Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Agricultural and Extension Education

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the phenomenon of strategies college instructors enact that support the academic success of historically underrepresented students [HUS] (i.e., first-generation, low-income, and/or Students of Color) experiencing academic struggle. A critical-constructivist epistemology was employed (Jaekel, 2021; Levitt, 2021). The theoretical framework combined elements of critical pedagogy (e.g. Darder et al., 2017; Kincheloe, 2008), pedagogy of care (Noddings, 2003, 2005), radical love (e.g. Freire, 1970; hooks, 2018; Lane, 2018), critical care pedagogy (e.g. Chinn & Falk‐Rafael, 2018; Delpit, 2006; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1997), and a student-ready institutional framework (McNair et al., 2016). The research was guided by four questions: (1) How do HUS understand academic success and struggle? (2) How do HUS identify instructors who they believe support their academic success? (3) How do instructors understand academic success and struggle for HUS? (4) How do instructors enact academic support for HUS? Data were collected in three phases. In phase one, a qualitative questionnaire was sent to 143 undergraduate students who identified as first-generation, low-income, and/or Students of Color and who had experienced academic struggle while enrolled at The Ohio State University. The questionnaire asked students to nominate instructors who they believed supported their academic success. This study was unique in that students could nominate any instructor regardless of teaching role (i.e., tenure-track faculty, lecturers, graduate teaching assistants, or staff). In phase two, 14 students who completed the questionnaire accepted an invitation to participate in semi-structured interviews. In phase three, six instructors who were nominated by students agreed to participate in semi-structured interviews and to permit observation of their teaching. Several rounds of qualitative coding strategies were used to a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jera Niewoehner-Green (Advisor); Kristen J. Mills (Committee Member); Scott Scheer (Advisor) Subjects: Education; Educational Sociology; Higher Education; Teaching

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

As art teachers engage with big ideas such as identity, relationships, power, and conflict in art lessons, students may share experiences of trauma with teachers. Especially if teachers have strong relationships with students, meaningful and personally relevant art lessons can lead to students sharing stories such as struggle with bisexual identity, battles with anorexia, stories of poverty, discrimination and fear of police. Art teachers are not being taught the skills to take care of themselves and cope with student trauma, leading to compassion fatigue, burnout, and dropout. Teacher self-care is essential with the increase in trauma-informed education. This research argues for caring pedagogies, where teachers are attentive to students' holistic selves, including trauma, along with advocating for meaningful art lessons that connect to students lives, creating a transformative, healing, and empowering space for students. There is a need for more professional development, support, resources, counselors, time, and structure to support and sustain empathetic teachers. It brings to light the challenges of being an empathetic art teacher, starting dialogue on how teachers cope with student trauma. I studied with a middle school art teacher in Columbus, Ohio who was experiencing compassion fatigue. Through a critical pedagogy and post-structuralist lens, I exchanged stories with her. To represent the teacher's voice, I turned each interview question response into a participant-voiced poem, and responded with a researcher-voiced poem to share my own stance. I created short stories written from a student perspective to demonstrate student trauma and resonate with teacher readers by combining true stories of the students, my experiences, experiences of colleagues, and fiction to conceal the students' identities. Themes included poverty/unsafe circumstances; homelessness and parents with disabilities; bullying, suicide, and family death; and single- (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christine Ballengee Morris (Advisor); Dana Carlisle Kletchka (Committee Member); Jennifer Richardson (Committee Member); Shari Savage (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Education

Doctor of Education, Miami University, 2022, Educational Leadership

Teachers deserve a voice. Their experiences should be known in order to identify troublesome factors that often make school a constraining place. Their stories, no matter how messy, must be explored to better understand why our society loses many passionate educators. Through autoethnographic inquiry, I analyze my own story using creative works (narrative vignettes and art-based collage) to demonstrate the complicated experience of a modern-day K-12 educator. As a researcher engaging in critical autoethnography, I examine my experience through the principles of the radical imaginary, knowing thyself, understanding teachers as prisoners/oppressors, an ethic of care, critical/feminist lenses and critical hope. These influences are present and visible in the linguistic and visual data presented, which are intended to capture the complex paradoxes that young teachers face in their professional journey. By examining my lived experience, I hope to capture an authentic portrait of my time in public K-12 education to create meaning. This personal work elucidates themes felt by many young teachers to shed light on their difficulties and triumphs. The conclusion of the research provides suggestions for society based on interpretive data analysis.

Committee: Thomas Poetter (Committee Co-Chair); Sheri Leafgren (Committee Member); Lucian Szlizewski (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Leadership; Secondary Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Art Education

This study was designed with a desire to learn what happens when student artists step away from the traditional practice of self-expression and become facilitators of communication and catalysts of change in communities. How does such an experience influence their civic learning and what new pedagogical insights can be gained for fostering engaged citizen artists? This arts-based action research study was conducted through the vehicle of a newly designed community engaged arts course called the Citizen Artist Dine and Dialogue Initiative at Ohio State University. The course involved an intensive partnership between undergraduate students in the arts and youth artists from a local community arts organization called Transit Arts. Our process involved hosting a community breakfast dialogue series where the insights gained allowed us to create a culminating site-specific final project that was responsive to community concerns. All of this was driven by an interest in exploring the intersecting practices of arts and dialogue in civic engagement efforts. The conceptual framework for this study was informed by critical dialogue scholars Mikhail Bakhtin and Paulo Freire, as well as art historian Grant Kester who conceived the dialogical aesthetic. It also relied upon feminist scholars Nel Noddings, Carol Gilligan, and Megan Boler, who assert the ethic of care, a theoretical concept often cited in the growing body of civic engagement and civic learning scholarship that this study also references. In part, this study was a response to the numerous university arts educators and scholars in the broader field of education who have been calling for changes in arts education. There is a growing demand for students to be given a broader vision for a life in the arts so that they may be properly armed to take on the role of bridge builders and catalysts of change in communities. Findings from this study revealed that the lack of prior civic learning that is common for many st (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Hutzel (Advisor); Sydney Walker (Committee Member); Valerie Kinloch (Committee Member); Patty Bode (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, EDU Teaching and Learning

The study sought to examine how I, a teacher researcher, implemented a culturally relevant writing pedagogy in my first grade classroom, that integrated the funds of knowledge of my students and their families (Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 2001; Moll at al., 1992). The particular goals of this study were to examine: how I learned about the funds of knowledge of my students and their families (Moll at al., 1992); how my teacher pedagogy changed and how the roles of my students changed; and finally, to examine how my role as a teacher researcher impacted the relationships with my professional colleagues and administrators within my school. The implications of this research for my own teacher pedagogy, for current practitioners, and for teacher education, indicate that by engaging in the process of inquiry with an ethic of care, changes to teacher pedagogy will result, specifically when implementing culturally relevant pedagogy (Noddings, 2005, 2012). The result of implementing a culturally relevant writing pedagogy with an ethic of care, that integrated the funds of knowledge of my students and their families, was the growth and academic achievement the students demonstrated. In addition to that growth I myself changed as a teacher researcher and the students’ roles changed. As I engaged in practitioner inquiry I developed the ability of “how” to implement culturally relevant pedagogy in my classroom.

Committee: Laurie Katz PhD (Advisor); Patricia L. Scharer PhD (Committee Member); David Bloome PhD (Committee Member); Mollie Blackburn PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2008, Educational Leadership

This research project analyzed student success, as measured by achievement tests, within communities of high poverty. The purpose was to develop a grounded theory that offered insights as to how schools located within communities of high poverty could experience success on achievement tests. A second, and equally critical focus of this research was to better understand how teachers and principals interpreted success on achievement tests. What did success on achievement tests mean for students and their chances to live the American Dream? Specific questions this study intended to answer included: Do some schools experience success on achievement tests even when social class predictors of academic success forecast differently? What is occurring in these schools that contributes to their success on achievement tests? How do teachers and school administrators interpret student success on achievement tests in connection to student life chances?

Committee: Michael Dantley PhD (Committee Chair); Nelda Cambron-McCabe PhD (Committee Member); Dennis Carlson PhD (Committee Member); Tammy Schwartz PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Sociology; Educational Theory; Elementary Education; Organizational Behavior; School Administration; Teacher Education; Teaching