Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“A Real Man . . .”: Deconstructing Machismo Heteronormative Standards With K–12 Latino Male Educators Through Dialogic Spaces, Mario Echeverria

Dissertations

In a K–12 educational landscape where 75% of educators are white women, recruitment of Latino male educators is crucial for diversification, yet these educators represent just 2% of the teaching workforce in the United States (NCES, 2020). These educators grapple with a layered sense of identity as they navigate expectations of hegemonic masculinity and machismo norms that dictate their roles as disciplinarians and saviors, especially for young boys of color (Brockenbrough, 2018; Lara & Fránquiz, 2015; Martino & Kehler, 2006; Mills et al., 2004; Singh, 2021). Unfortunately, Latino male educators leave the profession at twice the rate of their Latina …

Identification Of Cultural Differences And Their Effects On International Relations: A Novel Approach, Stephen W. Jones

Dissertations

International Relations suffers from underspecified treatments of culture that risk reifying, essentializing, or ignoring the effects of cultural differences in the conduct of relationships between states. Following a review of the development of the culture concept, this interpretivist, epistemologically critical realist, dissertation introduces intercultural adaptive frameshifting from the intercultural communication literature. To assess whether culture has effect within an epistemic community, four frameworks are evaluated within a non-IR field (global Christian reasoning). Speech act theory is used to assess meaningful affect through illocutionary and/or perlocutionary divergence based on cultural difference.

Following the findings that such cultural differences do in fact …

"Not In My Town": A Community's Response To Water And Soil Pollution, Karolina Staros

Dissertations

At the core of this dissertation is the acknowledgment that social movements are complex networks of people who face many obstacles in their efforts to achieve social change. One critique of social movements is that their goals and mission are limited to short term ideas and not long-term, systemic transformation. The lack of long term, systemic change can be observed when social movement groups mobilize for the same cause over and over again with what appears to be little progress over a period of time. The exact blueprint for a social movement’s success does not exist, but it is posited …

Michigan Municipal Manager Perceptions On Lgbtq+ Inclusion: A Narrative Policy Framework Case Study, Christopher R. Surfus

Dissertations

This study explores the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) of municipal managers regarding the LGBTQ+ community in three Michigan cities—Grand Rapids, Holland, and Kalamazoo. The purpose is to understand managers’ beliefs and attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and how policies are implemented and enforced to reduce discrimination. The specific research questions deal with how the beliefs and attitudes of public managers reflect an understanding of and competency on LGBTQ+ issues, how they are affected by the presence of LGBTQ+ staff members, and how they differ from the actual policy provisions affecting the LGBTQ+ community. These questions are examined in the …

Mother-Infant Relationships In The Nicu: A Multiple Case Study Approach, Ilona Helin

Dissertations

Parent-child relationships consist of both external and internal components. The external component is the behavioral interaction between mother and child, while the internal components are expectations each member of the dyad has for the both the relationship and of the other partner. These expectations are called internal working models (IWMs) and are blueprints that have been developed from an individual’s childhood experience of sensitive or insensitive parenting. A mother’s IWMs influence how she perceives her child, her relationship with her child and herself as a mother, the sensitivity of her caregiving, and ultimately her child’s IWM of him or her …

The Role Of Chief Diversity Officers In Institutionalizing Diversity And Inclusion: A Multiple Case Study Of Three Exemplar Universities, Cynthia D. Dávalos Phd

Dissertations

Due to demographic shifts and the changing political and economic landscape, universities are experiencing increased demands to produce a culturally competent and well-trained globally minded workforce. To address these demands in a systematic manner, several universities have created a new senior level administrative position to direct campus diversity and inclusion efforts. This position known universally in academia as the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) is responsible for institutionalizing diversity and inclusion so that diversity moves from the margins of the university to the center and becomes a standard way of thinking and doing business. Given this high-level executive leadership design, the …

Understanding The Development Of Global Leadership Competencies, Andrea L. Mcmullen Phd

Dissertations

As businesses seek to gain a competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving global marketplace and in the midst of a global talent shortage, the demand is increasing for guidance surrounding the development of global leaders. Although competency model frameworks have existed since the 1970s, the process of how an organization develops Global Leadership Competencies (GLCs) has not been well documented, particularly in new and evolving industries such as the biosciences. Furthermore, despite the time, effort, and money spent on learning and development or training programs, there are no studies that investigate employer-learner perceptions regarding the alignment of these learning programs …

Exploring The Impact On Students Of Western Universities On Foreign Soil: A Case Study Of Qatar, Richard Bakken Phd

Dissertations

The development of branch campuses in higher education is not a new phenomenon. Over the past decades, however, branch campuses have expanded throughout the world as Western universities have begun to deliver their programs and course offerings in countries that expect the West to provide educational (and, by implication, economic) success. Middle Eastern countries in particular have rapidly expanded the number of Western-style branch campuses for native students in their countries. This qualitative research study focused on one specific Middle Eastern country, Qatar, and explored how native students respond to attending a Western university that has been transplanted from the …

Gambling In San Diego County: A Case Study, Michael Kelley Phd

Dissertations

Legal gambling operations in the United States are based on public policy decisions. Although research has shown that gambling intensity levels are related to a number of individual disorders and impose significant economic costs on society, the data is incomplete. For example, while research indicates that certain demographic categories and proximity to places of gambling are predictors of high gambling rates, there is little information on the impact of economic conditions on gambling intensity, as well as the prevalence of such behavior in specific locations. With multiple gambling venues, a growing population of the demographic groups associated with higher gambling …

Data-Driven Decision Making: Teachers' Use Of Data In The Classroom, Tammy Wu Moriarty Phd

Dissertations

Data-driven decision making has become an important educational issue in the United States, primarily because of federal and state emphasis on school accountability and achievement. Data use has been highlighted as a key factor in monitoring student progress and informing decision making at various levels of the education system. Federal and state policies require educators to use data to inform decision making and the assumption is that educators already know how to analyze, interpret, and use data to make informed decisions. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of classroom teachers' engagement in data-driven decision making …

Parental Support Of Latinos In Higher Education, Maria Lorena Meza Phd

Dissertations

Many universities grapple with Latino student retention issues. Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, yet they also are the group that has the least amount of formal education. The literature suggests that parental support helps Latinos succeed academically in elementary, middle, and high schools. However, there has been little research on how or even whether Latino parental support influences academic success at the postsecondary level. Consequently, there is a lack of knowledge about (a) Latino parental behavior and attitudes during the years their children attend college and (b) the relationship between parents' behavior and …

The Experiences Of Expatriate Teachers In International Schools: Five Ethnographic Case Studies, James S. Anderson Edd

Dissertations

An increasingly global economy has produced a growing demand for teachers to work in international schools. However, data about teachers who elect to move abroad and work in international settings are limited. The lack of research in this area is surprising, given the relatively large number of expatriate teachers who work in international schools. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how expatriate teachers perceive their experiences in international schools and the role that these perceptions may play in their decisions to continue at a school or to seek other employment. In order to explore …

Understanding Charter School Governance: A Case Study Of A Conversion Charter School Board Of Directors, David Mark Silver Phd

Dissertations

The charter school movement has been at the forefront of educational reform since the 1990s. The majority of charter school research has focused on academic achievement and issues of access, equity, and funding. Less attention has focused on charter school governance, yet evidence suggests that governance challenges represent a significant impediment to the long-term sustainability of this movement. This qualitative case study examined the operations of a board of directors in a conversion charter school. The study included observations of monthly board of directors meetings over a 16-month period (February 2008–June 2009), interviews with members of the board of directors …

The Lost-Boys Phenomenon: Case Studies Of San Diego High School Males, Richard Stakelum Edd

Dissertations

By most measures of success—e.g., academic Grade Point Average (GPA), graduation rates, participation in extracurricular and civic activities, and college enrollment—adolescent males are less successful than females. Young males are falling behind in reading and writing and are more likely to be involved in truancy, violence, crime, suicide, and substance abuse. While the nation mobilized to address historical gender discrimination issues for females since the 1970s, there has not been a similar effort mounted to assist adolescent males. The trends alluded to in the previous paragraph have begun to be recognized by popular-press authors. Some have begun to refer to …

Strategic Planning: Contextual Factors That Facilitated And/Or Challenged The Implementation Of Strategic Planning In Two Nonprofit Organizations, Devadhasan Masilamony Phd

Dissertations

As the nonprofit sector continues to grow in size and importance in American society, successful organizations proactively initiate strategic planning so they can be more responsive to changing circumstances, underlying trends, and shifting demands. At times, however, organizations develop elaborate plans that are never implemented. Unfortunately, there is less systematic research about strategic planning in the nonprofit sector than in the for-profit sector and even less research documenting whether or not the plans that get developed in nonprofit organizations actually get implemented. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how strategic planning improves the effectiveness of two nonprofit …

The Role Of Higher Education In Advancing Nurse Practitioners: A Look At The Institutional Decision Calculus Of A Health Sciences University, Debra Jo Johnson Phd

Dissertations

In 2004, professional nursing joined the ranks of other health professions by altering accreditation standards for nurse practitioners, which now mandate that their terminal degree advance beyond the master's degree currently required for the doctor of nursing practice (DNP). This research examines the decision-making process involved in implementing a web-based DNP program in 2008 at a college of graduate nursing embedded in a health sciences university. Findings from two case studies, one of faculty and one of administrators, provide a narrative description of the institution, the decision process, and then describe how institutional and external factors influenced the process. Institutional …

More Power To You: Parental Experiences With The Public School Choice Option Provided By The No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001, Roslyn Williams Woodard Edd

Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was the federal government's commitment toward providing an equitable education for all students. Recognizing the impact parents had on the academic achievement of their children, provisions for increased parental involvement were emphasized, especially when children attended low achieving schools. One way parents could exercise their newfound power to improve their children's educational experience was to use the federal policy's public school choice option to enroll them into higher performing schools which met or exceeded NCLB standardized testing goals. This study examined the experiences parents and their middle school aged children had …

The Role Of Residential Learning Communities In The Faith Development Of First Year College Students, Dayanne Izmirian Phd

Dissertations

Although student development theories have recognized the complex processes of identity development, they have not adequately addressed the development of the spiritual self. Rather than given separate consideration, spiritual development is often discussed in the context of other aspects of development, such as the cognitive. Consequently, student affairs practitioners have not been adequately trained to address, facilitate, nor support the spiritual development of college students. One approach that has been proposed for facilitating the faith development of college students is Residential Learning Communities. Unfortunately, the assertion that Residential Learning Communities are a promising method of facilitating faith development in college …

School Web Sites Within The Educational Marketplace: A Case Study Investigating The Parents As Engaged Consumer-Users, Claudia Jane Beeman Edd

Dissertations

Schools -- like their corporate counterparts -- recognize the many advantages that the Internet affords. Today's schools vie for students, and thus use the web to market their services and showcase their management team (administrators, teachers, staff) and academic accomplishments. In a sense, then, web sites are the public face of education; those that are well-designed and multi-featured can enhance a district's public image and create the perception of excellence and competence. This case study explores how one suburban, K-8 school district approaches web site development, specifically, the process by which decisions about design, development, and maintenance are made (and …

Integrating Total Disability Management In A Climate Of Change: A Case Study, Mary E. Jesko Edd

Dissertations

Integrated disability management (IDM) is a cost-containment strategy increasingly being employed by human resources and risk management departments to address occupational and non-occupational illness and injury in a consistent manner. The goal is to both reduce on-the-job injury and minimize the loss of work time due to injury or illness. Although a large number of organizations have embraced the IDM concept, implementing IDM often is difficult because of the complex array of contracts, policies, procedures, corporate cultures and structures. Although extensive research has examined leaders' influence on change in various types of businesses, to date, research has not specifically explored …

Investigating Professional Development In Technology For Literacy Teachers, Michanne Hoctor Edd

Dissertations

Citrus Heights (a pseudonym) School District is an award-winning exemplar of technology integration. This small urban district has focused its resources on the re-design of its K-8 classrooms and curriculum to support educational reform through the use of technology, including hardware, software, and teacher professional development. Current best practices suggest that while staff development may begin with conventional in-service training, it should move quickly beyond to efforts that support teachers’ development as professionals involved in decision-making, inquiry, and leadership in their classroom teaching. In order to develop as professionals, teachers specifically need help and support in integrating new knowledge and …

Personalization For English Learners At A Small Conversion High School, Mary Jewell Edd

Dissertations

One of the most notable ways in which large, comprehensive high schools are working to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs), and other students who may be struggling with academics, is by subdividing into smaller schools. One of the most appealing features of small schools is their emphasis on personalized instruction for students. While it takes many forms, personalizing education means knowing all students well and designing curriculum that meets their individual needs. Personalized learning environments hold enormous potential for improving the educational experiences, and even very lives, of English learners. The purpose of …

They Who Persist: A Longitudinal Quantitative Case Study Of A University Student Cohort, Kenneth J. Marra Phd

Dissertations

Since the first published work on student persistence in 1929 by Edgerton and Toups, there have been literally thousands of studies that have attempted to unravel the mystery of why some higher education students persist through to graduation while others do not. Many of these studies have been qualitative in nature, restricting their generalizability, while those that have used the few existing national databases to quantitatively study persistence have been restricted to looking within a single year at multiple institutions. What is clearly missing from the literature are methodologically sound, year-to-year persistence studies conducted at individual institutions. This deficiency in …

High School Principals' Values And Their Symbolic And Cultural Leadership Approaches To Character Education In China, T.C. Kao Edd

Dissertations

Relatively little is known about the symbolic and cultural leadership practices and approaches used to imbed character education in high schools in China. In addition, there is a lack of published studies and reports investigating the revival between character and moral education in the Chinese school system. Without additional information, it is impossible to understand and develop effective leadership approaches that will shape and mold school cultures to effectively support both character and moral education. The literature reviewed in this study revealed little information about if, and in what form, there is a return to moral education focusing on traditional …

Avid Program Graduates: Negotiating The First Year Of College, Leslie J. Hays Edd

Dissertations

Although the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program has been operating in San Diego County for more than twenty years, there was a lack of research investigating how AVID program graduates experienced the transition to college. A well-established positive correlation between acceptances to four-year universities by AVID program graduates exists, but research on AVID lacked individual student narrative needed to give more depth to the data. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the transition experiences of AVID program graduates who were beginning their second year of college at competitive four-year public universities. All eight participants, in the …

Differentiation Of The Causal Characteristics And Influences Of Virtual Reality And The Effects On Learning At A Science Exhibit, Arlene De Strulle Edd

Dissertations

Within the context of the informal science center, exhibits are the main interface for public learning. Essential to the success of a science center is how well exhibits model effective strategies for learning. Virtual Reality (VR) technology with its flexible, adaptive, multimedia, and immersive-learning capabilities is emerging for use by science centers in exhibits; however, research on learning in virtual environments at exhibits is scarce. To support the future development of VR science exhibits it is critical to investigate VR's pedagogical value and effects on science learning. Research investigated the Smoke & Mirrors VR exhibit at the Reuben H. Fleet …

The Effect Of Force Feedback On Student Reasoning About Gravity, Mass, Force And Motion, Linda Bussell Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether force feedback within a computer simulation had an effect on reasoning by fifth grade students about gravity, mass, force, and motion, concepts which can be difficult for learners to grasp. Few studies have been done on cognitive learning and haptic feedback, particularly with young learners, but there is an extensive base of literature on children's conceptions of science and a number of studies focus specifically on children's conceptions of force and motion. This case study used a computer-based paddleball simulation with guided inquiry as the primary stimulus. Within the simulation, the …

Webquest Design Strategies: A Case Study Measuring The Effect Of The Jigsaw Method On Students’ Personal Agency Beliefs, Engagement, And Learning, James P. Frazee Edd

Dissertations

The WebQuest model continues to grow in popularity, with teachers from around the world and many teacher-educators and experts in the field of educational technology espousing its potential to extend content knowledge and promote higher level thinking. While the model is well received by teachers and students alike, most evidence of its effectiveness is anecdotal, and there is very little in the way of empirical research on the elements that make an effective WebQuest. Furthermore, rich descriptions of how students interact during a well-developed WebQuest are largely absent from the literature. In short, the WebQuest model suffers from a lack …

Leaders' Influence On School Reculturing: A Case Study Of An International School, Brian C. Matthews Edd

Dissertations

Organizational theorists and even practitioners are beginning to use the construct of organizational culture to analyze and characterize the complexities and challenges of organizational life. The construct has been used to metaphorize, frame, interpret, and understand various aspects of organizational life, including leadership and the change process. The literature indicates that leaders can influence an organization by attending to its cultural dimensions. Much of this literature, however, is theoretical and speculative, and the empirical work has focused, for the most part, on business. The overarching purpose of this qualitative study was to enrich understanding of the culture construct and its …

Goddesses In The Union: A Qualitative Study Of Women In Leadership Positions In College And University Union Settings, Susan H. Payment Edd

Dissertations

The student union facilities found on the majority of college and university campuses within the United States serve a variety of functions. Commonly referred to as the “living room” of the campus community, student unions provide space for co-curricular educational experiences, study and reflection, organizational meetings/business, retail operations, dining and entertainment. The field of university union management attracts individuals that enjoy working in complex, high-energy environments where learning and student development are encouraged. Despite the overwhelming presence of women in today's workforce, the realm of university union management remains dominated by men. A “glass ceiling” appears to exist in this …