Educational Sociology Commons^™

Factors That Affect African American Representation In Cybersecurity Academic Programs In The United States, Damon Walker

Dissertations

The U.S. cybersecurity workforce continues to experience a critical talent shortage alongside persistent inequities in racial representation, particularly at the faculty level within higher education. This mixed-methods dissertation examines African American representation among faculty in cybersecurity academic programs designated by the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) and investigates the factors that influence recruitment, retention, and advancement. Grounded in a transformative research framework, the study integrates quantitative analysis of national institutional data with qualitative interviews to illuminate structural patterns and lived experiences shaping representation.

Quantitative findings revealed pronounced underrepresentation: African American faculty comprise 2.57% (130 of 5,051) of …

Precarious Privilege: Exploring The Intersection Of White Teacher Habitus And Social Justice In International Schools, Kevin L. Workman

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the underresearched phenomenon of White teacher allyship within an emergent diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) movement in international schools. Gaining momentum in 2020 as a digital, postcolonial counterstory, the movement exposed structural inequities and racism across the international school ecosystem. Applying an antiracist reading of Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of practice, the study analyzes how White teachers (n = 8) from diverse international contexts understand, experience, and assess their participation in DEIJ activities. Thematic analysis of interview data corroborated the digital voices, explicitly identifying White supremacy as a key force shaping the field’s doxa. The study …

Illuminating Trauma & Resilience In Educational Spaces: Expanding Narratives To Promote Historical And Critical Civic Empathy At Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Chakakuan Johnson, Linda Nance, Byron Witherspoon

Dissertations

Abstract

The 1957 desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School marked a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement and continues to symbolize the broader struggle for racial equality. This dissertation examines equity in educational spaces through a four-truth lens that was first articulated by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and explores forensic, personal, social, and healing truth. Using Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site (CHSC) and park interpretation as the focal point, our qualitative research study used reflexive thematic analysis to examine oral interviews, onsite observations, and various documents and artifacts, and to illuminate …

Advancing Equity In Financial Aid For Black Students: A Document Analysis Study Of Student Equity Plans In California Community Colleges, Edwina Williams

Dissertations

This study examined how California Community Colleges (CCCs) constructed financial aid discourse in Student Equity Plans (SEPs) and assessed whether these strategies mitigated or perpetuated racial disparities for Black students. Previous scholarship identified racial inequities in financial aid systems and explored how equity planning documents addressed race; yet, the influence of institutional discourse on financial aid access remained underexamined. This study contributed to the literature by applying critical race hermeneutics (CRH) to examine how SEPs outlined financial aid strategies, with particular attention to the framing of work–study opportunities and the extent to which the SEP intended to employ race-conscious approaches. …

Famílias Indigenas Entre Mundos: Standing In Pachakuti, Living In Chi’Xi Within The Constellation Of Their Comunidad De Saberes, Ymasumac Marañón Davis

Dissertations

To be Indigenous is to be la luz del mundo, to stand in your light and spread your sunrays, no matter winds or clouds of colonization that strive to dim you. This qualitative study explored ways Indigenous Latine families negotiate a sense of place within onto-epistemological realities and their home culture of learning and Western education. This research is desire-based (Eve Tuck, 2009), creating our own project of modernity, grounded in one Indigenous family’s experience within their Andean community. Drawing from Critical Latine Indigeneities Framework (Blackwell et al., 2017) and Chicana Feminist Epistemologies (Bernal, 1998), using an Entre Mundos methodology, …

Teaching Since 2020: Inhabiting Professionalization, Autonomy, And Classroom Teaching, Melissa Fisher

Dissertations

This study explores teacher professionalization Since 2020 by examining control over teachers’ work as constructed by classroom teachers. Using a conceptual framework combining the teacher disempowerment perspective, inhabited institutionalism, and professionalization, I focus on the question: Given the recent years of upheaval the profession of education has sustained, how are teachers inhabiting the role of "professional teacher," particularly regarding control over their own work? This qualitative study utilizes semi-structured interviews with fourteen teacher participants in an Indiana public school district. This study finds that participants are constructing a new Since 2020 teaching reality. Participants converged on professional challenges including disruptive …

Examining The Creative Process Of Visual Artists: A Phenomenological Study, Filiberto Vargas

Dissertations

Creativity fuels problem solving and innovation, driving both economic growth and individual success. Yet, many schools and organizations fail to nurture it. Today, there is a decline in creativity scores among U.S. students. This is concerning since many of these students will be the future leaders of organizations and communities. For this reason, this dissertation explores the creative process of visual artists to better understand how creativity can be cultivated. Visual artists' perspectives and sense-and-meaning-making processes offer a unique view of innovation and creativity. However, there is limited research on the creative processes of contemporary visual artists from culturally diverse …

Ultramodern Racism: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Impact Of Anti-Crt Legislation On Us History Curriculums, Amelia Gernand

Dissertations

In the wake of Donald Trump’s failed 2020 bid for a second presidential term, there was a surge in anti-CRT legislation targeting how issues of race and racism could be taught in public school curricula. While proponents claim that anti-CRT laws will protect students of all races from discrimination, curriculums have historically been used as a tool by those with symbolic power to legitimize white supremacy and perpetuate anti-Black and color-evasive racism. Two states--Florida and Arkansas--recently enacted anti-CRT legislation in addition to Black history mandates. While legislators in these two states claim that their goal is to expand the teaching …

Teacher Initiated Collaboration In Community: A Case Study Considering Communities Of Practice At A Title I Middle School, Katherine Stewart

Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigates how faculty members in a Title I middle school engage in collaborative practices to enhance professional growth without formal professional learning. Framed within a descriptive lens (Merriam, 1998) and informed by Brown and Duguid's Community of Practice (CoP) framework (1991), the study addresses two research questions: (1) How do teachers collaborate to improve their practice outside formal professional learning? (2) In what ways do these methods reflect the elements of CoP: working, learning, and innovating? Through data analysis, the study reveals that teachers predominantly collaborate on student behavior and classroom management, with curriculum being a …

In What Ways Do Perceptions By Faculty, Students, And Advisors In An Urban University Contribute To Undergraduate Student Success?, Carla Jordan

Dissertations

This study employs a mixed-methods approach to explore perceptions of academic advising among faculty, advisors, and undergraduate students at an urban university in the Midwest, focusing on its implications for student success. Utilizing Creswell’s research design framework, the research integrates quantitative and qualitative data collection methods to understand the relationship between academic advising and student outcomes.

Informed by Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the study examines how beliefs, behaviors, and environmental factors shape academic experiences and success. It employs the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) from George Kuh’s student engagement framework as a quantitative tool to measure student engagement and …

Online Education: Benefits And Challenges For Refugee Students, Roza Badritdinova

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Currently, only 3% of refugees are pursuing higher education opportunities compared to the 37% higher education participation rate globally. There is an urgent need for quality academic work to leave behind the endless descriptive accounts of refugee life and move toward identifying effective strategies and successful solutions that could facilitate the integration of refugees into higher education. Technology has proffered some hope in providing access to public education for marginalized populations. This study looked specifically at how one online education organization attempts to address refugee education and multiple barriers that prevent the majority of the world’s university-age refugee youth …

An Autoethnographic Journey To Critical Consciousness: How A White Faculty Member At A Hispanic Serving Institution Moves From Ally To Accomplice By Learning Student Struggles, Benjamin Mercer Drury

Dissertations

This study serves to document my transition into critical consciousness – or conscientização – through interactions with my students. I utilize narrative autoethnographic methods, content analysis, qualitative interviewing, and personal reflection to document my transformation from objectively interested faculty member to accomplice by learning about how the life of my students outside of school affected their performance inside of school. Significant findings fall into two categories: personal and professional. Personally, this study was cathartic. By using a scholarly lens to analyze and reflect on my experience, I was able to process my experience in the context of existing research and …

The Effect Of Student Perception Of Parent Involvement And Socioeconomic Status On Academic Intrinsic Motivation, Pallavi Aggarwal, Taylor Lawson Smith

Dissertations

Many teachers struggle to help students become intrinsically motivated in their school work. Research has shown that students who are intrinsically motivated tend to have higher academic achievement than students who are not (Mendoza, 2012). There are many factors that contribute to students’ intrinsic motivation. Building on existing research, the relationship between perceived parental involvement and students’ intrinsic motivation, as well as the relationship of perceived socioeconomic status and intrinsic motivation was investigated. A mixed methods research approach was used to determine a) the relationship between perceived parent involvement and students’ intrinsic motivation, b) the relationship between perceived socioeconomic status …

Black Women Vice Presidents Of Student Affairs At Community Colleges Leadership Pathways And Barriers, Danielle Sims Brooks

Dissertations

This study explored the lived experiences of five Black women Vice Presidents of Student Affairs (VPSAs) at community colleges through narrative inquiry to get a better understanding of the strategies Black women deploy to be successful as well as the challenges and barriers they must navigate. Data was analyzed from a purposeful sample of five Black women VPSAs to get a better understanding of the experiences of Black women executive leaders in higher education. Participants shared many similarities in their educational and professional backgrounds in higher education by their experiences with leading and developing essential areas in student affairs. Findings …

Schooled To The Streets? Exploring The Relationship Between K-12 Educational Experiences And Early Careers In Activism, David Abraham Castro

Dissertations

Since the late eighteenth century, organizing and activism have been part of the urban landscape, from the labor organizing of Eugene Debs in the early twentieth century to the community organizing work of Saul Alinsky during the 1950s and 1960s. The development of community organizers is strongly tied to local institutions such as factories, houses of worship, and schools. For many youths in Chicago, schools often become the sites of political and social awakening and lead to activism beyond the schoolhouse. Within the current context of urban education scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and community organizers alike agree that the perspectives of …

An Exploration Of Black Church Leaders' Intentions To Develop Critical Consciousness Among African-American Students, Taheesha Quarells

Dissertations

African-American students experience human capital opportunity and achievement gaps. Researchers have called for culturally relevant strategies to help close the gaps. The historic Black Church, a part of many African-American students’ culture and community, is a historic and current source of social capital for positive human capital development outcomes. Critical consciousness develops positive human capital outcomes, such as academic achievement, in African-American and other minority students. Much of the literature on critical consciousness is quantitative in nature and therefore does not include the intentions or the willingness of organizations to develop critical consciousness. Therefore, there is a need to understand …

Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports (Pbis): Does Stronger Implementation Relate To More Equitable Student Outcomes In School Discipline?, Stephenie C. Bruce

Dissertations

For this study, I explored the degree of implementation of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework and the existence of disproportionality of formal school disciplinary responses to behavioral occurrences by race/ethnicity, sex, special education status (SPED), and socioeconomic status (SES) of students. Further, I investigated the relationship between a school’s degree of implementation of PBIS and the existence of disproportionality by race/ethnicity, sex, SPED, and SES, and investigated the differences in the existence of disproportionality in schools that fully implemented PBIS and schools that did not fully implement PBIS.

Literature exists on PBIS implementation and, separately, on the …

How Immigrant English Language Learners Used Internal Fortitude To Utilize Supports And Overcome Obstacles To Graduate From High School, Mark C. Peterson

Dissertations

Immigrants and English Language Learners (ELL) continue to receive attention in the research literature due in part to the continued immigration of families to the U.S. and the continued increasing number of students enrolled in U.S. schools under the ELL designation. The robust influx of immigrant’s school enrollment is reflected in schools across the country as classrooms are transformed from predominantly mono-cultural and mono-lingual environments to multi-cultural and multi-lingual ones. Unfortunately, the national average graduation rate for ELLs is a much lower than native-born students. The economic, social, and mental health ramifications for failing to graduate high school are dramatic; …

Relationships Between Kindergarten Entrance Age And Attendance Rates In Kindergarten Through Second Grade, Julie A. Mcdonald

Dissertations

Education research over the last 50 years has found a significant relationship between academic achievement and kindergarten entrance age, with kindergarten students who enter school at the earliest ages tending to have lower academic achievement than their counterparts. Other studies have found that student achievement depends on factors such as class attendance rates and socioeconomic factors. Indeed, one issue consistently identified in education research as having a strong correlation to student achievement is student attendance, which makes intuitive sense because students must be present and engaged in school to learn. National research confirms that not only do attendance rates negatively …

Student Perceptions Of School And Teachers In The Classroom, Sonji Jones-Manson

Dissertations

Much of the existing education research on student outcomes has focused on gaining a better understanding of student cognition and behavior, considering affect primarily as the role of a mediator or moderator to cognitive or behavioral outcomes. Student satisfaction with school is an affective outcome that is shaped by their relationships with their teachers. Though research on affect as an outcome has increased, it has not been well-understood and often ignored in models of understanding student outcomes. This qualitative study adds to the body of research on student affect as an outcome by collecting data from current high school students …

An Investigation Into The Conceptualisations Of Leadership Among Early Childhood Teachers In Ireland., Edel Fenlon

Dissertations

Leadership in an Irish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) context is a new and emerging ideology at a policy and practice level. This study aimed to gain an understanding of the conceptualisations of leadership held by early childhood teachers who work directly with children in Ireland. This study explored the associations of leadership held by participants, recognition of leadership potential and attributes of effective leadership; through an interpretivist paradigm. Within this paradigm, a qualitative research design was selected to capture the lived experiences of leadership of participants. Six semi-structured interviews we completed with early childhood teachers from rural Ireland. …

Bullies And Allies Near The Playground: Mothers' Experiences Of Aggression In Their Children's Schools, Mara Vicente Robinson

Dissertations

Despite an increasing understanding of the importance of both parent-involvement and aggression among women, there appears to be little understanding of how these two areas influence each other; specifically, the lack of literature examining the extent to which female guardians experienced aggression from other female guardians and the effect it had on their involvement in their children’s schools. In an effort to investigate the extent to which aggression was prevalent among female guardians, the factors that influenced the aggression, and the effects of that aggression on women’s involvement in their children’s education, a convergent parallel mixed methods design was used …

Educating Boys In Jamaica: In Search Of A New Lens, Marcia Sharon-May Chin

Dissertations

The need for innovative solutions to enhance educational outcomes for Jamaican high school male students is evident. For over two decades, national exam results demonstrate that these students have consistently underachieved. Using aqualitative research design, this study explores the possibility of scaling up a student leadership educational model, developed by one U.S. school that has proven successful in educating an inner city minority male student population, to a similarly placed Jamaican high school. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with stakeholders at an all male Jamaican school and with administrators at the Ministry of Education, to understand their perceptions regarding …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

The Relationship Between Neighborhood Characteristics And College Academic Outcomes Among An Ncaa Division I Student-Athlete Population: A Multilevel Approach, Ann Kearns Davoren

Dissertations

Over 170,000 students participate annually in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I sports. Approximately one-third of these student-athletes fail to graduate from their initial school of enrollment within six years. While some will go on to graduate from a transfer institution, roughly 15% will fail to earn a degree while competing for an NCAA Division I school. Using U.S. census block group data, this study adds the neighborhood characteristics of education, employment, income, and racial composition to prediction models of first-year GPA and six-year baccalaureate degree attainment among an NCAA Division I student-athlete sample. The use of multilevel modeling …

A Narrative Policy Analysis Of The Responses To Tennessee Promise And Plans For Transfer Receptivity By Six Tennessee Public Universities' Presidents And Provosts, Lori Elliott Buchanan

Dissertations

The Tennessee Promise scholarship and mentoring program broadened access and affordability to postsecondary education in Tennessee. This policy innovation increased the number of students seeking to engage in postsecondary education. It also shifted some of the state’s students to the more affordable community colleges and colleges of applied technology for their first two years of college. Equally important, Tennessee Promise incentivized the presidents and provosts of the six public universities under review to expand existing transfer receptivity efforts as their universities prepared to receive and support Tennessee Promise community college student transfers.

The purpose of this narrative policy analysis based …

The Undergraduate In The “New Urban University”: Recognizing The Role Of Agency And Its Correlates In The Student’S Academic Life Story, Karen Galea

Dissertations

According to the U.S. Department of Education (2016), only 36% of first time college students enrolled at broad-access institutions graduate within six years, compared to 60% at all universities. The vital role of academic agency is universally accepted; however, debate remains over a shared definition. The purpose of this study is to determine which combination of non-academic attributes generate, grow, and support academic agency for undergraduate students at a broad-access, minority-serving “New Urban University.” Three questions are examined:

1. Which attributes define academic agency, and how do they relate to conceptually similar variables?
2. Assuming academic agency exists along a continuum over …

A Mother's Spiritual Journey With Her Disabled Son: An Autoethnography, Margaret C. Higgins Edd

Dissertations

Abstract

This autoethnographic research delves into a mother’s experiences with her disabled son over thirty-five years. Beginning with a thick description of the crib accident that resulted in physical and cognitive disabilities that profoundly change the course of both mother and son’s life, this research chronicles the search for meaning, community, and healing as they negotiate the realms of medicine, education, career, family, and spirituality. Models of disability that seek to explain various ways in which society often views disability are examined, but none resonate with the researcher’s intimate experiences nor satisfies her deepest needs for insight and healing. Making …

From The Voices Of California Female High School Principals: Examining Barriers And Support Systems In A New Era Of Educational Reform Through The Lens Of Activity Theory, Janice M. Jones

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the perceived barriers and support systems female high school principals experienced, through the lens of activity theory, while attaining and serving in their current position during the newest era of educational reform in a specific geographical region.

Methodology: Semistructured interviews were conducted with current female high school principals to gather data on the barriers and support systems they experienced. The theoretical framework of activity theory was used to analyze the subjects’ interaction with their environment as they sought the outcome of becoming and serving as high school principals. …

Examining Teachers' Perceptions Of The United States Social Class System, Tracy M. Stevenson-Olson

Dissertations

As the number of school aged children living in poverty increases, the inherent inequities within the United States class system continue to grow. Teacher perceptions regarding the United States social class system are examined through focus group interviews with four teachers in an urban high school. A critical qualitative methodology was used to explore how the participants make sense of the complex social class system and how they perceive the impact of social class within the school context. The findings include two overarching themes that influenced these teachers’ perceptions and interpretations of social class; their own personal narrative /identity construction …