Digital Commons Network^™

Harmony Or Discord? A Study On The Alignment Between National Objectives And Reformed Social Studies Textbooks In Egypt, Lina Yehia

Theses and Dissertations

Education systems, in many parts of the world, have served as a channel for communicating national goals to students, and Egypt has not been an exception. This study examines how public textbooks effectively align with equipping future generations of Egyptians to fulfill the nation’s development policy goals set for 2030. Utilizing a qualitative research design, this study employed textbook and document analyses of the published national policy goals of the current administration, along with the most recently reformed social studies textbooks of Grades 4, 5, and 6, a product of EDU 2.0. Based on an analysis of national documents, the …

Florida’S Gifted Education Program: Exploring The Nexus Between Giftedness And Choice Of College Major, Sterlin L. Bass

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Florida’s Gifted Education Program (FGEP) is a K-12 educational program in Florida’s public education system through which gifted students are identified and supported through individualized educational plans promoting intellectual development. The intent of this study is to explore the influence Florida’s Gifted Education Program has on the choice of major of a student and mental health outcomes. Current data revolving around different definitions of “giftedness” such as high ACT scores, SAT scores, and GPA, show a connection between negative mental health outcomes produced by the development of perfectionism. FGEP presents challenges in addressing these concerns due to non-standardized curricula across …

Birds Of A Feather: Peace And Conflict Founders Milton Schwebel And Luella Buros, Janet Carlson

Buros Center: Professional Staff Publications

Milton Schwebel, peace psychology pioneer, described Luella Buros as “a pillar of strength, her principles uneroded by age or economic well-being, her determination to struggle against social evils undiminished” (1992, p. 4). At age 90, Buros had just become the founding contributor to Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. Schwebel was its founding editor. In announcing the gift, he emphasized Buros’s steadfast commitment to pursuing peace, while recognizing her artistic accomplishments and her collaboration with her husband, Oscar, in establishing the renowned Mental Measurements Yearbook series (Buros, 1968; Buros, 1978; Carlson, 2023). She later provided funds to support …

Nontraditional Students Enrolling In Online Education: Assessing Outcomes And Barriers To Success, Kua Vang

Master's Projects

Online education has significantly reshaped how colleges and universities define and evaluate academic achievement. In March 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. government enforced social distancing regulations that affected operational continuity for higher education institutions. The need to transition from traditional classroom instruction to online was unavoidable. Institutions were not prepared, however, and their shortcomings in providing high-quality online learning for students were exposed. The inadequacy can be due to higher education institutions decade-long mindset of seeing online education as a less credible alternative. As a result, institutions are more eager than ever before to invest …

2025 Jan Term Course Catalog, Saint Mary's College Of California

Jan Term Course Catalog

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Whiteness Among Black College Students' Racial Identity, La'quida Reneé Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Although the impact of racism is well-documented in both conceptual and empirical research on the experiences of Black college students, some scholars have pointed out that many of the negative, race-based experiences these students face on college campuses extend beyond overt acts of racism (e.g., individual racism, institutional racism; Gusa, 2010; Hargons et al., 2022; Ingram & Wallace, 2019; Le et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2011; Tyler et al., 2022). Whiteness has been identified as an overt factor shaping the lived experiences of Black individuals (Leonardo, 2009; Matias, 2016; Tyler et al., 2022) and is, therefore, believed to impact …

Uncovering Third Space In Virtual Transnational Partnership: Transdisciplinary And Transcultural Transformation, Soyoung Han, Seongryeong Yu

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This qualitative case study explores how two English language teachers from South Korea and Taiwan developed transcultural dispositions as they participated in a virtual professional development program. The study employed third space as a conceptual framework and the third generation of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT-3rd) as an analytical framework to uncover the teachers' learning experiences. Findings from this study reveal the dynamic and complex process of becoming a trans-educator through transforming one's professional identity and teaching practices. This study contributes to inclusive and responsive educational practices that reflect the complexities of globalized teaching and learning environments.

Empowered Creation: Investigating Business Acumen And Technological Engagement Among Female Artists As Creative Entrepreneurs, Heggins-Jackson Tracey

Theses and Dissertations

The most powerful vehicle for communication and change is art. Creative endeavors have served humanity as a source of motivation and inspiration, as agents for shaping meaning and, most importantly, evoking empathy. Unfortunately, women in the arts face significant challenges due to deeply entrenched stereotypes, social expectations, societal norms, and gender-related misinformation, which result in destructive narratives. Paradoxically, this marginalized population possesses the skills and insights needed to address disparities through authentic narrative dissemination. Research indicates a limited focus on the contributions and pathways of women in the creative arts industry as entrepreneurs, explicitly highlighting their genuine needs conveyed through …

Thai Pre-Service And Early-Career Teachers' Professional Identity Formation, Duangkamon Winitkun

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Beginning teachers, including pre-service (PSTs) and early-career teachers (ECTs), face various types of challenges such as classroom management, instructional planning, building relationships with school stakeholders, adjusting to school culture, and limited resources (Kozikoglu, 2017). Many studies focus on these challenges as technical issues, neglecting the role of teacher identity in how educators experience and address these difficulties (e.g., Burden, 2020; Doyle, 1990; Hoy & Weinstein, 2013). Moreover, most teacher identity studies are predominantly conducted in Western contexts where sociocultural values and systemic constraints shape teachers’ professional roles differently from those in Eastern contexts. This three-manuscript dissertation investigates the identity formation …

Stop Shying Away From Race: Black Americans’ Cultural Models For Shyness, Carrie Zack

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study explored how African American adults understand and experience shyness, with particular attention to the influence of race and racism. While most psychological research on shyness has largely centered white experiences and treated race as a peripheral variable, this study applied Critical Race Theory and Cultural Model Theory to investigate whether Black Americans share a cultural model for shyness. Using semi-structured interviews with sixteen African American adults, the study sought to uncover shared mental frameworks that guide interpretations of shy behavior, especially in contexts involving unfamiliarity or potential negative evaluation.

Contrary to expectations, the findings did not support the …

40 Years Passing By In (A) “Heartbeat”, Christopher Janney

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This article outlines the forty-year history go Christopher Janney’s iconic performance work “HeartBeat.” Trained as an architect and jazz musician, Janney combines these two disciplines to create large interactive light/sound installations and performances. On the one hand, he attempts to make architecture more like music, more “alive” using real-time sensing devices as on his “Harmonic Convergence” installation on the Miami International Airport. On the other hand, he attempts to make music more like architecture, more physical more visual. In his “HeartBeat” performance, a dancer wears a heartbeat device that amplifies his/her heartbeat in “real time.” Over this pulse, live musicians …

Yoga Sūtra Book Four And The Yogabindu, Christopher Key Chapple

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Four themes from the fourth pāda of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra are examined here: karma (IV:2-13), individuality (IV:16), humility (IV:20-22), and freedom (IV:29-34). Affirmations and variant interpretations of these four are provided from Haribhadra Virahāṅka’s Yogabindu, most likely composed a century or two later.

Collective Karma: From The Yogasūtra To Taylor Swift, Zoë Slatoff

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Indian knowledge traditions speak at length about karma, which is divided into three categories—accumulated (saṃcita), ripe (prārabdha), and future (kriyamāṇa). While much is said about our individual karma and how it affects our repeated reincarnation in cyclic existence, how does this affect others and how do others affect us? In other words, as this paper explores, what is our reciprocal and collective karma?

Painting Liberation: A Visual Ontology Of The Interplay Of Mind And Consciousness In Book Four Of The Yoga Sūtras, Melissa Townsend

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This presentation explores how artistic practice can illuminate philosophical questions about the nature of mind, consciousness, and liberation as articulated in Book Four of the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. Through a series of paintings that visually translate these sūtras, I propose that art offers a unique, experiential means of engaging with the complex relationship between citta (mind) and puruṣa (consciousness).

The paintings function as a form of “visual ontology,” inviting viewers to engage with abstract philosophical concepts in a sensory, tangible way. By depicting the interplay between the mutable processes of the mind and the unchanging awareness of consciousness, these …

The B3 Scholar Seal: Designing And Implementing An Alternative To The Sobl At A Hispanic-Serving Institution In South Texas, Katherine Christoffersen, Dania López García

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter describes how the Bilingualism, Biculturalism, and Biliteracy (B3) Institute at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) developed the B3 Scholar Seal. Since its founding, UTRGV has provided a rare example of dual language education at the university level, offering courses taught bilingually or in Spanish across diverse disciplines. However, the language of these courses was not formally recognized upon graduation. The B3 Institute developed the B3 Scholar Seal to acknowledge students who successfully complete five courses, including at least three courses taught in Spanish or bilingually and at least one course, including culturally sustaining pedagogy. In …

2025-2026 Craft Academy Student Handbook, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Communications and Marketing Publications Archive

The 2025-2026 Craft Academy Student Handbook.

Motivated By Love: Can Deep Listening Support The Health And Wellbeing Of Anthroposophical Inspired Organizations, Barbarah Jean Nicoll

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Goethe expressed his devotion to his scientific and artistic pursuits as “love” (Lambert, 2011, p. 35). Motivated by love for anthroposophical initiatives in the world, the research question for this dissertation is: can deep listening be a support for the organizational health and wellbeing of anthroposophical inspired initiatives? Exploring and examining research on listening attuned to anthroposophical initiatives, this research seeks to understand existing wisdom on listening and its impact on organizational wellbeing. The theoretical foundations for this research are based on anthroposophical insights and a Goethean worldview. These foundational concepts relate to indigenous ways of knowing through their acknowledgement …

A Morphosyntactic Study Of Arab American Code-Switching, Qamar Bazar

Publications and Research

This study examines the morphosyntactic behavior of Arabic lexical items in English-dominant speech among Arab American bilinguals. Based on original survey data from 22 participants between the ages of 16 and 32, the paper focuses on specific Arabic words, such as yani, khalas, and ana, in English conversations across informal and professional settings. The analysis shows that these lexical items function as free morphemes and are inserted without disrupting English syntax, often serving discourse, emotional, or identity-marking purposes. Grounded in sociolinguistic theory and Poplack’s model of intra-sentential code-switching, this paper argues that code-switching among Arab Americans is intentional and …

A Math Teacher’S Reflexive Journey Into The Opportunity Gap, Richard A. Ball Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This multiple case study sought to determine what educational factors, if any, impacted Black students in a public school located in the South-eastern United States, to enroll in a lower-level math course. The study also aimed to view the mathematical identities of these students and have myself reflect on my practice both locally and globally. This, however, is a result of the Problem of Practice, the opportunity gap. H. Richard Milner’s (2012) opportunity gap framework served as the theoretical framework for this study and for which all findings were situated. The data was analyzed using deductive coding, with the elements …

Empowered Margins: Women, Work, And Justice In Educational Labor, Erin Woodford

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation examines economic justice and employment precarity faced by educators in both K-12 and post-secondary education systems. While literature explores themes of changing demographics in union membership, collective bargaining, labor activism, and gendered and intersectional inequities in academia, and women in leadership in unions, a critical gap of disabled women’s voices and solutions to the inequities remains. This study highlights how job insecurity, unequal pay, hiring biases, limited recognition of prior learning, and inadequate institutional support exacerbates mental health challenges, professional invisibility, and economic instability. In the K-12 unionized system, systemic barriers such include disregard for substitute teaching as …

Instructional Design And Technology Professionals: Why Are Some Laggards?, Hayley Mendelson Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Laggards are often thought of as aloof and uninformed late adopters, as traditionalists living in the past (Rogers,2003). Laggards represent the last 16% of a population to adopt an innovation, and, as a result, they are often depicted for their resistance to adopt an innovation much later than the rest of the population, if ever (Jahanmir et al., 2020; Rogers, 2003). The present study attempted to expand the research on laggards, specifically laggard Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) professionals.

IDT professionals were the target group because of their perceived innovativeness as a result of their high exposure to instructional technology …

Unmasking The Nexus Of Race, Ethnicity, And Health: An Intersectional Analysis Of The Epistemology Of Race In Medicine, Medical Curricula, And Health Disparities, Antoinette Leonard-Jean Charles

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The persistent health disparities faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the United States are deeply rooted in systemic racism embedded within medical education and clinical practice. Historical acceptance of racial supremacy in the United States has shaped both the foundations and continued practices of medical education, leading to entrenched biases that affect healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. This dissertation critically examines the intersection of race, education, and health by analyzing how historical and contemporary understandings of race and ethnicity shape medical curricula, healthcare practices, and patient care. Through the integration of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Social …

Proposed Principles Beyond Human And Non-Human Binaries: Engaging A Kincentric View In Environmental Education, Christine Marie Widrig

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This is a crucial time for a call to an awakened consciousness toward respectable, equitable, and expansive relationships and agency with the natural world. Indigenous philosophy and practices offer alternative visions for cultivating representations of language, narrative, and tradition that expand boundaries of modern Western thought and discourse. Key to many Indigenous traditions is fostering relationships of kin(ki), meaning kinship, within diverse ecological landscapes and place, while engaging respectfully with the non-human world. These alternative ways of consciousness and agency can be vital means of supporting healthy biodiversity and conservation, amid spiritual practices. In this dissertation, I propose and outline …

The Teaching Principles Influenced By Taoist Thought, Cerina Wang

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation explores the integration of Taoist thought into teaching principles to enhance student well-being in the classroom. The study is driven by two primary research questions: What are my teaching principles? and How have Taoist thoughts influenced these principles? Grounded in the Tao Te Ching, this research examines how Taoist philosophy can inform and shape effective educational practices that prioritize emotional balance, self-awareness, and natural growth. The literature review connects Taoist thought with modern educational theories, highlighting its relevance to fostering resilience, intrinsic motivation, and holistic development in students. Using an autoethnographic research methodology, this study draws upon personal …

21st-Century Stewardship: Infusing Environmental Education With Global Citizenship, Ava Y. Goodale

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In today's interconnected world, where socioecological issues transcend political borders, integrating environmental stewardship education with global citizenship education offers valuable opportunities for student empowerment. The goal of this multi-article dissertation was to conceptualize and operationalize 21st-century stewardship in educational settings. Twenty-first-century stewardship is a pedagogical approach that recognizes the limitations of environmental stewardship education as it is traditionally taught and is defined in Chapter II as an updated stewardship model that is infused with global citizenship’s multiscalar perspectives, global compacts, and layered identities to achieve its maximum impact in our interconnected world. This goal was first accomplished in Chapter II …

Waldorf Wonder: An Exploration Of Waldorf Teaching Strategies, Laura A. Keys Moreno

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation explores Waldorf teacher praxis as related to cultivating wonder. In this exploration, a variety of wonder researchers will form a picture of what is needed in public schools of today. This will be considered a mainstream perspective. This dissertation hopes to build a bridge to those mainstream researchers such as Egan, Schinkel, and Wolbert with the indications of Steiner and Waldorf education practices. Emotions researcher Keltner provides a framework of wonder experiences from his research on the emotion called awe. An overall framework grounded in Steiner’s work is utilized to form interview questions. In this mixed methods exploration, …

Culturally Responsive Social Emotional Learning Intervention On Parents And Its Impact On Family Well-Being, May Duong

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study examines how Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)-based parent education can bridge cultural divides and strengthen family-school partnerships in increasingly diverse educational settings. Conducted at an independent California elementary school where student demographics shifted to become more diverse in the last ten years, the research addresses a critical gap: while parent education is essential to child development, it remains overlooked in SEL implementation. The research investigates whether Western-based SEL frameworks, which emphasize individualism, can effectively support families from collectivist cultures. Through the EQ Gym program—a culturally responsive parent education initiative—the study explores three key questions: how school-based SEL research can address …

Students As Makers Using Technologies, David Ellis, Rob Rouse, Kim Rowston, Carol Puddicombe, Belinda Von Mengersen, Martin Levins

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this chapter, we explore the concept of students as makers in Technologies education. It begins by providing an overview of the maker movement and how it has gained significant traction in formal educational and informal community settings, igniting shared passions for learning and creativity. Next, the benefits of making are highlighted, including enhanced problem-solving skills and creativity, as well as the challenges associated with integrating making into the curriculum with the resources available. Vignettes of student as makers are included to showcase pedagogical considerations and provoke readers to consider how they could incorporate making into their classes. Finally, complex …

The Effects Of Mindfulness On Chronic Pain In Children And Adolescents: A Systematic Review, Sophie Parks

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions have become increasingly popular in recent years. Typically, mindfulness-based interventions and their effects on mental health and/or adult populations have been explored in the literature. Limited research has been completed looking at mindfulness’ impacts on other facets, including chronic pain symptoms. Additionally, some research has been conducted to analyze mindfulness and its effects on school aged children and their day-to-day functioning with promising results. In this systematic literature review, mindfulness interventions and their effects on children and adolescents who experience chronic pain were explored. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework was …

Diversifying Ecology Education For Everyone Through More Inclusive, Interdisciplinary, And Accessible Teaching, Loren B. Byrne, Emily S. J. Rauschert, Vikki L. Rodgers, Gillian Bowser, Et Al.

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Educating more students about ecology and its beneficial applications to societal issues is urgent yet challenging. To address this challenge, diversifying ecology education is a key way to make ecology more inclusive, accessible, and interdisciplinary for more people than ever. Advancing this goal requires ecology educators to develop a more expansive view of (1) how to engage more diverse undergraduate students in ecology courses, especially those from historically underrepresented groups and non-majors, (2) the interdisciplinarity of content in those courses, and (3) the learner-centered pedagogies used to engage students. We suggest ways that ecologists can advance “ecology education for everyone” …