Other Education Commons^™

Perfecting The Pride Of All Nebraska, David Swotek

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

For my thesis, I completed a creative project focusing on my involvement in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. I created a documentary/YouTube-style video about the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhusker Marching Band and how much work goes into creating their performances. I wanted to see what work happens behind the scenes that their large audiences never get to see.

To get all the information I needed to create an efficient and effective piece, I interviewed 13 band students ranging in years, instruments, ranks, etc. It was very important to get a large range of perspectives on this piece because …

Conagra Brands Strategic Audit, Ashley R. Nierman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensive strategic audit of Conagra Brands, Inc., a major company in the consumer-packaged foods industry. The audit evaluates the external environment of Conagra, including a PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five Forces analysis. Various industry factors that affect Conagra’s operations are taken into consideration. It will also explain the internal environment of Conagra using tools such as a SWOT analysis, financial performance review, and strategy explanation. Key areas of focus include shifting demands, including consumers’ desire for more healthy and sustainable food options, recent political and economic factors, competitive advantages of Conagra, …

A Strategic Audit Of Cnh Industrial, Cassidy Hoffman, Derek Huss, Maren Tuell, Cami Chapin, Megan Berg

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This research examines CNH Industrial, a leading global agricultural machinery company, and its strategic approach to innovation, sustainability, and customer loyalty. Operating under brands like CASE IH and New Holland Agriculture, CNH focuses on integrating advanced technology into its products, such as precision agriculture tools, to enhance efficiency, optimize fuel savings, and support sustainable agricultural practices. The company’s comprehensive business model, which spans from product development to financing, fosters strong customer retention and brand loyalty.

Through a differentiation strategy, CNH maintains competitiveness in the face of intense market rivalry, particularly with industry leader John Deere. This study analyzes CNH’s ability …

May 2025 Bulldog Alumni & Friends News, Kari Jones, Garrett King

Bulldog Alumni & Friends News

May 9

SWOSU Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony & Dinner

May 9-10

SWOSU Spring Commencement

June 6-7

SWOSU Football Alumni Weekend

June 19

SWOSU Near You: Elk City

July 16

SWOSU Near You: Amarillo

July 31

SWOSU Near You: Eischen’s

July 28 - August 8

Online SWOSU Athletic Auction

August 8

SWOSU Athletic Hall of Fame

August 9

SWOSU Athletic Auction

Am I Woke Enough To Serve In Healthcare: A Secondary Analysis Of Pre-Health Students’ Personal And Professional Growth By Engaging In Cultural Competency Assessments, Harolynn Williams

All Dissertations

Healthcare providers must be equipped to serve an increasingly diverse population, yet cultural competence remains underemphasized in undergraduate pre-health education. This study explored how embedded cultural competency training influences undergraduate pre-health students’ perceptions of personal and professional growth. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the research incorporated intercultural assessments, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), and the Global Competence Certificate (GCC), along with qualitative reflections from students enrolled in three versions of a cultural competence course: a year-long course, a semester-long course, and a short-term study abroad immersion six-week course. Findings revealed that students demonstrated measurable growth in cultural awareness, knowledge, communication, …

Non-Esl High School Teachers’ Instructional Training And Professional Development Needs And Their Emergent Bilingual Student Classrooms, Brynn Erin Caddell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. emergent bilingual student population continues to grow and is projected to increase nationwide. The growing population of students has specific academic and social needs that need to be addressed and provided for emergent bilingual students to be successful. This qualitative case study examined the instructional needs of high school non-English as a second language (ESL) teachers who serve emergent bilingual students and how the district can support the instructional practices of high school teachers in an urban school district in Texas. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of instructional training and professional development for secondary …

An Exploration Of The Influence Of Occupational Mentorship On The Success Of Black Female Executive Leaders In Educational Sales, Bashelia H. Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dearth of Black women in executive-level leadership roles within U.S. business organizations persists due to numerous barriers such as tokenism; racial fatigue; stereotypes; a lack of identity; and the intersection of race, gender, and social injustices impeding their upward mobility in the educational sales industry. Despite recognizing the potential for change through tools and programs, the absence of robust occupational mentorship emerges as a pivotal barrier hindering the transformation of Black women’s roles in these educational sales environments. The sample size for this hermeneutical qualitative study was seven Black women in the K–12 educational sales industry. Data collection methods …

Career And Technical Education Classes And Time To Graduate For Special Education Students With Specific Learning Disabilities, Susan Steele

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether special education students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) participating in Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes during high school demonstrate significantly different amounts of time to graduation compared to their peers who do not participate in CTE classes.

Data collection involved using pre-existing information from the district's student information system. An Excel spreadsheet with relevant student demographic and academic information was utilized. The district data manager provided a spreadsheet with 3,567 student records to analyze differences between CTE and non-CTE participants. The results revealed that CTE participation significantly impacted graduation rates, …

Cartoons From The 2000s: The Representation Of Disability And A Culture Of Inclusion, Alessia Rosa, Claudia Chellini

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Representations of diversity and otherness in cartoons offer metaphors for identity that can affect children’s perceptions and attitudes towards the potential and challenges associated with various forms of disability. This contribution analyses a corpus of animations made up of feature films, series, and short films with a focus on how disability is represented. It examines the role that characters with physical or mental disabilities play in the story, the structure of narratives in which disability is presented as an integral part of reality, and the types of disability explored in the stories. The image that emerges is one in which …

Media Quiteracy: Why Digital Disconnection Belongs In The Media Literacy Curriculum, Katie Day Good, Michelle Ciccone

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this essay, we introduce media quiteracy, which we use to conceptualize and describe the valuable learning that can happen through the refusal to take up new media or the act of pausing or ceasing its use. We see media quiteracy as an active and generative approach to learning and argue for its inclusion in the media literacy curriculum. We trace the history of critical engagement with technologies within education and then articulate what media quiteracy can look like in practice. We surface and discuss three potential obstacles to teaching media quiteracy, which include the ways in which it …

Centering Relation In Media Literacy Practice, Paul Mihailidis, Bobbie Foster, Shannon Burth, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Melissa Tully, Patrick Johnson

Journal of Media Literacy Education

As calls for media literacy in formal and informal learning spaces continue to grow, educators’ understanding of media literacies and their purposes remains complex. In 2021, the authors of this paper led a multi-methods research project on media literacy education in the United States, focusing on impact and equity. Findings showed that educators share a commitment to equity and justice but are unclear on how to incorporate them into their work. In response, our research team developed a field guide that maps out equitable media literacy practices for classrooms and communities. In this study, we detail the findings from 11 …

Digital Literacy For Participating In Presidential Election: A Study On Indonesian Students, Marwiyah Marwiyah, Labibah Zain, Aliva D. Kamila, Thoriq T. Prabowo

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Digital literacy is needed during the presidential election. This study aims to determine the level of digital literacy of Indonesian students concerning what they do with social media information in facing the 2024 presidential election. We conducted a survey in which questionnaires were used as a research instrument to measure the four digital competencies: technical skill, information usage, communication, and creation. The questionnaires are sent to four Indonesian public universities. One hundred ninety-seven students from four State Islamic Universities (Universitas Islam Negeri) participated in this study. We used the mean and percentage score for the data analysis. The research result …

Assessing The Impact Of Media And Information Literacy On Creative Video Content Production, Reem M. Al-Zou’Bi

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study explores the impact of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) on developing creative video production skills among undergraduate students at Al al-Bayt University, Jordan. The sample consisted of 60 students divided into an experimental group (MIL course) and a control group (Educational Foundations course). Using a quasi-experimental design, students’ video production skills were evaluated using a rubric covering nine key criteria, weighted based on expert input. Results showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in creative video production, highlighting MIL’s role in enhancing these skills. Notably, both groups emphasized content integrity similarly, while the MIL group …

Cognitive Diagnosis Of Media And Digital Literacy Knowledge Schema In Mexican High School Students, Janneth Trejo-Quintana, Guadalupe E. Morales-Martinez, Betsabe Hernandez-Alvarez

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This research explored the mental representation of media and digital literacy (MDL) in 242 Mexican high school students through a definitional task based on the natural semantic networks technique. The participants defined ten target concepts related to MDL, using verbs, nouns, and adjectives as definers, and then they rated each definer with a scale from 1 to 10. The smaller the number, the lower the quality of the definer to conceptualize the target, while the higher the rating, the higher the quality of the definer to define it. The participants showed a beginner level in MDL despite their daily navigation …

Provision Of Brand Information And Critical Reasoning Predict Advertising Literacy, Eugene Zheng Yao, Alexandra List

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study investigated students’ critical reasoning about commercials, as an aspect of advertising literacy. Critical reasoning was examined under two different experimental conditions. That is, students were tasked with watching four different commercials with 1) brand information provided or not, and 2) asked to engage in critical reasoning or not. The commercials chosen used various production techniques (e.g., socially conscious marketing) to mask their persuasive message. Students provided with brand information within commercials had significantly higher critical reasoning scores when viewing two, out of the four, commercials, and significantly higher overall Analysis of Persuasive Intent (API) scores and brand recall. …

Effects Of Wikipedia Knowledge, Algorithm Awareness, And Reading Comprehension On Undergraduates’ Preference For And Use Of Lateral Reading Strategies To Evaluate Information, Arshia K. Lodhi, Patricia J. Brooks, C. Donnan Gravelle, Jessica E. Brodsky, Maryam Syed, Donna Scimeca

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Internet users are bombarded with information and need strategies to evaluate its trustworthiness. Expert fact-checkers rely on lateral reading, which involves investigating sources, finding better coverage, and tracing information back to original contexts. This study contrasted college students’ preference for and use of lateral reading to evaluate online content, and examined factors associated with variation in preference and use. Undergraduates (N = 483) often selected lateral reading as the preferred strategy for evaluating content (multiple-choice items) without demonstrating use of lateral reading (open-response tasks). Use of lateral reading was associated with higher Wikipedia knowledge, algorithm awareness, and reading comprehension; …

Spanish Education: Teaching Philosophy Learned From Best Practice And Student And Teacher Engagement., Olivia Anderson

Honors Theses

This honors thesis investigates best practices for teaching Spanish in K–12 settings by conducting qualitative interviews with Spanish teachers at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The study focuses on identifying effective strategies and classroom activities that promote student engagement and language proficiency while examining how teachers continue to develop professionally. Conscious of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL) Five C’s—Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities—the research highlights communication as the central pillar of language learning. Through detailed classroom examples, such as “Mapa del Martes,” student-created cooking videos, and Kagan Strategies, the thesis illustrates how …

Social Imagining In “Youth Taking Action:” Documenting Immigrating And Settling Through A Hybrid Youth Participatory Action Research Project, Natacha Monestel Mora, Julia Iriarte, Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur, Sediqa Temori, Mathias Abraha

Occasional Paper Series

This paper is a memoir of our experiences with Youth Taking Action (YTA), a YPAR program that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. YTA, a collaborative effort organized by a non-profit based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, provided a space for 6 newcomer youths and 4 immigrant adults to engage in active dialogue. Through these conversations, we explored stories of immigration and settlement, identified barriers that limit opportunities for young newcomers and discussed possible actions to address these issues. The youth also learned documentary filmmaking techniques, which helped them collect data and generate more dialogue. This process revealed that linguistic …

Mapping Mosquito Habitats With Girl Scouts: A Citizen Science Approach Using The “Mosquito Mission: Scout & Report!” Worksheet, Claire A. Klein

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Mosquitoes, though small, impact millions around the world by being significant vectors of diseases. The search for effective mosquito control efforts is ongoing, however, there is a gap in community involvement with a focus on recognizing and reducing potential breeding areas. Public engagement is a cornerstone of effective mosquito control. This honors thesis investigates the implementation of the Mosquito Mappers program with an original Girl Scout worksheet, “Mosquito Mission: Scout & Report!” This worksheet, which utilizes NASA’s GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper app, enables the Girl Scouts to contribute to real-time environmental monitoring. By guiding Girl Scouts through an inquiry-based …

Systemic Failures Of The Criminal Justice System, Isabella Lucero

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

America’s history as a nation that was founded on the unjust treatment of the people of color has forever shaped the way our justice system has evolved. From slavery to “Black Codes” to Jim Crow Laws, the system has never been set up for equal administration of justice. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate how the Criminal Justice System disadvantages and targets individuals at all stages of justice involvement, with a particular focus on individuals from communities of color.

An Uncharacteristic Case Presentation Of Functional Vision Disorder, Ramandeep Kaur Od, Theresa Zerilli-Zavgorodni Od, Nancy Shenouda-Awad Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Background: Functional Vision Disorder (FVD), also commonly referred to as functional vision loss (FVL) or non-organic vision loss (NOVL), is defined as a visual acuity (VA) loss and/or visual field (VF) loss, without any identifiable ocular or cortical pathology. Many clinicians look at FVD as a diagnosis of exclusion and while it is imperative to rule out organic pathology, FVD diagnosis must be supported by clinical findings that prove normal visual function. Incorporating supplementary tests specific for demonstrating the integrity of the visual system and the non-organic nature of the symptoms will allow clinicians to be more confident when diagnosing …

A Case Report Of Vitreopapillary Traction Mistaken For Optic Disc Edema, Breyne Middleton Od, Drew Anderson Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Background: Traction of the optic disc occurs during incomplete detachment of the posterior vitreous from the peripapillary glial tissue. It can sometimes cause the appearance of disc edema and bilateral cases can be confused with papilledema or cause patients to be worked up for pseudotumor cerebri.

Case Report: A patient presented with an outside diagnosis of unilateral optic disc edema and was found in fact to have vitreopapillary traction.

Conclusion: Costly, ultimately unnecessary testing such as magnetic resonance imaging can be sometimes avoided if vitreopapillary traction is considered as a differential for disc edema. It can be easily identified with …

Where Have All The Doctors Gone?, Paul B. Freeman Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Editorial

Relational Spiritual Knowing As An Educator Of Color: Navigating Predominantly White Educational Settings, Alicia L. Moore

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Abstract: This article explores the critical role of Relational Spiritual Knowing (RSK) as both a source of strength and a form of activism for African American educators navigating Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Through personal reflections and scholarly correlations, it examines how RSK empowers educators to assert their voices and identities in environments that have historically marginalized them. The integration of RSK into educational practices is presented as essential for creating more inclusive, equitable, and spiritually enriched academic spaces. The article also highlights the systemic challenges faced by African American educators, such as power dynamics, microaggressions, and tokenism, and how RSK …

Mobile Application For Historical Markers*, Kellen Erskine, Harvey Alférez

Campus Research Month

Students find it challenging to engage in their local history solely through in-class instruction. Traditionally, teachers remedy this by organizing field trips. However, field trips can be challenging because they are costly, time-consuming, and a liability to the school. Because of these issues, teachers cannot take the students on as many field trips as they would like. The solution is a web app that allows students to discover the historical sites in their areas. This enables the students to independently visit historical sites and gain the valuable out-of-classroom experience that field trips can help with. The web app was introduced …

South Carolina Teacher Workforce Profile For 2023–24., Angela Starrett, Brian Cartiff, Svetlana Dmitrieva

Reports

This report details South Carolina’s public school teacher workforce for the 2023–24 academic year as part of SC TEACHER’s mission to publish annual educator workforce profiles. These reports, along with SC TEACHER’s full breadth of research, share information and insights with educators, policymakers, community members, and other stakeholders.

The analysis in this report uses statewide data from 2023–24 and the most recent publicly available data from other sources to compare the demographics of South Carolina’s teacher workforce to other southeastern states and the nation. Results from 2023–24 are based on the analysis of data from 54,923 South Carolina teachers with …

Deconstructing Ideological Habits: An Analysis Of An Antiracist Place-Based Education Course, Terry John Stockton

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

White teachers enter culturally and racially diverse urban classrooms ill-prepared to teach. The resulting cultural mismatch contributes to educational disparities, including academic gaps and punitive imparities. Teacher education programs' attempts to address the gaps intend to immunize young teachers to the effects of implicit bias. However, the efforts do little to help teachers recognize how their implicit bias, in the form of ideological habits, created the need for a culturally responsive curriculum in the first place.

As part of a larger project, this study deconstructed three reflective essays assigned during an introductory place-based education course. The post-structural analysis used a …

Creation Of Hctc Works! Apprenticeship Services Program Evaluation At Hazard Community & Technical College, Keila H. Miller

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau College of Education at Morehead State University by Keila H. Miller on April 3, 2025.

“When Black Women Whisper”: An Exploration Of Why Black Women Stay In K-12 Education, Chelsea Lynne Murry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

From low retention rates to race and gender biases to being overworked and undervalued in the classroom, Black women leave education at higher rates than any other demographic. This study highlighted the experiences of Black women in K-12 education settings, the role of support systems in their retention and advancement, and why they stay in K-12 education. The study used Counter-storytelling in Critical Race Theory, Black Feminist Thought, and Womanism to examine the race and gender inequities that Black women face and to highlight their lived experiences. Through the use of Sista Circles/focus groups and one-on-one interviews, the research …

The Effects Of Diluted Fungicide On Western Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma Mavortium) Health, Sage Veomett

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Western Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma mavortium) is a species of salamander that is native to Nebraska. The Western Tiger Salamander population has been in decline, specifically in Southeast Nebraska (Ferraro, 2016). The purpose of this study was to determine whether low levels of Azoxystrobin fungicide deposited in the soil are harmful to the Western Tiger Salamander. In this study, soil in tanks containing pairs of Western Tiger Salamanders was treated with levels of Azoxystrobin 0.5x under the recommended label amount for usage. Fifteen salamanders in total were used. Four tanks of salamander pairs were treated with the Azoxystrobin …