Digital Commons Network^™

Spotting Power: Reframing Media Literacy In Civic Education, Kason Kendall

Democracy & Education

This article analyzes and critiques the tendency to frame media literacy as a neutral skill set concentrated on verifying sources, or "spotting the error." While this approach emphasizes cognitive habits of checking for bias and accuracy, it does not adequately prepare students to understand intentional misinformation as a political strategy. Building on Matthew's (2020) response to Curry and Cherner (2019), I propose that limiting media literacy to error correction hides the strategic production and intentional spread of disinformation by powerful organizations, corporations, and media outlets. Rooted in curriculum theory and the work of scholars such as Gramsci, Hall, Habermas, and …

Young Children’S Civicness: A Close Look At Membership And Community, Katherina A. Payne, Sunmin Lee, Molly E. Mcmanus

Democracy & Education

As one of the first communities outside of young children’s private spheres of family, scholars consistently position school as an ideal space for civic education. At its core, civic education helps young children cultivate communities that support broader societal structures and mores. As children negotiate new constellations of people within a place, we wondered, what are some ways in which young children construct their membership in the initial civic communities that schools purport to cultivate? Drawing on data from a yearlong ethnographic study of three classrooms in a Head Start in a large city in Texas, we examine how children …

Affective Alignment And Hidden Conflicts: Political Emotions In Blended Spaces Of Democratic Education Classrooms, Sonja Helkala

Democracy & Education

The interaction between emotions and politics is evident in democratic education settings. This study contributes to the literature on the role of political emotions in democratic education by shedding light on the significance that the new digital and social media environments have for the manifestation of political emotions in educational contexts. In Finnish schools, political issues are incorporated into the curriculum, and political questions are addressed as part of democratic education and political identities are formed. However, there has been relatively little research on political emotions in schools. This article explores political emotions in democratic education practice through an empirical …

Reassessing The Open Classroom Climate In Civic Education: Insights From 60 Studies, Ryan T. Knowles, Kalie Chamberlain

Democracy & Education

This paper explores scholarship relating to an open classroom climate as a fundamental strategy for promoting democratic values and social justice within educational settings. Sixty research studies were identified that found relationships between an open classroom climate and desirable outcomes, such as civic knowledge, political self-efficacy, and support for human rights. These findings come from researchers across fields, countries, and decades. Results are considered within criticisms of deliberative democracy theory with suggestions for teaching and research.

“The Blue Party? No, Wait, Is There Really A Blue Party?” A Study Of Young Norwegian Children’S Perceptions Of Politics, Stine Johansen Utler

Democracy & Education

The study investigates Norwegian primary school children's immediate responses to “What do you think of when you hear the word ‘politics’?” It examines children’s perceptions of the concept of politics, their emphasis, and how they communicate their perceptions, providing information about children’s political socialization, knowledge, and understanding as well as early conceptual learning. The data come from group interviews with 36 children (20 second-graders and 16 fourth-graders). The study was not longitudinal but emphasized differences in the content of children’s perceptions. The analysis identifies four different categories of children`s perceptions. These vary according to their emphasis, their apparent associative political …

Beyond The Classroom: Leveraging Community Engaged Learning To Teach Corporate Social Responsibility In Sport Management, Amanda Greene Dr., Charles Jones, Natalie Smith

The COSMA Journal

This manuscript presents a case study exploring the use of community engaged learning (CEL) to teach corporate social responsibility (CSR) in an upper-level sport management course. The purpose of this study is to examine how participation in a semester long community engaged learning experience influences student understanding of corporate social responsibility, civic identity, and theory-to-practice application. Students partnered with a local nonprofit affiliated with a professional sport organization to design and execute a donor engagement event addressing youth needs in the community. Guided by experiential learning theory, the course emphasized out-of-classroom learning, industry mentorship, and reflective practice. A longitudinal qualitative …

Exploring Border Rhetoric, Resistance, And The American Dream: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' First House Address, Candice L. Ruh Phd, Cassandra Hightower

Feminist Pedagogy

Border rhetoric can be a “muddy” topic for undergraduates, as borders are often taught as fixed, factual lines that divide places and people. However, from a communication perspective, borders are fluid, symbolic, and socially constructed. This difference between viewing borders as physical dividers versus rhetorical constructs creates a valuable opportunity for students to think critically about how meaning is shaped by borders of land, language, and identity.             This original teaching activity uses Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ (D-NY) first House speech—the most-watched C-SPAN video within 12 hours of release (Gajanan, 2019)—as a central case. It invites students to analyze a key moment …

Transfer Of Learning From Simulation To Clinical Practice: Slp Graduate Student Experiences In Medical Externships, Karen D. Villanueva, Kerry C. Mandulak, Amanda Stead, Patrick Walden

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The purpose of this project was to explore the impact of participation in simulation-based learning (SBL) with standardized patients on graduate speech-language pathology students’ clinical experiences in healthcare externships. This study aims to understand how students perceive the impact of prior SBL participation during clinical practice and how this perceived impact changes over time. Students chose to participate in SBL experiences centered on conducting a clinical swallow evaluation (CSE) with adult standardized patients prior to completing full-time medical externship placements. During their externships, students participated in two structured interviews and completed three anonymous critical incident technique (CIT) questionnaires over eleven …

Using The Grand Challenges For Sotl To Guide, Connect, And Extend Scholarship In Communication Sciences And Disorders, Jennifer C. Friberg-Fort

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) recently identified five Grand Challenges for SoTL, offering a shared framework for understanding and advancing inquiry into teaching and learning across higher education. This paper argues that these Grand Challenges provide a productive cross-disciplinary framework for communication sciences and disorders (CSD), where SoTL work is often locally grounded and dispersed across programs, institutions, and professional contexts. Drawing on existing CSD SoTL literature, the paper illustrates how each Grand Challenge can be used to frame, interpret, and extend disciplinary inquiry. These examples are intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive, …

Perceptions Of Legitimacy In Three Forms Of Probation Supervision For People With Serious Mental Illness, Sophia Sarantakos, Emily Claypool

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In the context of criminal-legal community supervision, standard and specialized probation officers are often tasked with coordinating services for adults diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) on their caseloads. The coordination of services varies across different programs including traditional probation, specialty probation, and mental health court. Given the proliferation of programs focused on mental health in the criminal-legal system, the perspectives of front-line workers or street-level bureaucrats in criminal-legal agencies are a rich source of information about what is happening on the ground and could provide insights into the potential translational barriers of policy to practice. A deeper examination of …

From Acrimony To Forgiveness: How Adolescents Make Sense Of Childhood Maltreatment, Katherine Irwin

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examines 16 adolescents’ narratives about the abuse they experienced during childhood. To date, most research examining child abuse (CA) survivorship and recovery has been conducted with adults who look back on their early experiences. Consequently, this study fills gaps in our knowledge by offering a youth-centered view of survivors’ efforts to cope with CA. The data come from a 12-year qualitative study of a group counseling program for high school students in Hawaiʻi. The findings revealed that a minority (n = 2) of the teens had negative views of their lives and futures, while the majority (n = …

A Content Analysis Of The Sutherland Address, 2001-22: A Qualitative Exploration, Phillip Shon

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Previous indicators of scholarly influence have been primarily quantitative, measuring a scholar’s influence through citation counts. This body of literature has overlooked the reflections of distinguished scholars, such as the recipients of the Sutherland Award, in the discipline as a form of scholarly influence. The current paper examines the Sutherland Address from 2001 to 2022. The key findings indicate that the majority of Sutherland Addresses reproduced existing sociological canons, while a minority of Sutherland Award winners explicitly rejected Sutherland’s sociological assumptions and their influence on criminology. Such findings suggest that Sutherland exerts a hidden influence on the recipients of the …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Inequality In Southeast Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies, Madeline Marie Whistler, Christopher Bradley, H. Hamner Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Does gender inequality impact the careers of female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region? Using a qualitative single instrumental case study, seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at local law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region were interviewed to investigate the central research question. Four themes emerged from the data that illustrated their experiences: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, the presence of gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The findings suggest that the experiences of female law enforcement officers are heavily impacted by the behavior …

A Plea For Open Access To Qualitative Criminology: With A Python Script For Anonymizing Data And Illustrative Analysis Of Error Rates, Scott Jaques, Andrew Wheeler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Qualitative researchers are expected, sometimes required, to publish their data open access (OA). This is for the sake of science, impact, and social justice. Yet, understandably, qualitative criminologists are worried about what this means for their workload and their ability to protect subjects’ confidentiality. To be solutions-oriented, we developed an open-source Python script for anonymizing qualitative data. It uses named-entity recognition and fuzzy-rule based merging to identify and replace personally identifiable information (PII) with unique pseudonyms. This tool doesn’t eliminate the need for manual work, but it reduces the cost and associated risk. In this article, we describe and explain …

Balancing Our Capacity To Serve: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Black Women Navigating Personal, Professional, And Community Leadership Roles, Shemeka K. Brathwaite

Student Theses

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of Black women community leaders as they navigate a balance between their professional, personal, and community leadership roles. The research design uses the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Intersectionality and Role Theory, specifically addressing the cultural burdens imposed by the Strong Black Woman archetype, which adds additional role strain. The study began with a questionnaire completed by 54 Black women community leaders, followed by 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews selected from this pool. The study’s key findings are illustrated in a Black Women’s Sustainable Community Leadership Framework. Black women community leaders exude high self-efficacy, …

People Who Use Opioids’ Encounters With Criminal Justice Personnel: A Qualitative Analysis, Barbara J. Costello

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

There is little research in the U.S. on the interactions of people who use opioids (PWUO) with criminal justice personnel, from their perspective. This study reports on the experiences with police and criminal justice personnel of 27 men and women in treatment for substance use disorder. In-depth interviews revealed that many respondents had had aversive experiences with the criminal justice system, including both physical and verbal abuse. Very few report receiving information on treatment from police. The evidence suggests that many police officers do not view opioid use disorder as a medical condition, and instead stigmatize PWUO. This study reveals …

Community - Volume 11

be Still

No abstract provided.

Stronger Together: Healing Through Joy, Archana Banda, Nupur S. Kumar

be Still

Volunteering as Family Pals at Boggy Creek throughout medical school has reinforced the profound impact of communities united under a shared vision of uplifting one another. This organization cultivates a supportive camp environment for children with chronic medical conditions. One of the most meaningful aspects of these weekend adventures has been meeting children with conditions such as Type 1 Diabetes and VACTERL courageously navigating the challenges of their diagnoses while discovering new passions through activities including woodcraft, air hockey, boating, fishing, and archery.

Many times these children are excluded from normal camp experiences due to their special needs such as …

Objects Of Atrocity: Material Culture And The Challenges Of Difficult Histories, Robert M. Ehrenreich, Jane E. Klinger, Gabriel H. Pizzorno, Caroline Sturdy Colls

Purdue University Press Books

The vast majority of people throughout history have left few written traces. That is especially the case for those who were brutally forced from their homes, stripped of their possessions, and swiftly imprisoned, enslaved, or murdered. Objects of Atrocity: Material Culture and the Challenges of Difficult Histories addresses how we return humanity to these people in order to avoid their erasure from history. Academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and cross-disciplinary approaches grapple with the challenges and possibilities relating to the collection, conservation, storage, and display of objects in the aftermath of mass atrocities. This collection confronts a …

How Disability Inclusion Shapes Student Experiences In Egyptian Public Universities, Ramez Maher

Theses and Dissertations

The inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education is a critical aspect of equity, social justice, and human rights, particularly in Egypt, where systemic barriers continue to hinder access to education for this demographic. Despite the enrollment of approximately 19.4 million students in 2018, only 38,135 students with disabilities were admitted, highlighting the significant challenges they face in accessing higher education.   Through a qualitative approach employing reflexive thematic analysis, this study explores the interplay of institutional policies, cultural attitudes, and accessibility challenges that affect the educational experiences of students with disabilities in Egyptian public universities. The analysis of 21 …

The Experiences Of College Students Facing Housing And Financial Insecurity, Nora Shaheen

University Honors Theses

Housing and financial insecurity among college students continues to be a growing crisis, yet their lived experiences are often overlooked. This thesis utilizes qualitative research to investigate the emotional, social, and academic experiences of students navigating housing and financial instability. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with six current/former college students who have experience with housing and financial insecurities. During the analysis, recurring patterns were grouped into themes, including the triggers of instability (familial abandonment, rent increases, relationship dissolution, etc), social stigma and internalized shame, emotional and mental health costs, social isolation, survival strategies, food insecurity, work-school balance, disrupted …

Mobilizing Social Capital In Social Entrepreneurship: Strategies, Networks, And Growth In The Egyptian Context, Doaa Alaa

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how social entrepreneurs in Egypt strategically mobilise social capital to access resources, legitimacy, and opportunities within a fragmented and institutionally ambiguous ecosystem. Drawing on qualitative case studies of eight legally registered, mission-driven for-profit enterprises, the study analyses how founders build and leverage offline and online networks through practices such as emotional bonding, community formation, knowledge sharing, symbolic positioning, ecosystem engagement, and digital presence. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and secondary data, the research identifies a set of relational strategies that function as core mechanisms for entrepreneurial growth in contexts where formal support structures and legal definitions …

Social Identity And Language Learning/Teaching Trajectories: Egyptian English Teachers’ Reflections On Being Taught By Native English- Speaking Instructors, Asmaa Mohamed Badawy

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how teacher social identity is shaped by Egyptian English teachers’ past learning experiences, particularly in relation to native and non-native English-speaking teachers. It seeks to understand how these experiences influence teachers’ perceptions of themselves within English-speaking contexts and how they make sense of dominant language ideologies surrounding nativeness. The study is guided by the following research questions: how participants perceive their sense of social belonging within English-speaking contexts; how ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ English teachers understand and interpret nativeness; and how past educational and social experiences shape teachers’ sense of ownership and legitimacy. Situated within the framework of …

Sense Of Belonging Among Undergraduate Students At The American University In Cairo: Demographic Trends, Barriers And Facilitators, Lamiaa M. Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

A sense of belonging is widely recognized as a key determinant of undergraduate students’ academic success, well-being, and persistence in higher education. However, existing research is largely grounded in Western contexts and often emphasizes institution-level measures, with limited attention to how belonging is experienced and constructed by students in non-Western settings. This study examines undergraduate students’ sense of belonging at the American University in Cairo, focusing on factors that shape belonging and institutional practices that may strengthen it. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, the study examined 87 responses from a quantitative survey adapted from the University Belonging Questionnaire, followed by …

Building Bridges: The Reference Interview As A Mechanism For Social Capital In School Libraries, Jessica M. Lilly

Learning Hub

Building Bridges: The Reference Interview as a Mechanism for Social Capital in School Libraries

Abstract

School librarians occupy a unique position within schools, interacting across all stakeholder groups and serving as a conduit between students, teachers, administrators, and the broader learning community. This article examines the reference interview not merely as a transactional information-retrieval tool but as a relational practice through which school librarians generate, sustain, and distribute social capital. Drawing on the foundational theories of Putnam (2000), Coleman (1988), and Bourdieu (1986), and on the reference transaction model grounded in Jesse H. Shera's foundational work (Coleman et al., …

The Effect Of Differences In Rating Scales (Verbal, Numerical, And Verbal–Numerical) On The Psychometric Properties Of Personality Measures Among University Students, Doha Ismail Abdo Abdullah, Hind Subaih Rahim

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The current study aims to investigate the impact of different rating scales (verbal, numerical, verbal-numerical) on the psychometric properties of personality measures. This was achieved by comparing the psychometric properties of the three versions of the scale. The results indicated the following:

1. There were statistically significant differences among the three versions of the scale in the item discrimination values, favoring the numerical version.

2. Statistically significant differences were found among the three versions of the immune personality scale in terms of the internal consistency values of the items, favoring the numerical version.

3. There were statistically significant differences in …

(Re)Claiming Homeplace: Dance As Embodied Resistance & Healing For Health & Spatial Justice, Preeya G. Kannan

University Honors Theses

This thesis argues that dance functions as both an upstream public health intervention and a form of radical spatial resistance; creating healing, agency, and belonging among historically marginalized communities. Drawing on bell hooks' concept of homeplace, Jasbir Puar's assemblage theory, Nancy Krieger's eco-social theory, and Katherine McKittrick's Black geographies, I position the body as both an ecological and political landscape shaped by histories of colonialism, racial capitalism, displacement, and resilience.

Through this community-based participatory research study, Homeplace, I explore dance as a form of social prescription that centers liberation rather than pathology. Movement is often reduced in public health discourse …

Ruptures: A Village Child’S Diary In Colonial Algeria, Abderrahmane Azzi

Journal of Amazigh Studies

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In Memoriam: Professor Hugh Roberts, James Mcdougall

Journal of Amazigh Studies

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Honoring The Life And Legacy Of Hugh Roberts (1950-2025): A Memorial Collection, Fazia Aïtel

Journal of Amazigh Studies

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