Teachers\u27 Lived Experiences of Work Intensification in a New Jersey High School

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore high school teachers’ lived experiences with work intensification in northern New Jersey. The theory that guided this study was Apple’s teacher work intensification thesis as it helps to explain the organizational conditions that lead to increases in teacher workloads, as well as teachers’ responses to work intensification. The central research question for this study involved exploring the lived experiences of 10 public high school teachers in New Jersey managing perceived feelings of time poverty due to work intensification. Sub-questions were used to explore teachers’ value of time during their workday, as well as how they mediated between job demands and their perceptions of their work. Data was collected through interviews, reflective journals, and a qualitative survey. Member-checking was done to verify data transcription accuracy. Data was thematically analyzed, and open coding was used to identify common words or phrases used by the participants. The data was then categorized, and themes were generated to make meaning of the data in relation to research questions. Further analysis included memoing, in vivo coding, and horizontalization. Results of the data analysis led to the identification of four themes: organizational pressures, unsustainable working habits, chronic stressors, and workplace relationships’ influence on work quality. The findings in this study support prior research which describes how changes in the amount and complexity of teachers’ work can exacerbate their feelings of time poverty and lead to negative job outcomes

The Experiences of Itinerant Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Promoting Self-Determination Skills Among K-12 Students With Hearing Loss: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of promoting self-determination skills in students with hearing loss to address their listening and learning challenges for itinerant teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing at K-12 public schools in the United States. The theory guiding this study was Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory through the lens of teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing promoting competency, autonomy, and relatedness skills in relation to self-determination for addressing challenges among students with hearing loss. The study\u27s central research question was: What are the experiences of itinerant teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing promoting self-determination skills to address communication skills among students with hearing loss? A qualitative design of hermeneutic phenomenology was implemented to provide the researcher of this study with a unique opportunity to understand and describe the experiences of the participants in relation to the study’s problem. Participants in this study were itinerant teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing with at least three years of teaching experience and one year teaching self-determination skills in K-12 public school settings serving students with hearing loss utilizing an expanded core curriculum that focuses on competency, autonomy, and relatedness. The data sources were individual interviews, journal prompts, and a focus group with the participants. Using van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology approach, data were organized and analyzed into themes utilizing Saldaña’s coding process. Major themes of the study highlighted the powerful role of self-determination in helping students understand their hearing loss, make informed decisions, and build stronger connections with others

Developing a Biblical Emotional Intelligence Strength Training Program for Upper School Teachers

Teachers continue to leave the teaching profession at an alarmingly high rate with emotional exhaustion and stress being the leading causes of teacher attrition in the United States. Despite the high levels of stress experienced by teachers, professional development rarely includes training in emotional intelligence. Attention must be given to emotional intelligence training to strengthen teachers\u27 emotional regulation, stamina, and resilience and cultivate their ongoing community spiritual formation for Christian education to continue to have educators that provide continuity for students and make disciples of Christ. This project collaborated with Roanoke Valley Christian Schools to develop and implement a biblical emotional intelligence strength training program that sought to increase teachers\u27 emotional regulation and resilience, establish a biblical worldview of emotions that built community emotional intelligence and fostered supportive team relationships, and end the cycle of teacher attrition

The Nuptial Metaphor from Genesis to Revelation: An Examination of Yahweh’s Divine Romance with Israel and Mankind in Scripture

This study demonstrates that the nuptial metaphor is not merely a marginally interesting literary motif but deeply embedded in the meta-narrative of the text of the Bible and hermeneutically significant in providing an interpretive thematic framework for rightly reading the Scriptures. In other words, this study is a literary and thematic biblical theological study, utilizing historical, biblical, grammatical, and canonical theological approaches to the entire biblical text, of the nuptial metaphor found throughout Scripture as a thematic framework that is hermeneutically significant. Contemporary studies of the nuptial metaphor that recognize and value the nuptial metaphor of God marrying His people have been typically limited to select portions of the Scriptures such as Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi, Song of Songs, the Fourth Gospel, and Revelation, where the nuptial metaphor is more or less easily identifiable. This study, building upon the work of previous studies of the nuptial metaphor in Scripture, argues that the nuptial metaphor is a hermeneutically significant theme throughout the entirety of Scripture by filling in some of the gaps where the nuptial metaphor is less easily identifiable and presenting evidence that the nuptial metaphor is woven both explicitly and behind the scenes throughout every part of Scripture from the Old Testament, the Law to the Former Prophets, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, and the Writings, to the New Testament

Impoverished People: A Phenomenological Study of the Effects of Organizational Culture and Corruption on Class Poverty

Researchers have established that corruption adversely affects economic growth and development and deters resources from the most vulnerable. When viewed through the lens of public administration, corruption can create financial burdens and hinder the delivery of essential services, such as criminal justice, healthcare, education, and social programs. However, the dynamic effects of organizational culture and corruption on class poverty are still unknown. This phenomenological study fills this gap. The researcher employed a case study methodology to achieve this goal, using a semi-structured interview format, a focus group, and a document analysis of an administrative court. The population for the interview consisted of public sector employees with at least ten years of experience and a college degree. Five of the participants were invited to the focus group. The study results indicate that low salaries, poverty, and lack of ethics are significant economic factors contributing to corruption in public administration; social factors, including social behavior and culture, significantly contribute to public sector corruption as they breed skepticism and erode trust, generating a social problem; and organizational behavior, lack of leadership, and dysfunction are significant organizational factors influencing corruption in Haiti’s public administration

A Gripping Controversy: Examining Hoplite Spear Grip Positions in Art, Practice, and Context

The Greek Hoplite was the principal warrior of Archaic and Classical period Greece. The citizen militiaman was outfitted primarily with a large shield and spear, which he used in a dense Phalanx formation to combat foes for nearly three centuries. In the absence of written records detailing how individual hoplites fought, historians have turned to the artistic record. Archaic and Classical age vase paintings, depicting hoplites in combat, have served as the basis for nearly all reconstructions of hoplite warfare. The majority of these vase paintings depict hoplites holding their spears overhead in an overhand grip position. This grip position, while being the basis of nearly all previous models of hoplite combat, is not convincing when placed under logical scrutiny. This study uses archeological reconstruction to show that an underhand grip is far more likely to have been the way hoplites wielded their spears in the phalanx, thus necessitating a reexamination of previous scholarship. This research also proves, through artistic and literary analysis, that this new model of hoplite warfare is not inconsistent with pictorial evidence. It shows that the overhand grip is instead an inherited artistic convention based on Homeric descriptions of warfare, and an enshrinement of the Greek virtues of heroism, competition, and individual prowess

Simulation-based design optimization of active-control rocket canards in subsonic flight

Rocket canards are small, vertical control surfaces located above a rocket\u27s main rear fins, typically just below the nosecone, providing active-control maneuverability during flight. When an internal mechanism rotates the canards about their center relative to the rocket air frame, they achieve an angle of attack and produce a lifting force perpendicular to the airflow and tangential to the curvature of the air frame. This lifting force causes a moment relative to the rocket\u27s center of gravity along both the roll and pitch axes, which can be used to stabilize the rocket mid-flight by providing corrective adjustments to the rocket\u27s trajectory based on live avionics data. The larger the canards and the further the canards are placed above the center of gravity, the greater the moment generated from a given angle of attack, the greater their control authority over the rocket\u27s orientation, and the greater their effectiveness in providing corrective adjustments. However, the addition of canard surfaces also inherently reduces the aerodynamic performance of a rocket by a factor determined by the size, shape, and position of the canards relative to the rocket body. Thus, a trade-off occurs between the aerodynamic performance of the rocket and the effectiveness of the canards smaller and lower canards have a greater aerodynamic performance and smaller corrective effectiveness while larger and higher canards have a smaller aerodynamic performance but greater corrective effectiveness. In this research, simulation-based design optimization methodology, which involves numerical simulation of rocket aerodynamic responses, meta-modeling techniques, and multi-objective optimization methodology, is used to obtain an optimum size, shape, and position of subsonic vertical-flight rocket canards for both aerodynamic performance and their active stability effectiveness

Feathertop Character Design

Feathertop, a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, suffers from a marked lack of high-quality illustrations to bring the story to life and public awareness. Despite having a strong mood and atmosphere, intriguing characters, and thought-provoking themes, it is a little-known story with much creative potential from a written and visual standpoint. The goal of this research project is to utilize the author’s rich descriptions of the main character, Feathertop, to create a memorable and endearing design which will serve as a launching off point for further illustrative development of the story

A Woman’s Worth: A Portrait of Single, Unmarried Women in Fiction

This thesis explores the characterization of single women and the theme of singleness in fiction and explores how nineteenth-century British literature portrayed single women using the writers’ observations of societal standards and cultural shifts throughout the century. The artist statement delves into the inspiration and origins of the project, along with a personal journey to faith. The critical paper titled “A Portrait of Single Women in Nineteenth-Century British Literature” analyzes five British novels, Emma, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Middlemarch, and The Portrait of a Lady, that discuss single women or have a theme of singleness. The creative manuscript portion is the beginning of Aftermath, a sci-fi fantasy and romance about twenty-seven-year-old Lumerian woman, Vy’meria Lumoira, who navigates her sense of self-worth and identity as a single woman who has never been in a relationship. The piece explores how society views women who are single despite being of marriageable age. In conclusion, historical remnants of the stigmas and societal perceptions of single women can be seen today, which makes literature with the characterization and theme of singleness to have continued relevance and a place within the hearts of single women readers who are inspired by such writing

Seeing Resilience Through Experience: Teachers\u27 Resilience Experiences Post COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this phenomenological was to describe the post-COVID-19 resilience experiences of 6th to 12th grade schoolteachers at Hope County Public School (HCPS). The theory that guided this study is the differing pathways to resiliency theory, as it was used to describe teachers’ resilience experiences regarding the outlook on work, self-efficacy, and coping responses. The central research question was, “What are the post-COVID-19 resilience experiences of 6th to 12th grade schoolteachers at the HCPS in the classroom?” Participants included 10-15 6th to 12th grade schoolteachers who taught before, during, and post the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected through individual interviews, letter writing, and a focus group, which are data collection methods appropriate for qualitative research. To analyze the data, I employed the five steps outlined by Moustakas, for this research study type, to include horizonalization, reduction and elimination, clustering, the development of textural and structural descriptions, and essence extraction The three themes that emerged from the study were challenges, resilience, and self-efficacy