Theses/Dissertations - Educational Leadership
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Browsing Theses/Dissertations - Educational Leadership by Author "Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-"
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Item "Beyond those gates" : how the process of earning a college degree in prison shapes a person's hoped-for self.(2023-08) Abouras, Rachel, 1994-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore how the process of earning a college degree in the prison context shaped the hoped-for selves of 23 formerly incarcerated individuals. My research focus was twofold: First, I wanted to understand how the content of participants’ hoped-for selves changed as a result of earning a college degree in prison; then, I wanted to understand what aspects of the higher education in prison (HEP) context contributed to those changes. Using a conceptual framework that combined symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969) with possible selves theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986; SI-PSs), I was able to explore how certain contextual factors–namely, learning interactions and the physical environment–influenced what participants understood to be desirable, yet plausible, for themselves in the future. Findings revealed that participants tended to envision their future selves in increasingly community service-oriented terms while attending college in prison. Additionally, participants often saw themselves pursuing further education in the future. These community-oriented, academic future selves remained consistent even after one’s release from prison. Further, findings highlighted how interactions where participants felt validated by their faculty, connected to their peers, and/or were able to develop increased self-awareness significantly influenced how they viewed themselves in the future. Participants’ hoped-for selves were, in other words, largely shaped by three overlapping processes which I refer to as confirmation, connection, and contextualization. These processes each necessitated and facilitated a capacity to be vulnerable and expose oneself emotionally in an environment where vulnerability was typically discouraged. This study thus underscores the importance of vulnerability in the prison college classroom, as well as the unique ways in which the prison environment may, paradoxically, enhance a person’s learning experience. Implications for research, theory, and practice are outlined and discussed.Item Conceptualizing the undocumented college student's legal status.(2014-06-11) Mũnoz, Alejandra, 1986-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-; Educational Administration.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Administration.Undocumented students in pursuit of a college education face a unique intersection of conflicting identities: one that potentially gives them a higher societal status by joining the social category of “college student,” and one that is associated with a social stigma that comes from the label of “undocumented.” Higher education institutions provide a place for undocumented students to navigate their legal status identity, make sense of it, shape it, and define it. In addition, the impact college has on a student’s social status can profoundly affect their life through opportunities for movement within society. This research study explored the following question: What is the role of college in how an undocumented student defines status ownership?Item Does gender matter? Transfer students' perceptions of their transition experiences.(2014-06-11) Yuhas, Elise M.; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-; Educational Administration.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Administration.This study focuses on the role of gender in the meaning-making processes of transfer students and their selection and use of institutional and non-institutional resources during their transitions to a new university. Contrary to previous research that shows transfer students want to participate in similar types of transition resources that are provided to first-year students, these participants discussed that they wanted their previous collegiate experiences to be recognized and validated by their transfer institution. Findings indicate that expectations and experiences of the individual play a more significant role in the selection of resources than gender. Implications for future research point to studying the inclusion of transfer students in Greek Life activities.Item Environment and affluence : how food insecurity shapes student identity at a selective flagship institution.(2021-07-13) Cliburn Allen, Cara, 1991-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-The purpose of this study is to understand how students who experience food insecurity manage and display their identity at a selective state flagship institution with a culture of affluence. Though many scholars have sought to establish the prevalence of food insecurity on college campuses, little is known about how different environmental contexts shape how a student experiences food insecurity and how students shape the campus in return. This study utilizes a sociological framework to understand the dynamic relationship between students and college environments. The findings of this study provide a model that can be used to understand how students experience food insecurity across multiple environmental contexts. Additionally, findings show how students are socialized to navigate affluent environments, but also how they exert agency within the space through two modalities: Instrumentalists and Opportunists.Item Faculty interpretations of faith-integration in classroom practices.(2014-06-11) Ellis, Erin M.; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-; Educational Administration.; Baylor University. Dept. of Educational Administration.The purpose of this study is to better understand faculty members' interpretation of faith-integration as a practice of teaching in the classroom. The relationship between faith and learning has continuously prompted scholars to study the phenomenon of its unity in the classroom. However, the research surrounding faculty teaching practices or techniques of faith-integration, is insufficiently existent. The findings of this study provide a model that illustrates the application of integrating faith and learning as a way of life for participants, and the expressions of practice as outcomes of that way of life. The findings do not prescribe a specific formula for integrating faith and learning, however, the model demonstrates how various components of a faculty member's life speak into the expression of faith-integration as a practice of teaching. The model may help faculty members learn to appreciate their own expression of faith-integration as a classroom practice.Item Female community college faculty : perspectives of collegiality and the collegium.(2018-07-11) Nogalski, Toni Marie, 1990-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-Although collegiality is an essential component of faculty work, it is a concept that is universally championed, yet conditionally awarded based upon membership into the collective professorial unit known as the collegium. This study analyzes the role of collegiality and the collegium among female faculty members teaching in community colleges, who represent both a population and a context that challenge normative professional ideals. The findings from this study suggest that community colleges are sites where women may find rewarding academic lives which are intentionally chosen as a means to avoid unpleasant working realities of other academic institutions. However, the degree to which these faculty members are fully supported by institutional policies and included in decision-making was questionable.Item Invisible and ambiguous : the racialized experience of Asian American administrators in Christian higher education.(May 2023) Jeong, Elijah Gunwon, 1985-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-This qualitative study investigated the racialized experiences of Asian American administrators in Christian higher education. Through personal interviews with 23 Asian American administrators across Christian higher education, the study aimed to provide a more complex analysis of the administrators' racialized experiences. The analysis focused on three specific factors: (1) challenges and barriers, (2) unique racialization, and (3) assets, capital, and strengths leveraged to resist and succeed in higher education. The results showed that the challenges faced by Asian American administrators were not reducible to a single factor but were a result of a host of different factors. The findings revealed that participants discussed three identity-based challenges (racial, gendered, and religious) and two other key administrative challenges (lack of Faculty and Staff of Color and ineffective racial diversity efforts). Additionally, the study found that Asian American administrators not only faced the various challenges and barriers faced by all People of Color, but also faced challenges and barriers that were specific to Asian Americans, such as the consequences of navigating the Black White Binary, including invisibility and ambiguity. Despite these challenges, Asian American administrators were not passive victims of marginalization, but instead resisted, persisted, and leveraged various strengths and assets in their work as Christian higher education administrators. The findings identified and described seven forms of cultural capital leveraged in Christian higher education: aspirational, familial, linguistic, social, resistant, navigational, and spiritual.Item “Lithuanian is the English” : how language policy and ideology condition internationalization by mediating access to spaces of opportunity and community at a Lithuanian University.(May 2023) Hoye, Kathleen A. R., 1990-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-The purpose of this study is to understand how the language ideologies embedded within de jure and de facto language policies inform and relate to the socialization and language practices of graduate students, faculty, and administrators of a prominent Lithuanian university. Few studies have explored how language policies and language practices shape the socialization experiences of graduate students, faculty, or administrators. Little is known about how these dynamics change in post-Soviet and minoritized-majority language contexts, such as Lithuania where the national language has substantial symbolic and communicative power. This study integrates a symbolic interactionist theoretical perspective with the glonacal agency heuristic as a framework to understand how faculty, graduate students, and administrators negotiate the complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between language policies and language practices in ways that influence interpersonal interaction and communication. The findings from this study demonstrate that national and institutional de jure policies effectively regulated the languages of core academic activities, and indirectly functioned as gatekeeping mechanisms that maintained the Lithuanian-dominant demographics of academic faculty by perpetuating privileged employment pathways. Furthermore, the findings show how faculty, administrators, and graduate students exercised their agency to engage in language practices in spatially and socially dynamic ways, allowing them to strategically capitalize on the benefits of using English in selected “international” spaces and activities that aligned with their motivations and institutional incentives, while also maintaining the existing linguistic hierarchy that privileged Lithuanian in most local social, academic, professional spaces. Lastly, this study’s findings reveal how these circumstances contributed to asymmetrical socialization, with access to information, resources, and opportunities that privileged the experiences of Lithuanian-speakers, compared to their non-Lithuanian speaking counterparts.Item Race, space, and saving face.(2020-04-09) Bay, Rachel H., 1995-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-Despite diversity on college campuses increasing nationwide, higher education institutions still struggle to promote diversity and inclusion equally. The current literature shows a need to better understand the relationship between race, space, and interaction that forges approaches to understanding race in these contexts apart from the well-worn approaches of developmental stage theories. A few studies have previously addressed the purpose and importance of multicultural identity centers on higher education campuses, but none have used a framework that draws upon Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgy to analyze the role that the multicultural identity center plays in the racial performance of Students of Color on campus. This study explored the following question: What role does the multicultural identity center play in the racial performance of Students of Color on campus?Item Selling place, selling faith : what Christian university tour guides reveal about a theology of place.(May 2023) Woodford, Madison N., 1999-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-Christian college campuses are theologically-imbued places of higher learning. Drawing from their personal experiences and professional trainings, campus tour guides are uniquely positioned to introduce a theology of place to prospective students. From a qualitative paradigm and symbolic interactionist approach, this project investigated the lives, work, and meaning-making of ten tour guides through interviews, as well as official and personal campus tours to answer the following research question: How do tour guides on a Christian college campus experience, interpret, and convey a theology of place to prospective students? Study findings reveal that guides felt connected to their campus community and experienced God’s presence everywhere, privileged realities they– through symbols, objects, and interactions – strategically shared and subtly normalized for tour-goers. This study ultimately illuminates the challenges of mission-based practice, shedding new light on how students uniquely navigated these tensions, and challenging higher education practitioners to think theologically about the campus places they work to promote.Item Structure, culture, and nurture in women’s academic leadership.(2018-06-27) Landerholm, Savanah N., 1989-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-This qualitative study investigated what role structure, culture, and nurture play in women’s experiences in academic leadership. From personal interviews with 41 women in senior-level roles across Birnbaum’s four institutional types (collegial, bureaucratic, political, and anarchical), I discovered common sequencing patterns, deviation from institutional norms, and several functions of mentorship. Using the three strands of structure, culture, and nurture, I gained insight and understanding of women serving in senior levels of higher education. This deeper look at the experiences of women academic leaders in sequencing work and family life reminds the reader that the work of creating supportive organizational structures for women is not finished. Cultural expectations for the role of women lag behind current rates of participation, and women deviate from the institutional culture through their very presence as well as by their leadership styles. Nurture is the most variable of the three strands, evidenced by the broad range of experiences. The value of having mentors is expanded by this fresh understanding of mentors as processors, encouragers, and sponsors. Finally, three archetypes of women academic leaders emerged: passers, pushers, and peacekeepers. Passers, drawing on racial passing theory and stigma, are women leaders who take on stereotypically male characteristics or behaviors to fit in among male leaders. Pushers, based on organizational change theory, are change agents who propel their institutions toward gender equity. Peacekeepers, rooted in political science theory on diplomats, are women who led relationally and collaboratively.Item Student experiences with wonder through higher education.(2019-04-23) Sentell, Chelsea, 1989-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-The purpose of this study is to understand the process by which students engage with wonder through experiences in higher education. Wonder as an emotion and practice has been studied extensively from a theoretical, philosophical, and theological perspective, and research suggests that wondering has positive implications for learning. However, empirical research about students’ experience wonder has not previously been collected. The findings of this study provide a model that illustrates the process by which students wonder and eventually begin to engage in wonder as a practice. Additionally, the findings present sources within a college setting that have provided opportunities for students to wonder. This study lays a foundation for continued inquiry into the subject of student wondering and may provide educators a starting point from which to consider how their practices can further contribute toward opportunities for students to wonder.Item The socialization of first year students through unsanctioned events.(2017-03-28) Lowe, Alyssa Lee, 1993-; Alleman, Nathan F., 1975-The purpose of this study was to determine the ways in which socialization occurs in a specific first year student population in relation to participation in unsanctioned events that are hosted by an unaffiliated organization. Unaffiliated organizations are student organizations not officially registered with their collegiate institution. Unsanctioned events are events that are hosted by university students but are not in partnership with the institution itself. The most common of these types of unsanctioned events are off campus parties. These parties are examined through a ritual lens in order to better understand the ways in which first year students are sociologically affected by their participation in an unsanctioned event.