Education Commons^™

How Art Therapy Can Be Used To Teach Queer Inclusive Sex Education To Queer Youth: A Literature Review, Olivia Souza

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review examines the potential of art-making as a tool to educate and inform queer youth about queer sexual experiences. Many queer individuals lack information about safe and healthy sex due to the exclusion of queer experiences in sex education programs. Current sex programs solely focus on abstinence and heterosexual experiences, leaving queer youth in the dark about what to expect from future sexual experiences they may have and how to practice safe queer sex. Through a search of the literature, it was discovered that there is a gap in research using art therapy in this specific context. Through …

Enhancing The Quality Of Life For Senior Citizens: A Facilitator’S Guidebook For Mindful Music And Movement, Shannon Sexton

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Music appreciation and enjoyment enhance well-being throughout the lifespan. The challenges and constraints that people experience as they age can lead to lack of access to music, decreased physical activity, and fewer avenues for creative expression. Group music and movement interventions created for older populations offer opportunities for social connection and improved quality of life. Mindful practices add further benefit when combined with these interventions. Current available programs are scarce and most often do not encompass mixed modalities. In addition, the benefits of these programs do not show long-term sustainability. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the effects …

How Geek Therapy Plays Into Expressive Arts Therapy: A Literature Review, Caroline Bryan

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Within this paper, I explore how geek therapy plays well with the methods of expressive arts therapy. The combination of geek therapy and expressive arts therapy can assist clinicians in immediately connecting with their clients and identifying strength-oriented narratives that honor the client’s preferences, modes of expression, and pop culture affinities. This engagement with expressive approaches utilizing affinity-based interventions can lead to a deeper sense of understanding of the client’s intra-, inter-, and extra-personal relationships. Through this literature review of expressive arts therapy and geek therapy, primarily focusing on video games in therapy, clinicians from all walks of life can …

Healing Racial Injustice With Mindfulness Research, Training, & Practice, Danielle "Danae" Laura

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This thesis offers a collection of authors and studies in support of improved research, training, and practice connecting mindfulness with racial justice through intergroup applications. The paper identifies barriers at work (e.g., colorblindness, spiritual bypass, white fragility, and implicit bias) in contemplative science, Western Buddhist communities, and secular mindfulness centers, which block the sizeable contributions possible in studying the intergroup application of mindfulness practice—specifically Lovingkindness Meditation, among others—when used as an intervention with anti-racist aims. Through secondary qualitative research, I reviewed six key works from Black authors on mindfulness and race, as well as six sample studies on the prosocial …

Win The Game Or Build Decent Humans? Parental Perceptions Of The Family School-Relationship Across Socioeconomic Backgrounds, Elizabeth Dempsey Lee

Educational Studies Dissertations

Research into family engagement with schools states that the participation of a child’s family in schooling increases a student’s academic success. In education, family engagement is the newest policy tool to help children, especially those from marginalized communities, grow into successful adults. However, in sociology, intensive family engagement, defined as parental over-involvement in a child’s schooling, results in a narrow focus on traditional academic measures of success and the micromanaging of a child’s educational experience. Research indicates that this amped up oversight of a child’s education is the source of emotional, academic, psychological harm for children. As a result, parent …

Student Agency And Collective Bootstrapping In Integrated Career And Technical Education: A Photovoice Project, Panagiota Athinelis

Educational Studies Dissertations

Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides students with a full education in academic areas as well as a career area of interest, allowing students to apply their school-based learning in the real world through work-based learning. At the same time, urban CTE adolescents have historically been marginalized and placed in a deficit model. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the ways in which student agency is co-created in an urban, transdisciplinary CTE high school program, as well as to identify the institutional systems and structures that support or hinder the development of student agency.

Eight students …

Student Wellbeing And Open Studio Process In The School Curriculum, Maria Kim

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study aimed to explore whether Open Studio Process (OSP) increased wellbeing of middle and high school students when facilitated by teachers as a part of the regular art curriculum. It was hypothesized that OSP might increase the sense of wellbeing among middle and high school students as well as facilitating teachers. The research was conducted as a mixed methods study in South Korea where students need preventative interventions for their wellbeing. The researcher trained eight teachers to facilitate OSP and five of them implemented it with their classes for seven sessions. Quantitative data (K-YSR; pre- and posttest) were collected …

Picturing Health; Picturing Life: Visual Illness Narratives Of Women With Type 2 Diabetes, Sarah Gurley-Green

Educational Studies Dissertations

The prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. reached 23 million people between 2012 and 2017 and consumed one-quarter of the overall healthcare dollars. Remembering the suffering and pain of individuals behind these numbers becomes difficult and incalculable. Black American women are the most affected by type 2 diabetes (T2D), compared to their white counterparts, as well as twice as likely to be diagnosed with T2D and 2.5 times more likely to die from T2D. Therefore, understanding the problem requires the fundamental consideration of how these women cope daily with this complex illness while often struggling with complex lives. This narrative …

Painting Intimacy: Art-Based Research Of Intimacy, Michal Lev

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This art-based research explores whether — and, if so, how — the process of painting, together with witnessing and reflection on the process and imagery, further an understanding of intimacy. The research also examines the conditions that favor intimacy, the obstacles to intimacy, and the particular features of artistic media, processes and reflection, through the editing of video footage, that can further the intimate experience. The participants in the study were five adults (including the researcher) between the ages of thirty and eighty who were familiar with the creation of visual art. Among them were three women and two men …

Mindful Practices To Interrupt White Supremacy In Higher Education: Opportunities For Educators In Service Learning And Community Engagement, Jennifer F. Steinfeld

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This thesis proposes reflective practices for educators to interrupt white supremacy in higher education service learning programs. It is relevant today as higher education institutions look more closely at their history, often upholding or benefiting from slavery, racism, indigenous removal, and other forms of race-based exploitation. Other work on this topic demonstrates the power of reflectivity and mindfulness practices in reducing the impact of racial biases. The heart of this creative thesis is a research-based curriculum for a learning community of educators to develop capacity to incorporate reflectivity, meditation, and liberatory pedagogies into their classrooms. This curriculum is designed for …

A Tradesperson’S Transition To Vocational Technical (Vt) Teaching, Susan J. Sylvia

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study examined survey and interview data collected from tradespeople who transitioned to vocational technical (VT) teaching in regional vocational technical schools in Massachusetts. This study included two research questions that inquired about how tradespeople’s prior experiences, beliefs, and thoughts influenced or inspired them to pursue a transition to vocational technical (VT) teaching and about how their anticipated transitional experiences aligned with their actual transitional experiences. The survey phase included 170 respondents. Survey responses provided an overview of participants, which was integral in identifying four interview participants who were digitally recorded during one-to-one interview sessions. A multiple Case Study …

Men In A Female-Dominated Profession: The Lived Experiences Of Ghanaian Male Nurses In The United States, Daniel Kwadjo Frimpong

Educational Studies Dissertations

Minority men are less than two percent of the total nursing workforce in the United States. The small presence of minority men in the nursing profession presents a challenge to healthcare providers as patients are much more responsive and open-minded to healthcare providers of the same cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This qualitative study was designed to explore the lived professional experiences of Ghanaian male nurses in the United States to shed light on the barriers minority men encounter in the nursing profession in order to make suggestions relating to strategies to appropriately support minority men in their nursing practice. This …

The Teacher's Closet: A Narrative Inquiry Of Dual Identities Of Lesbian And Gay Middle School Teachers In Georgia, Heather Ann Keilwitz

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of lesbian and gay Georgia middle school teachers in not disclosing their sexual identities with their students. Using a narrative inquiry, data were collected through in-depth individual interviews and a focus group discussion on the following areas of inquiry: What are the experiences of lesbian and gay Georgia middle school teachers who do not disclose their sexual identity with their students? How, if at all, do the experiences of nondisclosure inhibit their abilities as teachers? How, if at all, has the nondisclosure affected their personal lives? Ten self-identified lesbian and …

A Mirror Of Recognition: How The Empathetic Relationship Between Dusty Springfield And Her Not-Straight Fans Facilitates Their Identity Development, Nancy J. Young

Educational Studies Dissertations

This multi-case qualitative study explores the phenomenon of identity development of not-straight (more traditionally labeled as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or queer) fans through their attachment to British popular singer Dusty Springfield as a fan-object. A purposefully selected sample of four fans, aged 21-45, two male and two female, from the United Kingdom and the United States, were interviewed. The interdisciplinary conceptual framework of the study combines the fields of identity development, fan studies, and psychological theories related to projection.

The themes that emerge from the data suggest that Dusty Springfield’s emotional music draws the listener into fandom and that the …

Relational Fathering: How Fathering Sons Affects Men's Relational Growth And Development: A Dissertation, Carol Watson-Philips

Educational Studies Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore how fathering sons impacts men's relational growth and development. This qualitative study examines the meaning fathers make of their experience and describes their process of growth and development in connection with their sons. Twenty, mostly middle-class fathers, ages thirty-three to forty-six with sons ranging from one year to twelve years, were interviewed. Relational-Cultural Theory provides a theoretical framework. A grounded theory approach, a constructivist lens, and feminist analysis and research methods are employed. The data reveal that the fathers' connection with their sons and their perceptions of their sons' unconditional love …

Narrating Gender: Children's Responses To Gender Roles Depicted In Orally Told Folk Tales And Other Traditional Stories, Robin Ann Mello

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative investigation was based on grounded and feminist methodology and examined the reactions of ten fourth grade students to the gender roles depicted in orally told folk tales. Data consisted of surveys, writing samples, and interviews, collected in both mixed and single gender groups. Data were transcribed and coded using open and axial procedures. This study finds that heroes were valued for their aggression, strength, and warrior status while heroines were appreciated for their intelligence, caring, and endurance. Boys highly valued warrior like behavior. Girls, on the other hand, had a difficult time equating the value of 'gender bending' …

Including Elders' Voices: A Model For Gerontology Curriculum Design In Higher Education, Marilyn Rose Gelish-Gugliucci

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study has proposed a new model for gerontology curriculum design. The model involves elders at two levels: designing gerontology courses/programs and participating in the students' learning experiences… The proposed curriculum model is framed within progressive and confluent curriculum ideologies: thereby, supporting experiential learning, personal growth, integration of attitudes, feelings, emotions, and relevance.

Gender And Leadership: Men And Women's Stories, Barbara A. Karanian

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates gender and leadership.

Midlife Experience Of Contemporary Women Views Along The Midway, Paula Deangelis Panchuck

Educational Studies Dissertations

Examines the experience of midlife and the expectations of midlife and aging of 22 Caucasian, African American, Latina, Chinese, and Asian-Indian midlife women, ages 40 to 60, who differ in sexual orientation, income, employment, marital and parenting status. Influenced by social and family expectations for women in their early years, most women expected midlife would include husband, home and family. The women describe midlife as positive and fulfilling, disclaim the relevance of "midlife crisis" to their lives and report higher levels of self-confidence, self-reliance and self-understanding. Tempered by an awareness of imperfect circumstances in their lives and compassion for their …