Education Commons^™

Headed For The Heartland: Decision-Making Factors For International Students To Attend Rural And Suburban Community College In Illinois, Eric John Bohman

Dissertations

Despite record growth in international student enrollment at community colleges, little is known about how the international students learn about community colleges and ultimately decide to attend. The purpose of this research is to identify what factors lead international students to decide to attend Illinois community colleges. Furthermore, this study explores both the knowledge students had about community colleges and the sources of this information prior to their decision to attend.

The research study utilized a multi-theoretical framework encompassing world culture theory, push-pull theory, and cognitive decision making theory. Using a qualitative case study design, thirteen international students from four …

Transformative Learning In The Multiple Sclerosis (Ms) Community An Ethnographic Study Examining How And In What Ways Transformative Learning Is Realized And Lived Out Among Members Of An Ms Community., Mary N. Lewis

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how transformative learning takes place in the lives of participants who are in the MS community with the hope of identifying coping strategies and motivational factors influencing transformative learning. This research also seeks to discover and examine the lived experiences, meaning and consequent changes made in the lives of the research participants. The focus of this research asks how and in what ways the learning process differs prior to and after a diagnosis of MS and how these individuals reconstruct their lives after experiencing the day-to-day challenges brought about by this disease. …

Righteous Commitment: Renewing, Repairing, And Restoring The World—Wangari Maathai And The Green Belt Movement, Jennifer Lara Simka Kushner

Dissertations

This Africentric historical inquiry introduces Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and internationally renowned Kenyan activist, as a visionary adult educator and leader of the liberatory environmental movement -The Green Belt Movement. The Movement addresses decades of mis-education through culturally grounded adult education activities that help communities understand the linkages between environmental degradation and poor governance, and educate people to participate in democracy.

The study describes Maathai’s philosophy and how it informed her leadership of environmental, political, and social change. The African philosophical framework of Maat, and the principle of serudj-ta (repairing, renewing and restoring the world) provide a …

Creating The Path Together: A Case Study Of A Mathematics Professional Development Program For Teachers Of English Language Learners, Alison Marie Whittington

Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to describe and analyze the Mathematics Access for Language Learners (MALL) professional development project. This project’s primary goal has been to provide teachers with the knowledge, strategies, tools, and materials to help make mathematics content accessible to their English Language Learner students. This study used case study methodology. Data was collected from archival records, participant observations, and interviews with project participants, facilitators, and the project director. The results and analysis of this study are provided through the framework of Bernice McCarthy’s 4MAT instructional model. The project is then analyzed to determine if it …

Navigating Barriers Of African American Male Administrators: Manifesting Mechanisms For Career Advancement In Mainstream Institutions Of Higher Education, Orlando Lewis

Dissertations

The overall goal of this qualitative case study was to provide information to African American males regarding barriers they are challenged to navigate for career advancement at mainstream institutions of higher education. I utilized semi structured interviews to: (1) determine what barriers face African American male administrators in higher education that prevent advancement to executive positions; (2) identify and detail ways in which African American male administrators successfully navigate the barriers and; (3) identify coping mechanisms and support systems to aid African American men to navigate the identified barriers.

I identified three themes of barriers that reflect the route of …

Autobiography As Counter-Narrative: An Empirical Study Of How Race Enters And Structures The Stories Of Our Lives, Wendy B. Yanow

Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to learn about how race enters and then structures the narratives of our life experiences. Critical Race Theory (CRT) was used as a lens through which to examine learning autobiographies and the CRT methodology of counter-storytelling was used to illustrate the ways in which race enters and structures the stories of our lives.

The data consist of personal narratives written by adult students who were not asked to consider their life experiences from a racialized perspective. That resulted in a level of authenticity of their voices. Analyzing the learning autobiographies through a CRT …

All Children Are Our Children, Tania Giordani

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to talk to parents who “fight attitudes and perceptions that date back centuries and a school system whose resistance to change is unparalleled” (Fine, 1993, p. 692) and see how they persevere as they try to transform this system. Narrative inquiry, using semi-structured interviews, was used to explore the common characteristics and motivations of parents who are advocating for changes within their children’s school. All the participants in this study were mothers of children enrolled in public schools.

The findings suggest that these women are: (1) influenced by others who have a legacy of …

Critical Praxis: Using My Own Whiteness And Experiences To Challenge Issues Of Racism And White Privilege, Linda Selway

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Autoethnography is a genre of research that alternately focuses its attention outwardly on the social and cultural, and inwardly on the personal life experiences of the researcher in an attempt to raise one’s consciousness and prompt action about the issue under study. This autoethnography explores the transformation I have undergone as I have grappled with the issues of race and academic achievement, and sought to find my place and voice in the struggle for social justice. Along the way, I have had to take a hard, sometimes painful look at myself, peeling away layers of defense to get at …

Hope—Heartbeat Of Adult Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Phillip L. Moulden

Dissertations

This phenomenological study of the phenomenon—hope identified two essential meaning structures (“change” and “human agency”) in the experiences communicated by the Adult Educators interviewed. It was also discovered that hope is an energy that interacts with Affective, Relative (Re-lay-tive), and Cognitive energies in the lives of the research participants. Understanding how “change” and “human agency” can be aligned with these A.R.C. energies holds implications for further research and the practice of Adult Education.

Adult Esl Oral Reading Fluency And Silent Reading Comprehension, Kristin Lems

Dissertations

A descriptive study of second language adults studying ESL at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels in a post-secondary academic program revealed that their oral reading fluency had a significant, low-to-moderate correlation with scores on a measure of silent reading comprehension. The correlation was slightly stronger for measures of accuracy than speed, and strongest for miscue ratio. The correlation increased as proficiency level increased. Among different first language groups, the correlation was highest for Hispanic learners, and lowest for Chinese. Furthermore, all fluency measures correlated better with a listening measure than with the silent reading comprehension measure. When a system …

Organizational Power And Politics: More Than Meets The Eye In Program Planning, Susan Shaver

Dissertations

Organizational power and politics influence corporate training in ways not often discussed. This study explores the effects of organizational power and politics on program planning and how planning, with its inherent power and politics (see Cervero & Wilson, 1994a), influences the daily practices of corporate trainers.

This study was informed by the literature of systems theory and constructivism. Von Bertalanffy’s (1968) general systems theory, in which the whole of a system is considered to be greater than the sum of its parts, Senge’s (1990) systems view that interrelationships within organizational structures, (not events), underlie complex situations, and Lincoln & Guba’s …

Adult Learning In The Context Of Interreligious Dialogue: A Collaborative Research Study Involving Christians, Jews, And Muslims, Nadira K. Charaniya, Jane West Walsh

Dissertations

What do American Jews really know about Muslims? What do American Muslims really know about Jews? These questions undergird this account of how two religious adult educators--a Jew and a Muslim--came to engage in collaborative, dialogic, relational and transformational interreligious learning and research. Emerging out of this collaborative doctoral research project at National-Louis University, this study addresses two different dimensions of research and practice in the field of adult education: the nature of adult learning in the interreligious dialogue process and the role of collaborative methods in research methodology.

Adult learning in the context of interreligious dialogue can best be …

Teaching/ Learning Experiences: Meanings Constructed By Participants Ini A Degree Completion Program For Adult Students, Natalie K. Manbeck

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning that teachers and their adult students construct of their classroom experiences and to see how those meanings impact the teaching/ learning process. Because of the multiple factors affecting an educational experience, this study took the view that this should be explored in a holistic way. Most educational research focuses on the teacher's perspective, with students and their learning considered as the result of the educational process. In order to more fully understand what is occurring in classrooms and what students are actually learning, it is important to ascertain student perceptions …

The Role Of Transformational Leadership In The Collaborative Development Of A Full Inclusion Program: An Action Research Study, Paul R. Hain

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation is a critical action research study on full inclusion for students with learning disabilities. The study describes how full inclusion for 16 students with learning disabilities in three regular classes was implemented in an Illinois elementary school over a one year period. The purpose of this study is to describe how transformational leadership, collaborative decision-making and action research helped in the development of full inclusion.

Action research was the method used to 1) observe and collect data about the project, 2) to analyze what was happening, and 3) help guide the inclusion teaching team in taking actions …

Profiles Of Promise: Students With Learning Difference Prepare For Optimal Foreign Language Learning, Ludmilla Coven

Dissertations

Many secondary school counselors discourage students with diagnosed native language deficits from foreign language studies. They hold the unsubstantiated belief that these studies would jeopardize their hard-earned gains in native language learning. Research disproves that position, and some writers advocate foreign language study to improve language learning and enhance cognitive strategies. Improvement occurs more readily when the instructor has the expertise to choose from a repertoire of teaching styles the one most compatible with the learning style of the student. With the full inclusion promised by the regular education initiative becoming a reality, this study explores research, design, and team-teaching …