Education Commons^™

The Mental Health Of First-Generation College Students Of Color, Devin Hallquist

Doctoral Dissertations

College students who identify as a person of color and are also the first person in their family to attend college must navigate challenges related to white supremacy, institutional racism, and structural inequality. Though the amount of research on first-generation college students of color is steadily increasing, there remains a lack of research on the mental health of these students. Through an intersectional approach, the current study explored the mental health of first-generation college students of color during their sophomore year of college. Participants in the current study completed questionnaires related to psychological symptoms, experiences of racial/ethnic stress, and ethnic …

A Case Study Of A School-Supported Extracurricular Activity's Influence On Stem Identity And Interest For Females, Letta Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Even though there has been a narrowing of the gender gap in STEM, there is still a pronounced gap in the physical sciences, engineering, and computer science. Females who persist in these fields have a strong STEM identity, including developing specific STEM interests. Females can develop STEM identity through long-term, active involvement in extracurricular STEM programs. Extracurricular STEM programs significantly impact the persistence of females in the STEM pipeline. This case study examined the effect of Science Olympiad, an extracurricular STEM program, on current high school students and alumnae’s perceptions of their STEM identity and personal specific STEM interest. Potential …

Alleviating Mathematics Anxiety For Middle School Students Using A Combined Intervention Approach Versus Only Using The Cognitive Intervention Approach For Increasing Mathematical Achievement: A Comparative Study, Patricia Anna Garcia

Doctoral Dissertations

Current research has found evidence of effective interventions for mathematics anxiety, both motivational and cognitive interventions can affect learning through instructional design and increased student engagement. Thus, this study investigated whether a combined (cognitive and motivation) intervention approach was more effective than only using a cognitive intervention approach for alleviating mathematics anxiety in middle-school students in order to develop a positive mathematical self-concept. The design used in this study was a comparison pretest-posttest study using the modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (mAMAS) to measure the participants’ level of mathematics anxiety and the STAR Mathematics diagnostic assessment to measure gradual mathematics …

Students As Co-Researchers: Using Participatory Action Research To Address College Food Insecurity, Rachel Brand

Doctoral Dissertations

Studies indicate that college students experience high rates of food insecurity. Growing awareness of food insecurity on college campuses has resulted in efforts by many institutions to address the problem through innovative programs such as food pantries, campus gardens, and educational workshops. While these initiatives play an important role in facilitating food access, they fall short of meeting students’ needs. There is little research on how students’ experiences or knowledge can inform strategies to address food insecurity, nor is there extensive research on how students view this issue for themselves and their peers. This study looks at the benefits of …

Moving Between Entitlement And Co-Conspiracy: A Study Of How Support, Skills, And Community Can Advance Anti-Racism Efforts Of White Parents, Karin Marianne Cotterman

Doctoral Dissertations

Many white parents of white children (WPWC) do not know how to engage in conversations about race and racism with their children. Simultaneously, the lived realities of white identity are embodied and enacted in material and cultural terms in the lives of all white-identified folk who continue to be re-socialized into our dominant culture of white supremacy. As such, racism and white supremacy are taught through socialization via media, schooling, familial relationships and other social interactions (Harro, 2000). And as a result, whiteness and white supremacy are pervasive and endemic (Bell 2016; Delgado, & Stefanick, 2012; Ladson-Billings 2013, 2016; Ladson-Billings …

White Womanhood: Finding Oppositional Epistemologies And Community At The Intersection Of Whiteness And Womanhood, Hannah Joy Fischer

Doctoral Dissertations

White women continue to contribute to the reproduction and maintenance of White supremacy even when they attempt to pursue antiracism. To better understand their antiracist agency, this study analyzed White women’s experiences and comprehension of White womanhood. Using phenomenology and critical autoethnography, this qualitative study invited six self-proclaimed antiracist White women to participate in individual interviews, attend two focus groups, and reflect on five guided prompts on White womanhood and antiracist action. The study revealed antiracist White women’s feelings of responsibility and lack of perceived agency for antiracist action. Participants demonstrated attempts to disengage from whiteness while also expressing desires …

Meta-Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Project-Based Learning Approach On Academic Achievement In Higher Education Worldwide, Ziyu Meng

Doctoral Dissertations

This research study conducted a meta-analysis to integrate the studies that investigated the effectiveness of project-based learning on academic achievement based on a worldwide higher-education population. The researcher explored the variables that previous meta-analysis studies used to evaluate academic achievements, such as student grade point average (GPA), course grades, and test scores, to explore the use of these variables in project-based learning. There were 17 studies in total included in the meta-analysis evaluating the effect size of academic achievement, which was influenced in moderator variable by subject-matter areas, school location, hours of instruction, technology support, and group size. The researcher …

Identity Formation And Role Expansion For Nurse Practitioner Residency Preceptors: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis, Angel Chen Kuo

Doctoral Dissertations

Employer-based nurse practitioner residency programs have been implemented to address the significant shortage of primary care providers in the community clinic settings. However, there continues to be a shortage of clinicians who serve as preceptors to nurse practitioner residents and students. Preceptors, also referred to as clinician educators, are essential in the training of learners and their socialization into the profession. Just as there is a shortage of clinicians of diverse backgrounds to reflect the population served in the community, there is also a significant shortage of preceptors of color to train learners from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this …

We Are Still Playing: A Meta-Analysis Of Game-Based Learning In Mathematics Education, Thomas Conmy

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the effectiveness of the use of games as part of mathematics instruction on academic achievement in grades Kindergarten to 12 in the United States. There were 17 studies selected for investigation published from 2010 to 2023 that focused on game-based learning and mathematics. This meta-analysis fills the gap in the knowledge by examining classes that are using game based learning across three platforms of instruction: nondigital games, digital on computers, and mobile devices. The findings from this meta-analysis suggest that the usage of game-based learning in a classroom has a positive effect …

Incorporating Andragogy And Cognitive Theory Of Multimedia Learning Into Self-Paced Training And Development Programs, Shanshan Gao

Doctoral Dissertations

In the modern higher educational system, technology permeated almost all the provisions of educational processes and transformed individual learning transactions. Empirical evidence reveals students’ skill gaps in the digitized campus and the real-world work environment driven by technology. Technical training is of high value and in high demand in helping students to develop the skills necessary to carry out schoolwork and be prepared for the real-world work environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the combined method of Andragogy and Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) in enhancing learning results and optimizing students’ learning experience …

Exploring Latinx Parents’ Experiences With Special Education: Developing A Community-Based Workshop To Empower Latinx Parents Of Children In Special Education, Gabriela Alejandra Perez

Doctoral Dissertations

Parent involvement has been found to be predictive of successful student learning. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parents are required to be active participants in the development of their child’s special education. Latinx parents of children in special education face various challenges when it comes to parent involvement. A sample size of seven Latinx mothers with children in special education participated in this study, whose aim was to examine Latinx parents’ experiences in navigating the special education process and to identify and explore culturally responsive interventions that can increase parents’ participation and advocacy for their children with …

"What’S Race Got To Do With It?”: A Virtual Participatory Action Research Study Of Community College Students Exploring Intersectionality In Queer Studies, Breana Hansen

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and explore how curricula in queer studies at Community College of the Bay (CCB) reflect and ignore the lived experiences of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC) by engaging queer studies students as co-researchers in virtual participatory action research (VPAR). This research utilized the frameworks of Queer of Color Analysis (QOCA) (Ferguson, 2004; McCready, 2013), critical whiteness (Baldwin, 1984; Du Bois, 1903), anti-oppressive education (Kumashiro, 2001), and intersectional theory (Crenshaw, 1989), to examine the experiences of QTBIPOC within queer studies in community college classrooms. The following meta-question guided this research: …

Genocide In East Turkestan: Exploring The Perspectives Of Uyghurs In The Diaspora And Their Resistance To Chinese State Violence, Lina Semyonovna Lenberg

Doctoral Dissertations

The Uyghurs of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—or East Turkestan, as many Uyghurs call their Indigenous homeland in northwestern China, are a Muslim ethnic group whose culture and identity are being systematically destroyed by the Chinese state. Since 2016, Uyghurs have been imprisoned in China’s “re-education camps” on an enormous scale, numbering up to three million. Uyghurs have experienced discrimination and marginalization in China for many years, yet relatively little attention has been given to what has now become a set of gross human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity and genocide. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, …

The Effects Of Curriculum-Integrated Explicit Learning Strategy Instruction On Reading Comprehension For English As A Second Language (Esl) Learners At The Community College, Sylvia Chaiyeon Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

Reading skills are critical for English as a Second Language (ESL) students in higher education to achieve academic success. However, effective ways to promote student success in ESL reading courses are under-researched. Identifying factors that may enhance the quality and outcomes of learning ESL reading is essential. One such factor identified by previous research is learning strategies. Explicit instruction on learning strategies may lessen the problems and difficulties that international students encounter. Explicit strategy instruction can bring a systematic scaffold into a language learning process, guide students toward proper learning strategies, and promote constructive cognitive processing during learning.

This study …

Effects Of Teaching Argument To First-Year Community-College Students Using A Structural And Dialectical Approach, Sharon Radcliff

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure to what extent an experimental method of teaching argument incorporating elements from both Toulmin’s (2004) structural approach and Walton’s (2013) dialectical approach effects first-year college students’ ability to write strong arguments. This experimental instruction used critical questioning as a strategy in building a strong argument, incorporating alternative viewpoints, and creating a dialogue between claims and counterclaims, backed logically by verifiable evidence from reliable sources.

Using the Analytic Scoring Rubric of Argumentative Writing (ASRAW; Stapleton & Wu, 2015) that includes the argument elements of claims, data, counterclaim, counterclaim data, rebuttal claim, and rebuttal …

Using Peer Review To Improve English As A Second Language College Students' Writing Scores, Mengjie Wei

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of peer-review in college English as Second Language writing classes to improve ESL students’ writing scores. It also investigated a statistically significant difference in college ESL students’ writing scores between those who use the self-check list and peer review worksheet and those who only use the self-check list in writing paragraphs and essays. More specifically, this study was conducted to determine the influence of different areas on students’ English writing scores, i.e., format/content/structure, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. In addition, this study explored students’ attitudes and opinions on peer-review in writing class.

This …

The Use Of Simulation With The School Of Nursing And Health Professions (Sonhp) Prelicensure Students To Support Affirming Practice With Transgender Communities, Genevieve Charbonneau

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how prelicensure nursing students are prepared to address healthcare disparities with transgender patients, specifically through simulation scenarios at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions Simulation Center.

A critical review of current literature reveals how microaggressions against transgender communities create and sustain barriers to equitable healthcare. The qualitative study was designed to explore the lived experience of prelicensure nursing students who are actively seeking to understand the healthcare needs of transgender patients in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This was a qualitative research study including data that suggests that using simulation scenarios featuring …

Understanding The Perspectives, Practices, And Expectations Of Korean American Parents Toward The Heritage Language Education Of Their Children, Yunhee Choi

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study, conducted with parents of a Bay Area Korean school, was to explore how Korean American parents perceive, practice, and expect from the heritage language education of their children. The parents shared their experiences as Korean immigrants in raising their children in two languages. First, a survey was distributed and collected to apprehend the demographics of 24 Korean American parents in a West Coast metropolitan area who sent their children to a Korean heritage language school on weekends. Then one-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted with seven of these parents. Seven themes emerged from the data: …

Teaching Solidarity: Popular Education In Grassroots U.S. Social Movements, Tenaya Summers Lafore

Doctoral Dissertations

Fifty years after he wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s work is as relevant as ever. But while many of Freire’s ideas are well known in the United States, there is limited research on their application in social movement settings, a practice commonly known as popular education. This comparative case study draws on Freire’s theory of popular education to analyze two U.S.-based grassroots education programs, one with low-income residents in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco and one with front-line hospital and public school employees on the East Coast. Through six months of participant observation and …

The Collegiate Black Space: Black College Students’ Use Of New Counter-Spaces For Support, Knowledge Production, And Organizing For Activism, Heather Streets

Doctoral Dissertations

Black collegians who attend historically white institutions continue to struggle with racism, microaggressions, feelings of alienation, minimal or improper advising, and an undue pressure to prove themselves (Bonner, 2010; Feagin & Sikes, 1995; Strayhorn, 2010). These barriers to success result in part due to a lack of support from the colleges and universities that they attend (Allen, 1992; Parker, Puig, Johnson & Anthony, Jr., 2016). With institutional benefits designed to benefit white students over students of color, Black students must find their own alternatives for collaboration and to provide support for their peers.

Many Black spaces can be defined as …

The Relationship Between Metacognitive Strategies And Listening Comprehension Proficiency In Intensive-Korean-Foreign-Language Setting, Gumok Seo

Doctoral Dissertations

The study investigated the relationship between a metacognitive-listening strategy and listening proficiency and gained insights into students’ perceptions of listening-strategy use among Korean-as-a-foreign-language learners in an intensive-language setting in Northern California. Little research has been carried out in a Korean-as-a-foreign-language (KFL) setting, and investigation in a different context of an intensive-language program is needed where good study habits, such as metacognitive strategy, self-regulation, and autonomous learning are required. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive-listening-strategy use and listening proficiency outcomes by more- and less-proficient students among KFL adult learners and their perception of metacognitive-listening-strategies.

To achieve the …

Cuentos Criollos: Colombian Internally Displaced Families As Knowledge Producers, Liliana Salazar De Deck

Doctoral Dissertations

Colombia continues to report the highest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) with over eight million registered in 2021 (UNHCR, 2021). The majority of the internally displaced people are campesinos, AfroColombians, and members of Indigenous communities. Historically, people in these demographic groups have been excluded from political participation and wealth accumulation, and their identities are minoritized (Bello, 2003). Urban schools have become contact zones (Pratt, 1991) for internally displaced families and various economic, social, and political discourses attempt to explore and explain their experiences. However, the voices of the families themselves are not often found within this body of scholarship. …

Impact Of Covid-19 On New Teacher Retention And Perceived Supports In A Northern California Public School District, Rebecka Maxkenzie

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study examined teachers, schools, and district approaches to new teacher retention with a COVID-19 spin. In the changing world of a global pandemic and shifting teaching modalities, including distance or hybrid learning environments, teachers reflected on their experiences of adaptation. Interviews with teachers in their first three years in the profession were conducted to share the stories of new teachers amid COVID-19. New teachers were recruited through a snowball sampling technique from a large school district in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. To answer the research questions, participants were interviewed about the presence or absence …

Voces Of Little Michoacan: A Collective Narrative Of Resistance And Preservation Of Home, Ana Angel Avendaño

Doctoral Dissertations

This empirical study captured the ongoing community organizing, led primarily by Chicanas and young people in a Latinx community in the San Francisco Bay Area. This community has experienced historic neglect, inequities, gentrification, and economic displacement. Through muxersita portraiture, a critical qualitative methodology, with young people as co-researchers, this study captures the collective narrative of the community of North Fair Oaks through platicas, encuentros y acción. In the process, this collective narrative disrupts the negative impact of gentrification by providing a historical context of the contributions of Latinx in North Fair Oaks. This study uses a critical coraje framework; a …

Feminist Catholic Organizational Identity: A Phenomenological Study Of Charism In The Lay Educator Of A Notre Dame De Namur Learning Community, Kathleen Barrera Quiazon

Doctoral Dissertations

The Catholic schools of women’s religious congregations in the United States possess a distinctive Catholic identity, owed in great part to the charism of their founders and the feminist worldview that emerged in the sisters’ mission, communal narratives, and ministries. With the decline of women religious across the country, schools and congregations ask questions for the future of that identity in the hands of lay educators. As with many religiously sponsored schools, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and their lay partners in education are engaged in these critical questions for their own learning communities across the country.

This …

An Exploration Of Learning-At-Home Experiences Among Families And Children Of Color Labeled With Disabilities During Covid-19: A Narrative Inquiry, Nam Ju Han

Doctoral Dissertations

We are living in this historical moment of a COVID-19 global crisis that is continuing to impact marginalized families in our very own communities. Students of color, especially those who are already on the margins, and experience inequities in the classroom and in the community, have been further impacted by the quarantine as the educational system had not prioritized how to support students who face certain vulnerabilities due to lack of government funding, the historical oppressive tendency for schools to function within a medical model of standardization, along with the commodification of learning. Given the novelty of COVID-19 research, the …

Fifty Years Of Underrepresented Student Advocacy At One Jesuit Secondary School, Sonya Cotero Arriola

Doctoral Dissertations

Across the United States Conference, Catholic and Jesuit secondary schools are experiencing tremendous change in their student demographics. Schools of today are being challenged to consider what true inclusion looks like within their community vis-à-vis students whose racial, economic, sexual and gender identities do not fit the traditional Catholic or Jesuit school mold. The racial and social order of the United States is replicated within Catholic and Jesuit schools, even when those same communities claim to promote values of inclusion and opportunity. History offers valuable insights to school communities grappling with these questions.

This qualitative study centers the efforts of …

Mediating Language Fluency Development: An Action Research Study In A High-School Ap Chinese Second-Or-Foreign-Language Task-Based Language Teaching Classroom, Jing Liang

Doctoral Dissertations

Fluency development is critical in language learning; however, the teacher’s role as a mediator in a learner’s fluency development rarely has been explored in Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) classrooms. This study investigated how a teacher, as the human mediator who can be certain that stimuli in the learning environment will be available and benefit the learners, implemented mediation under the guidance of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) theory in aiding learners’ speaking cognitive and utterance fluency development in one AP Chinese high-school TBLT classroom in the Bay Area. MLE theory, developed by psychologist Reuven Feuerstein, provided a mediation framework for this …

¿Tú Qué Sabes?: Latina Doctoral Women Disrupting And Resisting Dominant Knowledge, Sendy Ramos Madsen

Doctoral Dissertations

Education environments have systematically excluded, silenced, and erroneously spoken on behalf of Women of Color. Linear forms of scholarship and research practices propagate the dominant perspective and fail to address systems of oppression that result in epistemic suppression and academic hostility towards brown minds. Historically, Latina women have not been seen as creators of knowledge, and their access to educational spaces has been restricted. According to census projections, in 2036, Latinas/os will account for the largest minority group in the United States and one-third of the American educational system. Therefore, academic spaces must establish practices to include Latina women as …

Reclaiming Our Humanity: Redemption, Reimagining, And Restorying Of The Foundations For Success Of Formerly Incarcerated African American Males, Robert Mossi Alexander Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

Reclaiming Our Humanity: Redemption, Reimagining, and Restorying of the Foundations for Success of Formerly Incarcerated African American Males African American men represent the highest population found in the criminal justice system. Systemic racism contributes to the high recidivism rates of formerly incarcerated Black men. Additional barriers to affordable education, job training, and other services exist for the formerly incarcerated. The purpose of this study was to interview formerly incarcerated African American men and provide a counter-narrative of the foundations for success post-incarceration. This research project explored the narratives of the lived experiences of formerly incarcerated Black men through the lenses …