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    Protective Factors that Increase the Retention of Experienced Principals and Teachers in Urban Majority-Minority Title 1 Schools
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2025-10-02) Jack, Rachel Peck; Moriarty, Michael; Harms, Erica; Hill, Dennis
    In recent years, teacher and principal retention has emerged as a critical area of study, as educator attrition rates reach unprecedented levels nationwide (Walker, 2022). The complex and demanding conditions of urban, majority-minority Title 1 schools often compound this issue, posing significant challenges to the retention of experienced teachers and principals (Whitney, 2021). While much of the literature focuses on the causes of teacher and principal burnout, fewer studies examine the protective factors that sustain long-term commitment, especially in majority-minority, urban Title 1 schools. Even fewer studies center the voices of principals, whose experiences of professional sustainability remain underrepresented in the research. This qualitative phenomenological study addresses these gaps by exploring the protective factors that influence experienced teachers and principals to remain committed in their roles over time, elevating the voices of those who have chosen to stay in environments otherwise marked by rates of high turnover. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and qualitative questionnaires, the study engaged six teachers and five principals from a large urban district in the northeastern United States serving a majority of minority students. Thematic analysis revealed that relational trust, alignment with purpose, and emotionally supportive environments were key influences in participants’ decisions to remain teaching and leading. Teachers emphasized affirmation, growth, and leadership that honored their expertise and humanity, while principals described reciprocal relationships with staff, values-driven leadership, and structures that honored their own needs for emotional support among their colleagues. These findings suggest that sustaining teachers and principals in high-needs urban settings requires a systemic commitment to human-centered leadership, wellness, and collaborative school cultures.
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    Can’t Think Straight: Offred’s Queer Mind in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2025-09-21) Crawley, Jocelyn Dukes; Lee, Christopher
    Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian text which centers the experiences of women who must grapple with the rise of a male supremacist regime which denies them educational rights and reduces them to “breeders.” Within this dystopic patriarchy, central character Offred works to identify and implement strategies that might enable her to actively resist and escape the regime which has inverted the way of life for citizens of the fictionalized New England town where she resides. In this thesis, I explore the intersections that exist between conformance to prototypically patriarchal norms (such as compulsory procreation and control of other aspects of female bodily autonomy) and resistance to these male supremacist regulations. Specifically, I identify and analyze queer and lesbian cognitive patterns as sites of resistance which enable Offred to begin conceptualizing ways of being, thinking, and acting which might precipitate her ability to challenge, resist, and/or escape the phallocratic regime that is the Republic of Gilead. The question that arises in context of this thesis is: How are women defined within the cultures that they exist in, and how do these definitions contribute to or detract from their dimensions of autonomy and agency within those cultures? This paper argues that the historically conventional and limiting definition of woman as ancillary or always attached to a man is challenged by Offred’s ideological alignment with principles of lesbianism and queer thinking. The implications of my findings pertain to the development of nuanced, evolving discourse regarding how female characters in dystopic literary texts respond to the rise of reactionary, totalitarian patriarchal governments in dissident and potentially liberatory ways. Consequently, the logic of dissident, queer thinking which I identify as a site of resistance is important because it can function as a springboard for the development of new discourses which empower students and educators by pointing towards the efficacy of metacognition as a liberatory practice.
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    Out of the Dust Bowl into the New Deal: A New Historicist Reading of the Grapes of Wrath
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2025-09-27) Salisbury, William; Harrison, Marlen; Lee, Christopher
    Over the years Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath has been both beloved and banned. It has struck controversy since its completion and has been analyzed through multiple lenses of literary criticism. Most of the focus has been on the Joad family in their journey of migration from Oklahoma to California, and the hardships they face looking for a new life in America. In their examination of the novel most critics look over the intercalary chapters or barely mention them, and it has rarely been read through the lens of new historicism. It begs the question of whether the novel was produced to evoke sympathy for the Joad family and the migrant families they represent, why would the intercalary chapters be necessary? Steinbeck is describing American culture and history in these brief chapters, but what were his intentions in including them? Was it simply a stylistic choice or to alternate the pace of the novel? By examining the intercalary chapters through a new historicist lens and using an interdisciplinary approach to these sections hopes to illuminate the significance of their presence and explore the question of why Steinbeck chose to include the intercalary chapters in The Grapes of Wrath.
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    Voices of Resilience: Black Male Elementary Principals' Lived Perspectives on Navigating Race, Gender, and Advocacy for Black Boys
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2025-09-19) Maylor, Marlon; Bass, Franklyn; Richardson, Irving; Hill, Dennis
    This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of Black male elementary school principals, focusing on their perceptions of how they influence the educational experiences of Black male students. It also examines how their racial and gender identities affect their leadership practices with these students. Black male students often face systemic barriers within the education system; however, the perspectives of Black male principals, who are uniquely positioned to address these challenges, are largely underrepresented. Black American men currently make up less than 1.3% of the total K–12 population of staff members and administrators, while Black students represent 15% of the student population (Pierce, 2023). Employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT), this research utilizes counter-storytelling through semi-structured interviews conducted over two sessions. By exploring the experiences of Black male principals, this study seeks to enrich educational leadership scholarship by centering their perspectives. It underscores the significance of counter-storytelling in amplifying marginalized voices and promoting equity in elementary education.
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    American Revelations / Emerson as Educator: The Ethos of Transcendentalism, Post/colonial America, and Democratic Outlooks in Emerson’s Essays, Thoreau’s Walden, and Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2025-09-18) Sawyer, Andrew; Harrison, Marlen; Lee, Christopher
    Ralph Waldo Emerson’s rhetorical situation was one of epistemological disruptions in historical contest akin to the Revolutionary War. In conflict, his approach is transcendent in methods reiterative of independence to rise above tyranny, control, and subjugation. The question then arises concerning his methods: how? This paper argues his strategy is foremost dialogue and dialectic, in contradistinction to monologue and didactic, to push the limits and conventions of the essay-form relational in just methods concerning others and respective of difference. Consequently, the ethos of Transcendentalism is important to educators because of its use in terms that serve to inspire, liberate, and empower students to rise above. The implications demonstrate Emerson’s rationale is categorical by means of dialogue and dialectic. In sum, the topic concerning Emerson as educator is advantageous to correct oppression, combative of authoritative modes of discourse that denigrate as less-than in dialogue foremost promotive of individuality in contrast to monologue and didactic instructional methods, irksome at best, that seek to enlist conformity and quell independent thought. Moreover, his essays deploy dialectic in the naturalist sense to study nature is to know thyself (present-thesis) in tandem with study of books (past-antithesis). Transcendence is consequential, then, to formulate appropriate action (future-synthesis) conducive to inspire, liberate, and empower. The dialectic is without end, the future appears present (new thesis) and the former present becoming past (new antithesis) which then foregrounds further transcendence (new synthesis) in virtue, by just means of dialogue in scholarship, to give flight.