Villaverde, Leila

UNCG

There are 53 item/s.

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
A classroom of her own : hegemonic discursive disempowerment of the female progressive educator within higher education 2006 4607 "This dissertation represents a distinct theoretical and pragmatic interrogation into the historically hegemonic discursive disempowerment of women in patriarchal society and institutions of higher education. The axis of which, is the exigencies uniq...
A theoretical framework toward implementing and sustaining middle and early college high schools 2006 6328 "This study addresses the growing interest in middle and early college high schools as a tool of reform to transform the philosophy and structure of the traditional high school. The following questions guided this study: 1) What is the set of core fa...
(Re)envisioning self and other : subverting visual orientalism through the creation of postcolonial pedagogy 2007 11740 "The purpose of this research was to explore the historical, cultural, and political background behind the visual representation of Muslim women in the West in the post-September 11th era and to create pedagogy based on contemporary art that can enga...
A change is gonna come: a critical study of the impact of a community organizing group on power relations and public life 2010 4967 This research study examines the impact of the congregation-based community organizing group, Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE), on power relations and public life in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Utilizing an action resear...
A visual and textual analysis of transnational identity formation and representation 2007 2527 "This dissertation is an exploration of identity formation when crossing national boundaries and confronting disparate cultures and histories. Working with the assumption that identifying (or not) with local discourses informs behaviors and values, t...
Queer pedagogy as spiritual practice 2010 3423 The purpose of this research is to explore unlikely intersections between the seemingly divergent streams of spirituality and queer theory in the discourses around education. When brought into con...
A multi-method qualitative inquiry of girls' access to education and literacy through the implementation of a critical literacy curriculum in rural Pakistan 2010 7773 Girls' access to education and literacy in developing countries has received international support and significance in the past decade. This dissertation uses a multimethod qualitative approach in understanding girls' literacy in rural Pakistan. It c...
The Black Panther Party, a re-gendering of revolutionary subjectivity 2011 6339 This thesis explores primary sources, historical content, and theoretical developments regarding gender, race and class both historical and contemporary to further investigate the Black Panther Party as a collective political body and individual iden...
Meeting disability with resiliency, hope and agency: a narrative study of caregivers of children with cognitive and physical disabilities 2013 13546 Studies of caregivers of children with disabilities have historically assumed a deficit or disease model, while at the same time relying heavily on quantitative measures of stress and maladaptive behaviors. There is a dearth of qualitative and constr...
A query into the social construction of (un)natural disasters: teaching (about) the biopolitics of disposability 2013 4859 This dissertation represents a theoretical and pragmatic interrogation of global disasters as natural in a comparative and historical context. Specifically the sixty year environmental degradation and contamination of Vieques, Puerto Rico by the U.S....
A historical and phenomenological examination of African American mothers in special education in a Southern school district: examining race, gender, and the politics of containment 2013 3082 This study explores African American mothers' special education decision making process and how their decisions are influenced by the politics of containment--racist power structures embedded into American society which seek to monitor, classify, and...
"Becoming a mother is nothing like you see on TV!": a reflexive autoethnography exploring dominant cultural ideologies of motherhood 2014 3972 Mothers in contemporary American society are bombarded with images and stereotypes about motherhood. Dominant cultural discourses of motherhood draw from essentialist and socially constructed ideologies that are oppressive to women. This study uses a...
Social justice development: creating social change agents in academic systems 2011 13204 The purpose of this dissertation is to use critical and transformative research to engage academic advisors in developing the social, cultural, and political habits of mind, understanding, knowledge and skills necessary to enact social justice leader...
Learning to ask: philanthropic struggles and rewards of women forging the path toward transformation 1865 - 1920 2011 3112 The purpose of this dissertation is to understand why representations of women's educational philanthropy are often invisible in historical context. The political and economic power structures that existed between 1865 through 1920 are examined to un...
Navigating mainstream higher education: examining the experiences of Native students using Tinto's interactionalist's model 2012 4324 Postsecondary degree attainment for American Indian college students at predominantly White institutions has consistently been the lowest among any ethnic and/or racial group for the past three decades. A plethora of studies have been conducted to ex...
Queer(ing) gender: a critical analysis of thinking, embodying, and living genderqueer 2013 9184 A purpose of this dissertation is to offer a new look at the genderqueer body and experiences in order to further queer our current frames of thinking about gender in ways that challenge hegemonic structures of analyzing, defining, and evaluating liv...
(De)Constructing the student body: a post-structural analysis of dress codes in secondary schools 2014 4307 This thesis conducts a post-structural analysis of the bodily management demanded by the wording and enforcement of dress codes in the secondary school setting as well as potential sites for resistance. Specifically, in chapter one, this project uses...
Art and stories of social justice identity development from white, christian women offer Insights for a Social Justice Education for Young People 2013 3305 This is an arts-informed social inquiry that uses expressive arts and experiential learning modalities to explore the transformational stories of small group of White, privileged women at Green Street United Methodist Church, a multicultural church c...
'You don't even know me:' exploring news media, educational policies and practices affecting Latino/a students: a qualitative study 2014 2659 In this qualitative research study, the researcher utilizes an interpretivist and critical paradigm epistemology to explore the ways in which immigration and Latino/a people are discussed within news media stations CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC and how th...
Disrupting the best of intentions. towards becoming an anti-oppressive educator: locating and interrogating whiteness in teacher education programs 2014 2744 A purpose of this dissertation is to understand how pre-service teachers locate and problematize their whiteness within teacher education programs. This dissertation studied and attempted to locate these curricular "interventions" by analyzing select...
Mycological provisions: an a/r/tographic portraiture of four contemporary teaching artists 2014 3017 This is a critical and qualitative research study exploring the work of four contemporary artists using social art practice as a form of public pedagogy. The study examines a collection of projects authored by each artist to understand the political ...
Negotiations of race, class, and gender among Afro-Latina women immigrants to the southern United States 2015 4457 This qualitative study uses narrative inquiry to investigate the lived experiences of Afro-Latina women immigrants to the southern United States. Through Critical Race Theory and Black Transnational Feminist Theory the researcher explores how Afro-La...
Hip-hop is more than just music to me: a narrative study exploring the counter-stories of Black men elementary school teachers from the Hip-hop generation 2013 6094 In this qualitative dissertation study, the researcher utilizes a critical race methodology to address the dearth of Black men who teach in America's elementary school classrooms. Through the lens of a Black Feminist and Hip-Hop Feminist, the researc...
Study of white privilege in K- 12 schools: minority teachers’ perspectives 2013 3306 The purpose of this dissertation is to capture and explore the existence of white privilege in K-12 schools through the perspective of minority educators. Further, my hope is to engage educators of all kind to begin conversations about white privileg...
The phenomenon of transformation from help seeking to help giving: the role of family-run organizations 2013 1827 The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experience of parents who staffed family-run organizations funded under System of Care (SOC) grants between1994 and 2011 in a single U.S state. For this study, I used a qualitative, interpretive p...
There’s more to it than just girl power: a case study exploring a women’s and gender studies class taught with The Hunger Games 2016 2089 In this qualitative case study dissertation, the researcher explored students’ perspectives on young adult dystopian fiction in the feminist classroom. Through the lens of popular culture and storytelling, the researcher considers the powerful pedago...
A culture of persistence: untold stories of degree attainment from GED earners in the community college 2016 976 The purpose of this dissertation was to better understand under what conditions degree attainment takes place for GED recipients enrolled in the community college, and to research this question from the perspectives of the participants. To achieve th...
(Un)restricting the imagination: community engaged research involving college students with intellectual disabilities and implications on scholarship, postsecondary programming and pedagogy in higher education 2017 2556 This dissertation explores the intersection of community engaged research and arts-based methodologies involving students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) on a college campus, with broader theoretical connections related to disability identity and...
The praxis of disrupting educational spaces: culturally relevant pedagogy in a school-based mentoring program 2020 512 This qualitative research study examines the Successful Team Aimed at Reaching Student Success (STARSS) mentoring program at Excellence High School (EHS). The STARSS mentoring program purports to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of A...
Sassy subversions, knowing glances, and Black women’s laughter: moving towards a Black woman’s pedagogy of humor 2020 2618 Sassy subversions, knowing glances, and Black women’s laughter is a qualitative study that examines the nuances of Black women’s humor away from the comedic stage. Additionally, it provides an alternative approach to understanding Black women’s lived...
The kids are not all right: LGBTQIA+ student identity and introductory film studies curriculum 2020 1119 In attempting to address a broad range of students, introductory film studies curriculum serves to reinforce the marginalization of certain student identities that do not conform to hegemonic ideals reinforced through traditional, canonical analysis....
No longer living in silence from the margins: African American male college student’s voices centralized regarding their engagement, persistence and graduation 2015 1492 For more than fifty (50) years African American males' have been a major topic of research studies throughout academia and special interest groups or foundations in the United States. These studies have been situated to analyze data on Black males fr...
What moves at the margins: Black queer poetics and the critical pedagogical imagination 2018 1441 What Moves at the Margins is a critical rhetorical analysis that explores the literary work of three African American writers, while examining Black queer thematics, sensibilities, rhetorics, and pedagogies. The writers examined in this study include...
Breaking down the enchantment: a critical autoethnography of video gaming 2019 2114 Video games are flooding our everyday lives from our phones to our schools. Our understanding of this medium is still developing as it shapes players’ sense of self and their view of the world. This study contributes to bridging that gap by questioni...
Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape: making meaning in college through hip hop lyricism 2020 2730 This opening line of Yasiin Bey’s (1998) critically acclaimed album, Black on both sides, exists as a sprawling opus to hip-hop. In expressing his profound appreciation for the culture, Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) constructs this nuanced, multila...
Deconstructing liberated subjects 2014 1032 This dissertation offers a critique of liberatory practices and projects that locate "voice" as the means to and sign of liberation. This work contributes to queer and trans* scholarship on emancipatory practices and offers insights for critical peda...
The country mouse in the city school house: making the case for a critical rurban pedagogy 2014 1644 With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by North Carolina, local school districts are encouraged to develop CCSS-aligned curricula that that are culturally relevant for an area's students. However, defining the culture of a commun...
Using coaching as a social justice tool 2015 2665 The purpose of this research is to explore the way professional coaches are taught to use advocacy in their work with and for their clients. The research posits that the use of critical questions in the coaching conversation is both ethical and neces...
The impact of collective leadership development on the practice of civic leadership 2019 815 A collective paradigm of leadership is emerging that represents the kind of leadership needed for the post-industrial society, especially in civic contexts where challenges occur between and among organizations and sectors. This paradigm contrasts wi...
A critical poetic inquiry into the sociocultural experiences of high-achieving Black women in K-12 out-of-school time (OST) academic enrichment programs 2021 340 This critical arts-based qualitative study explores the sociocultural contexts and the impact of race and gender that influence the engagement of high-achieving Black women in K-12 out-of-school time (OST) academic enrichment programs. Twelve high-ac...
Toward a pedagogy of critical liberative theological consciousness: cultivating students as agents of social change 2020 2044 The central task of Toward a Pedagogy of Critical Liberative Theological Consciousness: Cultivating Students as Agents of Social Change is discovering pedagogical and theological wisdom for social transformation, through a dialogue with James H. Cone...
Community members’ narratives in collective impact models 2021 693 A popular community engagement strategy called the collective impact model has been emerging to address large-scale social change requiring broad cross-sector coordination. In response, the field of community development shifted its focus from isolat...
Critical experiential education : integrating critical pedagogy, social justice education, and experiential education to re-imagine teaching and learning 2021 882 This dissertation examines the lived experiences of teachers, students, and administrators at a public charter school based on progressive philosophies such as experiential education, restorative justice, and social justice. Through a qualitative con...
A critical philosophical examination of the educational mission in Student Conduct practice in higher education 2022 253 As a Student Conduct professional, I felt a tension between the espoused educational mission of our field and the daily functions of my role, which did not seem to have anything to do with education. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the purp...
Anti-oppression imaginaries: art, process, and pedagogy 2016 2764 This dissertation explores the idea of process as it relates to curricular organizing and pedagogy that is critical of an array of sociopolitical oppressions. To establish a foundation for anti-oppressive educational praxis, I engaged in participator...
Mentorship in a small private university 2017 638 Using qualitative exploratory research methodology, I sought to explore the first stage implementation of a university-based initiative aimed at creating an undergraduate culture of mentorship at a small liberal arts institution. Initially formulated...
Unsettling choreographies 2022 939 This dissertation, Unsettling Choreographies, offers a multi-­dimensional, critical engagement with different conditions of possibility for choreography in relation to feminist, anticolonial, and queer philosophical inquiries, methodologies, and poet...
What do teachers value? : a study examining elementary teachers’ perceptions, beliefs, and curricular practices in shaping student values 2024 236 Teachers today feel pressure to maximize student engagement and learning. With an increased focus on student scores on end-of-grade test measures and their association with school performance grades, educators are forced to consider how to yield resu...
Why are all the Black kids tweeting together? : exploring the impact of Black social media spaces on Black college students at historically White institutions. 2023 532 Why are all the Black Kids Tweeting Together? is a mixed methods study that applies critical race theory (CRT) and the campus racial climate framework to explore the role same-race peer groups created on social media platforms play in the experiences...
Reframing the story : counter-narrative storytelling and Black men in educational leadership in a southeastern, urban district 2024 90 This dissertation examines the lived experiences of Black men credentialed to be assistant principals and principals within a southeastern, urban public school district based upon the philosophies of equity and social justice. Through a qualitative c...
College and career readiness and its impact on the lives of minoritized secondary school students in North Carolina 2024 325 This research study aims to examine College and Career Readiness (CCR) curriculum as it is experienced by North Carolina’s Native American, Latinx, and African American secondary school students. The project was conducted using an Art Based Research ...
Towards collaborative approaches to heritage and education : a postcritical ethnography of a participatory action research project in Belize 2023 121 Colonial legacies in Belize continue to marginalize contemporary Maya groups; this is particularly evident in public education practices and national representations of Maya culture and history. A need exists for community-led educational spaces that...
Lila uyanu : understanding Garifuna women’s sociohistorical experiences through the ancestral tradition of ameinahani 2024 60 This qualitative study uses the Ancestral Knowledge Systems framework to investigate the experiences of Garifuna women through their ancestral tradition of añahani. Guided by Black Feminist Theory and Decolonial Theory, the researcher explores how Ga...