Browsing by Author "Zarestky, Jill, committee member"
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Item Open Access A critical examination of obstacles and opportunities to building capacity for community engaged social-ecological research and management(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Hauptfeld, Rina Simone, author; Newman, Gregory, advisor; Bruyere, Brett, committee member; Pejchar, Liba, committee member; Zarestky, Jill, committee memberThis dissertation seeks to contribute to more equitable and effective local governance and research of social-ecological systems. Specifically, I investigated efforts to enhance the distribution of influence and capacity, particularly to historically marginalized actors. This required critical evaluation of factors that influence whether and how interventions to build influence and capacity do so. Chapter one introduces the theoretical framing to this research, my positionality, and an overview of chapter organization. In my first two manuscripts (Chapters 2 and 3), I research underexamined elements of public participation in scientific research (i.e., delegated local ecological monitoring) as a proposed tool for building community capacity for resource management, particularly in developing economies. I seek to understand local ecological monitoring from multiple levels of influence - both the perspectives of resource-dependent participants, as well as from the perspectives of the program implementers. Specifically, Chapter 2 seeks to understand the experience of participants (i.e., small-scale fisherfolk with a role in the management of marine protected areas in the Philippines) to investigate the narrative that local ecological monitoring empowers communities to manage their social-ecological systems. I find that monitoring programs largely failed to be adopted by local communities, and rather than empowering participants, were perceived as burdens and a reaffirmation of local hierarchies. My findings highlight the risks of uncritically applying ‘participatory’ approaches, and stress the need to recognize and design for the psycho-political contexts (e.g., agency) to achieve desired outcomes. In considering context, this study makes a novel contribution to the characterization of citizen science approaches, by distinguishing externally initiated programs in which monitoring is intended to become autonomous. In consideration of the failed outcomes in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 investigates the potential for win-win outcomes in citizen science by examining an understudied area - organizer rationales for engaging local participants in contributory programs in the Philippines. I find that organizer rationales for and perceptions of engaging participants were multiple, overlapping, and sometimes antagonistic, particularly regarding who is served, and who determines the objectives, suggesting that outcomes often framed as benefits in the literature may sometimes not benefit participants. To foster clarity and encourage reflexivity in citizen science programs, I map these findings onto the normative – substantive - instrumental typology of rationales to propose an adapted typology rooted in the realities of citizen science. Chapter 4 addresses the flip side of the participation equation by investigating how high- ‘cost’ community-oriented collaborative conservation practices are built and sustained among U.S. academics and practitioners. This retrospective program evaluation found that immersion into a community of practice, and obligations and opportunities to experiment with collaborative approaches fostered capacity - notably conviction for, awareness of, and comfort with collaborative conservation - resulting in long-term adoption of practice. The findings in these studies shed light on important obstacles and opportunities for enhancing efficacy and equity in community-engaged research and management endeavors increasingly sought in social-ecological systems. Notably, a pervasive thread to emerge from these chapters is the important role of intentional design using a systems-thinking approach, regarding linked social-ecological systems, multiple levels of influence, and temporal scales.Item Open Access A funds of knowledge study on the college persistence experiences of first year Latinx students in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP)(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Bocchetti, Miriam L., author; Muñoz, Susana, advisor; Barone, Ryan, committee member; Ishiwata, Eric, committee member; Zarestky, Jill, committee memberThe increasing numbers of Latinx students enrolling in post-secondary education has resulted in a compelling need for colleges and universities to understand the complexities of the Latinx migrant student experience, with the hopes that understanding the nuances of the Latinx migrant student experience can assist educators in developing and enhancing initiatives to better support this population of students. It has been well documented that this marginalized and underserved student population historically encounters unique challenges as they navigate the oppressive systems of higher education. Using funds of knowledge as a theoretical lens, this phenomenological study explores the college persistence experiences of first-year, Latinx participants enrolled in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), a federally funded program designed to support migrant students in their first year of post-secondary education.Item Open Access CSU industrial hygiene program training needs analysis(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Moore, Jillian, author; Brazile, William, advisor; Zarestky, Jill, committee member; Reynolds, Stephen, committee memberGraduates of industrial hygiene (IH) programs must be able to meet continuously evolving health and safety needs in a wide variety of occupational settings. Therefore, academic IH graduate programs must regularly evaluate their curricula and solicit input from industry professionals in order to make curricular changes that will better prepare their students for professional roles in industry. The purpose of this study was to identify the training gaps that exist between industry needs, accreditation criteria, and the current curriculum for the CSU Industrial Hygiene graduate program. In Phase 1 of this study, a set of curriculum maps were developed to evaluate training gaps between accreditation criteria, course learning objectives, and course assessment mechanisms for each core course in the IH curriculum. In Phase 2, the research team facilitated two group interviews with the Colorado State University (CSU) IH Advisory Board, collected alumni survey data, and performed a qualitative analysis to identify skills gaps/needs for CSU IH Program graduates. In Phase 1, only one gap was identified between accreditation criteria and IH program course objectives in the nine core departmental courses of the CSU IH graduate curriculum. No gaps were found between IH Program course objectives to course assessment mechanisms. In Phase 2, the research team identified three themes (technical, applied, and soft skills) and selected several skills within each theme that interview participants thought were necessary proficiencies for young IH professionals. The curriculum mapping exercise generally validated the satisfactory accreditation status of the CSU IH Program graduate curriculum. The development of the curriculum mapping tool and evaluation method can aid in providing evidence for the re-accreditation process for the CSU IH Program, as well as other occupational health programs. The skills identified in the qualitative interview and survey data can be incorporated into the curriculum to improve the training of IH students. Additionally, by using qualitative analysis, the researchers uncovered soft skills previously unidentified in IH needs assessments, providing valuable information for all IH graduate programs.Item Open Access Graduate students' representational fluency in elliptic curves(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Dawson, Erin, author; Cavalieri, Renzo, advisor; Ellis Hagman, Jessica, advisor; Zarestky, Jill, committee memberElliptic curves are an important concept in several areas of mathematics including number theory and algebraic geometry. Within these fields, three mathematical objects have each been referred to as an elliptic curve: a complex torus, a smooth projective curve of degree 3 in P2 with a chosen point, and a Riemann surface of genus 1 with a chosen point. In number theory and algebraic geometry, it can be beneficial to use different representations of an elliptic curve in different situations. This skill of being able to connect and translate between mathematical objects is called representational fluency. My work explores graduate students' representational fluency in elliptic curves and investigates the importance of representational fluency as a skill for graduate students. Through interviews with graduate students and experts in the field, I conclude 3 things. First, some of the connections between the above representations are made more easily by graduate students than other connections. Second, students studying number theory have higher representational fluency in elliptic curves. Third, there are numerous benefits of representational fluency for graduate students.Item Open Access Holding on to the good life: Samburu women's resilience and response to climate change(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Walker, Sarah Elizabeth, author; Bruyere, Brett, advisor; Solomon, Jennifer, committee member; Skyelander, Kim, committee member; Zarestky, Jill, committee memberThis dissertation seeks to explore climate change resilience from the perspective of pastoral women in Samburu, Kenya. It investigates the resilience-related concepts of adaptive capacity, response strategies, and well-being. In Northern Kenya, the increasing frequency of drought is forcing pastoralists to respond to a changing climate while a variety of socioeconomic changes simultaneously both constrain and enhance their ability to respond. Pastoral women sit at the very nexus of these shifting dynamics; women continue to face significant barriers that limit their adaptive capacity, are often responsible for the increased workload associated with a changing climate, and experience unique and gendered impacts of engaging in climate change response strategies. The first manuscript in this dissertation applies a dimensional framework of well-being to the experiences and perspectives of Samburu women. We use semi-structured interviews and a novel participatory activity entitled "Build Your Best Life" to explore what it means for Samburu women to "have a good life." A well-being framework created by the ESRC Research Group on Well-Being in Developing Countries guides our presentation of twelve themes organized into three unique dimensions. Further, we argue for the importance of taking into account how different components of well-being influence each other and the implications of these interactions for climate resilience interventions. The second manuscript uses a participatory adaptation scenario and mapping activity to explore how formal education -- a common foundation of adaptive capacity -- influences Samburu women's livestock-related decision-making processes as they respond to drought. This manuscript builds on Cinner et al.'s (2018) framework of adaptive capacity and suggests that in order to leverage the potential of formal education to positively impact adaptive capacity, education must influence both the learning and agency components of adaptive capacity. Finally, the third manuscript investigates the influence of various response strategies on women's well-being and household livestock loss. We differentiate between coping and adaptation strategies and use the well-being framework from the first manuscript to look at how coping and adaptation uniquely impact women's sense of being able to provide for their children and their hope for the future. We use the gendered divisions of labour associated with drought adaptation and coping strategies to explain our results. As a whole, this dissertation attempts to understand how Samburu women are experiencing drought, the barriers they face in responding to drought, the response strategies they engage in, and how those responses may impact their well-being. Our results underscore the importance of using a gendered lens to understand climate resilience and creating culturally relevant frameworks for resilience-related concepts. We subsequently discuss implications for theory and practice.Item Open Access Success in Calculus I: implications of students' precalculus content knowledge and their awareness of that knowledge(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Sencindiver, Benjamin D., author; Hagman, Jess E., advisor; Pilgrim, Mary E., advisor; Adams, Henry, committee member; Gloeckner, Gene, committee member; Zarestky, Jill, committee memberHigh failure rates in Calculus I contribute to the course acting a filter, rather than a pump, for STEM disciplines. One often cited source of difficulty for students in Calculus I is their weak precalculus content knowledge. In this three-paper dissertation, I investigate Calculus I students' precalculus content knowledge and their awareness of that knowledge. In the first paper, I describe a methodology for collecting data about Calculus I students' tendency to regulate their precalculus content knowledge and analyze the utility of quantifying self-regulated learning as a means for identifying at-risk students. In the second paper, I focus on two factors (calibration and help-seeking) to investigate the how they correlate with Calculus I students' first exam performance. Results highlight the importance of calibration of precalculus content knowledge both directly on student success and how calibration accuracy mediates the benefits of help-seeking. Quantitative analyses of students' precalculus content knowledge highlight Calculus I students' difficulty with the concept of graph, despite students' high confidence in questions related to graph. In the third paper, I conduct interviews with Calculus I students to examine their conceptions of outputs and differences of outputs of a function in the graphical context to understand nuance in how students understand and reason with graphs. Results highlight that students' understandings of quantities and frames of references in graphs of functions can be varied and stable. Students' understanding of quantities also impacts their understanding of other concepts such as differences of outputs and difference quotient. Results of this dissertation have implications for educators, tutor center leaders, and researchers interested in students' understanding of graph, calibration, and help-seeking.Item Open Access Teaching for transfer: exposure, experiences & instructional behavior of instructors in higher education(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Rausch, Thomas Alan, author; Kaiser, LeAnn, advisor; Enns, Kellie, committee member; Folkestad, James, committee member; Zarestky, Jill, committee memberLearning transfer, the ability to apply learning from one situation to another, is expected of students and underlies the entire structure in higher education. Yet, many instructors in higher education do not know what learning transfer is or how to accomplish it. In an effort to understand how instructors in higher education came to teach for transfer, this study investigated the exposure, experiences, and instructional behavior of university and college instructors who self-identified as those who "teach for transfer." The purpose of this study was to understand the context and circumstances of instructor's experiences surrounding teaching for transfer, and how those experiences ultimately affected their instructional behavior. Using a basic qualitative study, the researcher recruited instructors in higher education who self-identified as those who teach for transfer in a university or college setting to take part in semi-structured interviews. Six major themes emerged from the analysis including leaning transfer experiences as students, role modeling as a teaching assistant, formalized content experiences, improving teaching for transfer, barriers to teaching for transfer, and unfamiliar with learning transfer terminology. The findings highlight how experiences affected instructional behavior of those teach for transfer. The study can help academics understand the link between experiences and instructional behaviors and address the barriers present which affect teaching for transfer.