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Cultural Awareness Levels Of Professionals And Students At Mississippi State University: International Education's Challenge, William Edward Stephen Cottrell

Theses and Dissertations

The literature indicates that America's demographic transformation is becoming a priority issue for higher education. Consequently, progressive educational leadership has a stake in international education development. Since enhanced cultural awareness is essential to this process, its scarcity in terms of measurable evidence has given rise to this study. Research questions included: (1) What is the level of cultural awareness among professional employees and students at Mississippi State University as measured by the Culture Shock Inventory Measurement Table? (2) Do demographic factors relate to cultural awareness levels of professional employees and students at Mississippi State University? (3) What role does international …

Ocb Through Cultural Lenses: Exploring The Relations Among Personality, Ocb And Cultural Values, Xian Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study attempted to explore the role cultural values play on the relations between personality variables and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Specifically, Schwartz' cultural values of hierarchy and egalitarianism and the personality predictors of conscientiousness and agreeableness were examined. It was hypothesized that hierarchy and egalitarianism would moderate the relationship between conscientiousness, agreeableness and OCB. Specific hypotheses concerning the direction of the influence on particular dimensions of OCB were tested. Data were collected from multiple organizations resulting in a sample of 62 pairs of employee-supervisor dyads from the U.S. and 64 pairs from China. Results indicated that agreeableness correlated …

Antagonistic Allies: Bridging The Abyss Between Nietzsche And Democracy, Melinda Rosenberg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the often tumultuous relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and democracy. Nietzsche has always had an antipathy towards democracy. Nietzsche has claimed that democracy espouses a will to equality which levels the greatest men along with the most average men. For Nietzsche, his Ubermenschen must emerge from the muddle of mediocrity and similitude in order to set themselves apart from the herd. The herd is more than happy to live in a democratic society since no one will be rendered better or greater than anyone else.

I argue that Nietzsche does not realize democracy's …

Meanings Transferred Through The Consumption Of Jewelry In Romania, Meagan Call

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

In the past decade, there has been a vast expansion and globalization of markets. This "globalization demands that consumer researchers have experience and knowledge about individual countries and international conditions" (Arnould et al, 2002). The globalization of consumer research "demands that...researchers have experience and knowledge about individual countries and international conditions...meaningful synthesis and comparison demands not just proficiency in statistical methods and languages but insights into cultural differences" (Arnould et al, 2002). What is important for marketers to understand is the relationship between culture and product meanings. One important area of meanings involves personal meanings such as those high involvement …

Are Preservice Instructional Designers Adequately Prepared For Tomorrow’S Diverse Learning Audiences?—A Cultural Content Analysis Of Textbooks (1993-2003) Used For Instructional Design, Sujie Man

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used content analysis to examine the coverage of cultural issues in the five phases of instructional design within ID/ISD textbooks published between 1993 and 2003. The results indicated that not all the ID/ISD textbooks examined in this study covered cultural issues. Among the textbooks that did cover cultural issues, none of them reached more than 10% coverage of the total pages of any one book. The phase of Analysis and the Other category received the highest amount of coverage in both the 53 books sample and 36 books sample; whereas the phase of Implementation received the least amount …

The Christian Concept Of God And Japan-An Examination Of The Christian Concept Of God In Japanese Culture, Utilizing The Two Realms Theology Of The Lutheran Framework, Chikako Drawbaugh

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Therefore, it is essential to recognize that God, the author of the earth and heavens, has placed people in cultures with a variety of lifestyles and values. Even though circumstances may differ, our Christian identity remains unchanged because of faith in Christ. It is also crucial to appreciate culture as God's gift to human beings. At the same time, however, Christians need to recognize the idolatrous attitudes in their lives. Christians uniquely possess the character of living within and beyond cultures. This prompts us to consider what it means to live as a Christian while also belonging to a particular …

Learning To Be Free: The Print Media Of Cotonou, Benin, Stephen Urbanski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Benin, a West African republic of six million people, has had multiple influences shape its cultural and historical landscape, including the French colonization, a multiplicity of dictators, and a 17-year period of Marxism. During the early years of the colonization, the print media was particularly dissident, always advocating an end to the colonization, which greatly disrupted the regions core pan-African values. In 1990, the National Conference heralded a conversion to democracy as well as a boom in the number of privately owned newspapers.

This dissertation addresses at the concept of freedom and how it is defined from both a Western …

Culture Clash: Making The Case For A New Paradigm In Police Cultural Training, Hal S Edwards

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Hiring standards in most police agencies result in most officer candidates having little, if any, meaningful exposure to the "oppositional" culture of the urban, minority poor. Given the current popularity of the Community Oriented Policing paradigm---with its emphasis on positive police/community relations---current police hiring and training practices handicap police agencies in their efforts to gain the trust of urban, minority communities. A content analysis of United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigations under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14141) was found to support the hypothesis that the interface between the police …

A Case Study Of Culture And Change In A Small Architecture Firm, Valerie L Bugni

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Founded in 1982, Elphant1 is a 25-person architecture and interior design firm located in one of America's most "postmodern" cities (Venturi, Brown and Izenour 1977; Fontana and Preston 1990; Gottschalk 1995; Dickens 1999). In order to design better buildings that respond to as well as support people, organizations, and society, Elphant is engaged in an organizational change effort to incorporate sociological theories and methods into their design processes and operational activities; According to organization culture theorist Joanne Martin (2002), few researchers have integrated what is known about organizational change with cultural change. Applying Martin's (2002) three-perspective approach and Schein's (1992) …

A Chomharsain, Ná Leighidh An Chainnt Bhreá Fén Gcré / An Investigation Of The 'Saíocht' Of A Kerry Parish In Beara., Tomás B. Ó Luanaigh

Theses

We live in a global village of ever increasing travel and mass communication resulting in multiculturism in society. As our country has become part of an enlarged E.U., the debate concerning the place of the Irish language in E.U. life is a salient issue. The challenge of a minor poet upon his Famine deathbed echoes down the generations urging us to discover and further develop the rich seam of our own saíocht or culture, so dear to the mind of Diarmuid Na Bolgai. This thesis seeks to reveal that saiocht as lived by the people of Tuosist. It indicates how …

Disability And Identity, Stacey L. Coffman

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Chapter 1 establishes my search for reflections of my identities in the larger culture. I describe my search for recognition in a culture that glorifies the "able" bodied and explore why difference must be explored from multiple contexts.

Chapter 2 describes the methodology I chose for this project and how it reflects the nature of the perspectives I utilize. It explores the difficulties and rewards of autoethnographic work.

Chapter 3 describes the process of identity formation. Since this project views disability as a construct, I must determine which forces create and perpetuate our identity as human beings. I also explore …

Identity Lost: The Affects Of Trauma And Culture On Cambodian Refugees, John M. Targowski

Honors Capstones

This project analyzes the affects of trauma and culture change on Cambodian refugees. The horrors Cambodians experienced at the hands of Pol Pot had a dramatic impact on the 150,000 refugees who immigrated to America in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Extreme culture shock added to the difficulty these refugees had in adapting to life in America. Traditional Cambodian culture is discussed, highlighting how Cambodians practiced religion, education, and gender roles before the war and how life afterward has changed them. Due to the vast differences between American and Cambodian beliefs and the delicate nature of the refugee state …

No Direct Translation : The Other Immigrants In A Mexican Community At An American School, J. Eric Gross

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In this action research project the author employed a qualitative, case study approach to interview seven parents/guardians of extreme language minority students who attended the elementary school at which he worked. Because the community was composed of mostly Mexican immigrants, the needs of those students whose first language is neither English nor Spanish were often overlooked. Both professional and popular literature are reviewed in the relevant areas: language diversity and policies, demographic trends in the U.S., relative effectiveness of language programs in schools, transfer of skills from L1 to L2, culture's effects on learning, comparative learning styles, SES's effects on …

Culture And Ethnicity's Role In Sino-U.S. Foreign Policy Relations, Richard D. Giles Ii

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Musical Play Across Ethnic Boundaries In Western Jamaica, Ronald Eric Dickerson

LSU Master's Theses

An ethnography of music, ritual, and festival in western Jamaica, this thesis reports on fieldwork performed in St. Elizabeth and St. James Parishes between June 2002 and January 2003. Featured field sites include rural dancehall events, Kumina performances, Accompong Town's Maroon Heritage Festival, and a Rastafarian music and nutrition festival called "The Supper of Rastafari." Building an account of these and other sites of cultural performance, this study focuses on social connections between groups of participants, traced through poetic, historical, and personal relationships among performers, especially across boundaries of ethnic, stylistic, or religious difference within Jamaica's national cultural identity.