Educational Sociology Commons^™

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

The Shaping Of Ethnic Mexican Identity In The Segregated Schools Of Presidio, County, Texas, 1867-1947, Aurelio Saldana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The work conducts a sociological analysis of the historical record documenting segregated school settings in a rural area from 1867 to 1947 using socialization theory. The sociological theory of schemas will provide a lens from the Americanization process students in the U.S., specifically ethnic Mexican students, underwent to shape "American" identity. The analysis ventures into the intersectionality created by the social constructs of gender, sex, race, and class and how these factors combined as part of the Americanized socialization of ethnic Mexican students. Gender inequality, or patriarchy, was a leading factor in shaping the contested U.S.-Mexico borderlands and U.S. society. …

Unraveling The Geographies Of The U.S. Public Education System: An Analysis Of Scale, Segregation, And Hegemony, Olivia Ildefonso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Other than one or two studies that focus on specific state-wide systems of public education, there has been no accounting for how the U.S. public education system came about in relation to space and scale. My dissertation research seeks to fill in this gap. Through focusing on the development of public education in the North and the South, I provide a foundation for understanding the grounded and contested processes of scale production that largely determined the U.S. public education system’s design and function.

In each of the seven chapters, I detail how fights over the structure and purpose of public …

Who Is Anointed? The Psychological And Social Justice Implications Of Gifted And Talented Programs In The United States, Emma Caroline Gossett

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This paper explores the repercussions of gifted and talented programs in the United States, looking specifically at resulting psychological effects and social justice implications. This analysis is positioned within the discussion of global power struggles for technological advancement. After the success of the Russian Sputnik satellite in 1957, the United States bolstered initiatives in education to ensure they were producing students who could contribute to the prowess of the nation. Gifted programs allowed for a more in-depth focus on those children deemed useful to the labor market. This resulted in additional pressures placed on certain students to excel. The anointment …

Improving Veteran Access; Status Of Operations Of The United States Department Of Veteran Affairs Work-Study Program, Kirk Allen

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The usage status of The U.S. Department Veterans Affairs Work-Study Program is examined. Beneficiary numbers from the Global, Unites States, State, and Local/County perspective are reviewed. While of essential value, the program suffers from a lack of scholarly research and government oversight, and is further hindered by restrictive administrative rules lived first-hand. Research suggests that the program is operating outside of accountability to the taxpayer, presents as unnecessarily/overly-restrictive in accessibility, and is underutilized. The program appears to not be serving all veterans to full potential.

The Work-Study Program is codified in Veterans Benefits', Title 38 United States Code, Part III, …

Cracks In The Bathroom Stall: A Discourse Analysis On Transgender Bathroom Usage At Garden Spot High School, Kirsten D. Corneilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, high schools across the country have seen the concern around transgender students using gendered facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, come to the forefront. Often, dissenters raise worries of privacy and of “catering to a minority,” no matter what decision is reached. At Garden Spot High School in New Holland, Pennsylvania, the site of this research, one such concern has led to a district-wide decision to eliminate gendered facilities and move to single-use facilities, in the name of preserving student privacy. Through the examination of historical precedent and discourse analysis, this paper examines how transgender surveillance …

Reframing Internationalization: Faculty Beliefs And Teaching Practices, Marco Tulluck

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

This study applies Critical Race Theory as a critical lens to gain a clearer understanding of highly racialized policies and teaching practices around international student engagement in US higher education. The findings help to inform higher education leaders of how to support faculty to foster more inclusive and affirming learning environments for international students of color and other diverse student populations.

This mixed methods study employed a modified version of the Colorblind and Multicultural Ideology of STEM Faculty Measure as well as focus group interviews to gain a more complex understanding of how university faculty members’ beliefs align with colorblind …

Morris High School: A Biography, Naomi Sharlin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Morris High School was conceived and built in the Bronx with a lofty mission: to provide a comprehensive, world-class secondary education to the children of immigrant and working-class families, and in so doing to elevate the American public education system and America itself. Such a weighty mission for an institution would result, one could expect, in painstaking record keeping, the lionization of great leaders, consistent investment in the building, and attention given to problems encountered or created over the years. And yet, the life of Morris High School remains elusive. Key figures in its story are lost to obscurity like …

The ‘Meanings’ And ‘Enactments’ Of Science And Technology: Ant-Mobilities’ Analysis Of Two Cases, Farrukh Chishtie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this work I study two cases involving practices of science and technology in the backdrop of related and recent curricular reforms in both settings. The first case study is based on the 2005 South Asian earthquake in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan which led to massive losses including large scale injuries and disabilities. This led to reforms at many levels ranging from disaster management to action plans on disability, including educational reforms in rehabilitation sciences. Local efforts to deal with this disaster led to innovative approaches such as the formation of a Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) model by a local NGO, which …

History Of Sioux Lookout Black Hawks Hockey Team, 1949-1951, Fatima Ba'abbad

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Existing literature on residential schools in Canada indicates that sports played an important role within that system and were a positive experience for Aboriginal students. However, these sporting experiences have not been analyzed from the students’ perspectives. This thesis aims to enrich our understanding of the role of sports within residential schools; the meanings former students attached to their experiences, and what sports mean to reconciliation initiatives using 1) narrative analysis of media representations of the Black Hawks team from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School during their 1951 hockey tour to Ottawa and Toronto, 2) a two-part interview process (photo …

American Undergraduates Undone: Social And Intellectual Dysfunction On Campus, Noelle P. Jones

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The pivotal, formative years of typical undergraduates, ages 18-22, represent a time when students mold their distinctive identities, social personalities, and intellects more intensively than during any other period of their lives. Developmental theorists Arthur W. Chickering and Linda Reisser call this process “journeying toward individuation—the discovery and refinement of one’s unique way of being—and also toward communion with other individuals and groups, including the larger national and global society” (35). In today’s college climate, students flummox and astound parents, professors, and researchers due to their individual immaturity and disengagement with learning. Although these complaints identify nothing new in America, …

Cooking Up A Course: Food Education At Pomona College, Christina A. Cyr

Pomona Senior Theses

Cooking skills are important but declining, with significant health, social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental implications. Food and cooking education can begin to address some of the negative effects of the cooking skills decline. This thesis makes the case for cooking classes in the education system, especially in higher education. The paper begins with a history of cooking education and skills, outlines the implications of the decline in skills, and discusses the potential for cooking education in higher education. The second part consists of a course syllabus, designed for Pomona College. The third section includes a discussion of the implementation …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

The Social Construction Of Authorship: An Investigation Of Subjectivity And Rhetorical Authority In The College Writing Classroom, Johannah Rodgers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although we use the term author on a daily basis to refer to certain individuals, bodies of work, and systems of ideas, as Michel Foucault and other critics have pointed out, attempting to answer the question “What is an Author?” is by no means a simple proposition. And, starting from the position that there is no single, or definitive answer to this complex question, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the genealogy of authorship by investigating the ways in which conceptions of the author have informed models of the writing subject in the field of rhetoric …

The History Of The Emery Stake Academy, Paul Robert Tabone

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a study of the early Church educational program in Southeastern Utah, especially the Emery County area. This study is to trace the growth and development of one aspect of this program from 1889 to 1922, and to lend special emphasis to the founding and location of the Emery Stake Academy, the buildings and their development, the growth of the curriculum, the enrollment, the activities, and the influence of the Academy upon the area.

The Box Elder Stake Academy In Its Historical Setting, Byron L. Parkinson

Theses and Dissertations

The Box Elder Stake Academy was a part of the Church System of Academies under the direction of Karl G. Maeser. The historical setting of Box Elder County is rather unique. It was here that Lorenzo Snow directed one of the most successful forms of the United Order. The nearby city of Corinne was established as one of the few gentile cities in Utah, and from there a new crusade to end Mormon rule in Utah was begun.

The Box Elder Stake Academy was one of the first academies created under the direction of the First Presidency of the Church. …

A History Of The Schools And Educational Programs Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In Ohio And Missouri, 1831-1839, Orlen Curtis Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a history of the schools and educational programs organized and maintained by the LDS Church while the saints resided in Ohio and Missouri between the years of 1831 and 1839. The instructors, curriculum, organizational structure, and the purpose of each school is given when information in these areas was available. In Kirtland, the Church organized the School of the Prophets, School of the Elders, Kirtland High School, Hebrew School, a singing school, a writing school, and a few grammar schools. The Church leaders in Missouri organized the Colesville school, a school in Independence, Far West School, and …

An Historical Study Of Adult Education Programs Of The Brigham Young University From 1921 To 1966, Keith Lowell Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to record the history of Adult Education programs of the Brigham Young University. Such a history has not been written although two master's theses and one doctor's thesis have treated some phases of the study. George S. Haslam, Chairman of the B.Y.U. Ogden Center for Continuing Education, explored in his master's thesis the History of the Policy Making Groups of the Brigham Young University particularly as they have reference to adult education. A thesis on the establishment of the Audio Visual Department of B.Y.U. was completed in 1959 by Paul S. Smith and Dr. …

A Study Of The Department Of Religious Education Of The Reorganized Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Glen C. Wahlquist

Theses and Dissertations

There have been a few studies related to the religion education movement of the Reorganized Church, but little has been done to research the total program of the Department of Religious Education and its development.
The purpose of this study was to trace the historical development of the religious education program of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1860 to its present organization as the Department of Religious Education; to summarize the church's philosophy of education; and to determine the present status of the Department of Religious Education of the Reorganized Church.

An Historical Study Of The Factors Influencing The Organization Of Education In Washington County, 1852-1915, Robert H. Moss

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to trace the development of education in Washington County from its beginnings as a small district system to its present status as a free public school system within a county administrative unit.

The Juarez Stake Academy, Dale M. Valentine

Theses and Dissertations

While the history of the Latter-day Saints who colonized in Mexico is probably not generally known by the majority of Latter-day Saints living throughout the world today, it nevertheless comprises an exceptionally colorful and exciting chapter of the history of Mormonism. The Latter-day Saints who went to Mexico created there a culture and society which has never been duplicated. Probably one of the chief concerns of the Mormon Colonists in Mexico was to establish in their society a culture which would be lastingly enduring and which would progressively improve. Secondly, it is also probable that they were passionately desirous of …