Digital Commons Network^™

A Grounded Theory Exploration Of The Connection Between Stressful Life Events And Spiritual Identity For Women Leaders, Margaret A. Brunson

Dissertations

Much of the research related to the leadership of women relates to development through mentorship and the gaps or disparities that exists throughout various fields and disciplines. In the United States, women continue to be underrepresented in leadership, and those in leadership continue to struggle to find the balance between their work and lives. Not only are women having different leadership experiences from their male counterparts, they are also experiencing various life events that impact their experiences as leaders, as well as the spiritual and psycho-social dimensions of their lives. The spiritual identity of women leaders who work outside of …

Factors That Relate To Registered Nurses' Readiness For Interprofessional Learning In The Context Of Continuing Professional Development, Collette Williams

Dissertations

Today’s health-care professionals practice in a highly technological, multidisciplinary environment. In order to provide safe, effective, and high-quality patient care, collaboration is required among all professionals. Traditionally each profession has operated independently in regard to continued professional development. The purpose of this study was to assess practicing registered nurses’ readiness toward interprofessional learning in order to align learning with current practice.

Method. An ex post facto study design was used to gather data to examine if there is a relationship between variables of demographics and readiness for interprofessional learning. The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) assesses the readiness for …

The Impact Of Accreditation On The Teacher Education Curricula At Two Historically Black Colleges From 1920-1940, Denise J. Shaver

Dissertations

Problem. Many historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are experiencing major challenges in meeting accreditation requirements. Without good accreditation status they are in jeopardy of losing student enrollment and facing closure. Concern about accreditation has become a growing topic of interest within the African American higher education community. This study explored the topic by looking at some of the historical origins of the accreditation movement in HBCUs. It uses various experiences of two higher education organizations to detail some of the original challenges and the impact on HBCUs from regional accreditation. It focuses on HBCUs through the time period 1920-1940. …

Effects Of Cultural Awareness Training In Conjunction With An Established Bullying Prevention Program, Megan Kallie Polanin

Dissertations

While many school bullying prevention programs have been designed to thwart school bullying perpetration, victimization, and physical aggression, empirical support is limited. To date, few researchers have addressed bullying within the context of children's cultural systems, and cultural awareness training has not yet been utilized as a mechanism to decrease bullying behaviors in the context of school bullying prevention programs.

This study examined the utility of incorporating multicultural training aimed at reducing prejudice within the context of school bullying prevention programming efforts within a diverse educational setting. This researcher hypothesized that the addition of meaningful culture curriculum would further reduce …

Evaluation Of A Conceptual Model Of Student Retention At A Public Urban Commuter University, Hoa Khuong

Dissertations

A new conceptual model of student retention was developed and evaluated for first-year retention and for second-year retention of students at an urban, mid-western commuter university. The model captured the joint effects of academic engagement and environmental factors on academic performance and persistence of commuter students in their first two years of college attendance. The academic engagement and environmental factors incorporated into the model included: pre-college academic achievement, Deep Learning, Study Time per Week, College Math Readiness, Major Selection, Hours of Employment, receiving (or not receiving) a Pell Grant Award and Financial Concerns. Structural equation modeling techniques were utilized to …

Towards A Missiological Model For Worldview Transformation Among Adherents To African Traditional Religion In Yorubaland, Kelvin Okey Onongha

Dissertations

Seventh-day Adventist missions in the western region of Nigeria are a century old, yet reversion to pre-Christian practices such as divination and sorcery are reported, especially during periods of personal crises. This study sought to understand the influence of the traditional worldview on the practices of divination and sorcery and to develop a model that would move the Yoruba Adventists from dependence on these practices to a biblically shaped faith and praxis. A grounded theory approach was adopted for conducting this qualitative research. Data were collected from two focus group discussions and from face-to-face interviews with five pastors, five diviners, …

The Spirit Of The Lord And Obedience To God's Law : An Exegetical, Intertextual, And Theological Study Of Ezekiel 36:27, James Waita Mutua

Dissertations

Problem

In Ezek 36:27, God foretells that he will put his Spirit within his people and he will “do” so that Israel will obey his laws. Ezekiel 36:27 indicates a close relationship between the Spirit of God and Israel in observing the statutes and judgments of God in the Babylonian exile among the nations and after the exile. In this text, every major phrase and clause has varied interpretations or calls for further investigation. Not only do scholars have different interpretations of the verse, but also the English Bible versions vary in their translations. This leads to the following questions: …

The Pastor As Vital Link : A Study In How Seminary-Educated Pastors Engender Engagement With Scripture In Select Congregations, Jewel Gingerich Longenecker

Dissertations

Problem. The problem this study sought to address was the tendency of “ordinary readers” of Scripture to misuse the Bible on the one hand, or to give up reading it entirely, on the other hand. The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory that describes how seminary-educated pastors are successfully leading ordinary readers to informed, enthusiastic engagement with the Bible. The conceptual lenses through which research data were compared to literature in the field included teaching methodologies proposed by Wink, Blair, and Borsch.

Method. The study used a qualitative research design. It was field focused, utilized …

A Case Study Of The Leadership Program At Andrews University: Its Origins And Early Development As Reflected In Documents And Relics, Participant And Faculty Interviews, And Participant-Observation, 1994-2003, Priscilla Tucker

Dissertations

Purpose. The Leadership Program was established at Andrews University in 1994 as a non-traditional, competency-based, adult-oriented doctoral program. The purpose of this case study was to relate the story of the creation and development of the Leadership Program from 1994 through 2002 by examining the concepts incorporated into the program and the experiences of participants, faculty, and staff involved in the program during those years.

Method. Using a case-study approach, I have examined the conceptual development and procedural evolution of the Leadership Program at Andrews University from 1994 through 2002; that is, from the year of the program’s …

Toward Christian-Identity Response Theory : Exploring Identity, Spirituality, And Response To Adversity Among African American Males Placed At Risk, Charity Hannah Garcia

Dissertations

Problem: A lack of research integrating spiritual development as a central component of human development does not reflect an understanding of the whole person across multiple contexts throughout the life span. Such a limited-capacity view of African American males disproportionately disadvantaged, both historically and currently, has been detrimental. A theoretical model for how a relational journey with Christ may offer insights that lead to transformative practice in various educational settings.

Method: Constructivist grounded theory was utilized throughout this research process. Thirty-four African American males in three age groups (13-17; 18-25; 26+) who were placed at risk during adolescence and connected …

Urban Agriculture And Sustainability In Chicago, Matthew Hoffmann

Dissertations

Sustainability is increasingly informing the organization of urban life. In the past 15 years, cities have sought to alleviate the dual effects of environmental degradation and a changing economy by introducing sustainable development initiatives. Policy makers and environmental activists have often praised these efforts, pointing to the enhancement of quality of life, the mitigation of industrial pollution, and these initiatives' capacity to address poverty in a post-welfare state. Most popular depictions of the experiences of sustainability come from the perspective of white, middle class, college-educated volunteers and, increasingly, social entrepreneurs such as artisans, farmers, and other producers connected to "local" …

Social Media And Reflective Thinking: A Case Study Of Generation Y Business Students, Stacy Neier

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Just Water: A Feminist Catholic Response To The Commodification Of Water, Rachel Noelle Hart Winter

Dissertations

Any Catholic ecological ethic today that does not focus sustained attention to our worldwide water crisis is inadequate, for it fails to engage one of today's core social justice violations and neglects to offer any moral guidance for one of the human family's most pressing challenges. A responsible Catholic approach to water justice that addresses the problems stemming from a commodified view of water must be informed by ecofeminist concerns and by the Catholic social justice tradition of moral reasoning. As populations grow and water sources run dry, access to water has become a pressing ethical issue. Today, nearly one …

Life Course Narratives From U.S. Expatriates: Continuity Work, Victoria L. Russo

Dissertations

This qualitative, exploratory research examined the American life course through narrative accounts of twenty, former expatriates. All participants had lived and worked in another country for a minimum of at least one year before returning to the US. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted between April 2011 and June 2012. Interviews were unstructured and lasted between 1-2 hours.

Participants in this study were well-educated, middle class professionals with highly desirable skills. Yet, despite the flexibility that privileged status bestowed, participants maintained normative life course patterns. Families were instrumental in monitoring the life course and distributed sanctions and benefits to family members …

I Do Activist Things Even Though I'M Nothing: A Critical Ethnography Of Immigrant Youth Identity Formation In An Urban Community-School, Sophia Rodriguez

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Latino immigrant youth make sense out of their educational experience, identity, and sense of belonging in an urban, public high school. This critical ethnography examines their social interactions. The youth live in a segregated neighborhood that is largely abandoned by policy-makers and recently impacted by massive school closures by the district. The youth, within the context of a community-school partnership, advocate for immigrant rights, march in solidarity with their teachers, and engage in organizing to transcend their immigration status and/or achievement status. The central question is: How do Latino immigrant youth in a community-school experience identity …

Re-Examining The Female Voice In Chaucer's Italian-Sourced Works: A Study In Paleography, Textual Transmission, And Masculinity, Stacee Bucciarelli

Dissertations

Research on women in medieval literature is abundant but often focused on broad questions of narrative and character development. Among the areas seldom examined is what I will term "female voice," a term that encompasses the thoughts and speech of women in literature. This project analyzes the representation of female voice in Chaucer's work, and it explores alterations to female voices within the largely male worlds (both actual and literary) in which they were created.

This study broadens the analysis from the restrictive and traditional realm of women's studies and contextualize these alterations on a grander scale of textual and …

Re-Thinking Anthropomorphism Through A Genetic Philosophy Of Time, Carolyn Jo Love

Dissertations

In the classical Christian theological understanding, God and time are tightly interwoven (e.g. time and eternity, the Incarnation, and liturgy) and inform how we comprehend the presence and absence of the Incomprehensible in our day-to-day lives. Yet the classical Christian understanding does not take into account scientific discoveries pertaining to time and how this influences our experience of time. It is within the fabric of God and time that this dissertation will argue that the concept of time contained within contemporary genetics provides a significant and innovative way of considering the Classical Christian theological notion of the presence and absence …

The Ethics Of Vision And Black Theology And Experience, Angelo Sylvester Riley

Dissertations

To this day, philosophical ethics and dominant discussions in Christian ethics have paid insufficient attention to how vision shapes the moral life. Too much focus is given to moral decision-making and action, while too little focus is given to the way vision and patterns of attentiveness ground our capacities for genuine morally responsible action. Therefore, in this study, I draw on important works in philosophical and Christian ethics to examine both the ethics of responsibility and the central role that an ethics of vision plays in our attempts to live responsibly. I use the "ethics of vision" as method and …

The Effects On Students' Intercultural Competence From Intensive Intercultural Service-Learning Through The $100 Solution™ Model, Nadia De León Sautú

Dissertations

This study evaluates the effects of an intensive intercultural service-learning program on the intercultural competence of undergraduate students enrolled in Cultural Diversity in the U.S., a general education course at Western Kentucky University. This program utilized The $100 Solution™ model, in which groups of students partnered with local immigrant and refugee families, to teach them about U.S. culture, learn about their cultures, and implement a project to assist them in their integration process. The program included two hours of out-of-classroom work for over twelve weeks. Through the principle of reciprocity, The $100 Solution™ model provided an interaction framework in which …

Old English Ecologies: Environmental Readings Of Anglo-Saxon Texts And Culture, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar

Dissertations

Conventionally, scholars have viewed representations of the natural world in Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literature as peripheral, static, or largely symbolic: a “backdrop” before which the events of human and divine history unfold. In “Old English Ecologies,” I apply the relatively new critical perspectives of ecocriticism and placebased study to the Anglo-Saxon canon to reveal the depth and changeability in these literary landscapes. Overall, this interdisciplinary study of Anglo-Saxon texts brings together literary and environmental sources and modes of inquiry to explore the place of humans (and non-humans) within the natural environments of Anglo-Saxon England, as well as the ways in …

Cultural Adaptations Of American Teachers In International Schools, David J. Alban

Dissertations

Global competition of academic aptitude between countries has sparked policymakers’ concerns with the performance of the United States educational system leading to many educational reforms that direct educators to diversify their instruction to meet the needs of all students. Advances in technology and travel allow people to interact with other cultures creating more globalized societies. These two converging issues place a greater significance on educators to understand the interplay between culture and their teaching practices.

Literature reveals that the influence of home and community cultures affects the learning behaviors of students (Davis-Kean, 2005: Wang, Beras, & Eberhard, 2005; Sigel, Stinson, …

The Voices Of Higher Education Service-Learning Directors: A Qualitative Inductive Analysis, Kelsey Woodard

Dissertations

This research explored issues surrounding service-learning directors (SLDs) within higher education institutions, including who they are, how they became SLDs, and what they experience in the role. Qualitative data were drawn from in-depth interviews of 11 SLDs, as well as review of their vitaes. A qualitative inductive analysis was conducted in which important patterns, themes, and interrelationships that emerged from the data were coded into a category system of major themes and subthemes.

Data analysis revealed the following major themes: (1.0): all the SLDs came from various helping profession backgrounds, with interesting journeys to become a SLD; (2.0) many SLD’s …

Teacher Perceptions Of Effective School Leadership Using Twenty-First Century Skills And Knowledge, Bobbie Anita Augspurger

Dissertations

This quantitative study was conducted to examine the primary components of school leadership for 21st-century skills and knowledge integration. With the passing of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for students, teachers, and administrators, the need for administrative leadership within the realm of technology is continually evolving and growing. The NETS based survey required teachers from three varying sized school districts, who have implemented a 1:1 student device initiative, to answer statements, using a Likert scale, about themselves and their principal. Survey statement data results were revealed using a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient formula, scatter plots, and regression studies …

Effects Of Acculturation On Mammography Utilization Among Korean American Women, Jungeun K. Kim Phd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acculturation and mammography utilization among Korean American (KA) women. The specific aims of this study were to determine the differences in demographic characteristics, perceived health beliefs, self-efficacy, and knowledge of breast cancer, and mammogram history among the four cultural groups (American identity, Bicultural, Korean identity, and Marginality) of KA women, and to examine the effects of the level of acculturation on the likelihood of getting a mammogram. Breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among KA women. However, KA women consistently have lower screening rates for breast cancer. …

The Journey Of A Science Teacher: Preparing Female Students In The Training Future Scientists After School Program, Rona Marie Robinson-Hill

Dissertations

Abstract What affect does female participation in the Training Future Scientist (TFS) program based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Maslow’s Hierarchies of Needs have on female adolescents’ achievement levels in science and their attitude toward science and interest in science-based careers? The theoretical framework for this study was developed through a constructivist perspective, using dialogic engagement, coinciding with Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory. This action research project used mixed methods research design, targeted urban adolescent females who were members of Boys & Girls Club of Greater St. Louis (BGCGSTL) after-school program. The data collection measures were three qualitative instruments (semi-structured …

Project-Based Section 8 Housing Participants' Perception Of Cultural And Structural Factors To Explain Barriers To Economic Self-Sufficiency, Yolanda Javette Clark

Dissertations

The Project-Based Section 8 program began as temporary housing of the last resort for people who experience temporary setbacks. However, due to participants' inability to become economically self-sufficient, the anti-poverty program has become permanent housing from which few families have been able to escape. Recent studies related to escaping poverty and becoming economically self-sufficient suggest cultural and structural factors are equally important and collectively impact upward economic mobility.

Similarly, the purpose of this study was to determine if Project-Based Section 8 housing participants' characteristics, described as cultural and structural barriers to economic self-sufficiency, interrelate and collectively predict ability to escape …

Sharing: Social Behavior In Situations Of Risk, Stephanie Theresia Stilling

Dissertations

The present study will experimentally investigate human cooperation (sharing) in a laboratory foraging task that simulates environmental variability and resource scarcity (shortfall risk). Specifically, it investigates whether a risk-reduction model of sharing developed by evolutionary biologists (derived from a risk-sensitive optimization model known as the energy-budget rule) could predict human cooperative behavior. Participants respond to earn points exchangeable for money when point gains were unpredictable. Failures to acquire sufficient points result in a loss of accumulated earnings (a shortfall). Participants are given the choice between working alone or working with others. The difficulty of meeting the earnings requirement is manipulated …

Exploring Adolescent Experiences Of Race, Ethnicity, And Socioeconomic Status In Counseling Relationships: A Qualitative Approach, Christina Crans

Dissertations

The ACA Code of Ethics (2005) states the expectation that counselors must understand the diverse backgrounds of their clients. In addition, counselors are called to understand how their personal cultural identity informs and affects the counseling process. Yet there is paucity in the literature regarding the multicultural client experience within a counseling relationship. Of the few multicultural counseling studies that attempt to address multicultural client concerns, the approach has been quantitative or reliant on counselor self-report. In addition, the lived counseling experiences of adolescents and individuals from lower socioeconomic status (SES) is absent in present literature. This qualitative study examined …

Communication And Relationships Of Intercultural/Multilingual Couples: Cultural And Language Differences, Nai Chieh Tien

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the cultural and language differences that intercultural/multilingual couples experience in their relationships and how these differences affect their relationships. Since the United States is more diverse than ever in terms of culture, race, and ethnicity, relationships between people of different races, ethnicities, and nationalities have become more and more common place. This study answered the questions: How do cultural and language differences impact intercultural/multilingual couples’ relationships and communication? Do they find their relationship unique compared to others? How can mental health professional provide effective treatment for them in the …

An In-Depth Exploration Of Successful Weight Loss Management, Stephanie M. Witwer

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to advance knowledge in the area of health behavior change maintenance, specifically weight loss maintenance, and develop a substantive theory of successful weight loss maintenance in adults. Using classical grounded theory methodology, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 12 adult men and women who lost at least 10% of their body weight and had maintained the weight loss for at least one year. Analysis of the interviews revealed a basic social process called Transforming Self, wherein participants described a process through which they designed and made significant lifestyle changes that resulted in weight loss …