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Articles 1 - 30 of 67
Full-Text Articles in Education
Harnessing Untapped Potential: A Theory For Engaging Recent Graduates In Alumni Advocacy To Support Institutional Advancement Goals, Erin M. Valencik
Harnessing Untapped Potential: A Theory For Engaging Recent Graduates In Alumni Advocacy To Support Institutional Advancement Goals, Erin M. Valencik
Doctoral Dissertations
At the same time institutions and advancement offices are struggling to effectively engage recent graduates who are essential to the health and longevity of the engagement and philanthropy pipeline, public institutions are attempting to constrain rising college costs that threaten quality and accessibility. A large and ongoing contributing factor to increased college costs is reduced state funding for higher education that remains below historic levels. Given the current environment of declining numbers of new donors, the funding challenges that face higher education, and recent graduate motivations to participate in cause-based philanthropy, political advocacy may be one approach that can effectively …
Accreditation Of Teaching And Research Universities In Afghanistan: A Policy Implementation Analysis, Sayed Javid Mussawy
Accreditation Of Teaching And Research Universities In Afghanistan: A Policy Implementation Analysis, Sayed Javid Mussawy
Doctoral Dissertations
The quest for quality has encouraged many countries to establish quality assurance and accreditation models to sustain and improve quality. While some established their own procedures, a great majority of the countries including those in the developing world have adopted quality assurance policies developed in the Global North to respond to internationalization and to participate in the knowledge economy. However, most universities in developing countries lack adequate infrastructure to implement accreditation standards. Thus, investigating the implementation of accreditation policies in developing nations provides new insight into the opportunities and challenges posed by internationalization of quality assurance and accreditation. This study …
Learning By Doing: Preparing Student Activists For Democratic Engagement, Marjorie G. Valdivia
Learning By Doing: Preparing Student Activists For Democratic Engagement, Marjorie G. Valdivia
Doctoral Dissertations
This study explores how college students' experiences with co-curricular social justice advocacy activities supports capacity-building for progressive, democratic, civic engagement. Given the increasing and widening of economic inequality in the U.S. (Hernandez Kent & Ricketts, 2020), exploring how co-curricular experiences in higher education settings can support students to gain capacities for progressive, democratic, civic engagement. While there is a significant amount of scholarship on how diversity education and service-learning contribute to college students' civic engagement, the literature on student involvement in campus activism on progressive, democratic, civic engagement is sparse (Kezar & Maxey, 2014) Using a mixed methods approach, this …
Enacting A Critical Media Production Pedagogy, James D. Swerzenski
Enacting A Critical Media Production Pedagogy, James D. Swerzenski
Doctoral Dissertations
This project draws upon earlier calls—particularly in the critical pedagogy, critical media literacy, and cultural production fields—to outline a teaching approach that balances technical media production practices and critical media studies. I refer to this synthesis as critical media production pedagogy. This blending of critical analysis and technical skill, I argue, is especially important at the university level where my research is focused, as students in these courses will likely enter industry fields in which they can influence culture on a mass level. Creating opportunities for a media theory/production synthesis enables students to translate critical ideas beyond the academy and …
How Well Does The New York State Higher Education Opportunity Program Work For Black Men? A Mixed Methods Study, Michael A. Dejesus Iii
How Well Does The New York State Higher Education Opportunity Program Work For Black Men? A Mixed Methods Study, Michael A. Dejesus Iii
Doctoral Dissertations
Previous research trended towards a deficit-oriented approach to understanding and explaining Black male underachievement. The past education research has focused on discussing the underachievement of Black males in Higher education. Finding solutions often were prescriptive in “fixing” behaviors in Black males to improve academic achievement. Additionally, there has been a trend towards race-neutrality in education policies, programs, and admissions criteria. And there is a lack of research on whether race-neutrality further exacerbates Black male underachievement by ignoring key race and gender targeted supports services that could improve Black male academic outcomes in higher education. While Black men have historically struggled …
Who Benefits From Deferred Entry To College?: Exploring The Relationships Between College Deferment, Postsecondary Academic Success, And Institutional Selectivity, Gabriel Reif
Doctoral Dissertations
Prior research on delayed entry and gap years have produced conflicting results on the relationships between deferring entry to college and postsecondary academic success. Specifically, studies on delayed entry have linked the phenomenon to lower attainment rates, while the literature on gap years has shown a positive relationship with college GPA. These conflicting findings make it unclear for students, families, counselors, administrators, and policymakers to understand whether deferring entry to college is an opportunity that should be pursued by more individuals or if it is something to be avoided. The focus of this dissertation was to bring prior findings on …
Class, Family Involvement, And Asian American Four And Two-Year College Students’ Experiences Of Advantage And Disadvantage, Blair Harrington
Class, Family Involvement, And Asian American Four And Two-Year College Students’ Experiences Of Advantage And Disadvantage, Blair Harrington
Doctoral Dissertations
While the significance of familial support in college receives substantial and growing attention, Asian American college students’ experiences of such support remain unclear. In a series of three articles that draw on a total of 140 intensive semi-structured interviews, this dissertation explores the effect class has on students’ experiences of three different types of familial support: 1) students’ receipt of parental support, 2) students’ provision of parental support, and 3) students’ receipt of sibling support. The first article “The Power of Class and Not Institution Type: Asian American Four and Two-Year College Students’ Receipt of Parental Support” employs a …
New Ways Of Being And Knowing: Women Ph.D. Students Exploring Embodiment Through Feminist Phenomenological Photovoice, Anna Fox Reilly
New Ways Of Being And Knowing: Women Ph.D. Students Exploring Embodiment Through Feminist Phenomenological Photovoice, Anna Fox Reilly
Doctoral Dissertations
Being a Ph.D. student is a privilege in many ways, and it is not easy. Mind-body dualist patterns of thought and behavior within academia ignore the embodied experiences of being a woman Ph.D. student. Mental health, sexual harassment, family planning, and social relationships are among the challenges that women are often expected to handle on their own or are ignored altogether. With 20 women Ph.D. student participants, this feminist phenomenological photovoice project answers the questions: For those who self-identify as women, what is the essence of the embodied Ph.D. experience? To what extent does the experience of being in a …
An Endarkened Autoethnographic Approach To Peer Co-Curricular Dialogue Facilitation Training, Amari L. Boyd
An Endarkened Autoethnographic Approach To Peer Co-Curricular Dialogue Facilitation Training, Amari L. Boyd
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation is a qualitative study drawing on endarkened feminist epistemology (Dillard, 2001), autoethnography (Jones, Adams,& Ellis, 2013), and Blackgirl autoethnography (Boylorn, 2016), each of which challenges the traditional roles between researchers and the researched, educators and students, and in the case of this study, dialogue facilitators in-training, and their dialogue facilitation educator. The purpose of this study was to capture the ways in which six Peer Dialogue Facilitators (PDFs) and myself, a Black woman and facilitation educator, perceive ourselves as facilitators of color and navigate facilitation obstacles amidst our new global pandemic reality. This study will utilize group interviews …
Utilization And Effect Of Multiple Content Modalities In Online Higher Education: Shifting Trajectories Toward Success Through Universal Design For Learning, Catherine A. Manly
Utilization And Effect Of Multiple Content Modalities In Online Higher Education: Shifting Trajectories Toward Success Through Universal Design For Learning, Catherine A. Manly
Doctoral Dissertations
The idea that offering multiple means of representing course content will assist students of all abilities constitutes one pillar of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework intended to address needs of students with disabilities while also holding relevance for all students. The efficacy of this UDL guideline lacks a verified empirical basis and therefore merits rigorous examination. My dissertation investigates the effect on learning outcomes of students using multiple modalities while learning course content (e.g., text, video, audio, interactive, or mixed content), targeting improving educational success for non-traditional online students. I investigate this effect for older undergraduates from a …
Financing Public Higher Education In Afghanistan: Alternative Sources And Options, Hassan Aslami
Financing Public Higher Education In Afghanistan: Alternative Sources And Options, Hassan Aslami
Doctoral Dissertations
Adequate financing is key to achieving the priority goals of higher education – access, quality, and relevance. In Afghanistan, the demand for higher education has increased remarkably while public higher education institutions still rely heavily on inadequate government funding. In addition, the constitutional provision guaranteeing free higher education up to the bachelor’s level in public institutions, the overall weak economy of the country, and the lack of institutional autonomy, contribute to financial austerity in public higher education institutions. This study explored alternative funding sources and options for financing public universities in Afghanistan. An integrated theoretical framework guided this study as …
Prefigurative Politics And Revolutionary Practices Within International Service-Learning: A Case Study Of The Ciee Thailand Program On Development And Globalization, Koni Denham
Doctoral Dissertations
Today's colleges and universities are prioritizing the preparation of students for global citizenship. To meet this need, institutions are focusing their study abroad and international service-learning programs to provide students with international experiences (Bringle & Hatcher, 2011). Government support for such programs is driven by advancing globalization, promoting economic competitiveness, and ensuring national security (Hantzopoulos & Shirazi, 2014). The problem, however, is that participation in service-learning does not guarantee that students will engage in further social action activities upon their return (Hartman & Kiely, 2014). A contributing factor to this lack of engagement is because participants are not gaining transferable …
Exploring Language, Culture And Identity: Perspectives From Non-Native Arabic University Teachers In The Us, Brahim Oulbeid
Exploring Language, Culture And Identity: Perspectives From Non-Native Arabic University Teachers In The Us, Brahim Oulbeid
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation explores how six non-native (NN) university Arabic teachers make sense of language, culture, and identity. Specifically, it aims to understand how their experiences as Arabic language learners, preservice teachers, and classroom practitioners shape their classroom work, especially as they relate to their conceptions of teaching culture and the negotiation of their personal and professional identities. Four questions guide this study: how NN Arabic teachers perceive culture, what their culture teaching practices are, what identities they enact, and what their contributions to the teaching of Arabic as foreign language (TAFL) field are. To address these issues, the study draws …
Making Meaning In The Margins: Identities, Belonging, And Social Justice Commitments In A Cross-Race Intergroup Dialogue For Queer And Trans College Students, Nina M. Tissi-Gassoway
Making Meaning In The Margins: Identities, Belonging, And Social Justice Commitments In A Cross-Race Intergroup Dialogue For Queer And Trans College Students, Nina M. Tissi-Gassoway
Doctoral Dissertations
This qualitative research study used constructivist grounded theory methods to explore the lived experiences of 11 queer and trans undergraduate college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds in a cross-race intergroup dialogue (IGD) course. Using document analysis of course assignments and post-dialogue semi-structured interviews allowed for rich inquiry into how these queer and trans students made meaning of their intersecting identities, sense of belonging, cross-race relationships, and social justice commitments. This study contributes new knowledge about the meaning-making processes of queer and trans college students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds and the role that IGD plays in supporting …
Making Meaning In The Anthropocene: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Investigation Of College Student Response To Planetary Ecological Crises, Kristen Nelson
Making Meaning In The Anthropocene: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Investigation Of College Student Response To Planetary Ecological Crises, Kristen Nelson
Doctoral Dissertations
Higher education, with its core purpose in the generation and transmission of knowledge, has a particular role to play in society’s response to the global ecological crisis. Yet a key question is whether higher education is part of the problem or part of the solution. Sustainability educators insist that higher education, if it is to adequately address these challenges, must shift away from “mechanism” – a rationalist worldview that historically has shaped higher education’s culture and practices – toward an integrative worldview and epistemology that will guide teaching and learning in the new millennium. Emergent pedagogies and student development theories …
Critical Cultural Perspectives On Teaching Arabic As A Foreign Language (Tafl): A Critical Ethnographic Investigation Of A Us College-Level Course, Shaimaa Moustafa
Critical Cultural Perspectives On Teaching Arabic As A Foreign Language (Tafl): A Critical Ethnographic Investigation Of A Us College-Level Course, Shaimaa Moustafa
Doctoral Dissertations
A gap in the critical cultural research paradigm in foreign language teaching (FLT) and teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) at the college level in the U.S. context subsists. FLT and TAFL have been characterized by the prevalence of the communicative and proficiency-based pedagogies and their concomitant research frameworks. This prevalence is tied to the growing neoliberal and terror rhetoric in recent years (Kramsch, 2005; Bernstein et al., 2015). In the face of the latter, a need for critical cultural frameworks of teaching and research became plausible to deconstruct the different clichés and biases in the context of Arabic …
Expanding Access To Elite Institutions Through Community College Transfer: An Intrinsic Case Study Of Bucknell University’S Community College Transfer Initiatives, Catherine Sanchez
Expanding Access To Elite Institutions Through Community College Transfer: An Intrinsic Case Study Of Bucknell University’S Community College Transfer Initiatives, Catherine Sanchez
Doctoral Dissertations
Elite institutions of higher education have been under increased scrutiny for failing to provide equitable access, and rightly so. Recent research reveals that students from underserved populations are severely underrepresented at elite colleges and universities. These findings echo research conducted nearly fifteen years ago, indicating that despite class-based policy efforts, like need-blind admission and no-loan financial aid, little movement has been made to expand access to students who could benefit the most from an elite education. This lack of movement serves as the entry point for this study, which argued that if community college transfer is to make a difference …
Locating Safe Spaces For Food Insecure Female Community College Students, Michelle Errington Nicholson
Locating Safe Spaces For Food Insecure Female Community College Students, Michelle Errington Nicholson
Doctoral Dissertations
Food insecurity is a problem on many college campuses and as such is an increasing focus of research (Ferguson, 2004; et al., 2014; Meldrum & Willows, 2006; Patton-López, et al., 2014; Powers, 2012; Rondeau, 2007). These studies and others (Chaparro, et al., 2009; Freudenberg, et al, 2011; Hughes, et al., 2011; Lindsley & King, 2014) report that from 21-69% of college students experience food insecurity. I examined college student food insecurity at a small rural community college in Massachusetts in an attempt to discover safe spaces for female students to disclose food insecurity and the characteristics of those safe spaces. …
Are Some Horizons Broader Than Others? Study Abroad, Inequality, And The Influence On Careers And Education., Suzan Kommers
Are Some Horizons Broader Than Others? Study Abroad, Inequality, And The Influence On Careers And Education., Suzan Kommers
Doctoral Dissertations
Study abroad is one of the main ways in which higher education institutions provide students with the opportunity to gain international experiences. While study abroad is mostly discussed in terms of the beneficial effects on students’ learning and development, the results in this dissertation indicate that study abroad works for some but disadvantages other students. Based on nationally representative U.S. data, I examined 1) disparities in students’ opportunities to study abroad as well as the effect of study abroad on the socioeconomic outcomes 2) early career income and 3) graduate school enrollment. The combined studies in this dissertation provided insight …
Understanding China’S Discourse On South-South Cooperation And China-Africa Higher Education Exchange: A Field Research Study At Zhejiang Normal University’S China-Africa International Business School, Yi Sun
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation research attempts to distinguish China’s model from that of the traditional North-South relationship, with a focus on how China’s philosophy articulates its foreign policy and the nation’s higher education engagement with African countries. It examines the China-Africa higher education partnership in response to China’s discourse on South-South Cooperation (SSC), Africa’s human resource flows, and the benefits and constraints of current China-Africa cooperation. In order to achieve these goals, the dissertation uses one of the China-Africa partnership universities in China, Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) as a site for its field research. The fieldwork looks at both a student level …
Bridging The Gap: Cultural Wealth And College Transitions For Upward Bound Students, Ashley J. Carpenter
Bridging The Gap: Cultural Wealth And College Transitions For Upward Bound Students, Ashley J. Carpenter
Doctoral Dissertations
Often when assessing the success of minoritized students, deficit models place the weight of low achievement on students’ cultural identities, thus blaming them for their lack of success. However, many minoritized students combat this erasure by using their cultural capital, wealth, and identities to transition and persist through college. Using Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth model, this study explored the ways that 20 first-generation, low-income, Black and Latinx Upward Bound alumni implemented their cultural wealth to transition and persist through the postsecondary pipeline, and investigated the role of an Upward Bound program preparing them for college. Through artifact/photographic elicited, semi-structured …
(Social) Class Is In Session: Examining The Experiences Of Working-Class Students Through Social Class Identity, Class-Based Allyship, And Sense Of Belonging, Genia M. Bettencourt
(Social) Class Is In Session: Examining The Experiences Of Working-Class Students Through Social Class Identity, Class-Based Allyship, And Sense Of Belonging, Genia M. Bettencourt
Doctoral Dissertations
Working-class students experience numerous barriers in accessing and persisting within higher education. These barriers are often amplified at public research institutions that facilitate greater social class diversity, career opportunities, and degree completion, but cater to middle- and upper-class students. The result is a contrast for working-class students in which higher education can serve as a tool for social mobility while also reinforcing barriers that reproduce class inequality. In this dissertation, I used narrative inquiry to conduct 44 interviews with 24 working-class students regarding their social class meaning-making, perceptions of class-based allyship, and sense of belonging. All three concepts have been …
Latina/O College Students' Experiences At A Predominately White Research University, Maria Alicia Remaly
Latina/O College Students' Experiences At A Predominately White Research University, Maria Alicia Remaly
Doctoral Dissertations
Latina/o students’ access to higher education has increased over time; however, the graduation rates for this group (52%) remain lower than those for white students (63%) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014). This low graduation rate presents a problem for the financial and social progress of the Latina/o population due to the key role that having a bachelor’s degree plays in the labor force. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to better understand the college experiences of Latina/o students in a predominantly white institution (PWI) in the state of Massachusetts. This study focused in key areas that are …
Dropping The Invisibility Cloak: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Sense Of Belonging And Place Identity Among Rural, First Generation, Low Income College Students From Appalachian Kentucky, Brenda Abbott
Doctoral Dissertations
In a country that once was 95% rural in the late 1700s, only 19.3% of the population of the United States now live in rural areas (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The shift in population from rural to urban areas is not simply demographic; it imbues a shift in who and what matters. Only 13.6% of adults over 25 in Appalachian Kentucky have earned bachelor's degrees, 18.9% below the national average (Appalachian Regional Commission, 2016). This phenomenological study seeks to understand how rural, first generation, low income college students from Appalachian Kentucky experience a sense of belonging in their first year …
Steering Against The Tide? Presidential Leadership And Diversity At Amherst College, Letha Gayle-Brissett
Steering Against The Tide? Presidential Leadership And Diversity At Amherst College, Letha Gayle-Brissett
Doctoral Dissertations
One of the more significant success stories of inclusion in US higher education has been that of Amherst College’s transformation into a highly diverse student body. This research examines the role and effect of presidential leadership in Amherst College’s diversity achievement. Using a case study design, data was collected from interviews with then President Anthony Marx, various members of the College community who were central stakeholders in the diversity initiative, and selected archival original College documents. The research draws on Bolman and Deal’s (2003) organizational leadership framework to analyze how various institutional dimensions of the College were challenged and changed …
Mapping The Development Of College Going Identities Among Aspirantes Puertorriqueñas, Yedalis Ruiz
Mapping The Development Of College Going Identities Among Aspirantes Puertorriqueñas, Yedalis Ruiz
Doctoral Dissertations
Despite constituting the largest group of minoritized students, Latinx students continue to have the lowest educational attainment compared to all other groups in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). While Latinx enrollment in college has increased, the majority of Latinx high school graduates enroll in community college as opposed to 4-year Bachelor’s degree granting higher education institutions, and only a small percentage of these students will ever transfer into a 4-year college or university (Excelencia in Education, 2015; Kurlaender, 2006; Perez & Ceja, 2015). Increasing participation in higher education among Latinxs requires a better understanding of college choice process for …
"No One Is Gonna Tell Us We Can't Do This": The Development Of Agency In Student-Initiated Community Engagement, Shuli A. Archer
"No One Is Gonna Tell Us We Can't Do This": The Development Of Agency In Student-Initiated Community Engagement, Shuli A. Archer
Doctoral Dissertations
By its simplest definition, service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) connect work in the community and reflection on that work with credit-bearing academic courses. SLCE has been critiqued for, among other things, an incomplete consideration of power dynamics, and scholars and practitioners have recently expressed a desire to reinforce service-learning as primarily promoting agency, or the capacity to make change in society. Student-initiated community engagement programs offer a unique perspective and context to study agency. These programs, much like student-initiated retention projects, provide spaces where students take the lead in curriculum development, community partner relationship development, and program administration. Using Emirbayer …
Every Pawn Is A Potential Queen: How Female Early-Career Faculty Play The Game Of Tenure, Bethany Lisi
Every Pawn Is A Potential Queen: How Female Early-Career Faculty Play The Game Of Tenure, Bethany Lisi
Doctoral Dissertations
The research on early-career faculty on the tenure track suggests they are surviving amidst low job satisfaction. Scholars found that early-career faculty lack the skills and preparation needed for the job, perceive the tenure process to be vague or unclear, feel isolated or disenchanted with their work, and struggle with time management (Austin, 2002; Austin, Sorcinelli, & McDaniels, 2007; Batille & Brown, 2006; Ponjuan, Conley, & Trower, 2011; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). Female early-career faculty are susceptible to additional gendered and biased challenges (Gappa, Austin, & Trice, 2007). Missing from the literature are the positive experiences of early-career faculty. The …
The Experience Of Chinese Students Enrolled In Graduate Music Education Degree Programs In The United States, Kailimi Li
The Experience Of Chinese Students Enrolled In Graduate Music Education Degree Programs In The United States, Kailimi Li
Doctoral Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of Chinese graduate students enrolled in music education master’s and doctoral degree programs in the United States. Specifically, it explored participants’ perceptions of (a) their educational experiences (past and present), (b) the challenges they faced, (c) their strategies for success, (d) the benefits they experienced as international graduate students in the United State, (e) the effect of this experience on their thinking, self-perception, and behavior, and (f) how they planned to move forward or move on following this experience. Participants were six native Chinese graduate students enrolled at the time …
Stem Pipeline For Students With Disabilities: From High School To Intentions To Major In Stem, Joshua Bittinger
Stem Pipeline For Students With Disabilities: From High School To Intentions To Major In Stem, Joshua Bittinger
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation examined the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) major declaration intentions of students with disabilities as they graduated high school and entered college. I used data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) because data collection began in high school and followed students into college, facilitating research focusing on access. Before investigating major declaration intentions, I critiqued the definition and measurement of disability in the HSLS:09, drawing from survey research methods literature. The two subsequent analyses focused on psychological and structural components, respectively. My focus on psychological components drew from Eccles and colleagues’ (1983) expectancy-value framework. …