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Attitudes Towards Global Civic-Mindedness And Engagement Before And After Study Abroad: A Study Of Undergraduate Students At International Study Abroad Centers Of An American University, Mousumi Mukherjee

Master's Theses

Mousumi Mukherjee

Loyola University of Chicago

ATTITUDES TOWARDS GLOBAL CIVIC-MINDEDNESS AND ENGAGEMENT BEFORE AND AFTER STUDY ABROAD:

A STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT

INTERNATIONAL STUDY ABROAD CENTERS OF AN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

In recent years Study Abroad has come from the periphery to the center of Higher Education programs in the U.S. Students from across the world has been studying abroad in the U.S. for decades because of the advanced research and infrastructural facilities here. Compared to the international students studying abroad in the U.S., the number of U.S. students studying abroad has been negligible according to Open Doors data reported …

Gender Stereotypes In Public School Textbooks In The Dominican Republic, Karie Jo Karasiak

Master's Theses

In 1992, the Secretary of Education of the Dominican Republic set an objective of eliminating gender stereotypes that discriminate against women from textbooks (Díaz Santana, 1996; Mateo Diclo, n.d.). My research is a historical comparison of two sets of texts published in the years 1996-1997 and 2005-2007 focusing on visual representations portraying gender roles with the purpose of ascertaining if progress is being made towards this objective. I analyze a total of six books, three books from 1996-1997 and three from 2005-2007. The examined textbooks include two second grade Natural Sciences, two fourth grade Spanish, and two sixth grade Social …

The Educators Of Educators: An Evaluation Of Carnegie Foundation's "Very High Research Activity" Universities' Schools Of Education Professors, Joshua R. Polanin

Master's Theses

The field of education is diverse, its history marred with politically driven problems, and its research ill-funded and often disaggregated. Indeed researchers of the past have questioned education research's purpose (Kaestle, 1993) while researchers of the present doubt the field's ability to evaluate properly its current researchers and research (Hedges & Hans-Martin, 2009). Therefore the purpose of this thesis was to investigate and evaluate critically who education researchers were and what type of research they produced.

Using a nationally representative, stratified-random sample technique, this author distributed the Education Research Identity Survey (ERIS) electronically via email to 2,723 Schools of Education …

Short-Term Study Abroad Programs And The Development Of Intercultural Sensitivity, Barbara Elizabeth Zarnick

Master's Theses

This study focuses on the growing popularity of short-term study abroad programs and aims to determine the impact of such programs on producing intercultural sensitivity. A pre and post-departure survey were administered to undergraduate and graduate students to analyze students' perceptions of their own intercultural sensitivity prior to a short-term study abroad experience and after. This study uses the Intercultural Sensitivity Index developed by Christa Lee Olson and Kent R. Kroger in 2001 to assess the students' levels of intercultural sensitivity. The study reveals that this particular short-term experience had minimal impact on participants' levels of intercultural sensitivity, but illustrates …

Tradition To Acculturation: A Case Study On The Impacts Created By Chemawa Indian Boarding School Upon The Nez Perce Family Structure From 1879 To 1945, Arthur Maxwell Taylor

Master's Theses

Tradition to Acculturation: a Case Study of the Impacts created by Chemawa Indian Boarding School upon the Nez Perce Family Structure from 1879 to 1945

As a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, I have developed an interest in education of Native Americans and in particular those students who attended Chemawa Indian Government Boarding School from 1879 to 1940. For many centuries, the Nez Perce have played an integral role in the history of the American Indian Columbia River plateau people, as well as, in the history of the United States. As Manifest Destiny spread across the western frontier, there …

Reorientation Through Interruption: On The Relation Of Immanuel Kant's Modes Of Egoism To His Critical Philosophy, Giancarlo Tarantino

Master's Theses

The relationship between Immanuel Kant's anthropology, and his Critical philosophy has proven to be a notoriously difficult problem, both for specifically Kantian scholarship as well as for philosophy in general. This thesis attempts to investigate this relationship by showing the importance of Kant's modes of egoism at work in his three Critiques. In doing so this thesis will highlight the phenomena of interruption, and orientation as playing crucial interpretive roles for parsing out the aforementioned relationship. I will try to show that anthropology and Critique mutually interrupt, and re-orient one another's specific contributions to the major themes of Kant's thinking.

Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Clusters And Externalizing Problems In Young Urban African American Adolescents, Maria Ann Horn-Rollins

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between five posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) clusters and two forms of externalizing problems within and across the middle school years in a low income urban sample of young adolescent African Americans. A secondary aim of this study was to explore moderation effects by gender. Total PTSS positively predicted a little over 58% of the cross-sectional externalizing outcomes and uniquely explained between 5 and 12% of the variance in these outcomes over and above gender and exposure to violence. Total PTSS significantly and positively predicted one-third of the longitudinal outcomes and …

Predictors Of Mental Health Outcomes Among Foster Care Children Receiving Community-Based Services, Alison Merri Dunleavy

Master's Theses

Historically, children served in the foster care system experience less favorable mental health outcomes compared to those in the general population (Anctil, McCubbin, & Pecora, 2006; Burns et al., 2004; Garland et al., 2001; Zima, Bussing, Yang, & Berlin, 2000). As a result, the child welfare system has been described as a "de facto public behavioral health care system" (Lyons & Rogers, 2004), prompting state child welfare agencies to seek to put systems and policies in place to serve the needs of these youth, such as Illinios' statewide community-based program, System of Care (SOC), designed to provide multi-modal services to …

The Mirror Is Not You: Objectification And Eating Disordered Behaviors In Classical And Contemporary Dancers, David Matthew Doyle

Master's Theses

The current study extended the tenets of objectification theory to a population considered to be at risk for poor body image--professional dancers. Furthermore, differences in self-objectification and its sequelae due to participation in classical versus contemporary dance companies, styles with differential exposure to objectifying cues, were explored. Forty professional dancers and thirty-nine non-dancers completed measures of objectification and its sequelae. Differences in levels of self-objectification did not fit the predicted pattern, with dancers evidencing lower levels than non-dancers; however body shame levels were elevated among dancers. The proposed model of objectification fit both groups, with body shame mediating the relationship …

Creating A Balance In Sentencing Offenders: A Step Towards Restorative Justice, Lindsay Nichols

Master's Theses

Public sentencing preferences often determine the sentencing statutes created by legislators. Extracting public opinion is typically done through mass public opinion polls; however, research has found that these polls often produce misleading findings. In order to accurately dissect the various layers of laypersons' sentencing choices, a victim impact statement (VIS) and a statement of offender remorse were manipulated within a crime scenario depicting moderately severe crimes. A total of 215 participants were randomly assigned to one of the 16 conditions in this 2 (crime type: residential burglary or unarmed robbery) x 2 (VIS: absence or presence) x 2 (offender remorse …

Public Responsiveness To Victim's Recommendations In Their Sentencing Decisions: Role Of Victim's Race, Victim Impact Statement And Judge's Instructions, Mary Elizabeth Talbot

Master's Theses

A total of 191 participants completed the 2 (Race of victim: African American, Caucasian) x 2 (Content of Victim Impact Statement (VIS): Sentence Recommendation Only, Both Sentence Recommendation and Harm Statement) x 2 (Jury Guidelines for VIS: No guidance, Explicit instructions to weigh the harm statement with other aggravating and mitigating factors) between subjects factorial design study. The study assessed the relationship between the victim's race (African-American or Caucasian), the content of victim impact statements, and the judge's guidelines/instructions for interpreting/using the Victim Impact Statement (VIS) in the sentencing phase of a defendant's trial for burglary and aggravated battery. The …

Affection, Anger, Or Ambivalence? An Examination Of Tunisian And Two Groups Of American Students' Attitudes Toward American Politics And Popular Culture, Jonya Leverett

Master's Theses

Attitude ambivalence is the attitude actor's simultaneous possession of both negative and positive affect toward an attitude object. The competing affect produces tension, creating attitude ambivalence. In the present project, the attitude object is the United States of America. Students in Tunisia (a predominately Muslim nation) were asked specific questions about American foreign policy and American popular culture (n = 17). These two aspects of the `America' attitude object are expected to produce attitude ambivalence as the Tunisian students should express positive affect toward American popular culture and negative affect toward American foreign policy. A pencil and paper survey featuring …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Team Coaching, Performance Feedback, And Collective Efficacy On Small Group Performance, Rachael Nichole Martinez

Master's Theses

Research has demonstrated that there are a variety of factors that influence group performance such as team coaching, feedback, and collective efficacy. A study was conducted to determine whether consultative team coaching improves performance and at what point--beginning or middle--it is most beneficial to the team. One hundred eleven dyads, comprised of 222 students, participated in this study. The dyads performed a task twice in which they were given team coaching before the first attempt, after the first attempt, or not at all. In addition, feedback was manipulated such that teams received positive or negative feedback after their first attempt …

Knowledge, The Marketization Of Education, And High-Stakes Accountability: Curriculum Differentiation In Chicago Public High Schools, Paige Elizabeth Jessee

Master's Theses

Over the course of the twentieth century curriculum differentiation became a mainstay in education, particularly in secondary schools. Much has been written on how this is a purposeful selection process often tied to larger social and political status and relationships. Moreover, knowledge is largely deemed appropriate based upon whose knowledge it is and for what student it is appropriate. Also, within the past two decades, there has been an increase in neoliberal school choice policies and neoconservative standardization policies in public education largely in the form of charter schools and high-stakes testing. These market policies aim to increase innovation and …

Undergraduate Music Student Stress And Burnout, Helen Jane Orzel

Master's Theses

Burnout is fatigue and diminished interest caused by long-term stress. It is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. In the university music atmosphere, stress and burnout are prevalent and accepted as part of the culture. Symptoms and causes of general stress and burnout have been well researched, but much less has been presented on college musicians' burnout, let alone how to deal with it. This study examines the sources of stress, burnout, and ways of coping for undergraduate music students.

A questionnaire with both quantitative and open-ended questions was administered during the 2009 spring semester. Participants …

Does Nighttime Television Influence Attitudes Toward Drinking?, Mike Mchone

Master's Theses

Alcoholism is a problem in the United States. Television portrays individuals drinking alcohol. Is television influencing attitudes toward drinking? An experiment was performed with students from San Josè State University in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications to discover if television would indeed influence them to drink.

Two groups, both Mass Communication classes, participated in an initial survey, and then the test group class viewed a dramatized program in which the main character was depicted drinking glamorously. Both classes then took the same survey again. Results were analyzed via a t-test. Although there was a change in attitude regarding …

If I Could Choose: Internalized Homophobia Of The Queer Cinema Movement, James Joseph Flaherty

Master's Theses

This thesis offers a critical examination of essentialist and constructionist theories of queer identities, with emphasis on portrayals of internalized homophobia in film. The thesis examines three films released at the latter part of the first New Queer Cinema movement (1991 - 2000) - American Beauty (1999), Urbania (2000) and Velvet Goldmine (1998). Using criticisms of Queer as performativity, as theorized by Judith Butler, in addition to the works of Gregory M. Herek, Harry M. Benshoff, Jeffrey Weeks, and other theorists and academics, the thesis analyzes the use of characterization, mise-en-scene, and spatial and temporal relationships in these films as …

Toward A Single-Consciousness: Challenging "Un-American-Ness" Of People Of Color, Bhawana Kamil

Master's Theses

Race is a major axis of social injustice in America. Social injustice is due to both maldistribution of material resources and opportunities and non-recognition or mis-recognition of people of color. One form of mis-recognition is the accusation that a person of color is not a real American, creating a conflict of identities (i.e., racial and American): a double-consciousness. This accusation has its origins in faulty ideas about race, identity, and race-group membership.

This paper presents a new model of identity that addresses these faulty ideas and provides a conceptual structure within which one can consistently maintain a single-consciousness while maintaining …

Visual Framing Of Patriotism And National Identity On The Covers Of Der Spiegel, Andrea Marie Pyka

Master's Theses

This thesis studied how Der Spiegel, a news magazine in Germany, visually framed images of German patriotism and national identity on its front covers between 1947 and 2009. This study specifically examined whether the covers showed an increase in symbols of patriotism and national identity following four major events in Germany. The events included: the building of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, the adoption of the Euro, and the 2006 World Cup. A framing analysis of the covers showed that there was an increase in symbols of national identity across each of these four events. However, based …

A Phonetic, Phonological, And Morphosyntactic Analysis Of The Mara Language, Michelle Arden

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a linguistic analysis of the Mara language, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in northwest Myanmar and in neighboring districts of India. Data has been gathered through interviews with a native speaker. The analysis includes a full phonetic segment inventory of the dialect and a phonological analysis of contrastive sounds and contextual variants. Sound files embedded in the document illustrate the phonetic system. Mara's distinctive phonetic features include the loss of word-final consonants, a set of voiceless sonorants, pre- and post- aspirated nasals, and lowered and unlowered vowel pairs. The morphosyntax of Mara pronominal words demonstrates a split-ergative case …

The Russian Émigré In America: Translating And Transcending Exile In Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin And Pale Fire, Yelena N. Severina

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates how Vladimir Nabokov's experience as an exiled writer in America serves as a model for the protagonists of Pnin(1957) and Pale Fire(1962), two of Nabokov's English-language novels in which exile is a central theme. Although the protagonists, Pnin and Kinbote, are both true exiles, they illustrate markedly different responses to their dislocations; read in tandem, the novels constitute Nabokov's analysis of exile, his lament over its painfulness, and his transcendence of exile through art. Chapter One looks at Nabokov through the lens of exile while establishing fundamental theoretical concepts and terminology. Chapters Two and Three …

Teaching Artists In The High School: A Creative Approach To Student Self-Esteem, Jennifer Nye Walsh

Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the effect of teaching artists' (TAs) classroom instruction in the arts on student self-esteem at Downtown College Preparatory (DCP) High School, an at-risk high school in San Jose, California, over the course of two semesters. The data collected and used to analyze these effects were student observations, student art work, student journal entries, student surveys, and data provided by a third party consulting company. The purpose of this study was to determine if having teaching artists working in an at-risk high school classroom environment could positively affect their students' self-esteem through their arts programming. The results showed …

Framing Corporate Social Responsibility On The Websites Of Fortune 10 Green Giants, Kriti Ashok

Master's Theses

This thesis reports a framing study of corporate social responsibility on the Internet. The study explores how Fortune 10 Green Giants frame corporate social responsibility on their websites. The Green Giants are Honda, Continental, Suncor, Tesco, Alcan, PG&E, S.C. Johnson, Goldman Sachs, Swiss Re, and Hewlett-Packard. According to Fortune magazine, these 10 companies have gone beyond what the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way. The study is focused on the textual content of these 10 corporation websites. The study involves identification of frames, determination of the most used and the least used frames, and identification of patterns …

Kinna-Uganda: A Review Of Uganda's National Cinema, Kristin Alexandra Rasmussen

Master's Theses

Kinna-Uganda (K-U) is a form of cinema that has emerged in Uganda following decades of the totalitarian political regime of Idi Amin, which in turn followed almost a century of colonial rule. The concept of national cinema is evaluated in this thesis as a tool for analysis of K-U. The national cinema concept is compared with four other models -- regional, continental, Pan-African, and transnational -- that can also be used to analyze and deconstruct films and the academic space within which they reside. This study examines Uganda's pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial times and their impact on the production of …

Marketing Latin Alternative Music Through Social Networking Sites, Vanessa Ursala Garcia

Master's Theses

This thesis examined the marketing strategies for Latin alternative music used on MySpace, Facebook, and Al Borde (On the Edge). This study found that the understanding of the target demographic was important for implementing successful marketing strategies to niche audiences. Marketing Latin alternative music has not been successful at a mainstream level; therefore, marketers have targeted niche communities on social networking sites. The most dominant strategy used involved the status update feature on Facebook. It allowed musicians and marketers to communicate information and media to a large network of individuals across the country. Three other major strategies included event invitations, …

Women With Facial Disfigurements: Impact Of Media-Constructed Images Of Beauty, Sophia M. Papadopoulos

Master's Theses

WOMEN WITH FACIAL DISFIGUREMENTS: IMPACT OF MEDIA-CONSTRUCTED IMAGES OF BEAUTY

by Sophia M. Papadopoulos

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether women with congenital or acquired facial disfigurements were negatively influenced by the images of beauty found in television, magazines, newspapers, and advertisements and to determine how these images affected their overall perceptions of self. A qualitative study was conducted through in-depth telephone interviews with 25 women with various facial disfigurements. The study showed that, although media-constructed images of beauty did have some influence on the participants' overall perceptions of self, other factors such as the manner in …

New Media Use Among High Achieving Adolescents, Kathleen Sara Alpizar

Master's Theses

To date, there has been relatively little research on adolescents and their new media use in school and at home. It is important to study this new media use because it can reveal much about how communication patterns are changing or evolving as adolescents incorporate new media seamlessly into their lives.

This study examined high achieving adolescents' use of new media at school and in their homes. Data were gathered at school through questionnaires and group discussion sessions. In addition, students kept diaries of all of their media use for one week.

This study revealed that high-achieving adolescents use new …

Assessment Of First Aid Knowledge And Decision Making Of Coaches Of Youth Soccer, Lynn Castro

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess the first aid knowledge of coaches of youth soccer and to assess the decision making ability of those coaches in hypothetical athletic situations. The study investigated coaches with passing scores on the First Aid Assessment test (FAA) and first aid and CPR certification; years of coaching experience and scores on the FAA; the difference between years of coaching experience and return to play; the relationship between first aid and CPR certification and education level and the scores on the FAA and education level. Coaches completed a FAA test, Game Situation Data Sheet …

Social Support As Moderator Of Job-Specific Or Generic Stressors With Strains, Kaci Deeana Mabe

Master's Theses

Two studies examining the relationship between job-specific stressors and strains versus the relationship between generic stressors with strain, as well as the moderating role of social support (from coworkers and administrators), are presented. Eighteen primary school teachers from a private Jewish day school (Study 1) and 242 teachers from an Arizona school district (Study 2) completed self-administered surveys. Results indicated that job-specific (vs. generic) stressors had a stronger positive relationship with strains, but social support was a better moderator for the relationship between generic stressors and strain. As hypothesized, administrator support had a reverse-buffering effect on the stressor-strain relationship in …

Who Am I?: The Reflexivity Of Self-Identity Through Tourism, Matthew Lee Milde

Master's Theses

This study has set forth to close gaps, explore innovative methods, and create a better understanding of "Who am I?", in tourism research. Few studies in tourism research focus on how experiences gained from traveling shape self-identity through personal biographies. Building on the work of seminal authors on self-identity, personal narrative, and tourism, this study explores the reflexivity of self-identity as represented in travel narratives. The lived experiences offered through narrative condition spontaneous instances of self-discovery allowing for the (re)creation of new self-identities.

Participants were selected through a snowball sample; in-depth interviews were held with fifteen (15) adults born and …