Dissertation Defense Announcements

HEATHER ELDEB RYAN. Social Emotional Learning: A Mixed-Methods Study on Mitigating Test Anxiety and Increasing Agency. (Under the direction of DR. TINA HEAFNER)
Abstract
Middle School student academic achievement has not yet reached its potential. A multitude of educational studies have examined the causes and potential solutions that could foster long-term achievement gains for students in these pivotal adolescent years. Much of the prior research has looked at the pedagogical side of teaching, the programmatic side of curriculum, and the multitude of psychological influences experienced by the learner. Although previous work has been absolutely beneficial, these investigations have often been done in isolation. This quasi-experimental mixed-method study attempted to amalgamate pedagogy, curriculum, and psychological influences by integrating social emotional instruction techniques with targeted curriculum to address emotional and behavioral factors that affect student academic performance. A sample of 108 students aged 10-11 years old were placed into four treatment (n =59) and four control groups (n =49), by purposeful sampling. Students in the treatment classrooms received one intervention lesson on motivation and one lesson on anxiety reducing skills. By using an explanatory mixed-method approach, the research used two phases to uncover and track students’ test anxiety, math avoidance, and motivation as potential influences on fifth-grade agency for learning over a nine-week period. Surveys were administered in conjunction with weekly math exams over four separate data points. After repeated ANOVA analysis had been completed on preliminary quantitative data, a structured interview protocol was developed to obtain a deeper understanding of the participant experience for students in both the treatment and control groups. Initial survey analysis found no significant changes by either group in student test anxiety, math avoidance, or motivation towards agency over the research period. Further analysis showed no significant effect of the intervention lessons on the treatment group’s test anxiety, math avoidance, or motivation towards agency. Contrarily, interview data supported previous research findings with the majority of students stating that they had experienced test anxiety, and math avoidance, and had a desire to be more intrinsically motivated. Additionally, respondents from the treatment group perceived the motivational lesson helpful in making intrinsically motivated agentic choices with future study behaviors and the enrollment in advanced math courses. Similarly, 100% of treatment participants believed that the instruction on anxiety skills was useful and would be utilized when necessary. Moreover, interview findings discovered that over half of students in the intervention group had successfully implemented anxiety reducing skills both inside and outside of the school environment post-treatment. Overall findings justify further integration and investigation of social emotional instruction in the general education classroom as a potential solution to increased student achievement.

KAREN ROSHAUN MCLEAN. Exploring Post-secondary Educational Experiences of Black Women with Learning Disabilities: Multiple Case Study
(Under the direction of DR. CHANCE LEWIS)

The road to obtaining an education has not been easy for Black women. Without any mental impairments, Black women have to prove themselves within educational spaces to display themselves as worthy of obtaining higher education. Even with the many obstacles that Black women have encountered in their pursuit of an education, various narratives serve as evidence that even amongst adversity, Black women still rise. Throughout history, numerous accounts of Black women have made tremendous gains in education. Scholars such as Mary McLeod Bethune, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Lucy Laney, Fanny Jackson, and Nannie Helen Burroughs have demonstrated the strides that Black women have made within education (Collier-Thomas, 1982). Not new to the literature are the educational experiences of Black women. Unfortunately, what is lacking in the literature are the educational experiences of Black women with learning disabilities enrolled in postsecondary institutions. Using a critical lens, the goal of this study was to explore the post-secondary educational experiences of three Black women diagnosed with learning disabilities and how these experiences impacted their lives past, present, and future.
Keywords: Black women, learning disabilities, post-secondary, resilience, transition

Literacy is a civil right that every child should have access to. Despite decades of research on how children best learn to read, literacy rates continue to be diminished in the United States, leading children to lives of poverty, unemployment and even crime. Via policy and research, the focus in literacy has shifted to teacher learning as a means to improve student achievement in reading. However, teachers’ voices are largely omitted from discussions regarding how this learning should take place and how they are empowered to apply new knowledge in their classrooms. Through an examination of teachers’ experiences with state mandated reading professional development, it is possible to glean understandings of what professional development practices are most helpful to teachers, particularly in rural areas. The proposed study seeks to answer two essential questions: 1) What factors contribute to rural elementary teachers’ experiences with LETRS professional development? and 2) In what ways do these factors act as facilitators and barriers to teachers' professional development? This study will follow a case study design, collecting data through focus groups. The findings of this study will highlight the experiences of teachers in rural areas, who are often omitted from educational research. More specifically, it will provide valuable guidance around the considerations of context when designing and delivering professional development.

Black women are underrepresented in secondary math education, but their presence is critical for young black girls who dream of STEM careers. Some researchers believe that the number of Black women pursuing secondary math licensure can be increased through improved recruitment strategies, while others focus on causes of leakage in the education pipeline. This study sought to discover types of capital that Black women, who are preservice Mathematics teachers (PSMTs), relied on to persist towards the completion of their teacher preparation programs.
Framed using Critical Race Feminism and Black Feminism, this study employed Counternarrative Inquiry to discover the capital that the five PSMTs credited for their ability to stay the course. The findings indicate that, while PSMTs might use the same capital, they use it in a variety of ways and for different purposes.
A key implication of the findings from this study is that, if undergraduate math educators can mitigate or eliminate the conditions within the math classroom that triggers the use of many of the capitals in this study, Black women who are PSMTs may be able to divert their energies to developing robust mathematical identities.