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Bagwell College of Education 2023-2024 Projects

Click here to return to the main project listings page. Questions: Email our@kennesaw.edu.

  • 2023-2024 First Year Scholars: Soleis Ohonde

    • The challenges that have emerged in recent years have raised concerns about student attrition in higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic, social justice movements, and political climate have had unprecedented impacts on college students (Borgstrom & Mallon, 2022). One of the main issues is the increasing mental health crisis in higher education, which requires immediate attention (Lee et al., 2021). Additionally, students face significant challenges such as financial constraints, food and housing insecurity, and other obstacles that affect their college experiences (Duke et al., 2021). Incoming undergraduate students may have unique experiences as some of their high school education may have been remote, hybrid, or in-person with varying security measures, complicating their college transition. Further, undergraduate students may have experienced grief, loss, and trauma during the pandemic, requiring special attention to the resources and support needed to complete their degrees as we navigate this post-pandemic context (Sirrine et al., 2021). The lingering effects of pandemic-related trauma are still affecting the college experiences of first-year students and their ability to achieve academic and professional goals.

      Therefore, this research project will explore the lived experiences of undergraduate college students navigating grief and loss through a qualitative research design using focus groups. The research question explored in our study is: How or to what extent has grief and trauma from COVID impacted the educational journeys of undergraduate students? The purpose of this research was to provide an important opportunity to investigate how to better support the social and emotional needs of college students in order to enhance student success.

    • This project is designed with the following student outcomes in mind:

      • Formulate  recommendations for best practices for supporting undergraduate students experiencing grief and loss.
      • Provide critical feedback during the analysis and interpretation of data.
      • Create and present the research at local, or if possible, regional or national conferences.

    • Students will be expected to 

      • Gather relevant articles and books and conduct literature reviews
      • Carry out experiments and research according to protocols
      • Bring in ideas for additional research questions of interest for the team to explore
      • Assist in the creation of interview questions
      • Attend trainings and workshops offered by Dr. Elue
      • Generate ideas for additional research projects of interests
      • Assist with data analysis and coding
      • Conduct interviews and assist with data analysis
      • Create presentation slides and posters to disseminate findings
      • Review print and online sources to gather information
      • Check facts, proofread, and edit research documents to ensure accuracy

    • Students will primarily work on this project online, but we will have some in-person working lab meetings throughout the semester.

    • Dr. Chinasa Elue, celue@kennesaw.edu 

  • 2023-2024 First Year Scholars: Amanda Lindsey

    • Several scholars have documented that children are active and social agents who produce their social worlds and are engaged in their childhoods. Childhood is intertwined with diverse social factors such as race/ethnicity, gender, language, social class, and (dis)ability. However, childhood often tends to be approached with a normalized lens without considering children’s different lived experiences.

      Similarly, children’s picture books reflect the dominant discourses, which influence interpreting children’s childhood. This project will examine how children’s childhoods in children’s picture books would be shaped by dominant discourses and shape them and how childhoods would be coined with mobility in conjunction with social factors. 

      • Students will learn how to do a systematic literature review.
      • Students will learn how to collect data.
      • Students will learn how to analyze, organize, and interpret data.
      • Students will present their research/creative activity at conferences.
      • Attend weekly meetings for task reporting and follow-ups.
      • Analyze children's picture books: finding themes/patterns.
      • Organizing and synthesizing codes
      • Participate in the literature review and organize the findings.

    • Hybrid

    • Dr. Jinhee Kim, jkim224@kennesaw.edu

  • 2023-2024 First Year Scholars: Salome Carmona

    • The purpose of this study is to learn about ways to support Latinx pre-service teachers as they progress through teacher education programs. This study examines how the pláticas (informal conversations) improve student success in the college of education. These pláticas are held monthly with Latinx students in the College of Education.   Research shows retaining Latinx teachers improves youth outcomes for PK-12 students (Figlio, 2017). In this study, we center the voices of Latinx pre-service teachers (PSTs) in addressing their experiences during their teacher preparation program and also explore how pláticas create collective knowledge in the group that serves to support them in a teacher preparation program and when they start their teaching careers. 

      The research questions guiding this study are:

      1. How does the pláticas project support students during their teacher preparation program?  
      2. How does the pláticas project support increasing the enrollment, retention, and graduation of Latinx teachers?
      3. What critiques of structures, practices, and policies in teacher education programs do Latinx PSTs construct through their pláticas? 
      1. The student will be able to collect data for the research study.
      2. The student will be able to organize data for the research study.
      3. The student will be able to attend meetings for data collection purposes. 

    • The student will meet with faculty once a week to check in about weekly goals. The student will be expected to engage in data collection (attend monthly meetings) and organize data from those meetings (with assistance from faculty and GRAs).

    • Mix of both. Students will need to attend monthly meetings where we engage in data collection.

    • Dr. Sanjuana Rodriguez, srodri51@kennesaw.edu 
      Dr. Paula Guerra, pguerra2@kennesaw.edu 

  • 2023-2024 First Year Scholars: Anna Elizabeth Clark

    • Recent educational reforms have emphasized the “importance of preparing highly competent and confident” preservice teachers (PSTs) to deliver effective K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) instruction. These reform efforts advocate “restructuring curricula that emphasize explicit integration of STEM” (NRC, 2014, Ring et al., 2018). In response to this need to prepare a highly qualified and competent next generation of teachers to deliver effective STEM instruction, there have been several attempts to modify programs that focus on integrated STEM.  

      STEM education is a contested term that does not have a “unified definition” (Bybee, 2013). Each of us have own interpretation of what STEM is and the “implementation of a coherent approach to STEM education is vague”. STEM education has been conceptualized in many ways and there lacks a consensus on what counts as STEM instruction. Until the early 2000s, STEM was simply seen as the four separate disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Sanders, 2008). However, since then, STEM education has become more synonymous with integrated STEM education (Moore et al., 2014). Being able to understand the perceptions of (PSTs) towards STEM is central to understanding the challenges that exist to determine the supports needed to design best practices. Therefore, the perception and beliefs of PSTs towards STEM education are of importance because these beliefs and values influence PSTs pedagogical orientation. Hence in this study, the researcher aims to study PSTs perceptions of STEM.    

      To this end, the research questions for the study are:  

      • What are elementary PSTs perceptions of STEM in an integrated Science course?
      • How do elementary PSTs perceptions vary (if at all) at the beginning and end of the semester? 

      To answer these questions, the researcher plans to collect student responses using STEM reflection protocol which will be a part of the course work assignments. This reflection will be completed by PSTs at the beginning and end of the semester. To understand their perceptions deeply, PSTs will be asked to additionally participate in semi-structured interviews. This study will use single case study design (Yin, 2014) in order to understand PSTs perceptions of STEM and how they change over time within the context of an integrated science course. Data will be analyzed qualitatively using the software Dedoose following the inductive coding techniques outlined by Corbin and Strauss (2015).  

    • By involving in this research project, the student will use a variety of skills to succeed and in the process will be able to:

      • Articulate and use terminology, concepts, and theory in educational research
      • Identify appropriate research methodologies used in educational research
      • Use library and other tools to search for existing body of research relevant to the topic
      • Write a literature review for the study (entry level)
      • Familiarize with the IRB process 
      • Collect and Organize data
      • Analyze, and interpret data from the research study
      • Identify and practice research ethics and responsible conduct in research 
      • Develop and apply problem-solving skills 
      • Work autonomously in an effective manner, setting and meeting deadlines
      • Write a conference proposal (entry level)
      • Communicate confidently and constructively with other undergraduate students and faculty as mentors
      • Explain the research to others in the field and to broader audiences through research presentations
      • Reflect on their research project, including strengths, weaknesses, and things they would do differently in another research context
      • Develop competencies that speak to career-readiness

    • The student will: 

      • Familiarize using the library tools searching for existing body of research relevant to the topic
      • Read journal articles and collect literature sources that aligns with the project
      • Learn about compliance requirements required for research
      • Manage a calendar and schedule interviews 
      • Help with interviewing undergraduate students
      • Participate in discussions/reflections on a regular basis
      • Participate in the data analysis
      • Participate in drafting conference proposals and article drafts
      • Prepare reports of the findings
      • Participate in presenting the findings of the study in conference(s) 

      Outside of meetings at KSU, the student is encouraged to use his/her own computer or laptop for this study. Alternatively, the student can use any computer lab at KSU if he/she does not have a reliable laptop to complete the duties. 

    • A mix of both.

    • Dr. Preethi Titu, ptitu@kennesaw.edu 

  • 2023-2024 First Year Scholars: Brianna Arias, Sophia Sansbury, and Anaya Stinson

    • The research project, Supporting Multilingual Learners and Their Teachers, Parents, and Communities (MLTPC), aims to enhance educational experiences for immigrant-origin and language-minority learners in our schools and communities locally and internationally.
      Embedded in the large MLTPC project are three current and inter-connected research projects: (a) Dual Language and Bilingual Education (DLBE) programs, with a focus on one Korean-English DLBE (KDLBE) program in a public elementary school in Georgia, (b) trilingual families’ languages practices from justice-oriented perspectives in the United States, and (c) bilingual education for ethnolinguistically minoritized populations in South Korea.

      The collective, inter-connected research projects aim to unpack the ways in which language, culture, identity, agency, power, and ideology affects learning and teaching for immigrant multilingual learners. Through the MLTPC project, this research team hopes to support teachers and immigrant families in disrupting the pervasive monolingual ideology and advocate for a more multi-lingual and -literate society. 

    • Students will learn all aspects of education and social sciences research, including but not limited to:

      • Scientific literature search and review
      • Academic writing, including manuscript and grant writing
      • Participant recruitment
      • Research project development
      • Data collection, organization, and management
      • Interviewing skills and transcription of interviews
      • Analyses and interpretation of results
      • Research presentations and public speaking

      Students will also expand knowledge on and gain experience in:

      • Dual Language and Bilingual Education (DLBE) programs
      • Curriculum development and evaluation
      • Collaborative work with a public elementary school and a school district
      • Classroom observations
      • Trilingual families’ languages practices from justice-oriented perspectives in the United States
      • Bilingual education for ethnolinguistically minoritized populations in South Korea
      • Anti-bias, multicultural, and global perspectives
      • Best practices in multilingual language and literacy education
      • Data collection, organization, and management
      • Scientific literature search and review
      • Academic writing, including manuscript and grant writing
      • Transcription of interviews
      • Analyses and interpretation of results
      • Research presentations

    • Online with few synchronous and F2F meetings as needed.

    • Dr. Jayoung Choi, Jayoung.choi@kennesaw.edu 

  • 2023-2024 First Year Scholars: Emma Gomez

    • A central aim of K-12 education is to develop students into individuals who can uphold social contracts grounded in justice and equality while working collaboratively to improve society. The need to develop justice-oriented, collaborative citizens is especially important today given the increasing polarization with America. This polarization is very concerning because it weakens rather than strengthens American democracy. Therefore, it is more important than ever that public schools embody their original purpose: to develop students into citizens of democracy.

      Dialogue is the foundation of healthy democracy. The health of democracy depends on people's ability to speak to each other, learn from each other, and build ideas and solutions together even if approaching an problem from different viewpoints. Given this reality, it is important to give K-12 students practice in engaging in meaningful, developmentally appropriate dialogue about pressing social issues and providing the opportunity to work collaboratively towards fair and just solutions.

      The Educating for Democracy Initiative (EFD) was developed to provide teachers with tools to engage students in this type of civic discourse. It is an open resource website available to teachers domestically and abroad (https://educatingfordemocracy.education.virginia.edu/). The student-centered curricular materials examine complex issues from multiple perspectives using historical and present-day primary sources. Framed by Social-Cognitive Domain theory, EFD civic discourse questions provide students the opportunity to consider multiple perspectives and work together to create a solution. All discussion questions are developmentally appropriate to ensure they align with students’ socio-cognitive abilities. Importantly EFD, uses psychological theory to create educational content, embodying interdisciplinary, translational research.

      The present study is a mixed-method exploration of a pilot study of Educating for Democracy materials during a 2023 summer school. There are three strands of materials to analyze: focus groups and interviews, student materials, and observation forms. Participating first-year scholars will be involved in analyzing collected data and preparing findings for dissemination (conference, publication, etc.) 

    • Through participating in this research study, first-year scholars will be able to:

      • Define the terminology associated with research and theory in their field
      • Synthesize and critically analyze past research in their field of study that related to the EFD aims
      • Analyze, synthesize, organize, and interpret data from data sources
      • Work effectively as part of a team
      • Write a research paper and conference proposal
      • Present their research/creative activity to an audience (e.g., poster, oral presentation, performance, display)
      • Stage 1 (1 month)
        • Learn processes for coding qualitative and quantitative psychological data
        • Reviewing relevant literature related to citizenship, developmental science, and civic discourse
        • Practice coding data
      • Stage 2 (2-3 months)
        • Code and analyze data
        • Interviews, focus groups
        • Student work samples
        • Observation notes
      • Stage 3 (3-4 months)
        • Write and submit conference proposal on findings
        • Write literature review for publication

    • Hybrid

    • Dr. Johari Harris, jharr694@kennesaw.edu



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