Digital Commons Network^™

Gaining Understanding Of Capital Disparity In The Community College Classroom From A Faculty Perspective Through Action Research, David J. Heflin

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Positioned between the engagement rich secondary school and the highly social four-year institution, the community college has limited opportunities to connect with students. If community colleges are to meet challenges of providing access to education for students who have traditionally been underserved by higher education, and hold up to new measures of accountability in graduating students, two-year institutions must recognize that faculty-student engagements occurring in the classroom are crucial. Perception and appreciation of student’s capital by faculty through purposeful engagements grounded in theory provide opportunity for understanding capital disparity that exists in the community college classroom.

Active participation of experienced …

Exploring Sense Of Community In A First-Year Experience Course And How Sense Of Community Impacts Students’ Perceptions Of Transition And Persistence In College, Karen L. Mayo

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study examines how community was created in a community college FYE 105 Achieving Academic Success course and the impact of classroom community on students’ perceptions of transition and persistence. Community colleges increasingly are focusing on student success as measured by persistence and goal completion such as transfer or attainment of credentials. The classroom learning environment is critical to student success but is a neglected area in retention research. Therefore, it is important to expand the research on initiatives that support students in their quest for success and educational goal completion.

This research focused on one course section of FYE …

Good Leavers And Bad Stayers: Exploring The Influence Of Defining Student Success Outcomes With A Composite Measure Of Performance And Persistence, Curtis T. Sandberg

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Not all college “stayers” and “leavers” stay or leave for the same reason or with the same experience. However, traditional measures and studies of academic success have limited their scope to either performance or persistence as individual variables. This study explored whether a more nuanced definition of success as a composite of both performance and persistence (GPA and retention) produced different results than when using the variables separately. The influence of academic self-efficacy on student success served as the context for this exploration. The study used an existing incoming student survey dataset from a small private liberal arts college. Subjects …

Influence Of Gender Difference On Reading Habit And Academic Achievement Of Undergraduate Medical Students In University Of Ibadan, Nigeria, Sunday O. Ladipo Rev., Sunmade Ajibola Gbotosho Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study investigated the extent to which gender difference determine the reading habit and academic achievement of undergraduate medical students of University of Ibadan. Questionnaire was used to collect data from four hundred and twenty nine medical students randomly selected from the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Findings from the study revealed gender difference in the academic achievement of medical students in favour of male students. On the other hand, there was no gender difference in the reading habit of medical students. Findings on relationships between gender and academic achievement established a positive relationship just as a positive …

Mad Men In The Classroom: A Collection Of Classroom-Tested Teaching Tools, Rebecca Johnson, Jimmie Manning

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

This chapter includes classroom materials ranging from detailed lecture notes to assignments and activities to complete syllabuses that can be adopted for personal use.

Comparing Mode Shares For Non-Residential Destinations In Urban And Suburban Environments, Tasnia Subrin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

To ensure facility for multimodal transportation is one of the most important concerns in today's transportation sector, with initiatives being taken to make multimodal transportation popular. The built environment variables have a strong relationship with transportation mode choice, but whether that relationship holds true in urban and suburban neighborhoods in the same manner has not been considered. Using data for three non-residential land uses, this research explores whether the built environment variables in suburban areas influences mode share like it does in urban areas. We used survey data conducted at the establishments regarding respondents' travel characteristics from a previous study, …

Book Review. Reviving Fiscal Citizenship, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In recent years, numerous lawmakers, policy analysts, and scholars have been decrying the many defects of the present U.S. income tax system. Few have attempted to defend our return-based mass income tax. This essay reviews Learning to Love Form 1040, Lawrence Zelenak’s stirring and persuasive defense of a simplified version of our present federal income tax system. In contrast to the conventional economic critiques, Zelenak explores the underappreciated social, cultural, and political benefits of a return-based, mass income tax. Chief among these, he argues, is the existing regime’s potential to raise the tax consciousness of the average citizen and to …

Thomas Davis, The Nation, And Songs Of Irish Nationalism, Timothy Mason Love

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Thomas Davis was a significant figure in the flourishing movement of cultural nationalism in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland. A cofounder of _The Nation_, Davis used the journal’s pages as a medium through which to promote a nationalist vision for Ireland distinctive for its nonsectarian appeal. Along with impassioned editorial prose, Davis employed poetry and song to carry his message to the public. “Young Ireland,” as Davis and his colleagues became known, focused their efforts especially on the traditional Irish song, elevating it as a symbol for their cultural heritage while harnessing its emotional power to strengthen their political cause. The songs printed …

#Becoming: Emergent Identity Of College Students In The Digital Age Examined Through Complexivist Epistemologies, Paul William Eaton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the possibilities and limitations of conducting research on college student identity in the digital age. Utilizing philosophical theories from complexity theory, post-qualitative research, and new materialisms, I interrogate, question, disrupt, and challenge current theories and models of college student identity, largely developed from a positivist, modernist, empiricist perspective. Conducting research on college student identity in the twenty-first century may benefit from discarding the old ‘developmental’ language of the twentieth century, replacing this discourse and understanding with a language drawn from complexity theory. In this regard, I believe educators, researchers, and practitioners should begin talking about identity emergence …

L'Essentiel Ou Lagniappe: The Ideology Of French Revitalization In Louisiana, Albert Camp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Louisiana’s French revitalization movement has received millions of dollars in taxpayer funding through its various initiatives such as music and cultural festivals, public school French immersion programs, and academic exchange programs, among others. Over forty years ago, the state of Louisiana created CODOFIL, a government agency dedicated to the promotion of Francophone language and culture in Louisiana, yet the number of Francophones in the state has continued to decline at an alarming rate according to the most reliable data available. My study investigates the ideology and demographics of those involved in French education programs in Louisiana’s public schools. Who decides …

Life After Death: Revitalization Of Social Work Education Programs At Historically Black Colleges And Universities Through Decolonization, Carey Yazeed

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the major problems facing social work education in the United States is that there are too many programs. Currently 463 Bachelor of Social Work programs exist in the United States. The growth spurt of programs has been justified by the belief that the profession of social work will grow faster than average by 2018. Institutions of higher learning are feeling the pressure to fill the impending demand for more social workers in the U.S. and social work education programs are feeling the pressure to fulfill the demand by increasing student enrollment. This demand for growth has created a …

Compromising The Craft: A Mixed-Methodological Analysis Of The Products And Processes Of Storytelling In Local Television And Digital News, Keren Esther Henderson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Before the Telecommunications Act of 1996, station ownership was highly restricted to ensure that owners could not dominate in any one market nor own more than a handful of stations across all markets. The Act deregulated station ownership, redefining the role of the station owner from a financial supporter of public communication to an aggressive competitor in the television marketplace. With nearly three quarters of Americans citing local television and digital journalism as their top sources for information, this study serves two purposes: (1) to confirm the existence of storytelling as a professional, value-driven journalistic behavior in local television news …

Civic Community, Structural Disadvantage, And Suicide: An Ecological Analysis Of Middle-Age Non-Hispanic White Male Suicide Across The Rural-Urban Continuum, Kayla R. Fontenot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a county-level sociological examination of middle-age (35-64) non-Hispanic white male suicides. Although an extensive amount of literature exists on ecological suicide, studies have largely ignored the correlates of suicide among this population group because this stage of the life course has historically demonstrated relatively low and stable rates of suicide. However, suicide rates among middle-age adults have increased dramatically over the last decade, calling for an examination of the correlates of suicide specific to this group. Moreover, the extant suicide literature has largely ignored the possibility of a structural disadvantage-suicide link, as well as the influence of …

The Edible Landscape: Plant Breeding, Farming, And Sustainbility In Northwest Portugal, Joseph Blanchard Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic analysis of a participatory plant breeding project in northwest Portugal. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is a crop enhancement strategy that brings farmers and plant breeders together in the effort to conserve crop genetic resources in-situ, improve yield, and increase the overall agricultural sustainability in agriculture. One strategy in PPB calls for plant breeders to spend considerable time on working farms to understand better farmers’ knowledge and skill, and to survey the existing crop genetic diversity within the existing resource limitations on farms. Although there are clear social implications for PPB, the bulk of PPB evaluative …

Judging As Judgment: Tying Judicial Education To Adjudication Theory, Robert G. Bone

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The thesis of this Article, simply stated, is that judicial education makes sense only against the backdrop of general ideas and beliefs about law, courts, and adjudication. These ideas and beliefs motivate a focus on educating judges and help guide more specific pedagogical choices. I explore this broad thesis from both a historical and a normative perspective. Historically, I argue that interest in judicial education caught fire in the 1960s in large part because of prevailing beliefs about law and the proper function of courts. Normatively, I argue that the connection between judicial education and normative views of courts and …

Different Approaches To Investigatory Journalism In The Muckraking Era, Tim Vest Klein

LSU Master's Theses

The muckraking era is seen as a golden age of investigatory journalism. This thesis argues that within the muckraking era, there were a number of distinct types of journalism. To understand the muckrakers, we must recognize these different types of investigatory journalism and the potential influence the different types of storytelling can have on public opinion. Fourteen of the preeminent muckrakers are analyzed based on their most important investigatory journalism articles

Space Cops And Cyber Cowboys: An Institutional Comparison Of The Governance Of Space Exploration And The Internet, James Luther Gilley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A growing concern for human society is the question of technology, how they are to be used and how can they best be governed. The very question of whether technology is governable remains for the most part unexplored. This work will seek to examine these important questions. By utilizing a historical institutional perspective, two case studies of the governance of technologies that have emerged in the last century will be explored. Space Exploration technologies and the advanced networking of computers known as the Internet will serve as the case to illuminate the question of governing technology. Deep qualitative functional analysis …

Interorganizational Collaboration And Systemic Change Framework For Building Information Modeling (Bim) Adoption, Rehema Joseph Monko

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

It was found that an integrated framework needs to be developed for the construction industry that allows optimized interorganizational collaboration and systemic change while using Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies. The framework needs to be effective so the industry can adopt BIM through a set of interdependent activities beyond their organizational boundaries. The adoption has been proven difficult because of industry competitiveness and a fragmented work environment. Meanwhile, existing frameworks vary between studies. This research developed an integrated framework, identified critical factors, and provided an evaluation guide for interorganizational collaboration and set of coordinated changes necessary to adopt BIM. This …

Rhetoric And Food: The Rise Of The Food Truck Movement, Bryan W. Moe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This analysis is an attempt to study the rise of a new mobile food medium the food truck. I examine the movement of rhetorical actors, the situation, the audiences, and discourses created and sustained through rhetorical practices. These include looking into contemporary controversies, the history and storytelling that helps to convey identity, a new aesthetic experience created by the medium, and specifically their sophistic character and rhetoric helping them speak on issues of social justice and change. To understand these texts, I examine each of them in light of their rhetorical situation and the convergence of a multitude of kairotic …

Is Downsizing Prisons Dangerous? The Effect Of California’S Realignment Act On Public Safety, Jody Sundt, Emily Salisbury, Mark G. Harmon

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research Summary: Recent declines in imprisonment raise a critical question: Can prison populations be reduced without endangering the public? This question is examined by testing the effect of California’s dramatic efforts to comply with court-mandated targets to reduce prison overcrowding using a pretest-posttest design. The results showed that California’s Realignment Act had no effect on violent or property crime rates in 2012, 2013, or 2014. When crime types were disaggregated, a moderately large, statistically significant association between Realignment and auto theft rates was observed in 2012. By 2014, however, this effect had decayed and auto theft rates returned to pre-Realignment …

A Study Of After-School And Summer Programs: The Effectiveness Of Law-Related Youth Educational Programs For Adolescents In Marginalized Communities, Pamela Anne Labbe

LSU Master's Theses

It was the interest of this project to determine if law-related educational activities – when incorporated into after-school and summer programs that are rooted in marginalized communities – were effective when applied to adolescent residents. The current study is informed by theories of place, social class, social disorganization and juvenile delinquency. Using ethnographical methods, this project followed after-school and summer programs developed for youth in a South Louisiana black community characterized by pockets of poverty, blight and disorder. Through qualitative data analysis, the themes of how community operated in the target neighborhoods, how community members responded to neighborhood disorder and …

A Test Of General Strain Theory: Suicidal Ideation And Attempt Among Adolescents In Istanbul, Turkey, Muhammed Yildiz

LSU Master's Theses

Previous suicidal ideation and attempt are the strongest predictors of subsequent completed suicide, which is the second leading cause of death among youth today. Research shows that the risk factors for adolescent suicidal behaviors can be grouped into demographic, social, and psychological categories, so a broad theoretical framework is needed to examine the range of these factors’ effects. In this study, Agnew’s general strain theory is tested to explain those suicidal behaviors among adolescents in Istanbul, Turkey. Agnew argued that specific strains were more likely to lead to deviance, therefore a corresponding set of strains are selected. He also argued …

The Unattainable Ideal: Walter Lippmann And The Limits Of The Press And Public Opinion, Amy Solomon Whitehead

LSU Master's Theses

Walter Lippmann’s classic work, Public Opinion, crystallized thinking about the dynamic relationship between the press and public opinion, and clarified the role of each in democracy. Evaluations of that book, however, tend to be one-dimensional. Public Opinion captured just one iteration of his thinking on the subject, not his final statement on the matter. A comprehensive survey of his writing reveals Lippmann’s views on the press and public opinion were not static, yet the attention Public Opinion receives continues to overshadow his other works; his evolving views on the press and public opinion are rarely mentioned. Although his views shifted …

Using Stormwater Modeling In Iterative Site Design: An Integration Of Techniques From Engineering And Landscape Architecture, Brooke Erin Morris

LSU Master's Theses

Landscape Architects currently do not have an efficient method for including stormwater quantities in early stages of their design process. With stormwater control infrastructure and theory rapidly shifting in favor of stormwater management with Green Infrastructure or Low Impact Development technologies (LIDs), landscape architects and planners are increasingly making layout and sizing decisions for stormwater design. Due to the development of modeling tools, it is now possible to rapidly produce quantifiable stormwater values for complex site designs at a range of scales. This paper proposes a methodology for the utilization of the EPA – Stormwater Management Model (SWMM), in conjunction …

The Plagues Of Colonialism: Representations Of Suffering In The Colonial And Postcolonial Francophone Algerian Novel From 1950-1966, Benjamin Jack Sparks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The indigenous Francophone Algerian novel dates from the early 1950s and since then has been a political manifestation of uneasiness. The anticolonial undertones of this literature demonstrate the sufferings and harsh realities of life under an oppressive colonial regime; meanwhile the postcolonial novel continues the representation of this suffering through the residual effects of colonialism and the impact of the bloody decolonization war. This dissertation contributes to the discourse regarding suffering as a result of French colonial oppression in light of François Hollande’s official recognition of the trauma of colonialism and the acceptance of the events from 1954-1962 as a …

Expertise And Disbelief: Post-1945 American Attitudes Toward The Authority Of Knowledge, Terry Wagner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“You can’t beat brains,” said President John Kennedy of the intellectuals and technicians he assembled in his cabinet. Kennedy was perhaps the greatest political champion for the virtues of expertise. However, all over America during the 1960s and ‘70s, diverse groups voiced doubts about how much experts, such as social scientists, policy specialists, and others, actually improved life. This dissertation examines how movements on the political left and right, and spiritual ruptures such as the rise of ‘60s counterculture and of evangelicalism, spoke in different language to express a similar point: human mastery over the world is profoundly limited. Many …

Sexual Dimorphism In The Crania In A Norwegian Sample, Tonje Bakke Noack

LSU Master's Theses

Physical anthropologists strive to improve the accuracy of sex identification and to establish criteria of measurements within various populations. Different groups of native inhabitants show dissimilar results within cranial measurements and inaccuracies have been confirmed when comparing all populations to the common standard lineal measurements. This research examined 24 measurements on 120 crania from Norway and used statistical analyses to determine the sexual dimorphism between male and female crania. The study established the measurements with the most sexual dimorphism. These are the measurements of bizygomatic breadth, basion-bregma, biauricular breadth, glabella-opisthocranion, and upper facial breadth. The similarity of the values of …

My Choice, My Fraternity, And My Engagement: Experiences Of White Men In Black Greek Letter Organizations (Bglo), Kourtney Prentice Gray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study grounded in the theoretical framework and research of Alexander Astin’s Student Engagement Theory, with support from Critical Race Theory and Terrell Strayhorn’s work on Sense of Student Belonging, utilizes a methodological case-study approach with multiple units of analysis. In an effort to understand the choice, ownership, and engagement of White men who hold membership in Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLO), this study utilized the counter-narrative tenant presented and supported by Critical Race Theory to examine the racial identity and engagement of fraternity men from a pluralistic experience. Additionally, the researcher hypothesized that there is a special experience …

Mishpacha In The American Diaspora: An Exploratory Study Of Highly-Involved Jewish Families, Trevan Glen Hatch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Both family and religion are important to a large majority of the population in the United States. In the last few decades, research on religious families has significantly increased. Empirical research on Jewish families, however, is scant. The purpose of this study is to explore contemporary American Jewish family life in relation to Judaism, both cultural and religious. Specifically, the two primary objectives of this study are 1) to examine how Jewish culture and religion may influence and shape Jewish family life; and 2) to examine how family relationships may influence observance of Jewish cultural or religious traditions. This reciprocal …

Alcohol Consumption Among Turkish Adolescents: A Test Of General Strain Theory, Ugur Orak

LSU Master's Theses

The current study examined alcohol consumption among Turkish adolescents through the lens of Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) using data drawn from the 2008 Youth in Europe Survey. Although considerable attention has been paid to problematic alcohol consumption among adolescents, extant research has remained limited to western countries. Similarly, much of the support for GST was derived from research conducted in United States. The current study explores factors associated with alcohol consumption in Turkey and tests the generalizability of GST to countries with sociocultural and religious values differing from those in western countries. Results from ordinal logistic regression analyses indicate …