Digital Commons Network^™

Rejected From Pastoral Leadership: A Phenomenological Study Of The Voice And Lived Experiences Of African American Pentecostal Women In Clergy, Cynthia Ann Hurns

Dissertations

The study explored the lived experiences of 10 African American Holiness-Pentecostal clergywomen who faced rejection in a predominantly male-led church system. These women shared detailed stories of their experiences in leadership as pastors, apostles, and co-pastors. A qualitative phenomenological methodology was employed, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) because it allows for in-depth exploration of how people make sense of their experiences, aligning with the study’s focus on leadership journeys. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through descriptive and iterative coding. Codes were grouped into broader categories, resulting in five emerging themes: voiceless calling, bound to tradition, call from …

An Exploration Of The Clinical Senior Nursing Student Preceptor Relationship, Kimberly Nicole Dunker

Dissertations

Problem

The use of clinical preceptors for training is well documented in the literature as an effective strategy for helping students, new graduates, and RNs orient to their roles in healthcare facilities. The need to ensure that the preceptor is adequately trained and then matched to a preceptee for a successful relationship is a challenge. The healthcare facility does its best to identify a preceptor and ensure adequate training is completed and there is a willingness to facilitate the experience. The academic institution is required to ensure that preceptors are chosen based on criteria outlined by the board of nursing …

Stories Of Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers Of Color And Their Voluntary Job Mobility During Their Early Years Of Teaching, Dollene Trott-Smith

Dissertations

Problem

Teachers of Color in the Seventh-day Adventist school system experience voluntary job mobility and attrition, contributing to increasing teacher turnover rates in the U.S. Since the 1954 federal mandate to desegregate U.S. public schools, this phenomenon has become more pressing. Despite racial and ethnic diversification in school staffing, the White teacher population remains around 80%, with Teachers of Color making up only 20%. While extensive research exists on public school teacher turnover, limited studies focus on private school educators, including those in the Seventh-day Adventist school system.

Method

This transcendental phenomenological qualitative study explored the voluntary job mobility of …

Predictors Of General Education Teachers' Self-Efficacy For Educating Autistic Students: Enactive Mastery Experiences, Vicarious Experiences, Verbal/Social Persuasions, And Physiological And Affective States, Renette Portecop-Prentice

Dissertations

Problem

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that presents challenges not only for autistic individuals, but also for their families, healthcare providers and school professionals. A significant number of children with autism spend most of their school day in general education classrooms with teachers who may lack autism-specific training and are unfamiliar with evidence-based practices for supporting autistic students. This lack of training or relevant resources specific to autism may impact teacher self-efficacy for educating autistic students, which in turn may affect instructional decisions and student outcomes. Guided by Bandura’s theoretical framework, this study examined the relationships among autism-specific training …

Shattering The Glass Ceiling, Navigating The Glass Cliffs: A Case Study Of Andrea Luxton As The First Woman President Of Andrews University (2016-2023), Maureen Sakshi Pakalahati

Dissertations

Problems

Research shows glass ceilings are thicker in faith-based institutions heavily governed by traditional beliefs and dominated by men. Research also shows singlism is on the rise in churches. There is limited research on the lived experiences of single, never married woman who reached the presidency (shattering the glass ceiling) in a faith-based institution. Leadership pundits predict a “great resignation”, which is an era of high presidential turnover, due to mounting challenges in the higher education presidency. Great resignation is a gender-neutral phenomenon, but women presidents are subject to stern criticism and penalties, leading to more disproportionate resignations. Furthermore, the …

Staying In The Game: A Study On Mentorship And Persistence Of Women Ncaa Division Iii Athletics Directors, Myranda Hope Nash

Dissertations

Mentorship and persistence among women NCAA Division III Athletics Directors (ADs) remain underexamined despite their significance for leadership continuity. With women comprising only 33% of Division III ADs, intentional mentorship is essential to advancing gender equity in collegiate athletics. This qualitative study analyzes interviews with ten women ADs to examine mentorship structures, professional trajectories, and psychosocial outcomes. Seven themes emerged: institutional culture and alignment; supervisors as mentors; queen bee syndrome; career pathways; influential leadership; Clutterbuck’s mentorship phases; and psychosocial support. Informal mentorship proved most effective, frequently developing into sustained professional relationships. Participants reported increased confidence, validation, and emotional support, particularly …

The Impact On General Education Students’ Perceptions Of Their Peers With Special Needs When Implementing An Inclusive Buddy Club Program, Katherine Coker

Dissertations

The aim of this study is to explore the impact on general education students’ perceptions of their classmates with special needs after participating in a buddy club. By fostering peer interactions in structured, inclusive settings, the buddy club creates opportunities for students to interact and better understand the experiences of their peers with special needs. There is a lack of research regarding the positive or negative impact of partnering elementary-aged general education students with their special needs peers. Therefore, this study is framed by the following research questions: (1) What are general education students’ perceptions towards their classmates with special …

The Impact Of Second-Year Teacher Mentoring, Jennifer Eaton

Dissertations

Teacher retention in the United States is an ongoing problem that is affecting students around the country. States, districts, and schools have used many strategies to try to alleviate the teacher shortages. One of the most common strategies utilized is mentoring first year teachers. This mentorship helps establish the teachers in the schools and gives more of an understanding of what teaching is like on a day-to-day basis.

This research specifically examined the potential impacts a second year of mentoring could have on the second-year teacher. In the United States, nine states have moved to mentoring models lasting longer than …

“Remember, You Are Not A Superhuman”: The Lived Experience Of Rest, Unrest, And Leadership In Special Operations, Trey Zoda

Dissertations

U.S. special operations forces (SOF) operate in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments that demand cognitive clarity, emotional regulation, and relational presence. While previous research on SOF readiness has addressed physical fitness, resilience, and sleep, little attention has been given to the psychological dimensions of rest and their implications for leadership. The purpose of this qualitative, transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of psychological rest and unrest in U.S. government SOF and the perceived influence of these states on their leadership. Guided by Moustakas’s transcendental method, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with SOF personnel. They were …

Lost In Translation: The Impact Of Intermediate Language Representations On Machine Learning Applications, Logan Cannan

Dissertations

Machine learning assisted binary analysis is an area of great interest in cybersecurity research. Training accurate machine learning models requires methods of binary lifting, which can require binaries to be translated through an intermediate language representation. This dissertation postulates that different intermediate language representations change the performance characteristics of these machine learning models. This dissertation takes a published machine learning frameworks as a control, modifies their input methodology to include different intermediate language representation transforms, and performs direct comparisons of model performance to ascertain bias in performance caused by different intermediate languages. This research enables the machine learning engineer, focused …

Declarative Re-Planning : A Trustworthy Deep Reinforcement Learning Method Enabling Zero Shot Learning In Mobile Robot Path Planning, Nathan Hemming

Dissertations

Navigation methods are needed for robots to operate in a physical world. Path planning for navigation can be a difficult problem to solve due to uncertainties in the world and the robot. Navigation also must be completed in real time to ensure the robot does not collide with other entities in the world. Declarative re-planning (DRP) is a method for path planning. It leverages hierarchical temporal abstractions to drive learning, and run time efficiencies. It is multiple orders of magnitude more sample efficient compared to non-temporally abstract methods, and the asymptotic run time efficiency is linear for the full navigation …

Increase Successful Outcomes With Technology-Driven Mergers And Acquisitions : Prioritize Post-Merger Integration Risk Mitigation, Kingsley Eromosele Usianeneh

Dissertations

In the post-COVID-19 era, accelerated engineering advances including Artificial Intelligence (AI) have increased firm’s reliance on technology-driven mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as an expedient strategy to bolster their technological innovation capabilities, retain competitive advantage and ensure sustainability. However, many M&As fail to achieve their strategic goals because of persistent challenges during post-merger integration (PMI). This dissertation adopts and integrates chapter 2 – chapter 4 to identify, theorize, and proactively mitigate the primary recurring PMI challenges that impede successful technology-driven M&A outcomes. Chapter 2 adopts PRISMA guidelines, conducts a systematic literature review, identifies, and synthesizes four persistent PMI risk categories: (1) …

Strategies To Support Students With Adhd During Self-Selected Reading: An Evaluation Of Token Economy And Self-Monitoring, Tora Henson

Dissertations

Students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often face challenges with attention and executive functioning, making it difficult to stay on task during self-selected reading (SSR). These difficulties can hinder academic progress. While research highlights the need for effective strategies to improve on-task behavior, limited studies have focused specifically on self-monitoring and token-economy interventions during SSR. This study investigated the impact of self-monitoring and token-economy strategies on the on-task behavior of students with ADHD during SSR. It aimed to answer the following questions: How do token economy systems and self-monitoring strategies impact on-task behavior for students with ADHD during self-selected reading? …

Middle-Level Teachers’ Attitudes On Disciplinary Literacy Instruction In The Non-Ela Classroom, Katherine E. Bowers

Dissertations

The persistent gaps in student achievement, particularly in the context of discipline-specific literacy skills, across public schools in the United States continue to widen. With a focus on South Carolina, this study investigates how professional development efforts have sought to address these gaps and enhance literacy instruction. Despite many initiatives, testing scores and teacher perceptions reveal limited progress in literacy outcomes. The study discusses a key challenge: the lack of substantial literacy instruction beyond English language arts (ELA) classes, resulting in a growing disparity between literacy mastery and the current reality. The research acknowledges the existence of literacy-focused professional development …

Faculty Motivation For Online Teaching And Learning, Elizabeth Sachiko Haas Greene

Dissertations

The study will examine which factors predict faculty motivation in online learning. Additionally, the study will investigate the relationship between faculty perceptions of online learning and overall online teaching and learning and the relationships that exist between perceptions of administrative support and self-efficacy for online learning. The study's findings will provide insight into how institutions can support faculty teaching in the growing online modality. The overarching method for this study is a nonexperimental quantitative study. This method will collect numerical data that can be used to measure various aspects of behavior, including attitudes (Drew et al., 2014). The study's participants …

Statistical Approaches In Evolutionary Biology: Using Threespine Stickleback Fish To Test Fisher's Geometric Model And Evaluate Methods For Handling Missing Data, Aaron Mathew Myrold

Dissertations

This thesis explores two distinct yet complementary aspects of evolutionary biology. The first chapter tests predictions from Fisher's geometric model of adaptation using a finely resolved fossil sequence of Gasterosteus doryssus spanning approximately 21,250 years. I analyze phenotypic changes in three armor traits during adaptation to a new environment and find that while step sizes follow the predicted exponential distribution—with many small steps and few large ones—they do not adhere to the model's temporal prediction that large-effect mutations should fix early in the adaptive walk. This discrepancy likely reflects adaptation from standing genetic variation rather than de novo mutation. The …

Leadership Communication And Symbolic Language In Organizational Change: A Study In Higher Education, Christine Fischer

Dissertations

Higher education institutions face growing pressures related to affordability, accessibility, and trust. In this environment, leadership communication, especially symbolic language that frames transformation as mission-aligned, plays a central role in shaping organizational change. This qualitative single-case study examined how leaders at a private Christian liberal arts college used metaphors, narratives, and values-based discourse to communicate an innovative tuition model and how this language influenced stakeholder perceptions, engagement, and resistance. Data included 26 leadership communication documents, a metaphor-based faculty and staff survey, and eight semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis and metaphorical analysis were used to interpret symbolic language, meaning-making processes, and …

Healthcare Providers’ Lived Experiences During Pivotal Change, Lisa Raynelle Shelley

Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined healthcare providers’ lived experiences of psychological safety and administrative leader behaviors that influenced those experiences during pivotal change. While much research addressed psychological safety among frontline healthcare staff, a gap was noticed concerning providers. This study aimed to investigate the impact of psychological safety and administrative support on provider engagement, emotional response, and retention during periods of significant change. Data were collected via a survey containing multiple-choice and open-ended questions, followed by semi-structured interviews. Four findings emerged. First, the providers’ pivotal events generated themes of “workplace power dynamics,” “systemic and organizational change,” “transformational crisis,” and “physical …

Including Conscientiously: How Charter School Educators Experience Inclusion Education Implementation, Joe A. Petty

Dissertations

This narrative inquiry examined how charter school educators experience inclusive education implementation while confronting ableist systems that maintain exclusion through seemingly neutral practices. This research emerged from my lived experience of how educational structures systematically marginalize disabled students while appearing progressive. The study investigated two research questions: how support structures and leadership practices either perpetuate or dismantle ableist assumptions embedded in educational practice, and how educators negotiate tensions between implementing evidence-based inclusive strategies and addressing environmental factors that create the need for those strategies.

Data collection employed semistructured interviews with eight credentialed educators across two Southern California charter school sites, …

Correlating Optical Phase And Atmospheric Coherence Width In Characterizing Turbulence, Scott Alexander Kaiser

Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development, validation, and optimization of a novel Hartmann Turbulence Sensor (HTS) for real-time, high-speed characterization of atmospheric optical turbulence. The HTS captures and processes live data at 1 kHz and reports turbulence parameters at 22 Hz. A key innovation is the integration of a dominant spectral component selection method into the Difference in Differential Tilt Variance (DDTV) algorithm. By using spectral analysis to identify areas of interest (AOIs) based on their dominant spatial frequency content, this method reduces computational load by up to 75% while maintaining a low RMS error. It also offers a visual representation …

Assessing The Selection And Impact Of Completeness In Technical Measure Sets In Systems Engineering, Casey Eaton

Dissertations

Technical measurement is foundational in large-scale complex engineered systems (LSCES) design and contract awards due to the state of practice of systems engineering. Although technical measurement is ubiquitous in systems engineering practice, the selection and assessment of the impact of a set of technical measures is often heuristics-based, rather than based on empirical evidence or theory. Current technical measure set selection has been observed to be subject to many challenges which, in turn, can degrade system outcomes. Two main thrusts comprise the research: selection and impact. Motivated by the potential impacts of a poor set of technical measures, a significant …

A Rubber-Band System For Dynamic Incentivization Of Parallelized Gamified Objectives, Nicholas Diliberti

Dissertations

With the advent of videogames as the world's first mass-market interactive media, gamification has emerged as the premier way to harness powerful behavior-affecting gamified elements and place them in other contexts, such as education, fitness, and rehabilitation. This transposition, however, ignores a key tenant of user engagement: reward ought to be aligned with effort. Most, if not all, current gamification systems dispatch static reward allocations for their spread of gamified behaviors. In this paper, an alternative is presented: dynamic gamification. This dynamic gamification reads the user's current gamified state for indicators of aptitude, dynamically remaps rewards with a tuneable evaluation …

Understanding Pediatric Healthcare Access From A Black Parental Perspective : A Qualitative Study, Jessica A. Celestand

Dissertations

In the United States, healthcare access disparities have existed for several years in the African American/Black pediatric population. The District of Columbia ranks first nationally for health insurance coverage; however, African American/Black children have disproportionately experienced barriers to care compared to the District of Columbia’s pediatric population overall. There are current gaps in research that investigate African American/Black pediatric healthcare access from a parental perspective. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenology qualitative study was to explore research gaps by investigating barriers and facilitators to care, and the social determinants of health that impact pediatric healthcare access through the lens of …

Mutual Coupling Reduction Techniques In Transverse-Electric-Mode And Hybrid-Mode Microstrip Patch Antenna Arrays, Matthew A. Adams

Dissertations

When the elements of an antenna array are closely spaced, the electromagnetic coupling between them can distort the radiation patterns of the individual elements and change their input impedances, causing significant degradation in the array’s performance. Numerous mutual coupling reduction methods exist in the current literature, each of which allows array elements to be closely spaced while being well-isolated from each other. This dissertation investigates mutual coupling reduction techniques for microstrip patch antenna arrays utilizing elements that excite the fundamental transverse electric (TE) mode. First, a mutual coupling reduction method inspired by the TE-mode microstrip patch cavity model is proposed …

Church Ministers' Perceptions On Burnout And How It Shapes Their Leadership Practices., Jason Young

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored how large church ministry leaders experienced burnout and how that burnout shaped their leadership practices. The study was motivated by a research gap concerning the lived experiences of ministers in large churches. Framed by the job demands-resources theory and the conservation of resources theory, the study sought to understand how the demands of ministry leadership and the availability of personal and organizational resources influenced the experience of burnout. The research employed a qualitative phenomenological design, utilizing semi-structured interviews. A purposive and snowball sampling approach was used to recruit 13 large US church ministry leaders. The …

Living In The Hyphen: Creating Puentes Through Encuentros And Pláticas With Latinx Cross-Cultural Kids, Jennifer Jane Daby

Dissertations

Latinx cross-cultural kids, or children of immigrants, are often faced with a feeling of not belonging to mainstream American culture nor their parents’ home culture(s) of origin. As such, they are viewed through a deficit lens and forced to negotiate their sense of identity and belonging through language and culture to fit in. By embracing the concept of educación, using culturally responsive methods of encuentros and pláticas with cross-cultural kids and their families, this study intends to find ways to foster a sense of belonging for this population in schools through participants’ testimonies. It aims to find ways to bridge …

The Impact Of Professionalism Education And Formative Feedback In Doctor Of Physical Therapy Students Utilizing The Abbreviated Cpi Feedback Form In The On-Campus Clinic Environment, William L. Scott

Dissertations

Problem

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) developed the Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI) to assess the professional behaviors required for a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) student to be considered "entry level" in their clinical training. Feedback from our clinical partners has indicated that, historically, students from the Andrews University DPT program have scored lower than students from other programs in several areas of the CPI during their clinical experiences. According to subjective reports from our clinical partners, these areas included safety, professional behavior, accountability, communication, and critical thinking. These five areas have been the focus of our efforts in …

Moral Identity And Its Relationship To Higher Education Mentoring And Community Service Engagement, Maria O. Rodriguez

Dissertations

Problem

A moral action is a result of the engagement of multiple psychological processes set in motion when an individual faces a moral conflict. Research suggests that an individual's moral reasoning and moral identity strongly influence the psychological processes that precede a moral action. Recent studies have shown that higher education positively influences students' moral reasoning; however, there is a lack of understanding as to the degree to which higher education can influence the moral identity of students.

Method

This study performed a quantitative cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between independent variables—mentoring experiences and community service engagement—and dependent variables—moral …

War-Displaced International Students: A Qualitative Study Of Factors Influencing The Integration Of Ukrainians At A Midwestern Healthcare College, Ivan Riapolov

Dissertations

Problem

The war in Ukraine has disrupted the country’s higher education system, displacing Ukrainian students and affecting their mental well-being. These students encounter numerous challenges while adapting to new academic and cultural environments abroad. Higher education professionals must recognize and address the unique experiences and needs of international students by region of origin to better serve these populations. This study aimed to explore the factors that influence the social and academic integration of Ukrainian international students into a new culture and to inform institutions of the best practices for creating supportive environments for international students.

Method

The qualitative study explored …

Religious Participation, Subjective Happiness, And Purpose In Life As Predictors Of Psychological Resilience Among College Students At A Faith-Based Institution In The United States, Elaine Powell Oliver

Dissertations

Problem

During the transition from adolescence to adulthood, also known as emerging adulthood, many college students experience psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, stress, and loneliness (Arnett & Tanner, 2009; DeRosier et al., 2013). For some students, their psychological distress will impact how they perform academically and whether they will persist in their academic goals (Hartley, 2012; Robbins et al., 2018). Many students lack the resilience needed to survive and thrive amid the challenges of college life (Lane, 2020; McLafferty et al., 2022; Watkins et al., 2012). -- Resilience is considered an essential psychological characteristic to assist students in navigating …