In the wake of Saul Kripke's landmark "Naming and Necessity," the claim that proper names are directly referential expressions devoid of descriptive content has come to verge on philosophical commonplace. Nevertheless, the return to a purely referential semantics for proper names has coincided with the resurgence of the very puzzles…

This project examines the professional experiences of women of color faculty to uncover less visible mechanisms of inequality in the academy. It is a mixed-methods study with both qualitative and quantitative components. I address the limitations of past research by revealing how even despite the relative successes of women of color in academia,…

My interest in student engagement stems from my own experiences as a student and educator. Desire to better understand student experiences of engagement, to develop my own pedagogical practices, and to contribute to theory of dance pedagogy has motivated this work. Stemming from the traditions of Husserl and Heidegger, specifically their studies…

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the actions taken by school boards that advance student achievement in high-achieving rural public school districts. Much of what is discussed in the literature on school improvement efforts is centered on the work carried out by school personnel at the school level. What is…

In 2009, the National Assessment of Educational Process reported that the average reading score for students in one state was lower than that reported for students from 43 other states. The percentage of students performing at or above the accepted proficiency level in reading was 24% in 2009. School curriculum promotes reading achievement, yet…

State funded preschool programs were constantly faced with the need to change in order to address internal and external demands. As programs engaged in efforts towards change, minimal research was available on how to support continuous improvement efforts within the context unique to state funded preschool programs. Guidance available had…

This study is concerned with the acquisition of English verb transitivity by native speakers of Japanese. Both a verb's semantic class (Levin, 1993; Pinker, 1989) and its frequency (Ambridge et al., 2008) have been proposed to influence the acquisition of verbs in L1. For example, verbs whose meaning entails change-of-location or…

Studies by Moats (1995), Mather, Bos, and Babur (2001), and McCutchen, et al (2002) have begun to identify the relationship between teachers' linguistic knowledge and what is known, scientifically, about how literacy is acquired by learners. Findings from these studies support the idea that linguistic knowledge--particularly knowledge of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of private practitioner and educational advocate opinions on school-based administrators' decision-making thought processes when making a recommendation for special education eligibility. Special education eligibility is a school-based team decision that involves multiple…

This thesis reports on three empirical studies that focus on questions concerning knowledge sharing and construction in communities of practice and global knowledge exchange platforms. The first essay presents an exploratory case study on a particular academic community of practice--AISNET and its central knowledge exchange platform, the ISWorld…

This qualitative study was conducted in the Midwestern U.S. It explored the stories of 27 educators who participated in a four-year instructional coaching project in a large urban school district. Subjects shared their perceptions of and meanings they constructed as a result of their experiences in the coaching project through participation in a…

This dissertation employs data collected from multiple sites in Southern California over a period of nine months. Several in-depth ethnographic interviews and participant observations were conducted with Pakistani Muslim women (age 17-22) and their parents in an effort to better understand the influence that parents and ethno-religious communities…

There has been an identifiable decline in moral decision making and socially responsible behaviors in society based on recent national events such as Enron and the Bernie Madoff scandal (Arvedlund, 2009; Doran, 2004). This study attempts to address this leadership crisis by examining college student involvement and leadership experiences that may…

Almost 11% of college students have a disability (Newman, Wagner, Cameto, Knokey, & Shaver, 2010). Existing research indicates that students with disabilities have difficulty with retention and graduation (Newman, Wagner, Cameto, & Knokey, 2009). Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a type of disability that has increased among students in…

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid survey instrument to measure student perceptions of the outdoor physical campus environment. Using campus planning and environments literature and expert consultation, a survey instrument was developed to measure student satisfaction with the outdoor campus environment and the…