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Full-Text Articles in Education

"I Am Who I Am": Lgbtq+ Student Experiences At A Baptist Liberal Arts University., Edwin Pavy Aug 2022

"I Am Who I Am": Lgbtq+ Student Experiences At A Baptist Liberal Arts University., Edwin Pavy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though studies exploring the experiences of LGBTQ+ students on Christian college and university (CCU) campuses are increasingly prevalent, research continues to demonstrate that CCU environments are often unwelcoming. Gender and sexual minority students often face additional challenges or risks in attending a faith-based institution. To drive meaningful change, recommendations need to be tailored to individual institutions. This study sought to make meaning alongside LGBTQ+ students at a single institution – Baptist Heritage University (BHU) – with a decidedly appreciative approach. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s ecology of human development, we conducted an arts- based action research study to gain a deeper understanding …


Manifestations Of Students’ Voices: Examining Shifts, Academic Demands, And Identity Work In How Students Make Themselves Understood., Lauren Elizabeth Fletcher Dec 2021

Manifestations Of Students’ Voices: Examining Shifts, Academic Demands, And Identity Work In How Students Make Themselves Understood., Lauren Elizabeth Fletcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Voice is a concept that is both highly sought after and elusive in education. While schools aim to foster students’ voices, many academic structures inadvertently conceal their voices and in turn their identities. Definitions of voice have been assumed, vague, or looked at as a writing trait, with little consideration of voices’ dynamic and mediated structures. Drawing on scholarship grounded in sociocultural theories and dialogism (e.g., Bakhtin, 1986; Engeström; 1987, Leont’ev, 1981; Rosenblatt, 1978; Vygotsky, 1978), I contribute a new, tangible definition of voice, in which voice is a dynamic happening, continually negotiated and constructed. This dissertation explores students’ voices, …


Reaching Zero Waste: Determining The Student Perspective On Campus Food Waste., Cassie Anne Parkins Dec 2019

Reaching Zero Waste: Determining The Student Perspective On Campus Food Waste., Cassie Anne Parkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food waste is an ongoing problem in the complex global food system. College campuses are in a unique position to address food waste through reducing it in their own food systems and by encouraging students to develop behaviors to reduce and divert waste from landfills. In this thesis project I seek to understand how students consider food waste and their attitudes and ideas about reducing it. To this end, I observed student behaviors and waste in University of Louisville’s all-you-care-to-eat dining hall and weighed plate waste there. I conducted informational interviews with University and Aramark employees, along with semi-structured interviews …


Exploratory Learning Activities In The Physics Classroom: Contrasting Cases Versus A Rich Dataset., Campbell Rightmyer Bego Dec 2019

Exploratory Learning Activities In The Physics Classroom: Contrasting Cases Versus A Rich Dataset., Campbell Rightmyer Bego

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In exploratory learning, students engage in an exploration activity on a new topic prior to instruction. This inversion of the traditional tell-then-practice order has been shown to benefit learning outcomes, especially conceptual knowledge and preparation for future learning, but not always. In three studies, the current work examines whether the type of exploration activity impacts learning mechanisms and outcomes, on the topic of gravitational field in undergraduate physics classrooms. Activities using either contrasting cases (CC) or a rich dataset (RD) are compared in two instructional orders, explore-first (EF) and instruct-first (IF). Learning outcomes measured procedural knowledge, conceptual knowledge, and performance …


Queering Black Greek-Lettered Fraternities, Masculinity And Manhood : A Queer Of Color Critique Of Institutionality In Higher Education., Antron Demel Mahoney Aug 2019

Queering Black Greek-Lettered Fraternities, Masculinity And Manhood : A Queer Of Color Critique Of Institutionality In Higher Education., Antron Demel Mahoney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing heavily on Roderick Ferguson’s (2012) theory of institutionality, this dissertation constructs a counter-historical genealogy of racialized gender in higher education and U.S. society through the formation of black Greek-lettered fraternities. Ferguson argues that with the insurgence of minority resistance globally and domestically during the mid-twentieth century, hegemonic power took a new form. Instead of rejecting minority difference, power’s new network attempted to work through and with minority difference in an effort to absorb and restrict these radical formations within state, capital and academy frameworks—producing narrow or one-dimensional minority subjectivities. Established at the turn of the twentieth century, black Greek-lettered …


Student Engagement In Post-Soviet Higher Education: Coping With Academic Quality Problems., J. L. Mettille Dec 2018

Student Engagement In Post-Soviet Higher Education: Coping With Academic Quality Problems., J. L. Mettille

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the experiences of administrators, instructional faculty, and students within a post-Soviet higher education institution in the Kyrgyz Republic using qualitative field research and case study methods. This study identifies the perceived potential of Western benchmarks of effective educational practice to evince positive change in the institution as well as their propriety and relevance in this context. In addition, the propositions underlying the student engagement construct and overarching the benchmarks are evaluated based upon participant responses and classroom observation data. Twenty higher education practitioners and twenty students participated in semi-structured interviews preceding and following seven classroom observations. The …


Institutional Processes To Determine Community Engagement Impact : A Collective Case Study., Amanda Marie Bowers May 2018

Institutional Processes To Determine Community Engagement Impact : A Collective Case Study., Amanda Marie Bowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative, collective case study is designed to examine the processes by which urban, metropolitan institutions determine the impact their community engagement has within the local community. The study addresses the lack of research on community engagement at the institutional level, the processes that track and coordinate engagement, as well as the perspectives of community partners in this work. Research is more developed regarding individual engagement activities and student learning outcomes than it is to institutional accountability structures or community impact. Studies that center the institution as the unit of analysis are needed to address these limitations in research and …


Examining The Motivations And Benefits Of Student-Athletes Performing Community Service., Matthew Ryan Huml May 2016

Examining The Motivations And Benefits Of Student-Athletes Performing Community Service., Matthew Ryan Huml

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With over 460,000 active student-athletes (NCAA, n.d.), the student sub-population is large enough to investigate potential options for institutions to increase their academic achievement. Additionally, participating in academic-related activities is especially important because of concerns about student-athletes spending more than the 20 hours per week the NCAA allows for working on their sport (Wolverton, 2008). Studies frequently highlight a lack of effort by student-athletes to adjust to academic opportunities and expectations within higher education (Adler & Adler, 1991; Lally & Kerr, 2005; Levine, Etchison, & Oppenheimer, 2014; Miller & Kerr, 2003). To combat this adjustment to higher education, community service …