Digital Commons Network^™

Inclusive Education For All: Identifying Teacher Beliefs About Working With Students With Disabilities, Chelsea Sharek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs K-12 teachers have when working with students with disabilities in a rural Pennsylvania school district. This study aimed to identify if teachers’ personal beliefs created biases about their students and school systems; thus, forming barriers and preventing an inclusive education when working with disabled students. Instrumentation for this quantitative study is the Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) survey. Findings suggest that some teachers at Sunnyside School District (pseudonym) hold personal beliefs that could create biases about their students and school system that may form barriers when working with …

Understanding Unacceptable Graduation Outcomes For Historically Excluded Trio Student Support Services Students, Erica Willis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this mixed-methods study is to define the problem and to understand the system that has been leading to unacceptably low graduation outcomes for historically excluded Trio Student Support Services (Trio SSS) students at Mid-Atlantic University (MAU), a pseudonym. To achieve the primary purpose extant documents and institutional data that can shed light on system processes and institutional conditions that perpetuate disparities in graduation outcomes, particularly for historically excluded racial groups that exist at the intersection of first-generation status and/or low socioeconomic status, will be analyzed. The secondary purpose of this study is to identify potential change …

Changing The Face Of Reading Instruction: Do Culturally Relevant Passages Increase The Effects Of The Repeated Reading Intervention For Middle School Black Girls With Reading Difficulties (Bgrds)?, Olajumoke Edith Oshokoya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that fewer studies have focused on improving the reading abilities of middle school Black girls (Morris, 2007). As BGRDs progress through K – 12 grades, they increasingly rely on basic and advanced reading skills (i.e., oral reading fluency [ORF] and comprehension) to learn. Providing BGRDs with engaging reading passages that are relevant to their prior knowledge, background, interests, and experiences, is more likely to motivate them to read, and eventually improve their reading skills (Cartledge et al., 2015). While there is a growing body of literature focused on Black students’ experiences, currently no study has explored the …

Equity Of Access To Higher Education: An Examination Of Racial Minority And Socioeconomic Status Student Enrollment Trends, Jason Stack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the enrollment trends of racial minority and low socioeconomic enrollment, and the equity of higher education access at a four-year private institution in western Pennsylvania. The study concentrated on two student populations over a five-year period at a four-year private institution in western Pennsylvania, enrolled and accepted but not enrolled students of various racial minorities and socioeconomic backgrounds. The research was informed by the theoretical frameworks of Human Capital Theory, Meritocracy Theory, and Net Price Theory. The research questions that guided the study were the following: What are the enrollment …

The Significance Of A Minority Professional Development Internship Program: A Case Study Evaluation On African American/Black Males Career Trajectory At A Predominately White Institution, Marla Bradford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study aimed to investigate the significance of the Minority Professional Development Internship Program at a Predominately White Institution (PWI) of higher learning in southwestern Pennsylvania. The program was developed because many PWIs struggle to attract, recruit, and retain African Americans/Black and historically marginalized community members to lead their institutions in curriculum development, mentoring, recruitment, and governance (Reyes & Rios, 2005). Other research studies on African American/Black administrators’ lack of representation at PWIs attributed systemic barriers impeding their recruitment and advancement (Jones, 2007; Perna et al., 2007). Furthermore, Levin et al. (2013) suggest minimal progress in hiring African American/Black …

Improving School Culture: Teachers’ Perceptions Of School Culture In A Title I School And Their Beliefs About Improvement, Gina Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to promote a positive school culture in a Title I school by listening to veteran teachers’ voices about the policies and practices being implemented daily. The primary research question guiding this case study was: What are the perceptions of teachers, who have been in their position for 15+ years, about school culture in a Title I school? The secondary research question guiding this study was: What changes in policies and practices in a Title I school do veteran teachers suggest might improve school culture? Participants were purposefully sampled and included four classroom teachers …

Conceptions Of Rurality: Examining Beliefs And Their Impact On Teacher Efficacy In A Small Appalachian School, Lori Wickham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current literature documents the historical peripheralization of rural communities and the deficit narratives often imposed upon their schools, students and families. Research further suggests this history of peripheralization is often internalized by those identifying with these communities and that this internalization of deficit orientations may be impacting perceptions of possibility in educational practice. This mixed-methods study investigates more thoroughly if and how these core-periphery dynamics manifest in a small Appalachian school by examining possible connections between educators’ beliefs regarding rurality and their sense of teacher and collective efficacy. The research was guided by the following question:

How do rural …

Reducing Barriers To Reporting Campus Sexual Victimization: Exploration Of Gender Microaggressions, Campus Climate, Institutional Betrayal And Institutional Courage, Rebecca Ellsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine college cis-women’s experiences with gender microaggressions and perceptions of campus climate, institutional betrayal, and institutional courage, how those experiences and perceptions are related, and how each predicts college students’ likelihood of reporting sexual assault to the University. College cis-women (n = 483; 84.3% White) at a private predominantly-White Catholic university in the northeastern United States completed a 153-item survey, the data from which was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t tests, Pearson correlations, and linear regressions.

Gender microaggressions were found to be prevalent at the University, with perpetration by peers more common …

The Cart Before The Horse?: A Phenomenological Study Of The Perspectives And Experiences Of Maker Education Supervisors In Independent Schools (9-12), Jesse Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, makerspaces have increased in popularity all over the globe (Lou & Peek, 2016) and their addition continues to be a popular trend in the K-12 educational space. In the K-12 environment, the decision to implement a makerspace frequently consists of finding, repurposing, or building a suitable space, and outfitting it with the latest technology trends with the anticipation that ‘if you build it, they will come.’ As a director of a makerspace, my experience is that integrating curriculum across disciplines, or creating pedagogical goals for the makerspace, frequently becomes a priority after the space is designed …

Public Good And Common Ground: Writing Democratic Engagement Into Community-Campus Partnerships, Deanna Fracul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on identifying essential characteristics of initiatives that build cooperative relationships and solidarity to advance democratically engaged community-campus partnerships. As such, it involves understanding the conditions that undermine these relationships, the critical practices that strengthen them, and the role of community engagement professionals in facilitating them. Fundamentally, this research is interested in explicating what worked and did not within Leon Ford's Voices Project@Duquesne University, an after-school mentoring program that evolved into a community-engaged writing initiative and dialogic space. This qualitative research project utilizes modified appreciative inquiry questions. Emerging from organizational studies, appreciative inquiry is an asset-based approach to …

A Qualitative Study Of Leadership Tools And Traits That Foster Effective Relationships In Rural School Communities, Julie Boyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify leadership qualities and practices that nurture relationships in school settings. The central question framing this study was: What leadership tools and traits foster effective relationships in rural school communities? I conducted semi-structured interviews in a small Northwestern school district. Non-classroom leaders and classroom leaders, who will be referred to using pseudonyms, were recruited from the elementary, middle, and high schools based on recommendations from the district’s superintendent. Prior to conducting interviews, participants were provided with a framework based on Kouzes and Posner’s (2017) exemplary leadership practices and asked to choose five …