All Theses and Dissertations

College student perceptions of expectations for academic literacy in their first term

This case study observes five first-term college students as they adapt, apply, or reject academic literacy practices in two of their core courses at Georgia Southern University. This information is intended to help the teacher-researcher as well as her university identify how students make the difficult transition from high school to university literacy expectations. During the sixteen-week fall semester, the researcher observed students in their classroom environments, interviewed each i...
Kathy Seymour Albertson.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hayward, Nancy.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Critique of postmodern ethics of alterity versus embodied (muslim) others: incompatibility, diversion, or convergence

In this dissertation, I investigated postmodern alterity, constructivism, and agency through addressing their translatability and implications. In Chapter One, I critiqued postmodern main concepts of alterity and constructivism, showing that these terms can be vague and counterproductive unless they are attenuated with political socio-cultural realities. In Chapter Two, through analyzing modern texts, I explored claims that Western epistemology/ontology reduces the other to the Same. Although...
Ziad Al-Mwajeh.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Vella, Michael.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Embodying research: a study of student engagement in research writing

College students often perceive the university as alienating; reading and writing impersonal research texts can intensify this sense of disconnect. College professors often feel passion and enthusiasm toward their own research yet find it difficult to create this excitement in their research writing classrooms. This qualitative study explored student and teacher perceptions and instructional approaches in a university research writing course, seeking clues to student engagement. Data colle...
Susan Beth Kanter.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Empowering female inmates: an exploratory study of a prison therapeutic community and its impact on the coping skills of substance abusing women

Over the past twenty years, the number of female inmates incarcerated for drug offenses has dramatically increased. This surge has led to a large portion of the female prison population coming into the corrections system with substance abuse problems. Currently, drug relapse is the number one reason for female recidivism. Robert Johnson (2002) has suggested that if inmates learn mature coping skills, while in prison, they will be better prepared for the world outside and will be less likel...
Danielle McDonald.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gido, Rosemary.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Esl college students' beliefs and attitudes about reading -to -write in an introductory composition course: a qualitative study

This study describes ESL college students' beliefs, attitudes, and experiences, about the issue of reading-to-write during an introductory college writing course. Particularly, the study aims at exploring and hearing their beliefs and attitudes regarding the effects of the reading activities on their writing in the light of connections covered in the scholarly literature. The significance of this study rests on the opportunity it gives to the participants to have their voices heard regarding ...
Ali S Al-Ghonaim.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

The impact of the internet on saudi arabian efl females' self -image and social attitudes

One purpose of this study was to explore Saudi EFL females' self-image, their developing perception of their environment, and their changing social attitudes as a result of using the Internet, mainly the effect of the online interaction; a second, related goal was to determine whether, and in what ways, the Internet facilitates perceptive transformation. The participants were nine female Saudi Arabian college students majoring in English, all of whom were members of the Online Writing Coll...
Salem Ali Al-Salem.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Judging the hate crime victim: law school student perceptions and the effects of individual and law school factors

The present study examines the effects of individual and law school factors on the perceptions of African-American, gay, and lesbian hate crime victims for 283 law school students from two schools in western Pennsylvania. Although research on the perceptions of hate crimes and hate crime victims has increased over the last decade, research has neglected to focus on this particular population of students. This population is important because many of these law students will seek roles in the cr...
Jenifer Ann Lee.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gossett, Jennifer L.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

The language of loss: transformation in the telling, in and beyond the writing classroom

Countless students enter college suffering from traumatic losses such as the death of a parent, and many choose to write about their grief in composition classes. Many orphaned students compose their sorrow in order to find hope, without which their chances of thriving are limited. Some feel ill-equipped to meet academic and other challenges as they are preoccupied with feelings of homelessness and abandonment. Because the loss of a parent irrevocably alters one's home-and the yearning for ho...
Laura Alicia Milner.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hurlbert, Claude Mark.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

A qualitative study of teachers certified by the national board for professional teaching standards and their expertise in promoting early literacy

The purpose of this research study was to describe the characteristics and instructional practices of teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in the Early Childhood/Generalist category. The problem of the study is to examine if there are common characteristics that exemplary teachers use. The study rests upon the following considerations: (1) literacy learning is important and the early childhood period is prime time for language learning; (2) youn...
DeAnna M Laverick.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Jalongo, Mary Renck.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Roots and wings: language attitudes of professional women native to the blue ridge mountains of north carolina

Many professional Appalachian women have built their careers in employment environments which expect the language of the academy---Standard American English (SAE). This expectation, along with societal beliefs that Appalachian English (AE), the native vernacular of these women, is an inferior language variety, has led many women to balance the two language varieties through bidialectism. This qualitative study explored the language attitudes of twelve professional Appalachian women, seeking a...
Kristina Holland McBride.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Sisters in Search: Emily Dickinson's Affinities with the Tradition of Christlike Women in Literature

Emily Dickinson's art and life may be better understood in the context of a long literary tradition of Christlike female characters who function as guides, saviors, prophets, or role models to others within the texts and potentially to readers. A female prototype for these characters is the folktale figure of the sister who seeks and saves her brothers (Tale Type 451, recorded by Grimm as “The Twelve Brothers”). Dickinson has complex affinities with this subversive tradition of female heroism...

The size effect of school district on fiscal management, administrative leadership, and student achievement: a comprehensive analysis of school districts in rural pennsylvania using pssa and ccd data

The purpose of this study was to investigate the size effect of school districts in rural Pennsylvania on fiscal management, administrative leadership, and student academic achievement. The data analyzed in this study is Pennsylvania System of School Assessment by Pennsylvania Department of Education and Common Core of Data by National Center for Educational Statistics. This study compared several indicators in each of those three areas between big and small rural school districts. Fiscal ...
Yi Gong.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yan, Wenfan.
Ed.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

A study of the relationship of teachers' self-efficacy and the impact of leadership and professional development

Studies have shown that teachers are a direct link to student achievement. Teachers with a strong sense of self-efficacy nurture students toward academic accomplishments. Teachers with a weak sense of self-efficacy tend to surrender in the presence of difficulty. How then, do schools promote teachers' self-efficacy through leadership and professional development experiences provided to teachers? This mixed-method study examined teachers' perception of their self-efficacy and the impact of ...
Karen (Heidi) L Lewandowski.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bieger, George R.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Understanding the paradigm shift: a descriptive case study of the impact of changes in information literacy instruction methods on librarians, faculty, and students at a private, comprehensive institution

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to understand the impact on librarians, faculty, and students of changes in information literacy instructional methodologies that were piloted as an innovation within a particular institutional setting. The following questions were considered. In what ways and to what extent has a more holistic approach to teaching information literacy been assimilated by faculty and librarians? In what ways and to what extent have faculty attitudes toward tea...
Patricia B Serotkin.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yan, Wenfan.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Violent youth in adult court: a comprehensive examination of legislative waiver and decertification

The current study sought to examine the under-researched area of juvenile decertification and assess the overall effectiveness of Pennsylvania's Act 33 legislative waiver statute. The study focused specifically on factors that predict decertification and provided a comparative analysis of decertified and non-decertified offenders in terms of case outcomes and recidivism, along with a general consideration of whether the statute achieves the goals of increased offender accountability and publi...
Kareem L Jordan.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Myers, David L.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Whiteness and resistance: investigating student concepts of white privilege in the writing classroom

Of the many identity issues that students face as they enter university writing courses---those of gender, class, age, and race---the issue of white privilege is one that is seldom addressed. In the predominately white Southern university where I teach, African American students make up 26% of the incoming freshman population, reflecting the racial demographics of the state. Although the visible majority, white students benefit from racial privilege that seems invisible, at least to them. I a...
Nancy Bishop Dessommes.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hurlbert, Claude Mark.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English