Digital Commons Network^™

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Corpus Data From Reddit Discussions Of "Gay Voice", Sara Elizabeth Mulliner

Dissertations and Theses

In the last decade, there have been a number of public discussions about "gay voice" and "sounding gay." These two phrases often serve as a shorthand for the belief that a listener can determine the sexuality of a speaker based on phonetic qualities found in a speaker's vocal output. However, these expressions are more accurately described as "catch-all" terms for speech that may contain features associated with non-gender conforming stances and personae. Notions about gender and sexuality could be intertwined in complicated ways in this language ideology. Investigating popular discussions of gay-sounding voices could provide information on what people are …

Student Voice In A Participatory Design Process Focused On Developing Equity-Based Stem Teaching Practices, Frank Heimerdinger

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study with second grade students in a mid-sized city in the Northwest was to examine an equity-based STEM teaching practice and design process that builds on student's voice in the context of an elementary school. Teaching practice innovations were designed using a participatory process drawing on student voice and experience, culturally responsive pedagogy, STEM content, and teaching practices. The students collaborated with the teacher to design and enact equity-based STEM teaching practice innovations and gave necessary and appropriate feedback regarding its efficacy in creating equitable and empowering learning experiences from their own perspective. A specific goal …

Fractals As Basis For Design And Critique, John Charles Driscoll

Dissertations and Theses

The design profession is responding to the complex systems represented by architecture and planning by increasingly incorporating the power of computer technology into the design process. This represents a paradigm shift, and requires that designers rise to the challenge of both embracing modern technologies to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks without compromising their objective to create meaningful and environmentally sensitive architecture. This dissertation investigated computer-based fractal tools applied within a traditional architectural charette towards a design process with the potential to address the complex issues architects and planners face today. We developed and presented an algorithm that draws heavily from fractal …

Cooperating Teachers' Perceived Preparedness To Support Science Teacher Candidates For Culturally Sustaining Science Teaching, Keelan Purcell Lofaro

Dissertations and Theses

In the United States, many communities face challenges that require science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) solutions. Those communities most affected by these challenges often lack opportunities in school to use their funds of knowledge as they develop STEM literacies that would equip them to address these challenges. With new national science standards and increasingly diverse student demographics in classrooms across the United States, teacher educators must utilize strategies that prepare science teacher candidates, who are predominantly White, with pedagogies that can support diverse learners in expanding their STEM literacies from their funds of knowledge. The problem of practice guiding …

Understanding The Politicization Of Oromo Identity In The Diaspora: Re/ Locating The Bones Of The Oromo, Madeline Jaye Bass

Dissertations and Theses

The Oromo people of Ethiopia share a common language, worldview, set of sacred meanings, and a historic system of governance. The rise of the Abyssinian Empire in the late 1800s led to the colonization of the Oromo; their language and religion were made illegal, their homeland was expropriated and renamed, and they were forced to live as slaves on their own land. After the end of the Abyssinian colonial era, historic discrimination was institutionalized into the new Ethiopian state form through the politicization of identities. Ethnic identities become political identities when cultural traits are used by the state as criteria …

Differences In Syntactic Complexity In The Writing Of El1 And Ell Civil Engineering Students, Santiago Gustin

Dissertations and Theses

Traditional studies in syntactic complexity consider increased clausal complexity to be characteristic of development, proficiency and growth in written language production. However, this stereotypical view ignores two important facts. First, complexity differs by register (i.e. daily speech versus formal writing). Second, as the proficiency of writers increases, their complexity in formal writing changes from clausal complexity to phrasal complexity (i.e. lower-proficiency writers have more subordinate clauses whereas higher-proficiency writers tend to have more noun phrases). Therefore, in this study, I argue for the need to consider not just clausal complexity but also phrasal complexity measures when assessing development and performance …

How Does Wasta Bolster Regimes? The Case Of Tunisia, Issrar Chamekh

Dissertations and Theses

This paper aims to highlight the impact of democratization on wasta by examining the everyday performance of wasta, or the use of connections and informal networks to acquire services. Despite its widespread use, I find that it is understudied as an explanatory variable in the literature on democratization and authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa, with Tunisia as a case study. In this paper, I argue that wasta can potentially have a consolidating effect on regimes. I examine the ways that wasta is encoded in everyday language. Using literature from Pragmatics, specifically Goffman's dramaturgical model, I find that …

Relationship Between Empathy And Language Proficiency In Adult Language Learners, Mika Sakai

Dissertations and Theses

This study reviews concepts and the mechanism of empathy, and the relationship between empathy and language proficiency, focusing on the aspect of cognitive empathy. It also discusses whether empathy levels could be developed by learning language to a highly proficient level. I compared the empathy levels between high and low proficiency second-language learners to determine if there was correlation between empathy and other factors such as gender, studying abroad, education background, and usage of a second language. I found that there was no relationship between empathy level and language proficiency level; however, there was one between empathy and gender. For …

Engaging In A Rural Deaf Community Of Practice, Kara Gournaris

Dissertations and Theses

The number of students taking American Sign Language (ASL) at the post-secondary level continues to increase as more Deaf-related graduate programs and employment settings require fluent ASL skills. Western Oregon University (WOU) is one of the few existing programs in the United States that offers four years of ASL instruction; however, as a rural university it has limited access to a Deaf community. The problem of practice is that students often have little exposure to rich language models who are fluent in ASL, which impacts their legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) in the local Deaf communities of practice (CoPs) and reduces …

Early Intervention Referral Outcomes For Children At Increased Risk Of Experiencing Developmental Delays, Kristi Laurine Atkins

Dissertations and Theses

Research has shown that children born low birth weight (i.e., ≤2500 grams) and/or premature (i.e., birth prior to 37 weeks gestation) are at increased risk of experiencing developmental delays, as well as long-standing executive functioning and academic challenges. Despite these well-known risks, children born low birth weight are under-enrolled nationally in Part C Early Intervention (EI) services intended to support developmentally vulnerable children. Little is known regarding why EI enrollment is low in this high risk population, especially given children born LBW are readily identifiable as at increased risk of delays at birth. This study explored EI referral outcomes from …

Making Race Matter: Interrupting Racial Color-Blindness In Education Through The Implementation Of Anti-Racist Curriculum, Kelly Deits Cutler

Dissertations and Theses

The United States continues to be a highly racialized society. As a result, race remains a predictor of educational achievement for students in the PK-12 public education system. Concurrently, racial color-blindness continues to dominate educational institutions, as teachers--particularly White teachers--often feel uncomfortable and ill prepared to talk with students about race. One approach that educators have developed to combat color-blindness in schools is anti-racist curriculum. Such curriculum directly teaches students about race and intentionally interrupts the color-blind ideology.

This research study sought to understanding how teachers attending a series of collaborative professional development sessions experienced the process of designing and …

Identifying With Remida: Early Childhood Educators’ Experiences With Reuse Materials In Reggio Emilia Inspired Identity Studies, Michelle Angela Domingues

Dissertations and Theses

Mainstream approaches to identity studies in early childhood education (ECE) are problematic from both social constructivist and early childhood education for sustainability perspectives. Mainstream approaches are influenced by behaviorist theories of developmental psychology literature which privilege individual identity, whereas emerging discourses in identity theory trend toward discussing the multiplicity of social identities. Alternatively, and in contrast to traditional behaviorist and cognitive learning theories, cultural centers like Reggio Emilia, Italy’s Remida Creative Recycling Center promote reuse material projects that socially construct identities in Reggio’s Municipal Infant/Toddler Centers and Preprimary Schools by giving value to waste materials through offering such materials in …

Use Of And Access To Abortion Services Among Asian And Immigrant Populations In The United States, Sheila Desai

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Abortion is common in the United States (U.S.) and a critical component of comprehensive reproductive health care. Yet, little research has documented patterns of abortion use among Asian populations or potential barriers to abortion care among immigrants in the U.S., two rapidly growing but understudied populations. In response, this dissertation aims to examine use of and access to abortion services among individuals obtaining abortions in the U.S., focusing specifically on Asians in New York City (NYC), immigrants in the U.S., and individuals living in high immigrant concentration neighborhoods in the U.S.

Methods: Using vital statistics data from …

Simultaneous Bilingual Middle School Students Becoming Biliterate: What Do Students Think About Their Biliteracy As Taught Through The "Bridge" Strategy In A Humanities Dual Language/Immersion Class?, Alma Lucinda Diaz-Philipp

Dissertations and Theses

In response to the increasing number of United States school students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds at all grade levels, often called "simultaneous bilinguals," the U.S. school districts are opening schools that offer bilingual instruction. One instructional strategy that seems promising is the "Bridge," where students contrast and connect the literacy skills learned in one language to the literacy skills in their other language. An underlying component of learning a language is student attitude and motivation to learn. Research also seems to indicate that student attitude and motivation toward biliteracy can affect their achievement. There seems to be a …

Examining Human Behavior And Tool Use Through Experimental Replications And A Technological Analysis Of Ground Stone In The Lower Columbia, Kelley Prince Martinez

Dissertations and Theses

While ground stone tools represent diverse activities, the technology is analyzed at a coarse level in the Pacific Northwest. Conducting more detailed analyses of ground stone assemblages can inform on regional Indigenous raw material knowledge, resource use, and tool manufacturing and maintenance practices.

In this thesis I addressed questions regarding ground stone technology, including manufacturing time investments, tool recycling, and how ground stone tools were used through the application of experimental tool replication, use studies, and in depth analyses. I replicated tools that are common in the region, including a banded and notched net weight, a maul, two bowls, and …

A Scoring Model To Assess Organizations' Technology Transfer Capabilities: The Case Of A Power Utility In The Northwest Usa, JoãO Ricardo Lavoie

Dissertations and Theses

This research intends to advance knowledge in the technology management field, most importantly in the study of organizations that develop technologies in-house and wish to enhance their technology transfer performance while maintaining adherence between R&D activities and overall business strategies. The objective was to build a multi-criteria decision-making model capable of producing a technology transfer score, which can be used by practitioners in order to assess and later improve their organizations' technology transfer capabilities -- ultimately aiming to improve technology development as a whole. The model was applied to a major power utility organization in the Pacific Northwest of the …

Revolutionärinnen Am Fließband: A Comparative Gendered Analysis Of The 1973 Pierburg And Ford Migrant Labor Strikes, Jordan Faith Norquist

Dissertations and Theses

In the years following the end of the Second World War, the Federal Republic of Germany experienced a "golden age" of economic upturn. Due to the labor shortage in the aftermath of war and the division of Germany, West Germany initially looked to its eastern counterpart, the German Democratic Republic, to meet its labor needs in the immediate postwar years. Once East Germany tightened its border control, the Federal Republic of Germany extended bilateral agreements to Southern Mediterranean countries to meet the nation's labor needs. Italy was the first official nation to have a bilateral work agreement with West Germany …

Racial Disparities In A State Based Workers' Compensation System, Caroline Kristine Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority workers suffer higher rates of work-related injuries and illnesses in the United States compared to their White counterparts. Explanations for these higher rates include potential socioeconomic causes (education, income, and wealth) and occupational segregation into more dangerous occupations. What is less studied are the post-injury sequelae for minority workers, which is their experiences in the workers' compensation system, as well as their health and return to paid employment. What is known comes primarily from qualitative literature, which includes themes of racial discrimination (from employers, health care providers, and workers' compensation employees), a lack of information …

Freedom In Existence: A Comparative Study Of The Poetics Of Emily Dickinson And Sohrab Sepehri, Neda Zahraie

Dissertations and Theses

Poetry, like thought, belongs to all people and is representative of existence itself. In one sense, poetry is the musical formation of words, whose effects must be experienced in sound, tone and melody, but in another sense, poetry is also an artistic discourse where the “fundamental character is that of an incidentally moving and imaginative form of communication” (Edman 46). Emily Dickinson and Sohrab Sepehri are two poets who sought to identify and define the Self in their modernist poetic discourse, and they each appropriated language as a means and a stepping-stone towards a methodological and unrestricted method of inquiry …

"Beyond Consolation": Or Strangeness, Estrangement, And Strange-Ing In The Elegy For The Black Body, 1955-Present, Naomie Jean-Pierre

Dissertations and Theses

The Elegy for the Black Body examines the mid-twentieth to early-twenty-first-century poetic justice crafted by African American poets to eulogize individual African Americans whose deaths were the result of racial and political violence. In the age of lynching, mass shooting, and police brutality, I argue that an African American poetic tradition persists that, while not entirely beholden to the ancient elegy, is its distant relative, along with the English and American Elegy. I argue further that while the contemporary American elegy has undergone for the last six decades intensive study, from the notable studies done by Peter Sack’s in The …

The Hydra Of Modern Literature, Genevieve Sharp

Dissertations and Theses

Modernist Literature

The Embodiment Of Theory In Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, Julie A. Ficks

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research is to explore how Maggie Nelson, in her groundbreaking memoir The Argonauts (2015), works to bring critical theory (primarily queer and feminist theory) out of the academy and into the realm of the personal, rendering theory as tangible and embodied in a real-world setting. Through this unique exchange, Nelson radically reinstates norms relating to gender, sexuality, motherhood and relationships.

Deconstructing Language Ideologies With Self-Reflective Writing In An Efl Classroom In Haiti: A Critical Discourse Analysis Case Study, Javid Buchanan

Dissertations and Theses

This paper draws on data collected from a critical self-reflective writing workshop series within an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in The Republic of Haiti. This Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) case study investigates 7 students’ critical self-reflection writing to uncover language-related ideologies embedded within the meaning-making experiences of multilingual language users at a community-based organization. Although students generally show positive or negative attitudes towards language, the use of critical classroom discourse allows students to move beyond generic positive and negative framing when talking about language. Using Gardner’s L2 learner motivation model, this case study explores “instrumental” and “integrative" …

Senegal’S Unsustainable Economic Growth., Amadou Konteye

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Revolution, Reform, And Class Conflict In Rebecca Harding Davis’S Life In The Iron-Mills, Thomas Collins

Dissertations and Theses

Life in the Iron-Mills (1861) by Rebecca Harding Davis is a very early example of American fiction that depicts the living and working conditions in a mill town. Although the novella advocates for workers, it does not accurately depict contemporaneous working-class culture. Davis depicts workers as isolated and helpless in the face of the forces that oppress them rather than giving voice to the workers’ movement of her time. Although Davis depicts workers in a debased state, the text’s narrator holds out hope of the “Dawn,” suggesting a revolutionary movement. Because the narrator offers no interpretation regarding how the working …

The Interplay Between Early Childhood Education And Mental Health: How Students In An In-Service Early Childhood Teacher Education Program Experience Children With Mental Health And Behavioral Challenges In The Classroom, Katie Statman-Weil

Dissertations and Theses

All early childhood educators who work with children between birth and six years of age are likely to encounter young children who experience behavioral and mental health challenges throughout their careers. Research demonstrates that educators can play a vital role in children's mental health and behavioral development. However, often early childhood educators do not believe they have the knowledge or tools to accurately identify and successfully handle the unique challenges that arise when working with children with behavioral and mental health issues.

Using an Anti-Oppressive Framework, this research study explores, through a qualitative case study design, how students in an …

Representations Of Immigrants In Young Adult Literature, Frances Augusta Ramos Verbruggen

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to determine how immigrants and the immigration experience are represented in current young adult (YA) literature. In the study, I asked the following questions: Who are the immigrant characters in recent YA books? Why do they come? How do they experience immigration? How are they perceived or treated by others? A content analysis methodology was used to examine, from a critical literacy viewpoint, recent young adult novels with immigration themes. Data were analyzed by identifying and interpreting patterns in themes across 22 YA novels with immigrant protagonists or other important characters, published between 2013 and 2017. …

The Urban Food Desert As A Model For The Urban Health Care Desert: Fundamental Causes And Economic Considerations, Estevan A. Garcia

Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: A “health care desert” is a part of the country where needed medical, behavioral, mental, dental, and/or pharmaceutical health care services are extremely limited or altogether unavailable. This terminology is based on the concept of a “food desert,” which describes an area where people have limited access to affordable and healthy foods, and which, together with the negative health consequences of eating lower-quality foods, is well described in public health literature. The application of this terminology to an urban environment with ready access to transportation has been limited and is controversial. However, the recent increase in urban hospital closures …

Selling Protest In The News? Movement-Media Framing Of Occupations: An Exploratory Study, Andrew David Butz

Dissertations and Theses

Using quantitative content analysis, this study explores social movement (SM) framing in commercial news media -- by comparing how leading newspapers covered prominent protest occupations in 2011 and 2016. More than other SMs, anti-systemic protests like the 2011 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the 2016 Malheur Refuge Occupation (MRO) only have partial frame-setting agency, raising a broad theory question (to inform the research questions below): If SMs and media relate as interacting systems, are protest news frames more movement- or more media- driven; and do media not just enable but also constrain SMs?

With the movement-media theory question above, the …

Grammatical Errors By Arabic Esl Students: An Investigation Of L1 Transfer Through Error Analysis, Aisha Saud Alasfour

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the effect of first language (L1) transfer on Arabic ESL learners' acquisition of the relative clauses, the passive voice and the definite article. I used Contrastive Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) to analyze 50 papers written by Arabic ESL students at the ACTFL Advanced Mid proficiency level. The analysis was paired with interviews with five advanced students to help determine whether L1 transfer was, in fact, influencing students' errors predicted by CA.

Students in this study made L1 errors along with other errors. Although no statistical difference was found between the frequency of transfer and other …