Subversive Self-Care: Black Women Faculty And The (Im)Possibilities Of Healing In Higher Education, Hermenia Butler

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

In the backdrop of pervasive violence and oppression against Black women in higher education, Black women faculty (BWF) at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) have endured relentless race and gender discrimination for decades. This long-standing injustice has spurred an examination of the healing practices of four BWF working at PWIs through the sharing of their stories. This research study is guided by two central questions: (a) What are the racialized lived experiences of BWF at PWIs? And (b) What are the (im)possibilities of (racial) healing in higher education? The study is grounded in the theoretical framework of Black Feminist Thought, providing …

Creating And Maintaining High-Quality Educational Spaces For Black Children: Challenges And Strategies, Darius B. Mensah

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Public education in the United States offers disparate outcomes that negatively impact Black children. Leaders who go against the norms and create spaces where Black children thrive face professional and personal challenges. Yet educators still do this work, employing strategies to protect their work and themselves. This study explores how educational leaders describe their experiences in creating and sustaining high-quality educational environments for Black students through the lens of Critical Race Theory. Nine participants, including the author, describe their backgrounds, their entry into the field of education, their professional and personal challenges, and the strategies they have used to persist …

Off The Rez: Witnessing Indigenous Knowledges Through Social Media, Deborah Hales

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The term “Off the Rez” is used, in the title, to mean research that is not done on a reservation or in urban areas. This study aims to discover if social media can be used as an innovative option for non-Indigenous allies to conduct respectful research. The study research questions were, (1) can social media be used as a research tool, to witness Indigenous Knowledges? (2) Can social media be used as research, by non-Indigenous research allies, to have the least impact on Indigenous communities?

This research was conducted using social media, with selected Indigenous participants who were 18, identified …

Preparing The Future, Healing The Past, & Being In The Moment With Teachers As They Indigenize The Way They Teach, Ramona Halcomb

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

This research study will interview participants from the first cohort of the Indigenizing Pedagogy Institute at the University of Washington Tacoma. The current educational system is failing to adequately serve American Indian/Alaska Native Students' Educational needs. Education creates knowledge, develops our political and civic goals, and systemically influences socialization and how we see ourselves and others; it determines our economic future and well-being. We must modify our pedagogy if we are to meet the needs of American Indian/Alaska Native Students.

We Are Stronger Together: Faculty Reflections On Competency-Based High School Completion For Adults In Washington State, Elizabeth J. Flanagan

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Situated in Washington State during the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic, this qualitative, insider-practitioner study examined the instructional context of four instructors engaged in a competency-based, high school completion for adults faculty praxis on community and technical college campuses through a state-supported program called High School+ (HS+). Guided by three areas of inquiry, this research sought to (1) explore how HS+ faculty describe their instructional praxis in the context of personal identity; (2) probe the cultural, structural, and administrative challenges HS+ faculty face when enacting competency-based instruction on community and technical college campuses oriented toward seat-time models of instruction; …

Educational Sovereignty: Creating Community By Ensuring Belonging, Merisa K. Jones

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The purpose of this research is to look at how we can use the education system as a tool to restore tribal identity and create belonging. To successfully see this work through the Lummi Nation, I will have to look at ways to challenge the formalized Western Education System and acknowledge its impacts on identity development. Pre-contact, the Lummi people had education systems in place that ensured the transmission of sacred knowledge, the learning took place within the house, and it was the family's responsibility to ensure the children grew up knowing the family values. The house of learning was …

Indigenizing Education: Universal Design For Learning And Indigenous Leadership Frameworks, Jennifer Vasilez

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Abstract

This study seeks to determine if Universal Design for Learning could serve as a culturally sustaining classroom framework for supporting Indigenous students in classroom settings. It also shares the perceived proficiency of Indigenous parents by those serving in a caregiver role for Indigenous youth, as well as the perceived potential of specific elements of Universal Design for Learning in supporting their students. As an Indigenous woman, I recognize the importance of asking Indigenous families if this strategy is worthy of further research, before conducting research into the efficacy of Universal Design for Learning in this way. This research project …

Women With Student Loans: Relational Impacts On Self, Family, And Work, Annie Pocklington

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the relational impact that student loans have on the lives of women across Washington state, with specific attention to their parents, partners, children, and workplaces. This research utilizes Feminist Relational Work as a theoretical framework, which combines feminist theory and Zelizer’s notion of relational work to attend to the gendered dynamic that Zelizer’s relational work does not specifically name. Participants in this study named sexism as a constant in their lives, whether within family dynamics growing up, throughout the college going process, or in professional post-college spaces that a degree granted them access to. The …

“Tienes Que Ser Bien Educada”: A Call For Art, Reconciliation, And Justice In Education, Eileen Jimenez

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Settler colonialism and colonized methodologies have created systems and power dynamics that continue to allow the holders of power and decision makers to deem what is ethical and what is appropriate as it concerns research of others, but in particular, Indigenous peoples. The voices that are given the most visibility in research are those who conduct and produce research through the paradigm of Western education and with standards of Western research. Settler colonialism has warped the purpose and the responsibility of educators. This study created space for understanding about our collective responsibility in teaching, learning and education for the community …