UMD Theses and Dissertations
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Item A SEQUENTIAL MIXED METHODS APPROACH TO IDENTIFYING AND UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATIONS FOR LEISURE TIME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION AMONG AMPUTEES(2022) Olsen, Sara H; Howard, Donna E; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Physical inactivity contributes to increased risk for hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, various cancers, and depression. Research shows small increases in leisure time physical activity (LTPA) level among the least active populations result in larger improvements in overall health than any increase in LTPA among more active populations. People with disabilities (PwD) are less likely to meet physical activity (PA) guideline recommendations than their counterparts in the general population (39.2% vs 53.8%). People with mobility disabilities, such as those with amputations, are less active than those with other disabilities. Amputees, however, are largely absent from physical activity-related and disability-related research. One step toward improving LTPA participation among amputees is understanding motivations to be active and the experiences influencing those motivations. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, this dissertation employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to integrate fitness app intervention data with interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) findings. The quantitative component evaluated an app-based intervention with a waitlist control experimental design. Outcomes of motivations and PA level (Aim 1) were evaluated using linear mixed effect models. Amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation were evaluated as separate outcomes. Changes in amotivation and total activity level were significant during the intervention; there were no significant changes in extrinsic or intrinsic motivation. Amotivation (complete disinterest in LTPA) increased in both groups, but the increase was greater in the waitlist control group, suggesting use of the app staved off amotivation even though it did not contribute to increases in intrinsic motivation. Total activity increased in the waitlist control group only. Moderation was tested using SDT constructs of general causality orientation, a personality trait that represents a person’s belief about behavioral change and reasons to change (Aim 2). Amotivation is moderated by general causality orientation. Results from intervention analyses, including attrition analysis, were used to develop interview guides and participant inclusion criteria for the qualitative phase. In-depth interviews with amputees (Aim 3) explored motivations to be active and embodied PA experiences. IPA resulted in the development of six superordinate themes. Data from both the intervention and interviews were integrated to develop a deeper understanding of amputees’ experiences with motivations to be active (Aim 4). Participants identified barriers and facilitators to PA engagement that were unrelated to and unaffected by motivation to be active. These experiences disrupted the association between motivation and participation which added context to the intervention findings in which changes in intrinsic motivation over time did not parallel changes in PA over the same intervention period. Public health implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.Item THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF OPENLY GAY UNDERGRADUATE MEN INVOLVED IN ELECTED STUDENT GOVERNMENT: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL QUEERING(2020) Goodman, Michael Anthony; Hultgren, Francine; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This is a study at the intersection of sexuality and student involvement in higher education. Exploring the lived experiences of openly gay undergraduate men involved in elected student government, this study enlists a phenomenological queering that unconceals and reveals that which is otherwise hidden in elected student leadership. Eight men were selected for participation in this study, and all identified as openly gay before and after their election to undergraduate student government. These men come from varying U.S. geographies and positions, and conversations and themes were rendered through the methodological approach of hermeneutic phenomenology. Four major themes came from multiple participant conversations and journals. First, these men understood coming out and being out as deeply related to visibility and their work as leaders. They are more than just gay, and at the same time, they just so happen to be gay. Additionally, participants displayed independent ways of being within their outness. For example, some represented a palatable kind of being gay, and some navigated deep religious dissonance and other tensions within the (queer) margins. Re(-)presentation was also a major theme, as participants were advocates for their peers, and were “called” to this work of leadership. Finally, these men were leaders through their identities, and engaged in undergraduate student government as something that was bigger than them, but better because of them. This includes their call to leadership and student government, the political nature of this work, and a desire for things to be better. From this study, insights were gleaned that capture the nuances of this intersection of sexuality and student involvement in higher education. Specifically, this study is a calling to better understand what it means to live and work alongside students who hold these dual identities (out and elected in student government, and within student affairs). This includes a queering of student government and phenomenology, as well as a queering of van Manen’s (1997) existentials of lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality), and lived relationship to others (sociality).Item PAUSING TO CULTIVATE OUR GARDENS: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF WOMEN ENGAGED IN CREATIVE JOURNALING(2019) Riley, Sonya; Hultgren, Francine; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This phenomenological dissertation explores the lived experience of women participating in a creative journaling pause (CJP), a phrase describing the moment in which the participant chooses herself and engages in an activity of expression. Grounded in the tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, biblical Christian principles, and the philosophical work of Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, this research focuses on the practice of a creative journaling pause to assist a woman in cultivating her personal garden, in particular herself as an authentic individual. The metaphors of a sand garden and an oasis are used as descriptors to illuminate the phenomenon. The stories of the women hidden in the sand, or the depths of their journal pages, surfaced through our conversations in the moments of our four creative journaling pauses. Each pause, likened to an oasis, gave space to dwell in rest, freedom, and renewal. Thoele (2008) identifies women as “multi-focused, multifaceted, multi-tasking wonders” (p. 21). Yet, the various aspects or roles of a woman’s life may not always align with her ability to focus on self. Thus, the phenomenon of a creative journaling pause intrigues me with what it means to be a woman discovering and rediscovering her authentic self through the actions of pausing and the process of creative journaling. In brief, chapter one turns to the phenomenon and reveals my abiding concern. Chapter two allows an investigation of the phenomenon through the life stories of other women who journal and create. Chapter three provides a philosophical and methodological grounding that leads to a plan of engagement for my research. Chapter four reveals the essential themes from the lifeworld texts provided by the six participants of the study: A Disturbance Awakens—A Journey Towards An Oasis; A Chasm Remembered—A Vulnerability Exposes The Path To An Oasis; A Moment Revealed—An Expression Unfolds In the Oasis; and, An Openness Extended—A Return from the Oasis. Chapter five discusses the pedagogical implications of a creative journaling pause as the participant comes to the table, sits at the table, and leaves with the table in which she cultivates her garden, her authentic self.Item Wording their own worlds: A phenomenological exploration of teachers' lived experiences of teacher leadership(2019) Hamilton, Kristin Buckstad; Hultgren, Francine H.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Teacher leadership remains prominent in policy, career ladder programs, research, and professional discourse, yet few studies center what teacher leadership is like for teachers or what teachers are seeking when they construct their own career pathways. This gap is important to address. Teacher dissatisfaction certainly leads to recruitment and attrition challenges, but there is also an imperative for education as a human institution to attend to teachers’ needs. This study describes the lived experiences six teachers and the author had of teacher leadership. Following the methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology as articulated by Heidegger, Gadamer, and van Manen, participant descriptions and other lifeworld texts are analyzed to render themes that evoke the lived bodies, time, spaces, and relationships of teacher leadership. Metaphorically, teacher leaders travel into between-spaces, across borders, and over edges in response to their callings. Teachers experience teacher leadership bodily, insatiably growing and enacting pedagogic knowledge. They experience leadership as a following of a pedagogic need that compels them. They navigate the world with finely tuned sense-abilities that perceive what students, teachers, and pedagogy need. Lastly, they experience leadership relationally, feeling connected with other teachers near and far. Teachers in this study also experience a profound tension. The decision to accept new responsibilities as their professional vision expands is rooted in their being as a teacher, whether the roles are in the classroom or not. Yet, teacher leadership asks them (via policy, titles, and other cultural signals) to replace their teacher identities with teacher leader or educational leader identities. The teacher leader name does not always feel right to them. The final chapter of the study invites us to wonder about expanding the teaching profession’s scope in a way that resonates with teachers. In a world where “teachership”—the state of being a teacher, just as leadership is the state of being a leader—is recognized, the name “teacher” would be expansive enough to invoke all the opportunities teachers seek in pedagogy’s name. The study explores implications for a profession that empowers itself to claim teachers’ right of participation as teachers in other worlds within education.Item Politique, poétique, philosophique: le récit de voyage de Simone de Beauvoir aux États-Unis(2018) Ruel, Cécile; Brami, Joseph; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Writer, philosopher and social activist, Simone de Beauvoir was also an avid traveller. While most of her travel accounts are encapsulated in her memoirs, two of them were published as stand alones. My dissertation looks at America Day by Day, the account of her 1947 travels through the United States, and focuses on three key aspects of the narrative: the political, poetic and philosophical. In the first part of my dissertation, I analyze Beauvoir’s encounter with the American “Other”, by specifically concentrating on three social groups: intellectuals, African-Americans, and women. This leads me to an investigation of the concept of “Americanism”, that is, the social and political system in which Americans evolve. In the second part of my dissertation, I examine how the writing of the American space serves as catalyst to a beauvoirian poetics of space. Focusing my analysis on three key places, New York City, the American West and the South, I show that Beauvoir’s writing of space anticipates notions developed later in the 20th century, such as the practice of space (Michel de Certeau) and the notion of simulacra (Jean Baudrillard); lastly, I analyze how the Southern Gothic pervades Beauvoir’s writing of the South. In the third part of my work, I question how Beauvoir inscribes herself in the narrative. I show that travel, by creating discontinuity from habitual life, allows Beauvoir to present her encounter with the world through a phenomenological perspective. I examine key instances in the narrative (her arrival in the United States, her experience of the Grand Canyon and her experience of racial segregation) when, as situated subject, Beauvoir applies hers and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to concrete life. This process allows me to investigate the philosophical impact of the travel narrative. My research suggest that the travel narrative, beyond its documentary and autobiographic purposes, offered Beauvoir the opportunity to veer from habitual modes of writings, such as the novel, the play and the philosophical essay. It gave her license to investigate a social structure other than her own, to create a poetics of space and to apply a phenomenological mode of being in the world.Item Novel Dark Matter Phenomenology At Colliders(2015) Wardlow, Kyle; Agashe, Kaustubh; Physics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While a suitable candidate particle for dark matter (DM) has yet to be discovered, it is possible one will be found by experiments currently investigating physics on the weak scale. If discovered on that energy scale, the dark matter will likely be producible in significant quantities at colliders like the LHC, allowing the properties of and underlying physical model characterizing the dark matter to be precisely determined. I assume that the dark matter will be produced as one of the decay products of a new massive resonance related to physics beyond the Standard Model, and using the energy distributions of the associated visible decay products, develop techniques for determining the symmetry protecting these potential dark matter candidates from decaying into lighter Standard Model (SM) particles and to simultaneously measure the masses of both the dark matter candidate and the particle from which it decays.Item Mentor to Muse: The Lived Experiences of African American Female Mentors(2014) Gamble, Wyletta Sheree; Hultgren, Francine H; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this phenomenological study, I explore the lived experiences of six African American female mentors working with African American female youth. The mentors in this study range in age from twenties through fifties and are employed in various fields including education, healthcare and youth development. Having become mentors through formal and informal avenues, the mentors are referred to as muses because of their desire to build meaningful relationships with their mentees and serve as sources of inspiration who are willing to listen and learn from their mentees. The works of philosophers Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Edward Casey are intertwined with the writings of Black feminist scholars such as Patricia Hill Collins and Audre Lorde, while Max van Manen guides the phenomenological process with pedagogical insights and reminders. Through individual conversations with each muse, the power in care and the importance of listening in mentoring relationships is uncovered as essential components. Weaving through the simple, yet profound narrative around sustaining relationships with African American female youth are topics that need continued exploration, particularly in educational settings. Through the muses sharing their own experiences with mentoring, race and working with African American female youth, themes connected to gender, race, struggle and triumph emerge. The significance of place, the complexities of Black femininity, and the benefits of genuine dialogue are all explored in ways that bring new understanding to African American female experiences and how they connect to today's educational climate. This study concludes with phenomenological recommendations for educational stakeholders to pursue partnerships with school, family and community. Including the voices of community pedagogues, such as mentors, and other adults who work with our youth outside of the school setting, can help to strengthen the academic experience for both educators and these students. With a primary focus of educational change centered on the ideas of adults, it is also recommended that educational decisions become more inclusive with the insights of students, parents and community members. Continuing the dialogue with community pedagogues can help uncover more of the missing pedagogical insights beneficial to African American female students and their future achievement and success.Item Digital Alchemy: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Investigation of Digital Storytelling for Peace and Justice(2013) Gibbins, Thor; Hultgren, Francine; McCaleb, Joseph; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explores the experiences of undergraduate students enrolled in an education I-Series (University of Maryland undergraduate courses designed to inspire innovation, imagination, and intellect) course, Good Stories: Teaching Stories for Peace and Justice. In this course students are asked to produce digital stories that project themes of peace and justice. The locus of this study focuses on the essential question: In what ways do participants world their experiences producing digital stories for peace and justice? The methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology is employed in order to elucidate interpretive understandings about digital storytelling for peace and justice in the experiences of nine undergraduates over the course of one semester. The metaphor of alchemy is used since the practice of alchemy entailed amalgamating base metals in the hopes of transmuting them into gold. Jung (1968) likens this process to our experience of becoming individuated, whole, and healthy human beings. Digital media amalgamates image sound and written text in order to enhance narrative, making it an apt metaphor since it captures the synergism inherent in both the metaphor of alchemy and the multimodality inherent in digital stories. The methodological practices for this inquiry employ van Manen's (1997) human science research. This inquiry elucidates the participants' experiences on being students of digital media in addition becoming agentive knowers capable of projecting digital stories for the purposes of peace and justice. The conspicuousness of developing the technological know-how of producing digital media also takes particular precedent in this study. Themes of the ways in which students are concerned by being students, producing digital stories the "right" way, and developing particular stances on their understandings of peace and justice are disclosed. Additionally, the pedagogical implications for designing teaching and learning of digital media are discussed. These implications focus on ways educators may develop pedagogical tact in engaging and apprenticing students in digital media. These pedagogical understandings may open possible opportunities for classrooms to be transformed into digital media studios where students develop critical stances through the practice of digitally designing narratives for the purposes of extending care, caring, and caring for others to possible global audiences.Item The Poetics of Bodily Being: The Lived Experience of Breastfeeding an Infant "Out of Reach" in the NICU(2013) Sampson-Kelly, Christy A.; Hultgren, Francine; Lieber, Joan; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Babies born preterm (<37 weeks gestation) and at very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500 grams, 3.3 pounds) reside "out of reach" from their mothers in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during the very beginnings of life. As the evidence of breast milk versus formula for infants within this vulnerable population is well established, multiple initiatives call for the provision of breast milk, and NICU professionals are subsequently making efforts to increase numbers of breastfed infants. However, there is a gap in the scholarly literature that brings forth mothers' voices relative to this unique breastfeeding experience. These voices are imperative to making a greater understanding of this phenomenon. This hermeneutic phenomenological study asks the question: What is the lived experience of providing breast milk for one's child who lives in a NICU? My exploration draws upon the writings of several philosophers including Levinas, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, and Derrida that relate to the phenomenon and discover how the phenomenon is made visible through them. The wondrous writings of poets are interlaced throughout my journeying, reverberating the deep meaning that lies beneath the surface of things. Max van Manen's depiction of hermeneutic phenomenology provides the methodological structure for the study, which is uncovered through the multiple, individual conversations with and journal entries of ten mothers who share this human experience. As meaning unfolds, breastfeeding emerges centrally, as a remedy and offering a way to transcend the dis-eases of self-blame, dis-place-ment, and dis-member-ment underwent as part of mothering in the NICU. Reflecting on these dis-eases, calls for the offering of pedagogical insights of more welcoming and less judgment in supporting mothers in doing the work of mothering, taking on a view of breast milk as more than pure resource, and the importance of nurturing the nurses. Attending to these stories may help NICU professionals to imagine an environed NICU, were mothers, too, are cared for in their journey to self-forgiveness, em-place-ment, and re-member-ment, amid the strange and wondrous terrain of their beginnings.Item Once Upon a Teacher: A Phenomenological Investigation of Teachers Who Begin to Use Storytelling in Their Classrooms(2012) DOUGHERTY, MOIRA; Hultgren, Francine; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)It is through our stories that we come to know ourselves, and the world in which we live. For millennia people with no written language have used storytelling to transmit their culture, and to pass on their values, beliefs, and laws to the next generation, in short, to educate. Through recent research we have come to understand that our brains are designed to make meaning through narrative. It is through stories that we shape our personalities and our lives. This is a phenomenological investigation into the lived experiences of teachers who begin to use storytelling in their classrooms. I draw on the works of numerous storytellers, educators and phenomenologists to provide a ground for this study. The narrative that forms the framework of this quest is the phenomenological methodology of Max van Manen. I traveled the path of this phenomenon through conversations with five elementary school teachers who began to use storytelling in their classrooms, and I used thematic analysis to transform the themes and insights that came from those conversations into a textual understanding. The performance nature of storytelling revealed the care that lies at the heart of pedagogy, and the ways in which that care is expressed. By telling stories to their classes, my participants came to understand the richness of their pedagogical knowledge, renewed their confidence in their professional competence and returned them to their authentic teaching selves. Through storytelling my participants expanded their pedagogical horizons. By challenging themselves, they gained a greater awareness of their pedagogical practice, helping them create higher expectations for their teaching. Telling stories creates an understanding of the roles students play in the life of the classroom and an appreciation of the reciprocal nature of teaching. Teaching as storytelling has possibilities for pedagogical benefits for teachers and students. This study explores the insights this pedagogy might have for teacher retention, connections to diversity, and teacher education. The nature of storytelling fosters care, creates community and nurtures more meaningful relationships. It might open opportunities for teachers and students to allow themselves to see and be seen, hear and be heard in mindful and authentic relationships.