Education Commons^™

Understanding The Relationship Among Durable Goods, Academic Achievement, And School Attendance In Colombia, Hans Walter Cabra

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A joint report from the United Nations Development Program and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative indicates that while the number of people living with less than $1.90 a day declined globally, dropping from 2 billion in 1990 to 736 million in 2015, the number of people who experienced non-income poverty reached 1.3 billion in 2020. Non-income poverty, referred to as multidimensional poverty, assesses the extent to which people are deprived from accessing basic services such as health, education, or attaining decent living standards, despite having income levels well above $1.90.

Research on development and welfare economics points to …

Networked Improvement Community Hub Leadership: A Unique Case Study Of State Education Agents Of Change, Lori Dolezal

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) are emerging, yet few empirical studies have examined implementation factors, efficacy, and outcomes. Fewer have examined structures, dispositions, and behaviors of NIC hub leadership, especially hubs led by State Education Agencies (SEAs). This unique, qualitative case study explores adaptive leadership and emerging improvement leadership models in the context of a NIC hub operated exclusively by an SEA. Through semi-structured interviews and document reviews, this study investigates how SEA hub leaders establish conditions to build educator capacity for continuous improvement within a NIC model, focusing specifically on leadership structures, behaviors, and mental models. Provisional findings demonstrate alignment …

Recalibrating Our Moral Compass: How America's Narrowing Value System Is Erasing Lgbtq+ People In Schools, Andrew Levalley

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis bridges the effects of society—meaning politics, policies, norms, and values—and school on LGBTQ+ students. Paramount educational philosophers, namely Dewey, Freire, Berliner, and Illich, understood that schools are a reflection of the communities they serve. I apply this common philosophy to the LGBTQ+ community to uncover the systems of inequalities that have negative effects on LGBTQ+ youth in order to promote better systems that include both LGBTQ+ youth and the larger LGBTQ+ community. To illustrate the effects of society and school on the LGBTQ+ community and youth, I use traditional peer reviewed researched data, current events that showcase America’s …

Culturally Responsive Adult Education For Non-Western Learners, Asma Ali M. Abunaib

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Although education theory in general includes important insights related to the relationship between multiculturalism and pedagogy, a critical analysis of what are considered culturally responsive western adult education methods, such as Experiential Learning Cycle & Dialogue Education (ELC) suggests significant adaptations should be made when applied in settings with non-western learners. This paper highlights the challenges and opportunities of utilizing adult education methods as a framework in delivering learning opportunities in non-western settings or for non-western, new American communities in western settings. Specifically, the author discusses her experience in one Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Darfur, Sudan, presenting her …

The Benefits Of Family And Consumer Science Education: One Educators Quest To Find Meaning Through Self Discovery And Holistic Teaching, Julie Shaw

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

(Teachers) are engaged in work that will influence not just students’ immediate level of knowledge but their entire lives, and thereby they have the potential to contribute to the future of humanity itself. –

Dalai Lama (Spiritual Leader)

The world of public education is much different now than when I was a student not so long ago. In only ten years, the world has opened up and changed in a way that no one imagined, thanks to cell phones and social media. Students can now walk through the halls of school with a device in their pocket that allows them …

From There, To Here, Now Where? My Journey Of Vulnerability Toward Interdisciplinary Teaching, Jennifer Lyn Way

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Few words have the power to make people both cringe in fear and lean forward, fascinated to know more. This thesis focuses on one such word: vulnerability. Through the Scholarly Personal Narrative writing format, I explore what vulnerability means to me and how my understanding has changed. I examine how vulnerability in my life helped refine me into a wiser, more compassionate, teacher.

Teaching requires vulnerability, a willingness to risk failure and accept mistakes for what they really are: lessons to create a connection among other humans. This thesis portrays how I have come to understand and accept vulnerability as …

Immaculate Deception: One Educator's Exploration Into The Systemic Shaming Of Women In Ireland, Alanna Diane Scully

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the topic of shame through my perspective as a pro-choice woman and future educator. It tells of the long relationship I have had with shame, which began when I had my first abortion. It also describes the history of shame inflicted on the women of Ireland, who continue to fight for their reproductive rights. I use these narratives to support my position that educators have a responsibility to create safe spaces for controversial topics and vulnerable populations on university campuses.

Education In The Age Of Complexity: Building Systems Literacy, Caitlin S. Steele

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In the 21st century, transdisciplinary approaches to research and problem solving rooted in complexity theory and complex systems methodologies offer hope for understanding and solving previously intractable problems. However, in the face of daunting modern challenges like a broken health care system, growing social and economic inequity, and climate change, the knowledge and skills required to understand and ultimately solve problems across interdependent complex systems are distinctly lacking in our collective practice.

The underlying premise of this study is that if modern society is to deal effectively with interconnected challenges across ecological, social, political, and economic systems, our education system …

Iraq: My Stories Of Life, Liberty And Leadership, Kenneth Smith

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

...this war is lost, and the surge is not accomplishing anything...

- Harry Reid, April 19, 2007

Human nature prevails. Our desire is to live. Our unalienable right is to be free; to enjoy the fruits of our labor. How we spend our limited time on this earth pursuing happiness is up to each of us: uniquely, individually, with our own distinctive personality, intellect and motivation. In the following personal exploration and scholarly analysis, I discuss how our inherent gift of life and the desire for liberty form an integrated platform from which leadership personifies itself in the lives of …