Neoliberalism In Education: Three Studies On The Intersection Of Neoliberalism, Science Of Reading, And Policy, Candace Bechtold

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three linking projects that study the intersection of neoliberal ideology, American education policymaking, and the Science of Reading (SOR). I sought to understand how neoliberal mechanisms like standardization and accountability have shaped past and current education policies in the United States. In the first project, I take an historical approach to conceptualize neoliberal ideology to explain how it is manifested in Standards-Based Accountability (SBA) reform and demonstrate how its implications have progressed over time. In the second project, I focus on one state's SOR policy–the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA)– to conduct a discourse analysis of documents …

What Is School For? Interpreting Purpose And Practice In A Microschool Case Study, Cammie D. Justus-Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how one microschool interprets and enacts the purposes of schooling through a qualitative case study of Summit School, an Acton Academy affiliate in a mid-sized Southern city. Situated within broader debates about school choice and alternative education, the study explores how Summit’s vision, structures, and participant experiences illuminate enduring tensions in schooling: civic versus economic aims, public good versus private benefit, and innovation versus institutional continuity. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, observations, and school documents, the study treats Summit not as representative of microschools broadly, but as a bounded case through which larger questions about educational purpose …

Who Cares? A Critique Of Digital Classrooms In K–12 Education And What It Means For Students And Teachers, Jade R. Mccobb-Pratt

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis presents a critical analysis of digital classrooms, i.e., pre-made digital curriculum modules being used in in-person K–12 schools as a replacement for face-to-face instruction. By applying Martin Heidegger’s critique of modern technology, I will demonstrate that digital classrooms fundamentally alter the traditional classroom structure, centering it around domination and exploitation. I will expand Heidegger’s critique by drawing on Albert Borgman’s work to explain how digital classrooms commodify education, thus removing the possibility of a meaningful and enriching educational experience. These critiques run parallel to Michel Foucault’s critiques of discipline in schools. I will recount Foucault’s critiques, apply them …

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 …

A Discrit And Anticapitalist Approach To Resisting Hustle Culture And Practicing Slow Education Through Book Club Professional Development, Angela Zhang

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This thesis highlights hustle culture as a significant issue that impacts education today. While the concern stemmed from a personal experience with so-called burnout, the term “hustle culture” is used to emphasize the systemic nature of the overwork, burnout, and exhaustion that teachers and students face, particularly the intersections of capitalism and ableism. When tracing the history and current manifestations of hustle culture, it becomes clear that educational institutions, policies, practices, and interactions play a major role in normalizing, perpetuating, and romanticizing hustle culture as the pathway to individual success and wealth in a capitalist system. In reality, hustle culture …

Supporting Teacher Candidates' Conceptions Of Equitable Mathematics Teaching: Using Exposure And Experience In Elementary Mathematics Methods Courses, Amanda Mohammad Mirzaei, Ethan P. Smith

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Elementary mathematics methods courses may provide a lever to help support teacher candidates in their trajectory to becoming equitable mathematics teachers. To support the rising generation of mathematics teachers, mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) must critically analyze approaches to equity within and across teacher preparation programs. This study investigates an elementary mathematics course centering equitable mathematics teaching and learning (EMT), rather than isolating or using it as a supplementary aspect. We consider a framework of the teacher learning trajectory (Turner et al., 2012) where teacher candidates learn initial practices, make connections, and then incorporate these practices into their teaching. We extend …

One Tree, Many Roots: A Care-Centered Cultural Philosophy Of Education For Collective Flourishing, Darshini Margaret Elizabeth Stark

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Public education in the United States is often framed as a neutral pathway to opportunity, democratic participation, and individual success. Yet for many students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, schooling has functioned as a site of self-abandonment, where compliance means survival. This dissertation argues that persistent educational harm is not the result of individual curriculum failure or isolated policy shortcomings, but something far more insidious: the intentional use of schooling as a mechanism of political control and socioeconomic hierarchy, shaped over centuries by authoritarian governance and colonial ideology. In response, this work advances Oru Maram (Stark, in preparation) as …

Challenging The Status Quo: An Autoethnographic Inquiry Into Critical Pedagogy And Social Justice, Andrea Williams

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This autoethnographic study explores the transformative journey of rethinking pedagogical practices through the lens of critical and spiritual pedagogy on behalf of a larger project for social justice. Drawing from Paulo Freire’s foundational work on critical pedagogy, alongside the insights of Zenju Manuel on decolonization and Yitzhak Bentov’s spiritual frameworks, this research examines how personal storytelling, and reflective practices can foster educational transformation. Embedded within traditional educational settings, I critically reflect on how empathy, both as a cognitive and affective process, catalyzed change in my pedagogical approach and challenged colonial legacies within the classroom. The study situates itself within the …

From Enthusiasm To Exhaustion: Investigating Burnout In New Secondary Teachers, Casey Gruver

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Teacher burnout remains a critical concern and commonly experienced phenomenon in secondary education, particularly among educators in their first five years of practice. This mixed-methods study examined the experiences and perceptions of burnout among new secondary teachers (grades 7–12) in a single, large suburban school district. Guided by the Job Demands Resource Model and Conservation of Resources Theory, the study explored how job demands, access to resources, and organizational supports shape early-career burnout. Survey data and semi-structured interviews support the framework that burnout is a multidimensional, cumulative experience influenced by job demands and insufficient organizational resources.

Implementing Restorative Practices For Girls In Elementary School Classrooms: A Participatory Action Research Approach, Mellissa Douglas

Dissertations of Practice

This participatory action research study examined how varying approaches to implementing restorative practices, together with teacher collaboration and influence, support resilience, enhance communication, establish healthy boundaries, encourage accountability, and build confidence among elementary school girls ages 8–10. Two third-grade teachers, three fourth-grade teachers, and three fifth-grade teachers in a midwestern elementary school implemented restorative practices through proactive circles or conferences over the course of forty school days. The eight teacher participants recorded the implementation of restorative practices in an action research journal, field notes, and photographs, and they collaborated to discuss strengths, areas in need of support, and next steps. …

Accessing Campus Mental Health Services In A Nigerian Southwestern University: Barriers To Academic Success, Caroline Dada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health disorders are a significant health concern among higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. A substantial treatment gap exists in the Nigerian healthcare system, and this gap is further worsened by cultural and religious barriers, which reinforce stigma that discourages students from seeking professional help. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the barriers students encountered when accessing mental health services at a university in Southwestern Nigeria, to increase service access. Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with seven professional mental health providers at a university counseling center between March and April 2025. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify …

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 …

Balancing Beliefs In The Curriculum: Exploring The Educational Value And Constitutional Limits Of Teaching About Religion In U.S. Public Schools, Maria Rina Limbo

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

This thesis examines the educational value and constitutional limits of teaching about religion in U.S. public schools. It asks whether public schools may teach about religion academically without violating constitutional neutrality, where the boundary lies between education and indoctrination, and how religious literacy might be integrated in ways that benefit students while honoring First Amendment constraints. Using a mixed-methods design, the study gathered survey data from 104 adult participants drawn from diverse educational, religious, and community backgrounds across multiple states. Surveys were distributed primarily through mailed and hand-delivered print copies, with a small number completed electronically. Quantitative data were tabulated …

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 …

Experience Is Not Enough: Allan Combs And The Developmental Conditions Of Integration, Maria Giovanna Vianello

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Allan Leslie Combs occupies a distinctive position in consciousness studies through his sustained attention to the relationship between experience, interpretation, and development. This article examines Combs’s enduring contribution by focusing on his insistence that extraordinary or altered states of consciousness are neither self-interpreting nor inherently developmental. Drawing primarily on Consciousness Explained Better and related works, the paper argues that Combs’s central insight lies in viewing interpretation as a function of one’s developmental stage rather than treating it as a reflective process applied after experience. This perspective is articulated most explicitly through the Wilber–Combs lattice, which correlates states of consciousness with …

A Return To The Real: Elder Wisdom, Story, And The Great Mystery Of Consciousness, Patrice V. Mathon-Nerad Phd

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This essay honors the life and legacy of consciousness scholar Allan Leslie Combs by exploring elder wisdom as an epistemic, ethical, and spiritual stance grounded in openness to the great mystery of consciousness. Drawing on Combs’s writings, Charlene Spretnak’s articulation of the Real, and Malidoma Somé’s teachings on elderhood, the essay contrasts elder understanding with contemporary psychiatric approaches that impose epistemic certainty upon the vastness and lived complexity of human consciousness. Portions of this essay are adapted from the author’s 2023 doctoral dissertation, Separation from the Real: The Power of Story at the Heart of the Civil Commitment Process, …

(In)Consequential Rhetoric: Grading Policy And Values Misalignment At First-Generation-Serving Community Colleges, Sarah N. Seiffert

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Research indicates that first-generation (FG) students face a number of barriers to success in higher education when compared to their continuing-generation peers. Although many institutions serving a large number of FG students have implemented programs to support this population, little attention has been paid to institutional grading policies that reinforce harmful practices by attempting to standardize assessment while perpetuating inequalities. This study uses document analysis and critical policy analysis to examine the alignment between the grading policies and institutional values of 25 community colleges serving high FG student populations. Findings reveal critical tensions between the stated values of these colleges …

Self-Handicapping In Purdue Honors Students, Amanda Colip, Colin O'Donnell, Triniti Jenkins

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Consciousness Studies In Community: Allan Leslie Combs’S Enduring Vision, Debby Flickinger Phd, Rebecca A. Damien Phd

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Consciousness studies can be found in many different disciplines. Allan Leslie Combs held an inclusive view of consciousness that was not limited to any one branch, and he inspired us to explore consciousness through many doorways. Together the authors share narratives about teaching and learning with Combs while reviewing key areas shaped by his legacy, including gatherings, archetypes, psychology, and synchronicity. Our shared intention is to honor Leslie’s legacy through a narrative that comes from the heart as well as the mind.

Keywords: consciousness studies, gatherings, archetypes, synchronicity, Allan Leslie Combs