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Counterpublics And Aesthetics: Afro-Hispanic And Belizean Women Writers., Melva Marguerite Persico
Counterpublics And Aesthetics: Afro-Hispanic And Belizean Women Writers., Melva Marguerite Persico
Open Access Dissertations
My project explores ways in which legitimacy is granted within the literary field. This is done through an analysis of literary anthologies, university course syllabi, publishing trends, literary prizes, and levels and sources of critical attention. The project seeks to determine the extent to which the works of Afro-descendant Spanish American and Belizean writers are reflected in the hegemonic Spanish American and Anglophone Caribbean literary canons. I examine the works of Cristina Rodríguez Cabral (Uruguay), Shirley Campbell Barr, and Delia McDonald Woolery (Costa Rica), and Zee Edgell, and Zoila Ellis (Belize). The project records the varying degrees of legitimation these …
Head Start Teachers’ Vocabulary Instruction And Language Complexity During Storybook Reading: Predicting Vocabulary Outcomes Of Students In Linguistically Diverse Classrooms, Miriam G. Lipsky
Open Access Dissertations
Previous research indicates that joint storybook reading between caregivers (parents or teachers) and children can have positive effects on the oral language development of young children (Whitehurst et al., 1988; Dickinson & Smith, 1994). This study aimed to add to this body of research by providing information on the relationship between teachers’ language complexity and vocabulary strategies used during storybook reading and vocabulary outcomes for monolingual and dual language learners in linguistically diverse Head Start classrooms. Videotapes of 23 Head Start teachers were coded and analyzed for vocabulary instruction strategies and language complexity during storybook reading using hierarchical regression techniques …
An Examination Of Parent Perspectives On Augmentative And Alternative Communication Systems In Children With Fragile X Syndrome, Michelle Schladant
An Examination Of Parent Perspectives On Augmentative And Alternative Communication Systems In Children With Fragile X Syndrome, Michelle Schladant
Open Access Dissertations
The purposes of this qualitative inquiry were as follows: (a) to understand how mothers of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems in the home, (b) to capture their views regarding AAC use, and (c) to examine the support they received in the process. Data was collected using participant observations, semi-structured interviews and review of archival educational records and were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Results revealed that for children with FXS, the interplay of children’s complex developmental challenges, mothers’ internal struggles, and the absence of external supports leads to limited and variable use …
A Qualitative Examination Of The Barriers And Facilitators Of Family Centered Care And Service Provision In The Natural Environment., Rachel M. Fults
A Qualitative Examination Of The Barriers And Facilitators Of Family Centered Care And Service Provision In The Natural Environment., Rachel M. Fults
Open Access Dissertations
Although family centered care and natural environment services have been heralded as the ideal model in early childhood intervention and have been mandated by Part C of IDEA, research demonstrates that family centered principles are still not adhered to in many early childhood programs. Previous research in this area is lacking with regard to the limited diversity of participants (i.e., white, middle-class woman) and perspectives (i.e., childcare providers). This dissertation reports the results of a study that took into account perspectives of multiple stakeholders in early intervention including families, service providers, and program directors in order to understand the full …
American Women And The Modern Summer Olympic Games: A Story Of Obstacles And Struggles For Participation And Equality, Cecile Houry
American Women And The Modern Summer Olympic Games: A Story Of Obstacles And Struggles For Participation And Equality, Cecile Houry
Open Access Dissertations
This dissertation focuses on American women and the modern summer Olympic Games. It retraces the history of women's participation in this significant and global sporting event to study the obstacles generated by social, economic, political, and cultural gender patterns while providing a forum for female Olympians to give voice to their journeys and how they dealt with and eventually overcame some of these obstacles. The findings herein support other scholarly works, arguing that despite progress, the Olympic Games, and by extension the institution of sport in general, is and will remain a hegemonic space that allows men to maintain and …
First And Fourth Grade Boys' And Girls' Preferences For And Perceptions About Narrative And Expository Text, Lisa L. Repaskey
First And Fourth Grade Boys' And Girls' Preferences For And Perceptions About Narrative And Expository Text, Lisa L. Repaskey
Open Access Dissertations
This study focused on elementary-aged children’s preferences for and perceptions about narrative and expository text. Preference refers to the children’s choice of reading material for themselves, what they prefer to read. Perception refers to the children’s beliefs about what their same-aged peers would like to read. The current study examined these preferences and perceptions about narrative and expository text through the lens of two distinct frameworks – social constructivism and engaged reading. The current study was a systematic replication and extension of a qualitative study conducted by Chapman, Filipenko, McTavish, and Shapiro (2007). It replicated the original study by conducting …
Theatre Of The Arts: Caribbean Intertextuality And The Muse Of Place, Lara B. Cahill-Booth
Theatre Of The Arts: Caribbean Intertextuality And The Muse Of Place, Lara B. Cahill-Booth
Open Access Dissertations
Theatre of the Arts: Caribbean Intertextuality and the Muse of Place is a literary geography that explores how specific environments shape imaginative interventions into history and language. I begin by examining the unity of Derek Walcott's vision of the sea, tracing its ties to oral history, literary canon, and personal reveries of emplacement in Omeros and other epic-minded poems. I follow the sea to its continental origins, examining the Guyanas, an Amazonian bioregion on the borderlands of Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela, as a place imaginatively remapped by twentieth-century novelists Alejo Carpentier, Wilson Harris, Mario de Andrade, and Pauline Melville. I …
American Ethni/Cities: Critical Geography, Subject Formation, And The Urban Representations Of Abraham Cahan, Richard Wright, And James Baldwin, Joshua S. Stone
American Ethni/Cities: Critical Geography, Subject Formation, And The Urban Representations Of Abraham Cahan, Richard Wright, And James Baldwin, Joshua S. Stone
Open Access Dissertations
By drawing upon aspects of critical geography to explore three writers' representations of urban space and subject formation, American Ethni/Cities develops and advocates for a new methodological approach to the study of literature. Predicated on theories devised by Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Edward Soja, Gil Valentine and other geographically-minded thinkers, this spatially conscious literary practice has the potential to enhance one's understanding of literary texts, power dynamics, identity construction, and the spaces one inhabits. Each of the chapters comprising this study aims to demonstrate what this interdisciplinary partnership between geography and literature can reveal. By focusing on Cahan's representation of …
Caregiver Behaviors As Moderators Of The Relation Between Children's Joint Attention Skills And Subsequent Language In An At-Risk Sample, Dolores Farhat
Caregiver Behaviors As Moderators Of The Relation Between Children's Joint Attention Skills And Subsequent Language In An At-Risk Sample, Dolores Farhat
Open Access Dissertations
The positive link between children's joint attention skills and subsequent language outcomes is well established. There is also abundant evidence that responsive caregiver behaviors lead to optimal language outcomes. Though directive behaviors are generally considered detrimental to children's growth, specific types of directive behaviors which extend or build upon a child's behavior are thought to promote children's learning. No study has examined how caregiver behaviors interact with children's joint attention skills to affect subsequent language. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine how three different caregiver behaviors (Responsiveness, Supportiveness, and Intrusiveness) measured at 18 months moderated the …
Information Integration In A Grid Environment Applications In The Bioinformatics Domain, Ahmed M. Radwan
Information Integration In A Grid Environment Applications In The Bioinformatics Domain, Ahmed M. Radwan
Open Access Dissertations
Grid computing emerged as a framework for supporting complex operations over large datasets; it enables the harnessing of large numbers of processors working in parallel to solve computing problems that typically spread across various domains. We focus on the problems of data management in a grid/cloud environment. The broader context of designing a services oriented architecture (SOA) for information integration is studied, identifying the main components for realizing this architecture. The BioFederator is a web services-based data federation architecture for bioinformatics applications. Based on collaborations with bioinformatics researchers, several domain-specific data federation challenges and needs are identified. The BioFederator addresses …
Building Transnational Media Spaces: Immigrant Journalism In South Florida, Moses A. Shumow
Building Transnational Media Spaces: Immigrant Journalism In South Florida, Moses A. Shumow
Open Access Dissertations
Since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1999 and the subsequent rapid growth of Venezuelan immigration to the United States, there has been an explosion of Venezuelan community media in South Florida. While focused on local issues, the mediated communication being produced and distributed among members of this community remains distinctly transnational in scope, informed primarily by events taking place in Venezuela as the country is being transformed politically, socially, and economically under the controversial leadership of President Hugo Chávez. This study presents an empirical, qualitative investigation into the practices of Venezuelan media producers in South Florida through a series …
Problem Representation And Mathematical Problem Solving Of Students Of Varying Math Ability, Jennifer Lee Krawec
Problem Representation And Mathematical Problem Solving Of Students Of Varying Math Ability, Jennifer Lee Krawec
Open Access Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to examine differences in math problem solving among students with learning disabilities (LD), low-achieving (LA) students, and average-achieving (AA) students. The primary interest was to analyze the problem representation processes students use to translate and integrate problem information as they solve math word problems. Problem representation processes were operationalized as (a) paraphrasing the problem and (b) visually representing the problem. Paraphrasing accuracy (i.e., paraphrasing relevant information, paraphrasing irrelevant linguistic information, and paraphrasing irrelevant numerical information), visual representation accuracy (i.e., visual representation of relevant information, visual representation of irrelevant linguistic information, and visual representation of …
The Role Of Ethnicity And Perceptions Of The Family Environment In Self-Determination Among Students With Disabilities, Raymond J. Rodriguez
The Role Of Ethnicity And Perceptions Of The Family Environment In Self-Determination Among Students With Disabilities, Raymond J. Rodriguez
Open Access Dissertations
Considerable research exists on the importance of self-determination in the transition of students with disabilities from high school. Much of this research has focused on conditions in the family that may nurture and support the development of self-determined motivation. These conditions, as described by Self -Determination Theory, include support for autonomy, relatedness and competence. Little data exists, however, on whether the conditions in the family environment associated with self-determination vary depending on students' ethnic backgrounds. Participants consisted of 138 Latino and Anglo students with disabilities enrolled in six high schools within a large urban school district. Self-determination was measured using …
An Analysis Of Clause Usage In Academic Texts Produced By African American, Haitian, And Hispanic Community College Students, Wendy Brooks
An Analysis Of Clause Usage In Academic Texts Produced By African American, Haitian, And Hispanic Community College Students, Wendy Brooks
Open Access Dissertations
The growth of multicultural and multilingual student populations in community colleges has presented difficulties for instructors who teach academic writing. This study was motivated by the desire to understand the challenges faced by novice writers from diverse ethnolinguistic backgrounds, African-American, Haitian, and Hispanic, in a South Florida community college as they grappled with the register features which defined academic writing. One major challenge has been the tendency to transfer the register feature of clause structure typical of speech into academic texts. An analysis of clause structures using writing samples collected from 45 community-college students, 15 from African-American, Haitian and Hispanic …
Developing A Model Of Transmasculine Identity, Nicole L. Saltzburg
Developing A Model Of Transmasculine Identity, Nicole L. Saltzburg
Open Access Dissertations
Traditional psychotherapy with transgender clients has focused on helping gender dysphoric individuals assume an "opposite" gender role. However, recently, there have been calls for trans-positive therapy focusing on the exploration and affirmation of alternative gender identifications. The majority of the research on transgender identity has been conducted with male-to-female (MTF) identified, or transfeminine, individuals. Comparatively little attention has been given to the experience of female-to-male (FTM) identified, or transmasculine, individuals. The primary goal of this study was to explore constructs and identify underlying themes that transmasculine people use in constructing their gender identities in order to develop a structural model …
Does Meaning Matter For Reading Achievement?Untangling The Role Of Phonological Recoding And Morphological Awareness In Predicting Word Decoding, Reading Vocabulary, And Reading Comprehension Achievement For Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners, Amanda P. Goodwin
Open Access Dissertations
This study examined the unique contributions of morphological awareness and phonological recoding to word decoding, reading comprehension, and reading vocabulary for 197 Spanish-speaking English language learners enrolled in the fifth grade. The study also explored the contribution of phonological recoding, measured by accuracy on a pseudo-word decoding task, to the prediction of the same components of reading achievement. Specifically the study explored whether the contribution of phonological recoding changed when morphological awareness and oral vocabulary (a mediator of reading achievement) were added as predictors. To examine unique contributions, morphological awareness was separated from phonological and orthographic confounds present in opaque …
Betrayals, Secrets, And Lies: Unfaithful Reading In Modernist Undecidability, Lucas H. Harriman
Betrayals, Secrets, And Lies: Unfaithful Reading In Modernist Undecidability, Lucas H. Harriman
Open Access Dissertations
This dissertation presents an argument for the ethical value of a reader's inability to fully comprehend works by Jorge Luis Borges, G.K. Chesterton, William Faulkner, and Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien). Such texts demand creative engagement by the reader which could be described as a necessary betrayal of the text. Viewed in the context of the so-called "ethical turn" in literary theory, the revaluation of infidelity accomplished by such unfaithful reading can foster a greater openness toward the unknown, and ultimately unknowable, other. Similarly, by juxtaposing the work of Faulkner, a canonical modernist writer, with more nontraditional writers such as …
Prospects For A Deflationary Account Of The Ontology Of Propositions, Michael P. Mccracken
Prospects For A Deflationary Account Of The Ontology Of Propositions, Michael P. Mccracken
Open Access Dissertations
A proposition ontology occupies a potentially rich and foundational place in a good deal of contemporary philosophical theorizing. Some of the biggest roadblocks to a wider acceptance and employment of propositions have been legitimate worries about their nature, or ontological "explanatory" power of theories that employ them. This dissertation attempts to understand and construct a deflationary or minimalist understanding of the notion of a proposition and its theoretical roles. On the basis of this understanding, following Stephen Schiffer (2003), I attempt to construct an ontology of propositions -focusing on general propositions- which avoids or dissolves the most pressing worries about …
Making Waves With Critical Literacy: A Teacher Researcher Study Around The Texts, Contexts, And Recontextualizations Of An Upper Middle Class Public High School, Carolyn Fortuna
Open Access Dissertations
This dissertation is a teacher researcher qualitative study that explores the work of critical literacy in an upper middle class public high school. As a participant and an observer, I studied how a confluence of authority, privilege, curriculum, and pedagogy created context and shaped the meaning and quality of our collective literacy learning experiences. Using the tools of teacher research through narrative inquiry, my study traces school authority figures' reproduction of dominant ideologies, my struggles as a social justice educator to break through those definitions of "normal" with a privileged student population, and the hope that resulted when my students …
The Drift: Rethinking The Affective Dynamics Of Adaptation, John Hodgkins
The Drift: Rethinking The Affective Dynamics Of Adaptation, John Hodgkins
Open Access Dissertations
The Drift effects a deeper understanding of the dynamic relationship between literature and cinema by articulating an "affective turn" for adaptation studies, a field whose traditional focus has been the critical castigation of filmic adaptations based on canonical plays or novels. Specifically, this project draws on theorists such as Gilles Deleuze, Brian Massumi, and Marco Abel to re-conceive literary and cinematic texts as spatio-temporal engines generating and disseminating affect, and the adaptive process as a drifting of those intensities from one medium to another. By conceptualizing adaptation in this manner, this study steers clear of the chimerical notion of fidelity …
Literacy Coaching: The Role Of Reflective Thought In Teacher Decision Making, Patricia Jane May
Literacy Coaching: The Role Of Reflective Thought In Teacher Decision Making, Patricia Jane May
Open Access Dissertations
Qualitative studies of classroom teachers involved in literacy coaching are crucial to provide direction for future literacy coaching practice and research. Using a grounded theory design, this study examined the experience of four elementary level classroom teachers and one coach as they engaged in a year-long literacy coaching program. Teachers were observed throughout the literacy coaching cycle including: pre and post conferences, demonstrations and teacher implementation of new instructional practices. Analysis of coach/teacher interactions highlighted the role of reflective thought in teacher learning, and positioned reflective thought as a foundational premise of teacher learning. In addition, as a result of …
Rewriting The Script: Using Rhetorical Theory To Mitigate The Effects Of Media Violence, Lee H. Marshall
Rewriting The Script: Using Rhetorical Theory To Mitigate The Effects Of Media Violence, Lee H. Marshall
Open Access Dissertations
Statement of problem. The approach that communications researchers have taken to try to combat media violence effects is inadequate. While some promising interventions have been discovered, the complexity of reactions to media and the differences in personal characteristics of viewers make empirical studies of limited use. Rhetorical theory is a more appropriate fit for analyzing media violence. The recent work by composition scholars dealing with the role emotion plays in moving people to action suggests a promising area for the development of theory. Educators can take the lead in responding to the media research findings appropriately, not through unnecessarily restrictive …
Possessing New Worlds: Eliciting Abstract Thought And Empathic Response Through Image Construction, Nancy Noonan
Possessing New Worlds: Eliciting Abstract Thought And Empathic Response Through Image Construction, Nancy Noonan
Open Access Dissertations
In this study, secondary students' responses to literature were examined in the context of a visually rich curriculum. Working within a conceptual framework inspired by Rosenblatt's theories about aesthetic transactions with text, two groups of tenth grade readers negotiated and responded to shared class readings of works by John Steinbeck using artistic viewing strategies in combination with metacognitive comprehension strategies. Study participants viewed slides of abstract and figurative artwork and responded by drawing and writing about narrative relationships. The resulting visual representations were analyzed by level of abstraction, while students' written responses to literature were analyzed for interpretive depth using …
Cultural-Historical Activity Perspectives On The Effects Of Participation In Teacher-Mediated, Computer-Mediated Reading Instruction, Rita M. Menendez
Cultural-Historical Activity Perspectives On The Effects Of Participation In Teacher-Mediated, Computer-Mediated Reading Instruction, Rita M. Menendez
Open Access Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of participation in Read 180, a teacher-mediated, computer-mediated reading instruction program, on the reading proficiency of 4th and 5th grade English Language Learners. The students who participated in the Read 180 program scored below the 25th percentile on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). Cultural-historical activity theory guided the research. Research questions for the study were answered with quantitative and qualitative methods. The questions asked were: 1. What are the effects of participation in Read 180, a teacher-mediated computer-mediated-integrated learning system that provides reading instruction, on the growth in reading …
Emotion Recognition Using Glottal And Prosodic Features, Alexander Iliev Iliev
Emotion Recognition Using Glottal And Prosodic Features, Alexander Iliev Iliev
Open Access Dissertations
Emotion conveys the psychological state of a person. It is expressed by a variety of physiological changes, such as changes in blood pressure, heart beat rate, degree of sweating, and can be manifested in shaking, changes in skin coloration, facial expression, and the acoustics of speech. This research focuses on the recognition of emotion conveyed in speech. There were three main objectives of this study. One was to examine the role played by the glottal source signal in the expression of emotional speech. The second was to investigate whether it can provide improved robustness in real-world situations and in noisy …
A Comparison Of Adjacent Categories And Cumulative Dsf Effect Estimators, Karina A. Gattamorta
A Comparison Of Adjacent Categories And Cumulative Dsf Effect Estimators, Karina A. Gattamorta
Open Access Dissertations
The study of measurement invariance in polytomous items that targets individual score levels is known as differential step functioning (DSF; Penfield, 2007, 2008). DSF methods provide specific information describing the manifestation of the invariance effect within particular score levels and therefore serve a diagnostic role in identifying the individual score levels involved in the item's invariance effect. The analysis of DSF requires the creation of a set of dichotomizations of the item response variable. There are two primary approaches for creating the set of dichotomizations to conduct a DSF analysis. The first approach, known as the adjacent categories approach, is …
Design And Evaluation Of Three Alternative Keyboard Layouts For A Five-Key Text Entry Technique, Barbara Millet
Design And Evaluation Of Three Alternative Keyboard Layouts For A Five-Key Text Entry Technique, Barbara Millet
Open Access Dissertations
Despite the increase in popularity of handheld devices, text entry on such devices is becoming more difficult due to reduced form factors that limit display size, input modes, and interaction techniques. In an effort to circumvent these issues, research has found that five-key methods are effective for text entry on devices such as in-car navigation systems, television and gaming controllers, wrist watches, and other small devices. Five-key text entry methods use four directional keys to move a selector over an on-screen keyboard and an Enter key for selection. Although other researchers have described five-key character layouts using alphabetical order and …
Evidence Based Uncertainty Models And Particles Swarm Optimization For Multiobjective Optimization Of Engineering Systems, Kiran Kumar Annamdas
Evidence Based Uncertainty Models And Particles Swarm Optimization For Multiobjective Optimization Of Engineering Systems, Kiran Kumar Annamdas
Open Access Dissertations
The present work develops several methodologies for solving engineering analysis and design problems involving uncertainties and evidences from multiple sources. The influence of uncertainties on the safety/failure of the system and on the warranty costs (to the manufacturer) are also investigated. Both single and multiple objective optimization problems are considered. A methodology is developed to combine the evidences available from single or multiple sources in the presence (or absence) of credibility information of the sources using modified Dempster Shafer Theory (DST) and Fuzzy Theory in the design of uncertain engineering systems. To optimally design a system, multiple objectives, such as …
Individual Differences In Anterior Eeg Asymmetry In Children With High Functioning Autism, Anne Pradella Inge
Individual Differences In Anterior Eeg Asymmetry In Children With High Functioning Autism, Anne Pradella Inge
Open Access Dissertations
This study examined the moderating role of motivational tendencies for social approach and avoidance behavior, as measured by anterior EEG asymmetry, on symptom expression. In particular, this study aimed to replicate and extend previous findings that measures of anterior EEG asymmetry provide an important marker of subgroups of HFA children that significantly differ from each other, and controls, on measures of social communication impairment. EEG data were collected across two occasions on 51 HFA and 44 non-HFA children. EEG asymmetry was computed for homologous electrode pairs (e.g., lnF4-lnF3). More positive scores were indicative of relative left frontal asymmetry. Data on …
Modeling The Parasympathetic Nervous Response To An Emotional Task: The Interaction Of Heart Rate Variability, Personality And Emotion Regulation, Lindsey Marie Root
Modeling The Parasympathetic Nervous Response To An Emotional Task: The Interaction Of Heart Rate Variability, Personality And Emotion Regulation, Lindsey Marie Root
Open Access Dissertations
Heart rate variability (HRV), a physiological marker of autonomic nervous system (ANS) engagement, has been associated with a wide variety of clinical and psychological processes. High frequency (HF) HRV power, specifically, has been linked with the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and self-regulation. The current inquiry used a random effects growth model to study the HF HRV response to an emotional task and to predict individual differences in HF HRV as a function of trait hostility, neuroticism, and emotion regulation strategies (e.g., positive reappraisal, positive refocusing). Results indicated that the task engaged both branches of the ANS. HF HRV was not …