Making Meaning In The Margins: Identities, Belonging, And Social Justice Commitments In A Cross-Race Intergroup Dialogue For Queer And Trans College Students, Nina M. Tissi-Gassoway

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative research study used constructivist grounded theory methods to explore the lived experiences of 11 queer and trans undergraduate college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds in a cross-race intergroup dialogue (IGD) course. Using document analysis of course assignments and post-dialogue semi-structured interviews allowed for rich inquiry into how these queer and trans students made meaning of their intersecting identities, sense of belonging, cross-race relationships, and social justice commitments. This study contributes new knowledge about the meaning-making processes of queer and trans college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds and the role that IGD plays in supporting …

The Role Of Faculty In Fostering Psychosocial Wellbeing Among University Students, Kelley Wick

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The transition to college represents a major life event, and successfully navigating this shift has implications for students’ psychosocial wellbeing. While there is ample support for the idea that social relationships can facilitate student wellbeing during the transition to college, there is limited understanding of the unique role faculty may play in supporting students. The aim of this study was to determine the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing and self-efficacy, independent of peer support and student level of stress. Additionally, the primary questions were to examine whether self-efficacy mediated the relation of faculty support to student wellbeing, and …

Cultivating Identities In A Place Called Home: Intersectional, Ever Changing Identities Of Vietnamese American Youth In Culturally Sustaining Spaces, Thuy Vi Nguyen

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Educators and scholars have been advocating for culturally sustaining pedagogies in the classroom that extends, honors, and sustains the cultures and backgrounds of our growing Students of Color population. Moving beyond pedagogies in classrooms, I examine culturally sustaining spaces in culture clubs and community-based organizations and how they cultivate the identity development and sense of belonging of Vietnamese American high school students. I find that these students have complex identities that are intersectional and ever changing, existing outside the Black-White binary. Vietnamese culture clubs provide a space that allows students to belong and express their identity in a positive way, …

Journeying “Home”: Negotiating Belonging As Vietnamese American Việt Kiều, Mary Yee

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

For Southeast Asian young people who left as adolescents from their home countries, their connections to those places are often fraught with ambiguity. As for almost all first-generation immigrant youth, issues of belonging in America have touched multiple aspects of their lives, including issues of identity. Not belonging is the diasporic experience of the immigrant (Christou, 2011; Skrbis, 2008). This qualitative study examined the lived experience of three Vietnamese American young people returning home as Việt Kiều, or diasporic Vietnamese. For these emerging adults, it was an important developmental task to figure out one’s place in the world: one’s belief …

Dinner Table Syndrome: A Phenomenological Study Of Deaf Individuals’ Experiences With Inaccessible Communication, David R. Meek

The Qualitative Report

Conversations at the dinner table typically involve reciprocal and contingent turn-taking. This context typically includes multiple exchanges between family members, providing opportunities for rich conversations and opportunities for incidental learning. Deaf individuals who live in hearing non-signing homes often miss out on these exchanges, as typically hearing individuals use turn-taking rules that differ from those commonly used by deaf individuals. Hearing individuals’ turn-taking rules include use of auditory cues to get a turn and to cue others when a new speaker is beginning a turn. Given these mechanisms, hearing individuals frequently interrupt each other—even if they are signing. When deaf …

Campus Design And The Community College Experience: An Exploration Of Stress, Belonging And Scholarly Identity, Vanita Naidoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This mixed methods research study examines factors that influence the development of scholarly identity at a community college campus. It uses survey methods and a focus group with undergraduate students at the Bronx Community College (BCC) campus to examine how campus design relates to a sense of belonging, the process of reflection, and the development of a scholarly identity. Academic attrition and low performance are challenges at urban community colleges. The study aims to address how campus design, specifically green space, impacts undergraduate students at a community college. It seeks to better understand the experience of the diverse student population …

Extracurricular Involvement And Identification: An Analysis Of The Student Experience, Kelvin Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every year universities and colleges provide millions of students with not only educational experiences but also social experiences. Students’ involvement on campus influences their identification with other students, student groups, and even the university. Understanding the relationship between extracurricular involvement and a student’s sense of belonging is essential for higher education professionals. This research looked at the college student experience through the lens of student involvement theory, relationship motivation theory, and social identity theory. The study examined the level of extracurricular involvement a student has and the relationship to both social identity and organizational identity. Social identity theory and organizational …

Lonely Zs: Examining The Relationships Among Time Spent On Social Networking Sites, The Fear Of Missing Out (Fomo), And Loneliness Among Undergraduate College Students, Chantelle Elam Bernard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Time spent on social networking sites has become an essential part of the Gen Z’s social experience, and the fear of missing out (FoMO), and loneliness have become three well known topics among today’s college students. It is suspected that emerging adults are spending an excessive amount of time on SNSs, which is contributing to the increasing psychological decline and the epidemic of loneliness on college campuses around the world. The research conducted sought to determine if there is a predictive relationship between multiple variables, including time spent on social networking sites, the fear of missing out (FoMO), and loneliness …

Perceptions Of Faculty-Student Informal Mentoring Relationships, Robert Meier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perceptions of Faculty-Student Informal Mentoring Relationship

This qualitative study examined the informal mentoring relationships between faculty and students at two small, faith-based, liberal arts campuses. Perceptions of both faculty and students’ views of informal mentoring were studied. The research questions further explored the factors that encouraged or discouraged faculty-student informal mentoring as well as the role of on-campus faculty housing. Student participants were selected after completing an online survey regarding their perception of connection with professors at the campus location. Faculty participants were selected after completing an online survey regarding their perception of how much time they spent with students …

جدليّة الوطن والانتماء وأثرها في المجتمع بين سعيد عقل وأحمد مطر, Samir Itani

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

The term Motherland wasn’t used by the ancient Arab writers and poets, and even if it was mentioned it would mean the house or the residence, as for the concept of the motherland, as identified nowadays, it didn’t exist in the era before Islam or the Middle ages, but it started emerging during the 19th century, when the national sense developed at the Arabs, and they were introduced to this concept by the western culture which invaded all the east.Among the models which the researcher poet “Said Akel” may study, a Lebanese whose thoughts match with those who attempt to …

Voices Of Mixed-Race Asian Students On College Campuses, Amy Sara Lim

Honors Papers and Posters

Research suggests that there are a growing number of people who identify as mixed-race Asian Americans, and thus there is a growing need to understand and document their experiences (Literte,2009; Sims 2010; Tamai, Nakashima, Williams, 2017). The central question of this study is: how do mixed-race Asian students’ racial identities affect their identities as learners within social, emotional, academic and physical contexts? The goal of this research project is to explore the educational experiences of mixed-race Asian students at a Southern California university with the intention of developing a critical mixed-race pedagogy for educators and scholars. Through mixed methodologies involving …

Get Teens Talking: A Hands-On Approach To Sel Through The Arts, Gina H. Moore, Gina H. Moore

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

Explore the power of art to give tweens and teens a vehicle for healthy self-expression and life skills that can take them from risk to resilience. Interact and connect in this hands-on session that demonstrates engaging activities to create a sense of community within groups. Exercise your creativity and leave with unique artwork and a written guide to facilitate the activities in your programs.

“Estamos Aquí Pero No Soy De Aqui”: American Mexican Youth, Belonging And Schooling In Rural, Central Mexico, Eric Ruiz Bybee, Erin Feinauer Whiting, Bryant Jensen, Victoria Savage, Alisa Baker, Emma Holdaway

Faculty Publications

This article explores notions of belonging and citizenship for “American Mexican” students— Mexican-heritage youth born in the United States who return to Mexico with their families. Our findings reveal belonging as a sociocultural practice that participants negotiated spatially and relationally, chiefly by making their US-born status more and less visible within particular spaces at school. The experiences of American-Mexican youth reveal the crucial roles of migration and belonging in shaping civic identities and future potentials in a transnational world.

Is Seeing Believing? Leveraging Modality And Similarity In A Belonging Intervention, Xiao-Yin Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Students who feel a greater sense of belonging in college often experience more positive academic outcomes. Social-psychological interventions have been shown to improve students’ sense of belonging. However, few studies have examined the social cognitive mechanisms through which interventions work. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of two such mechanisms—delivery modality and students’ perceived similarity to peer models—on the efficacy of a narrative-based, social belonging intervention. First-year students (N = 1,329) from a public, land-grant university in the southeastern U.S. were randomly assigned to a social belonging intervention (i.e., a video- or written-based narrative from peers …

You Belong: A Focus On Cultural Awareness, Inclusivity, And Diversity In Schools To Improve Recruitment And Retention, Keicha Chandler-Smith

Education Projects

The educational system in the United States of America is under attack. The attack is not in physicality but is being caused by abnormally high teaching shortages. The shortage has become an area of concern nationally, including within my home state of South Carolina.Over 6,700 teachers left the profession in the year 2017 for a variety of reasons. This type of attrition is only expected to continuously increase because universities and colleges globally have reported and that less students are aspiring to be teachers year after year. Thirty-eight percent of South Carolina’s teachers left their jobs in their first five …

The Digital Literacy Practices Of Transfronterizx Esol College Students: Los De Esol, Laura E. Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation aims to contribute knowledge to the literature about ESOL students' digital literacy practices related to educational purposes. I studied the varied digital literacy practices the students used as mediating tools to perform their university activities (e.g., crossing to come to school, communicate with classmates/instructors about assignments, completing assignments). This study takes place on the U.S. side of the borderland area of El Paso, Texas-Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The participants were 43 transfronterizx ESOL college students, who were young adults between 18-25 years of age enrolled in the ESOL program at Sun University. I draw on ethnographic and netnographic …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Belonging During The Transition From Primary To Secondary School, Lynette Longaretti

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A young person’s sense of belonging at school can affect their level of motivation, academic achievement and wellbeing. During the transition from primary to secondary school, one’s sense of belonging may be affected by the changes and challenges encountered.

This paper reports some of the findings from a larger qualitative longitudinal study that investigated the factors that contribute to educational resilience during the transition from primary to secondary school. Data gathered from interviews with sixteen Year 6 students from three Victorian primary schools over a period of eighteen months is presented and analysed.

A key theme identified from the larger …

Being And Belonging: Student-Teachers’ Contextual Engagement In Schools, Enda Donlon, Elaine Mcdonald, Sabrina Fitzsimons, Pj Sexton

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While School Placement is long established as a central component of Initial Teacher Education programmes, there is an increasing awareness that these placement experiences should go beyond the practical activities most directly associated with teaching. This paper considers how engagement in a school placement period with a focus on non-teaching activities contributes to the professional and personal development of student-teachers, and to their sense of ‘belonging’ while on placement. Drawing primarily on the analysis of data obtained from online logs maintained by student-teachers during this predominantly non-teaching placement, it establishes the activities that they engaged in, and their reflections and …

Preservice Teachers’ Sense Of Belonging During Practicum Placements, Yvonne Dewhurst, Michelle Ronksley-Pavia, Donna Pendergast

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Practicum placements in schools are keystone features of preservice teacher education, yet inconsistencies in their nature and quality are pervasive. This phenomenon was explored in two cultural contexts, with a focus on ‘belonging’, which the literature reveals may impact practicums and commitment to the profession. Interviews were conducted with six primary school preservice teachers in Australia and Scotland, about their lived experience of belonging/non-belonging during practicum. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis revealed four themes in both cultural contexts: 1. Being welcomed; 2. Settings and procedures; 3. Interpersonal interactions; and, 4. Strategic behaviours. This study indicates belonging as crucial to preservice teachers’ cognition, …

Being Myselves To Belonging Together, Jill Kristen Pardini

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation utilizes an autoethnographic methodology to explore experiences and memories from my own life, while applying a critical cultural and multidisciplinary lens to tell a story about how (un)learning is intertwined with living. By creating a story combining autobiographical elements, science fiction, and cultural critique, this work both draws the reader into reimagining what is possible (Dixon-Romån, 2017), while encouraging the reader to step outside of the conventional modes of academic learning, just as I did in writing it (Sousanis, 2015). This autoethnography includes five encounters inspired by Styres (2017) framework for centering indigeneity in learning (Adams & Jones, …

Understanding Effective Orientation Practices From Orientation Professionals At Public Hbcus, Ronnie Mack Jr

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation focused on understanding the perceptions of orientation professionals of the impact of orientation programming at public historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This study illustrates the effective practices of orientation programming and their impact on the retention of first – year African American students.

The theoretical framework that supported this study focused on challenge & support, retention, involvement, transition, belonging, and Black identity theory. The research study looked to understand orientation professionals’ perceptions of the impact of orientation programming at a public HBCU on the successful transition and retention of first-year students.

The qualitative multiple case study …