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Online Instructional Clarity: A Phenomenological Study Of Students’ Experiences, Erin Cathleen Bryan Sutliff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was a phenomenological exploration of five undergraduate students’ experiences with clear and unclear instructors in online courses at a large southeastern research university. The specific aim was to privilege the voices of undergraduate students about their experiences communicating with their online instructors, particularly with regard to their instructors’ clarity (or lack thereof), and analyze the essence of their experiences using an interpretivist, and specifically, phenomenological perspective. The research was envisioned to address gaps in the instructional clarity literature as well as to respond to calls within both the online learning and the instructional communication literature to explore instructor …

Communicating For Success: The Importance Of Fairness In Pre-Merger Communication, Correy Retzloff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explores the complexities and influences of pre-merger communication on M&A outcomes from a stakeholder perspective, using the Fair Process Theoretical Framework. The study identified the following six key themes related to pre-merger communication broken down into two distinct categories: important aspects to employees, which include Open and Honest Communication, Engagement and Clarity, Participation and Collaboration, and best practices managers can implement, such as Undertake Fair and Engaging Communication, Prioritize Strategic and Cultural Communication, Ensure Effective and Compliant Communication. The study also found that effective pre-merger communication can positively influence perceptions of fairness in the merging process. These …

The Ontological Grounds Of Reason: Psychologism, Logicism, And Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Stanford L. Howdyshell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation explains the psychologism debate as it played out in the 19thand early 20th Centuries and then shows how Martin Heidegger radicalized the debate by undermining its key themes and assumptions. First, I explain each side of the psychologism debate, starting with the psychologicists. I explore the philosophies of Jakob Friedrich Fries and John Stuart Mill in order to encapsulate the full spectrum of psychologism in the 19th Century, from Neo-Kantian to British Empiricist. The investigation will show a set of common themes within psychologism, such as the grounding of logic in the constitution of the human subject, …

Horror’S Aesthetic Exchange: Immersion, Abstraction And Annihilation, Ashley Morgan Steinbach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uncovers a remote entanglement of phenomenological experience and abstract aesthetics in postmodern horror, a space that historically celebrates the former and critically undervalues the latter. Framed as a case study, I mobilize close readings of Alex Garland’s science fiction horror film, Annihilation (2018), to complicate the immersion/abstraction binary that implicitly structures much of contemporary horror scholarship. By recovering horror’s distanced and decentered forms and aesthetics I point to the interdependent faculty of a composite aesthetic collaboration.

These collaborations, which I refer to as aesthetic exchanges, place pressure on the localized emphasis of horror’s situated assaultive and reactive positions. …

Nurses And Needlesticks: Perceptions Of Stigma And Hiv Risk, Bethany Sharon Moore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Health-care providers (HCPs) are vulnerable to occupational health hazards, including dirty needle-stick injuries (DNSIs), which increase the risk for infection with HIV and other blood-borne pathogens. This study examines the perceptions of nurses and nurse practitioners who work in various health care settings regarding HIV-risk and DNSIs, in order to ascertain how these perceptions inform their decision-making regarding their health and nursing practice. I utilize a phenomenological approach to analyze the lived reality and embodiment of the DNSI experience by HCPs. The study explores the personal and institutional level factors that may influence the timely reporting and treatment of DNSIs, …

Social Exclusion Of Older Mossi Women Accused Of Witchcraft In Burkina Faso, West Africa, Clarisse Barbier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Among the most marginalized populations in the world, one group of women has been persistently ignored, silenced, and forgotten. In Burkina Faso, West Africa, older women in rural villages are often the target of witchcraft accusations; the consequences of these accusations are alarming because these women undergo violent attacks, face exclusion from their villages, and become the most vulnerable and marginalized segment of the Burkinabe population. Between August 2017 and November 2018, I conducted an ethnographic study of Burkinabe women accused of witchcraft living in two shelters in the capital city of Ouagadougou and examined women’s experiences of accusation, trauma, …

“Man Plans But Ultimately, God Decides”: A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Contextual Family Planning Beliefs Of Recently Resettled Congolese Refugee Women In West Central Florida., Linda Bomboka Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Existent demographic changes in the United States are largely a result of the current international refugee crisis. Within the past three years, there has been an influx of refugees who were affected by the wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Congolese refugees were the highest number of all refugee groups to arrive in the United States in Fiscal Years 2016-2018, yet little is known about their lived experiences, particularly as they apply to reproductive health and family planning in general. Congolese refugee women who resettle in the United States are unique because many lived in refugee camps for …

The Duration Of Untreated Psychosis: A Phenomenological Study, Sarah R. Kamens, Larry Davidson, Emily Hyun, Nev Jones, Jill G. Morawski, Matthew M. Kurtz, Jessica Pollard, Gerrit Ian Van Schalkwyk, Vinrod Srihari

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

Mounting evidence has indicated that early intervention leads to improved clinical and functional outcomes for young persons experiencing recent onset psychosis. As part of a large early detection campaign, the present study aimed to investigate subjective experiences during the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), or time between psychosis onset and treatment contact. Participants were 10 young adults participating in early intervention services for psychosis. After DUP was estimated during standardized baseline assessment, participants engaged in qualitative interviews focused on their life experiences prior to treatment and leading up to the present. Mixed methods data analyses compared standardized DUP estimates with …

Grassroots Branding: An Exploration Of Grassroots Businesses Within The Florida Skateboard Community, Lawrence M. Shaw

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Why do original/grassroots branding efforts occurring on a local level continue to proliferate despite the existing market saturation created by larger corporate entities? Using existing theoretical frameworks associated with “do it yourself” (DIY) culture, this thesis explores cultures and themes associated with skateboarding, including the production and consumption of brands of skateboarding products; the use of space and spatiality by skateboarders; and, finally, changes in skateboarding. I conducted ethnographic interviews within a network of skateboard entrepreneurs in the Florida skateboard community, seeking to understand why they start brands, their perceptions of their entrepreneurial efforts, and how these businesses operate. Drawing …

A Phenomenological Approach To Clinical Empathy: Rethinking Empathy Within Its Intersubjective And Affective Contexts, Carter Hardy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to the philosophy of empathy and biomedical ethics by drawing on phenomenological approaches to empathy, intersubjectivity, and affectivity in order to contest the primacy of the intersubjective aspect of empathy at the cost of its affective aspect. Both aspects need to be explained in order for empathy to be accurately understood in philosophical works, as well as practically useful for patient care in biomedical ethics.

In the first chapter, I examine the current state of clinical empathy in medicine including professional opinions about empathy, the dominant definition being employed, and the problems that arise from this definition. …

The Statue That Houses The Temple: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Western Embodiment Towards The Making Of Heidegger's Missing Connection With The Greeks, Michael Arvanitopoulos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much of the criticism Heidegger has drawn from realism, from postmodernism and even existentialism, as well from the anti-Nazi protests on his philosophy, could be diluted if a defaulted connection was made between Heidegger's metaphysics and the Greeks. Being and Time drafted the blueprint of the origin of predication and world-disclosure from the primordial intuition of the limitations of action in the face of human finitude. This existential reprioritization forced a radical reversal of primacy from nature to culture, having assumed the absolute objectivity of some original world determinacy, the phenomenological structure of which, nevertheless, was never produced in Heidegger’s …

Direct-To-Consumer Messaging: A Phenomenological Examination Of Dtc Best Practices, Nicholas Dominick Fancera

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is designed as the building of a foundation in standardizing best practices when designing Direct-to-Consumer messaging. With this being a new and expanding field of marketing and advertising for the high visibility pharmaceutical industry, an establishment of conceptual templature, around which Direct-to-Consumer messaging campaign can be built, offers an opportunity to build a new and vibrant branch on the well-established messaging field. This is particularly important when recognizing the unique needs and requirements of both the pharmaceutical industry and its audience in learning of and about new products.

This study attempted to identify current perception of Direct-to-Consumer practices …

Chemistry Graduate Teaching Assistants' Experiences In Academic Laboratories And Development Of A Teaching Self-Image, Todd Adam Gatlin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a prominent role in chemistry laboratory instruction at research based universities. They teach almost all undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses. However, their role in laboratory instruction has often been overlooked in educational research. Interest in chemistry GTAs has been placed on training and their perceived expectations, but less attention has been paid to their experiences or their potential benefits from teaching.

This work was designed to investigate GTAs' experiences in and benefits from laboratory instructional environments. This dissertation includes three related studies on GTAs' experiences teaching in general chemistry laboratories. Qualitative methods were used for each …

Reading Assessment Practices Of Elementary General Education Teachers: A Descriptive Study, Sarah Mirlenbrink Bombly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this descriptive study, I researched five elementary general education teachers' reading assessment practices as they worked within the context of IDEA (2004), NCLB (2002) and Response to Intervention (RTI). My own connection to the classroom and reading assessment practices brought me to this research. I presented my personal and professional connection through vignettes about my own classroom assessment practices. Relevant literature on both the context and culture of assessment were pertinent to this research.

I used a qualitative design, specifically, Colaizzi's (1978) method of phenomenological analysis. Data were three in-depth phenomenological interviews, relevant documents and artifacts, and use of …

Embodying Social Practice: Dynamically Co-Constituting Social Agency, Brian W. Dunst

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Theories of cognition and theories of social practices and institutions have often each separately acknowledged the relevance of the other; but seldom have there been consistent and sustained attempts to synthesize these two areas within one explanatory framework. This is precisely what my dissertation aims to remedy. I propose that certain recent developments and themes in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, when understood in the right way, can explain the emergence and dynamics of social practices and institutions. Likewise, the view I construct explains how social practices and institutions shape the character of cognition of their constituent agents. Moreover, …

The Perspectives Of Graduate Students With Visual Disabilities: A Heuristic Case Study, Luis Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concept of liminality describes the experiences of individuals who live "between and betwixt" as a result of their indeterminate status in society. This concept seems appropriate to describe the experiences of people who live with vision loss, because we simultaneously belong to two social or cultural groups. On the one hand we must navigate the mainstream society in which we live day to day, which we are often able to do with the vision we have left. On the other hand, our disability sets us apart from that mainstream society. This idea of living in "between and betwixt" the …

Good Men Grow Corn: Embodied Ecological Heritage And Health In A Belizean Mopan Community, Kristina Linda Baines

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent developments in land rights and land use in the Toledo district, Belize has generated anthropological and activist interest surrounding traditional ecological knowledge and practice, and the role of heritage in communities. This study explores the connection between ecological knowledge and practices, and the concurrent construction of heritage, and community health and wellness, broadly defined. Developing and using the concept of "embodied ecological heritage," this dissertation takes a phenomenological approach to understanding the convergence of ecological heritage and health in multiple realms of everyday life, arguing that lived experience of participating in "traditional" practices is fundamentally connected to wellness in …

Understanding Involuntary Job Loss Among Former Newspaper Staff Photographers, Ryan K. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines former newspaper photographers' experience with being laid-off from their staff positions. The purpose was to identify emerging themes within the context of involuntary job loss, job satisfaction, and occupational identity via interviews with 8 photojournalists who experienced the phenomenon of being laid-off. The newspaper industry has long been considered both the starting point for young and aspiring photojournalism careers and the most consistent and stable venue for an income. Yet recent changes in the media landscape, particularly economic stress on traditional business models and rapid adoption of digital technology sway the occupational future of photojournalism within newsrooms. …

Listening In Action: Students' Mobile Music Experiences In The Digital Age, Rebecca Marie Rinsema

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the introduction of the iPod in 2001, portable music listening devices that play or stream compressed music files have steadily become the standard devices used to listen to music. Despite this, few music education researchers have investigated the role that such devices have in shaping students' music listening experiences. This dissertation is meant to fill that gap in the literature and contribute to the existing sociological and psychological literature on music listening in everyday life.

Phenomenology served as the theoretical framework for the design of the study. 10 college students from three institutions underwent iterative interviews and were asked …

A Case Study Of Selected Female Elementary School Leaders' Perspectives On The, Julie D. Hasson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The transition from the comfort of a familiar role, that of teacher, to the discomfort of a new role, that of school administrator, is a transformative process. Transforming oneself requires leaving what is known and venturing into the unknown. Researchers have illuminated women's struggle to attain school leadership positions, but the transformation of females making this change in professional roles is seldom addressed in leadership literature. Although context cannot be ignored, there are some challenges common to many women undergoing this transformation.

Situated in the elementary education setting, this study investigated the perspectives of female, early-career administrators who recently experienced …

Interpreting With "All Possible Caution, On Mental Tiptoe": Nabakov's Post-Romantic Renewal Of Perception In Lolita, Curtis Donald Le Van

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although presenting the concept of love in a form not accepted by societal conventions does indeed estrange the conception of love in Nabakov's Lolita, it does nothing to explain how readers accept Humbert's passion, without immediately and consistently disregarding it as lewd and inappropriate. I will argue that Nabakov estranges the romantic conceptions not by defamiliarizing the occasion of love (i.e. by making the romance a manifestation of pedophilia), but rather by defamiliarizing and complicating the acts of both reading and interpreting. First, I will make associations between the Romantics and Nabokov, regarding their shared desire to renew the habitual …

A Narrative Study Of Perspectives Of Puerto Rican Doctoral Graduates, Doreen Rivera Rapp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A review of the literature indicates that Latinos lag behind Whites and Blacks in college degree attainment. This educational disparity is of concern because Latinos are currently the largest minority group in the United States, and the Latino population is expected to increase exponentially in the future. College degree attainment for Latinos is imperative because statistics show an undeniable relationship between degree attainment and income level. In order to ensure the economic wellbeing of Latinos, it is important that Latinos persist through college degree programs. This is especially true for Puerto Ricans because they are the second largest Latino subgroup. …

The Lived School Experiences Of A Select Group Of Female Adolescents Labeled Emotionally/Behaviorally Disordered, Anna Robic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Being a female and having a disability has been referred to as 'double jeopardy' (Wehmeyer & Schwartz, 2001). However research in the area of disabilities has either focused on the specific disability as a whole (i.e. research on learning disabilities or behavior disorders) or on mostly males (i.e. interventions in a classroom made up predominantly of boys). Researchers have pointed out that the school experiences for typical males and females are different as is the development of the two genders (Proctor & Choi, 1994). However in disability studies, the gender issue is seldom addressed (Deschler, 2005; Oswald, Best, Coutinho & …

Manifestations Of Hidden Curriculum In A Community College Online Opticianry Program: An Ecological Approach, Barry Hubbard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the influential factors at work within an online learning environment is a growing area of interest. Hidden or implicit expectations, skill sets, knowledge, and social process can help or hinder student achievement, belief systems, and persistence. This qualitative study investigated how hidden curricular issues transpired in an online learning environment's institutional and organization systems using an ecological paradigm. A phenomenological approach rooted in a case study context was used to explore the experiences and perceptions of a group of students, faculty, and administrators involved with an online academic program (opticianry) at a community college. Interviews, non-participant observation, and a …

From Husserl And The Neo-Kantians To Art: Heidegger's Realist Historicist Answer To The Problem Of The Origin Of Meaning, William H. Koch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work I present both a historical and philosophical argument. First, I use Martin Heidegger's early interest in the argument that concepts are furnished to the mind directly by experience, as found in Edmund Husserl's categorial intuition and Emil Lask's principle of the material determination of form, to build an interpretation of Being and Time and "The Origin of the Work of Art" which provides a unified understanding of Heidegger's consistent underlying position throughout his career as one of realist historicism. My interpretation of Heidegger as a realist historicist rejects the reading of Being and Time as a transcendental …

Minding The Gap: What It Is To Pay Attention Following The Collapse Of The Subject-Object Distinction, S West Gurley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary studies of the phenomenon of attention uncritically suppose that the only way to go about observing attention is as a modification of consciousness. Consciousness is taken to be always intentional, i.e., distinguished by reference to an object-whether physical or not-toward which it is directed. Observers of attention therefore assume that attention is an intentional modification of consciousness. Such practices of observation, in virtue of the kinds of practices that they are, take for granted that the fundamental constituents of reality are subjects and objects. Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger (and Maurice Merleau-Ponty after them) discovered that belief in the …

Opening A World From Categorial Intuition To Art, William Koch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My purpose, broadly construed, is a simple one; to interpret Heidegger's "The Origin of the Work of Art" in the light of his early work on the nature of phenomenology and philosophy. My method will therefore be to present certain key elements of Heidegger's early understanding of phenomenology and philosophy, and then to trace these elements, and certain challenges which arise from them, into their development in Being and Time. Following this I will enquire into how these considerations should guide our interpretations of "The Origin of the Work of Art" and evaluate how "The Origin of the Work …

Community College Transfer Students' Experiences Of The Adjustment Process To A Four Year Institution: A Qualitative Analysis, Karen R. Owens

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today's mobile student population follows diverse paths. This research presents findings from a qualitative study investigating the perceptions of transfer students while they were actively engaged in the transfer process. Fifty-seven incoming community college transfer students (n=57) were interviewed, in a large metropolitan area, through e-journaling during fall 2006 (while students were still attending community colleges) and during spring 2007 (students' first semester of admission to the university).

The following research questions guided the study: What do transfer students perceive as a successful transfer process? From the transfer student's perspective, what supports are needed to accommodate a successful transfer process? …

Discourse And Disconnect: Black Teachers And The Quest For National Board Certification, Paula J. Leftwich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Discourse and Disconnect: Black Teachers and the Quest for National Board Certification Paula J. Leftwich ABSTRACT Black teachers have been under-represented proportionate to their presence in the teaching population in both the application for and achievement of certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. This study sought to explore the possibility of a disconnect between the discourses of Black teachers and the discourses of the National Board Certification process. Further, it was designed to investigate the effectiveness of targeted mentoring strategies to increase the participation rate and achievement rate of Black teachers in this complex and lengthy process. …

Finding My Voice: Adolescent Girls’ Experiences With Speaking Up And How Recounting These Experiences Impacts Future Expression, Deborah A. Cihonski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the meaning of the Expression of Voice experience in adolescent girls using an existential-phenomenological interview approach and also to explore the impact of participation in an interview session talking about Voice. Two open-ended interviews were conducted. During the first interview, participants are asked to "Please think of a specific time when you had something important to say, and although it was difficult, you did speak up and say what you thought. In as much detail as possible, describe that experience." During the second interview, each girl was asked if she "... feel[s] …