Education Commons^™

Multi-Ethnic Stakeholders And Their Perspective Of Culture-Based Intervention Programs In Belize: Case Study Of Program For The Garifuna People, Juan Nunez

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how the development of Garifuna cultural identity by the Garifuna Language and Arts and Crafts in Schools Program at St. Peter Claver School in Punta Gorda, Belize. Culture-based education is described as contextualized relating “what students learn to their culture, communities, lives, and land.” This is a case study designed to understand the purpose of the program, identify its participants, review its curriculum, observe instructional strategies, and interview its stakeholders over a three-month period. Data was collected through documentation, direct observation, interviews, and audio recording. A descriptive framework was used …

Dissertation Abstracts 1969-2019, Center For International Education

Doctoral Dissertations at the Center for International Education

This is the Seventh Edition of the Dissertation Abstracts of the Center for International Education (CIE). It contains abstracts of all the doctoral dissertations completed by students actively involved in CIE from 1969 through the academic year ending in June 2019.

The abstracts in this document reflect research in the fields of Development Education, Nonformal and Adult Education, Literacy, Community Development, and Global Education in both international and domestic contexts.

The abstracts reflect the values that inform the research and the practice of the Center: the theory and practice of liberation, consciousness-raising, literacy and popular education, empowerment, social change, gender …

An Examined Life Of A Language Teacher Of Chinese: An Autoethnographic Investigation Into Agency, Ying Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

There is a paucity of research about and done by L2 Chinese educators regarding the theoretical construct of agency. It is also noted that the qualitative inquiry is marginalized in L2 Chinese research field, let alone the narrative study of the agency of experienced by L2 Chinese-teachers. In this dissertation research, I aim at filling in the gap by conducting a longitudinal autoethnography which captures over a decade (1997-2017) of my personal and professional development with an agency perspective. The highly personalized autoethnographic accounts open up my personal and professional life as an experienced, college-level, transnational, early 40’s female native …

Understanding China’S Discourse On South-South Cooperation And China-Africa Higher Education Exchange: A Field Research Study At Zhejiang Normal University’S China-Africa International Business School, Yi Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation research attempts to distinguish China’s model from that of the traditional North-South relationship, with a focus on how China’s philosophy articulates its foreign policy and the nation’s higher education engagement with African countries. It examines the China-Africa higher education partnership in response to China’s discourse on South-South Cooperation (SSC), Africa’s human resource flows, and the benefits and constraints of current China-Africa cooperation. In order to achieve these goals, the dissertation uses one of the China-Africa partnership universities in China, Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) as a site for its field research. The fieldwork looks at both a student level …

Teachers’ Knowledge On Evidence Based Practices For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders In Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Khodari

Doctoral Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) programs have spread rapidly all over Saudi Arabia in recent years. A number of teachers have been provided to teach students with ASD to improve their academic, communication, social, and behavioral skills. The main purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ knowledge on Evidence Based Practices (EBP) for individuals with ASD. The second purpose was to ensure the study was designed to meet the standards for quality survey research. A survey was used to meet the first purpose and a methodological review was used to meet the second purpose. The results indicated that the teachers …

Narratives Of Queerness: Queer Worldmaking (In) The Classroom With Undergraduate Students, Rachel Briggs

Doctoral Dissertations

This research brings together education research, queer theory, and performance theory to consider the worldmaking potential of the queer classroom. Using students’ stories about queerness in the classroom and my own stories about the classroom, I ask what we can learn from students’ voices about how queerness is/can be performed in the classroom and through relations. This study uses critical ethnography, personal narrative, and performative writing to examine the production of subject positions in the classroom, to connect this to a queer theoretical framework, and to explore the worldmaking potential of the classroom. I interviewed seven undergraduate students at a …

Kc 4.4 Building Multi-Cultural Understanding Through Translation And Dialogue: Languages And Terminologies For Icomos Ifla Isccl Rural Landscapes Principles, Raffaella Laviscio, Hossam Mahdy, Haeedeh Laleh

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

The spread and put in action of the Principles’ text in the national context require, first of all, the translation of the original English version. It is not automatic and requires different considerations and challenges (as linguistic and cultural). For instance, some English terms have no known equivalent Arabic terms (such as landscape, vernacular and integrity), other terms have different equivalents used by different individuals or institutions, others (as bio-cultural diversity, conservation, heritage, sustainable development) require some specifications due to differences in worldview and value systems in the different national contexts (and according to different disciplinary sectors in the same …

Fielding, Emily Tareila

Masters Theses

Fielding is an ongoing exploration of place-making, spaces of learning and relationship building in formal and informal learning environments. The project is comprised of a series of events and workshops that are embodied, multimodal, olfactory and engagement-focused and a mobile cart that helps to facilitate these happenings both in and out of the formal gallery space. I regard my art practice as pedagogical, a blurring of art and life into intentional ways of being in the world; an experience of sharing practices with others and a form of what is regarded in institutionalized art as social practice. I find art …

Bridging The Gap: Cultural Wealth And College Transitions For Upward Bound Students, Ashley J. Carpenter

Doctoral Dissertations

Often when assessing the success of minoritized students, deficit models place the weight of low achievement on students’ cultural identities, thus blaming them for their lack of success. However, many minoritized students combat this erasure by using their cultural capital, wealth, and identities to transition and persist through college. Using Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth model, this study explored the ways that 20 first-generation, low-income, Black and Latinx Upward Bound alumni implemented their cultural wealth to transition and persist through the postsecondary pipeline, and investigated the role of an Upward Bound program preparing them for college. Through artifact/photographic elicited, semi-structured …

Chilean Teachers Responses To And Understanding Of Student Interaction With Diverse Peers In The Classroom, Javier Martín Campos-Martínez

Doctoral Dissertations

Chile’s educational inequality has sparked intense debates in recent years (Cabalin & Bellei, 2013; Stromquist & Sanyal, 2013). While there is a wide consensus concerning the crucial role that teachers play in fostering inclusion in the classroom, research suggests that Chilean teachers, often without intent or awareness, reinforce exclusionary student interactions marked by social class and gender hierarchies (Carrasco, Zamora, & Castillo, 2015; SERNAM, 2009; Tijoux, 2013). Although teachers’ motivation and concern for questions related to exclusion and inclusion in education are spreading, navigating exclusionary dynamics can be particularly challenging especially since teachers’ initial and continuing professional education seldom addresses …

(Social) Class Is In Session: Examining The Experiences Of Working-Class Students Through Social Class Identity, Class-Based Allyship, And Sense Of Belonging, Genia M. Bettencourt

Doctoral Dissertations

Working-class students experience numerous barriers in accessing and persisting within higher education. These barriers are often amplified at public research institutions that facilitate greater social class diversity, career opportunities, and degree completion, but cater to middle- and upper-class students. The result is a contrast for working-class students in which higher education can serve as a tool for social mobility while also reinforcing barriers that reproduce class inequality. In this dissertation, I used narrative inquiry to conduct 44 interviews with 24 working-class students regarding their social class meaning-making, perceptions of class-based allyship, and sense of belonging. All three concepts have been …

Language Learners As Agentive Meaning-Makers: Exploring Learners' Investment And Meaning-Making, Shinji Kawamitsu

Doctoral Dissertations

The motivation for this research is the subordinated position of writing in Japanese language education. As many studies indicate, writing in Japanese language education is often perceived as a space for teachers to monitor learners’ acquisition of grammar structures and kanji (Hirose, 2015; Kumagai & Fukai, 2009; Ramzan & Thomson, 2013). Such discourse of writing conceives Japanese writers, especially elementary writers, as individuals who have little agency in making meaning. The purpose of my dissertation study is to explore alternative discourses of writing that position elementary Japanese language learners as agentive meaning-makers. For this inquiry, first, I explore literatures that …

A Top-Down Approach For Optimally Designing Multistage-Adaptive Tests, Hwanggyu Lim

Doctoral Dissertations

In multistage-adaptive testing (MST), there are many interrelated design variables that impact the nature and quality of ability estimation. Previous research has identified general principles for the effective design of MSTs in terms of measurement performance. However, those principles are unlikely to apply uniformly to every testing context. The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a process of finding an MST design that has optimal measurement properties, given a specific set of test circumstances. To achieve this goal, an efficient strategy was introduced at each of three phases to discover the optimal design of the MST; constructing MSTs, systematically …

Latina/O College Students' Experiences At A Predominately White Research University, Maria Alicia Remaly

Doctoral Dissertations

Latina/o students’ access to higher education has increased over time; however, the graduation rates for this group (52%) remain lower than those for white students (63%) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014). This low graduation rate presents a problem for the financial and social progress of the Latina/o population due to the key role that having a bachelor’s degree plays in the labor force. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to better understand the college experiences of Latina/o students in a predominantly white institution (PWI) in the state of Massachusetts. This study focused in key areas that are …

Retrofitting Educators Through Sheltered Instruction Training: A Longitudinal Case Study Examining The Efficacy Of A Five-Year District-Wide Intervention Effort, Marisa Ferraro

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the impact of a district-wide professional development initiative to foster equitable pedagogies and practices for emergent bilingual students. The initiative spanned five years, 2012-2017, across one of the largest school districts in the Northeast. This quasi-experimental, mixed methods case study was conducted across twelve schools to investigate the efficacy of a sheltered instruction professional development program in three areas: 1) teacher learning and knowledge about sheltered instructional practices (n=1457) and application of the newly learned practices (n=70), 2) student learner outcomes, as measured by a standardized assessment, through three cohorts of third through eighth graders (n=457) and …

Dropping The Invisibility Cloak: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Sense Of Belonging And Place Identity Among Rural, First Generation, Low Income College Students From Appalachian Kentucky, Brenda Abbott

Doctoral Dissertations

In a country that once was 95% rural in the late 1700s, only 19.3% of the population of the United States now live in rural areas (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The shift in population from rural to urban areas is not simply demographic; it imbues a shift in who and what matters. Only 13.6% of adults over 25 in Appalachian Kentucky have earned bachelor's degrees, 18.9% below the national average (Appalachian Regional Commission, 2016). This phenomenological study seeks to understand how rural, first generation, low income college students from Appalachian Kentucky experience a sense of belonging in their first year …

When Healing And High-Stakes Meet: Restorative Justice In An Era Of Racial Neoliberalism, Dani O'Brien

Doctoral Dissertations

Based on a 3-year ethnography, this dissertation documents the story of Presente, an explicitly critical youth-led restorative justice group attempting to dismantle the school-prison nexus and create a more youth-centered culture at their high-reform high school. This dissertation addresses the questions: How does serving as a restorative justice peer leader impact students? What challenges and opportunities arise as the school tries to transition to more restorative practices? And how do the values central to restorative justice come up against, challenge, and get challenged by neoliberal education reform?

Steering Against The Tide? Presidential Leadership And Diversity At Amherst College, Letha Gayle-Brissett

Doctoral Dissertations

One of the more significant success stories of inclusion in US higher education has been that of Amherst College’s transformation into a highly diverse student body. This research examines the role and effect of presidential leadership in Amherst College’s diversity achievement. Using a case study design, data was collected from interviews with then President Anthony Marx, various members of the College community who were central stakeholders in the diversity initiative, and selected archival original College documents. The research draws on Bolman and Deal’s (2003) organizational leadership framework to analyze how various institutional dimensions of the College were challenged and changed …

Interfaith Education And The Quest For Peacebuilding In Northern Nigeria, Ezekiel Abdullahi Babagario

Doctoral Dissertations

INTERFAITH EDUCATION AND THE QUEST FOR PEACEBUILDING IN NORTHERN NIGERIA Over the past thirty years, relationships between ethnic and religious groups in the northern regions of Nigeria have deteriorated. Conflict occurs on an almost daily basis between Christians and Muslims. Most Nigerians consider themselves very religious which often leads followers of the major religions to fight to protect the teachings of their faith. The high level of illiteracy and lack of interreligious understanding between the faith groups contributes to the propensity for violent clashes in the region. The literature review discusses the concept of religious education, interfaith dialogue and interfaith …

Navigating Mainstream Environments: The Impact Of Modality Selection For Children With Cochlear Implants, Kristine Plasse

Doctoral Dissertations

Communication is a fundamental component in education. For children who are deaf, cochlear implantation provides access to spoken communication; however, that access is different from that which typically hearing students experience. Because cochlear implants (CIs) have made it possible for many deaf individuals to communicate through spoken language, controversy exists in the education field as to which modes of communication should be considered for children who are deaf and have CIs in mainstream classrooms. This dissertation discusses a qualitative multi-case study that was conducted using ethnographic methods in order to examine the communication practices of two students with cochlear implants …

3cam Model Concept Maps, Critical Thinking, Collaboration Assessment (3cam) Toward The Path Of Mastery Learning, Elham Zandvakili

Doctoral Dissertations

This study reports an exploratory study of the 3CAM model of classroom learning. 3CAM is an acronym for concept maps, critical thinking, collaboration, and mastery. It is a student-centered approach to mastery learning that empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. The model is a theory and a practice. The theory is the language games of critical thinking and the practice is the activities of visualizing concept maps, applying critical thinking, collaborating, and creating their own assessment. Students play the language games of critical thinking using the WH questions: “what, when, why, where, who and how”. Students apply …

An Exploration Of The Influence Of Dimensions Of Organizational Behavior On The Relationship Between The Allocation Of Financial Resources And Persistence And Graduation Rates, Bryant Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was prompted by the limited body of research describing the relationship between the allocation of financial resources and student outcomes in higher education, and by the instance of contradictory and inconclusive results found in that research. With consideration that yet unidentified dynamics might account for the diversity of results, this study explored the influence of dimensions of organizational behavior on the allocation of financial resources at three colleges with differing rates of persistence and graduation rates, but that were otherwise similar in terms of other defining institutional characteristics. Q Methodology ascertained perceptions of senior leadership at the three …

Examining Mediation And Moderation Effects Of Academic Motivation On The Relationship Between Disciplinary Events And Academic Performance In Secondary School, Cynthia Shuttleton

Doctoral Dissertations

Academic motivation is a key factor in students’ academic and behavioral success in school. Previous research has demonstrated strong relationships between disciplinary events and academic performance, as well as between academic performance and academic motivation. However, there is limited understanding of the relationship between academic motivation and disciplinary events, or how academic motivation, academic performance, and disciplinary events are related. The purpose of this study was to examine student self-ratings of their academic motivation in grades 9-12 in a public high school, and to investigate the associations and interactive relationships between these three variables. Participants (N=78) completed the …

Mapping The Development Of College Going Identities Among Aspirantes Puertorriqueñas, Yedalis Ruiz

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite constituting the largest group of minoritized students, Latinx students continue to have the lowest educational attainment compared to all other groups in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). While Latinx enrollment in college has increased, the majority of Latinx high school graduates enroll in community college as opposed to 4-year Bachelor’s degree granting higher education institutions, and only a small percentage of these students will ever transfer into a 4-year college or university (Excelencia in Education, 2015; Kurlaender, 2006; Perez & Ceja, 2015). Increasing participation in higher education among Latinxs requires a better understanding of college choice process for …

Learning Linguistics, Teaching For Change: Preparing Secondary Educators To More Equitably Teach Disciplinary Literacies, Kathryn Accurso

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores ways to better prepare secondary teachers in the United States for more equitably teaching disciplinary literacies to English language learners (ELLs), a current goal of many teacher educators, literacy researchers, and applied linguists that is echoed in federal and state-level education policy. Specifically, it investigates the affordances and constraints of using a critical social semiotic approach to secondary teacher education for this purpose. The dissertation is structured as a set of three research papers, each of which addresses a different aspect of this topic. The first paper draws on existing literature to explore how a critical social …

A Semiotic Analysis Of Linguistic And Conceptual Development In Mathematics For English Language Learners, Hyunsook Shin

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores how an elementary mathematics teacher supported English language leaners’ (ELLs’) academic language and concept development in the context of current high- stakes school reform. The conceptual frameworks informing this study include Halliday’s theory of systemic functional linguistics (e.g., Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of concept development (Vygotsky, 1986). Specifically, this study analyzes the interplay between academic and everyday language and how this interplay can facilitate the development of what Vygotsky referred to as “real” or complete concepts as students shift from “spontaneous” to more “scientific” understanding of phenomenon (Vygotsky, 1986, p.173). This year-long qualitative …

Dysphagia Management In Schools: A Survey Of Speech-Language Pathologists, Catherine Felicetti

Masters Theses

Introduction: To date, few research studies have evaluated pediatric feeding and swallowing practices in school systems across the United States. This study aims to i) understand the factors that impact a speech-language pathologists (SLPs) level of comfort in providing these services, ii) to identify barriers to service provision, iii) develop a concrete understanding of a SLPs role in providing feeding and swallowing services in a school setting, and iv) to identify the types of service suggested by school-based SLPs in response to a fictional case study.

Methods: School-based SLPs and clinical fellows were invited to participate in a 10-15 minute …

Young Adult Early Childhood Home Visitors’ Perceptions Of Fan (Facilitating Attuned Interactions) And Its Potential Protection To Burnout, Lee Mackinnon

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT YOUNG ADULT EARLY CHILDHOOD HOME VISITORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF FAN (FACILITATING ATTUNED INTERACTIONS) AND ITS POTENTIAL PROTECTION TO BURNOUT FEBRUARY 2019 LEE MACKINNON, B.A., WILLIAMS COLLEGE Ed.M., HARVARD UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Claire E. Hamilton This qualitative study investigated the experience of young adult early childhood home visitors in the training and implementation of a family engagement tool, Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) (Gilkerson, 2015). Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the case study explored how 5 home visitors, who were under 30 years of age, viewed their training and use of FAN in three components of their …

"No One Is Gonna Tell Us We Can't Do This": The Development Of Agency In Student-Initiated Community Engagement, Shuli A. Archer

Doctoral Dissertations

By its simplest definition, service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) connect work in the community and reflection on that work with credit-bearing academic courses. SLCE has been critiqued for, among other things, an incomplete consideration of power dynamics, and scholars and practitioners have recently expressed a desire to reinforce service-learning as primarily promoting agency, or the capacity to make change in society. Student-initiated community engagement programs offer a unique perspective and context to study agency. These programs, much like student-initiated retention projects, provide spaces where students take the lead in curriculum development, community partner relationship development, and program administration. Using Emirbayer …

Every Pawn Is A Potential Queen: How Female Early-Career Faculty Play The Game Of Tenure, Bethany Lisi

Doctoral Dissertations

The research on early-career faculty on the tenure track suggests they are surviving amidst low job satisfaction. Scholars found that early-career faculty lack the skills and preparation needed for the job, perceive the tenure process to be vague or unclear, feel isolated or disenchanted with their work, and struggle with time management (Austin, 2002; Austin, Sorcinelli, & McDaniels, 2007; Batille & Brown, 2006; Ponjuan, Conley, & Trower, 2011; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). Female early-career faculty are susceptible to additional gendered and biased challenges (Gappa, Austin, & Trice, 2007). Missing from the literature are the positive experiences of early-career faculty. The …