Digital Commons Network^™

Homeschooling And Online Learning Technologies From A Parent’S Perspective, Karla M. Forti

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative, predictive correlational research study was to examine the relationship between homeschooling parents’ use of educational technology tools and their instructional behaviors and perceptions, with additional consideration of virtual school participation. Survey-based data from 22 parents of over 40 homeschooled children were used to examine technology adoption and instructional preferences across non-traditional learning settings. The study addressed four research questions through descriptive statistics and correlational analysis, while quantitative themes from open-ended responses enriched the findings. Results provided insight into parental motivations and trends influencing homeschooling and virtual school choices, highlighting the expanding role of online learning …

The Disengagement Of Black High School Students In English Language Arts Classrooms, Michelle Chanda Singh

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation explored how high school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers understand and respond to the disengagement of Black students. Racial disparities in literacy achievement persist across the United States. Despite reform efforts, many Black students continue to experience academic and emotional disconnection in ELA classrooms. Few studies have centered on teachers’ perspectives to understand the classroom-level conditions contributing to this disengagement. This qualitative study addressed that gap by examining the beliefs, practices, and experiences of four veteran ELA teachers in the southeastern United States.

Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the study examined how teachers make sense of Black student …

When They See Us: The Lived Experiences Of Bglo Members At A Pwi, Brittany Harris-Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation explored the lived experiences of members of Black Greek-Letter Organizations (BGLOs) at a predominantly White institution (PWI) in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. BGLOs have historically served as critical spaces for leadership development, cultural expression, and community support. However, within PWIs, these organizations often encounter systemic barriers related to visibility, funding, and institutional engagement.

The purpose of this study was to center the voices of BGLO alumni who graduated between 2020 and 2024 to better understand how they navigated their membership experiences during a time of social, institutional, and cultural transition. Using a qualitative research design, …

Effects Of Parent Involvement In Their Children’S Academic And Behavioral Performance, Megan Menozzi

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the best practices to increase parental involvement in their children’s school activities by recording and scribing the experiences of certified teachers. Prior to this study, the current school experienced a decrease in parental involvement with their child’s scheduled school activities. As the school carry on with planning scheduled events for parental involvement, teachers were still expected to be prepared to implement curriculum in the classrooms, while ensuring children’s needs were being met by way of continuous communication with families.

The researcher developed a qualitative phenomenological approach. The design allowed the researcher to interview …

Foster Care Placement And Law Enforcement Contact, Tranika Guerrero De Los Reyes

Theses and Dissertations

Interaction with law enforcement and delinquency are higher among youth in foster care, and they are likely to experience higher incarceration rates and be involved in criminality, which limits their access to education and employment. The problem addressed in this study was the elevated risk of law enforcement contact outcome (LEO) among adolescents and young adults with a history of foster care placement. The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate differences in the number of LEO contacts and LEO arrests based on foster care placement type among youth in California’s foster care system.

Guided by the social control …

A Study Of The Effect Of Incentives On Police Recruitment And Retention, Taylor R. Wiggins

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines factors contributing to the staffing crisis in police departments, focusing on officers' perceptions of their organizations. It explores their attitudes toward their departments, motivations for joining law enforcement, and reasons for remaining in their positions. Additionally, the research assesses the impact of various incentives on officer retention.

A total of 140 participants were surveyed, with 113 completing the survey in its entirety, ensuring reliable data analysis. Demographic findings revealed a predominantly male sample (85.8%), with most officers aged between 25 and 44. Analysis of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) indicated that intrinsic satisfaction (M = 3.85; range …

Overcoming Challenges In Obtaining And Presenting Evidence In Federal Sex Trafficking Prosecutions, Jason Brumbelow

Theses and Dissertations

Sex trafficking is a complex and under-prosecuted federal crime (Cook, 2019). Misunderstandings about how this exploitation happens can “frustrate the criminal justice response to trafficking” (Murphy, 2022, p. 4). Investigating and prosecuting the crime of sex trafficking includes understanding concepts such as consent and coercive control. Proving these concepts within the federal criminal justice system is not straightforward (Albanese et al., 2022).

This study will examine the challenges law enforcement professionals face in identifying and putting forth the elements of force, fraud, and coercion in federal sex trafficking investigations and prosecutions. Investigating and prosecuting the crime of sex trafficking requires …

The Impact Of The Annapolis Police Athletic League On Youth Crime Prevention And Police-Youth Relationships, Talia Carol Lisko

Theses and Dissertations

The Annapolis Police Athletic League (PAL) was established as an initiative to prevent juvenile delinquency by fostering positive relationships between at-risk youth and law enforcement. The study explored the effectiveness of the PAL program using a generic qualitative research approach informed by the CIPP evaluation model. Semi-structured interviews with police officers and volunteer mentors involved in the program provided insight into the program’s implementation, outcomes, and its influence on youth crime prevention in the Annapolis community. The findings from this study contribute to a deeper understanding of community-based crime prevention and the role of law enforcement in promoting pro-social attitudes …

Unrestrained Voices: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis On Formerly Incarcerated Trans People’S Perceptions Of Safety During Incarceration, James Anthoney Crawford

Theses and Dissertations

Heightened risks of violence, discrimination, and insufficient institutional protections mark the experiences of incarcerated trans individuals. This qualitative thematic analysis investigated the perceptions of safety among formerly incarcerated trans people within U.S. correctional facilities. Using qualitative research methods, the study gathered firsthand accounts of physical and sexual assault, examined institutional responses to reported incidents, and assessed the effectiveness of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 in addressing the unique vulnerabilities of trans inmates. Data collection involved oral history transcript analysis, which was analyzed through thematic coding to identify patterns of institutional neglect, inadequate training of correctional staff, and systemic …

Intimate Partner Violence Against American Indian/Alaska Native Women, Jessica Sanchez-Cowan

Theses and Dissertations

Intimate partner violence is not a new problem. Many forms of intimate partner violence can be found worldwide, and evidence of its occurrences can be traced back as far as history goes. However, while intimate partner violence may have been recognized and treated as a private family matter in earlier years, current research shows that it is coming to the forefront as it becomes an increasing issue in the United States and its marginalized communities. With the victimization rate being much higher for American Indian/Alaska Natives in comparison to other races, addressing the issue of intimate partner violence should be …

The Relationship Of Parent Iep Meeting Attendance On African American And Hispanic Middle School Students’ Attendance And Behavior, David W. Johnny

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation investigated whether there was a significant difference in behavioral and attendance outcomes among African American and Hispanic middle school students with disabilities, depending on parental attendance at Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. The study was grounded in Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s parent involvement theory. This quantitative study used archival data from a southeastern U.S. middle school to examine whether variations in parental participation corresponded with students' disciplinary incidents and school absences.

The study included 96 students in grades 6–8 whose IEP attendance, behavior referrals, and absence data were analyzed. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to determine if statistically …

Instructional Design And Technology Professionals: Why Are Some Laggards?, Hayley Mendelson Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Laggards are often thought of as aloof and uninformed late adopters, as traditionalists living in the past (Rogers,2003). Laggards represent the last 16% of a population to adopt an innovation, and, as a result, they are often depicted for their resistance to adopt an innovation much later than the rest of the population, if ever (Jahanmir et al., 2020; Rogers, 2003). The present study attempted to expand the research on laggards, specifically laggard Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) professionals.

IDT professionals were the target group because of their perceived innovativeness as a result of their high exposure to instructional technology …

Relaciones De Las Competencias Docentes Con El Bienestar En Docentes De Ciencias Empresariales Bajo La Modalidad A Distancia En Una Universidad Privada En Colombia, Camilo Ernesto Aguirre Martínez

Theses and Dissertations

El propósito de esta investigación consistió en determinar las relaciones de las competencias docentes con el bienestar en docentes de Ciencias Empresariales bajo la modalidad a distancia en una Universidad privada de Colombia. El estudio buscó identificar las relaciones entre las competencias docentes y el bienestar psicológico, el bienestar subjetivo y el bienestar social, cuáles de esas relaciones predominan, así como la identificación de cuáles elementos de estos tipos de bienestar contribuyen con el desarrollo de las competencias docentes.

El enfoque de la investigación fue el empírico analítico o cuantitativo, el diseño fue no experimental y su alcance fue de …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Tier 3 Academic Interventions, Dana Esposito

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to discover teachers’ perceptions about the overall effectiveness of Tier 3 RTI services for resolving academic problems and teachers’ perceptions about transitioning students out of RTI. Students receiving services in Tier 3 of the RTI process often spend a considerable amount of time attempting to meet their goals. A search for answers to this problem, combined with a gap in the existing literature regarding time spent in Tier 3, led to the development of this study.

Data collection was acquired through a qualitative collective-case method focused on semi-structured interviews. Participants consisted of general and special …

Amplifying Ratego Stories And Knowledges: A Co-Research Initiative With Young Mothers In Social Movements In East Africa, Deborah Mrema, Patricia Nudi Orawo, Lydia Otieno, Juhi Jha, Joseph Kalisa, Serge Nyirinkwaya

The Qualitative Report

Young mothers can be negatively affected by dominant and degrading cultural narratives; their stories of resistance and activism are often rendered invisible in broader social contexts. Informed by collective narrative practice methodologies, we undertook a counter-storytelling research project to elicit and acknowledge the stories of survival and sustenance of young mothers in social movements responding to sexual and gender-based violence in East Africa. We facilitated storytelling circles, incorporating various story and knowledges collection methods. Our approach involved documenting collective experiences and counter-narratives, exchanging stories between communities, and inviting young mothers to respond to other participants’ stories. The telling and retelling …

Researcher As Insider: Bringing Together Narrative Therapy Practices And Feminist Lived Experience Methodologies In The Context Of Suicide Research, Marnie Sather

The Qualitative Report

This paper contains a demonstration of the value of feminist insider research. Through bringing together principles of feminist insider research, narrative therapy theory and practice, and my positionality as a researcher, a narrative therapist, and a woman who lost her husband to suicide, I developed a research methodology that was sensitive and effective in exploring the lived experiences and insider knowledge of women who have lost a male partner to suicide. Careful utilisation of my insider positionality benefited the research in multiple ways, from recruitment and care of participants to data analysis and knowledge production, to the generation of research …

Revisiting Insider Practices: Ethical Considerations, Practices, And Hopes For Doing Community Work And Narrative Research In And About Our Own Communities, Tiffany Sostar, Nathan Viktor Fawaz, Elliot Trimble, Theodosia Octavia Markarian, Bekett Noble

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, we describe the hopes, considerations, and questions of a narrative practice research collaboration among three closely connected transgender (trans) and/or non-binary collaborators, in a collection of work meant to support trans, non-binary, and gender expansive life and in response to trans death at a time of increasing hostility toward trans communities. We apply a specific focus on inquiring into how to do narrative therapy and community work research in and about our own communities, and what the ethical, relational and methodological practices for this work might be. We do this through reflecting on existing literature related to …

Resisting Ableism In Research Design, Gipsy Hosking

The Qualitative Report

This paper explores how ableist assumptions can unintentionally create barriers to participation in research by those of non-normative bodies or minds. In traditional epistemology, bodies are considered “universal” rather than “specific,” and the universal body is coded as fully able-bodied and independent with brain and body adhering to normative standards of the White heterosexual English-speaking male. In this article, I present a story of “enabling participation” for those of diverse body capacity in my work with young women living with chronic illness.^[1]Specifically, I explore the accommodations and adaptions I made to my research design to account for the …

Math Anxiety In Mathematical Education, Chenniya Thompson

Transformations

Have you ever wondered why you were so scared to take a mathematics class? Or wondered why your performance was poor during assessments? Mathematics anxiety is real and has been studied around the world. Come with me to find way we can assess math anxiety and solutions that can help aid this anxiety.

Math Anxiety For High School Students, Justin Gill

Transformations

The stresses math can bring to students who overstress or underperform can intensify as the courses they attend become more rigorous. Reviewing several articles to look at how math anxiety affects students, we will look at the position in which math stands in the eyes of students and if how they observe their classes determines their motivation while in class.

How Might One Practice? Producing Possibilities Through Co-Research As A Daily Practice Of A Minor Science, Mark Mullkoff

The Qualitative Report

Narrative practice is a broad field which includes therapy, community work, and research methods, all of which are less rigidly defined as they are connected through resonant ethics. In this paper I explore a practice I have developed in my early years as a narrative therapist asking the question, “If coming to talk to me were part of a Project— although not necessarily the first part, nor the most important part—what would that Project be called?” Through a reflexive process of aspiring towards narrative research principles of co-research, committing to relational ethics (which is grounded and contextual, rather than codified), …

Designing Research To Produce Usable Knowledge From Archives That Have Significant Ethical And Privacy Constraints, Kelsi Semeschuk

The Qualitative Report

Archives are sometimes imagined to be dusty repositories of historical documents. The considerations of care and ethical practice at the heart of qualitative research with active participants may not seem relevant. However, when archives contain sensitive information about people, living or no longer living, and those people cannot be consulted about the use of the materials, significant ethical issues arise. This paper offers innovative ways of balancing a desire to explore the treasures of a highly sensitive archive with rigorous attention to the rights and interests of those whose stories the archive holds. Based on research with a video archive …

Using Geogebra To Foster Imagination And Creativity To Build Mathematics Confidence In A Stem World, Joseph M. Furner

Transformations

Math teachers can better prepare all student for a STEM world using computer software like GeoGebra to better prepare our youth for such high-tech careers like that of which Einstein was part of while also emphasizing and fostering creativity in the learning of mathematics. It is critical we have young learners who are confident in their ability to do math and be creative. Teachers today need to check dispositions toward mathematics and address math anxiety while building math confidence in their students. In an ever-advancing world of technology, math teachers need to incorporate such emerging technologies like GeoGebra into the …

Rachel’S Saga: Using Adolescent Literature In The Mathematics Classroom As A Form Of Bibliotherapy To Help Students Overcome Math Apprehension, Joseph M. Furner

Transformations

Math anxiety is prevalent and an understanding of mathematics is critical in an increasingly technological/STEM society, teachers must play a role in reducing the levels of math anxiety of learners. More recently, children's and adolescent literature has been recognized now as a means to teaching mathematics to students through the use of stories to make the math concepts relevant and meaningful. Literature may be used as a therapy to reach students who may be frustrated with math and/or who experience math anxiety. Story and picture books such as Math Curse (Scieszka & Smith, 1995) and A Gebra Named Al (Isdell, …

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Technology In The Mathematics Classroom, Francena D. Gargaro

Transformations

The integration of technology into teaching pedagogy, particularly in mathematics instruction, has been a subject of significant. This paper examines the impact of utilizing technology for mathematics education. It reviews multiple categories of technological tools available for classroom use, including hardware, software, and online resources, and discusses their potential benefits and drawbacks. Positive aspects of technology integration include personalized learning experiences, increased engagement and collaboration, and enhanced visualization and conceptual understanding. However, challenges such as dependency on technology, loss of conceptual understanding, distraction, and the widening achievement gap due to inequity are also addressed. The paper explores the role of …

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Understanding The Transitional Needs Of Servicemembers To Veterans: A Focus On Mental, Social, And Behavioral Health, Marieann C. Raguso

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to fill the gaps on the transitional American veterans’ lived experience using their own voice. The reconstruction of an American Veteran’s identity after transitioning back into civilian life is a process with many challenges. Transitional practices often fail to help veterans to acculturate back into the civilian world. This includes the formulation of identities and associations. There is a lack of consistency in military transitional practices leading to identity loss and the formulation of mental and behavioral disorders. The aim of this study is to examine the lived experiences of veterans who have transitioned back …

Do New Mothers In Their First-Year Postpartum Feel Prepared To Return To Daily Occupations?, Kim Rose, Jane L. Donat, Cedrica Durham, Bianca Haddock, Danyl Litumbe, Julia Otoski, Katsia Renaud

Occupational Therapy Annual Research Colloquium

Purpose: Our research aimed to explore if new mothers felt prepared to return to their daily lives and the role occupational therapy could have in helping prepare women to transition into their new role as mothers. Previous literature has found that limits to occupational engagement and occupational balance have adversely affected the well-being of new mothers.

Methods: This sequential, exploratory mixed methods study employed the RedCap survey platform to collect demographic information, information regarding women’s birth experience and to obtain consent. Twenty-two women who filled out the survey met the inclusion criteria, and ten were selected to proceed with the …

Exploration Of College Students’ Use Of The Occupation Of Music Listening To Support Engagement And Well-Being, Beverly Murphy, Morgan Breen, Jenna Breseman, Jailine Gonzalez, Tiesha Henley, Julianne Sta.Ana

Occupational Therapy Annual Research Colloquium

Heightened feelings of stress or anxiety can often accompany the transition to college, secondary to changes to an existing routine. These changes can potentially lead to occupational disruption or imbalances impacting students’ well-being and performance. This descriptive, exploratory research investigates whether college students are utilizing music as a means to support or enhance their occupational well-being. At this point, little is known about the extent of utilizing music listening as an occupational therapy intervention on college campuses to manage the allostatic load among students. To address this, a quantitative survey with close-ended questions was distributed virtually to college students within …

Stories Of Mothering: Autoethnography Of Generational Sexual Abuse, Karen D. Barley Dr

The Qualitative Report

Being a mother is both rewarding and challenging and most women seek to be the best mother that they can be. Despite best intentions, many find their ability to ‘mother’ has been tempered by their own mothering. This autoethnography encapsulates a series of vignettes describing poignant and melodic memories of my mother; and explores her neglect and inability to protect me because of sexual abuse in her life. Within my family heritage there has been a craven cycle of abuse that has perpetuated a lineage of multigenerational family sexual violence. This cycle has affected the mothers in my family’s ability …