Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Middle School Students’ Enrollment Choice For A Fully Online Educational Environment During The Fall Of 2020 Covid-19 National Health Emergency: A Mixed Methods Study, Wendy Maltais Duvall

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Students’ choice in enrolling in a distance learning environment was examined in a mixed methods study in the fall of 2020 during the COVID-19 national health emergency of that same year. After state mandated school closures in the spring 2020, students statewide were forced into a fully online learning situation until the end of that semester. In the fall, the district that was the study site offered families the choice of either hybrid or fully distance learning environments where students could attend school during the national health crisis that had persisted. That choice would be in force for the full …

International School Heads’ Self-Efficacy And Governance: An Intervention, Joshua Ashley Garrett

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

As international school heads (ISHs) advance through the school leadership pipeline, many find the transition to their new roles and responsibilities as an executive leader difficult, and as a result they struggle to fulfill the expectations of their governing board. In conversations with ISHs in the International Schools Organization (ISO), a pseudonym, several attributed this problem to the lack of preservice, executive leadership training. Most ISO school heads were trained as teacher-leaders and school principals. They excelled in these roles and were consequently promoted to executive leadership. However, very few received formal training in executive leadership, as required of most …

Fostering A Sense Of Community Among Teachers Via A Community Of Practice: A Mixed-Methods Action Research Study, Apryl Clark Moore

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are learning communities that can improve the skills and knowledge of teachers and improve a sense of community. CoPs are designed to cultivate relationships among teachers and develop professional practices that increase a sense of community and knowledge attainment. This study examined the use an online CoP to increase teachers’ sense of community during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Teachers joined a private online community and shared resources about classroom management strategies.

A mixed-methods action research approach was adopted for this research study. Quantitative data was captured from pre- and post-intervention surveys that collected information about teachers’ …

Adverse Childhood Experience And Undergraduate Student Success: A Longitudinal Investigation Into The Relationship Between Childhood Stress And Success In Higher Education, Sarah E. Cprek

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Institutions of higher education have long worked to understand factors that influence or predict student success and degree completion. Childhood experiences including potential exposure to toxic stress have been found to impact student success in K-12 schools yet have rarely been evaluated among undergraduates. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and undergraduate degree completion among a random sample of 1,894 students at a state-funded university in the US. Participants completed a web-based survey assessing ACEs in spring 2015. Results from the survey were linked to student academic records for each …

Faculty Perceptions Of Accreditation In The Field Of Educator Preparation, Lauren Bell Graves

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Accreditation is a measure the federal government, states, and other stakeholders utilize to determine the quality of an institution or a program. Educator preparation providers in Kentucky are required to obtain programmatic accreditation to offer educator preparation programs leading to certification or licensure. The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) is the national accrediting body with which Kentucky has an agreement for joint programmatic accreditation. The Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) adopted the 2013 CAEP initial standards in 2015 and those standards remain in effect today. Faculty in educator preparation programs are largely responsible for carrying out …

First-Generation Doctoral Students’ Experiences Navigating Graduate School, Leah K. Vance-Berg

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

First-generation students who pursue graduate programs face a unique set of challenges and rely on their strengths to help them navigate their graduate programs. This study will look at how first-generation students have navigated their graduate course work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 doctoral students at Magnolia University where participants discussed the challenges they have faced during graduate school and how they have navigated these challenges. This exploratory study uses social and cultural capital along with community cultural wealth as a framework to analyze how these students navigate not only their coursework but other academic and social aspects of …

High Performance: Exploratory Study Into The High Performance Model And Qualitative Secondary Analysis Of Elite Sport Management In The United States, Jon Gregory Hill

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation examines the area of high performance in elite sport through high performance professionals’ perspectives in the United States Olympic and Paralympic National Governing Bodies. The study’s purpose was to establish a shared meaning of the high performance sport management model by its elements in the athletic arena. Interviews with 16 high performance directors and managers were conducted to establish definitions, backgrounds, and anatomy of high performance in sport: high performance, high performance sport, high performance management, high performance model.

A qualitative secondary analysis was conducted to examine the high performance model in the U.S. and explore the job …

Leading In The Digital Age: A Multi-Case Study Of Leading Digital Citizenship, Ryan C. Schubart

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This study explored how school leaders make sense of and address digital citizenship as defined by Ribble (2011), and investigated what successes and challenges school leaders experienced while implementing digital citizenship programs in large Southeastern technology-rich schools. This bounded cross-case study, undergirded by Weick’s (1995) Theory of Sensemaking, is also designed to explore how school leaders implement digital citizenship programs at technology-rich schools in a large. 1:1, Southeastern public-school district, and how they view their role as producers of digital citizens.

Findings indicated that an influx of computer technology caused school leaders to make sense of digital citizenship and address …

Co-Teaching Practices Of General And Special Educators In Secondary Science Classrooms, Samantha Jolene Ringl

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The purpose of this study was to establish current levels of co-teaching implementation and to explore teachers’ perceptions of co-teaching and co-teacher relationships. This study also examined whether there is a relationship between teachers’ perception of their co-teaching relationship and their perception of co-teaching implementation in their classrooms. Analysis revealed that teachers generally have positive perceptions of their co-teaching partners and relationships, and these perceptions did not significantly differ between science teachers and special educators. However, this study found that teachers are not regularly planning lessons together, sharing the workload in the classroom, or choosing co-teaching models together. This study …

Leadership Storytelling Of Rural School Superintendents Engaged In Change And Innovation, Tony Barrett

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation examined the leadership storytelling uses and practices by rural, public school superintendents in North Georgia who are engaged in change and innovation through agreements with the state in exchange for flexibility waivers from Title 20 of the Georgia Code. This study was the result of the participation of five rural, Appalachian superintendents in semi-structured interviews. Two of the districts were Strategic Waivers School Systems (SWSS) and three of them were Charter Systems. The context of this study was framed by Georgia’s broad flexibility waivers which encourage school districts to promote and pursue innovative approaches in K-12 education. The …

Is What Works Working? Thinking Evaluatively About The What Works Clearinghouse, Andrew A. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Since the mid-twentieth century, the U.S. Department of Education has drafted and enacted policies to bridge the research-practice gap—that is, the gap between “what works” according to educational research and what is actually practiced by teachers and their administrators (e.g., Dirkx, 2006; Joyce & Cartwright, 2019; Tseng, 2012). One of the latest manifestations of this “what works” political legacy is the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), which took shape as part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in 2002. The WWC’s mission is to be a “central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education” (WWC, 2020d, …

An Explorative Study Of Kentucky Teacher Leader Graduate Programs: Response To Policy Change, Bailey M. Ubellacker

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Teacher leadership is a growing practice for supporting K-12 teachers and students. Recent policy regulations in the Commonwealth of Kentucky mandated a change in the professional standards used by approved graduate programs that prepare teacher leaders. To support this foundational change, program leaders designed programmatic goals, curriculum, structure, and tasks to align with the Teacher Leader Model Standards that emphasize promising research-based practices. The programs support development of teacher leadership through pedagogical approach, requirements, and programmatic structure.

Using a qualitative, multi-site case-study approach, this dissertation explored Kentucky teacher leadership graduate programs to understand how teacher leaders were formally prepared. Program …

Global Competence And Deeper Learning: Secondary Principals’ Perceptions In An Intermountain District, Lorren Amanda Siebert

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Education has become increasingly global in recent years. Student and teacher global competence have been studied at length. School administrators’ application of global competencies in their administrative practice has not been explored until recently. Secondary school administrators’ global competencies were investigated under seven tenets. The aim of this study was to examine how secondary principals in one Intermountain school district perceived and implemented global competencies in their current professional practice. Further, this study explored how those global competencies translated into deeper learning educational leadership practices.

A sequential explanatory approach was utilized for this two-phase mixed method study. Quantitative survey data …

Proctoring And Apps In College Algebra, Cynthia M. Shelton

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The pandemic forced more instructors and students to move to online learning. For the first time, many experienced a loosening of the reigns and were forced to allow students to submit non-proctored work. Many may have questioned what students really learned in the year 2020. Many college math course competencies emphasize procedures. Now that apps can do that for students, where does that leave math instructors? Additionally, online instruction has exploded over the last decade and has challenged the teaching of college mathematics. While online instruction opens the door to access, it does beg the question of whether students complete …

The Public Service Motivation Of Kentucky 4-H Youth Development Agents, Kimberly Adams Leger

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The Cooperative Extension Service is known for bringing research and education from the land grant universities to local communities across the state through its County Extension Agents. Kentucky Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Agents have a rich history of educating youth in life skill development. 4-H Agents who traditionally served in these roles often continued their public service until retirement. In recent years, the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service has documented a decline in 4-H Youth Development Agents' retention. An online survey was administered to explore Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Agents' employment motivation in Kentucky. Given CES agents' role as …

“How Sweet That I Am The One To Whisper These Things”: A Comparative Case Study Of Active Latin Teaching And Learning, Laura Ann Manning

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The motivation for this study came from a need to construct student-centered pedagogical practices to enhance learning and teaching of the Latin language in K-12 schools in the USA. This study aimed to advance a conceptual understanding of how active Latin teaching and learning occurs and to investigate the potential benefits of applying historical pedagogical frameworks for active Latin teaching practiced during the Renaissance, when Latin was both a lingua franca and a dead language. This study employed a mixed-methods comparative case study including interviews and classroom observations and quantitative analyses of student test scores to determine current active teaching …

Important Attributes Of A Behaviorally-Based Coaching Culture, Sarah M. Eustice

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Professional coaching is still considered an emerging field. Over the past 30 years, professional coaches and researchers have worked to further this profession by developing coaching competencies, exploring the nuances between various coaching modalities, and developing models to explain the role of coaching in organizations. There remains, however, a dearth of literature on coaching culture, including limited agreement on what it is and how it should look in an organization.

This study aims to establish agreement by investigating the confluence of coaching culture definitions and models present in industry and scholarly literature, and garnering input from a sample of professionals …

Technology Leadership Practices Of Appalachian School Leaders During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Todd Norton

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The COVD-19 pandemic caused a global disruption to education. In some parts of the United States, schools were cancelled for the year, while others shifted their educational offerings to a distance learning model. Kentucky announced short term closures beginning March 13, 2020, but on April 20th the Kentucky Governor announced that schools would not reopen for in-person instruction for the remainder of the academic year. Many school districts quickly developed a plan to continue a modified version of school. In Appalachia, some school leaders were uniquely prepared because their district had implemented a 1:1 device program. In a 1:1 program, …

Distance Education Administrators Starting Online Programs In Higher Education: A Case Study Of The Tasks, Processes, And Challenges Of Change To E-Learning, Jason P. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

While total enrollment for Title IV universities in the United States has declined 4 percent from 2013-2018, overall online course enrollment has rapidly increased by 22 percent (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). Not long ago, distance education had limited diffusion in universities and was considered a tertiary, experimental “add-on” to education (Burnette, 2015). Now, online learning is becoming a transformative power striking profound influence and change on all aspects of higher education (Otte & Benke, 2006). Beaudoin (2015) claims this may be the most crucial change impacting education since the printing press. This study explores the tasks, processes, and …

Investigating How Timing Of Case Study Presentation On Huntington Disease Influences Construction Of Argument Warrant While Learning The Central Dogma Of Molecular Biology, Katherine A. Sharp

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

A common belief among pre-medical and medical students is that biochemistry is not relevant to practicing medicine. Among topics commonly taught in biochemistry, courses include the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology, which is among the most critical science topics taught to medical students by biochemistry educators. Perceived irrelevance among students may be due to common curricular trends in biochemistry education. Many biochemistry courses are found at Research I (R1) universities that teach biochemistry using traditional lectures with little evidence of supporting learning with real-world applications. Instructors commonly assume that students can make realworld connections independently during lecture courses, but it …

Administrators Building Social Capital To Foster Informal Teacher Leadership In Type C International Schools In Vietnam, Robert Preston Williams

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The goal of this study was to explore how administrators build social capital among expatriate teachers to foster informal teacher leadership in type C international schools. The researcher employed a single-site case study in an international school in Vietnam. A theoretical framework based on Bourdieu’s (1986) social capital theory was used to design the research instruments and analyze the data.

In phase one, the researcher collected survey data with the participants being the teaching staff at the international school. The data were used to conduct a social network analysis to identify informal teacher leaders (ITLs), identify subgroups, and compare network …

Teacher Perceptions Of School Climate: A New Instrument And Validity Study, Rui Jin

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The United States government has growingly emphasized school climate, as it has been involved as an accountability indicator in the Every Student Succeeds Act. However, there remains considerable debate on both conceptualizing and measuring school climate. Moreover, teachers, a critical informant of school climate, have been ignored because most previous studies have paid attention to the students.

To better inform the research and practice related to the teacher perceptions of school climate and its measurement, this dissertation first identified the related instruments in the literature. The results showed only one survey measured three domains of school climate (academic climate, community, …

Catalyzing Change In Higher Education: Social Capital And Network Leadership In The Competency-Based Education Network, Bruce William Haupt Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Collaborative inter-organizational networks can be effective at catalyzing and supporting the generation and diffusion of new models and practices. With shared purpose, structure, and resources, network organizations can facilitate knowledge exchange and the growth of inter-organizational relationships. In this study, I sought to better understand how network organizations influence social capital and the spread of innovative practices. Of particular interest were the roles of national network and sub-national network organizations (sub-networks), and the interactive learning processes of network newcomers. I focused on the diverse array of colleges and universities involved in the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), and their efforts to …

Utilizing A Theory Of Change Process To Establish Framework For A Student Success Course, Sy Bridenbaugh

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The student success course has become a staple of the college experience. As the academic and social environment continues to shift with each new incoming cohort, having a designed and evaluated framework to utilize during student success course development can be a useful tool. Research surrounding student success in college is abundant. Having a framework that draws on this research for setting learning objectives and determining high impact practices for a student success course could assist in current and future curriculum development.

This study focuses on a student success course offered through the College of Education at the University of …

Orienting New International College Students During A Global Pandemic: Spatiality’S Contributions To Staff Work Practices, Thomas W. Teague Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

U.S. colleges must increasingly respond to a wide range of complex forces and simultaneously fulfill their missions and support students. To address many of these forces, some have turned to internationalization efforts like recruiting and enrolling international students. In light of these efforts, critics have called for institutions to better, more appropriately support these students, given their challenges and needs. This call has amplified during the recent COVID-19 global health pandemic.

Traditional student support services tend to center around Tinto’s Theory of Student Departure. Examples of support programming are frequently shared, yet rarely detail how institutional staff actually perform them …

“I’M Like Their Gps”: How Mathematics Faculty Support Underprepared Community College Students In Corequisite Courses, Bonita B. Tyler

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

As American community colleges replace prerequisite developmental mathematics courses with corequisite courses, the work of faculty to support underprepared students merits attention. This curricular change means underprepared students are enrolling directly in both college-level content courses with required corequisite support courses for necessary remediation, thus broadening the range of student skills and abilities in the classroom. Faculty work is significantly impacted by this change. Previous research indicates that corequisite course configurations have mitigated some problems with the traditional multi-course sequence of developmental courses. Noticeably, scholars described course structures in detail but failed to describe adequately how students were actually supported. …

The Lives Of Others: Describing And Predicting Job Satisfaction Among Faculty Working At The University Of Sarajevo, Nina Marijanović

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study examined the topic of faculty satisfaction among faculty employed at the University of Sarajevo (UNSA) in Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH). BiH has endured a difficult transition from a socialist regime to a market economy following the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s and its higher education sector has been particularly affected by this transition. Scholarly research has focused mostly on the impact of discrimination of certain groups at the primary and secondary levels (Pašalic-Krešo, 2008). Research into issues affecting tertiary education is still an emerging field, and research on faculty is especially sparse.

Utilizing survey methodology, this …

Other People’S Families: How Social Ties Shape Entrance Into The Medical Profession, Lillian Sims

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Not enough members of low-income, rural, and minoritized populations are successfully prepared for and recruited into medical school, exacerbating issues of unequal access to healthcare and limiting access to the profession. While a multitude of factors contribute to this problem, early social exposure to others in a field can act as a key contributor to career interest and a key advantage for entering the profession. Meanwhile, students without early social exposure to healthcare may take unconventional paths to medical school or may struggle to fit into the unique culture of medicine when they do enter training, especially if they belong …

“I Felt Seen”: A Mixed-Methods Investigation Of Culturally Responsive Teaching In Postsecondary Education, Caiti Siobhan Griffiths

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Instructors’ beliefs and behaviors shape students’ learning environments (Bandura, 2007). Culturally responsive teaching can make instruction more relevant and supportive to historically marginalized students (Gay, 2000, 2018). Instructor support and care for students are important to undergraduate persistence (Tinto, 1986, 1993). However, White postsecondary instructors may not feel prepared to use culturally responsive teaching (Heitner & Jennings, 2016; Sue et al., 2009). This study used a sequential mixed-methods design to examine postsecondary instructors’ self-perceptions, and students’ lived experiences, related to culturally responsive teaching. In Fall 2020, instructors (N = 99) rated their self-efficacy for culturally responsive teaching on a …

"Now Thinking About It, It's Freedom": Conceptualizing Sexual Pleasure For Fat, Queer Women, Carolyn Elizabeth Meiller

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Research considering the positive aspects of sexuality, such as pleasure, within a cultural context is especially important for groups of people that are often seen as separate from the experience of sexuality, such as fat, queer women. Due to perceptions of their bodies and how their sexuality goes against traditional heteronormativity, fat, queer women's experiences with sex and pleasure are under represented. Using a critical sexuality framework, the present study sought to explore the definitions and experiences of sexual pleasure for fat, queer women.

In the present study, constructivist grounded theory methods (Charmaz, 2014) were used to analyze the definitions …