Digital Commons Network^™

Teacher Turnover And Retention The Choice To Leave: Lived Experiences Of Teachers In Rural Montana, Brittany Elizabeth Julie Katzer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

School districts across the United States are grappling to fill, and to keep, their classrooms operating with qualified teachers, especially in rural communities. To ensure a quality education for the millions of students in the nation in the coming years, educational leaders and government officials need to evaluate what can be done to increase the number of teachers staying in their positions. Schools must be better equipped to understand what contributes to high turnover rates and the inability to retain their teachers. It is necessary to create conditions that will keep fully trained and qualified teachers in the field. The …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: An Exploration Of Wastewater Issues And Possible Solutions In And Out Of Montana, Keely I. Larson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Larson, Keely, M.A., Spring 2023

Major:Environmental and Natural Resources Journalism

Out of sight, out of mind: An exploration of wastewater issues and possible solutions in and out of Montana

Chairperson: Dennis Swibold

Co-Chairpersons: Nadia White, Sarah Halvorson

This is a master’s project, featuring three stories, linked in theme. The first starts with a nationally scoped story about septic systems in resort towns and what happens when too many people want to visit areas like Cape Cod, the Florida Keys or, more locally, Seeley Lake, and overwhelm waste disposal methods. Often in these areas that are more remote, septic systems …

Tree Line, Eric Joseph Jensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I was raised under a doctrine of extreme truth that cast a shadow over all reality. Upon rejecting that dogma, my life became a search to replace that truth. I’ve looked for it by immersing myself in the natural world and exploring my relationship with it through paint. My landscape painting practice has brought me a wealth of experiences; however, it has not given me an answer that fills the void of my upbringing. My thesis paper is an account of the questions, research, and paintings that surround my search. Nothing, it turns out, is absolute. There is a beauty …

A Multidisciplinary Approach To The Management Of A Non-Native Trout Species, Kaeli Alexis Davenport

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Non-native freshwater fish are considered a significant threat to the survival of native freshwater fish populations. Traditional management strategies for dealing with non-native fish such as chemical or mechanical removal have limitations and can be unsuccessful. A novel method for the removal of non-native fish is a technique where the addition of non-native male fish with a YY genotype (MYY) theoretically results in a shift of the population sex ratio towards all or mostly all males, driving population extirpation. However, many aspects that affect the success of this method have not been thoroughly tested. My doctoral research incorporated multiple disciplines …

Impacts Of Eating Disorder Recovery On Communication Of Identity Through Food, Rosemary Willett Jeter

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the experience of eating disorder recovery (EDR) impacts one’s communication of identity through and about food, and perceptions of others’ communication about and through food. Purposive sampling yielded 20 adult participants who self-identified as having been in EDR for at least one year. Results from a phronetic iterative data analysis of semi-structured interviews yielded several themes. When considering how EDR influences personal communication through food, main themes include: (a) the inability to share meals creates a gap between the enacted and relational …

Facing The Climate Crisis: The Plaintiffs Of Held V. Montana Find Agency And Voice, Richard H. Forbes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

16 young people, in a lawsuit titled Held v. Montana, are suing the state of Montana on the grounds that its state energy policy contributes to climate change, harming them physically and psychologically and violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment. This project explores the plaintiffs’ perspectives on the lawsuit, describes how their involvement is changing their relationships to their own climate-related mental health and explains how their psychological concerns reflect larger societal issues related to climate change.

The Cultivation Of Therapeutic Landscapes: A Medical Anthropological Approach To Understanding The Health And Wellbeing Qualities Of The Garden Of 1,000 Buddhas, Andrew Thomas Ranck

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Medical anthropology researchers have just begun exploring therapeutic landscapes as the benefits of location are just now being understood in the field as potentially promoting a sense of healing and wellbeing. Some cultural heritage sites are translocated sites that are important to disseminate traditional cultural knowledge. While some of these cultural heritage landscapes become formal cultural resources, others also add a level of therapeutic quality to their existence. The Garden of 1,000 Buddhas was such a location. Discerning how these sites develop and are mitigated through affective responses, messaging symbols and personal beliefs was an important part of the process. …

Extension And Missionary Adult Educator Commitment Calling, Experiences, And Attitudes And Their Influence On Career Commitment Of Extension Agents And Protestant Missionaries, Steven Dale Siegelin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative case study focused on career commitment in two types of professional adult educators, extension agents and missionaries. Past research studying extension agents and missionaries had documented decades of early career attrition. Research documented the issues, explored causes, and proposed solutions. Yet, the problem persists. Much of the research has been quantitative.

This comparative case study maximized the differences between participants within and across the two professions; conducted in depth semi-structured interviews with participants; and had participants create a drawing of their career commitment attitudes and experiences and describe the drawing during the interview. Extension agents and missionaries were …

An Examination Of The Food System, Foodscape, Dietary Patterns, And Accolated Health Outcomes Of Salish People Within The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Nation, Joshua William Brown

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Often an individualistic, consumerist strategy is promoted as the solution to decrease the growing prevalence of diet-related diseases. Unfortunately, this logic is ahistorical and apolitical while privileging pathological individualism, capitalistic consumerism, and prevalent diets within the United States. This reasoning fails to recognize diet construction across time by ideologies, policies, and practices. Such an outlook misses the reality that many people cannot escape the grip of the modern, pervasive, ultra-processed food system.

Several Native American populations find themselves plagued with high rates of diet-related diseases. Standard mantra shoulders these communities with their plight, often framing the discourse as personal responsibility …

The Context Of Peer Aggression On Teachers’ Perceptions, Attributions, Affect, And Intentions To Intervene, Jaynee Lin Bohart

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Teachers play a critical role in addressing peer aggression between students at school, but they are not always the most effective. However, without more research about how and when teachers choose to intervene during aggressive altercations, it will be difficult to address the factors hampering their effectiveness. The current study (n = 152) employed a mixed-method design and hypothetical vignettes of different types of peer aggression to determine if teachers perceived seriousness, self-efficacy with aggressors, attributions of responsibility, sympathy, and anger differed according to the types of aggression and students depicted in the vignettes. The same variables were included in …

Perceived Parental Acceptance And Rejection, Self-Compassion, And Psychological Distress In Lgb-Identified Individuals, Morgan Christine Bowlen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study aimed to examine the relationship between general family support, sexual orientation-specific parental rejection, and self-compassion, as well as psychological distress and proximal minority stress for LGB-identified individuals. Three hundred twenty-four participants who identified as LGB were recruited online for the study and completed measures of general family support, sexual orientation-specific parental rejection, self-compassion, psychological distress, and proximal minority stress. The results showed that general family support was negatively associated with psychological distress, and that general family support was positively related to the self-kindness and common humanity facets of self-compassion, and negatively related to the self-judgment, isolation, and overidentification …

Thipsinna Dakhod Wichohan Wakhan – ‘Turnip Dakhota Way Of Life Is Sacred’: A Dakhota Model For K-12 Pedagogy And Curriculum, Ramey Leigh Escarcega-Growing Thunder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The term “cultural place-based” is used to ground this research—a specific spiritual place linked to cultural and language-based education within the homelands of the Dakȟóta, Nakoda, and Lakota peoples who inhabit territories in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada: The Native people regard these as their homelands. In the Dakȟóta language, itȟáŋčhaŋ translates to “a leader, boss, person in charge, position of authority, office, management, and political power,” (Lakota Language Consortium, Llc., 2013). The author utilizes the word itȟáŋčhaŋ as the cultural–educational leadership view in creating a cultural place-based model. This research identifies the impact indicators of implementing a …

The Politics Of Abundance: American Philanthropy And The Political Economy Of Food In The Twentieth Century, Elizabeth Berit Barrs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

“The Politics of Abundance: American Philanthropy and the Political Economy of Food in the Twentieth Century” uses food aid as a lens to understand how philanthropy became a significant new force in the twentieth-century political economy, both in the US and in the projection of American power abroad. I argue that US-based international food philanthropy joined with the state and the full breadth of the American food industry to structure the political economy of food in the twentieth century and to export it globally, impacting how much of the world produces and consumes food. Voluntary agencies and foundations provided a …

Regulation Of Innate Immune Responses To Rift Valley Fever Virus Infection Through Alternative Splicing Of Riok3, Thomas Charles Bisom

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Work in this dissertation focuses on how innate immune responses are activated, dysregulated, evaded, and co-opted during Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) infection. To better understand how innate immune responses are affected during RVFV infection, we placed a particular emphasis on understanding the functions of the atypical kinase RIOK3 in innate immune responses. RIOK3 was previously shown by our group and other groups to be involved in the antiviral type 1 interferon (IFN) and the inflammatory NFκB innate immune responses, but its exact functions in these responses were not clear. Prior research in our group also showed that RIOK3 mRNA …

Traditional Ecological Philosophy, Michael J. Desrosier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A collection of creative essays that span a range of topics centered on Indigenous environmental wisdom.

Brave Spaces, Radical Openness, And Youth Loneliness, Taylor Curry, Mariah Thomas, Riese Munoz

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

It is no secret young adults, no matter where in the world they come from, face social pressures with the potential to be isolating. For today’s youth, not only are they feeling the commonplace anxieties about fitting in, finding success, and uncertainty of the future, but these anxieties are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Young adults from all over the globe report feeling more anxious, more depressed, and more lonely. However, it is also no secret that deliberate community building, creation of art and writing as a means of self-exploration, and participation in spaces designed for acceptance fend off these …

The Links To Cancer: How Golf Became Dangerous And What We Can Do To Save The Game, Meredith Boos

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This study is a comprehensive meta-analysis on health claims linked to exposure to golf courses, more specifically the chemicals used to maintain their appearance. It provides a brief history of the golf industry and how its growth exacerbated the environmental impact as well as an explanation of the legal landscape that will affect golf course management. Golf courses can disrupt local ecologies, contaminate ground water, rivers, lakes and streams with run-off, and be responsible for the bioaccumulation of chemicals which remain dangerous for decades. Despite the adverse effects of golf courses on the environment, there remains an opportunity to transform …

Barriers To Outdoor Recreation For Marginalized Groups At The University Of Montana, Sabine R. Englert, Beatrix Frissell, Adrienne Liebert, Sophia Rodriquez, Margaret Jensen, Rachana Harris, Abby Doss

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Exclusion from outdoor recreation reflects legacies of oppression of marginalized communities and makes access to the outdoors not equally available. In the United States, approximately 38% of Black Americans and 48% of Hispanic Americans participated in outdoor recreation in 2020. This is compared to 55% participation among Caucasian Americans. Many other intersecting identities are actively excluded, including people with disabilities, fat populations, and members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community; furthermore, class-based hierarchies are shown through the restricted outdoor access of low-income populations.

While numerous studies show a lack of diversity in outdoor recreation, little to no research has been conducted on …

Vision 2023

Vision

No abstract provided.

2023-2024 Course Catalog, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of The Registrar

University of Montana Course Catalogs, 1895-2024

An annual catalog of courses and course descriptions offered at the University of Montana.

Sodium Hyaluronate Based Drug Delivery To The Outer And Inner Ear, Emma Barrett-Catton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We have developed two projects using sodium hyaluronate (HA)-based systems for drug delivery to the ear. First, we investigated an HA-based hydrogel for use as a single use antibiotic treatment for otitis externa. Otitis externa, also known as outer ear infection, is a frequent affliction in both humans and animals. The most prevalent treatment for otitis externa is ear drops, but it is difficult to adhere properly to this treatment, causing poor patient compliance and the potential for complications. As a result, we have developed an HA-based hydrogel for use as a single application treatment for otitis externa to increase …

Warmth Of The Sun, Drake M. Gerber

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Warmth of the Sun, is a reflection on personal experiences I’ve had in the landscape while living in the Northwest. This curated experience is an attempt to capture my sincerity towards a place and hold onto that feeling. I intend to share faded memories of personal experiences through enigmatic sculptures to make the viewer look a bit closer at these objects and see the landscape in a new way. This paper explores thoughts on the idea of place, material, process, contemporary influences, and the experiences that inspired this body of work.

Between Tradition And Transformation: A Feminist Investigation Of The Role Of Pastoral Women Within Tanzania's Integrated Environment And Development Landscape, Kelli Erin Rogers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pastoral women hold pivotal social and environmental roles within their communities. Equally and actively engaging pastoral women in processes to conserve and sustainably use rangeland resources has therefore become an important focus for integrated environment and development intervention. In northern Tanzania, pastoral women find themselves at the center of gender equality efforts, which attempt to translate gender and environment theory into conservation action that elevates pastoral women’s historically unheard voices. Along the way, particular global narratives have positioned pastoral women alternately as passive beneficiaries or as powerful allies in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. Although the importance of integrating …

Bear Smart Um: Creating A University Campus Safe For Bears And Students, Kailie Blanco, Eliana Lowe, Nieset Lefevre, Kailie Todd, Ridley Hudson, Joshua Moyar, Emily Cook

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Universities nestled in the mountains across the globe like the University of Montana may find themselves dealing with human-bear conflict while lacking the proper resources to approach management. At UM, there has been an increase in bear activity over the past five years and it is expected to increase. Developing a plan to prevent bear activity on campus can be costly, time-consuming, and tedious. Our student group’s solution includes two intertwining parts: A bear management plan and educational outreach surrounding bear safety. The recommendations in the bear management plan were created by consulting bear-conflict specialists from Missoula County, craftspeople who …

Welcome To The Farm, Elani Ben-Gabriel Borhegyi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this creative scholarship is to examine human relationships to Earth and the implications for a thriving future. This thesis studies the current environmental state of our planet, then looks at sustainability as a model for improving human and planetary health, and ends by visualizing a thriving future beyond sustainability in which we adopt a “caretaker” culture. The key to this trajectory is to untangle and dismantle colonial relationships with the planet and replace them with “caretaker” relationships - relationships rooted in love, honor, and reciprocity with environmental connection, while taking into account past, present, and future generations …

Regaining Ground: Montana Tribes Exercise Sovereignty For More Than Land, 2023, University Of Montana--Missoula. School Of Journalism. Native News Honors Project

Native News Honors Project, 1992-2026

An annual publication that is reported, photographed, edited, and designed by students in the University of Montana’s School of Journalism.

To The Land Of Opportunity: Leadership Journeys Of Persian Immigrant Women In The United States, Shaima Khinjani

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

How have barriers shaped the experience of Persian women holding leadership positions in the United States? Using a qualitative approach, this research studied the lived experience of immigrant women from Persian-speaking countries and the challenges of their leadership journey in the United States. The data from the lived experiences of twelve women in leadership positions with one-to-one Zoom meetings were collected using interactive interviews. Raw transcriptions of their experiences were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach outlined by Giorgi (2009). This approach allowed for the data to be reduced into a single narrative description shared by all participants indicating the …

Modifying Lysosomal Cholesterol Or Potassium Channel Activity Prevents Silica-Induced Inflammation, Rebekah Louise Kendall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chronic inflammation contributes to a number of diseases, driven by NLRP3 inflammasome activity and the lack of resolution. Silicosis is one such disease, brought on by the unresolved inflammation caused by inhaled crystalline silica particles of sufficiently small size. These particles are taken up by alveolar macrophages to protect the fragile alveolar spaces. Silica particles interact with phagolysosomal membranes through nearly free silanol moieties and disrupt the lipid order of the lysosomal membrane thereby causing permeabilization. This permeabilization (LMP) leads to the release of proteases including Cathepsin B that promote the assembly and activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. The inflammasome …

#Therapy: Social Media Video Interventions And Help Seeking Intentions Among College Students, Jennifer Leigh Lippold

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite evidence of rising mental health concerns among college students, treatment utilization among this population remains low (ACHA, 2020). While there are many barriers that impact help seeking among students, some of the most commonly cited include stigma, treatment fearfulness, and low mental health literacy (e.g., Czyz et al., 2013; Ebert et al., 2019b; Eisenberg et al., 2007, Vogel et al., 2013). In order to promote help seeking among students, many colleges have made efforts to address these barriers through outreach interventions, such as educational presentations, on-campus advertisements, and campus fairs (Betton et al., 2015; Gruttadaro, & Crudo, 2012; Pescosolido …

Steady-State Regulation Of Secretory Cargo Export And Er Homeostasis By Inositol Trisphosphate Receptors And Penta-Ef-Hand Proteins, Aaron J. Held

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Constant protein degradation and turnover necessitates constitutive secretion that delivers the correct mix of nascent proteins to their appropriate subcellular destinations. Cells thus exhibit steady-state secretion and the additional ability to adjust secretory flux, though we lack a clear understanding of this critical process. During secretion, the COPII coat is responsible for providing a balance of actively and passively selected ER cargos to enter the secretory pathway. Furthermore, Ca²⁺ -binding proteins have been implicated in regulating this process in response to Ca²⁺ signals. In Chapter 1, we review the secretory pathway and vesicular trafficking, with a focus on …