Digital Commons Network^™

Navigating The World Of Academia As A Mother And Contingent Faculty Member: A Narrative Inquiry, Kathryn Ledford

All Dissertations

Although women hold many professional positions, they are still held accountable to present gendered customs like parenting children. Additionally, women who work in higher education are surrounded by masculine norms. For academic women who are also mothers like the author, many obstacles confront their management of the interlocking spheres of home, work and self. An examination of these women's narratives will illuminate how women navigate the world of academia, while maintaining our roles as mothers and individual identities.
For women who are mothers of children under six years old, and who are also contingent faculty members at four-year institutions, both …

Intersecting Identities Of Female College Student Intramural Sports Officials: A Grounded Theory, April Flint

All Dissertations

Intramural activities are conducted on virtually every college campus throughout the United States, but there is a debate as to the role of intramurals in the overall development of the student (Rothwell & Theodore, 2006). Specifically for females, not every sport is offered for participation at youth or higher levels, but intramural sports is one arena where they have the chance to learn the sport rules and referee the game. This study aims to create a base of knowledge on the experiences of female college students who work on campus as intramural sports officials. The purpose of the study is …

Principals' Experiences Regarding Culturally Responsive Leadership Preparation And Practices That Promote Academic Achievement Of African American Students, Monica Brown

All Dissertations

Culturally responsive education improves the educational success of ethnically diverse students (Gay, 2002). The research presented states the case of the need of culturally responsive leadership preparation programs that influence the practice of culturally responsive principals. Emerging evidence has found that preparation programs impact the efficacy of future school leaders (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, Orr, & Cohen, 2007; Jackson & Kelly, 2002). A large body of literature points to persistent achievement gaps for children of color and especially for African American males and demands that school leadership preparation attend to issues of cultural competence (Dantley, 2005; Evans, 2007; Lopez, Magdeleno, & …

A Dynamic Network Analysis Of Innovation And Leadership In Two-Year Colleges, Melissa Mcfarland

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of leadership and its influence on innovation at a two-year college, paying particular attention to the network structure, the influence of leadership (formal and informal), and environmental influence. The goal was to learn about the nature of innovation at two-year colleges by studying the environment and leadership at these institutions, relative to theory, specifically complexity theory and dynamic network analysis, to gain an understanding of the complex dynamics that makes up the two-year college. The study looked at these influences and innovation as dynamic, changing processes between interconnected agents within …

A Case Study In Collaborative Efforts At Spartanburg Community College, Frederick Cooper

All Dissertations

The General Assembly of South Carolina radically changed the structure of secondary education with the enactment of the Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) of 2005. A provision in the legislation requires post-secondary institutions to develop articulation agreements with secondary institutions in their service area(s). Traditionally, articulation agreements between secondary and post-secondary institutions have been few and far between. The question then becomes how articulation agreements are developed from the post-secondary perspective. Spartanburg Community College is one of the sixteen technical/community colleges in South Carolina. The development of articulation agreements is examined at Spartanburg Community College using the lens of …

Evaluating Best Practices For Interpretive Programs In The National Park Service, Emily Martin

All Theses

Since its inception, interpretation in parks and protected areas has been used to achieve a variety of desired visitor outcomes, including enhanced satisfaction, visitor experience, and behavioral change. A large body of literature has been developed regarding effective techniques and desirable styles for conducting interpretive programs. However, despite the amount of this literature, as interpretation progresses into the 21st century, a gap has been identified between empirical support for interpretation's “ best practices ” and their links to desired outcomes. This study aims to isolate those practices that are necessary for producing desired outcomes in national park visitors. National Park …

Book Review: Strategies For Interpreter Education And Practice In The Health Care Setting, Debra Russell

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

A Case For Training Signed Language Interpreters For Legal Specialization, Len Roberson, Debra Russell, Risa Shaw

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Interpreting in legal settings has become a specialized area of practice that requires specific training and ongoing professional development. This study examined the training and professional development needs of ASL–English interpreters in North America. The 1,995 participants in an online survey included interpreters who provide services in legal settings and those who do not. The data suggest that interpreters desire certificate programs that are delivered in multiple formats, including face-to-face intensive experiences, online distance learning, and regional and local mentoring experiences. The training content areas participants wanted most include specialized interactions; legal discourse across a range of settings including police, …

Signed Language Academic Papers, Risa Shaw, Mary Thumann

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Signed language academic papers are a new possibility that recent developments in technologies for recording, editing, presenting, and reviewing visual materials have made practical in an academic setting. This article presents guidelines the authors developed for papers specifically in American Sign Language (ASL)interpreting courses; however, signed language academic papers can be effectively used in signed language classes of all levels in any country.

The authors offer rationales for assigning signed language academic papers to bilingual students and suggest style and practical guidelines analogous to guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA). Recommended guidelines address practical and academic considerations. The recommendations …

Community Interpreter Training In Spoken Languages In Sweden, Kristina Gustafsson, Eva Norström, Ingrid Fioretos

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The aim of this article is to analyze the community interpreter training program in Sweden and, based on the results of two research projects, describe structural conditions and shortcomings. The authors discuss Sweden’s laws and regulations, the changing demand for interpreting service in society, the open access ideology within adult education associations, and the limitation of economic resources for fulfilling the demand for trained interpreters. Interpreter training in Sweden is built on public-service needs in the areas of social insurance, the labor market, health care, and court interpreting. It is focused on factual knowledge and terminology and devotes little time …

Editorial Community Interpreting Research: A Critical Discussionof Training And Assessment, Jemina M. Napier

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Interpreting Accreditation Testing Formatsin Australia, Sedat Mulayim

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Advanced and affordable video conferencing technology has led to an increase in remote interpreting services via video, which has become a significant alternative to telephone and face-to-face interpreting. In keeping with this development, training providers are now incorporating video conference interpreting in their training. Video and audio resources are also increasingly being used as e-learning resources in online learning tools such as Blackboard and other university student learning portals. This has implications for the testing of interpreting skills, and the RMIT University Translating and Interpreting Program in Melbourne, Australia has started phasing in video assessment in examination and accreditation tests. …

Assessment And Evaluationin Labs For Public Service Interpreting Training, Carmen Valero Garcés, Denis Socarrás-Estrada

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This study reports on the development and application of two bilingual interpreting tests given to master’s students during three academic years (2009–2012) at the University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain. Its main objective is to compare trainees’ test performance at two different points in time. The study analyzes the degree of accuracy and the speed of response, considering the variables of mother tongue, gender, age, and undergraduate education. Our customized tests drew upon two aptitude tests developed by Pöchhacker (2009) and Russo (2009) and combine oral-aural exercises with tasks requiring listening skills, expressional fluency, and public-service-setting terminology. The tests are administered …

Translating The Statistical Representation Of The Effects Of Education Interventions Into More Readily Interpretable Forms, Mark W. Lipsey, Kelly Puzio, Cathy Yun, Michael A. Hebert, Kasia Steinka-Fry, Mikel W. Cole, Megan Roberts, Karen S. Anthony, Matthew D. Busick

Publications

This paper is directed to researchers who conduct and report education intervention studies. Its purpose is to stimulate and guide them to go a step beyond reporting the statistics that emerge from their analysis of the differences between experimental groups on the respective outcome variables. With what is often very minimal additional effort, those statistical representations can be translated into forms that allow their magnitude and practical significance to be more readily understood by the practitioners, policymakers, and even other researchers who are interested in the intervention that was evaluated.

Besocratic: An Intelligent Tutoring System For The Recognition, Evaluation, And Analysis Of Free-Form Student Input, Samuel Bryfczynski

All Dissertations

This dissertation describes a novel intelligent tutoring system, BeSocratic, which aims to help fill the gap between simple multiple-choice systems and free-response systems. BeSocratic focuses on targeting questions that are free-form in nature yet defined to the point which allows for automatic evaluation and analysis. The system includes a set of modules which provide instructors with tools to assess student performance. Beyond text boxes and multiple-choice questions, BeSocratic contains several modules that recognize, evaluate, provide feedback, and analyze student-drawn structures, including Euclidean graphs, chemistry molecules, computer science graphs, and simple drawings. Our system uses a visual, rule-based authoring system which …

Encouraging Lid Through Public Education, Outreach And Involvement, Karen Fuss

S.C. Water Resources Conference

2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Management

South Carolina Elementary Teachers' Perceptions Of Principals' Transformational Leadership In Academically Recognized And Other, High Poverty Schools, Julian Lewis

All Dissertations

This study investigated selected elementary school teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership. Ten South Carolina schools were selected based on the criterion of 50% or higher poverty index. Five schools included the feature of recognition by the state for academic success for one year or more over the 2003-2006 timeframe. One hundred three elementary teachers and seven of the 10 schools' principals completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x-Short (Bass & Avolio, 1995a, 1995b). Given multiple data sources for this study, the question was formulated as follows: How are teacher and principal responses on the MLQ validated by principals' reports of leadership …

Invisible Woman? Narratives Of Black Women Leaders In Southeastern Two-Year Colleges, Shelia Counts

All Dissertations

This narrative research study explored the experiences of two Black women executive-level leaders who started their careers within higher education, including two-year technical colleges located in the Southeast during the pivotal sociopolitical moments that occurred during the1960s to the1980s. The stories of these women revealed their perceptions of the barriers they faced as well as the opportunities they received for career advancement as their careers evolved parallel to the development of the technical college system itself. Qualitative procedures, including semi-structured interviews and a combined narrative analysis and analysis of narratives interpretative framework (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006; Creswell, 2009; Kramp, 2004; …

A Formative Experiment To Promote Disciplinary Literacy In Middle-School And Pre-Service Teacher Education Through Blogging, Jamie Colwell

All Dissertations

This dissertation describes a formative experiment that investigated how strategy instruction paired with collaborative blogging could promote disciplinary literacy among eighth-grade students in a social studies classroom and among pre-service teachers in a social studies methods course. Qualitative methods were utilized to collect and analyze data in this study. To determine modifications to the intervention, an embedded, single-case study was designed to analyze data iteratively using constant comparative methods. Post-study, qualitative methods were also used to conduct retrospective analysis to connect overall findings to theory. Three modifications were made, in the middle-school setting, to the intervention, which enhanced participants' progress …

An Examination Of Predictive Factors Related To School Adjustment For Children With Disabilities Transitioning Into Formal School Settings, Cynthia Baughan

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
Data related to the adjustment to school of 86 children with disabilities who transitioned into formal school settings in the fall of 2011 were obtained through 31 parent surveys (Transition to School Parent Survey) and 64 teacher surveys (Transition to School Teacher Survey). Data from the subscales of these surveys were used to examine the predictive association between family preparation for the transition (as measured by parent satisfaction and parent involvement) and parent-rated child adjustment to school, and between receiving teacher support (as measured by teacher practices) and teacher-rated child adjustment to school. Findings from this study suggest that …

The Last Thing We Have Left: A Single-Case Study Of A Small, Rural, Mill-Town School Closing, Amy Hallenbeck

All Dissertations

This qualitative, single-case study explored the closing of a small, rural, historic, mill-town school in the southeastern United States and why people were upset with the closing of the school. Through the responses of 12 purposefully selected participants, the study focused on attitudes, perceptions, and values of students and parents, school district employees and affiliates, and community constituents as they relate to functions of school and schooling, culture of school and schooling, the school itself, and relationships between school, community, and individual. Findings indicate that participants fought the closing of their community school not because they perceived the nearby receiving …

Adaptation Of Chinese Graduate Students To The Academic Integrity Requirements Of A U.S. University: A Mixed Methods Research, Hu Jian

All Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed method study was to investigate how graduates originating from mainland China adapt to the U.S. academic integrity requirements. In the first, quantitative phase of the study, the research questions focused on understanding the state of academic integrity in China. This guiding question was divided into two sub-questions, academic misbehavior commonly practiced by students in China and factors leading to these types of misbehavior. The data were collected via a web-based survey (N=300) through convenience sampling. The results from the quantitative analysis displayed the commonly practiced academic misbehavior converge on four categories: a) cheating for benefits, …

Just Tri: Examining The Transformative Experiences Of Women Amputees Who Participate In Paratriathlons, Amy Baczurik

All Theses

The United States has approximately 1.7 million people living with limb loss. The majority of studies focus on general disability related to limb loss rather than specifically focusing on women with amputations. Women amputees can experience difficulty in accepting the disability, which in turn may lead to decreases in life satisfaction. Often women amputees may experience varying levels of depression, negative perception of body image, as well as decreased self-confidence and decreased sense of self-efficacy. The researcher used a phenomenological lens to examine transformative experiences of women amputees who participate in paratriathlons, specifically focusing on participants lived experiences related to …

Dissertation Abstracts, Victoria Stuard, Kimberly J. Hale, Linda K. Stauffer Dr.

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Exploring Remote Interpreting, Erica Alley

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This article examines the field of remote interpretation in both signed and spoken languages. Remote interpreting is used throughout a range of specializations including medical, mental health, education, conference, and legal environments. Video interpreting is here to stay, despite obstacles that continue to pose a challenge; many who fight this technology do so against the natural paradigm shift that the field will take. I propose that rather than resist the expansion of technology, interpreter educators instead teach interpreters how to use it effectively. In this article I identify important topics for educators to address, to help interpreters make ethically wise …

Broadcast Yourself: Youtube As A Tool For Interpreter Education, Tom R. Cox

International Journal of Interpreter Education

YouTube is a website designed for the purpose of easily sharing videos and is extremely popular with today’s generation of “digital native” students. The technology is easily accessible, free, and relatively simple to use. However, its merits as an educational tool for interpreting seem to be widely underutilized even though it is ideally suited for working with a visual language. In the fall of 2009, I began experimenting with YouTube in my American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting classes. I have slowly incorporated many of YouTube’s useful features in my curriculum, enhancing my ability to provide pre-assignment information, interpreting models, and …

Moving Interpreter Education Online: A Conversation With Sherry Shaw, Douglas Bowen Bailey, Sherry Shaw

International Journal of Interpreter Education

In this Open Forum conversation between Doug Bowen-Bailey, a signed language interpreter educator and resource developer, and Sherry Shaw, a signed-language-interpreter educator, Sherry shares her experience of establishing and teaching an online master’s program in interpreting at the University of North Florida. The conversation shares insights into the structure of the online program, as well as the benefits and challenges of teaching in an online environment. These include issues of time management for both students and faculty, faculty recruitment and retention, choices in technology, and establishing a program within an institutional environment.

Do You See What I See? Using Elan For Self-Analysis And Reflection, Della Goswell

International Journal of Interpreter Education

This commentary discusses the application of video annotation software (ELAN) in the Auslan–English interpreter-training program at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. It gives an overview of the program’s context and highlights experienced-based learning as one of the key pedagogical approaches being used to foster student self-analysis and reflection. In order for students to analyze their own interpreting performances, they must first be recorded, so the article touches on the rationale and some techniques for the video capture that provides the data for subsequent ELAN analysis. Examples of activities based on the use of ELAN software are then discussed.

Supervision And The Interpreting Profession: Support And Accountabilitythrough Reflective Practice, Ali Hetherington

International Journal of Interpreter Education

In this article, the author argues for the development of consultative supervision within the interpreting profession to reduce work-related stress, provide interpreters with opportunities for regular examination of their practice, and to protect those to whom interpreters provide a service. Supervision is a recognized means of accountability and support for many professions, yet it is largely absent from the training and continuing professional development of interpreters. Furthermore, the absence of literature into occupational stress for interpreters implies that such stress is unrecognized or considered unproblematic by the profession. The author draws on findings from a recent qualitative research study into …

Editorial Putting Interpreter Educators To The Test: Testing, Ethics, And Technology, Jemina M. Napier

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.