Digital Commons Network^™

Future Teachers’ Views On Their Science Teachers: A Case Of Turkey, Mehmet Karakaş

The Qualitative Report

Here future elementary and middle school teachers reflect on their experiences with science teachers encountered throughout their education and highlight their characteristics. The aim of the study was to create a program where teachers were given the explicit opportunity to reflect on their experiences through journaling that promoted reflective thought. Participants were 173 non-science and 120 science major prospective teachers enrolled in a small university in northeastern Turkey. Data were collected using document analysis. Findings show that effective science teachers do experiments, use teaching materials, and show special interest in students; also, their positive personality affected students’ positive attitude towards …

Barriers To Youth Employment And Economic Mobility In The Bronx, David Cortes

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

This research aims to uncover systemic factors that limit career stability for young adults in the Bronx. In this paper, I focus on unequal access to educational resources, economic inequality, and the digital divide as connected barriers that shape the quality of education and training youth receive, the resources and networks they have access to, and the opportunities they can realistically maintain over time. Based on a review of public data, media reports and the current literature, I argue that job instability in the Bronx is a structural problem. At the same time, this project pushes back against the assumption …

Poetry’S Role In Shaping Critical Thinking In Indonesian Learners Of English As A Foreign Language, Hamzah Puadi Ilyas, Nani Solihati, Istaryatiningtias Istaryatiningtias

The Qualitative Report

This research investigated the role of poetry interpretation activities in fostering the development of critical thinking abilities among Indonesian English as a foreign language (EFL) students in a higher education setting. Given the scarcity of research in this area, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the subject. To this end, the research posed three research questions: (1) How does poetry influence the development of critical thinking abilities in EFL learners? (2) What types of critical thinking activities are facilitated by poetry? (3) How do students perceive the benefits of using poetry for critical thinking? A total …

Ai Ethics And Governance For Leaders In Higher Education: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology Of Faculty Early Adopters’ Sensemaking, Pedagogical Innovation, And Transformation, Freddie Seba

Doctoral Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially Generative AI (GenAI), is transforming how we work, learn, acquire, produce, and deliver knowledge, as higher education experiences existential pressures, including demographic changes that reduce enrollment and revenues, as well as shifting public and government perceptions of higher education's value.

This hermeneutic phenomenology dissertation study explores how faculty early adopters critically engage, innovate, and experiment with this nascent transformational technology in their pedagogies amid multilevel pressures: macro—market-driven (neoliberalism) logic, Big Tech, and demographic change; meso—institutional policy, broader faculty community, and pedagogical innovation; micro—widespread student adoption, pedagogical experimentation, and innovation.

This dissertation study centers on shifting AI …

Flowers Of Petra: The Identification Of Floral Motifs On Nabataean Painted Fine Wares, Jacob Samuel Blood

Theses and Dissertations

The Nabataeans are notable for their eggshell-thin fine ware pottery on which they often painted plant motifs. Since the discovery of these painted fine wares, several archaeologists have attempted to identify some of the plants depicted on the vessels. However, these attempts have often been incidental and not explicitly systematic. The purpose of this study is to apply the principles of plant taxonomy to identify eleven flower motifs that are depicted on Nabataean fine wares and to then determine what significance these flowers held for the Nabataeans. By using the principles of plant taxonomy, this thesis was able to confidently …

My Research Journey Into Family Domestic Work: Methodological Reflections Of Conducting Research With Sister-Maids And Sister-Madams In Limpopo, Percyval Bayane

The Qualitative Report

Research has been conducted on domestic work in South Africa with studies focusing on domestic workers’ conditions during Apartheid and examining the little to no changes post-Apartheid. Domestic work in post-Apartheid South Africa involves the hiring of family and friends as domestic workers, and this is an under-researched area. As a young black man researching family domestic work, I was confronted with methodological challenges relating to negotiating access and conducting interviews with older black women hiring relatives and those working for family members as domestic workers. This reflexive paper reflects on my personal journey and experiences of conducting qualitative research …

Bell Hooks’ Sisterhood Model: An Integration Of Religious Congregations And Women’S Advocacy In The Philippines, Ariane Shelley Q. Pepito

Social Sciences and Development Review

In the Philippines, Catholic religious sisters serve their communities as teachers, nurses, leaders, and companions, as a commitment to their chosen vocations. While their acts of service and charity is a sincere commitment to Gospel, their identities continue to be veiled and shaped by the enduring image of a Madonna: a symbol of womanhood inspired in the figure of Mary characterized by purity, chastity, obedience, and maternal devotion. This image, although revered, also places expectations on how sisters are seen and see themselves creating tension between ecclesial identity and public advocacy. This study explores how Filipino Catholic sisters reconcile traditional …

Stigmatization And Healthcare Inequity Perceived By Individuals Served By Homeless Shelters In An Appalachian City, Molly Powney, James M. Mears, Reagan Sharp, Lisa Calderwood

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: People experiencing homelessness are medically vulnerable and suffer disproportionately from chronic physical and mental health conditions. Evidence-based standards to inform decisions surrounding care would be valuable for this population. Studies exploring how homeless individuals in Appalachia perceive their interactions with the healthcare system remain limited, however.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess perceptions of the healthcare system among homeless individuals served by temporary housing shelters in an Appalachian city.

Methods: A voluntary anonymous survey was administered to residents at three shelters in Charleston, West Virginia (WV) from September 2023 – March 2024. Responses were collected utilizing …

Análisis De La Accesibilidad Mundial De Los Datos Sobre Organizaciones Sin Fines De Lucro: Hallazgos Preliminares De Un Estudio Comparativo Transnacional, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Este artículo presenta hallazgos preliminares de un estudio global y comparativo de carácter transnacional que examina la accesibilidad, la estructura y la transparencia de los sistemas de registro de organizaciones sin fines de lucro en todos los países del mundo. Además de determinar si existe una base de datos nacional en línea para organizaciones sin fines de lucro en cada país, el estudio evalúa quién opera estos sistemas —autoridades gubernamentales u organizaciones de la sociedad civil— e identifica los casos en los que se mantienen múltiples registros. El análisis también incorpora indicadores de contexto nacional, —como población, calificaciones en derechos …

Analyse Der Globalen Zugänglichkeit Von Nonprofit-Daten: Vorläufige Ergebnisse Einer Länderübergreifenden Vergleichsstudie, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Dieser Artikel präsentiert vorläufige Ergebnisse einer globalen, länderübergreifenden Studie zur Untersuchung der Zugänglichkeit, Struktur und Transparenz von Nonprofit-Registersystemen in allen Ländern weltweit. Neben der Erhebung, ob in den einzelnen Ländern eine nationale Online-Datenbank für Nonprofit-Organisationen existiert, analysiert die Studie, wer diese Systeme betreibt – staatliche Stellen oder zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen – und identifiziert Fälle, in denen mehrere Register parallel geführt werden. Die Analyse berücksichtigt zudem nationale Kontextindikatoren wie Bevölkerungsgröße, Menschenrechtsbewertungen, Internetzugang und Governance-Strukturen; diese Variablen werden in diesem vorläufigen Beitrag jedoch noch nicht vertieft ausgewertet.

Darüber hinaus variieren die Anforderungen an die Registrierung von Nonprofit-Organisationen zwischen den Ländern erheblich, wobei viele …

Replanteando Wash: Vías Innovadoras Para Abordar El Agua, La Salud Y La Pobreza, Erica L. Jensen, Emma Indart, Faith Manchester, Sebastian Dorantes, Isabelle Stoddard

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

El acceso al agua potable y a un saneamiento adecuado (WASH) es un tema fundamental para la salud global y la dignidad humana, pero millones de personas aún carecen de estos servicios esenciales (National Geographic Society, 2025). En 2024, UNICEF estimó que aproximadamente tres cuartas partes de la población mundial tienen acceso a servicios de agua potable "gestionados de forma segura", dejando a unas 2,100 millones de personas sin agua potable confiable(UNICEF, 2025). La cobertura de saneamiento está aún más rezagada, ya que aproximadamente 3,400 millones de personas carecen de servicios de saneamiento gestionados de forma segura y 1,700 millones …

Access To Water And Sanitation - Joni Full Issue December 2025, Erica Jensen, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Wash: Innovative Pathways To Address Water, Health, And Poverty, Erica L. Jensen, Emma Indart, Faith Manchester, Sebastian Dorantes, Isabelle Stoddard

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Academic Summaries: Global Access To Water And Sanitation, Erica Jensen

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

A Failure To Converge? The Use Of Convergent Designs In Mixed Methods Research, David L. Morgan

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Prior studies show that what are known as “convergent” designs are the most common form of mixed methods research, yet there has been too little investigation into what researchers actually do when they use convergent designs. This study addresses that gap in the literature by investi-gating not only the prevalence of convergent designs but also the types of convergent designs used and the degree of integration in studies that used this design. I used content analysis to ex-amine a random sample of 500 articles from the Web of Science that mentioned mixed methods and were published in 2023. The results …

The Experience Of African American Male Counselor Educators Navigating Racial Battle Fatigue, Quincy J. Stephenson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative phenomenological approach was used in this research to explore the lived experiences of African American male counselor educators (AAMCEs) in historically or predominantly White universities who have obtained tenure and promotion. The need for equitable support, recruitment, and retention of faculty of color in counselor education has received more attention from universities in recent years. Although some advancement has occurred, AAMCEs continue to be underrepresented in academia, especially counselor education. There has been research concerning the impact of racism on and resilience of AAMCEs; however, there is a lack of research concerning how this specific population navigates racial …

Hoarding And The Hoarded Home: A Phenomenological And Psychoanalytic Study, Brianna Stich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While research on hoarding tends to isolate hoarders from the homes they hoard and in which they live, the hoard and the hoarder share a life in the home. This study explores how hoarders live with and live through their hoard at home. It combines psychoanalysis and phenomenology within a unique methodological framework to provide a hermeneutic reading of the psychological significances of the hoarded home. In this study, the contemporary conceptualization of hoarding is historically situated and critiqued from a phenomenological perspective, and the view that hoarding is a single, behaviorally-defined syndrome that is explainable by a cognitive-behavioral model …

Creating A Radical Social Change Campaign To Restore Rational Thinking: A Theoretical Framework, John S. Long

Student Theses and Dissertations

Rational thinking is a skill and mindset that is under siege in modern society, becoming increasingly endangered as we devolve into increasingly hyper-partisan communities rife with echo chambers and confirmation biases. The most basic processes of analyzing issues and facts to develop clearly thought-out and defendable positions have been abandoned in favor of a zealous devotion to toe the party line, no matter the evidence or implications. What we are witnessing firsthand is the fast-approaching culmination of the post-truth era.

One might assume that an issue with such far-reaching implications across our entire society would generate a significant amount of …

Three Case Studies Of Transformative Learning In A Service-Learning Anthropology Course, Elizabeth S. Schulte

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the processes of personal transformation of three students enrolled in a service-learning based course that I taught at Brigham Young University. Informed by my observations as instructor of the course, in the analysis below I draw upon these students' weekly personal reflection essays to describe the process of individual transformation of these three students across the semester. This accounting provides insight into aspects of and contributing factors to that growth. I propose that a service-learning based course design with a framework of anthropological theory is a good way to facilitate transformational educational experiences. Aspects of service-learning such …

Inside The Gen Z Vote Across Gender And Race, Juliet La Sala

Capstones

This capstone examines how two people from two different Gen Z groups are navigating the 2024 U.S. election. One story revolves around a young woman adopting a U.S. version of South Korea’s 4B Movement and another reflects on a Gen Z Arab American responding to the Israel–Hamas war. Through reported stories and interviews, it explores how personal experience, gender and ethnic violence, and political disillusionment shaped these young voters’ choices and activism. Sierra Bee's story is in light of Trump's election and Liam's is right before the 2024 election took place. Together, the pieces highlight how global events and identity-based …

Enduring The American Dream, Edward Grattan

Capstones

Martha and Rene - both Colombian nationals – have made the difficult decision to self-deport from the United States in the midst of the Trump Administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown and deportation campaign. After working as day laborers in The Hamptons, New York for nearly eight years, the couple shares their experience of leaving their current life behind as anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy escalates across the country.

The Trump administration has transformed the landscape for immigrants living in the United States, regardless of documentation status, by eliminating paths for legal residency, charging The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency with …

The Other Side Of The Wall: A Study On The Impact Of Paternal Incarceration On African American Children, Chance M. Wideman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation explores the long-term psychological, relational, and systemic impacts of paternal incarceration on adult children. Guided by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Theory, Attachment Theory, and Family Process Theory, this study examines two research questions:

(1) What types of childhood trauma are associated with paternal incarceration?

(2) How does the childhood trauma associated with paternal incarceration impact one in adulthood?

The study draws on three in-depth narrative interviews with adults who experienced paternal incarceration in childhood. These interviews, framed as dialogic and reflexive spaces, illuminate the deep and layered consequences of incarceration across the lifespan.

Five central findings emerged: …

Exploring The Individual Relationships Of Mothers' And Fathers' Parenting Styles With Emerging Adults' First-Term Gpa, Tiffany Fox Okeke

Theses and Dissertations

Parenting styles have most often been studied through the lens of adolescent academic outcomes but less is known about how mothers' and fathers' parenting styles influence academic performance separately, especially during the critical transitionary period to post-secondary education. This study examines how mothers' and fathers' parenting styles distinctly shape emerging adults' first-term academic outcomes during their postsecondary education, with a focus on the dimensions of parental warmth and control. The study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 dataset and the NLSY97 Post-Secondary Transcript Data focusing on the 1997-2005 cohorts (N=3,478) along with OLS regression analyses to predict emerging …

Chad Dobson Reflects On The Launch Of The World Bank Reform Campaign, Chad Dobson, Julie Radomski

Perspectives

Chad Dobson is the founder of the Bank Information Center (BIC) and led BIC from 1987 to 1997 and 2007 to 2016. He is widely accredited with developing the global campaign strategies for environmental and social reforms of multilateral development banks (MDB). In this interview, he recounts the early days of BIC and the development of the global campaign.

Exploring The Impact Of Inpatient Mental Health Care On Adolescents, Alexandria M. Mckahan

2025 Fall Honors Capstones Projects - Archive

Adolescent psychiatric hospitalizations continue to rise, yet there is limited research on which daily practices inside inpatient units genuinely support engagement and recovery. This project examined how structure, staff tone, and therapeutic programming influence adolescents’ participation and emotional stability within a real inpatient setting. The study focused on three questions: how structured routines affect recovery, what challenges staff face when supporting adolescents with complex needs, and how adolescents’ engagement patterns reflect their perception of care. Using a mixed-methods case study at Mesa Springs Behavioral Health Hospital, I conducted approximately twenty field observations, semi-structured staff interviews, and descriptive engagement tracking across …

Examining The Role Of Early Bilingualism On Interference Suppression And Prefrontal Connectivity, Matthew L. Cook, Lisa K. Boyce, Allison S. Hancock, Mackenzy S. Turner, Spencer D. Bradshaw

Human Development and Family Studies Student Research

Inhibitory control is a core cognitive function that is primarily associated with activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and is the cognitive function that inhibits impulses, thoughts, and suppresses irrelevant information to an identified goal or task. Prior research suggests that bilingualism may affect brain activity related to inhibitory control, yet few studies have compared functional activity between monolingual and bilingual children. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine region of interest comparisons and task-state functional connectivity across the PFC during an interference suppression Simon task with 13 bilingual (East Asian or Ibero-romance paired with English) and …

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Beyond Gun Control: How March For Our Lives Frames Gun Violence Prevention As Positive Peace, Ashley E. Nickels, Amanda D. Clark

Peace and Conflict Studies

March for Our Lives (MFOL) is a youth-led social movement that has redefined the framing of gun violence prevention, expanding it beyond policy-focused gun control efforts to a broader vision of positive peace. Rather than positioning gun violence solely as a matter of firearm regulation, MFOL constructs it as a structural justice issue, linking it to systemic inequities such as racial oppression, economic inequality, and political disenfranchisement. This study examines how MFOL’s movement framing reshapes understandings of gun violence prevention by emphasizing community transformation, intersectional justice, and collective safety. Drawing on framing theory, we analyze how MFOL presents gun violence …

Indigenizing Aquaculture: In Pursuit Of An Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture System For Enhanced Self-Sufficiency In Akaroa Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand, Cali R. Trainor

Capstone Collection

This study assessed the feasibility of integrating two pre-existing aquaculture activities in Akaroa Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand into an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) system. The cultivation of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) presents an opportunity to improve the sustainability of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) farming by introducing alternative food sources for salmon, which can be used to produce fish feed locally, enhancing the self-sufficiency of the community and boosting the holistic efficiency of the system. Macroinvertebrates residing in giant kelp wrack were collected, identified, and quantified to determine if any of the Macrocystis-associated specimens could serve as …

Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Tracy Smith, Kristie Mckiernan

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.