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Education (PhD) Dissertations

2021

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Relationships Among Mentoring Support And Student Success In A Chinese First-Year Experience Program, Tianxiang Liu Dec 2021

Relationships Among Mentoring Support And Student Success In A Chinese First-Year Experience Program, Tianxiang Liu

Education (PhD) Dissertations

China’s higher education reform led to the rise of private universities leading to a surge in the number of private universities, which have lacked funds and resources compared to their public peers. While private universities have allowed for expanded access to higher education, quite a few students have not been well prepared for study at this level. Therefore, private colleges in China need to provide more resources for students to help them succeed. Western countries, with more robust histories of private higher education, adopted the strategy of peer mentoring to solve the problem of first-year students’ retention, which guided significance …


Searching For Balance: The Reading Choices, Experiences, And Habits Of Women In Higher Education Leadership Roles, Laura Burns Dec 2021

Searching For Balance: The Reading Choices, Experiences, And Habits Of Women In Higher Education Leadership Roles, Laura Burns

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Women in higher education leadership roles face complicated challenges in their professional roles, and struggle to maintain work-life balance, yet they make time to read for professional development and for pleasure. Utilizing grounded theory methodology, focus group methods, and grounded theory coding, this study examines the reading choices and habits of women in higher education leadership roles, delving into how they balance their reading between material tied to their professional interests and leisure reading material, and to what extent reading for pleasure contributes to their work-life balance. The study explores what reading materials women academic leaders consume, and where they …


Special Education Parent Perceptions Of Involvement And Parent–Educator Relationships During Iep Meetings At Nonpublic Schools, Alex Huynen Dec 2021

Special Education Parent Perceptions Of Involvement And Parent–Educator Relationships During Iep Meetings At Nonpublic Schools, Alex Huynen

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) requires parents to be involved in all parts of the education decision-making process, including the IEP meeting. Although there is a vast body of research about parents of students receiving special education services and their perspectives of the IEP meeting, little is known about parents’ perspectives of the IEP meeting while students are at a nonpublic school. Understanding the perspectives of parents whose students attend nonpublic schools will allow for more collaboration and more effective IEP for their students attending nonpublic schools. The current study explored parent perspectives of involvement and parent–educator …


Equality Of Educational Opportunity In China: Factors From Family, School, And Shadow Education, Qin Xiang Aug 2021

Equality Of Educational Opportunity In China: Factors From Family, School, And Shadow Education, Qin Xiang

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The study focused on Equality of Educational Opportunity (EEO) in China from the aspects of family, shadow education, and school. The main purpose was to find the influence of factors from the three aspects on people’s educational outcomes. The interaction effects among family, shadow education, and school were emphasized to check how the three aspects correlated with each other and how shadow education and school moderated the effect of students’ family background on the (un)equal distribution of educational outcomes. The study used PISA 2015 data to analyze the association of predictors from family, shadow education, and school with students’ achievement …


Seeing The Tress For The Forest: An Analysis Of Novice And Experienced Teachers' Self-Efficacy And Stress, Allison Serceki Aug 2021

Seeing The Tress For The Forest: An Analysis Of Novice And Experienced Teachers' Self-Efficacy And Stress, Allison Serceki

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between novice teachers’ context-specific self-efficacies and stresses and whether these constructs differed from the self-efficacies and stresses of experienced teachers in middle school and early high school. Novice teachers, or teachers in their first 5 years of teaching, are most susceptible to attrition and turnover, which research indicated is sometimes brought on by stress. Research also showed self-efficacy consistently had a negative correlation to stress. This study used the second-hand dataset obtained from the Teaching and Learning International Survey, focusing on 2560 responses obtained from teachers in the United …


Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Autistic Adults, Sneha Kohli Mathur Aug 2021

Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Autistic Adults, Sneha Kohli Mathur

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Although there is a plethora of autism-related research, research related to transition and support needs for autistic adults remains limited. The purpose of this study was to understand the hopes, dreams, aspirations, challenges, and lived experiences of autistic adults. Academic literature has largely emphasized autism as a medical deficit, and use of first-person narratives to understand needs of people on the autism spectrum is rare. To fill this gap, I conducted a narrative study through a social model of disability lens and centered voices of autistic individuals. The narrative component of this research allowed readers to understand the subjective experiences …


Empathy Among Nursing Undergraduates At A Chinese Private University, Yuanyuan Zhang Aug 2021

Empathy Among Nursing Undergraduates At A Chinese Private University, Yuanyuan Zhang

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Empathy is an indispensable professional quality in nursing. It correlates positively with the quality of caring, the nurse-patient relationship, patient satisfaction, and the outcomes of treatment. Understanding and cultivating empathy of nursing undergraduates has been one of the main focuses of nursing education. Taking into account the lack of quantitative research into the empathy of nursing undergraduates at China’s private colleges and the inconsistencies in the current literature in terms of assessments of the empathy levels of nursing undergraduates, this study used the Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale to examine the empathy levels of 644 nursing undergraduates at a private university …


Resilience And Mental Health Of Students Attending California's Continuation High Schools, Brianna Meshke Mclay Aug 2021

Resilience And Mental Health Of Students Attending California's Continuation High Schools, Brianna Meshke Mclay

Education (PhD) Dissertations

In California, most students who transfer to continuation high schools have not earned sufficient credits to graduate on time with their peers. As a group, these students are more likely to engage in risk behaviors. Despite this, very few studies have focused on mental health outcomes and sources of resilience for this specific population. This study utilized data from the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) to explore resilience assets and mental health outcomes (depression and suicidality) for continuation high school students. Overall, continuation students had significantly lower levels of most resilience assets and higher rates of both depression and suicidal …


Fighting An Uphill Battle: Black Undergraduate Women Navigating Higher Education While Acknowledging And Challenging Media Portrayals Of Black Women, Kandace Branch Aug 2021

Fighting An Uphill Battle: Black Undergraduate Women Navigating Higher Education While Acknowledging And Challenging Media Portrayals Of Black Women, Kandace Branch

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The stereotypes present in popular television shows often become barriers that limit Black women in higher education, influencing the ways in which they experience college campuses, including how they are treated by faculty and peers and how they interact with others in these spaces. This study examined the perspectives of Black women regarding how media portrayals of Black women and specific popular characters influence their learning opportunities and sense of belonging as undergraduates in college campuses. Black Feminist Theory was employed to analyze the experiences of the participants, Black women, and Critical Race Theory aided in understanding how these women …


A Study Of Critical Thinking Dispositions Of Undergraduates In Foreign Language Discipline At One Private College In Mainland China, Yuanyuan Zheng Aug 2021

A Study Of Critical Thinking Dispositions Of Undergraduates In Foreign Language Discipline At One Private College In Mainland China, Yuanyuan Zheng

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Critical thinking (CT) has been one of the most important goals of higher education since the 1990s. However, foreign language majors in China have been criticized for the lack of CT and considered inferior to other majors. Despite studies conducted to disprove this belief, less research has explored the CT of undergraduates at private universities. This study investigated the status of undergraduates’ CT dispositions at a private college in China, particularly among foreign language majors representing various demographic or academic groupings and with different learning experiences. An online survey was distributed to 5,000 undergraduates at a private college; 1,642 completed …


Do Academic Characteristics Predict Chinese Private University Students’ Success In English Language Testing?, Feijun Yu Aug 2021

Do Academic Characteristics Predict Chinese Private University Students’ Success In English Language Testing?, Feijun Yu

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Conventional language learning theory, which holds that learning outcomes are solely associated with learners’ competencies, has begun to be disputed in the dynamic learning environment. This study used English learners’ academic characteristics from the 2014 cohort in a private university in Shanghai, China, to explore the relationship between language learners’ academic characteristics and their learning outcomes in a national standardized English examination. Via the collection of extant data, 3,580 cases were included for logistic and multiple regression analysis. Results showed factors associated with English learning are the NCEE English score, the number of tests taken by students, provincial origin, gender, …


The Effects Of Internationalization Activities On Undergraduates' Global Competence: An Exploratory Study At A Chinese Private University, Haiying Meng Aug 2021

The Effects Of Internationalization Activities On Undergraduates' Global Competence: An Exploratory Study At A Chinese Private University, Haiying Meng

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The rapid development of technological advances and increased cross-border labor mobility have brought about complex challenges and significant changes over the last several decades. Global competence is considered by many organizations and educational practitioners as one of the essential skills and abilities required for young adults to live and work intellectually and cooperatively in today's globalized and intercultural world. Further, students' global competence is often applied as the criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of internationalization of higher education institutions. A number of scholars have well-documented how various internationalization activities contribute to the development of undergraduates' global competence. Although some Chinese …


An Examination Of Chinese Undergraduates’ Contemplativity And Academic Stress, Ran Tao Aug 2021

An Examination Of Chinese Undergraduates’ Contemplativity And Academic Stress, Ran Tao

Education (PhD) Dissertations

China has advanced considerably in many fields, which has led to fierce competition among its people. College students are no exception as this competition has brought tremendous academic stress that affects academic performance. Western scholars and researchers found contemplative practice (CP) was helpful to reduce students’ educational stress and improve their study performance. However, no literature was found regarding the potential impact of CP on undergraduates in China, nor was any literature discovered concerning potential differences between genders or academic emphases on students’ conceptions of CP and collegiate stress. The purpose of this study was to fill the gap by …


Community College Success Of Students With Disabilities, Shayne Brophy-Felbab May 2021

Community College Success Of Students With Disabilities, Shayne Brophy-Felbab

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify aspects of home life, college life, or high school preparation that supported the success of students with disabilities at community colleges. As students with disabilities are rarely represented in the literature, this study offered a space for students with disabilities to share their voice and further develop their sense of agency. The six participants had a range of disabilities and enrolled in Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS) at their community college. They had all completed at least one year and three students were completing their final year and had plans in …


'Training' The Body Politic: Essays On The School Reform Orthodoxy, Jahan Naghshineh May 2021

'Training' The Body Politic: Essays On The School Reform Orthodoxy, Jahan Naghshineh

Education (PhD) Dissertations

These essays represent my attempt to grapple with fundamental questions about what I see as the upside-down nature of educational reforms in American society. Why is there a never-ending crisis in America’s public schools? What does it mean when the educational specter from different periods of history is discredited and yet the specter keeps being recycled decade after decade? For example, elites propagated crisis narratives to galvanize support for the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation at the turn of the century. Countless researchers then documented the adverse impacts of NCLB on America’s schools and yet that literature never led …


Contributing To Engineering Colleges Students' Development Through Out-Of-Class Involvement: A Survey Of Chinese Private Colleges' Engineering Students, Wanlu Li May 2021

Contributing To Engineering Colleges Students' Development Through Out-Of-Class Involvement: A Survey Of Chinese Private Colleges' Engineering Students, Wanlu Li

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary characteristics of engineering college students’ involvement in out-of-class activities (OA) at one private college in China through the use of the translated and culturally adapted Chinese version of the Postsecondary Student Engagement Survey (PosSES 2.1). This study provides the statistical analyses of the survey data completed by 283 senior engineering students on their perceptions about their levels of involvement related to positive/negative outcomes students perceive and affective engagement. Data results showed all levels of involvement have a significant influence on positive outcomes. Besides, active involvement degree, hours, and types of …


Systemic Functional Linguistics In The Community College Composition Class: A Multimodal Approach To Teaching Composition Using The Metalanguage Of Sfl, Jennifer James May 2021

Systemic Functional Linguistics In The Community College Composition Class: A Multimodal Approach To Teaching Composition Using The Metalanguage Of Sfl, Jennifer James

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This qualitative research study sought to understand the affordances and limitations of a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to teaching composition at the community college level. The study took place over the course of a semester in two developmental college composition classes using the language of SFL to teach writing through multimodal assignments. The study was developed in response to the increasing diversity in writing skills and educational goals of students in the community college composition class. The increase in diversity is a result of legislation in California that restructures developmental class offerings and affects placement in the transfer-level composition …


An Examination Of Chinese Private College Students’ Intercultural Competence, Li Li May 2021

An Examination Of Chinese Private College Students’ Intercultural Competence, Li Li

Education (PhD) Dissertations

With globalization being a focus of the 21st century, the primary approach for responding to global challenges for higher education institutions is to adopt an internationalization strategy and accelerate the internationalization pace. To cultivate “global-ready” graduates, developing students’ intercultural competence (IC) has become one of the core missions of international and Chinese higher education institutions. Given the scarcity of quantitative studies on Chinese private college students’ IC and inconsistent findings on the relationships between foreign language capability, international experience, and IC in the extant literature, a quantitative study was conducted in a Chinese private college to explore 1,983 undergraduate students’ …


Bidimensional Assessment Of Youth Mental Health: Evaluation Of The California Healthy Kids Survey As A Measure Of Youth Subjective Well-Being, Michael Doria May 2021

Bidimensional Assessment Of Youth Mental Health: Evaluation Of The California Healthy Kids Survey As A Measure Of Youth Subjective Well-Being, Michael Doria

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This study comprehensively analyzed extant data from the 2016–2017 California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) secondary core and Social Emotional Health Module (SEHM) to explore the ability of the CHKS to measure subjective well-being (SWB), a critical component in the assessment of youth mental health (MH). Research has validated the significance and utility of a dual continuum model of MH, with SWB predicting emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. Accordingly, when coupled with an assessment of psychopathology, positive evaluations of SWB can provide a more descriptive and comprehensive view of youth functioning than psychopathology alone. This more comprehensive view of students’ functioning …


Understanding First-Generation Latinx Students' Experiences In A Predominantly White Private Institution: A Grounded Theory Study, Jacqueline Aparicio May 2021

Understanding First-Generation Latinx Students' Experiences In A Predominantly White Private Institution: A Grounded Theory Study, Jacqueline Aparicio

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Latinx student enrollment in higher education institutions has increased over the years. Despite their increased number of enrollments, there is also an increase of Latinx first-generation students dropping out of higher education. Not only are they not earning a degree, but they are leaving these institutions with debt. This is a concern because students dropping out affects the institution's overall graduation rates. This qualitative study examined factors that contributed to ten first-generation Latinx students’ persistence and success at a predominantly White, private institution. The study used grounded theory methodology and methods to develop an initial exploratory theory. The dissertation study …


California Elected City Council Women Of Color: Building A Collaborative Vision With Inclusive Voice, Beatriz T. Valencia Jan 2021

California Elected City Council Women Of Color: Building A Collaborative Vision With Inclusive Voice, Beatriz T. Valencia

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Following the U.S. presidential race of 2016, large numbers of women—particularly women of color—made the decision to run for political office for the first time at both the national and local levels. It is imperative that these women’s campaigns and victories are studied as a means to resist essentialism and honor the unique perspectives and histories of the voices of women of color in these political roles—roles highly underrepresented in literature and society at large. This dissertation focused on the victory speeches of 48, first-time, California city council, elected women of color (EWOC) with the aim of understanding their campaigns …


Teachers’ Experiences Of A District’S Transformational Leadership Design Program: A Qualitative Study, Jarit Unrau Jan 2021

Teachers’ Experiences Of A District’S Transformational Leadership Design Program: A Qualitative Study, Jarit Unrau

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Facing the rapidly changing 21st-century education, educational organizations strive for innovative ideas to continuously motivate their teachers to enhance student performance. iLead is a district’s pioneering attempt to incorporate transformational leadership's essential elements, the four I’s, Inspirational Motivation, Idealized Influence, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized Consideration, into its program design and implementation to develop a collaborative learning culture through teacher motivation and the focus on improving student achievement. The iLead program has drawn statewide attention by winning the 2020 California Golden Bell Awards recently. The annual awards promote excellence in education and recognize prominent California schools’ and districts’ programs and exemplary …


School Psychologists As Leaders In Professional Practice: An Examination Of Leadership Roles And Perceived Support, Jodi Lachance Jan 2021

School Psychologists As Leaders In Professional Practice: An Examination Of Leadership Roles And Perceived Support, Jodi Lachance

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The professional role of a school psychologist leader is a topic of interest for those in the field. Since 1940, state or national associations have outlined recommendations and guidelines for school psychology leadership roles. School psychology leadership aligns with the NASP training and practice model and is critical in promoting best practice. However, we know very little about school psychology leadership in professional practice, and the school psychology leadership literature is relatively void of research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of school psychology leadership in professional practice, identify fundamental components (NASP competencies) perceived to …