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Full-Text Articles in Higher Education

Teachability In Leading Organizational Mentees: A Narrative Analysis Of Reverse Mentoring As Reflexive Moments For Coping In Personal Crisis, Robert Tyler Spradley Ph.D., James E. Towns Ph.D. Oct 2016

Teachability In Leading Organizational Mentees: A Narrative Analysis Of Reverse Mentoring As Reflexive Moments For Coping In Personal Crisis, Robert Tyler Spradley Ph.D., James E. Towns Ph.D.

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Mentoring is often situated in leadership and coaching literature as a formal, strategic and a beneficial experience. Additional, studies indicate that mentor/mentee relationships can cause tension and even workplace harassment. Most of these studies focus on the power, whether negative or positive, of the leader versus the mentored. This study synthesizes stories lived and stories told using narrative analysis to balance how reverse mentoring simultaneously assists mentors and mentees in making sense of complex communication environments. Highlighting teachability as a chief characteristic of leading, reverse mentoring co-constructs new narratives for both mentor and mentee to cope with crisis situations. Reciprocal …


Transforming Educational Leadership Preparation: Starting With Ourselves, Patricia L. Guerra, Barbara L. Pazey Oct 2016

Transforming Educational Leadership Preparation: Starting With Ourselves, Patricia L. Guerra, Barbara L. Pazey

The Qualitative Report

To lead for social justice, scholars have maintained aspiring leaders should examine their own values and beliefs that dictate, to a great extent, their day-to-day decision-making and responsibilities. To do so requires faculty to examine themselves before they can prepare leaders for social justice. The purpose of this paper is to engage others with similar interests toward creating and/or improving programs designed to prepare leaders for social justice. Serving as a source of data and method of analysis, this duoethnography chronicles the life histories of two faculty members working in different leadership programs to reveal how their understanding of diversity …


Avoiding The A.B.D. Abyss: A Grounded Theory Study Of A Dissertation-Focused Course For Doctoral Students In An Educational Leadership Program, Leslie Ann Locke, Melanie Boyle Sep 2016

Avoiding The A.B.D. Abyss: A Grounded Theory Study Of A Dissertation-Focused Course For Doctoral Students In An Educational Leadership Program, Leslie Ann Locke, Melanie Boyle

The Qualitative Report

More than half of all graduate students drop out before graduation. Doctoral students often become mired in the “all but dissertation” (ABD) phase of the process. This grounded theory study focused on the perceptions and experiences of doctoral students in an educational leadership program, who were ABD, regarding their participation in a dissertation-focused intensive writing course called the Dissertation Boot Camp (DBC). Findings revealed participants had particular challenges with time, writing, and advisement. The DBC attended to many of these challenges by providing time, structure, encouragement, and support. Results of the study led to the development of a conceptual framework, …


Native American College Students: A Group Forgotten, Kristen E. Willmott, Tara Leigh Sands, Melissa Raucci, Stephanie J. Waterman Jun 2016

Native American College Students: A Group Forgotten, Kristen E. Willmott, Tara Leigh Sands, Melissa Raucci, Stephanie J. Waterman

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Broadening McClellan’s (2003) study through 2011, the authors utilize qualitative content analysis of over two thousand journal articles, professional association conference programs, and reflective memos, to detail the extent to which Native American college students remain a forgotten group within the literature. The authors’ positionality and Indigenous feminist theory inform the study. The study concludes by exploring the benefits of expanded Native American college student research and the authors propose a research agenda that can guide higher education professionals to better serve the educational needs of this unique group.


Bearers Of Diverse Ecclesiologies: Imagining Catholic School Students As Informing A Broader Articulation Of Catholic School Aims, Graham P. Mcdonough May 2016

Bearers Of Diverse Ecclesiologies: Imagining Catholic School Students As Informing A Broader Articulation Of Catholic School Aims, Graham P. Mcdonough

Journal of Catholic Education

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive, although not exhaustive, picture of the kinds of real concerns and concurrently inferred ecclesiological perspectives practicing Catholic students have. It reports findings from an interview study with 16 students at a private Catholic high school in Canada who self-identify as Catholic in order to demonstrate that it is in a Catholic school’s best interest not to rely on narrow or singular definitions of Catholic identity, especially insofar as these are tied to minimal and external markers of institutional affiliation. While the sample’s size and particularity do not generalizing to a …


International Students’ College Achievement: A Critical Quantitative Perspective, Eyad Alfattal May 2016

International Students’ College Achievement: A Critical Quantitative Perspective, Eyad Alfattal

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

Colleges exert much effort in recruiting international students who bring financial, cultural and educational benefits to the campuses in which they study. On the other hand, little attention is paid to how these students succeed in achieving their educational goals. The study proposed here describes a planned investigation that will help find out more about international students’ success in American colleges. The study will employ a college student achievement model as its theoretical framework, and it will aim at examining relationships between international students’ GPA and graduation rates while controlling for precollege academic performance. This examination will be done while …


The Motivational Factors Of African American Men Enrolled At Selected Community Colleges, Ted N. Ingram, Lavon Williams, James Coaxum Iii, Adriel A. Hilton, Ivan Harrell Jan 2016

The Motivational Factors Of African American Men Enrolled At Selected Community Colleges, Ted N. Ingram, Lavon Williams, James Coaxum Iii, Adriel A. Hilton, Ivan Harrell

Journal of Research Initiatives

This manuscript is designed to call attention to the realities that are specific to African American male community college students. Using a qualitative research design, focus groups were conducted with 14 African American male students enrolled in an urban community college. This study uncovered that their educational experiences are consumed with personal challenges and academic obstacles. Students were asked to explain their motivation toward persistence at the urban community college. Participants within the study noted that motivational factors such as: (a) improving their life status, (b) societal pressure, (c) “man of the house,” and (d) faculty and staff encouragement, provided …


Friendships And Retention At A Historically Black University: A Quantitative Case Study, Mondrail Myrick, John A. Gipson Jr, Donald Mitchell Jr. Jan 2016

Friendships And Retention At A Historically Black University: A Quantitative Case Study, Mondrail Myrick, John A. Gipson Jr, Donald Mitchell Jr.

Journal of Research Initiatives

The retention and graduation rates of underrepresented minority, first-generation and low-income college students persist as problems in U.S. higher education. While researchers have documented the ways in which minority-serving institutions have been successful in serving these students, little is known about how friendships influence retention at these institutions. This study examines retention factors of first-year students who began college with close friends at a historically Black university. The researchers used exploratory factor analysis and binary logistic regressions to determine the factors and significance. In addition, the researchers used linear structural relations to estimate hypothesized causal models. Results of the study …


Realizing The Dream: African American Males’ Narratives That Encouraged The Pursuit Of Doctoral Education, Ted N. Ingram Jan 2016

Realizing The Dream: African American Males’ Narratives That Encouraged The Pursuit Of Doctoral Education, Ted N. Ingram

Journal of Research Initiatives

This article used personal narratives to discover factors affecting the decision of African American males to consider doctoral education. This study was based on qualitative interviews with 18 African American male doctoral students enrolled at predominantly white institutions as they reflected on their reasons for pursuing an advanced degree. The following were found to influence their decision: (a) need for faculty encouragement, (b) motivation to pursue a doctorate, and (c) their personal motivations. Recommendations are offered for increasing the numbers of African American male doctoral students.


Growth No. 15 (2016) - Full Issue Jan 2016

Growth No. 15 (2016) - Full Issue

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

The full issue of the fifteenth edition of Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development.


Relationships With God, Relationships With Others, And Health: Associations Among First-Year College Students, Sean Wang, Kathleen Eldridge, Hannah Parmelee Jan 2016

Relationships With God, Relationships With Others, And Health: Associations Among First-Year College Students, Sean Wang, Kathleen Eldridge, Hannah Parmelee

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

When students transition away from their homes and into higher education, they enter a social environment where they are free, if not encouraged, to question and explore their values and beliefs, including their beliefs of God. Practicing Christians often report having a relationship with God, a conception that implies a dynamic and social process at work. This longitudinal study had two goals: (a) examine collegians’ relationship with God in terms of their God image, His involvement in their lives, and the importance of their faith, at two time points in their first year of college; (b) examine how these God …


A Cord Of Three Strands Is Not Quickly Broken: Strengths Of A Team, David M. Johnstone Jan 2016

A Cord Of Three Strands Is Not Quickly Broken: Strengths Of A Team, David M. Johnstone

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

The idea of “strengths” is a shift for the western world in how it looks at talents, skills, and weaknesses. The strengths paradigm is an assessment that universities are using to assist students in identifying their talents and strengths. Many have written about strengths and the individual; few have written about or researched the impact of the paradigm on team development. Discussing how disparate strengths can work in relationship to one another is important. Moreover, understanding that improper use of strengths can lead to the “shadow” side of strengths creating dissonance and conflict in a team is also important. This …