Middle Tennessee State University
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Pre-Service Teachers Self-Efficacy for Inclusive Practices
No full textThis study examines the perceived self-efficacy for inclusive practices in the classroom among pre-service teachers (N= 97) attending Middle Tennessee State University in the spring of 2018. All participants completed a standardized measure of teacher efficacy for inclusive practices, including subscales of efficacy to use inclusive instruction, efficacy in collaboration, and efficacy in managing behavior. The purpose of this study was to understand how formal training and personal experiences of preservice teachers relate to perceived self-efficacy of teaching inclusive classrooms. I also hoped to gain insight from the students enrolled in the teacher education program offered at Middle Tennessee State University and determine implications for inclusive teaching. Results indicate that there is no evidence to support that level education can predict levels of the measure of self-efficacy used here, but there is evidence to partially support that previous experience with inclusive classrooms can predict levels of self-efficacy to use inclusive instruction.M.A
“Supportive Or Corrosive:” Can a University’s Title IX Website Design Impact Reporting of Sexual Violence? A Mixed Methods Design
No full textTitle IX, a federal civil rights law outlawing gender-based discrimination in education, has become a turbulent political subject matter. During each of the past three presidential cabinets, policy surrounding Title IX has been rescinded and amended and amended again (Ali, 2011; Anderson, 2021; Lhamon, 2015; OCR, 2001). Multiple changes to policy, practice, and staffing jeopardize student trust in their institutions’ ability to safeguard them during times of trauma (Anderson, 2021). When a student is sexually victimized, a first anticipated stop is their institution’s Title IX website, where the student can safely explore supportive resources and next-step options, including ways to report the crime. Although studies have found that website innovation contributes significantly to students’ sense of trust in their universities, little research exists on the impact university Title IX websites can make on student victims’ sense of trust in the reporting process (Rezaeean et al., 2012). A mixed methods study was utilized to develop a novel instrument that measures a university’s Title IX website design based on student-centric elements derived from Title IX expert interviews and intersectional literature on trauma-informed, student-centered success, and technological accessibility approaches. After having established the instrument’s face and content validity, as well as interrater reliability, it was applied to a sample of university Title IX websites to compare scores to sex-related crime reports. Statistically significant positive and negative associations were found, suggesting that the student-centricity of a Title IX website has bearing on user responses. Implications of this study for institutions and future research are discussed.Ed.D
Improving Parent-Child Communication To Prevent Child Sexual Abuse/Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Through Using Correct Terms
No full textChild sexual abuse (CSA) is a serious public health problem. In the United States, CSA affects approximately 10-17% of girls and 4-5% of boys (Finkelhor et al., 2014; Stoltenborgh et al., 2011). Prevention of CSA before it occurs is important, but relatively little effort has been made in this area (Letourneau et al., 2014). Children need to receive CSA prevention education as early as possible (Ashcraft & Murray, 2017; Elrod & Rubin, 1993; Kopp & Miltenberger, 2009). Knowing the correct terminology for genitals is the cornerstone of successful CSA prevention and provides the foundation for subsequent sex education, as well as facilitating disclosure, investigation, and prosecution after CSA occurs (Eisen et al., 2001; Kenny, 2008)
Building Citadels to Preserve Cultural Identity: Fisk University’s Archive and Nigeria’s Citadel Press
No full textThe transatlantic cultural interaction between African Americans and continental Africans during the 1950s and 60s has been occluded in the popular teaching of American literature and history. My thesis restores international perspective to explore shared aspects of the cultural legacies of both groups in this era. Taking a cultural studies approach, my thesis investigates in historical context the structural parallels between Arna Bontemps' contributions to building an archive of African and African American literature housed at the Fisk University library, where he was head librarian (1943-1964), and the mission of Chinua Achebe and Christopher Okigbo in founding a fledgling Nigeria’s Citadel Press as a literary voice for the new nation (1967-1969). My thesis investigates cultural connections, or more precisely the dialectic, between the literary aspirations of the American Civil rights movement and those of Nigerian nationalism. The cultural dialectic is evident in the efforts of Bontemps and Achebe to exchange, preserve, transmit, and steward their people’s literature by founding institutions to secure ethnic identities and establish repositories of cultural memory, efforts they understood as a necessary part of a larger process of state-building.M.L.A
Using Evolutionary Relationships of the Poly-ADP-ribose Polymerase (PARP) Gene Family to Identify Nearest Relative to the Undefined PARPs
No full textPoly-ADP-ribose polymerases (PARPs) are proteins of a gene family that catalyze the post-translational modification (PTM) ADP-ribosylation. There are five human groups within the family that are defined according to known or unknown functions: DNA-PARPs, Tankyrase-PARPs, CCCH-PARPs, Macro-PARPs, and unknown-PARPs. Each of these members and their respective ortholog genes in four additional species (mouse, rat, zebrafish, and fruit fly) were studied to reveal evolutionary relationships and identify the nearest relative to each undefined member. This study showed PARP members group by function, that undefined-PARPs, 4, 6, 8, and 16 nearest relatives are DNA-PARPs, undefined-PARP10’s nearest relative is CCCH or Macro-PARPs, and undefined-PARP11’s nearest relative is CCCH-PARPs, and also provided evidence that another gene belongs in the PARP gene family, ZC3HAV1L. The evolution of Macro-PARP members 9, 14, and 15 revealed that gene duplication likely occurred.M.S
A Dynamics-enabled Structural Characterization of a Set of Poly(aspartic acid) Hydrolases from Sphingomonas sp. KT-1
No full textPolymers of aspartic acid (PAA) belong to a class of water-soluble polycarboxylates (WSP) with widespread usage in a variety of commercial applications. Given increasing evidence that such WSPs may pose environmental risks via leeching and accumulation into ground and surface water, the need to develop an effective means of degradation and bioremediation is clear. Biodegradation of PAA has most recently been made possible by the discovery of a collection of PAA hydrolases isolated from river water bacteria, Sphingomonas sp. KT-1 and Pedobacter sp. KP-2. PAA-hydrolase-1 (PahZ1) was identified in both species, while a subsequent PAA-hydrolase-2 (PahZ2) was found only in Sphingomonas sp. KT-1. The two enzymes have previously been shown to cooperatively carry out the hydrolysis of PAA as part of a multi-step catalytic mechanism. PahZ1KT-1 targets β-amide linkages to yield oligo(aspartic acid)(OAA), which is in turn further degraded by PahZ2KT-1. Here, we present a collection of dynamics focused structural characterizations of both enzymes. We additionally report a machine-learning strategy to model the structure and motions of a putative chimeric enzyme engineered to include both PahZ1KT-1 and PahZ2KT-1 functional domains.Ph.D
The Preservation of a Historic Black Farm: Matt Gardner Homestead in Giles County, Tennessee.
No full textThe history of the rural South has been slow to change over the years. The narrative is dominated by White plantation owners and farmers. African Americans are featured in the narrative as either enslaved or sharecroppers. Rarely will the story of a Black landowning family be featured in the history of Southern farms. The goal of this thesis is to highlight the need for Black farm studies and why Black rural landscapes matter in the history of the South.
The project focuses on The Matt Gardner Homestead in Giles County, Tennessee. It is a prime example of a Black landowning farming family that supported an entire community. Studying the Gardner farm shows the relationship between landowning African Americans and those who rented their land. Each member of the Gardner family helps tell what life was like for a Black landowning farming family. This case study on the Gardner family will add to the history of Black landowners and farmers in the South, and hopefully provide a templet for other case studies on Black rural landscapes.M.A
Higher Education Marketing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Facebook Content Analysis of Middle Tennessee State University and Peer Institutions
No full textPostsecondary institutions are faced with countless challenges amidst the COVID Pandemic, causing most institutions to go online in Spring 2020. A year later, with the creation of the vaccine and increasing knowledge of the virus, many colleges looked to a positive future by offering courses and events in-person in Fall 2021. This study examined how universities across the U.S. utilized social media marketing over Summer 2021 to communicate this information to prospective students.
Using a content analysis methodology, the study analyzed Middle Tennessee State University and peer institutions' main institution Facebook posts. Primarily, the author looked at the types of content strategies and message appeals used to communicate the "return to normal" message
Pellagrous Repercussions: The Mighty Goliath of Tennessee’s Past 1900-1930s
No full textABSTRACT
In the early twentieth century, Pellagra was a disease that could be found primarily in the Southern region of the United States, a disease that was strongly associated with poverty and poor diet. Eventually it would be erased from the Southern memory through the production of fortified foods and public health initiatives. The nutrient deficiency of Pellagra encouraged a well-balanced diet and the failures of national and local officials to address regional poverty. Several Southern states that had high rates of the disease Tennessee has received comparatively little attention in the medical history of Pellagra. This thesis uses Rutherford County, a rural county, as a case study on Pellagra in Tennessee. The county has a unique medical history due to the involvement of Northern philanthropic organizations that makes it an excellent place to understand progressive reformers and their impact on Pellagra in Tennessee.M.A
Organizational Climate Variables and Performance as Predictors of Voluntary and Involuntary Turnover Among Nurses
No full textPrevious research has examined antecedents of turnover, including performance, engagement, leader effectiveness, and other variables. The purpose of this study is to research the relationships between organizational climate variables, performance, and voluntary and involuntary turnover. Data were collected from surveys and performance appraisals conducted in 2019 and turnover records through 2021. Participants were nurses in hospitals in a healthcare organization across the United States. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify organizational climate variables measured in the surveys, which included organizational climate, satisfaction with supervision, intention to stay, professional support, peer support, and collaboration. Regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. The combination of the organizational climate variables was indirectly related to voluntary turnover rate through intention to stay. Performance was negatively related to voluntary and involuntary turnover. The findings contribute to the literature on antecedents of turnover.M.A