Digital Commons Network^™

Academic Freedom And International Education: Critical Perspectives For Practitioners, Samantha K. Nissen

Critical Internationalization Studies Review

No abstract provided.

I Miss My Computer: Online Artistry, Web Aesthetics, And Coming-Of-Age In A Digital Landscape, Catherine Capeci

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how young artists develop their creative practices in a world informed by digitality. Through survey research of 44 art students between the ages of 14 and 22, as well as a process of autoethnographic inquiry, I examine how artists in high school and college relate to digital imagery, web archives, online gaming, and social media platforms, and how these experiences inform artmaking. I believe that art educators should explore how the internet informs aesthetic and conceptual sensibilities, and how these sensibilities show up in young artists’ work, more so than focus on digital media as its own …

"Hand And Mind Lead To Life": Craft Pedagogy In Art Education For Older Adolescent Learners, Katherine Fu

Masters Theses

Art educator Jo-Anna Moore (1991) asks “What is the purpose of our individual growth through art or craft?” (p. 162). Moore’s question is daunting not least for the seasoned artist, but for the young people in our art classrooms who, to varying degrees, are or are not interested in art. This thesis draws from my personal narrative as an older adolescent whose introduction to craft helped me navigate great questions of identity, belonging, and motivation. It seeks to discover how craft can become a method of teaching art to all students, and in particular, how such a pedagogy addresses the …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Generative Ai And Student Engagement, Motivation, And Learning: Exploring The Use Of Generative Ai In Higher Education Online Courses, Jeffrey L. Simmons

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The rapid emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT in higher education has left many institutions unprepared to assess their potential benefits and risks. This mixed-methods study examined how ChatGPT and Google’s NotebookLM were integrated into online course development and delivery at a small private nonprofit university in California, and assessed their perceived impact on student engagement, motivation, and learning.

Data were collected from post-course Likert-scale surveys completed by students across three online master’s-level courses and from pre-course prediction surveys by instructors in the two NotebookLM courses. Quantitative analyses included one-sample t-tests against a …

Embodied Leadership And Conditional Legitimacy: Critically Conscious Male Leaders Navigating Systems Of Power, Luis A. Legaspi

Dissertations

Leadership is not a neutral concept; it is shaped by overlapping systems of power, including empire, whiteness, neoliberal capitalism, and cisheteropatriarchy. These interlocking systems influence how leadership is defined, recognized, and legitimized, often privileging particular identities and forms of authority. The persistent underrepresentation of people of color, women, and queer individuals in positions of leadership reflects how dominant conceptions of leadership remain closely aligned with historically entrenched structures of power.

This critical narrative inquiry study examines how men, who disproportionately occupy positions of social and institutional authority, make meaning of masculinity, power, and leadership within these systems. Drawing on relational …

A Praxis Of Transformative Care: Centering Historically Resilient Students At A Pwi, Tanaisha Coleman

Dissertations

Campus cultural centers frequently treat student resilience as an individual struggle rather than a collective responsibility, obscuring systemic failures. At a predominantly white institution (PWI), historically resilient students, those from diverse backgrounds who have historically endured the structural load of institutional exclusion, carry the compounded weight of navigating systemic barriers while driving institutional change. This qualitative study disrupts traditional narratives of surviving and thriving to examine how undergraduate students constituting a student advisory committee (SAC) coconstructed critical resilience rooted in transformative and collective care.

Using community-based participatory research (CBPR), this study positions students as coarchitects of their institutional experiences. Over …

What Teachers See: Collaborative Artmaking In Chinese And U.S. Elementary Schools, Jiayu Shi

Masters Theses

This study explores how elementary art teachers in the United States and China perceive and use collaborative artmaking with their students. Driven by my personal journey as a Chinese student and art educator now studying in the U.S., this research asks: How do teachers in these two countries compare in their views of collaborative artmaking, including its social-emotional outcomes, benefits, and challenges. I conducted semi structured interviews with three elementary art teachers: two from China (one veteran, one early-career) and one from the U.S. with experience in both rural and urban schools. Findings show that teachers in both contexts value …

Reclamando Corazón Y Voz: Latinas Speak Their Truth Through Plática As Resistance In California Community College Learning Disabilities Assessments, Maricela Becerra

Dissertations

Although California Community Colleges (CCCs) offer learning disability (LD) assessments to determine eligibility for academic accommodations, for Latina students navigating converging forces of race, gender, language, citizenship, and ableism, these assessments often surface unspoken histories of harm. This study advanced Chicana feminista DisCrit (CFDC), extending disability critical race theory through Chicana spirituality and cultural intuition to examine possibilities when an educadora situates assessments in a plática grounded in consideración—respectful, relational, and unhurried care.

Rooted in Chicana feminist pláticas methodology and authored from the positionality of a disabled Latina scholar–practitioner, this qualitative decolonial dissertation explored how Latina students reflected on …

Learning Through Lowriding: Knowledge In The Garage, Bianca Elisa Arellano

Dissertations

Lowriding culture has long been situated at the margins where state-sanctioned criminalization processes delegitimize the intellectual agency of lowriders, rendering their knowledge systems institutionally illegible. This dissertation argues that such epistemic invisibility denies lowriders the agency to define their own intellectual contributions, and it reclaims lowriding as a site of profound resourceful innovation. Grounded in Chicana feminist epistemologies, the study theorizes how nepantla—the process of navigating and living at the margins—works alongside rasquachismo, the working-class sensibility through which constraint becomes a site of knowledge production, to frame lowriding in Chicanx San Diego communities as an embodied tension where subversive, resourceful …

For My Oklahomies: Educators’ Perspectives On Policy, Public Discourse, And Professional Wellbeing, Cassandra Herndon

Dissertations

This critical qualitative study examines how ideologies rooted in ultra-conservative movements shape the professional lives of Oklahoma K–12 educators, and how they maneuver, resist, or accommodate ideological forces within a climate of surveillance and professional delegitimization. Grounded in critical social theory and drawing on Foucault (1977) and Leonardo (2003), the study applies a recontextualized model of transformational resistance (Hannegan-Martinez et al., 2024) to analyze educators’ acts of agency within a restrictive policy landscape.

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with eight Oklahoma K–12 teachers and administrators, this study employs critical narrative inquiry alongside reflexive thematic and critical policy analysis to ask: (1) …

Learning From The Remains: Meditations On Sustainability, Julae Tan

Masters Theses

What remains when a person or material assemblage is stripped of its

component parts?

What is left is the remainder, an irreductible core.

Purely cerebral learning can be fleeting. A hybrid approach of cerebral and

visceral, “perverse” learning grounded in a familial understanding of the

remainder yields a more resilient pedagogy that endures long after leaving the

site of formal education.

This research was completed under the aegis of the 2025/26 Sustainability

Design Lab and features the subject of making with paper discards as the

primary mode of interrogation.

Via a collection of essays, a literature review, as well as …

How Licensing Compromised The Library, Aaron Perzanowski

Seattle University Law Review Online

Public libraries are besieged on multiple fronts: spiraling costs, budget cuts, book bans, patron privacy risks, inaccessible digital exclusives, embargoed titles, and unstable collections—not the mention a general decline in reading coupled with an upswing in reliance on artificial intelligence. No single development can explain all of the many challenges facing libraries today. But this Article argues that the shift from library-owned print collections to licensed digital ones is an overlooked throughline that has contributed to this constellation of challenges in underappreciated ways. For centuries, the first sale doctrine gave libraries broad autonomy over what they acquired, preserved, and lent. …

The Library Of Congress’S Essential Role In Digital Preservation: Reconceiving Mandatory Deposit After Valancourt, Dave Hansen

Seattle University Law Review Online

As the published record shifts to digital formats, the mechanisms that have ensured long-term preservation are breaking down. Most libraries acquire digital materials through licensing agreements that prohibit preservation copying, format migration, and interlibrary loan—contractually overriding the exceptions Congress enacted in the Copyright Act. The Library of Congress occupies a unique position: Through statutory deposit under 17 U.S.C. §§ 407 and 408, it collects copyrighted works pursuant to federal law rather than license agreements, and deposited copies become federal property under § 704, free from contractual restrictions. This Article examines how the Library’s deposit authority can be strengthened after the …

Separation Of Copyright Powers, Blake Reid

Seattle University Law Review Online

The United States Copyright Office’s multifarious roles in the U.S. copyright system have long prompted uncertainty about its position among the branches of the federal government. From its formal home in the Library of Congress, the chameleonic Office has accumulated a wide range of advisory, rulemaking, adjudicative, and administrative functions that have long prompted questions about both agencies’ exercise of dueling legislative and executive powers.

Despite its increasingly sprawling portfolio and unusual configuration, the Office has never faced a serious separation-of-powers reckoning—until now. In the span of just five days in May 2025, Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress …

The Library Of Congress At A Crossroads: Executive Overreach And The Future Of Public Knowledge, Leslie A. Street, Amanda Runyon

Seattle University Law Review Online

In May 2025, President Trump's removal of the Librarian of Congress and attempted removal of the Register of Copyrights precipitated a constitutional crisis that exposed fundamental structural vulnerabilities in the nation's knowledge infrastructure. This Article argues that the Library of Congress faces a dual threat: a constitutional breach of separation of powers and a cultural threat to the preservation of America's intellectual heritage. The Library's structural ambiguity — its simultaneous identity as a legislative library, national library, and copyright agency — has left it vulnerable to executive overreach that threatens both constitutional integrity and its role as custodian of national …

Professional Identity Formation And The Nextgen Bar Open Opportunities For Law Student And Law School Success, Neil Hamilton

The Journal of Law Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

So Much More Than Greenacre, Christine Rollins

The Journal of Law Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Identifying Social Disparities Inside The Colombian Jesuit Schools From The Students’ Perceptions, Fr. Edwin Mauricio Martínez Callejas Sj

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis conducts a comprehensive investigation into social disparities within Colombian Jesuit schools through the voices and perceptions of their students. Employing a Critical Pedagogy framework inspired by Paulo Freire, the research centers on understanding how students from three Jesuit schools in major Colombian cities—Medellín (Colegio San Ignacio), Bucaramanga (Colegio San Pedro Claver), and Barranquilla (Colegio San José)—perceive and navigate issues of social inclusion, ethnic diversity, gender equality, socioeconomic status, political polarization, and religious plurality. The study utilizes qualitative methods, including focus groups and interviews with students, teachers, staff, and parents, to explore school convivencia (coexistence and social harmony) and …

Teacher Identity Formation In A Christian University: Expectations And Experiences, Heather J. S. Birch

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This qualitative phenomenological study examines the alignment between applicants’ expectations and graduating candidates’ lived experiences in a teacher education program at a Christian university. Drawing on data from 166 participants collected during application interviews and final capstone conversations, the research explores how candidates anticipated and later reflected on the program’s faith integration, community, and professional formation. Findings reveal that most candidates’ expectations were met or exceeded, highlighting three key shifts: faith experienced as lived values within an inclusive community; unexpected depth of relational support from faculty and peers; and meaningful professional and personal growth rooted in the faith-explicit context. The …

Who Gets To Be Taken Seriously? Three Atypical Scholars Navigate Doctoral Education At The Intersections Of Race, Neurodivergence, And Veteran Identity, Sr. Richard De La Garza

Dissertations

As a first-generation, neurodivergent, Mexican American/Chicano veteran, I entered the University of San Diego's doctoral program having had experiences that most institutional intake processes would label as risk factors. The Findings chapter of this dissertation begins by describing those experiences—not as a confession, but as the foundation for a systematic inquiry into how doctoral legitimacy is produced, withheld, and defended. The description of my life experiences is followed by a discussion of the doctoral journeys of two other study participants who also were atypical doctoral candidates.

The central argument being advanced is this: What higher education calls "fit," "rigor," and …

The Herd: Shepherd Leadership Development Program, Ronald Dean Axworthy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation-in-praxis focuses on the development and implementation of a Shepherd leadership development program for high school students, grades 9-12, in a private Christian high school setting. This program examines how the intentional integration of leadership curriculum shapes students’ views and perspectives on leadership and their ability to lead others as Shepherd leaders. Drawing on the Shepherd leadership motif found throughout the Bible, educational philosophy, and Christian pedagogy, this program examines various methods and curriculum strategies used in the Christian high school setting to build future Christian leaders. The study focuses on understanding how the Shepherd leadership curriculum impacted the …

Delegating Authority: How Student Leadership Influences The Workload And Well-Being Of Secondary Orchestra Directors, Lori M. Buonamici

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Although it is standard practice for secondary orchestra directors to engage students in leadership roles to assist with instruction and ensemble management, music education research provides teachers with little guidance on creating and maintaining student leadership organizations. The current literature provides abundant evidence of the benefits of offering leadership opportunities to support student development. Still, little research examines the additional work this creates for the orchestra director. Drawing on Vygotsky’s constructivist worldview and the theory of the zone of proximal development, this study examines how guided support facilitates the development of student leadership skills. Granting student leaders authority may either …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of The Nazarene Course Of Study For Developing Lay Leaders In Virginia District Hispanic Ministries: A Competency-Based Assessment, Jeffrey A. Hernandez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Hispanic ministries within the Virginia District of the Church of the Nazarene continue to experience sustained membership growth; however, leadership development has not expanded proportionally, creating emerging capacity gaps. Many Hispanic pastors serve bi-vocationally, limiting capacity to meet increasing congregational demands, and lay leaders are leveraged to meet those needs. Using an assessment tool designed to measure lay leadership competencies, this research project evaluates the effectiveness of a Nazarene Course of Study to function as a leadership development framework for laity within Hispanic church contexts. The study examines the implementation of a pastoral-level ministerial education program among Hispanic laypersons and …

Parental Understanding Of The Influence Of Ecological Systems On The Educational Experiences Of The Dependent Children Of Enlisted And Officer Families Stationed In Japan: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Nortia M. Miller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore how enlisted and officer parents stationed in Japan understand and described how different ecological systems influence the educational experience and academic performance of their dependent children. The theory that guided this study is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory as it provided a comprehensive framework for understanding the inter-influential relationship between the children and the different ecological systems in their environment. The central research question provided a conduit for further exploration by asking how do enlisted and officer parents understand and describe how different ecological factors from Bronfenbrenner’s systems theory shape the …

Workplace Realities And Leadership Aspirations: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Black Female Educators’ Experiences Toward Organizational Leadership, Angela D. Mcguire

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the experiences and workplace dynamics of Black female educators and their transitions into organizational leadership, including entrepreneurship. The theory guiding this study was the social cognitive career theory, as it seeks to establish connections between cognitive and contextual factors, and people and their careers, and represents how individuals exercise personal agency. The Central Research Question was: What are the lived experiences of Black female educators as they transition from traditional teaching roles into organizational leadership, including entrepreneurship? A qualitative study was the most appropriate research design to report on the …

Unmasking Unity: A Grounded Theory Study Of Holistic Executive Functioning Intervention Development By Support Personnel For Twice-Exceptional High School Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder In A Rural Residential School Setting, Christopher R. Chouiniere

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this situational analysis grounded theory was to develop a unified theory of how support personnel develop and implement interventions for executive functioning development for twice-exceptional students with autism spectrum disorder. The central research question was, “How do support personnel implement holistic and hierarchical executive functioning interventions for twice-exceptional students with autism spectrum disorder?” As there was no appropriate theory to describe holistic and hierarchical executive functioning interventions, situational analysis, as a derivative of grounded theory, was used in this qualitative study. Ten participants, from rural boarding high schools, were interviewed, participated in focus groups, and completed internet …

Barriers To Physical Activity Among Community College Students, Erica Keels

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceived barriers, motivators, and student-identified strategies related to physical activity among students enrolled at a community college located in Northwest Florida. Guided by the Social Ecological Model (SEM), Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Health Belief Model (HBM), and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study employed a qualitative descriptive design to examine students’ lived experiences and perceptions that influence their physical activity behaviors. Data were collected through an online open-ended survey administered to students aged 18 years and older. A total of 134 students initially accessed the survey, and 126 eligible participants …

A Causal-Comparative Study Of Student Enjoyment In Classical Private School, Non-Classical Private School, And Non-Classical Public School Social Studies Courses, Ginger B. Knapp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative design study was to investigate differences in the enjoyment of history/social studies as an academic subject among high school juniors and seniors educated in classical Christian private school, non-classical Christian private school, and non-classical public-school settings. The study is important because its measure of enjoyment is associated with teaching pedagogy or instructional methodology. Prior quantitative studies have associated achievement with standardized test scores, recommending that future studies explore the link between instructional methodology and achievement. This research study fills the literature gap by employing a sound psychometric measure of enjoyment to examine its associations …

From Classroom To Conference: A Branding Toolkit For Educators, Danyel Burgett

Masters Theses

From Classroom to Conference: Branding the Educator investigates how design methodology and research-based instructional frameworks can support educators in developing cohesive professional identities. As educators are increasingly expected to present, publish, and maintain digital presences, formal preparation in visual communication and professional branding remains limited within teacher preparation and professional development. This thesis addresses that gap through the development of an instructional design solution. Grounded in John Hattie’s Visible Learning framework, adult learning theory, and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, the project applies principles of clarity, reflection, feedback, metacognition, and experiential learning to professional identity development. The resulting design solution includes …