Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, Art Education

Teachers in any subject must sift through an enormous amount of material, deciding what content is the most important for their limited amount of instructional time. As an art education student I was able to observe the practices of numerous art teachers and the choices they made concerning the content of their curriculum. I found that art teachers often placed differing values on the teaching of artistic skills, techniques and knowledge of media (object-making), and the teaching of meaningful exploration of ideas through artmaking and interpretation (meaning-making). A systematic review of the literature from the last ten years of Art Education, Visual Arts Research, and Studies in Art Education revealed this divide as prevalent in art education theory, with much greater value placed on meaning-making. I believe dichotomous thinking such as this reflects a wider philosophical divide in Western thought: that of body versus mind. However, an understanding of the mind as inherently embodied offers art educators a relatively unexplored theoretical paradigm for better understanding the relationship between object-making and meaning-making. Furthermore, an understanding of how the embodied mind develops an underlying tacit knowledge as it interacts with the world could have immense implications for the manner in which we teach art. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to establish a theoretical framework for the future research of K-12 art curricula. From this newly conceptualized paradigm, art education theorists can begin developing a stronger understanding of the intrinsically intertwined nature of the physical and the conceptual in art, and how this synthesis can be incorporated in art education pedagogy.

Committee: Candace J. Stout PhD (Advisor); Clayton B. Funk PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2024, Educational Leadership

Faculty professional learning on integrating educational technology in instruction is a critical part of the professional growth of Caribbean medical school faculty. Integrating educational technology in instruction to facilitate learning may be effective when faculty engage in intentional and reflective professional learning activities. Despite the significance of faculty professional learning in this area, a lacuna appears in the research done in the Caribbean region hence the study I conducted to understand how medical faculty make sense of their experiences. I conducted a phenomenological study with seven participants at one Caribbean medical school. I used purposive sampling to recruit the seven faculty members based on their active participation in professional learning activities geared toward integrating educational technology in their teaching in the past four years at their school. I conducted semi-structured interviews via Microsoft Teams to gather data on this common phenomenon. I then used Moustakas's (1994) modified Van Kaam Phenomenological Data Analysis Method to analyze the data and obtain the horizons of the experience. Using the horizons of the experience (Moustakas, 1994), I produced a textural portrait of the experience of each participant. Following imaginative variation that reveals the structures contributing to the quality of the experience, I constructed a structural portrait of each participant's experience. Gazing at the textural and structural portraits, I constructed a composite structural portrait of the participants' experience from which nine universal themes emerged. The themes were: diversity of professional learning activities; the centrality of pedagogy; curiosity and motivation; the significance of educational degree programs; the illusion of learner digital nativity; supportive leadership; technological unpreparedness for the pandemic; enticement by technological substitution; and pedagogical wisdom in technology selection. The (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Thomas S. Poetter (Advisor); Dr. Sherrill S. Sellers (Committee Member); Dr. Guy Parmigian (Committee Member); Dr. Joel Malin (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Educational Leadership; Educational Technology; Instructional Design; Pedagogy; Teaching

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Leadership and Change

This study focuses on better understanding students and their internal worlds through conceptual metaphor theory and sensory language. Using a phenomenological and arts-based approach, I examined students' metaphorical constructions of their college experiences and the sensory language and information informing those constructions. By engaging participants in a multimodal process to re-see their experience through connoisseurship and criticism, I explored the following research questions: How do students metaphorically structure their college experience? What sensory language do college students use to describe the metaphorical dimensions of their college experience? How does sensory information shape the metaphorical structuring of their college experience? Through conversations centered on participant-generated images and chosen sensory language, I identified five complex metaphors that represented participants' constructions of their college experience: college is an unwieldy package; college is up, forward, and out; college is current and future nostalgia; college is a prism; and college is a movie and peers are the soundtrack. By considering these themes, it may be possible for educators to better partner with diverse learners to design personally meaningful experiences that support student development and success. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Donna Ladkin PhD (Committee Chair); Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Member); Steven Taylor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Developmental Psychology; Education; Education Philosophy; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch Seattle: Counselor Education & Supervision

The Impact of Creative Arts on Meaning Reconstruction and Loss Adaptation in Widowed Adults Dani Baker-Cole Antioch University Seattle Seattle, WA In counseling, helping grieving clients find meaning after significant loss is a unique, multidimensional, and lengthy process. This is particularly true in Western societies, where antithetical linear grief models, supported by hegemonic expectations to move on after loss, add exhausting pressure to speed up an individual's natural grieving process. For that reason, this study examined how creative arts interventions such as using traditional art media and expressive writing, combined with postmodern, nonlinear, culturally sensitive bereavement models, help individuals explore their loss narrative to make meaning and adapt to loss. Specifically, this study examined the impact of a switch from traditional art media to expressive writing via a grief meaning reconstruction dependent variable. A quantitative, single subject multiple baseline model was used. Results suggested that such a switch had an impact. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Ned Farley PhD (Committee Chair); Stephanie Thorson-Olesen PhD (Committee Member); Katherine Fort PhD (Committee Member); Beth Donahue PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Clinical Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Cognitive Therapy; Counseling Education; Counseling Psychology; Educational Psychology; Families and Family Life; Health Education; Higher Education; Individual and Family Studies; Mental Health; Neurobiology; Personal Relationships; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Social Psychology; Social Structure; Spirituality

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Communication Studies

Within the United States, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking from an intimate partner (CDC, 2018). Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with poor health, substance abuse, depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Additionally, the post-IPV period is linked with depressive disorders resulting in diminished self-esteem, lower levels of perceived social support, and reduced quality of life. There is a growing interest in understanding how post-IPV individuals recover from violent relationships and maintain non-violent romantic relationships. Although these studies highlight the complex and multidimensional ways in which post-IPV recovery occurs, the role of communication in the post-IPV recovery process and romantic relational meaning-making has yet to be explored. Therefore, Hecht's (1993) communication theory of identity (CTI) was used as a sensitizing framework for this dissertation. To accomplish these research goals, I employed a qualitative approach, utilizing Charmaz's (2014) grounded theory to conduct intensive co-constructed in-depth interviews with 22 post-IPV adults and were not currently in violent relationships. This dissertation identified several new understandings of post-IPV identity construction, management, and communication. In analyzing the personal, enacted, relational, and communal layers of post-IPV identities, this dissertation discovered particularly noteworthy findings. These include how IPV trauma can result in identity veils and four identity gaps, which emerged both during IPV perpetration and the post-IPV recovery process. These identity gaps included personal-personal, personal-enacted-relational, personal-relational, and personal-communal. Understanding how these gaps inhibited participants from fully communicating their post-IPV identities, this study explored how these gaps can be negotiated. Findings also include four essential elements to post-IPV roman (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Advisor); Sandra Faulkner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lengel Lara Ph.D. (Committee Member); Laura Landry-Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Leadership and Change

Closing equity gaps in the higher education sector is a long-standing issue. This issue has become exacerbated with the impact of COVID-19 and racial injustices happening across America. Now more than ever it has become imperative to use participatory action research to understand how leaders make meaning of their student success landscape and use that meaning to influence their strategic action for equity. I engaged two student success stakeholders from one university as co-researchers to help identify a problem in practice as it relates to equity gaps in student success. We used a modified approach to immunity to change (ITC) coaching coupled with an action inquiry framework to assist student success stakeholders with processing and reflecting on this problem to enact change. Co-researchers identified groups of stakeholders, referred to as “ITC participants,” based on their problem in practice to complete modified ITC mapping. I then used the findings from the modified ITC mapping to ask co-researchers to develop a plan of action to sustain momentum around resolving the Problem in Practice. This qualitative research project revealed three key findings: (a) understanding problems that relate to equity requires disaggregating data; (b) staff who are on the ground are key in understanding student success and creating a student-centered culture; and (c) leaders' beliefs are translated into actions and demonstrated in structures and policies created. 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/

Committee: Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre PhD (Committee Member); Richard McGuigan PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2020, Psychology

This study explores spiritual crisis from the perspective of experiential personal construct psychology (EPCP). Spirituality and religion are understudied phenomena in clinical psychology, despite being relevant to many people's understandings of themselves and their experiences of distress. Spiritual crisis, as a time of grief and loss related to one's spiritual life that leads to a change in worldview, is an intersection of spiritual and psychological concerns given its focus on distress and grief (Agrimson & Taft, 2009). In this study, I interviewed four people who self-identified as having gone through periods of spiritual crisis. The purpose of this research was to deeply explore the lived experiences of these four persons and how they made sense of their experiences, in order to inform theoretical frameworks around spirituality (rather than to find generalizable themes of how all people respond to spiritual crisis). In the interviews, participants described personalized understandings of religion and spirituality, entwined with other aspects of cultural identity. Participants described times of spiritual crisis as marked by profound grief, distress, and confusion, and described the resulting changes in their lives as an ongoing, transformative process rather than temporary or resolved ruptures. Spiritual crisis often involved negotiating relationships with larger group or institutional structures such as churches or formal doctrines. I discuss these themes and how EPCP theory might develop an understanding of spiritual crisis related to group expectancies (Kelly, 1991).

Committee: Larry Leitner Ph.D. (Advisor); Vaishali Raval (Committee Member); Deborah Wiese (Committee Member); Elise Clerkin (Committee Member); Ann Fuehrer (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2019, Educational Leadership

Understanding how individuals make meaning of their faith has been researched for generations, with some important studies (Fowler 1981; Parks, 2011) delineating how such individuals construct and develop their faith over a lifetime. Likewise, a great deal of studies have explored how college students approach faith (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2011; Chickering, Dalton & Stamm, 2006), and how universities can support such exploration. However, little research has been completed to investigate how students transition from college experience to adult life (Fox, 2011), and no research to date explores how students make meaning of their faith in the post-college transition. To fill that gap, this dissertation presents a qualitative, phenomenological study aimed at providing insight into how recent college student leader graduates of a Christian institution make meaning of personal faith during the post-graduation transition. To better understand how these Christian college student leaders constructed their faith after college, the researcher employed one-on-one interviews, using the general interview guide approach (Patton, 2002), and a pre-interview questionnaire from 15 recent graduates from a religiously affiliated, liberal arts university in the Midwest. Participants provided rich descriptions of their current faith through personally chosen words and metaphors. They expressed a desire to build supports for their faith in the midst of transition by creating a place for their faith to be integrated in their new life experiences, seeking opportunities to practice their faith, and building connections to people who helped and challenged their faith. Finally, they detailed the faith challenges they faced as a result of transition out of university life. Through analysis of faith descriptions, the findings of the study revealed that the transition fostered reflection on the meaning of participants' faith, and the supports and challenges of their faith both in college (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michele Welkener Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Religious Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2019, Psychology

Prominent theories indicate the search for meaning is central to recovery from rape. However, definitions of meaning-making vary in the literature and research examining meaning-making in a comprehensive manner is limited. Current models suggest that rape survivors can use a variety of strategies to create meaning and experience symptom reduction. However, the notion that multiple strategies create meaning and lead to symptom reduction has not been empirically validated. The current study examines the following questions: (1) What are the strategies of meaning-making for rape survivors? (2) What consequences or byproducts are associated with these strategies? (3) Can these byproducts be classified into three distinct sub-categories based on when they are expected to arise? (4) Do the consequences or byproducts of meaning-making mediate the relationship between meaning-making strategies and PTSD? Specifically, a SEM was examined to identify strategies and byproducts of meaning-making and to examine the relationships between constructs in rape survivors. Four forms of approach-focused coping strategies were found to be strategies of meaning-making. Three types of meaning-making byproducts emerged: “general” byproducts, or those independent of coping strategy, byproducts associated with the strategy of accommodation, and byproducts associated with the strategy of assimilation. Self-reported Posttraumatic Growth and Sense of Future Control were found to indicate general byproducts while Changed Identity, Changed Global Goals, and Rape Acknowledgement were found to indicate byproducts associated with accommodation. Byproducts associated with assimilation as a coping strategy were not significant in the model. Engagement in coping strategies predicted general or strategy independent byproducts, however it did not predict byproducts likely to be associated with the use of specific strategies. Contrary to expectations, the latent constructs of General Byproducts and Accommo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Terri Messman-Moore (Advisor); Elise Clerkin (Committee Member); Aaron Luebbe (Committee Member); Elise Radina (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2019, Psychology

The theory of shattered assumptions asserts that traumatic events destroy individuals' basic beliefs that they are worthy of love and that the world is a reasonably benevolent and orderly place (Janoff-Bulmann, 1992). Researchers have relied on this theory to understand the connection between cognitive word usage and both PTSD symptoms and posttraumatic growth (PTG), speculating that individuals who use more cognitive words are able to rebuild resilient assumptions about themselves and the world by making meaning out of out their trauma. Using an expressive writing prompt and the Language Inquiry Word Count Software (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015), the present study (N = 114) sought to determine if meaning-making mediates the relationships between cognitive word usage and PTSD symptoms, and between cognitive word usage and PTG. Contrary to hypotheses and previous research, the mediation analyses indicated that cognitive word usage predicted more, not fewer, PTSD symptoms. Meaning-making predicted more PTSD symptoms and PTG, and it did not act as a mediator for the relationship between cognitive word usage and PTSD or PTG. These findings challenge previous researchers' speculation and provide important information regarding the conceptualization of trauma and traumatic growth.

Committee: Jennifer Gibson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Tammy Sonnentag Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christine Dacey Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Childhood exposure to early adverse experiences is prevalent—affecting almost one-half of children from birth to 17 years old—and brings with it the potential for the long-lasting detrimental effects of traumatization. At the same time, a growing body of compelling evidence also suggests that many survivors of trauma exhibit more resilience and prosocial behaviors than individuals who have never experienced a traumatic event. This phenomenon has been coined altruism born of suffering (ABS); it is a relatively new concept in trauma research that seeks to better understand the possible positive outcomes of trauma. Building further beyond the concepts of resilience and post-traumatic growth, ABS showcases the potential for an individual to not only resist the risk of psychopathology or experience a constructive intrapersonal transformation after a trauma, but also to become more altruistic and prosocial than one who has never experienced a traumatic event. Research has illuminated several factors that can promote ABS, such as victim affinity, adaptive meaning making, and a supportive social sphere. Nevertheless, little qualitative research has examined the specific nature of how one's definition of their self and their trauma experience can foster altruism. In this dissertation, I examined the specific meaning making processes of ABS using a mixed methods study. I assessed quantitative correlation data between trauma and altruism in an adult volunteer population, then conducted qualitative interviews with four volunteers who had high levels of both trauma and altruism. I utilized Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore common themes that arose across the interviews. Six thematic clusters emerged: Insight and Inspiration, Accountability for Others' Suffering, Personal Growth, Trait Enhancement, Interpersonal Relationships, and Negative Effects of Trauma. Notable themes within these clusters included Filling in Gaps, Preventing Pain, Self-Efficacy and Con (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Martha Straus PhD (Committee Chair); Barbara Belcher-Timme PsyD (Committee Member); Meg Pilling PsyD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Higher Education Administration

In this study, I centered the experiences of individuals who identify as polyamorous or ethically non-monogamous. My purpose was to explore how polyamorous students at one institution made meaning of their polyamorous identity and how they described the relationship between the postsecondary environment and their meaning-making. The philosophical perspectives of constructivism and queer theory were blended to acknowledge the subjective experiences of the participants while also recognizing the systemic oppression surrounding identities like polyamory. Through these frameworks, I applied Baxter Magolda's theory of self-authorship (2001) and Bronfenbrenner's developmental ecology model (2005). Using collective case study methodology, I recruited seven participants who each consented to participate in two open ended, semi-structured individual interviews. At the time of data collection, six of the seven participants were graduate students; one was an undergraduate student. I utilized journaling, memoing, epoche, bracketing, and holistic and embedded analysis throughout the study design, implementation, and data analysis. Several themes emerged from the data, each with multiple subthemes. Primary themes included: misrepresentation/misconceptions stemming from heteronormative constructs in society; coming out which all participants had to constantly navigate, support including the lack thereof as well as some supportive individuals; and multiple dimensions of identity as participants shared that their meaning-making was related to other identities they also hold. Five recommendations for policy and practice emerged from the findings. First, student affairs practitioners should consider polyamory when claiming to focus on inclusion and holistic identity development. Second, student affairs units should sponsor programming focused on polyamory and other family and relationship structures. Third, relevant academic units should include polyamory when (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dafina-Lazarus Stewart Ph.D (Advisor); Christina Lunceford Ph.D. (Advisor); Sarah Smith Rainey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kenneth Borland D.Ed. (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Sociology; Womens Studies

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2018, Humanities

This thesis provides a foundational understanding of the ways in which Facebook is being used as a location for meaning making around the opioid epidemic in Dayton, Ohio. A content analysis of the Dayton Daily News Facebook page analyzes four posts that were randomly selected from 2017 and their corresponding 1,336 comments. This work will identify and describe discursive civility and incivility. This work adds to the growing conversation about incivility in political discourse by bringing the focus to the opioid epidemic and Facebook as a location where understandings of drug use and prevention are co-constructed. This construction, along with understandings of what is civil or uncivil, can both perpetuate and subvert power structures. The implications of this pilot study provide a framework to consider opportunities to create more civil and subversive locations on Facebook for meaning making.

Committee: Julianne Weinzimmer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jessica Barnett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jen Ware Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 0, Psychology

At some point in their lives, everyone will experience a stressful life event. Usually, someone can cope with and make meaning from the event. However, the body of research investigating the impact of severe and/or chronic exposure to stressful life events on the brain shows that harmful effects of stress exposure accumulate. Considering the extant literature regarding religious meaning making in light of these findings and the robust literature on spiritual transformation following stressful life events, I developed three hypotheses: 1) stressful life events increase risk of (non)religious ID change, 2) earlier events continued to impact later ID changes, and 3) risk of ID change was similar across change groups. This study analyzed a nationally representative longitudinal dataset of US children born between 1980 and 1984 (N = 8984). The final analyses used multiple imputation to account for missing data and did not find evidence supporting the hypotheses.

Committee: Julie Exline Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Heath Demaree Ph.D. (Committee Member); Arin Connell Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Health; Mental Health; Psychology; Religion; Spirituality

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

In an age where we can avoid hand-drawing and hand-making for the sake of convenience and timesaving, it seems we might prematurely be abandoning them. The benefits of drawing and writing by hand on cognitive development and concentration are numerous, and research supports that developing a reflective practice is rewarding for personal and professional development. Students in traditional design schools, specifically the field of graphic design, are educated with high emphasis on technical production skills—yet what is absent is instruction for developing a reflective practice that links design projects, lived experience, tacit knowledge, and generative ideation toward the robust development of successful design outcomes. More specifically—and the focus of this thesis—is the opportunity for the inclusion of a haptic reflective practice in graphic design education. Such a haptic reflective practice, which includes drawing and writing by hand, has the potential to support students in bridging implicit awarenesses with tangible knowledge outcomes in the design development process. Through an examination of literature from the fields of qualitative research, education, and art and design, and the author's own haptic reflective practice involving drawing and writing as inquiry methods, this thesis explores an under-championed haptic reflective practice in graphic design education. As the initial step in building a rationale for a future case study, this project exemplifies practice-led reflection-on-action to demonstrate a graphic design student's journey from tacit understanding to informed intuition in the design development process.

Committee: Vittoria Daiello Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Meera Rastogi Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brian Schumacher (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2017, Neuroscience

Although 1.6-3.8 million sports-related concussions are diagnosed annually (CDC, 2016), a number of potential concussions may not be self-reported and disclosed to clinicians, coaches and other supervising adults in sport. With concussion symptom-hiding continuing to pervade athletics at all levels, the obvious question to pose would be: why are student athletes hiding such serious symptoms and putting their lives at risk? This qualitative study aims at developing grounded theoretical conceptualizations of the dynamics and components of meaning making as experienced by pre-college (middle and high school) student athletes relative to the concussion phenomenon. Such an understanding will: (1) allow student athletes to claim the authority of their own experiences, liberate themselves from the potentially negative constraints of influencing individuals and their past experiences, and self-author their unique paths as they explore their sports careers and (2) inform necessary improvements to current concussion education, identification, management and conceptualization by listening to the story of the student athlete.

Committee: Jacob Okumu (Advisor) Subjects: Neurosciences

PHD, Kent State University, 2016, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Student-athletes have been shown in the literature to have a defined experience that is different from non-athletes. The challenges student-athletes face at the Division III (DIII) level and a lack of research raises curiosity regarding their career development. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to investigate female DIII student-athletes meaning-making regarding major selection using the Career Construction Interview (CCI) and the ways major choices are confirmed or challenged by their own defined life story. The participants of this study included 7 Caucasian traditional-age female student-athletes who exhibited strong athletic identities (utilizing the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale) attending a DIII institution located in the Midwest. Data were collected through semi-structured, open-ended interviews and the CCI, and analyzed using processes of restorying, life design counseling, and holistic-content analysis. The findings of this study indicate that telling, hearing, and retelling their stories were individually impactful and transformative. This study identified three themes across the narratives, which documented the influence of sports, minimal career support, and affirmation of their major decisions as shared experiences among the participants. Implications of the findings point to the need for intentionality surrounding career interventions in DIII post-secondary institutions for athletes and non-athletes. Results of this study revealed that even students with a chosen major can benefit from reflecting on their career stories. These results point to the opportunity to meet the career needs of student-athletes and the general student body with curriculum such as a constructivist career course designed around the CCI.

Committee: Tracy Lara Hilton (Committee Chair); Jennifer Kulics (Committee Member); Mark Savickas (Committee Member); Kevin Glavin (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2016, College of Education and Human Services

Two decades after the civil war in Bosnia, more than fifty percent of population is suffering from various war aftereffects. However, most studies focused on objective outcomes, including gathering data on quantity of affected individuals. Very few studies focused on exploration of the experience itself, as well as Bosnian refugees' perception of their own health and well-being. The purpose of this study was to explore war and post-war experiences, as well as health and well-being of Bosnian refugees. Particular interest focused on the meaning making of their experience through personal narratives. Following the Qualitative Consensual Research analysis, seven domains emerged: pre-immigration experience, arrival process to United States, adjustment experience, influence of war and post-war experience, current lifestyle, mental health and well-being education and resources, and recommendations. Most significant take away from this study is the need to do more research and utilize it for practice implications on this particular group. This study shows there are major deficiencies in the resources extended to this refugee population, which needs to be advocated for. The field and practice of psychology has to find a better way to prepare and adjust in order to serve this population in a more efficient way. Other service workers who interact with this population ought to be trained to address these issues as well, as they may be act as the first contact within the host country and can enact a bridging role to the actual mental health resources and services, as well as other pertinent general resources.

Committee: Kathryn MacCluskie Ed.D. (Committee Chair); Anne Galletta Ph.D. (Advisor); Joshua Bagaka's Ph.D. (Committee Member); Graham Stead Ph.D. (Committee Member); Katherine Judge Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Counseling Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2016, Psychology

Traumatic events are prevalent in the general population. The possible psychological consequences of trauma are complex as they include both negative, even pathological, outcomes and positive outcomes, such as posttraumatic growth (PTG). Past research has established a link between expressive writing (EW) and PTG. The current study explored two possible mediational models to explain the relation between EW and PTG. Both assessed the role of event centrality (EC) and core belief disruption (CBD) and the link between EW and PTG in a sample of 133 college students. Model 1 hypothesized that EW would lead to increased PTG and that this relation would be mediated by absolute levels of EC and CBD post-intervention; Model 2 hypothesized that EW would lead to increased PTG and this relation would mediated by the degree of increase in EC and CBD over the course of the intervention. Contrary to expectations, results indicated that EW was not related to PTG; however, Model 2 was partially supported, as tests of indirect effects revealed increased EC mediated the relation between EW and PTG. Analyses of the model paths revealed both absolute CBD and changes in CBD were related to PTG. Results confirm the importance of EC and CBD when attempting to facilitate PTG.

Committee: Susan Kenford Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christine Dacey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Cindy Dulaney Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Educational Leadership

School leadership is a complex and demanding role that organizes conditions for meaningful education for students and an environment conducive to the work of educators and parents. School leaders should be prepared for this key leadership role, but in Zimbabwe there are no formal pre-service school leadership development programs. School leaders develop leadership knowledge from their field-based leadership experiences, but there is a dearth of research on how the leaders make meaning of their leadership experiences. Using the phenomenological research tradition of qualitative research, this research study explored how nine effective Zimbabwean secondary school heads made meaning of their field-based leadership development experiences in the absence of formal leadership development programs. To focus the research study on the co-researchers' meaning-making experiences, the adult learning theory (andragogy) and the experiential learning theory were used. Concepts drawn from adult learning and experiential learning literature were also discussed to further focus the research study but bracketed throughout the study following the dictates of Epoche. Purposeful sampling was used to identify effective school heads that had a common experience in field-based leadership development. Congruent with phenomenology, semi-structured interview questions were used to gather data to construct thick descriptions of the co-researchers' meaning-making phenomenon. The modified 7-step van Kaam Method of Phenomenological Data Analysis (Moustakas, 1994) was used to analyze data from which horizons were identified and used to construct textural and structural descriptions of the co-researchers' meaning-making experiences. Whereas textural descriptions captured the qualities of the meaning-making experience, structural descriptions focused on explaining factors that accounted for the qualities of the experience. The composite textural-structural description synthesized textural and structu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Denise T. Baszile PhD (Committee Chair); Richard A. Quantz PhD (Committee Member); Lisa Weems PhD (Committee Member); Paula Saine PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership