This dissertation aimed to expand the current literature's understanding of Indigenous epistemology within contemporary social media environments. The qualitative study used social descriptive analysis from forty TikTok videos and comment threads. The descriptive analysis captured major cultural themes, common informal learning behaviors, and…

This dissertation uses a discourse studies approach to investigate key communicative processes by which digital technology is given situated meanings within the institution of public education, including at the level of official discourse, administrative textsp, and the spoken discourse of professional educators. The discursive processes under…

Work and learning are essential facets of our existence, yet sociocultural barriers have historically limited access and opportunity for women in multiple contexts, including their professional pursuits. Such sociocultural barriers are particularly pronounced in technical domains and have relegated minoritized voices to the margins. As a result of…

A new generation is growing up who have known the internet for their entire lives. More people incorporate social media into more aspects of our lives, including how we learn and negotiate our identities. While formal online classrooms such as MOOCs are a part of the picture, learning also occurs in informal settings such as affinity groups'…

Metonymic and metaphoric language are thoroughly present in everyday language, so much so that they hold in themselves strong explanatory capacity to uncover and even influence underlying individual or social/cultural ideological systems and beliefs about the world around us (Catalano & Waugh, 2013; 2014; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The…

At the intersection of digital identities and new language and social practice online is the concept of searchable talk (ST). ST describes the process of tagging discourse in a social networking service (SNS) with a hashtag (#), allowing it to be searchable by others. Although originating in Twitter, ST has expanded into other SNS, and is used…

The nature of this research study examines the relationship between text-talking and writing skills used by American Sign Language (ASL) and English speakers. When given ample opportunity to text-talk in academic settings, it is likely that students will improve their expressive communication and writing skills. The main research question asks:…

The ubiquitous hashtag has disruptively transformed how news stories are reported and shared across social media networks. Often, such text streams are massively multilingual with 50 different languages on an average and contain a combination of subjective user opinion, objective evolving information about the story and unrelated spam. This is in…

This discourse analysis study examines the final moments of selected online sermons delivered by America's leading evangelical pastors and speakers, paying particular attention to the language employed in the presentation of Christian gospel tenets, the public invitation for salvation, the altar call that identifies new followers, and the…

A number of approaches and methods are being used to assess higher cognition within online threaded discussions, as evidenced by the corpus of scholarship. However, a review of the literature suggests that current strategies relating to asynchronous discourse have tended to focus on cognitive processes that are mostly driven by task-oriented…

This dissertation brings together three qualitative research articles to interrogate a disjuncture between curriculum development in graduate schools of education and the relations of power it fosters in teacher education and counselor education. In applying biopower and intersectional analyses throughout each article, this dissertation contends…

This research study examines the dynamics of student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication motives within asynchronous discussion forums. The objective is to determine the interpersonal mediated communication motives and communicator style of students enrolled in fully asynchronous community college courses with the intention to…

The rapid increase of computer-mediated communications (CMCs) in various forms such as micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter), online chatting (e.g. digital reference) and community-based question-answering services (e.g. Yahoo! Answers) characterizes a recent trend in web technologies, often referred to as the "social web". This trend highlights…

Active, dialogic participation is a necessary component of high quality teacher professional learning (Dunst, Bruder, & Hamby, 2015). However, logistical problems arise when implementing cooperative learning opportunities for early childhood educators, as preschool teachers are habitually separated from peers both institutionally and…

The focus of this study was to answer the following overarching question: How does a Twitter discussion format compare to a Facebook discussion format in terms of promoting collaborative argumentative discourse? Data analysis focused on the difference in amount of arguments, counter-arguments, reasons, and elaborations generated by participants…