Digital Commons Network^™

Obtaining An Entry-Level Job, Paul Hill, Osei Vega-Sandoval

All Current Publications

Entry-level jobs are designed for people with little to no work experience. These jobs do not require previous education or training. Entry-level roles range from labor-intensive jobs (e.g., stocking shelves, preparing food, cleaning equipment) to customer service jobs (e.g., cashier, bank teller, retail associate). Entry-level jobs are the most common gateway into an organization. This fact sheet explains how to find entry-level jobs and outlines the fundamentals to improve one’s prospects of gaining employment.

The Current - Volume 37 Issue 01, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Education For Sustainable Development: The Role Of Blended Learning Within Skill-Based Higher Education, Nessrin Shaya, Sandra Baroudi, Serena Aoun, Rawan Abukhait

All Works

Purpose – Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study positions blended learning not merely as a technological enhancement but as a strategic pedagogical mechanism for operationalizing sustainable development. It examines how blended learning within interdisciplinary and skill-based higher education environments cultivate employability skills that support sustainable educational practices. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a survey design. Where data were collected from 782 undergraduate students across five universities in UAE. Two institutions offered blended, interdisciplinary and skill-based courses, while three delivered the same courses through traditional face-to-face formats. The structural model was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping …

Prekindergarten Teachers' Perspectives On Coaching Following Professional Development On Early Childhood Programs, Donna Renee Morton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Coaching is recommended for prekindergarten (PK) teachers following professional development (PD) to increase implementation of instruction practices with fidelity in early childhood (EC) programs. The problem addressed in this study was PK teachers were challenged to engage in coaching experiences after PD to implement instructional practices with fidelity in a large EC program located in the Mideastern United States. Framed by Knowles’s adult learning theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore PK teachers’ perspectives on coaching experiences after receiving PD to implement instructional practices with fidelity. Semistructured interview data were collected from eight PK teachers who …

Fellowship Graduates’ Perceptions Of The Professional Competencies Developed In A Local Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy Program In The Southern United States, Margaret Elaine Lonnemann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Orthopedic manual physical therapy (OMPT) fellowship programs focus on improving clinical skills and professional development in physical therapy. OMPT fellowship programs are 1–3-year postprofessional subspecialty training programs in manual physical therapy requiring prior orthopedic clinical experience. The problem that was addressed in this study is that professional competencies are not adequately assessed after program completion of an OMPT fellowship in the Southern United States. Grounded in Dreyfus’s skill acquisition model, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore OMPT fellowship graduates’ perceptions of the professional competencies developed and recommendations for assessing these competencies in future graduates. Data were …

Kindergarten Classroom Educators’ Perceptions Of Social Emotional Learning Implementation, Thomasina A. Millner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was that research on social emotional learning (SEL) has largely focused on student outcomes, program effectiveness, and implementation practices, but limited research has examined kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of implementing SEL. Grounded in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning framework, the purpose of this study was to explore kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of SEL implementation. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews with nine kindergarten educators who had at least 1 year experience implementing SEL were conducted. Through thematic data analysis the following five themes emerged: Educators noted (1) that SEL is …

The Effects Of Using Home Language Vs English In Teaching Safety Skills, Emma Ruiz

Thesis Projects

Cultural competence and cultural awareness are terms that have started to become more widely used when discussing how therapists impact their clients. The push for cultural competence and awareness has started to create new questions about how a client’s culture can be intertwined with the services that they are receiving. The purpose of this study was to teach a combination of basic safety skills and identify if language impacted behavior. This study utilized one participant who did not acquire the skill to stop in either language. During the experiment, a third language was added to measure control; however, responding remained …

Full Issue, Volume 14, Number 1., Donna J. Peterson Dr., Scott Cummings, Elizabeth Gregory North

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

No abstract provided.

A Narrative-Restorative Framework For Addressing School Bullying, Tristan Patel, Michelle Myers, Daniel Stewart

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Bullying in schools is often addressed through punitive deterrence practices, solution-focused counseling, or restorative conferencing. These approaches often fail to recognize or account for the power imbalance that ultimately sustains bullying. This article discusses a narrative-restorative intervention to address bullying as a relational and communal issue, rather than relying on isolation or deterrence practices. The limitations of the dominant models discussed highlight the role of power in shaping bullying dynamics and connect legal and ethical responsibilities of narrative-restorative practices. Situated within the framework of California education law and professional ethical standards, at its core, undercover anti-bullying teams aim to redistribute …

Motivational Outsourcing: Ai, Self-Determination, And The Changing Nature Of Adult Learning, Zoe Spanos

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded into adult learning and higher education, serving not only as a support tool for cognitive aid but also as a system that can shape how learners regulate their motivation and engagement. This presentation examines how the use of AI in adult learning contexts may support or undermine self-determined motivation, drawing from Self-Determination Theory (SDT). It is a conceptual paper that draws on existing literature and theoretical analysis, examining AI reliance from minimal use to full automation across SDT's three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Motivation is essential for learning, but the quality …

Customization That Clicks: Human Factors Evaluation Of A User-Centered Vehicle Customization System, Noah Clark, Shawn Mathura, Sarah Bailey, Paul Seal, Brandon Ibarra, Kailey Hrbek, Carissa Aumack, Kevin Sun, Olivia Honan, Kelly Nguyen, Caroline Deck, Brandon D. Dreslin

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Older adults (OAs) and drivers with disabilities (DwDs) often encounter challenges when customizing vehicle features (e.g., seat adjustment, lighting, climate control) because existing human-machine interfaces (HMIs) may not be designed to accommodate diverse sensory, motor, and cognitive capabilities. HarmonIQ is a biometric-based, user-centered vehicle customization system designed to improve accessibility and inclusivity for OAs and DwDs, developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in collaboration with Bethune-Cookman University (BCU). This research, supported in part by the EcoCAR Electric Vehicle Challenge, builds on Fall 2024 proofs-of-concept and Spring 2025 initial development of HarmonIQ and its components, namely the driver profile software and …

Comparing Student Perceptions: Self-Directed Learner And Sense Of Responsibility With Their Measured Self-Direction In Learning Programming, Abigail Blalock

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This research poster presents findings from a broader study examining self-direction in learning (SDL) programming among first-year engineering students enrolled in an introductory programming course at Embry-Riddle. Developing learner autonomy and self-direction is essential for fostering lifelong learning and adaptability, particularly in programming, where rapidly evolving tools and techniques require continuous skill development. Using a quasi-experimental approach, this study investigates students’ self-direction in learning using a 25-item validated instrument on the Personal Responsibility Orientation to Self-Direction in Learning Scale (PRO-SDLS). Grounded in the Personal Responsibility Orientation (PRO) model, the instrument distinguishes between the external teaching–learning process and the internal characteristics …

Lights, Camera, Acting! A Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Approach To Basic Filmmaking, Jessica Maloney, Chris Nelson

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

No film studio? No problem! This activity is designed to introduce basic concepts of filmmaking across disciplines such as theatre and communications, but could be used by either. It includes an emphasis on acting as well as the technical processes and procedures on set. We have geared this activity specifically towards use in a cross-listed class in Communication and Theatre Arts.

"The Climate Emotion Wheel" - An Exercise To Address Climate Anxiety Inspired By Boal's Forum Theatre, Talin Abadian

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The goal of this exercise is to provide students a space to articulate these complex emotions, engage in collaborative problem-solving with their peers, reclaim a sense of agency and empowerment by exploring meaningful action collectively while also highlighting individual responsibilities towards the environment. This exercise can be used effectively to demonstrate the power of Boal’s Forum Theatre as a tool for collaborative problem-solving and communal rehearsing of solutions to real-world challenges.

Everything I Learned About Teacher Noticing I Learned From Yoga Teacher Training, Grace Giorgio

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The following activity promotes teacher noticing as a pedagogical tool for teachers in training, with a focus on the public speaking classroom. Many students enter the public speaking classroom filled with performance anxiety and fears of how their peers will perceive them. When a teacher can tap into these concerns via by noticing how students are reacting in the moment, they can assuage those anxieties and fears. Hence, teaching instructors effective teacher noticing in teacher training improves the classroom experience for teachers and students alike.

Addressing Haitian High School Students’ Educational Challenges Through Their Self-Cultural Awareness, Gregory Louis

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The study is grounded in the understanding that culturally responsive education practices can promote academic success and empower students to navigate multiple cultural contexts. A review of literature highlighted the complexities of Haitian students' educational experiences, the impact of cultural identity on academic achievement, and the need for further research on this topic.

The research employed in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Haitian high school students and their parents to gather data on their experiences, perceptions, and attitudes towards education and cultural identity. The study aimed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the educational experiences of Haitian students and inform strategies …

Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions About Teaching Students With Disabilities In The General Education Classroom, Mackenzie Rathburn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed through this study is that elementary teachers encounter challenges to meet the diverse needs of students with disabilities (SWDs) in Georgia’s general education classrooms, despite policy mandates requiring inclusive education. Grounded in Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore elementary teachers’ perceptions of the challenges they face and the resources and supports recommended to teach SWDs in general education classrooms. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 elementary general education teachers and analyzed using thematic analysis with the following six themes emerging: Teachers noted (1) instructional …

Children Second Dialect Acquisition In North America, Iqbal Nurul Azhar, Mohammad Halili

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

This article aims to examine the causes, social contributing factors, and the linguistic consequences of Second Dialect Acquisition (SDA henceforth) in children in North America, drawing on relevant articles. For children growing up in a monolingual region but then must live in a new space, acquiring second dialect can pave them to improve their communication skills, adjust their social and identity belonging. Yet why, how, and the linguistic consequence of SDA require further studies. We used the thematic synthesis in reviewing the existing related literature based on three steps: article identification, selection, and analysis. Six causes of SDA were found: …

Professional Development And Coaching To Support Teachers In Implementing Reading Interventions To Students With Dyslexia In Catholic Schools, Payton Elise Bosma

Masters Projects

Students with dyslexia need explicitly designed and implemented instruction in order to combat deficits in phonological, language, and executive functioning processes, yet teachers in Catholic Schools may not have the necessary training for successful reading intervention due to a lack of dyslexia policy in private schools. This project aims to fill this need by providing one Catholic School in an urban setting with a year-long professional development series which includes 5 professional development sessions to be implemented alongside individual coaching sessions. The purpose of the professional development sessions is twofold. They were created to increase teacher awareness of the etiology …

Underrepresented Students’ Perceptions Of Precollege Programs And Challenges Of Transitioning To Postsecondary Education, Dana Truesdale

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed through this study is that underrepresented students (low-income and first generation college students) face challenges associated with the transition from secondary education to postsecondary education. Grounded in Schlossberg’s transition theory, the purpose of this study was to explore underrepresented students’ perceptions of support provided by precollege programs and remaining challenges when transitioning to higher education. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews with 11 underrepresented students who participated in a precollege program were conducted. Braun and Clarke’s six-phase data analysis was used. After deductive and inductive analysis, the following themes emerged: Students indicated that the …

Explicit Writing Instruction Across Content Areas: A Professional Development, Bethany B. Richardson

Masters Projects

Research shows that writing instruction has diminished in the elementary classroom due to high stakes testing in reading and math.  Writing is a driving force for literacy achievement and should be prioritized.  In order to improve writing instruction, teachers need professional development in explicit instructional strategies for writing in other content areas.  According to cognitive processing theory, students are using multiple cognitive and metacognitive processes to complete a singular writing task.  Using scaffolds like write alouds, mentor texts, and graphic organizers can help teachers support students in their writing. Scaffolding theory suggests that students need high levels of support in …

Shared Equity Leadership In An Offshore Medical School: Distributing Responsibility For Equity, Vishal B. Surender, Sreekrishna Penna, Oluwabusola Osimosu

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This essay applies the Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) framework to an offshore MD program at a private Caribbean medical school where students complete basic sciences on an island and clinical clerkships across multiple international sites. Using SEL scholarship and de-identified institutional data, we ask how equity work is currently distributed, where gaps emerge in assessment, remediation, and mobility for historically underrepresented students in medicine, and how responsibility for equity might be more deliberately shared. The Woven model of SEL provides a lens to map existing structures like curriculum committees, CQI dashboards, advising systems, and clinical site partnerships. We propose a …

Reimagining Global Dei Through Adaptive Leadership: A Framework For Advancing Racial Equity In International Higher Education Partnerships, Briana C. Edwards

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Abstract

As internationalization in higher education expands through transnational research, global curricula, humanitarian training programs, and faculty mobility, discourses on diversity often remain Western-centered and detached from lived realities of structural inequity. This paper argues that adaptive leadership, grounded in mobilizing communities to confront systemic challenges in complex and uncertain environments, provides a useful pathway for rebuilding global DEI with racial equity at the center (Heifetz et al., 2009). Drawing from practice-based insight in global health, humanitarian workforce systems, HBCU models of global engagement, and higher education HR structures, the paper interrogates how colonial legacies, racial hierarchies, anti-DEI political climates, …

Knowledge Dilution And Tinted Pedagogical Dissemination: A Call For De-Colonizing Commercial Textbooks In Teacher Education For International Students, S. A. N. Zaidi, Cherian, F.V.

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how commercially produced textbooks mediate professor agency and shape the racialized and epistemic positioning of international students within a Canadian Teacher Education program. Situated within the internationalization of higher education, the study interrogates how textbook-driven curricular practices reproduce racial hierarchies, Eurocentric knowledge systems, and epistemic exclusion. The study responds to ongoing debates on race, racism, and racialization by examining how knowledge production and dissemination in classrooms may marginalize the lived experiences and intellectual contributions of international and racialized students. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis in programs serving racialized and international students. …

Resistance, Rebuttal And Risk: Exploring Black International Students’ Perceptions Of Racial Justice Organizing In Western Canada., Prof-Collins Ifeonu

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Based on 40 interviews, this study develops a three-fold typology that captures the heterogeneous nature of Black international students’ political engagement. Drawing on diasporic consciousness, I show how students negotiate their relationship to racial justice movements through race, ethnic identity, nationality, and temporary legal status. The findings underscore the need for a more nuanced understanding of Black students’ political subjectivities and brings attention to the incessant striving for personal belonging that these students undergo in their experiences of foreign study.

Contradiction And Critical Consciousness: Engaging Canadian University Students In Racial Dialogue On Anti-Chinese Racism, Dan Cui

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This study examines how Canadian university students perceived and engaged with anti-Chinese racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on grounded theory and interviews and written reflections from 28 undergraduates at a predominantly White university, the study analyzes students’ contradictory understandings of racism shaped by media, national narratives, and prior educational experiences. Informed by Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, it conceptualizes these tensions as a contradictory racialized habitus, in which awareness and denial, empathy and distancing, coexist. Three themes emerged: contradictory orientations toward anti-Chinese racism, the transnational influence of U.S. political discourse, and the limited transformative impact of a social justice course. …

Old Wine New Bottles: Racial Microaggressions Experiences Of Black African International Students In England, Solomon A. Zewolde

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Despite increasing attention to inequality in higher education, the everyday experiences of Black students and how they navigate racialized environments remain underexplored. This study examined Black African international undergraduates’ experiences of racial microaggression and their coping strategies in the context of higher education in England. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, a qualitative approach was used to analyze the accounts of 16 undergraduates studying in 11 English universities.  Findings indicate that students experienced racialized challenges along two interrelated dimensions: identity-based marginalization (including assumptions of poor/inferior previous education in Africa and pathologizing discourse) and social exclusion (including devaluation of classroom contributions, invisibility, …

Inter(Sectional)(National): Modeling Belonging And Campus Climate Among Asian International Students’ Identities, Yun-Han Weng, Ionell Jay Terogo, Laura S. Dahl

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

International students’ belonging in U.S. higher education is shaped by institutional climates that are both racialized and internationalized, yet few quantitative studies model these dimensions simultaneously. Using data from the Assessment of Collegiate Residential Environments and Outcomes, we examine how campus nationality and racial climates relate to Asian international students’ sense of belonging, and whether these relationships vary by intersecting identities. We examine how campus nationality and racial climates relate to Asian international students’ sense of belonging (n = 763). Measurement model comparisons empirically supported a two-factor solution separating nationality and racial climates once reverse-worded items were removed for improved …

“It’S Very Racialized And Very Politicized”: International Educators Recount The Campus And Local Climate For International Students, Amanda R. Corso, Gaurav Harshe, Chrystal George Mwangi, Christina W Yao

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

International educators have served as the primary support system for international students and are responsible for supporting international students through navigating racist encounters often without feeling adequately prepared (George Mwangi et al., 2025; Yao et al., 2019). With a diverse learning environment model as our framework, our study explored how international educators in the United States make sense of their racialized local and campus contexts, specifically in their work with international students. Using a three-dimensional approach to narrative inquiry, we interviewed 31 participants from New York, Massachusetts, California, and Michigan who worked in international student and scholar offices. Our findings …

Not Quite Foreign, Never Fully Belonging: Racialization Of Southbound Policy Students In Taiwan, Garima Jha

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This paper critically examines how race and racialization shape the socio-cultural adjustment experiences of international students from New Southbound policy (NSP) countries in Taiwan. Drawing from a qualitative part conducted for my master’s thesis, which explored the coping strategies and adjustment processes of seven students from Southeast and South Asia through semi-structured interview, I reframe the data to center race as an analytical lens using the conceptual framework proposed by Glasgow (2009) which explains that racialization as the process through which social meanings are attached to perceived cultural or bodily differences, creating and maintaining hierarchies among groups. and Brondolo et …