Digital Commons Network^™

Executive Leadership Education For Every Emergency Medical Services Professional : A Qualitative Study, Joseph D. Danao Ii

Student Dissertations

The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) profession faces numerous challenges in maintaining sufficient capacity to provide frontline medical care amid increasing demand for its services from government officials and the public. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the experiences of EMS professionals on how the lack of executive leadership education impacts their careers and the viability of their organizations. The problem is that EMS professionals widely lack the executive-level leadership education needed to thrive in their professional careers and ensure the viability of their EMS organizations (Basnawi, 2023; Naidoo et al., 2015). The research questions are developed …

Advanced Qualification Program Assessments In Aviation Higher Education: A Theoretical Framework, Jorge L. D. Albelo Ph.D., Victor M. Fraticelli Rivera Ph.D.

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

This study investigates the integration of an Advanced Qualification Program (AQP)-centered approach into aviation higher education, aiming to refine assessment methods and enhance the educational experience of future aviation professionals. Guided by research questions exploring the strengths, limitations, key characteristics, and potential improvements of AQP-centered assessments, the study reveals a strong consensus among students and faculty. The AQP model, traditionally an alternative to conventional pilot training under 14 CFR Parts 121 and 135, offers a structured, industry-relevant framework emphasizing clear evaluation processes, multilevel knowledge and skill assessments, and high academic performance. Findings indicate that effective AQP assessments balance theoretical knowledge, …

Effects Of Student Response System In University Foundation Courses – Excerpts From A Doctoral Study, Grace M. Tuttle

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

This paper is an excerpt on the author's doctoral study titled “Effects of Student Response System in University Foundations (UF) Courses.” This quasi-quantitative study explored the effects of iClicker technology on students’ academic performance based on final course grades, participation, and attendance in university foundation courses. This study evaluated data from 7,812 participants between spring 2017 to autumn 2019. The logistic regression analysis showed that for students in the clicker group, the odds of earning a final grade of A or B increased by a factor of 1.28 for each one standard deviation increase in participation z-score, controlling for other …

Educating With Chronic Health Conditions During And After A Pandemic: A Narrative Study Of Experiences, Job-Related Stressors, Mental Health, Wellbeing And Coping Strategies Among Black Female Educators, Shawnee Stanfield Blake

Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative, narrative research study explored the experiences lived by black female educators with chronic health conditions during and after the Covid-19 pandemic in the Southeastern region of the United States. These educators provided continued instruction in a central Jackson, Mississippi school district and a Georgia school district in the central Atlanta metropolitan area. The investigation during this body of work focused on how black female educators with chronic health conditions were impacted both personally and professionally. The research also centered on how these educators employed coping strategies. Candidates endured fear, stress and continued impact on their health. To subject …

Relationship Between High School Science Olympiad Participation And Declaration Of A College Stem Major, Gregory Lee Spiegel

Student Theses and Dissertations

Science Olympiad is a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competition open to middle school and high school students across the United States. Students that participate in Science Olympiad have the opportunity to explore and learn about cutting edge STEM topics in an atmosphere that promotes teamwork and opportunities to challenge themselves as they compete against other schools. This quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between participation in the Science Olympiad program and the decision to pursue a STEM-related major in college. Prior Science Olympiad participants were asked about their participation in Science Olympiad in secondary school and their current …

College Preparedness: Exploring Faculty Perceptions Of First-Year Students’ Literacy Skills Transitioning From High School, Shanell Glass Bailey

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study explores faculty perspectives on the literacy skills of incoming freshmen at small community colleges in southern Mississippi, where literacy challenges affect student success. The problem addressed is the preparedness of freshmen in reading and writing, which impacts their academic performance and development through college. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of faculty who teach entry-level English courses and to identify the support students need to succeed in literacy. Constructivist learning theory served as the guiding framework, emphasizing the ways prior knowledge, active engagement, and social interaction influence how students construct meaning …

Why Black Teachers Decide To Stay: A Phenomenological Study To Understand Retention Of Black Teachers In The Suburban School Setting, Chere Swearingen

Student Theses and Dissertations

Retention rates of Black teachers in suburban schools are significantly lower than their White teacher counterparts. For Black teachers the assumption has always been that Black teachers wanted to teach in Urban schools who have a majority Black student makeup. This phenomenological study offers a counter-story to the commonly told narrative of Black teachers. Black teacher retention in the suburban locale was addressed with the intent to support a school system that is more reflective of student demographics. Utilizing aspects from both Job Embeddedness and Critical Race Theory, this study examined the lived experience of 8 Black teachers working in …

K-3 Southern, Rural, Public-School Teachers’ Perspectives On Literacy Post Covid, Venesia Dreon Griffin Brown

Student Theses and Dissertations

Over the years, research has been undertaken to find what works to improve proficiency in literacy skills. However, most of the research has been done in urban areas. Therefore, the problem addressed in this study is K-3 literacy in southern, rural areas where students are below grade level and falling further behind, increasing the risk of student-drop out in their later years. The research is rooted in the interviews of 11 teachers in four states, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisianna, and Mississippi. They gave their perspectives and experiences on literacy education post Covid. Consequently, the purpose of the qualitative phenomenology study was …

Examining The Influence Of Cultural Sameness Or Difference Of Principals And Teachers On Students Perceived Connectedness, Asmaa Fahmy Kabel

Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative, phenomenological study explores how cultural sameness or difference between students and their teachers and principals influences students’ perceived sense of belonging and connectedness to their school community. Drawing on Cultural Intelligence Theory (Earley & Ang, 2003) and Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977), this study investigates the nuanced ways in which students internalize and interpret their relationships with school personnel, with attention to shared and differing cultural attributes beyond race alone. Twelve participants, all one to five years post–high school graduation from traditional public schools, were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire followed by …

Stories From Former Foster Youth College Graduates: The Positive Impact Of K-12 Schooling And Related Educational Policy, Amanda Moon, Kristen D. Seay

Faculty and Staff Publications

Youth in foster care face disproportionate challenges when it comes to education and personal well-being. Many studies use a deficit lens when evaluating these challenges. In contrast, this study is asset-based, centering first-person accounts from five former foster youth college graduates. Using a counter-narrative framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews with participants to reveal key supports in K-12 schooling participants believed helped them achieve academic and life milestones. These were relationships with teachers and coaches, access to extracurricular activities, and literacy-rich environments. We also reviewed 11 relevant federal educational policies to identify provisions and implementation needs that aligned with participant experiences. …

Online Student Perspectives Of Impactful Feedback, Kathleen Mcnichols Irvin

Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how online graduate students perceived and experienced instructor feedback, focusing on its role in learning, the challenges of applying it, and preferences for formative, summative, or blended approaches. Fifteen students participated in semi-structured interviews, and four joined a follow-up focus group. Findings revealed that students viewed feedback as fundamental to understanding course expectations, improving academic work, and fostering motivation. However, vague or delayed feedback was seen as unhelpful and discouraging, often limiting opportunities for improvement. Three central themes emerged: the value of feedback as a learning tool, barriers to engaging with feedback effectively, and preferences for …

Caribbean Early Childhood Educators, Primary Educators, And Student Teachers' Perceptions Of Visual Literacy And Visual Images Across The Curriculum, Monica Yvonne Hines-Graham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed through this study is the gap in knowledge about the integration and evaluation of visual literacy and visual images across the curriculum of early childhood educators, primary educators, and student teachers, despite it being a requirement for teachers in the Caribbean education system. Grounded in Hall and Hord’s concerns-based adoption model, the purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of early childhood educators, primary educators, and student teachers with the integration and evaluation of visual literacy and visual images across the curriculum. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews with 12 participants from …

Can I Be An Engineer? Factors Influencing Women’S Decisions To Pursue Undergraduate Engineering Studies In The Middle East And North Africa, Rasha Malaeb, Elsa Maalouf, Aya Mouallem, Jana Sabra

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), different institutional and cultural factors seemingly play a significant role in influencing women’s decisions to enroll in undergraduate engineering programs. In this work, we aim to uncover key influences that affect young women’s decisions to pursue undergraduate engineering studies in Lebanon, an Arab country in the MENA region. First, we conducted a survey during a student-led engineering summer program in 2024 at the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut. The survey participants were 47 high school female students from diverse regions and backgrounds in Lebanon. …

Cost Effects Of Adding Poultry To Organic Vegetable Production Systems In California, Iowa, And Kentucky, Kwanele Magwaba, Alejandro Plastina, Ajay Nair, Maurice Pitesky, David J. Gonthier, Anne Carey, Faye Duan, Viktor Halmos

Journal of Applied Farm Economics

This study evaluates the economic viability of integrating poultry into organic vegetable crop rotations over three years in Kentucky and Iowa and two years in California. Given the growing global demand for food and heightened environmental awareness, understanding the financial implications of such integrated systems is crucial. Our comprehensive experiment compared integrated poultry-vegetable rotations with vegetable-only systems, assessing costs, revenues, and key factors influencing profitability. While integrating poultry reduced vegetable production costs by up to 10% in some cases, overall system costs increased due to high poultry expenses. Break-even poultry prices averaged $8/lb for low-density systems and $7 for high-density …

Trans/Queer/Cuir Literature And Resources, Julien Torrento

FIRE Fund Bibliographies

This bibliography assembles interdisciplinary scholarship, literature, and cultural production centered on trans, queer/cuir, and gender-nonconforming Latinx and Caribbean experiences. The selected works foreground embodiment, migration, performance, kinship, and resistance as sites through which marginalized subjects negotiate violence, survival, and worldmaking. Across academic, creative, and archival forms, these sources challenge normative frameworks of gender, nation, and citizenship while imagining alternative futures rooted in community and futurity.

Formatted Feelings: Rap As A Pedagogy Of Capitalized Emotion, Guanhua Yao

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

This article examines mainstream rap as a key apparatus through which capital formats emotional life under platform capitalism. Utilizing grounded theory coding for ten Billboard No. 1 rap tracks released between 2005 and 2025, the analysis identifies durable affective templates, commodified desire, spectacularized power, and curated vulnerability, that standardize how emotion becomes legible, repeatable, and marketable. Synthesizing affect theory, media sociology, and social dramaturgy, the article argues that rap teaches listeners how to perform feeling in ways compatible with visibility regimes and datafied attention economies. Rather than treating these songs as expressive artifacts, the study reframes them as pedagogical infrastructures …

Teacher Representation In Film And Television, Kailey Deweever

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

This article explores teacher representation in film and television, highlighting four main archetypes. It discusses how positive portrayals improve public perceptions and teacher self-image, while negative depictions harm both. Additionally, it critiques how infrequent depictions of actual teaching often trivialize the complexity of the profession.

Keywords: Teacher self-image, popular culture, teacher archetypes, teacher representation, film, television

Latisha King: Queer Confusion, Aggression, And Correction, Hannah Bollin

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

Latisha King was a 15-year-old biracial and transgender student at E.O. Green Junior High who was shot and killed by one of her peers on February 12, 2008. Latisha’s untimely death was followed by a court case during which she was blamed for her own murder due to her gender identity and sexual orientation. Through a thematic analysis of scholarly work alongside public media sources surrounding the case, this study argues that the transphobia that Latisha faced in her classroom was continued in the courtroom and media. More specifically, this article argues that the classroom, murder trial, and public media …

Notes On Redefining "Popular" Culture, Paul J. Ramsey

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

This article critiques the classic literature on popular culture, redefines the concept for the contemporary era, and introduces the following articles in this special issue of Impact. The articles in this issue demonstrate not only the ways in which popular culture has evolved in recent decades but also reveal the deeply educational aspects of that culture by shining a light on what is learned through it. 

Keywords: popular culture, education, informal education

Front Matter

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

No abstract provided.

Coming Full Circle: From Internship To Award-Winning Advocacy, Jennifer Vermeer

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Equipping Beyond Campus: A Look At Dordt Faculty As Public Scholars, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Writing Professional Papers Worksheet With Scavenger Hunt: A Simple Strategy To Strengthen Dietetic Writing, Stacy Bevan

Journal of Dietetic Education

Time between learning scientific writing skills and when dietetic students need to transfer that knowledge to discipline-specific research papers in upper division courses may result in a lack of writing skills. Dietetic educators be unfamiliar with writing strategies to improve student writing. A Writing Professional Papers worksheet was developed to help students define components of professional papers, draft a thesis, and then participate in a scavenger hunt using examples of two types of professional papers to identify target issues and avoid common issues seen in student papers. Students in an upper division Maternal and Child Nutrition course responded to an …

Implementing An Interprofessional Virtual Journal Club For Health-Focused Students, Hillary L. Roberts, Cynthia Aurentz, Mccall E. Christian, Jessica K. Willis, Caitlin J. Masterson

Journal of Dietetic Education

Students (N = 135) pursuing degrees in health-focused programs participated in an interprofessional virtual journal club during the spring semesters of 2022 and 2023. The journal club was integrated into multiple courses and facilitated through the university’s learning management system and a web conferencing platform. Students applied the 2016 Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies throughout the activity. The journal club included four pre-selected articles on ethics in healthcare, and students developed one discussion question per article to guide synchronous virtual discussions. The IPEC Competency Self-Assessment Tool was administered before and after participation. Paired samples t-tests showed statistically significant change …

The Value Of Unsiloing Yourself: Cycle Of Inquiry & Tackling Hard Questions In Community, Allyson Bogie, Mia Gittlen, Meredith Irby, Sam Solomon, Sarah Sugarman

High School Libraries Workshop

No abstract provided.

Explore, Inquire & Collaborate Using The Aasl Standards And Activity Guides, Brandi Veal, Mia Gittlen

High School Libraries Workshop

No abstract provided.

Changing Lanes, Crossing Industry Lines From Higher Education To Business Leaders: A Narrative Inquiry To Understanding The Challenges Faced By Residence Life Professionals Who Had To Change Career Paths Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tatianna Geneva Ingram

Dissertations

This narrative inquiry examined how higher education residence life and housing professionals navigated career transitions into business leadership roles following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using human capital theory as a framework, the study explored the transferable skills cultivated in residence life positions and how these skills supported adaptation across industries. Participants’ narratives illuminated motivations for transition, including job market volatility, compensation concerns, and work-life balance, while also highlighting challenges encountered in reskilling and navigating identity shifts outside of higher education. The findings reveal the enduring value of competencies such as leadership, crisis management, diversity and inclusion expertise, and operational strategy in …

January 21, 2026 Blazer Weekly, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

Blazer Weekly (student newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Understanding Early Childhood Community Collaborations (Ecccs) In Relation To Systems Change, Rebecca Waterstone Halperin

Dissertations

The early childhood system in the United States is piecemeal and fragmented (Adams et al., 2017; Gomez & Rendon, 2019; Kagan & Kauerz, 2012; State Capacity Building Center, 2022). The result is that families have unequal access to care, education, and other early childhood services for their young children. There have been various approaches to building, impacting, and changing the early childhood system to move toward equity, and many of these approaches call for collaborative efforts. The state of Illinois is engaged in comprehensive early childhood systems work, and one of the vehicles driving this change has been the work …

University Resilience: Examining The Relationship Of Acute, Externally-Driven Crisis Events To University Enrollment And Financial Stability, Amy Kyhos

Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the phenomenon of a significant, acute, externally-driven crisis event on university resilience at four-year, tuition-driven, public and private higher education institutions in the United States of America. The study primarily considered the resilience indicators of university undergraduate enrollment and financial stability through the crisis context of COVID-19. It is theorized that a perceived lack of reliability, flexibility, and pace to evolve that higher education exhibited during and shortly after COVID-19 is a sustained point of vulnerability to a field under increasing review from a range of stakeholders and points of financial and public pressure. The study contemplated …