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The Accidental College Student, Phyliss Dubinsky Shey

Masters Theses

This narrative study began as a retrospective of an in-depth interview study with a young woman who navigated the move from a large, suburban school system in the mid-Atlantic region before the fifth grade to a small, isolated rural school in Southern Appalachia in the 1990s. She graduated from the only high school serving the county in which she lived. Over the course of two formal interviews, hundreds of informal conversations for more than ten years, and particularly through writing this analysis (Goodall, 2000), I realized that even though there were vast differences between our ages, cultural backgrounds, and current …

Acculturation And Identity Development Of Deaf Ethnic Minorities, Glennise Candice Schlinger

Masters Theses

This study examined whether experiences in the family and the education systems could influence Deaf ethnic identity development. Data were collected via administration of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS). Participants’ responses were assessed as outlined by the developers of the DAS (Maxwell-McCaw & Zea, 2011). Results suggested that parents’ attitude towards their child’s deafness may affect the deaf individual’s identity development. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with four deaf ethnic minority participants: One Venezuelan American and three African American. Two hearing parents (both mothers) also participated in the interview: one Venezuelan American and one African American. Thematic analysis was used …

Gender In Head Start Preschool Classrooms: Children's Experiences And Teachers' Perceptions, Swapna Anil Purandare

Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers who have studied the process of socialization have found that preschool is one of the first social exposures to direct teaching of societal norms including norms about gender-roles. Further, it has been found that there is a difference in teachers’ behavior toward boys and girls in preschool classrooms but most studies on gender differences in preschool classrooms have been conducted with middle-class populations. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to examine how preschool age children from low-income families (in Head Start) might have different experiences in their classrooms depending on their gender.

In order to achieve the …

Thinking And Reading Among College Undergraduates: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Critical Thinking Skills And Voluntary Reading, Kimberly Tanner Hawkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Many scholars have weighed in on what it means to think critically. Although there has not been agreement on a clear definition for the term “critical thinking,” scholars have agreed on some common skills involved in critical thinking. These skills—inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, analysis, evaluation, and inference are the same ones involved in the ability to read and read well. While many studies have involved critical thinking in college students, none has examined critical thinking and its relationship to reading. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between voluntary reading, academic achievement (as measured by GPA), …