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Institutionalizing Normality: Disability, Productivity, And Higher Education, Ashley Dirzis

Student Theses

This thesis examines how capitalism and neuronormative domination shape the structures and values of academic institutions, affecting faculty, students, and research subjects alike. By privileging productivity, conformity, and efficiency in the pursuit of income, universities often marginalize those who diverge from normative standards of thinking, behavior, and embodiment, particularly disabled individuals. Drawing on Marta Russell’s Disability and Capitalism and the shaping of disability by capitalist systems, Robert Chapman’s notion of the "Empire of Normality" and Jay Dolmage’s concept of the retrofit from Academic Ableism, this paper analyzes how academia reinforces ableist norms. It explores the realities and barriers that …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2025) 26(1): Whole Issue

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents

Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines

Editor’s Introduction, Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger

Forum Essays on “AI in Honors”

Navigating Generative AI in Honors, Anne Dotter and Victoria M. Bryan

AI Responsibilization: Shifting the Burden of Academic Integrity, Daniel A. Cryer

Pull Up a Chair, Deep Blue: AI in Honors Education, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Teaching AI Literacy Through Science Studies, Rhetoric, and Ethical Reasoning, Michael J. Klein and Philip L. Frana

News From the Front: How to Win the AI War, Christine Haverington

Harnessing the Power of AI in Honors: Equipping Students to Leverage Tools Effectively, Lindsey Roberts and Jesse Roberts

Another …

Navigating Generative Ai In Honors, Anne Dotter, Victoria M. Bryan

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Considering the historical significance and pedagogical impact of educational technologies on teaching and learning in higher education, authors suggest that generative artificial intelligence creates more questions than solutions for honors practitioners. What might meaningful AI literacy look like throughout a multidisciplinary honors curriculum? To what extent will generative AI level educational inequities, or create new ones? If policing AI misuse is ultimately a losing battle, how might this understanding reshape assignment design, assessment practices, and even our definitions of academic dishonesty? Drawing on examples in current teaching practice, authors observe the two sides of generative AI—one holding powerful possibilities for …

Ai Responsibilization: Shifting The Burden Of Academic Integrity, Daniel A. Cryer

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Because AI text generators like ChatGPT give students unprece-dented power to outsource their work, concerns about academic integrity are escalating among instructors. This essay suggests that the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning dramatically shifts the burden of academic integrity, typically shared between teachers and students, onto students. The concept of responsibilization, a defining feature of neoliberal societies in which individuals become responsible for costs and tasks once shouldered collectively, is a useful lens through which to view this new reality. Rather than policing students’ work, educators should recognize the new responsibilities conferred onto students by learning …

Teaching Ai Literacy Through Science Studies, Rhetoric, And Ethical Reasoning, Michael J. Klein, Philip L. Frana

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Building on the idea of productive troublemaking, this essay presents a team-taught interdisciplinary honors course that integrates science and technology studies, rhetorical analysis, ethical reasoning, and artificial intelligence policy. Rather than framing AI as a threat, this course invites honors students to experiment with AI technologies and develop competencies by analyzing AI as a social and subjectivity-shaping phenomenon—writing policy briefs, producing rhetorical analyses of science fiction, and completing self-paced AI literacy modules. Honors education is uniquely positioned to model responsible and human-centered uses of intelligent systems, thereby cultivating graduates who can both use and critically interrogate the AI tools that …

Another “Tone Test” Moment: Authenticity, Ai, And The Admission Essay, Peter Tschirhart

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Debates about “authenticity” are not new but cyclical, and insights from music history and performance studies can illuminate how we evaluate student work in an age of machine collaboration. At the turn of the twentieth century, Edison’s “tone tests” blurred the line between human and machine by staging performances in which audiences were challenged to distinguish live singers from phonographic recordings. These events inaugurated a century-long debate about authenticity in music, one that resonates strongly today as educators confront new challenges posed by large language models (LLMs). Drawing on Auslander’s (2023) account of liveness, authenticity in writing—like authenticity in music—can …

Honoring Intellectual Risk-Taking: A Dialogue, Julie Bowman, Alexis Teagarden

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Presented in the form of a Socratic dialogue, this piece considers what honors courses should strive to teach. Bowman, an experienced instructor of both non-honors and honors classes, notes that while universities’ honors colleges prize intellectual curiosity, her honors students might not. Teagarden, the other interlocutor and a writing program administrator, wonders whether curiosity is a sufficient end goal for honors or any teaching. The speakers turn to whether curiosity or courage is the more important virtue to instill, explore a classical difference between courage and audacity, and then discuss whether and how courage could be taught.

Understanding And Addressing Mental Health In Honors Programs, Gavin D. Hood, Katherine H. Tennis

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Evidence of psychological experiences unique to high-achieving students is examined, revealing prominent themes relating to student mental health including academic identity, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, burnout, and overcommitment. These themes are explored in the context of program feedback from honors students gathered through focus group meetings as part of the program review process. Strategies for reframing failure, normalizing self-care, fostering supportive community, and engaging in nonacademic self-exploration are included. The article closes with suggestions for programmatic interventions that directly address these concerns among high-achieving students. While most honors programs are not positioned to engage in clinical interventions, they can take small …

Connecting Classroom And Community: Building Ecosystems For Meaningful Alternative Breaks, Chelsea Redger-Marquardt, Jean A. Patterson

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This essay presents best practices in experiential learning via an alternative break program at a large public research university. In this interpretative qualitative study, authors analyze on-trip reflective blogs of students participating in an immersive alternative spring break program focused on food and shelter insecurity in Washington, D.C. (n = 11). A sensemaking/sensegiving theoretical framework is applied to explore the role of program partnering between student affairs (alternative break) and honors (coursework). Findings suggest that special care and attention be given when creating strong, direct-service experiences through reciprocal community partnerships, creating spaces for reflection during the immersive experience, and …

Generative Ai And The Honors Thesis: A Rhetorical Framework For Gai Policy, Pedagogy, And Equity, Sean Chadwick

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This article offers a rhetorical framework for understanding how honors students engage with the capstone thesis following the emergence of generative AI (GAI) tools. Author reviews the nature of the honors thesis and analyzes some rhetorical models for thinking about GAI and literacy before offering a heuristic framework identifying four interdependent skill categories—writing, social, executive, and subject matter—that shape students’ thesis work. Drawing on findings from an interview study, this framework clarifies how GAI tools interface with existing thesis practices and pain points, allowing honors practitioners to better articulate our values, evaluate use cases, and craft GAI-informed policy. As a …

Motivational Factors Influencing Honors Student Attrition: An Expectancy–Value Perspective, Nina Marijanović, Naomi Rowland, Morgan Flanagan, E. Myo Zin, Megan Bailey

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This study investigates the motivational factors underlying student withdrawal from an honors college using expectancy-value theory (EVT) as a guiding framework. Drawing on qualitative analysis of self-reported withdrawal forms (n = 1,110) collected between 2018 and 2023 at a midsize public university, authors identify the core drivers of attrition across three constructs of EVT: expectancy (belief in one’s ability to succeed), value (perceived benefits of participation), and cost (perceived burdens or tradeoffs). Findings indicate the most common motivations as value-related concerns, including misalignment with academic goals or career trajectories. Cost-related factors, such as workload demands, scheduling conflicts, and financial …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council (2025) 26(1): Front And Back Matter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Front and back matter for the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (2025) 26(1).

University Administrators’ Perceptions On Social Inequalities And Retention Of First-Year African American Students At Historically Black Colleges And Universities (Hbcus), Toni V. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Low retention rates of African American students in U.S. higher education institutions remain an issue, with researchers exploring possible contributing factors, including social inequalities. This qualitative descriptive study explored the perspectives of administrators from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on the unique barriers African American students face in the HBCU context, including financial hardship, academic unpreparedness, and limited opportunities for social integration. Data were collected through detailed, voice-recorded, semistructured interviews conducted via Zoom with administrators, including provosts, presidents, and directors from 12 current and former HBCUs, to explore how policies initially perceived as unfavorable could positively impact institutional leadership …

Border Thinking Through Diverse Modalities: An Ethnographic Case Study Of The Multimodal, Multiliteracy, And Translanguaging Practices Of Latinx Emergent Bilingual Youth, Romelia Rodri­Guez Reyes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This three-article dissertation explores how translanguaging, multimodality, and multiliteracies intersect to support the learning, identity formation, and meaning-making practices of Latinx emergent bilingual middle school students in El Paso, Texas, a border city shaped by transfronterizx realities. Guided by the frameworks of Border Thinking (Mignolo, 2000) and Pedagogy of Border Thinking (Cervantes-Soon and Carrillo, 2016), this study foregrounds the cultural, linguistic, and epistemic fluidity that characterizes borderland communities. I approach this work as a bricoleur (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994); the three-article format allowed me to center distinct but interconnected theoretical and methodological orientations, reflecting my commitment to situated, decolonial knowledge …

Ethical Ai Use And Classroom Integration Training Modules, Daniel Boudon

Open Educational Resources

This project focuses on developing comprehensive training modules to equip students and faculty with the knowledge and skills necessary to ethically and effectively use AI tools in academic settings. The training consists of interconnected modules that cover a wide range of topics, including the ethical use of AI, evaluating AI-generated content, integrating AI tools into curriculum design, and creating AI-enhanced classroom activities. Additional modules emphasize fostering digital literacy, staying updated with AI advancements, and collaborating on best practices for AI in education.

Designed for flexibility, the modules cater to diverse academic disciplines, making them suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses, …

Translating Theory Into Practice: Mediating Academic Advising Reform At Scale Through Improvement Science, Joshua Black

Theses and Dissertations

Improving student outcomes at community colleges is a difficult, multifaceted problem. While no single approach can be a panacea for such a challenging problem of practice, Guided Pathways (GP) research suggests a scalable reform model that may ultimately help to improve the underlying systems and structures colleges have designed to support their students, and in turn, may help colleges to achieve the goal of improved student outcomes more consistently. Because of the breadth of the GP model’s recommendations for reform, however, implementation is complex. To be effective, each of the reforms must be localized, adopted, and brought to scale within …

2024-25 Faculty Tenure Report, University Of Northern Iowa, University Of Iowa, Iowa State University

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

Statistical report showing the number of faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa, and Iowa State University that are tenured, on the tenure track, or not on the tenure track, broken down by college, department, gender, minority status, and if full or part time.

Mapping Perspectives: Community College Career Advisors’ Viewpoints For Enhancing Economic Mobility And Career Selection—A Q Methodology Study, Christopher Ryan Harrison

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

In an era of rapid workforce transformation and increasing demand for postsecondary career readiness, community college career advisors play a critical role in supporting students’ economic mobility and informed career decision-making. Traditional academic advising, which primarily focuses on course registration and degree completion, may not fully address students’ evolving career development needs. This study employed Q methodology to examine the subjective viewpoints of career advisors in North Carolina community colleges regarding strategies to enhance students’ career outcomes. Grounded in human capital theory and career construction theory, the study investigated how advisors integrate labor market data, wage trends, and workforce expectations …

A Phenomenological Study Of School Staff Perceptions Of The Threat And Prevention Of School Violence, Rebecca Linton

Dissertations

My study addressed the issue of school safety and student mental health in schools in the United States. The purpose of this study was to identify the concerns staff members had about the system and procedures used to track students’ mental health and how staff and students are kept safe within the school environment. The overarching research question for my study was: What are the perceptions of school staff regarding school safety and the support students with mental health issues receive? I used a quantitative research method for my study, collecting data through surveys of teachers and administrators. The survey …

Breaking Barriers: An Educator's Pursuit To Provide Equity In Student Achievement, Christina L. Korsun

Dissertations

There is a sense of urgency to address the widening achievement gaps among minority students, students with disabilities, and English-language learners. This makes immediate school action necessary to create a more equitable learning environment. Without strategic interventions, including improved teacher retention efforts, stronger student support systems, and effective leadership, these challenges will continue to hinder student success and overall school performance. The purpose of this project is to find solutions for schools to institute to narrow the achievement gap by ensuring all students receive the support needed to succeed. Schools can respond to the learning gap by promoting equitable learning …

Internal Communication And Organizational Culture: A K–12 District Office Phenomenological Study, Jessica Coleman Scogin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study utilized motivating language theory to explore the experiences that K–12 district office staff had with internal communication. The purpose of the study was to find how these experiences impacted an employee’s feelings of safety, value, and positive emotions in the workplace. The lens of motivating language allowed for a view of how empathetic language, meaning-making language, and direction-giving language shaped experiences for employees. Communication is an integral part of the culture of an organization; yet it is often overlooked as an influencing factor in job satisfaction and well-being. In fact, poor internal communication can lead to negativity …

How Financial Aid Affects The Odds Of Study Abroad Participation For Students Of Color, Patrick Newcomb

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Prior research has shown that studying abroad provides students with enriching, diverse educational experiences with positive personal, academic, and professional outcomes. Despite the benefits, only a small portion of American higher education students participate in study abroad programs. Students of color disproportionately study abroad at lower rates than White students. Since cost is often cited as the primary barrier preventing education abroad, this study examined the types of financial aid associated with study abroad access and participation.

This study used data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, which is a nationwide dataset designed to represent the makeup of institutions …

2025 March 31 - Faculty Senate Agenda And Minutes, Faculty Senate, East Tennessee State University

Faculty Senate Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

Examining Changes In Teacher Dispositions Post-Covid, Tamala L. Martin

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau College of Education at Morehead State University by Tamala L. Martin on March 28, 2025.

2025-03-28 Agenda Book, Morehead State University. Board Of Regents.

Morehead State Board of Regents Agenda Books and Meeting Minutes

Agenda booklet for the Board of Regents meeting of March 28, 2025, which includes the meeting minutes of the meeting held on February 7, 2025.

Integrating Islamic Education With Environmental Programs: Strategies For Sustainable Character Development At Sman 2 And 7 Malang Indonesia, Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah, Ali Murfi, Ahmad Fauzi, Basri Basri

The Qualitative Report

This study aims to investigate the integration of Islamic education into environmental programs at State High Schools 2 and 7 Malang (SMAN 2 and 7). Addressing the environmental crisis in Indonesia, it focuses on how religious education can foster environmental consciousness and character development in students, contributing to sustainable education practices. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of the integration of Islamic education and environmental programs at SMAN 2 and 7. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, including principals, vice principals, teachers, staff, and students. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, observations of school activities, …

The Impact Of Educators’ Perceptions Of Neurodivegence On Their Self-Efficacy In Teaching Middle And High School Students With Adhd And Autism In Rural Minnesota, Nicolle D. Bettcher Erickson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore how we can best support our teachers in matching our ever-changing educational landscape, specifically our neurodivergent learners. When educating neurodivergent students (students with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), we must understand how to teach these creative, sometimes misunderstood individuals and unleash their full potential. To do so, we need educational practitioners who have healthy perceptions of what it means to be neurodivergent and educators who understand both the talents and hurdles that being neurodivergent may entail. This study examined how non-special education teachers' perceptions of neurodivergence correlated with …

Faculty Senate Minutes, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Gap Between Muslim Students And School Leadership In The United States, Sahar Khawaja

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Entering the third decade of the 21st century, the political landscape in the United States presents a challenging environment for Muslims, mirroring the global trend of oppression and discrimination faced by this community (Neptune, 2021). Despite being the fastest-growing demographic in the nation (Lipka, 2017), Muslim Americans increasingly encounter discrimination. By actively addressing and dismantling these stereotypes, educators can cultivate an inclusive environment where the needs of Muslim students are understood and respected. Understanding the stories and experiences of these students is vital for school leaders, as it enables the creation of an environment where every student feels a genuine …

The Pragmatic Engagement Arc, Nathaniel Ahrens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We don’t just buy tangible items anymore; we buy services that foster deeper and deeper relationships between ourselves and the companies that provide them. Even classic manufacturing companies have begun to consider the interaction with their customers as ongoing relationships beyond a goods exchange. Researchers in the field of consumer engagement view this relationship through consideration of intangible operant resources that generate value. The goal of this methodological study was to apply the methodology of educational criticism and connoisseurship to the field of consumer engagement. This approach allowed for consideration of the consumer-brand relationship without relying on discordant value-laden categories …