Digital Commons Network^™

Saudi Arabian Students' Perceptions Of Teacher Care In The United States, Abdullah Saeed Alasmari

Dissertations

Care is an essential need for human beings, especially students who spend extensive time at school. The goal of this study is to qualitatively explore Saudi university students’ perceptions of teacher care in the US. Fourteen male and female Saudi students at a large Midwestern US university were interviewed. This study offers a literature review about Saudi students’ cultural backgrounds, which make studying their educational experiences more understandable. Several themes emerged from the research data including cultural differences, learning a new language, help and support, making connections, and caring teachers as role models. Recommendations for US American teachers, Saudi Ministry …

Constituted And Constituing Symbols Of The Kamëntšá Culture: Essays On Native Philosophy Of Culture, Juan Alejandro Chindoy

Dissertations

Drawing from child personal memories, stories, and participation in different ceremonies in Sibundoy (Colombia), as well as from scholarly papers and books on the Kamëntšá culture, a native culture settled in the southwest of Colombia, I discuss the constituted and constituting meanings of a native culture. The main argument is that storytelling, dancing, and yajé ceremonies are Kamëntšá’s symbolic ways of approaching the quest for meaning. At once constituting and constituted symbols of it, Kamëntšá symbols define its culture and sustain it alive. I use the idea of constituting symbols to underlie the experiences of creativity and adjustment of Kamëntšá …

A Male Elementary School Principal’S Experience Of Gender And Leadership, Joanne Eileen Chatlos

Dissertations

Schools are a site for the reproduction and transformation of masculinities, impacting both children and adults. For principals, both gender and leadership are roles that they perform in social relation. In this case study, focused on an elementary school in the Western United States, I explored the ways constructions of gender impact a male public elementary school teacher’s leadership experience and the ways local gender norms relate to faculty perceptions of his leadership. Utilizing a methodological bricolage, I sought to examine the ways in which gender and leadership are enacted and understood through discourses such as speech, gestures, dress, or …

Determinants Of The Generalized Trust Radius In Scripted Fragile Sub-Saharan African States, Anthony Caito

Dissertations

Trust between strangers does not come easily in collectivist societies governed by coercive institutions and subject to unstable market forces. More than one-third of all states are fragile, yet the trust literature has shown little interest in explaining the variability of generalized trust among them; instead fixating on social capital, the consequence of the expansion of generalized trust, putting the cart before the horse and leaving unexamined many of its causes. The enhanced accuracy of the reconfigured World Values Survey trust question has generated new research opportunities to address this concern. This dissertation advances the trust literature through identifying, measuring, …

Contextualizing Experiences Of Parent Engagement: Iraqi Refugee Mothers’ Perceptions Of Their Role In Their Child’S Education In The United States, Heather Nicole Kholif

Dissertations

To meaningfully capture the experiences of parent engagement of Iraqi refugee mothers in the United States, this study embraced qualitative tradition and employed narrative case study methodology to explore the primary research question: How do Iraqi refugee mothers perceive their role in their children's education in the United States? Through a critical race feminist theoretical lens, this study offers an examination of intersectionality and the way race, gender, and culture shaped Iraqi refugee mother’s experiences of parent engagement in the U.S. The participants within this study included five Iraqi refugee mothers, two who were living in the Western U.S. and …

A Study Of The Teaching Beliefs Of Globe Teachers, Laila Ali

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching beliefs of GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) teachers, and to analyze their pedagogical practices. This study contributes to bridging the gap between our understanding of teachers’ beliefs of teaching science with inquiry and practicing science in class with inquiry. A descriptive research approach was used for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Data was collected from seventy-two trained GLOBE teachers across the U.S. using Qualtrics.com.

Quantitatively, the pedagogical beliefs of GLOBE teachers were measured using the Beliefs about Reformed Science Teaching and Learning (BARSTL) questionnaire. Differences between …

A Correlation Study Of Perceived Servant Leadership Practices And Job Satisfaction Among Teachers In A Military Foreign Language Center, Saliha Murtic

Dissertations

Purpose: This correlation study determined the relationship between the level of servant-leadership practices of department chairs perceived by their foreign language teachers and the level of those same teachers’ job satisfaction within the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in Monterey, CA.

Methodology: The study employed a quantitative method using descriptive and inferential statistical tests to answer the research questions. The sample population included 165 foreign language classroom teachers within the undergraduate basic language training at the DLIFLC. The data were collected through the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (Barbuto and Wheeler, 2006) and the Teacher Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (Lester, 1982). …

A Multilevel Model Of Poverty, Community Factors, And Learning For Students With Disabilities., Randal Barnes

Dissertations

Students with disabilities face challenges to academic success that can be exacerbated by the effects of poverty. In this study, Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to analyze the effects of socio-economic status, social capital, and threats to safety on literacy test scores for students with disabilities. Results of the analysis indicate that discipline rate had a significant effect on mean district scores on statewide standardized tests, but not on the impact of socio-economic status on test scores. Conversely, the percent of college graduates in a school district did not have a significant effect on district scores, but moderated the …

Effective Teaching And Behavioral Strategies Used By Exemplary Non-Public Alternative Education Schools, Alana Maxine Hughes

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and describe the teaching and behavioral strategies exemplary, non-public alternative education schools used to support student learning as perceived by education specialists and site administrators at high-achieving, non-public alternative education schools in Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, and Orange County.

Methodology: This qualitative case study examined the perception of education specialists and site administrators by conducting interviews to identify effective teaching and behavioral strategies used by exemplary non-public alternative education schools. The researcher interviewed nine education specialists and three site administrators from exemplary non-public alternative schools. …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Homework's Effects On English Learners, Peggy Smith

Dissertations

Purpose: Homework is an educational practice that has been implemented for many years. Research has shown that homework can have stringent effects on the well-being of students. To date, much of the research discusses the students’ and parents’ point of view on homework’s effects. Although teachers are the practitioners that develop and implement this practice, there is a dearth of research on teacher’s perspectives of homework’s effects on the well-being of students. Even less research has been carried out on teachers’ perspectives of homework’s effects on the well-being of English Learner Students. Since the goal of education is to provide …

Acquisition Of Word Spellings And Meanings During Reading In Nonnative Chinese Speakers, Yang Liu

Dissertations

This dissertation explored the acquisition of word spellings (orthographic learning) and word meanings (incidental word learning) during reading in adult nonnative Chinese speakers. Two studies were designed for this dissertation. In Study One, 45 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners at intermediate and advanced proficiency levels participated and completed a character learning experiment in a self-teaching paradigm. Results indicate that CFL learners were able to use the phonetic regularity and semantic transparency of radicals to learn the spellings and pronunciations of new characters after limited exposures to the characters in a story context. In Study Two, 72 CFL learners …

Support Assurance-Based Software Development For Mission Critical Domains Using The Model Driven Architecture, Chung-Ling Lin

Dissertations

In the past decades, software development for mission critical applications has drawn great attention not only in various mission critical communities but also software engineering communities. One of the important reasons is that the failure of these systems can lead to some serious consequences such as huge financial loss and even loss of life. Therefore, software certification has become an important activity for mission critical applications in that software assurance for such a system should be certified. With the increasing complexity of a software system in mission critical sectors, certifiers have found hard time to understand how a software system …

A Mixed-Method Study Of Kindergarten Through Third-Grade Teachers’ Perceptions Of Homework, Tonya Heavin

Dissertations

This mixed-method research study examined the perceptions of kindergarten through third-grade teachers regarding the use of homework in their classrooms. Electronic surveys were sent to 190 kindergarten through third-grade teachers in seven school districts from five counties in Central Missouri. A total of 47 educators chose to respond to the open- and closed-ended questions. The results of this study showed most of the respondents believed in the benefits of homework for academic achievement. The quality and quantity of assigned homework were important characteristics for educators from both large and small school districts. The lack of parental support was considered one …

Assessment For Mild Cognitive Impairment: Striving For Best Practice, Julie Leigh Dalmasso

Dissertations

This dissertation is a series of three studies aimed at determining the best assessment practices for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that can employed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The first study was non-experimental and descriptive examining whether three commonly used assessment instruments yielded similar categorical results. The data were analyzed to determine whether the Eight-Item Interview to Differentiate Aging and Dementia (AD8), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Cognitive-Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT) identified the same participants from a neurotypical sample as having cognitive deficits. Very little agreement was found amongst the three tools.

Study two was modified to include two …

A Case Study On The Use Of Best Practices Within The Mri Program In A Midwest School District, Maureen M. Green

Dissertations

The ability to read proficiently is a comprehensive skill necessary for success at all academic levels. Students who consistently read below grade level continue to struggle throughout their school years with little chance of recovery. The administrative leaders of the Ocean View School District (a pseudonym) noticed a decline in reading scores and recognized a need for a significant shift in its instructional practices to reach its struggling readers. The purpose of this study allowed school leaders an opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) reading strategy within the structure of the Missouri Reading Initiative …

Response Shift Bias: An Examination Of Measurement Invariance In Self-Reported Change, Katherine Nelson Daniels

Dissertations

Traditional pre-test (TpT)/post-test (PT) and retrospective pre-test (RpT)/post-test (PT) designs are used to collect data on self-reported measures to assess the magnitude of change that occurs from interventions. If measurement invariance does not exist across the measurement occasions within these research designs, it is inappropriate to compare mean group differences that result from the intervention and derive inferences about change. The theory of response-shift suggests a subject’s understanding of a subject matter at TpT may not be the same as their understanding of a subject matter at PT, and that as a result, the construct measured at these measurement occasions …

An Exploratory Study Of The Role Of Soft Skills In The Training And Employability Of High School Graduates, Felita Sharmett Williams

Dissertations

Research has shown that both educators and prospective employers agreed that students needed more than just ‘hard skills.’ Instead of focusing only on students meeting the academic requirements needed to graduate with a diploma, students also needed to work toward mastering social and emotional skills such as ‘soft skills.’ This study consists of five parts; (i) seeking information from employers associated with the target school; (ii) seeking information from parents of students in the target school; (iii) the researcher crafted intervention for students based on the literature on soft skills, (iv) the researcher completed intervention in two area churches, and …

A Study Of The Effect Of Actively Learn On Secondary Reading Engagement, Reading Comprehension, And Vocabulary, Tina Rae Spencer

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of the reading platform Actively Learn affected the reading engagement, reading comprehension, and vocabulary achievement of secondary students. The area of secondary reading achievement has seen no significant improvement over the past four decades (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2017). The research questions were designed to use quantitative pre-test and post-test data from the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) and the Standardized Test for the Assessment of Reading (STAR) to determine if the use of Actively Learn, combined with the use of embedded questions to encourage metacognitive …

Perceptions Of American Latino Families Of Their Children's Education: Stories From One Suburban Middle School, Jeffry Prickett

Dissertations

The immigration debate in the United States has been ongoing for decades. While the outcome of the debate means more for some than others, one thing is always a constant: there are families behind every story of immigration. To uncover some of these stories, four American Latino immigrant families were interviewed about their experience with assimilation and factors associated with the academic success of their children. The children of the families attended a rapidly diversifying mid-western suburban middle school. The primary research question was: what are the perceptions of Latino parents regarding their children’s education in their neighborhood school? Themes …

Linguistic Interactions Of Spanish Speaking Mexican American Families, Adelfio J. Garcia

Dissertations

This study explored the bilingual linguistic interactions in Mexican families and their impact on children’s language and literacy development. This qualitative study gathered data using different methods, namely, interviews, direct observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts to examine parents’ perceptions of their own educational path in comparison to their children’s educational path in an American school system, together with their daily linguistic interactions in various social contexts, and the features, themes and roles of linguistic interactions participants. Study results assisted in gaining deeper understanding of daily conversations happening in different social contexts and their impact on the language and literacy …

Community College Presidents And The Role Of Conversational Leadership, Jennifer K. Labounty

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to describe the behaviors that exemplary community college presidents practice to lead their organizations through conversation as depicted by Groysberg and Slind’s (2012) four elements of conversational leadership: intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality.

Methodology: This qualitative, phenomenological study described the lived experiences of exemplary community college presidents as they lead their organizations through the use of conversational leadership. The sample population for this study was community college presidents who met the criteria of exemplary from single-college districts in Southern California. Data were gathered and triangulated from semistructured, in-depth interviews, participant observations, …

Exploring The Moderating Effect Of A Caring Work Environment On The Relationship Between Workplace Mistreatment And Nurses' Ability To Provide Patient Care, Christine M. Moffa

Dissertations

Workplace mistreatment (bullying, horizontal violence, and incivility) has been shown to impact nurses' work satisfaction, job turnover, and physical and mental health. However, there are limited studies that examine its effect on patient outcomes. A correlational descriptive study of 79 acute care nurses was used to test a social justice model for examining the relationship between workplace mistreatment, quantified as threats to dimensions of nurses' well-being (health, personal security, reasoning, respect, attachment, and self-determination), and nurses' ability to provide quality patient care. In addition, this study considered the moderating effect of caring work environment among co-workers on nurses' ability to …

Latino Students’ Stories Of Advanced Placement Success: A Critical Case Study, Marcie S. Plummer

Dissertations

Purpose: This qualitative, critical case study identified and described culture factors Latino students in Monterey County, California, perceive influenced academic success in Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

Methodology: This qualitative research design explored the phenomenon of internal and external culture factors Latino students perceive influenced academic success in AP courses. Through semistructured focus group and follow-up interviews, the researcher gathered detailed data on each factor and how it influenced academic success. Using Perna and Thomas’s (2008) student success framework, some success factors were revealed as interdependent.

Findings: Factors that influenced Latino students’ academic success in AP courses included support by teachers, …

Relationship Between Teachers’ Use Of Cognitive Coaching In The Classroom And Teacher Efficacy, Gretchen A. Demasters

Dissertations

Leaders in today’s public schools must offer professional development to provide support to teachers without overwhelming them or adding more to their plates (Preciado, 2015). With ever-expanding responsibilities and accountability for teachers in the classroom, providing much-needed support is a top priority (Preciado, 2015). Teacher attrition is costly to school districts, and it is largely due to lack of support for teachers (Neason, 2014). Edwards (2015) reported teachers who grow in efficacy stay a longer length of time in one district, increase their implementation of new teaching strategies, and have more positive attitudes toward professional growth. The focus of this …

A Content Analysis Of Cultural Sensitivity Within K-5 English Language Arts Common Core Fictional Exemplar Texts, Kevin D. Starks

Dissertations

In this study, the researcher investigated cultural sensitivity within the mandated English Language Arts Common Core exemplar fictional texts that “serve as useful guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complexity, quality and range” (Common Core State Standards, n.d., p. 2) for kindergarten through fifth grade, for the state of Missouri. The researcher utilized a modified version of Frances Ann Day’s children’s literature evaluation framework, “Evaluating Children’s Books for Bias,” an adaptation of the Council on Interracial Books for Children’s, “Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks,” to test for cultural sensitivity within 50 of the 90 suggested fictional …

Guidelines For U.S. Teacher Leaders In Adult Classrooms To Enhance International Undergraduate Satisfaction, Somanita Kheang

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research was to (a) explore the issues that international undergraduate students face during academic experiences at U.S. colleges and/or universities, (b) study the relationship between U.S. professors and international undergraduate students as measured by the extent of congruency between U.S. professors’ and international undergraduate students’ online survey results, and (c) propose appropriate guidelines for U.S. Teacher Leaders in adult classrooms to enhance international undergraduate students’ learning satisfaction. The researcher used convenience sampling that included 96 participants at Lindenwood University, Saint Charles. The researcher conducted a focus group discussion with 14 international undergraduate students from 10 …

The Road Less Traveled: How Asian Cultural Values Impact The Career Choice Tendencies Of Asian American K-12 Principals, Melissa Chan-Nauli

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this constructivist inquiry study was to identify and describe the perceptions of Asian American principals of how cultural values impacted their career choice tendencies in the K-12 educational setting.

Methodology: For the purposes of providing the most authentic and genuine lived experiences and perceptions of these Asian American principal participants, the researcher engaged in three primary methods of collecting data, which included demographic questionnaire, interviews, and artifacts. The study participants were 15 current Asian American full-time principals who work in school districts located in Los Angeles and Orange County, California.

Findings. A thorough examination of study …

Identifying And Addressing The Educational Needs Of Primary Elementary Latino Males, Sandra Vilas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand and describe the strategies and practices that exemplary teachers use to address the educational needs of Latino male students from kindergarten through third grade.

Methodology: The researcher selected a qualitative research design to describe and understand the instructional strategies and practices used by district Teachers of the Year from 2011 - 2016 in three counties in Southern California. Through in-depth semi-structured open-ended interviews, the researcher provided a detailed examination of the instructional practices and strategies exemplary primary teachers use to address the educational needs of primary Latino males. The district …

Entre Dos Tierras: Between Two Lands: Stories Of Latinx Immigrant Students In Us Public High Schools, Yahaira Diaz

Dissertations

The election of the 45th president of the United States has increased a sense of anxiety, fear, and xenophobia for many in our country. The divisive campaign and current discussion of policy is demeaning towards LGBT communities, people with disabilities, women, and ethnic minorities, specifically the immigrant population. The nation’s current preoccupation with and much deserved attention towards a comprehensive immigration reform and the continuance of immigration into the United States has impacted the rise of anti-Hispanic hate crimes and xenophobia (Shihadeh & Barranco, 2013; Stacey, Carbone-Lopez, & Rosenfeld, 2011; Yakushko, 2009). Educators report an increase in hostility against immigrants …

Exploring The Legacy Of Imogene King In The Making Of A Nurse Educator, Leader, And Nurse Theorist, Margaret Mary Kotowski

Dissertations

Imogene King was a pioneer in the profession of nursing. Known primarily for her work as a nurse theorist, King’s career encompassed a great deal more. King was a nurse educator who impacted the lives and careers of hundreds of students through her direct teaching, her mentorship, and generous spirit when it came to share knowledge. King was also a leader in the profession of nursing taking an active role in the various state American Nurse Associations (ANA) where she lived. The ANA awarded her with the prestigious Jessie M. Scott Award for her outstanding work in education. Also, an …