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Educators' Perspectives on Complex Issues Related to Supporting Immigrant-Origin Students and Multilingual Learners:
No full textThesis advisor: Rebecca LowenhauptDiversity in U.S. schools has increased significantly over the last decades. One in four children under 18 live with at least one immigrant parent, and 22% of U.S. residents aged five or older report speaking a language other than English at home (Esterline & Batalova, 2022). The experiences of immigrant-origin students vary depending on contextual factors such as individual school's policies and practices, the community where the school is located, as well as national and state legislation (Portes & Rumbaut, 2014; Golash-Boza & Valdez, 2018). This three-paper dissertation aims to understand the nuances of educating immigrant-origin students from the perspective of educators in distinct contexts. The first paper is a qualitative interview study in a Texas school district near the US/Mexico border. I investigated the language ideologies that underlie educators' perspectives on language separation in Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) classrooms. Educators in this study held complex ideologies about language separation in DL classrooms, informed by their view on the district’s students and families, the dynamic language practices of their border community, professional development, and testing and district policy requirements.
The second paper presents a case study of a highly diverse school district in Illinois that established a district-wide ESL endorsement requirement. For this study, I interviewed educators and analyzed district documentation to understand the policy goals that guided the district to create this policy and how educators made sense of it. While policy goals were shared by educators in all roles, there was not enough space for collective sensemaking for teachers, who were critical of how policy implementation affected them.
The third paper offers a comparative interview study of two school districts in Texas and Illinois with very different geographical locations, student demographics, and racial/ethnic makeup of their teacher force. This study examines how context shaped educators' attitudes and beliefs toward immigrant-origin students and families. Despite differences, educators from both districts who had experience working with immigrant populations shared similar and positive attitudes regarding immigrant-origin students and families’ assets, needs, and dispositions toward school.
These results may help inform district language policy, policy implementation, and hiring decisions.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teaching, Curriculum, and Society
Understanding and Advancing the Home Math Environment: Socioeconomic Disparities and Intervention Opportunities
No full textThesis advisor: Marina VasilyevaChildren's early math development is essential for their later academic achievement (Duncan et al., 2007). Yet, research shows that children from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds encounter disadvantages even before starting school. This dissertation includes three empirical studies conducted in China, aiming to enhance our understanding of SES-related disparities in the home math environment and to develop cost-effective interventions for families in need. Study One suggests that parents of preschool children from high SES background demonstrate higher math efficacy, lower math anxiety, and higher math skills than those with higher levels of education. Moreover, high-SES parents engage more often in informal math activities with their preschool children and provide more enriched math talk. Path analysis further reveals an indirect path from SES to children’s math skills via parents’ characteristics and home math environment. Building on Study One, Study Two demonstrates that higher-educated parents have a greater tendency to spontaneously focus on numerical aspects in their environment, a tendency that significantly correlates with both the quantity and quality of their math talk. Study Three suggests that parental math talk can be implicitly increased by manipulating play contexts and toy features. Math-relevant contexts, like pretend grocery shopping, might elicit more math talk. Furthermore, material features within these contexts may shape the nature and amount of math talk: homogeneity increases discussions about absolute magnitude, while boundedness increases talk about relative magnitude.Theoretically, this dissertation enriches our understanding of the mechanisms underlying SES disparities in early math development. Practically, it identifies potential directions for designing cost-effective interventions to enhance home math environment.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology
Love and Happiness
No full textThesis advisor: Micah LottIt has been commonly agreed by people that happiness is the ultimate end of human life and it is the only thing we pursue for the sake of itself. Yet, the path towards which we could attain real happiness has been under constant dispute. Some philosophers like Aristotle think the answer lies in contemplative activities while others like the stoics believe in the activities in accordance with virtue. This thesis aims to demonstrate that love is the path that could lead us to attain real happiness. By first exploring what love, specifically interpersonal love, is, the thesis will examine a loving stoic and how the stoic ideals of love are incompatible with real love, which involves taking on a shared identity with the beloved ones. Lastly, it will show that through loving selflessly and wholeheartedly, one could eventually attain true happiness.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy.Discipline: Departmental Honors
Analysis and Interpretation of Sediment Cores from Lake Seminole, Georgia
No full textThesis advisor: Noah SnyderRivers impounded by dams experience morphological changes that provide an opportunity to calculate reservoir sedimentation rates and relate them to watershed land-use history. In April 2023, 10 sediment cores were collected from 5 locations in Lake Seminole, Georgia. Analysis of loss on ignition (LOI), bulk density, elemental concentrations, and short-lived radionuclide geochronology aided in completing the following research objectives: correlating short and long sediment cores, determining whether the pre-dam sediment surface was reached at each location, measuring the sedimentation rates in the Chattahoochee and Flint arms of the reservoir, and evaluating the characteristics of each core in the context of its location and the history of Lake Seminole. This research explores how differences in river management, land use, and upstream geology in the watersheds have contributed to sedimentation differences in the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers.Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors
The Emerging Smile: Art and Science of Dentistry from the 17th to 19th Century
No full textThesis advisor: Kevin LoteryThesis advisor: Oliver WunschBefore the 18th century, dentistry as a profession and an art was practically non-existent. Oral health was largely disregarded by the general populace, who accepted tooth decay, loss, and pain as ordinary aspects of life. The social conventions of the time, driven by aristocratic norms, were to keep a tight-lipped manner in formal portraits. Consequently, artists used open-mouths as a signifier for their unsavory characters. However, the publication of Pierre Fauchard's groundbreaking book, Le Chirurgien-dentiste, marked the beginning of modern dentistry. The emergence of dentistry influenced a shift in societal attitudes towards oral health. This thesis explores how this shift transformed the open smile from a symbol of the unsavory to an emblems of respectability, reflecting the broader acceptance and desire for healthy, visible teeth among the enlightened public.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Art, Art History, and Film.Discipline: Departmental Honors
Mapping fear behavior: Neural networks, ventral tegmental area dopamine, and orchestration of conditioned defensive behaviors
No full textThesis advisor: Michael A. McDannaldThe ability to appropriately respond to threats is critical for survival. Disruptions in the neural circuits underlying threat responding are studied in animal models and have clinical implications for anxiety disorders in humans. Pavlovian fear conditioning has been extensively used to study the behavioral and neural basis of defensive systems for threat in animals. In a typical procedure, a cue is paired with foot shock, and subsequent cue presentation elicits freezing, a behavior linked to predator detection. Studies have since shown a fear conditioned cue can elicit locomotion, a behavior that - in addition to jumping, and rearing - is linked to imminent or occurring predation. Yet, the full neural circuit for conditioned, activity-promoting behaviors (e.g. locomotion, jumping, and rearing) remains unclear. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate that a fear conditioned cue elicits a variety of defensive behaviors and to probe the neural circuit responsible for the expression of such activity-promoting defensive behaviors. To address the lack of research on activity-promoting defensive behaviors, I conducted experiments to observe multiple behaviors during fear discrimination over a baseline of reward seeking and constructed temporal ethograms of behavior. To improve efficiency in behavior scoring for future projects, I devised and trained a machine learning pipeline using convolutional neural networks. To aid in the understanding of the full neural circuit for activity-promoting defensive behaviors, I investigated the role of dopaminergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area in the expression of the defensive behaviors we observed during fear discrimination. Ultimately, the findings in this dissertation contribute to our general understanding of fear behavior in animals and may inform therapeutic strategies for anxiety disorders.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Psychology and Neuroscience
Entangled Poetics: Decolonial and Womanist Expansions of the Imago Dei
No full textThesis advisor: Andrew PrevotThis dissertation seeks to contribute to the discipline of theological anthropology by engaging the histories, writings, and aesthetic contributions of women within the African diaspora. In particular, the dissertation crafts an approach to analyzing the concept of the imago dei in relation to the experiences of flesh, bones, land, and sea that have shaped Black women’s poetics, theory, and praxis in the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. Womanist approaches to theology often center Black women’s lived experiences and literature as resources for religious inquiry. Decolonial scholarship tends to critique the remnants of colonialism in the present, imagining futures beyond hegemonic categories. As a methodological contribution, this dissertation combines insights from womanist theology and decolonial thought, identifying M. Shawn Copeland and Sylvia Wynter as major interlocutors with each respective discipline. This dissertation questions what it might mean for humanity to image God, especially after the dual crises of colonialism and slavery.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
Examining Sediment Accumulation Rates and Deltaic Processes in a Large Reservoir:
No full textThesis advisor: Noah P. SnyderReservoir sedimentation is a significant issue not only because it limits a reservoir’s water storage capacity and threatens its ability to meet environmental and societal needs, but also because it reduces the amount of sediment reaching downstream coastal ecosystems where sediment loading sustains critical habitat for wildlife and fisheries. Reservoir deltas in particular can decrease channel capacity and lead to an increased flood risk for populations living in the alluvial plain upstream of dams; however, studies of these landforms are underrepresented in the literature. To address that knowledge gap, this project examines reservoir sedimentation in Lake Seminole, a 123 km² surface-water impoundment created in 1954 and located at the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers in Florida and Georgia. Where it enters Lake Seminole, the Chattahoochee River has a large subaerial delta that is actively prograding. High-resolution topographic and bathymetric datasets and historical cross section data were analyzed to measure the evolution of this delta and characterize subaerial and subaqueous sedimentation in the reservoir more broadly. In addition, a comparative land-cover change analysis was conducted for the three watersheds that drain to Lake Seminole to explore potential links between the suspended sediment generated by these surface disturbances and sedimentation patterns in each arm of the reservoir. Across the entire reservoir body, subaqueous sediment accumulated at a rate of 0.81 cm/yr between 1957–1976 and 0.12 cm/yr between 1976–2009, with the highest sedimentation rates occurring shortly after dam construction. Within the Chattahoochee arm, subaqueous sediment accumulated at a rate of 2.79 cm/yr between 1957–1976 and 0.68 cm/yr between 1976–2009, whereas, in the Flint arm, subaqueous sedimented eroded at a rate of -0.21 cm/yr between 1957–1976 and accumulated at a rate of 0.08 cm/yr between 1976–2009. Qualitative observations indicate that the erosional signal in the Flint is focused in the upstream-most portion of the arm and a depositional signal emerges farther downstream. On the Chattahoochee River delta, subaerial sediment accumulated at a rate of 1.46 ± 0.48 cm/yr between 2007–2018, with the most rapid areas of aggradation (> 4.5 cm/yr) located around the exterior edges of the delta islands. No strong link was found between the percentage of each watershed that underwent land cover change and the sedimentation rates in each reservoir arm. This analysis will provide new insights into the physical processes of reservoir sedimentation that can be used to inform river management practices and decrease the negative impacts of sediment trapping not only within reservoirs, but also upstream and downstream of dams.Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion in Luke-Acts: Analyzing Luke's Hellenistic Jewish Christ-Believing Theology
No full textThesis advisor: Christopher R. MatthewsThesis advisor: Matthew MonnigMuch previous scholarship approaches Luke’s narrative of God’s salvation in Jesus as either salvation history or practical-apologetic history. Some Lukan scholars, like Robert C. Tannehill, Ernst Haenchen, Ben Witherington III, and Jack T. Sanders, argue that Luke offers an anti-Jewish interpretation of the gospel. They say that the inclusive nature of the gospel of Christ narrated in Luke-Acts implies a discontinuity with the Jewish origins of early Christianity. The problem under view in this study is the neglect in Lukan scholarship of the portrayal of diversity, universality, and inclusion among the Christ-believers in Luke-Acts. The literary approach to studies of Luke-Acts has not given enough attention to Luke’s implied audience as an ethnically diverse and inclusive Christ-believing group. This study asks how one navigates the relationship between ethnicity and inclusivity in the Lukan narrative of early Christian groups in Luke-Acts. This work performs a literary analysis of key pericopes—Luke 1:46-56, 67-79; 2:8-14, 29-32; 4:16-30; 7:1-10; and Acts 2:1-13; 10:1–11:18; 15:20, 29; 28:1-31—to discover Luke’s theological views regarding an ethnically diverse and inclusive Christ-believing group. My dissertation argues, from a literary perspective, with attention to ethnic reasoning and the Greco-Roman context of the late first and early second centuries CE, that Luke’s implied audience offers a good fit with an ethnically diverse and inclusive Christ-believing group that nurtures continuity with the God of Israel’s saving plan for all peoples, Jews and non-Jews alike. Luke’s narrative theology of God’s saving plan for the inclusion of Gentiles into the people of God connects with a/the “Jewish” story that is shown in Luke’s continuing interest in things “Jewish.” In this way, Luke shares a “Jewish” faith in that the God of Israel offers salvation to everyone by giving each a place in Christ as they relate together and fellowship in love. It demonstrates that Luke’s Christ-believing theology is a cosmopolitan Jewish “Christian” theology that is inclusive of Jews and Gentiles. It shows that in Luke-Acts, Jesus and the witnesses to his gospel are employed by Luke to build and consolidate a Gentile-inclusive Hellenistic Jewish Christ-believing theology. The rivalries among particular Jews and their fellow Jewish Christ-believers, and between Jewish Christ-believers and people of other ethnicities within the fold of Christ-believers, are expressions of sibling rivalries that reflect different perspectives of the Jewish way of life and other social, cultural, and ethnic differences. This does not create a structural dichotomy between positive early Christ-believers and negative non-Christian ethnic groups. This is important because, through Luke’s narrative, my work demonstrates the interconnection between ethnic diversity and inclusion among Christ-believers in Luke-Acts. In addition, this kind of separation is dubious because this dissertation does not presume a split between Judaism and Christianity at the time of Luke. My contribution shows that Luke’s indicators of a universalistic theology of ethnic inclusion do not deny interest in “Jewish” practices throughout Luke-Acts. My main point is that, for Luke, early Christ-believers were ethnically diverse and inclusive. Although some were Jews in the diaspora, they were also Greeks or Romans; they spoke like devout Gentiles who interacted with them. There were also Gentile Christ-believers who upheld and practiced the Jewish faith in Christ and recognized Jesus as the Spirit-anointed Messiah. It is precisely in this that Luke establishes his universalistic and inclusive theology of Hellenistic Jewish “Christian” faith in Jesus, the Lord and Messiah. This study concludes that Luke’s universalistic theology is grounded in Jewish ethnicity. Luke portrays in literary terms a form of Jewish Christ-believing ethnicity that constructs access for Gentiles to become part of the “Jewish” people of God. Therefore, Luke’s literary portrait of ethnicity can be viewed as broad, constructed, and ever-changing. The issue of Jewish identity in Luke-Acts can be seen from a constructivist perspective that opens up the Jewish ethnicity to include people of other ethnicities. Thus, Luke constructs his Jewish Christ-believing ethnicity universally and inclusively without ascribing negativity to particular ethnic heritages. An attractive hypothesis is that Luke writes in the context of a group that mirrors the mixed believers of the narrative. Contrary to some scholars, this work insists that Luke’s stories do not portray an anti-Jewish interpretation of the gospel and its spread. It affirms that a mere narrative analysis of Luke’s two books is insufficient to understand Luke’s theological narrative and rhetoric in Luke-Acts. Paying attention to the social context and situation portrayed within the narrative, Luke’s work shows that his Christ-believing way is participating in some form of “Jewishness.” When one considers the social framework of ethnic diversity and inclusion, however, one finds that it is precisely in the inclusion of Gentiles that continuing interest in things “Jewish” is upheld and legitimated. In this way, Luke demonstrates through his narrative a relationship between Christian origins and ethnic diversity. Based on my findings, the idea of a Lukan replacement theology is untenable because Luke’s theological narrative and rhetoric of sharing the gospel with Gentiles shows a continuous participation in Jewish life and practice. Furthermore, the scholarly dichotomy between Christian universality and Jewish particularity should be discarded because it is inattentive to the complex process of social belonging and identity construction. Using subtle rhetoric, Luke’s universalistic and inclusive perspective is expressed in literary and rhetorical terms without communicating that non-ethnic “Christian” universality is better than ethnic “Jewish” particularity. This implies that scholarly investigation into Jews and Jewish things, as well as other particular ethnicities in Luke-Acts, requires considering Luke’s theological narrative, literary and rhetorical interests, and social situation. This study proposes a way of reading Luke-Acts that considers the complexities and social circumstances reflected in the narrative of the two books and their intertextual connection.Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
ASystems Approach to Exploring Belonging and Successful College Outcomes of Black Student-Athletes at Predominantly White Division I Institutions: A Three-Paper Dissertation
No full textThesis advisor: Heather Rowan-KenyonThe U.S. college sports system is a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than a century, higher education institutions and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have found ways to financially capitalize on the commercial appeal of college sports while preventing the student-athletes from sharing in the profits. Although the amateurism policies that restricted athletes from earning money have recently changed, the culture that prioritizes their athletic successes over academic goals has not. This pressure to win at all costs leads to exploitation of the Black student-athletes (BSAs) who comprise most of the revenue-producing teams at predominantly White schools (PWIs). Understanding BSAs’ academic and athletic experiences at PWIs requires a systems approach that examines how different systems influence their academic outcomes and sense of belonging.Using Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s (2007) Bioecological Model of Human Development as the overarching framework, this 3-paper qualitative dissertation explores how precollege experiences and intersecting identities shape interactions in BSAs’ microsystems and their sense of belonging at PWIs. The purpose of paper 1 is to understand how agency from precollege experiences influences Black football student-athletes’ (BFSAs) perception of the racial climate and sense of belonging at PWIs. Paper 2 explores how Black female basketball student-athletes’ (BFBSAs) intersectional identities impacts their academic experiences, self-efficacy and belonging. Paper 3 seeks to understand how current Division I (DI) policies influence football and women’s basketball coaches’ ability to provide holistic education to their student-athletes.
Phenomenological interviews with Black former football players in paper 1 revealed that precollege experiences and attitudes influenced their decisions to attend PWIs over historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), shaped their perception of the racial climate at PWIs, and helped them develop agency to succeed, but finding belonging often depended on holistic experiences. In paper 2, phenomenological interviews with Black former women’s basketball players revealed how precollege academic identity, intersectionality, and coaching ethos impacted academic self-efficacy and belonging. In paper 3, in-depth interviews with football and women’s basketball coaches generated a theory of holistic coaching and revealed the challenges coaches face in providing a holistic education, including the changing student-athlete population and the transactional nature of college sports, and how they support the student-athletes of color on their teams.
College athletics is a time-honored tradition that will continue to become more transactional as the financial stakes increase. Head coaches depend on the BSAs they recruit to elevate their athletic programs by delivering national championships to their institutions. The college sports system’s expectations that coaches prioritize athletic achievement over academic success are detrimental to BSAs’ academic experiences and belonging at PWIs. It is time for institutions to appreciate BSAs’ contributions beyond their athletic talents and provide the necessary resources to ensure their holistic development and successful outcomes. This 3-paper dissertation fills an essential gap in the literature on BSAs and makes recommendations to PWIs looking to improve their experiences.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education