Digital Commons Network^™

In Another's Voice: Making Sense Of Reproductive Health As Women Of Color, Nivethitha Ketheeswaran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goals of this project are twofold. The first goal is to articulate my sense making of reproductive health for Women of color in the United States as a postcolonial condition; one that I trace back to the logics of elimination of settler colonialism (Wolfe, 2006) and frame as maintained through the colonial institutions, or racial projects (Omi & Winant, 2015), of the Prison Industrial Complex, the welfare system, and the health care system which create and perpetuate dominant cultural narratives of “the welfare queen”, “the negligent Black mother”, and “the wily patient”. I show how these narratives colonize the …

Cultivating Educators’ Critical Consciousness Of Learning And Language Needs In Emergent Bilinguals, Alta Joy Broughton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study reports the application of the Cultivating Critical Consciousness in Educators (CCCE) model for the collective cases of instructional coaching in one school. Overall, this conceptual model informed the coaching model, data collection, and data analysis by integrating three interacting concepts; 1) conscientização, the process of developing critical consciousness, (Carlson, Engebretson, & Chamberlain, 2005; Freire, 1970; King, 1991), 2) knowledge and practice as interdependent and interactive domains for cultivating teacher growth (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999), and 3) tenants of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies summarized in three complementary strands: the Self, the Other, and the sociopolitical dimensions. Two …

Queer Authority In Old And Middle English Literature, Elan J. Pavlinich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I argue that select early English texts queer normative authorizing conventions to authorize Old English and Middle English literatures. During the European Middle Ages, Latin cultures and literatures were privileged with authority that extended to and subverted the cultural capital of the inhabitants of England at the edge of the known Western world. I identify four exceptional English texts that employ authorizing conventions to disrupt normative networks of power that traditionally privilege Latin and to authorize English literature instead. The Norman Conquest had altered the English language and social structures; still, these altered networks of power continued to marginalize English …

Optimizing Early Intervention For Preschoolers' Vocabulary Development, Lindsey A. Peters-Sanders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Preschool is a critical time in children’s oral language and pre-literacy skill development, but this development varies greatly among children. Those with smaller vocabularies are at greater risk for developing future language and reading difficulties that persist throughout their education. Because vocabulary knowledge is essential for later reading success, early instruction in preschool is key. To better understand how to enhance preschoolers’ word learning, the current dissertation contains three studies that examined the benefits of explicit vocabulary instruction and identified the factors that best facilitated vocabulary learning among a diverse group of young children. To aid in the early identification …

Occupation And Displacement Of Palestinian Multilinguals: Language Emotional Perception, Language Practice, And Language Experiences In Palestine And In The Diaspora, Anastasia Khawaja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the emotional perceptions, language practices, and language experiences of Palestinian multilinguals in Palestine, and the more under-studied population in the diaspora - focusing on Arabic, English, and Hebrew. A total of 47 participants filled out the adapted Bilingual Emotional Questionnaire (Dewaele & Pavlenko, 2001-2003) in order to compare and contrast positive and negative emotional perception of participant reported languages via a Likert scale, and overall language practices and experiences via open-ended questions. Several independent sample t-tests were run by location of participants in order to determine significant differences in emotional perception, and a thematic analysis was run …

[X]Splaininggender, Race, Class, And Body: Metapragmatic Disputes Of Linguistic Authority And Ideologies On Twitter, Reddit, And Tumblr, Judith C. Bridges

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the language of “citizen sociolinguists,” everyday users of social network sites (SNS) who contribute to the discourses about language on Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, platforms with distinctive user demographics and technological affordances. The data were collected through keyword searches for mansplain, whitesplain, richsplain and thinsplain, metapragmatic neologisms which are lexical blends of the verb explain and one of four social categories. Disputes of macro-level ideologies are revealed by users’ creative meaning-making strategies and metapragmatic awareness of micro-level texts and utterances. Making use of the linguistic practices of the SNS, as well as the concisely-compacted semantic and pragmatic …

A Machine Learning Approach To Predicting Community Engagement On Social Media During Disasters, Adel Alshehri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of social media is expanding significantly and can serve a variety of purposes. Over the last few years, users of social media have played an increasing role in the dissemination of emergency and disaster information. It is becoming more common for affected populations and other stakeholders to turn to Twitter to gather information about a crisis when decisions need to be made, and action is taken. However, social media platforms, especially on Twitter, presents some drawbacks when it comes to gathering information during disasters. These drawbacks include information overload, messages are written in an informal format, the presence …

Risk And Resilience Pertaining To Mental Health Of Youth Attending A College In Kathmandu Who Were Exposed To The 2015 Earthquakes During Their Adolescence: A Mixed Method Study, Vinita Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Adverse mental health outcomes have been previously reported among survivors of natural disasters. Available studies mostly focus on risk factors and not resilience. In 2015, a series of earthquakes caused massive loss of lives and livelihood in Nepal. Epidemiological data pertaining to youth mental health in Nepal is limited. Information about the post-earthquake mental health of youth who were exposed to earthquakes during their adolescence in Nepal is scarce.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to address risk and resilience factors related to mental health among college-attending Nepali youth (18-20 years) exposed to the 2015 earthquake during their …

Exploring New Teacher Beliefs: Identity, Home-Life, And Culture In The Classroom, Frederick B. Bradley Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A persistent shortage of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students, teachers, and professionals is seen by many as a threat to the nation’s global economic standing. Deficits in these areas are often attributed to a lack of quality K-12 STEM education, which is due in large part to a high rate of teacher turnover. Moreover, such teacher attrition has been shown to occur far more often in high-need schools and districts; thus serving to further marginalize disadvantaged members of society.

This study occurs within the context of The Robert Noyce Scholarship Program at our research-intensive university in the southeastern …

“It’S A Broken System That’S Designed To Destroy”: A Critical Narrative Analysis Of Healthcare Providers’ Stories About Race, Reproductive Health, And Policy, Brianna Rae Cusanno

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Constructions of race, reproductive health, and gender have been inextricably linked in the United States since the beginning of the nation. Today, these linkages remain evident in the marked racial and gender inequities in reproductive health outcomes that persist in the U.S. To better understand how these meanings and material outcomes are negotiated and produced by actors on the ground, this study asked: “How do reproductive healthcare providers (RHPs) communicate about the intersections of race, reproductive health, and policy?” I conducted semi- structures interviews with 24 RHPs, resulting in over 35 hours of recorded interviews. Drawing on critical-cultural communication, Reproductive …

Linking Sleep And Aggression: The Role Of Response Inhibition And Emotional Processing, Melanie L. Bozzay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although shorter sleep duration is theorized to increase the risk of engaging in aggressive behavior, experimental studies examining this relationship yield conflicting findings. Since sleep serves in part to regulate the functioning of prefrontal brain regions, insufficient sleep may deleteriously impact the individual’s ability to inhibit rash action and alter emotional processing, which could in turn increase aggressive tendencies. However, no studies have examined the extent to which naturally occurring insufficient sleep is linked to aggression or potential mechanisms of this relationship, limiting understanding of and the generalizability of extant findings. Thus, the present study examined whether cognitive (deficits in …

From Meaningful Work To Good Work: Reexamining The Moral Foundation Of The Calling Orientation, Garrett W. Potts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The calling orientation to work represents the seed that has germinated into the exponentially growing ‘work as a calling’ literature. It was first articulated by Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven Tipton within Habits of the Heart in the 1980s. The following critical analysis of the ‘work as a calling’ literature, and of the moral foundation of the calling orientation more specifically, is intended for two particular audiences.

The first audience broadly includes an interdisciplinary group of scholars working within business ethics, management, organizational psychology, and vocational psychology, among other fields of study. Amidst these scholars’ …

International Teaching Assistants’ Perceptions Of English And Spanish Language Use At The University Of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, Edward G. Contreras Santiago

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Globalization and sociopolitical factors impact migration patterns all over the world. In Puerto Rico, these factors created superdiverse environments where languages users have pushed the boundaries of language in order to make sense of their worlds. Even though this language dynamic is natural for locals, it is those who visit from different countries, specifically international graduate students, that have a difficult time adjusting to Puerto Rico’s rich use of English and Spanish. Understanding how international graduate students perceive the language used at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (UPRM) upon arrival is essential to provide a better experience for future …

Perceptions Of Infrastructure, Flood Management, And Environmental Redevelopment In The University Area, Hillsborough County, Florida, Kris-An K. Hinds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University Area (UA), a low-income, unincorporated neighborhood in Hillsborough County, Florida, is a site of sustainable redevelopment by the local government and nonprofit organizations. Throughout the past decade, the transitions in local and state political climates have significantly impacted the residents’ ability to advocate for infrastructural and environmental improvement to the site. This thesis discusses the findings of a research project dedicated to exploring resident perspectives of stormwater management, infrastructure, and the redevelopment currently occurring the University Area. Drawing from theoretical concepts in political ecology, environmental justice, and the interplay of agency and structure, this research investigates the impacts …

Bridging The Achievement Gap: Promoting Equity In Teachers' Use Of Behavior-Specific Praise With Self-Monitoring And Performance Feedback, Ashley E. Knochel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disparities in academic and social outcomes for ethnically diverse students in educational settings has been identified in the literature as the achievement gap. This study examined the impact of teacher training interventions on establishing equity in teacher implementation of a common positive behavior classroom support strategy, behavior-specific praise in four elementary classrooms. Teacher self-monitoring and written performance feedback were used to facilitate teachers to improve classroom practices by establishing proportionate praise and discipline practices across racially diverse students. A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the impact of self-monitoring and written performance feedback with and without equity-focused procedures …

The Effect Of Narrative Language Intervention On The Language Skills Of Children With Hearing Loss, Stephanie M. Raymond

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with hearing loss have limited auditory access to their native language and struggle to develop appropriate language skills. These children consistently demonstrate less complex oral language output, smaller vocabulary inventories, and delays in overall communicative proficiency. With the extensive implications hearing loss has on language development, a child with hearing loss requires immediate access to appropriate and effective intervention to address deficits and curb long-term language delays. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the effects of various language intervention programs with children with hearing loss. Much of the existing research focuses on the consequences of a selected …

Promoting L2 Idiomatic Competence Among Chinese College Students Via Wechat, Zhengjie Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many second language (L2) scholars acknowledge that L2 idioms play a critical role in reading development as well as in communicative competence for L2 learners (Arnaud & Savignon, 1997; Barfield & Gyllstad, 2009; Conklin & Schmitt, 2008; Howarth, 1998; Liontas, 2017; Littlemore, Chen, Koester, & Barnden, 2011). Echoing the current trends of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), much research has been done to underscore how L2 idiom learning can be infused with instructional technologies to promote L2 learners’ idiomatic competence (see Luk & Ng, 1998; Nakata, 2011; Yang & Xie, 2013). However, what remains underexplored is the ways that L2 …

Play Behaviors In Latino Dual Language Learners: The Relationship Between Maternal Characteristics And Classroom Peer Play, Olivia Hernandez Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Head Start, 28.8% of the children enrolled are Dual Language Learners (DLLs), and 84.4% of those speak Spanish as their home language. However, there are limited studies involving DLLs. Using the Ecological Model of Human Development framework with current revisions with culture as part of the microsystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1994; Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017), the current study aimed to identify maternal level factors that may relate to Latinos' classroom peer play while controlling for classroom quality. Forty-five Latino DLL children attending Head Start, their mothers, and their teachers participated in the study. Head Start administrators provided their most recent vocabulary …

Rethinking Map Literacy And An Analysis Of Quantitative Map Literacy, Ming Xie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maps are increasingly being used in traditional and virtual media, and civic discourse on political, social, and environmental issues, among others, is more and more becoming influenced by them. The often-used expression of a “picture tells a 1000 words” has never been so apt in our progressively more visual world. Despite this increased role and importance of maps, map literacy, as a field of research, remains rather underdeveloped. This is especially so for thematic maps, the very type of map that is finding increasing currency in discourse. As part of this under-developed nature of map literacy, the quantitative skills used …

An Examination Of The Roles Of Classroom Quality And Approaches To Learning On The Early Academic Skills Of Latino Dual Language Learners Enrolled In Head Start, Marcela A. Galicia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the relationship between classroom quality, approaches-to-learning, and early academic skills among 384 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in Florida Head Start programs. The children were living in low-income homes where Spanish was the primary language spoken by at least one parent. The study analyzed the extent to which approaches-to-learning behaviors moderate early literacy and numeracy skills in Head Start classrooms of varying quality. During the spring of their prek-4 year, the children were administered the English and Spanish Letter-Word Identification and Applied Problems subtests of the WJ-III (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) and the Batería III …

Exploring Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives On Dual Language Education, Kylie Ross

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates preservice teachers’ perspectives towards dual language education (DLE) through a mixed methods approach. This study investigates preservice teachers enrolled in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) certification course concerning the following research questions: 1. What impact does taking an ESOL course have on preservice teachers’ attitudes and perspectives towards DLE? 2. Is there a significant difference in change in attitude between students taking the course online versus face to face (F2F)? 3. How are preservice teachers informed about what schools have dual language programs in their area? 4.What relationship may exist between attitudes, perspectives, and …

Neuro-Correlates Of Word Processing Among Four-And-Five-Year-Old Children From Homes Varying In Socio-Economic Status, Wendy Olsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A large body of research relates families’ socioeconomic status (SES) to child language development (Hoff & Tian, 2005). Results from these studies indicate preschoolers from low SES backgrounds may have underdeveloped linguistic foundations required for future academic success (Sirin, 2005; Lacouri & Tissington, 2011). These differences have been said to create a 30 million word-gap between the language experiences of low and middle to high SES children by the age of 3 years. Thus, children who come from lower SES backgrounds often lack the vocabulary knowledge used in school and in textbooks (Hart & Risley, 1995). One index of SES …

Examining Efl Learners’ Reading Comprehension: The Impact Of Metacognitive Strategies Discussion And Collaborative Learning Within Multimedia E-Book Dialogic Environments, Abrar H. Alsofyani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, both reading and comprehension skills are challenging to acquire. EFL students find reading challenging due to their inability to comprehend and interpret text information, which may lead, at times, to demotivation and loss of interest. The current study intends to explore how Saudi EFL learners may better tackle reading comprehension challenges by examining the utilization of metacognitive reading strategies through discussion and extensive collaborative learning activities within a multimedia e-book dialogic environment. Accordingly, the study investigates the impact of teaching metacognitive strategy-based discussion and collaborative learning on students’ application of the …

Efl Student Collaborative Writing In Google Docs: A Multiple Case Study, Quang Nam Pham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of modern technology has presented new opportunities for language instruction. In recent years, technology-mediated collaborative writing has received great attention in research literature. The constraints and affordances of some tools, such as Wikispaces and Google Docs for collaborative writing have been explored. Although wiki-based collaborative writing have been conducted in a variety of contexts, studies in Google Docs-based collaborative writing in English as Foreign Language (EFL) contexts are underrepresented in research literature.

To contribute to research diversity, I conducted a dissertation study in an English for Specific Purposes class at a university in southern Vietnam. Sociocultural Theory and …

Economies Of Salvation In English Anchoritic Texts, 1100-1400, Joshua Edward Britt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the different ways medieval authors conceived of anchoritism and solitary life by focusing on three important phases of the movement which are represented by Wulfric of Haselbury, Christina of Markyate, and fourteenth-century mystics. It is grounded in the medieval English anchoritic literature that was produced by religious scholars between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Initially, lacking a tradition of their own and a language to articulate the anchoritic experience, medieval hagiographers borrowed the desert imagery from the story of the early fathers who lived in the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, which they viewed as a place of …

The Effects And Students’ Views Of Teachers' Coded Written Corrective Feedback: A Multiple-Case Study Of Online Multiple-Draft Chinese Writing, Jining Han

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of Web 2.0 in the field of education, which allows users to interact and collaborate with teachers and peers on the web, many researchers have focused on exploring the developments of using Course Manage System (CMS) in service of L2 writing (e.g., Chun, 2011; Warschauer & Grimes, 2007). Simultaneously, participation in learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign (TCFL) has been accelerating. Learning and teaching Chinese writing plays a significant role in the field of world languages education. In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Foreign Language Education (FLE), many studies have examined the …

Security Framework For The Internet Of Things Leveraging Network Telescopes And Machine Learning, Farooq Israr Ahmed Shaikh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The recent advancements in computing and sensor technologies, coupled with improvements in embedded system design methodologies, have resulted in the novel paradigm called the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is essentially a network of small embedded devices enabled with sensing capabilities that can interact with multiple entities to relay information about their environments. This sensing information can also be stored in the cloud for further analysis, thereby reducing storage requirements on the devices themselves. The above factors, coupled with the ever increasing needs of modern society to stay connected at all times, has resulted in IoT technology penetrating all facets …

Cognitivism In School Psychologists’ Talk About Cultural Responsiveness: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Sujay Sabnis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although there is an increase in publications on the topic of cultural responsiveness in school psychology, the research literature does not interrogate the discourse around cultural responsiveness and the modes of practices it enables. Using a preexisting dataset featuring interviews with 15 school psychologists, I analyzed the discursive formations characterizing the talk about cultural responsiveness. Data analysis using the critical discursive psychology framework illuminated the presence of cognitivism in participant talk. Critical discourse analysis drawing on Foucauldian theory of power effects revealed the ways in which cognitivism both enabled and constrained the discursive production of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural responsiveness’. Culture …

Right-Wing, Nationalist Discourses And Counter-Discourses On Twitter During The European Migrant Crisis, Ramona Kreis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines right-wing, nationalist-conservative discourses on Twitter. Specifically, this study explores the features of right-wing discourses and counter-discourses in the context of the European migrant crisis in 2015 and the terrorist attack in Berlin, Germany, in 2016. Informed by critical discourse analysis and multimodal discourse analysis, the analysis focuses on discursive strategies and semiotic and multimodal resources found in tweets that either endorse or challenge anti-refugee stances during the aforementioned time frames. Additionally, this study explores to what extent the platform-specific technological affordances facilitate dialogic interaction between users who express right-wing opinions and users who challenge right-wing discourses.

The …

Lexical Influence In Phoneme Perception With Non-Degraded And Spectrally-Degraded Speech, Jane Bradley Smart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In speech perception tasks with ambiguous bottom-up information, lexical processes have been shown to influence listener responses, such as in phoneme categorization tasks (Ganong, 1980). Proponents of interactive theories of speech perception and spoken word recognition assert this influence is a top-down feedback mechanism that can affect bottom-up perceptual processes (e.g., McClelland & Elman, 1986). While robust influences on phoneme perception have been reported in multiple studies (Connine & Clifton, 1987; Ganong, 1980; Gow, Segawa, Ahlfors, & Lin, 2008; Pitt & Samuel, 1993; among others), some phonetic contrasts, particularly those that distinguish place of articulation, have been tested in very …