Digital Commons Network^™

Voices On The Horizon: A Theory Of Ludic Rhetoric, Jeff Lohr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Voices on the horizon: A theory of ludic rhetoric begins with the assumption that rhetoric and play offer hope for cooperation and community in a fragmented and divided world. Rhetoric and play share an intellectual trajectory in the history of ideas. The earliest use of the terms rhetor and rhetoric in the Western tradition encouraged playful cooperation. The move toward reason and science during the Enlightenment relegated rhetoric to mere techniques for persuasion and silenced alternative avenues for seeking truth. Reclaiming traditional rhetoric as a meeting place for potential negotiation and cooperation encourages constructive civic discourse. The conclusion of this …

A Case Study Of An Online Teacher Study Group As A Digital Professional Development Tool, Jessica Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there appears to have been a shift in professional development approaches for teachers from short-term workshops to teacher communities of professional practice, which extend over a while and focus on the expert knowledge teachers need to use in their setting (Goya, 2014). A supportive approach to teacher learning communities is a teacher study group. An even more promising and flexible approach to teacher learning communities in a global aspect is an online teacher study group. An online teacher study group provided a universal and flexible venue to engage in collaborative discussion between general education and special education …

A Darker Side Of Venus: An Empirical-Phenomenological Study Of Women's Negative Experiences Encountering Pornographic Imagery, Rebecca Gimeno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This empirical-phenomenological study explores the psychological dimensions of negatively encountering a pornographic image. The study includes four participants, all adult women who have had an adverse encounter with a pornographic image within the past five years at the time of the data collection. The recollected experiences of the participants were collected through written narratives as well as semi-structured interviews.

The written narratives and recorded audio interviews were transcribed and subsequently analyzed using an empirical-phenomenological analysis, a process that yielded situated structures. From this analysis, thematic elements of each structure were brought to light. Some of the thematic elements that were …

Bureaucratic Modernity And The Erosion Of Practical Reason: A Rhetorical Education As An Antidote, David Impellizzeri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To what extent and in what ways does modernity reveal itself through the bureaucratic? This project aims at an interpretive understanding of bureaucratic modernity. The rationalization of society and action in the (late) modern world requires that an increasing number of human activities and domains be explained in allegedly neutral, ‘rational’ terms and without reference to morally substantive ends. Ultimately, this entails a form of epistemic reductionism that elevates instrumental rationality to the exclusion of practical reason and probabilistic ways of knowing. Bureaucratic modernity signifies a decrease in choices that can be legitimized in public on some basis other …

Parental Experiences Participating In The Positive Behavior Intervention And Support Process In Schools, Siddiq Meer Siddiq Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of parents of children with challenging behavior regarding their involvement with, and interest in, the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) process within school systems. The overarching research question was what are the lived (perceived) experiences of parents of children with challenging behavior regarding their involvement in the PBIS process? From this main question, there were five subsidiary questions that were addressed: How do parents of children with challenging behavior involved in the PBIS process describe their lived experiences? In what ways have parents made meaning out of their experiences …

Understanding Worry And Mindfulness Through Psycholinguistics., Elena Maria Clara Geronimi Bortoleto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our understanding of psychological constructs through language has increased over the last few decades. However, only a few studies have explored linguistic features associated with worry and mindfulness. This is the first study using linguistics to investigate features of worry models associated with worry and mindfulness concomitantly. The current study reviews literatures regarding worry and mindfulness emotional, physiological, and cognitive features, including language. Next, the current study tested the hypotheses that excessive worry would be negatively correlated with present tense and positively correlated with number of words, number of questions, anxiety related words, and negative emotion words, while mindfulness would …

Education Abroad Participation: Predicting Participation Through High School Academic Record And Intent To Be Involved In College As Reported In The Freshman Survey (Tfs) And In The College Senior Survey (Css)., Elizabeth Karen Liebschutz-Roettger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Globalization is a topic of great interest in higher education yet fewer than 10% of college graduates participate in a formal study abroad program. While according to The American Council on Education [ACE] (2008) data, nearly 80% of incoming first-year students intend to go abroad, the reality is most students do not. Practitioners in Education Abroad (EA) are continually looking at ways to help increase student participation in overseas programs and opportunities. The study looks at frequencies and predictor models to help determine factors that influence student participation in study abroad. The study utilized HERI’s 2009 The Freshman Survey (TFS) …

Middle School Outreach Efforts To Involve Immigrant Parents: What Are The Perceptions Of School Personnel And Immigrant Parents?, Marcella Denise Franklin-Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the years, a concern plaguing the education world is parent involvement. Ongoing research indicates students whose parents and family members are involved tend to experience greater academic achievement and decreased behavior issues (McNeal, 2015). With regard to parent involvement, immigrant parent involvement takes this concern to a new level with regard to the growing racial and ethnic diversity in education (Outley & Skuza, 2019). Guided by Epstein’s six types of involvement and Yosso’s community cultural wealth, this study explores one urban middle school’s outreach efforts to involve immigrant parents. In this qualitative case study, one middle schools’ stakeholders-the principal, …

The Gendering Of Death Personifications In Literary Modernism: The Femme Fatale Symbol From Baudelaire To Barnes, Amanda Mcnally

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The time of modernity, defined here as 1850-1940, contributed to massive changes in the representation of the feminine in literature. Societal paradigm shifts due to industrialism, advances in science, psychology, and a newfound push for gender equality brought transformation to the Western World. As a result of this, male frustrations revived the ancient trope of the femme fatale, but the modern woman—already hungry for agency, tired of maligned representation in heinous portrayals of skeletons, sirens, and beasts—saw a symbol begging for redemption rather than the intended insult. Women of the nineteenth century infused texture to a two-dimensional accusation that argued …

Growing Up Deaf In Appalachia: An Oral History Of My Mother, Elizabeth Shelton Tipton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the life experiences of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman, Jane Ann Shelton, a second generation Deaf child born to Deaf parents from the communities of Devil’s Fork (Flag Pond, Tennessee) and Shelton Laurel (Madison County, North Carolina). Over two hours of videotaped interviews were interpreted and transcribed, followed by various other communications to describe the life of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman without a formal high school degree. As an advocate and a political lobbyist in Tennessee during the 1980s and 90s, she was unparalleled by her peers (deaf or hearing) in her efforts to “enhance …

The Nurse As The Facilitator Of Patients' Narration: An Educational Intervention, Petra Stockman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More than one million resident patients live and receive care at certified long-term facilities in the United States, many of whom suffer from depressive symptoms and anxiety. Prior research recommended storytelling as a vibrant nursing intervention to assist long-term care residents in overcoming challenges and emotional pain. However, nurses frequently lack knowledge of successful planning and implementation of narrative reminiscence. This scholarly project was designed to increase nursing competence and confidence in using storytelling as a clinical tool to improve mental health in long-term care, using a quasi-experimental, nonrandomized pretest, intervention, and posttest study design. A convenience sample of 10 …

Machine Learning-Based Models For Assessing Impacts Before, During And After Hurricane Events, Julie L. Harvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social media provides an abundant amount of real-time information that can be used before, during, and after extreme weather events. Government officials, emergency managers, and other decision makers can use social media data for decision-making, preparation, and assistance. Machine learning-based models can be used to analyze data collected from social media. Social media data and cloud cover temperature as physical sensor data was analyzed in this study using machine learning techniques. Data was collected from Twitter regarding Hurricane Florence from September 11, 2018 through September 20, 2018 and Hurricane Michael from October 1, 2018 through October 18, 2018. Natural language …

Carer Information Needs Following A Family Member's Right Hemisphere Stroke, Christyn Davidson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Previous studies have explored information needs for carers of persons with aphasia; however, there is minimal research on information needs of carers with right hemisphere disorder (RHD). RHD describes cognitive and communication impairments a person experiences following a right hemisphere stroke or brain injury. Carers have an important role in rehabilitation and the long-term quality of life of a person with RHD. This study explores the information needs for carers following a family member’s right hemisphere stroke throughout different periods of recovery.

Methods/Procedures: Participants completed online surveys and a semi-structured phone interview. Analysis of the interviews revealed four major …

Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: A Discourse Analysis Of Forensic And Psychological Truth In Child Narratives, Elizabeth Samson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation draws on a hermeneutically-informed modification of Potter and Wetherell’s (1987) discourse analysis methodology to explore how child memory and experience are conceptualized in two widely-used forensic psychology training manuals. Current research about child testimony tends to focus on how well children can factually recount their experiences, or on optimizing interviewer performance so as to obtain accurate accounts and minimize the risk of distorting children’s memories. Results of this discourse analysis include: 1) frequent advisement of evaluator caution, objectivity, and thoroughness, since evaluators are understood as responsible for preserving the accuracy of children’s memories during the evaluation process; and …

Kink In Flux: Bdsm Theory And Sexual Praxis, Celeste Pietrusza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The opening decades of the 21^st century have seen a veritable explosion of representations of bondage, discipline and sadomasochism (BDSM) and kink practices in mainstream media and American culture. Along with this, empirical researchers working in sexuality studies continue to show, contrary to the history of stigmatizing accounts in the history of clinical psychology, no evidence of increased pathology and, in some studies, better outcomes on measures of mental health.

Given the legacy of psychoanalysis in foregrounding considerations of sadomasochism and sexuality for the human psyche, it seems particularly well positioned to approach the complexities of dynamic fantasies involved …

An Explainable Recommender System Based On Semantically-Aware Matrix Factorization., Mohammed Sanad Alshammari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative Filtering techniques provide the ability to handle big and sparse data to predict the ratings for unseen items with high accuracy. Matrix factorization is an accurate collaborative filtering method used to predict user preferences. However, it is a black box system that recommends items to users without being able to explain why. This is due to the type of information these systems use to build models. Although rich in information, user ratings do not adequately satisfy the need for explanation in certain domains. White box systems, in contrast, can, by nature, easily generate explanations. However, their predictions are less …

Mapping Rural Literacy Sponsorship Networks : Literacy Infrastructures And Perceptions In Abbyville., Amy Mccleese Nichols

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, the academy has become aware that rural students are choosing to attend institutions of higher education less often than their urban counterparts. Rationalizing why this particular population remains underserved by institutions of higher learning is a new conversation for higher education. And yet, in literacy studies, the perceived urban/rural divide in terms of national politics sometimes seeps into conversations about the perceived “literacy” or culture of rural peoples. This polarization, unaccompanied by detailed portraits of rural community literacy sponsorship, means that rural areas do not benefit from the consistent attention paid to their urban counterparts in New Literacy Studies. …

Character Arcs: Mapping Creative Writers' Trajectories Into The Composition Classroom., Jon Udelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops a theoretical and empirical approach to the study of professional creative writers and teachers. Specifically, it examines how these writers developed their knowledge of creative writing and writing pedagogy and how that knowledge informs their work as instructors of composition. Despite the common practice across writing programs of hiring formally-trained creative writers (M.A., M.F.A, Ph.D.) to teach first-year composition and related courses, little scholarship in the field of rhetoric and composition or writing studies more broadly specifically focuses on the disciplinary and professional development of these writer-teachers. Through case studies of graduate students, contingent faculty, lecturers, and …

Cognitive Satellite Communications And Representation Learning For Streaming And Complex Graphs., Wenqi Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two topics. The first topic studies a promising dynamic spectrum access algorithm (DSA) that improves the throughput of satellite communication (SATCOM) under the uncertainty. The other topic investigates distributed representation learning for streaming and complex networks. DSA allows a secondary user to access the spectrum that are not occupied by primary users. However, uncertainty in SATCOM causes more spectrum sensing errors. In this dissertation, the uncertainty has been addressed by formulating a DSA decision-making process as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) model to optimally determine which channels to sense and access. Large-scale networks have attracted …

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing At The Local Level : A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Practices In Louisville, Kentucky., Steven P. Sizemore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research project is an immersion into the beliefs, ideas, meanings, values, and feelings of actors engaged in shaping local housing policies. The dissertation examines how discourse constitutes and shapes the knowledge of policy actors engaged in fair housing policies and practices in Louisville, Kentucky. I argue that policy discourse is the site where social problems become framed, bounded, and transformed into action. Therefore, if the objective of the Fair Housing Act’s mandate for HUD and its recipients is to operate programs in a manner that “affirmatively furthers fair housing” (AFFH), it is essential to understand the discursive acts …

The Captivity Narratives Of Cynthia Ann Parker : Settler Colonialism, Collective Memory, And Cultural Trauma., Treva Elaine Hodges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores representations of the captivity narrative of Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo woman captured as a child by Comanche, with whom she lived in a kinship relationship until her forced return to Anglo society twenty-four years later. The project draws upon trauma theory to explain the persistent appeal of Parker’s narrative. Interpretations analyzed include the original historical account of Parker’s narrative, and appearances in the genres of opera, film, graphic novel, and historical fiction. The dissertation reveals how appearances of Parker’s narrative correspond to periods in US history in which social change threated the dominant position of Anglo …

Behavioral And Cognitive Correlates Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty In Children With And Without Anxiety Disorders., Colette Marie Gramszlo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) has long been identified as a proximal risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders, and more recently has been implicated in the development of emotional disorders broadly. However, little is known about how IU and psychopathology symptoms relate, limiting the degree to which IU can be identified prior to the development of emotional disorders and targeted during the intervention of disorder symptoms. The current study reviews several areas of literature to inform a model by which IU impacts anxiety symptoms. First, uncertainty processing and the development of uncertainty processing in childhood are reviewed. Next, IU …

Parent, Teacher, And Administrator Perceptions Of School Community Relationships, Tammy Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this purposive qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of school community relationships of preschool parents, preschool teachers, and elementary administrators. In this purposive study, participants were chosen based on predetermined characteristics (Shenton, 2004). Parents from varying levels of academic and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as their level of parental involvement, were included in this study to eliminate bias.

The following themes emerged through coding and transcribing data: the family aspect at school; positive perception of principals; positive perception of teachers; open lines of communication between home and school; opportunities for parent involvement; the expectation of parent …

Programs For Language Minority Students At Tbr Community Colleges: A Study Of Factors Affecting Design, Caitlin Chapman-Rambo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this study was to determine to what extent programs for language-minority students at TBR community colleges adhere to the recommendations contained in the Conference on College Composition and Communications 2009 Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers and to investigate the factors beyond these professional recommendations that influence administrative decision-making about these programs and their designs. This study contained a survey sent to individuals at all 13 community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents system and follow-up interviews with 5 survey respondents from different institutions.

Analysis of the results of the study indicates all TBR community …

Exploring The Moderating Effect Of Maternal Scaffolding On The Temperament - Language Development Relationship, Chelsea L. Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have examined the relationship between a child’s temperament and its effect on his or her early language development. However, few studies have investigated the detrimental effects a child’s negative affectivity may have on their language development and potential ways these effects may be limited through parental behaviors. The current study aimed to investigate if physical or verbal maternal scaffolding behaviors moderated the effect negative affect has on language development. Although it was expected that maternal encouragement of physical activity would play a moderating role in the relationship between temperament and language development, no such relationship was found. One …

The Rural Health Physician Narrative: A New Historic Analysis Of Appalachian Representation In Twentieth-Century Rural Physician Narratives, Ashley Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rural health physician narrative is one of the most understudied genres in non-fictional Appalachian literature. Physician narratives are significant in the historical, social, and political contexts of twentieth-century Appalachian representation. These accounts provide insight into the social contexts in which physicians lived as they wrote about healthcare and Appalachian communities. New Historicism is an analytical tool used to better understand the complexity surrounding Appalachian representation, particularly in terms of the politics of representation, gender, and race that influenced these narratives in the twentieth century. I engage in close readings of narratives written by or about rural health physicians who …

Ensuring A Holistic And Quality Education For Every Child: A Phenomenological Inquiry Of Principals’ Transformational Leadership, Elijah Granger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have not fully examined how school leaders impact the teaching and learning environment when working toward generating students’ academic success. Balyer (2012) called for more work on understanding the transformational leadership behaviors that create conditions conducive to generating student achievement within educational accountability. Therefore, the purpose of this phenomenological inquiry is to explore the lived experiences of principals and their perceptions concerning the state accountability system and how it may impact their transformational efforts in ensuring a holistic and quality education for every child. The phenomenological inquiry will yield the opportunity to compare administrators’ in-depth perceptions of the accountability …

John The Solitary's Epistle To Marcianus: Edition, Translation, And Analysis, Ethan K. Laster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an edition, translation, and analysis of the heretofore unpublished Epistle to Marcianus, an early fifth-century letter attributed to Mar John the Solitary of Apamea. Mar John has long remained a somewhat shadowy figure in Syriac studies, given the complexities of his writings, confusion about what texts should be attributed to him, and his condemnation as a heretic by later Syriac writers. However, scholars have recently begun suggesting that Mar John was in fact quite influential in the development of Syriac ascetic theology. The Epistle to Marcianus (EpMar) considers the passion of lust, which is …

Exploring Factors Influencing Refugees' Mental Health Help-Seeking, Frediane Ndikumana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Newly resettled refugees are at a higher risk of mental health disorders, but few seek formal psychological help. The purpose of this study is to explore the factors influencing refugees’ formal mental health help-seeking. Data were collected by surveying a sample of 45 refugees from three countries of the Great Lacs Regions of Africa: Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda. Multiple linear regression was conducted to examine the association between formal mental health help-seeking and factors of mental health knowledge, stigma beliefs, and socioeconomic factors.

Results show that mental health knowledge factors and the stigma belief factors measured as stigma towards socializing …

A Praxis Of Oral Homiletics: Preaching From The Heart, Weiwen Tu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christian preaching has been a central and significant custom to the practitioners of biblically confessional and creedal communities in worship, evangelization, and discipleship. Yet modern preachers confront two challenges presented by the New Homiletic and the media environment. Undue favor toward narrative-based form, audience-oriented eventfulness at the expense of biblical authority, and shifting media that alter the preacher’s identity and incapacitate the preacher’s orality have led to a dissonant handling of form and content and thus a profound decline in the quality of the Christian pulpit.

This project grows out of an attempt to integrate an Augustinian hermeneutic and homiletic, …