ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6
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- All Subjects: public policy
- Creators: Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958-
Description
School safety is a wicked problem due to shifting needs and available information, the diverse actors affected and involved, fluctuating budgetary demands and ramifications, and relations to broader social and political issues. School safety challenges encompass a range of factors, including threats of violence and fears related to school shootings, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student mental health and well-being, and research and rhetoric on punitive discipline practices and the school-to-prison nexus, especially regarding the use of School Resource Officers (SROs). Following the murder of George Floyd by police in the Summer of 2020 and the subsequent civil unrest, several school districts across the United States began to reconsider the use of police on campuses, with some choosing not to renew contracts with police departments for SROs. In most cases, school district leaders (e.g., governing boards or superintendency) unilaterally made this decision without authentic school community input or participation in inclusive processes and shared decision-making opportunities. Phoenix Union High School District (PXU), a diverse, urban high school-only district that serves 25,000 students, was one of those districts that did not renew its contract with the local police department for SROs. Instead, PXU undertook efforts to reimagine school safety through two parallel participatory processes: School Participatory Budgeting (PB) and a Safety Committee. Drawing from the literature on school safety, participatory governance, and student voice, I explore school safety's historical and current landscape, specifically the use of SROs and punitive discipline measures, alongside methods of participatory governance within K-12 educational institutions and the benefits, challenges, and implications of student voice in shared decision-making processes. I then chronicle the two processes implemented in PXU using the Empowered Deliberative Democracy (EDD) conceptual framework and a case study methodology. I analyze and discuss the tensions and the transformative potential of participatory processes that include student and school community voices in finding solutions to difficult challenges. In conclusion, I summarize the case study and raise recommendations for using participatory processes to address wicked problems in K-12 educational institutions.
ContributorsBartlett, Tara Lynn (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Fischman, Gustavo (Committee member) / Pivovarova, Margarita (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Research suggests that a particularly important variable in determining success in public participation is the presence of a facilitator. Data from a study of 239 public participation case studies is analyzed using descriptive and statistical analysis to determine the impact on success of the participation efforts if a facilitator is present and whether or not internal versus external facilitators have a significant impact on success. The data suggest that facilitators have a positive impact on the success of public participation efforts and, in particular, that public participation efforts that use facilitators are more successful when the facilitator is a third-party intermediary (external) versus a member of the lead agency's staff (internal).
ContributorsWastchak, Daran Reginald (Author) / Cayer, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
It is now fashionable to seek innovation in the public sector. As routine government practices have failed to solve complex policy problems, innovation is increasingly seen as the key to establishing public faith in government agencies' ability to perform. However, not surprisingly, governments have often failed to support and maintain innovation over time. The purpose of this study is to examine what accounts for sustained innovation in government transparency. This is an in-depth analysis of the diffusion of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA) across the US states from 1996 to 2013. With the theoretical basis of policy diffusion, this study measures the degree of innovation among states by the timing of adoption, and by the extent of implementation. The factors that influence states' adoption and implementation of EFOIA will be compared, thereby explaining why some early adopters failed to maintain the leader position in innovation in government transparency through the implementation phase. The study findings show that the failure of early adopters in sustained innovation is the result of the conditional nature of diffusion mechanisms (i.e. socialization and learning) which operate differently at the adoption and implementation stages of EFOIA. This study contributes to a better understanding of the role of the legal environment created by the federal government, and the relationships between state governments in sustaining innovation in government transparency.
ContributorsLee, Jusil (Author) / Johnston, Erik W., 1977- (Thesis advisor) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Mossberger, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study explores community development initiatives and school-community partnerships that took place during the period 1998 - 2010 in Barrio Promesa, a Hispanic immigrant neighborhood within a large metropolitan area of the South Western United States. More specifically, it examines the initiatives and partnerships carried out through three main sectors of social actors: a) elected officials, public administrators and their agencies of the city; b) the neighborhood elementary school and school district administration; and c) civil society inclusive of non-profit agencies, faith-based organizations and businesses entities. This study is bounded by the initiation of development efforts by the city on the front end. The neighborhood school complex became the center of educational and social outreach anchoring nearly all collaborations and interventions. Over time agents, leadership and alliances changed impacting the trajectory of development initiatives and school community partnerships. External economic and political forces undermined development efforts which led to a fragmentation and dismantling of initiatives and collaborations in the later years of the study. Primary threads in the praxis of community development and school-community partnerships are applied in the analysis of initiatives, as is the framework of social capital in understanding partnerships within the development events. Specific criteria for analysis included leadership, collaboration, inclusivity, resources, and sustainability. Tensions discovered include: 1) intra-agency conflict, 2) program implementation, 3) inter-agency collaboration, 4) private-public-nonprofit partnerships, and 5) the impact of public policy in the administration of public services. Actors' experiences weave a rich tapestry composed of the essential threads of compassion and resilience in their transformative human agency at work within the global urban gateway of Barrio Promesa. Summary, conclusions and recommendations include: 1) strategies for the praxis of community development, inclusive of establishing neighborhood based development agency and leadership; 2) community development initiative in full partnership with the neighborhood school; 3) the impact of global migration on local development practices; and 4) the public value of personal and civil empowerment as a fundamental strategy in community development practices, given the global realities of many urban neighborhoods throughout the United States, and globally.
ContributorsBusch, Jay S. E (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Danzig, Arnold (Committee member) / Knopf, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The City of Portland has 21 distinct agencies/bureaus with Facebook pages. Of these 21 Facebook pages, three were selected for in-depth case study analysis. Qualitative methods including descriptive coding (Saldana, 2009; Saldaña, 2003; Wolcott, 1994) and content analysis were the primary methodological tools used while the individual SMS post was the unit of analysis. Basic quantitative methods were used to generate tabular values for general post/agency comparison.
This research identifies SMS usage patterns, differences, and policy implications within a large city government where multiple agencies have independent control over their own SMS sites/pages. It examines how each agency/bureau uses SMS and to determine if such use fits within Iris Marion Young's deliberative democracy model. This research contributes to voids in the academic literature in the topics of governmental SMS usage, intra-city SMS usage, and SMS as a mechanism for promoting deliberative democracy.
This research identifies SMS usage patterns, differences, and policy implications within a large city government where multiple agencies have independent control over their own SMS sites/pages. It examines how each agency/bureau uses SMS and to determine if such use fits within Iris Marion Young's deliberative democracy model. This research contributes to voids in the academic literature in the topics of governmental SMS usage, intra-city SMS usage, and SMS as a mechanism for promoting deliberative democracy.
ContributorsChing, Brandon (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Jones, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This research explores and deepens our understanding of an element of arts infrastructure in the United States: the arts incubator, an organizational form or programmatic initiative that exists at the intersection of artistic production, entrepreneurship, and public policy. The study is a qualitative cross-case analysis of four arts incubators of different types: Arlington Arts Incubator, Intersection for the Arts, Center for Cultural Innovation, and Mighty Tieton, situated within the context of the literature of arts incubators, business incubator evaluation, and a theoretical framework for understanding entrepreneurship in the US arts and culture sector.
The research opens the black box of incubator operations to find that arts incubators create value for client artists and arts organizations both through direct service provision and indirect echo effects but that the provision of value to communities or systems is attenuated and largely undocumented. Arts incubators, like many small arts organizations, tend to look retrospectively at outputs rather than at the processes that convert inputs to tangible impacts, or means into ends. This is an issue not relegated only to the arts and culture sector; business incubators share some of these tendencies. Despite these issues, arts incubators remain a potentially impactful tool of cultural policy if their processes and activities align with their strategic goals and those processes and activities are assessed formatively and summatively.
The research opens the black box of incubator operations to find that arts incubators create value for client artists and arts organizations both through direct service provision and indirect echo effects but that the provision of value to communities or systems is attenuated and largely undocumented. Arts incubators, like many small arts organizations, tend to look retrospectively at outputs rather than at the processes that convert inputs to tangible impacts, or means into ends. This is an issue not relegated only to the arts and culture sector; business incubators share some of these tendencies. Despite these issues, arts incubators remain a potentially impactful tool of cultural policy if their processes and activities align with their strategic goals and those processes and activities are assessed formatively and summatively.
ContributorsEssig, Linda (Author) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Thesis advisor) / Fahlman, Betsy (Committee member) / Shockley, Gordon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015