Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2017, Educational Leadership

The widespread use of digital technology has had a remarkable effect on almost every domain of human life. Advanced digital technologies are used for communicating with friends and colleagues; engaging in social media; holding down jobs; paying bills; purchasing tickets for events; listening to music; watching films and making videos; and many other daily activities (Pegrum, 2011). This technological change has caused governments, educational departments, and non-governmental organizations (NGO's) to recognize the need to develop educational plans that would support the social and the cultural changes that have occurred with the ubiquitous permeation of digital technology into our everyday lives. The purpose of this research was to examine several socio-cultural aspects related to the integration of digital technology and education. Specifically, this study aimed to explore how teachers' understanding of digital technology and the practices used in the classrooms advance or constrain democratic citizenship. This dissertation aimed to bridge theory and practice by developing a philosophical investigation through empirical research. The importance of utilizing empirical research in a philosophy follows Arcilla's (2002) claim that one needs to reconsider how philosophy can become relevant to educators. Through employing critical, qualitative research methodology, this study provides a comparative examination of teachers' understanding of digital technologies for education, as expressed by teachers in Israel and teachers in the United States. Conducting a comparative examination helped to reveal the meta-ideological aspects of utilizing digital technology in schools. The heart of this study dealt with the promise of digital technology to transform education in the age of globalization, under the neoliberal apparatus. The analysis chapters examine several assumptions regarding digital technology and education, through critical exploration of educational policies, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Advisor); Richard Quantz (Committee Co-Chair); Lisa Weems (Committee Member); Thomas Poetter (Committee Member); Jason Palmeri (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Sociology; Educational Technology; Educational Theory

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2024, Education

Leveraging the researcher's unique diverse cultural and educational background, this dissertation explores integrating social emotional learning (SEL) within an innovative pedagogy of “with ness” (PoW) towards planetary well-being in educational settings. The overarching purpose is to redefine educational strategies through SEL and PoW to advance planetary well-being in tertiary contexts. As such, this dissertation critically engages with three published articles authored during the researcher's doctoral tenure to highlight transformative SEL practices that are fundamentally attuned to ecological consciousness. Informed by critical theory, feminist perspectives, and process philosophy, the hermeneutic circle reflects on these articles to address complex 21st-century challenges educational systems face such as technological disruption, language and culture diversity, mental health and emotional awareness amidst global scale events. Ultimately, the research from this project suggests there is further potential for SEL to contribute significantly to an educational and eventual societal shift that prioritizes planet Earth. By centering planetary well-being, this dissertation aims to help the researcher and readership gravitate towards a more empathetic, equitable, and ecologically conscious generation. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Richard Kahn Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Douglas Judge Ph.D. (Committee Member); Philip Gurney Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Behaviorial Sciences; Bilingual Education; Climate Change; Cognitive Psychology; Counseling Education; Counseling Psychology; Cultural Anthropology; Earth; Ecology; Education; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Educational Tests and Measurements; English As A Second Language; Environmental Education; Environmental Justice; Environmental Philosophy; Ethics; Evolution and Development; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; International Relations; Multicultural Education; Neurosciences; Philosophy; Psychology; School Administration; School Counseling; Social Psychology; Social Research; Social Studies Education; Sociology; Sustainability; Teacher Education; Teaching; Welfare; Womens Studies

EDD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this Dissertation in Practice is to explore my professional ethos as an educator. As a nomadic scholar-educator, without a permanent organizational or institutional framework within which to operate, I had no ready-made code of professional ethics or corporate ladder, no outside structure to guide my work. That is, until I embarked on this journey into philosophies of education and found that the post-critical approach to education has provided me with a way to talk about and frame my professional purpose. My study foregrounds/ explores some key characteristics of a post-critical definition of education and being-a-teacher to demonstrate their applicability to my understanding of myself as an educator. By viewing a number of positions and projects with a post-critical eye, I have identified features of my work, like the teacher's love of a subject, a sense of educational hope, and a focus on affirming the good in the world that can be passed on to the next generation. I have been able to weave together a myriad of experiences that I had not known how they were connected until I looked at them educationally. In this way, I have taken on a unique problem of practice—developing my professional ethos as a nomadic, post-critical educator.

Committee: Natasha Levinson (Advisor); Jennifer Martin (Committee Member); Mary Parr (Other); Astrid Sambolin Morales (Committee Member); Elizabeth Perkins (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Philosophy; Educational Theory; Pedagogy; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Political Science

Liberalism has traditionally been suspicious of considering the concept of care as a political principle fit for the public realm. Against this current, I propose a Liberalism with Care (LWC) where liberalism and care ethics lie in a complementary relationship. A liberalism that ignores the place of care in political life falls victim to two immanent critiques, of liberal subjectivity and liberal understanding. I argue that liberalism can best respond to these critiques by incorporating a principle of care which is a synthesis of care ethics and Dewey's affective epistemology. To locate a latent commitment to care in the liberal canon, I present a novel reading of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism and his collected works where I argue that a commitment to the cultivation of caring characters is a linchpin of his liberal utilitarianism. Mill's caring liberal utilitarianism also reveals the dangers of scaling up care to the public realm, and I consider reasons for why contemporary liberalism would rather prefer the concept of civic friendship than care as a political principle. I conclude that LWC dispels these concerns and better addresses the problems of liberalism than liberal skeptics often assume. Finally, I consider how our understanding of intersubjective boundaries can be reimagined into a caring view of boundaries. Considering two political events, one in South Korea and one in Nevada, I argue that the caring view of boundaries helps us avoid the unsatisfying features of existing accounts.

Committee: Eric MacGilvray (Advisor); Benjamin McKean (Committee Member); Michael Neblo (Committee Member) Subjects: Epistemology; Ethics; Philosophy; Political Science; Sociology; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2021, Educational Leadership

Cosmopolitanism is a normative philosophy that suggests a global community of responsibility. This study further develops cosmopolitanism in conflict-related education settings through a historical examination of the United States' imperial expansion into the Philippines, the subsequent Philippine-American War, and the accompanying American education restructuring efforts in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. This conflict serves as a delimited historical site for research in which a cosmopolitanism-based framework is used to evaluate conflict-related education as an instrument of foreign policy. Employing the methodologies of historical research and critical policy analysis (CPA), this study draws widely from the literature on cosmopolitanism as well as primary and secondary sources related to the history of the Philippine-American conflict. President William McKinley's so-called benevolent assimilation proclamation of 1898 serves as the foundational historical policy document for this study. A top-level federal policy document, McKinley's proclamation provides a springboard for critically examining its associated history, politics, philosophy, rhetoric, and educational implications. This study argues that cosmopolitanism ethics consists of three essential elements: respect, responsibility, and rootedness. Respect recognizes that social justice and moral flourishing can be promoted by traditions and cultures other than one's own. Responsibility recognizes that one is obliged to take actions to promote social justice and human flourishing beyond their own tribal boundaries. Rootedness, meanwhile, promotes social justice and human flourishing within one's own culture. It is only when all three components are present that cosmopolitanism ethics are realized. By prioritizing economic profit, by favoring the American White-settler lived experience, and by actively repressing the history, political will, and agency of the Filipino people, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kate Rousmaniere (Committee Chair); Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Committee Member); Michael Evans (Committee Member); Thomas Misco (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Ethics; History; Military History; Philosophy

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

The following reflects on the 2016 election victory of Donald Trump. Most mainstream media accounts and a number of qualitative, Americanist studies propose a working-class “resentment” narrative to explain Trump's popularity. In contrast, I suggest that political theology and understanding western notions of “sovereignty” are more important for making sense of Trump's popularity. In what follows, I first provide a theoretical critique of genealogies of sovereignty in order to claim that identifying and intervening in situations of suffering are acts endemic to western sovereignty. My theoretical account expands notions of political theology to encompass the affective and the corporeal in order to claim that masculinity and sovereignty are co-constitutive forces in western cultural history. Have illustrated this claim in our canonical sources of political theory, I then return to the theological context of political `theology' in order to locate the importance of suffering. Generally speaking, identifying situations of suffering, intervening within these situations, and causing situations of suffering are all sovereign acts. The popularity of Donald Trump and the unwavering support of his base comes not from a place of political ignorance or a need to irrationally resent others, but from the embodied notions of western politics that conceives of political order anchored on a masculine, sovereign individual who bears and distributes suffering

Committee: Julie White Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Judith Grant Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jonathan Agensky Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andrew Ross Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Ancient Civilizations; Biblical Studies; Classical Studies; European Studies; Gender Studies; Philosophy; Political Science; Religion; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2019, Educational Leadership

In this project, I examine the theoretical and practical arenas in terms of the conceptualization, implementation, and pedagogy of moral character. The fundamental concern is embodied in the reductive fallacy and the conceptual blurriness between moral character and moral virtue facing extant moral character definitions, as well as the attribution error and confirmation bias (Harman, 2000) for empirical measurements of moral character. The review of contemporary literature confirms but does not provide conceptually concrete and structurally holistic solutions to the fundamental problems diagnosed above. So I dive deep into the four legendary philosophers, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Dewey to explore how they conceptualize experiential moral character in terms of the five dimensions of its forming logical structure (i.e., distinct appearances, intrinsic motivations, operative strengths, active self-agency, and awakened supreme moral principles). Through reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of historic conceptualizations by the four philosophers, I re-conceptualize experiential moral character based on the Body-Heart-Mind-Soul model. In the end, I briefly analyze the three areas in which experiential moral character can be applied: empirical measurements in research, experiential moral character education intervention or practice, and self-meditation practice.

Committee: Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Advisor); Joel Malin (Committee Member); Thomas Poetter (Committee Member); Aimin Wang (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership

BA, Oberlin College, 2019, History

This thesis is an intellectual history of dialecticism and its use in the works of the Frankfurt School members, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. Famously, these two men had a ferocious and polemical debate in the pages of Dissent Magazine in 1955-56. The Fromm-Marcuse Debate has since become almost the sole lens in which the intellectual differences and similarities between these men are analyzed. Through a comparative and historical analysis of their individual work, largely removed from the Dissent Debate, I offer a new interpretation of their conflict, their personal relationship, and a new perspective on critical theory and its relationship to political action. I argue that Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse's intellectual ideas are better juxtaposed through their interpretation of dialectics, rather than psychoanalysis, and that through this, they present us with starkly different prescriptions for individual and collective political engagement. Thus, both Fromm and Marcuse are outliers within the field of critical theory, and certainly within the Frankfurt School, even as their ideas remain in firm conflict with one another.

Committee: Annemarie Sammartino (Advisor) Subjects: American History; American Studies; European History; History; Modern History; Philosophy; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Educational Studies

In this dissertation, I critique STEM education as the educational apotheosis of neoliberal governmentality and reconceptualize it for an egalitarian democracy. Part and parcel of this analysis is considering Wendy Brown's (2015) contention that the contemporary subject is interpolated by the prevailing norms of neoliberalism as a governing form of political rationality and thus expresses itself not as a political subject, or “homo politicus”, but as a self-investing and economized subject, or “homo oeconomicus”. I hypothesize that students as emergent homo oeconomicus seek out STEM education as the best means for survival within a technocratic marketplace. In this sense, STEM literacy is rendered the paradigmatic form of symbolic capital within the capitalist state. The thrust of my critical response to this milieu figures left-libertarian or social-anarchist thought as the diametrically opposed and thus apposite ideological rejoinder to the right-authoritarian status quo, not only for political activism writ large, but also for educational reform proposals and even the preparation of preservice teachers. In the end, my research is an attempt to explore how students' narratives can assist critical educators with leveraging pedagogy into a potent means for cultivating within educational systems the social imaginaries and political subjects needed to eschew the aims of a right-authoritarian status quo and embrace the aims of an egalitarian, left-libertarian society-to-be.

Committee: Bryan Warnick Ph.D. (Advisor); Michael Glassman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Bruce Kimball Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Curricula; Education; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Sociology; Educational Theory; Ethics; Pedagogy; Philosophy; Political Science; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, EDU Policy and Leadership

Chief among the goals of American education is the cultivation of democratic citizens. Contrary to State catechism delivered through our schools, America was not born a democracy; rather it emerged as a republic with a distinct bias against democracy. Nonetheless we inherit a great demotic heritage. Abolition, the labor struggle, women's suffrage, and Civil Rights, for example, struck mighty blows against the established political and economic power of the State. State political economies, whether capitalist, socialist, or communist, each express characteristics of a slave society. All feature oppression, exploitation, starvation, and destitution as constitutive elements. In order to survive in our capitalist society, the average person must sell the contents of her life in exchange for a wage. Fundamentally, I challenge the equation of State schooling with public and/or democratic education. Our schools have not historically belonged to a democratic public. Rather, they have been created, funded, and managed by an elite class wielding local, state, and federal government as its executive arms. Schools are economic institutions, serving a division of labor in the reproduction of the larger economy. Rather than the school, our workplaces are the chief educational institutions of our lives. Here we spend the bulk of our time and efforts. Our jobs constitute our deepest point of political impact upon society. As Adam Smith and Karl Marx both recognized, people are formed by their ordinary employments; our daily habits and modes of association determine who we are. Thus the character of our workplaces, whether democratic, autocratic, or theocratic, serves as the best barometer for the character of our culture. Since the late-19th century, capitalist industry has sought to transform the worker into the beast of burden whose primary life function is to labor for the enlargement of capital. Hence the education of daily working life, subservience to those who control our ac (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bryan Warnick PhD (Advisor); Phil Smith PhD (Committee Member); Ann Allen PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics; Education Philosophy