Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Art Education

Issues surrounding the human body are increasingly becoming matters of public, cultural, and educational policy. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has resulted in additional high stakes testing in reading and math, causing many school systems to replace time and funding previously dedicated to physical and health education and with activities focused on increasing academic performance on these standardized exams. While Western culture continues to value thin, beautiful, fit, and young bodies, the education school children receive about daily care of themselves is on the decline. As a kinesthetic, artistic, and holistic practice, dance teaches individuals of all ages about their bodies, engages them in self-reflection and self-growth, and serves as a place for learning. The goal of this study is to investigate the ways in which American elementary students can have more opportunities to learn about and through their bodies during the school day. In this dissertation, I employ a case study methodology to examine the effectiveness of a professional development initiative for general classroom teachers, “The DANCE Project,” on increasing the time, space, and energy for dance in educational settings. I utilize a variety of qualitative methods including autoethnography, participant observation, qualitative interviews, document analysis, narrative analysis, and poetic transcription to present my data. Findings indicate that factors such as administrative support, previous experience with dance, confidence with the material, and relevance to individual needs contribute to teachers' willingness and ability to implement dance in their classrooms. Further, the analysis of pre- and post- measures indicate that workshops centered on The DANCE Project's six-lesson curriculum positively impacted participants in several areas: Teaching skills, classroom management, knowledge/understanding of dance and the ways movement can intersect with other content areas, and implications fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2017, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

While observing at-risk high school students at a Cleveland-area arts education organization, it became evident that stress may act as a barrier to developing confidence in teens. This project contains research to support and methods to creating an original theatre curriculum that reduces stress and increases confidences in late adolescents. The methods include identifying how confidence is measured in adolescents as well as collecting existing theatre curricula with learning objectives that promote confidence. These in combination with identifying existing framework(s) used to reduce stress; all informed the development of a theatre curriculum that could breakdown the barrier of stress in teenagers while building self-esteem.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2017, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

Research has long supported the benefits of the arts, specifically to students in grades K-12. Although arts programs have been decreasing over the last decade, nonprofit organizations have created strong programs that enrich students in the arts and create opportunities for collaborations with the community. The Weill Institute of Music at Carnegie Hall developed the Link Up music education outreach program to provide a beneficial means of music education in collaboration with partner host organizations and schools and has proven to be highly effective.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2013, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

While higher arts education programs may be preparing students to excel at the creation and performance of the arts, evidence suggests that many of these programs are failing to prepare students for the business of being a professional artist. In the United States, Discipline-Based Arts Education (DBAE) remains the prevailing program theory guiding the majority of higher arts education programs. While there is much praise for DBAE throughout higher education, scholarly discourse and evidence suggests a need to adapt DBAE to better address the poor professional outcomes of undergraduate arts students. Evidence indicates that a total of 11.1% of all recent college graduates with undergraduate arts degrees are unemployed (Carnevale, Cheah, & Strohl, Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings, 2012, p. 7). Fifty two percent of arts undergraduate alumni reported being dissatisfied with their institution's ability to advise them about further career or education opportunities (SNAAP, 2012, p. 14). 81% of all arts undergraduate alumni reported having a primary job outside of the arts for reasons of job security (SNAAP, 2012, p. 19). Higher arts education administrators have tried to address these statistics by incorporating the teaching of applicable non-arts (business, entrepreneurship, artist survival) skills into undergraduate arts programs. However, evidence suggests that the limitations of DBAE, lack of contextual consensus on educational goals, and stakeholder pressures and agendas make it difficult for administrators to create adequate curricular room for the teaching and learning of non-arts skills. Furthermore, the National Office of Arts Accreditation (NOAA) classifies non-arts skills as “general studies units”, and only recommends but does not mandate any standards associated with the teaching of general studies units. In response to the call for higher arts education reform, this paper discusses potential causal factors of poor professional (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This dissertation discusses how engaging in arts-based identity exploration activities can help traditional-age undergraduates (ages 18-24) develop increased self-awareness and cultural sensitivity. The dissertation first explores the participatory inquiry paradigm and the roles of artistic/creative expression in holistic knowledge creation and transformative learning. It then provides an overview of the field of arts-based inquiry and its wide variety of approaches. The following chapters discuss traditional-age undergraduate identity development and how arts-based identity exploration activities can be used in undergraduate multicultural social justice courses to foster self-awareness and cultural sensitivity. Chapter 8 discusses the author's Spring 2016 in-class research at The Ohio State University, in which 50 students from a wide variety of majors engaged in various arts-based identity exploration activities. It was conducted within two sections of the general education course "Visual Culture: Investigating Diversity and Social Justice." The study was grounded in the participatory inquiry paradigm. It addressed these research questions: (1) Can engaging in arts-based identity exploration activities help the traditional-age undergraduates in this study increase their awareness and understanding of their own and others' individual and cultural identities and thereby increase both self-awareness and cultural sensitivity? (2) If so, which specific activities, utilizing which artistic modalities, do they find effective and in what ways? (3) Do study participants in non-arts/humanities majors react differently to various activities than do arts and humanities majors? If so, which activities and how? This mixed-methods study employed arts-based inquiry, qualitative, and quantitative methods. First, a qualitative questionnaire solicited students' views on whether and how arts activities could help traditional-age undergraduates further understand and devel (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2010, Theatre Arts

Objectives- The primary goals of this thesis was to illustrate, through the production of the theatrical production, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, that a theatrical production may be used to provide integration opportunities for other areas of the high school curriculum and the staff and students of the high school. The theatrical production and the academic integration were completed at Jackson High School in Massillon, Ohio during the 2008-2009 academic year. In addition, the other goals of the project were to illustrate how the choice of a theatrical production may assist in improving the overall quality of the Theatre program in a school district, thus making it more accessible, appealing, and ultimately, educational to a larger population of students. Methods- Integration of Theatre was accomplished through study of all academic areas of the Ohio State Academic Standards and using Theatre to accomplish those standards in several different content areas. Theatre may also be used as a means of preparation or review for standardized tests, such as the OGT in English and Social Studies areas. Additionally, involving staff offered the opportunity for them to collaborate with the Theatre teacher and create multi-faceted learning opportunities. Development of the Theatre program involved collaboration with students, staff, and parents. This made the Theatrical Production connect to a larger audience. Results- Teachers want to collaborate but often do not due to time conflicts and budgetary constraints. Overall staff members enjoyed the integration and wanted to do for future theatrical productions. The teachers were willing to assist in making the production a success by offering their talents and the talents of their students. The number of students who participated in the theatrical production was exceeding larger than any previous school year. Conclusions- Theatre productions are designed to teach. They should be used to reach a larger number of (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Art Education

The purpose of this study was to identify how Visual Arts can play a pivotal role in the implementation of an integrated curriculum in elementary education. In order to increase my knowledge base I reviewed a body of theoretical and philosophical writings that revealed how the arts, especially Visual Arts, have been valued in the field of education. Next I use case study methodology to investigate how an exemplary Visual Arts educator/teacher has been putting theories to practice by providing state-of-the-art teaching and learning in, with, through and about Visual Arts, as well as how she has been using Visual Arts as anchor for and an engine to drive an integrated curriculum in an elementary school setting. I explained how the data was collected using a triangulation research design process. These included on site observations, reflective journaling, interviews, and artifacts and document analysis. I reported and analyzed the data to ascertain the knowledge, skills dispositions and commitments the Visual Arts teacher displayed that reflected theoretical and philosophical knowledge of best practices related to art education, general education and teacher education. After stating my findings, I made recommendations for how teachers in Jamaica can implement an integrated curriculum that is anchored and driven by the arts, especially Visual Arts.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Arts Policy and Administration

Dance is a valuable and essential component to every student's education. Dance education can reach students who are not otherwise engaged in school by providing alternate outlets for learning, self-expression, and physical activity. However, dance education is under-represented in America's schools. In this thesis investigates, I employ a case study methodology to investigate the question, Where is the time, space, and energy for dance in education? The case follows the first year of a two-year initiative I call "the DANCE project," which involves a professional dance company partnering with eight teachers in learning to incorporate movement into their curricula. Participant responses suggest that the program could have a lasting impact on dance appreciation and teacher practice. By increasing communication in the dance and education communities, dance educators might develop a cohesive message that policy makers can hear. Combining top-down advocacy with grassroots work presents a possibility for large-scale change.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2009, Leadership and Change

Palpable Pedagogy: Expressive Arts, Leadership, and Change in Social Justice TeacherEducation is an arts-informed ethnographic study of the pedagogy and culture engendered when the expressive arts are employed in social justice teacher education. Palpable Pedagogy is a qualitative study that examines the power of the expressive arts to identify, explore, and address issues of inequity in the context of a social justice teacher education course that I taught over three consecutive years. The literature in the field outlines the essential components for effective social justice teacher education (identity, reflection, and dialogue) and neatly explores them. However, with the exception of Art teacher education, where national learning standards require that cultural diversity be explored through the arts, little has been written about the utilization and power of the arts as a pedagogical tool in general teacher education for social justice. My objective in Palpable Pedagogy is to reveal the layers of felt meaning, transformational learning, and release of the imagination (Greene, 1995) for leadership and change that my students experienced in my social justice teacher education course, “Expressive Arts, Leadership, and Change.” The arts themselves provide a splendid methodological match for research of this kind. McNiff (1998) proposes that there is no better way to study the effects of the arts than through the arts themselves. Using an aesthetic approach in my ethnographic study, I employ participant observation, field notes, photography, videography, interviews, and student art process, and product as my data, creating a text/context of the phenomenologically understood life worlds of my students. A bricolage results, with the inclusion of my justice educator/artist self-study, situating me both emicly and eticly in the life world of my students and classroom. Readers will aesthetically experience data presented in the forms of student and researcher poetry, perfor (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Art Education

Informed by community-based arts education, arts-based community development, and critical pedagogy, this research explores and articulates an evolving model of possibility for community pedagogy. Important and relevant for arts educators, arts administrators and other cultural workers, a community pedagogy utilizing the arts for social change offers entrances to reclamation of self, space and place leading to individual and/or communal agency and progressive social justice efforts. Ethnographic methods such as participant/observation, portraiture of community-based arts workers, arts-based research methods, and narrative writing, were equally utilized to yield highly self-reflexive education data constructions resulting in significant implications for art education. The research journey culminated in a participatory visual art exhibition/installation entitled, A Search for Community Pedagogy: Collage Reclamations of Space and Self. Artistic works created by the artist-educator-researcher-administrator including paintings, panels (visual journals) and mixed-media self-portraits developed visual metaphors which created understandings into relationships to pedagogical building blocks, assertion of voice, location as an activist, notions of community and even issues such as life and death. As the research progressed the artwork and narrative reflections served as signposts exposing new directions, clarifying emergent thinking and becoming part of data analysis. Mirroring its exploration, community pedagogy is gradually presented in the research journey in the form of a collage. As an initial foundational layer, a base of a sincere and well functioning egalitarian community must exist, no matter what the teaching/learning setting. Next the educator/learner-cultural worker must commit to ideas of facilitative leadership and to empowering students/colleagues/communities. Additional layers include fostering an educative experience that demands decision-making, encourages f (open full item for complete abstract)

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

The purpose of this thesis is to explore why schools ought to educate for sustainability in response to the climate emergency. Moreover, the author explores why the elementary school is an appropriate place to begin such education as well as how such education can be implemented in the field of music education, specifically elementary music education. The research questions for this thesis are as follows: (1) Why should schools educate for sustainability? (2) Why is elementary school an appropriate place to begin education for sustainability (EfS)? (3) Why is the general music classroom a worthy space for EfS? The author uses social and educational theory, philosophy, and findings from other research to answer these questions. This thesis reviews and synthesizes research, theory, and philosophy from various foundational disciplines. This thesis concludes that EfS ought to be included in the school and begin at the elementary level. Every subject and teacher ought to consider how their subject might help attune students to nature and its protection for the sake of our love for the world, our subjects, and teaching. This thesis specifically explores and argues for EfS in the general music classroom, but practitioners in every field ought to consider EfS in their subject's context.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

How might teacher educators build a reflective and supportive community of practice with pre-service teachers? How might a visual (intermedia) journaling practice support critical and reflective thinking? How might an arts-based intermedia approach to analysis inform teacher educator pedagogical methods? These questions evolved and emerged throughout my research process during this dissertation study. As an artist/researcher/teacher I used an arts-based research paradigm to guide an emergent research practice focused on understanding the potential of arts-based reflective practice in an art teacher education program. The study was conducted with two groups of undergraduate student participants enrolled in pre-service teacher education coursework. Parallaxic praxis, emerging from a/r/tography, was a guiding research methodology and pedagogical approach used to maintain a creative, living inquiry throughout the study. This methodology supported opportunities and potential for the researcher and participants to generate arts-based study data and engage in performative processes documenting their experience with creative reflective practices. The learnings from the first participant group informed decisions and activity design for participant group two. Participants actively engaged in self-directed and co-designed intermedia reflective activities throughout the cycles of the study. Along the way, poetic inquiry surfaced as a central method for analysis and to generate research renderings, primarily in the form of found poems. The research renderings were conceptualized into a research exhibition designed to be experienced through multiple modalities including an exhibition in an art gallery and a virtual online exhibition. This dissertation illustrates where the research process led me as the researcher, and my students, as participants. Through the renderings in the research exhibition, the process of analyzing data using poetic inquiry highlights benefits and cha (open full item for complete abstract)

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

Worldview diversity education is an integral aspect of preparing students to negotiate difference in an interconnected world and to work together toward solving global problems. It intersects with diversity and intercultural learning, contributing the missing piece of religious, secular, and spiritual worldviews to global learning. This study utilized a survey and comparative case study to explore non-U.S. global liberal arts colleges and universities' engagement in worldview diversity education, common approaches, and how senior campus leaders expressed worldview diversity education in relation to larger education purposes, policyscapes, and priorities. Incorporating a view of education practice as policy and of worldviews as representing not just systems of belief but also cultures of belonging, this study contributes to the identification and development of worldview diversity education policy and practice among global liberal arts colleges and universities.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, EDU Teaching and Learning

Career-technical education (CTE) is essential in training and educating young people in the United States and has purposefully served a distinct role from comprehensive schooling models. However, the conceptualizations of career-technical education in common perception and in academic research typically reinforce the academic-vocational divide, a pervasive binary that has been maintained throughout history and into today. There is limited empirical research that explores literacies in CTE without the confines of the academic-vocational divide or outside of deficit perspectives of the students in CTE. In this study, I seek to speak to these gaps and dispel the academic-vocational binary by (re)conceptualizing literacies in a career-technical program, pharmacy technician, and an academic course, English language arts. During the 2020-2021 school year, I conducted a multiple-case study with an ethnographic perspective at Northside Area Career Center, a career-technical high school on the outskirts of a major Midwestern city. With a frame of social and sociomaterial perspective of literacies, I drew on theory of figured worlds, including positioning, personhood, and social imagination in order to understand literacy events and practices as they were used and positioned within the pharmacy technician program and ELA class. I primarily constructed data as a participant-observer in these spaces as I collaborated with veteran teachers: the pharmacy technician teacher, Ms. Lark, and the ELA teacher, Ms. Sims. Data collected included fieldnotes, audio and video recorded classroom lessons and lab work, artifacts, and interviews with both teachers and students. I share findings from each case and a comparison across them, arguing that students in both classrooms were learning to be citizens in a democratic society through the teachers centering collaboration, valuing multiple perspectives, and enacting a range of figured worlds. In the ELA class, Ms. Sims established seminars (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 1955, Educational Administration and Supervision

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 1955, Educational Administration and Supervision

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Higher Education (Education)

This study examines how Chief Student Affairs Officers (CSAO) make sense of their role engaging with fundraising at small, private, liberal arts institutions with endowments below the median endowment size of $140.2 million. Specifically examining how they make sense of engaging with fundraising and how they have gained knowledge or experience in fundraising. Over its history, the field of student affairs has evolved to serve the needs of institutions and students, and, with that evolution new focus areas of the role have emerged, including fundraising. Through the exploration of Organizational Sensemaking, this study highlights avenues for future student affairs preparation, training, and education. Through qualitative inquiry, seeking new knowledge, presidential influence, drawing from prior foundations, driven to serve students, strengthening the institution, and harnessing the value of relationships are outlined as ways CSAOs made sense of engaging with fundraising and gaining knowledge on fundraising.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Art Education

Grounded in the context of a peace education program for teens, this narrative-based research study offers a story of initiating and sustaining relationships amid personal challenge during youth-driven community art engagement. Dialogue, storytelling, and collaborative artmaking as peacelearning were part of the participatory practice within this humanizing research. A theoretical framework drawn from the dialogism of Freire (1970/2002) shapes this study as well as an ethical stance of care and wholeness that contributes to the health and well-being of communities. Connection and belonging, co-learning and transformation were intertwined goals, an approach that this research study suggests challenged teens' personal vulnerability, critical self-reflection, deep listening, and multiple roles and ways of knowing. The research study portrays how the process of sharing stories and art that acknowledged participants' roots, struggles, and hopes as peacebuilders became foundations for growth. Findings from this study revealed that through the arts we can cultivate critical self-reflection, communication about the issues and challenges in our lives, interconnectedness and collective action. Additionally, this study illustrated that youth-driven approaches to community-engaged pedagogy and research exist on a continuum of youth leadership and adult collaboration. Also, sustainable youth-led initiatives and research depend on strong organizational support and adequate resources, mentorship, and community connections. Finally, a relational and asset-based approach to peacelearning through the arts can contribute to connected knowing, with potential for coalition building that supports positive change for individuals and communities.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

From computational and scientific viewpoints, virtual reality (VR) is a well-researched technology, platform, and mode of communication. However, from an arts perspective, virtual reality has very few, if any, defined parameters as an artistic medium. This study aims to explore the technical affordances and the experiential and creative phenomena of art-making in virtual reality in an effort to establish VR as a contemporary artistic medium framed within an arts and museum education context. The embodied, open-ended play of art-making with the virtual medium presents a different kind of user experience than most other VR applications, which deserves alternative ways of classifying the immersive elements of virtual art-making. By using the social cognitive framework (Bandura, 1986) to guide my research, I consider the dynamic relationship between environment, person, and behavior in order to understand not only the technical elements, but also what type of immersive process and embodied creativity virtual artists experience and what types of art can they make. Through a phenomenological framework, design-thinking approach, and an arts-based research methodology, this study analyzes data collected from participants and uses data visualizations to bring the research to life and make it accessible for all audiences and fields of study. Additionally, this project aims to discover how artists and educators can use the virtual medium to inspire creativity and impactful art experiences within museum spaces in ways that transport the visitors from viewer-of-art to maker-of-art.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide an intrinsic case study investigation of The City of Miami Beach and Miami - Dade County Public School's Education Compact. The Education Compact provides a model of how school districts are using innovative educational governance strategies to improve failing and low performing schools. The impetus for the design and instigation of The Education Compact was to address the rapidly growing changes in 21st century demographics of The City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County. The underlying goals of this case study are not to build theory, but to provide context-specific knowledge, and provide a detailed example and understanding of the intrinsic value of The City of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County Public School Education Compact.