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 Impacts of Identity Change on Trans and Disabled College Students(2023) Klager, Adam; Espino, Michelle M; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While many student development theories exist to understand how students grow in their understandings of their identities during their time in college, no theories exist to understand students who are experiencing a change in their social identities themselves. As previous research has indicated that identity change can be stressful and isolating, as well as an educational process, research is needed to understand how to best support students and understand the impacts of their identity changes. This study attempted to start filling this gap in the literature by using narrative inquiry and Abes et al.’s (2007) reconceptualization of the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity to understand the identity changes of undergraduate transgender students and students who acquired physical disabilities. The study’s findings revealed the impact that identity change can have on students’ need for community, personal relationships, social interactions, and holistic growth. These findings offered new perspectives on the experiences of trans and disabled college students, demonstrating the need for future research on these populations’ identities, as well as on students’ experiences of identity change overall.Item A CASE STUDY OF PRESERVICE WORLD LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF MENTOR TEACHERS(2019) Ditter, Margaret; Peercy, Megan; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This case study examines the identity development of two preservice world language teachers during student teaching, and the role that mentor teachers play in their identity formation. Using situated learning theory and symbolic interactionism as complementary theoretical lenses, this study adds to the limited work on world language teacher identity development and the ways in which mentor teachers impact this development. Data sources include interviews with preservice and mentor teachers, classroom observations, and observations of coaching sessions between preservice world language teachers and their mentors. Findings from this study indicate that the preservice teachers were afforded opportunities to develop and take on a world language teacher perspective during student teaching and their assuming of this perspective supported their negotiation and formation of their identities as teaching professionals. Moreover, consistent with the literature on the identity development of preservice teachers, this study also illustrates that the negotiation of their identity-shaping experiences enabled them to gain confidence and become respected authority figures in the classroom. Lastly, expanding our understanding of previous scholarship on language teacher identity, the current study revealed that mentor teachers provided the preservice teachers with opportunities to form their identities in four key ways: by giving the preservice teachers autonomy, offering them support, transferring authority to them, and sharing ownership of the class. This study builds upon previous findings and provides a unique perspective and contribution to the literature expanding our understanding of mentoring and identity construction directly to the world language field, while identifying the critical impact that mentor teachers have on the identity development of preservice teachers. This study provides implications for preservice world language teacher education and offers guidelines for improving the selection and training of mentor teachers, as well as for enhancing preservice teachers’ professional identity and increasing teacher retention. Teacher educators have the opportunity to support the continued language skill development of preservice teachers and build the confidence they need to be language teachers. Ultimately, this dynamic relationship will encourage preservice teachers to acquire their own unique identity positions in ways that have the potential to improve the state of language teaching.Item Race, Politics, and Structural Diversity: How Hate Crimes, Discrimination, White Supremacy, and Art Shape Social Identities During College(2020) Buck-Coleman, Audra; Ray, Rashawn; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation offers a longitudinal in-depth view into how students respond to a structurally diverse campus, a series of hate crimes and incidents of racial discrimination and bias, and a distinct set of creative engagement diversity activities. With a focus on racial and political identity differences, I employ social identity theory and symbolic interactionism to look at how these three aspects shape their social identities, their opinions of diverse others, and their opinions of diversity in general during their undergraduate career. To explore this, I engage members of the 2015 incoming freshman class and then analyze results from three data sources administered to them: a four-year online survey (n=170), a paper questionnaire (n=537), and two sets of in-depth interviews (n=62). My findings run counter to those of Pettigrew with and Tropp and others (2015, 2011, 2000, 2006): for this cohort intergroup contact does not reduce prejudice. Students in this study are on the leading end of Generation Z, which looks to be the most accepting of diverse others generation to date. Although this cohort and this campus satisfy Allport’s (1954) conditions for prejudice reduction, this does not occur based on my data. Further, a series of distinct creative engagement diversity training activities has no long-term positive effect on their opinions of diversity and diverse others. Diversity and inclusion endeavors without multifaceted, dedicated efforts do not necessarily lead to positive changes in students' attitudes, identities, behaviors, and experiences. This research holds potential to contribute to the canon of social psychology and diversity training practices.Item “What Are We?” A Narrative Study of the “Trickiness” of Identity for Asian American College Students(2018) Kim, Yoolee Choe; Park, Julie J.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Asian Americans are a significant and growing population in U.S. higher education, yet their positionality within the U.S. racial landscape has often been unclear. Acknowledged as neither Black nor White, Asian Americans have occupied an often marginalized yet nonetheless racialized position, which has disguised much of their lived experience as racial beings. This study sought to understand how Asian American college students see themselves as racial beings by exploring the role and salience of race and its intersections with other social identities. Using intersectionality as a theoretical framework, this narrative inquiry study was guided by the following research questions: (a) how do Asian American college students describe and make meaning of their racial identity; (b) in what ways, if any, do their other social identities, such as gender, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, religion, ability status, socioeconomic class, and immigrant generation status, interact with the way Asian American college students describe and make meaning of their racial identity; and (c) how do Asian American college students experience the intersections of their multiple social identities? Following in-depth interviews with four Asian American college students representing a range of identity backgrounds, individual narratives were written for each participant, telling the story of how they came to make meaning of their racial identity, other salient identities, and their intersections. A metanarrative was then generated based on the commonalities of participants’ stories. Through these narratives, the lived experiences of Asian Americans as racial beings were centered. For these four participants, identifying as Asian American was a conscious choice whose meaning was created through reflection on experiences with race, often in conjunction with intersecting identities. Systems of power, oppression, and privilege acted upon those intersections and indelibly shaped the way participants made meaning of their identities, as illuminated by intersectional analysis. The study’s findings indicate paths for future research on Asian American identity development, particularly using critical theoretical perspectives that foreground the influence of systems of power and oppression. The findings also suggest implications for supporting Asian American students and for developing and integrating intersectional approaches in order to create more socially just and inclusive institutions.