Dissertation Defense Announcements

This study seeks to explore equity and social justice in a teacher preparation program through the lived experiences of teacher candidates who are attempting to enact equity and social justice in their teaching. This study suggests that for a university-based teacher education program to support teacher-candidates enactment, while addressing the tension between focusing on equity and social justice or pedagogy, they must: a) identify how the curriculum addresses equity and social justice, b) identify how teacher candidates are attempting to enact equity and social justice in the classroom, and c) identify what the teacher candidates gained from the curriculum that helped them incorporate equity and social justice in the classroom. This study applied a case study approach to reveal the lived experiences of teacher candidates, who are student teaching in diverse urban schools during their last year in a teacher preparation program. Findings suggest when incorporating social justice and equity, teacher preparation programs need to thread equity and social justice in the curriculum in a way that is fluid and integral. When supporting teachers’ enactment of equity and social justice, bold and courageous decisions must be made to dismantle the racist systems in education.

This meta-analytic review integrates the micro perspective theory of coping responses with the macro perspective theory of institutional theory of moral collapse to understand the likeliness of the employee reporting sexual harassment. Based on previous research, classifications of individual, industry, and country level factors are proposed that impact the reporting of sexual harassment and then used in the analysis of 248 studies with 284 independent samples, containing 538,426 study participants. This study showed that employees with positive job attitudes were less likely to report sexual harassment as their coping response. Perceptions of the global environment is a relatively more important predictor of reporting sexual harassment over individual difference variables of age and tenure under the institutional theory of moral collapse. The power distance and masculinity norms of the country where the business is located as well as the industry of the business moderates the relations between the perceptions of the global organizational environment and reporting sexual harassment as a coping response. In the discussion, I identify several gaps in the literature, suggest directions for future research, and highlight organizational policies to reduce the risk of sexual harassment.

Research indicates that the substance use of a family member can affect all members of the family (Church et al., 2018; Kelly et al., 2017; McDonagh et al., 2019). However, the major focus of research to date has been on the effects of substance use on the individual who presents with a substance use problem, their parents, their partners, and their children (Selbekk et al., 2018; Shumway et al., 2019). There is a gap in the literature related to sibling experiences with a siblings’ substance use. By broadening our view of who needs support when a family presents with an offspring suffering from substance misuse, researchers would help to support the thousands of siblings who are trying to manage their own lives while faced with the demands of their sibling’s addiction (Olafsdottir et al., 2020; Tsamparli & Frrokaj, 2016; Smith-Genthôs et al., 2017). The principal investigator used a phenomenological research design to explore the experiences of 15 participants who identify as having or having had a sibling with substance use problems. Semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were used to investigate the lived experiences of the participants related to having a sibling with substance use problems. The six themes identified were Safety, Chaos, Relationship Stress, Emotionality, Avoidance, and Movement. A review of implications and recommendations for clinicians and future research are included.

In today’s world of modern metrology, it becomes increasingly common to find new technologies which employ non-traditional measuring mechanisms in attempts to provide new advantages to lever over competing measuring instruments. In addition to such new technologies emerging, parts being measured also tend to grow in complexity, presenting new and unique challenges in their measurement. As a result of such advancements in technology and increasing part complexities, it becomes necessary to develop and optimize data processing, data modeling methods and error analysis methods tailored to a given measurement technique or a given part. This dissertation explores these aspects of discrete part metrology and presents solutions for each case considered. A data processing method is developed to allow measurement of any complex part using a precision rotary table and a set of triangulation-based laser line sensors. Machine learning approaches are also explored for a similar measurement problem. The system described is tailored to measure desired discrete parts (gears in this case) and can be considered a custom coordinate measuring system (CMS). An essential step to pushing such custom machines or new measurement technologies into widespread use, is the development of standardized test procedures that enable users to compare different technologies by their performance against traceable standards. Development of such standards often involve designing performance evaluation test procedures that are sensitive to as many known error sources are possible. Therefore, such an approach is adopted for two measuring technologies, namely X-Ray Computed Tomography (XCT) and Stereo-vision Photogrammetry. In each case, several known error sources are characterized, and recommendations are made on ways to capture them. Further, from an automation perspective, it becomes essential to use a data modeling system that can support descriptions of complex parts and their measurement results, as well as accommodate new measurement technologies and tools. To this end, a promising candidate, the Quality Information Framework (QIF) has been identified.