Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Education Journey: A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Lived College Experiences For Black Women Ages 20–39, Marsha Natalie Tucker-Scott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study focused on the lived college experiences of Black female students aged 20-39 in the New York Metropolitan area, drawing on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory to examine how cultural context, social interaction, and community expectations shaped their academic engagement and development. Using in-depth interviews, focus groups, and journal prompts with ten participants from local communities and churches, the study found that race and social expectations exerted a more profound influence on participants’ academic journeys than gender or age. Their narratives affirmed the value of hermeneutic phenomenology and intersectionality in understanding Black women’s experiences in higher education, particularly as they …

Restoring Breath: A Culturally Grounded Response To The Leadership Gap In Keaukaha, Jacquelyn T. Gomes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In Hawaiʻi, where economic strain and rising suicide rates continue to impact young adults, the challenges facing emerging leaders extend beyond ministry models to issues of identity, belonging, and survival. This praxis project addressed the leadership gap among young adults (ages 20–40) in the Keaukaha community of Hawaiʻi Island. While Hale Pule Ke Ola Hou demonstrated strong engagement from elders and children, the absence of young adult leaders revealed deeper challenges in generational continuity, cultural connection, and ministry relevance. Grounded in biblical discipleship and Hawaiian cultural values, this project proposed a contextualized, organic model of leadership development integrating relational presence, …

Social-Emotional Learning In A Middle School Band Program: A Qualitative Case Study, Edward J. Anthony Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Social-emotional learning (SEL) supports students’ development of interpersonal skills, emotional regulation, and responsible decision-making during adolescence. Although music education provides collaborative learning environments, limited research has examined how participation in middle school band programs contributes to students’ social-emotional development. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore how participation in a middle school band program contributes to the development of social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies among students. Through interviews, observations, and document analysis, this study seeks to understand how students and educators experience and perceive the social and emotional dimensions of ensemble participation within the middle school band setting. …

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 …

Do Universities Underpay Professors? Yes, Especially Women, Zhanhan Yu, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Building Capacity And Inspiring Change: The Impact Of Louisiana’S Ucedd Across The Lifespan, Alicia Kowitz, Constance Alphonse, Phil Wilson, Maria Blanco

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Human Development Center (HDC), as the state’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), serves as a catalyst for inclusive systems change through interdisciplinary training, community engagement, and evidence-based service delivery. This manuscript highlights the breadth and impact of HDC’s initiatives across early childhood, education, transition, and community inclusion. Through programs such as Inclusive Practices in Early Childhood, PAYCheck, and LEND, HDC builds capacity among professionals, empowers individuals with disabilities and their families, and strengthens systems to be more responsive and equitable. The stories and outcomes shared illustrate how intentional, collaborative efforts …

Assessing Media Literacy Competence In Secondary Education: Towards A Rubric Based On A Systematic Review, Steijn Jan Van Der Craats, Jason Simon, Romy Andrieu, Bo Sichterman, Stan Van Ginkel

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

Developing media literacy competence is an essential objective in secondary education. However, a validated instrument aimed to encourage the development of media literacy amongst students formatively is lacking hitherto. This review aims to identify relevant studies on media literacy competence or components thereof and their assessment strategies. Further, this study synthesizes these findings into a set of principles for constructing a formative assessment instrument fostering media literacy competence. Seventeen publications from the last 15 years were selected through a systematic search in scientific databases. All studies were categorized concerning crucial characteristics of assessment instruments. Furthermore, the synthesis of this study …

The Impact Of Response Latency On Perceived Level Of Intelligence And Likability Of Autistic Speakers, Brinley Atkinson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how turn-taking latency and speaker or listener gender affect the perceived intelligence and likability of the speaker across autistic speakers. In addition, the overarching goal of this research is to help speech-language pathologists (SLPs) better provide support and strategies to autistic individuals to improve their social and professional lives. Neurotypical English speakers (20 male and 20 female) were recruited to listen to a series of conversational speech samples collected from a group of eight autistic adults (four male and four female). In each sample, autistic individuals responded to a series of everyday …

Strategic Agency In Action Transforming Academic Life Through Non-Traditional Intellectual Workflows, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

In popular culture and traditional academia, the image of the "productive scholar" is static: a researcher chained to a desk, staring at a screen for eight hours, manually typing out sentences. However, a subculture of modern intellectuals, independent researchers, and creative professionals on the internet is proving that this setup is actually a bottleneck for the human brain.

By experimenting with cognitive offloading, dynamic movement, and collaborative technologies, these individuals have shifted from passive routines to strategic agency. Below are four curated, real-world case studies drawn from intellectual blogs, creators' post-mortems, and digital newsletters that demonstrate how non-traditional strategies unlock …

May 19, 2026 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Machine Learning For Modeling In An Elementary Differential Equations Class, Nathan Albin, Andrew G. Bennett, Abhinav Chand

CODEE Journal

Mixing machine learning with modeling is an area of increasing importance. This paper presents a lesson where students model a spring-mass system both using traditional analysis with linear damping and using machine learning to learn the damping from real data. The machine learning is implemented in a Jupyter notebook hosted on Google Colab, allowing students to train the neural network without requiring the students to carry out coding. Students get experience with how machine learning can fail, how it can work, and the time and data requirements for machine learning to succeed, and are asked to apply this knowledge to …

Beyond Pedagogical Inertia: Understanding And Overcoming The Barriers To Effective Faculty Work In Higher Education, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

Academic faculty are among the most educated professionals in the world. Yet a striking body of empirical research demonstrates that they face profound, systematic barriers to performing their own work effectively—barriers that are cognitive, institutional, cultural, and structural in origin. This paper extends the analysis of “pedagogical inertia” beyond the classroom to the full scope of faculty professional life: research, writing, service, advising, and self-directed learning. Drawing on evidence from organizational psychology, cognitive neuroscience, higher education research, and behavioral science, we identify six classes of barriers that consistently impede effective faculty work, and we analyze—with reference to documented successful cases—the …

The Heterogeneous Response Of Astrocytes In Different Brain Regions Under Metabolic Stress, Pawan Kumar Thapaliya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Astrocytes play a central role in maintaining ionic homeostasis, neurotransmitter clearance, and brain en-ergy metabolism. Their excitability, reflected in activity-evoked intracellular sodium (Na+, [Na+]i) and calcium (Ca2+,[Ca+]i) dynamics, is increasingly recognized as a critical determinant of neuronal function and vulnerability, particularly under metabolic stress. Despite their importance, the mechanisms underlying astrocytic ionic signaling and its regional heterogeneity remain incompletely understood. In this thesis, I developed detailed computational and biophysical models to investigate astrocytic Na+ and Ca2+ dynamics, their bioenergetic consequences, and the roles of key ion transporters under physiological and metabolically stressed conditions, validating the models against experi- mental data. …

Neuroscience-Based Intellectual Productivity: A Ten-Principle Methodology For Knowledge Workers, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This paper presents a comprehensive, neuroscience-grounded methodology for enhancing intellectual productivity among knowledge workers—particularly academic faculty and researchers operating under conditions of chronic cognitive overload. Drawing on ten foundational principles derived from contemporary cognitive neuroscience, we argue that substantial gains in research output, creative ideation, and knowledge integration are achievable not by working harder, but by working in deliberate alignment with the brain’s native computational architecture.

The ten principles address: strategic activation of the Default Mode Network (DMN) for incubation and creative insight; prefrontal cortex (PFC) energy management through temporal task separation; externalization of cognitive load via AI-assisted working memory …

Working Smarter, Not Harder: A Practical Guide To Intellectual Productivity, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This guide offers general suggestions drawn from recent research. Every person thinks, works, and recharges differently. Please treat what follows not as a checklist to follow slavishly, but as a menu of ideas — pick what resonates, adapt freely, and discard whatever does not fit your life.

Guide For Brain Science-Based Ip Improvement, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

This guide leads to two articles that help you know the practical implications of the recent development of neuro-scientific discoveries.

Success By Design? A Combined Outcome And Process Program Evaluation Of California’S Early And Middle College High Schools, Brooke N. Martin-Gill

Education Dissertations

Early and Middle College High Schools (EMCHS) expand college access for

underrepresented students by integrating high school and college coursework within

community college settings. Despite strong reported outcomes, some EMCHS face

substantial student attrition. Limited research examines how EMCHS organizational

structures influence student persistence. This mixed methods outcome and process

evaluation seeks to address this research gap. Quantitative analysis (paired samples-t-

tests) examined statewide enrollment data (2017-2025) to determine whether significant

differences exist between Year 1 and Year 4 cohort enrollment. Qualitative analysis was

conducted through a deductive discourse analysis of Western Association of Schools and

Colleges (WASC) Self-Study reports …

Examining The Glat As A Measure Of Ai Literacy, Hunter R. Castleton

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The current study examined the Generative AI Literacy Assessment Test (GLAT) as a promising test of AI literacy due to its content, which is grounded in relevant AI literacy theory, and its design as a cognitive measure of AI literacy. To examine the GLAT, data were collected from a sample of 543 graduating seniors at James Madison University (JMU) who took the GLAT as part of a longer series of tests. Their responses were first analyzed to assess the test’s item characteristics and internal structure. Following this initial analysis, a final item set was established to ensure that low-quality items …

A Colonial Past Revisited: An Authethnography Of Outsider And Insider Identities In Indigenous Education Communities, Tara L. Deyoung

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

In the late 90s, at Rehoboth Christian school, a small private boarding school in northwest New Mexico, I had four different English teachers in my four years of high school. All but two of my teachers at that time would be considered outsiders to the community in which they taught. Teacher outsiders leave schools and districts at higher rates than insiders to a community; this is especially true for rural and remote areas (Hudson et al., 2020). The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to analyze my history as a cultural outsider and insider in relation to my core beliefs …

Negotiating Professional Identity Development Across Contexts: A Collaborative Autoethnography, Clark D. Ausloos, Rebecca J. Vannest, Hayley Ostlund

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

This collaborative autoethnography (CAE) explores how two counselor educators and one doctoral student navigate professional identity formation across three intersecting contexts: school counseling, clinical mental health counseling, and counselor education. Through critical reflection and collaborative analysis of focus-group data and individual reflections, we identify four themes: Career Flexibility & Adaptability, Identity Formation in Supportive and Restrictive Systems, Role Strain & Stigma, and Values-Driven Practices. Implications call for counselor education programs and higher education systems to embrace multiplicity, non-linear careers, redefine mentorship structures for doctoral students and faculty, and revise promotion criteria to value relationality, and creative, student- and community-engaged …

Predicting Counseling Student Well-Being: The Role Of Faculty And Stress, Kendall G. Woods, Elizabeth K. N. Harper, Michell L. Temple

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Approximately one-third of Americans live in areas with limited access to mental health services, with only one mental health provider for every 350 people (Health Resources and Services Administration [HRSA], 2024; Reinert & Nguyen, 2022). The shortage of mental health providers persists as the need for services grows, a challenge compounded by the 40-60% attrition rate among counseling trainees (Chrzanowski, 2018). Improving counseling program completion is essential to address the mental health workforce shortage. While previous research has emphasized the importance of faculty support for graduate students (Estrada et al, 2019), little research has examined how faculty-student interactions and academic …

Enacting Leadership And Transforming The World: Hannah Arendt, The Private, The Public, And Transfigurations In Between, Xochitl Mendez

Educational Studies Dissertations

In this dissertation I propose a framework that emphasizes transitions between Private and Public. I argue that individuals can consciously reshape and reformulate these transitions to assert themselves in the world. How can the individual’s own internal realities, ventures, projects and selfhood assert themselves in a fraught world as an act of self-affirmation, leadership, and transformation? New approaches to this question can all be revealed by using transitions between Private and Public as actionable strategies. I re-interpret Hannah Arendt’s Private and Public as she presented them in The Human Condition (1958). I turn these into multivalent and multilayered spaces of …

Through A Pedagogy Of Play: Kindergarten Teachers' Professional Identity, Self-Efficacy, And Well-Being, Jennifer L. Berube

Educational Studies Dissertations

Abstract

This convergent parallel mixed methods study examined how kindergarten teachers who implement a play-based pedagogy describe its influence on their professional identity, self-efficacy, and well-being. Kindergarten represents a critical educational juncture where tensions between developmental practice and academic acceleration are most pronounced, yet existing research has not adequately examined how pedagogical approaches affect the teachers who implement them. While extensive research documents the benefits of play-based learning for children’s development, the experiences of the teachers who facilitate that learning remain largely unexamined. This study addressed that gap through three integrated frameworks: Self-Determination Theory, Seligman’s model of well-being encompassing positive …

From Anxiety To Resilience: A Case Study Of Female-Identifying Middle School Students At A Math Summer Camp, Elizabeth Teixeira

Educational Studies Dissertations

Mathematics anxiety, defined as a fear that hampers engagement in mathematical tasks (Richardson & Suinn, 1972), affects nearly 50% of students (Johnston-Wilder et al., 2014) and has a disproportionate impact on female students (Devine et al., 2018; Stoet et al., 2016). Math anxiety is often treated in the research literature as a relatively stable trait. This perspective may not fully capture how anxiety manifests in specific moments of mathematical engagement or account for the role of environmental conditions that can both precipitate and mitigate anxious responses. In response to these gaps, this study investigates how mathematics anxiety manifests in …

Sesquicentennial Commencement [Program], May 15-16, 2026, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Commencement Programs

Contents:

Brief History of UNI --- 2
Board of Regents --- 3
Institutional Leadership --- 3
Ceremony Symbols & Traditions --- 4
Commencement Over the Years --- 6
University Honors Program --- 8
Graduation with Honors --- 8
Legacy Graduates --- 8
Military Science --- 9
Merchant Scholarship --- 9
Outstanding Student Leader --- 9
Commencement Student Speakers --- 9
Purple and Old Gold Awards --- 10
Lux Service Award --- 11
7 p.m. Program --- 13
College of Education --- 15
David W. Wilson College of Business --- 22
10 a.m. Program --- 29
College of Humanities, Arts & …

Strength And Conditioning Internships In Collegiate Athletics: A Qualitative Examination Of Structure, Design, And Experiential Learning, Peter Kd Kenn

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

Strength and Conditioning (S&C) internships play a critical role in the development of students and graduates looking to enter the S&C profession. However, little research has been conducted to understand the typical structures, responsibilities, and expectations of internship programs or the rationales behind the designs and structures of these programs. Despite the reliance on S&C internships to develop entry-level candidates for the profession, there is a lack of standardization and structure within the U.S. intercollegiate setting. The purpose of this study is to identify how S&C internship supervisors describe the content of their internship programs and to understand the rationale …

From The Classroom To Careers: A Quantitative Analysis Of High School Longitudinal Data Examining How Culturally Responsive Teaching Shapes Mathematics Achievement, Stem Aspirations, And Early Stem Workforce Entry Among Students Of Color, Francisco Velez

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Abstract

This dissertation examines how culturally responsive teaching shapes mathematics achievement and STEM outcomes for high school students of color using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). Culturally responsive teaching, grounded in theories of cognition, sociocultural learning, and asset-based pedagogy, emphasizes instruction that validates students’ cultural identities, connects academic content to lived experiences, and fosters deeper engagement and academic confidence. Despite substantial qualitative evidence supporting culturally responsive teaching, large-scale quantitative studies remain limited. To address this gap, this study developed a composite measure of culturally responsive teaching using teacher-reported HSLS:09 indicators aligned with key dimensions of …

Centering Testimonio: Understanding Chronic Absenteeism Through The Eyes Of Multilingual And Newcomer Families, Alexandra Sanchez

Educational Studies Dissertations

Chronic absenteeism remains a persistent concern in K–12 education and is often framed through deficit-based narratives that place blame solely on students or families. This qualitative study examines how a multilingual learner (MLL) and newcomer caregiver understands and experiences school attendance within her child’s public charter school community. Grounded in testimonio as both a methodological and epistemological approach, this study centers the lived experiences and knowledge of a caregiver navigating schooling within a new sociocultural and linguistic context.

Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in Spanish and subsequently translated into English for analysis. An inductive coding process was …

Tracing Hazing Across Adolescence: Examining How Prior Hazing Experiences Shape Hazing Motivation And Tolerance Among Newly Initiated Ifc Fraternity Members, John Michael Vanhorn

Theses and Dissertations

Hazing remains pervasive and underreported, disproportionately affecting adolescent and emerging adult men, particularly within athletic teams and fraternity contexts. Although hazing is most often studied within collegiate organizations, many students encounter hazing behaviors prior to college, yet little is known about how these early experiences shape later hazing perceptions, motivations, tolerance, and masculine norms. Grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model, this dissertation conceptualizes hazing as a developmental process shaped by repeated social interactions, individual characteristics, contextual environments, and time across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Using a two-paper approach with a quantitative, longitudinal survey design, study 1 examined fraternity new members’ …