Education Commons^™

Race, Resilience, And Resistance: A Culturally Relevant Examination Of How Black Women School Leaders Advance Racial Equity And Social Justice In U.S. Schools, Tonya Evette Walls

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This culturally relevant qualitative examination of the leadership of Black women educational leaders (BWEL) committed to advancing a social justice leadership agenda within the contested spaces (Stovall, 2004) comprising United States (U.S.) P-12 schools, employs an African centered emancipatory methodology (Kershaw, 1990, 1992; Tillman, 2002), situated in a conceptual framework grounded in the research on applied critical leadership (Santamaria, 2013). It examines, highlights, celebrates, and makes transparent, the unique leadership of BWEL. Engaged to rebuke the silencing and marginalization of women educational leaders of color in the educational leadership discourse, this study bridges engages a multiple case study approach, phenomenological …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of The Lived Experiences And Mentoring Relationships Of Black Women Student Affairs Administrators, Tiffany Shawna Wiggins

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Contemporary literature regarding the experiences of Black women in higher education administration is scarce, and that which does exist, often focuses on those who serve in teaching faculty roles, and/or fails to provide a holistic perspective on the lives of those who makeup this group. Utilizing an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, this qualitative investigation explored the lives of Black women college administrators from their perspective. Grounded in the theoretical framework of Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Feminist Thought, this study aimed to uncover the lived experiences of Black women student affairs administrators as they relate to their professional demands and pursuits …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

The Impact Of Supportive Parenting On Career Confidence Of Young Adults, Salma Ettefagh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Despite freedoms for women in modern economies, there remains a large disparity between female graduation rates and women achieving high-ranking positions in the business world. Confidence may be one factor why women are underrepresented in the executive class.This

exploratory research investigated if supportive parenting has an effect on self-reported career confidence among undergraduates. A quantitative ANOVA analysis found that instrumental support factors (for example, money and tuition) overall were significant in predicting performance-based confidence, particularly for males. However, qualitative results showed that supportive parenting and confidence are not always correlated.

Impact Of Islamophobia On Post-Secondary Muslim Students Attending Ontario Universities, Hassina Alizai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the experiences of Muslim Canadian students attending institutions of higher education in the context of increasing Islamophobia. This study utilized qualitative case study methodology to investigate the following questions: (1) What are the experiences of Muslim Canadians attending institutions of higher education in the current context of Islamophobia? (2) How is the rising anti-Muslim sentiment impacting the academic performance of Muslim students? (3) How do Muslim students negotiate or navigate their identities subsequent to recent national and international tragic events (e.g. Paris Attacks, San Bernardino and other terrorist atrocities)? The students’ responses resulted in three major themes …

Identity And Community In Rural Higher Education: Creating New Pathways To Women's Leadership In Oaxaca, Mexico, Amanda Marie Elder

Dissertations and Theses

The emergence of higher education opportunities in rural areas of Mexico such as throughout the state of Oaxaca has opened new opportunities for young women's professional development and new individual and community identities. I explore tensions between the collective imaginary of rural Mexico and rural women's emerging sense of independence and self-determination in light of higher education's expanding opportunities. Educational opportunities lead to community formation around commonality of experience in addition to ascribed community relationships and roles. I situate this analysis within the context of the Universidad Tecnológica de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca (UT), a small university in San …

Beyond Bathrooms: Exploring The Negative Impact Of Hostile Campus Climates On Queer Students, Deaglan An

Global Honors Theses

Anti-Queer violence is a form of systemic oppression that exists on a global level. This paper focuses on anti-Queer violence in higher education, how hostile campus climates impact Queer students, and what communities can do to reduce anti-Queer violence at their institutions. Queer students who deal with hostile campus climates, experience anti-Queer violence from their fellow students, staff and faculty, and their institutions. Students who experience anti-Queer violence can experience emotional distress. This emotional distress can result in students preforming poorly academically, silencing their Queer identities to feel safer on campus, and can result in students leaving their academic institutions. …

Queer Teachers In Catholic Schools: Cosmic Perceptions Of An Easter People, Kevin Stockbridge

Educational Studies Dissertations

Queer-teacher lives aren’t easy! They experience isolation and bifurcation of their lives on a daily basis. How much more difficult must life be for these teachers in the theologically heteronormative context of the Catholic school? Yet, these teachers remain educators in these institutions, sensing goodness in what they are doing and in the future of these schools. Inspired by this interesting reality of tension, this study asks two important questions. First, how do queer teachers understand their identities as constructed in a Catholic school? Secondly, it wants to know what action teachers will take when they have come to an …

Is Restorative Justice Doing Enough To Address The Power Imbalances Caused By Systems Of Privilege And Oppression, Matthew Furnell

Capstone Collection

Restorative justice is an ever growing philosophy which is causing a paradigm shift in the way society understands and responds to crime, punishment and victimization. The State of Vermont has become a pioneer and an example of how to implement restorative practices into the official criminal justice system, developing an alternative process to traditional punitive approaches. However, it is now more important than ever to ensure that there is not a false sense of success or a level of complacency in the further development of restorative practices. It is time to critically analyse the current restorative process and explore the …

Girls Are Us: A Collection Of Oral Histories From The Jmu Community, Anne M. Sherman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On a campus where women make up a majority of the student population, it is especially important that female voices are heard and given a platform on which they can control their own narrative. I wanted to give those female-identifying voices that platform. I conducted a series of interviews to examine how college-aged female-identifying students feel about their identity and how they construct that identity within the climate of the JMU community. I was particularly interested in the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual preference, and ability. I asked each person to share their stories of times when they …

Breaking The Cycle Of Silence : The Significance Of Anya Seton's Historical Fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the feminist significance of Anya Seton’s historical novels, My Theodosia (1941), Katherine (1954), and The Winthrop Woman (1958). The two main goals of this project are to 1.) identify and explain the reasons why Seton’s historical novels have not received the scholarly attention they are due, and 2.) to call attention to the ways in which My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman offer important feminist interventions to patriarchal social order. Ultimately, I argue that My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman deserve more scholarly attention because they are significant contributions to women’s …

Analysis Of Gender And Gender-Related Implicit Leadership Themes In Hr Practitioner Literature : A Comparison Of The United States And Brazilian Hr Practitioner Publications., Flavia De Sousa E Castro Rossetti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the many factors studied in relation to the women and leadership equality gap are gender stereotypes, implicit leadership theories, and the congruity of gender role expectations (Eagly, & Karau, 2002). Multiple studies in the scholarly literature support the finding that men, rather than women, are more likely to be seen as leaders (Bierma, 2016; Eagly, & Schmidt, 2001), and this finding appears to be robust across some cultures (Schein, 2001). While the scholarly research on women and leadership has been burgeoning, few research studies have investigated how human resource (HR) practitioner literature addresses themes related to women and leadership …

Going With The Flow: Using Menstrual Education As A Tool For Empowering Post Pubescent Nepali Girls, Graceann L. Cadiz

Master's Theses

Global discourse and research evidence on the benefits of girl’s education show that prioritizing girl’s education is the most successful strategy of breaking the cycle of poverty, gender inequality, and overpopulation. Moreover, there is a growing interest in closing the gender gap in education, but there has been insufficient attention to the specific needs of girls experiencing menses or menarche within schooling environments. The beginning of menstruation represents a pivotal event in development of the adolescent girl but is under-recognized and deemed insignificant with a culture of silence present throughout the rest of their lives. While providing access to education …

Higher Education: The Impact On Bosnian Women Who Came As Refugees To The United States, Belma Sadikovic

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact college education has on Bosnian refugee women who resettled to the United States. The research findings help us better understand the effect higher education has on female students who came to the United States as refugees, their self-sufficiency and their overall integration into their new society. Using Kunz’s refugee theory and Bourdieu’s theory on social and cultural capital as a theoretical framework, the study explores socio-cultural factors that enable and constrain the ability of Bosnian women to navigate the facets of higher education, and how those factors affect their self-sufficiency and overall integration. The participants …

Lgbt Student Experiences In Boston Public Schools: A Case Study, David Geyer

Honors College Theses

While the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community has overcome great obstacles in its fight for equality, the newest challenge has become the poor mental health of the LGBT youth. In this study, the experiences of a recently graduated LGBT Boston Public Schools student were investigated through qualitative research methods. Interviews with the student were analyzed to determine what factors contributed to his overall positive experiences and mental health as a bisexual student attending Boston Public Schools. The showing of support from his mother and peers, along with the presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at his school positively affected …

On Growing Up Finnish In The Midwest: A Family Oral History Project, Ingrid Ruth Nixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores what oral history interviews with my mother reveal about the familial and community dynamics that influenced Finnish-American children growing up on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between 1930 and 1950. Close to four hours of oral history interviews were conducted with Viola Nixon, who is second and third-generation Finnish-American on her father’s and mother’s sides, respectively. After conducting a narrative analysis of the interviews, five themes emerged as significant to community function: family, language, education, work and church. I grouped some of these themes together to create three stories informed by materials drawn from the interviews, a cookbook, and …

Her-Story: Black, Middle-School Girls Exploring Their Intersectional Identities, Crystal Latanya Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

While intra-racial-group comparisons have lead scholars to argue that Black girls are succeeding academically and therefore require less explicit focus in educational research, there is little literature that focuses on the ways that Black girls’ experiences in formal educational spaces shape their emotional wellbeing and sense of intersectional identity—specifically, from their own perspectives (Paul, 2003; Townsend, Thomas, Neilands, and Jackson, 2010). In recognizing this relative invisibility, my research redirects focus to obstacles that typically go relatively unnoticed and unaddressed. Utilizing focus groups and diary/follow-up interviews as methods, I explore the subjective experience of Black girls within the educational context. Placing …

Kentucky Quasi-Urban Queer Identity And Spaces: Understanding The Queer In-Between, Kevin Blane Shields

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Kevin Blane Shields on April 5, 2017.

Work-Family Balance: A Narrative Analysis Of The Personal And Professional Histories Of Female Superintendents, Nicole White

Dissertations (1934 -)

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (2014), 74 percent of Wisconsin’s teachers are women, while only 26 percent of Wisconsin’s superintendents are women indicating a significant disparity among the educational ranks. Studies have claimed that women are obtaining their superintendent credentials at the same rate as men, yet in the state of Wisconsin, women account for a mere 22 percent of licensed candidates. Much of the previous literature identifies this problem and rationalizes it with the gender biases that have plagued women for centuries. This study went beyond that and focused on women in the 26 percent who …

A Theory Of Veteran Identity, Travis L. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--English

More than 2.6 million troops have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, surveys reveal that more than half feel “disconnected” from their civilian counterparts, and this feeling persists despite ongoing efforts, in the academy and elsewhere, to help returning veterans overcome physical and mental wounds, seek an education, and find meaningful ways to contribute to society after taking off the uniform. This dissertation argues that Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans struggle with reassimilation because they lack healthy, complete models of veteran identity to draw upon in their postwar lives, a problem they’re working through collectively …

Digital Literacies And “Glee”: The Role Of Fan Fiction Virtual Writing And Social Commentary In Response To Bullying Themes With Adolescent Writers, Mandy Rita Stewart

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DIGITAL LITERACIES AND “GLEE”: THE ROLE OF FAN FICTION VIRTUAL WRITING AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY IN RESPONSE TO BULLYING THEMES WITH ADOLESCENT WRITERS

by

MANDY STEWART

May 2017

Advisor: Dr. Gina DeBlase

Major: Curriculum and Instruction

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

As the education system turns its attention to climate, bullying, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) issues in the classroom, there is a focus on developing our student population abilities to be more accepting and tolerant of diversity. This study explored how ten students, aged 16-17, interacted with virtual literacy events on www.fanfiction.net, and how that contributed to their refinements …

“I Exist To Resist”: Navigating The Gender Non-Conforming Identity At Humboldt State University, Lizbeth E. Olmedo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

While transgender research is educating and reforming schools, politics and wider society, there is little work on a gender spectrum that disrupts the gender binary of (trans) men/women. This research is an attempt to fill in the gaps of people, significantly students who do not fit under the “transgender umbrella,” as this term has tended to clump an array of gender and sexual identities together. This qualitative research explores students who go beyond the gender binary and how they navigate non-binary, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming identities within Humboldt State University (HSU). With this present qualitative study, I examined the lived …

The Spaces Between Us: A Queer<=>Intersectional Analysis Of The Narratives Of Black Gay International Students, Bryan S. Hubain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The experiences of international students along the lines of race and ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and nationality are virtually unknown. This study utilizes experience-centered narrative inquiry to explore the experiences of Black gay international students, and how they are racialized and sexualized in American higher education. Using a Queer and Intersectional framework, this study highlighted power structures and processes that continue to marginalize Black gay international students in the U.S. and in their home countries. Their narratives reflected significant moments or events that were important to them and how they understand their identities and realities. This study provides a strong foundation …

Exploring The Leadership Experiences Of Minority Women In A Black Greek Letter Sorority, Ashley Nichole Jennings

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological research study was designed to explore and reveal the lived experiences of minority women in Black Greek Letter Sororities and their understanding of sorority membership and leadership development following graduation. Data collection was completed using two qualitative streams: online questionnaire and one-on-one interviews. This study will contribute to the discussion of leadership development for Black Greek Letter Sorority members. More specifically, this study focused on the role that a Black sorority has in developing minority female leaders as they matriculate and develop within higher education and simultaneously in the sisterhood. This research study provided suggestions on opportunities …

Perceptions Of Contributions Of Business Coaches To Female Entrepreneurial Success, Tracy I. Timberlake

Theses and Dissertations

Although coaching has seen tremendous growth and success, it is still regarded as controversial because there is no governing body that oversees coaches or the coaching industry. In this manner, the industry has not achieved uniformity, therefore is under much scrutiny with regards to the validity of the industry as a whole. With female entrepreneurship on the rise, many industry personnel are hiring business coaches to teach them the business building skills they need to start their solo ventures. This study aimed to understand the perceptions of the one-on-one business coaching experience from the perspective of the client. Because there …

Education And The Development Of On-Farm Identity: Dairy Farm Women's Experiences, Amy Leigh Spangenberg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women throughout the world have found emancipation through education. Yet, there has been no research on the role that education plays in dairy farm women's primary, on-farm identity development and how farm women's identities develop. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine dairy farm women's perceptions of previous learning (education) and its influence on their primary, on-farm identity development. The feminist standpoint theory provided the framework for this study. A homogeneous, purposeful sample of 10 active dairy farm women were interviewed using individual, face to face, semistructured questions to answer the question: What are dairy farm women's perceptions …

Cultivating Social Capital In Undergraduate Research: Key Sources And Distinctions By Gender, Heather Ann Daniels

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Women are outpacing men in overall educational attainment, however this is not the case in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields when women fall behind men. Establishing strong social connections is important to retention in STEM fields and persistence in the STEM pipeline. This study qualitatively examines what serves as social capital in STEM-focused undergraduate research and how social capital is accrued and deployed differently by men and women in ways that could be contributing to the gender gap in STEM. 17 students participating in external summer research programs at 12 different universities were interviewed at 3 points in …

Perceptions Of Transgender Students In Social Fraternities And Sororities, Stacy Rowan

Masters Theses

Recently, a total of ten social fraternities and sororities have published statements inclusive of transgender individuals, while others have remained silent on their inclusive policies. Currently, there is no published research on the inclusion of transgender students in social fraternities and sororities, though many institutions of higher education have started taking steps toward including transgender students. This qualitative study was designed to identify the perceptions of individual social fraternity and sorority members, the perceptions of their chapters, and how their chapters recruit and welcome transgender students into their organizations. The participants belonged to five different social fraternities and sororities at …

The Long And Unconventional Road: Stories Of Financial Challenges And Systemic Barriers In College Completion For Adult Women Undergraduate Students, Michele Anne Tyson

Higher Education: Doctoral Research Projects

The following doctoral research studies the experiences and stories of adult post-traditional undergraduate women through a feminist narrative inquiry. The study focuses on the financing of a college degree and will be explored through understanding the educational journey of each participant to highlight personal struggle and system barriers. Currently literature about the importance of institutional and federal assistance for this population is absent from higher education. Using a feminist theoretical framework and narrative inquiry, this study describes the importance and value of educating women to both individual families and societal good.

The Educational Dimensions Of Filipina Migrant Workers’ Activist Identities, Rowena Magdalena Tomaneng

Doctoral Dissertations

There are 10.4 million Filipino/a migrant workers worldwide, with the large majority of Filipina migrants working in traditional gendered labor such as domestic work, care giving, nursing, teaching, and factory work (Ruiz, 2013). Because of the private nature of household work, Filipina migrants are vulnerable to mental and physical abuses from their employers in addition to labor exploitation. While researchers recognize migrants’ agency and acknowledge migrants as political and social actors, few studies connect Filipina migrant workers’ activist identities to the political education they receive from grassroots organizations in the Philippines, United States, and other countries. Consequently, the purpose of …