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Critical Consciousness Development in Elementary Mathematics Educators: A Critical Participatory Inquiry
Get PDFThis study draws upon critical bifocality (Chen & Horn, 2022) and intersectional frameworks (Collins, 2019; Crenshaw, 1989) to detail critical consciousness development over time in justice-oriented elementary mathematics educators. Specifically, a Critical Participatory Inquiry (CPI) approach facilitated collective theorizing amongst myself and six co-researchers, revealing that both the individual educator development and systemic mechanisms of oppression within the mathematics classroom are key structuring elements of educators’ critical consciousness. In partnership with elementary mathematics educators, this study aimed to understand the experiences, or critical moments, of justice-oriented elementary mathematics educators to create a theory of critical consciousness development. Although significant research exists on equity-based and culture-centered classrooms, it is essential to discern how critical consciousness functions and develops within elementary mathematics classrooms. Understanding this process is key to fostering the knowledge necessary for cultivating the criticality needed to achieve equity reform. We analyzed 20 in-depth narratives of justice-oriented elementary mathematics educators through multiple iterations of Grounded Theory (GT) coding processes to create a theory of development. Findings illustrate three main themes (strands) evolve over time at the individual level as elementary teachers develop critical consciousness: (a) awareness, (b) reflection, and (c) action. An additional theme emerged highlighting the system interaction with individual criticality development, (d) systemic mechanisms of oppression. Findings from this study contribute to the growing body of research on critical consciousness in mathematics, detailing the complexities and progression of critical processes over time, from their emergence to amplification and eventual transformation. The GT findings from this study offer valuable insights for educators, mathematics teacher educators, school and district leaders, policymakers, and researchers
Ground-based Light Curve Follow-up Validation observations of TESS object of interest TOI 6209.01
Get PDF“The NASA TESS Mission aims to discover exoplanets and other astronomical entities outside of our solar system. TOI 6209.01 was identified as an exoplanet candidate in the NASA TESS Mission. This paper attempts to validate the existence of the exoplanet through analyzing an occurrence of a transit. We made this attempt through data collected and a generated light curve. Through the softwares AstroImageJ and the embedded Astrometry, we are able to create the light-curve, along with a dmagRNS plot. However, due to influxes in data, we were unable to provide a complete observation of the transit. We could not plate-solve several images, and so we removed them. After the analysis, we were unable to validate the existence of the exoplanet, but there is no evidence against the existence of the exoplanet. Further work is still required for a solid validation.
Infrastructure Development, Public Financing, and Underrepresented Workers in the Labor Markets
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until May 2034.This dissertation investigates the impacts of public financing and infrastructure development on underrepresented workers in developing and developed economies. The first chapter evaluates whether targeted hiring credits, `Ley de Primer Empleo (The First Job Act),’ meaningfully created jobs for young, career-disrupted females, and low-income workers in Colombia. The subsequent chapter studies the climate initiative of coal reduction financing and its impacts on the wages and job turnover of the coal-intensive sector in South Africa. The last chapter examines whether the installation of non-commute purpose High-Speed Rail (HSR) unintentionally enhances female participation in local labor markets in the Republic of Korea.2034-05-1
Professional Identity in Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Candidates
Get PDFThis study investigated how early childhood special education teacher candidates described their professional identities. Professional identity is how individuals think about and act as members of the profession, and it has the potential to impact instructional practice and decisions to stay in the field. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 10 participants: components of their professional identities, and the experiences that helped them develop these identities. The three main components of early childhood special education (ECSE) teacher candidate’s professional identities were: teacher as coach, teacher as partner, and teacher as learner. Important experiences in their journeys to teaching included being a parent, interactions with individuals with disabilities, and relationships with important teachers in their past. Implications for teacher preparation, recruitment, and retention are addressed
Three Essays in Industrial Organization and Political Economy
Get PDFThis Dissertation explores topics in industrial organization and political economy. In the first chapter, I estimate the aggregate and industry-specific elasticities of scale and markups for the U.S. economy over the period from 1980 to 2019 using data on publicly traded companies. I apply Olley-Pakes and Ackerberg-Caves-Frazer estimation methods and find that the aggregate elasticity of scale for the U.S. economy is 1.1 and has been rising. The elasticity of scale in turn serves as an input for calculating industry markups. Increasing returns to scale help explain observed increases in markups over the last decades for broad sectors of the economy. My estimate of 1.2 for the aggregate markup is significantly lower than the estimate of 1.6 found in recent literature. The large disparity in markup estimates stems from differences in the treatment of fixed and variable costs and the methodological approach to the calculation of markups. In the second chapter, I test a theory that in sequential auctions, price rises with the number of bidders. I allow for stochastically arriving and departing bidders, so the number of bidders changes with every auction round both endogenously, through the winner of the previous round dropping from future rounds, and exogenously, through the bidders’ stochastic arrival and departure. I test the theory on the Mecum auctions for collectible cars using the instrumental variables method. The timing of the car going to auction affects price only through the number of bidders present at the time and the number of cars still left to auction. This allows me to instrument time for the number of bidders. The empirical test shows support for the theory and provides a missing explanation for the declining price anomaly prevalent in sequential auctions. In the third chapter, I model and empirically test the effects of citizen monitoring on services provided by bureaucrats. Monitoring by citizens is a public good. Because of collective action problems, monitoring is underprovided, allowing bureaucrats to shirk efforts to provide services. My model shows that collective action problems in monitoring activities are associated with sub-optimal bureaucratic output. Bureaucratic output is predicted to change with the number of citizens affected and the distribution of bureaucracy-generated benefits. Utilizing income data from leases under the purview of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), I find broad support for my hypothesis that bureaucratic output is inversely related to the collective action challenges of bureaucrats’ clients. These collective action problems vary with the number of owners, interests of the largest shareholder, and variations in monitoring costs due to private vs. institutional ownership
Bridging Co-Creation in SoTL and Feminist Pedagogy
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until December 2029.Students’ perspectives are essential contributions in both feminist pedagogy and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). In feminist pedagogy, standpoint theories guide instructors to view knowledge as co-created, and students’ shared ownership of the classroom as a natural praxis of this epistemology. In SoTL, scholars have advocated for partnering with students to produce more trustworthy scholarship on learning. Despite these natural connections, there is little direct linking between the two scholarly fields in publications. This three-manuscript dissertation presents the outcomes of my critical reflection and analysis bridging this current gap, with a particular focus on whole-class co-creation of teaching and learning at the postsecondary level. Manuscript One applies feminist theories to analysis of scholarly positioning in SoTL. Manuscript Two examines co-creation practices in a narrative literature review of feminist pedagogy. And Manuscript Three suggests a framework for understanding co-creation, drawn from a narrative inquiry of feminist pedagogues’ practices. This work aims to support scholars’ understanding of the value of looking across disciplinary boundaries when conducting scholarship on teaching; grow current examples of whole-class co-creation with students; and encourage instructors’ integration of co-creation practices in their teaching.2029-12-1
Using Mixed Methods to Understand How Strengths-Based Approach to Mathematics Instruction Influenced Pre-Service Special Education and General Education Teachers
Get PDFThis exploratory, mixed-method study investigated how strength-based approach to mathematics instruction (SBAMI) influences the academic optimism of general education and special education pre-service teachers (PSTs). Academic optimism, linked to student achievement in previous research, was used as the theoretical framework. Data included interviews, artifacts, and surveys from PSTs enrolled in a special education or a general education mathematics methods course. The results of the paired-sample t-test showed a statistically significant increase in PSTs’ academic optimism from the beginning to the end of the semester (t = 3.190, df = 43, p = .003, d = 0.48). Findings revealed that SBAMI influenced the academic optimism of the PSTs differently based on their past positive experiences and the connections they made between SBAMI and their future instructional practices. Also, SBAMI influenced both groups of PSTs through self-reflecting, envisioning their classroom, and eliciting student thinking. The insights gained from this study can support future general education and special education mathematics teachers in aligning their beliefs, feelings, and behaviors
Framing Pretrial Reform: Media Effects on Perceptions of Bail Reform and Pretrial Risk Assessments
Get PDFIn the United States, about 450,000 individuals are held in jails awaiting trial, adding to the burden pretrial detention has placed on overcrowded and understaffed jail facilities. Experts have identified cash bail as the primary mechanism driving pretrial detention rates. Across the nation, pretrial reform efforts have focused on reducing the harms of cash bail by eliminating the system or implementing pretrial risk assessment tools to guide judicial decision-making. However, bail reform is a highly contested topic. Experts believe the media may play a key role in discussions of bail reform through shaping individual perceptions. However, little research has empirically examined the impact of media influence on perceptions of bail reform and pretrial risk assessments. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how media framing of pretrial release narratives affects perceptions of pretrial reform efforts. Data was collected using a randomized experimental vignette design in two surveys of 1) the general population and 2) criminal legal professionals. Findings from this investigation may inform practitioners on how to minimize or otherwise buffer the adverse negative effects of media attention
The Effects of Chronic Zinc Supplementation on Behavior and Tauopathy in an Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model Containing Both APOE4 and Tau
Get PDFAlzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurological disease characterized by two major biological components; amyloid beta (abeta) and hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau). However, it is thought that early-onset (EOAD) and late-onset AD (LOAD) may differ in terms of how p-tau aggregates, with p-tau aggregation primarily being caused by abeta buildup in EOAD, and p-tau aggregation being caused by both abeta and a system independent of abeta buildup in LOAD. It is thought that this p-tau buildup independent of abeta may be due to the APOE4 allele, a major genetic risk factor of LOAD. While the relationship between APOE4 and abeta has been well researched, the relationship between APOE4 and p-tau in the absence of abeta has been both inconsistent and lacks behavioral results. This study examined an APOE4 x Tau mouse model to better understand this interaction independent of systems involving abeta. Additionally, the effects of zinc were examined in this mouse model. Previous research suggests that zinc exacerbates the effects of both abeta and tau in other mouse models, however, there is limited research in how zinc interacts with APOE4. For this study, mice were placed in 8 groups; 4 genotypes (WT, E4, Tau, E4 x Tau), 2 metal ion supplements (none, zinc). Behavioral tests were examined age 3 and 6 months to measure spatial memory (Morris Water Maze), risk taking (Elevated Zero), anxiety (Open Field), activities of daily living (Nesting & Burrowing), and circadian activity (Wheel Running). Brains were removed and analyzed by various morphological tests including Western Blot analysis, histological staining, and Zinpyr-1. Results indicated that mouse models containing tau, with or without E4, show impairments in behavior as well as morphological abnormalities which match those impairments. However, while these impairments and morphological abnormalities are still present, they are reduced in a mouse model with both APOE4 and Tau compared to a mouse model containing only Tau. This indicates that, while APOE4 is a risk factor for LOAD, APOE4 in the absence of abeta may actually play a beneficial effect. There was no difference in groups based on zinc supplementation
Ground-based Light Curve Follow-up Validation observations of TESS object of interest TOI 5886.01
Get PDF“The goal of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (or TESS) is to detect exoplanet candidates by checking for a drop in the brightness of a star. If the drop happens periodically, then it could be caused by planet transits. The aim of this research is to generate a ground-based light curve for TOI 5886.01, which can be used as evidence to confirm it as an exoplanet. If the brightness drops the predicted amount at the predicted time, then it would confirm the candidate as an exoplanet. After reducing and plate-solving data collected from the GMU Observatory, we were able to generate a light curve using AstroImageJ. The light curve suggests that TOI 5886.01 is an exoplanet due to a drop in the light curve at the expected time and expected depth. However the NEB analysis came back as inconclusive, so future work must be done using longer exposure times. Additionally, a detailed statistical false-positive validation analysis must still be done to validate the TESS candidate as an exoplanet.