Digital Commons Network^™

Cultivating Common Ground? A Case Study Of A Community Garden Organization In Northeast Portland, Oregon, Bryan James Zinschlag

Dissertations and Theses

When it comes to the topic of environmental sustainability, most of us will readily agree that we face a litany of local and global environmental threats in the twenty-first century. As such, we would largely agree that the need to address climate change and other issues is urgent. Where this agreement tends to end, however, is on the question of whether this urgency is so great that we need not address issues of inequality and environmental justice when organizing sustainability efforts. Some are convinced that, because sustainability efforts are "saving the world for everyone", so to speak, issues of environmental …

Implications Of Local And Regional Food Systems: Toward A New Food Economy In Portland, Oregon, Michael Mercer Mertens

Dissertations and Theses

The local food movement in the Portland Metro Region of Oregon is as prevalent as anywhere in the Country. To a large degree this is driven by the Portland Metro area food culture and the diverse agricultural landscape present in the Willamette Valley and throughout the State. Portlanders demand local food and thus far the rural periphery has been able to provide it; driving a new food economy that has economic implications throughout the region. As this regional food economy emerges much attention has been focused on harnessing its power for economic development perpetuated by the belief that there exists …

How Do Youth And Adults At A Rural High School Conceptualize The Role Of Student? An Investigation Of The Student Role Identity Standard At The Intersection Of Student And Teacher Perspectives, Joseph M. Zenisek

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past decade, engaging student voice has emerged as an approach to increasing meaningful student involvement in schools towards meeting adolescents' developmental needs for agency, efficacy, and sense of belonging. Central to student voice work is the re-creation of student-teacher and student-organization relationships, generating student identity roles that are fundamentally different from the roles traditionally allocated to students. Conventional concepts of student roles by both adults and youth can act as barriers to increasing student voice. The goal of this study was to develop a better understanding of student role identity. Applying a critical ethnography approach in the context …

Stories Of Success: Understanding Academic Achievement Of Hispanic Students In Science, Amanda Harris

Dissertations and Theses

A review of the literature shows that there is much evidence to suggest the challenges facing Hispanic students in American public schools. Hispanic enrollment in K-12 public schools has increased from 6 to 19% in the last thirty years, yet schools have not made adequate adjustments to accommodate this changing population. Issues such as remedial tracking and cultural differences have led to low high school graduate rates for Hispanic students and inequities in schooling experiences (Gay, 2000). Particularly in the area of science, Hispanic students struggle with academic success (Cole & Espinoza, 2008). Despite these obstacles, some Hispanic students are …

A Girl Power Study: Looking And Listening To The Role Of Emotions And Relationality In Developing Critical Consciousness, Jennifer Wallin-Ruschman

Dissertations and Theses

The concept of critical consciousness centers on the capacity for involvement in social change efforts. Its development has been the aim of many recent social movements (e.g., the consciousness raising groups of the women's movement). In this work, critical consciousness is defined as the highest level of socio-political-cultural (SPC) consciousness development. SPC consciousness is characterized by the linking of the personal and the political so that structures and discourses of oppression are not only understood but also lead to critical action and transforming relations of domination. Additionally, critical consciousness includes the ability to tolerate ambivalence and conflict as well as …

The Impact Of School-Level Factors On Minority Students' Performance In Ap Calculus, Phillip Bruce Pearson

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Technology (STEM) talent pool has re-emerged as a national priority. Certain racial and ethnic groups are dramatically underrepresented in STEM careers and STEM educational programs, an especially serious concern given demographic transitions underway in the United States. The College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus program provides one way in which students can gain exposure to college-level mathematics while still in high school. This study analyzed factors that contribute to the success of minority students in AP Calculus using a large, longitudinal (2007-2012), geographically distributed dataset which included important school-level variables and AP scores …

Beyond The Ancestral Code: Towards A Model For Sociolinguistic Language Documentation, George Tucker Childs, Jeff Good, Alice Mitchell

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Most language documentation efforts focus on capturing lexico-grammatical information on individual languages. Comparatively little effort has been devoted to considering a language’s sociolinguistic contexts. In parts of the world characterized by high degrees of multilingualism, questions surrounding the factors involved in language choice and the relationship between ‘communities’ and ‘languages’ are clearly of interest to documentary linguistics, and this paper considers these issues by reporting on the results of a workshop held on sociolinguistic documentation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over sixty participants from Africa and elsewhere discussed theoretical and methodological issues relating to the documentation of language in its social context. …

The Development Of Low-/No-Emission Electric Vehicle Infrastructure In The Portland Metro Region: A Roadmap, John Macarthur, Peter Murchie, George Beard

TREC Final Reports

The shift from combustion engines to low- and no-emission electric vehicles is underway and gaining momentum. During the last year, Oregon has become an active player in the electric vehicle arena, with a number of promising relationships and activities in the early stages of formalization. With additional thought, effort and strategy Oregon can seize the opportunity to become the national leader in the adoption and incorporation of new vehicle platforms and mobility strategies into the fabric of urban life and the built environment. Oregon is currently actively engaged in relationships with international automotive companies and local businesses and utilities interested …

Gresham Opportunity Framework Plan, Belinda Judelman, Carlos Gonzalez, Hayley Pickus, Lori Parks, Mike Simpson, Pamela N. Phan

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Map Gresham project was a five-month long planning process led by Camassia Community Planning (CCP) to create “opportunity maps” and an Opportunity Framework Plan for the City of Gresham, OR. Opportunity mapping is a relatively new planning method for analyzing the spatial distribution of indicators linked to opportunity and determining which populations have access to these factors.

The overarching objective of the Framework Plan is to improve equitable access to opportunities for Gresham’s neighborhoods and diverse populations. We created the plan by putting community at the center and collaborating with local organizations, technical advisors, and City staff. It includes …

Congestive Heart Failure Self-Management Among Us Veterans: The Role Of Personal And Professional Advocates, Eleni Skaperdas, Anaïs Tuepker, Christina Nicolaidis, Jessica K. Robb, Devan Kansagara, David H. Hickam

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: Understand patients’ experiences with primary care services for congestive heart failure (CHF) and explore the relationship between health services and self-management.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with thirty-nine patients with CHF receiving care at one Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VA). We analyzed data using thematic content analysis.

Results: Participants acknowledged the importance of ongoing engagement in the plan of care for CHF. They attributed success in this effort to be greatly influenced by personal advocates. The advocates included both members of the healthcare team with whom they had a continuity relationship and friends or family members who assisted on …

Mediating Academic Success: Race, Class, Gender And Community College Persistence, Schaylee Marie Esparza

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last forty years, the U.S. community college system has expanded, allowing disadvantaged groups greater access to higher education. With that expansion, a body of research has emerged examining community college students' educational outcomes. However, the research is limited in understanding the academic persistence of low-income students and community college student in particular. The purpose of this comparative, qualitative study is to explore some of the unanswered questions about how low income white and Latino students' experience academic persistence similarly and differently and understand how gender influences the challenges students may face during college.

This study draws from interviews …

Black And Blue And Read All Over: News Framing And The Coverage Of Crime, Kalistah Quilla Cosand

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the representation of crime in the news in relation to expressed emotion and intention for future action. Episodic and thematic framing (Iyengar, 1991) and narrative processing (Singer & Bluck, 2001) served as the theoretical foundations of this study and helped examine how scripted news stories involving crime influence levels of fear, anger, and empathy in individuals, and how these emotions subsequently affect behaviors. To measure these framing effects, an experimental manipulation was employed using three conceptually different news stories all involving gun-related crimes. One news story utilized an episodic format, while the other two stories used a …

Spirituality And Religion In Women's Leadership For Sustainable Development In Crisis Conditions: The Case Of Burma, Phyusin Myo Kyaw Myint

Dissertations and Theses

This research focuses on women's leadership roles for sustainable development in crisis conditions with particular attention to the foundations of the leadership roles of women based in spirituality and religion. The research question for this study ask: How do religious and spiritual traditions contribute to the leadership roles of women that can be effective in building sustainable development in crisis conditions? The study uses a content analysis of a key body of women's writings from Burma. The findings from the data explain some of the ways in which spirituality and religion have played significant roles in promoting the leadership of …

Librarians’ Views On Critical Theories And Critical Practices, Robert Schroeder, Christopher V. Hollister

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

This study was conducted to investigate levels of familiarity that librarians have with critical theory, to determine the extent to which it informs professional practices, and to examine how the social justice issues related to critical theory inform the practices of librarians who are unfamiliar with it. A survey found that librarians were versed not only in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, but also in poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, and postcolonialism. Many librarians, lacking familiarity with critical theory, were also shown to be concerned with social justice and these issues significantly affect these librarians’ professional …

Connecting People And Place Prosperity: Workforce Development And Urban Planning In Scholarship And Practice, Greg Schrock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, the field of workforce development has emerged as a distinct area of policy and practice. While planning scholars have begun to engage with the workforce development field, its relevance and points of connection to planning scholarship remain underexplored. This article attempts to define the workforce development field by articulating its core concerns as well as its domains of practice and scholarship outside the planning field. The article locates workforce development within three stands of planning scholarship, concluding that workforce development represents an important bridge for planners between “place” and “people” prosperity within communities.

A Framework For Leadership For Sustainability Education At Portland State University, Dilafruz R. Williams, Heather Burns, Sybil Schantz Kelley

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In response to the hitherto unchallenged assumptions supporting a globalized economy, the Leadership for Sustainability Education (LSE) program, formerly Leadership in Ecology, Culture, and Learning, was developed as part of an emerging sustainability movement. This article highlights the favorable conditions that provided the context for the evolution of the LSE program, including organizational policies and practices at Portland State University, and a commitment to community-university partnerships that conveyed the University’s motto, “Let Knowledge Serve the City.” We discuss the potential that higher education has to transform practices and ways of thinking necessary for ecological sustainability and social justice. Following this …

'This Would Be Much Funner In Person': A Qualitative Grounded Theory Analysis Of Cybergrooming, Maurice Jason Gauz

Dissertations and Theses

The rather novel phenomenon of cybergrooming, or the solicitation of minors for sex via the Internet, has yet to be fully explored. This is a problem because such predatory behavior can lead to psychological and/or physical abuse of minors. The present study seeks to fill this knowledge by performing a qualitative, grounded theory analysis of naturally-occurring cybergrooming discourse. Data were drawn from the website of the online watchdog group, Perverted Justice. The first 20 lines of talk transmitted by the adults in these chat conversations were sampled from 100 transcripts published by Perverted Justice.
Multi-step coding, facilitated by the qualitative …

Motivational Interviewing At The Intersections Of Depression And Intimate Partner Violence Among African American Women, Stéphanie Wahab, Jammie Trimble, Angie Mejia, S. Renee Mitchell, Mary Jo Thomas, Vanessa Timmons, A. Star Waters, Dora Raymaker, Christina Nicolaidis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article focuses on design, training, and delivery of a culturally-tailored, multi-faceted intervention which used motivational interviewing (MI) and case management to reduce depression severity among African American survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). We present the details of the intervention and discuss its implementation as a means of creating and providing culturally appropriate depression and violence services to African American women. We used a CBPR approach to develop and evaluate the multi-faceted intervention. As part of the evaluation, we collected process measures about the use of MI, assessed MI fidelity, and interviewed participants about their experiences with the program.

An Assessment Of Ho Chi Minh’S Strategies For Gaining Support In The Vietnamese Revolution, Madeline Fraser

Young Historians Conference

Despite Americans’ awareness of Vietnam in the context of America’s crusade against communism, little attention is paid to Ho Chi Minh as a national revolutionary in the creation of an independent Vietnam. This paper addresses Ho Chi Minh’s tactics for inciting a revolutionary spirit in the Vietnamese people, particularly his blending of communism and nationalism. Although Ho was characterized as a fervent communist in the West, an examination of his strategies reveals a man who recognized the need to diversify his platform. Ho not only employed nationalistic propaganda, but also adopted fragments of varying political ideologies and appealed to the …

Fair Trial In A Sensationalist Society: Charles Manson And The Tate-Labianca Trial, Jamie L. Cannady

Young Historians Conference

The American legal system was created to ensure each citizen a fair and impartial administration of justice. Charles Manson, notorious criminal and leader of the Manson Family, faced one of the most sensationalistic and dramatized trials in all of United States history. This study views Manson's trial under these promised civil liberties, scrutinizing how Manson and his followers were not given the right to fair trial as secured under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Through many contemptuous actions by the court and media, the accused Family members were sentenced to death without an unbiased and lawful verdict.

Is Self-Sufficiency Really Sufficient? A Critical Analysis Of Federal Refugee Resettlement Policy And Local Attendant English Language Training In Portland, Oregon, Domminick Mcparland

Dissertations and Theses

Since the 1951 United Nations Convention, nations have dealt with refugee issues in various ways. In the United States, since the Vietnam War, there has been great debate and a significant amount of research on issues of refugee resettlement, with these discourses inherently involving issues of power and ideology. English language training and the promotion of economic self-sufficiency have been interventions used to integrate and assimilate refugees into American culture and society. These two interventions were the subject of the current investigation.

The purpose of this study was to look into the way federal refugee resettlement policy mandated by the …

A Missing Piece In The Sustainability Movement: The Human Spirit, Deborah S. Peterson

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The sustainability movement, committed to the health of our natural world, is making a critical contribution to society. While many agree the sustainability movement should focus on the natural world, recent articles call for an additional focus on human welfare. This article proposes that a missing piece of the sustainability movement is a discussion of the role of the human spirit. By focusing narrowly on an examination of the state of the natural world, we are neglecting to incorporate the deep and enduring power of the human spirit to transform our natural and human-made environment and to support change agents …

Prevention And Management Of Stress In Policing: A Review Of The Literature, Portland State University. Criminology And Criminal Justice Senior Capstone

Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capstone Project

Working as a police officer can be a rewarding job, but it can also be a stressful one. Policing is one of the few professions where individuals deal with many stressors, which exceed the usual expectations of society. Although there is no way to eliminate stress and the burnout it can cause, there are methods law enforcement agencies can utilize to help officers prevent stress from worsening and to make it more manageable. This literature review contains information to help police agencies train officers about prevention and management of stress in the workplace. It is based on 29 studies from …

Citizenship Documentation Requirement For Medical Eligibility: Effects On Oregon Children, Brigit A. Hatch, Jennifer E. Devoe, Jodi A. Lapidus, Matthew J. Carlson, Bill J. Wright

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 mandated Medicaid beneficiaries to document citizenship. Using a prospective cohort (n=104,375), we aimed to (1) determine characteristics of affected children, (2) describe effects on health insurance coverage and access to needed health care, and (3) model the causal relationship between this new policy, known determinants of health care access, and receipt of needed health care.

METHODS: We identified a stratified random sample of children shortly after the DRA was implemented and used state records and surveys to compare three groups: children denied Medicaid for inability to document citizenship, children denied …

Racial Bias In Driver Yielding Behavior At Crosswalks, Tara Goddard, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, Arlie Adkins

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Racial minorities are disproportionately represented in pedestrian traffic fatalities, indicating a significant public health and safety issue. Psychological and social identity-related factors have previously been shown to influence drivers’ behaviors toward pedestrians. If drivers’ behavior reflects racial bias and results in differential behavior toward Black and White pedestrians, this may lead to disparate pedestrian crossing experiences based on race and potentially contribute to disproportionate safety outcomes. We tested this hypothesis in a controlled field experiment at an unsignalized midblock marked crosswalk in downtown Portland, Oregon. Six trained male research team confederates (3 White, 3 Black) simulated an individual pedestrian crossing, …

Alcohol And Drug Prevention, Intervention, And Treatment Literature: A Bibliography For Best Practices, Laura Burney Nissen

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Addictions remain a persistent challenge to mental health practice. There is a need for mental health educators, students, and practitioners to be aware of, critique, contribute to, and, where relevant, utilize emerging scholarly literature to inform their intervention strategies. This comprehensive addictions bibliography draws from a wide variety of sources, perspectives, and ideologies to hasten the rate at which academics and practitioners can more meaningfully participate in this rapidly developing field of practice.

Adjustment To College Among Lower Division Students With Disabilities: An Exploratory Study, Kristy Lee Ann Mcnulty

Dissertations and Theses

This study utilized a quality of life framework of psychosocial adaptation to explore relationships among college stress, functional limitations, coping strategies, and perceived social support in adjustment to college among first-year and second-year undergraduate students with disabilities, based on specific hypothesized relations. College adjustment outcomes included: life satisfaction, academic performance, and psychosocial-emotional adjustment to college.

A nonprobability sample of 103 first-year and second-year undergraduate college students with disabilities participated in the study.

Respondents were registered with an office of support services for students with disabilities at a public, four-year university, located in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Respondents …

Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities In Faith Communities: Perspectives Of Catholic Religious Leaders, Mazna Patka

Dissertations and Theses

Community psychology is concerned with the relationship between individuals and social systems in community contexts, but the field has under-explored the role of religious organizations in the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Worldwide, most people identify with a religion, and congregations serve as important mediating structure that creates a sense of community and provides linkages between individuals and society. There may be significant benefits to religious participation, including greater life satisfaction, health, and quality of life. Such benefits may be especially important to individuals with intellectual disability who generally experience poorer outcomes. However, we know very little about the …

Moving Beyond Regulatory Mechanisms: A Typology Of Internet Control Regimes, Richard Reid Hunt

Dissertations and Theses

This paper examines national Internet control from a policy regime perspective. The mechanisms through which governments attempt to control the Internet may be developed and implemented by different institutions and agencies, or fall outside of a formal regulatory structure entirely. As such, the totality of the institutions and practices of national Internet control is better conceptualized not as a regulatory regime, but as a control regime. After a survey of the critical policy and control dimensions, a six-part typology of control regimes is proposed. The purpose of this study and typology is exploratory. With comparative research about Internet control regimes …

Victimization, Separatism And Anti-Intellectualism: An Empirical Analysis Of John Mcwhorter's Theory On African American's Low Academic Performance, Marlon Dewayne Marion

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to test John McWhorter's theory on African American academic underachievement. The theory claims that since the 1960's African American identities have been significantly influenced by beliefs of victimization and anti-intellectualism along with values of separatism. In order to test for the existence of these dimensions in African American's thinking and for their relationship to academic achievement, data from the Maryland Adolescence Development In Context Study (MADICS) were used. Findings indicated that victimization, separatism and anti-intellectualism have a causal relationship and that sentiments of victimization are found to be significantly higher among African Americans. A …