Dissertation Defense Announcements

Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs have gained attention in K-12 education for their role in supporting students’ social development, emotional well-being, behavioral development, and academic success. While SEL programs have been widely studied in elementary schools, there is a gap in research regarding their implementation and effectiveness in middle schools. This descriptive qualitative multiple-case study explored middle school teachers’ perceptions of implementing the CharacterStrong SEL program. It focused on the program’s perceived benefits, challenges, and impact on middle school students’ academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes. Guided by the CASEL framework for SEL and Self-Determination Theory, data were collected through four focus groups and 12 middle school teachers from a rural district in North Carolina who have implemented the CharacterStrong program for at least three years.
Findings indicated that SEL is valuable for fostering students’ emotional regulation, resilience, and interpersonal skills. Participants reported improvements in student behavior and classroom climate and identified challenges related to teacher training and time constraints. Teachers also emphasized the importance of aligning SEL instruction with content curriculum and the need for ongoing professional development to enhance program fidelity. This study offers valuable insight for school leaders, policymakers, educators, curriculum developers, school counselors, and mental health professionals by providing strategies for improving SEL implementation, enhancing professional development, and shaping future studies on social-emotional learning in middle schools.

PATIENCE BROOKS. Understanding How Racial Identity Development Leads White Teachers Towards Antiracist Pedagogies: A Case Study From A Rural Professional Learning Community.
(Under the direction of DR. TINA HEAFNER)

The U.S. education system lacks a comprehensive effort to help white educators examine their racial identities, hindering their ability to address systemic racism in schools. Without significant curriculum and instructional reforms, systemic biases persist, harming students of color (Lewis et al., 2012). This study examines how white, rural teachers navigate their racial identities while engaging with literature that challenges their perspectives on systemic racism and antiracist teaching, all within an ongoing professional learning community (PLC). The research questions are: 1. How do white teachers’ racial identities develop when engaging in an antiracism-focused professional learning community? and 2. After participating in a year-long antiracist PLC, how do white teachers integrate antiracist curriculum and instruction? The first question is framed by white racial identity development, drawing on the white racial identity framework, second-wave white teacher identity studies, and critical whiteness studies. The second question is grounded in antiracist pedagogies, incorporating critical race theory, antiracist teaching, culturally responsive teaching, multicultural education, critical literacy, and critical service-learning.
This case study examines the racial identity development of seven teacher participants over the course of a year as they engage with an antiracist curriculum within a PLC. It subsequently investigates the curricular and instructional changes implemented in their classrooms as a result of their developing antiracist teaching knowledge.
The results indicated the antiracist curriculum facilitated transformative growth in participants’ racial identities as participants critically examined their own biases, assumptions, and roles within systems of privilege and oppression. Furthermore, there were clear connections between participants’ engagement with the PLC and their ability to integrate antiracist practices into their teaching, reflecting their evolving understanding of racial identity and social justice. Discussions, implications, and future research is also presented.
Keywords: white racial identity development, antiracist pedagogies, critical race theory, antiracist teaching, culturally responsive teaching, multicultural education, critical literacy, critical service-learning.

Modern microbialites are benthic organosedimentary structures that provide an analog to Earth's ancient ecosystems. Despite their importance, microbialites and microbial mats are often understudied, especially when trying to understand their formation process, known as lithification. Microbial-viral-mineral interactions may provide catalysts for lithification. This dissertation provided methods that apply to modern microbialites and microbial ecosystems generally. Chapter 2 detailed methods to enumerate viruses and microbes directly via epifluorescence microscopy (EFM) and flow cytometry (FCM). Chapter 3 provides a robust database, NFixDB, for nitrogen fixation enzymes which is critical to all life on Earth. Finally, chapter 4 resolved metabolites and lipids within modern microbialites across the globe. The methodology in Chapter 2 allowed for the direct measurements of viruses (as viral-like particles) within the Great Salt Lake (GSL), which equated to a mass of all the viruses in the GSL to be roughly 2.2 kg or the weight of a standard red brick. From Chapter 4, I resolved the conundrum of nitrogenase related databases by creating the first whole-genome resolved a comprehensive collection of nitrogenases, alternative nitrogenases, pseudo-nitrogenases, and ribosomal subunits found within nitrogen-fixers (i.e., diazotrophs). Finally, a metabolomic and lipidomic study of seven microbialites across the globe were analyzed. Findings revealed carbohydrates, fatty acids, polar lipids, and glycerolipids are the main contributing factors when distinguishing between freshwater and hypersaline environments. Distinct nutrient patterns, organism niches, and stress responses were identified, providing more insight into the microbial interactions that produce microbialites. Altogether, these findings demonstrate the importance of understanding microbialite lithification, especially when identifying factors that may affect larger climates and the entirety of Earth's ecosystems.

U.S. graduates must be critical thinkers, have strong interpersonal skills, understand diverse cultures, and speak more than one language to compete in a global workplace (Tucker, 2021). Dual language immersion (DL/I) is a successful instructional model that prepares students for the global economy (Thomas & Collier, 2017). Staffing DL/I programs is challenging because of the national shortage of teachers in the United States, particularly bilingual teachers (Hernández et al., 2022). The lack of bilingual teachers in the United States forced some schools to hire international teachers (Hernández & Alfaro, 2020).

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the acculturation experiences of international Latinx teachers, specifically focused on their onboarding support. Using LatCrit and Human Capital Theories, this phenomenological study analyzed the semi-structured interviews to explore the first-year experiences of seven international Latinx teachers. The results of the study indicate that intentional sociocultural support must be provided to improve acculturation and retain bilingual teachers. School support must include a culturally welcoming school community, the strategic assignment of mentors, professional development focused on the use of technology and assessments, and sociocultural support in navigating financial challenges related to housing and transportation. Implications of this study call for school districts and principals to develop culturally-informed onboarding systems to increase international teachers’ sense of belonging and reduce the stress they encounter adjusting to a new community. Additionally, North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction’s commitment to DL/I expansion should include financial support for the relocation of bilingual teachers.