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Full-Text Articles in Education
Do-It-Together: Informal Transformative Sustainability Education, Derek Brannon
Do-It-Together: Informal Transformative Sustainability Education, Derek Brannon
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The Climate Crisis is an urgent and inescapable reality students are thrust into. Learners must be prepared adequately for their futures, not only for their sakes but also because collective and transformative change is required. Transformative sustainability education provides one pathway to this transformation and focuses on radically altering students’ perceptions about the world and their agency in effecting change on ecological issues. The field of transformative sustainability education is emergent and thus is still fragmented, leaving gaps in the literature. Little research has been conducted on how informal and nonformal university spaces can be used to create transformative experiences …
Investing In Your Employees: Understanding The Impact Organizational Commitment Has On Staff Retention, Vanessa Lynne Mcwhirt
Investing In Your Employees: Understanding The Impact Organizational Commitment Has On Staff Retention, Vanessa Lynne Mcwhirt
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
High employee turnover in higher education has been an issue for decades, and successfully integrating newly hired staff (NHS) into their new job and the organization can be challenging for human resources and leadership. New employee orientation and onboarding programs can assist NHS. The author of this paper conducted a Utilization-Focused evaluation of the Thriving at DU program at the University of Denver (DU) to improve the program. The study examined the perceptions of how 12 student and academic affairs professionals made meaning of organizational commitment in the workplace throughout their onboarding experience.
The major findings of this evaluation aligned …
Fostering An Inclusive Learning Environment Through Course Development: A Program Evaluation, Rachel K. Rogers
Fostering An Inclusive Learning Environment Through Course Development: A Program Evaluation, Rachel K. Rogers
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This evaluation was chosen to address the desire of students to see themselves and their lived experiences in their coursework at University College, the location of this study. The purpose was to complete a utilization-focused evaluation that assessed first, the formal and informal practices involved in the course development process within an academic department at University College, University of Denver, and second to determine the extent to which the course development process contributes to an inclusive learning environment. Data were collected using qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders in the course development process, observations of weekly course development …
Faculty Facilitation Of Help-Seeking On Campus: A Phenomenological Study, Lillian V. Clark
Faculty Facilitation Of Help-Seeking On Campus: A Phenomenological Study, Lillian V. Clark
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
An ever-increasing number of students on college campuses are experiencing distress, and not all students in need of care are being reached (Kitzrow, 2009, LeViness, et al., 2019). Faculty are one of the most valuable resources for identifying and connecting students to care (Kitzrow, 2009). Despite this, we know very little about the experiences of faculty working with students in distress. This study sought to understand those experiences, as well as identify the barriers to connecting students to care. A qualitative study using an Interpretive Phenomenology framework was conducted (Smith & Osborn, 2007, Moustakas, 1994). Four themes were interpreted from …
Interrogating Whiteness In Graduate Education Culture: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Southeast Asian American Graduate Student Experiences, Lesley Nina Sisaket
Interrogating Whiteness In Graduate Education Culture: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Southeast Asian American Graduate Student Experiences, Lesley Nina Sisaket
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to understand the role that whiteness has in shaping the graduate education experiences of Southeast Asian American students in the United States. This study explores two research questions. 1) How do Southeast Asian American graduate students describe their graduate education? 2) How do Southeast Asian American graduate students describe concepts of whiteness, if any, throughout their graduate education? According to the experiences from six selfidentifying Southeast Asian American students, their graduate education experiences were described to be racially taxing, unchallenging, and isolating experiences. These findings stemmed from their graduate education experiences, which …
Policymaker Discourse In Colorado Public Higher Education Appropriations, Nathan Willers
Policymaker Discourse In Colorado Public Higher Education Appropriations, Nathan Willers
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
State funding for higher education is one of the most pressing issues facing both institutions and policymakers in 2022. Colorado has seen significant declines in the amount of state funding per student over the past two decades, resulting in increases in student burdens for tuition. Policy discourse analysis through a poststructural and neoliberal lens provided insight towards the legislative process and the discursive themes utilized by Colorado policymakers during the 2021-22 legislative budgeting cycle. Twelve artifacts were analyzed, including a mix of policy briefs, hearings, and budget and appropriations reports, for discursive data related to the state’s appropriations for public …
Examining The Relational Space Of Native Faculty Members In Higher Education, Stevie Lee
Examining The Relational Space Of Native Faculty Members In Higher Education, Stevie Lee
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Currently, the available research on Native faculty experiences emphasizes the challenges and hardships of being an Indigenous faculty member. Native faculty members are often underrepresented and rarely appreciated for the cultural teachings and knowledge they contribute within settler-colonial institutions. Nonetheless, Native faculty continue to demonstrate resilience and leadership navigating in higher education.
This qualitative research study examines the experiences of 11 Native women faculty members within higher education. The settler-colonial framing of teaching, research, and service (TRS) are areas often associated with faculty for the purposes of determining promotions and achieving tenure. However, this method of framing seldomly comprehends the …
Performances Of An Able, Academic Mind, Caleb Green
Performances Of An Able, Academic Mind, Caleb Green
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Western culture individualizes issues of public health. This is especially clear in academic life, where the structures of the university disable atypical bodies and minds in order to force them to simultaneously perform the roles of scholar, teacher, and colleague. The university not only fails to accommodate afflicted minds and bodies, it also produces more precarity in the process. This project is a performance ethnography of my time in the academy, starting with my life as an undergraduate being disciplined into academic life, moving toward recruitment for graduate school, and ending with events surrounding the construction of this very project. …
Dis/Ableist Consumption: A Critical Thematic Analysis Of Avowed And Ascribed Neuro-Identities In The Classroom, Shaundi C. Newbolt
Dis/Ableist Consumption: A Critical Thematic Analysis Of Avowed And Ascribed Neuro-Identities In The Classroom, Shaundi C. Newbolt
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the United States, faculty and students are publicly claiming neurodivergent identities and support for the neurodiversity movement. This study uses Collier and Hecht’s cultural identity theories with Lang and Chen’s two-step process, critical thematic analysis (CTA), to examine avowals and ascriptions with four diagnostic terms, ASD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and dyslexia, of students and professors from Rate My Professors (RMP) with Ritter’s frame of RMP as a phenomenon.
A total of 1,022 posts are analyzed to understand how students resist or re-inscribe popular medical model/deficit discourse in the classroom: student avowals (N = 232), professor avowals (N = 51), …
50-State Higher Education Disability Policy Review 2008-2019: A Content Analysis, Marie Orlin
50-State Higher Education Disability Policy Review 2008-2019: A Content Analysis, Marie Orlin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
More students with disabilities are present on higher education campuses. This study examines enacted legislation of the 50 United States throughout an 11-year period of students with disabilities in higher education. Racialization of disability and representation in states’ legislation is examined. As the student body expands on higher education campuses, diversity comprehensively racially, ethnically and culturally grows. Four major federal laws: Americans with Disabilities Act and Amendments Act, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 form the state disability legislation backbone applicable to postsecondary students. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 …
Photographs In My Mind, Through Darkness And In Light: An Auto-Criticism Of A University Teacher, Melanie Renee Witt
Photographs In My Mind, Through Darkness And In Light: An Auto-Criticism Of A University Teacher, Melanie Renee Witt
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation is an auto-criticism, a new qualitative inquiry founded in educational criticism and arts-based research, which describes and analyzes my lived experience as a female university teacher. The purpose of this study is to describe, interpret, evaluate and thematize my experiences with professional stress, pregnancy loss, and self-care. Secondly, it illuminates auto-criticism as a methodology with potential contributions to qualitative research and higher education.
Personal documents, internal artifacts, and external artifacts generated during a challenging period of my life as a university teacher are used as data. Language and photography combine to story my lived experiences and findings.
This …
The Racialization Of Relationships Between Higher Education Institutions And Cities: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Changing North Denver, Sabrina Carolina Sideris
The Racialization Of Relationships Between Higher Education Institutions And Cities: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Changing North Denver, Sabrina Carolina Sideris
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Universities help shape the physical contours and the social fabric of cities. Historical forms of racial domination repeat themselves, reproducing spatial subordination. In the Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea neighborhoods in North Denver, residents who are mostly low-income immigrant families have in the past faced housing discrimination; air, water, and soil pollution; environmental racism; highway construction and expansion; school dilapidation; and social, political, and economic neglect for over five decades (Doeppers, 1967; Cram, 2013; EPA, 2019). As the City of Denver turns its attention to these three neighborhoods, re-investment could result in improved quality of life. Colorado State University (CSU), two …
Assembling A Hispanic-Serving Institution: A Campus Landscape Analysis Of A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Brenda Lee Jimenez Sifuentez
Assembling A Hispanic-Serving Institution: A Campus Landscape Analysis Of A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Brenda Lee Jimenez Sifuentez
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Post-secondary educational spaces are often thought of as a backdrop to where education takes place. Architectural designs are seen as neutral sites; however, higher education institutions are sites of ideological production and therefore, fundamental exercises of power (Ford, 2017). The study of campus landscapes is relevant to uncovering and illuminating larger social issues of (in)equality in higher education. Literature regarding campus landscapes is scarce and this study seeks to demonstrate how the study of campus landscapes is both materially "real" and socially constructed. This study takes place at a four-year institution of higher education that has received the Hispanic Serving …
Higher Education Student Debt & Tuition Costs, K. Harrison Maloy Jr
Higher Education Student Debt & Tuition Costs, K. Harrison Maloy Jr
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
U.S. higher education tuition costs have risen at nearly double the rate of inflation over the past forty years. In 2012, student loan delinquency rose to 12% and surpassed credit card delinquency rates as the top category of consumer debt delinquency. Meanwhile, recently enacted federal policies advocate for increased higher education accessibility, affordability and attainability, but simultaneously promote educational institutions to increase spending with funds fueled by student debt. The growth of $136.8 billion in student loan delinquency has triggered decreasing participation in non-student debt markets by people with student loan debt. Fortunately, Americans continue to enroll in colleges at …
Understanding Why Women Stay: Examining Persistence Factors Of Women Majoring In Science And Technology Programs In Public Ethiopian Universities Using A Mixed Methods Design, Meseret Hailu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Amongst African nations, Ethiopia is a unique case in many respects. The country has the second largest population on the continent, is currently experiencing an economic boom, and is a relatively stable nation in the geopolitically volatile "Horn of Africa" region. In the past two decades, the higher education sector in Ethiopia has experienced rapid growth, as evidenced by an increase in both student enrollment and the number of universities. Amongst the various types of higher education institutions, public universities are especially important because they receive the greatest financial support from the Ministry of Education. Moreover, science and technology programs …
The Relationship Between Social Support And Self-Advocacy In College Students With Disabilities, Julia I. Marcus Johnson
The Relationship Between Social Support And Self-Advocacy In College Students With Disabilities, Julia I. Marcus Johnson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study explored the connection between social support and self-advocacy in college students with disabilities. The College Students with Disabilities Campus Climate Survey (Lombardi, Gerdes, & Murray, 2011) was used to gather data from undergraduate students at a midsize western private university. Social support was found to be a significant predictor of self-advocacy in college students with disabilities. Peer support, family support, and faculty teaching practices made up the construct of social support. Peer support and faculty teaching practices were found to be significant predictors of student self-advocacy. Family support was not found to be significant. The data was examined …
In Search Of Social Justice Praxis: A Critical Examination Of Senior Student Affairs Officers' Leadership Practices, Ryan P. Barone
In Search Of Social Justice Praxis: A Critical Examination Of Senior Student Affairs Officers' Leadership Practices, Ryan P. Barone
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
As the highest ranking administrators in divisions of student affairs, Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs) have the substantial opportunity to perform leadership in a manner which realizes social justice processes and goals. Framed by critical postmodernism (Tierney & Rhoads, 1993), this study uses educational criticism and connoisseurship (Eisner, 1976, 1998, 2002) to document the social justice leadership practices of two SSAOs. In depth narratives give rich descriptions of the nuances of social justice leadership as enacted by the SSAOs. Critical interpretation and evaluation of these practices is woven throughout the study. Themes relevant for the field of higher education in …
Off The Beaten Track: The Experiences Of Jamaican Student Athletes In Us Higher Education, Michelle Antoinette Rankine
Off The Beaten Track: The Experiences Of Jamaican Student Athletes In Us Higher Education, Michelle Antoinette Rankine
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
International student athletes populating American colleges and universities have gained visibility and prestige due to their athletic and academic capabilities. International student athletes emerge from a variety of backgrounds. These backgrounds vary in terms of geographic origin, cultural orientation, and social custom. The students themselves also differ in the amount of change they, as individuals, experience during the migration process from their home countries to the United States. There have been many studies related to the traditional student athlete experience. However, recent literature fails to examine the experiences of international student athletes, and in particular, Jamaican student athletes, in terms …
A Mixed Methods Examination Of Structural Bigenderism And The Consequences For Transgender And Gender Variant People, Kristie Lynn Seelman
A Mixed Methods Examination Of Structural Bigenderism And The Consequences For Transgender And Gender Variant People, Kristie Lynn Seelman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
For years, transgender activists and their allies have spoken out about the oppression that transgender and gender non-conforming people experience in relation to societal systems and institutions, due to policies and practices that do not acknowledge non-binary experiences of gender, that do not recognize that one's gender may change over time or may not match cultural expectations for gender expression, and that punish and discriminate against trans people (Gilbert, 2009; Lombardi & Davis, 2006; Markman, 2011; Spade, 2006; WWRC, 2010). Scholars have called for human services professionals and researchers to critique the failures of institutions in society (and the people …
Nonprofit Marketing Education In The United States: An Examination And Interpretation Of The Prevalance And Nature Of Curriculum, Theresa Meier Conley
Nonprofit Marketing Education In The United States: An Examination And Interpretation Of The Prevalance And Nature Of Curriculum, Theresa Meier Conley
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The nonprofit sector is a large, growing, and essential part of the United States economy. There is a history of inspired ideas and complex change in the nonprofit sector that marketing educators and business school administrators must understand if they are to be leaders in the continuing evolution of nonprofit marketing education.
This manuscript includes a summarized historical perspective, a selective review of literature from existing nonprofit management and marketing education, a discussion of relevant contemporary issues for consideration, and mixed-method research results regarding the prevalence and nature of nonprofit marketing education. The mixed-method research strategy includes three phases; the …
College Search Factors That Impact College Matriculation For African American Students: Implications For Policy And Praxis, Brandi Nicole Van Horn
College Search Factors That Impact College Matriculation For African American Students: Implications For Policy And Praxis, Brandi Nicole Van Horn
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
College access is a top educational priority in the United States as millions of federal and state dollars are funneled into programs to ensure college access for all students, minorities and low-income students in particular (U.S. Department of Education, 2009a; U.S. Department of Education, 2009b). Over 80% of high school students and their parents aspire to attain postsecondary education (Dounay, 2006; Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007). Yet, minorities' and low-income students' ability to penetrate postsecondary doors remains relatively depressed in comparison to their non-minority high-income student peers (Freeman, 2005; Perna, 2007). Most of the research related to college access …