Digital Commons Network^™

Leaving In The Past: The Role History Plays In Video Games, Joseph Fordham

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

How can something considered by many within academia as childish or a waste of time be potentially useful in presenting or even studying history? Not only has the video game industry grown into one of the largest forms of media in the world, but these games are also finding use as a training aid for the military and major companies, as an advertising medium, and, most importantly, as a tool for teaching. As developmental capabilities improve with new generations of graphics hardware, video games are turning towards the recreation of real-world and historical events. This drive towards realism and accuracy …

Individualism In Education Reform, Collin Scott Bertram

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Current education reform in the U.S. is based upon a business model with capitalist market principles. High stakes standardized testing is a tool that the business model reformers use to dismantle democracy while creating an environment where a democratic society will not thrive. One of the reasons that business-minded reformers are so successful in promoting their agenda is that our society is highly individualistic. The individualistic nature of society in the U.S. provides fertile ground for reform that not only harms our present vestiges of democracy but also endangers the possibility of a democratic society for future generations. A critical …

Wayfaring Strangers: A Case Study Of Rural Developmental Writers In The Missouri Ozarks, Robert Andrew Griffith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes a year-long ethnographic study of rural basic writers in the Missouri Ozarks. Using Richard Hofstadter's concept of "anti-intellectualism" as a theoretical lens, I explored the attitudes of students towards writing and academic culture. This exploration was conducted by means of questionnaires, interviews, writing samples, and several experimental courses.

Using all these data-collection mechanisms, I was able to identify three characteristics of these students. They were likely to demonstrate a dualistic ("right/wrong") epistemology. Accordingly, they expected their academic reading to make matter-of-fact truth claims. Finally, students were unlikely to understand the transformative nature of any educational enterprise, hoping …

Social Justice, White Racial Identity, And Multicultural Competency Among White Master Level Trainees In Counselor Education And Counseling Psychology, Sara Rebecca Streufert

Dissertations

In recent years, scholars have become more vocal regarding counselors and counseling psychologists’ responsibilities to advance efforts for social change (Goodman et al., 2004; Speight & Vera, 2004; Vera & Speight, 2004). As a result, empirical investigations have started to evaluate variables that may contribute to trainees and mental health professionals’ desire to participate in social justice advocacy (Beer, 2008; Caldwell, 2008; Landreman et al., 2007; Nilsson & Schmidt, 2005). However, most of these studies do not focus on trainees and mental health professionals who identify as White. The present study used quantitative analyses to explore nine hypotheses regarding the …

The Globalization Of Latter-Day Saint Education, Casey Paul Griffiths

Theses and Dissertations

This work traces the development of the global educational system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After a long period of providing schools for its membership in the Intermountain West of the United States, the Latter-day Saints ultimately settled on a system of supplementary religious education, designed to work in concert with public education systems. During the 1950s as the Church began to gain an international following, Church leaders moved to establish an international system of schools to meet their needs. These schools were largely supervised and directed by Americans personnel. Under the leadership of Church president …

Gold & Blue, Summer 2012, St. Mary's University- San Antonio, Texas

Gold & Blue

This is the Summer 2012 edition of Gold & Blue which is St. Mary's University's official school publication.

Lack Of Men, Flame Throwers And Rabbit Drives: Student Life In Australia's First Rural Teachers College 1945-1955, Anthony Potts

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article examines student life in an Australian rural teachers college. The paper is informed by studies on university student life and extends these to Australia’s first rural teachers college in the period 1945-1955. It explores the diversity of students’ experiences in a small college with predominately female students gradually supplemented by male students. It looks at staff student relations in a college struggling to train teachers for rural Australian towns in the immediate post World War II period. While these rural students’ lives were similar to those portrayed in the standard histories of teacher education students were well aware …

Guest Editors’ Introduction, Otto Van Muijzenberg, Gerard A. Persoon

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Introduction, Jr. Aguilar

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr.

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Institutional Climates In Higher Education In The United States And South Africa, Juanyce Deanna Taylor

Dissertations

Increasing opportunities and access of historically underrepresented populations to higher education in both the United States and South Africa have proved challenging due to institutional climates that are perceived as unwelcoming and unsupportive. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors relating to institutional climates to uncover social constructs that positively and negatively impact the institutional environment. Transformational leadership serves as the theoretical framework for this study.

Data results from institutional climate studies administered higher education institutions in the United States and South Africa were analyzed and compared. Collegiality and collaboration; communication; diversity and equity; governance and strategy; harassment …

Lightning In A Bottle: A History Of The Syracuse Writing Program, 1986-1996, Laura J. Davies

Writing Program – Dissertations

Lightning in a Bottle: A History of the Syracuse Writing Program, 1986-1996, is directed by Louise Wetherbee Phelps and Collin Gifford Brooke. This historical study of the Syracuse Writing Program's administrative structures for contingent faculty focuses on professional development and evaluation systems for the Writing Program's part-time writing instructors. The study draws on archival methodology, using saved administrative documents from the Syracuse Writing Program and retrospective interviews of past members of the Syracuse University Writing Program. This history is influenced and contextualized through scholarship on contingent faculty labor, writing program administration, and the establishment of stand-alone writing programs. The goal …

A History Of The Texas Education Agency Instructional Facility Allotment (Ifa) Program In Hidalgo County School Districts Located In The Texas Rio Grande Valley From 1997 To 2007, Michael J. Sandroussi

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines the implementation of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Instructional Facility Allotment (IFA) Program in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) through documentation chronicling Hidalgo County school districts from 1997 through 2007 that secured IFA & EDA monies to build new facilities. Participants in this study included Hidalgo County school districts, three school architects, ten Hidalgo County school district superintendents and one Texas state senator. The fifteen school district superintendents were asked to complete an Instructional Facility Allotment (IFA) and Existing Debt Allotment (EDA) survey. The three architects, ten superintendents and state senator were interviewed in order to provide …

The Relationship Between Pupil Control Ideology And Academic Optimism, Michael J. Gilbert

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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"A Single Finger Can't Eat Okra": The Importance Of Remembering The Haitian Revolution In United States History, Ashleigh P. Shoecraft

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis discusses the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the United States as a lens through which to view the transnational nature of American exceptionalism. It concludes with an articulation of the necessity of incorporating this relational nature of United States identity development into high school coursework, and advocates for teaching about the Haitian Revolution as an effective means through which to do this.

Theocratic Governance And The Divergent Catholic Cultural Groups In The Usa, Charles L. Muwonge

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated how the Roman Catholic Church, as a bureaucratic organization, governs the widespread and divergent Catholic cultural groups in the United States. The purposes of this research were (a) to examine the nature of the ecclesiastical governance structure in the Vatican, (b) to explore the nature of the American Catholic cultural environment, (c) to analyze the types of relationships between the divergent American Catholic subcultures, and (d) to establish ways in which ecclesiastical authorities in the Vatican govern the American Catholic cultural environment.

This study was historical in nature and longitudinal in scope. This study examined the relationship …

Women In Engineering; A Phenomenological Analysis Of Sociocultural Contextual Meaning Of Gender Roles, Pamela C. Charity-Leeke

ETD Archive

The twenty-first century presents many new challenges in career development and choices in the workforce for men and women. Currently, women comprise nearly half of the United States labor force. United States women are employed in various career areas, ranging from the traditional careers for women, such as education and secretarial, to their growing numbers in business, law, and medicine (U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). As technology becomes the driving force of the economy, it has become essential that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are areas that more U.S. citizens should pursue. Although engineering is a …

2012-2013 Catalog, College Of The Holy Cross

Course Catalogs

This catalog lists available courses for the 2012-2013 term.

Roots Of Farm And Family, Carol Gjenvick

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The current food industry is a vast and confusing system that often generates contradicting information, new jargon and trends on how and what to eat. Most families in urban and suburban regions shop at local grocery stores, supermarkets or chains and are far removed from the origins of their food supply. Even with the growing support of farmers markets and local farmers, the average person no longer has access to an actual farm. Children in particular, are less likely to understand how a farm operates, the essential role of the farmer, the impact of seasonal changes on food supplies and …

Curriculum And Academic Affairs Committee Minutes 2012-2013, Indiana State University

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

Education Reform In Rwanda: Impacts Of Genocide And Reconstruction On School Systems, Jay Mathisen

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This study is an historical dissertation on the topic of education reform in the East African nation of Rwanda. Determining the impact of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 on three reform initiatives that followed is the central aim of the study. The framework of the study is assembled as a three-­‐part timeline upon which three initiatives of education reform are overlaid for analysis, 1) student-­‐centered instruction, 2) language and 3) enrollment developments. Focusing on those three initiatives in the context of a timeline that details each in the decades prior to the genocide, and in the years that followed it, …

Defying Borders: Transforming Learning Through Collaborative Feminist Organizing And Interdisciplinary, Transnational Pedagogy, Terri Carney, Margaretha Geertsema Sligh, Ann M. Savage, Ageeth Sluis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate a transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative teaching and learning, and it describes the authors' experience in the face of resistance when introducing a global women's human rights course into the university's new core curriculum. Because of its divers, interdisciplinary and transnational content, this course challenged deeply ingrained disciplinary and pedagogical borders of both traditional …

A Case Study: The Impact Of An Immersion Experience On The Vocation Of Lay Teacher-Leaders In American Jesuit High Schools, Martin Joseph Schreiber

Dissertations

The purpose of this case study explores the impact of an immersion experience to a least developed country on the vocation of lay teacher leaders in American Jesuit High Schools. Nine lay teacher leaders engaged in a four stage process of immersion from November 2009 to August 2010. The study employed the conceptual framework of Edward Hahnenberg's, "Awakening Vocation" to develop a self-understanding of a lay teacher leader's call. The writings of Paulo Freire, Fredrick Buechner and Parker Palmer informed the study's exploration of vocation. Poetry from Mary Oliver and William Stafford functioned as a method for articulating a lay …

Programs And Courses Catalog 2012-2014, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Programs and Courses Catalogs

This catalog is published for students and other persons who want to know more about the University of Northern Iowa. Its purpose is to communicate as objectively and completely as possible what the university is and what it does. The catalog is presented in sections to give a general view of the university as well as the detailed information required for informed decision making.

Colby College Catalogue 2012 - 2013, Colby College

Colby Catalogues

Colby College Catalogue: September 2012 - August 2013

When Generational Employees Leave Higher Education, What Do We Lose, And What Do They Leave Behind?, Andrew M. Pena

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Given the state of the economy, lack of competitive jobs and decreasing number of voluntary retirements, by the year 2018 many institutions of higher education may see five generations working side by side. This study examined three of the four generations working at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP): Baby Boomers, who are those employees born between the years of 1946 through 1964; Generation X, those employees born between the years of 1965 through 1980; and Millennials, currently the youngest working generation, born between the years 1981 through 2000. This research examines the literature on generational groups and …

The Public Secondary School And Teacher In American Films Of The 1990s, Arleen Belinda Dowd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how public secondary schools and educators were portrayed in American films of the 1990s. Thirty films were selected for study that were produced and released in the decade of the 1990s. Content analysis and a "Film Analysis Form" produced answers to eight questions regarding the learning environments, portrayal of educators and students, the academic and life lessons taught, and positive or negative statements about education in the films of this decade. The results shoa series of complex environments, educators, students, and academic and life lessons delivered. An assessment of the positive and negative portrayal provided more negative …

Chinese/Chinese American Students At The University Of Mississippi From 1946 To 1975, Hsin-Yi Sandy Kao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historical integration of the University of Mississippi (UM) brought both national and local attention when James Meredith was escorted by U.S. Marshals to enroll and attend classes on October 1, 1962 (Cohodas, 1997; Doyle, 2001; Eagles, 2009). Since the integration of UM, racial issues and efforts to promote racial reconciliation primarily have been defined in binary terms of Black and White. In this way, few people hardly noticed that a small number of Chinese/Chinese American students were actually attending UM prior to the historic integration by Meredith, a circumstance present in other southern universities that led historian Peter Wallenstein …

Civic Engagement Of Community College Students: A Qualitative Research Study On Community College Curriculum And Civic Engagement, Landon P. Shephard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social scientists claim young United States (U.S.) citizens have become disengaged in civic life which jeopardizes democracy (White et al., 2007; CIRCLE & Carnegie, 2003, p.8). As a nation, the U.S. has failed to teach students the skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary for democratic life (White et l., 2007). Social scientists claim young U.S. citizens have become disengaged in civic life since the 1980s (Colby, 2007; CIRCLE & Carnegie, 2003, p.4). Compared to past generations, young citizens in the United States are less engaged in political life and lack an understanding of what it means to be an active and …

Professional Identity Development In Online Christian Theological Education: A Case Study Of Preparing Pastoral Practice Through Discursive Activity, Rovina L. Hatcher

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore the professional preparation of students in online classes at a Christian theological seminary. Concerns of theological education involve the capacity or incapacity of community development and somatic or embodied learning in online education. Using a theoretical framework drawn from communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), professional clergical preparation (Foster, Dahill, Golemon, & Tolentino, 2005), and Gee’s (2000-2001) dimensions of identity development, the researcher focused the analyses on students’ written texts located in the discussion board fora of the online courses. These records were examined for indications of formation of the professional identity …