259890 research outputs found
Sort by
Identity, Familia, and Belonging: Librarians of Latino American Heritage and Professional Associations
No full textThe lack of diversity in the library and information science (LIS) field is a historical problem in a profession that strives to provide access to information for all. Many librarians of Latin American heritage are and have been members and/or leaders of the American Library Association (ALA). Some of them are also members of and participate actively in the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (REFORMA). The purpose of this case study is to understand how librarians of Latin American heritage (LLAH) experience a sense of belonging within librarianship based on their dual identity as REFORMA and ALA members. Through semi-structured interviews with eight LLAH who are members of and leaders in ALA and REFORMA and analysis of documents from both associations, we identified three main themes. LLAH are a diverse group, intersectional, from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds with the common goal of serving Latino communities. In REFORMA, these diverse professionals balance their individual and social identities to find a community and a support system that helps the sense of belonging in a predominantly White profession. Findings from this study have implications for professional associations and their leaders who wish to make librarians who are Latine feel that they belong in LIS
The effects of grading equity professional development on student outcomes
No full textThis study examines the impact of a 6-hour professional development (PD) program on grading equity and student outcomes. The PD aimed to enhance teachers’ grading practices to foster fairness and inclusivity, based on the growing advocacy for reform to address systemic inequities in traditional grading systems. Utilizing a randomized control trial, the study compared student perceptions of grading equity, academic achievement, and psychosocial outcomes between groups whose teachers either received or did not receive the training. Results indicated no significant improvements in student outcomes post-PD, suggesting the duration of the intervention may be insufficient for substantial changes in grading practices. The study underscores the necessity for more extensive or ongoing PD interventions and calls for further research to explore the conditions under which PD on grading practices can effectively influence student outcomes, thereby contributing to a fairer educational environment
Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives on Digital Storytelling as a Tool in Saudi Kindergarten Classrooms: A Qualitative Multicase Study
No full textSaudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 emphasizes the importance of integrating digital technologies into early childhood education, with the goal of developing children’s skills for the 21st century from an early age and preparing them for the future. Digital storytelling is an effective and interactive multimodal strategy to enhance young children’s skills in the classroom. However, there is limited research examining how kindergarten teachers design and utilize digital storytelling in their classrooms. This qualitative multicase study aimed to explore how Saudi kindergarten teachers perceived and implemented digital storytelling as a tool to promote engagement and comprehension among young children. The study focused on how teachers designed and integrated multimodal elements—including visual, auditory, textual, and interactive media—into their digital stories, analyzing their approaches through the lens of the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework to understand how technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge informed their practice. This study aimed to contribute to the field of educational technology by providing practical evidence on the effectiveness of different modes of digital storytelling to promote young children’s engagement and comprehension skills, particularly within the Saudi educational system. The findings of this study provide insights that can help improve educational practices and guide future research efforts about digital learning in early childhood education in Saudi Arabia and similar environments
Rattlesnakes and Enlightenment Science: An Unlikely Epistemology of Early American Herpetology
No full textThis study examines the hybrid epistemologies developed by early American naturalists, such as Hans Sloane, Pehr Kalm, John and William Bartram, and Benjamin Smith Barton that blended empirical observation, spiritual frameworks, and Indigenous ecological knowledge. These figures, implicitly or explicitly challenging the dominant mechanistic and reductionist models of Enlightenment science, pioneered a more holistic ecological thinking, even as they operated within colonial power structures.
Through historical and textual analysis based on letters, natural histories, and other written sources, the study reveals how these naturalists synthesized multiple ways of knowing, particularly in their encounters with New World peoples and environments. Within this framework, it examines alternative regimes of knowledge that not only objectify nature but also approach it with respect and engagement.
Ultimately, the dissertation reassesses the legacy of colonial science, positioning it not merely as a tool of domination or Enlightenment rationalism, but also as a field of ecological consciousness shaped by intercultural interaction, resistance, and pluralism. This approach demonstrates the possibility of a more nuanced and multilayered intellectual landscape for both environmental history and environmental ethics
Promoting Sophomore Progression: Academic Advocates’ Perceptions of Holistic Interventions and Data Analytics
No full textThis qualitative study explored academic advocates’ perceptions regarding holistic student interventions and data analytics utilization to enhance sophomore success at their institution. This study contributes to the literature on sophomore success by providing an academic advocacy perspective and to the emerging literature using data analytics to enhance retention, persistence, and graduation rates in higher education. Multiple methods of data collection were employed, including four academic advocate interviews, document analysis, and reflexive journaling. A hybrid thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data. By exploring practitioners’ narratives, the research addressed a gap in scholarship on how academic advocates enact their work. Three themes emerged. First, participants viewed advocacy as requiring a balance between student-centered and data-informed approaches. Second, the participants perceived holistic support as central to helping students thrive. Lastly, participants viewed practitioner engagement and awareness as necessary for using data analytic interventions effectively. This study contributes to higher education literature by demonstrating that data-informed analytics and student-centered praxis are mutually reinforcing components of effective academic advocacy. By operationalizing an academic advocacy model, institutions can improve both the scalability and personalization of support interventions to enhance student thriving in the sophomore year
Design and Implementation of a Cross-Platform, Modular Electronic-Nose System
No full textElectronic noses (e-noses) are a subject of great research. They are useful in multiple platforms and serve a great purpose in both studies and safety. This thesis presents a portable, modular e-nose platform that spans the full pipeline from sensing to visualization, with emphasis on scalability, repeatability, and straightforward integration. The hardware is organized as swappable sensor modules each hosting multiple commercial sensors and local signal-conditioning networked to a master microcontroller via structured communication protocols. High-resolution acquisition, time alignment, and efficient streaming to a host enable reliable logging and analysis. A controlled exposure chamber and a repeatable sampling protocol (baseline-exposure-purge cycles) provide consistent operating conditions for comparative evaluation across gases and concentrations.
The platform’s modularity is mirrored in software: the data path, synchronization, and feature-extraction routines are designed to adapt cleanly as sensor configurations change. Real time data logging and plotting reveal distinct response patterns and trends that support classification and decision-making
“For Haitian culture, being older [is] a blessing”: Perceptions of Aging, Elderhood, and Dementia in a Haitian Born Sample
No full textThis thesis investigates how first-generation Haitian immigrants in the United States understand and interpret dementia within the intersecting contexts of culture, migration, and biomedicine. While dementia is constructed as a pathological “loss of self” and a public health epidemic, in American biomedical and popular discourse, this study examines how Haitian-born individuals—socialized within a non-Western cultural and spiritual framework—make sense of cognitive decline and impairment in ways that diverge from Western biomedical narratives. Guided by theoretical orientations from medical anthropology, including Mark Nichter’s idioms of distress, Margaret Lock’s local biologies, and neuroanthropology, this research explores how cultural models of illness, aging, and the body shape Haitian immigrants’ perceptions of dementia. Using qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, and engagement with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the study centers the experiences of late-aged Haitian immigrants residing in the United States. Findings reveal that participants often describe memory loss and cognitive changes through idioms emphasizing imbalance, disconnection, or interpersonal disturbance rather than neurodegeneration. Health and illness were understood as reflections of harmony or disharmony between the physical, social, and spiritual realms by Haitian people. In regard to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), participants expressed unfamiliarity with the MoCA, revealing that the assessment may be culturally incongruent and limited in capturing the full range of cognitive and social competence valued in Haitian contexts. This study highlights the incongruence between biomedical and Haitian cultural constructions of dementia, and between Western and Haitian perceptions of aging. Findings from the study also underscore the need for more culturally responsive approaches to cognitive assessment and elder care. By situating Haitian immigrants’ interpretations of dementia as acts of cultural continuity and adaptation, this research contributes to broader anthropological and gerontological scholarship on how migration, culture, and medicine shape experiences of aging and illness across transnational settings
Communicating the Truth-Telling and Space-Making of Black Women in Higher Education: A Trap Feminist Study
No full textThis dissertation adopts a “for Black women, by Black women” approach to examine how Black women’s lived experiences and performances of racialized gender become communicative acts of agency as they navigate the intersecting challenges of race and gender within pedagogical contexts.
Grounded in Black Feminist Pedagogy and expanded through Trap Feminism, this study celebrates the complexity of racialized gender performances and theorizes them as intentional communicative acts of resistance. These acts not only confront dominant ideologies but also create ongoing spaces for truth-telling, spaces where Black women can reframe how their stories, labor, and brilliance are recognized in academic contexts and imagine what is still possible.
This dissertation employs Black Feminist Autoethnography and Sista Circle Methodology to center narrative as both a site of knowledge production and a form of collective resistance. Through autoethnographic vignettes that reflect on my twelve-year journey as a Black woman in academia, I connect personal experience with broader structural critique. Sista Circles, function as a socially and culturally situated, Black woman centered ethnographic focus group that provides communal spaces where Black women affirm their identities, speak back to systemic erasure, and collaboratively envision pedagogical practices that honor our full humanity.
Together, these narratives highlight the transformative potential of communication to create pedagogical possibilities. In doing so, this work positions Trap Feminist Pedagogy as a framework that insists on ever-evolving ways of teaching, learning, and resisting in the academy, ways that center Black women’s ways of knowing and being as essential to reimagining what education can and must become
