Digital Commons Network^™

Family Engagement In Postsecondary And Workforce Readiness In A Suburban School District: An Exploratory Study, Keisha Kayon Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the focus on graduating all students and preparing them for postsecondary pursuits increases, schools are examining their practices in supporting how students are successfully prepared (Gutmann, & Ben-Porath, 1987; Guilfoyle, 2013). This study examined how the diversity of the family structure that now permeates modern day society can be used as a true partnership that embraces inclusivity and as a credible component to the postsecondary pursuits of students. Through the lens of the existing literature and a new theoretical framework, The Model of Family Engagement in Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness (FEPWR), the researcher identified the intersections between family engagement …

Advancing Sylvia Wynter's Reimagination Of The Human And Counter-Poetics: A Critique Of Contemporary Western Science Discourse In Cosmos—A Spacetime Odyssey, With Host Neil Degrasse Tyson, Claire E. Slattery-Quintanilla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the entanglements of "modernity/coloniality," Western conceptualizations of time and space, and questions of the "human" as they are situated in contemporary Western science discourse and thought. Through a textual analysis of the 2014 science television documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey presented by famous black astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, I argue Tyson refuses to discuss race as it relates to Western science on three levels in Cosmos: the racialized logic inherent in Western science, the sociohistorical relationship between European colonial racial subjugation and the emergence of contemporary Western science, and Tyson's experience as a black man …

Seeing The God Of New Mexico: Mary Austin's Starry Adventure And The Optic Of Enchantment, Olivia Jayne Mann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines 20th century American writer Mary Austin's last novel, Starry Adventure (1931), a work unjustly ignored by most Austin scholars, yet touted by the photographer Ansel Adams (in a letter to Austin) as "the greatest thing I have ever read." This thesis will be particularly concerned with the concept of vision in the novel and the connections between Austin's fiction and the New Mexican modernism/primitivism movement in the visual arts. I explore what I call Austin's "optic of enchantment," a visual experience of divinity that is uniquely tied to the New Mexican landscape. I break down this optic …

Pre-College Sources Of Influence For Traditionally Underrepresented Students Attending College: A Social Network Analysis Approach, Rebekah Kester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined a variety of sources of influence for traditionally underrepresented students at a primarily White institution of higher education. The sources of influence ranged from 2-way communications in high school to 2-way communications in the community, and from 1-way communication influences in the school such as AP courses, to 1-way communication influences outside of the school such as social media. The data were collected via an online survey distributed to first time in college freshmen in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. The survey results were analyzed using ANOVA and social network …

Engaging The Brave And The Bold: Exploring The Discourses Of Disability Through Life Stories, Brian L. Grewe Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the meaning making of having an acquired physical disability still remains a mystery today. With more than 20 percent of our total population experiencing some form of disability, this study explores discourses of disability that emerge from participants' life stories. This study interviewed 20 participants using a modified version of McAdams' (1993) Life Story Interview Protocol. Utilizing Relational Dialectics Theory and a thematic discourse analysis, two primary discourses emerged from participant talk. (1) the biomedical discourse of disability and (2) the disability discourse of normalcy. The latter discourse can be broken down even further into (1) the sociolinguistic discourse …

Development Of The Ableist Microaggression Scale And Assessing The Relationship Of Ableist Microaggressions With The Mental Health Of Disabled Adults, Shanna Katz Kattari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 20% of U.S. residents are currently living with a disability. Ableism values a specific type of physical, mental and/or emotional capital as well as supports socially constructed expectations of ability, valuing these expectations over different types of ability and disability. One way in which ableism is perpetuated is through microaggressions, at the more interpersonal, or micro level. Microaggressions are everyday interactions that perpetuate inequalities and stereotypes against people who belong to marginalized communities. Experiencing multiple microaggressions has been referred to as death by a thousand paper cuts, indicating the severity of the sum total of these casual types of …

An Analysis Of The Construction Of Parent Identity In Higher Education: A Mixed Methods Study, Daniel William Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study examined the construction of parental identity and interactions at a midsize four-year western private university. Survey responses were collected from 163 undergraduate students and 448 parents, who completed qualitative measures examining student and parent descriptions of parental interactions in higher education and quantitative measures examining frequency of parental intervention, levels of relational closeness, and use of mediated communication. Qualitative findings indicated that the student and parent participants were constructing parental identity at a private university through six emergent themes that describe parents as Financial Supporters, Academic Consultants, Emotional Cheerleaders, Housing Advisors, Advocates for Healthcare, and Advocates …

Warm Connections: An Integrated Behavioral Health Intervention Development Study, Susanne Klawetter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research demonstrates the presence of maternal mental health disparities as well as barriers to quality behavioral health care among women with low socioeconomic status. Warm Connections represents an innovative, interdisciplinary intervention designed to improve access to timely behavioral health support for women with low socioeconomic status. Based on an infant mental health framework and drawing from integrated behavioral health and brief intervention approaches, Warm Connections addresses the psychosocial needs of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The primary mission of WIC is to provide nutrition education, access to healthy nutrition, and health care …

An Exploration Of Teacher, School And District Leaders' Perspectives Regarding The Integration Of Instructional Technology In An Alternative Middle School: A Descriptive Case Study, Lauren Marie Kohl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The promise of using instructional technology to enhance student learning has been a dream and a goal for more than 30 years. During these past few decades, the reasoning has shifted from providing word processing, to supporting information access, to preparing students to become global citizens in our continually evolving technological world. While many educators are successful in these endeavors, there is still a disparity across the spectrum of consistent, intentional technology integration for learning. This varies not only from school district to school district, but between schools within districts, as well as from classroom to classroom. There has been …

Can You See Me? Ethnography Of Women's Experiences With Homelessness In Denver, Colorado, Taylor L. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following the economic crisis in 2008, the United States, and Denver in particular, saw a considerable rise in the number of people considered homeless. Despite an increase in the population, little anthropological research has been done to understand the experiences of street-embodied individuals and the services available to them. Through participant-observation, life-history interviews, and photovoice, I closely studied the lives of two women experiencing homelessness and used interpretive phenomenological analysis to analyze the data. Analyzed through Foucault's biopolitics, technologies of the self, and panopticism, as well as Goffman's presentation of the self, I make the case that the homeless experience …

"Revolution In Religious Language": The Relevance Of Julia Kristeva's Theory Of 'Signifiance' For Theology, Timothy O. Inman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation applies Julia Kristeva's theory of revolution in the practice of signifiance to religious discourse. In particular, it argues that the salient features of signifiance are present and active in religious speech as well as poetic language, the subject of Kristeva's doctoral thesis Revolution in Poetic Language. Signifiance describes the process in which meaning is produced in linguistic utterance, and its intentional practice is subversive not only in terms of language but culture in general.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Adult Esl Classrooms: A Case Study Of A University Intensive English Program, Arongna Borjigin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored the English as a second language (ESL) teachers' perceptions and implementation of the culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in an Intensive English Program (IEP) in Mountain University (pseudonym). IEPs are university-based language learning institutes for the pre-admission of English language learners (ELLs). The monolingual approach to ESL teaching does not fit the diverse language and cultural backgrounds of ELLs. It brings challenges for both ESL teachers and ELLs in IEPs. CRP encourages teachers to incorporate students' home cultures and first languages in their teaching and to bridge the gap between school culture and students' home culture, …

Principal Perceptions As Literacy Leaders At High-Need Elementary Schools, Janet Marie Lear

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study explores the perceptions of principals as literacy leaders and the enactment of these perceptions in high-need elementary schools. Literacy leadership, as perceived by principals, was analyzed based on interview data from six participants. Individual cases were studied for the unique characterizations each participant brought to the construct of literacy leadership through their own lived experience. Cross-case analysis was conducted in order to draw out themes among participants. Conclusions suggest that there are commonalities among principals' perceptions and enactments as literacy leaders in high-need elementary schools. Participants focused on: adoption of literacy programs and curricular fidelity; data use …

Health-Seeking Behaviors In Rural West Ghana, Cathryn Lynn Perreira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is the result of an exploratory project that included a six-week period of fieldwork in the rural farming village of Humjibre in the Western Region of Ghana. It examines the health-seeking behaviors I witnessed in this village, and discusses the barriers and facilitators that control those behaviors. It is my intention to demonstrate that there are many factors that influence concepts of health that lead to health behaviors. To fully understand how an individual functions within a medical culture, all the social, cultural, political, historical, and economic factors must be considered. Extensive background research was conducted prior to …

Governmentality/Animacy/Mythology: A Biopolitical And Rhetorical Mosaic Of Hiv Stigma In A Time Of Prep-Aration, Brendan Geoffrey Aaron Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 1981, roughly 35 million people have died from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the end stages of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and an estimated 39 million are living with HIV today. While various factors such as poverty, lack of education, and poor access to treatment and healthcare compound the epidemic across the world, the endemic in the industrialized west faces specific communication-based challenges to slowing the spread of HIV. Now classified as a "chronic manageable condition", an HIV diagnosis is no longer the death sentence of the early outbreak in the 1980's. A major factor in the …

A Comparative Study Of Culture And Cultural Heritage In Humanitarian Aid Efforts: Post-Earthquake Haiti And Post-Tsunami Aceh, Natalie K. Ruhe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how cultural knowledge, beliefs, and practices affected the humanitarian aid response to disasters in Haiti and Aceh Province, Indonesia. It examines the importance of local knowledge in post-disaster response situations and how aid workers' "expertise" interplays with local knowledge, decision-making structures, and leadership. I questioned how knowledge of cultural practices could contribute to a more effective humanitarian aid approach and identified housing, social institutions and local leadership, economic systems, religious belief and practice as primary focuses. Examples detail how cultural beliefs and practices - as well as cultural heritage - may be vehicles for social stability and …

Why Does The Caged Bird Sing? A Phenomenological Analysis Of The African American Clergywoman And Her Plight In Black Churches: An Ethical Dilemma, Andriette Dionne Jordan-Fields

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative analysis with a phenomenological approach seeks to address the fact that the Black Churches fail many of its members, specifically the female segment, which encompasses at least eighty-five to ninety percent of the churches population. Despite the historical evidence of how the Black Church championed causes/issues of discrimination, while being considered the bastion of liberation, African American females historically have been disregarded, disrespected and denied leadership opportunities, by the patriarchal leadership. This deleterious, ecclesial episteme (the churches system of understanding) and the ideology of African American male clergy, toward clergywomen, have developed strategies of containment, designed consciously and …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Peer Review And Its Impact On Revision, Julie Kopp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in writing studies has focused on what happens as students, and often their teachers, talk about student writing. This line of inquiry has identified several strategies for productive peer interactions, including spontaneous talk (Danis; Dipardo and Freedman; Johnson, The New Frontier; Bruffee; Lam), a flexible environment (Dipardo & Freedman; Johnson, "Friendly Persuasion"), positive rapport (Rish; Thompson; Wolfe), feedback and support (Barron; Covill; Flynn; Grimm; Lam; Yucel, Bird, Young, and Blanksby; Zhu), and reflection (Yucel, Bird, Young, and Blanksby). However, research invested in understanding the extent to which such interactions result in better revisions or make students better writers has …

En Boca Cerrada No Entran Moscas. Flies Don't Enter Closed Mouths: A Grounded Theory Study Of Latinas' Testimonios Of Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure, Nivea Castaneda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite countless studies demonstrating a high prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) and low rates of disclosure in the Latinx community, research exploring Latinx CSA disclosure is scant in family communication studies. This study explores how Latinas choose to disclose and/or conceal their experience(s) of CSA as well as explores the Latinx cultural constructs that impact disclosure. Using the Indigenous methodology of testimonio, grounded theory, and communication privacy management theory as a sensitizing theory, the study examined six Latinas' testimonios collected in one-on-one interviews. In an effort to stay true to testimonio, the overarching themes are presented through …

Machine Learning And Natural Language Methods For Detecting Psychopathy In Textual Data, Andrew Stephen Henning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the myriad of mental conditions permeating through society, psychopathy is perhaps the most elusive to diagnose and treat. With the advent of natural language processing and machine learning, however, we have ushered in a new age of technology that provides a fresh toolkit for analyzing text and context. Because text remains the medium of choice for most personal and professional interactions, it may be possible to use textual samples from psychopaths as a means for understanding and ultimately classifying similar individuals based on the content of their language usage. This paper aims to investigate natural language processing and supervised …

Moral Psychology And Political Campaigns, Joel Andrew Hanel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Theories of moral psychology suggest that American partisans rely on different moral domains to inform their political decision making (Haidt 2012; Lakoff 1996). This project addresses the use of moral framing, language, and traits in American political campaigns. It first examines the language of campaigns to ascertain if Democratic and Republican candidates use moral language in line with moral theories and then attempts to understand if using this language can affect the public in a meaningful way. Overall, the research suggests that campaigns frequently use moral language, though it does not strictly conform to the predictions of existing moral theory …

Nam June Paik And Avant-Garde As Pedagogy: Promoting Student Engagement And Interdisciplinary Thinking In The Undergraduate Humanities Classroom, Marci Mazzarotto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrates how avant-garde methods can be employed as pedagogical methods in the undergraduate Humanities classroom to promote student engagement and interdisciplinary thinking. The study first addresses pedagogy and avant-garde art within their historical contexts as separate, but related disciplines. Subsequently the study fuses pedagogy and avant-garde art and provides examples of in-class activities and out-of-class assignments that illustrate the ways in which avant-garde methods function as practical teaching and learning methods. Further, the study presents artist Nam June Paik, whose work exemplifies the theoretical and practical underpinnings of avant-garde art as pedagogy. The dissertation champions the pedagogy of …

Effects Of Collaboration Between Speech-Language Pathologists And Third-Grade Teachers On Student Vocabulary Outcomes, Mary Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A persistent literacy crisis continues to be reflected in international (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2013), national (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015), and local literacy outcome data. Educators, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs), are called upon to collaborate to support students who struggle with academic language/literacy. However, few studies have operationally defined collaboration and investigated the effects of collaboration on student achievement. As a result, there is insufficient guidance for educators about ways to design, implement, and assess the effectiveness of collaboration models, defined in terms of their effects on student outcomes. There were two main objectives …

Outsourcing Our Memory 2.0: Using Walter Ong's Orality/Literacy Studies To Recognize Technologies Effects On Memory, Rishi Raj Bahl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the heart of media ecology is the principle that technology not only deeply influences society, but also controls most aspects of daily life. Additionally, media ecology investigates how media and communication processes profoundly affect human perception and understanding. The pervasive role that technology plays in modern life today has exacerbated the results of technology on human beings. Some of these outcomes are not desirable and may be a hindrance to the progress of our society. This dissertation takes particular interest in the multifaceted consequences that the overuse of technology imposes on our ability to fully utilize our memory.

In …

"Unorthodox Conduct": Re-Membering Queer Africa In Literature And Film, Matthew Patrick Durkin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"'Unorthodox Conduct'" explores positive representations of sexual and gender minorities in African literatures and film from the 1970s to 2010s that dismantle heterosexist notions of African sexuality and work towards what Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o calls "re-membering." I interrogate how literary and cinematic depictions of same-sex sexualities resist contemporary homophobic attitudes, particularly those espoused by government and spiritual leaders. Positive literary and cinematic representations of queer Africans, however, have only emerged in recent years. These literary and cinematic representations are routinely minimized or ignored in academia as valid avenues for the navigation of interpersonal relationships and socio-political strife in queer African …

Exiles On Main Street: A Pedagogy Of Popular Music Through Technology And Aesthetic Education, Jordan Mroziak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the application of instructional technology within the specific context of popular music education. Synthesizing the work of Mishra & Koehler (2006) and Bauer (2014), this dissertation operationalizes a broader, more contemporary definition of instructional technology that goes beyond the traditional conception of mere instructional tool towards one that is more protean, unstable, and opaque. Research questions about technology’s impact on music education are central to this curriculum study and evolve into considerations on how the relationship of popular music and instructional technology shape a pedagogy for popular music education. Making use of principles rooted in aesthetic education, …

Pioneer Of Self: An Intimate Retrospective, Juliet Diienno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reality is ever changing, and as we gain experience, our perceptions of it transform. Plato's allegory of the cave addresses the way one person's journey from darkness into daylight transforms his reality. My own body of work can be described through this extended metaphor, similarly benefiting from effects of education, self-reflection, and experience dramatically altering my perceptions of myself and my artwork. As projected by Plato, I was forced through an arduous confrontation with my lack of understanding of the human condition, reshaping my ideas to comprehend and adapt to the metaphorical daylight. With new understanding, I return to give …

The Role Of Accounts And Apologies In Mitigating Blame Toward Human And Machine Agents, Kimberly Stowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Would you trust a machine to make life-or-death decisions about your health and safety? Machines today are capable of achieving much more than they could 30 years ago—and the same will be said for machines that exist 30 years from now. The rise of intelligence in machines has resulted in humans entrusting them with ever-increasing responsibility. With this has arisen the question of whether machines should be given equal responsibility to humans—or if humans will ever perceive machines as being accountable for such responsibility. For example, if an intelligent machine accidentally harms a person, should it be blamed for its …

Smart Image Search System Using Personalized Semantic Search Method, Fangyu Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to the emerge in huge numbers of information on the internet nowadays, search technologies are widely used in various fields. Achieving the most relevant search result for the users becomes a big challenge now. While the traditional semantic search technologies seem to achieve the most relevant search result, however, it faces two problems: one is the one-size-fits-all problem, and another is low efficiency. The purpose of this research is to build a Smart Image Search System by using the personalized semantic search method to solve those problems. The personalized semantic search method makes the search system avoids the one-size-fits-all …

Do College Students Perceive Stigma The Same Way Experts Do? An Experimental Test Of Lay Perceptions Of Body-Size Stigma, Andie Malterud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Personal experience with weight-based stigma is negatively associated with selfesteem (Myers & Rosen, 1999). This study examined how self-esteem is affected by exposure to weight-based stigma communication that is directed at another person. Using Smith’s (2007a) stigma communication framework, I created a 2 (Stigma Level: high, low) x 2 (Gender of stigmatized person: male, female) x 2 (Body Size of stigmatized person: large, small) posttest-only experiment. Participants’ self-esteem was not impacted after viewing stigmatizing messages directed at another person. This suggests that selfesteem is more stable than some researchers indicate (Wagner, Lüdtke, and Trautwein, 2016). My results suggest that stigma …