Digital Commons Network^™

Teacher Perceptions Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In High School Social Studies Classrooms: An Ethnographic Case Study, Sheronda L. Hardy

Dissertations

Historically, scholarly research regarding the education of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) has been written through a deficit lens. Research that acknowledges positive learning experiences and outcomes is limited. This qualitative ethnographic case study aims to contribute to the growing body of social studies literature that offers insights into the need for asset-based pedagogies, such as Gloria Ladson-Billings' Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP), as well as the impact that this framework has on BIPOC student populations. By exploring the perceptions of high school social studies teachers regarding CRP, teacher preparation programs, and professional development, this study of five teacher …

Imagine The Peace: Exploring The Intimacy Of Imagined Intergroup Contact In Kosovo, Eric Manley

Dissertations

Peacebuilders have utilized positive intergroup contact in various settings to help groups encounter each other. I implemented three different intimate imagined contact scenarios in Peja, Kosovo with Albanian and Serb participants. I conducted this research to understand how multiple intimate social settings could impact individuals’ encounters with the outgroup during each imagined scenario, thus gathering better operationalization efforts regarding intimacy and imagined contact. Using written responses, interviews, and one-year follow-up interviews, the café and workplace scenarios created a positive experience for most participants, and while half of participants had a positive experience with the fiancé scenario, many more had negative …

Teaching For Global Ecological Citizenship: A Case Study Of Rural Teachers’ Experiences And Practices, Sarah L. Tennyson

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine the experiences and practices of rural educators incorporating global ecological citizenship education into the social studies classroom. The systematic themes of social studies education in the past must evolve with the diversity of the classroom. Traditional themes taught must become more globally relevant, including ecological citizenship, the responsibility of citizens to sustain and participate in global ecological issues. One on one interviews with four rural Georgia educators along with artifacts they provided were examined for themes related to two research questions. How do rural educators adapt their instructional strategies to …

Existence, Difference, And The Nigerian Woman: A Feminist Praxis Beyond Patriarchy, Hannah Yemisi Ajewole

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the postcolonial condition of Nigerian woman through a critical philosophical engagement with feminist theory, focusing particularly on Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialism and Irigaray’s ethics of sexual difference. It interrogates the historical processes through which gender became the basis of hierarchy in the Nigerian society, arguing that colonial and patriarchal override precolonial forms of relationality—marked by dual-sex relationship and age-based hierarchies—into rigid, male-dominated structures of authority and representation. Drawing also on Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí’s critique of western gender epistemologies, the work contextualizes the Nigerian woman’s experience within a broader matrix of colonial imposition, cultural displacement, and epistemic violence. This …

Ukrainian Women In The Russo-Ukrainian War: Between Survival And Resistance, Jelena Nikolic Khatatbeh

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how the Russo-Ukrainian war has transformed the lives, identities, and resistance strategies of Ukrainian women. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with forty-five Ukrainian women conducted between March 2022 and February 2023, it analyzes how everyday survival, political thought, and civic activism have changed during the war. Using a modified grounded theory approach and a feminist lens, this study examines women’s psychosocial experiences, their evolving political consciousness, and their active roles in humanitarian, cultural, and cyber resistance.Findings reveal that the war simultaneously reinforced and disrupted traditional gender expectations. While Ukrainian women dealt with increased domestic and caregiving burdens …

Effects Of Commission Errors During Prompting On Skill Acquisition And Maintenance, Molly K. Mutchler

Dissertations

Procedural fidelity refers to the extent to which procedures are implemented as intended. Engaging in procedural fidelity errors can lead to detrimental outcomes during skill acquisition and maintenance. The purpose of this study was to parametrically evaluate and compare two commission errors during prompting procedures using an arbitrary tacting task taught to college-aged students. Participants learned to tact four sets of arbitrary pictures and names. Prompting errors consisted of either providing the correct letters for a name in an incorrect order (i.e., an error within a component of the name) or providing the correct name for another picture (i.e., an …

The Psychology Of Telework, Emily K. Lane

Dissertations

The growth of telework has reshaped the modern workplace, changing how employees experience connection, fairness, and satisfaction. This dissertation examined the psychological dynamics of teleworking by exploring how the extent of remote work influences job satisfaction through feelings of professional isolation. It also investigated how perceptions of procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice, as well as employee choice and telework normativeness, shape these relationships. Grounded in organizational justice theory (Colquitt, 2001), the study used a two-wave, pseudo-cross-sectional survey of 506 teleworkers. Results indicated that professional isolation did not mediate the relationship between telework extent and job satisfaction when fairness perceptions were …

Understanding The Lived Experience Of Mental Health Following An Alpha-Gal Syndrome Diagnosis: A Phenomenological Study Grounded In Maslow’S Hierarchy Of Needs, Heather L. Hargis

Dissertations

Alpha-gal syndrome is a tick-borne food allergy that triggers delayed allergic reactions to mammalian products and profoundly alters daily life. While growing research examines the physiological aspects of alpha-gal syndrome, little is known about its psychological impact. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of individuals with alpha-gal syndrome to understand how the condition influences mental health through the lens of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Data was collected through semi-structured virtual interviews with adults medically diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome. Thematic analysis revealed significant challenges in meeting Maslow’s lower-tier needs—physiological, safety, and love/belonging—due to dietary restrictions, medical uncertainty, social isolation, and …

Building Bridges: Co-Producing Philanthropic Public-Private Partnerships For The United States National Park System, Jason S. Northern

Dissertations

The sustainability of America's National Park System increasingly relies on public–private partnerships that leverage private philanthropy. While the National Park Foundation provides national support, local Park Partner nonprofit organizations, like the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, are key to community-level fundraising and advocacy. This qualitative study of the St. Louis Arch grounds renovation examines how this public–private partnership structure influences donor motivation, trust, and engagement. Guided by Social Exchange Theory and Resource Dependency Theory, this research explores the relational and structural dynamics of this philanthropic co-production including reciprocal donor motivations and interdependence among public, private, and nonprofit partners. Fifteen semi-structured interviews …

The Impact Of Teachers' Mathematics Qualifications On Student Proficiency, Riaz H. Zaidi

Dissertations

Schools across the United States face persistent challenges in strengthening mathematics and science education. The present study investigates the relationship between mathematics teachers’ qualifications and their students’ performance on standardized assessments, using data from a Midwestern urban school district’s ACT mathematics scores. Findings are discussed within the broader context of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and national efforts to enhance competitiveness among industrialized nations. Despite the presence of leading universities and colleges, U.S. students continue to rank near the middle internationally in math and science achievement, according to the Pew Research Center. Contributing factors include disparities in teacher …

Trailblazing Pathways: Personal Traits Fueling Success For Underrepresented Minority Entrepreneurs, Rebecca P. Wilson

Dissertations

This study examines how entrepreneurial personality traits influence business outcomes among underrepresented minority entrepreneurs in the United States. Specifically, it investigates the effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, locus of control, risk tolerance, and extraversion on entrepreneurial performance, as well as the moderating role of grit and the mediating role of business networking. Although underrepresented minority entrepreneurs contribute significantly to innovation and economic growth, they continue to face persistent barriers, including limited access to capital, mentorship, and supportive entrepreneurial ecosystems. Guided by Trait Theory of Entrepreneurship and Social Cognitive Theory, this study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design with embedded open-ended questions …

The Effects Of Learning Environment Resources And Psycap On Student Burnout And Outcomes, Elisandra Rodriguez Moreno

Dissertations

This study examined links between learning environmental resources (i.e., social support and feedback environment), burnout, and student outcomes (i.e., satisfaction and academic performance) among 198 graduate healthcare students. The study also investigated whether Psychological Capital (PsyCap) moderated these relationships. Social support and feedback did not predict overall burnout, but both were significantly linked to the burnout dimensions, specifically: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and academic efficacy. PsyCap did not moderate most relationships, yet it was consistently associated with lower levels of burnout and higher satisfaction. One exception emerged—for social support and depersonalization, PsyCap served as a compensatory resource, where students with lower …

An Exploration Of Sleep Experiences Among Family Caregivers Of Older Adults With Alzheimer’S And Related Diseases, Caroline Bollettiero

Dissertations

As we age our sleep experiences decline in quality and our sleep disturbances increase with chances of full effective sleep diminishing. Older adults do not sleep as well as younger adults, with many older adults lacking an effective circadian rhythm. This lack of a proper circadian rhythm has been known to affect cognition and cause an increase in memory impairment. For older adults (OA) with Alzheimer’s and related disorders (AD) poor sleep affects not only their memory impairment and cognition but often impacts family caregivers (FGCs) sleep experiences. FCGs of community dwelling OA with AD are faced with a variety …

Assessing The Role Of Social Media As A Complementary Source In Pharmacovigilance: Insights From Faers, X (Formerly Twitter), And Askapatient Data Across Multiple Drug Classes, Nwanneka Okere

Dissertations

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) pose significant public health challenges yet remain substantially underreported in traditional pharmacovigilance systems. Social media platforms and patient-reported outcome forums have emerged as potential complementary sources for capturing real-time patient experiences with medications, but their integration with established surveillance systems remains underexplored.

Purpose: This study examined ADR reporting patterns across FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), X (formerly Twitter), and Askapatient to evaluate whether patient-generated digital data can complement traditional pharmacovigilance systems for enhanced drug safety monitoring.

Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design analyzed 107,753 reports representing 289,740 individual ADR occurrences for …

Increasing Pediatric Hpv Vaccination Rates, Brooke A. Nicholas

Dissertations

Increasing Pediatric HPV Vaccination Rates

Abstract

Problem: The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection that affects more than 80% of the population within the United States (Eisenhauer et al., 2020). HPV can develop into cervical, anogenital, and oropharyngeal cancers (Eisenhauer et al., 2020). About 4,000 individuals die from cervical cancer alone each year (O’Leary, 2022). The HPV vaccine, though recommended by the ACIP and AAP, is below national vaccination rates in comparison to other vaccines (O’Leary, 2022).

Methods: This quality improvement project is a non-randomized controlled trial that observed HPV vaccine dose completion rates for patients aged 9-14 …

Exploring The Impact Of Faculty–Student Interactions Outside The Classroom On The Sense Of Belonging, Engagement, Self-Confidence, And Retention Among Undergraduates In Uae Federal Universities, Mona Malalla Alhammadi

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of Faculty-Student Interaction (FSI) in influencing students' social and academic outcomes and success. In particular, this study sought to investigate the impact of the informal interactions between faculty members and their students outside the classroom on four student outcomes: Sense of Belonging (SB), Engagement (EG), Self-confidence (SC), and Retention (RT). The participants were 570 undergraduate students who were at their first- and second-year of study from three different UAE federal higher education institutions. The study employed quantitative research design while utilizing an online survey as the main data collection instrument. …

How Do Emirati University Students Develop Their Academic Biliteracy? A Mixed-Method Study, Eman Kamel Rababa

Dissertations

Framed by Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy model, this study investigated the developmental dynamics of academic biliteracy among Emirati university students. The research employed a sequential mixed-methods design, conducted across three public universities in the UAE. In the initial qualitative phase, interview data were collected from 30 students. Informed by these findings and the extant literature, a quantitative survey was then developed and administered to a sample of 299 students from various disciplines. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, while the quantitative data were examined using advanced statistical analyses, including structural equation modeling. Three primary themes emerged from …

Institutional Belonging And College Success In A Neoliberal Environment, Alicia C. Figueroa

Dissertations

As higher education evolves in response to various pressures, adult learner graduate students, particularly women who are mothers, find themselves navigating a complex landscape shaped by neoliberal ideals of belonging. This research aimed to explore the multifaceted notions of belonging within a neoliberal environment and provide insight into a growing sector of this college student population. The project sought to illuminate the unique experiences of female adult learner graduate students, especially mothers, as they increasingly return to college post-COVID-19. Employing a qualitative phenomenological research design, this study gathered diverse narratives from this sub-population. The methodology utilized purposeful sampling for semi-structured …

Regional Lending Market Structures And Cross-Class Social Capital’S Impact On Small Business Outcomes In The United States, Karl Guenther

Dissertations

This study examines whether regional lending market structures—specifically, the availability of capital from local credit unions—affects the success of small businesses in U.S. metropolitan areas. It investigates whether greater local credit union market share of lending capacity improves small business outcomes and whether this relationship is moderated by levels of economic connectedness, a form of cross-class social capital. The analysis further explores whether these moderating effects are especially pronounced for Black-owned small businesses. The study focuses on business outcomes in regions in 2021. Regression models are estimated using cross-sectional data from across 135, 301, and 375 metropolitan statistical areas based …

Exploring The Experience Of Nursing Students During Their Community Health Nursing Clinical Placement At Schools, Lina Ghosn Nouwayhed

Dissertations

Community health nursing is an exciting, challenging, and evolving field that creatively integrates various areas of nursing practice with public health knowledge (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). Learning in practical settings is invaluable for student nurses; that is why clinical placements account for 50% of nursing curriculum requirements (Henderson, 2011). At Makassed University of Beirut, the community nursing practicum takes place in schools, with school nurses serving as mentors during these placements.

This research study aims to:

• Explore the experiences of student nurses during community clinical practice.
• Develop guidelines to enhance learning during community clinical practice.

The study sample consisted of …

Exploring The Relationships Between Childhood Emotional Neglect, Attachment, Perfectionism, And Adult Mental Health Struggles Across The Socioeconomic Spectrum, Jordan Biedrzycki

Dissertations

This mixed-methods, cross-sectional study investigated the associations between childhood emotional neglect, perfectionism, attachment insecurity, and internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) among adults from varying socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. Participants (N = 210) aged 18 years or older completed five validated self-report instruments for the quantitative analyses and answered two optional open-ended questions that yielded qualitative data. Data from the self-report measures were analyzed using independent samples t-tests, linear regressions, and moderation analyses conducted with the PROCESS macro. Three hypotheses were tested in this study. First, participants from high-SES backgrounds reported experiencing emotional neglect more frequently than other maltreatment subtypes (t = …

Assessing The Impact Of Therapeutic Alliance On Client Satisfaction And Unilateral Termination Reasons, Eric Washington

Dissertations

Unilateral termination is a pervasive issue that has persisted since the inception of mental health services. The act of terminating needed services impacts not only on the client but also the provider, community, family, and stakeholders. The therapeutic alliance established during the counseling process is a well-established predictor of outcome in mental health services. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between unilateral termination reasons, satisfaction, and working alliance. A total of 390 participants responded to the online survey resulting in the descriptive results of Working Alliance Inventory-12 (M = 3.93, SD = .83), Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-4 …

Experiences With Social Media Social Comparison In Women Ages 18-28: A Qualitative Study, Olivia Oakley Dr.

Dissertations

This qualitative study aimed to understand young women’s experience using social media and their reported mental health connections, such as self-esteem and comparison. As inferred in recent research, a wide range of social media content is being produced and consumed, from promoting the “thin ideal” to newer campaigns advocating for body positivity (Cohen et al., 2019, Grabe et al., 2008; Groesz et al., 2002). In a time where there is so much online content to consume, it is important to continue to evaluate the lived experiences of those using social media. This phenomenological qualitative research captured the lived experiences of …

Give People Money: The Effect Of Perceived Inequality In Everyday Life And Previous Cash-Transfer Programs On Support For Universal Basic Income, David Thomas Igliozzi

Dissertations

Economic inequality is a global concern with many adverse consequences for people across class divides. These consequences vary in scope—from negative effects on individual’s physical, mental, and social health to large-scale economic shifts which result from climate change (Galbraith & Hale, 2008; Hiesh & Pugh, 1993; Kaplan et al., 1996; La Ferrara & Alesina, 2000; Solt, 2008; Vilhjalmsdottir et al., 2016; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2007). Policy solutions meant to address the negative effects of economic inequality include government redistribution of wealth. Universal Basic Income (UBI), a specific and actionable policy of government redistribution, is a promising method of economic inequality …

“The Wonderful Swiftness Of The Soul”: Mental Movement And Religious Ethics In Medieval English Literature, Abigail Palmisano

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes conceptual metaphors of psychological motion and stability in medieval English religious literature. I trace how language itself structures cultural approaches to epistemology, spiritual knowing, and virtue. Chapter One examines Alfred’s translation of Neoplatonic metaphors of psychological movement in the OE translations of The Consolation of Philosophy and Augustine’s Soliloquies. I argue that the reconfiguration of these metaphors into images of stability reveals an epistemology centered on certainty. Chapter Two compares the omission of motive psychological metaphor in Cynewulf’s Juliana and Ælfric’s “St. Agatha and St. Lucy” in process of translation. While Cynewulf’s depiction of virtue through stability …

Instrument Development And Psychometric Testing Of The Capstone-Experience Preceptor Preparedness Scale: The Cap-Express Study, Lisa Eyring Guthrie

Dissertations

Preceptors are relied upon to prepare nursing students during their capstone experience as novice, generalist nurses. There is currently no instrument that measures the preceptor’s level of preparedness. The purpose of this study was to psychometrically test a 67-item instrument, the Cap-ExPresS developed during a pilot study, which evaluated the level of self-perceived confidence preceptors reported when working with capstone students.

The Social Aesthetics Of Recognition, Italo Alves

Dissertations

The history of social philosophy is a history of suspicion toward the aesthetic (1). However, since we apprehend social reality fundamentally through its aesthetic appearances, an account is needed of how “the aesthetic” must enter the social-philosophical discourse, particularly in reconstructive models of social critique. I call this account “social aesthetics.” Social aesthetics illuminates how certain social experiences generate normative claims even in the lack of discursive articulation. (2) I argue that the philosophy of recognition, concerned with this relationship between social experience and normative claim-making, contains an unacknowledged aesthetic dimension, which I uncover through a critical reading of Axel …

Examining The Impact Of Technology-Enhanced Peer Mentorship On First-Year University Students’ Mental Health And Academic Success, Maya Hareli

Dissertations

Poor mental health among first-year college students has been associated with a plethora of unfavorable outcomes including worsening mental health problems later in college as well as declines in academic performance, rates of college retention, and postgraduate employment and income potential. While demand for mental health services on college campuses is high, there are various barriers to accessing these services. Peer mentoring is a resource-efficient solution for curbing college student mental health and academic challenges; however, the effects of past mentoring programs are inconsistent. Additionally, technology-delivered interventions (TDIs) have been shown to yield positive outcomes for young adults along various …

More Than Trauma: The Story Of Intergenerational Survival, Tiffany Fang

Dissertations

Parental trauma can have a profound effect on children. The process of passing along traumatic experiences, known as the intergenerational transmission of trauma (IGT) and the process of passing along adaptations to these adverse circumstances, known as the intergenerational transmission of resilience (IGR), have been explored in populations such as survivors of the Holocaust and war refugees (Danieli et al., 2017; Kellermann, 2001; Sangalang & Vang, 2017). This study sought to extend findings to Chinese American immigrant families, many of whom experienced trauma in the form of war, sociopolitical violence, and poverty in 20th-century China. Despite the presence of these …

Exploring General Education Teachers' Awareness Of Ableism In Elementary School, Hana Elizabeth Polachek

Dissertations

Ableism, or prejudice and discrimination on the basis of dis/ability is of growing interest to both practitioners and researchers (Branco et al., 2019; Friedman & Awsumb, 2019). In the United States, there are federal laws that protect public education as a fundamental right regardless of a student’s ability status. Prior researchers found that educators can hold biases with respect to a student’s disability label (Bassey et al., 2020; Donohue & Bornman, 2015; Freer, 2018; Gifford & Knott, 2016; Ko & Boswell, 2013; Lucas, et al., 2009; Nah & Tan, 2021; Pachiţa & Gherguţ, 2021; Röhm et al., 2022; Wüthrich & …