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 Exploring Couple and Family Therapist Involvement in Social Justice Praxis(2023) Golojuch, Laura; Mittal, Mona; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As the nation becomes more diverse, multicultural competence and social justice are being increasingly recognized as essential components to effective therapy practice (Hays, 2020; Ratts et al., 2016; Vera & Speight, 2003). While some scholars in the field of Couple and Family Therapy (CFT) have urged the importance of infusing social justice into training and clinical practice for years (see Hardy, 2001; Knudson-Martin et al., 2019; McDowell et al., 2019; McGoldrick, 2007), this topic is understudied and underprioritized by the field at large. Recent CFT scholars also acknowledge the importance of advocacy as an accompaniment to therapy (J. M. Goodman et al., 2018, Jordan & Seponski, 2018a, 2018b). Counseling and social work fields have prioritized social justice advocacy and codified it into mission statements and ethical codes (Ratts et al., 2016; Ratts & Greenleaf, 2018; Toporek & Daniels, 2018). Although CFTs are trained systemically, and may be enacting micro-level advocacy intervention in the therapy room, they do not always view themselves as advocates or enact macro-level advocacy interventions (J. M. Goodman et al., 2018; Holyoak et al., 2020; Jordan & Seponski, 2018b). This study utilized a sequential transformative mixed methods design to assess multicultural competence, social justice commitment and self-efficacy, and advocacy competence in a nationally representative sample of CFTs (n = 101) using survey methods. A subsample of 22 participants were interviewed to further explore their practices as multiculturally competent and socially just clinicians. Three complementary frameworks were utilized to ground the study: The Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC), critical consciousness, and Public Health Critical Race praxis. Overall, multicultural competence, social justice commitment, and social justice self-efficacy scores were high in this sample, while advocacy competence scores were lower. Results showed that identifying as Black or African American and completing additional training in multicultural competence and social justice were associated with multicultural competence. Results also showed that working in an agency setting vs. other settings was associated with lower levels of multicultural competence. Results showed that identifying as female compared to male, having a higher level of oppression, a higher level of civic engagement, and more additional training in multicultural competence were all associated with social justice commitment. Results showed that being older, completing more additional training, and having a higher level of oppression were all associated with higher levels of social justice self-efficacy. Finally, results showed that identifying as non-binary compared to male, completing more hours of additional training, and experiencing higher levels of oppression were all associated with advocacy competence. Additionally, receiving more post-graduate hours of training in multicultural competence, social justice, and advocacy competence was associated with higher multicultural competence, social justice, and advocacy competence. Qualitative findings revealed ways in which CFTs developed and embodied socially just clinical practice and explored recommendations for training.Item TOWARDS AN ETHICAL IMPERATIVE: TRACKING THE REPARATIVE GROUNDSWELL IN VIRGINIA’S ACADEMIC LIBRARIES & ARCHIVES(2023) Hale, Martha Grace; Marsh, Diana; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study aims to understand an uptick of interest in reparative information work in the field of library and information science using the lens of Virginia academic libraries (Jaeger et al., 2016; Poole et al., 2021). The researcher used a web based, self-administered survey instrument to sample memory workers in 101 institutions of higher learning from around Virgina in order to gather data on what kinds of restorative and social justice work is taking place in these institutions as well as regional attitudes towards those efforts. The results and discussion form a platform for the lived experience of memory professionals across a range of power differentials and seeks to understand what praxes assist or hinder these efforts.Item AN EXPLORATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH WORKER ENGAGEMENT WITH HEALTH-RELATED SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THROUGH AN ANALYSIS OF #BLACKLIVESMATTER(2018) Bickford, Abigail Runa; Gold, Robert S; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social movements fight for social justice by protesting systemic social inequities. The field of public health aims to eliminate these same disparities as they relate to health. Many social movements are not currently viewed as health social movements despite these movements addressing health disparities by challenging existing inequities related to social determinants of health. One example is the Black Lives Matter movement which has gained considerable attention in its efforts to address systemic racism, a known determinant of health. While the Black Lives Matter movement has evoked many academic and popular responses, there has been a lack of focus on this movement by the public health workforce. Therefore this work uses the Black Lives Matter movement as an example of a health-related social movement warranting engagement from the public health workforce. This study utilizes a novel approach to the use of social media data in the public health field. The first part of this work examines tweets containing #BlackLivesMatter and compares the online discourse to the stated mission and principles outlined by the leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization. An analysis of the Twitter data was then presented in a Delphi study conducted with a panel of experts in public health. Delphi participants were tasked with developing ideas on how the public health workforce could best apply the information collected from #BlackLivesMatter Twitter data to aid in addressing the health-related issues highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. More broadly, participants also generated ideas about what can be done to encourage the public health workforce to systematically engage with health-related social movements. Finally, one-on-one interviews were conducted with self-identified social activists. These activists were asked about their participation in social movements, their use of social media regarding their advocacy work, and for ideas about how the public health workforce could engage with their causes. Findings from each study are discussed along with recommendations for future work aimed at developing relationships between public health workers and social movements.Item CROSSING THE BORDERS THAT DEFINE DIFFERENCE: THE CULTURE, POLITICS, AND PRACTICE OF SOLIDARITY IN TWO HIGH SCHOOLS(2012) Cohen, Beth Anne Douthirt; Finkelstein, Barbara; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This multi-sited ethnography explores the experiences of high school students in the United States as they enact solidarity across various identity borders including race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and mental/physical ability. Specifically, the study focuses on relatively privileged young people in two distinctly different schools--an urban coeducational public school and a suburban all-boys private school. The students entered into solidarity across difference in order to protest the marginalization of minority groups. Using observations and in-depth interviews, this study documents the process of how, when, and why these students came to enact solidarity as a tool to alter systems of power and privilege. For these students, their journeys towards enacting solidarity began with a discovery of the borders that maintain inequality. These discoveries included a process of 1) experiencing or witnessing marginalization, 2) questioning the borders that maintain systems of power and privilege, 3) re-imagining identity categories, 4) integrating new ways of interacting across difference into their sense of self and sense of the world, and 5) seeking out opportunities to learn new ways of thinking about "others." In an attempt to alter the borders that maintain inequality, the students took on the roles of helpers, messengers, advocates, and activists. They enacted solidarity in different ways at different moments based on their skills, capacities, perceived risks, and on their own understandings of justice, inequality, power, and social change. Over time, the student's enactments of solidarity became dynamic and fluid, while navigating various pitfalls such as paternalism. They employed various forms of solidarity, including human, social, and civic solidarities, and sought to build what this study calls "cultural solidarity" in their schools and communities in order to achieve social, political, and, perhaps most prominently, cultural change. The findings suggest that the agency of relatively privileged students is an effective tool that educators and scholars can harness in interrupting inequality in schools. Dynamic and less rigid conceptions of solidarity better reflect how young people enact solidarity in their daily lives. Through curricular, philosophical, and pedagogical choices, high schools can enable or limit the manner in which students approach difference across groups.Item AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRACTICING URBAN SCHOOL COUNSELORS' COLORBLIND RACIAL IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE FACTORS SUCH AS SUPPORTS, BARRIERS, SELF-EFFICACY AND OUTCOME EXPECTATIONS, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE INTEREST AND COMMITMENT(2012) Gonzalez, Ileana; Bryan, Julia; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Groups of American students are learning at alarmingly different rates. This disparity in education is seen disproportionately in schools in urban areas, where students of color and low income students are concentrated in highly segregated areas. In urban areas, the effects of poverty, racism, and isolation are compounded by stressful environments that make learning difficult for students as is evidenced by the various educational gaps. The inadequate and under-resourced education provided for children in urban schools results in a dramatic loss of human potential and economic loss to the nation's economy. Professional school counselors, who work in the urban context, are in a unique position to remove systemic barriers and create equitable opportunities for learning for these students. School counselors need multicultural counseling competence in order to provide appropriate services to these diverse urban student populations; however, multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills are not enough if counselors are to create systemic change. School counselors must work as social justice advocates in order to tackle the pervasive systemic barriers that plague urban students. Through increased social justice self-efficacy, positive social justice outcome expectations, and social justice supports, and minimal barriers to social justice, school counselors may become more interested in and committed to social justice advocacy. The study examines the relationships between colorblind racial ideology, social justice factors, namely social justice self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and social justice supports and barriers, and the social justice interest and commitment of practicing urban school counselors.Item PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' LEARNING TO EDUCATE ENGLISH LEARNERS IN A TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY(2012) Daniel, Shannon Mary; Peercy, Megan M; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this study, I examined the opportunities prospective elementary teachers had to learn about educating students learning English as an additional language during their thirteen-month Master's with Certification in Elementary Education (MCEE) program. Data collection efforts centered around repeated teaching observations and interviews with four focal participants who were members of the 2010-2011 MCEE cohort during eight months of their program. Additional data collection on candidates' learning experiences in the program included surveys administered with the entire cohort, a focus group interview with the four focal candidates, and a focus group with four other members of the cohort. To investigate efforts teacher educators made to help candidates learn about educating English language learners (ELLs), I interviewed eight teacher educators in roles ranging from mentor teacher to program director. These interviews, along with observations of over one hundred hours of course meetings and a review of program documents, enabled me to identify challenges and opportunities teacher educators encountered when attempting to guide candidates in learning about educating ELLs. When teaching ELLs in their internships, candidates learned valuable skills to educate ELLs, but they also attended to the implicit message that marginalizing ELLs in elementary schools and classrooms is acceptable. In regards to their coursework, candidates identified instances in which they learned about educating linguistically diverse students, but also reported that they remembered little overall because the education of ELLs was addressed infrequently. While teacher educators actively strove toward guiding candidates to learn knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educating linguistically diverse students, they faced challenges such as those related to communication and coherence among teacher educators at the university and school sites. Implications for practice and research include implementing more innovative forms of collaboration among both teacher candidates and teacher educators in elementary education and second language education.Item Principals Leading for Educational Equity: Social Justice in Action(2012) Eldridge, Cynthia; Mawhinney, Hanne B.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative case study examined how principals promote educational equity in schools.. The study examined the experiences of three principals in a school district that mandated that principals lead for equity. The school system defined equity as the elimination of racial predictability in student achievement. To conduct this examination, the researcher conducted an analysis of transcripts from semi- structured interviews. The study's findings overview four conditions that are commonly promoted by principals to address inequities within their schools: leadership for equity, an equity focus, equity enhancing practices and structures. The findings from this case study added to current knowledge about the need for an equity plan model that principals can apply in planning and leading for educational equity in their schools. Studying how principals promote educational equity in schools proved a significant way to learn about how today's schools address inequities facing African American and Hispanic students. The study also added to current knowledge about social justice in education, as the foundation for educational equity work. Suggestions for further research include: investigating principals leading for educational equity in a district that did not mandate this idea; further comparison studies with the principal as the primary unit of analysis; including teacher and student perceptions would be beneficial. Research that provides further description of the experiences of principals working to become leaders in educational equity will extend our professional knowledge on this topic.Item "Putting My Man Face On": A Grounded Theory of College Men's Gender Identity Development(2007-04-26) Edwards, Keith E.; Jones, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explore the process of college men's gender identity development. Conducted from a social constructivist epistemological paradigm, through a social justice theoretical lens, and using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, the following research questions guided this study: (a) how do college men come to understand themselves as men; (b) how does this understanding of what it means to be a man change over time, if at all; and (c) what are the critical influences on this process? Three interviews with 10 college men from a large East Coast university were conducted. The theory that emerged from this study is grounded in the participants' experiences and depicts gender identity as developed through constant interaction with society's expectations of them as men. In order to try to meet these expectations and be seen as men, participants described putting on a performance that was like wearing a mask or "putting my man face on." This process included learning societal expectations of them as men, as well as specific cultural group expectations. The men in this study were all aware that they did not neatly fit behind the mask, either as a result of personal characteristics or social identities. Their resulting insecurities led them to wearing the mask both consciously and unconsciously so that they would be seen as men by society. Wearing the mask had consequences for the women in their lives, their relationships with other men, and themselves as they were also denying or masking their true selves. Although none of the men in this study had been able to completely take off the mask, they were able to identify critical influences in their lives that had helped each of them begin to remove the mask in certain circumstances and begin moving towards being their own man. This theory of college men's gender identity development has implications relevant to theory development, research, student affairs practice, and social justice.Item Teacher Seeks Pupil--Must be Willing to Change the World: A Phenomenological Study of Professors Teaching for Social Justice(2005-06-30) Pigza, Jennifer M.; Hultgren, Francine F; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the lived experiences of faculty who teach for social justice in the context of higher education. The tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology grounds this inquiry (Gadamer, 1960/2000; Heidegger, 1971/2001, 1977/1993; Levinas, 1969). The phenomenological research activities designed by van Manen (1990) provide the methodological framework for entering the study. By calling upon the philosophical traditions and methodological guidelines of hermeneutic phenomenology, the research begins to name what it means to teach and be for social justice in higher education. This study involves conversations and classroom observations with five faculty members representing three colleges and universities. Among the participants are three women and two men; three faculty with tenure, two without; two people of color; Jewish, Christian, seekers, and unnamed; one person who self-identifies as gay; and, ages mid-30s to early 60s. They are grounded in more than five different disciplines, and teach in at least seven departments, at three types of institutions. Through this hermeneutic phenomenological exploration, the lived experience of teaching for social justice in the context of higher education shows itself in two main themes. The first theme reveals elements of articulating social justice through speaking-teaching-being. Within this theme, sub-themes are present, such as troubling language, currency and curriculum, and reading the world-word. The second theme refers to a sense of wide-awakeness in the pursuit of social justice and its teaching. Sub-themes here include the notion of taking attendance and being attentive, linking seeing with doing, and serving and sustaining a vision. The first set of pedagogical implications of this study focus on the influence of culture, the notions of liberal and conservative ideas, speaking truth to power, and crafting a language of longing to teach for social justice. A second set of pedagogical implications emerge from the proposed idea of a currere communis for social justice. The research suggests the development of communities that support transformative learning for faculty and other educators in higher education. The currere communis for social justice also extends to suggest implications for the teaching of students and the teaching of the general public, as well as directions for future research.Item Songs of My Life: Five Approaches to Choreographic Explorations(2004-05-11) Singh, Daniel Phoenix; Rosen, Meriam; ArtThis written project explores five approaches to the dance performance event "Songs of My Life." The five approaches are based on developing the practical process, deriving from personal experiences, engaging women's perspectives, reorienting spectators and defining the role of art. This written work engages the performance event from a Women's Studies, Critical Studies and Cultural Studies perspective. The project works on deriving theory from the practice of dance and art, as well as using the existing theoretical models as a lens, to gain new perspectives on the choreographic process.