Higher Education Commons^™

2021-December-01-Tri-Cities Proclaims Friday 'Blue And Gold Day', University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. —  The Tri-Cities may be lit up in a rainbow of colors for the holiday season, but, this Friday, the region is going all in on blue and gold. Leaders in Bristol, Jonesborough, Johnson City and Kingsport are all declaring Friday, Dec. 3, “Blue and Gold Day” in celebration of the East Tennessee State University football team’s run for the national championship. Mayors Mahlon Luttrell, Chuck Vest, Joe Wise, and Pat Shull are encouraging area residents to decorate homes, schools and businesses in blue and gold and wear the ETSU colors on Friday. 

“East Tennessee State University …

2021-December-01-Paleontologists Discover Extinct Relative Of Tennessee State Wildflower, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – For Tennesseans, passion flowers are a point of regional pride, officially designated as a Tennessee state flower back in 1919. Now, a century later, paleontologists have found fossil evidence of an extinct Appalachian passion flower species, Passiflora appalachiana, previously unknown to science. 

This ancient species is unique to the fossil record of Tennessee, museum officials said, and it is proof that these flowers have adorned the local landscape for millions of years.

The fossils were found at the Gray Fossil Site, overseen by the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology at East …

2021-December-Uh Alumni Homecoming Newsletter December 2021, University School, East Tennessee State University, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Link to University School Alumni Homecoming Newsletter, December 2021

Greetings to our University, Training and Model School Alumni, we hope this message finds each of you doing well!  As we wrap up the semester and final school week for 2021, I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your continued support of University School. The tradition of excellence which has been established at University School is one that we value tremendously and take great pride in continuing!  We believe this is a direct impact of the commitment of our alumni, staff (both past and present) …

Taylor Forstner Honors Portfolio, Taylor Lynn Forstner

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Taylor Forstner's honors portfolio captured in December 2021.

Dylan Riess Honors Portfolio, Dylan James Riess

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Dylan Riess' honors portfolio captured in December 2021.

Building Community Using Experiential Education With Elementary Preservice Teachers In A Social Studies Methodology Course, Stephanie Speicher

Journal of Global Education and Research

There is urgency for teacher educators to instruct preservice teachers in the tenants of social justice education. This urgency is based upon the American demographic landscape and the responsibility of educators to teach for social justice. Preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to educate for social justice when entering the classroom setting (citations from below). Feelings of incompetence in social justice teaching expressed among preservice teachers coupled with minimal examination in the literature of the effects of teacher education practices that aid in the readiness to teach for social justice provided the foundation for this study. This study examined experiential …

Female First-Generation College Students: A Review Of Challenges And Successes, Junghwan Kim, Sarah M. Miller, Jihee Hwang, Joann S. Olson

Journal of Global Education and Research

With increasing college access rates of underrepresented populations in recent years, first-generation college students (FGCSs), those who are the first in their family to attend college, have caught the attention of researchers and policymakers in the U.S. higher education system. This study focused on female FGCSs to identify the various challenges that are unique to this population. Through a systematic literature review, 13 studies were analyzed related to female FGCSs. Three themes were found from the analysis: role expectations, support systems, and socioeconomic background. These explain the challenges and self-identified strategies that female FGCSs discussed as contributing factors to their …

Developing Cultural Intelligence: Experiential Interactions In An International Internship Program, Lisa Lambert Snodgrass, Margaret Hass, Mehdi Ghahremani

Journal of Global Education and Research

In recent years, the demand for more culturally competent candidates has risen as employers seek workers highly adaptable to the global marketplace. Study abroad internship programs offer a rich training ground for college students to gain valuable international and intercultural career experience. This study examined the effects of experiential program design on the cultural intelligence of participants in an international internship program. College students from a large Midwestern university were enrolled in an international internship program in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Lima, Peru; or Seoul, South Korea. The program design incorporated principles of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) to increase student reflection …

2021-12-01 Caudill Connection, Morehead State University. Caudill College Of Arts, Humanities And Social Sciences.

Caudill Connection

Caudill Connection newsletter for December 1, 2021.

As Catholic Schools Become More Diverse, How Should We Prepare New Catholic School Educators For Inclusive Schools? An Analysis Of Research On University And Diocesan Teacher Training, Rebekka J. Jez, Julie C. Cantillon, Lauren H. Ramers, Melissa M. Burgess

Journal of Catholic Education

Educators can improve academic and socio-emotional wellbeing of their students if they are equipped with strategies and skills to support learners and families from a variety of diverse backgrounds and experiences, such as culturally and linguistically diverse students, students with differing abilities, and those who may experience trauma and/or socio-economic challenges. To learn more about this topic a Catholic university and local diocese examined the literature on the impact of Catholic teachers in under-resourced schools, practices for training Catholic educators with skills to meet the needs of all learners, and the structures needed to ensure that diocesan and university supervisors …

Applying Rerum Novarum Towards The Academic Service-Learning (Asl) Reflection Process For Promoting Ethical Leadership In Post-Secondary Students, Henry J. Davis

Journal of Catholic Education

Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum is considered one of the first major works to introduce Catholic social thought on a global level. A key message undergirding Rerum is the concept of supporting the needs of others, leading to empowerment and self-sufficiency. The purpose of this study was to create a list of reflection prompts informed by Rerum for post-secondary students to consider and apply towards their academic service-learning experiences. Through qualitative analysis, three main themes related to Rerum’s key message were identified: (a) opportunity to obtain resources; (b) intrinsic right to continual resources; and, (c) communal support of families …

Reducing Transphobic Attitudes: A Cross-National Investigation Of College Students In Japan And The United States, Kazusa Seko

Dissertations and Theses

Transgender people routinely experience discrimination and mistreatment. Although transphobic attitudes vary from country to country, a more in-depth understanding of these attitudes is needed. Using a semi-structured online survey, this study investigates college students' attitudes toward transgender people in Japan and the United States, a cross-national comparison that aims to deepen our understanding of how transphobic attitudes are shaped and what opportunities exist to reduce transphobia amongst college students. Results show that Japanese students express more transphobic attitudes than U.S. students do; and that U.S. students had more experience with gender-based educational content and were more likely to know someone …

Jited: A Framework For Jit Education In The Classroom, Caleb Watts

Master's Theses

The study of programming languages is a rich field within computer science, incorporating both the abstract theoretical portions of computer science and the platform specific details. Topics studied in programming languages, chiefly compilers or interpreters, are permanent fixtures in programming that students will interact with throughout their career. These systems are, however, considerably complicated, as they must cover a wide range of functionality in order to enable languages to be created and run. The process of educating students thus requires that the demanding workload of creating one of the systems be balanced against the time and resources present in a …

Dreamers: Stories Of Daca Recipients In Higher Education During The 2018-2021 Political Climate, Alicia Billini

Dissertations

Immigration has been a longstanding conversation, or debate, in American politics and society throughout history. Whether, or how much, to embrace immigrant populations into U.S. society has been a source of polarization over time, specifically as related to the handling or treatment of undocumented immigrants. A particularly acute dimension of this issue in the United States is the question of undocumented immigrants who were brought into this country as children illegally by their parents (Council on Foreign Relations, 2021). Efforts to address the needs of this unique population of immigrants have been caught between the historically and widely divergent values …

Exploring That Fulbright Magic: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Of Fulbright-Mescyt Alumni Who Return To The Dominican Republic, Joshabel De La Cruz

Dissertations

International higher education graduates may experience challenges related to reentry to their home countries as their expectations upon returning home may not match their reality (Alandejani, 2013; Butcher, 2002, Gaw, 2000). This study utilizes a transcendental phenomenological approach to understand the lived experiences of seven Fulbright-MESCYT alumni who completed U.S. graduate degree programs and returned home to the Dominican Republic (DR) between 2015 and 2018. The Fulbright-MESCYT Program in the DR is a joint initiative of the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo and the Dominican Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT) and adds funding for up to 10 …

2021-December-01-Etsu Professor Writes About Plantation Sites Remembering Slavery, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – Plantation sites have the ability to better tell the histories of former slaves in the United States. 

That point drives the new book, “Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum.” East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Candace Forbes Bright is one of the book’s authors. 

Examining multiple plantation sites across the American South, these scholars consider the experiences of tourists, museum managers and tour guides.  

As the public and scholars alike debate how to best understand and remember slavery in the U.S., this work is designed to help professionals reassemble the narratives and landscapes of …

2021-December-01-Etsu Health Family Medicine Accepting New Patients, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – A heart for ministering to others paired with a love for science drove Dr. Allison Powers to obtain her medical degree and to pursue opportunities to serve others.

She is accepting new patients at ETSU Health Family Medicine Johnson City.

Powers offers the full scope of family medicine care for all stages of patients’ lives, including acute inpatient care, pediatrics, obstetrics and office procedures. 

“You will receive excellent care through ETSU Family Medicine Johnson City,” Powers said. 

“We are able to provide for many of your health needs in one medical home, while working with a …

Writing Myths: Interpreting And Translating Meaning, Naomi Robinson

Postgraduate

Myths and stories are integral communication devices that cross both lived and shared experience while manifesting through internal and external meaning-making processes. To determine the nature of myths in and as popular culture, this project sought to use practise-led methods. In addition to storytelling and thematic analysis, this project involved the interpretation and adaptation of an ancient myth into a modern television series. By considering television shows as conduits of socio-political agendas, the creative process culminating in this exegesis highlighted how the perpetual influence of myths through knowledge, reference, and experience can be manipulated to drive cultural change.

As an …

Social And Academic Experiences Of Black, First-Generation, College Graduates While Attending Predominantly White Institutions, James Edward Stukes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

First-generation college students represent a significant percentage of all college students and comprise various sub-identities and unique backgrounds. Compared to continuing generation college students, many first-generation students arrive on college campuses without complete understanding of how to navigate college life. Factors, such as family support, finding a sense of belonging, and the availability of resources and campus support, play key roles in the overall success of first-generation college students. The current study sought understanding of these aspects of college life and their relationship to the success of Black, first-generation, graduates of predominantly White institutions.

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological …

A Causal Comparative Study Of Stem Persistence Between Supported And Non-Supported Stem Interested Students, Elizabeth Bernardi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many students who enter a STEM track in college move out of that track before graduation (National Science Foundation, 2018). The purpose of this study was to assess whether there was a difference in STEM-related major persistence for population proportions of students actively involved in the Science Scholars program and those who were STEM-interested but not program participants. This program oriented students to the STEM program, facilitated engagement with peers and faculty, exposed students to research opportunities, and filled in potential learning gaps (Gibson et al., 2019).

The questions guiding the current research included:

Q1. Was there a statistically significant …

On Analysing Student Resilience In Higher Education Programs Using A Data-Driven Approach, Audrey Tedja Widjaja, Ee-Peng Lim, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Analysing student resilience is important as research has shown that resilience is related to students’ academic performance and their persistence through academic setbacks. While questionnaires can be conducted to assess student resilience directly, they suffer from human recall errors and deliberate suppression of true responses. In this paper, we propose ACREA, ACademic REsilience Analytics framework which adopts a data-driven approach to analyse student resilient behavior with the use of student-course data. ACREA defines academic setbacks experienced by students and measures how well students overcome such setbacks using a quasi-experimental design. By applying ACREA on a real world student-course dataset, we …

“To Educate And Liberate?” Moving From Coloniality To Postcoloniality In The International Branch Campus Model

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Uab Receives Funding To Support Early-Career Investigators Impacted By Covid-19 Pandemic, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Students' Evaluations Of Black Faculty At Historically White Institutions: A Causal- Comparative Study, Kathleen Carter Gentry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With a call for greater accountability, institutions of higher education have focused upon student evaluations to measure teacher effectiveness to ensure that students are learning. Education researchers have revealed that Black faculty reported negative experiences within academe such as microaggressions, insults, and not being regarded as credible scholars by students and other faculty. Very little research examines the role that race plays in students’ evaluations of Black faculty from the viewpoints of students. This quantitative, nonexperimental, causal-comparative dissertation investigates 210 students’ evaluation scores of actual university faculty as measured by academic competence, sensitivity to students, instructional effectiveness, and their viewpoints …

First-Year Student Leadership Readiness Among Cccu Member Institutions Citing Leadership In Their Mission Statement, Dawn B. Meadows

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities has 121 members, 45 of which cite leadership as an institutional value within their mission statement; programs and curriculum are designed to help graduates attain this value as they earn a degree. Traditional-age, first-year students who enroll in these institutions may or may not hold the same view of leadership, based on past experience or training. As a new generation of students rises to enroll in these institutions, a consideration of the view of leadership held by both the institution, who have a specifically Christian worldview, and the students who enroll in them …

Introducing Global Citizenship In Language Teacher Education Through The Un’S Sustainable Development Goals, Ramsés Ortín

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The present chapter describes a pedagogical intervention administered in an undergraduate ESL teacher training program. The purpose of this pedagogical innovation was to train future language teachers to incorporate Global Citizenship related objectives into their future practice by using the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) as reference. Pre-service teachers (N = 10) taking part in this study participated in a three-phase training in which they were first introduced to the topic, then, asked to apply the discussed approach to the design of language learning materials, and finally, they completed a reflection task. The analysis of the last task …

The Effects Of Audio/Visual Stimulation And Virtual Reality To Increase The Rate Of Retention In First Semester Freshmen Graphic Communications Students, Hanna Gibson

All Theses

In March of 2020, the world entered the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving educators to answer the question, "how do we teach in a virtual environment?". This was especially difficult for deeply rooted STEM programs such as Graphic Communications at Clemson University. This research aims to analyze multiple methods of virtual teaching for correlation between enhanced retention rates.

This thesis attempts to solve the problem facing global STEM educators when they are attempting to prepare material for students in a virtual environment. This is achieved by presenting them with how different methodologies impact the retention rate on freshmen level students enrolled in …

Recalibrating Student Services: Examining Staff Perceptions Of Services During Covid-19, Justin White

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a result of the 2019 global coronavirus pandemic, nearly every business and industry in the United States was forced to adapt its operations to accommodate the restrictions that a community health crisis necessitated. This study examined the experiences of front-line Enrollment Services staff while serving students during the pandemic at one community college in the Midwestern United States. The study focused on staff perceptions of how college policies, processes, and leadership affected the student onboarding experience that encompasses the complete path a student takes from beginning as an applicant to becoming an enrolled student in the classroom. The study …

International Students In The Campus Carry Debate: A Descriptive Phenomenological Inquiry, Andre Richardo Grant

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study purposefully sampled 15 graduate international students at a Southern University (SU). Semi-structured interviews were used to determine their perceptions and attitudes regarding the implementation of campus carry policies at the institution. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: How has the implementation of the campus carry policy at SU impacted international students’ perceptions of their experiences at the institution? How has the implementation of campus carry policies at SU influenced international students’ perceptions of the social ecology of the institution? and How did SU formally include international students in the on-campus campus carry policy …

2021-December-01-Entrepreneurship-In-Residence Program Announced At Etsu, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the region, the College of Business and Technology at East Tennessee State University has announced the start of its Entrepreneurship-In-Residence (EIR) program, exposing student candidates to startup investment decisions.  

The program is a collaborative effort between The Angel Roundtable (ART) of the Appalachian Highlands and the Entrepreneurship Program at ETSU’s College of Business and Technology. The Angel Roundtable is a network of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and community business leaders from Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina who provide investment capital and strategic advice to late-seed and early-stage companies to …