Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2013, College of Education

This study explored a triangular relationship among teachers, students, and administrators at an English as Second Language (ESL) learning center in a mid-sized, private, non-profit university in the Midwest in the United States. Through the use of critical theory, this study simultaneously gave the three groups of stakeholders voices, interwove their comments, and emerged a system thinking: a whole picture of an ESL learning center. The result from this study revealed administrators' pressure, five teachers' frustration, and nine students' learning agonies. In terms of the findings, this study grounded a leadership theory of an ESL learning center management.

Doctor of Education, Miami University, 2024, Educational Leadership

In recent years, secondary education has experienced a significant transformation driven by the need to better prepare students for life beyond graduation. Central to this shift is the integration of Career Readiness Programs, which not only provide academic knowledge but also equip students with practical skills, vocational insights, and an understanding of professional landscapes. This study investigates whether an embedded Career Readiness Program influences the development and enhancement of partnerships between schools and businesses. Guided by Ohio's legislative framework, which emphasizes college and career readiness, this research explores how career readiness programs can foster effective collaborations between educational institutions and the business sector. The study employs a qualitative case study methodology to understand how these partnerships evolve and their impact on students' preparedness for post-secondary pathways. The data collection involved face-to-face interviews with business representatives and school personnel directly engaged with the Career Readiness Program. Thematic analysis of the interview notes revealed patterns and themes that highlighted the potential of these programs to bridge the gap between education and workforce demands. The study's findings suggest that integrating Career Readiness Programs strengthens school-business partnerships by aligning educational practices with industry needs, creating opportunities for internships, mentorships, and hands-on experiences. This collaborative approach not only enhances student readiness for professional careers but also benefits the local business community by developing a skilled workforce.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Organizational Leadership , Franklin University, 2024, International Institute for Innovative Instruction

The underrepresentation of African American male teachers in K-12 education significantly impacts educational equity and student success, especially in urban areas where these students often lack relatable role models. Historically, African American males were a significant presence in teaching, but their numbers have drastically declined since the Brown v. Board of Education decision. This shortage limits cultural representation and mentorship opportunities essential for the academic and personal development of African American male students. This qualitative phenomenological study, conducted within the Columbus City Schools system, explores the motivations of African American male teachers and their impact on students. Using Social Learning Theory and Social Identity Theory, the research involved in-depth interviews revealing key themes such as the influence of positive role models, the critical need for cultural representation, and the desire to mentor and advocate for young African American males. The study highlights the importance of targeted recruitment, supportive environments, and professional development programs to attract and retain these educators. Increasing the presence of African American male teachers enhances student engagement, achievement and fosters a more inclusive and equitable educational environment.

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2016, Educational Administration (Education)

The journey to understanding career readiness has never been more difficult for today's Kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) educational leaders. In this study, data was analyzed using Q-methodology which discovered three factors holding five interpretable viewpoints. K-12 educational leaders not only presented an understanding about career readiness as developing the appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities to compete in the 21st century global economy, but also identified with aspects of vocational psychology's perspective of career including self-awareness, making meaning in one's life, and having a drive and desire to succeed. Data interpretation and analysis emphasized the need for K-12 educational leaders to re-create K-12 school culture by developing students who are employable while strategically positioning each student's unique life stories to find purpose and meaning in life.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim comprises the situation of the social phenomenon being studied, not the people. This research combines critical race theory (CRT) with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and uses situation analysis to map historical discourses to conduct a study that examines the history of a present situation of inquiry as presented by this question: How does the 2016 right-to-read claim made by high school students in Detroit, Michigan reflect, address, or describe contemporary discussions about educational access? The study collected data to allow me to construct a prosopography that articulates an answer to the question that claims access to literacy is a public school policy right. Because situational analysis (SA) is designed to open research data to aspects of a circumstance that may have been overlooked, marginalized, or silenced, I was not certain the research results would answer this exact question. Additionally, critical theory and SA were used to conduct this qualitative research, examining historical data that addresses the right-to-read claim as a Foucaultian programmatic social problem. As such, it seeks to understand the complexities of recurring and historically situated education practices that limit actualizing U.S. education policies that embrace access to basic literacy skills as a human right. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Educational Studies

For many years, systemic academic achievement gaps between first-generation college students (FGS; e.g., students whose parents/guardians do not have four-year college degrees) and continuing-generation college students (CGS; e.g., students with at least one parent/guardian who has a college degree) have been documented. However, this literature does not consider the matriculation pathways of FGS in higher education. This is important, as many FGS begin their college careers in community college prior to transferring into four-year universities. The studies examining the educational psychology and academic performance of FGS only focus on FGS who matriculate into four-year universities as first-year students. Thus, it is necessary to examine how community college matriculation and transfer relates to the beliefs, perceptions, behaviors, and academic achievement of FGS in four-year universities. Researchers suggest that FGS, who often come from lower- and working-class backgrounds, tend to espouse collectivistic motives for attending college. These reasons can include wanting to make their families proud, honor their family names, and/or give back to their communities. This is in contrast to CGS, who tend to espouse more individualistic motives for attending college including identity exploration, personal enjoyment, and personal financial gain. According to cultural mismatch theory, the prevailing cultural value systems at four-year universities align more with the beliefs of CGS than FGS, which results in psychological and academic issues for FGS. However, there is preliminary evidence that community colleges offer a better fitting cultural environment for FGS, with the implication being that FGS who matriculate into community colleges prior to four-year universities may be buffered against the negative outcomes of cultural mismatch often documented in the literature. This prospect is, as yet, untested. To address this gap in the literature, I examined the (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This dissertation and research study is dedicated to the exploration of critical posthuman educational technology. Research in this study determines, evaluates, and considers educational technology in U.S. art museums through a wide-reaching survey and case study evaluations of the implementation of digital content creation in museums during the COVID-19 era. Critical posthumanism provides a way to understand and restructure expectations of the educational goals of museums that are aligned with the experiences and expectations of digital learning as well as incorporate a multitude of ontological considerations through Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and Critical Disability Studies. Beyond simply assessing what has happened in museums, this study seeks to find opportunities for greater change within the system of museum practice and education.

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2020, Honors Theses

This paper evaluates the interaction between mathematics and human cognition. The literary review explores the mathematical pathways theory, network theory, and reflective abstraction. The goal of the review is to explore the implications each of these theories have on the ways we should teach mathematics. Network theory seems to speak to the importance of teaching many conceptual metaphors for a given domain and introduce the same conceptual metaphor in a variety of domains. The pathways theory seems to suggest the complicity of mathematical achievement and the different effects that reading based learning disabilities have on mathematics achievement and potential ways of supporting these students.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this theoretical case study was to explore the lived experiences of members within an inter-professional team about how they learn and adapt while dedicating their lives toward the well-being of students residing in and attending a rehabilitation home school. Although there is broad literature that addresses legacy learning theories and frameworks, as well as complex-adaptive organizations, very little shows how the application of rhizome philosophy principles address learning and adapting within an organizational context. This study is a step toward addressing that gap. Using interviews, thematic analysis, and storyline networking, the study explored in depth the lived experiences of 16 administrative, therapy, and educational staff who worked at the school. By using organizational storytelling as a means to unearth and analyze the team members' 194 stories, a rich web of connection and awareness emerged. Their stories demonstrated new ways of being, learning, and adapting both within and outside the school, and revealed alignment with rhizome philosophy principles of connection, multiplicity, heterogeneity, a signifying rupture(s), and cartography, as well as alignment with legacy and traditional learning theories and frameworks, thereby offering a new lens of learning within organizations called, Rhizomatic Learning in Organizations (RLO). This study is an opportunity to expand and enhance ways of considering learning and adapting within organizations by introducing and supporting rhizomatic behaviors and principles within collectives as they work together. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohiolink ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, EDU Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to explore inclusion along a continuum of educational placements by examining how classroom literacy teachers transform through the use of dramatic inquiry with students with special rights in inclusive settings. The main research question used for the research was: “How is the inclusion of students in collaborative activities affected by the classroom teacher's changing practices in response to her awareness of how teacher and students are positioning one another?” Data were obtained from two different classrooms along a continuum of educational placements during teaching of units using dramatic inquiry. The settings included in the study were a high school classroom in a public residential school for the bind and a general education elementary classroom in a public elementary school, both in the Midwestern United States. The instructional strategies for literacy instruction in both classrooms were based on dramatic inquiry (Edmiston, 2014), which combines dramatic teaching for learning with inquiry-based instruction. Students, alongside their teacher collaborated to make meaning together as they stepped into real world and fictional spaces to explore different possibilities connected to a text. This is the first time that collaborative inquiry has been done with classroom teachers with a sociocultural theoretical framework using dramatic inquiry to examine teachers changing pedagogy to support inclusion using my definition of inclusion in settings along a continuum of educational placements. The collaborative inquiry research was conducted alongside the classroom teachers to include their voice alongside the researchers to inform and improve their own practice. The classroom teacher participants changing practice was identified using an adaptation of Emig's (1983) inquiry paradigm to examine how each teacher's theoretical framework, governing gaze, assumptions, and actions changed over time based on t (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Art Education

Robert Frost once speculated on the relationship between poetry and thought, conjecturing that all thinking was grounded in metaphor. Many people never took him seriously. Now, thanks to the work of many theorists in a number of diverse fields, from linguistics to philosophy to cognitive science, we can say with some certainty that he was right. Sentences build themselves around analogies; thought creates visual pictures in our brains; metaphors shape our ways of seeing the world. All of this appears to be done mostly unconsciously, as we filter messages, both verbal and visual, from our environment and shape those signs and clues into world-responses. The work which hasnt been done thoroughly enough yet is how to apply this central understanding to education. That means investigating metaphor as a means of linking the whole of learning. As one step toward to such a curricular move, this study first traces some of the key theorists involved with what might be called the metaphor revolution and connects them to some related studies in the area of the physicality (the body and its contact with its surrounding world shapes our perception); playfulness (plays role in childhood, art, and society in general); and visuality (the role of visual imagery in the shaping of thought and consciousness). Secondly, I follow the progress of two high school classes as I introduce them to some of the key concepts in poetry, emphasizing the above concepts. Through writing poems about literature, about their home town environment, about sports activities, elemental memory, and visual images, I trace some ways the above concepts influence their writing, their thinking and their perception by means of my own analysis of the text of their poems and their own analysis of their responses via interviews. By the close of the study, I propose a kind of working generative cycle revolving between each of the four categories, so that metaphoric thought breaks down into a four-tiered process, drawi (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, Educational Leadership

Utilizing action research and other ethnographic methods and appealing to critical and post-structural theories on subjectivity and education, this study focuses on a pre-service, pre-collegiate teacher education classroom, called "The Teacher Academy" in a mid-western high school. The central research question asks how are teacher subjects made and remade and how can we construct educational experiences for pre-service, pre-collegiate teacher education students that highlight and challenge what Michel Foucault (1977) has termed “disciplinary power,” or that which seeks to produce docile subjects. The data indicate that teacher subjectivities are produced through various discursive practices and that the curriculum and pedagogy of the Little Turtle High School (pseudonym) Teacher Academy is one that simultaneously reproduces available teacher subjectivities while encouraging students to analyze the complicated ways in which subjects come to think of and experience themselves and others as "teachers."The data in this study include student work, classroom observations, curriculum documents, teacher-researcher narratives, and interviews with student-participants as well as archival data from the first year of the Teacher Academy program. In addition, this inquiry pays special attention to the complicated relationship between gender and the production of teacher subjects in and around the Teacher Academy site and employs feminist research practices and theories.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted longstanding issues in student achievement in the United States, with only 37% of students from grades 4-12 showing proficiency in math and reading, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The East Coast Charter Authorizer (ECCA), which oversees one of the largest and most diverse public-school systems, has taken on the responsibility to address these systemic issues. While there are initiatives to diversify the teaching workforce, and an intensive focus on evaluating schools, there is a critical gap in ensuring school leadership is representative of the student population and has the environment necessary to be successful in their roles as school leaders, and in implementing the kind of creative change needed to address systemic inequities. This study focuses on the experiences of Black Women School Administrators (BWSAs) and the necessary organizational conditions to improve their retention and effectiveness. This study employed a convergent social justice mixed methods research design to address the inequity in the experiences and presence of Black Women Principals in K- 12 schools. Quantitative data from a Qualtrics survey (N=12) and qualitative data from interviews (N=10) were collected concurrently to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research problem. The integration of both data types, as well as available research - known as triangulation, allowed for a robust analysis of the impact of perceived 4 experiences with the ECCA on Black Women Principals. Ensuring participant confidentiality and honoring their wishes to contribute comfortably were paramount and as such, prioritized throughout the study. The findings underscore the need for the ECCA to provide more tailored support to Black women leaders, addressing specific challenges unique to their experiences and fostering a more equitable educational environment. The study resulted in an equity-oriented (open full item for complete abstract)

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2024, Education

Beginning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education experienced a sea change in reduced enrollment, altered course delivery models, and increased need for student support. While observing staff's actual impact on the student experience during this time, this study will address the question, “How do professional staff in small private universities a) perceive their contributions to the retention of students and b) perceive their overall value to the institutions they serve?” Owing to gaps in research on professional staff experiences, the literature review synthesizes current trends related to enrollment, retention, and persistence, focusing on small, private, non-profit 4-year institutions; discusses the disparate impact of these trends; examines the context of academic staffing trends; reviews the experiences of professional staff, focusing on critical connections between student and institution, student learning within liminal spaces, gender, and relational practice; and, examining social justice leadership in postsecondary education staffing. This qualitative study employs a constructivist grounded theory method using an initial anonymous questionnaire and interviews with volunteers for a deeper exploration of themes. The pool of nine interview participants comprises mid-level professional staff with at least three years of experience in student-supporting roles from five private universities with under 5,000 students. Potential implications relate to improving student retention practices and eliminating barriers by rethinking staff structures, resource allocation, and investment in student support areas. Further implications are related to staff role satisfaction, socially just models for professional development, and training of the next generation of professional staff. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

The research explores the lived experiences of minority women in K-12 educational leadership, examining their motivations for pursuing careers in this field, and the challenges they encounter on their professional and educational journeys. The challenges faced are multifaceted and include issues related to gender, culture, and race/ethnicity. These challenges also include limited access to leadership opportunities, biases and stereotypes, lack of support and mentorship, and the affliction of navigating interconnecting identities. In addition, minority women also face resistance and criticism from colleagues who may question their capabilities or qualifications. Minority women are motivated by a strong sense of social responsibility and a commitment to creating inclusive and empowering learning environments.

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2023, Education

The objective of this dissertation was to explore how the principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) can inform the design of a junior high school curriculum to enhance science learning by providing meaningful learning experiences to all students. The transformative paradigm provided a framework used as a lens to emphasize the importance of understanding the social, cultural, and historical context in which individuals and communities are situated. CSP and Backward Design Model were applied to develop a curriculum for a sheltered science literacy elective class for below grade level readers. The purpose of using CSP in the curriculum design was to create a more inclusive and culturally sustaining learning environment that would support students in developing strong science literacy skills. Project–based learning (PBL) was used with CSP to allow for flexibility and creativity in project designs that give students the opportunity to explore and experiment with different ideas and approaches in the learning environment. The California Department of Education's descriptions for effective use of CSP in a classroom was incorporated into the curriculum to be used as an assessment tool measuring the effectiveness of the curriculum. The implications of this curriculum development suggest the effectiveness of CSP on science literacy and its connections enhance student performance in science. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

The creation and implementation of holistic educational experiences is invaluable for optimal student and staff development and retention in an institution of higher education. This dissertation involves a participatory action research on one such mechanism: mentorship. This study on mentorship leverages Tinto's (1975 - 2014) theoretical frameworks regarding student integration, aiming to strengthen the Northbound University (NU) student bonds with the collegiate community so that they complete their college career at NU and potentially bridge the gap between degree attainment and professional pursuits as well. A mixed methods approach with qualitative and quantitative data analytics was utilized to define and develop learnings about mentorship. The study focused on students at the NU College of Business Administration (CBA). The population of students studied was bifurcated into two main groups because of their markedly differing needs. The first group included at-risk students whom I referred to as “fledgling eaglets.” Fledgling eaglets were beset by challenges such as financial burdens, academic shortcomings, and university administrative problems. I called the second group of students “soaring eagles.” Soaring eagles were more established high potential students who were seeking solutions about possible professions ahead of their college commitments. Both these student groups needed to “matter” in the college cooperative. They needed to feel individually integrated and welcomed into the extended family in the university society. My findings resulted in initial interventions that addressed the needs of these two student groups with differing needs. For fledgling eaglets, I included innovative mentorship program features that involved development of academic skillsets in conjunction with contingent financial awards with requisite training. The concurrent but separate soaring eagle program incorporated professional networking and realistic career building opp (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Whiteness remains an intractable problem in American society broadly and within higher education specifically. In this project, I explore white emotionality among professionals in higher education and student affairs (HESA). Each chapter engages a different approach to understanding white emotionality, including autoethnographic research methods, phenomenological research methods, the literature from Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) in education, and the literature from Settler Colonial Studies (SCS) and decolonial thinking in education. From much of the literature in CWS, I identify a trap I call always-not-yet-but-maybe-someday-soon whereby attachment to the possibility of redemption defers the necessary but deeply unsettling emotional work of confronting whiteness. To address this, I turn to SCS and decolonial thinking and consider how the maintenance of whiteness through always-not-yet-but-maybe-someday-soon is interconnected with what Tuck and Yang (2012) refer to as “settler futurity.” Using key concepts from CWS, SCS, and decolonial thinking including unsuturing (Yancy, 2018), a politics of disappointment (Jones, 1999), and the scyborg (la paperson, 2017), I propose using professional development (PD) as one way to combat always-not-yet-but-maybe-someday-soon and settler futurity among HESA professionals. In contrast to accumulative and developmental perspectives on HESA professionals and multicultural competence (Pope et al., 2019), this vision of unsettled PD offers few guarantees but aims to provide opportunities for sustenance and accountability as HESA professionals grapple with the depths of white emotionality.

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

In 2015, then-Higher Education Minister Rodolfo Alarcon said in response to many Cubans' inability to communicate in the international language, English fluency would be required by students as a university exit requirement (“Mastering English,” 2015). The purpose of this interpretive qualitative study was to understand the experiences of Cuban university English instructors, who encountered these curricular changes. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with six university instructors and emailed responses from another six. The participants included both current and former faculty members who left the teaching profession for more lucrative careers in private tutoring or tourism. Motivational Systems Theory (Ford, 1992), various aspects of social identity (Gray & Morton, 2018) and my own experience as an EFL instructor guided the study in understanding the instructors' social identity, motivation, and self-agency. The data were analyzed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. The findings showed differing experiences among men and women and urban and rural instructors. Faculty expressed both positive and negative teaching experiences, and, as a result of some unfavorable experiences, some instructors left the field of teaching altogether and applied their talents to the growing tourism and private business sectors. In addition to understanding the experiences of the study's participants, the investigation also provides valuable insight into the evolution of English teaching in Cuban higher education, the consequences of educational borrowing and the complexity of conducting research within an authoritarian regime.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Educational Studies

Students' value for mathematics often declines, especially in the middle school years. Value, however, and expectations of success are predictors of performance and achievement in mathematics. To improve performance, we need to influence students' beliefs about the value of mathematics and their expectations that they can be successful. Digital mathematics curriculum that incorporates authenticity, interactivity, and ease of use may influence utility value beliefs and expectations, which may lead to higher application knowledge. For this study, a quantitative research methodology was employed. Surveys were used to determine students' perceptions of digital curriculum, their utility value beliefs about mathematics and their expectations of success in mathematics along with post-test measures to determine students' mathematical performance. Using path analysis, this study found that authentic and easy to use curriculum is related to students' utility value and expectations of success, and that higher expectations of success predict higher performance on assessments of application knowledge. This study makes a contribution to the literature by highlighting the importance of utility value and expectancies interventions through the use of digital curriculum.