Education Commons^™

A Descriptive Study Of Religious Engagement And The Internalization Of Religious Beliefs Of 12th-Grade High-School Students Who Attended Kairos Retreats And Fourth-Day Follow-Up Activities As Juniors In Five U.S. Jesuit All-Male High Schools, Chris Miller

Doctoral Dissertations

The Kairos retreat is popular among upperclassmen at Jesuit high schools across the nation. Kairos, or “God’s Time,” is a religious retreat grounded in Christian incarnational theology and the overall theology of the retreat is love in action, and its participants are challenged to “live the fourth” day, which becomes the never-ending day. Even though there has been a trend across the nation in the first decade of the 21st century within Jesuit high schools to move the retreat to the junior level, there is no empirical research examining the spiritual effects on the individual student of moving the Kairos …

Harry Potter And Queering The College Classroom, Hannah Yanow

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reimagines the college classroom through a queer pedagogical practice that, I argue, results in a queer space. Through a mixed method study that utilized duoethnography and student survey, I find that queer pedagogy, or the resistance of heteronormativity, challenging binaries, welcoming the student’s lived experience as fodder for learning academic concepts, paired with a beloved fantasy text such as Harry Potter, can be a medium with which to deconstruct the traditional college classroom and reconstruct a queer space that encourages student self-authorship and questioning of the traditional hierarchy in higher education. The data suggests that queering the college …

Perceptions Of Physics Teachers In Singapore About Curriculum Sequencing, Lay Lean Fong

Doctoral Dissertations

Curricular sequencing is central to instruction design and enactment. If carefully planned for, the order of topics to be taught would determine how the fundamentals of the discipline can be presented and introduced to learners, in a sequence that eases them into more complex ways of reasoning and thinking about the domain. These sequences or learning progressions often reflect the experts’ conceptual schemas of the discipline and are conceived as strategic models for instruction (Duschl et al., 2011).

The varied findings from current research on learning progressions underscore the complexity of teaching and learning, and imply that even ‘well-crafted’, standards-based, …

Splinters From The Bamboo Ceiling: Understanding The Experiences Of Asian American Men In Higher Education Leadership, Jerald Adamos

Doctoral Dissertations

Asian Americans continue to confront perceptions connected to the perpetual foreigner and model minority concepts which challenges their acceptance as leaders in mainstream American culture. Asian men have recently been able to attain higher levels of education that opens doors to higher level positions and organizations yet still face barriers to career advancement opportunities. In consideration of the American higher education system, Whites continue to exceed their proportional representation in areas of the institution while Asian Americans do not. The purpose of this study is to understand how the intersection of racial and gender identity has influenced leadership through the …

The Role Of Environment On Second Language Pragmatic Comprehension: A Case Study Of Intensive English Program Students In Homestays, Sarah Mcgregor

Doctoral Dissertations

There is insufficient research on the role of homestay accommodations on the development of pragmatic comprehension of students in intensive English programs (IEPs). This case study conducted in San Jose, California explored the experiences and perceptions of four IEP students in response to these questions: (1) In what ways do IEP students and their host families understand the role of homestays as part of their English language development? (2) What are IEP students’ in homestays awareness and comprehension of conversational implicatures? Research data included separate pre- and post-interviews with four students and a member of their host families, five student …

An Analysis Of The Local Control Funding Formula (Lcff) As An Instrument Of Recognition And Distribution Justice, Maeve Mulholland

Doctoral Dissertations

The 2013 Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) is the first substantive finance reform measure in California specifically designed to provide additional funding to targeted student groups. The present study adopts Nancy Fraser’s (1995) theory of distribution and recognition justice to examine the allocation of resources under the new formula. Critical quantitative methodology is employed to investigate if students identified as being in poverty, English Learners (ELs), and African-American students, benefit under the LCFF. Pre- and post-LCFF comparisons of district level per pupil dollar allocations from LCFF, Other State, Federal, and Local resources are conducted. The findings show that post-2013, funding …

Community Leader-Scholars With Refugee Experiences: Collective Hope, Healing, And Multi-Generational Resistance, Jane Pak

Doctoral Dissertations

Through a Critical Refugee Studies (CRS) lens that inherently challenges power, encourages multi-disciplinary approaches, and centers refugee epistemologies, this study centers ways of knowing and being among a group of ten Community Leader-Scholars (CoLS) with refugee experiences. This dissertation posits that CoLS offer critical perspectives that introduce new logics that disrupt traditional spaces and power dynamics. I frame CoLS as undergraduate or graduate students (or recent alumni) with refugee experiences who have self-identified and illustrated a commitment to community well-being in one or more of their transnational communities. This study employed qualitative research methods that included 10 interviews and four …

Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflect On College Life In The Midst Of Islamophobia, Diba Ataie

Doctoral Dissertations

Muslims make up more than 1.8 billion people of the world population and have been displaced globally in waves due to the political tension in their homeland. The tragedy of 9/11 forever changed the landscape of this nation for Muslim Americans and created hostility and fear. Islamophobia has been on the rise after the post 9/11 era, but due to the 2016 election cycle Muslim Americans have been placed under direct scrutiny. Muslim Americans were targeted and threatened with a Muslim registry and implemented a Muslim Ban to further ostracise them. The post 9/11 generation of Muslim American youth were …

Exploring Ways To Bring Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Into Rehabilitative Programs, Reginold P. Daniels

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study analyzes the effectiveness of a culturally relevant prison rehabilitation program carried out with 41 inmates at a California jail. The aspect of prison rehabilitation has not received enough attention by researchers previously. In this case, the author conducted an in-depth quantitative analysis on a survey with participants that he was teaching. Regression analysis was used to explore the data. The results of the regression indicated that the culturally-relevant instructor significantly enhanced violence prevention (r (37) = .410, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the study also found that cultural relevance significantly impacted communication and relationship skills (r (37) = .423, p < 0.05).

Saffronizing California’S History Curriculum: Long Distance Hindu Nationalism In The United States, Pei-Hsuan Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

How U.S. public schools teach South Asian history has been a site of contestation since the 2000s. California’s solicitation of community input into its history curriculum has brought ideological clashes to the California Department of Education (CDE); these conflicts over South Asian history are an extension of struggles in India driven by rising Hindu nationalism, a widespread movement for a “Hindus-first” India that brutalizes subaltern groups and dissenters. This violence is often justified through manufactured histories demonizing Indian minorities and glorifying an ancient, Hindu civilization.

This dissertation focused on the 2016-2017 controversy surrounding the CDE’s process to revise its history …

Borderlands Of Teenage Mothering: Life Stories Of Latinx Teen Mothers From A Critical Feminist Perspective, Ashley Burciaga

Doctoral Dissertations

Borderlands of Teenage Mothering: Life Stories of Latinx Teen Mothers from a Critical Feminist Perspective Rather than trying to understand and support teenage mothers, society has stigmatized and marginalized them, even more so for women of color. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of teenage mothers of color as they reflected back on their teenage years in school, at home, and in their communities. Participants were asked to photograph people, places, and things that reminded them of their time as a teen mom. Open-ended semi-structured interview questions along with photo elicitation were implemented to support the …

African-American Christian Female Missionaries In Nyasaland, Congo, And Liberia: Perpetuation And Resistance At The Intersections Of Blackness, Gender, Disability, And Christianity, Karen Yvette Dace

Doctoral Dissertations

Events are taking place in the United States today regarding blackness, gender, disability, and Christianity, and the perceived place of those with black and brown bodies. Current efforts have focused on blackness and gender, blackness and disability, gender and disability, and disability and Christianity; but there has not been concerted efforts focusing on the historical intersections of blackness, gender, disability, and Christianity and how these intersections help in understanding the contemporary black social movement and the climate in which we now live.

The purpose of this qualitative study sought to understand the narratives of Christian mission agencies and how African-American …

Promoting Tolerance Through Learning About Human Evolution And Creation Myths, Afsoon Alishahi

Doctoral Dissertations

The role that religion plays in the lives of humans is complex, contradictory, and deeply impactful. According to Allport (1979), religion has a paradoxical function in that it can either combat or contribute to prejudice. A meta-analysis by Hall, Matz, and Wood (2010) found a significant correlation between being deeply religious and having racial prejudice. Similarly, many social scientific studies since 1940 have concluded that religious individuals are more prejudiced than less religious individuals (Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005).

Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether gaining knowledge about human evolution, creation myths, and their relationship to religious …

Critical Efforts Against White Supremacy: Reflections Of White Women On Anti-Racism Work Within Four-Year Colleges, Jennifer Bosco

Doctoral Dissertations

A disconnect exists between intended outcomes of inclusivity on college campuses and the failure of these institutions to recognize and act against oppressive legacies on campus. Cabrera (2014) asserts that few studies have directly critiqued the policies and procedures of institutions of higher education using a whiteness framework. Aniagolu (2011) states that white women have acted as ‘co-whites’ alongside white men to sustain racialized policy, disparity in civil and social structures, and the hidden agenda of white supremacy. When using a racial and gendered intersectional lens in research, white women are a protected class, saved from the microscope of critical …

A Qualitative Research Study On Unaccompanied Minors From Latin America, Lorena Caldera

Doctoral Dissertations

The focus of this study is on a unique immigrant population — unaccompanied minors who have migrated to the U.S. from Latin America, particularly Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The purpose of this qualitative research study is to explore, describe, and understand the migration stories of unaccompanied minors who have migrated to the U.S. from Latin America. Using Lee’s (1966) “Theory of Migration,” this study aimed to uncover the push and pull factors that are motivating youth migration to the U.S. from Latin America, including the social pressures, economic factors, lack of educational and economic opportunities, life-threatening violence, safety …

The Relative Importance Of Six Classes Of School-Readiness Variables With Academic Achievement In Elementary- School Students: A Growth Analysis Of The Ecls-K:2011, Kimberly Kalkbrenner

Doctoral Dissertations

School readiness is a multi-variable construct that includes six classes of variables: (a) cognitive knowledge and skills, (b) social and emotional skills, (c) physical skills and health, (d) family structure and home environment, (e) access to community resources, and (e) early school experiences. The problem with school readiness is that the six classes have been studied separately but never together, which raises the question, what variables make children the most ready to succeed academically in school? Answering this question may help to address the achievement gap because differences in students’ academic achievement can be linked to differences in school readiness. …

Navigating The Racialized Neoliberal Gaze: Asian American Women Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Professionals In U.S. Higher Education, Ariana Dasgupta

Doctoral Dissertations

Substantial research has addressed the experience of Asian American students in higher education (Hune, 2002; Ng & Lee, 2007; Buenavista, Jayakumar, & Misa-Escalante, 2009; Museus & Chang, 2009; Museus & Kiang, 2009; Pak, Maramba, & Hernandez, 2014; Palmer & Maramba, 2015), and a growing body of literature explores the state of Asian American faculty in higher education (Lee, 2002; Li & Beckett, 2005; Lin, Pearce, & Wang, 2009; Yook 2013). Though research examining how Asian American administrators experience higher education is increasing (Suzuki, 2002; Neilson, 2004; Neilson & Suyemoto, 2009; Li-Bugg, 2011; Reeves, 2015), no studies to date have examined …

The Pilgrims’ Return: The Influence Of The Assisi Pilgrimage On High School Participants, Christopher Michael Iwancio

Doctoral Dissertations

Catholic schools were founded to assist parents in the passing of the faith to their children (Second Vatican Council, 1965; SCCE, 1994). Despite this mission, research has indicated that in the United States there has been a disassociation Catholics from their faith (Pew, 2008, 2014; Smith and Denton, 2005; St. Mary’s Press and CARA, 2018). Programming was developed to encourage youths’ faith development and their active membership in the Catholic Church (Denton and Smith, 2005; USCCB, 1997). One program, pilgrimages, has seen an increase in participants across the world (Cleary, 2017; Harris, 2010, Rymarz, 2008). This mixed-method study sought to …

Remaking Friendship In Unlikely Places: Queer-Decolonial Educators And Connections Across Experience, Politics, And Pedagogy, Maureen Nicole Osborne

Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past decade, queer and trans advocacy has garnered increased attention in political, popular, and educational debates. The current prevailing models to explain and justify gender and sexual difference rely on understandings of selfhood that were developed in colonial, clinical, U.S., white, and middle-class cultural contexts. The cultural particularity of these most-accessible models has produced marginalization of queer and trans students and educators who have different understandings of gender and sexual difference. Queer-decolonial educators are individuals who are critical of colonial, Western understandings of gender, sexuality, and difference more broadly. These educators often work within contexts that do not …

Anti-Oppressive Education With A “Different Kind Of Rigor”: Teachers’ And Adminstrators’ Perspectives Of A Social Justice Education Program At An Affluent Public High School, Andrea Frances Struve

Doctoral Dissertations

Affluent youth often experience intense pressure to succeed academically, while conforming to narrow definitions of success that only serve to replicate the power and privilege of their own communities. Therefore, students schooled in affluent settings need to understand and problematize the roots and impact of their power and privilege, a process requiring awareness of and empathy with the experiences of others less fortunate. Social justice education is uniquely equipped to help students do exactly that. Using a qualitative design, this case study of a social justice education program in an affluent public high school explored how teachers committed to this …

Long-Term Effects Of Teacher Training And Other Intervening Factors On Teaching Styles Of Foreign-Language Instructors, Hamid Mohammed-Ahmed

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the long-term effects of a learner-centered-oriented-teacher training on teaching styles of foreign-language instructors at a multilanguage institute to assess the relationship between the training and the teaching practice. A mixed-method design was employed, and the data were collected from 165 participants who took the Principles of Adult Learning Style (Conti, 1978, 2004) and who provided their written reflections on the training, in addition to follow-up interviews with 12 language instructors. Results of one-sample t tests showed statistically significant differences between the teaching styles of language instructors at the institute and the general population of adult educators indicating …

Flipping The Script: Prioritizing The Autistic Voice In The Understanding Of Scriping As “Key To Autistic Identity”, Colleen D. Arnold

Doctoral Dissertations

Traditional research regarding communication differences for autistic individuals, including scripting (“delayed echolalia”) is grounded in the pathology paradigm and thus emphasizes the elimination of scripting, without looking at the features and benefits it serves the individual utilizing it. This study, by prioritizing the autistic voices as the resounding experts on the topic of scripting, attempts to identify the communicative features and benefits of scripting, as well as how the dynamics of the conversation partner impact the exchange, both positively and negatively. Further, the research looks at the features of scripting as described by autistic adults. It also addresses the pressures …

Effects Of Think-Aloud Protocol On The Mathematical Problem-Solving Skills Of Seventh- And Eighth- Grade Students With Learning Disabilities, Nasa Lesley Cole

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a cognitive- and metacognitive-strategy instruction on the mathematical problem-solving performance and metacognitive experience of 22 seventh- and eighth-grade students with learning disabilities. When solving mathematical word problems, students with learning disabilities typically lack self-regulation processes (Larson & Gerber, 2002) tend to respond impulsively, to use trial and error, and fail to evaluate or verify their solutions (Bryant, Bryant, & Hammermill, 2000). This study used the Metacognitive Experience Survey (MES), two sets of three mathematical-word-problem probes of varying complexity levels, and think-aloud protocols to measure intervention effect. The first research …

Prevention And Education: A Case Study Of An Anti-Human Trafficking Nongovernmental Organization In Mumbai, India, Danielle Kraaijvanger

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the role of community-based NGOs in developing and delivering prevention interventions and nonformal education programs that work to end human trafficking of at-risk women and children. Specifically, the study explored the intersection between human trafficking and education, and the critical role NGOs play in human trafficking prevention. Essential to understanding this phenomenon was giving voice to the experiences of children who are the recipients of such prevention and education interventions.

An international community-based, anti-human trafficking NGO—Prerana—served as the case study setting. Direct observations and participant interviews …