Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Embracing Every Ability, Jacksiel Colon

Sociology

With time continuing, American education has progressively improved. Though there still remains much-needed improvement and some of that stands in the way of equality within the education system. Special education and special needs students experience inequality with accessibility, funding, and educational quality, on top of daily barriers due to personal limitations. Data from the 2006 General Social Survey (N=652), asked individuals to identify whether they had a mental/emotional disability. They were asked to assess federal spending on education. This study focuses on the factors encouraging individuals to support or not support increased spending on the education system. Mental/emotional ability, affiliated …

The Practical Applications Of Video Games Beyond Entertainment, Jack Martin

School of Professional Studies

Much of the attention directed toward video games is focused on their role as entertainment. However, researchers have found that video games can have other, more practical uses for society. This thesis is designed to examine three specific examples of the practical applications of video games: video games in education, video games as accessible technology, and the social uses of video games. This project is based on pre-existing research conducted by professionals studying the aforementioned subtopics. Anecdotal stories from educators, people with disabilities, and developers are also discussed. The thesis explores specific examples of video games being used practically, and …

Un-Affirmative Action: The Persistence Of Anti-Black Racism In The Higher Education System Of Postcolonial Brazil, Zakiya T. Daniel

Honors College Theses

Public education systems institutionalize the socialization process which directly disseminates cultural and national values and assimilates the population through mass education. But how does colonial-era anti-Black racism persist in the higher education institutions of contemporary postcolonial societies? Using the Federative Republic of Brazil as a case study, I examine the effects of incomplete decolonization, anti-Blackness, and the role of history, economics, and pedagogy on social outcomes that exclude and marginalize Black and other minority groups. The Brazilian higher education system follows a pattern centered around anti-Black racism which serves to disempower Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations during the colonial and …

Experiences Of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities Pre-Transition, Sydney Epps

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) - affectionately known as The Divine Nine - are places of support and leadership development for students. However, these groups espouse traditional gender role themes that align with sexual orientation and gender rigidity. This paper explores how four NPHC members negotiate their identity as both nonbinary or transgender, and Greek. Using the narrative inquiry approach, the researcher will explore how sorority members who no longer identify as cisgender women are treated post-gender transition by other sorority members.

The Queer Agenda: A Fluid Education, Charlee Corra

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Throughout this paper, I weave together various aspects of my identity in order to investigate how fluidity and questioning form an undercurrent of my being and therefore of the way I teach. Through metaphors and narratives of my experiences within environmental education and experiential learning I seek clarity and expansiveness rather than definitive answers, leaning into the certainty that change is inevitable and there are rarely any static answers. Using queerness, Judaism, and my scientific background as the layers of my unique identity lens and positionality, I explore the ways in which the power of questioning, critical thinking, democratic education …

Characteristics Of Brokers In Relation To The Migration Of Girls And Young Women In Ethiopia, Annabel Erulkar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This research brief focuses on brokers in Ethiopia—both licensed and unlicensed—who place migrating girls into jobs such as domestic work, waitressing, and commercial sex work. The characteristics of brokers, their contacts, ways of working, and how brokers both support and harm migrant girls is examined. Brokers sometimes provide support to girls that goes beyond job placement, such as providing girls with necessary help in their initial days, including financial assistance, short-term lodging, and food. Alternatively, brokers can be a source of considerable risk for girls. It was reported that brokers often exploit newly arriving girls for sex, expose them to …

Abriendo Oportunidades Strengthens Government Education Programming For Indigenous Adolescent Girls In Guatemala, Population Council

Research Utilization and Impact Briefs

For over 15 years, Abriendo Oportunidades has partnered with national and local authorities to improve educational prospects for indigenous girls. In Guatemala, evidence and ongoing technical assistance have helped to strengthen and expand the Ministry of Education’s alternative education programs for adolescents, ensuring they are responsive to the needs of indigenous rural communities.

The Link Between Nativity Status And Racial Infant Mortality Disparities, Hannah Pierson

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

The United States has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the developed world. Studies indicate infant mortality varies greatly across racial groups. Black women are twice as likely to report preterm birth or infant death relative to White women. Foreign-born Black women have similar rates to that of native-born White women rather than native-born Black women, suggesting the link between race and reproductive health is more complex than previously understood. Thus, this study examines the interplay between nativity, race, and reproductive health. The cumulative disadvantage perspective has been employed to better unpack how life course stressors may …

Design Thinking As A Common Language Between Higher Education And Employers, Johnna Denning-Smith

Dissertations

This qualitative study explores student skill preparedness for the work force through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with current college students, faculty members, and employers. Responses from study participants were transcribed, coded, and thematically organized into the following four categories of skills that employers seek in recent college graduates: critical thinking skills, resiliency, workplace skills, and discipline specific skills. The findings include participant perceptions of the importance of these skills and whether higher education effectively prepares recent graduates for the workforce. As part of this discussion, design thinking is presented as a bridge between these groups and as a solution …

Addressing Sexual Violence In K-12 Education, Taylor Bowie

McNair Scholars Manuscripts

Sexual assault has been widely recognized as a public health crisis for decades. Since at least the late 1980s, rates of sexual violence have been steady around 25% of women experiencing it by their freshman year of college. Our past and most prevalent prevention methods have consistently shown to be useless, as rates of violence have not decreased, and the results often do not lead to increased understanding about sexual assault and violence intervention. In recent years, college campuses have started to implement a new prevention education known as the bystander model. While the literature generally agrees it has some …

Thrown Off Course: School Suspension And Its Consequences For Students’ Educational Trajectories And Outcomes, Celina Cuevas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: The literature on exclusionary school discipline has repeatedly documented disparities in its use and its relationship to various negative outcomes, causing the use of suspensions to become a pressing concern in the United States. The goal of this dissertation is to add this body of literature by being the first to examine the educational trajectories youth take after first being suspended, and how the effect of school punishment on trajectories may be more severe for subgroups of students disproportionately affected by school discipline and often underserved in school settings.

Methods: New York City Department of Education data is used …

Two Books On Peace Education And Advocacy From The Philippines, Patricia M. Mische

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Peace Education In The Philippines: Measuring Impact, Jasmin Nario-Galace

The Journal of Social Encounters

In this essay I discuss the education and experiences that were important for my formation as a Peace Educator and Advocate. The essay also briefly looks at the issue of peace research, teaching and activism, and how we at the Miriam College –Center for Peace Education believe that research and teaching are important but not enough. I recount research I helped to conduct that shows that peace education had a positive impact on those who participated in it, and then go on to describe our successful Iobbying efforts with the Philippine government and at the United Nations. I conclude with …

Peace Education In The Philippines: My Journey As A Peace Educator And Some Lessons Learned, Loreta Navarro-Castro

The Journal of Social Encounters

In this essay I discuss the development of Peace Education in the Philippines. I also discuss my journey as a peace educator and organizer of peace education. I conclude with lessons that I learned in my work that may be useful for others interested in Peace Education and Advocacy.

Reflections On Peace Education And The Philippines, Patricia M. Mische

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay, written at the request of JSE editors as an introduction to its special section on Peace Education in the Philippines, discusses the meaning and importance of educating for peace in a globally interdependent but fractured world; shares reflections from the author’s personal journey as a learner/teacher/researcher engaged in peace education, with special attention to her experience in peace education in the Philippines from 1979 to 2020; and introduces two very accomplished Philippine peace educators and their work.

Strategies For Equitable Access: A Discussion On Public School District Enrollment, Lisa A. Gooden

Presentations and Speeches

Presentation prepared for the Equity Oriented Strategic Planning Committee for Kansas City Public Schools. Discussion includes an analysis of current practices and outcomes, potential future goals, and annotated examples of enrollment strategies employed by school districts in the United States designed to foster equitable access.

Dual Immersion Programs And Their Implications: Focused Analyses On The Educational History, Francisco Reynoso Barron

International Studies (MA) Theses

As a social construct, education fulfills the necessary elements, ideologies, and rituals required to construct social norms for society. What a society deems as a norm determines the sentiments and direction that a nation will take. These normative tendencies lead to national identity and national security through policies and legislation within the nations' utilization of sovereignty. National interest being influenced by global events and ethnocentric ideologies has seen cycles leading to different immigration, educational, and economic policies. This paper analyzes dual immersion programs, which have been treated as a controversial topic due to its implications on national security and identity. …

Strategies For Equitable Access: Identifying Benefits And Strategies For Creating Integrated Public Schools, Annotated Examples Of Current School District Enrollment Practices, And Resources For Further Exploration, Lisa A. Gooden

Faculty Works

Prepared for the Equity Oriented Strategic Planning Committee for Kansas City Public Schools. Includes a summary of the benefits of integrated schools, strategies for creating equitable schools, annotated examples of current practices employed by public school districts in the United States to foster equitable access to education, and list of links to additional resources for further reading.

Property, Wealth, Race, And Power: An Introduction To Critical Resource Theory, Andrew Whitfield

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

School funding inequality is an issue that has plagued America and the Commonwealth of Virginia for years (Owings & Kaplan, 2020). Understanding the role that funding plays in education is one that is of extreme importance today This study explored the relationship between income inequality and how education is funded. This study follows a quantitative study approach using correlational methods. This study takes multiple facets from Critcal Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Resource Dependency Theory to introduce a new theory, Critical Resource Theory The results indicated there is a practically significant relationship between income inequality and education funding. These findings …

Building Assets For Humanitarian Settings, Women's Refugee Commission, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document is the Women’s Refugee Commission and the Population Council’s adaptation of the Building Assets Toolkit and its core activity, the Asset Exercise, for use in humanitarian contexts. An asset-building exercise is a thoughtful way to build intentional program content for girls to determine what assets they need in order to survive and thrive. This is particularly important for programs intended to reach the poorest girls in the poorest communities based on sound evidence on the reality of their lives. The Council’s Building Assets Toolkit is rooted in this exercise, helping practitioners, policymakers, and advocates build tailored, meaningful, …

Understanding Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Perspectives Of Reconciliation: A Case Study, Kaitlyn Watson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Reconciliation in the Canadian context is difficult to define (Graeme & Mandawe, 2017; Martin, 2009), but is often linked to the residential school system (Chrisjohn & Wasacase, 2011; Nagy, 2012). This instrumental case study examines how reconciliation is understood and activated among a group of educators and community members involved with a professional learning event held in Southern Ontario inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Employing narrative inquiry, and informed by decolonizing methodologies, seven event organizers, four presenters, and five attendees participated in conversational interviews. Two main themes were uncovered from the interview data. The first, reconciliation …

Felony Disenfranchisement: Factors Relating To Support For Restoration, Alexis K. Karpf

Student Theses

Felony Disenfranchisement, a collateral consequence, strips justice-involved individuals of their voting rights. While this policy is enacted in 48 states and the District of Columbia, a majority of community members are unaware of its existence. The current study used three hypotheses to guide its research about how education about disenfranchisement policy impacts a community member's opinion:1) Participants exposed to information about the effects of disenfranchisement will be more supportive of enfranchisement than those in the control condition; 2) Participants who receive the vignette featuring the White justice-involved individual will indicate a higher level of support for enfranchisement compared to those …

There Must Be Something In The Water: A Comparative Study Of Ground Water Contamination In The U.S.A. And Canada, Kathleen Spooner

Honors Theses

The regions of Nova Scotia and New Hampshire are naturally susceptible to arsenic water contamination due to their geological makeup. These locations are relatively rural, with many of their citizens reporting low incomes and lacking education, the majority of which are unaware of the risk of arsenic poisoning. There is also a high dependency on private wells which are not regulated in terms of water quality under federal law in both countries. Arsenic water pollution is undetectable as it is both odorless and tasteless and potentially very dangerous, and therefore water testing must be performed on wells, which is currently …

Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community, Yannis Pechtelidis, Alexandros Kioupkiolis

Democracy and Education

This paper presents the emergent paradigm of the "commons" as an alternative value and action system in the field of education, and it critically draws out the implications of the commons for refiguring education and its potential contribution to democratic transformation. The paper delves into an independent pedagogical community, Little Tree, which is active in early childhood education and care, aiming to explore the ways in which children conduct themselves in accordance with the ethics and the logics of the commons and to show how they thereby unsettle the conventional meaning of citizenship. Proceeding from an enlarged notion of the …

Narratives Of Black Identifying Newcomer Youth, Saniyyah Lateef

Master's Theses

This study seeks to explore and understand the unique and individual experiences of Black identifying newcomer youth in the United States. Current research related to the experience of newcomers is limited in regards to Black identifying newcomers. Through narrative inquiry methodology, this study seeks to share the experiences of Black identifying newcomer youth. It does this while recognizing the omnipresence of racism in the United States, and acknowledging the influence of life prior experience on identity development. The intent of this study is to help educators and community members better understand the integration and assimilation processes of Black identifying newcomers. …

When Class Is Colorblind: A Race-Conscious Model For Cultural Capital Research In Education, Bedelia N. Richards

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Sociologists of education frequently draw on the cultural capital framework to explore the ways in which educational institutions perpetuate inequality in schools and the larger society. However, these studies adhere to a white centered “class-based master-narrative,” to legitimize and perpetuate the assumption that racial differences are secondary manifestations of class-based structures. The class-based master-narrative elevates a one-dimensional view of inequality as rooted primarily in class-based stratification and downplays the fact that the economic elites who inhabit these dominant social positions are predominantly white. In this essay, I propose a race-conscious framework to challenge the colorblind assumptions and deficit perspectives inherent …

Inequality In Ethnic Representation In Secondary-School Literature Textbooks And National Examination In Vietnam, Anh Nguyen

Honors Projects

This essay studies the dynamic between ethnic minorities and majority in the Vietnamese education system. By examining the appearance and representation of ethnic minorities in national literature curriculum, textbooks, and examinations, the analysis reflects the government's perspectives regarding the “appropriate” portrait of ethnic minorities' heritage and relationship with the majority. The study finds that Vietnamese education framework and content comply with the national construct of a Vietnamese identity across ethnicities. The state determines educational materials and selectively permits only aesthetic, politically benign, and Kinh-like narratives of ethnic minorities’ cultures, many written and/or chosen by Kinh authority rather than the ethnic …

“Contact” Sports: Competitive Athletic Experience, Racial Attitudes, And Intergroup Contact, Savana Nawojski

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Allport’s (1954) Intergroup Contact hypothesis suggests that interaction among people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds can reduce prejudice, particularly in situations that involve cooperation and common goals. Although participation in competitive sports may provide opportunities for cooperative interaction among people from different racial backgrounds, and athletic teams tend to be more diverse at higher levels (NCAA 2019), relatively little work has examined the contact hypothesis in this context. Using a national representative data set (N = 966), we examine whether respondents’ levels of competitive athletic experience are related to their attitudes toward African Americans. We find no bivariate relationship …

Effects Of Parental Migration On Education And Personality: Evidence From Indonesia, Kyle Sullivan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In developing countries, migration can be an important method for many families and households to produce additional income via remittances in order to meet their needs or invest in their children. However, migration is a dynamic process and the absence of a parent can have negative effects on those children left behind. This paper explores how parental migration is associated with their children’s years of education completed and how these associations are heterogenous by family compositions in Indonesia. I use a longitudinal dataset which allows for parents’ migrations to be attributed throughout an individual’s childhood to measure the cumulative impact. …

Studying And Assessing The Impact Of Peer Mentoring On Students From Working Families: A View From Teachers’ Perspectives, Taylor Reynolds

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study focused on the impact that a specific after school peer-mentoring program had on students from working families based on their teachers’ perspectives. The research surveyed teachers from a local elementary school who had students enrolled in the SOAR after school program. The teachers were interviewed, and data was collected and coded according to trends in responses. Teacher responses were then analyzed in a cross-case analysis to recognize trends among teacher responses in the categories of program participants, resilience, school performance, school motivation, school perception, and self-efficacy among SOAR students. The research lasted one semester. Through the study, the …