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Essays on the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Philip E. StrahanThe essays on the gender gap in entrepreneurship examine the trade-offs between women's family formation choices and career aspirations in the setting of small businesses and entrepreneurship. The first essay titled ``Family Comes First: Reproductive Health and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship,'' uses Census data to show how better access to reproductive care increases women's propensity to become entrepreneurs, correlates positively with female entrepreneurial activity, and negatively with female entrepreneurial age. Examining firm size and personal income suggests it also improves the success of female-led businesses. Finally, it shows how policies securing better reproductive care enable more women to become entrepreneurs and, potentially, drive economic growth. The second essay titled ``Reproductive Rights and Women's Access to Capital,'' explores the impact of reproductive care restrictions on female entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital. It tests the hypothesis that better access to reproductive care enables women to plan their family formation better, avoid unexpected pregnancies, and gain access to cheaper capital as a result of this reduced risk. This hypothesis is analyzed using restricted data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) in a difference-in-differences setting around the enactment of state-level legislation limiting access to reproductive care. It finds restrictions on reproductive care to be detrimental to women seeking to raise capital and open their own firms. Women who have limited reproductive care access are less likely to borrow, end up taking smaller loan amounts, and have lower leverage ratios. The main contribution of the first essay is that it establishes a direction and causal relationship between reproductive care and entrepreneurship, and of the second essay is that it shows how the increased risk of unplanned pregnancy translates into reduced credit availability for female entrepreneurs at childbearing age.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management.Discipline: Finance
Reapproaching the Crossroads: A New Pedagogical Theory for Catholic Education
Get PDFThesis advisor: Dennis ShirleyThis dissertation is a conceptual study of Catholic education as a distinctive approach for learning in elementary and secondary Catholic schools. It draws upon the academic disciplines of philosophy, theology, and education to construct a theory of pedagogy that attends to and faithfully reflects the particular beliefs and aspirations of Catholic education. The opening historical analysis describes significant changes to the US Catholic school landscape, including the ways in which Catholic education is defined and accounted for in the life of the school. This analysis is widened to explore the claim that there is no adequate definition of Catholic education today. Together, these observations reveal an urgent need for new theories to realize the core mission of Catholic education.
Toward this end, I develop a conceptual framework for Catholic education interbraiding Christian anthropology—emphasizing the themes of imago Dei, relationship, and grace—relevant Church documents authored by the Congregation of Catholic Education, and the pedagogical theory of Bernstein (1990, 2000). I employ this framework to construct a new pedagogical theory for Catholic education.
The theory explores the identity of the person as both a knower and a learner. Bernstein’s (2000) concepts of classification and framing are used to articulate the distinctively Catholic qualities of the pedagogy. The pedagogical discourse features three dynamic movements: composition, juxtaposition, and transposition. Each movement consists of practical and spiritual considerations that, over time, foster learning and strengthen relationships. These outcomes, or text (Bernstein, 2000), create the conditions for deepening the dispositions of discipleship while allowing persons an essential way to participate in the flourishing and fullness of each other’s lives in the realm of God’s grace.
The final segment of the dissertation explores the ways in which the instructional model, tutoría, appropriates the new pedagogical theory for Catholic education. I trace the evolution of tutoría and highlight the experiences of students and educators who are implementing the model in four schools in Chile. The dissertation concludes with a discussion on the value of the new pedagogical theory for Catholic schools globally.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction
The Effects of School Mathematics Resources on Students' Intention to Study Mathematics Over Other Subjects: Multilevel Mediation Structural Equation Modeling
Get PDFThesis advisor: Lillie L. AlbertIncreasing students' intentions to pursue mathematics-intensive careers is an urgent priority in the United States. To foster these intentions among marginalized student groups, such as immigrant students, and achieve equity in their career options, a critical question is whether we should allocate a greater proportion of school resources to mathematics over other subjects. The aims of this dissertation study were, first, to conceptually model and statistically evaluate how a school environment that prioritizes mathematics over other subjects might influence students' intentions to pursue mathematics over other academic subjects in the long term, and second, how this relationship is mediated by students’ mathematics pursuit attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior (Ajzen, 1991), and moderated by their immigrant standing. The data for this study stemmed from the U.S. 2012 Programme For International Student Assessment Academic & Science (PISA) Student Questionnaire and School Questionnaire. A predictive mean matching technique was used to impute missing data that would resemble observed data. A 2-1-1 multilevel mediation Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was implemented to accurately measure a school-level effect and student-level effect of the relationship of the examined constructs and to test the hypothesized model for the total sample. In order to compare immigrant student group and non-immigrant student group in the path model, multiple group path analysis was conducted. The results of the multilevel SEM model for the total sample presented that, at the school level (level 2), the school’s mathematics resources had no statistically significant direct and indirect effects on aggregated students’ intentions to pursue mathematics over other subjects. However, at the student level (level 1), students’ experiential and instrumental attitudes toward the pursuit of mathematics were positively related to students’ intentions to pursue mathematics over other subjects. The results of the multiple group path analysis comparing immigrant and non-immigrant student groups also found that the school’s mathematics resources had no statistically significant direct and indirect effects on students’ intentions to pursue mathematics over other subjects. However, a statistical difference in the overall path model of these two groups was found. The implications of this study for researchers, educators, and policymakers were discussed.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction
From OLS to Multilevel Multidimensional Mixture IRT: A Model Refinement Approach to Investigating Patterns of Relationships in PISA 2012 Data
Get PDFThesis advisor: Henry I. BraunSecondary analyses of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) commonly characterize relationships between variables of interest using correlations. However, the accuracy of correlation estimates is impaired by artefacts such as measurement error and clustering. Despite advancements in methodology, conventional correlation estimates or statistical models not addressing this problem are still commonly used when analyzing ILSA data. This dissertation examines the impact of both the clustered nature of the data and heterogeneous measurement error on the correlations reported between background data and proficiency scales across countries participating in ILSA. In this regard, the operating characteristics of competing modeling techniques are explored by means of applications to data from PISA 2012. Specifically, the estimates of correlations between math self-efficacy and math achievement across countries are the principal focus of this study. Sequentially employing four different statistical techniques, a step-wise model refinement approach is used. After each step, the changes in the within-country correlation estimates are examined in relation to (i) the heterogeneity of distributions, (ii) the amount of measurement error, (iii) the degree of clustering, and (iv) country-level math performance. The results show that correlation estimates gathered from two-dimensional IRT models are more similar across countries in comparison to conventional and multilevel linear modeling estimates. The strength of the relationship between math proficiency and math self-efficacy is moderated by country mean math proficiency and this was found to be consistent across all four models even when measurement error and clustering were taken into account. Multilevel multidimensional mixture IRT modeling results support the hypothesis that low-performing groups within countries have a lower correlation between math self-efficacy and math proficiency. A weaker association between math self-efficacy and math proficiency in lower achieving groups is consistently seen across countries. A multilevel mixture IRT modeling approach sheds light on how this pattern emerges from greater randomness in the responses of lower performing groups. The findings from this study demonstrate that advanced modeling techniques not only are more appropriate given the characteristics of the data, but also provide greater insight about the patterns of relationships across countries.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation
Synthesis of Trisubstituted α,β-Unsaturated Esters through Catalytic Stereoretentive Cross-Metathesis:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Amir H. HoveydaWe have devised a broadly applicable catalytic cross-metathesis method for stereoretentive synthesis of Z- and E-trisubstituted α,β-unsaturated esters. Several new Mo-bisaryloxide complexes were prepared, and they showed superior efficiency in synthesizing the Z-trisubstituted enoates (vs. corresponding mono-aryloxide pyrrolide complexes). Synthetic utility of the method was demonstrated through several concise syntheses of bioactive triterpenoids and value-added derivatives of prenyl-containing compounds such as citronellal, citronellol, and geraniol, all of which are isolated from essential oils. This transformation offers a valuable alternative to carbonyl olefination approaches such as Wittig and Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reactions.Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Playing in Ten Thousand Places: Sacramental Imagination and Mystagogical Praxis for Education in Faith
Get PDFThesis advisor: Thomas H. GroomeThe central proposal of this dissertation is that recovering the sacramentalprinciple and sacramentality—as a deep structure to all of life—is essential to Christian life, and thus to Catholic education for faith. The sacramental worldview takes seriously the material and historical reality of finite creaturely existence as the place of encounter with Holy Mystery. The seeds of an approach to cultivating this worldview lie in the ancient church practice of mystagogy.
Chapter One surveys the epistemological and anthropological facets of the modern and postmodern contexts which posit a desacramentalized cosmos. Many find themselves confined to the limit and flatness of an instrumental, rationalistic, and data driven day to day existence within a commodity culture. This engenders a resistance to the depth of a sacramental cosmos undergirded by the love of the Creator. Furthermore, sacramental ritual and communal worship are no longer a primary place of formation or celebration for fewer and fewer people.
Chapter Two traces the historical contours of the sacramental principle as a deep structure to Catholic Christian faith in particular, and indeed, to all of reality. This is placed in conversation with Charles Taylor’s philosophical diagnosis of the secular age and the sacramental theology of Louis-Marie Chauvet. It is into a “world already spoken”
by the Logos that the symbolic order acts as a set of building blocks to construct our reality and is therefore the way in which we experience God’s self-communication in God’s transcendence.
Chapter Three explores the anthropology and epistemological category of experience in the work of Karl Rahner. Rahner helps us to understand that experience is a necessary epistemological category—constitutive of human knowing. Second, experience is existentiell, meaning that all experience is active and lived, grounded in freedom. Chapter Four maintains that mystagogy was an essential interpretive frame of reference for discerning Christian mystery in the ancient church. The exploration of origins leads to a four-movement model—recollection, recognition, reorientation, and relation—that emerges as a constitutive pattern in early mystagogy.
Chapter Five is constructive employing the work of John Dewey, Maxine Greene, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Thomas Groome who emphasize the importance the epistemological category of experience in education. Moreover, the four-movement pattern mentioned above is discernible in the spectacular resurrection narrative of the Road to Emmaus and a model for education in faith, prefigured by Jesus’ earthly pedagogy. Consequently, I propose a more extended, broader sense of a mystagogical approach for contemporary praxis to enable the reclamation of an essential sacramental imagination for our time. The telos of these four movements of mystagogy is to enable an anagnorisis—a re-cognition and response to the presence of Holy Mystery within everyday experience.
Finally, Chapter Six engages the implications of the foregoing. Mystagogy is an indexical praxis which invites us to be life-long apprentices to becoming alert to God’s hidden presence in our lived experience. It is the rehearsal of a disposition that understands reality as saturated by grace, and learning to accept it as both gift and obligation.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Ensemble Habits of Mind: Which are Taught (and Not Taught) in High School Music
Get PDFThesis advisor: Ellen WinnerPublic polling and anecdotal evidence suggests that the general public greatly values music education. I argue that this is not because of content, discipline-specific skills like reading music notation or playing the trumpet, but because of the generalizable habits of mind, or broad thinking dispositions, that teachers teach in ensembles. Through analysis of systematic observation and interview data from multiple rehearsals of six band, choir and orchestra ensembles, eight Ensemble Habits of Mind emerged: Evaluate, Express, Imagine, Listen, Notice, Participate in Community, Persist, and Set Goals & Be Prepared. Using methodology similar to that of parallel work identifying Studio Habits of Mind in visual arts education (Hetland et al., 2013), this study shows many similarities between habits of mind in the two disciplines. However, two habits of mind that were specifically sought out in observations because they are frequently reported in advocacy arguments, Use Creativity and Recognize More than One Correct Answer, were not observed even under broad inclusion criteria. Suggestions are given for the practical application of these findings and discussion of how this framework can simultaneously support the good thinking happening in traditional large ensembles while bolstering rationale that informal music learning and other means of student-centered music making should be included in music programs in order to advance students’ creative thinking and tolerance for ambiguity.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Psychology
Investigation of multicolored and white light emission from IR-excited nano-particles:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Baldassare Di BartoloThesis advisor: Pradip BakshiThe search for multicolored light produced by some IR laser-excited luminescent nano-powders has revealed, for laser power exceeding a threshold value, the emission of white light (WL) with black-body characteristics. I am directing my research to the study of the physical parameters that may influence the threshold power of the laser and the efficiency of the WL emission. A typical compound that I will investigate will consist of nano-powders of SrZrO3 doped with Yb. The parameters of relevance may include Yb concentration, pressure, temperature, size of nano-crystals, exciting power and wavelength of the laser, dynamical parameters such as decay and build-up patterns. The aim of my research will be both theoretical and experimental: theoretical for I will try to uncover the mechanism of the WL production and experimental for the possible application as efficient light sources of systems similar to the ones that I will investigate (oxide nano-powders doped with lanthanide or transition metal ions). The “new” light sources in the market (fluorescence lights sources, and LED lamps) beat the Edison bulbs in efficiency, but they do not produce the black-body emission of the Edison bulbs that is most pleasing to the eye. The search for efficient black-body type of sources is still on and we want to be a part of it.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Physics
Living and Learning Community and Sense of Belonging of First-Year Women of Color in a Predominantly White Institution Baccalaureate Nursing Program:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Ana M. Martínez-AlemánBachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN) programs need to increase the retention and graduation rates of students of color to create a diverse nursing workforce that meets the needs of the United States. Living and learning communities (LLCs) are an emerging method for residential colleges to improve the experiences and retention of undergraduate students. This dissertation used a critical race theory lens to investigate the impact of a nursing-focused living and learning community on the first-year experiences of women of color. A qualitative comparative case study methodology was appropriate to explore the differences of sense of belonging of women of color in the LLC compared to women of color not enrolled in the LLC. The research questions that guided this study were, How does a nursing living and learning community impact the sense of belonging for first-year women of color who attend a BSN program within a predominantly White institution? and How different is the sense of belonging of the women of color who participated in the nursing-focused LLC compared to the first-year BSN women of color who did not participate in the nursing-focused LLC? Thirteen women of color from a predominantly White BSN program, River Stone University, participated in a survey, journal entries, individual interviews, and focus groups. The findings suggest that the nursing-focused LLC positively impacted the sense of belonging of women of color in the BSN program. The nursing-focused LLC was an institutional counterspace for women of color, which mitigated the adverse effects of the BSN program’s hostile racial climate and competitive culture. The women of color who did not participate in the nursing-focused LLC had a lower sense of belonging and perceived the BSN program to be more racially hostile and unwelcoming.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
" It was something about me": Internalized oppression, conscientization, and post-assault processes among sexual assault survivors
No full textThesis advisor: Shanta PandeyThesis advisor: Jessica ShawSexual violence remains one of the most pervasive and underreported crimes in modern society. Sexual violence largely impacts women and people with other marginalized identities and has historical origins as a tool for domination and control. Although, sexual assault and rape are common occurrences, survivors of sexual assault and rape do not report their crime, and many choose not to seek help. One reason offered in sexual violence literature as an explanation for low rates of reporting and resource-seeking is attributed to the “hidden rape” victim phenomenon. More than half of survivors do not acknowledge or label their experience as a sexual assault or rape, even though their experience meets the legal definition of rape. While many reasons may influence survivors to call their experience a rape or sexual assault, such as their relationship to the person who sexually assaulted them, substance use, or prior sexual encounters with the person who sexually assaulted them, there remains much to be explored about how survivors come to understand and label their assault. Especially, as research demonstrates that unacknowledged rape is directly correlated with non-reporting and resource-seeking decisions. This study examined the influences of internalized oppression and conscientization on how survivors label and understand their experience with sexual violence, and how those influences may affect post-assault resource-seeking decisions. This study is a secondary qualitative analysis of 22 semi-structured interviews collected between the years of 2018-2019 in a Northeast region of the U.S that focused on the experience of adolescent sexual assault. I examined the process of labeling a sexual assault among survivors and how their interactions with others in the social world informs that labeling process. Boejie’s constant comparative analytical method (CCM) for analyzing qualitative interviews, was used for code and category generation with the intent of theme identification. Findings from this study outlined types of oppressive and anti-oppressive messages that informs manifestations of internalized oppression and the conscientization process that attenuates it among sexual assault survivors. Additionally, as internalized oppression and conscientization are psychological states that necessitate cultivation this study highlights the reinforcing and disruptive experiences that allowed for its continued indoctrination. Finally, this study uplifts the multiplicative experiences among sexual assault survivors with marginalized identities. Insights from this study provide new understandings of how internalized oppression and conscientization manifest among sexual assault survivors. Furthermore, the study highlights the impact these intrapsychic phenomena have on post-assault processing and decision-making.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work.Discipline: Social Work