Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Technology On Literacy(S), Thomas Glen Petersen

Masters Theses

"One of the challenges when measuring the effects of technology on literacy(s) is finding a control group where technology; does not play a major role in the culture. The Amish successfully live in a Technocracy where mechanical/electronic tools are used only when absolutely necessary; the Amish are not dependent on them for survival. The crux of the Amish philosophy is humility, serving the community and serving God. Ironically, they have suffered tremendous repercussions for adopting a wholesome, selfless lifestyle which is contrary to most popular world views, regardless of religious or spiritual views"--Purpose, page 40.

Development And Use Of Computer Aided Tools To Enhance Team Dynamics With Role Play Simulations, Vachaspathy Kuntamukkala

Masters Theses

"This thesis proposes a methodology for the development and use of computer based tools to enhance student team dynamics. Working effectively in groups cannot be taught in class room environment. Students often encounter conflicts during team meetings. Although some conflicts are resolved by the efforts of team members, an unbiased facilitator who is not a member of the team is often needed to help. This work proposes a tool that uses role play simulations to engage students in real-life scenarios so that they gain a practical, as well as a theoretical, understanding of how to work effectively as a team. …

Single Muslim Young Adults: Negotiating Identities, Religion And Desire, Zarinah El-Amin Naeem

Masters Theses

This ethnographic thesis is an empirically rich, critical analysis of the singlehood of Muslim young adults. Based on interviews with 21 single Muslims aged 18-36, and participant observation of Muslim spaces, I demonstrate that while Islam and Muslim communities present "ideal" behaviors, Islam is not alone. Instead, like identity, the singlehood of American Muslims is created and recreated through dialectical relationships with several cultural "wombs" including religion, popular culture, family, and ethnicity. As Muslim young adults encounter these often contradictory ideologies, they accept and reject parts, and negotiate their identities, religion and desires - all while struggling to maintain a …

Existential Temporality As Fore-Ignorance: Implications For Divine Foreknowledge, David Pensgard

Masters Theses

Investigation into the nature of time is commonly taken to be a necessary precursor to the study of God's temporal status. These studies involve metaphysical concerns within the philosophy of time that focus on the logical structure of tensed statements about the future. Taking a different approach, this paper investigates the nature of temporality, rather than time, and proceeds via a phenomenological methodology. This often-overlooked methodology, it is argued, is preeminent over the metaphysical methodology. When the results of the two methods conflict the phenomenological methodology should dominate discussion. Proceeding with the more powerful method, it is argued that temporality, …

The Power Of ‘When I Was Your Age’: Research On Parental Narratives And Their Influence On Cognitive Dissonance In Children, Darci C. Adams

Masters Theses

Parents are continually looking for correct and effective ways to discipline and instruct their children. Often, parents will tell a personal narrative beginning with “when I was your age” to demonstrate to their children the appropriate way to think and behave. This thesis asks three research questions: What are the common themes in parental narratives that young adults remember in relation to instruction or discipline? How does the narrative structure demonstrate narrative coherence and fidelity? What do young adults self-report about the impact of the parental narrative on their cognitive dissonance? Through a content analysis of eighty completed surveys by …

Watching Satan’S Daughters: A Visual Analysis Of Lesbian Pulp Fiction Cover Art, 1950-1969, Carrie Shaver

Masters Theses

This research analyzes the historical social construction of identity through the visual reiteration of the norms of "woman" and "lesbian" as represented on the cover art of lesbian pulp fiction novels from 1950-1969. A subgenre of pulp paperbacks, lesbian pulps were sensationalistic and best-selling, reflecting the public lesbian image in the popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s (Keller, 2005). Their success in large part was due to popular mainstreaming of the fields of sexology, psychology, and psychiatry. The "normality" of female sexual behavior was a subject of great curiosity, especially after Alfred Kinsey's study of female sexuality was released …

An Ethnographic Inquiry Into Prudent Behavior And Culturally Correct Attitudes Of Ethnodoxologists Living Among The Lakota Oyate, Joseph T. Dorer

Masters Theses

For centuries, the indigenous people of North America have been plagued by white encroachment. People of European descent have come among Native Americans in almost every form imaginable. They have been treasure seekers, soldiers, bearers of horrific diseases, liars, rapists, murderers, missionaries, anthropologists, government workers, doctors, and teachers. In the summer of 2004, in spite of my own reluctance, I became part of this historically menacing group. Still, I am somewhat different than the others I’ve already mentioned–I came as an ethnodoxologist.

Other ethnomusicologists have come among the Lakota people to study music and culture including Frances Densmore, R.D. Theisz, …

Through The Eyes Of The Accused: Applying William L. Benoit’S Image Restoration Theory To Saint Patrick’S Confession, Brad Jackson

Masters Theses

Since 1995, William L Benoit’s “Image Restoration Theory” has been applied in various different contexts. While most applications of this theory have been used to analyze modern day apologia, little work has filtered ancient artifacts through Benoit’s theory. This thesis aims to analyze St. Patrick’s defense rhetoric as seen in his autobiographical letter Confession. Emphasis is first placed on the historical account of the life of Saint Patrick in order to establish a foundation for analysis of Confession. An extensive literature review of “Image Restoration Theory” follows before the application of Benoit’s theory to Confession. The author concludes by describing …

An Investigation Of Kavilorai: A Hero Stone Site In The Nilgiri Mountains Of South India, Jacob Landon Bach

Masters Theses

This study explores the hero stones of the Nilgiri Mountains of South India. This project has focused on the site of Kavilorai for developing a stylistic base to compare other sites of the region with. After analysis it was determined that Kavilorai contained four separate, but connected stylistic expressions carved on the hero stones. The findings when compared with other upper elevation sites corresponded to a high quality/low quality theme, often incorporating the ritual suicide sati. When comparing the stylistic representation of the carved figures to the Badaga Lingayat temple of Seminatum there surfaced strong thematic and stylistic connections. The …

Watch Out For The Freshman 15: An Investigation And Interpretation Of Memorable Health Messages Received By College Students, Lindsey Marie Rose

Masters Theses

Using the memorable messages framework as a guide (Knapp, Stohl & Reardon, 1981), this thesis examines the memorable health messages that college students are able to recall. The survey design queried respondents about the structure and form of the message, circumstances surrounding the message, the source of the message, and the content of the message. The data was assessed quantitatively through use of one-sample chi-square tests, and qualitatively utilizing grounded theory. The results of the study were generally supported by previous memorable message studies. The research findings are discussed based on the memorable messages framework and the implications for future …

Cyber Tribe: The Rhetorical Implications Of The Daily Kos Political Filter Blog Community, Rachel Lutz

Masters Theses

My thesis analyzes the ways in which blogs are changing the accumulation and exchange of knowledge both within and outside of the blogosphere. To this end, I closely examine the features and activities of the blog site Daily Kos and use these observations to extend the orality-vs.-literacy theories of Walter Ong and the media theories (particularly that of de- and retribalization) of Marshall McLuhan. My application of ideas presented by these rhetoricians, together with more recent Internet research that has addressed blog analysis in terms of knowledge-formation and intellectual authority, helps bring greater clarity to a dynamic and complex phenomenon: …

Warriors, Lovers, Mothers: Women's Physical Powers In The Irish Sagas, Jessica L. Powell-Pickering

Masters Theses

This thesis is an examination of four primary female characters from the 8t-century Irish sagas and the powers that they exhibit through their physical actions. By placing primary emphasis on body language rather than, or in conjunction with, the words spoken by each character, a reader may gain a more comprehensive sense of the true nature of that character. These women are not simply standing in the background; they are performing actions imperative to their individual narratives that aid in story development and larger contextual plots found in the sagas as a whole. Each of these women-Grainne, Deirdre, Medb, and …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Multicultural Education, Brandie M. Goodman

Masters Theses

The current study investigated teachers' perceptions of multicultural education. Teachers' perception of the importance of culture in the learning and teaching process is expected to impact students' learning and social development. For the culturally competent teacher, the child's culture is central to the teaching and learning process. However, even though the student population of ethnic minorities is increasing at a rapid rate, schools may not be fully prepared to provide meaningful education to these students. Based on the exposure theory, the current study attempted to answer the following question: Does a teacher's present and past teaching experience (urban, suburban, or …

Expanding Composition's Scope: Community-Based Literacy And Second-Language Writing, Carolina Pelaez-Morales

Masters Theses

There is little research from either Composition Studies or Second-Language Studies on the development of writing competence among English language learners, paiiicularly adult learners outside academia. In response to this need, I conducted a case study of a small group of Spanish-native speakers as they learned English through a volunteer-based community program in a small Midwestern town. This project establishes the role writing plays in a community of second-language learners-primarily motivated by economic factors to learn English-and it shows ways in which the development of writing competence can enhance overall language proficiency. Also, this study calls for further research in …

"I See By This Woman's Features, That She Is Capable Of Any Wickedness": Murderous Women, Public Justice, And The Social Order In London, 1674-1799, Annie Tock

Masters Theses

Crime held a certain fascination for eighteenth-century Londoners. They devoured case summaries, ballads, broadsides, pamphlets, and collections of criminal biographies. In addition, they flocked to Tyburn Tree to witness the malefactors hang for their crimes. Then, like now, murders were appalling, but murders committed by women were especially shocking. While part of the interest in murderesses is attributable to their relative rarity, eighteenth century Londoners were also concerned with the implications of deviant women on the state of their society. This was a culture that firmly believed that women's subordination to men was critical to the maintenance of order. In …

Automated Estimation Of Time Codes For Captioning Digital Media, Daniel P. Harvey Ii

Masters Theses

Captioning provides accessibility to media resources for deaf and hearingimpaired persons and is mandated by federal and state laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, the process of creating synchronized captions for media is time consuming and labor intensive. Consequently, many content providers still do not incorporate captions into media presentations on the web.

In this research, algorithms were developed to automate part of the captioning process by estimating the timing of captions for web-based audio and video files using plain-text transcripts and their corresponding audio recordings. Recordings used in this study were of professional speakers/readers from American …

Differences Among Students With Or Without Severe Discrepancy Between Predicted And Actual Achievement: Does Severe Discrepancy Matter?, Melissa (Bergan) Mcclelland

Masters Theses

This study investigated the differences between students with severe discrepancy and those without according to the Reynolds ( 1984) regression-based discrepancy formula. The sample included 264 students who were referred for an initial special education evaluation of !earning problems. Differences between these two groups were examined across gender, age, cognitive variables, and achievement. Results revealed that no significant gender or age differences were found in the presence of a severe discrepancy. However, statistically significant negative correlations were found between Full Scale IQ, and all of the differences between predicted and actual achievement scores with small to medium effect sizes (-1 …

A Qualitatively Grounded Curriculum For Western International Student Orientation To Chinese Higher Education, Lin Yi

Masters Theses

More and more U.S. students are seeking university study abroad in China. Information about how to prepare for overseas study in China, and what challenges need to be overcome, is limited. To develop the proposed orientation curriculum, Chinese professors teaching international students, international student affairs professionals serving international students, English-speaking international students studying in Chinese universities, and U.S. citizens visiting and working in China contributed their insights and experiences of culture shock, culture surprises, and cultural differences. The themes emerging from the interviews were organized into the content of the proposed orientation curriculum. When U.S. international students experience this Chinese …

Hiv/Aids Policies In The United States And The United Kingdom: Emerging At-Risk Groups And The Struggle For Limited Resources, Jennifer Lorren Willis

Masters Theses

This thesis compares the HIV/ AIDS policies in the United States of America and the United Kingdom since the emergence of the virus in 1981. Despite a privatized health care system in the U.S. and the universal system in the UK, which lie on opposite ends of the policy care spectrum, similar populations have recently emerged as those most in need of health care services, preventative programs, and financial assistance. This thesis employs several quantitative and qualitative data to highlight the emergence of women and minorities in both nations as those that are most in need of resources. Data has …

Breaking The Be Nice Rule: Direct Action Community Organizing, Adriana Rosas

Masters Theses

Focusing on the Kalamazoo Homeless Action Network (KHAN), this thesis explores the dynamics of transformation in community organizing, and the crucial and often complicated role of anger in that process. Current Anthropological literature on the topic of resistance and poverty leaves unexamined the micropolitics of individuals' transformation as they become civically engaged as well as the laborious organizing techniques culminating in such events that lead to social change and individual empowerment. I will contribute to the literature on poverty and resistance by examining the 'behind-the-scenes' dimensions of direct action community organizing that influence individual and social transformation. Through this examination …

Moment Of Encounter: A Critical Exploration Of Parent-School Communication, Gary Samuel Marx

Masters Theses

Relationships among parents and schools are situated in a complex hegemony. Communication is central to the identification and construction of power in schools. Schools employ a model of communication that locates power predominately with their representatives and values parents for conformity to organizational expectations. Shared power relationships challenge actors to encounter one another and co-contribute to the development of children. The goal of this study is to uncover various meanings and understandings from what parents recall from Moments of Encounter with school personnel. Such an examination is designed to reveal power at the microlevel, in the encounter itself, as well …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Semiotic Content In Commercial Email Subject Lines And The Decision By The Recipient To Open The Message, Stephen J. Johnson

Masters Theses

The writings of Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, Eco and others express theories that symbols, signs, and signals are integral elements in the assignation of meaning within general human communication. Email marketing specialists such as Stephanie Miller, Andy Goldman, and Jeannieay Mullen opine that it is the email recipient’s inferences regarding the words in the address or subject lines that are the primary determinants in the decision whether or not to first open and subsequently respond to a commercial email. It would then seem that email marketers would be well served by understanding what forms these inferences in the minds of the …

Examining The Septuagint: An Exploration Of The Greek Old Testament's Unique Heritage And Lasting Impact On The New Testament, Cara Lynne Murphy

Masters Theses

The Greek Old Testament has been a focus of speculation and study since its entrance into the religious culture of the Diasporic Jews. Legends and myths surround the creation of the Septuagint, and its use by the New Testament authors only added to the questions surrounding this ancient text. The questions this thesis will seek to address are three-fold. First, what does historical evidence prove regarding the origin of the Septuagint? The dating, the location, and the nature of the Septuagint’s creation are each open debates within biblical scholarship. While this thesis will not attempt to prove conclusively the answers …

From Sandbox To Altar: What I Didn’T Know, Thought I Knew, And Discovered About Learning And Relationships, Cherilyn L. Gardner

Masters Theses

In this theoretically-based thesis, I metacognitively explore the transactional relationship between critical inquiry and literacy development. Throughout the writing, I reveal my own learning in studying these concepts. Embedded in the discussion of research, readers will engage with my personal reflections, confessions, and applications of what I learned (and am still learning).

Through countless dialogues (academic and otherwise) and my study of literature and self, I found that literacy is much more than what it has been carved out to be by programs promising to raise standardized test scores. Additionally, by breaking the mold, I found that critical inquiry provides …

An Eco-Philosophical Ecofeminist Critique Of Victimology: Examining The Anthropocentric And Speciesist Borders And Boundaries Of Victimology, Angela K. Simon

Masters Theses

This work is a critique of the anthropocentric and speciesist borders and boundaries of victimology. Essentially I challenge victimology for failing to incorporate the victimizations of non-human animals and the environment, and instead focusing narrowly on only specific forms of human victimization. I do this by examining the history of victimology and exploring how its boundaries became what they are today. Focusing on the role criminology has had in the general development of victimology. I then go on to juxtapose the limited presence of animals and the environment within criminology with their relative absence in victimology. In conjunction with this …

"Bird In A Cage:" Exploring Transnational Immigrants' Identity Negotiations, Ewa Urban

Masters Theses

Recent research demonstrates that the experience of contemporary immigrants is largely defined by their continued efforts to maintain symbolic and/or physical connections with their homelands ( e.g., Levitt, 1998). This study explored how these transnational connections affect the negotiation of immigrants' multiple identities. To explore the fluidity and the multilayered nature of transnational identities, the communication theory of identity was utilized as a theoretical lens. This theory allowed for an understanding how immigrants enact salient aspects of their multiple identities across contexts and situations. Phenomenological methodology was used to explore immigrants' lived experiences and hear their voices both individually and …

Evaluation Of An Outpatient Training Service For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Their Families, Britt Winter

Masters Theses

Autism spectrum disorders have a substantial impact on the lives of families and can result in a variety of enrichments to the family environment as well as certain specific stressors (Hecimovic & Gregory, 2005; Tidmarsh & Volkmar, 2003). One service that has proven effective for treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders as well as improvement in family dynamics is parent training (Schreibman, 1988). The current study examined 46 individual client files from an outpatient parent training clinic serving children with autism spectrum disorders. Parents were taught to implement interventions for skill acquisition with their children using a behavioral skills …

Millennial Media: A Fantasy Theme Analysis Of The Short Film "Narrow Roads", Auri - Christopher Colin Jones

Masters Theses

As we move into the future of , society has become more involved with the media they consume. Younger generations in the past generations have been effected and have affected media development in various ways. The Millennial generation of today is no exception. This thesis discusses the effects of media on the millennial generation through fantasy theme chains of an original video narrative. Millennial students will watch the narrative and discuss with other Millennials the themes presented and perceived from the video. The results from this study will give a look into how millennial interaction about visual media makes a …

Contradiction And The Carnival: A Study Of Mcgregor’S Theory X And Theory Y Framework Applied To Communication Within A Carnival Setting, Ashley Dawn Johnston

Masters Theses

The following study addresses Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y management paradigm as applied toward carnival executives' (CEs) communication to employees. Fifteen CEs were interviewed and elicited narratives that held either Theory X or Theory Y paradigm. From the narratives it was discovered that most CEs held a Theory Y paradigm toward employees. However, it was also discovered that the Theory Y paradigm may be a result of increased use of foreign labor or a swing in the carnival industry itself.

Banish Belly Bulge And Chisel Your Bis: A Semiotic Analysis Of Gender Representations In Fitness Magazine Advertising, Lauren A. Teal

Masters Theses

This study examined gender ideologies in the advertising of two popular fitness magazines, Shape and Men's Fitness, using Kress and van Leeuwen's visual semiotic theory (1996). The aim of this study was to determine how fitness magazine advertising participates in the construction of gender identities, and to identify what rhetorical and visual strategies are commonly employed.

Through an examination of the way gender identities are constructed by fitness magazines my research has concluded that advertising within both magazines promotes idealized body types and stereotypical gender identities for men and women. In Shape's advertisements, women are wives and homemakers; they …