Education Commons^™

Unconscious Bias In United States Marine Corps Leadership Doctrine: Examining Microaggressions Through Document Analysis, Patrick Butler

Dissertations

This dissertation employed a document analysis format to examine Marine Corps leadership education doctrine for microaggressions. The United States Marine Corps (Marine Corps or USMC) is the military service with the least diverse officer cadre in terms of sex, gender identity, and race. The study results show a pattern of repeating unconscious bias-related content within the Marine Corps’ documents. Such patterns can negatively affect minority members in terms of their health, acceptance, and performance within the organization. The results also document an overriding bias-culture which puts Marine Corps leadership in a dilemma of trying to encourage conformity to traditional organizational …

School Administrator Preparation In Special Education: A Cross-Case Analysis, Emily Ruiz

Dissertations

Special education has been part of public education for 46 years and has evolved considerably in that time. Despite improvements made in special education law, there remains a disconnect between law and current practices. Several studies suggest this disconnect is associated with administrators’ insufficient preparation for supporting special education in their schools.

This study utilized an explanatory sequential design to study Southern California school principals’ special education preparation. During the first phase of the study, the researcher emailed surveys to administrators who were selected using a stratified random sampling strategy. Unfortunately, the response rate was too low to employ the …

A Study Of The Challenges Faced By Students Who Identify As Refugees Who Have Experienced Interrupted Education And Trauma, Merdin Mohammed

Dissertations

Every year, more than 65 million people are displaced worldwide. These refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people flee conflict, poverty, environmental degradation, and other conditions forcing them from their homes. In 2020, the number of individuals internally displaced reached 82.4 million; of this total, 26.4 million were refugees. In 2021, of the 11,411 refugees resettled in the United States, 8.6% resettled in California. When refugee students come to San Diego, the majority resettle in the neighborhoods of City Heights and El Cajon. These refugee children have lived on the road or in refugee camps, faced consistent interruptions to a …

Examining The Cross-Cultural Competence Of United States Christian Missionaries Engaged In Developing Indigenous Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study, Craig W. Goodman

Dissertations

For the past two millennia, missionaries have crossed from one culture to another to bring the Christian message to all cultures of the world. Questions about the effectiveness of these mission efforts have been asked and researched by many; however, one key question remains unanswered: what personal attributes help a person to be more competent at crossing cultures as they interact with people from other cultures? Although cross-cultural competence has been studied in a variety of fields over the past 50 years, the models and assessments used have never been applied to Christian missionaries.

To address this deficiency, this parallel …

Black Beyond Measure: An Antideficit Exploration Of Cultural Capital Within A National Society Of Black Engineers (Nsbe) Chapter At A Predominantly White Institution (Pwi), Rhonda Harley

Dissertations

Historically, Black students have been excluded from Predominately White institutions (PWI) longer than welcomed to attend and matriculate (Harper et al., 2009). Due to this lack of inclusion, African American students' educational experiences often center on academic disparities, inequality of opportunity, and under-preparedness in career planning within the American education system. While there has been a fair amount of research on the lack of representation of Black students in the engineering disciplines, the heavy focus on quantitative data offers little insight into the unique ways students succeed and overcome institutional and systemic barriers in pursuit of their degree. Undergraduate experiences, …

Breaking Boundaries: Investigating The Experiences Of Racially Diverse Low Socioeconomic Status Students Through A Narrative Inquiry Approach, Ryan Jumamil

Dissertations

Across the US, there is growing inequality of class distribution in predominately white and elite colleges and universities. Although gaining access to these institutions is typically the first hurdle, it is not the only challenge racially diverse low socioeconomic status (SES) students face. By investigating the college experiences of racially diverse low SES students enrolled in a predominately white elite institution, this study creates the foundation for an imperative discussion on the relationship between students' identity and attendance at predominately white elite institutions.

Through a Narrative Inquiry research approach and using semi-structured interviews as a data collection tool, two themes …

Leaders Of Change: An Exploration Of Relationships Between International School Administrators’ Mindsets And Their Preferred Leadership Styles, Joe Brogan

Dissertations

At the heart of educational leadership is the ability to manage change. Leaders who can successfully manage change invariably will be more effective. This is especially true in the often-transient world of international schools, where change happens frequently in response to evolving internal and external environments.

K-12 international schools that use the English language as the medium of instruction have proliferated since the end of the Cold War. There has been exponential growth, especially in China, India, and other developed and developing nations. The quality of leadership in these schools is extremely important to stakeholders, especially students, and, consequently, it …

Exploring The Impact Of An Online Leadership Course On Japanese Undergraduates' Conceptions Of Leadership, Ryosuke Watanabe

Dissertations

Today’s complex problems transcend borders and require a collective and adaptive learning response. Literature suggests that, because the traditional hierarchical or positional style of leadership cannot effectively address problems we face today, leadership should take a more collaborative and systemic form. Rost (1991) characterized this new approach as the postindustrial paradigm of leadership. Unfortunately, changing the existing conception of leadership is not easy. Furthermore, assessing people’s leadership perceptions is challenging because leadership is often a tacit and latent construct. Because formal leadership education is still in its infancy in Japan, little is known about the impact of leadership education in …

The Mitigation Of In-Group And Outgroup Biases: Understanding The Perceptions Of Educators On The Contact Approach Theory, Brigitte Blazys

Dissertations

The contact approach theory was introduced in the 1950s, by Allport, as a method to mitigate biases. Since then, many DEI practitioners in the United States have formed alliances to create a social justice movement to combat racism, prejudice, and biases in our society. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted in the contact approach theory as these biases, initially observed as in-group and outgroup biases, originate in the early years of life. To begin to fill this gap in the literature, the purpose of this study was to better understand and identify to what extent, if any, prekindergarten through third …

The Pontem Path: A Case Study Of A Catholic Bridge Program Focusing On College Readiness, Sean Green

Dissertations

The Department of Education’s 2018 report on the “Condition of Education” indicated nearly 60% of all children under the age of 18 had parents without a bachelor’s degree. When the statistics were broken down by race, the numbers were far higher. For Black children, that number was 74%; for Hispanic children, that number was 79%; for Pacific islander, it was 78%; and for American Indian/Alaska native, it was 80%. This gap in education has had a tremendous economic impact on families, reverberating through generations. According to Georgetown’s 2015 study on the economics of college majors, a college graduate makes $1 …

Teacher Sensemaking In Times Of Crisis: A Case Study Of The Teaching Of High School Ethnic Studies Classes During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Black Lives Matter Protests, Kay Flewelling

Dissertations

This is a study about secondary ethnic studies classes within the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, a novel coronavirus caused dramatic changes in society, and social protests erupted in the United States in response to violence against people of color. This period of dual crises created a collective period of turbulence for educators in the United States as schooling moved to emergency virtual environments. Though the impact of this time is not yet understood, early indicators suggest that existing educational inequalities for students of color will be exacerbated. This study explored ethnic studies teacher sensemaking to understand how teachers adapted their …

Academic Library Succession Planning In The University Of California (Uc) System, Crystal Goldman

Dissertations

The Library and Information Science (LIS) literature has made clear that academic libraries in the U.S. have experienced decades of hiring freezes and budget cuts that reduced staffing overall and eliminated many middle management positions. Consequently, now that baby boomer library managers and administrators are beginning to retire, there are few qualified applicants to replace them. Thus, many in the LIS field have called for better succession planning by top-level library administrators (e.g., Deans, Directors, University Librarians). Few studies, however, have directly addressed this issue by examining these administrators’ perceptions or behavior regarding succession planning. This study begins to fill …