Educational Sociology Commons^™

Culture And Class In Marginalized Minority Educational Attainment, Alan R. Takeall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using a national sample of Black and Latino high school students, I ask: What is the relative impact of demographic factors, aspirations, adherence to an ideology of achievement, and sociocultural capital on future educational attainment? Additionally, how do poor students compare to their non-poor counterparts on these measures? Employing the Educational Longitudinal Study (2002 & 2012) and multivariate statistical techniques, this dissertation examines the role of cultural and other factors on the educational attainment of Black and Latino students and then explores the role of poverty on those outcomes.

In recent years educational reform efforts have placed considerable emphasis on …

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 …

The Heart Of Experience: The Education Of A Practitioner's Journey, Tai Mesches

Capstone Collection

This Capstone, The Heart of Experience: The Education of a Practitioner’s Journey, is an illustrative reflection of myself experiencing my learning cycle, taking the reader through my own journey of growth as an experiential education practitioner. To engage the reader, I first shine light on the context of what role experience played in my life as a form of education, specifically reflecting on my time living abroad in China and my cross-cultural work with Chinese youth in Manhattan, New York, emphasizing basketball’s involvement as a tool for engagement. I describe how such experiences helped me return to school. To portray …

Assessing The Influence Of Career-Linked Experiential Opportunities On The F-1 Undergraduate Student Enrollment Decision-Making Process, Harrison Fuerst

Capstone Collection

International mobility efforts in the United States have garnered increased attention and funding in recent years, with such government-led initiatives as Generation Study Abroad and 100,000 Strong driving up inbound and outbound student numbers. Recent inbound mobility reports from the Institute of International Education show double-digit percentage increases in international student enrollment. Other countries also experiencing an influx of international students continue to research these trends to shape their own education strategies. Research conducted by the International Education Association of Australia points specifically to hands-on professional experience and enhanced employability as key factors important to Australia’s international student population. As …

Bridges Out Of Poverty As An Anti-Poverty Strategy In Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Katlyn M. Uhler

Capstone Collection

This paper explores the initial results of the Bridges Out of Poverty (“Bridges”) community framework as implemented by the organization Kennett Area Community Service in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The aim of this research is to provide perspective on Bridges Out of Poverty’s contribution to the understanding of poverty in the United States and its potential as an antipoverty intervention. It does so first through an exploration of the historical and current discussion on poverty and anti-poverty interventions in the United States, followed by research on the Bridges model itself and its implementation in Kennett Square. This latter research includes content …

How Scholarship Programs Facilitate First-Generation College Students’ Involvement, Maria C. Restrepo Chavez

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

As a first-generation college student, I am interested in the on-campus involvement and experiences of other first-generation college students. First-generation college students are those whose parents did not receive a university degree and tend to come from low-income families. This project explores programs designed to support and enrich the experiences of such students. The Centennial Scholars Program at James Madison University and the Presidential Scholarship Initiative at Virginia Tech aim to increase the socio-economic diversity on each campus. These programs provide students with full funding for four years, mentorship, professional development and social benefits, among others. In turn, students become …

Girls Are Us: A Collection Of Oral Histories From The Jmu Community, Anne M. Sherman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On a campus where women make up a majority of the student population, it is especially important that female voices are heard and given a platform on which they can control their own narrative. I wanted to give those female-identifying voices that platform. I conducted a series of interviews to examine how college-aged female-identifying students feel about their identity and how they construct that identity within the climate of the JMU community. I was particularly interested in the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual preference, and ability. I asked each person to share their stories of times when they …

“White People Are Gay, But So Are Some Of My Kids”: Examining The Intersections Of Race, Sexuality, And Gender, Stephanie A. Shelton

Occasional Paper Series

A significant body of research examines the roles and characteristics of teachers who identify as allies to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students. Literature notes LGBTQ students’ vulnerability but often excludes students’ racial identities as relevant to LGBTQ identities. Drawing on queer theory and a longitudinal study, this paper examines through individual and focus group interviews the ways that a novice English Education teacher shifted from a bifurcated understanding of race as separate from LGBTQ topics to a position that fully embraced the importance of race as a factor in both serving LGBTQ students and teaching LGBTQ-positive topics.

An Embodied Education: Questioning Hospitality To The Queer, Clio Stearns

Occasional Paper Series

This is an essay about hospitality and the ways we must question frameworks telling us to welcome the queer in educational contexts. I will show how educational scholarship as well as programming for schools, teachers and students have emphasized the interconnected concepts of hospitality and welcome as a way of keeping queer bodies legislatively, physically and psychically safe. While acknowledging the importance of hospitality as a starting point, I examine its limits with the hope of showing how it might foreclose curiosity. I argue that one fundamental problem with hospitality and welcome toward the queer is the way these phenomena …

The Gift Of Hindsight: A Parent Learns About Educating Trans Youth, Denise Snyder

Occasional Paper Series

Describes one family's journey with their transgendered daughter.

Answers To Common Misconceptions About Biological Evolution, Leah M. Abebe, Blake Bartels, Kaitlyn M. Caron, Adam M. Gleeson, Samuel N. Johnson, Tyler J. Kluza, Nicholas W. Knopik, Kristen N. Kramer, Masiel S. Maza, Kaitlyn A. Stava, Kaitlyn Sullivan, Jordan T. Trimble, Robert M. Zink

Papers in Evolution

“When you have an established scientific emergent truth, it is true whether or not you believe in it.” Neil deGrasse Tyson, Science in America. Very few people outside of a particular scientific discipline can actually say they understand it, because most do not have the training to “speak the language.” They are then not particularly bothered by its tenets and predictions. Of all the major branches of science, however, evolutionary biology is an exception to this generalization because even though people are not versed in the field, they sometimes have a negative, knee-jerk objection. This objection is often because they …

This Is A Black-White Conversation : Navigating Race, Class, And Gender At An Urban School., Jelisa S. Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines how racial ideologies operate and shape experiences in an urban school. Using ethnographic methods, consisting of observations, formal and informal interviews, document analysis, I pose the following questions: (1) To what extent is OS premised on the Black male crisis discourse; (2) How do the students, faculty, and staff navigate the boundaries of race, class, and gender; and (3) How do racial ideologies (i.e., colorblind racism and Black male crisis discourse) influence the experiences of faculty and students? Findings suggest that colorblind ideology operates on various facets and on multiple levels in the school. By focusing on …

Factors In Public School Settings That Result In Teacher Agency, Jessica Hadid

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

A quality system for educating a nation’s youth depends upon a teaching force that continually learns, and applies its learning outcomes to active problem solving and development. Many current school and district models minimize teacher ability to engage in meaningful change, ultimately undermining the teachers’ sense of personal and professional agency. Literature suggests that internal forms of motivation are likely to result in the development of agency via self-determination of actions and behaviors. This mixed methods study examined five public schools in a small K-12 district through the lens of self-determination theory. An initial set of quantitative data were collected …

Defining Dartmouth: Inclusion And Exclusion At Dartmouth College 1917-2017, Laura Barrett

Dartmouth Library Staff Publications

Dartmouth College’s demographics have shifted over the past one hundred years, from an almost entirely all male, white, and wealthy student body, to one with gender, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity. During this time, the College has endeavored to maintain its reputation as an academically exclusive institution for the intellectual elite while simultaneously opening its doors continually wider to a more diverse student population. These aspirations, for broad inclusivity within the bounds of narrow exclusivity, have frequently worked in opposition to one another, and Dartmouth’s administrators have led the College in a delicate balancing act amid shifting alumni demands, student …

Do You See What I See? Perception And Social Construction Of Academic Success Between Student-Athletes And Support Services, Lauren Kirby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study explores how academic success is defined and socially constructed between athletic academic support professionals and at-risk student-athletes. There continues to be an increase in academic support services provided to student-athletes, including learning specialists, academic advisors, and academic buildings (Wolverton, 2008). Although a significant relationship between support services and academic output of student-athletes has been found (Hollis, 2002; Ridpath, 2010), the relational and communicative dynamics of these groups have not been fully explored.

Using qualitative methods, one-on-one interviews were conducted with participants, and grounded theory and thematic analysis were employed to identify overarching themes for the research questions. …

Creating A Multiracial Lesson Plan, Clayton Davis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of this project is to teach students about multiracial identity issues. Multiracial populations in the U.S. continue to grow and it’s important for educators to address the needs of these students. A 5-E multiracial literature lesson plan was created for second grade that incorporates KWL and Text-to-World teaching strategies. A second grade class were read two children’s picture books, each featuring a biracial protagonist, and were asked to discuss and evaluate the content and commonalities of these stories. Students recorded what they learned in this lesson in their KWL’s. The results reveal that some students understood the problems …

Risks, Protections, And Weight Status Among Springdale High School Students, Leanna Christine Gavin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of sociodemographic characteristics and various Social factors in determining BMI among adolescent high school students. In a sample of 1,493 students at a public high school in Springdale, Arkansas, disparities in body mass index across race/ethnicity, gender, and Social class were assessed. This project also examined risk and protective factors in the individual, peer, and family domains as they contributed to weight status outcomes and disparities. Using a quantitative approach, BMI outcomes were examined in a four-step multiple regression model, considering both main effects and interactions of race/ethnicity, class, and gender, as well as risk …

Yes! I..., Chican@/Latino Lives Class - Fall 2016

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.

Hand-Me-Down, Briana Yah-Díaz

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.

Familia Vázquez, Kimberly Vázquez

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.