Digital Commons Network^™

Knowledge, Physician Communication, And Psychological Predictors Of Willingness To Engage In Dementia Risk Reduction Across The Lifespan, Thomas Fisher

Dissertations

Dementia represents a growing global public health concern, with increasing evidence suggesting that a substantial portion of dementia risk may be attributable to modifiable lifestyle and health-related factors. However, relatively little is known about public knowledge of these risk factors, willingness to engage in dementia risk reducing behaviors, and psychological factors that may be associated with willingness. The present study examines these factors among adults living in the United States across the lifespan. Participants (N = 308) completed an anonymous online survey assessing dementia risk-factor knowledge, willingness to engage in dementia risk reducing behaviors, primary care provider communication regarding dementia …

The Weight We Carry: An Arts-Based Narrative Screenplay Of Academically Successful African American Male Students, Freddie Mcgee

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine, understand, and creatively represent the stories of African American male college students from low-income backgrounds who were raised by single parents and were academically successful. Guided by the overarching research question — What are the stories of academically successful African American male college students from lowincome homes who single parents raised? — The study sought to understand how participants navigated institutional racism and systemic barriers while achieving academic success, and how they resisted deficit-based stereotypes and expectations in higher education.

This study employed a critical, arts-based, qualitative narrative inquiry approach grounded in …

Black Adolescents' Understanding Of Racial Trauma: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Winifred Wilson

Dissertations

Over the past two decades, scholars have increasingly recognized that chronic stress from racism can cause racial trauma in Black individuals. However, research on the impact of racial trauma on Black adolescents remains limited. Understanding the language and experiences of Black adolescents is essential for identifying and addressing the biopsychosocial effects of racial trauma. This study used interpretive phenomenological analysis to examine how 12 Black adolescents (9 boys, 3 girls, aged 14-17) from the Midwest conceptualize, experience, and cope with racial trauma. Participants completed two interviews: an initial session exploring their understanding and experiences, and a member-checking interview (completed by …

Analysis Of A Process-Based Approach To Case Formulation And Treatment With Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Callum Smith

Dissertations

Process-Based Therapy (PBT) is a novel approach to clinical research and practice. PBT is proposed as an alternative model to classic diagnostic frameworks. It emphasizes conceptualizing psychological problems through adaptive and maladaptive processes of change. The aim of current PBT research is to develop reliable methods of organizing change processes into network models. In network models, change processes are presented in nodes connected by lines and arrows to represent the interacting relationships between those processes for a given individual. The present project aims to evaluate the inter-rater reliability and predictive validity of a novel semi-structured interview method to aid in …

Mechanism Of Hypothiocyanous Acid Reductase, Morgan L. Fowler

Masters Theses

Hypothiocyanous acid reductase (Har) is a flavin-dependent enzyme that is effective in protecting bacteria from hypothiocyanous acid. HOSCN is an antimicrobial oxidant that is excreted by the mammalian innate immune system during inflammation, targeting and attacking thiols in pathogens. To combat HOSCN, bacteria have developed defense systems, including hypothiocyanous acid reductase. The catalytic mechanism by which Har interacts with its substrates, HOSCN and NADH, is undetermined and requires exploration.

In this study, we characterized the reductive and oxidative half-reactions of E. coli Har (EcHar). We first investigated and characterized wild-type EcHar, showing that Har is extremely efficient in reacting with …

A Pedagogical “Eras” Tour: Thirteen Years Of Evolving As A Writing Methods Instructor [Special Issue], Susanna Benko

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

ABSTRACT: This reflective essay uses Taylor Swift's Eras Tour as a conceptual framework for examining thirteen years of teaching a writing methods course for preservice teachers. Drawing on longitudinal reflection, I identify four distinct pedagogical eras in my practice, each representing shifts in how I conceptualize what preservice teachers need to learn about teaching writing and how clinical experiences shape that learning. Through this extended reflection, I argue that meaningful pedagogical change becomes visible only across time, not semester-to-semester. Key insights include the sustained centrality of writing practice in methods courses and the influence of institutional changes on course design. …

"We Can't Shut The Classroom Door": Crossing Borderlands Of Practice In The Writing Methods Course, Vanessa C. Sullivan

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article shares the findings of a qualitative study that engaged ten writing teacher educators from across the United States in interviews, curriculum submission, and a mapping practice to explore the ways that they perceive and enact the teaching of the writing methods course within dynamic and complex settings. Using a conceptual framework of borderlands of practice to gain insight into the discourses and value systems that surround the course, findings revealed the overlapping domains that impact the preparation of teachers in the field of writing, the key values that guide the way that participants approach their teaching, and the …

Teaching (In) Community: Reflection And Relationship In The Writing Methods Course, Kristie Jolley, Emily Stephens Kasper, Meridith Reed

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, three writing teachers, one a writing teacher educator, reflect on how the writing methods course has shaped their work as teachers and helped them build community and identify resources to adapt to new teaching contexts and challenges.

Our Journeys As Teachers Of Writing: Learning From Our Mentor, Tracey T. Flores, Cecilia Espinosa

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Written in two voices, we reflect on our journeys as teachers of writing and teacher educators shaped by transformative mentoring in literacy methods courses at Arizona State University and community embedded learning at William T. Machan School. Weaving together sociocultural and translanguaging theories, we explore how being invited to write from our lives reshaped our identities as writers and educators. In our work, we draw on strength-based approaches to teaching writers that centers voice, meaning making, multilingualism, and funds of knowledge. In the midst of an increase in the use of a scripted curriculum, we argue for reclaiming writing as …

Writing Workshop Methods Course As Catalysts For Long-Term Pedagogical Identity: A Co-Authored Narrative Of Resonance, Resilience, And Effects, Elsie L. Olan Dr., M.Priscilla Develder

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Writing workshop methods courses introduce teachers to foundational practices for teaching writing, yet their long-term influence on teacher identity and instructional decision-making often remains underexamined. This co-authored narrative explores how experiences within a graduate-level writing workshop shaped the pedagogical development of two educators: a professor who designed and facilitated the course and a former graduate student who went on to teach English Language Arts (ELA) in both elementary and higher education settings. Drawing on a 60-hour shadowing experience, the narrative analyzes classroom observations, reflective writing, and dialogic exchanges to illuminate three central themes: resonance, resilience, and effects that demonstrate how …

Strengthening Our Pedagogy Together: A Methods Instructor And Her Former Student Partner To Promote Agency In The Secondary Writing Classroom [Special Issue], Michael Rojas, Kate Sjostrom

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In many English classrooms today, writing instruction is reduced to templates and formulas, robbing students of agency, voice, and transferable skills. This article describes a collaboration between a writing methods course instructor and one of her former students bent on proving that what they believe makes for solid writing instruction—a sometimes messy process involving choice and authentic purpose and audience—works. Documenting development of a new secondary writing course and a project to introduce the course’s methods to pre-service teachers, the authors recount barriers they encountered, strategies they developed for overcoming them, and issues they are still grappling with. In the …

“Ummm I Don’T Know If I Took A Writing Methods Course”: Learning From In-Service Teachers Revisiting The Methods Course, Christina Saidy, Isabelle Alize Meza, Talia Baca

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article two teachers and their writing methods professor explore the challenges of the traditional methods course. In sharing the teachers’ experiences of retaking the methods course, they argue for the need to consider ways that practicing teachers can revisit the methods course to develop sustainable practices for the teaching of writing in secondary schools.

The Good Ghosts Of Process And Models: What Endures From The Composition Methods Course [Special Issue], Rebecca Powell, Jonathan Rivera, Heather Serpas

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines how secondary English teachers understand and implement writing pedagogy in their classrooms years after completing a writing methods course. Through reflective interviews and written responses from teachers in their fifth through seventh years of practice, we explore the tensions between pedagogical ideals learned in teacher preparation and the institutional pressures of contemporary schooling. Key themes include the influence of standardized testing on writing instruction, the challenge of maintaining process-oriented approaches amid curriculum standardization, and the ways teachers adapt their methods course learning to their specific school contexts.

What Are You Writing? The Hopes And Hurdles Of Transitioning From Writing Methods To Teaching Writing, Rebekah Buchanan, Darrin G. Ross

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This co-authored piece examines how the writing methods course impacts teaching and thinking about writing through the lenses of a writing methods professor and a former student/current teacher. In writing and thinking together we found that a mutual grounding in liberatory education, using writing as a tool for social action and critical thinking, and teaching writing as a political act we see how the writing methods course and the relationships built through writing create a basis for future decision making and inspiration in the high school classroom.

“I Want To Teach That Way”: What We Learn In A Writing Methods Class [Special Issue], Brad Jacobson, Ana S. Muñoz, Paola Vianney Trevizo

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this dialogic essay, a teacher educator and two early career teachers discuss the influence of a writing methods course on their pedagogy in practice. The conversation focuses on a digital testimonio task that instilled values the early career teachers continue to bring to their teaching, including an expanded conception of what counts as writing and a critical, humanizing approach to literacy education. Moreover, the challenges they experienced as preservice teachers when composing a digital text helped them to see the value of a scaffolded writing process, demonstrating the value of experiential learning. While the digital testimonio project itself was …

Everyone Is A Writer: Building Writer Identities And Writing Communities In Preservice And English Language Arts Classrooms, Amber Warrington, Hanna Burns, Allie Zimmerly

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, a teacher educator and two early-career teachers reflect on a Teaching Writers methods course the teachers took as part of their teacher education program. In the course, the two teachers developed their own writer identities and took part in a writing community. The teachers discuss ways they have brought those experiences into their classrooms and adapted the experiences for their students and contexts.

Expertise, Ideals, And The Ecology Of Learning To Teach: A Conversation About The Transition From The Writing Methods Course To Student Teaching [Special Issue], Jessica Rivera-Mueller, Josie Clark

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Writing pedagogy educators need approaches for designing the writing methods course in ways that will make a positive impact on practicing teachers’ decision-making. In this article, the co-authors—a writing pedagogy educator and a former student—address this need by providing a reflective conversation about the former student’s transition from the writing methods course to the student teaching experience. Together, the co-authors explore the extent to which a hands-on learning experience built into the writing methods course (designing and hosting an online writing competition for middle and high school students) impacted the former student’s experience of teaching writing as a student teacher. …

Writing From Our Lives: From Reading Like Writers To Personal Narrative Writing, Julianna Kershen, Sarah Relja, David Mackowski, Grace Rhodes

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article describes the design and use of writing opportunities for preservice teacher candidates enrolled in English Language Arts education coursework. Based in the practice-based teacher education principle that preparatory coursework include implementation activities, we describe how preservice candidates engaged in the study of writer’s craft through immersion in mentor texts through close reading, annotation, and free response writing. This article highlights the benefits of such opportunities for preservice teacher-writers, as they (re)see themselves as active writers and reflect on their personal writing histories. Three preservice candidates share their writing as a means of celebrating their own beliefs and experiences …

From Prompts To Invitations: Rethinking The Genre Of The Writing Assignment Sheet, Amber Jensen, Annika Peacock

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, a university-based teacher educator and a first-year middle school ELA teacher examine how their experiences in the writing methods course (as teacher and student) unsettled and expanded their thinking about assignment sheets and about themselves as teacher-writers. The course prompted questions about how ELA teachers might craft assignments that modeled rhetorically-relevant writing while also eliciting rhetorically-relevant writing from student-writers. The authors describe the genre inquiry they conducted that led to developing a heuristic for writing prompts as invitations that they have used to guide their own assignment sheet creation. Finally, they reflect briefly on how reframing this …

From Corrector To Reader: Pre-Service Teachers’ Writing Values And Feedback, Amanda Brewer

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study investigates the written feedback practices of secondary English Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to understand how their values regarding "good" writing influence their comments on student work. Through analysis of feedback on 10th-grade writing samples and value-sorting surveys, the study examines their feedback tendencies and the links with their values. Findings indicate a significant shift over the semester from a directive, deficit-based "corrector" stance to a facilitative, asset-based "reader" stance. The data suggests that when PSTs lack specific metalinguistic language, they default to generic advice or mechanical correction. However, when instructed to align their feedback with their core writing values, …

Building A Foundation: Preservice Teachers' Exploration Of Writing Studies - Special Issue, Ellen Shelton

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines the Concept Exploration Essay assignment in a writing studies course that encourages PSTs to explore and question writing theories as they connect to their own experiences and understandings. The focus of the course is to develop an understanding of the self as a writer and as a future writing teacher through practical application of composition theory. Students are invited into the Burkean Parlor and enter the conversation as scholars. The students explore, question, and trouble complex writing theories in a dialogic classroom. PSTs leave the course empowered with the knowledge they can allow their future students the …

Introduction: Echoes, Effects, And Resonance: Examining The Writing Methods Course, Elizabeth Thackeray Nelson, Erinn Bentley, Jonathan E. Bush

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

National Research Center On Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

National Research Center on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Bridging The Gap: Critical Resources For Grandparent Caregivers And Their Grandchildren, Kathy Dial, Cara Tonn, Omotomilola Jegede, Cindy Kekeh, Loriena Yancura, Michele Kekeh

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

US population estimates indicate that approximately 2.5 million children live apart from both parents. Family relatives, often called kinship caregivers, care for 70% to 90% of these children, with grandparents making up the largest category (Radel et al., 2016). This study aimed to identify the most helpful resources and sources for grandparent caregivers to support the overall well-being of their families. Phone or Zoom interviews were conducted among a purposive sample of 24 grandparent caregivers from February to March 2022 to examine their initial experiences as caregivers, the current support services and resources they received, and other resources and services …

Kinship Caregivers Feel More Satisfied With Services And Better Supported With A Kinship Navigator, Berenice R. Rushovich, Kristin Sepulveda Muñoz, Brittany Mihalec-Adkins, Brooke Derrick, Karin Malm

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Kinship caregivers caring for children often lack access to services and supports they need to stabilize their families. Other kinship navigator programs have been shown to improve child permanency, child safety, child wellbeing, and adult wellbeing. This study evaluated Kinnections, a kinship navigator program provided by Wayfinder Family Services, operating since 2007 in seven counties in Northern California. Using propensity score matching, 116 kinship caregivers receiving Kinnections services were matched with 116 kinship caregivers in neighboring counties with no kinship navigator services available. The matched sample showed strong baseline equivalence on key caregiver, child, and household factors. Findings showed …

Montana Kinship Navigator Program: A Statewide Frontier Initiative Promoting Kinship Family Health And Wellness, Daniel J. Koltz Dr., Peyton Vining, Yu Jiang

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This practice brief report describes the development, implementation, and new updates of the Montana Kinship Navigator Program (MTKNP), a statewide initiative designed to support kinship caregivers in a large, rural frontier context. Montana’s geographic isolation, limited infrastructure, and sparse population create significant barriers for kinship families, including restricted access to healthcare, transportation, childcare, and social services. These challenges are compounded when caregivers unexpectedly assume responsibility for children, often with limited resources and support. MTKNP addresses these gaps through a comprehensive, evidence-informed model that integrates information and referral services with individualized case management. The program serves both formal and informal kinship …

Vietnamese Grandparents' Caregiving Experiences For Grandchildren Impacted By Hiv/Aids: An Ethnographic Study, Lesley M. Harris, Nguyen D. Thang, Linh Thuy Nguyen

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This ethnographic study explores the caregiving experiences of grandparents in northern Vietnam who are raising grandchildren impacted by HIV/AIDS. Specifically, what is the process of skipped-generation caregiving in families affected by HIV/AIDS in Vietnam? Data were collected between 2009 and 2011 through participant observation and in-depth interviews with 26 grandparent caregivers and eight key informants. Informed by the Caregiving Career framework as a sensitizing concept and using constructivist grounded theory analytic strategies, the study identifies four interconnected caregiving phases shaped by cultural expectations, stigma, and intergenerational disruption. Through fieldwork and analysis, we found that grandparents drew from previous and current …

The Health And Well-Being Of Grandparents Who Report Major Responsibilities For Grandchildren: Perceived Physical Health, Depressive Affect, And Life Satisfaction, Tze-Li Hsu Phd, Patricia Drentea Phd

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This study examines how grandparents who report major responsibilities for their grandchildren experience perceived physical health, depressive affect, and life satisfaction compared to grandparents who do not report these responsibilities. Using data from the third wave of MIDUS (2013–2014), a nationally representative dataset focused on mid to later life (n = 1,819), we analyzed a sample of grandparents. Ordered logistic regression was used for perceived physical health, and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used for depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Results indicate that grandparents with caregiving responsibilities are more likely to be women, non-White, and have lower incomes and …

From Strangers To Family: Fostering Resilience Through Social Support In Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren, Nancy Mendoza

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Grandparents often unexpectedly assume the role of caregiver with little support. Supporting these caregivers is critical for their health and well-being and that of their grandchildren. This study examines how family-like relationships formed during the GC+ intervention, increasing social support and resilience among grandparent caregivers. Four grandmothers, raising a total of five grandsons, participated in a focus group six months post-intervention. Grandmothers were asked to share their opinions and thoughts regarding the intervention. Using the Convoy Model and Resilience Theory, researchers conducted a deductive content analysis of participants’ perspectives on close family-like relationships cultivated during the intervention. Findings suggest close …

About The Editorial Team

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

About the Editorial Team