Leadership Studies Commons^™

From A Boy To A Leader, Alejandro Zayas

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The following autoethnographic dissertation examines my personal experiences of trauma, abuse, and violence. Drawing on journals, memories, and artifacts from my life, I use self-reflection to illustrate the impacts of trauma on my childhood and adulthood. My traumatic experiences of sexual abuse, childhood violence, and emotional abuse are situated within broader sociocultural contexts of masculinity, Hispanic culture, and social norms. This study illuminates possibilities for healing and transformation for myself and others with shared traumatic backgrounds. It calls for trauma-informed education, masculinity, and resiliency. Evocatively sharing my traumatic life events provides an accessible window into often silenced experiences, bearing witness …

Landscaping Wellness At Work: A Participatory Model For Worker-Centered Health, Anya Helena Piotrowski

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study contributes to a body of scholarship that demonstrates the benefits and need of employee-driven and defined wellness at work processes. This participatory action research study brought together a team of employees within a remote-work, start-up organization to define and design a process for implementing wellness at work for their organization. Through a participatory process that allowed outcomes to emerge from the group, employees identified opportunities to foster embodied wellness in their organization in three core areas: organizational, personal, and cross-boundary initiatives. Through a reflective collaboration, employees generated ideas and developed a plan to address employee-identified priorities that will …

A Narrative Inquiry Of Latinx Undergraduates' Participation In High-Impact Educational Practices, Sarah R. Villarreal

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There are systematic barriers to educational equity in the U.S. higher education system, and the system overwhelmingly fails Latinx undergraduates more often than other students. It is crucial that evidence-based methods be used to reduce the existing postsecondary student success inequities. Scholars have linked specific educational practices to positive learning effects. A growing body of evidence has suggested these educational practices, coined high-impact practices (HIPs), provide amplified benefits to historically underserved students (HUS) and may be an effective tool for advancing equity and closing achievement gaps. The extant literature has neither adequately explained the reason(s) that HIPs provide an academic …

Exploring Supervisory Needs Of First-Generation Professionals Working In Higher Education, Angela R. Wellman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As first-generation students enter the workforce and traverse through their careers, their work supervisors are solidly positioned to positively influence their experiences. There is very little literature to be found that addresses the professional experiences of first-generation professionals in relation to their supervisors. The purpose of this exploratory study was to learn, directly from first-generation professionals working in higher education, what they believe they need from their supervisors to support their well-being and success. This research also sought to discover how important participants thought that each need statement was, as well to gain insight to what extent the identified needs …

Theoretical Modeling For Curious Leadership And Instrument Development And Validation For Measuring Curious Leader Capacity, Lisa M. Gick

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

When curious, we admit we do not know. With the contemporary workplace emerging through increased complexity, leaders are compelled to shift mindsets and practices from more traditional methods to those more in service to the uncertainty of the day. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to generate an integrated theoretical framework for curious leadership, a validated scale for its measurement, and practical methods for engaging differently in the context and practice of leading. Drawing from the literature review of relational leadership, adaptive leadership, complexity leadership, growth mindsets, and curious behavior, and from my practice, 12 sub-constructs were identified as …

Experiencing Workplace Inclusion: Critical Incidents That Create A Sense Of Inclusion For Professional Staff In Higher Education, Katherine Penn Lampley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Professional staff make up the majority of employees at colleges and universities in the United States but are rarely the focus of research in higher education. As a result, little is known about how these employees experience the workplace, creating a challenge for educational institutions working to attract, develop, and retain this essential resource. Employees who feel included in the workplace have higher performance levels and are more likely to remain with their organizations, but workplace inclusion is a complex and undertheorized psychological phenomenon. This exploratory study provides insight into the psychological experience of inclusion by examining the experiences, interactions, …

Narrative-Driven Educational Practice: Guiding Principles For Academic Success Of Black And Latinx Male Collegians, Christopher T. James

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On the heels of America grappling with various racial and ethnic inequities, this dissertation explored the experiences of Black and Latinx males who graduated with bachelor’s degrees from 4-year institutions. Participants navigated through different environments, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities [HBCUs], Hispanic Serving Institutions [HSI], and Predominately White Institutions [PWIs]. The study inquired about topics concerning their unique experiences and how they informed their collegiate academic success. Narrative Inquiry was the basis for 20 qualitative interviews (10 Black and 10 Latinx; interviewed for 60–90 minutes). Participants identified as U.S. citizens and graduated with a cumulative grade point average [GPA] …

Navigating Conflict During Periods Of Change In Higher Education: Deconstructing Academic Leaders’ Construction Of Meaning, Tyler Guy Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Navigating departmental and organizational conflict is an essential function and responsibility of an academic unit leader (dean, associate dean, director, or chair) in higher education institutions (HEIs). During periods of organizational change, conflict tends to increase in complexity and difficulty—in part due to resistance to change—making it more difficult to manage in a constructive manner (Marcus, 2014). Much of the literature that looks at the academic unit leader and conflict focuses on personal conflict styles (or modes), types of conflicts encountered, and training on techniques and skills for conflict resolution and management. Missing from the literature is research that examines …

Towards An Ecosystem Of Youth Leadership Development, Trisha Swed

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study is aimed at understanding how youth leadership development programs can be more inclusive and promote a broader range of leadership values, qualities, and behaviors by focusing on young people who have been disaffected by leadership development programs. The study design was intended to provide a creative space for youth to engage in meaningful conversations about their evolving concepts and expectations of leadership. Using critical youth participatory action research to engage a group of youth, cohort members co-created a new youth leadership development program while addressing their identified challenges and needs. Findings from this study highlight the importance of …

Empowered Presence: Theorizing An Afrocentric Performance Of Leadership By African American Women, Sharon Wamble-King

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

There is a paucity of theorizing concerning leadership enactments performed by African American women. The performances have been marginalized and obscured within the Western leadership canon as they fall outside its epistemological boundaries; they have also been sidelined within Critical Leadership Studies. This study employed Afrocentricity as a decolonizing paradigm and Africology as the research methodology to describe and define a leadership phenomenon enacted by African American women. Setting aside Western conceptions of leadership, focus groups of African American women examined video excerpts of Africana women’s oral performances through an Africological lens. Participants’ Afrocentric-oriented perceptions sparked collective storytelling and Meaning-Making …

Learning From The Courageous Actions Of War And Post-War Time Teachers: A Bricolage Of Bosnian Educators, Elana Micahl Haviv

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify the preconditions that inspire courageous action through exploration of the choices made by four classroom teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each educator had made the decision not only to teach during or after the 1992–1995 war and genocide in their country, but to do so in ways that went against official post-war teaching guidelines. Although there are a vast number of studies on courage in literature, there is little research that includes teachers who remained in their classrooms during wartime or chose to enter their classrooms in transitional societies after their communities …

A Case Study On Factors Influencing Retention Of Mental Health Clinicians In A New Hampshire Community Mental Health Center, William E. Keating

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study examined the perspectives of master-level clinical mental health providers and members of leadership at a Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) in New Hampshire, to understand clinician and leadership perspectives as to why master-level providers choose to continue working at CMHCs. Most prior research on turnover in such organizations has focused on why so many leave their positions, however this study instead focuses on factors related to the decision to stay at a specific CMHC in an urban area of New Hampshire. A single case study method was utilized to focus on masters-level mental health care providers with additional …

Counselors’ Lived Experience Treating Patients Utilizing Methadone: The Intersection Of Culture, Policy, And Stigma, Kathryn Floyd Eggert

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The United States continues to experience unprecedented deaths related to the opioid epidemic. Efforts to address the epidemic remain hampered by war-on-drugs policies that stigmatize people who use drugs and create barriers to accessing evidence-based treatments, particularly methadone maintenance treatments (MMT). Despite 50 years of research regarding MMT, it remains highly regulated, and arguably the most stigmatized treatment. The punitive regulatory structure of MMT remained unchanged until emergency waivers were initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used an exploratory, critical phenomenological approach to examine the intersection of culture and regulation on the lived experiences of 26 addiction counselors who …

Teaching Without Walls: A Portraiture Study Of Nature-Based Educators In Duluth, Minnesota, Christina Wild

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation explores the lived experience of nature-based educators in Duluth, Minnesota. Portraiture served as the methodological framework for learning about how teachers in Duluth got into teaching and why they remain on the job. Teacher turnover and attrition is a national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, teachers who perceive better working conditions are less likely to leave the profession. In addition, nature-based education has positive influences on students. Past research in nature-based education has looked at students rather than teachers. This study’s findings offer key lessons in the stories of educators who stay in teaching and experience …

Navigating Opportunities To Improve Youth Outcomes In A Least Developed Country: An Action Research Study, Naomi Docilait

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The ambitious United Nations-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require the concentrated effort of governments, the business sector, and other key stakeholders, including women and youth, for its success. Effective leadership will be essential for different sectors to integrate these development goals into strategic plans and operational activities in the service of realizing this agenda by 2030. Unfortunately for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the COVID-19 pandemic caused the worst economic outcomes in 30 years. For this group of countries, the pandemic has negatively influenced efforts to eradicate poverty and improve social outcomes. This setback makes achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by …

Mokṣa, Seeking A Humanizing Way Of Being: I Am Recognized. I Am Acknowledged. I Am Human., Lauralynn Jansen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation delves into the intricate dimensions of humanization by shifting the analytical focus from denial and exclusion to affirmative aspects of inclusion. The central aim of this research is to unravel the mechanisms underlying the process of humanization, or how individuals perceive and internalize their being recognized as human beings. Employing the critical incident technique, this research methodically examined the lived experiences of a highly diverse group of individuals living with varying social stigmas and how they experience humanization. This research displays the intricate interplay of language, actions, and sensory elements engendered before, during, and after a humanizing moment. …

Elementary School Leadership, Climate, And Resilience During Covid-19: A Comparative Case Study Of Two Independent Schools, Nora C. Malone

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The recent worldwide pandemic impacted educational systems on a global scale, forcing school leaders to reimagine educational structures as they faced the ongoing wounding of the unprecedented, shared trauma wrought by COVID-19. Mandated U.S. school closures in March of 2020 forced an immediate transition to distance learning and presented unforeseen academic and social challenges for students, educators, parents, and school leaders. As school campuses re-opened over the next year, the pandemic continued to present hardships. School leaders were tasked with developing systems to follow appropriate health and safety measures, develop systems to accommodate stakeholders’ individual health circumstances, and communicate school …

Exploring Relationship Among Programmatic Expertise, Work Engagement, And Turnover Intentions Across Different Generation Cohorts In State And Local Governmental Public Health Agencies, Stephanie L. Irvin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the relationship among public health programmatic competencies, work engagement, and turnover intentions among state and local public health workers. It also explored the moderating role of generational cohorts in these relationships. It employed a quantitative secondary data analysis using the 2021 PHWINS survey, a collaboration between the de Beaumont Foundation and The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. The study's principal findings shed light on critical relationships within the public health workforce: Firstly, an increase in programmatic expertise among public health professionals is linked to increased work engagement, particularly notable within the Millennial cohort. Secondly, a …

Training Curriculum For Students With Disabilities (Ese), Carolynne P. Mather

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Against All Odds Ministry, Inc. (AAOM) is a non-profit organization created by CEO and Founder Carolynne Mather. Carolynne's passion for serving the at-risk population dates to her years as a Preschool Owner providing moral and spiritual counseling to the young mothers of the children her facility provided care. Carolynne desired to mentor these women in a monthly meeting and guide them to see if they could move beyond their circumstances against the odds that faced them. The desire was to use the group meetings to write a book on women's success from this mentoring group. The group produced two parents …

Triumph After Trauma: A Phenomenological Exploration Into Women Survivor’S Perceptions Of The Influence Of Trauma On Their Leadership, Natalya R. Bannister Roby

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most research around trauma is focused on negative life consequences. Although limited, there is research that explores the influence of resilience and how some survivors may experience growth after trauma (Kirschman, 2004). Furthermore, research is limited on how trauma influences the leadership style and career trajectories of women who have overcome trauma. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used as the methodological framework to explore the perspectives of women leaders who identify as survivors or overcomers of trauma. The study participants are women leaders in middle management positions to senior-level executives in educational organizations serving middle and high school students.

In-depth …