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 THE DEI SIGNALING THRESHOLD: WHEN AND WHY MORE MESSAGING IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER(2024) Holmes, Tara; Derfler-Rozin, Rellie; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When it comes to messaging diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts to employees, organizations take great care in considering the content of the signals they create. However, despite carefully designed communications, they continue to struggle to garner employee support and participation for these initiatives. Counter to the prevailing assumption that more DEI signaling is better (Roberson, 2006; Plaut et al., 2011; Nishii, 2013; Richard et al., 2013; Leslie, 2019; Hunt et al., 2020; Shuman et al., 2023), I argue that positive effects of organizational DEI signaling do not persist with increased exposure to DEI-related stimuli. Leveraging exposure effect research, I instead propose that employee attitudes shift from positive to negative as exposure to signaling increases, thereby decreasing their desire to engage with DEI at work. Specifically, I hypothesize that low and moderate levels of signaling are associated with employees feeling more engagement towards DEI, but at higher DEI fatigue and cynicism are more likely to develop, negatively impacting employees’ DEI effort. I further posit that because managers play a central role in shaping employee attitudes and behaviors, a manager’s consistency with organizational DEI signaling is the key to minimizing negative employee attitudes that emerge because of overexposure. I test these hypotheses in an experiment and a field study with implications for the literatures on DEI in organizations, issue fatigue, and behavioral integrity.Item A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD TO RAISE A BROOD: TREE SPECIES DIVERSITY DECREASES PERIODICAL CICADA OVIPOSITION AND TREE RESPONSE(2023) Jayd, Kristin; Burghardt, Karin; Entomology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Natural systems contain diverse assemblages of plants, providing a matrix of potential hosts that herbivores must navigate. Insect-plant host choice patterns are crucial to understanding both herbivore outbreaks and the consequences of outbreaks for plant hosts. Here, I follow the 2021 Brood X periodical cicada mass emergence event in the BiodiversiTREE forest diversity experiment at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, MD, to uncover whether tree diversity influences cicada oviposition preferences or tree responses to oviposition (flagging), for 15 tree species grown in plots of single species or 12-species mixtures. While cicadas demonstrate clear tree species preferences, the diversity of the surrounding tree neighborhood plays at least as important a role in determining oviposition preference and tree flagging responses. Cicadas were threefold more likely to oviposit in trees grown in single species vs. mixed species plots. While overall, I find a concomitant decrease in tree flagging in diverse plots. I also document that species flag at different rates in response to the same oviposition scar density. Even when accounting for differential oviposition rates, surrounding tree diversity remains an essential additional predictor of tree flagging responses with trees in diverse plots less likely to flag at the same density of scars, suggesting a differential capacity of trees to tolerate damage when growing in single species plots. This study creates a richer understanding of the importance of tree context, specifically surrounding tree diversity, in shaping the ecological ramifications of a mass insect emergence event.Item TEACHER DIVERSITY GAP IN THE CONTEXT OF A RURAL SCHOOL DISTRICT: PERCEPTIONS OF THE CURRENT WORKING ENVIRONMENT AND SUPPORT STRATEGIES FROM TEACHERS OF COLOR(2022) Korsan, Robert; Imig, David; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There has been extensive documentation of the persistent lack of diversity inthe teaching workforce (Brown, 2014; Casey et al., 2016; Ingersoll & May, 2011; Sleeter, 2017; Villegas & Irvine, 2010). Research has shown that having a diverse teaching force is positive for all students (Villegas & Irvine, 2010; Childs, 2019). A diversity gap exists in the District A Public School System. According to the Maryland Public School Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity and Gender and Number of Schools report from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), on September 30, 2018, 70.1% of all K-12 students in DISTRICT A were White, 12.8% were Black, and 6.3% were Hispanic. Another MSDE report (Professional Staff by Assignment, Race/Ethnicity and Gender Report, 2018) on race/ethnicity and gender of school professional staff, District A in October 2018, reported that 92.4% of its teachers were White, 5.3% Black, and 2.4% Other (Asian, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Two or More Races), according to the (p.14). The difference between the percentage of teachers of color and students of color in that school year was 22.3%. Given the sphere of influence by the researcher, the study focused on ways to retain current teachers of color. The study examined support strategies current teachers of color identified as having a positive impact on their decisions to remain in the District A system. A virtual focus group of 6 current teachers of color in District A was completed. Analysis of this focus group transcription led to the emergence of 6 themes: burnout, isolation, representation, growth, hiring, building relationships and mentoring. The study concludes with a set of recommendations that begin by urging District A to provide additional support for teachers of color. Also, for more immediate short term support strategies, it is recommended that District A inform school leaders of the feelings of burnout felt by current teachers of color. Understanding the extra anxieties and challenges placed on teachers of color and being able to be empathetic towards the feeling of burnout will allow school leaders to provide support strategies in this areaItem Diversity and Novelty: Measurement, Learning and Optimization(2019) Ahmed, Faez; Fuge, Mark; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The primary objective of this dissertation is to investigate research methods to answer the question: ``How (and why) does one measure, learn and optimize novelty and diversity of a set of items?" The computational models we develop to answer this question also provide foundational mathematical techniques to throw light on the following three questions: 1. How does one reliably measure the creativity of ideas? 2. How does one form teams to evaluate design ideas? 3. How does one filter good ideas out of hundreds of submissions? Solutions to these questions are key to enable the effective processing of a large collection of design ideas generated in a design contest. In the first part of the dissertation, we discuss key qualities needed in design metrics and propose new diversity and novelty metrics for judging design products. We show that the proposed metrics have higher accuracy and sensitivity compared to existing alternatives in literature. To measure the novelty of a design item, we propose learning from human subjective responses to derive low dimensional triplet embeddings. To measure diversity, we propose an entropy-based diversity metric, which is more accurate and sensitive than benchmarks. In the second part of the dissertation, we introduce the bipartite b-matching problem and argue the need for incorporating diversity in the objective function for matching problems. We propose new submodular and supermodular objective functions to measure diversity and develop multiple matching algorithms for diverse team formation in offline and online cases. Finally, in the third part, we demonstrate filtering and ranking of ideas using diversity metrics based on Determinantal Point Processes as well as submodular functions. In real-world crowd experiments, we demonstrate that such ranking enables increased efficiency in filtering high-quality ideas compared to traditionally used methods.Item THE PHYSICAL CULTURE OF DIVERSITY WORK: A CASE STUDY OF EMBODIED INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION WITHIN THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN UNIVERSITY(2019) Cork, Stephanie Joan; Jette, Shannon; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Considering recent incidents of white nationalism and racial violence on college campuses, the efficacy of diversity and inclusion work within this context has garnered increased attention. What received less attention, however, the embodied experiences of university employees, specifically “diversity workers,” who are tasked by their institution to combat equity issues. Previous research has shown that experiences of exclusion and discrimination can negatively impact work, educational, and health outcomes.This study explores how these impacts are experienced by the diversity workers themselves, many of whom inhabit intersectionally marginalized identities. In examining the physicality of the diversity worker, this project merges scholarship from the field of public health and the sociology of work to investigate occupational health and wellness through the lens of critical theory. It builds on a long tradition of studying the working body in the field of kinesiology through the lens of occupational health, and in doing so also fills a gap in the area of Physical Cultural Studies given that bodies at work (outside the sporting context) have received little attention in this subfield.The aims of this study are to explore the social, political, and economic context of the diversity worker in contemporary American post-secondary education, and how this impacts health, wellness, and job performance. This study uses a critical qualitative approach drawing from theories of embodiment, radical contextualism, and intersectionality. Data collection entailed a survey (n = 48) and one-on-one semi-structured interviews with diversity workers (n = 8) at an anonymized site referred to here as “public four-year university.” Using thematic analysis and the radical contextual method of articulation, the data was coded and synthesized to construct the three empirical chapters. Through centering the embodied experiences of diversity workers within the context of the contemporary American university, this study contributes to existing scholarship in a variety of disciplines. Study findings point to how we might better support diversity work and workers through a more supportive and healthier workplace environment.Item A GENDER ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING PHD STUDENTS’ CAREER DECISION-MAKING PROCESS USING A BOUNDED AGENCY MODEL(2019) da Costa, Romina Bobbio; Stromquist, Nelly P.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative research study applies a bounded agency model in investigating the career decision making process of engineering PhD students at a large, public research university in the United States. Through a gender analysis of the career decision-making of men and women PhD students in engineering, this study sheds light on the reasons why men and women choose different career trajectories in engineering, with implications for diversifying the professoriate. This study highlights the ways in which men and women PhD students in engineering experience the university as an institution differently, and form different impressions of the academic career. The bounded agency model allows for a holistic examination of the organizational barriers, as well as the individual level dispositions and characteristics that work to limit the range of feasible alternaives and choices for men and women as they make their career choices. The findings provide insight into the career decision-making of men and women PhDs as an iterative process of information gathering, crystallization of values, and narrowing down of options. Gender differences are outlined at each stage in this process, providing a framework for furthering understanding of other underrepresented populations in the professoriate. Additionally, the findings have implications for graduate education in engineering, and for PhD student career development and choice, both in the United States and beyond. keywords: agency, bounded agency, career choice, career development, diversity in STEM, engineering education, gender, graduate student agency, graduate student experience, higher education, STEMItem Uncovering Critical Considerations: Using a Culturally Relevant Analysis to Reveal Teachers' Diversity and Equity Beliefs within Visions and Practice(2015) Yee, Laura S.; De La Paz, Susan; Valli, Linda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The primary purpose of this study was to examine teachers' beliefs about diversity and equity through a culturally relevant analysis of their visions of teaching and practice. The secondary purpose was to identify how centrally located these beliefs were within their visions. Participants included a Black British female second grade teacher, a White Cajun-American male pre-kindergarten and a White American female art teacher within one public elementary school in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Using qualitative case study methodology, participants' visions and practices were collected through individual interviews and observations of teaching over the course of one unit of study. Data included interview transcripts, observational field notes and teaching artifacts (e.g., lesson plans, student work). Using Atlas.ti Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software, data were analyzed using teacher vision and culturally relevant teaching (CRT) frameworks. Both open and a priori codes were assigned to data for each case analysis. Findings reveal underlying positive beliefs for all three teachers as evidenced by the presence of culturally relevant elements in their visions and practice. All teachers also held these elements centrally within their visions of teaching and their practice. The framework for this study as well as its findings demonstrate how vision and CRT may be used to reveal underlying asset rather than deficit teacher beliefs about students.Item A Replication and Extension of Psychometric Research on the Grit Scale(2014) Weston, Lynsey Carlene; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Grit, a "perseverance and passion for long-term goals" (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007, p. 1087), is important for academic success, but the field has not fully explored how grit functions as a distinct construct within the motivational literature or across ethnically and socioeconomically diverse samples. This pilot study replicated and extended Duckworth's seminal grit studies (e.g., Duckworth et al., 2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009) by examining grit's psychometric properties, its relation to other predictors of achievement, and its predictive validity, above related constructs and demographics, for literacy achievement among 33 low-income, ethnic minority high school students. Participants completed online questionnaires assessing their grit, engagement, stress, conscientiousness, and self-control, and took a brief reading assessment. Results suggest that grit may function differently in low-income minority students facing barriers to long-term academic achievement, and that grit's relation to student achievement may not be as clear-cut as what has previously been claimed.Item Dissembling Diversities: On "Middled" Asian Pacific American Activism and the Racialization of Sophistication(2014) Ishii, Douglas S.; Hanhardt, Christina B; Wong, Janelle; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Dissembling Diversities: On Asian Pacific American Arts Activism and the Racialization of Sophistication interrogates how contemporary Asian Pacific American (APA) arts activism and representation has been shaped by the bureaucratic administration of "diversity" after 9/11/2001. Through close readings of texts, it specifically examines Asian American representation within scripted network television programming, graphic novels and comic strips, and indie rock as iterations of panethnic activism in media advocacy, graphical storytelling, and the independent media arts. It understands these cultural forms and diversity itself through the framework of middlebrow culture, which is constituted of texts disseminated through popular culture that normalize the accumulation of cultural capital - or non-financial embodiments of class status such as education and literacy - as cultural citizenship. Dissembling Diversities makes evident how the elevation of these texts through discourses of "Art" and "diversity" relies on the association of cultural capital with whiteness, particularly through the racial exclusivity of their representations and through how the forms' history of class elevation expresses a white/anti-Black divide. Because of its dependence on cultural capital, the visibility for issues facing Asian American communities as expressed through the creation of art participates in the racialization of sophistication. In other words, deployments by APA artists and activists of traits associated with cultural sophistication - such as artistry, learnedness, worldliness, and status - can both illustrate Asian Americans' contributions to a culture of diversity, while reinforcing other racial, sexual, and gender exclusions through class hierarchy and respectability. However, APA activisms that contest the exclusivity of cultural capital can challenge these white/anti-Black class schemes. As such, Dissembling Diversities not only critiques APA arts activism's complicities with the racialization of sophistication, but also examines how it can turn sophistication against itself in imagining past "diversity."Item Academic Affairs and Student Affairs Partnerships Promoting Diversity Initiatives on Campus: A Grounded Theory(2012) LePeau, Lucy Anne; Komives, Susan R.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Higher education research suggests student affairs and academic affairs partner to address challenges on campus, such as building inclusive environments for diverse students and staff, but evidence about how partnerships form is lacking in the literature. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory was to understand how the process of forming academic affairs and student affairs partnerships about diversity initiatives developed with educators involved in a national Project launched by the Association of American Colleges and Universities in the 1990s. The American Commitments Project was designed to encourage educators to center tenets related to diversity in the curriculum and co-curriculum. Research questions included: (a) what can be learned from educators, from both student affairs and academic affairs, about how to formulate partnerships; (b) how do educators involved in these partnerships own perceptions of their multiple identities influence their work implementing diversity initiatives; and (c) how, if at all, has involvement in American Commitments currently shaped the way(s) educators create partnerships? The sample included 18 diverse educators originally involved in the Project on four campuses. Data sources included in depth interviews with participants, campus visits, and institutional archived materials from the Project. After following data analysis procedures consistent with constructivist grounded theory methods, the theory, a Cycle of Making Continuous Commitments to Diversity and Inclusion, emerged. The core category, "making commitments," is the root of the cycle and how commitments are made moves the cycle from sequence to sequence. Issues of exclusion brewing on each campus due to racism and other "isms" initiated the cycle. The subsequent four key categories reflected the considerations and actions educators made leading to partnerships for the purpose of implementing diversity initiatives. Three pathways to partnership characterized the type of partnerships: complementary, coordinated, and pervasive. The pathway employed lead to campus specific outcomes related to diversity and inclusion. The nature of the cycle is iterative meaning that educators must repeat the sequences of the cycle to address current issues of exclusion on the campus. The findings offer implications for campus educators who desire to form partnerships for the purpose of diversity initiatives and for future research.