studies on the prosocial …

Assessing The Relationship Between White Privilege, White Fragility, And Masculine Gender Identity And Stressors In The Workplace, Anna Edelman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined how White privilege information avoidance and White fragility are related to aspects of traditional masculinity. Informed by Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies, this study examined the link between traditional masculine norms, masculine gender identity stress, and White privilege reactions. A sample of White, working men were recruited both through snowball sampling and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were first assessed on a variety of masculinity variables and then were randomly assigned to view one of two video vignettes. After viewing this video, their affective responses, White privilege information avoidance, and White fragility were assessed through …

"I Am Not Alone": Supporting Teachers Of Color Through Affinity Groups, Marissa J. White

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)

While research has indicated that teachers of color need to be better supported by building and district administrators to retain higher numbers, the literature lacks the best practices for targeted support specifically for teachers of color. This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice utilizes a qualitative participatory social justice design to examine the efficacy of affinity groups as a viable practice to support and retain teachers of color. Through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework, this study also explores the reflections of teachers of color at a Pre-k – Grade 5 school in a large urban district in a Northeastern state. …

Facultas Marginem: Assessing Disability Data And Public Aau Universities’ Affirmative Action Plans For Systemic Barriers Facing Faculty With Disabilities, Joseph Carlton Barry

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation contributes to education equity scholarship produced by academics seeking to develop understandings of disability, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and how both are situated amongst faculty in institutions of higher education. As such, this dissertation centers on a study of public US universities belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). This study looks for institutional level associations between respective rates by which college and university faculty with disabilities (FWD) are employed, certain aspects of disability policy drawn from each institution’s 2020 Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and various other instances of empirical disability data (EDD).

While this study contributes …

The African American And The California Basic Skills Requirement For Teaching, Willie C. Thomas Ii

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study examines why the passing rates of African Americans on the CBEST are the lowest in California at 60%. Madkins (2011) identified licensure testing as a significant reason why African Americans cannot enter the teaching progression. According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2016), California has an ongoing credentialed teacher shortage. An even more significant need is for teachers of color. According to the California Department of Education (2021), 60% of the state’s educator workforce is White, while the state student body, multicultural and multilingual, is only slightly more than 22% White. While licensure testing for teachers is required in all …

Student Loan Debt And First-Generation Community College Students, Sandra A. Fuentes

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The rising costs of college attendance and changes in financial aid packages leave students with little option other than to incur a debt of some amount. Unfortunately, colleges often fail to provide adequate financial literacy and student loan information so prospective students planning to attend college can make informed decisions. Student loans may seem attractive in the short term because, unlike other loans, repayment does not begin immediately. However, the accrual of student loan debt leads to long-term financial consequences, including the opportunity to build economic wealth after graduation. Utilizing a basic qualitative research design, I explored first-generation community college …

Disappearing Acts: The Declining Numbers Of African American Teachers In Public School Settings, Catherine F. Lewis-Brownfield

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

African American teachers are slowly leaving the classroom, causing an imbalance in the student/teacher ratio (NCES, 2019). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, African American teachers make up 3% in California and 7% nationally. This study sought to understand the reasons for the decline in the number of African American teachers in public school settings. Due to the decline in their numbers, African American students have suffered high dropout rates, low standardized test scores, and low college attendance (Gershenson, Hart, Hyman, Lindsey, & Papageorge, 2017). This qualitative study examined the obstacles current African American teachers face and the …

An Exploration Of Black Church Leaders' Intentions To Develop Critical Consciousness Among African-American Students, Taheesha Quarells

Dissertations

African-American students experience human capital opportunity and achievement gaps. Researchers have called for culturally relevant strategies to help close the gaps. The historic Black Church, a part of many African-American students’ culture and community, is a historic and current source of social capital for positive human capital development outcomes. Critical consciousness develops positive human capital outcomes, such as academic achievement, in African-American and other minority students. Much of the literature on critical consciousness is quantitative in nature and therefore does not include the intentions or the willingness of organizations to develop critical consciousness. Therefore, there is a need to understand …