Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item UNVEILING THE MULTIFACETED IDENTITY OF BLACK STUDENT ATHLETES: IMPLICATIONS FOR COACHING AND SPORT LEADERSHIP(2024) Harris, Tasha; De La Paz, Susan; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative study explores the multifaceted experiences of Black student-athletes in higher education. The landscape of higher education leadership is predominantly white, with a significant majority being white men. Over 80% of chancellors, presidents, athletic directors, faculty athletic representatives, and conference commissioners are white (Lapchick, 2023); meanwhile, Black student-athletes constitute 55% of the NCAA's highest revenue sports—men’s basketball and football (Achieving (Racial Equality, 2021; Harper, 2018). This disparity is particularly striking given the significant presence and contributions of Black student-athletes to college sports. It highlights the impact of external and internal factors, such as the lack of adequate support systems, that shape the identity and experiences of student-athletes, especially those from marginalized backgrounds.Utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) frameworks as analytical tools, this study highlights the importance of counter-storytelling to empower Black student-athletes and challenge dominant cultural narratives. Interviews were conducted with 10 student-athletes from both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Adapting tools from Strauss and Goldberg (1999) and Cowan et al. (1978), this study focuses on student-athletes, and explores how racial, athletic, and academic identities intersect among Black student-athletes, illuminating their perceptions of past, present, and future selves. Findings reveal that HBCUs cultivate social capital opportunities, while PWI student-athletes need stronger navigational capital to maneuver through less supportive environments. Both institutions provide familial, aspirational, and resistance capital, but PWI student-athletes struggle more with discovering their true identities due to societal pressures and an overemphasis on athletic performance. Participant counter-stories emphasized the importance of holistic identity development, particularly regarding 'invisible identities,' where dominant athletic roles limit full identity exploration. Black student-athletes often navigate between Goffman’s (1959) concept of the frontstage and backstage self. Their frontstage self is the persona they present to society, shaped by impression management to counter stereotypes and biases, while the backstage self represents their true identity, which they struggle to develop due to the constant demands of frontstage performance. This performance aims to project an idealized version of self, challenging negative assumptions. Findings highlight how experiences at PWIs and HBCUs shape the identity development of Black student-athletes, emphasizing the need for comprehensive support systems encompassing social integration, leadership representation, and identity development programming beyond sports. As student-athletes navigate the transition out of college, the study emphasizes the importance of holistic identity development, especially in acknowledging unexplored facets of identity. Ultimately, this research fills a gap in understanding the role of CCW in navigating the complex landscape of athletic, academic, and racial experiences in higher education, offering insights for coaches and sport leaders on how to foster more inclusive and supportive environments.Item Countering the Deficit: An Exploration of Syrian Refugees' Perceptions of the Purposes of Education in Emergencies(2022) Sorensen, Erin; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Syrian conflict that erupted in 2011 has led to one of the largest humanitarian crises in recent history, resulting in 6.8 million Syrian refugees globally. Despite the efforts of the international community, roughly one third of Syrian refugee children are still not in school, making access to education a critical focus of international response. The field of education in emergencies (EiE) focuses on providing access to schools for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, including refugees, and views refugee education as having three main purposes: to fill gaps in immediate humanitarian aid, build human capital, and fulfill a human right. However, these three purposes do not holistically represent refugees’ perspectives and reflect a deficit view of refugees that sees refugees as passive recipients of aid. In this dissertation study, I aim to challenge the deficit narrative and encourage an asset-based approach to refugee education that is grounded in refugees’ perspectives and experiences. A theoretical framework combining Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth theory and agency and empowerment theories, including Sen’s (1999) capability approach, was used to frame this research from an asset-based perspective and explore the ways that refugees use their strengths and agency to realize their educational values. Research questions that guide this dissertation include: How do Syrian refugees perceive the purposes of education? What gaps exist between their perceived purposes of education and their educational experiences during displacement? To what extent are Syrian refugees able to draw on their community cultural wealth to realize their perceptions of the purposes of education? To answer these questions, a qualitative narrative inquiry approach was used. Data collection consisted of interviews with eight Syrian refugees who went to school while displaced, but are now resettled in Canada, and explored their experiences of education during displacement, the challenges they faced, what strengths they used to overcome challenges, and their perceptions of the purposes of education. The findings of the study reveal that while there is some overlap between refugees’ perceptions and the three purposes of education outlined by the EiE field, participants’ perspectives additionally reflect more holistic purposes of education that focus on building relationships and helping others. The holistic purposes of education revealed in this research emphasize the importance of having a foundation of love, care, and connection to self and others in education. Additionally, this research highlights that while refugees use their community cultural wealth to exercise their agency and realize their educational values, refugees’ individual assets and agency are limited by political, economic, and social structural barriers. The findings of this study reveal that the EiE field needs to pursue some fundamental shifts to acknowledge and include the holistic and relational purposes of education, adopt an asset-based perspective of refugees, and address oppressive systems that limit refugees’ agency.Item MI LUGAR ES AQUÍ (MY PLACE IS HERE): LATINO MALE VOICES AND THE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THEIR SUCCESS IN COLLEGE(2015) Rivera, Jason; MacDonald, Victoria M.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this collective case study, the voices of 10 academically successful Latino males were privileged to uncover the factors they believe contribute to their success in college. The participants in this study range in age from 18 to 24 and are from diverse Latino backgrounds including Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. Each Latino male participant maintained a grade point average of 3.0 or greater and began his higher education experience at the local community college. Using extant literature on various forms of capital, care, and patterns of transition, a conceptual model created to explore how participants' describe and understand academic achievement. Through individual interviews, focus groups, a survey, and participant selected artifacts, the power of care and the importance of social capital and community cultural wealth emerge as salient factors in academically successful Latino male experiences. In this study, care was redefined by drawing on the scholarship of Noddings (2005), Gay, (2010), and scholars who articulate critical conceptions of care. Other salient factors that contributed to participants' collegiate academic achievement included Latino cultural traditions (i.e., familismo, consejos, and bien educado), caring teachers and professors, coaches and mentors, and the role of the community college and community-based organizations. This study also found that because of care, and the values inhered in caring relationships (i.e., trust, support, and care), participants were able to gain access to a variety of capital as well as other important resources (i.e., transition strategies such as code switching and discerning expectations) that they were able to leverage toward their academic achievement in college. Implications for theory, research, and practice are presented with an emphasis placed on creating caring spaces that cultivate and nurture the academic achievement of Latino males in higher education environments.Item EXPLORING FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND CAPITAL: CASE STUDIES OF LATINO IMMIGRANT FAMILIES SUPPORTING THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION, WITH A FOCUS ON MATHEMATICS(2014) Napp-Avelli, Carolina A.; Chazan, Daniel; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Latino students are frequently positioned by widespread achievement gap discourse at the bottom of the attainment spectrum. Both students and families are portrayed as inadequate and deficient, and are blamed for their lack of success in mathematics. One recommendation to improve Latino students' educational performance is to increase parental involvement in mathematics among Latinos. However, life conditions of Latino immigrant families include factors that often make it difficult for parents to get involved in the education of their children in the ways that schools expect. This study explores the knowledge and resources two Latino immigrant families have acquired thorough their experiences and how they use them to support their children's education and mathematics education. In order to analyze families' resources, a theoretical framework composed by the concepts of educability, capital, and funds of knowledge and community cultural wealth was developed. The construct of educability, which analyzes the tensions between the limitations that poverty and other life conditions impose on families and the possibilities for students to succeed in school, provides the overarching structure of the framework. Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital and the cycle of reproduction of capital describe why social groups with more capital (middle and upper classes) acquire capital easily, whereas social groups with less capital (low socioeconomic working classes) have fewer opportunities to acquire capital. This piece of the framework explains why it is so difficult for students living in hard conditions to overcome them and succeed academically. The funds of knowledge and community cultural wealth perspectives made it possible to identify the resources and knowledge families have acquired through their experiences and understand their actions and hopes in connection to their life histories. In particular, the study analyzes how families use their resources along three dimensions that affect children's conditions of educability. First, the study looks at how parents influence students' dispositions towards education; second, how parents develop relationships with schools; and third, how parents influence what students do in their leisure time. The researcher's journey as a white middle-class highly educated woman working with Latino working-class families is also analyzed as part of the study.