Digital Commons Network^™

Principals’ Experiences With Implementation Practices For School Board Policies In An Urban School District, Andrea J. Richardson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Effective policy implementation is crucial for improving educational outcomes and ensuring equitable learning environments. While existing literature has shown that policy implementation is influenced by factors such as leadership capacity, stakeholder engagement, communication, resource availability, organization context, and accountability, there is little known about how K-12 urban principals narrate, interpret, and make meaning of their experiences to implementing board-mandated policies. This study addressed this gap by exploring how principals in an urban school district in Ohio navigated the complexities of implementing school board policies amid resource limitations, stakeholder resistance, and accountability pressures. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry study …

A Discursive Analysis Of Lesbian And Queer Experiences Of Unwanted Consensual Sex, Sarah E. Swanson

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study drew on a critical discursive psychology (CDP) analytical approach to examine how lesbian and queer participants made sense of unwanted consensual sex (UCS).  The data analysis traced how UCS was constructed on three discursive levels: the construction of UCS across narratives, the interpretive repertoires mobilized (including sexual scripts), and the broader sociocultural discourses that shaped what elements of their experiences were intelligible. Therefore, I sought to understand both how participants drew on familiar heteronormative and queer ways of talking about sex and how various discursive resources shaped how they could construct themselves and others. Data for this research …

How Do Governments Combat Jihad Online?, Noah Cook

Honors College Theses

Since the September 11th, 2001 attacks, jihadist groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, and al-Shabaab have used the internet as a tool for recruitment, radicalization, and propaganda dissemination. Since then, governments, non-governmental organizations, and private companies have developed strategies to combat jihadism on the internet. This paper examines how these actors have worked to mitigate the digital jihadist footprint and its effects by analyzing three main approaches to countering violent Islamist extremism on the internet: counter narrative initiatives, awareness-raising programs, and content removals. This paper finds that each of these methods has its own strengths and weaknesses. Counter narrative campaigns show the …

The Impact Of Inclusive Leadership And Leader Cultural Intelligence On The Work Engagement Of Migrant Employees, Dena Semonia Whittle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With the rise of globalization and the growing demand for skilled workers, the number of foreign-born employees in the American workforce has grown significantly over the last 20 years. These numbers continue to grow, as the upward trend of foreign-born employees has been even more significant over the last 5 years. However, despite having a now more diverse workforce, there are still signs of discrimination and unequal treatment of migrants in the workplace. Such mistreatment has been linked to health-related, occupational, and psychological consequences and has been negatively associated with work engagement. The purpose of this quantitative study was to …

Investigation Of Patients' Use Of Non-Pharmacological Substances In Dental Pain Management, Neslihan Yılmaz Çırakoğlu, Özgenur Kaya

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Background: Dental pain is a complex condition influenced by biological, biochemical, environmental, and psychological factors. Before seeking professional care, many patients attempt to relieve dental pain using self-administered, non-medical agents. This study aimed to investigate patients’ use of non-pharmacological substances in dental pain management and to identify factors influencing these practices.

Methods: The questionnaire consisted of four sections addressing demographic characteristics, oral hygiene habits, pain characteristics, and pain-relief agents. Categorical variables were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square test. Categorical data are presented as frequencies and percentages, while continuous data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation and median values. …

Effects Of A Shame-Focused Self-Compassion Writing Intervention In Individuals With Social Anxiety, Selen Amado

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The present study examined the efficacy of a brief, shame-focused self-compassion (SF-SC) writing intervention in reducing shame, social anxiety and related cognitive maintenance processes among individuals with elevated social anxiety. Shame is a core feature and maintaining factor of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), closely linked to self-focused attention, post-event processing, and self-criticism. Additionally, self-compassion demonstrates a robust inverse association with shame. However, few interventions have explicitly targeted shame as a primary mechanism of change using self-compassion strategies in socially anxious populations. Using a randomized controlled design, 94 participants with elevated levels of social anxiety and shame were assigned to either …

Effect Of Vocational Training Programs On The Mental Health Of Indian Women Living In Contexts Of Urban Poverty (Or Urban Slums), Sriramya Potluri

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Women living in contexts of urban poverty (IWLCUP) experience disproportionately high rates of psychological distress, yet their mental health needs remain largely underrecognized. Beyond individualized explanations, broader ecological perspectives situate these women’s distress within previously underemphasized macrolevel forces and acknowledge the role of inequity and related structural disparities (e.g., economic, sociocultural, political etc.) in their oppression and disempowerment, thereby contributing to increased psychological vulnerability. Such frameworks call for intervention efforts that reduce individual psychological risk by addressing structural determinants proximally and distally impacting the lives of IWLCUP. Specifically, targeting poverty and economic insecurity might drive positive downstream effects that ultimately …

Cultural Responsiveness: Examining Assessments Of Therapists For Ethical And Clinical Outcomes (Create Clout), Tsotso T. Ablorh

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The Multicultural Counseling Competencies (MCC) and Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) are well-researched and supported counseling practices for decreasing microaggressions in therapy and consequent attrition, lack of satisfaction, and maltreatment (Ratts et al., 2016; Sue et al., 1982). However, scholars critique existing methods for measuring therapists’ cultural responsiveness for being disconnected from therapeutic process and outcomes (Hays, 2020; Wilcox et al., 2020). This study examined which MSJCC measures associated with variables clinically and ethically relevant to better treatment outcomes and lower microaggressive, neglectful, and stereotypical treatment for hypothetical Black, female clients by White therapists. 62 White psychologists in …

The Role Of Critical Professional Development In Transforming The Teaching And Learning Practices Of White Faculty: Elevating Racial Consciousness To Center Equity, Kaitlyn E. Siner-Cappas

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of white faculty participants in a critical professional development (CPD) program that seeks to enhance racial consciousness at a public research university. The goal of the study was to understand any perceived changes in faculty positionality and teaching and learning practices following their participation in the program, as well as identify the extent to which the program supported participants in a journey towards enhanced racial consciousness.

Four themes characterized the experiences of faculty participants in this CPD program: 1) experiencing the benefits of a learning community, 2) gaining confidence in …

Redefined: Understanding The Experience Of Black Joy Among Black Youth, Kaela A. Yamini

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The study of Black joy is a newer concept and, therefore, reflected in a small but growing body of literature. Many scholars have reflected on the theoretical nature of Black joy and how it can appear across settings, e.g., academically, occupationally, communally, and internally, but very few studies have examined this phenomenon empirically. Several definitions of Black joy have emerged in connection to history and suffering; however, there is still a notable lack of agreement among researchers. Despite that, all conceptualizations acknowledge how this emotional experience is much greater than the pain associated with it and highlight its ability …

The Negotiated Identities Of Refugee-Background Women During Resettlement, Iuliia Fakhrutdinova

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Refugee-background women experience unique challenges while resettling in the U.S. as they navigate complicated transnational gender roles, education gaps, migration trauma, learning a new language, and literacy in the adaptation process during resettlement, which can derail the productive paths they are on. Therefore, ignoring refugee-background women’s unique experiences and failing to understand their identities prevents our society from doing social justice and creating a space for a smooth adaptation to the new context. Language plays a paramount role in identity formation, as it moves away from the belief that identity is an essential concept. For refugee-background women during resettlement, their …

Factorial Structure Of A Bilingual Progress Monitoring Tool For Mindfulness Interventions, Andrea V. Molina Palacios

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are an increasingly popular option for schools to support youth in each of the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). MBIs have proven to increase attention, help with emotion regulation, decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and overall increase students’ wellbeing with a cost-effective package that makes it affordable for schools to implement. Moreover, MBIs have also proven to be effective for Hispanic youth who are at a higher risk of experiencing low access to mental health care and higher levels of poverty, which puts them at risk for dropping out and having low academic achievement. However, there …

Home, Neighborhood, And Community Environments And Social Isolation In Later Life: Joint Associations And Their Moderation By Life-Course Socioeconomic Mobility, Jeein Law

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Social isolation is a major public health concern among older adults, yet less is known about how multilevel residential environments shape isolation among those aging in place. Guided by the Socio-Ecological Model, Person–Environment Fit, and a life-course perspective, this dissertation examined whether micro-level home hazards, meso-level neighborhood social cohesion and physical disorder, and macro-level census-tract structural conditions were associated with social isolation. It also examined whether life-course socioeconomic mobility moderated the associations between home and neighborhood environments and social isolation.

This dissertation used two nationally representative longitudinal studies of U.S. older adults. Aims 1 and 2 used the National Health …

I Must Be Well, To Do Well: Examining The Relationship Between Toxic Stem Environments, Trauma, Stem Support, And Academic Outcomes Among Diverse Graduate Women In Stem, Aisha Farra

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Women, particularly Women of Colour (WOC), remain underrepresented in STEM. In the last two decades, research has sought to better understand women’s experiences in STEM, highlighting challenges such as isolation, sexism, and racism, which negatively impact mental health and STEM persistence. While these mental health challenges have been documented, further work is needed to examine how these experiences are related to trauma symptoms and physical health outcomes, as well as the mechanisms through which they shape academic outcomes. This quantitative study investigated the relationships among toxic STEM experiences (i.e., gendered racism, sexism, and isolation), trauma symptoms and physical health concerns, …

Revictimization Of Female Sexual Assault Survivors During Cross-Examination From The Perspective Of Criminal Prosecutors, Robyn Fuchs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Sexual assault is a heinous crime that remains one of the most underreported crimes. Victims of sexual assault face scrutiny for reporting and may be revictimized by the process. The intent of this study was to examine how cross-examination has the potential to revictimize female sexual assault survivors from the perspective of criminal prosecutors. This study may provide insight on whether defense attorneys intentionally cause harm to victims or if there is an automatic level of trauma in testifying. Ten interviews were conducted with criminal prosecutors across the United States. After the interviews, the transcripts were manually analyzed to identify …

Fashion, Lifestyle, And Symbolic Capital: Identity And Resistance In Eka Kurniawan’S Beauty Is A Wound, Dewi Meyrasyawati, Cysakaren Diva Pratiwi, Nisar Ul-Haq

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study examines how fashion culture and lifestyle, understood as modes of self presentation, social performance, and everyday practice, operate as tools of identity construction and resistance in Eka Kurniawan’s Beauty Is a Wound. The objective is to reveal how beauty, personal choices, and public perception function as symbolic capital in negotiating gendered power relations, class hierarchies, and political constraints. Using close textual analysis, the research explores how female characters, particularly Dewi Ayu, mobilize appearance, behavior, and life decisions to challenge dominant ideologies and redefine their roles in society. The findings show that fashion culture in the novel extends beyond …

Lanthorn, Vol. 61, No. 02, August 31, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 61, August 10, 2026 – current

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Comm 11 Fundamentals Of Interpersonal Communication Textbook, Teresa A. Fisher

Open Educational Resources

A survey of interpersonal communication.

Writing Together, Writing Differently: Collective Authorship As Reflective Practice, Thanh Thao Le, Trut Thuy Pham

The Qualitative Report

This article examines collective authorship as a reflective and ethical research practice within a sustained program of co-authored qualitative, post-qualitative, linguistic, and reflective inquiries into teacher reflection, professional learning, language, silence, and recognition. It offers an oral-history-informed reflective methodological account of a writing collective and asks how collective authorship became a methodological practice through our collaborative writing process. The primary materials were shared drafts, margin comments, revisions, silences, version histories, short reflective notes, and remembered writing encounters. Teacher-reflection texts and related professional writing materials from our broader research program formed the secondary materials around which the writing process unfolded. Analytically, …

With Students, As A Student: Using Reflexive Autoethnography To Make Sense Of Navigating Student–Researcher Liminality In A Ph.D., Melody Bishop

The Qualitative Report

Postgraduate researchers (PGRs) are increasingly encouraged to practice reflexivity. But there is a lack of PGR-authored literature about what it means to negotiate multiple identities, particularly for student–researchers doing research with students. This paper explores challenges experienced during a longitudinal Ph.D. project involving undergraduate students with long-term health conditions. I present outcomes of a reflexive autoethnographic analysis of a diary kept making sense of research challenges, including holding dual positions as a student–researcher at the same institution. Drawing on the notion of liminality, I argue that the boundaries between my student–researcher identities, and between myself and participants, have been consistently …

A Post-Positivist Perspective On The Varieties Of Qualitative Research: The Foris Framework, Marius Bytautas

The Qualitative Report

With the aim of bringing clarity to the realm of qualitative research—and offering a transition from tradition to methodological rationale—I employ Millian and Popperian inductive analysis methods to build a post-positivist account regarding the diversity of qualitative research varieties. I am responding to the problem that common labels in qualitative research often obscure the epistemic reasoning through which a study approaches its object. A brief set of working definitions is introduced to support the framework, but the main contribution is the conceptualization of research approach in five dimensions: focus, orientation, relation to the object, researcher intrusiveness, and scale (FORIS). By …

Community-Based Research: Key Considerations For Researchers And Community Partners When Collaborating, Bothwell Piason, Kathleen A. Fox

The Qualitative Report

Community-based research (CBR) is a research orientation that emphasizes equitable engagement in the process of knowledge production, though researchers and community partners may navigate collaborative partnerships with differing expectations, priorities, and understandings of success. Extant research has demonstrated that successful CBR partnerships can benefit both researchers and community partners, yet little is known about how both groups simultaneously conceptualize successful collaboration across diverse partnership contexts. In this study, we ask: What considerations do researchers and community partners identify as important when engaging in community-based research partnerships? Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 10 university researchers and 10 community partners engaged in …

The Lived Spirituality Experiences Of Adult Diabetes Patients In Adhering To Treatment, Dwight Mahaputera Marulitua Hutapea

The Qualitative Report

This descriptive phenomenological study explored the lived spirituality experiences of adult patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in adhering to treatment. Prior research has indicated that spirituality may influence attitudes toward and adherence to chronic disease management; however, empirical evidence addressing the spiritual dimension among people with diabetes remains limited. Guided by Colaizzi's (1978) phenomenological method, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 purposively selected participants, equally distributed among Christians and Muslims. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to rigorous phenomenological analysis. Seven themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) spirituality strengthens relationships; (b) spirituality affects choices and outcomes; …

Relational-Developmental Autoethnography: A Method Of Qualitative Inquiry That Fosters Personal Growth, Chris Wells

The Qualitative Report

This paper introduces relational–developmental autoethnography (RDA), a qualitative method for exploring psychological growth through personal writing and reflection. Developed through lived experience, RDA traces psychological development through sustained, recursive engagement with personal writing. Drawing on an archive of my journals, letters, clinical records, and correspondence spanning more than 30 years, I show how writing and reflection were first tools for my survival, and later became catalysts for insight, healing, and transformation. RDA is grounded in two developmental frameworks: Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration, which views emotional intensity and inner conflict as signs of developmental potential, and relational-cultural theory, which …

Nihilistic Violence Aesthetics In Public Online Communication, Heath Nicholas Landress

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Public online communication has increasingly included violence-related content that is meme-based, ironic, visually stylized, multimodal, and only partially ideological. This comprehensive literature review synthesized research on online extremism, extremist memes, toxic multimodal content, dehumanizing digital communication, nihilistic violent extremism, warning behaviors, platform affordances, and youth-facing online environments. The purpose was to clarify what the literature had established; identify where the scholarship remained fragmented; and map research domains relevant to social, behavioral, public safety, and human services scholarship. The review used a structured, comprehensive literature review strategy supported by integrative synthesis procedures. The final corpus contained 34 scholarly sources, including 32 …

Level Of Discrimination Experienced By Gender In Athletic Trainers And Professional Athletic Training Students, Emily Ghaussy, Seungyeon Kim, Jennifer Xu, Emily Madrak

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Context: Although women make up the majority of the athletic training field, gender-based discrimination continues to exist in the profession. Previous research exists; however, more current research on gender discrimination in the workplace is limited. This cross-sectional study examined level of perceived gender-based discrimination experienced by credentialed women athletic trainers and athletic training students in comparison to men athletic trainers and athletic training students. Four hundred forty-six cisgender men and women athletic trainers and athletic training students participated in our study. The median age was 28 years among cisgender women and 35 years among cisgender men.

Methods: Participants completed a …

Unveiling Racism: A Systematic Review Of Racism Survey Measures In Education, Wendy Castillo, Juan Cruz, Rachel Renbarger, Christen Priddie, Brein Mosely, Sasha Mejia-Bradford

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Education policy research aimed at eliminating racism necessitates methodological innovation that fosters both racial equity–centered approaches and robust empirical analysis of the systemic and structural nature of racism. Most quantitative research in educational psychology does not account for racism in its modeling, thereby obscuring the racialized environments in which students learn (DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014; Strunk & Andrzejewski, 2023). Drawing from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and the ethos of QuantCrit, this study evaluates various scales to highlight gaps and challenges in measuring racism within school settings. This review aims to uplift measures for researchers to use in their work and …

Waves Of Exhaustion, Currents Of Renewal: An Autoethnography Of Academic Emotional Burnout And Recovery, Rofiza Aboo Bakar

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnography explores my experience of academic burnout and emotional recovery as a mid-career female educator in a Malaysian public university. Drawing from reflective journals, memory work, and embodied recollections between 2023 and 2025, I trace a personal journey through three experiential phases: the weight of expectations, burnout and emotional rupture, and embodied recovery through open sea swimming. The narrative is guided by Chang’s (2016) thematic structuring approach and interpreted through Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. My story reveals how burnout was not the result of overwork, but of institutional erasure. As I navigated the …

"Why Do Students Save Less?" A Study Of The Determinants Of Saving Intentions And Behaviours Among Undergraduate Students, Rna Hamza Ahmed Eissa, Chi Hau Tan, Ben Hou

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Despite the issue of low savings being a serious concern, limited research has been conducted on students’ saving behaviour in Malaysia, especially when it comes to private universities. This research focuses on examining factors that affect saving behaviour among undergraduate students at a private university in Malaysia, in reference to the Theory of Planned Behaviour. A mixed-method design was applied. Quantitative research was conducted, in which 122 valid responses were collected via an online survey and analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). In addition, qualitative research with 11 respondents was conducted, and the data were analysed using …

“When I’M Not Heard, I Feel Like I Don’T Matter”: Advancing Equity In Disability Policy Through Critical Participatory Action Research With People With Intellectual Disability, Cris Marchionne

Student Theses

People with intellectual disability deserve a system that offers flexible, timely, and person-centered support — one that is innovative, sustainable, and holistic in enabling them to live fulfilling lives. This qualitative study, grounded in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), examines how people with intellectual disability experience participation in decision-making within New York State's disability service system. By centering lived experience, the study identifies factors that facilitate or hinder participation in decision-making and examines structural, social, and policy-related barriers that limit agency. Through six focus groups and a Photovoice project with self-advocates receiving OPWDD services, participants described systemic barriers that limited …