Educational Sociology Commons^™

Demonstrating Deservingness In College Tuition Crowdfunding Campaigns, Siqi Han

Journal of Student Financial Aid

College tuition creates a substantial financial burden for students and families in the United States. Exhausting their own financial resources to pay for their college tuition, some students seek to crowdfund their tuition – a new channel for higher education finance that may become more prevalent in the future. Distinctively, crowdfunding campaigns are not reviewed or approved in the same way as traditional funding applications, leaving space for students’ own justification for deservingness. This paper identifies the embedded semantic features in online college tuition campaigns that raised more money than the rest on a major crowdfunding platform and derives the …

Seizing The Moment: Post-Covid-19 Enrollment Trends Among Nontraditional Honors Students, Solomon Aleph

Anthós

This article investigates the motivations behind the rising enrollment of nontraditional students at Portland State University’s Honors College, which nearly doubled from 2019 to 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic. Aleph argues that nontraditional students viewed education as a means of reclaiming agency and reshaping their futures. Through interviews and a focus group with four nontraditional students, Aleph explores how the pandemic created disruption and opportunities. The study finds that while economic instability and isolation were factors, intrinsic motivations—especially a desire for self-improvement, intellectual challenge, and rewriting personal narratives—were more prominent factors shaping enrollment decisions. Drawing from this qualitative analysis, Aleph …

More Than Players, More Than Coaches: Institutional Agents And Youth Development In Urban And Suburban Minority-Majority Neighborhoods, Rainah N. Folk

Theses and Dissertations

Institutional agents play a crucial role in shaping youth development. While the institutional agent framework is well established in postsecondary research, less is known about its role during mid-adolescence. Using relational ethnography and responsive interviewing, this study compares an urban and a suburban high school in minority-majority neighborhoods in Cook County, Illinois, to explore how development is influenced through relationships between sport coaches and high school athletes. Athletes in both contexts face significant challenges tied to neighborhood conditions and socioeconomic status. In response, coaches form deeply caring and supportive relationships, though their roles diverge in ways shaped by their urban …

The Effects Of Chronic Absenteeism On Average Daily Attendance Funding In Humboldt County Elementary Schools, Corabelle A. Esmailian

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Chronic absenteeism is linked to poor academic performance and lower social-emotional skills, both of which can have long-term effects on students and their communities. The California Department of Education uses average daily attendance (ADA) to determine most of the funding that public schools receive. When a student is absent, their school loses a portion of potential funding for that day. This study explores chronic absenteeism’s impact on the funding of Humboldt County’s elementary schools with a sequential exploratory research strategy and critical systems lens. Interviews with elementary administrators were conducted using a phenomenological approach to understand how this affects their …

Power & Danger: A Glimpse Into K-12 Sexual And Reproductive Health Education Via Instagram, Sade Perez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Within the Kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12) public school system, educators teach a wide array of subject areas and topics with the intention of preparing students for life beyond the classroom. Navigating legislative requirements, community acceptance and opposition, curriculum developments, evolving political landscapes, and a multitude of other challenges, educators that teach controversial subjects are faced with unique challenges. In California, legislation such as the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) of 2016, impacts the teaching experiences of those teaching what many deem controversial; sexual and reproductive health education (SRHE). While there is extensive research on the experiences of educators across …

Getting It “Right”: Educators’ Experiences With School Diversity In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Jennifer B. Ayscue, Kfir Mordechay, Gage F. Matthews, Julie Whetzel

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Schools in gentrifying neighborhoods often experience demographic changes in enrollment. The purpose of this qualitative holistic case study is to describe how leaders and teachers in a diversifying elementary school in a gentrifying neighborhood perceive and experience diversity. Drawing on Turner’s value of diversity framework, we use inductive coding to analyze interviews and also use documents to inform our findings. Although Greenleaf was striving to be intentionally diverse, consensus did not exist about the meaning of “diversity” or the desired form of diversity. Challenges associated with decentering Whiteness and resisting upholding the racial contract existed as educators worked to establish …

Black Women Found: Higher Education Leadership Experiences And Lifespan Identity Development Through Hip-Hop Feminism, James Antone Perry Jr.

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study investigates the leadership experiences and lifespan identity development of Black women in predominantly White institutions (PWIs) of higher education at the dean level and above. Black women have typically been excluded from positions of leadership at colleges and universities nationwide throughout history. Additionally, the experiences of Black women in higher education leadership roles have not been extensively studied in scholarly research. The literature review clearly demonstrates that a sizeable portion of the analyses on leadership identity and experiences have been shaped by homogeneous viewpoints. Hip-Hop feminism is the theoretical framework utilized within this study. The methodology is …

The Predictors Of Self-Censorship On College Campuses, Henry I. Long

CMC Senior Theses

Across U.S. colleges, speech climates are poor. Self-censorship and discomfort expressing views are common. At the same time, we find wide variation in speech climates across different institutions. This study is the first to identify factors that predict variation in speech climates. Drawing on data from multiple sources, including a survey of 58,807 undergraduates across 257 colleges and universities from the Foundation from Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), this study constructs a first-of-its-kind dataset to test three core theories of self-censorship found in the literature—student-centric theories, faculty-centric theories, and administrator-centric theories. We find moderate evidence to support each theory. Overall, …

Equity In Education: How High School Attributes Determine An Admission Into Elite Colleges, Alexia Y. Ortiz

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to answer the question “Does the type of high school and location affect one’s admission to the three elite colleges: Claremont McKenna College (CMC), Pomona College (Pomona), and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)?” I used a dataset of high schools from five counties in Southern California, San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles, to create a regression model that determines whether students from charter, magnet, private, or public schools, and where one’s high school is located neighborhood’s income levels have different rates of admission.

This study found that attending public high school negatively …

Exploring Physics Teacher Identity: Pathways Toward Equitable Instruction Among Teachers, Clausell Mathis, Jomo Mutegi, Turhan Carroll, Maya Patel, Andrea Wooley

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Physics teacher identity encompasses teachers' beliefs and views toward being a physics teacher. Physics teacher identity is influenced by teachers' perspectives on physics teaching and learning. Previous studies on teacher identity in general suggest that the construct is complex and malleable. Studies further suggest that it influences instructional methods, student engagement, and classroom environment. However, within physics education, there has yet to be an examination of how physics teacher identity influences "equitable" teaching approaches. This qualitative study sought to identify various dimensions of physics teacher identity and its implications for physics education research. We interviewed secondary and postsecondary physics teachers …

Intersections Of Inattention: A Qualitative Inquiry Into The Experiences Of Multiply Marginalized Students In Community College Settings, Jana N. Knibb

Open Access Dissertations

Educational research has examined the impact of expanded access to higher education for historically marginalized groups. However, research on the experiences of students who are both racially minoritized and dis/abled is limited. Findings suggest that, due to their intersectional identities, multiply marginalized dis/abled students (MMDS) navigate policies and practices related to racist ableism, which further marginalize them and create additional barriers in their higher education experiences. Expanding this research requires theoretical frameworks that account for students' identities, experiences, and barriers in higher educational spaces and contexts. This qualitative study, grounded in Dis/ability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education (DisCrit), …

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 …

Wondrous Uncertainty: Transforming Student Educational Experiences Using Restorative Practices, Zachary C. Schafer

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

One of the primary purposes of education is to help students make sense of their lived experiences. In the process of becoming, students navigate multiple relationships (school, peers, adults, and with self). These relationships often cause conditions of uncertainty which can be managed and transformed using restorative practices in tandem with the academic disciplines taught in school. Over the last decade this has been my inquiry puzzle, “As educators, how can we embrace uncertainty with students as a way of helping to empower them through their dignity, with the academic disciplines as a lens through which relational learning occurs in …

Status-Based Microaggressions Experienced By Teacher-Librarians And Advocacy Strategies To Address Them, Jennifer Mary Mckenzie

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative dissertation explores the lived experiences of Oregon certified teacher-librarians and examines how status-based microaggressions impact their professional roles, working conditions, and advocacy efforts. Drawing from focus group methodology, consciousness-raising groups, and microaggression theory, particularly Dr. Derald Wing Sue’s Five Phase Microaggression Process Model, this study analyzes data from nine virtual focus groups with 20 participants representing 14 Oregon school districts. Oregon teacher-librarians are among the most understaffed in the nation and often experience professional marginalization. This study introduces participants to the term “status-based microaggression,” instances rooted in perceived organizational hierarchies. This study finds that all participants were unfamiliar …