Digital Commons Network^™

2019g_Nhp10_Approved_Nc_Cd-6613-Pediatric-Feeding-Revision1, Graduate Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

2019g_Lac11_Approved_Cd_Eng-5223-Milton, Graduate Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

2019g_Ebs26_Approved_Nc_Else-6083-Culturally-Responsive-Teaching-Revision1, Graduate Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

Emergency Food Response, Rhiana Medina, Malcolm Campbell-Taylor

Utah Conference on Community Engagement

What should you consider when a crisis suddenly increases demand for essential services? This session explores how programs can shift from routine operations to effective emergency response. Presenters will share practical strategies for acting quickly, using simple tools, and communicating clearly with community members and partners during high-pressure situations.

2019u_Nhp03_Approved_Nc_Cd-3023-Diagnosis-In-Communication-Disorders-Revision1, Undergraduate Curriculum Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

2019u_Lac63_Approved_Cd_Eng-4223-Milton, Undergraduate Curriculum Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

Haapxtàm Ka'Ál Yimisapʰíkʰ We Dream For Our Children Indigenous Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education: Survivance, Truth Telling, And Healing On Native Land, Sara Anne Koyano

Dissertations and Theses

Since Time Immemorial, Indigenous Peoples have lived, learned, and thrived on this continent, exercising their inherent sovereignty as Original Peoples and passing down Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and learning across generations. US settler colonial violence and assimilation policies have had historical and contemporary detrimental impacts on Native children, families, and communities by attempting to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of Indigenous knowledges. Consequently, many young Native children in Oregon do not have access to educational opportunities that value, honor, and affirm their Indigenous identities and cultures, nor do they see themselves reflected in their classrooms and curricula. Furthermore, in 2019, …

Bridging The Language Gap: Enhancing Interpreter Support And Service For The Benefit Of The Lep Community, Morgan Kuchta

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

English is the language of the court, but when it intends to serve a multilingual public, there must be a strong commitment to uphold the rights of limited English proficient (LEP) individuals. LEP individuals, particularly those that speak rare languages, are disadvantaged by various issues impacting interpreters and the courts. When only the interpreter’s words are reflected in the courtroom and the transcript, it is essential that the court ensures the accessibility of qualified interpretation, as any omission or misinterpretation can hinder access to justice. We must protect the interests of LEP individuals trying to navigate the court system, and …

A Developmental Lens For Understanding The Preparation Of Culturally Responsive School Leaders, Shanna Dawn Anderson

Department of Educational Leadership Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine how pre-service leaders enrolled in a district–university leadership preparation program expressed their understandings of culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL).

Design/methodology/approach: We apply developmental adult learning theory, connecting Drago-Severson's four ways of knowing for social justice to specific CRSL practices, to qualitatively analyze interviews with pre-service leaders.

Findings: Our findings indicate disproportionate emphasis on instrumental capacities and the infrequent discussion of self-transforming capacities. We also identify an overemphasis on being critically conscious and engaging in critical self-reflection on leadership behaviors, as well as an underemphasis on engaging students, families, and community contexts. …

Using Children’S Books To Promote Recovery And Resilience In Students With Trauma, Tyler Anderson

Graduate Teacher Education

This Capstone Paper investigated how trauma affected learning in the classroom and how narrative-based interventions to support students facing adversity. The two dovetailed to show how children’s literature could be used as a tool for supporting students facing adversity. A comprehensive review of the existing literature was conducted that sought to answer the question: What are the potential impacts of trauma on learning, and how can children's literature that explores trauma be used to foster resilience and recovery in students who have experienced adversity? Research on the impact of trauma on learning and research on children’s literature often existed separately. …

Nurtur-Her, Azizi Ivey

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The Vine City Wellness Campus will transform the abandoned Morris Brown College Student Center—a symbol of the neighborhood's rich HBCU heritage—into a beacon of community health, honoring the past while addressing present health crises. By integrating clinical care, maternal health services, wellness programming, and community gathering spaces within a historic structure supplemented by sensitive new construction, this project will demonstrate how architecture can heal both bodies and communities, addressing generations of health inequity in one of Atlanta's most historically significant yet underserved neighborhoods.

Magnifying Genius: Culturally Responsive Leadership And One School’S Story Of Teacher Empowerment Implementing An International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, Ryan Hansen

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Limited research exists on how principal leadership has shaped teacher empowerment and collective efficacy in public schools implementing the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP; International Baccalaureate Organization [IBO], 2020a).This qualitative study was grounded in culturally responsive leadership (CRL; Khalifa et al., 2016) and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995; Northouse, 2022) as interpretive lenses and examined a leadership problem of practice at Hiller School, a diverse, high-needs public K–8 campus serving students in Grades 6–8. The study centered on how leaders foster teacher agency, identity development, relational trust, and intentional co-leadership during the early stages of …

The Lone Star Luminarias: 1880–1980, Dolores Atencio, Tracy C. Almanzán

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The Lone Star Luminarias recovers and documents the lives, careers, and legal contributions of the first Latina lawyers licensed to practice law in the State of Texas. This article is a series of articles based upon the original research conducted by Visiting Scholar, Dolores Atencio (2016–2022) to identify and document the accomplishments of the first generation of Latina attorneys in the country, circa 1880–1980, Luminarias. The Luminarias Study involved archival research of 167 law

schools across the country, and a review of bar records, state bar records, past and contemporary news accounts, oral histories, and other records such as U.S. …

Landscapes Of Home And Maps Of The Heart: Using Art To Understand The Meaning Of Home For First And Second Generation Immigrants In Worcester Massachusetts, Sophie Sundaram

Fenwick Scholar Program

Landscapes of Home and Maps of the Heart: Using Art to Understand the Meaning of Home for First and Second Generation Immigrants in Worcester Massachusetts explores how individuals with histories of migration understand and experience “home,” and how those understandings can be translated into visual form through portraiture. Developed through conversations with Worcester community members, the project combines studio practice with methodological approaches drawn from sociological and anthropological fieldwork, including participant interviews, relational research practices, and community-based engagement.

Grounded in Worcester, a city shaped by multiple waves of migration and cultural diversity, the project investigates how senses of home are …

The Impact Of Trump Administration Immigration Policies On Connecticut Educators And Families, Elena C. Bielesz

Honors Scholar Theses

Anti-immigrant rhetoric, policies, and practices, which have grown increasingly prevalent due to the current national political climate, have adverse effects on the mental health of immigrant families and the teachers that support them in Connecticut. This study seeks to represent the opinions of Connecticut K-12 MLL (Multilingual Learners) Education Teachers and Administrators whose daily lives are impacted by the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee policies and procedures. The study employed a human subjects-based approach supported by a review of related literature. MLL Educators from around the state of Connecticut were interviewed. These interviews found that while immigration-based trauma and stressors are common …

Fifty Years And Counting: Middle School Principals’ Experiences, Beliefs, And Preparation For Serving Students Of Color With Disabilities, Lourdes Rodriguez Flores

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This study explored how middle school principals understand and support students of color with disabilities (SOCWD) on comprehensive school campuses. This topic is deeply personal and professional, shaped by my experiences as a mother, special education teacher, and district leader who has witnessed ongoing challenges in how schools serve students with disabilities, especially Black and Brown students. Guided by Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit; Annamma et al., 2013) and Social Justice Leadership (Theoharis, 2007), this study examined how race and disability intersect in school systems and influence leadership decisions, practices, and access to opportunity. Using a qualitative approach, I conducted …

A Governance-Aware Multi-Agent Framework For Enhancing Fairness & Temporal Accuracy In Disaster Response Systems, Md. Ashfaqur Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated significant potential in disaster-response decision support, however, their deployment in high-stakes humanitarian settings raises critical concerns regarding factual reliability, fairness, temporal validity, and governance compliance. Hallucinated outputs, demographic bias, and outdated recommendations can directly impact vulnerable populations and undermine public trust. This dissertation proposes a governance-aware multi-agent framework designed to enhance fairness and temporal accuracy in disaster-response systems through structured Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), verification-driven orchestration, and adaptive correction mechanisms.The proposed architecture decomposes response generation into specialized agents responsible for real-time retrieval, fact-checking, bias auditing, temporal validation, threshold-based correction, and monitoring. By embedding governance constraints …

Smart Pediatric Oncology Tracker Of Symptoms (Spots), A Web-Based Interface For The Pediatric Pro-Ctcae: Development And Usability Study, Stacey Crane, Deevakar Rogith, Melody Hellsten, Andrew D Miller, Jacqueline Castillo, Brandy Boeger, Susan Vidaurre, Stefanie Pieper, Cecile Nguyen, Duc Anh Thanh Huynh, Jessica Wooden, Amy Franklin, Karen Moody, Wenyaw Chan, Pamela S Hinds, Constance Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Children undergoing cancer treatment experience a range of treatment-related toxicities that significantly affect quality of life and adherence to therapy. Current methods for symptom reporting rely heavily on clinician interpretation of caregiver or child verbal reports, which can result in incomplete or inaccurate records. The Pediatric Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (Pediatric PRO-CTCAE; National Cancer Institute) provides a validated mechanism for direct symptom reporting by children and caregivers, yet its traditional administration and preselection of questions limit the breadth of symptom capture.

Objective: This research aimed to co-design and conduct formative usability testing …

Huebner, Thomas G., San Jose State University

Emeritus and Retired Faculty Biographies

University of Hawai'i, Linguistics, Ph.D. 1982

University of Pittsburgh, Linguistics, M.A. Certificate: TEFL/TESL

University of Wisconsin‑Milwaukee. Majors: English and Secondary Education, B.S.

Assessing Estimated Premorbid Iq In Dementia In The Uae: A Way Forward For The Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, Sophie Price

Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Speech Acts In Children With Autism: A Pragmatic Study Of Communication Skills In Selected Igbo Autistic Teenagers, Oluchukwu Ann Anueyiagu, Ngozi Christiana Ikegwuonu

Journal of Innovation and Teacher Professionalism

This study examines the speech acts of selected Igbo autistic teenagers from a pragmatic perspective, with the aim of understanding how culture influences their communicative competence. The study is anchored on Searle’s Speech Act Theory and Hymes’ Ethnography of Communication framework. It investigates how autistic teenagers within the Igbo socio-cultural environment produce and interpret communicative functions such as requesting, informing, apologizing, questioning, and expressing emotions. A qualitative case study design was adopted, involving three autistic teenagers purposively selected from special schools and therapy centres in Anambra State, Nigeria. Data were collected through naturalistic observations, audio and video recordings of spontaneous …

Awareness And Perceived Benefits Of Ai Assistive Technology In Ghana’S Inclusive Education: An Exploratory And Context-Specific Study, Isaac Amoako, Vera Arhin, Eric Abodey, Daniel Gyapong Nimo

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

Background: Education experts have consistently emphasized that the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in education presents a range of transformative possibilities, including personalized learning, real-time feedback, automation of routine tasks, analysis of learner needs, and adaptability to the pace and requirements of individual students. While many Ghanaian teachers are increasingly familiar with generative AI tools, there remains a noticeable gap in awareness regarding AI-powered assistive technologies and their potential as a catalyst for advancing the nation’s inclusive education agenda. This study, therefore, seeks to assess the level of awareness among teachers concerning the use of AI-powered assistive technologies in supporting …

Workplace English For Non-Profits: Using Visual And Specific Purposes Pedagogy, Emma K. Brown

2026 Symposium

Between April and June 2025, I designed and taught an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) workshop series for Refugee and Immigrant Connections Spokane (RICS) in Spokane, Washington. The purpose of this workshop series was to provide RICS’s employees, who were advanced English learners, instruction and practice with the nuances of professional communication, especially email communication, and vocabulary unique to their career in a non-profit organization. The workshop was entirely voluntary, provided online over Zoom after their workday had ended, and met once a week for one hour. I designed this workshop series using the pedagogy of ESP: conducting a thorough …

Creating Space For The Public In Anthropology, Madison Joseph, Grace Tucker

2026 Symposium

This ongoing collaborative research project between Grace Tucker and Madison Joseph aims to evaluate an overlooked gap of knowledge and linguistic understanding concerning how anthropological findings are presented to both disciplinary experts and the general public. We will examine ways to improve public anthropology through improving our understanding of how to utilize everyday speech and specialist jargon simultaneously in the field. This project will include an extensive literature review of educational barriers and language use in anthropological research to identify solutions to remedy accessibility to, and dissemination of, these findings. We argue that museums and libraries are designed with the …

Curriculum Negotiation: Supporting Student Autonomy To Enhance Student Engagement, Brenda L. Thomas, William Reynolds, Jonathan Ponce De Leon, Caroline Sorbara

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Student disengagement has become a prominent concern across higher education in the five years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet students who are engaged in learning tend to be more successful academically. Therefore, pedagogies that enhance student engagement increase the probability of students’ success. This qualitative study explored curriculum negotiation as one such pedagogy. Results demonstrated similar behavioral and cognitive engagement from students in traditional and negotiated classes, but greater affective and agentic engagement from those who negotiated the curriculum with their classmates. Additionally, more students in negotiated classes indicated transformative learning than students in traditionally taught classes. We examine the …

Linguistic Transformation And Multimodal Content Simplification Logic, Robert Gerhard Rudolf Brauer, Isabelle Evelyn Joswig

Defensive Publications Series

A system for linguistic transformation performs modification of an unstructured data payload. The system comprises a content ingestion module, a linguistic transformation module, a multimodal interpreter, and a content output module. The content ingestion module identifies textual elements and non-textual elements within the unstructured data payload. The linguistic transformation module applies standardized parameters to the textual elements, modifying syntax and vocabulary. The multimodal interpreter generates descriptive text strings from the non-textual elements. The linguistic transformation module applies the standardized parameters to the descriptive text strings. The content output module aggregates the modified textual elements and the modified descriptive text strings …

Transforming High-Level Intent Into Detailed Directorial Scripts For Generative Video, Evgeny Sluzhaev, Ágoston Weisz, Aleksander Bulski, Asya Fadeeva, Giorgos Vernikos, Xingyu Federico Xu

Defensive Publications Series

Generative video systems can produce generic or incoherent output when given vague user prompts. A creative rewriter (CR) system may function as an automated script-generation system that can transform high-level user intent into a comprehensive, structured script. The CR system is configured to analyze minimal inputs, such as a short text phrase or a static image, and can generate detailed instructions specifying elements like plot, narrative arc, camera cinematography, pacing, character actions, and sound design. This process can provide a downstream video synthesis model with a detailed blueprint, which may improve the generation of narratively coherent and cinematically detailed video …

Worldbuilding A Place For The Deaf: An Encyclopedic Approach To Writing Inclusive Narratives, Frederick Scott

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This honors capstone project centered on existing deaf literature sets the stage for further storytelling projects using creative worldbuilding details written in an encyclopedic informational text. Across a fledgling life spent reading hearing fiction, a shortage of deaf literature has not gone unnoticed. To start addressing this shortage, this project collects necessary information to support further writings/publications of deaf literature. A review of American Signed Language and deaf/disabled representation in literary format shows that various strategies are employed to represent the language and people within their culture. The review identified examples of unique or distinct approaches used for various characters' …

Missional Hospitality: A Contextualization Of God’S Hospitable Mission For New Lisbon Christian Church, Jonathan Willmore

DMin Project Theses

The town of New Lisbon, originally called Jamestown, has been home to Restoration Movement churches. The first congregation began in 1839, not long after the town’s official incorporation and renaming as New Lisbon. It unfortunately died out in the decades that followed, and not much is known about its history. The second is called New Lisbon Christian Church (NLCC) and was planted in 1893.1 The records indicate that NLCC changed Senior Ministers approximately every three years, until the 1970s, when a pastor stayed at New Lisbon for nine years. That minister was the longest tenured until the most recent one …

Examining Neurocognitive Differences In Executive Dysfunction And Thought Disorder In An Adolescent Inpatient Population, Perry A. Sandrock

ETD Collection

The current study aimed to explore and compare the scores on measures of psychotic symptomology among groups of adolescents that vary with respect to the presence or absence of thought disorder and executive functioning impairments. The study identified adolescents who were designated as having executive dysfunction and thought disorder, using scores on reliable and valid measures of these constructs as well as their scores on measures of psychotic symptomology, to determine differences on therapist-reported and self-reported scores. The sample consisted of 1365 inpatient adolescents, aged 13 to 18 years. Results revealed no age or gender effects. Adolescents were assessed with …