Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership

The Alice P. Naylor Outstanding Dissertation Award was established in 2009 by former doctoral program director, Dr. Jim Killacky to honor the legacy of Professor Emerita Dr. Alice Naylor. Dr. Naylor retired in 2008 after 33 years as a faculty member in the Reich College of Education. Dr. Naylor served as a Director of AppState’s Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. The Naylor award was created to honor the quality of research and scholarship in the program. 

Dissertation committee chairs can nominate students each academic year. The nominations are reviewed by a faculty committee based on established criteria. The award recognizes a doctoral graduate who, through their dissertation work:

-- Advances knowledge in the field of educational leadership, broadly defined;

-- Integrates intellectual traditions, theoretical frameworks, and research findings;

-- Makes innovative use of methods, extending the approaches available for conducting research;

-- Impacts educational practice, or develops theory or perspective that impacts practice, especially for underserved and marginalized communities.

Dr. Dramaine Freeman

Dr. Freeman's dissertation illuminates how Black men experience anti-Blackness within their personal and professional lives. He examines the experiences of Black leaders through an asset-based perspective to begin building a holistic support network to increase representation and open new pathways to leadership roles for younger Black men and boys.

Dissertation Title: BlackCrit Case Study Analysis That Explores The Influence Of Societal Perceptions Of Black Men On Black Male K-12 Leaders

Framed Award

Committee Members:

Dr. Ashley Carpenter, Chair
Dr. Chris Osmond, Member
Dr. Will Sheppard, Member

Dr. Gwynne Shoaf 

Dr. Shoaf’s dissertation employs theoretical concepts of power/knowledge to analyze everyday texts and encounters involved in autism diagnosis and intervention. She inspires educators to adopt an affirmative view of difference and to view people with autism, and their families, as whole beings full of potential.

Dissertation Title: Problematizing The Deficit Discourses Of People With Autism And Autism Parents: A Poststructural Analysis Of Subjectivity And Power/Knowledge

Framed Award

Committee:

• Laura Shears (2022): The Teaching And Practice Of The “Yoga Body”: A Poststructural, Queercrip Analysis Of Yoga Education In The United States
• Alex McAllister (2021): Space Invasion In The Academic Library: A Poststructural Analysis Using Discourse, Power/Knowledge, And Biopower
• Dustin Evatt-Young (2020): White Scripts In Higher Education: White Administrators Navigating Racial Equity And Inclusion Efforts
• Brooke Hardin (2019): How They Do It: Examining Teachers’ Understandings And Appropriations Of Instructional Tools And Strategies Learned In Writing Methods Coursework
• Brooksie Broome Sturdivant (2019): Resilient African-American Women: Autoethnographic And Narrative Inquiry Of Subjectivity And Agency
• Star Brown (2018): Doing, Undoing, And Redoing Collegiate Athletics: Conceptual Tales Of Marginality And Mattering
• John Robinson (2018): A Postmodern Analysis of the Practice of Using Value-Added Measures to Determine Teacher Effectiveness
• Leslie McKesson (2017): Determined To Rise: A Conceptual And Counter-Narrative Analysis Of The Higher Education Attainment Experiences Of Three African American Men
• Fran Bates Oates (2016): Women in the Mirror: Seeing Ourselves Anew a Narrative Inquiry and Autoethnographic Exploration of the Hbcu Relational and Institutional Impact on the Social Justice Dispositions of White Female Education Graduates
• Amie Snow (2015): A Comparative Evaluation of Instructional Levels Determined by the Text Reading and Comprehension (TRC) Assessment and an Informal Reading Inventory
• Cama J Duke (2014): Integrative Learning Within Tutoring in Higher Education: Contexts for Connections
• Wayne Matthews (2013): Spirituality as a Component of Transformational Leadership Among Selected North Carolina Community College Presidents
• Danielle Madrazo (2012):  The Effect of Technology Infusion on At-Risk High School Students’ Motivation to Learn
• Todd Clifford Martin (2011): Cognitive and Non-Cognitive College Readiness in Participants in Three Concurrent Enrollment Programs at a North Carolina Community College
• Susan McCracken (2010): A program evaluation of North Carolina's Statewide Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP)
• Angela Wright (2009): Ordered Chaos: The Implications Of Childrearing In The Underrepresentation Of Women In Educational Leadership Positions