Digital Commons Network^™

Living Links: Examining Immigrant Teens' Experiences In Communication Technology Enhanced Transnational Spaces, Bethany Massey

Learning Sciences Dissertations

This study examined the technology-enhanced lived experiences of three Mexican-American secondary students in Southwestern United States. This work extends the research of Basch, Schiller and Blanc (1994) and Faist (2000) in which they explain that immigrant teens experience dual lives due to simultaneous connections that may have resulted in barriers and stressors between their host and home countries. The study answers a call from Velez-Ibanez and Greenberg (1992) and Gonzales, et al. (2005) for research that regards household practices as "funds of knowledge" or that are encountered through lived experiences and that may support the individual in making sense of …

Machine Automation And The Critique Of Abstract Labor In Hegel's Mature Social Theory, Matthew J. Delhey

Philosophy Theses

This thesis examines Hegel’s critique of abstract labor in the Philosophy of Right and the sections on objective spirit in the Encyclopaedia. Against both Frederick Neuhouser’s and Marxist interpretations, I argue that abstract labor, for Hegel, characterizes the specific kind of mechanical labor undertaken in the nineteenth-century factory. Such repetitive labor, Hegel claims, leads to the deadening (Abstumpfung) of the worker through the deforming of her ethical subjectivity, a social pathology he hopes will be resolved by machine automation. By developing two key aspects of Hegel’s social theory—that labor produces ethical subjectivity or education (Bildung) and …

Three Essays On The Economics Of Education, Jarod T. Apperson

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation comprises essays that exploit geographic data in an effort to provide new causal evidence on three topics facing education policy makers.

Chapter 1 investigates the consequences of domestic violence exposure. I show that episodes of domestic violence cause a short-term increase in absences, but I do not find evidence that the events increase or decrease the number of disciplinary infractions, conditional on attending school. In addition, I measure spillovers to peers using plausibly exogenous daily and annual variation in peer group composition. In contrast to earlier research, my spillover results suggest that neither peers’ behavior nor their test …

Examining Education Level Correlation With Cognitive Function Among People With Alzheimer’S Disease, Simone Dumas

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)is currently listed as the sixth leading cause of death among U.S. adults, killing more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. While the number one risk factor for AD is increasing age, to date, little is known about preventive or protective factors of AD. Continued epidemiologic research that seeks to examine risk and protective factors, such as the role educational attainment plays in cognitive functioning among those with AD may offer important preventive insights.

AIM: The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between education level and the cognition of persons with AD. …

Adolescent Economic Empowerment In A Kenyan Urban Rural Context, Amanda Lane Moll

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

This research study examined the ways in which adolescent economic empowerment is constructed amongst adolescents, their households, and teachers in urban and rural Kenyan contexts. Adolescents and youth make up the world’s largest population, yet they are systematically un- and under-employed. The relationship between educational opportunities and wage-earning and economic opportunities is strong, yet often disconnected. Adolescent economic empowerment is defined as the building of skills, capabilities, and capital so young people can make their own choices in life through access to and control over resources and opportunities, in relation to the people, norms, and structures that shape their lives. …

The Comparative Efficiency Of Public And Private Provision Of Postsecondary Education In U.S. National Universities, David Talley

Business Administration Dissertations

The research uses postsecondary education in the United States as a test case for broader claims of superior efficiency of production from private sector producers as compared to public sector producers. Using linear regression and structural equation modeling on secondary data from 230 national universities, I provide evidence that private universities are more efficient in production of postsecondary education than public universities, and that the relationship is not mediated by competition. Using qualitative analysis of semi-structured depth interviews with both private and public university administrators, I provide evidence that personal motivation is also not a mediator of the relationship, but …

Political Settlements, Women’S Representation And Gender Equality: The 2008 Gender-Based Violence Law And Gender Parity In Primary And Secondary Education In Rwanda, Jennie E. Burnet, Jeanne D’Arc Kanakuze

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper explores the ways in which power and politics shape the realisation of women’s rights and gender equity in Rwanda. In the past decade, Rwanda has become a global leader in increasing women’s inclusion in politics and in promoting and securing women’s rights. This paper considers legislative reform, policy formulation and policy implementation in two areas: gender-based violence and gender parity in education. The paper injects a gender analysis into the political settlement theoretical framework and seeks to answer two questions: (1) how do women and other actors (including formal and information institutions, powerbrokers and other key decision-makers) negotiate …