Prevalence of mental health needs, particularly those related to anxiety, depression, and emotion regulation, are on the rise in higher education institutions (Auerbach et al., 2016; Blanco et al., 2008). Research has shown college and university student help-seeking behavior varies by identity and many students are often reluctant to seek support…

The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative research study was investigating the perceptions of LGBTQ+ college students regarding their out-of-school literacies and the impact of their participation in a non-academic writing group focusing on their out-of-school writing and identities. Situated within the New Literacy Studies (NLS)…

Institutions of higher education have a unique opportunity to support their students' holistic development by incorporating elements of high-impact practice into campus jobs. High-impact practices ask students to dedicate significant time and energy to meaningful work, which channels students' efforts toward productive activities that deepen their…

This dissertation was a study of the efficacy of incorporating a creative writing-based curriculum into English Composition I courses. The goal of this study was to determine whether students learning with this style of curriculum could meet the student learning outcomes and master the core competencies for this course as effectively as students…

This study examines the phenomenon of plagiarism and impersonation in online course assignments. Technological advancements, coupled with lower costs and accessibility, have made online courses and programs a practical option for higher education students. Unfortunately, the increasing online enrollment and advancing technology have allowed an…

This dissertation explores the use of place-based pedagogy as a tool for teaching for transfer in a college composition class in West Virginia. Although existing composition scholarship indicates that themed classes (such as a place-based class) are unlikely to facilitate transfer among the students, this is mostly due to instructors of themed…

This dissertation explores the importance of embodied teaching pedagogy as it relates to peer review practices in the college writing classroom. This work uses autoethnography as a research method, exploring issues of (dis)embodiment and experiences with collaborative learning in classrooms. In addition to a review of applicable literature focused…

Students are expected to interpret the complexities and nuances of literary texts yet might struggle with interpreting texts in ways that are academically valued in literary studies. While linguistic studies that examine students' literary interpretive writing have mainly been situated in secondary contexts, there is a noticeable absence of…

Responding to student writers and their work is a staple of composition instruction, and there are numerous guides that offer educators advice on response strategies. However, such guides are often based on untested theories or assumptions about the effectiveness of those strategies, with little data-driven evidence of whether they work as hoped…

On average 66% of high school graduates in the United States enroll in some form of post-secondary education after high school graduation. However, less than half of students sitting for the ACT in 2019 were deemed college ready in evidence-based reading, writing and math and as many of two thirds of first year college students enroll in at least…

This dissertation provides a model for reconsidering student agency in educational spaces and specifically in self-placement practices. Employing a Cooperative Inquiry framework in which students were included in the research process, this project sought to understand the experience of incoming students at a larger research-intensive institution…

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects 6-17% of college students in the United States, which can negatively impact academic achievement and is associated with other emotional difficulties. Exposure therapy, including written exposure therapy as been found to be efficacious for treating. However, concerns of treatment dropout and low symptom…

To guide antiracist curriculum reform in higher education and better support college writers from racially marginalized and traditionally underserved backgrounds, this dissertation emerged from a five-year ethnographic study of a slam and spoken-word poetry program housed in a DEI office at a large research university. Merging feminist…

For this qualitative study, I employed performance gap analysis and root cause analysis on a university via semi-structured interviews that included member checking follow-ups with 10 university stakeholders and three focus groups to: (1) identify the performance gap; (2) hone in on the performance gap and identify the root causes; and (3)…

This dissertation investigated how expansive framing can foster an inclusive and empowering learning environment for minoritized students in first-year seminars that focus on composition. This paper is especially important for those who teach and support minoritized students who often face crises of faith about belonging at primarily white…