Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Are The Housing Staff Alright? A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Examination Of The Experiences Of On-Campus Student Housing Professionals Through The Covid-19 Pandemic, Megan J. Chibanga

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

College and university housing professionals served a role they were generally underprepared for as long-term crisis managers during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted and shifted higher education operating structures on a grand scale, and housing staff were asked to continue operating on-campus housing facilities throughout the ever-changing response to COVID-19. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of housing professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the collective experiences of 21 participants three major threads emerged: comfort in the unknown, a need for connection and community, and relentless resilience. Each of these …

Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Project-Based Learning (Pbl) Education: A New Mexico Case Study For Equity And Inclusion, Kimberly A. Scheerer

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This research addresses how student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) education activities encourages underrepresented minority student achievement in STEM career field trajectories. Seven New Mexico high school counselors and 12 STEM organization personnel were interviewed during this study. Their responses represent the nuanced professional voices where New Mexico public education intersects with STEM student interest and cultural influence.

For students, STEM PBL can foster deep integration across educational disciplines and enhance STEM career trajectory interest and readiness. STEM education converged with PBL methodologies has the ability to leverage community support while broadening student networks. …

Lived Experiences Of Parents With Transgender And Gender Expansive Children, Mary Kathryn Brammer

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Parents of transgender and gender expansive (TGE) children can be recognized as a marginalized community often not represented or visible in the context of Westernized society. They experience significant challenges that impact their job as primary caregivers and burden their ability to raise healthy and happy TGE people. This research, guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology and Queer theory, aimed to discern parents of TGE children’s subjective and collective experience raising a TGE child in New Mexico, understand how they experience a support group each participant has attended at least one time, and recognize the significance of these experiences for …

A Thin Line Of Social Justice: Challenges And Changes In Navigating Relations Of Power In Graduate Schools Of Education, Heather Catherine Sands

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This dissertation brings together three qualitative research articles to interrogate a disjuncture between curriculum development in graduate schools of education and the relations of power it fosters in teacher education and counselor education. In applying biopower and intersectional analyses throughout each article, this dissertation contends that the recognition of power relations within these fields helps to highlight hegemonic patterns of teaching and counseling that occur in settings of classrooms and sessions. Three themes emerged within this dissertation: resistance, community, and subjectivity. Article One demonstrates a gap between teachers and school counselors with cyberbullying directed toward LGBTQ+ students. The Article leverages …

Experiences Of Latino First-Year Students Utilizing A Wellness Model For Analysis At A Four-Year Institution In The Southwest, Chriselle Martinez

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This study was conducted to understand the experiences of wellness among Latino first-year students at a four-year institution in the Southwest. The Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle (Meyers, Sweeny, & Witmer, 2001, 2004, 2011) was utilized as an analytical tool to further draw upon interview questions and themes. In hopes to inform a body of research in the area of counselor education and student affairs practitioners, this study is attempting to broaden the perspective on lived experience and understanding of wellness for Latino first-year students. The study is qualitative research with four identified themes that arose from the data. Interpretive Phenomenological …

The Experience Of Being Gender Nonbinary: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Gene Crofts

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The call for research on the growing population of persons who identify as gender nonbinary includes the need for in-depth explorations of lived experience, especially among Persons of Color. This study focuses on four individuals, 27 to 32 years of age, who identify as gender nonbinary as well as Hispanic/Latinx and reside in the unique minority-majority, conservative/progressive state of New Mexico. Interpretative phenomenological analysis, with its idiographic approach, was used to gather data through interviews and present the findings in both descriptive and interpreted terms. Results focus on three themes: realization required a unique journey, allowances are made for mothers …

A Multicultural Study Of The Experience Of Grief Following Involuntary Job Loss, Diane Lacen

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

A MULTICULTURAL STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCE OF GRIEF FOLLOWING INVOLUNTARY JOB LOSS

by DIANE BYRD LACEN

B. A., English, The University of New Mexico, 1989 M. A., Secondary Education, The University of New Mexico, 1996 M. A., Counseling and Guidance, New Mexico Highlands University, 2005 Ph.D., Counselor Education, The University of New Mexico, 2020

ABSTRACT

Unemployment affects many individuals and families in today’s world. This qualitative multiple-case study design examined how individuals from diverse backgrounds experienced grief following involuntary job loss. A purposeful sampling consisted of nine adults who represented the multicultural diversity in New Mexico. Triangulation of methods included …

Affecting Social Change For Transgender And Gender-Expansive Children: Exploring Advocates' Perspectives, Cortny Stark

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This interpretive case study explored the experience of advocates as they pursue social change for transgender and gender-expansive children (ages 4-12). The aim of the study is to improve current understanding of the process of advocacy for this population, as well as the context in which advocacy efforts occur. Data consisted of hour long interviews, advocacy artifacts as recommended by participants, and the researcher’s field journal. Participants included 12 advocates from a variety of backgrounds and geographic locations within the United States, to include educators, community advocates, and helping professionals. Implications of this study may include increased understanding of the …

Experiences Of Western Clinical Practice And Traditional Mexican American Healing When The Provider Is The Same Person, Helen Marie Tafoya

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

EXPERIENCES OF WESTERN CLINICAL PRACTICE AND TRADITIONAL MEXICAN AMERICAN HEALING WHEN THE PROVIDER IS THE SAME PERSON

By

Helen Marie Tafoya

B.A. Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1991

M. A. Clinical Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, 1995

Ph.D., Counselor Education, University of New Mexico, 2018

ABSTRACT

In counseling ethics and standards, there is a call to integrate practices and for practitioners to become more aware of other cultures and traditions (Sue, Arrendondo, & McDavis, 1992; Ratts, Singh, Butler, Nassar-McMillan, & McCullough, 2015). Very little research exists that addresses when the Western mental health practitioner and the traditional healer are …

A Phenomenological Study Of A Combined Mindfulness And Social-And-Emotional Learning Intervention As Delivered By A Counselor-Consultant To Early-Childhood Educators, Alfredo F. Palacios

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Mindfulness is an emerging tool that is growing in use in early childhood educational settings. This project identified a high needs area of Albuquerque New Mexico and implemented a mindfulness-based intervention with teachers in a Head Start setting. This study took place over a school year where teachers met weekly with researchers for training in mindfulness and social emotional learning. This study employed a phenomenological inquiry into the perceived experiences of teachers learning these pedagogical tools to be used in their classrooms. Implications are made for early childhood educators and professional counselors that serve in a consultation role in these …

The Influence Of Personal Threat, Personal Loss, Age, Practice Characteristics, And Death Education On Counselors' Death Anxiety And Death Acceptance, Michael Morad-Mccoy

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

A sample of 234 professional counselors were surveyed to investigate factors that affect professional counselors’ levels of death anxiety and death acceptance were investigated. Factors included personal experiences of mortality (personal threat), experiences of bereavement (grief), hours working with clients presenting death, dying, and bereavement (DDB) issues (client hours), numbers of clients who have died (client death), age, and hours of formal death education (death education). The measures of death anxiety and death acceptance were participants’ scores on the Death Attitudes Profile—Revised.

Analysis of the results found a significant negative relationship between client hours and death anxiety measures and a …

A Humanistic Examination Of Posttraumatic Growth In United States Military Veterans, Aaron J. Smith

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Military Mental Health Stigma (MMHS) is attributed as a significant factor in the 20 suicides that occur each day by United States Military Veterans (USMVs) (Kemp & Bossarte, 2012). These negative attitudes or beliefs about mental health exist, in part, due to a dearth of research on additive gains in the aftermath of trauma, known as Posttraumatic Growth (PTG, see: Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). The model most often used to describe PTG by mental health counselors working with USMVs is both under-researched (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2004), as well as, one that may be philosophically misaligned with the spirit of combating …

When The Clinician Is Burdened: Clinician’S Trauma History, Resiliency And The Impact On Compassion Fatigue, Ashley Martin-Cuellar

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This dissertation study was motivated by the desire to understand the relationship between a clinician’s prior traumatic experiences and the degree to which trauma may alter the personal impact of their work with clients in the form of perceived compassion fatigue. The methodology used in this study was designed to gather information about the relationship between 1) a clinician’s trauma and current levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction, and 2) the relationships between a clinician’s trauma and compassion fatigue when moderated by mindfulness, subjective vitality, psychological well-being and sleep. Regression results indicated that mindfulness, subjective vitality and psychological well-being …