Education Commons^™

Exploring The Experiences Of Black, Brown, Indigenous, And People Of Color In High School Concert Bands And Orchestral Ensembles, Matthew J. Smith

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

The traditional concert band/orchestra model in many public high schools often passively presents content regarding Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). BIPOC students in these ensembles bring a wealth of experience from their communities. Meanwhile, BIPOC face barriers including invalidation and a diminished sense of representation in these ensembles. This qualitative investigation explored how BIPOC students in a public 9-12 high school district experienced social, pedagogical, curricular practices in their school’s concert band/orchestra. Guided by critical race theory and culturally responsive pedagogy, and employing interpretive phenomenological analysis, this study addressed the lack of inclusivity and representation experienced by BIPOC …

A Study Of Identity Issues That Affect Clergy Leadership On Lgbtq Inclusion, James Jeffrey Butcher

All Theses And Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes how the leadership decisions of thirty local church Protestant clergy in Virginia were influenced by personal, organizational, and cultural identity issues on matters related to homosexuality or LGBTQ inclusion. Self-understanding of identity issues affected clergy practice of biblical and theological interpretations on topics that include: purity, inclusion, same-sex marriage, ordination of LGBTQ persons, denominational loyalty, local church loyalty, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and transformative leadership. The researcher used semi-structured phenomenological interviews with seven focus groups and seven individual follow-up interviews. The researcher explored the process by which clergy construct their identities, while noting the resulting leadership strategies …

Biblical Literalism And Implications For Learning, Sara Austin

All Theses And Dissertations

Given that everything we learn is scaffolded onto prior knowledge, how and what we learn is infinitely complex. There are many factors influencing learning, including environment, social and institutional attitudes, access, conditioning and biases. Among the social and environmental factors, religious affiliation is a powerful force which can either encourage educational pursuit, or discourage and demonize it.

This study used Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory (2003) to examine the lived experiences of individuals who were raised in biblical literalist faith traditions. The researcher conducted loosely structured interviews with each participant to learn about their educational and spiritual journeys as they left …

The Positioning Of Iran And Iranians In The Origins Of Western Civilization, Sheda Vasseghi

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how a select sample of college-level history textbooks position Iran and Iranians in the origins of Western Civilization. Western Civilization history marginalizes, misrepresents, misappropriates, and/or omits Iran’s positioning (Kincheloe, 2004; Daryaee, 2005; Anvarinejad, 2007; Daragahi, 2010; Ahkami, 2014; Vahdati, 2014). Further, the mainstream approach to teaching Western Civilization history includes the Judeo-Christian-Greco-Roman narrative. The researcher used a multi-faceted theoretical approach—decolonization, critical pedagogy, and Western Civilization History dilemma—since this study transcended historical revisionism. This collective case study involved eleven Western Civilization history textbooks that, according to the College Board’s College-Level Examination …

Gi Jane Versus Sergeant Jane Doe: How Women’S Images In War Movies Contribute To Conflicting Expectations Of Women In Combat, Sawyer Marie L. Alberi

All Theses And Dissertations

Research on women’s portrayal in media generally suggests that women continue to be sexualized and objectified as war trophies in the classic Hollywood warrior culture film. The age old question of whether life imitates art or vice versa is important to consider when examining the question of how this popular culture medium contributes to the conflicting expectations of today’s women in combat roles. What is the reality of women’s roles in the US Military compared to the roles portrayed by warrior film media? History tells us that women have been on the battlefield in one way or another since there …

Gender Integration Into The Military: A Meta-Analysis Of Norway, Canada, Israel, And The United States, Jeff Wooten

All Theses And Dissertations

Over the past 15 years, the Global War on Terrorism has necessitated an examination of the military’s practices and the way that they meet the complexities of new and different types of war and tactics. Vital to this examination are policies related to the inclusion and deployment of women in combat. Burba stated war is not a setting for social testing, but the American Military must embrace the social subtleties of gender differences in an effort to meet the Armed Services requirement for an ever-changing asymmetrical battlefield. This study compares and contrasts the American current policy divergent to three other …

A Study Of The Perceptions Of Pastoral Crisis Intervention As A Crisis Debriefing Strategy Among Resident Directors At Select Catholic Colleges And Universities, Laura Jean Phaneuf Bertonazzi

All Theses And Dissertations

This dissertation examined the postcrisis intervention preferences of a purposeful sample of 23 Resident Directors from 17 Catholic colleges and universities in New England. Using survey and interview data, this study explored whether Resident Directors at the sample institution had preferences regarding services they needed following exposure to a student death and whether these support preferences were aligned with the Catholic identities of their institutions. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) How do Resident Directors at Catholic colleges and universities describe their roles as first responders during a campus crisis?, (b) How do Resident Directors at Catholic …