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Full-Text Articles in Education

Encouraging Equity Through Rural Elementary Professional Learning, Jana K. Stone Jan 2024

Encouraging Equity Through Rural Elementary Professional Learning, Jana K. Stone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study employed design-based research to explore the efficacy of professional learning materials and approaches in developing social justice advocacy with rural elementary teachers in Appalachia. Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) bioecological theory and Boler’s (1999) pedagogy of discomfort formed the theoretical framework for the design, implementation, and analysis. Mid-way through the study, Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis was included to inform the revision of intervention approaches. Four elementary teachers attended seven in-person informational discussion meetings over five months. During this time, these teachers also read two books and completed journal responses and surveys. The qualitative data was analyzed using Braun and Clark’s (2006) …


Teaching Cultural Humility Practices In Appalachia: The Value Of Conducting Conversations Based In Education, Bailey A. Riggs Jan 2024

Teaching Cultural Humility Practices In Appalachia: The Value Of Conducting Conversations Based In Education, Bailey A. Riggs

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Recent literature highlights the paradigm shift from utilizing cultural competence practices to cultural humility practices within the field of occupational therapy, and health sciences (Fisher- Borne, et al., 2015). The idea of cultural competency suggests that culture is unchanging, and individuals can master cultural knowledge. The perception of knowing culture can be perceived as an unwillingness to learn about culture. In contrast, cultural humility promotes the value of lifelong learning and introspection, encouraging greater self-awareness, reflection of personal biases, and recognition of power imbalances. This approach aims to better integrate educational approaches to serve diverse populations in a culturally affirming …


Navigating Place And Gender: A Multicontextual Critical Narrative Inquiry Of Rural Trans* Student Experiences, Jessie Lynn O'Quinn Jan 2023

Navigating Place And Gender: A Multicontextual Critical Narrative Inquiry Of Rural Trans* Student Experiences, Jessie Lynn O'Quinn

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The purpose of this critical narrative study was to understand how rural West Virginia trans* students navigate cultural norms of their rural home communities and higher education contexts. An essential part of this critical narrative was to provide rural trans* students with an avenue to share their unique experiences and give them a platform to share their voices. The resulting narratives suggested that the normative tensions rural trans* college students experience across contexts stemmed from negative regional experiences that reinforced traditional gender norms. Negative home contexts and experiences forced students to feel like they had to build walls and distance …


First Year Teacher In Appalachia: Place, Identity, Tensions, Michael Renee Lane Jan 2023

First Year Teacher In Appalachia: Place, Identity, Tensions, Michael Renee Lane

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study centers on one first-year Social Studies teacher who is beginning her teaching career in a rural middle school in central Appalachia. Grounded in sociocultural theory, this qualitative study focuses understanding how the focal teacher discursively constructs her teaching identity including how she makes use of sociocultural resources, social practices, and the discourses she draws from as she describes her experiences. Data is drawn from a five-month interpretive qualitative case study that included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and the focal teacher’s personal journals. Data analysis indicated that place is crucial in shaping teachers’ beliefs and practices—including their conceptions of …


Borderlands And Mestiza Consciousness In Appalachia: Latina Undergraduate Experiences In A Predominantly White Institution, Susana Mazuelas Quirce Jan 2022

Borderlands And Mestiza Consciousness In Appalachia: Latina Undergraduate Experiences In A Predominantly White Institution, Susana Mazuelas Quirce

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the experiences of eight undergraduate Latinas in a Predominantly White Institution in the Appalachian region using Gloria Anzaldúa’s insights on Borderlands and Mestiza consciousness. A vast majority of the studies focused on the Latinx college student population that takes place in states and tertiary institutions with a dense concentration of Latinx population, leaving rural areas—especially the Appalachian region— unexplored. There is, as well, a scarcity of studies in research focused on four-year-degree-granting institutions in which Latinx are highly underrepresented. A substantial number of studies continue presenting Latinx students as a homogenous group despite their heterogeneity …


Learning Mathematics While Black In Rural Appalachia: Black Students' Counterstories And Freedom Dreams About Mathematics Education, Sean P. Freeland Jan 2022

Learning Mathematics While Black In Rural Appalachia: Black Students' Counterstories And Freedom Dreams About Mathematics Education, Sean P. Freeland

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation aims to illuminate and uncover the experiences of Black students’ learning mathematics in rural Appalachia and specifically West Virginia. The focal theory for this study is Critical Race Theory (CRT) which centers the experience of Black students and their voices. The intersection of race, mathematics education, and the context of rural Appalachia contribute to the analysis of these experiences in specific ways. Participants for this study included six Black high school students from various communities throughout West Virginia. Through interviews and mathematical autobiographies, these students shared their experiences learning mathematics across their schooling experiences and also considering their …


Reckoning With Privilege In Appalachia And Higher Education: A Project Of Critical Consciousness, Sarah Powell Jan 2022

Reckoning With Privilege In Appalachia And Higher Education: A Project Of Critical Consciousness, Sarah Powell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation sought to interrogate the ways in which White, rural students from West Virginia conceptualized diversity before, during, and since their transition to a large PWI in their home state. Using Critical Whiteness Studies and intersectionality as driving theory, student participants and I engaged in deconstruction of privilege through individual and culture circle conversations. Then, participants engaged in self-reflection using codes established in Critical Whiteness (White normativity, White complicity, epistemologies of ignorance) as well as participant-drive codes that reflected other forms of identity-based power. Three waves of reflection demonstrate the participants’ continued cycle of praxis (reflection, action, repeat) and …


“I Don't Really Look Very Asian”: Transracially And Transnationally Adopted Asian Youth In Rural Appalachia, Sandra L. Rodeheaver Jan 2020

“I Don't Really Look Very Asian”: Transracially And Transnationally Adopted Asian Youth In Rural Appalachia, Sandra L. Rodeheaver

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Transracially adopted Asian children in rural Appalachia find themselves adopted into places where there is little or no racial and ethnic diversity. In this context, it may be difficult to transgress the model minority stereotype and systemic racism in schools and the community. There are particular issues and concerns related to racial identity for TRAAs that may make the task of becoming fully integrated members of the community challenging. Building on the literature on transracial and transnational adoption, this study aims to better understand the lives and perspectives of two transracially adopted Asian (TRAA) girls living in rural Appalachia and …


Appalachian Economic Futures, Dewayne Barton, John Deskins, Paul Corbit Brown, William Hal Gorby, Jill Moles Mullins, Nicholas F. Stump, Matt Winans, Brenden E. Mcneil, Eloise Elliott, Chris Haddox, E Gordon Gee, Eddie Brzostek, Audra Slocum, Trevor Mckenzie, Tom Hansell Jan 2019

Appalachian Economic Futures, Dewayne Barton, John Deskins, Paul Corbit Brown, William Hal Gorby, Jill Moles Mullins, Nicholas F. Stump, Matt Winans, Brenden E. Mcneil, Eloise Elliott, Chris Haddox, E Gordon Gee, Eddie Brzostek, Audra Slocum, Trevor Mckenzie, Tom Hansell

Exhibit Panels

When people talk about the future of Appalachia, they typically mean economic futures: What will happen to coal jobs? How will Appalachia diversify its economy? What about poverty? Stereotypes about our region represent our people as disinterested in education, and hostile to innovation, technology, and sustainability. We see a different story. This part of the exhibit looks at ways that Appalachians are taking their strong sense of culture, their linguistic distinctiveness, and their relationship to the natural world to imagine new futures in diverse industries, sustainable practices, and stronger education systems.


Appalachian Futures At Wvu: Class Projects, West Virginia University Libraries Jan 2019

Appalachian Futures At Wvu: Class Projects, West Virginia University Libraries

Exhibit Panels

Classrooms across campus are connecting the Appalachian past to our possible futures, in subjects across the curriculum. These are just a few such projects where WVU student researchers helping to chart a distinctly Appalachian path forward.