Utilizing Cte Programs To Bridge The Expectations Gap Between Academia And Entrance Into The Global Workforce, Jose M. Gaspar

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether completing high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) coursework, completing foreign language coursework, or participating in community college CTE programs predicted higher levels of postsecondary degree attainment. The study was designed to better understand how academic and technical pathways function within the P–20 system and how these pathways shape student perceptions and long-term educational outcomes. Participants in the study included individuals who had completed some level of postsecondary education and provided information on their high school and community college coursework experiences. Findings indicated that students who participated in both academic and …

Trigger Warnings And A Pedagogy Of Trust, Morgan Read-Davidson

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"While the larger conversation about difficult content and trigger warnings is not new, the sudden need for urgently scheduled meetings with me did not begin until the COVID- 19 pandemic crisis and our move to remote instruction, and the subsequent adjustment back to the classroom. This seems to coincide with the increase of online and social media interaction during the pandemic, where the use of trigger warnings and content warnings on social media, particularly on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, have made the conversation far more visible. For students, this seems to have given them validation and confidence, as well as …

Introduction To Trigger Warnings: Teaching Through Trauma, Ian Barnard, Ryan Ashley Caldwell, Jada Patchigondla, Aneil Rallin, Morgan Read-Davidson, Ethan Trejo, Kristi M. Wilson

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"The individual histories of both trigger warnings and trauma have evolved rapidly in the overlapping wakes of COVID, mental health crises, attacks on educational institutions in the United States, climate apocalypse, evergrowing economic inequities, and, more promisingly, attempts at political redress and educational equity. At the same time, trigger warnings and trauma have become exponentially more intimately linked in the past few years. But however often the topic of trigger warnings provokes heated discussion, the appeals and alignments of the interlocutors equally as frequently defy neat political binaries. Critiques of trigger warnings come from all sides of the political and …

The Role Of White Racial Identity Development In Leadership Practices: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study In White Educational Leaders, Kaitlyn Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how white educational leaders experience and make meaning of their racial identity development as they lead adult professional learning focused on racial equity and culturally responsive practice. Grounded in Helms’s White Racial Identity Development (WRID) model and guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study explored the lived experiences of ten white leaders across PK–12 and Institution of Higher Education (IHE). Data were collected through three semi‑structured interviews per participant and analyzed using IPA’s six‑step process. Five major themes emerged: transformational experiences that shifted leaders’ understanding of race and privilege; the critical role of white affinity …

Apply, Pack, Travel, Repeat: An Autoethnographic Study Of Travel Grant And Travel-Based Learning Experiences As Professional Development For Educators, Julie Ann Midkiff

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This qualitative research study examines the impact of travel grants and travel-based learning experiences as professional development for educators. Using autoethnography as a research method, this study is written from the positionality of an elementary art teacher living and teaching in Southern West Virginia and as a doctoral student who was a successful applicant for two travel grant experiences, and a self-funded travel-based learning experience. I reflectively and reflexively to recount my personal and professional travel-based learning experiences, the lifelong and transformative learning that occurred because of them, and the direct and emergent outcomes that were the result of travel-based …

Hidden Gems Of Clay County: “Snap + Say Something” Inquiry Protocol, David Wolff

OER Materials

The goal of this assignment was to design an immersive, place‑based learning experience that helps preservice teachers engage with primary sources connected to the history and culture of Clay County, Minnesota. In collaboration with the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, preservice teachers visited the Hjemkomst Center and used autophotography to document artifacts, exhibits, and moments that helped them understand what makes Moorhead and the wider Clay County community a unique and meaningful place. Alongside their photographs, they wrote reflections explaining why each image captures an aspect of Clay County as a “special place.” This approach is intended …

Seeking The Goodness In Culturally Responsive Practices Of New Jersey Suburban Public Elementary Teachers, Kimya S. Jackson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the United States, suburban elementary schools continue to diversify, while teaching staff remain predominantly White, creating urgency for culturally responsive practices (CRP) in non-urban settings (Stanford, 2023). In this study, I examined CRP’s goodness enacted by four teachers in New Jersey suburban elementary schools, a context shaped by state mandates for diversity and inclusion (New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), 2022). The question guiding my research was: In what ways do New Jersey suburban elementary (kindergarten through fifth grade) schoolteachers engage in culturally responsive practices? Using Lawrence-Lightfoot and Hoffman Davis’s (1997) portraiture methodology, I developed portraits of four suburban …

Competitive Dance And The Adolescent’S Body: Considering Pedagogical Approaches To Teaching Competitive Dancers, Catri E. G. Barba

Dance (MFA) Theses

Diving into the past and researching for the future, this thesis explores the development and perpetuation of hyper-sexualized adolescent bodies through the competitive dance scene. Drawing on dance theorists, educational theorists, and embodied research (i.e., the author’s body archive), this thesis explores how the competition gaze is performed for and by a capitalist patriarchy. Specifically, this thesis critically reflects on the author’s career as a young competitive dancer in the greater Los Angeles, California, area during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as a competition dance instructor and K-12 educator for two decades, and how those personal experiences have shaped …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Perceptions Of Professional College Consultants Regarding The History And Future Of College Acceptance Inequity, Kimberly A. Spencer

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While inequities in college admissions processes in the United States have long been discussed, there have been seismic changes in policies during the last decade with increased competition for limited spots, significant cultural and political shifts affecting higher education, and the effects of the pandemic all further contributing to what has become a very complicated process. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to explore the perceptions of professionals working as Independent Educational Consultants counseling students through the college admissions process to gain insight into how the system is functioning for all students from those working closely with both …

Implementing Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support For School-Based Mental Health Services: An Explanatory Case Study Of An Elementary School, Laura Acker

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative explanatory case study examined how school-based mental health services (SBMHS) are implemented within an elementary school’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and sensemaking theory, the study examined how educators and school-based professionals interpret and enact their roles in supporting student mental health within educational contexts. Data were collected through interviews with five MTSS team members and analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive coding. Results showed that mental health implementation is not a fully integrated system of supports but rather a process shaped by roles and relationships influenced …

Mahmoud V. Taylor: Cause Or Effect Of Disruptions In Public Schools?, Richard B. Katskee, Ira C. Lupu

Faculty Scholarship

Mahmoud v. Taylor represents an extraordinary departure from long-standing constitutional norms about the rights of parents of children in public schools. In Mahmoud, the Supreme Court upheld a Free Exercise Clause claim by parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, who sought to have their children (grades K–5) excused from readings that contain LGBTQ characters and themes. The majority opinion by Justice Alito rests on a highly controversial reading of Wisconsin v. Yoder.

Part I of the paper provides the doctrinal and historical backdrop to Mahmoud, which reflects the acute tension between a once-narrow understanding of Yoder and the post-Obergefell backlash against …

Learning In The Wild: A Discourse Analysis Of Literacy Practices And Educational Outcomes In Montana’S Youth Climate Activism, Tyler Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines youth climate activism in Montana as a site of literacy practice, civic learning, and critical climate engagement. Focusing on the University of Montana Climate Response Club, the study asks how youth climate activists use literacy practices to interpret climate issues and participate in civic action, and how those practices reflect elements of critical climate literacy. The study defines critical climate literacy as a set of socially situated practices through which young people read, interpret, question, and respond to climate change as both an environmental issue and a civic problem shaped by power. Rather than treating climate literacy …

10 Years Of The Hive: Successes, Challenges, And Lessons For Designing Creative Learning Hubs In Higher Education, Celine Bernhardt-Lanier

CMC Senior Theses

College students are often told to be “innovative” and to prepare themselves for a rapidly changing job market. Yet, most institutional learning environments are built for everything but that, focusing on efficiency, mastery, and content delivery. The Hive, formerly known as the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity, pushes against this reality in higher ed. Founded ten years ago and nestled in a corner of East 7th Street in Claremont, California, the Hive brings together students, faculty, and staff through workshops, classes, skillshares, and events that are centered around making, reflecting, and collaborating. Drawing on eight semi-structured …

From Panels To Power: Empowering Middle Schoolers Through Comics, Ali Geigerman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores how craftivism, grounded in feminist theory and informed by multiliteracies, can be used to disrupt and reclaim the traditionally male-dominated genre of comics for girls and non-binary students. While the New London Group’s concept of multiliteracies expands definitions of literacy to include visual, spatial, and multimodal forms of meaning-making, it does not fully address questions of power, representation, and voice. Drawing specifically on the work of bell hooks as a theoretical anchor, this study positions comics not only as legitimate multiliterate texts but also as sites of feminist intervention. By blending multiliteracies, feminism, and craftivism, this research …

Transformative Paths: Advancing Inclusive Healthcare Education, Morgan Young

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2026

Transgender individuals continue to experience significant healthcare disparities, provider bias, discrimination, and barriers to accessing affirming healthcare services (White Hughto et al., 2015; World Professional Association for Transgender Health [WPATH], 2022). Despite increasing awareness of these disparities, healthcare education often lacks comprehensive training related to gender-affirming care (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2021; Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], n.d.; White Hughto et al., 2015). A concurrent scoping review was conducted to answer the research question: Among healthcare providers, how do educational strategies grounded in transgender perspectives and lived experiences affect provider competence in transgender healthcare? The review …

The Coalition Of Inclusive School Leaders Framework & Guidebook, K. Adams, Meghan Cosier, Audri Sandoval Gomez

Thompson Policy Institute on Disability Policy Reports

"The purpose of this inclusive leadership framework, also supplemental, is to expand further on those actionable steps in the PSEL 2015 and Promoting Principal Leadership for the Success of Students With Disabilities document for direct use with future and current school and district administrators, framing a more inclusive-focused leader than the initial development of the CPSEL and PSEL. This framework will guide leaders toward improving access, equity, and inclusion for students with disabilities (SWD) and other students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds (e.g., students who are Black, Latinx, and Indigenous; students who are LGBTQIA+; and students who are experiencing poverty across …

Inclusive Teaching Strategies That Increase Student Engagement, Manar Yamany, Jeffrey Carver

2026 Scholarly Teaching Conference: Concurrent Session Papers

This teaching practice introduces participation pathways intentional structures that design how students engage during class. A participation pathway is a planned sequence that moves students from individual thinking to small-group interaction, to shared application. Rather than relying on voluntary participation, this approach embeds engagement directly into the structure of the lesson.

This practice emerged through observing a range of college classrooms and participating in courses where structured engagement increased attention, listening, and meaningful participation. In these settings, instructors organized class sessions so that all students engaged through writing, discussion, and application activities. These pathways ensured that students who were present …

School-Based Mental And Emotional Support For Urban Students Experiencing Traumatic Loss, Britney Daniel-Harris

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This study explores the perception of educational staff members on school-based mental and emotional resources for urban students experiencing traumatic loss. With increased levels of research centered on enhancing training protocols to educate teachers on identifying, supporting, and guiding traumatic care through evidence-based resources, there is an opportunity to understand their experiences by hearing their voices through a narrative inquiry qualitative research design. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has six principles of a trauma-informed environment, which were utilized to analyze participant stories. Five teachers, one social worker, and one special education leader participated in one-on-one interviews …

Teaching For Meaning: Life, Death, Self And Purpose, Stephen Diromualdo

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Teaching for Meaning is fundamentally a paper about the need for a philosophical shift in current educational goals. The current institution of public education relies on “job training skills” and ideas of “global competitiveness” as its most important outcomes. This thesis argues that not only are these goals insufficient but actually detrimental to human development. The thesis seeks a method to shift to a more humanistic approach of education through the inclusion of several potential methods. Those methods include the implementation of democratic schooling, youth participatory action research and death studies.  In order to establish those methods the thesis the …

Measuring Academic Momentum: A Quantitative Study Of Supplemental Instruction As A Community College Student Support Strategy, Cornelia Slater

Dissertations of Practice

ABSTRACT

MEASURING ACADEMIC MOMENTUM: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION AS A COMMUNITY COLLEGE

STUDENT SUPPORT STRATEGY

Cornelia Vanessa Slater, Ed.D.

Department of Counseling and Higher Education

Northern Illinois University, 2026

Quortne R. Hutchings, Director

Community colleges serve as critical access points to higher education for diverse populations of students where completion rates are an ongoing challenge. Supplemental Instruction have been used as an academic intervention to improve success largely in four-year institutions. This quantitative study, guided by Xueli Wang’s momentum theory analyzed two research questions: (1) how supplemental instruction (SI) participation is associated with student academic success, course retention …