Doctoral Dissertations
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ItemThe Early Warning Signs of Hazing in College Fraternities and Sororities(Middle Tennessee State University, 2025)College students in today’s fraternities and sororities do not fully understand where the line is between new member education and hazing, and the student affairs professionals who advise them do not have a common understanding of when and where they should intervene. While the Stop Campus Hazing Act helped with a federal definition of hazing, obstacles still remain. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to investigate the beliefs and attitudes of student affairs professionals who advise active fraternity and sorority members on college campuses. The study will focus on their understanding of hazing, as well as their identification of intervention strategies to enhance student safety. This study utilized a phenomenological research approach to explore how student affairs professionals described their definition of hazing. In this qualitative study, I reported lived experiences surrounding the phenomenon of hazing on college campuses. Nine student affairs professionals revealed common meaning in what they have experienced and how they experienced it through interviews. The research questions were: How do student affairs professionals describe their definition of hazing? How is hazing prevention and intervention addressed through practices, priorities, and policies? The findings include inconsistencies around hazing (definitions, activities, and stated values of the organizations versus actions), building trust and early intervention are critical in preventing hazing, there are funding and capacity issues within the Fraternity and Sorority Life office, there is a lack of data in the profession, a heavy emotional burden is being placed on Student Affairs professionals, and universities are circumventing the law by hiring external partners to resolve hazing cases that will be undocumented. The implications for institutional policy include building a greater awareness of the new federal laws, finding ways to encourage students to come forward with hazing reports, creating a hazing prevention task force with campus-wide representation, creating transparency in hazing reporting across universities and national organization, building a national database of Fraternity/Sorority members to advocate, investing more resources and staffing in the Fraternity and Sorority Life offices, and starting education on hazing prevention in K-12 schools.
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ItemRedefining an African American Cultural Landscape: The Relocation and Preservation of the Lee-Buckner Rosenwald School(Middle Tennessee State University, 2024)The Lee-Buckner Rosenwald School’s history and place in the Duplex community of Williamson County, Tennessee, is not unlike other rural African American schools in the South. In 1868, the Freedman’s Bureau established the Rural Hill School in a log building that doubled as the Rural Hill United Methodist Church and served the Rural Hill community. In the 1890s the Rural Hill community was renamed the Duplex community, and the school became the Lee School and subsequently the Lee-Buckner School. In 1927 the African American residents of Duplex raised money and received funds form the Rosenwald Fund to build a new schoolhouse on the adjacent property to the former Rural Hill Methodist Episcopal Church and School. The new schoolhouse became the Lee-Buckner Rosenwald School and served the Duplex community until 1965 when schools in Williamson County were integrated. The schoolhouse was abandoned until February 2024 when it was relocated to the campus of Franklin Grove Estate and Gardens in the city of Franklin in Williamson County. Lee-Buckner School was a part of the African American cultural landscape that formed the Duplex community which, like other rural African American communities, were built around churches, schools, and cemeteries. The absence of the Lee-Buckner School from the Duplex community leaves a physical and historical void. In its new location it is imperative to preserve and interpret the school building, its history, and how it fits into a new landscape that once enslaved African Americans and later denied them ownership of the property.
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ItemIMPLICATION OF THE ALIGNMENT OF GRADE LEVEL STANDARDS TO INTERVENTION: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE INTERVENTIONIST(Middle Tennessee State University, 2024)Qualifying a student for a learning disability can be difficult to know if they truly are learning disabled or is something else going on. Due to the IQ discrepancy model, to qualify a student with a learning disability, you must have an average IQ, but you are performing below grade level in achievement (Willis, 2019). However, there could be a number of reasons a student’s IQ is average, but their achievement is low. They could lack proper instruction in the general education classroom or proper intervention. Response to Intervention (RTI) was introduced in in the 1960s in an effort to move away from student unnecessarily qualifying for a learning disability (Preston et al., 2016). Unfortunately, there are several intervention programs that are not run effectively which leads to students still getting unnecessarily referred to special education. To make students’ time in intervention more effective, the author of this study decided to try a method of aligning grade level standards to intervention instruction. This qualitative study is about the perceptions interventionists have about aligning grade level standards to intervention. The study found that aligning grade level standards to intervention impacted how RTI was ran, the work of the interventionists, and impacted students in various ways.
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ItemConnecting Anticipation to Noticing in Technology-Enhanced Mathematical Tasks: A Comparison of Preservice and In-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers(Middle Tennessee State University, 2024)This study explored the potential connections between secondary in-service (ISTs) and preservice (PSTs) mathematics teachers’ anticipations and their noticing of student thinking in technology-mediated learning environments, a topic with limited prior research. Specifically, the study examined how teachers (ISTs and PSTs) anticipate student thinking while engaging with technology-enhanced mathematical tasks and notice student thinking while students are engaging with the same tasks, with the aim to describe their knowledge for teaching mathematics with technology—Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Using a descriptive embedded multiple-case study design, the study involved two groups of participants: ISTs (N=3) and PSTs (N=2), who had completed a technology-focused methods class. Using statistics and algebra task, data were collected through video-recorded task-based interviews focusing on how teachers anticipate and accompanying written noticing assessments focusing on how they notice student thinking. Key findings revealed that neither group initially anticipated student challenges before being prompted. When they did, the ISTs focused more on task-related difficulties, whereas the PSTs considered potential difficulties related to both task representation and underlying concepts. The ISTs and PSTs also exhibited differences in how they engaged with tasks and anticipated student thinking. The ISTs tended to explore tasks sequentially, separating their exploration from anticipation, while the PSTs simultaneously engaged in both processes. When noticing student thinking, the ISTs attended more to students’ verbal and written responses, while the PSTs attended more to students’ technology engagement. When interpreting, both groups showed similar patterns: On the statistics task, they interpreted the students’ understanding but also interpreted what students did not yet understand regarding the concept. On the algebra task, they interpreted the students’ current understanding by focusing only on the aspects with evidence in the students’ work. When deciding how to respond, both groups aligned their questioning strategies with performance goals and prioritized learning goals in their next task decisions. Additionally, the examination of potential connections between the teachers’ anticipations and noticing revealed that they possibly leveraged their anticipations when noticing key aspects of student thinking, with ISTs relying more on their anticipations. This study addresses gaps in the literature regarding teachers’ anticipation and noticing practices in technology-enhanced tasks, offering insight into how these practices develop in both PSTs and ISTs. The findings may contribute to teacher education by informing the design of programs that support teachers in developing the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively teach mathematics with technology.
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ItemTeacher Perceptions of Instructional Coach Support(Middle Tennessee State University, 2024)This action research investigates the perceptions of teachers regarding the supports provided by instructional coaches within the context of Dan Alko Middle School. Recognizing that effective instructional coaching is crucial for teacher development, the study explores the challenges coaches face, including teacher resistance to change, scheduling conflicts, misalignments between coaching styles and teachers’ learning preferences, trust issues, and inconsistent implementation of coaching strategies. The research emphasizes the importance of individualized, context-specific support, drawing on teacher learning theories and the effectiveness of Jim Knight’s Impact Cycle. Through qualitative methods—interviews, coaching cycles, and surveys—the study examines the impact these supports on teacher preparedness and instructional practices. Findings reveal distinct experiences among participating teachers, with one demonstrating growth through collaborative engagement, while the other exhibited reluctance to fully embrace the coaching process. The study underscores the necessity for adaptive coaching strategies and ongoing support to foster productive teacher-coach relationships, ultimately contributing to enhanced instructional effectiveness and professional growth. The insights gained aim to inform future practices in instructional coaching, promoting a culture of continuous improvement within educational settings.