Digital Commons Network^™

Got Breadfruit? Marshallese Foodways And Culture In Springdale, Arkansas, Diana Kay Chen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human food choices is essential in the examination of cultural knowledge and decision-making among members of any ethnic group. Ethnographic and cognitive anthropology methods, including a novel calculation of cognitive salience, were used in this study to explore the domain of traditional Marshallese foods in Springdale, Arkansas. Springdale is home to the highest population of Marshallese people outside of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI); the population is expected to rise as people continue to migrate from the RMI because of global climate change and other factors such as family ties. Studies of traditional foodways are increasingly crucial …

Intercultural Crisis Communication: Examining The Experiences Of Crisis Sojourners, Andrew S. Pyle

Publications

The concept of the sojourner has been studied in a variety of contexts, such as business, education, and international aid. However, there is as yet no communication research on the topic of the crisis sojourner. Consequently, the goal of this study was to explore experiences of crisis sojourners to determine what they perceive as effective and ineffective communication in intercultural settings. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 emergency responders who deploy internationally following events such as the earthquake in Haiti or the Fukushima meltdown. Results showed crisis sojourners from this population were aware of cultural differences and highly alert to …

Anti-Crusoes, Alternative Crusoes: Revisions Of The Island Story In The Twentieth Century, Ann Marie Fallon

Arts and Sciences Administration Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here are the chapter's first two paragraphs:

Everyone thinks they know the plot of Robinson Crusoe. The story of the man who is shipwrecked on an island alone is ubiquitous and feels deeply familiar, even for those who have not read it. Robinson Crusoe has been plagiarized, cannibalized, and serialized almost since the moment it hit the streets of London in 1719. Here is a passage from an Argentinean novel by Victoria Slavuski published in 1993 that captures the sense of familiarity and also the distance twentieth-century readers have in their relationship to Robinson …

Picture Cues And Reading Comprehension: The Impact Of Picture Cues On The Reading Comprehension Of First Grade Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Brittany Rae

Education Masters

This action research project investigates the effects of picture cues on the reading comprehension abilities of first grade students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data was collected through lesson data, anecdotal notes, student interviews, and parent perceptions surveys. Findings revealed that: picture cues can increase student engagement and comprehension by measure of their ability to answer “wh” questions. Parents perceived an increase in their child’s comprehension with the use of picture cues. Participants reported a preference for reading with picture cues. Implications suggest that picture cues can support reading comprehension in learners with ASD and their ability to accurately answer …

Close Reading And Critical Theory, Kimberly Rosewall

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

CLOSE READING AND CRITICAL THEORY

By

Kimberly L. Rosewall

Close reading is the very foundation of literary studies, yet this interpretive practice can be very difficult, especially for undergraduate students. The purpose of this study was to explore my own action research and examine the ways in which the teaching of critical theory affected both my teaching of close reading practices, and my students’ ability to conduct close readings of selected passages of texts in a general education English classroom. I also examined how the teaching of critical theory enriched my students’ understanding of the world, their lives, and …

Graduate Internship Report- Salinas High School, Rachel Nicole Martinez

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This AgEd 539 Graduate Internship report includes validation documents required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The documents are currently used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process at Salinas High School.The internship project includes the creation of an Agriculture Advisory Committee for Salinas High School. The included information and supporting materials are required to received local and state funding. An overview of the Salinas High School Program can be found in the Comprehensive Program Plan that is included in this document.

Revisiting Refugee Caps: A Legislative Proposal For Executive-Congressional Compromise, Jason Gardiner, Tyler Day

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The current system for setting the annual refugee admissions cap calls for consultation between the president and Congress; however, that consultation is not happening to the extent prescribed by the Refugee Act of 1980, an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act (the INA). We propose that the INA be modified such that the Committees on the Judiciary in the Senate and the House of Representatives must approve the president's proposed refugee cap by a two-thirds majority. Given the steadily worsening refugee crisis, this legislation is both timely and important. Our proposal will foster compromises between the executive and legislative …

Bulletin Adec, May, 2018, Academic Enhancement & Leadership Development Centre (Adec) University Of Malaya

Archival Material (2010s)

No abstract provided.

In The Middle: An Examination Of The Factors That Contribute To Overage Middle School Students, Delma Martinez

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

According tothe U.S.Census Bureau (2014), the popuation of overage students is at almost 16%. According to Gerwetz (2005), this population of students have a high probability o f dropping out of school. Because of this, job prospects and career opportunities can be bleak for these students; therefore, school districts should review current practices and policy to find ways to better support overage middle school students. This study interviewed 17 middle school educators to examine the contributing factors along with best practices to address this educational dilemma. This study utilized semi-structured interviews of middle school teachers in an urban district.

What To Know Before Working With English As A New Language Students., Caterina Antonacci Mrs.

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

What to know before working with English as a New Language students. In the current immigration status, immigrants are not only relocating to major cities in the United States they are locating to small and rural areas as well. School districts are now experiencing an increase of students who do not speak English are enrolling in their schools. Educators are not sufficiently prepared in teacher preparation course to instruct the English as a New Language Students. The survey shows items to consider.

Keywords: ENL (English as a New Language), education

Bearing Witness To The Lived Experience Of Chinese Exclusion: An International Baccalaureate Inquiry Unit For Critical Literacy Through Photovoice, Wesley Schoenherr

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project used Kurasawa (2007)'s action-theoretical framework of "modes of practice" for human rights, together with Ewald (2012)'s "Memories of Past Centuries" unit to create an outline of an inquiry unit for a Humanities course within the International Baccalaureate's MYP. As the intended students are at IB schools in Xi'an, China, bearing witness to the lived experience of Chinese Exclusion at the Angel Island Immigration Station was chosen as the content.

Nuestros Conocimientos: Life Lessons And Cultural Knowledge For A Successful College Transition, Yesenia Mendoza Muller

Master's Projects and Capstones

For the past 40 years, first generation college students have been the topic of scholarly research aiming to improve college persistence models. Because of the shifting ethnic demographics, an increase in underrepresented minority students continues to diversify the population of first generation college students. The debate ensues when existing dominant persistence models fail to address the multidimensional challenges students from underrepresented backgrounds experience when transitioning to college. The focus of dominant persistence models is in encouraging first generation students to assimilate by leaving their old identity to gain a new identity and learning the “ins and outs” of how to …

Translation Of Iluno Resources Into French, Audra Langer

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Intensive Language program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (ILUNO) offers education in English as a Second Language to international students from all over the world. The program is designed in such a way that even students who speak virtually no English may be accepted for enrollment. However, the materials used to recruit and inform potential ILUNO students are currently available only in English. Clearly, communicating with potential ILUNO students presents an obstacle and limits the number of international students applying for both the ILUNO program as well as general admission into the university. There is a large …

Improving Automatic Summarization For Low- And Moderate-Resource, Morphologically Complex Languages, Kalen Goss Manshack

2018 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Resource-poor, morphologically complex languages are at a disadvantage in natural language processing tasks, such as automatic text summarization or machine translation, due to the shortage of quality linguistic data available in these languages. Recently, researchers have introduced a language-independent, centroid-based method for automatic text summarization which garnered international attention for its success. This thesis explores methods for improving Rossiello et al.’s summarization approach on resource-poor, morphologically complex languages by implementing additional preprocessing steps on the data. Thereafter, stemming is shown to marginally improve research benchmark ROUGE scores for summarizations in German, a relative morphologically complex language, as well as in …

Experiences Of Dual-Minority Men Within Shared Decision Making Models: A Descriptive Comparison Of Common Themes, Jared Hanes

2018 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Healthcare providers can utilize the Shared Decision Making (SDM) model to help facilitate trustful communication and mutual decision making with their patients, especially with those who identify as a racial/ethnic minority and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). A qualitative, phenomenological interview was conducted with six different patients, and participants were recruited from a local primary care clinic. Participants placed value on the quality of trustful communication with their provider. In order to have effective communication, these respondents felt that their provider should incorporate an objective and nonjudgmental approach towards their lifestyle practices. SDM can help develop trust and effective …

Health Literacy In Social Work, Marissa Lopez

2018 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Health literacy is defined as the cognitive and social skills that determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain good health. Many studies have identified that there is a problem with health literacy among Hispanics in the United States. This research thesis explores why health literacy is a problem, the history of social work’s role in health literacy, the Hispanic health literacy problem, social work’s role in addressing it, and what health literacy looks like in a Hispanic country.

Commencement Program 2018 May: College Of Liberal Arts, The University Of Texas At Arlington

Commencement Programs, Photos, and Video

No abstract provided.

Does Talker Familiarity Or Time Of Testing Facilitate Sentence Recognition When Listening In Noise?, Madison S. Buntrock

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

At the most elementary level, the speech signal is comprised of two parts: linguistic information and indexical information. The linguistic information is the phonetic information of the signal and indexical information is speaker specific and is the paralinguistic information of the signal. Part of this indexical information is talker specific characteristics; which have been shown to help people understand speech. The talker specific characteristic we looked at was talker familiarity. Talker familiarity has been shown to help babies segment speech and adults listen in noise and recall stories. We looked at talker familiarity to see if it would benefit typically …

Talking Stories: An Analysis Of Haolewood's Attempts To Tell Hawai'i'S Stories Through Movie Trailers, Pono R. Suganuma

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study investigated how Native Hawaiians and Hawai'i are represented by the media, specifically in movies and their accompanying trailers. Thirty movie trailers from movies released between 1939 and 2016 were analyzed. These movies represented the various movie genres of romantic comedy, thriller, war, animation, drama, historical, and more. The aim of the study was to compile evidence of various themes such as stereotyping, white-washing and language pronunciation within movie trailers in order to validate or extend conceptually the theoretical framework or theory about the lack of accurate representation of Native Hawaiians. This is a feasibility study that could help …

A Grounded Case Study Of Parental Perceptions Surrounding Formalized Special Education Processes, William Eric Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this dissertation, I explore, through qualitative means, the perceptions of parents related to discourse (what is said and not said) within formalized and required processes of special education. These processes are federal requirements that parents of children with disabilities or suspected disabilities encounter as their children progress through the school system. The processes purportedly protect the rights of children with disabilities. The goal of the process is to help children with disabilities make academic gains by providing scaffolds that meet their individual needs.

During this process, parents of children with disabilities become empowered or disempowered by discourses focused on …

The Successful Foreign Language Classroom: Affect, Empathy, And Engagement, Emily Mower

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is the culmination of the author’s work in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. Throughout this collection the author shares her personal views and experiences from teaching secondary and postsecondary beginning Spanish courses, supporting her claims with existing research. The portfolio consists of three sections: (1) teaching perspectives, (2) research perspectives, and (3) annotated bibliographies.

The objective of this work is to identify hindrances to the progress of foreign language teachers and learners, and best practices to stimulate their success. On the basis that language learning can promote cross-cultural understanding, these findings are …

Automatic Iq Estimation Using Stylometry Methods., Polina Shafran Abramov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stylometry is a study of text linguistic properties that brings together various field of research such as statistics, linguistics, computer science and more. Stylometry methods have been used for historic investigation, as forensic evidence and educational tool. This thesis presents a method to automatically estimate individual’s IQ based on quality of writing and discusses challenges associated with it. The method utilizes various text features and NLP techniques to calculate metrics which are used to estimate individual’s IQ. The results show a high degree of correlation between expected and estimated IQs in cases when IQ is within the average range. Obtaining …

Family Courts As Certifying Agencies: When Family Courts Can Certify U Visa Applications For Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Sylvia Lara Altreuter

Fordham Law Review

Undocumented intimate partner violence survivors living in the UnitedStates have limited options for immigration relief. One of the only avenuesopen to them is the U Visa: a nonimmigrant visa established by the BatteredImmigrant Women Protection Act of 2000. To apply for a U Visa, a survivormust prove to immigration authorities that she was the victim of a crime;suffered substantial abuse; and was, is,or is likely to be helpful in theinvestigation of her abuser. The statute requires that all U Visa applicationsbe certified by an appropriate officialwho testifies to the applicant’shelpfulness with the investigation. This certification is a tremendous obstaclefor survivors: …

Speaking In Code, Mental Time Travel And Mind Reading: An Exploration Of The Study Of Animal Intelligence, Drew S. Perlmutter

Standard Theses

Many humans believe they are separate from nature based on “unique” characteristics. For many centuries, our advanced tool use was believed to separate us from other animals. However, discoveries made by Jane Goodall in the 1960’s demonstrated that humans are not unique for this capacity.1 In light of these discoveries, the definition of human was altered to suggest that our intelligence sets us apart from other animals. This definition has been used in order to justify our exploitation of other animals by suggesting that we are unique, and therefore, superior due to this “unique” intelligence. However, humans are not alone …

Distinguishing Harms To Derive Commitments: Karen Warren And Aldo Leopold On Ecofeminism And Domination, Eileen A. O'Shea

Standard Theses

This paper explores Karen Warren's formulation of an Ecofeminist argument, and aims to restructure it in a way that does not equate the impacts of domination on women with the impacts of domination on the natural world. With supplemental elements of Aldo Leopold's "Land Ethic" arguments, I hope to provide a reformulation of Warren's argument in which the dominator is still committed to dismantling these twin dominations. I posit that this commitment may be derived from the harm the process of dominating inflicts on the dominator's perfectionist value and prudential value, an element which remains consistent in both dominations and …

Marine Corps Cultural Similarities To Native Americans, Anthony Hines

Spectrum

According to the 4-field approach to anthropology, a people can be defined by its archaeology, culture, biology and linguistics (Hicks, 2013). Native Americans and Marines have striking similarities as a people when using this approach, especially in cultural and linguistic analysis.

Art Therapy And Art History Theories, An Inquiry, Hannah L. Masters

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This research uses critical theory inquiry with interviews and arts-based research to explore biases about art making in clinical art therapy practice. The literature review establishes an historical link between theoretical tenets in fields of art therapy and art history. Participants are chosen from experts in the fields of art therapy and art history. Interviews explore what art making means to each participant, utilizing both verbal and arts-based processing. The data is condensed through coding and arts-based reflection, and seven emergent themes are identified. The themes are checked with the participants for accuracy. The findings of the paper integrate the …

Supporting English Language Learners Inside The Mathematics Classroom: One Teacher’S Unique Perspective Working With Students During Their First Years In America, Amy Marie Fendrick

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

Reflecting upon my personal experiences teaching mathematics to English Language Learners (ELL) in a public high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, this essay largely focuses on the time I spent as the only Accelerated Math teacher in my school building. From 2012 – 2017, I taught three different subjects at this high school: Advanced Algebra, Algebra, and Accelerated Math. This essay highlights why I chose to become a math and ELL teacher, as well as the challenges, issues, struggles, and successes I experienced during my time teaching. I focus on the challenges I faced teaching students who did not share my …

The Effects Of Lunch Eligibility And School Size On The Literacy Achievement Of African American Males Communication, Sandra Smith

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of lunch eligibility and school size on the literacy achievement of African American males. While researching the effects of lunch eligibility and school size on the literacy achievement of African American males, this scholar observed that a correlation between historical viewpoints and the academic performance of African American males were intertwined in the findings and research of some experts. Therefore, this researcher was compelled to intimately explore the literature as it related to the literacy achievement of African American males and how it evolved throughout history. During the development of …

Art & Agency: Transforming Relationships Of Power Through Art In Iraqi Kurdistan, Autumn Cockrell-Abdullah

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Today, the Kurds factor significantly both as a key to some of the most critical conflicts in the Middle East and also as citizens of the world interacting with a highly global, highly interconnected reality. Despite their importance, we lack a nuanced understanding of the complex and multi-layered cultural context of the Kurds that impacts the socio-political factors inside Iraqi Kurdistan.

The deeply entrenched political rhetoric of the hegemonic Kurdish nationalist narrative in Iraqi Kurdistan has served to homogenize the idea of what the Kurdish “nation” is, to whitewash deep social, economic and political concerns inside Iraqi Kurdistan and to …