Education Commons^™

On The Edge Of Leadership: Narratives Of Asian Indian American Women In Higher Education In The United States, Denozy Sharma

Dissertations

This study was an investigation of the experiences of Asian Indian American Women (AIAW) in higher education in the United States. The motivation of this study was to gain a better understanding of Asian Indian American Women who, in spite of their rising presence in academia and educational attainment, are noticeably underrepresented in academic leadership roles. Asian Indian American women fall far behind White females in leadership positions in higher education.

A qualitative research methodology has been conducted. The investigation involved the narratives of the five female participants (faculty members and/or administrators in U.S. higher education) who identified themselves as …

Administrative Trust As A Contributor To Forensic Coach Burnout And Exit, Benjamin Schultz Pyle

Dissertations

This study sought to determine whether a relationship exists and its extent between intercollegiate forensic coach trust in university administrators and burnout and exit in intercollegiate forensic coaches. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between intercollegiate forensic coach trust in their university administrators with both intercollegiate forensic coach satisfaction and intercollegiate forensic coach burnout in predicting intercollegiate forensic coach exit from forensics.

Fifty-seven intercollegiate forensic educators participated in the research, including 37 directors of forensics. Data analysis revealed significant relationships between intercollegiate forensic coach trust in university administrators, intercollegiate forensic coach satisfaction, intercollegiate forensic coach burnout, and intercollegiate forensic coach …

College Choice Decisions: An Analysis Of University Honors Students, Thomas Tyler Clark

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to analyze the importance of various institutional attributes in the college-choice process of honors students. The study surveyed honors students (N = 279) currently enrolled in an honors college at one university. Students rated 51 items on the degree of importance in their college decision. An exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the underlying factors in the college-choice process.

The results indicated that cost was the most important issue students considered when determining an institution to attend. Cost of attendance and financial assistance offered were followed by quality of course instruction, safety on …

The Russian Research Center At Harvard Versus Cambridge Analytica: Influencing The Public In A Cold War, Robert Joshua Howard

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Institutional Adoption And Implementation Of A Mandated Community College First Year Experience Course, Carmen Varney Purpus

Dissertations

This purpose of the research study is two-fold. The first aim is to establish strategies that can guide community colleges interested in the implementation of a mandated First Year Experience course as well as to identify barriers community colleges may encounter to help them move from desiring a mandated student success course to acting to create one. It is widely believed that student success course helps students learn to be successful, but it is not a widely accepted practice to mandate it for all students.

The second objective is to add to the limited body of research. A nonexperimental descriptive …

The Impact Of Campus Facilities On The Recruitment Of Students In Higher Education, Lucinnda Sue Mcdonald

Dissertations

The statement often has been made over the years that university recruitment efforts are strongly impacted by campus facilities. The subject has been a topic of research over the past several decades. This study indicates that as generations change and times change, the significance of various aspects of the university to the prospective student change as well.

This research effort is a mixed-methods study to provide insight on the facilities current students deem most important when determining which college or university they will attend. The research for this study was conducted through an online survey asking students to:

• Choose …

The Relationship Between Financial Literacy, Financial Status, And Academic Success In College Students, Brian Douglas Brausch

Dissertations

As the cost of college continues to rise, an increasing number of students are relying on loans and credit cards to fund their postsecondary education. In an effort to curb student debt and increase retention and graduation rates, many universities have begun to offer financial literacy initiatives to stimulate financial knowledge and promote positive money management behaviors.

This study examines the relationship between a for-credit personal financial literacy course and student academic success and economic status. Students who took a personal finance course during their first or second year of college are compared to a random sampling of students who …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Higher Education Leaders As Portrayed In The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Colette Anderson Chelf

Dissertations

Leadership represents an abstraction of human thought. While functionalist theories propose leader-centric models, contemporary leadership theories embrace a postmodern paradigm acknowledging ontological and epistemological assumptions of qualitative study. This ideology suggests a multi-dimensional model of leadership that reflects the complexity and fluidity of leadership in practice. Emergent theories explore the social construction of leadership, rather than an individual leader’s traits or behaviors. Our collective understanding of leadership is manifest in the (re)creation of leadership as exemplified in social discourse such as newspaper reporting.

The purpose of the study is to reveal socially accepted archetypes assigned to higher education leaders, as …

A Narrative Policy Analysis Of The Responses To Tennessee Promise And Plans For Transfer Receptivity By Six Tennessee Public Universities' Presidents And Provosts, Lori Elliott Buchanan

Dissertations

The Tennessee Promise scholarship and mentoring program broadened access and affordability to postsecondary education in Tennessee. This policy innovation increased the number of students seeking to engage in postsecondary education. It also shifted some of the state’s students to the more affordable community colleges and colleges of applied technology for their first two years of college. Equally important, Tennessee Promise incentivized the presidents and provosts of the six public universities under review to expand existing transfer receptivity efforts as their universities prepared to receive and support Tennessee Promise community college student transfers.

The purpose of this narrative policy analysis based …

Best Practices In Parent And Family Engagement: Implications For Student Success, Christy Spurlock

Dissertations

This exploratory study aims to answer questions related to highly recognized parent/family engagement programs and the ways in which they are organized, operated, and resourced; undertake innovative events and services; use and learn from assessment; and face challenges. Directors of 34 specifically selected highly recognized parent/family engagement programs were given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire concerning their programs. Twenty-seven directors completed the questionnaire. Ten were interviewed to gain further insight into the specific workings of and challenges for highly recognized parent/family programs. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative means, the researcher provides an initial exploratory look into how …

Nonprofit Board Of Director Training: The Experiences Of Chief Executive Officers In Western Kentucky, Matthew L. Hunt

Dissertations

This reality-oriented inquiry investigates chief executive officers’ experiences of board training within 501(c)(3) nonprofit acute care hospitals. This study provides an insight into the practices, barriers, and drivers of board training. Katz’s (1955) skillsbased leadership model serves as the theoretical framework for this study. The model suggests leadership skills are not innate but can be developed through training. This qualitative study includes nine in-depth interviews with chief executive officers to acquire a rich description of the phenomenon of interest throughout nine 501(c)(3) nonprofit acute care hospitals.

A constant-comparative analysis and inductive analysis are employed to develop six themes related to …

Do You Want Kentucky?” “… No Thank You, I'M Not Hungry.”: A Case Study Of International Student Choice In Higher Education, Wouter Van Alebeek

Dissertations

In order to attract international students, it is important to know why students select a particular institution and how they experience the selection process. Additionally, there seems to be limited agreement among researchers on a conceptual framework for international student college choice and how it might differ from a model used to organize domestic students’ college choice experiences.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to gain insight into the stages of college choice for international students by testing an expansion of the Hossler and Gallagher (1987) theoretical model that adds the push and pull factors related to the …

The University As A Gendered Organization: Effects On Management Type, Climate And Job Satisfaction, Margaret E. Crowder

Dissertations

Numbers of women holding faculty positions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remain low in university systems, despite gains women have made in achievement of advanced degrees. No one reason is clearly the culprit for the low numbers, though women in STEM have been shown to have more negative perceptions of climate, be more dissatisfied with their jobs, and have greater inclination to leave their positions than men.

As males comprise a majority of STEM employees, the masculine-genderedness of these organizations may create a more dissatisfactory work environment for women. This may, in turn, have negative impact on the …

A University-Wide Student Support Program: Comparative View On Student Success, Kevin Patrick Thomas

Dissertations

Student support programs occur throughout the country in various forms at colleges and universities. The STEPS program at Western Kentucky University provides support to students who are required by state mandate to enroll in developmental or supplemental education courses. This program tracks the individual interventions utilized by students such as tutoring, intrusive advising, and supplemental education seminars. Through an analysis of retention and graduation data, this study compared the success of STEPS participants to eligible students who are non-participants of the program. The study also compared the STEPS participant population with eligible students within other four-year public Commonwealth of Kentucky …

The American Public Comprehensive University: An Exploratory Study Of The President's Role In Fundraising, Robert L. Jackson

Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine America’s 272 public comprehensive universities and the president’s role in fundraising in order to better understand this unique group. In addition, this study examined the president’s background, training, duties, and specific involvement in the fundraising process. Also, this study reviewed what background and training would have been helpful prior to and during a presidency in preparation for these duties and responsibilities.

Previous studies stated that presidents ranked fundraising as the number one area where they were least prepared when they assumed their new role. In addition, many university presidents reported that …

Sense Of Community In Graduate Online Education: Contribution Of Interaction, Jo Lita Shackelford

Dissertations

This non-experimental quantitative descriptive study was designed to determine which types of learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction are most predictive of student sense of community in online graduate courses at a regional comprehensive university. Surveys were used to measure sense of community and to collect perceptions of frequency and importance of nine learner-learner interactions and seven learner instructor interactions from participating students (N = 381) within online courses in which they were enrolled. Student demographic information included age, gender, experience with online learning, number of face-to-face class meetings, and employment status.

Results indicated that learner–learner interactions that were most predictive of …

An Analysis Of Factors Impacting K-12 Technology-Infused Design, Wesley A. Waddle

Dissertations

Public education in the 21st Century can be characterized as being in a period of unparalleled change, including the adoption of Common Core State Standards, increased public accountability, and renewed emphasis on the educational needs of every student. Simultaneously, as public education seeks to address these demands, the digital divide between traditional classroom instruction and learning needs of 21st Century students continues to grow, despite considerable fiscal investments in educational technology.

This study examined two questions: What teacher-related factors positively impact the level of technology-infused lesson design? and To what degree does the use of an instructional framework to guide …

The Relationship Between Organizational Commmitment And Position In Postsecondary Education, Linda Brewer Keller

Dissertations

Organizational commitment has been linked to important employee behaviors and perceptions, including turnover, intent to turnover, absenteeism, and job satisfaction. In spite of its important outcomes, the formation of commitment is not well documented and research concerning antecedents has provided inconsistent results. Little of this research has involved the postsecondary education field and characteristics unique to it. This study investigated the relationship between employee position and organizational commitment in the postsecondary education setting. The model of organizational commitment utilized was the three-component concept developed by Meyer and Allen (1997) composed of affective, continuance, and normative commitment.

Research participants were 2,914 …

Evaluation Of Electronic Assessment Systems And Their Ability To Meet Ncate Standard 2, Anthony Kirchner

Dissertations

The pressures relating to accountability and data collection, not only from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) but also from other national organizations, continue to increase the demand for educator preparation programs to systematically collect, analyze, and report on the success of their students and their programs. Many educator preparation programs have turned to electronic assessment systems (EASs) to help ease the data collection burden, to allow for the collection, aggregation, disaggregation, and reporting of data for programmatic improvement, as well as to meet the needs of the accreditation process.

The purpose of this study was to …

Contributions Of The Kentucky Comprehensive Universities To The Goals Of Postsecondary Education Reform, Cindy L. Ehresman

Dissertations

Kentucky is well known for its education reform efforts; the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 ushered in an era of intense focus on higher education in the Commonwealth. Specific and measureable goals for each sector of the state’s higher education institutions were included in the legislation; however, goals set for the comprehensive universities were less well-defined than those for both the research institutions and the community and technical colleges. Through an analysis of changes in capacity and mission, this study identified the ensuing contributions of Kentucky’s six comprehensive universities as they addressed the goals of the landmark reform. …

Effects Of Implementing A Formative Assessment Initiative, Thomas A. Stewart

Dissertations

This dissertation supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a “poverty of practice” among teachers, in that few fully understood how to effectively implement formative assessment in the classroom. This qualitative case study examined a series of voluntary workshops offered at one public middle school designed to address this poverty of practice. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews. The researcher used constant comparative analysis to discover patterns in the data for the following four research questions: (1) What role did …

An Analysis Of Peer Leadership Competencies And Skills, John P. Baker

Dissertations

A significant leadership challenge exists while leading others without legitimate or formal authority. Leading without legitimate authority may require different and limited leadership skills and competencies, especially when leading peers. This quantitative study analyzed the leader competencies and skills needed for effective peer leadership.
A literature review identified four competencies cited frequently as important: (a) communication; (b) support; (c) mental/hard work ethic; and (d) reflection/feedback. Analysis of an ROTC leadership assessment database provided convergent validity for the literature review while adding one additional competency, physical. The lack of existing instruments measuring peer leadership competencies and skills necessitated the development of …

Motivation For High School Students To Read:Differences Among Student Perceptions And Differences Between Student And Teacher Perceptions, Angela Dawn Gunter

Dissertations

Many high school teachers are unaware of, or mistaken about, specific strategies and practices that actually motivate their students to read, and that what motivates one group of students may not motivate another. Although content-area instructors may not have been trained in teaching reading strategy and may feel as though teaching reading is not their job, it is an expectation that could largely be met by the implementation of motivational strategies.

This exploratory study utilized the expectancy theory of motivation and wasconducted to determine which strategies and practices would be most motivational for high school students to read. In a …