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It was my first semester at SEAS when a professor presented the sobering idea that “as many as 50% of [academic] papers are never read by anyone other than their authors, referees and journal editors”, and that 90% of published papers are never cited (Eveleth, 2014). I began to reflect on this finding, and my own relationships with individuals outside of environmental academia. Indeed: rarely, if ever, have any of my family or friends outside of the academic bubble read any primary academic literature — let alone environmental literature. Upon observing what my friends and family readily consume, I noticed that music was a universal medium that moved not only my community, but communities of people all over the world. I began to wonder whether pursuing a creative practicum, which used music as a medium to spread environmental messages, may be an interesting way to complete my academic coursework at SEAS. I pitched this idea to my advisor, Kyle Whyte, then applied with the Duderstadt Center to record a music album whose lyrics and messages mirror much of the themes covered in my classes at SEAS. The goals for going this route with my degree were twofold: firstly, recording music at the Duderstadt would provide me with valuable and highly transferable skills for my future career. These included storytelling, professional collaboration, management skills, and budget mapping. Secondly, I wanted to help show that art can, and must be, a legitimate academic pursuit in the field of environmental sciences. In order to complete this written portion of the practicum, I have included the following: 1. A literature review whiwhich discusses the powerful role of storytelling by the fossil fuel industry in international climate governance spaces, 2. A section on the theoretical framework which grounds this work, called “Music as a powerful Tool for Union and Social Change”, 3. A chapter on learning objectives and skills gained during this process, 4. An analysis of my lyrics which relates them back to themes we discuss in my coursework at SEAS, 5. A behind the scenes section which gives the reader a “backstage look” into the recording studio experience, and finally, 6. Links to the music itself. I hope that this practicum might increase the resource base that SEAS students have access to and help build the pathway for other creatively oriented SEAS students to incorporate creative praxis into their academic work.

This thesis explores the early graffiti writing scene through the work of Darryl “Cornbread” McCray (b. 1953)—a Philadelphia native most widely acknowledged to be the world’s first modern-day graffiti writer—and his influence on hip-hop culture. Based partly on a discussion from a personal interview with Cornbread by the author, this paper analyzes modern graffiti and its subsequent role as one of the four “elements” of hip-hop—alongside rapping, B-boying, and DJing—and argues that Cornbread’s work, as the “Godfather” of graffiti, functions as a progenitor of early hip-hop, solidifying graffiti itself as the earliest iteration of hip-hop culture.

This paper examines the influence of key sociopolitical and cultural variables, and how they impact rape laws using a comparison of two countries, having different ethnic backgrounds, strong religious and cultural values, and abortion rights, but different rape laws. A review of current literature, journals, interviews, surveys, conferences, and current laws was undertaken to identify which variables can be used to implement change on an international scale to better protect women from rape. The argument brought within this paper is that the most influential, and often overlooked, aspects of a state which affect its laws, specific to rape, and affect the rate of rape within a state, are the political and institutional influences, domestic and international, on a state. It is my recommendation, that more effort is put into researching the ways in which institutions exert influence in state governments.

It is crucial to analyze the relationship between formal institutions and the informal sector to gain a better understanding of the challenges that certain informal industries face. Given the wide-ranging nature of the informal economy, this paper will focus on the food sector, specifically street food vending in three Colombian cities–Barranquilla, Bogotá, and Medellin–which has garnered considerable social and cultural significance over time. This paper will employ a political economy research approach. A surveying method will be the primary source of data collection. Insights obtained from first-person accounts provide invaluable information regarding the reality of the challenges that small-scale informal vendors face. This study posits that the majority of the businesses surveyed surpass the upper-middle income economy poverty line and minimum wage. The majority of businesses responded that they have attained education up to the secondary level. Additionally, the tenure exhibited spans from 8 years of age to someone who has been informally operating for a period as short as 5 months. The study highlights that women in the informal sector face higher financial barriers, especially in regard to the low supply of microcredits. Finally, the data suggest that males are more likely to become formally recognized businesses compared to females, although both genders present a high disposition toward formalization. This exploratory research may furnish policymakers with pertinent information on how to introduce incentives to expand the economic activities of the informal food sector while improving the transition process from informality to formality.

My doctoral dissertation aims to study the Tukkhā songs of North Bengal composed by the Rājbaṃśī community in the Rājbaṃśī lect, a living tradition largely unexplored by the academic community in Bengal and beyond. My paper analyses language and practice, combining literary criticism with anthropological research. These songs were influenced by the esoteric devotional traditions such as the Buddhist Sahajayāna, Śaiva, Śākta and Vaiṣṇava traditions of north-eastern India. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in North Bengal (2017-2020) and documented and archived a number of songs (close to one hundred), interviews and audio-visual performances. My work focuses on the oral tradition (songs) and performative art and on the direct connections between the Rājbaṃśī living traditions, rituals and cosmology depicted in Tantric medieval literature. My work explores mysticism and language, politics of an alternative imaginative space, which I examine as an expression of esoteric devotionalism in the context of the socio-historical and religious evolution of the Rājbaṃśī community. I assess the artistic and political implications of this literature through a close assessment of how it is performed in the present day. I have translated a corpus of these songs into English for the first time and majority of these songs have not been published before. These songs have created a powerful medium of their self-assertion of the historical consciousness of the Rājbaṃśī community, which has been subjected to political and cultural marginalization. This community has produced diverse genres of songs including Tukkhā, Bhāwaiyā, Tistābuṛir gān (songs for Tista river), songs for Satya- Pīr and Maynāmatī (related to the Nāth cult in Bengal), which are important documents of the cultural traditions of this community, thematically and historically in terms of content, literary value and performance traditions. My thesis also explores notions of identity, marginality, subjectivity, and constructs a critical history 'from below' through the medium of literature of the Rājbaṃśī community. While studying the various metaphors used in the Tukkhā songs, the thesis will try to understand the various strands of heterodox religious ideas that were deeply imbricated in older Tantric traditions and how they were responded to, negotiated with, assimilated, and hybridized. The contours of Tukkhā, as a field and as a living tradition have been refigured and reinvented, while it has engaged with various socio-historical changes in historical, religious and political landscape of North Bengal. The metaphors contained in the songs reveal socio-religious and historical clues about the possible influences on these songs in the absence of substantial secondary sources of literature on the Tukkhā songs. My strategy was to connect the various strands of socio-religious traditions and their influences on the Rājbaṃśī community in constructing a preliminary history of the Tukkhā tradition.

Purpose: This PhD thesis offers explanations for the way in which the offence of Corrupt or Improper Practice by police officers was implemented within the service and is analysed through a framework of the psychology, ethics, and management of implementation. Using autoethnographic data as policing parables, it explores stories of police misconduct and suggests theoretical underpinnings for the drivers of corruption and how the police may react to it. Design/methodology/approach: This research is an autoethnographic examination of the author's last two years as a serving police officer leading the Professional Standards Department of a large rural UK police force. The data consists of reflections on the emotional and philosophical impact on the author created by day-to-day interactions with police officers recorded in personal journals. Findings: The paper offers the new concepts of The Honest Cop Belief, the Ethical Trihedral, and Hyper-Procedural Pseudo-Compliance which are presented through an encompassing model of policing implementation named the Triangle of Kakistocracy. This model is offered as an original theoretical lens for other researchers to consider when examining the workings of the police. It discusses organisational and personal arrogance arising from the psychological impact on officers of ingrained cultural icons such as the Blue Wall of Silence. The Ethical Trihedral is presented as a model for analysing ethical incompetence in the police which is the suggested outcome of tension arising from conflicting philosophical paradigms. The impact of neoliberal managerialism in liquid modernity is examined to offer explanations for perceived moral cowardice in police managerial decision making which takes the form of hyper-procedural pseudo-compliance. Originality/value: Autoethnographic insider-research on police corruption is rare in the literature. Public trust and consent are vital to the British policing model, so divining esoteric police attitudes towards the harms perpetrated by abuses of their power is increasingly valuable in understanding police/public relationships.

People typically hold personal views regarding the appropriate age ranges for significant life events, such as starting college, getting married, or having kids. Such socially prescribed timetables have been termed the social clock. In this paper, we investigate how and why culture may influence the rigidity (or flexibility) of the social clock. In two studies (one preregistered), participants from China and the U.S. were asked to provide the earliest and the latest ages they think appropriate for engaging in several life events. We operationalized the social clock’s rigidity as the width of the time windows for these life events. We found notable cultural differences: the social clock was more rigid in China than in the U.S., and the cultural differences were mediated by filial piety belief. We further assessed negative social emotions of deviance from the social clocks across cultures. Societal implications and future directions were discussed.

The Hypothesis of Cultural Indigeneity proposes the novel concept that a non-native culture may qualify as indigenous to an area and, by extension, imply a right to legal protections for a non-native human population whose existence preserves an indigenous culture. This master’s thesis focuses on the contemporary field of indigeneity studies and the quintessential case study of the hypothesis, the culture of the Pitcairn Islands, through the lens of the intersection of culture, indigeneity, and international law. The methodology adheres to best practices of history, anthropology, and sociology, while taking particular care to place the views of indigenous populations at the epicenter of analysis, respecting the axiological standard of indigeneity studies. The present paper does not seek to make sweeping assertions about culture, indigeneity, nor even about “cultural indigeneity.” Rather, this research identifies how culture can be considered indigenous; how that status might provide legal protections for human populations which preserve such indigenous cultures; and why there is an extensive opportunity for an academic intervention in the field of indigeneity studies through the introduction of the niche of cultural indigeneity.

Abstract: Abstract Background: Upon graduation, nursing students continue to be ill-prepared in gerontological nursing care and lack a desire to work with older persons. Although nurse educators are expected to facilitate students’ learning about how to provide appropriate older person care, they lack expertise to influence students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes. There is limited empirical evidence that elucidates the barriers and supports influencing nurse educators’ development of proficiency in this area. Nursing education culture has not yet been explored for its possible influence on capacity building of educators prepared in gerontological nursing. Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is three-fold: (1) to identify and synthesize literature about factors affecting nurse educators’ knowledge, skills or attitudes about older persons and their care; (2) to understand the culture of a university-based, pre-licensure nursing education program in a Western Canadian province in relation to nurse educators building expertise in gerontological nursing; and (3) to explore why recruitment to a focused ethnography study was successful in engaging numerous nurse educators, researchers, and administrators to volunteer within three months of study initiation. Methods: This dissertation contains three related papers with different methods used in each manuscript: (1) an integrative review to identify the factors that affect pre-licensure nurse educators’ knowledge, skills or attitudes about older persons and their care; (2) a focused ethnography to explore the cultural context of a pre-licensure nursing education program in relation to nurse educators’ expertise in gerontological nursing; and (3) a critical reflection on the successful recruitment of participants to this focused ethnographic inquiry. Findings: For the integrative review, 44 articles met the inclusion criteria. Thirteen papers reported empirical studies that addressed, in some way, factors influencing nurse educators’ preparation in older person care. The remaining articles were defined as discussion papers. More rigorous studies are necessary to expand the evidence base. The literature chronicled barriers and supports for capacity building of educators in gerontological nursing. Supports included external funding and professional regulatory frameworks. Barriers included nursing administrators’ negative attitudes toward older persons; the constrained budgets of educational institutions; ageism among educators; and a lack of awareness of gerontological nursing as a specialty and of professional development resources addressing older persons and their care. The focused ethnography offered further insight about what constrains or encourages professional development of nurse educators in older person care. Nursing education culture in one pre-licensure nursing program was characterized by a hierarchical structure among the various categories of faculty, which impeded gerontology experts’ support for undergraduate educators and for curricular revision. An integrated curriculum diminished the focus on gerontology. Limited professional development opportunities and excessive workloads constrained educators from building gerontology expertise. Valuing older persons and their care influenced the likelihood that educators would pursue preparation in gerontological nursing and affected access to gerontology resources. The critical reflection on recruitment revealed four themes contributing to successful enrollment to the focused ethnography study: laying the groundwork, recruitment plan, building rapport, and participant motivations. Understanding what motivates those who agree to participate in such research is an important contribution to the literature. Conclusions: There continues to be a lack of educators with sufficient preparation in gerontological nursing to educate future generations of nurses to deliver quality care to older persons. Further expansion of the empirical literature on the barriers and facilitators influencing nurse educators’ expertise in older person care is needed. This dissertation research suggests that nursing education culture may influence educators’ preparation in older person care. Further study of this phenomenon in other nursing academic settings is warranted. Once a robust evidence base is developed about what constrains or supports capacity building, further research could be conducted that leads to the identification and testing of strategies to prepare a nurse educator workforce adept in teaching future nurses to provide quality nursing care to older persons. There is also opportunity for future research to understand what motivates research participants to volunteer, and to identify the relative efficacy of various recruitment strategies.

I explore deep roots of corporate strategy and structure from historical and geographical perspectives. Specifically, in the first paper, I find that the ruggedness of a region’s terrain (i.e., amount of elevation difference due to mountains) and the temperateness of its climate (i.e., a moderate precipitation and temperature) are both positively related to individualism. Further, companies in more individualistic cultures may be less likely to engage in acquisitions. This paper deepens the understanding of the origins of culture from a geographic perspective, explains how regional culture affects firms, and sheds new light on how physical geography may affect firms. In the second paper, I show that the size and ratio of the Protestant population when U.S. states were admitted to the Union have reduced the number of hierarchical ranks and increased female representation in present-day firms’ top management teams. The effect has been partly channeled through legislation and laws promoting equality. In addition, historical Catholic immigration waves to different states have weakened this effect. This study contributes (1) to imprinting theory by considering imprinting dynamics and developing a regional, institutional imprinting perspective and (2) to a more nuanced understanding of institutional formation from a historical perspective and at the subnational level. In the third paper, I demonstrate that price regulation during a firm’s founding period leaves two regulatory imprints: a focus on government regulation and an accounting routine of downward earnings management. These regulatory imprints tend to persist and enduringly discourage firms’ R&D investment. This research contributes to a better understanding of how past institutions shape corporate R&D by uncovering new mechanisms—i.e., affecting firm operational focus and accounting routine. The regulatory imprinting perspective also helps explain why firms founded in regulated industries and communist countries tend to persistently invest less in R&D. Taken together, I show that a region’s physical geography shapes its culture, which then affects firms’ acquisition strategy. European immigrants established different institutions for U.S. states to reflect their cultural preferences, which in turn shape corporate leadership structure. A specific historical institutional arrangement in the United States and beyond—i.e., price regulation—persistently influences corporate R&D strategy.

Music and religion exist ubiquitously across time and space, hold profound phylogenetic importance to the human condition, and provide fruitful avenues for culture research. Existing norms, values, schemas, language, and mythological frameworks interact with auditory harmony, melody, and rhythm, within naturalistic settings, to condition profound psychological mechanisms with deep implications to the study of social psychology and culture. Music has been and continues to be a normative tool in the use of religious ritualistic practice. Music has both the ability to facilitate changes in cognition and emotion on an individual level, while also strengthening group bonds and unifying a community at the social level. Religion represents a powerful cultural framework that one is typically conditioned to at an extremely early age and exerts massive pressure on the norms and values of the environment it exists in. This dissertation seeks to explore differences and similarities of music and religious practice across cultures and offers implications for the field of cross-cultural psychology. The first essay is a quantitative paper that examines how one’s religion and how one practices their religion shapes their psychological mechanisms associated with the emotional construal of terror, within the naturalistic setting of the covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic many people have turned to their religious faiths for comfort and meaning in these existentially threatening times, however, many people have also found their ability to practice their religion effected by Covid-19, as well. The second essay will utilize a qualitative methodology to probe the use of music in ritualistic settings to understand cultural similarities and differences and what implications that may have for further understanding human cognitive and emotional capabilities and potentials. The final paper will be an interdisciplinary theory paper that borrows from social psychology, organizational psychology, musical psychology, and theology to propose mechanisms for how live musical practice in a communal setting interact to induce transformations in an individual’s sense of self. Often referred to as the “human obsession”, music is a unique communicative agent capable of arousing powerful cognitive and emotional responses in both the listener and performer across cultures.

Measuring meaning is a longstanding methodological problem in social science – especially meaning in text data. It is also a theoretical problem: measurement requires us to specify (Merton 1948) the theoretically vague concept of meaning itself. Cultural sociologists have spent decades trying to clarify aspects of meaning, such as the extent to which meaning is structured and stable across contexts and the extent to which meaning is stored in our minds versus in external symbols (e.g., images, words, and even parts of words such as suffixes). Meanwhile, recent advances in computer science offer new measures and formal models of meaning in text data. For example, word embeddings quantitatively model the meaning of words in text data. This dissertation capitalizes on such recent advances in computer science to contribute to theoretical and methodological work on meaning in cultural sociology. The first paper theorizes the kinds of sociological meaning that word embeddings operationalize and describes how cultural sociologists can use word embeddings to empirically investigate meaning in text. The second paper uses word embeddings to empirically investigate the extent to which syntactically gendered language (e.g., “policeman”) conveys gendered semantic information. Finally, paper three develops a novel computational approach to measure latent thematic meaning in large-scale text data, integrating word embedding and topic modeling approaches to measuring meaning in text data. The third paper then applies this new approach to identify latent themes in a large, underutilized source of text data on violent death in the U.S.

The purpose of this study is to determine how different public-school teachers and staff perceive school climate at an achieving public middle school. The research sought to find relationships between teacher sub-groups and other staff members, and how they perceived the school climate, either negatively or positively. The researcher believed that there would be a positive perception of school climate, which coincided with high student achievement. Additionally, it was believed that there would be no relationship between teacher types or demographics, and how the climate would be perceived among the different groups. This paper also presents a review of the current literature and the limitations of these studies. The last section of the paper describes the personal experiences and frameworks that could potentially influence the study. The proposed study used a mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative methods to seek understanding of the relationships from a case study approach. This study sought to understand the following research questions: What perceptions of school climate exist within a school with high student achievement; and how do different teacher and staff member groups perceive school climate within a school with high student achievement? Answers to the following sub-questions were also sought: Do selected demographic factors have an effect on teacher perceptions of school climate; and do differences exist in how sub-groups of teachers and staff members within the same school perceive climate? The study incorporated the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire for Middle Schools (OCDQ-RM) by Hoy (1998) as the quantitative climate instrument. For the qualitative data, the researcher asked a series of 12 open-ended questions. A total of 53 questionnaires were returned out of 67 (rate of 79%). A total of 6 interviews were conducted. Several sub-group comparisons were made and several groups had significant differences in how they perceived the school climate on various dimensions of the OCDQ-RM. Of all the group comparisons with significant differences, the reading group compared to the all-other participants group had the most significant differences with 4 of the 8 climate dimensions. Some primary conclusions or explanations for the reading group’s perceptual differences were that they are highly monitored by administrators and instructional facilitators, the students as a whole are behind in reading to begin with, and reading is a high-stakes tested area. Other group differences and explanations are provided as well.

This research used quantitative and qualitative methodologies to investigate how working professionals are impacted and account for workplace cultural differences. This paper also sought to make a case for additional quantitative and qualitative research into what shapes and maintains culture by looking at leadership's knowledge of their organization's way of doing things and the impact these multiple knowledge areas have on performance. The literature review section analyzed performance improvement models, the effect of leadership, the behavior engineering model (BEM) and related models, organization culture, and performance. This work also outlined the methodology utilized in studying and reviewing culture and performance. This research aimed to determine a better understanding and increase the use of performance improvement and cultural models to aid organizations in achieving their missions.

In the face of modern media, it is inevitable that certain cultural art forms will fade in popularity. Some may even fade out of existence altogether. However, there are continuous efforts to reframe these cultural gems in contemporary forms to preserve them for the younger generations. Digital media, such as animation and video games, provide the perfect vehicle to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary. This paper investigates how storytelling practices have been carried through time and the creative ways they have evolved in the face of an ever-changing mediascape. To support this research, I present a narrative in storyboard form that borrows stylistic elements and techniques of Chinese opera. The Beijing and Sichuan opera substyles were specifically chosen for their dramatic presence, vibrant costuming, and Sichuan opera’s face-changing act known as bian lian.

Healthcare providers in the US, specifically in areas of high refugee resettlement, have recently been overwhelmed by the recent influx of Afghanistan refugees. This increased demand has exposed the lack of culturally competent care that healthcare workers are able to provide, leading to the question: How can healthcare providers in the United States (US) recognize the unique health care needs of pregnant Afghan refugees? This research paper addresses the question through the collection of previous research surrounding medical care for pregnant Afghan refugees already in databases. First, background information was obtained about the situation from which pregnant Afghan women are escaping, including how the Taliban has influenced women’s health and how the Islamic religion views care of pregnant women. Next, an extensive literature review was performed to raise awareness about the prenatal period, childbirth, the postnatal period, and women’s health literacy in Afghanistan. This information was organized and presented to educate US healthcare workers. Next, the information was applied through analyzing the beliefs, customs, and practices of Afghan women and relating them to the context of the United States healthcare system. Results of the research showed that culture heavily impacts health care for pregnant Afghan women refugees and can negatively impact care if not understood by providers. Education of healthcare providers is essential to provide culturally competent care to pregnant Afghan women refugees and will prepare healthcare workers as more Muslim refugees continue to arrive in the US.

Is strategic stability between the United States (U.S.) and Russia realistic or are post-Cold War U.S.-Russian relations destined to fail? Is it possible for U.S.-Russian negotiations to result in a mutually acceptable long-term modus vivendi? These questions have been explored by every U.S. President since the end of the Cold War with every U.S. President ultimately resigning to competition with Russia, with the possibility of confrontation, as an inevitable end. This research adds to the scholarship investigating whether a prospective modus vivendi between the U.S. and Russia is possible. However, this research utilizes the less studied lens of negotiation theory, specifically whether one critical element of a negotiation strategy, mutual understanding and agreement regarding the ‘spirit of the deal’ or the underlying and ongoing ‘social contract’ underpinning a modus vivendi, is possible. This paper utilizes social contract disconnects including honor cultures’ preference for relational, not rational, models of negotiation, the survival strategies of honor cultures, and how honor cultures’ linkages to patrilineal kinship systems, power, and corruption factor into security narratives. Ultimately this research concludes in agreement with John Mearsheimer’s assertion that the U.S. and Russia utilize “different playbooks”, but contends fundamental implicit social contract differences based on honor-related variables more importantly factor into why the two countries cannot mutually agree upon and maintain a functional modus vivendi.

This paper analyzes how family expectations from the Haitian culture manifest in the marriages of middle-aged Haitian-American couples. This study emphasizes that the evolution to biculturalism is a major factor in the adjustments of cultural expectations. Four middle-aged Haitian-American couples were interviewed via Zoom individually. They were asked to describe how they believed Haitian culture and family expectations influenced their family and marriage life. The results indicate that the middle-aged Haitian-American couples adhere to explicit and implicit family expectations set out by their families of origin; these expectations were influenced by Haitian culture. The major themes from the study were: continued but modified gender roles, the expectation to get married, upholding Haitian traditions, stoic love expression, and the importance of religion. The participants in this study also mimicked similar family expectations for their children by presuming they will marry and uphold Haitian traditions just as they learned from their parents and elders. Ultimately, the participants in this study have taken elements of Haitian and American culture coupled with their family expectations and the influence of their peers’ expectations in America to form a new culture for themselves, Haitian- American. This shows up in their marital practices and decisions as well as the way they choose to raise their children.

Scientific research has its own culture that can be difficult to enter. Students often learn about and interact with the scientific research culture for the first time as undergraduates when they participate in research experiences such as Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE). However, the lack of a single framework that describes the culture of scientific research has resulted in little work specifically exploring students’ experiences and perceptions of this culture, especially in the context of CUREs. This three-paper dissertation fills this gap in the literature by establishing the Culture of Scientific Research (CSR) Framework and using the framework to explore undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions of the culture of scientific research in the context of a CURE. In the first study, a systematic literature review was performed to identify cultural aspects of scientific research described in prior work. Specifically, the Practices, Norms/Expectations, and Values/Beliefs of scientific research were identified and organized into the CSR Framework. This framework was also validated for biology with practicing biological researchers. The second study presents the first application of the CSR Framework in the context of a biology CURE. Students were interviewed about their feelings of participating in the CURE. The cultural aspects of scientific research that students mentioned in these interviews, as well as their perceptions of those aspects, were investigated. Students’ responses were also compared across the type of project students performed (bench-based vs. computational). Students mentioned nearly all of the aspects in the CSR Framework, but a small number of aspects were the most salient to students. Additionally, bench-based and computational students found different Practices to be salient and held different perceptions of the same cultural aspects. The third study compared the experiences and perceptions of women and men participating in the same CURE course that was the context for the second study. The results found that women and men mentioned many of the same cultural aspects of scientific research and perceived them in similar ways. However, there were subtle differences in how women and men talked about certain aspects. Altogether, these studies provide insight into undergraduates’ experiences and perceptions of the culture of scientific research. More specifically, this work broadens the current understanding of students’ experiences in CUREs and provides a model for how subtle but important differences between students’ experiences can be identified. Understanding students’ experiences of the scientific research culture will allow for future work that drives changes to the culture of scientific research to enable equitable access for all students.

The focus point of this study is intended to determine the dimensions of a multicultural approach to curriculum and instruction specifically in early childhood education. Additionally, throughout this study, the ways that technology has enhanced education are looked at and compared in relation to the recent advances and changes in education. Incorporating any of the dimensions of multiculturalism, or any fundamental ideas serve various benefits for students both inside the classroom and out. Implementing appropriate strategies prepares students to live and survive in a diverse world. We are able to do this by teaching them essential life skills, starting with their ‘experiences’ inside the classroom, which in reality are the culturally dense lessons we present to our students.