Digital Commons Network^™

My Ethic Of Care: A Grounded Theory Study Of Professional Staff Experiences In Small Private Universities, Karen E. Crist

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Beginning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education experienced a sea of change in reduced enrollment, altered course delivery models, and increased need for student support. While observing staff’s actual impact on the student experience during this time, this study will address the question, “How do professional staff in small private universities (a) perceive their contributions to the retention of students and (b) perceive their overall value to the institutions they serve?” Owing to gaps in research on professional staff experiences, the literature review synthesizes current trends related to enrollment, retention, and persistence, focusing on small, private, non-profit …

True Culture At War With Colonizer Culture: The Underrepresentation Of Pacific Islander Students In Higher Education., Loriann A. Leota

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is an examination of the limited number of Pacific Islander students that advance from high school to higher education. It also examines the percentage of Pacific Islander students that attend higher education, but do not acquire their degree. Pacific Islander students informally recognize the dominant United States culture and curriculum as not culturally relevant and colonizing in nature. Thus, they struggle to adhere to colonizer culture and rely heavily on their culture (true culture), which has a set of norms that do not align with American cultural values. Pacific Islander culture is collectivist, which is in opposition to …

The Impact Of Acculturation On The Marital Relationship Of Iranian Immigrants, Hassan Kalantari

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This current study will focus on the impact of acculturation on the marital relationships of Iranian Immigrants. Understanding the behaviors and values of Iranian culture and how these evolve through socialization within the context of North America is crucial, particularly given the increasing population of Iranian immigrants in the United States. Clinicians working with Iranian couples must grasp the cultural background of these couples to minimize judgment and pathologizing in order to effectively support the adjustment process. An interpretative phenomenological methodological approach was used to develop a more complete understanding of the relationship between levels of acculturation and their impact …

From The Ground Up: A Complex Systems Approach To Climate Change Adaptation In Agriculture, Karen Buchsbaum

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to global agriculture and food security. Small farms are especially vulnerable to the local impacts of large-scale drivers of change. Effective adaptation in agriculture requires working across scales, and geographic, political, and disciplinary boundaries to address barriers. I use elements of case study, agent-based modeling and serious games, to design a model of farmer decision-making using the sociocognitive framework of climate change adaptation. I examine how adaptation functions as a process, how complex dynamics influence farmer behavior, and how individual decisions influence collective behavior in response to climate change. This novel approach to adaptation …

Ideals Of Benevolence, Acts Of Dysconsciousness: White Women's Pursuit Of Diversity In Nonprofits, Tessa A. Fulmer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Recent political movements such as the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements have brought renewed attention to the social roles of White women and their unique position of intersectional privilege and oppression. White women experience the benefits of whiteness while simultaneously experiencing the gendered oppression of womanhood. However, there is a lack of research exploring how White women conceptualize and respond to their own positionality as both White individuals and as women. This study utilizes constructivist grounded theory to examine how White women navigate their social location within the context of working in the nonprofit sector, a space wherein White …

Homeplace: An Afterschool Club For Adolescent Black Girls At A Predominantly White Middle School, Jana L. Johnson-Davis

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Adolescent Black girls often experience marginalization in schools due to zero-tolerance policies, oppressive classroom curricula, and teachers who lack cultural competency. The literature on adolescent Black girls in school revealed that there are spaces within schools that can serve as homeplaces for Black girls. This study explored how adolescent Black girls experienced homeplace in an afterschool club at a predominantly White middle school in Decatur, Georgia. This research also expands bell hooks’s (2001) theory of homeplace from the home environment to school buildings. Narrative inquiry was the methodology used for the study, and interview data was analyzed through thematic analysis. …

An Investigation Into Perception Of The Correlation Between The College People Attend And Their Long-Term Happiness, Gary F. Madvin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study investigated perceptions about the correlation between the college people attend and long-term happiness. Its inquiry into whether college graduates believe where they go to college affects the chance for long-term happiness is a response to the growing concerns of high school students who are anxious about acceptance into an elite undergraduate college. There is substantial literature demonstrating that graduates of elite schools earn more money and professional success than graduates of standard schools (Rumberger & Thomas, 1993). At the same time, there is evidence that individuals who attend a lower tier school while having similar characteristics to those …

A Critical Incident Analysis Of Humanizing Interactions Between Correctional Officers And People Who Are Incarcerated, Aimee Califano

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The correctional officer (CO) has one of the most critical roles in the correctional setting and is one of the least studied topics amongst criminal justice professionals (Butler et al., 2018). In the United States, a CO’s primary responsibility is to ensure the safety and well-being of an incarcerated individual and the staff that work in the prison setting (Cheek, 1984). Paradoxically, in the United States, the CO works in an organizational system based on deprivation and punishment toward incarcerated people. The United States Prison system’s current structure does not support rehabilitation efforts of incarcerated people and ultimately impacts any …

Envisioning Futures: A Photovoice Study On How An Urban Afterschool Program Empowers Caregivers To Be Agents Of Change In Their Community, Ellen Mays

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As part of comprehensive whole-family out-of-school-time programming, parent engagement and education play an important role in addressing achievement and opportunity gaps in low-income neighborhoods. Parent groups have the potential to be a unique space of social justice work by creating supportive, innovative spaces to build social capital and organize around common action goals. This photovoice study looks specifically at “Parent University,” a parent out-of-school-time meeting group that focuses on empowerment education by providing opportunities for parents to meet, engage in rich consciousness raising dialogue, identify areas in need of change, and create and implement action for social change. This study …

The Power Of Her Voice: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study Exploring The Career Experiences Of Women Middle-Level Leaders, Cynthia Mako Robinson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study provides a vital contribution to the discourse on women’s career trajectories by amplifying the often-overlooked experiences of women middle-level leaders. Positioned at the intersection of strategic and operational functions, these leaders play a vital role in organizations—developing and motivating employees, driving change, and serving as relationship managers and key connectors to senior leadership. Employing an interpretative phenomenological approach, this study explores the lived experiences of 15 accomplished women middle-level leaders, each with over 15 years of service across private, public, and nonprofit sectors in the United States. Grounded in relational-cultural theory (RCT), career theory, positive work relationships, and …

Enhancing Planetary Well-Being Through "With-Ness" Pedagogy In Social Emotional Learning: Critical Theoretical Engagements, Lynsey Helen Mori

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Leveraging the researcher’s unique diverse cultural and educational background, this dissertation explores integrating social emotional learning (SEL) within an innovative pedagogy of “with-ness” (PoW) towards planetary well-being in educational settings. The overarching purpose is to redefine educational strategies through SEL and PoW to advance planetary well-being in tertiary contexts. As such, this dissertation critically engages with three published articles authored during the researcher’s doctoral tenure to highlight transformative SEL practices that are fundamentally attuned to ecological consciousness. Informed by critical theory, feminist perspectives, and process philosophy, the hermeneutic circle reflects on these articles to address complex 21st-century challenges educational systems …

The Grief Of Identity Formation: How Non-Death Loss Complicates Trans Identity Narratives, R. Frank

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Trans members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and other marginalized sexual and gender identities (LGBT+) community may be at risk of erasure from both dominant sociocultural scripts and clinical psychological research. Identity development experts have asserted that identity is fixed by late adolescence, with some room for evolution depending on context (Marcia, 2002; Sokol, 2009). Research about grief suggests that anything that has been lost has the potential to be experienced through the lens of grief (Chapple et al., 2016; Collings, 2007). This grief of non-death loss has been linked to loss of relationships, expected life trajectory, and self-concept. …

An Organic Inquiry Into Teacher Experiences Of Self-Healing, Alison Davis

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation engages the spiritually-inspired methodology of organic inquiry to investigate how teachers practice self-healing in order to become available to students. Self-healing is a vital part of freeing up the teacher’s perceptive capacities to more deeply and fully attend to the needs of students. Self-healing work includes a variety of practices and modalities, including spiritual ones, in order to work through trauma, adversity, dis-ease, stress, and one-sidedness. Research shows that self-healing, especially in regards to mindfulness and meditation, equips teachers to confront compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, burnout, illness, and more. There is also ample evidence that training one’s attention …

Spatially-Aware Speaker For Vision-And-Language Navigation Instruction Generation, Muraleekrishna Gopinathan, Martin Masek, Jumana Abu-Khalaf, David Suter

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Embodied AI aims to develop robots that can understand and execute human language instructions, as well as communicate in natural languages. On this front, we study the task of generating highly detailed navigational instructions for the embodied robots to follow. Although recent studies have demonstrated significant leaps in the generation of step-by-step instructions from sequences of images, the generated instructions lack variety in terms of their referral to objects and landmarks. Existing speaker models learn strategies to evade the evaluation metrics and obtain higher scores even for low-quality sentences. In this work, we propose SAS (Spatially-Aware Speaker), an instruction generator …

Summary Of Epidemiology, Prevention And Management Of Blood-Borne Viruses Experienced By Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Australian Indigenous Healthinfonet

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This Summary is based on the Review of epidemiology, prevention and management of blood-borne viruses experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (2024).

It aims to provide a synthesis of key information on blood-borne viruses (BBVs) experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, focusing primarily on hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus.

It covers: the historical, social and cultural context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and BBVs the extent of BBVs, including incidence, prevalence, health service utilisation, hospitalisation, mortality, and burden of disease prevention and management of BBVs relevant programs, …

Friendship, Connection And Loss: Everyday Digital Kinning And Digital Homing Among Chinese Transnational Grandparents In Perth, Australia, Catriona Stevens, Loretta Baldasar, Raelene Wilding

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This chapter explores how practices of digital kinning and digital homing enacted through smartphones shape the experiences of Chinese older adults in Perth, Australia. Transnational grandparent carers must balance the risks of diminished social networks with the benefits of providing intergenerational care. Some form strong friendships in Perth, but many yearn for a leisured life with their friends in China. Findings illustrate the central role of digital migration practices in transnational families and friendships, not only sustaining distant support networks, but also building new communities in host settings. However, for some, the co-presence afforded through WeChat may intensify feelings of …

Our Right To Play: How Afghan Women Navigate Constraints, Agency, And Aspirations On And Off The Soccer Field, Ramón Spaaij, Aish Ravi, Jonathan Magee, Ruth Jeanes, Dawn Penney, Justen O’Connor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the wake of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan and its ban on women’s sport, hundreds of Afghan athletes, including several Olympians, decided to flee the country rather than give up their sports and see their rights curtailed. This paper explores how Afghan women now living in Australia navigate agency and aspirations on and off the soccer field within the context of high levels of uncertainty, instability, and constraint. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 18 participants, the results demonstrate how soccer offers an insightful microcosm of settlement as a continuation of a fraught journey. The findings reveal both …

Relational Processes For Transformative Climate Justice Policymaking: Insights From A Western Australian Community Of Practice, Kylie Wrigley, Jaime Yallup Farrant, Brad Farrant, Emma Leigh Synnott, Jason Barrow, Naomi Joy Godden, Lucie O’Sullivan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article explores how relational approaches to policymaking across multiple levels and sectors of society might enable transformative climate justice. It draws on a unique case study from the state of Western Australia (WA), where climate justice is thwarted by the coloniality of climate politics and the hegemony of the fossil fuel industry. It examines the relational processes of a climate and health community of practice (CoP) in WA that involves people across the health sector, public service, non-government, and community. The CoP had an important role in enabling the WA Government’s public inquiry into climate change and health in …

Visitor Attitude To Tourism Destinations: A Critical Review And Future Research Agenda, Arghavan Hadinejad, Brent D. Moyle, Anna Kralj, Nick Noghan, Noel Scott, Sarah Gardiner

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Visitor attitude is fundamental to destination selection in the tourism literature. Yet, there remains a notable dearth of critical reviews to assess the current status of knowledge on the topic. This study, therefore, seeks to map and critically evaluate the state of visitor attitudinal research to set the agenda for future scholarly enquiry. A review of journal articles on the topic in four leading tourism journals was undertaken. To critically explore the literature and identify research trends, a paradigm funnel approach was used. The findings demonstrate that most studies on the topic are based on empirical research and specific theories, …

Board Commitment, Continuous Education Program And Firm Performance: A Law And Governance Context, Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin, Zubaidah Ismail, Malcolm Smith

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The majority of worldwide corporate governance codes mandate that directors allocate an adequate amount of time to fulfil their responsibilities and consistently enhance their knowledge and abilities through continuous education programs. These two factors are crucial in propelling the organisation towards higher levels of success and satisfying the needs of the stakeholders. This research aims to analyse the impact of board commitment and their access to education on firm performance. After analysing the annual reports of Malaysian public listed companies, this study does not find any conclusive evidence to support earlier research that highlights the advantages of having a director …

Capital, Labour And Currency: Book Love In The Economy Of Young Adult Publishing, Katya Johanson, Bronwyn Reddan, Donald Matheson, Leonie Rutherford

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article examines the relationship between emotion, production and sales in the book publishing industry, specifically how ‘book love’ operates in the publication and promotion of Young Adult (YA) titles. Through interviews conducted in 2020–2023, the article examines how commissioning editors, booksellers and associated professionals in Australia experience and use emotion in their production and sale of YA titles. It argues that emotion plays three economic roles in the intersubjective transferral of ‘book love’ through the chain of production, distribution and sales. Australian industry professionals mobilize book love as capital, as labour and as currency in fulfilling the expectations of …

A Systematic Review Of Residents’ Perceptions Towards Tourism Development In Ethnic Tourism Contexts, Shi Jie, S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh, Kyle Maurice Woosnam

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Ethnic tourism, an indispensable component of global tourism, has gained increasing scholarly attention recently. Despite the well-studied nature of residents’ perceptions, scant literature has scrutinized ethnic residents’ perceptions systematically. Therefore, this review aims to examine the current body of knowledge concerning residents’ perceptions in ethnic tourism contexts and contribute to a generalized conceptual model of residents’ perceptions. Following the PRISMA protocol, a literature search on the Scopus database yielded 1803 records, among which 64 journal articles were proven eligible. The review demonstrated that most residents’ perception studies in ethnic tourism contexts are qualitative, and predominantly conducted in developing countries. Given …

Board Ethical Commitment And Corporate Performace: A Qualitative Perspective, Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin, Zubaidah Ismail, Malcolm Smith

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The purpose of the study is to explore the responsibilities of directors in creating a good ethical culture in their organisation and examine whether good ethical practices are able to enhance a company’s performance. To achieve this purpose, face-to-face semi-structured interviews with directors as the respondents are employed as a data collection method. This study found that board ethical commitments are necessary elements for sustaining the good performance of a company. The planning and monitoring of these ethical practices are the responsibilities of the board of directors, which then will be executed by top management, led by the chief executive …

Prioritising Children’S Participation In Research: Including Children’S Voices In Updating A National Early Learning Framework, Lennie Barblett, Jennifer Cartmel, Leanne Lavina, Fay Hadley, Susan Irvine, Linda J. Harrison, Francis Bobongie-Harris

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Involving children as stakeholders and including their voices in updating the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (for children birth to age 5) was a focus of this project design. The design was grounded in participatory approaches with a children’s rights perspective, as the team prioritised seeking children’s views and encouraging their agency on matters that affect them. This three-stage research project across 15 months sought children’s input in each stage. Research methods consisted of everyday playful activities supported by educators in early childhood environments using dialogic drawing, talking circles and discussions using photo elicitation. Educators received information to support their …

The Australian Frailty Network: Development Of A Consumer-Focussed National Response To Frailty, Natasha Reid, Adrienne Young, Loretta Baldassar, Anja Christoffersen, Tracy Comans, Simon Conroy, Christopher Etherton-Beer, Jason Ferris, Maria Fiatarone Singh, Sarah Fox, Emily H. Gordon, Manonita Ghosh, Chandana Guha, Sarah Hilmer, Lisa Kouladjian O’Donnell, Benignus Logan, Kristiana Ludlow, Michelle Miller, Mark Morgan, Alison Mudge, John Muscedere, Donna Reidlinger, Kenneth Rockwood, Rosemary Saunders, David Ward, Paul Yates

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Frailty is an important concept in the care of older adults. Over the past two decades, significant advances have been made in measuring frailty. While it is now well-recognised that frailty status is an important determinant of outcomes from medical illnesses or surgical interventions, frailty measurement is not currently routinely integrated into clinical practice. In the community setting, it is uncommon for general practitioners to deliver frailty-optimised care. In hospitals, there is substantial variability in how people living with frailty are managed. This variability is notable between and even within disciplines. Furthermore, gains from understanding frailty mechanisms and risk factors …

Assessing Alexithymia In Adolescents: Psychometric Properties Of The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire In High School Students, Annette C. Trimble, Ken Robinson, David A. Preece

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Conceptually, alexithymia is a key transdiagnostic risk factor for the development of numerous psychopathologies across the lifespan. However, to date, most alexithymia research has focused on adults, with adolescent work limited by a lack of validated age-appropriate assessment tools. Recently, the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) was introduced to enhance the comprehensiveness of alexithymia assessments, but its psychometric properties have only been tested in adults. In this study, we address this by examining the psychometric properties of the PAQ in a sample of English-speaking high school students (N = 225, aged 11 to 18), and use the PAQ to further establish …

Empowering Pro-Environmental Potential Among Hotel Employees: Insights From Self-Determination Theory, Ataul K. Patwary, S. M. Rasoolimanesh, Mohd H. Hanafiah, Roslizawati C. Aziz, Ahmad E. Mohamed, Muhammad U. Ashraf, Nor R. A. N. Azam

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: This research examines the role of green, inclusive leadership, corporate social responsibility, and pro-environmental attitudes on proactive pro-environmental behaviour among hotel employees. It further examines the indirect effects of pro-environmental attitudes between green inclusive leadership, corporate social responsibility, and proactive pro-environmental behaviour, as well as the moderating role of psychological contract breach between pro-environmental attitudes and proactive pro-environmental behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach: The participants of this cross-sectional study were employees in the Malaysian hotel industry, and 374 usable questionnaires were used for data analysis. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modelling.

Findings: This study found that …

A Systematic Review Of K-12 Cybersecurity Education Around The World, Ahmed Ibrahim, Marnie Mckee, Leslie F. Sikos, Nicola F. Johnson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper presents a systematic review of K-12 cybersecurity education literature from around the world. 24 academic papers dated from 2013-2023 were eligible for inclusion in the literature established within the research protocol. An additional 19 gray literature sources comprised the total. A range of recurring common topics deemed as aspects of cybersecurity behavior or practice were identified. A variety of cybersecurity competencies and skills are needed for K-12 students to apply their knowledge. As may be expected to be the case with interdisciplinary fields, studies are inherently unclear in the use of their terminology, and this is compounded in …

Engendering Ethics: Recognition And Inclusion Of Intersectional Identities In Queer Communities When Conducting Population Survey Research, Kim Andreassen, Leanda D. Mason, Julian Chen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper delves into the critical importance of ethical considerations in research, with a primary focus on gender, sex, and sexual orientation. Recognizing the vulnerabilities and complexities inherent in these communities, we emphasize here the necessity of ethical awareness throughout all research phases. Ethical obligations may extend to ensuring cultural sensitivity, safety, and equitable resource distribution. The core ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice are promoted here to serve as a viable framework for ethical research. These principles require meticulous attention to informed consent, minimizing harm, maximizing benefits, and promoting fairness throughout the research process. The paper delves …

Parental Experiences Of Supporting The Mental Health Of Their Lgbtqa+ Child, Jessica M. Gilbert, Penelope Strauss, Deirdre Drake, Helen Stain, Yael Perry, Angus Cook, Ashleigh Lin, Helen Morgan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or questioning, asexual and other diverse genders and sexualities (LGBTQA+) are at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes and suicide, with additional barriers to accessing safe and affirming physical and mental health services in comparison to the general population. Parents of LGBTQA+ young people who are supportive and accepting can take on additional responsibilities and an active role in supporting young people, and more information is needed to understand how parents support LGBTQA+ young people in times of acute mental health difficulties (including suicide risk) and what parents experience while …