Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Catholic Education On Non-Catholic Chinese Immigrant Students, Huifu Hou

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated teachers’ and parents’ perspectives on the impact of Catholic education on non-Catholic Chinese immigrant students. The research attempted to answer three questions: How did teachers and parents perceive the impact of Catholic education on non-Catholic Chinese immigrant students’ academic achievement? How did teachers and parents perceive the impact of Catholic education on non-Catholic Chinese immigrant students’ personal moral values? And what are non-Catholic immigrant parents’ perceptions of Catholic education? The study is framed by moral development (Kohlberg & Hersh, 1977) and sensemaking (Weick, 1995) two frameworks. The methodology chosen for the research was a single case study, …

Prekindergarten Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Role In Language Development In Play, Lena N. Cosme

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to develop a deeper understanding of prekindergarten teachers’ perceptions, beliefs, and understandings of their role in language development in supporting language development through play. Purposive sampling was used to gather a sample of 12 prekindergarten teachers who taught in classrooms worldwide. The study was guided by a qualitative research design and data were collected through semi- structured interviews. The conceptual framework that underpinned this study was based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Jerome Bruner’s theory of play. Six themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) play and language go hand in hand, (b) how I see …

Perceptions Of Bilingual Education Through An Organizational Culture Theory Framework, Martha Tuthill

Theses and Dissertations

The increase in the English language learner (ELL) student population in New York state has significantly impacted education in many school districts. The New York State Education Department has adjusted regulations for instructing ELL students in Part 154, and administrators and educators are adjusting educational programs to meet ELL student needs through bilingual and English as a new language (ENL) educational programs. The main purpose of this study was to explore perceptions regarding opportunities, challenges, and successes in a bilingual program for ELL students and examine how an organizational culture influences ELL education in the bilingual program. This qualitative multicase …

Is Proximity Enough? A Case Study Examining A College Access Program On The Grounds Of Public Housing On The West Coast, Nicole S. Berry

Theses and Dissertations

The issue of college access for students from low-income communities has been a longstanding challenge in American higher education. Despite numerous efforts to address the gaps in college attendance and graduation rates between students from low-income and more affluent communities, the problem remains present. This has led to a need for an in-depth analysis of college access programming explicitly tailored to low-income communities, particularly those residing in public housing authorities. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD, 2016) has recognized this need by funding and piloting college access programs in several public housing authorities around the United States. These …

Cultural Responsiveness Training In Teacher Preparation Programs: A Qualitative Case Study, Loraine Keriece Richardson Mccray

Theses and Dissertations

The American education system has experienced a change in the racial and ethnic background of the student population nationally and in the Long Island, New York region. Yet, the teaching population remains mostly white and female. Teacher preparation programs train teachers in content, pedagogy, and adolescent development. During the training, teachers need to develop their ability to connect and understand their students' cultural and racial norms that may not exist in their program of study. This is no fault of the teacher or program but may be an inherent piece missing from the systems established to credential preservice educators. With …

The Personal Journey Of Individuals Self-Disclosing Their Disability Status Within An Urban Postsecondary Environment, Nelson Carrillo

Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative narrative study was conducted on the personal journey of individuals self-disclosing their disability status within an urban postsecondary environment. The study was intended to uncover the personal journey of students with disabilities self-disclosing their disability status within an urban postsecondary environment. Through semi-structured interviews and targeted journal responses, it explored the students’ lived experiences of seeking out and using accommodations and the students’ perceptions of faculty members’ use of universal design for instruction and universal design for learning. The findings demonstrated that a community-based institution that values diversity among professors, faculty members, and students is an environment that …

Narrative Language Development In Deaf Children As Assessed Through American Sign Language: A Comparative Analysis Utilizing Retells And Original Stories, Cathy Milliren

Theses and Dissertations

Despite advances in hearing technology, legislative changes, and instructional strategies, Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) students continue to demonstrate language delays on standard assessments. Although there are assessments that evaluate a child’s American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency, research thus far has assessed the language structure of D/HH students through their use of English not ASL. Through a convergent mixed methods study, the Narrative Scoring Scheme (NSS) was used to compare the scores of D/HH fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students with their hearing peers to compare their story structure with original stories and retells. Using t tests and multiple linear regression analyses, …

In Support Of A Read-Aloud Accommodation: A Meta Analysis Study, Sarah Elizabeth Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the read-aloud accommodation benefits for students with disabilities (SWD) and students without disabilities (SWOD). In this study, researchers recommend ways in which to remove encumbrances faced by SWD in reading comprehension. In general, research has shown that both SWD and SWOD have met some degree of success from the read-aloud accommodations. Further, this meta-analysis will attempt to reveal important factors that influence the effects of read-aloud accommodations. For example, how the accommodation effect size influences the subject area of reading versus that of math. This study will also show that the effect of read-aloud accommodations is significantly …

Defining Scribbles: How Do Early Childhood Teachers Perceive Scribbles As A Part Of Emergent Literacy?, Sandy Dellalonga

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to understand early childhood teachers’ perceptions surrounding the topic of childhood scribbles as they relate to emergent literacy. Sociocultural theory provided a foundation for this research because of its focus on relationships between children, other children, and teachers to foster learning experiences (Gee, 2011; Vygotsky, 1978, 1998). Additionally, social semiotic theory also guided this research because childhood scribbles represent children’s “signs” which can also influence communication and literacy skills (Kress, 1997). The participants were nine preschool, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade teachers (N=9) who volunteered to complete an open-ended survey, follow-up …

Discursive Exclusion Of Chinese Americans:A Case Study Of New York City’S Political Media Landscape, Andrew G. White Iv

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to answer the following question: Between November 2020 and November 2021, were Chinese Americans discursively excluded from New York City’s political media landscape? The Chinese American experience has been punctuated with countless examples of faith and investment in the American ideal. Despite that fact, it has also been marred with periods in which that faith was tested and in which the return on their investment fell short of expectations. To arrive at this study’s findings, a summative content analysis of two-hundred-forty-three news articles was conducted. To reinforce these findings, a subsequent, discursive analysis, of …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Experience Of Machine Translation Use Among Chinese Undergraduates, Corey T. Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explores the experiences of machine translation (MT) use among Chinese undergraduates in a Chinese-foreign, English medium instruction (EMI), joint degree program in southern China. Advancements in MT technology have raised questions about its application in academic settings, particularly in foreign and second language learning. Educators express concerns over potential misuse for cheating and its potential impact on language development, despite acknowledging it may also offer some benefits for language learners depending on the setting and the students’ level of L2 proficiency. Using translanguaging as a theoretical framework, this study aims to shed light on these concerns by …

Examination Of Reading Motivation Levels And Associated Factors In Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Adolescents, Sarah Carlton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine self-rated levels of reading motivation and reading activity among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) Adolescents and the relationship to overall Language Arts skills. This study is framed by social learning theory and self-determination theory. DHH Adolescents (n=38), between the ages of 11 and 17, with bilateral hearing loss, located in Southern California participated in the study. Data collection included administration of the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ), Reading Activity Inventory (RAI) and a demographic survey. Phase 2 included a focus group of Phase 1 participants (n=5). Survey data was analyzed quantitatively for mean …

Decodable Deliberations In Early Reading Instruction: A Mixed-Methods Study Of First-Grade Teachers’ Perceptions, Selection, And Use Of Decodable Texts, Patricia Gallery

Theses and Dissertations

The fundamental significance of literacy achievement cannot be overstated. However, the 2022 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) divulges alarming findings, with a mere 33 percent of the nation’s fourth graders performing at or above proficiency in reading (NAEP, 2022). Exploring the nexus of research-informed pedagogy and practice is imperative to disrupt this deleterious trajectory. This mixed-method study will examine how first-grade teachers select and use texts for beginning reading instruction with a critical lens on teachers' perceptions of decodable text to fully understand the complex intersection of intentionality and attitude when choosing texts for early reading instruction. This study …

Supporting Underprepared Writers In An Academic Success Program, Alison Ersheid

Theses and Dissertations

For decades, colleges and universities have been grappling with the task of closing the readiness gap for underprepared writers entering the higher education system. Traditional developmental education models are costly and inefficient at best, and detrimental to the matriculation of students at worst. Bridge programs have had moderate success, but at a high price tag. Within the last decade, alternate approaches to developmental education, such as accelerated and corequisite models, have emerged. While these approaches have demonstrated success in improving overall student proficiency and confidence, little is known about the specific mechanisms and environments that promote success and improve writing …

Perceptions Of Suburban Middle School Content Teachers On The Importance Of Literacy In Their Classroom: An Action Research Study, Sarah Larson Fennelly

Theses and Dissertations

Students are starting middle school without the foundational reading skills necessary to access the texts in their content area classes, such as science and social studies. This is causing great frustration for the teachers who feel unsure of how to help these students because they did not learn about how students learn to read in their teacher preparation courses. So, would providing teachers with the information they need about how students learn to read, foundational reading skills, and strategies to support struggling readers, change secondary teachers’ perceptions about reading and how they can help their students? This action research interviewed …

Vocabulary Acquisition In High School Classrooms Utilizing Emerging Trends In Literacy Development: Perceptions Of Teachers And Students, Inviolata Lunani Sore

Theses and Dissertations

Current global trends demand that we remain conscious of how distinct norms in groups we affiliate with affect decisions. Among developmental aspects, childhood language acquisition depends heavily on epigenetic interactions between the innate and the immediate environment (Sinha, 2017). This explanatory sequential mixed methods study explored how high school students acquire and incrementally build their vocabulary while utilizing emergent learning trends divergent from traditional curricula. The study leans on schema theory, critical race theory, whole-language theory, and reciprocal model. The independent variable is literacy curriculum, while the dependent variable is vocabulary acquisition. The researcher utilized classroom lesson observations, one-on-one interviews, …

Exploring The Influence Of Culturally Relevant Texts On Black Male College Students’ Literacy Practices: A Case Study, Beverly A. Fields

Theses and Dissertations

African American males often experience literacy challenges in the American school system. Texts related to their lives are rarely available in the curriculum, and some educators need the skillset or strategies to engage these learners with texts related to their lives. Many studies have documented that exposure to culturally relevant texts may enhance African American males’ literacy practices. This qualitative case study explored the following research question: How do culturally relevant texts influence college-age African American males’ literacy practices? Data were collected from the instructor and student interviews, field notes, and document analysis. Seven African American college-age students were recruited …

American Public Diplomacy And Propaganda Efforts To Change “Hearts And Minds” In A Soviet Satellite State (Bulgaria) During The Cold War, 1945-1991, Kristian Kafozov

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates and demonstrates the nature and impact of public diplomacy and propaganda efforts employed by the United States of America across Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War, focusing on the People’s Republic of Bulgaria as a case study. Bulgaria's unique position as a steadfast ally of the Soviet Union underpinned by a deep-rooted Russian-Bulgarian “special relationship” (based on shared cultural, religious, and political ties forged over the course of a century), makes it an especially compelling subject for understanding the effectiveness of American initiatives in penetrating even the most loyal Soviet satellite states during the Cold War. This …

First Grade Teachers’ Self-Efficacy During Transformational Changes In Literacy Instruction, Amy M. Arnold

Theses and Dissertations

Schools across the county are transitioning from balanced literacy to researched based reading instruction. This shift impacts not only instructional practices in reading, but the fundamental understanding of reading development. Teachers are on the frontline of this huge endeavor. This research examined five first grade teachers’ self-efficacy through this transformational change. One-on-one interviews were conducted to explore teachers’ perspectives as they make this shift. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, (IPA) four themes emerged; lack of training, feelings of disconnect, teacher overwhelm, and passion for change. Recommendations for practice include clear and concise communications of the shifts that are necessary when moving …

Examing Students’ Perceptions And Attitudes Toward The Educational Systems’ Ability To Improve Their Future: A Phenomenological Approach, Fallon Rubin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine the perceptions and attitudes of students towards education’s ability to improve their future outcomes. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological research design in order to closely examine students’ experiences. Participants for this study were selected from a single district on Long Island from one grade. Student participants were all from similar socioeconomic backgrounds and were all eligible for free and reduced lunch through the school district. Data was collected via various methods. Interviews were conducted with each participant and each interview was recorded and later transcribed to enable for each disaggregation …

A Qualitative Inquiry To The Impact Of Peer Teaching On Undergraduate Chemistry Students, Marcus Sambar

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of peer teaching on undergraduate STEM majors, particularly those who serve as peer teachers for introductory chemistry courses. While previous research has predominantly focused on the benefits of peer tutoring for the tutored students, the reciprocal impact on peer teachers remains underexplored. The main purpose of this study is to quantify the differences between peer teachers and comparable students who do not engage in teaching, with a specific focus on problem-solving approaches and the ability to explain STEM concepts. The assessment included coding students' work to reveal strategy use and provide a means of comparison …

Acculturative Stress, Depression, & Anxiety Among Arab Americans, Sally Kafelghazal M.S.

Theses and Dissertations

Arab Americans, those who themselves or their ancestors have immigrated fromthe Middle East or North Africa to the United States, experience a lot of stress as a result of balancing varying cultures, known as acculturative stress. Due to the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of Arabs in Americans, as well as the taboo that exists in the Arab culture regarding poor mental health and seeking mental health services, the mental health impacts of acculturation stress among this population are scarcely studied. This dissertation aims to further understand ways in which acculturative stress impacts early generational Arab American adults, including immigrants and refugees, …

Sphingosine Kinase 2 Depletion Dysregulates Hepatic Redox Metabolism And Enhances Inflammation In Early Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (Mash), Kaitlyn Georgene Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) currently affects one in three people worldwide; its prevalence is growing alongside other cardiometabolic disorders. Aberrations to redox and sphingolipid metabolism contribute to MASLD pathologic progression. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is an active lipid, meaning that S1P participates in biochemical processes within the cell. S1P is generated by two distinct isoenzymes, sphingosine kinase (SphK)1 and SphK2. The localization of the SphK enzyme dictates S1P function. While cytosolic SphK1-generated S1P is well-characterized, nuclear and mitochondrial SphK2-generated S1P is less known. Moreover, SphK2 depletion effects on cellular redox processes and inflammation are not well-defined.

This study defines the …

Benchmarking And Enhancing Generalization In Multilingual Speech Emotion Recognition, Mohamed Osman Ismael

Theses and Dissertations

Speech Emotion Recognition (SER) is pivotal in advancing human-computer interaction by enabling machines to understand and respond to human emotions. Despite significant progress with self-supervised learning models, SER systems often struggle with generalization across diverse languages and unseen data distributions, limiting their real-world applicability. This thesis addresses these challenges by first introducing a large-scale benchmark to evaluate the robustness and adaptability of state-of-the-art SER models in both in-domain and out-of-domain settings. The benchmark includes a diverse set of multilingual datasets, emphasizing cross-lingual and out-of-domain evaluations to assess model generalization. Surprisingly, we find that the Whisper model, originally designed for automatic …

A Critical Perspective On Supporting Parents In Facilitating Informal Steam Learning On Children's Early Literacy Development, Suzanne G. Alexandre

Theses and Dissertations

Considering that parents/caregivers and home environment play an influential role in a child’s school readiness and future academic success, this study sought to support parents in using facilitation strategies to engage their child in informal learning at home. In order to examine if access to support for parents of preschoolers influenced parents’ confidence in their ability to facilitate informal learning at home, the project used informal STEAM learning, for context. The study also examines the potential impact of informal STEAM learning on children's school readiness and early literacy skills and the intersections of parent involvement, STEAM, and school readiness through …

Moonshine Babies, Arghavan Heydareslam

Theses and Dissertations

Moonshine Babies is a two-screen film made of collage/cut-out stop-motion and live-action. It is a visual poem based on my journals from when I recently started living in the US as an outsider. The experience left me feeling divided between the empty present and memories of the past. suggesting that there are collective memories among a group of interconnected individuals that unite them within a single narrative.

There was a moment when I asked, "If you are your memories, what does it mean to be somewhere you have no memories of and no one has memories of you there?"

Memories …

Youth Literacy And Social Practices In A Gaming Club, Abdul R. Siddiqui

Theses and Dissertations

One of the growing phenomena of our digital age is the proliferation of digital fan spaces (Gee, 2018). Dedicated to a specific fandom or activity, these spaces have allowed participants to play competitively, share videos with each other, create fanfiction, provide feedback to one another and engage in a host of literacies around something they share an affinity for (Black, 2009; Gee, 2017a). Through advances in technology, access to multiple tools and highly specialized knowledge of specific subjects, youth can now create communities in online spaces where they can engage in complex activities with their friends and fellow gamers without …

Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding The Inclusion Of English Learners In Mainstream Classrooms, Geraki Marie Kossonou

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how mainstream elementary teachers perceive the inclusion of English learners (ELs) in their classrooms and what strategies they use to enhance the learning of ELs. Utilization of Bandura’s self-efficacy occurred in the research. The two research questions that guided the study include, “What are the perceptions of elementary teachers regarding the inclusion of ELs in their classrooms?” and “How do elementary teachers demonstrate their knowledge and application of effective strategies for supporting and enhancing the learning of ELs?” The two research questions helped to explore the phenomenon of mainstream teachers’ perceptions …

Advanced Placement Teachers’ Perspectives On Effectiveness Of Georgia Gifted Legislation: A Generic Qualitative Study, Rebekah Annette Atkinson

Theses and Dissertations

Gifted students from minority backgrounds, including low SES, African American and Latinx students, are underrepresented in gifted education, specifically high school Advanced Placement (AP) programs. Despite national legislation and guidance, the federal government allows individual states, including Georgia, to create their own gifted policies and delegate implementation to individual districts. Georgia, like many other states, continues to show inequity in gifted education for minority students and deficiencies in gifted instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of inequity in gifted education for high school students in Georgia through a generic qualitative research design that analyzed AP …

Creating A Social Media Presence In Columbus State Women's Basketball Program, Kaihla Carter

Theses and Dissertations

This professional project will explore increased social media growth within the Columbus State University Women's Basketball team. It will present a sweeping writing audit focusing on the encounters and perspectives of the Columbus State Women's Basketball program regarding social media and the advancing opportunities for female student-athletes. It will dive into the framework to understand how women's basketball social media platforms impact the subjects, stories, and conversations encompassing the game, ultimately molding the public insight and plan. We get into the impact of a solid virtual social media presence, effective online entertainment strategies, the variety inborn in the women's basketball …