Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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
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Item INTERSECTIONAL EXPLORATION OF BLACK MEN’S GENDER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AND EXPRESSIONS(2024) Moore, Daniel K.; Worthington, Roger L; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gender identities and expressions of men from minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds often differ from those outlined in Traditional Masculinity Ideologies (TMI). These differences have been highlighted by scholars who have advocated for intersectional approaches to exploring masculinities. Recent intersectional inquiries into Black masculinity and Black manhood have provided insights into the unique expression of masculinity Black men have developed. This study sought to extend the understanding of existing intersectional explorations of Black manhood and Black masculinity through qualitative inquiry. Additionally, it attended to the impact of religion, spirituality, and sexual orientation in its analysis of Black men’s intersectional identity development and expression. Findings indicated that Black men often described their experiences in terms of either race or gender, but rarely in terms of intersectional identity. A theory of racialized gender identity development and expression for Black men is posited based on the integration of extant theories of racial and gender identity development, ego identity development, as well as intersectional approaches to stereotyping and prejudice. Implications for research and practice are provided.Item “LIBERATING MY MIND... DECOLONIZING MY PHYSICAL BODY”: EXPLORING AFROLATINE/A/O ACTIVISTS’ CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS USING PLÁTICA METHODOLOGY(2024) Martinez-Benyarko, Marinel; Espino Lira, Michelle; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)My dissertation, “Liberating my mind...decolonizing my physical body”: Exploring AfroLatine/a/o activists’ critical consciousness using plática methodology, aimed to understand the experiences of 11 AfroLatine/a/o activists in the United States. Scholars have studied AfroLatine/a/os racial/ethnic identity development and activism separately, but this dissertation highlighted the critical consciousness that both these identities possess. Through a “me-search” process, a form of critical consciousness, AfroLatine/a/os assert agency and resilience to make meaning and reflect upon their Blackness and Latinidad (García-Louis & Cortes, 2020). Additionally, those who identify as activists also engage with critical consciousness in understanding social inequities and oppression (Freire, 1970a). My dissertation explored the critical consciousness that AfroLatine/a/os activists possess using plática methodology. Using a plática methodology, I cocreated knowledge, fostered healing and vulnerability, offered collaborators validation, and incorporated life experiences and community building. Pláticas also “constitute a method that recognizes and values familial and cultural knowledge, and platicando becomes the process of drawing on that knowledge and making meaning across experiences” (González Ybarra, 2018, p. 511). Through pláticas, cuentos, chismes, charlas, regaños, and consejos are shared (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016; González Ybarra, 2018; M. Guajardo & Guajardo, 2007). To accomplish this work, I developed a conceptual framework titled, “Exploring AfroLatine/a/o activists critical consciousness,” that brings together (a) Latino critical race theory, (b) Daché et al.’s (2019) Black-imiento, and (c) Freire’s (1970a) conscientization to illuminate the experiences of AfroLatine/a/o activists in a way that highlights their embraced Blackness, heightened knowledge and critical action, and lived experiences. Data were collected via a survey (46 participants), a one-on-one plática (11 collaborators), and a community plática (11 collaborators). Data were analyzed first by collaborators during the community plática. Afterward, I conducted initial/open coding and focused coding strategies. The findings of this study showed that AfroLatine/a/o activists asserted agency and engaged in critical reflection through a continuous process of learning and unlearning to understand their own AfroLatine/a/o identity, country of origin history, colonization, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and internalized racism. The second finding described the racialideologies that AfroLatine/a/o activists created, which included (a) embracing Black identity by taking pride in their physical appearance, hair, and skin color; (b) centering their resistance in language; and (c) rejecting stereotypes and generalizations of Latine/a/o as a monolithic group. Additionally, this study found that AfroLatine/a/o activists defined their activism as community, advocacy, and compassion. Lastly, the collaborators shared how their AfroLatine/a/o identity was a form of existence as resistance, a form of activism. This study presents various contributions to higher education theory, praxis, research, policy, and AfroLatine/a/o activists. My dissertation makes the following contributions: (a) understanding how marginalized communities navigate and resist oppressive systems, (b) validating the experiences and knowledge of AfroLatine/a/o activists, and (c) challenging a monolithic perspective of Latinidad by showcasing how AfroLatine/a/os embrace their Blackness.Item The Development of Students' Understandings of Identity, Inequality, and Service during a Critical International Service Learning Program in the Dominican Republic(2022) Gombin-Sperling, Jeremy Ryan; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)International service learning programs have continued to rise in popularity across U.S. institutions of higher education as a way of offering students comprehensive formats to engage with communities in other countries, learn how social issues of inequality impact people around the world, and strengthen student learning on global issues. However, many of these programs lack a critical perspective, and often struggle or avoid conversations on the power dynamics of service, and, therefore, the potential harm that international service learning courses can cause and reproduce. At the same time, programs that do promote a critical approach to service abroad, fail to address the vital role that social identity plays in these programs (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, nationality, social class, etc.), and often ignore how those dynamics impact the differentiating experiences of students, and how they connect to the social issues community partners face. This dissertation study is an attempt to analyze a critical international service learning program to the Dominican Republic that I and a colleague co-led from 2018-2020. This program intended to offer intervention to both issues of critical awareness and identity dynamics through our integration of intergroup dialogue pedagogy and theory into all aspects of the program. Utilizing qualitative case study methods such as participant interviews, document analysis, and participant observations, I look at the impact that the 2020 version of the course had on 8 of the 11 students that year by analyzing their evolving learning in the areas of social identity, structural inequality, and service, as well as the program components that influenced this learning. Findings from the study overall suggest that participation in the program helped push students to reevaluate numerous aspects of their identity across areas such as race, gender, and SES/social class, and also better identify different forms of inequality and their impact – mostly in the context of the Dominican Republic and to an extent in the United States. With that said, learning outcomes were deeply tied to the positionality of students and their preexisting level of engagement with course themes. Generally, it seemed that students of greater racial and/or financial privilege were less willing to think critically about their positionality within systems of inequality and therefore their connection to the phenomena we observed abroad. This differed from students of less declared privilege who approached course materials through the intersection of social identity and inequality. Despite these gains, findings suggest that the course reproduced power hierarchies between our service group and community partners and within our group. Implications for research and theory include the need to further study the integration of intergroup dialogue in international service programs, the impact of greater community partner collaboration vis-à-vis dialogue and program involvement, and the exploration of increased affinity group work within service learning programs to better attend to student needs, especially those of students from marginalized positions.Item THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MILITARY BRATS OF COLOR IN COLLEGE(2019) Peralta, Alicia Marie; Hultgren, Francine; Fries-Britt, Sharon; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Military children of color live in various cultural contexts, often outside of mainstream U.S. society, leading to questions about their experiences as young people of color in college settings. To this end, this dissertation asks: What is the lived experience of military brats of color in college? This dissertation explores the experiences of seven military children of color in college settings as they navigate leaving their unique military context, encounter identities they did not know they had, and individuate from their families and the military context. The phenomenological questioning of identity coupled with conceptions of home and belonging shine a light on the bittersweet experience of the military brats of color feeling like strangers in their own country. These experiences are uncovered using Gadamerian (1975/2004) horizons and Heidegger’s dasein (1927/2008b) in addition to O’Donohue’s (1997, 1998) philosophical writings on belonging and home. The thematizing process brought forth experiences of attempting to forge an identity in the midst of preconceived ideas about who and what you should be as a person. The process of forging identity includes the transition from the military community to college; a settling into college; and a choosing of identity. Pedagogical insights include a critique of identity and how it is constructed, specifically because military children of color are never of a place, but move with and in spaces. I also consider concepts of home, and how higher education practitioners can work with military students of color while respecting their lived experience.Item Portraits of the (In)visible: Examining the Intersections of Race, Religion, and Gender for Black Muslim Women in College(2017) Daoud, Nina; Griffin, Kimberly A.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although anti-Islamic sentiments have existed before 9/11, the past 15 years have brought about a distinct set of challenges for Muslim Americans, ones that have seldom been explored within the context of college campuses. Further, higher education scholarship has not addressed diversity among Muslims and the reality that students facing numerous forms of oppression often have unique challenges negotiating their multiple identities. This project recognizes the distinct subjectivities of Black Muslim women, examining how they navigate college at the intersections of their racial, religious, and gender identities. Through the qualitative methodology of portraiture and a Black feminist lens, this dissertation utilizes Patricia Hill Collins’s matrix of domination to present portraits of four Black Muslim women, focusing on how they make decisions about which of their identities to embody throughout their undergraduate years. Data were collected between October 2016 and March 2017, the months leading up to and following the 2016 Presidential Election. As such, this study’s primary contribution lies in uncovering how contextual influences shape the college experiences of students from marginalized backgrounds. More specifically, findings from this study reveal the significance of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s notion of the decisive moment as well as how Erving Goffman’s conceptualization of impression management can be used to explicate Black Muslim women’s resistance. As it relates to the decisive moment, or the specific time in which an artist is able to capture a snapshot of a broader image, participants discussed how political discourse about each of their social groups (e.g., Black, Muslim, woman, immigrant) shaped their campus interactions. Additionally, the decisive moment galvanized participants to fight against racial injustices. Relatedly, participants engaged in impression management, employing strategies to resist stereotypes related to one or more of their marginalized identities. In particular, participants intentionally performed their racial and/or religious identities (e.g., through wearing a headscarf, being vocal about racism) as an act of resistance. Overall, findings illuminate issues of power and privilege in different spaces, including the Muslim community, the Black community, college campuses, and the U.S., thereby disrupting narratives of universality among those who identify as Black or Muslim, within higher education and beyond.Item RACIAL CONSCIOUSNESS, IDENTITY, AND DISSONANCE AMONG WHITE WOMEN IN STUDENT AFFAIRS GRADUATE PROGRAMS(2012) Robbins, Claire Kathleen; Jones, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to investigate racial identity among White women enrolled in student affairs and higher education (hereafter, SA/HE) master's degree programs. Guided by a social justice epistemology encompassing constructivism, feminist inquiry, and Critical Whiteness, this grounded theory study included the following research questions: (1) how does racial identity develop over time among White women; (2) how do White women construct racial identities; (3) in what ways do educational and professional experiences, including those that occur in SA/HE master's degree programs, influence White women's racial identities; and (4) in what ways do multiple layers of social context, including power and privilege, influence White women's racial identities? Data sources included two interviews with a sample of 11 White women in SA/HE master's degree programs, and data analysis procedures were consistent with grounded theory for social justice. The outcome of this study was a grounded theory of racial consciousness, identity, and dissonance among White women in SA/HE graduate programs. The emergent theory consisted of two core processes: changing one's perspective and the emergence of racial dissonance. The first core process, changing one's perspective, foregrounded a series of developmental shifts through which participants became conscious of whiteness and developed racial identities. These shifts or "lenses" corresponded to a series of visual metaphors, including not seeing race, peripheral visions, and "opening my eyes." The second core process, the emergence of racial dissonance, disrupted the developmental process of changing one's perspective. When new insights threatened preexisting worldviews, participants were forced to confront racial dissonance, or discomfort and ambiguity about race, identity, and privilege. In response, participants developed strategies for resisting, engaging, and transforming racial dissonance. Navigating racial dissonance was a performative process that gave participants the capacity to resume the developmental process of changing one's perspective and to adopt a new lens with two regions, "a conscious lens of whiteness" and "a vision for my life." This grounded theory of racial consciousness, identity, and dissonance among White women has implications for SA/HE graduate preparation programs, social identity and student development theory, and future research.Item Asian American Racial Identity Experiences in Intergroup Dialogue: A Narrative Study(2011) Mac, Jacqueline; Quaye, Stephen J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this constructivist narrative study was to explore how Asian American students experience their racial identity in intergroup dialogue. This study addressed the following guiding research question: how do Asian American students experience their racial identity in the context of intergroup dialogues? Two Asian American students from two intergroup dialogues participated in this study. Data collection included semi-structured individual interviews and course documents, such as journal reflections. Data were analyzed using a hybrid narrative approach that combined the analysis of the content as an entire story (inductive case analysis), of the content of themes within each story, and of the structure of a complete story (cross-case analysis). Full restories of each participant's story were provided. Four themes emerged from these restories to illuminate how students experienced their racial identity in intergroup dialogue. First, racial identities were experienced in a complicated manner that conflated race and ethnicity, within and outside of intergroup dialogue. Second, the salience of racial identity impacted how and what participants shared about their experiences. Third, both participants shared stories of internal conflict related to their racial identities, which were illuminated by their experiences in intergroup dialogue. Lastly, participants shared similar experiences participating in intergroup dialogue, which included holding back, taking risks, and responding to stereotypes. However, these experiences varied in the ways they were explicitly connected to participants' racial identity.Item IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS AS LEARNERS OF SCIENCE AT AN INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION CAMP(2011) Riedinger, Kelly Anne; McGinnis, J. Randy; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Education researchers and practitioners are increasingly recognizing the need for learning in informal settings to complement formal science learning (Bybee, 2001; Falk, 2001). Informal science education may be critical in meeting the goals of reform and in keeping students and the public informed of advances in science. As such, greater attention has been given to learning in informal science settings. A growing body of research examines how groups engage in learning conversations to make meaning from content and exhibits in these settings. The National Research Council (2009) speculated that individual and group identity might be shaped and reinforced during such learning conversations. The central research question guiding the study was: What is the role of conversation in influencing science learner identity development during an informal science education camp? Identity in this study was defined as becoming and being recognized as a certain type of person (Gee, 2001). This study focused particularly on discursive identity, defined as individual traits recognized through discourse with other individuals (Gee, 2005; 2011). The study used an exploratory case study. Data collection included videotaped observations, researcher field notes, interviews and participants' reflective journal entries. Each source of data was examined for the conversation that it generated. I used qualitative methods to analyze the data including discourse analysis and the constant comparison method for emergent themes. From the findings of this study, I theorized that the learning conversations played a role in developing participants' identities as learners of science. Participants used language in the following ways: to make sense of science content, to position themselves, to align their discourse and practices with science, to communicate with others which resulted in engagement, to re-negotiate power, and to see others in new ways. The findings of this research support and extend the research literature on identity, learning conversations in informal science education environments and science camp programs. Implications from this study include recommendations for the design of science camps to support identity development as learners of science for participants.Item Seeking Personal Meaning in New Places: The Lived Experience of Religious Conversion(2011) Brimhall-Vargas, Mark G.; Hultgren, Francine; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This phenomenological study explores the lived experience of religious conversion. As a study concerned with the development of religious identity (often rooted in psycho-social research where identity development usually relies on linear processes of growth), this dissertation research suggests that religious identity development, in particular, cannot easily be mapped to these models. What insights about religious identity, and identity generally, can be drawn from the standpoint of religious conversion? How do people who have experienced this phenomenon make meaning of that experience? What implications does "fluid" identity hold for educational settings? This research is done in the tradition of phenomenology drawing on the work of philosophers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, Levinas, Derrida, and Merleau-Ponty as foundational "grounding" for this study. Each of these philosophers raise key concepts used for the rendering and illumination of the phenomenon of religious conversion. Van Manen provides a detailed process by which phenomenological philosophy can be used to conduct this form of research. Initial exploration of the existential phenomenon suggests themes including the various pressures that make hiding a change in identity necessary, a deep questioning surrounding the nature of religion itself and the meaning it holds for people, and the rejection of certainty as a value in religious identity. Once themes of religious conversion had been explored, I recruited ten participants representing a wide array of identities related to religion, race, sex, sexuality, gender identity, age, and educational attainment for this study. My phenomenological data suggest that religious identity development can be deeply understood as a complex phenomenon often mirrored in the mythological "heroic journey" commonly found in cultures around the world. In this process, I develop the concept of phenomythology, a process of weaving myth and phenomenology together as an existential process to uncover and illustrate the seemingly universal search for ultimacy and liminality in life's small events as revelatory of larger significance and deeper inward meaning. Drawing from the insights I gained from my participants, I suggest that the lived experience of religious conversion can be linked to other social science theory (such as queer theory) to better prepare educators who encounter individuals who have complex religious identity. Specifically, I explore pedagogical possibilities for including insights from religiously queer identity as a way for understanding social difference. My first concern is helping educators understand how religiously queer people might "show up" in a classroom setting. Additionally, I offer a variety of ways to use this difference as a gift of perspective to learning, including a reconceptualization of identity within the setting of intergroup dialogue as phenomenological "cohabited space" to build solidarity and alliances for progressive social action.