Dissertation Defense Announcements

This qualitative study examines how Black women mid-level leaders navigate the superwoman schema. The findings extend Woods-Giscombé’s (2010) work by exploring the schema’s impact on Black women working in mid-level leadership administrative positions at HWIs. A descriptive phenomenological study was employed to understand and describe the lived experiences of Black women mid-level leaders and how the superwoman schema impacts work, leadership style, and personal care. The research questions addressed were: (1) How do Black women mid-level higher education administrators experience the superwoman schema at HWIs?; and (2) How do Black women mid-level higher education administrators respond to the superwoman schema at HWIs? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Black women who identified with the characteristics of the superwoman schema, worked at a HWI, and served in a mid-level leadership role. Data were analyzed utilizing Colaizzi’s seven-step descriptive, phenomenological data analysis process (Appendix F). Findings from one-on-one interviews indicate Black women mid-level leaders experience the exhaustion of misogynoir and use resistance responses focusing on their personal advocacy and joy. In relation to the superwoman schema, participants were aware of their emotions, exhausted from external pressures to succeed without the proper resources, and committed to the preservation of self and survival. There was consistent commitment to help others and preserve the Black community while also finding community for themselves.

U.S. school achievement has been the subject of much discussion. In the case of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), the national underperformance across the country, as well as the underrepresentation of minorities are key issues (Anderson et al., 2023; Handelsman & Smith, 2016; National Research Council, 2015; The White House, 2017). Particularly, there is a small, but growing body of research on the low numbers of Black women in STEAM, and the Black girls' STEAM pipeline. Extracurricular STEAM programs have shown some success in increasing minority STEAM participation. As such, this dissertation seeks to investigate the following research questions: RQ1: How do online extracurricular STEAM programs created for Black girls serve as a potential counterspace to increase STEAM identity? RQ2: Are there identifiable features that exist in online extracurricular STEAM programs that are important for creating a counterspace for adolescent Black girls? Through a qualitative case study, this dissertation explored Black girls’ participation in online STEAM programs. The findings of the study reveal that the extracurricular STEAM programs helped to foster STEAM identities in young Black girls. The programs also helped students build a sense of community and created a safe space for Black girls. The study provides implications and recommendations for educators and policymakers who are interested in increasing minority STEAM participation.

Acceleration is one of the best-supported interventions available to gifted education practitioners internationally. However, the acceleration program in Saudi Arabia is still inchoate and could benefit from additional revision. The purpose of this research was to explore Saudi stakeholders’ perceptions regarding their lived experiences with the acceleration program implemented by the Saudi Ministry of Education beginning in 2014. To investigate, I used a qualitative research design and a phenomenological approach. Using semi-structured interviews, 18 Saudi stakeholders were interviewed within six clusters (i.e., three clusters comprising an accelerated gifted student, their parent, and their teacher, plus another three similar clusters with non-accelerated students). Following a thematic analysis method to categorize and synthesize these stakeholders’ perceptions, this approach revealed that Saudi stakeholders believed acceleration as a program was effective for Saudi gifted students. They perceived it as a convenient option, well aligned with gifted students’ characteristics, and as an appropriate recognition of these students’ superiority and dedication. The program was seen as the best available gifted program option in the Saudi context. Participants commended the acceleration intervention for positively affecting gifted students' academic performance. They believed that it provided challenging learning materials, fulfilled academic needs, and led to high grades, intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, and national standardized test scores. They also highlighted the importance of gaining advanced skills after completion. However, stakeholders also criticized the regulations and nomination procedures for the Saudi acceleration program, stating that the procedures were vague, not transparent, and unfair in geographical and other ways. All stakeholders also described a lack of awareness and preparation among teachers, parents, and students. Differences of opinion regarding the impact of this acceleration intervention on the social and emotional status of program participants also reveals contradictions. While some positive aspects included successful adaptation, balancing old and new friendships, maturity, and improved gifted characteristics, other responses mentioned potential negative impacts like anxiety and the pressure of high expectations from the students’ community. In general, Saudi stakeholders believed that the acceleration program positively impacts gifted students' future lives by enabling them to finish school earlier and more efficiently. Successful acceleration also led to scholarships, participation in national programs, and scientific trips, benefiting both society and these gifted students. Furthermore, the discussion revealed implications for practices and policies to improve the acceleration program’s regulation and implementation. Based on these findings, several future research directions are suggested.

The past decade has provided unprecedented insights into the molecular evolutionary pathways that have given rise to the present day diversity of vertebrates. Comparative genomic studies have repeatedly revealed that many key ecological traits, novel functional phenotypes, and even disease states are governed by genomic regions characterized by frequent mutations, duplications, or deletion events. However, the evolutionary origins and early diversification history of many of these regions remain poorly understood. My work focuses on providing a resolution to this history, focusing on the evolution of the vertebrate mobilome and a clustered gene family of innate immune receptors with putative links to the origin of the adaptive immune response. To accomplish this, I sequenced the genomes of Polypterus bichir and Lepisosteus osseus, two taxa that fill critical genomic sampling gaps for early diverging vertebrate lineages. Integrating these genomes into a comparative dataset of over 100 genomes that span all major ray-finned fish lineages, I investigated the effect of teleost genome duplication (TGD) on the diversification of the ray-finned fish mobilome. My findings reveal no substantial shift in mobilome composition following the TGD event, in line with a growing body of evidence that this historical ploidy event has not left a signature of a burst of molecular diversification and innovation across half of living vertebrates. I next expanded my taxonomic coverage to include all major vertebrate lineages to investigate the evolutionary origin of signal regulatory proteins (SIRPs) and their ligand CD47. In mammals, SIRPs are essential for regulating macrophage function and have become important targets for cancer therapy. These receptors also contain variable and joining exons and are hypothesized to have arisen in tetrapods out of a complex of innate immune receptor gene families that also gave rise to recombining T-cell receptors and antibody encoding Immunoglobulin domains. My work demonstrates this is not the case. Instead, SIRPs have evolutionary origins coincident with the origin of the adaptive immune response. In contrast, we find no evidence for an ancient origin of the CD47 ligand, which interacts with SIRPs. Instead, CD47 appears to have arisen at the beginning of amniote evolution, suggesting a decoupling of the evolutionary origins of this ligand and receptor pair. These findings provide a new perspective on the origins and diversification of innate immune receptor gene families and their relationship to the emergence of the adaptive immune system.