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Conceptualizing a vision of the good life among mid-career faculty.
No full textThis qualitative study examined how mid-career faculty defined and pursued the good life and what they perceived as helping or hindering that quest. Using Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory within a critical realist ontology, the research sought to uncover the conceptual structures and generative mechanisms that shaped their vision of the good life. Thirty post-tenured faculty from diverse institutions across the United States participated in semi-structured interviews designed to elicit both personal and professional understandings of the good life. Analysis followed iterative coding, memoing, and constant comparison, culminating in a grounded conceptual framework composed of seven ends and five means. The ends represented valued states and pursuits that faculty sought to achieve or sustain, including good work, peace, community, family, happiness, expression of faith and hobbies. The means represented the antecedent methods and conditions that enabled those outcomes, including agency, balance, self-care, stress reduction, and intellect. Viewed through a critical realist lens, the means functioned as generative mechanisms operating in the deep domain of social reality, activated in the actual domain through contextual interactions, producing the ends as observable outcomes in the empirical domain. The resulting framework is humanistic and descriptive, depicting the good life as a dynamic integration of state and pursuit. Situated within philosophical, psychological, and higher education theories, it provides a theoretically grounded and empirically rich account of how mid-career faculty enact flourishing as whole persons within academic life
A qualitative case study exploring the expectancy and value of incorporating service learning in the Catholic independent school classroom as sources of motivation and empowerment for K-12 teachers.
No full textThis qualitative case study explored the expectancy and value of incorporating service learning in the Catholic independent school classroom as sources of motivation and empowerment for K–12 teachers. Participants were classroom teachers with experience in implementing and participating in service learning. Various perceived barriers and obstacles may limit the implementation of service learning. Empowering teachers to incorporate service learning more consistently enhances the mission and values of the Catholic Church, which encourage social justice through service to alleviate community needs. Without service learning, students would have fewer opportunities to address community needs through collaboration and hands-on experiential learning. Ensuring that Catholic school administrators understand the perceived support and barriers for incorporating service learning may empower teachers in K–12 Catholic independent schools to implement service learning more frequently and consistently.
Participants in this single-case study shared their experiences and perspectives on service learning through an online questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. Each data collection phase encouraged participants to respond to open-ended questions, yielding rich, codable data. Guided by the situated expectancy-value theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020), participants shared their expectancy for success and their subjective task value of incorporating service learning. Through triangulation of the data from all three data collection sources, findings were corroborated and validated.
Values such as interest, enjoyment, increased social awareness and empathy, alignment with the school’s mission and values, connection, and meaningful interaction enhanced motivation for participants to incorporate service learning in their classrooms. Additionally, support from school administrators, fellow faculty members, and parents contributed positively to the incorporation of service learning. Conversely, participants identified perceived barriers, including logistics, curriculum demands, cost, and a lack of focused professional development, as hindrances to incorporating service learning. Providing a clearer understanding of the conditions necessary for service learning offers greater support for teachers as they implement service learning with traditional pedagogy
Multimodality in grade 4 science : a qualitative single case study exploring place-based nature journaling representations by communicatively diverse learners in a Western Canadian public school.
No full textEducators who lack understanding about communicative accessibility within learning environments perpetuate communication barriers through the historically situated routines, organizational structures, and conventional print-based practices of schools (Farías & Véliz, 2019; Tan et al., 2020; Wimmer & Draper, 2019). By neglecting to identify, remove, and prevent communication access barriers for communicatively diverse students, educators disregard the right for students to communicate in different ways through methods that best suit their needs within a given context (Brady et al., 2016; Communication Disabilities Access Canada, 2019). In this study, I explored how the multimodality of place-based nature journaling in science promoted communicative accessibility for communicatively diverse grade 4 students at a public school in Western Canada.
Through the lens of Kress’ (2010) social semiotic theory of multimodality, I conducted a qualitative single case study. I recruited six participants from the same grade 4 class in a public school utilizing a criterion sampling strategy. I collected data from semi-structured interviews and participant nature journaling representations. To analyze the data, I compiled a priori codes from Kress’ (2010) social semiotic theory of multimodality, previous literature, and my experiences of assessing students’ nature journals as an educator.
The findings in this study revealed the visual competence and skill of participants, gaps in their spatial awareness and understanding, and use of creative multimodality to enhance and broaden their linguistic communication while nature journaling. Further, findings highlighted the opportunity to develop participant spatial communication competence and skills to enhance the clarity of their communication in science. Recommendations from this study include building student visual literacy competence and skill, supporting educators to develop an understanding of multimodal communication, expanding concepts of literacy within educator training to include multimodality, and defining place-based nature journaling as a multimodal representation genre across subject disciplines. An implication of this study is that communication within formal learning contexts will be more accessible, inclusive, equitable, and better aligned with the multimodal literacies of today’s communicative landscape. Another implication is that learners will have access to engage in learning more authentically, showcase their understanding of curricula more fully, have a voice, and be heard
Representing complex multisector, human systems into land use and land cover mapping to inform sustainability and future societal development.
No full textHumanity’s evolution into modern society has required the Earth’s surface and its natural systems to change drastically and in-step with technological progress. Although societal development is necessary to maintain the human population, it directly impacts the land with large-scale deforestation and habitat fragmentation. Human-earth interactions such as these are studied in the field of Multi-Sector Dynamics (MSD). MSD divides the earth’s natural systems into sectors and records their connection with/influence from human sectors (i.e. land, water, ecosystems, energy, urbanization, agriculture, transportation, and health) at various spatial and temporal resolutions. The novelty of Multi-Sector Dynamic modeling is its ability to characterize muti-sectoral information spatially within the physical landscape. When sectoral information is put in a spatial context, it allows research to access unique perspectives on spatial consequences. This is particularly important for quantifying and characterizing land use, i.e. land used for economic development that cannot be surveyed purely from satellite imagery. The geospatial quantification of land use not only aids current characterization of humanity’s influence on the natural environment but can look at trends and project future societal development based on human resource-use scenarios. However, scenario development and looking at patterns and trends begins with reliable and detailed land use datasets depicting our current society. Understanding current land use begins with improvement in our understanding and characterization of three distinct but interconnected sectors: energy, urbanization, and livestock agriculture through dynamic geospatial processing and machine learning techniques
Leading for change : teacher leaders changing the instructional landscape.
Full text linkThis study's purpose was to identify the critical role of teacher leaders in providing instructional support in small, rural school districts to evaluate how teacher leaders conducting action coaching impacts instructional practices, teacher support, and leadership opportunities, ultimately fostering teachers by design. This mixed-methods studied was conducted in two phases. Phase I quantitatively assessed user perceptions of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Teacher Leadership Grant program through statewide surveys. Phase II qualitatively explored the program's implementation and impact on instructional practices through semi-structured interviews and walkthroughs with two administrators, four teacher leaders, and eight teachers. The findings emphasize that teacher-led action coaching provides an effective model for job-embedded, individualized professional development, reducing teacher isolation, enhancing collective teacher efficacy, and significantly contributing to teacher retention and improved instructional practices, particularly in resource-constrained educational settings
Understanding the correlation between wrinkle morphology, fracture and fatigue of plain woven CFRP laminates through mechanical and ultrasonic characterization.
Full text linkWrinkles, often perceived as manufacturing defects in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates, can significantly alter the fracture and fatigue behavior of composite structures. This dissertation presents a comprehensive experimental investigation into the influence of out-of-plane wrinkles on interlaminar fracture toughness under both Mode I and Mode II loading conditions, along with the development of a novel ultrasonic characterization technique for wrinkle detection and quantification. In the first part of the study, a co-curing-based fabrication technique was developed to embed controlled wrinkle topologies at the ply interface in double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens. These wrinkles, characterized using ultrasonic testing and optical microscopy, were quantified by peak-to-valley and peak-to-base amplitudes using an 8-point Gaussian fitting method. Mode I fracture testing revealed a strong positive correlation between wrinkle amplitude and energy release rate (ERR), with up to a 60% increase in ERR for high-amplitude wrinkles. This enhancement was attributed to crack deflection and increased fracture surface area due to the wrinkled interface. The second phase of the research extended this understanding to Mode II conditions by evaluating both static and fatigue-driven crack propagation in specimens with varying wrinkle morphologies. Moderate wrinkle amplitudes were found to improve initial interlaminar shear strength and stiffness, enhancing Mode II ERR at initiation. However, higher amplitudes led to unstable crack propagation, both in static and fatigue conditions. Fatigue testing showed accelerated crack growth rates and increased Paris law slopes for high-amplitude wrinkles, indicating reduced long-term durability. Furthermore, wider wrinkle spacing disrupted stress continuity, resulting in stepwise, staircase-like crack paths. To support this experimental work, the final part of the dissertation introduces a high-resolution algorithm for wrinkle characterization using full-waveform ultrasonic scan data. The method reconstructs the 3D geometry of each lamina interface, enabling precise measurement of wrinkle amplitudes. Validation against microscopic sectioning confirmed the reliability of the approach, with deviations within 0.06 mm. Together, these findings offer new insights into how wrinkle morphology affects interlaminar toughness and fatigue resistance in CFRP composites and provide a foundation for designing defect-tolerant laminates through controlled interface tailoring and advanced non-destructive evaluation
Boron ligand design and reactivity in metal complexes.
No full textBoron-based compounds display diverse and tunable reactivity that makes them valuable building blocks for synthetic chemistry and materials design. This dissertation explores the reactivity of electrophilic boron species and their interplay with transition metals and carborane clusters, with an emphasis on uncovering fundamental bonding modes and divergent reaction pathways.
The first portion examines hydroboration chemistry beyond conventional catalysis, highlighting the unique outcomes observed with metal acetylides. Copper acetylides favor alkynyl transfer to boranes, forming stable alkynylboronates, while gold acetylides exhibit distinct covalent bonding that directs reactivity along alternative pathways. These findings demonstrate how subtle differences in metal–acetylide bonding can drastically reshape product distributions in boron-mediated transformations.
Building from small-molecule systems, the reactivity of carborane clusters is investigated through reduction and functionalization strategies. Potassium/18-crown-6 mediated reductions generate reactive boryl anions capable of engaging in cage C–H activation, enabling new B–C bond construction. Comparative studies with crown ether encapsulation reveal that cation–cage interactions directly influence structural distortions and cage opening, underscoring the importance of ion pairing in governing carborane reactivity.
Finally, reductions of boron cluster complexes leading to nido-carborane and metallocarborane species expand the accessible chemical space of boron-rich frameworks, offering insights into electronic delocalization and metal–boron cooperation. Together, these investigations illustrate how the design of electrophilic boranes, in combination with transition metal or cluster frameworks, can be leveraged to achieve selective bond activation and novel molecular architectures.
Overall, this work advances the understanding of boron reactivity across molecular and cluster domains, providing new strategies for manipulating structure, selectivity, and electronic properties in boron-rich systems
Drop deformation dynamics in extensional flows : influence of chemical-, mechanical- and photo-degradation.
No full textPolymer drop impact on a solid substrate is commonplace in many industrial applications, such as inkjet printing, agricultural pesticides, and spray coating, where dyes and surfactants are used to enhance various functionalities. Pesticide spray droplets can sometimes deviate from their intended targets due to splashing, drifting, and bouncing, posing significant challenges for efficient delivery. Various studies investigated how the rheological properties of the polymer influence the drop impact outcome (i.e., suppression of splashing and rebound). However, polymers can deteriorate over time, which contributes to a decrease in effectiveness of pesticides and reduces their shelf life. Therefore, understanding polymer degradation is crucial for achieving better performance. While there is extensive research on the polymer drop impact, the influence of dye and light on the polymer drop impact dynamics remains relatively unexplored. This work bridges the existing knowledge gap in understanding how polymer degradation can alter the drop impact dynamics. First, we focused on investigating the effects of dye salts (e.g., anionic and cationic) on the rheology of different types of aqueous polymer (e.g., anionic, cationic, and neutral polymer). Our findings revealed that when polymer-dye pairs with opposite charges, they displayed a pronounced decrease in the extensional viscosity and relaxation time. We also investigated how the photodegradation of the polymer-dye changes the drop impact dynamics. We found that the light-irradiated polymer-dye drops splashed upon impact on a parafilm surface, which was not observed for non-irradiated polymer-dye drops. The final part of this work seeks to understand the high molecular weight polymer drop rebound and deposition phenomena, particularly in the dilute regime. Here, we varied polymer molecular weight, concentrations, and zeta potential. We found that when the charge between the polymer and the surface is unfavorable, the drop will rebound due to electrostatic repulsion. Conversely, when the charges are favorable, the polymer drop will stick to the surface even in the dilute regimes. The results indicate that molecular weight alone is a poor predictor of drop rebounding, and the polymers may exhibit a range of sticking to bouncing regimes depending on the polymer charge and interaction with the surface
Liquid-metal-based strain sensor, tilt sensors, and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs).
Full text linkGallium-based liquid-metals have emerged as promising next-generation materials for wearable and soft electronics, offering a solution to the inherent limitations of traditional solid conductors and conductive polymers. Unlike rigid metals, they combine high electrical and thermal conductivity with mechanical flexibility, enabling reliable performance under deformation. Among them, Galinstan and eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) stand out for their biocompatibility, low vapor pressure, high thermal and electrical conductivity, providing a non-toxic alternative to mercury. A distinguishing property of these alloys is the spontaneous formation of a thin oxide layer (~3 nm) in ambient air, which is mechanically robust and adhesive. This dissertation presents strategies for utilizing an oxidize layer of liquid metal as an adhesive conductor and engineering surfaces of materials non-wetting to oxidized gallium-based liquid-metals toward advanced sensing and energy-harvesting applications.
Chapter 3 introduces a crack-based strain sensor incorporating atomized liquid-metal droplets. These droplets form conductive bridges between cracks, maintaining high sensitivity (GF ~2,238) while expanding the sensing range to 10.68%, far beyond the conventional crack-based strain sensor designs.
Chapter 4 demonstrates resistive and capacitive tilt sensors employing non-wetting surfaces against oxidized liquid-metals. A resistive tilt sensor using a liquid-metal pendulum and laser-induced graphene (LIG) electrodes achieves exceptional tilt angle sensitivity (~8.9 kΩ/°). A capacitive tilt sensor employing CF4 /O2 plasma-etched Kapton as a dielectric attains a sensitivity of 3.67 pF/°.
Finally, a liquid-metal-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is developed to replace toxic mercury-based systems and the use of plasma-etched Kapton as a friction layer ensures non-wetting behavior, suppressing charge screening and enabling stable energy harvesting in Chapter 5. Collectively, this work establishes fundamental strategies for utilizing liquid metals in flexible self-power generation systems
An embedded single-case study exploring the belongingness and likelihood of leaving for women with engineering degrees at large, U.S.-based, product-focused engineering companies.
No full textDespite earning over half of bachelor’s degrees (USAFacts.org., 2020), women hold less than 30% of science and engineering jobs and only 16.1% of engineering roles (NCSES, 2019). Women with engineering degrees are twice as likely to leave their workplaces and technical professions as men (Ashcraft et al., 2016), and female representation declined during the global pandemic (Alon et al., 2021; USAFacts.org, n.d.). The low representation of women in engineering workplaces underscores the need for policy improvements to enhance female participation in engineering (Sharma, 2021). The purpose of this embedded single-case study was to explore how women in the U.S. with engineering degrees describe their belongingness as it relates to the likelihood of leaving an engineering workplace.
I conducted a qualitative embedded single-case study using Baumeister and Leary’s (1995) belongingness theory. I recruited women with engineering degrees who worked at large, U.S.-based, product-focused engineering companies across three leadership levels: individual contributors, managers, and executives. Seven participants, at least two within each leadership level, completed a survey and ranking exercise, plus answered questions about workplace belonging. I synthesized the findings using a priori codes and compared data sources to identify three themes related to women with engineering degrees’ belongingness and likelihood of leaving.
First, women with degrees in engineering in the U.S. valued being empowered to contribute to the success of the workplace as most important for their belongingness related to their likelihood of leaving. Second, they felt that being valued by their supervisor contributed more to their psychological safety and, therefore, their belongingness and likelihood of leaving, than being valued by colleagues, and much more than seeing diversity and inclusion or having input into work-related policies. Third, the need for support in professional advancement and confidence in their ability to thrive decreased progressively at higher leadership roles. Thus, organizations can reduce the likelihood of leaving by empowering women with meaningful work and enabling frequent, positive, and high-quality interactions with mentors or direct supervisors. In addition, providing individual contributors with a roadmap for advancement and helping them thrive professionally by providing stable, enduring, and reciprocal relationships can reduce their likelihood of leaving