Education Commons^™

A Correlational Case Study On Distance From Home And Attrition Of First-Time, Full-Time Students, James L. Baldwin

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As institutions face increasing demands to maintain or increase enrollments, colleges and universities have begun to recruit students from greater distances. The purpose of this ex-post facto case study was to determine the existence of a relationship between the institutional distance from home and the attrition of traditional-aged, first-time, full-time students prior to the second year at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, one of the four-year campuses of the University. Following the correlational analysis, further analysis was conducted to determine if a non-linear relationship existed between the institutional distance from home and attrition of first-year students prior to their …

The Disabled Teacher: A Memoir Of An Interrupted Pedagogical Career, A Life With A Chronic Illness, And An Encounter With Real Barriers To Inclusive Education, Dorothy M. Bossman

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation is a narrative exploration of multiple themes relevant to education research: the relationship between the university and school, epistemology, teacher identity, disability studies, researcher subjectivity, and the retention of quality educators. This work of “autoethnography” (Ellis, Bochner, & Adams, 2011) approaches these topics through the tellings of a teaching career, the awakening of an education scholar, and the development of a chronic illness. While the focus of this inquiry often returns to the researcher’s pedagogical identity, the three storylines interact in myriad ways that relate to the larger field. Removal of one of these narrative threads would, metaphorically, …

Practical Applications For Student Affairs: A Phenomenological Exploration Of How Black Male Undergraduate Persisters Describe Retention And Social Integration At A Midwestern Pwi, André L. Fortune

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

For decades higher education has incurred challenges with increasing undergraduate retention and degree attainment. Lately these challenges, including focus on increasing Black male undergraduate degree attainment, have become a national concern. Scholars like Vincent Tinto (1987, 1993, 2012) have dedicated research to explain why students leave or stay in college. His findings identified the majority of students voluntarily leave institutions for nonacademic reasons that occur outside of class. On many campuses outside of class experiences, which Tinto labeled social integration, are primarily facilitated by student affairs practitioners.

The concept of social integration as a factor in student retention provided …