Digital Commons Network^™

Reconceptualizing Mathematical Word Problems To Reflect Social Justice Principles And Culturally Relevant Teaching, Michelle Aryam Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

As currently developed and written, mathematical word problems lack cultural relevance for an increasingly culturally diverse population in elementary schools in the United States. The design and context of mathematical word problems promote the norms, values, and beliefs of the dominant culture while potentially negatively influencing students from non-dominant culture engagement and achievement in mathematics.

The purpose of this sequential, explanatory mixed-methods study was threefold: to (a)examine in-service teachers’ preexisting beliefs about the relevance of social justice and culturally relevant teaching related to their mathematics instructional practices before receiving a synchronous online professional development program; (b) assess the impact of …

Understanding Hispanic Parent Experiences Of Participation In Children’S Special Education Programming, Ana Katrina Ramirez

Theses and Dissertations

The problem of the applied dissertation was parents who have children with disabilities at the target middle school are not fully involved in their child’s IEP educational planning. The purpose of the qualitative study was to understand Hispanic parents’ experiences with participating and contributing to the education of their children who are in the special education program. The study explored parent involvement in the process of their children’s Individualized Education Plan. It explored the issues Hispanic parents face when becoming involved with their child’s education and working with the school.

Parent participation in Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings with schools …

Middle School Literacy Educators' Views About Student Texting And Its Impact On Student Writing, Rehana Lynda Mohamed Hussain

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation investigated middle school literacy educators’ views about the impact of text messaging on students’ spelling and writing abilities. Specifically, the researcher determined educators’ views about the impact of text messages from Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Short Message Service (SMS) on middle school student writing and spelling. The researcher interviewed middle school teachers about their experiences with student writing and whether text speak is present in students’ writing and spelling.

Four research questions are posed: (a) To what extent do middle school teachers notice textspeak within student writing? (b) What do middle school literacy teachers report as the …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Siblings Of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adrielle Benini

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to better understand the experience of having a sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research has historically focused primarily on parents of individuals with ASD and their perceptions of how siblings were impacted; however, there was a lack of adequate research where information was obtained from conducting interviews with the siblings themselves.

The researcher conducted a qualitative study with 10 neurotypical siblings, ages 10 to 17, of individuals with ASD. These siblings were interviewed to explore their individual experiences and perceptions about areas in which they found and needed support. The researcher also utilized demographic …

Teacher Perceptions Of Classroom Management Programs To Improve Whole-School Measures Of Attendance, Disruptive Classroom Behaviors, And Academic Outcomes, Charles E. Natt, Jr

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored how the implementation of Capturing Kids’ Hearts (CKH) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) classroom management programs when implemented together affected students and teachers of a Louisiana K-12 school compared with using the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program alone. Teachers at the school who had used the PBIS alone and then also used the newly implanted CKH and MTSS programs participated in in-depth interviews to examine the practical effectiveness of both program implementations upon students and classroom learning effectiveness. Teacher perceptions were also compared with ex post facto data for the school from …

Elementary Teacher Experiences With English Language Learners With Special Education Needs In New York, Colleen Ann Cahill

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study aimed to understand teacher experiences working with English language learners (ELL) with or suspected of having a learning disability. This study also addressed the current problem of ELL students concurrently being under and over classified as needing special education services. This study explored the experiences of elementary school teachers in the state of New York. The participants were from different school districts within New York State. The participants all had experience teaching students who were designated ELL who were currently in the process of response to intervention (RTI) or had already been referred and classified as having …

Computational Methods For Comparative Analyses Of Discourses, Zachary Stine

Theses and Dissertations

An underexplored aspect of the abundant linguistic data available for computational analysis is the potential for conducting large-scale comparative analyses between different discourses as a more rigorous complement to existing methods. A significant obstacle in comparative studies is the requirement that a researcher distinguish between discursive distinctions that are superficial and those that reflect deeper, structural relationships between the discourses being compared. In this dissertation, I describe two methodologies for comparing discourses in terms of their underlying structures, drawing on distributional semantic models and information theory. These methodologies are explored within three case studies in which the discourses of several …

Evaluating The Use Of The L1 In A French Language Classroom, Joyce Esther Hiaumiti Guidi

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have explored how different balances of first language (L1) and target language (TL) use in a foreign language classroom impact students' fluency and proficiency in TL acquisition. Research has shown that the use of the L1 in a foreign language classroom is done in order to determine the most effective way to raise the proficiency of second language learners to the level that is expected within their classrooms (Lee & Muncie, 2006). The use of the L1 is not something that is uncommon, even in the highest levels of foreign language instruction, although some believe it could inhibit learner …

Imf's Loan Conditionality: Negative Consequences In The Borrower Country And The Burden Of Responsibility, Sara Mohamed Osama Abdalla Atta

Theses and Dissertations

People often think that IFIs, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are prominent players in the global economy by providing funds to countries in need of development and sustainment of welfare, unfortunately these institutions can cause devastating effects in the borrower country. The harsh conditionality of the IMF plays a huge role in the negative economic consequences incumbent upon the borrower country. Meanwhile, the lack of legal remedies for private individuals suffering from the conditionality aggravates the consequences for these people. On the one hand, conditionality may strain the economy of the borrower country which leads …

‘Stuck’ In The Waiting Room: African And Haitian Migrants Between Liminality And Mobility In A Mexican Border Town, Julia Hause

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the border town of Tijuana, Mexico as a site of fragmentation and rupture along the migration journeys of African and Haitian migrants transiting the South American-Central American corridor towards North American destinations. Extra-continental migration of migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to Latin America has been an emerging migration trend as global migration governance becomes increasingly restrictive and externalized. U.S. immigration and asylum policies implemented at the southern border have made migrating and making claims to international protection difficult for those migrants who arrive at the border. These policies, coupled with the indefinite U.S. land border …

Blended Language Learning: The Decision-Making Process In Designing A Blended Portuguese Course, Camellia Hill

Theses and Dissertations

This study identifies how content specialists, instructors, and instructional designers made decisions about what content to teach in person and what to teach online for a second year Portuguese university course. Qualitative vignettes around three course design participants highlight emergent themes and course artifacts from their interviews that show how they made decisions about what learning opportunities to do online and what to leave in person. The blended language course involved Canvas learning management system with two additional main technology tools used in development: GoReact and H5P. The results are subdivided to reflect the views of the instructional designer, the …

Not Again, Victor M. Perez Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Victor Perez explores personal narratives involving artifice, domesticity, and patriarchal harms through paintings which use a hybrid of digital and hand applied painting.

We Miss Each Other, As In We Are Missing Each Other, Lily L. Randall

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in the way metaphors efface the terms of their comparison and what utility COVID-19 has when positioned within a metaphor. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, metaphors touch the subject, symbolized by the plus sign (+) or the crossing of the signifier into the signified. In the fall of 2019, I presented a performance in which three participants strategically shared saliva, nasal, ear, and vaginal swabs to therapeutically address my chronic illness. Currently in 2021, our conceptions of bodily sharing revolve around the extreme contagiousness of COVID-19. There is a demand to visualize this contagion as if “respiratory droplets” were …

The Formation Of The Diminutive In Brazilian Portuguese, Cristina M. Newell

Theses and Dissertations

Although the Portuguese diminutive has been analyzed for centuries, there is a lack of descriptive experimental data regarding how native speakers form the diminutive including participants from each state in Brazil. For this study, 1,053 native speakers from each of the 26 states and the federal district of Brazil filled out an online survey, providing information about their age, gender, birth state, and current state of residence in Brazil. Participants selected the form(s) of the diminutive which they would use for 60 test words. Results indicate that the most influential factors in the formation of the diminutive are the age …

Language Maintenance In Utah: Spanish Heritage Speakers' Attitudes And Language Use, Perla Y. Escobar Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The current study quantitatively and qualitatively investigated Spanish maintenance among 45 Spanish heritage language (SHL) speakers in Utah who completed a survey about their linguistic background, their attitudes toward Spanish, their self-rated Spanish proficiency, and their current Spanish usage. Nine participants were also interviewed to expound on their linguistic experience. Previous studies on language maintenance (Alba et al., 2002; Carreira & Kagan, 2011; Lanier, 2014; Lynch, 2000; Mejías et al., 2002; Potowski, 2004; Silva-Corvalán, 1994; Zentella, 1997) have analyzed different sociolinguistics factors that relate to Spanish maintenance and usage in areas with high Hispanic populations. Nevertheless, little research has been …

Figures Of Virtue: Margaret Fell And Aemilia Lanyer's Use Of Decorum As Ethical Good Judgment In The Construction Of Female Discursive Authority, Kirsten Marie Osmani

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how the Renaissance rhetorical curriculum taught style as behavior makes it possible to unite the study of women writers' identities with formal criticism. Nancy L. Christiansen shows that early modern humanists built on the Isocratean tradition of teaching rhetoric as an ethical practice because they adopted and developed lists of rhetorical figures so extensive as to encompass all human discourse, thought, and behavior. For them, knowing, selecting, and applying these various forms was the ethical practice of good judgment, also called decorum. This type of decorum plays an important role in the rhetorical function of two key texts by …

Forms Of Femininity: The Esoteric Visual Language Of Amazigh Women Through Ceramic Traditions And Symbolic Motifs, Mackenzie Nunnally

Theses and Dissertations

Amazigh women exercise agency and maintain autonomy as individuals through an esoteric feminine visual language. This language incorporates traditional, ritual-based pottery-making practices that are grounded in ancient spiritual beliefs and socio-cultural roles. Highly functional yet artistic ceramicwares serve as forms of femininity, or visual representations of the women. Decorative yet decidedly symbolic, geometric motifs decorate these wares and serve as esoteric signifiers of Amazigh heritage while allowing the female artisans to communicate their own experiences, principles, and worldviews. This esoteric visual language is defined and analyzed by connections made between ancient aspects of Amazigh culture and ritual-based pottery-making practices, comparing …

A Dual Perspective Towards Building Resilience In Manufacturing Organizations, Steven A. Fazio

Theses and Dissertations

Modern manufacturing organizations exist in the most complex and competitive environment the world has ever known. This environment consists of demanding customers, enabling, but resource intensive Industry 4.0 technology, dynamic regulations, geopolitical perturbations, and innovative, ever-expanding global competition. Successful manufacturing organizations must excel in this environment while facing emergent disruptions generated as biproducts of complex man-made and natural systems. The research presented in this thesis provides a novel two-sided approach to the creation of resilience in the modern manufacturing organization. First, the systems engineering method is demonstrated as the qualitative framework for building literature-derived organizational resilience factors into organizational structures …

Using Social Media As A Communication Tool: A Study Of Ministries Of Sport And Sport For Development And Peace Organizations In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kelsey Slater

Theses and Dissertations

This study expanded on the previous research surrounding the Facebook and Twitter use of non-governmental sport for development and peace (SDP) organizations as well governmental Ministries of Sport. Following the theoretical framework of Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) this research examined specifically how non-governmental and governmental sport organizations share information, form a community and encourage action with their social media audiences. A content analysis of 6003 social media posts demonstrated that both Ministries of Sport and SDP non-governmental organizations (NGOs) primarily use social media to disseminate information to their followers, however, SDP NGOs were more likely to use social media posts …

Trademarks And Genericide: A Corpus And Experimental Approach To Understanding The Semantic Status Of Trademarks, Richard B. Bevan

Theses and Dissertations

Genericide is the process by which a trademarked term is used generically by the public and ultimately loses its legal trademark protections. The linguistic methods that courts have used to determine whether a given term is in the process of or has undergone genericide have historically relied on dictionaries. However, there has a been recent push to use corpus linguistics as a tool to aid in that determination for not only trademarks but word meaning in general (Hoopes, 2019; Lee & Mouritsen, 2018). In addition to corpus data, I argue that the use of experimental data via a linguistic questionnaire …

Witnessing "Story Truth" And The Narrative Of The Resurrection: Reintegration After Crisis In Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Hayley E. Langton

Theses and Dissertations

Sarah Bachelard describes crisis as a turning point during which all previous frameworks collapse. The narrative structure of the resurrection reveals the influential role of narrative in reintegrating such crises back into a place of meaning and wholeness. Using the resurrection narrative as an interpretive framework for Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried reveals how "story truth" acknowledges the transcendent meaning that lies beyond all texts and circumstances, and so reintegrates crisis and redeems meaning for Tim and his fellow soldiers. The transcendent and transformative qualities of story truth illustrate the latter's innately spiritual nature, even within secular texts. Story …

From The Corner Of One's Soul: The Methods Of Negotiating Tension In Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian Or The Evening Redness In The West, Julian Pena

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a practical and meaningful reading of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West, one that is rooted in the claim that both Judge Holden and the Kid reflect two different methods for negotiating a tension impinged upon them by their external circumstances. Using a theoretical framework that is inspired by the social psychological Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, this thesis provides an extensive analysis of the novel’s fictional universe, Judge Holden, and the Kid. Such an analysis elucidates the violent nature of Blood Meridian’s universe and further reveals the character of Judge Holden …

Latino/A Student Perspectives On Literacy Practices Affecting College Readiness, Danira Vanessa Cantu

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative collective case study examines how pre-collegiate literacy practices affect Latino/a student college success. Conducted at a South Texas border-region University, this study utilized a sample of six Latino/a students enrolled in a freshman level composition course. A focus group was used to explore how academic and social literacy practices play a part in college readiness for these transitioning college students. Additionally, personal narratives were conducted as a form of counternarrative. Modeled on the theoretical framework of removing racism from school structures and closing race-related academic divides, findings included the need for social and cultural acceptance, classroom adaptability, and …

Cowboy Conversations, Abraham Garza

Theses and Dissertations

I have always had a profound interest in the past; how that past affects the present, and ultimately, anticipating how the present will affect the future. Circumstances change, but the lessons we’ve learned will, inevitably, determine how we handle impending events. Using fiction as a platform, my intent is to reveal, through each chapter, how one’s past dictates future decisions.

I have been working with a vaquero, my wife’s grandfather, who was raised on different South Texas ranches. Taking odd jobs from stall boy to ranch hand, and horse trainer, his unique experiences will illustrate period-based scenarios that emphasize his …

Duet Phonology And Syntax Of The Red-Crowned Parrots In South Texas, Abigail Pozulp

Theses and Dissertations

Bird behavioral interaction systems show a preference for temporal precision. This preference is exemplified in the way many species avoid masking of vocal signals. Antiphonal duetting in songbirds suggest that overlapping notes are a sign of poor temporal coordination which can signify a weak pairbond, a possible cue for conspecifics seeking to usurp territories or mates. However, parrots (Psittacidae) are accomplished yet understudied duetters in nature. I recorded antiphonal duets produced by a wild population of red-crowned parrots (Amazona viridigenalis) in Brownsville, Texas. Temporal and acoustic variation of signals was assessed within and across a sample of mated …

Teacher Knowledge, Perceptions, And Language Orientations Towards Oral Language Instruction In A Dual Language Classroom, Lucy A. Montalvo

Theses and Dissertations

Dual language (DL) schools provide literacy in students’ native languages; however, it is unknown if there is a focus on oral language (OL) development, an essential component for emergent bilinguals’(EB) literacy development. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study is to understand what DL teachers in Virginia know about OL instruction when providing literacy instruction to EB students. This study also explored DL teachers’ perceptions and language orientations towards OL instruction in a DL classroom. The Holistic Biliteracy Framework by Escamilla et al. (2014) provided a research-based pedagogical model to compare teachers’ knowledge on OL instruction. The Language Orientation Framework …

Measuring Cross-Cultural Engagement Of Those Using The Growing Participator Approach, Cheryl Lea Cross

Theses and Dissertations

The Growing Participator Approach (GPA) is a language-learning approach used among global professionals living cross-culturally. Developer Greg Thomson claims that through the GPA, learners grow as active participants in their new culture by learning language primarily in relationship. Because cultural participation is central to GPA, measuring social engagement is the most appropriate form of evaluation. This research seeks to answer the questions: (1) Does focused language learning using the GPA correspond with a high degree of social integration in the host community? (2) Does the use of scales from other academic fields help evaluate social engagement for language learners?

For …

Investigating Information Structure And Word Order In Latin Poetry: An Analysis Of Epigrams, Justin Riley Soderholm

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the epigrammatic verses of the Latin poet Marcus Valerius Martialis (Martial). The emphasis is on the order of basic constituents and information structure, in particular, the concepts of sentence articulation and focus structure as modelled by Lambrecht (1994).

I categorize clauses from roughly 200 lines of epigrammatic verse by the sentence articulations topic-comment, in which propositions have predicate focus, identificational, in which propositions have argument focus, and thetic, in which whole propositions are in focus. For each articulation, I also present various examples demonstrating the variety of word orders in each. Additionally, this study examines some patterns …

Evolutionary Algorithms For Function Model Synthesis, Amaninder Singh Gill

Theses and Dissertations

Function modelling plays an essential role in the systematic design process. Designers are trained in the academia trained on function models, yet the acceptance of function models in the industry remains sparse. A possible reason is that there is a lack of computational support for synthesizing function models. The research presented in this dissertation aims to fill that gap. A conceptual proof of function model synthesis using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is initially presented. Thereafter a priori rules to evaluate function model have been developed. These rules do not rely on a designer conveying designer intent to the algorithm, which …

The Iconicity And Non-Arbitrariness Of Body Locations In Four Unrelated Sign Languages, John Samson

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I show that universally, there is a strong tendency for signs located on the body to have an iconic or non-arbitrary motivation, especially in their original form. I analyze sign language dictionaries from four unrelated sign languages and establish an iconic or non-arbitrary link between the form of the signs and their meaning, and classify those links according to 8 categories of body location iconicity and 3 categories of non-arbitrariness. The strength of this tendency depends on the percentage of signs that are shown to have an iconic or non-arbitrary link. For the data analyzed here this …