Digital Commons Network^™

Resilience Otherwise: Ambivalence, Care, And The Cultural Politics Of Endurance Under Neoliberal Capitalism, Vered Ben David

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Over the past two decades, resilience has emerged as a central cultural keyword circulating across psychology, public policy, education, labor, and popular culture. Frequently celebrated as a marker of strength and adaptability, resilience has also become entangled with neoliberal forms of governance that relocate responsibility for managing insecurity onto individuals and communities. This analysis offers a critical cultural account of resilience as an ambivalent formation that operates simultaneously as a lived capacity for adaptation and as a normative demand that responsibilizes subjects under conditions of structural precarity. Drawing on scholarship in developmental psychology, political economy, and critical cultural theory, the …

Thinking Life: The Question Of Reproduction In Marx. Translated By James Chamberlain, Isabelle Garo

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Cultural Competency Beyond The Classroom: Employing Visual Culture Art Education In Museums, Kaylee Long

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In an increasingly diverse and media-dominated world, critical thinking and cultural competency have become crucial skills. Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE), a pedagogy employed in the formal education setting, serves as an effective practice to foster these skills. Although not explicitly employed, elements of VCAE are found in museums. As VCAE has shown success in the classroom environment, museums can supplement their current practices through the conscious use of this pedagogy. Through a multi-site case study of five art museums in the Mid-Atlantic region, this project aimed to find ways that VCAE practices could be adapted into the museum setting.

Transformative Simulations: Bridging Theory And Practice Through Clinical Simulations, Jessica Fundalinski

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation study explores how teacher candidates (TC) respond to, reflect on, and make meaning of a clinical simulation that surfaces marginalizing language ideologies towards multilingualism and multilingual language users. This study is framed conceptually through language ideologies, Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) (García, 2017; Prasad & Lory, 2020), and practice-based teacher education, emphasizing the role of reflective, justice-oriented practice in shaping future educators' critical consciousness. To explore how TCs navigated the simulation in real-time and how they reflected on their approaches and takeaways from the simulation, this study employed a four-phase analytical framework and coding process of video and …

Examining How Disability Resource Professionals In Higher Education Enact Whiteness In Maintaining Power And Privileged Structures, Paula Possenti-Perez

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines how Whiteness operates with the delivery of disability-related accommodations on US college campuses. The research in this study focused on three questions: (a) How do disability resource professionals individually begin to make sense of their Whiteness personally? (b) How do disability resource professionals recognize and account for their White racialized frame and Whiteness in their individual professional judgment and decision-making? (c) How do disability resource professionals describe the ways Whiteness as ideology manifests in the field of disability resources, through its professional norms and systemic practices across disability resources in higher education? Twelve White disability resource professionals, …

Becoming A "Still Point Of Grace": Identifying Obstacles Faced By Catholic Elementary School Teachers In Meeting The Needs Of Students With Generalized Anxiety In The Classroom, Kerry Smigielski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the midst of a mental health crisis in the United States, teachers in the Diocese of Cityville need to be equipped to serve elementary students who experience anxiety within an authentic Catholic context. The purpose of this study is to begin improvement research on classroom supports for students with generalized anxiety in the Diocese of Cityville elementary schools. Journey lines and a focus group discussion were conducted within a causal systems analysis to respond to the central research question: “What obstacles do Catholic elementary school teachers in the Diocese of Cityville face in meeting the needs of students with …

The Legacy Of Lead: Lead Exposure's Harmful Effects And Its Concentration In Poc Communities, Layla Sophronia Barber

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis examines the disproportionate burden of lead exposure carried by low income, POC communities. The systemic nature of this problem is a symptom of a longstanding legacy of environmental injustice in the United States. Decades of federal neglect are reflected in the higher statistics of lead exposure and poisoning in predominantly black communities. While it is understood that lead exposure poses a serious threat to physical health and early cognitive development, there is a discouraging lack of urgency to remove the toxin from non-wealthy communities. The material covered by this thesis aims to identify and correct the discriminatory social …

From Farewell To Fáilte: The Voices Of Iowa’S Irish Daughters, Katie Hermanson

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Irish women’s immigration to Iowa brought rich culture and lasting impacts, despite their contributions being silenced by history. Women left Ireland for economic opportunity and education abroad to support their impoverished families. Millions emigrated between 1830 and 1915, spreading across the world. The Irish women who came to the United States encountered discrimination and cultural stereotyping as they worked in domestic service, developed religious orders, taught school, owned businesses and raised families. Women bore the burden of supporting their families in Ireland by sending remittances home and communicating between countries. Their cultural identity as exiles dwelled in guilt for leaving …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Atlas Assessment Levels And Asboa Instrumental Ensemble Concert Assessment Ratings, Daniel Cooper

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This study investigated the relationship between two key forms of school accountability that relate to secondary instrumental music programs. A thorough review of relevant literature was conducted to establish a framework for analyzing how ATLAS achievement levels may predict ASBOA concert assessment ratings of bands and orchestras in Arkansas. A quantitative approach was used via a binary logistic regression to interpret the impact of ATLAS achievement levels and SES, as defined by free and reduced lunch percentages, on an ensemble's likelihood of earning a superior or non-superior rating at region concert assessment. Results found statistically significant relationships for the predictive …

Gendered Politics Of Pictures: How Images In A Pakistani English Textbook Homogenize Female Identities, Liaquat Ali Channa

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative multimodal analytical study draws upon Kress and van Leeuwen’s ideas about pictures and problematizes textbooks of English that supposedly teach only English in Pakistan. It aims to understand the identities of an adult female as shown in the images of an English textbook. It uses Foucault’s theories of discourse and discursive formation, and a Vygotskian sociocultural view of the development of consciousness. By following Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019), all the pictures of the My English Book 4 are first analyzed thematically. Later, O’Toole’s (1994) method of analyzing pictures is employed for a detailed examination of a representative …

Clue In The Roman Style House: A Twist On The Classic Board Game Featuring A Fusion Of Ancient And Modern Roman Influences, Madelyn Junk

Honors Projects

Throughout time, games have been used to convey how society functions. They hint at societal structure, behavioral patterns, and roles of community members. Specifically, board games are excellent ways to teach players about attention to detail and how to synthesize information.

This unique and functional honors project finds its strength as a detail-oriented game that stresses the importance of critical thinking and deduction as it further rewards those skills through play and friendly competition. It combines art history, education, and graphic design disciplines to result in a creative output alongside a research paper. Its final product is a playable game …

The Grizzly, May 7, 2026, Renee Washart, Sidney Belleroche, Dylan Mchugh, Andrew Mihniak, Adam Denn, Cassidy Denning

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Ursinus College Announces Shifts to Berman Museum • Ursinus Food Pantry: Coming Soon? • Students Learn From MLS Senior Director of Social Media Dan Stelly • Theater Department Presents Independent Capstone Production • Renee Washart Signing Off! • Adam Denn Signing On! • Sidney Belleroche Signing On! • AI: Humanity's Silent Killer • UC Sports Network Returns In Full Force • Ursinus Baseball's Miracle Run Comes to a Close

Dictionary Of A Vietnamese-American* Borderland, Ngọc Hải Nguyễn '26

Senior Scholarly and Creative Symposium

This project, composed of a contextualising research paper and an autoethnographical writing creative component, explores the conceptualisation of Anzaldúa's (2021) borderlands by applying to the author's own experience as a Vietnamese-native student growing up along multiple cultural points of inquiry (primarily the American culture). The core research question of this paper is What does it mean to be at the crossroads of many cultures? In the research paper, the author first contextualises the current discourse on borderlands, along with a justification for their usage of storytelling as a mode of inquiry. The author implements a framework theorised through Loveless (2019) …

The Meaning Of Physical Activity In The Context Of Health Sciences: A Concept Analysis, Martín G. Farinola

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Physical activity has been defined in numerous ways. Thus, this study aimed to conduct a concept analysis of the existing physical activity definitions in the health sciences literature to evaluate its conceptual precision and assess the need for a revised or novel concept better suited for this domain. The concept analysis was accomplished using tools derived from philosophical semantics. The analysis identified six definitions that explicitly state what physical activity is with sufficient clarity to allow for conceptual examination. The findings indicated that these definitions frequently merge the concept of physical activity with its contextual attributes. To address these semantic …

An Exploration Of The Application Of Threshold Concepts In Sport Management, Debra Burke, Kadie Otto, Aj Grube, Charlie Parrish, Dan Grube

Global Sport Business Journal

Jan Meyer and Ray Land introduced the theory of threshold concepts to identify learning outcomes that represent a fundamental shift in the understanding of a subject which distinguishes how experts in the discipline internalize the discipline (Meyer & Land, 2006). They described the mastery of threshold concepts as being “akin to passing through a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something” (Meyer & Land, 2006, p. 3). Threshold concepts as defined by Meyer and Land (2006) are characterized by these features:

• Transformative: Once understood, a threshold concept changes the way in which the student …

Examining Organizational Factors Contributing To Burnout In Community College Employees: An Anthropological Perspective, Jesse N. Blue

Leadership Education Capstones

Organizational culture and systemic inequities remain under-researched factors driving the mental and physical deterioration of community college employees. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe and interpret the lived experiences of job-related burnout among community college employees. This qualitative short-term ethnography was conducted at Big Rock College, a rural community college in central Arkansas. The sample consisted of six volunteer participants across administrative, faculty, and staff roles. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom®. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and triangulated with institutional document analysis. Findings indicated that 84% of participants experienced varying degrees of burnout, driven by …

Experiences Of Hispanic/Latine Graduate Students In Unco’S Audiology And Speech-Language Pathology Programs Within A Hispanic-Serving Institution Context: Qualitative Thematic Analysis From A Moderated Focus Group, Ashley Fuhrman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Existing literature has examined workforce diversity in healthcare as a factor that may shape patient rapport and the delivery of culturally responsive, patient-centered care. Given the increasing demand for audiologists (AuDs) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with diverse and multilingual backgrounds, it is important to understand how graduate programs prepare students to serve linguistically and culturally diverse populations. This qualitative study examines the experiences of Hispanic/Latine graduate students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), a recently designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). The study explores students’ perceptions of training, support, and experiences in serving diverse populations. …

The Impact Of Community On Professional Identity In Computer Science Education, Ian A. Kollipara

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the application of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in Computer Science Education. The work consists of two qualitative studies examining related but distinct populations: (1) K–12 CS teachers and (2) undergraduate CS students. The first study presents a retrospective analysis of conneCTION, an online CoP for K–12 CS educators, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and design considerations that inform future platform development. The second study investigates how participation in a CoP can mitigate negative and exclusionary stereotypes in CS. This study was conducted in an under-explored context: a small, private, religious, Midwestern university, and examines an existing community, the Programming …

Having Our Say: A Sociological Examination Of English Instruction In Urban High Schools And Effects On Black And Latino Identities, Jena Marie Escareno

Dissertations

This interdisciplinary study integrates a macro‑sociological perspective on language bias with an examination of English language instructional policies and practices that shape the identities of Black and Latino former urban high school students. Its purpose is to apply a sociological framework capable of illuminating the intersections of language, race, and social justice. By bridging linguistic, sociological, and educational theories, the study seeks to explain why current approaches to language instruction remain ineffective for urban learners and may inadvertently harm minority cultural identities.

Persistent disparities in urban academic achievement often highlight race and ethnicity as explanatory factors without acknowledging how these …

The Effectiveness Of Utilizing An Arts-Integrated Approach With Students With Ieps In Grades K–5 Self-Contained Classrooms And Why An Arts-Integrated Approach Is Not Widely Implemented In The United States, Alexandra Leff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines arts integration as an approach for K–5 students with IEPs. Drawing on research from Western and non-Western and data from two programs, it shows gains in academic achievement and social-emotional learning. Despite cultural and systemic barriers, findings support expanding arts integration through teacher training and policy reform.

Internalizing Diasporic Peoples: How Do We Keep Native Hawaiians Connected?, Kallie P. Kaaihue-Paopao

Whittier Scholars Program

In the attempt to better understand the grounds for the generation culture disconnect of identity in Native Hawaiians, I study the diaspora of my people. Diaspora is the dispersion of people from their native lands. I find interest in this aspect of my people because the most common studies blame our dispersion on socioeconomic status and as a Native Hawaiian that wishes to do more for her people, I want to express that while it plays a part that there is a disconnection between the social actions and reactions of Hawaiʻi’s people. Common questions that I find unanswered are, why …

Slowing Down, Caring Deeply, Trusting Children: An Ethnographic Study Of Forest School Practice, Steph N. Dean, Amanda Gladys, Julianne A. Wenner

Publications

Forest School is an experiential, nature-based educational approach that often evolves as it takes root in new cultural and ecological settings. This ethnographic study explores how one Forest School in the Southeast United States interprets and enacts the Forest School model within its local context. Drawing on participant observations, interviews, field notes, and photography, we examine the lived experiences of the Forest School community to understand how cultural practices shape daily life at the school. Three central themes emerged: (1) slowing down to deepen learning and connections, (2) supporting the whole child through individualized care, and (3) trusting students with …

From Homeland To The Foreign Classroom: The Salaysay Of Filipina Immigrant Teachers In Texas, Shanna Cui Miranda

Theses and Dissertations

Filipina immigrant teachers are a growing presence in Texas schools, especially as districts respond to teacher shortages by recruiting internationally trained educators. This narrative study explores the salaysay of Filipina immigrant teachers in Texas and examines how their funds of knowledge inform their teaching practice. Guided by the research question, What are the salaysay of Filipina immigrant teachers in Texas, and how do their funds of knowledge inform their teaching? The study uses Funds of Knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) as the central framework and resizes it to focus on teachers as holders of culturally developed knowledge. The resized framework …

Perceptions Of Educators To Recognize And Respond To Suicidal Ideation Of Secondary Students, Clary Aaron

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored how secondary teachers in East Tennessee perceive district-provided suicide prevention training and its role in supporting students experiencing suicidal ideation. Eleven middle and high school teachers who had previously made a crisis referral participated in semi-structured interviews. The study examined teachers’ experiences, perceived strengths and limitations of training, and needed resources. Findings revealed that teachers felt confident recognizing warning signs, especially behavioral changes, when strong student relationships existed. However, training was often described as repetitive, generic, and minimally engaging. Social media and limited support systems were seen as major stressors for students. Teachers emphasized relationship-centered …

"Because You Speak Two Languages": Latino Immigrant Families Negotiating Language Ideology, Liminality, And Education In Arkansas, Cindy Rauth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a critical ethnographic study of lower socio-economic status, multilingual Latino immigrant families in one region of Arkansas, which has undergone rapid demographic changes in the last four decades. As the Latino population has grown, schools have struggled to accommodate the needs of their diverse students and families, which has contributed to below-grade-level literacy skills and significant student disengagement. This study examines students’ schooling experiences from the perspective of the family. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this study explores three interconnected themes: family experiences of schooling, language ideology, and liminality. A comprehensive examination of family educational experiences includes the …

Unlearning Patriarchy And Reframing Gender Politics: Challenging White Feminist Identity And Men's Negotiated Resistance Toward Social Justice, Laura Erickson Alvarado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines gender politics and the unlearning of patriarchy in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, centering lived experiences of Latinas and Black women while critically engaging men's roles in both reproducing and challenging gender inequality. Grounded in Critical Pedagogy, intersectionality, Critical Race Theory (CRT)/LatCrit, and whiteness studies, the research employs a mixed-methods design, including metadata analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and critical discourse analysis. Intersectionality serves as the analytical framework, highlighting how patriarchy, white supremacy, predatory capitalism, race, class, and geopolitics intersect to shape differentiated experiences of marginalization and agency. Critical consciousness is conceptualized as the capacity to link lived experiences …

Support Leads To Success: Exploring Culturally Responsive And Relevant Education For Tertiary Level Students Of Color, Aisha Milaham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Culturally responsive and relevant education (CRRE) teaching practice are crucial to implement at the tertiary level to support post-graduate preparation for students from marginalized communities. This case study explores the impact, or lack thereof, of these teaching principles in a higher education program specifically created to support diverse populations of students in preparing for graduate level studies and professions in academia. Data were collected via one-on-one interviews with students and staff in the program. Data were then analyzed to explore the extent to which culturally CRRE principles were integrated into TP and how that integration impacted student preparation for academia. …

One Faculty, One Mission: A Unified Faculty Model For California Community Colleges, Debbie Klein

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This article advances a unified, non-tiered faculty model as essential to fulfilling the mission of the California Community Colleges (CCC) system. Although the system is charged with realizing open access and educational equity, nearly 70% of faculty serve in part-time or contingent roles—often without proportional compensation, institutional stability, or meaningful participation in governance. Drawing on research demonstrating that faculty working conditions shape student learning conditions, the article argues that structural employment inequities undermine the system’s democratic promise. Situating the proposal within national “One Faculty” efforts and recent legislative attention to pay parity in California, it demonstrates that reform is both …

Catalyzing Learner-Centered Ecosystems In Pennsylvania For A Future Of Human Thriving, Danielle S. Shylit

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

School-centric education has failed to produce equitable outcomes for Pennsylvania's learners. Declining student engagement, widening opportunity gaps, and the demoralization of educators and leaders escalate an urgent need to shift systems, mindsets, and praxis from a school-centric to a learner-centric paradigm. This action research dissertation elevates what is learned at individual, group, and system levels through disciplined inquiry with aligned district public education leaders in Pennsylvania willing to co-create learner-centered ecosystems with community stakeholders for a future of human thriving. Grounded in Education Reimagined's definition of Learner-Centered Ecosystems, and the theoretical frameworks of Bryk et al.'s Networked Improvement Communities and …

Volume 12 Full Text, Bjur Staff

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.