Digital Commons Network^™

The Just Host: Addressing The Wage Structure Problem In The Tourism Industry, Bill Farley

Theses and Dissertations

Since the early 1990’s, tourism development has been promoted to replace employment lost to downsizing, outsourcing and automation in both urban and rural America. These efforts are actively supported by state and local chambers of commerce. However, despite the enthusiasm for tourism within city halls and business membership organizations, planning theorists have expressed concerns about the wage structure of the industry. Specifically, given the significant public investment in the industry, planners are being asked by some theorists to consider the distribution of economic benefits between labor and capital. This dissertation explores this issue and concludes with a study focused on …

An Exploration Of Teacher Residents’ Perception Of Culture And Their Use Of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Jodi Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Urban teacher residency (UTR) programs place residents in urban schools labeled “hard-to-staff” or “under-resourced.” Enrollment in residency schools tends to be majority Brown or Black students from various cultures. Teacher residents are from diverse backgrounds and races who have a commitment to teach in Title 1 schools with the support of a residency program that coaches them how to teach using culturally relevant pedagogy. Their journeys are unique from typical student teaching experiences because they co-teach with an experienced teacher for a full school year while attending university classes on pedagogy and theory. This qualitative case study followed seven elementary …

Owning Our Story: An Interior Exploration To Foster Self-Reflection, Hannah Bulow

Theses and Dissertations

With emerging technologies in the 21st century, Millennial and Gen Z adults have a complicated relationship with these new technologies when it comes to creating and sustaining personal relationships (Dalessandro, 2018). When persons aged 18-35 forged new relationships without the presence of technology, relationships were more organic, natural, and led to less conflicts. Neuroimaging of the brain has also shown that neurocognitive development during early adolescence and adulthood contributes to self-consciousness and vulnerability. Adolescents are called to develop their own identity separate from their parents and understanding how others are actually evaluating them (Sebastian, 2008)

Brene Brown states that most …

Theorizing #Girlboss Culture: Mediated Neoliberal Feminisms From Influencers To Multi-Level Marketing Schemes, Frankie Mastrangelo

Theses and Dissertations

I define girlboss feminism as emergent, mediated formations of neoliberal feminism that equate feminist empowerment with financial success, market competition, individualized work-life balance, and curated digital and physical presences driven by self-monetization. I look toward how the mediation of girlboss feminism utilizes branded and affective engagements with representational politics, discourses of authenticity and rebellion, as well as meritocratic aspiration to promote cultural interest in conceptualizing feminism in ways that are divorced from collective, intersectional struggle. I question the stakes involved in reducing feminist interrogations and commitments to discourses of representation, visibility, and meritocracy. I argue that while girlboss feminism may …

The Institute For Storytelling & Healthcare Design Research, Ruth E.P. Deibler

Theses and Dissertations

STORYTELLING, HEALTHCARE, INTERIOR DESIGN EDUCATION & GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH:

THE TRIFECTA OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE IN HEALTHCARE DESIGN

How Does Direct Volunteering Affect The Onset Of Alzheimer’S Dementia In Elderly Patients With Preexisting Cardiac Comorbidities?, Sneha R. Gade

UROP Posters

Alzheimer's Dementia is a disease that affects memory, thinking, and behavior. The Alzheimer's Association reported Alzheimer's as the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, and a cure does not exist. Donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor drug, is frequently prescribed to treat Alzheimer's disease. Still, patients must continuously take the medication for years to receive any measurable improvement in quality of life after developing Alzheimer's Dementia. Further, research shows prolonged use of Donepezil can lead to other health problems, such as QTc prolongation, for cardiac disease patients. Therefore, the effectiveness of non-drug interventions, such as volunteering to prevent the disease's …

Examining The Impact Of Entrepreneurship Training On Entrepreneurial Mindset And Economic Well-Being, Sombo Muzata

Theses and Dissertations

This study used a mixed methods research design to examine the impact of entrepreneurship training on entrepreneurial mindset and economic well-being using the RVA Works Entrepreneurship Training Program as a case study. With human capital theory as a theoretical framework, a combination of 55 interviews and 36 surveys were used to answer the research questions. The study found that entrepreneurship training positively impacts an entrepreneurial mindset. The impact of the training on entrepreneurial mindset differed by participants age and educational level. Study participants applied their entrepreneurial mindset to their businesses, jobs, and other aspects of life. Participation in the program’s …

Breaking The Cycle: A Longitudinal Study Of Factors That Disrupt Peer Selection And Influence Processes Among Urban Youth, Kelly E. Oconnor

Theses and Dissertations

Having friends who engage in problem behavior (i.e., aggression, substance use, delinquency) has consistently been linked to adolescents’ own engagement in problem behavior. There are, however, several key gaps in the literature on peer influence. Few studies have considered the influence of friends’ prosocial behavior and there has been limited research to identify promotive factors that influence urban youths’ affiliation with peers who engage in problem and prosocial behavior across early adolescence, a time of heightened susceptibility to peer influence. The purpose of this study was to identify modifiable promotive factors that reduce adolescents’ problem behavior by decreasing exposure to …

Threat Assessment Team Activity And Outcomes In K-12 Public Schools: Integrating Methods To Better Understand School Safety, Jessica C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The use of threat assessment teams in schools is recommended as a violence prevention measure in K-12 public schools. The present study focused on the threat assessment process in the K-12 environment in Virginia and is the first to examine the association between threat assessment and school safety in tandem over time and the first to incorporate the views of K-12 threat assessment practitioners. Findings from this study demonstrate that while the number of threat assessments has increased overtime, threat assessment practitioners identified numerous concerns regarding threat assessment training, expressed doubts about fidelity to the recommended process, and revealed an …

The Importance Of Connection: Contributions Of Relationships With Fathers And Connections To School To Delinquent Behavior And Positive Youth Development, Colleen S. Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

Risk-taking and boundary pushing are hallmarks of adolescent behavior, making the identification of promotive and protective factors related to both delinquent behavior and positive adolescent functioning essential. Previous studies have provided compelling evidence that suggests aspects of familial relationships may successfully attenuate delinquent behavior and support positive functioning outcomes. Despite these findings, the father-adolescent relationship is understudied in association with these outcomes. The current study examined relations between adolescents’ perception of school connectedness and father-adolescent relationship quality and delinquent behavior and positive adolescent functioning outcomes. This study used data collected when youth were nine and fifteen years old from the …

Associations Between Social Determinants Of Health And Chlamydia Infections Among Georgia Counties, Bre'auna K. Beasley

Theses and Dissertations

Chlamydia is a growing public health concern that disproportionately impacts southern states. While social determinants of health are not direct causes of chlamydia infections, studies have found that these determinants do influence infections by creating environments that promote or hinder health seeking behaviors, as well as exposure to risk factors. Guided by the Social Ecological Model of Public Health and the Healthy People 2030 Social Determinants of Health Conceptual Framework, this dissertation study aimed to examine the associations between social determinants of health and chlamydia infections among Georgia counties. This study employed a correlational research design. Aggregate-level secondary data for …

First-Year Retention At Virginia Commonwealth University: Understanding Student Departure And The Potential Impact Of Academic Advising, Ben Plache

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines first-year enrollment at Virginia Commonwealth University to determine what factors are associated with an increased likelihood of a student not being retained, and for which of these factors there is evidence that academic advising is an effective intervention. A survey of common retention models identified six factors associated with retention likelihood: student background prior to enrollment (“pre-enrollment factors”), financial support, institutional support, institutional performance, institutional engagement, and student intention. Prior research has shown that academic advising is an effective intervention for two of these factors: institutional performance and institutional support.

The significance of these factors was tested …

Socio-Ecological Predictors Of Social Connection Among Older Adults, Georganna Amateau

Theses and Dissertations

Decades of research has established an unequivocal link between states of social connection and health status. Lack of social connection, whether construed as social isolation or loneliness, negatively influences health and is highly associated with cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, fall risk, and premature death. Despite extensive research on social isolation and loneliness, evidence relative to the broader construct of social connection suffers. Few studies inform practice standards for community-based organizations. This study aimed to develop a multidimensional, continuous composite variable of social connection and use the composite variable to examine predictors with a socio-ecological lens.

A secondary data analysis …

The Relationships Between Adolescents’ Future Aspirations And Postsecondary Enrollment: Finite Mixture Models, Chu Yi Lu Qiu

Theses and Dissertations

This study took person-centered statistical approaches to explore the multidimensional construct of adolescents' future aspirations and its associations with three covariates (i.e., gender, race, and SES) and a binary, distal outcome measure, postsecondary enrollment. Fourteen survey items representing the multidimensionality of adolescents' future aspirations were extracted from two-waves of Educational Longitudinal Study:2002 student data. The multidimensionality or the latent construct of the adolescents' future aspirations were explored using two finite mixture models called latent class analysis (LCA) and latent transition analysis (LTA). Based on the students' response patterns on the fourteen indicators, three latent classes representing three levels of aspiration …

Feeling The Squeeze: The Association Between Multigeneration Caregiving And Informal Caregivers’ Health, Christine L. Patterson

Theses and Dissertations

While U.S. public policy and research has focused on the health needs of the aging population, less attention has been given to the consequences informal caregivers face caring for this generation. With the segment of the population aged 65 years or older growing rapidly, it is important to understand the factors that place informal caregivers at risk for poor health outcomes and health behaviors. Since multigeneration caregivers balance more personal, work, and caregiving demands than single-generation informal caregivers of older adults, they may be at higher risk for poor health outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the …

"Unite The Left": Contextualizing Bukharin's Abc Of Communism And Berkman's Abc Of Anarchism, David Hayter

Theses and Dissertations

In 1919, Nikolai Bukharin, the leading theoretician of the Bolshevik Party, published a manual entitled The ABC of Communism meant to put the governing ideology of the newly formed Soviet State into eminently readable terms. Alexander Berkman, a Russian Anarchist who strongly supported the October Revolution, became disillusioned with the new regime in 1921 and left the country. He later published his own tract entitled The ABC of Anarchism. This thesis pits these two theoretical works against each other as historical documents embodying the nature of leftist polemics that has characterized the movement since the dissolution of the First …

Lead Editor's Welcome, Cormac Behan

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Lead Editor's Welcome, Volume 6 Issue 3.

An Ecological Approach To Improving Reentry Programs For Justice-Involved African American Men, Precious Skinner-Osei, Peter Claudius Osei

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This article is a re-analysis of a previous study (please see https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2017.1402724). Considering the previous findings, in addition to the recent discussions around criminal justice reform, race, policing, and mental health in the United States, the data were reanalyzed using an updated version of QSR NVivo. The new findings revealed that reintegrating justice-involved African American men back into society requires reentry programs to utilize a different approach. Reentry programs must be constructed under the notion that the process involves multiple interrelated components that interact with larger systems outside the individual or organization's immediate control or organization advocating for them. …

Norwegian Prison Officers´ Perspectives On Professionalism And Professional Development Opportunities In Their Occupation, Helene Marie K. Eide, Kariane G. Westrheim

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Despite increasing attention towards education as a quality measure for correctional services, little research attention has been paid to the qualification and training of prison officers. This article investigates how Norwegian prison officers understand their own professionalism and opportunities for professional development in their occupation. The analysis reveals that prison officers regard professionalism in line with a core value of loyalty, and guiding principles of humanity and equality for incarcerated persons. Further, the analysis shows that prison officers express pride and job satisfaction in their profession, and satisfaction with their education. Still, several of the officers highlight the need for …

“Walls Are Put Up When Curiosity Ends”: Transformative Education In The Canadian Carceral Context, Samantha Mcaleese, Jennifer M. Kilty

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Prison education is often cited as the only redeeming experience in an otherwise cruel environment. While educational programs are found in prisons across Canada, they are often guided by philosophies of punishment, risk, and security rather than more transformative frameworks. In addition to prison staff and management who struggle to find value in education for education’s sake, the physical spaces in which learning takes place in prison also interfere with efforts at promoting agency and autonomy amongst incarcerated students. In this paper, we conceptualize the prison classroom as a performative space and demonstrate ways in which prison classrooms can become …

Teaching Humanities Research In Under-Resourced Carceral Environments, Kevin J. Windhauser

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Humanities courses make up a large portion of higher education courses offered in United States carceral facilities. However, many of these facilities lack the academic resources necessary to support the research assignments traditionally assigned in a humanities course, from research papers common in introductory courses to the undergraduate theses completed by many humanities majors. This paper outlines a case study in adapting a humanities research assignment to function in a prison lacking digital and physical research resources, with particular attention to the assignment’s potential to promote student confidence, independent learning, and autonomy. The author surveys the instructor’s role in promoting …

Commonwealth Times 2020-09-02

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Using Art To Trigger Memory, Intergenerational Learning, And Community, Thomas E. Keefe

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

Abstract: This article explores the use of art to trigger memory as an effective educational tool for discussion. The author is a regular guest speaker at an affluent retirement community. The attendees are highly educated and accomplished professionals with expansive and worldly lived experiences. Formally facilitating lifelong learning, however, is a special vocation and requires a secular shared praxis and other andragogical strategies. (Keywords: photographic history, community-building, shared praxis, memory).

Twenty-First Century B.I.T.C.H. Frameworks: Hip Hop Feminism Comes Of Age, Aria S. Halliday, Ashley N. Payne

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This special issue is dedicated to the bad bitches. The ratchet women. The classy women. The hood feminists. The “feminism isn’t for everybody” feminists. Those women, femmes, and girls who continuously (re)present and (re)construct Black girl/womanhood. The creatives, the innovators, the women that are “often imitated, but never duplicated.” This issue is dedicated to you and the ways in which you challenge us to (re)define what it means to be Black girls/women in this world and what it means to reclaim power over your own representation and images. This issue is for you, defined by you, and inspired by you.

“You’Re Almost In This Place That Doesn’T Exist”: The Impact Of College In Prison As Understood By Formerly Incarcerated Students From The Northeastern United States, Hilary Binda, Jill D. Weinberg, Nora Maetzener, Carolyn Rubin

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This qualitative study examines the immediate and lasting impact of liberal arts higher education in prison from the perspective of former college-in-prison students from the Northeastern United States. Findings obtained through semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated people are presented in the following three areas: self-confidence and agency, interpersonal relationships, and capacity for civic leadership. This study further examines former students’ reflections on the relationship between education and human transformation and begins to benchmark college programming with attention to the potential for such transformation. The authors identify four characteristics critical to a program’s success: academic rigor, the professor's respect for students, …

A Mathematical Model To Study The Crime Dynamics Spread Within Minority Communities, Maila Brucal-Hallare, Beatriz Cuartas, Anne Fernando, Ana Vivas-Barber

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Incarcerated Fathers’ Experiences In The Read To Your Child/Grandchild Program: Supporting Children’S Literacy, Learning, And Education, Esther Prins, Tabitha Stickel, Anna Kaiper-Marquez

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

In response to rising parental incarceration, some correctional facilities and outside organizations offer family literacy programs for parents in prison. However, research on these correctional education initiatives is scant. This paper uses qualitative data to analyze how 11 fathers in a rural Pennsylvania prison were involved in their children’s literacy, learning, and education before and during incarceration and through the Read to Your Child/Grandchild (RYCG) program. Before RYCG, most fathers had taken steps such as reading to children, teaching reading and math, attending parent-teacher conferences, helping with homework, and singing and rhyming—and then sought to continue supporting their children’s learning …

Centering Health Equity And Structural Racism In Health Sciences Curriculum, Lynn E. Pelco, Kevin A. Harris, Carolyn Watts, Lisa B. Webb

Publications from the Office of the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences

This paper overviews scientific evidence and some of the local Richmond, Virginia history related to structural racism and health disparities. The paper then describe recent demands for racial justice and curriculum transformation that have been made by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) health sciences students, faculty and community members as well as the action steps the university has taken to address these demands. The paper concludes by calling on VCU health sciences faculty members to take action in the following three ways: (a) by participating in professional conversations about the intersections of health equity, structural racism, and health sciences education, (b) …

School Segregation By Boundary Line In Virginia: Scope, Significance And State Policy Solutions, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kendra Taylor, Kimberly Bridges, Erica Frankenberg, Andrene Castro, Shenita Williams, Sarah Haden

Educational Leadership Publications

This research brief explores the landscape of school segregationrelated to boundary lines in Virginia and in key regions. It also analyzes common rezoning criteria and policies in a large sample of Virginia school divisions. The brief then provides a condensed overview of existing literature on school boundaries and segregation. Finally, it offers evidence-based recommendations for Virginia to combat the relationship between school-related boundaries and segregation.

Victim Silencing, Sexual Violence Culture, Social Healing: Inherited Collective Trauma Of World War Ii South Korean Military “Comfort Women”, Mijin Cho

VCU Phi Kappa Phi Award Winners

The unresolved reconciliation process for WWII South Korean military “comfort women” presents a case of nationally inherited collective trauma, in which South Koreans far removed in time and space from the historical tragedy feel its implications and obligations for reparations and social healing. In examining the South Korean comfort women redress movement and systemic concealment of WWII military sexual slavery, this study investigates a pattern of victim silencing, characterized by institutional patriarchy and ineffective government involvement, from 1945 to 2019. Following the South Korean government’s formal rejection of the 2015 agreement with Japan regarding a final and irreversible conclusion to …