Education Commons^™

Should We Move To Suspend Robert’S Rules Forever: A Review And Proposal For Student Government Communication, Harper Estus

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of this action research project was to understand and improve how student leaders in student government (senators) communicate with one another during their meetings. My research question was, how can I effectively work with the Associated Student Government (ASG) at the University of San Diego (USD) to improve the senator’s meeting communication through parliamentary practice? The use of Robert’s Rules (parliamentary procedure) is common for student government. I analyzed mixed-method data through three cycles: focus group, survey, and semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that there are pros and cons to meeting structures, most participants are open to different meeting …

Supporting Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Neurodivergence: University Of San Diego Accommodations And Resources, Carina Mendoza

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

This research focuses on better understanding the unique classroom experiences faced by autistic and neurodiverse students at the University of San Diego (USD) and offers recommendations to improve their college experience. Through a well-studied literature review and data collection through semi structured interviews and focus groups, the overall goal was to have a more holistic understanding of the current support services from faculty and staff that are available for students at USD. The study will provide unique challenges and curated recommendations for students with autism spectrum disorder and neurodiverse identities. This research also identifies specific areas where the USD can …

Supporting International Students' Emotional And Social Wellbeing: Addressing Pressing Issues Related To Tuition And Visa Status Anxiety, Jinyi Chen

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my research was to engage and build community with international students and to find ways to support them emotionally and socially leading to better mental health outcomes. My research question was: how can I support international college students to alleviate common mental health issues many continue to experience as a result of their international status? This occurs particularly when they must deal with tuition and visa status anxiety. I did three cycles in the research process using online surveys, interviews, and a large debriefing group meeting. Findings indicated that visa status anxiety is one of the most …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Experiences Of Undergraduate Students Who Participated In The Ronald E. Mcnair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, Alexandria C. Craft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of former McNair Program participants at a regional postsecondary institution in northeast Tennessee. More specifically, the study examined how past participants of a McNair Program perceived their program experiences related to their post-undergraduate educational endeavors and career pursuits. Although research has been conducted on McNair Programs, no research has been conducted on the lived experiences of individuals who participated in a McNair Program in northeast Tennessee within the last two decades, and little to no research has been conducted to identify the program components that former participants believe …

"There Is Power In Being Out": A Three Article Approach Celebrating The Experiences Of Queer University Leaders, Andrew R. E. Lorenzana

Dissertations

Institutions of higher education were historically built to serve a wealthy, White, straight male student population and the leaders of these institutions still largely reflect these demographics. This project specifically aims to celebrate and amplify the life and career of university administrators who identify within the LGBTQ community. Mainly through the use of a portraiture methodology, this three-article study attempts to examine the ways in which LGBTQ identity and career influence one another.

Worldmaking and narrative will be used as a theoretical frame to help analyze the ways in which the telling of a queer individual’s story makes the world …

Examining Black Faculty Retention In Predominantly White Institutions, Jacqueline Wykeshia Jonea Brazile

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the experiences of Black faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in southeastern Florida. The aim was to uncover the unique challenges influencing the retention of Black faculty in these settings and to identify supportive mechanisms enhancing their tenure and job satisfaction. Data collection involved semistructured interviews with Black faculty at Florida PWIs, employing snowball sampling for participant recruitment. Thematic analysis interpreted the data. The study contributes to the literature by suggesting strategies for PWIs to improve Black faculty retention and to promote inclusive and supportive environments. The literature review reveals the underrepresentation and disparities of Black …

The Role Of Organizational Leadership In The Success Of Higher Education Institutions: A Portraiture Study On Ashesi University In Ghana, Amanda Childress-Kannan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa are severely under-resourced, systemically lack strong leadership, have low enrollment numbers, lack scholarly productivity, and have high rates of attrition and turnover of students and faculty. Higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa do not compete well globally, with low research productivity and failure to retain top scholars. Higher education institutions in Ghana are particularly facing this problem: Ghana has a relatively stable government, society, and economy, with less corruption and other malfeasance as compared to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Even with these advantages, Ghana generally fails to establish and maintain …

Politics In The Classroom: A Survey On College Students’ Comfortability To Share Their Views, Ashley Rene Tuell

Communication Studies

The following study used theories of belongingness and spiral of silence to investigate students’ comfortability when sharing their political views in class. This study employed a survey distributed to a convenience sample of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students. The survey contained multiple choice and free response questions that encompassed political affiliation, willingness to share political views in class, and demographics. The results of the survey were interpreted using SPSS statistics software, specifically ANOVA tests and Fisher’s LSD. The findings of this study ultimately indicated that liberal students feel more comfortable sharing their views than moderates and conservatives. Findings also …

University Students' Wellbeing: A Case Study Of An International Private University In Egypt, Alia Attia

Theses and Dissertations

Wellbeing is a crucial topic that is gaining increasing attention in higher education and should be taken into careful consideration. This is a qualitative case study, using a phenomenological approach, which explores the phenomenon of student wellbeing in an international private university in Egypt. Data was collected through semi-structured individual interviews with a total of fourteen participants: eight purposefully selected students who have taken part in wellbeing programs, initiatives, or events at the American University in Cairo (AUC), as well as six faculty/staff members, leaders, mentors, or coaches in the field were interviewed. In addition to the interviews, conversations were …

Exploring The Needs Of College Students Experiencing Housing Instability, Sandy D. Dawoud

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study explored the needs and experiences of college students who have aged out of the foster care system and facing housing instability at a large public institution. The study explores the participants' pre-college experiences and college journey to identify challenges they faced, sources of support, and unmet needs impacting their education. Analysis of 14 individual interviews highlighted key themes related to motivations, obstacles, and desired assistance across areas like finances, mental health, academics, and support systems. This work has implications for implementing tailored institutional support, community partnerships, transition programs, and advocacy efforts to promote resilience and success for …

Impact Of Implicit Racial Bias On Students Of African Descent In Predominately White Institutions, Edwin Mathieu

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated how implicit racial bias influences the perceptions of students of African descent in predominately White colleges (PWIs) in the United States (U.S.). The theoretical framework for the study is critical race theory (CRT). CRT challenges racial indifference by exposing how racial advances often come at the cost of promoting or feeding into White self-interests (Patton et al., 2007). This non-experimental quantitative study examined how GPA, the number of credits earned, gender, race, and campus culture impact students of African descent’s perceptions of culturally implicit racial bias. It used Asian, Hispanic, and White students as a comparison group. …

Unmasking Challenges Of African American Women At Predominantly White Institutions (Pwis) Unveiling Phenomenological Realities And Prioritizing Well-Being, Alicia C. Perry

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses African American women's intricate challenges at predominantly white institutions (PWIs), exploring the outcomes of navigating a sense of belonging which eventually affects one's well-being within this professional context. The study employs a qualitative approach to delve into the experiences of those who work or have worked in the environment. By capturing the personal narratives of African American women in various roles at PWIs, the research aims to understand the intersectionality of race and gender dynamics impacting their professional lives. The literature review contextualizes the study by discussing the challenges identified in existing research, including the marginalization experiences …

Understanding Needs: Facilitating Faculty Support For Formal Assessment Processes In Higher Education, Terrance Cao

Theses and Dissertations

Prior literature discusses how conflicting beliefs regarding assessment, competing workloads, and a lack of formal assessment resources may contribute to faculty reluctance to engage with formal assessment processes. There is a gap in research on exploring assessment leader-faculty relationships through the lens of Leader-Member Exchange Theory and how that may affect participation in formal assessment processes. To address this gap, the researcher implemented a qualitative, phenomenological study to interview faculty about their lived experiences in working with formal assessment processes and interacting with assessment leaders. The goal was to discover emerging thematic categories regarding faculty perceptions of formal assessment processes …

An Exploration Of Dress Codes In Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Programs, Brumbaugh Klaire

All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

This investigation utilized a qualitative approach to explore dress code policy in twelve Midwestern master’s in speech-language pathology programs. After a written policy review, the clinic directors associated with each program were interviewed. Following the interview, the clinic directors sent a survey to the graduate students to complete (n = 74). Findings suggest that the dress codes in speech pathology should consider concepts related to client perception, discipline, financial responsibility, and safety when considering their dress codes. Information related to how to use the findings to support all students is discussed.

Minoritized Medical Students' Integration Of Professional Identities: A Phenomenological Study, Travis Erickson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study fills a gap in the extant literature by exploring how medical students with minoritized identities make meaning about sense of self-definition and emerging professional identities while enrolled in medical school. More specifically, the focus of this study explored how minoritized medical students perceived their sense of self and dimensions of identity were shaped during their medical education, and what perceptions these medical students had about how they manage their professional identity development. Emergent themes included: (a) making connections between self-definition and professional identities, (b) past experience of difference shaping identities, (c) self-definition with complexity, (d) fluidity as …

College Preparedness. Narratives Of Transitions From High School To College., Chelsey Luann Vincent

Theses and Dissertations

Despite many theories on student success as well as many resources to help students make the transition from high school to college, many students do not persist in or graduate from college. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide insight into what takes place when students leave P-12 institutions and enter institutions of higher education by using focused narrative inquiry. This study took place at a large research university in the south. The study included 4 participants at various parts of their transition journey. Participants in the study responded to written prompts. Follow up interviews were conducted, and a …

How Students Learn: Examining The Differences In Learning Strategies Between Flight And Nonflight Students, Jennifer A. Torres

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any differences in learning strategies between undergraduate flight and nonflight students attending a 4-year university that offered a Part 141 flight training program. Learning strategies were measured using Panadero et al.’s (2021) 30-item Deep Learning Strategies Questionnaire and its four subscales—Basic Learning Self-Regulation Strategies, Visual Elaboration and Summarizing Strategies, Deep Information Processing Strategies, and Social Learning Self-Regulation Strategies—all of which were the dependent variables. The primary independent variable was group membership, but the study also incorporated two covariates—self-efficacy and intrinsic value—which were measured using the respective subscales of Pintrich …

Exploring The Operationalization Of Market Sensing In A Higher Education Organization, Ashish Bhardwaj

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Market sensing is a dynamic capability of an organization that enables management to understand the market environment and develop strategic plans that best position the organization to continue to be relevant to the marketplace and sustain an advantaged competitive position. Extant research has explored the difference between ordinary and dynamic capabilities and proposed the role of dynamic capabilities as enabling the configuration and reconfiguration of the organization’s assets in response to or in anticipation of a rapidly evolving market environment, to maintain competitive advantage.

Market sensing dynamic capability has been hypothesized to consist of three key organizational processes – sensing, …

Global Mindedness And Its Development Across Space And Time: Illumination Of Lived Experiences From Study Abroad Students And Global Educational Scholars, Haoming Tang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores the phenomenon of ‘global mindednesses’ and its development as the idealized pedagogical outcome of global/international education. I consider how individuals become globally minded across their life journeys and through study abroad experience under larger conditions and forces. There are three discrete studies in this integrated dissertation format. In the first study, I examined the biographical and autobiographical accounts of thirteen US-based global scholars presented in the edited collection The global education movement: Narratives of distinguished global scholars (Kirkwood-Tucker, 2018). Through a thematic analysis, I identified five major themes in their development of global mindedness: (1) Experiencing war …

Higher Education Students And Digital Literacies: A Systematic Literature Review, Filipe Malafaia Cerqueira

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study is a systematic literature review of digital literacies and students in higher education. It sought to identify the state of knowledge on digital literacies in higher education including what studies have been conducted in this nexus and what remains to be known. The deductive themes drew on two prominent concepts of digital literacies: the Seven Elements of Digital Literacies (Jisc, 2014), and the Charter for 21st Century Literacies (Burnett & Merchant, 2018). The review’s methodology identified 23 studies published in the last five years across 21 countries. The findings suggest that researchers demonstrated interest in discussing how students …

English Language Learners And Their Access To Postsecondary Education: Examining Their Achievements And College Readiness Through Educators’ Experiences And Perspectives, Anna Kalinowska

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to bring awareness to the issue of English learners (ELs) being unprepared for college and to study the beliefs and perceptions of educators regarding the factors that contribute to the creation of an achievement gap between EL students and traditional students. The study involved an analysis of trends in the perceptions of school counselors, teachers, and administrators regarding EL students being ready to attend college. Data were collected from nine participants from three public high schools in Pinellas County using Zoom and email interviews and then analyzed. Four main themes emerged from the …

Relationship Between Learning Communities And Campus Residency On Sense Of Belonging Among First Year Undergraduates, Lanah Kathryn Stafford

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

In higher education, sense of belonging has been linked to improved outcomes such as retention and academic achievement (e,g., Pittman & Richmond, 2007). Previous research has also identified participation in learning communities and campus residency as interventions which improve sense of belonging for students in this context (e.g., Solanki et al., 2019; Soria & Roberts, 2021). However, little research has been conducted to empirically study sense of belonging as a multidimensional construct, and no research has investigated interactions between on-campus residency and learning community participation on its development.

Data were collected from 1,072 first-year students on the Sense of Belonging …

Latina Immigrant Women’S Experiences Of Higher Education And Leadership: An Intersectional Perspective, Isabella Alencar Maroja Chaves

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigates the career progression of Latina immigrant women to achieve leadership positions in higher education. The purpose of this research is to examine, from an intersectional perspective, the career progression of Latina immigrant women in educational leadership roles in higher education in Southwestern Ontario. The central point of this research is the study of the lived experiences of Latina women navigating the obstacles of being immigrants and women attaining educational leadership positions. The intersectional perspective, via the lens of Latina feminist theory, serves as both a conceptual framework and a theoretical approach. Considering the methodological approach, this study …

Addressing The Lack Of Digital Literacy Learning At A Kuwaiti Higher Education Institution, Mariam Sarhan Alshammari

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan is an effort to address the lack of digital literacy learning at a Kuwaiti higher education institution. Digital literacy, and by extension, digital citizenship are critical skills to have in today’s world. Global College of Kuwait (GCK, anonymized) is a relatively new college in the region that is struggling to retain students, particularly after COVID highlighted the college’s lack of experience/preparedness with digital literacy. To tackle the problem, a reform committee was formed and tasked with finding a feasible solution to improve digital literacy learning in the college’s Foundation Program. A Foundation Program is a preparatory …

From Epistemic Bubbles To Generative Possibilities: Knowledge Leadership And Knowledge Mobilization For Child And Youth Care Practicum Education, Carys Cragg

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Child and Youth Care (CYC) Practicum Education (CYCPE) operates in more than 40 public postsecondary institutions (PSI) across Canada. CYC educators instruct and assess, while supervisors mentor thousands of students at child, youth, and family-serving organizations. As an emerging profession, CYC does not yet experience well-established governance, widespread postsecondary research infrastructure, nor public recognition, leaving CYCPE with threats to its credibility and existence. Despite individual CYC educators’ and programs’ extensive professional knowledge, we lack CYC-specific CYCPE organizational knowledge. This problem of practice (PoP) limits CYC educators’ ability to inform, improve, and innovate upon CYCPE’s design and delivery. This organizational improvement …

The Dynamics Of A Full-Time Academician: Teaching, Scholarship & Service, Jalissa Nicole Black

Department of Occupational Therapy Entry-Level Capstone Projects

Academia by definition is “an environment or community concerned with pursuing research, education, and scholarship” (Oxford Languages, n.d.). In higher education, such as graduate-level studies, academia is a system fostering the growth in knowledge and practicality of students aiming to be of professional standing, however, academia from a full-time faculty member standpoint is to also be a life-long learner and pursuer of knowledge as well. My doctoral capstone experience (DCE) took place under the guidance of Christina Kane, EdD, MS, OTR/L, a full-time faculty member at Nova Southeastern University where she acts as Doctoral Capstone Coordinator, Academic Professor, and Advisor …

The Social-Psychological Development Of Dual-Enrollment Students, Paulie Robinson-Stevens

Culminating Experience Projects

Dual enrollment is a college acceleration program that allows high school students to take college classes while still in high school. This program as it exists today prepares students for the academic rigors of college, but it does not adequately develop the social or psychological skills they need to succeed in a college environment. Dual enrollment programs also do not include information about transfer credits, financial aid, or support services, all of which are necessary for students to transition from high school to a higher education institution. This project proposes a nine-week seminar to complement the academic preparation dual enrollment …

Mental Health Education In Higher Education, Chelsea J. Farley

Culminating Experience Projects

This project dives into the current mental health status of college students and what institutions are doing to address students steady and continuous decline of mental health. Mental Health 101: A Comprehensive Guide for Faculty incorporates suggestions from literature and theory to provide resources to faculty members when educating students. Mental Health 101 was created with the social-ecological model in mind (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) by connecting the individual student to their environment, or in this case, the college classroom. The guide consists of information about mental health such as risk factors and warning signs, coping strategies, activities, and assignments faculty members …

Qualities Of Effective Saudi University Presidents, Ziyad Sultan

Theses & Dissertations

The transformation of educational resources in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was presented as a crucial part of vision 2030 by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2016 as an important part of an overall strategy to diversify the KSA from its over-dependence on oil revenues. Vision 2030 imagined the transformational development of knowledge resources in the KSA including the development of leadership and knowledge applications to support the social and economic needs of the nation. High on the list of priorities was transformation of the 33 public universities in the KSA to be able to operate autonomously. Clearly, …

Do-It-Together: Informal Transformative Sustainability Education, Derek Brannon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Climate Crisis is an urgent and inescapable reality students are thrust into. Learners must be prepared adequately for their futures, not only for their sakes but also because collective and transformative change is required. Transformative sustainability education provides one pathway to this transformation and focuses on radically altering students’ perceptions about the world and their agency in effecting change on ecological issues. The field of transformative sustainability education is emergent and thus is still fragmented, leaving gaps in the literature. Little research has been conducted on how informal and nonformal university spaces can be used to create transformative experiences …