Digital Commons Network^™

On The Inside Looking In: Methodological Insights And Challenges In Conducting Qualitative Insider Research, Melanie J. Greene

The Qualitative Report

As qualitative researchers, what stories we are told, how they are relayed to us, and the narratives that we form and share with others are inevitably influenced by our position and experiences as a researcher in relation to our participants. This is particularly true for insider research, which is concerned with the study of one’s own social group or society. This paper explores some of the possible methodological insights and challenges that may arise from insider research, and suggests several techniques and tools that may be utilized to aid in, rather than hinder, the process of the telling and sharing …

Online Course Attrition In Arkansas' Two-Year Colleges, Jerry Anthony Hunnicutt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study investigates the attrition in online courses at two-year colleges in the state of Arkansas. For the purpose of this study, the Survey of Barriers for Online Learning was disseminated to a sample of 283 students from four 2-year colleges in the central area of Arkansas during 2013. Three research questions were the driving catalyst for the study. First, what are the perceptions of students regarding the pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical barriers to online learning? Second, do all student respondents and respondent subgroups perceive the four kinds of barriers to online learning (pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical) to …

Deafdigest: Gold Edition, July 20, 2014, Barry Strassler

DeafDigest Gold 2014

No abstract provided.

Leaving A Bequest: Living On Through Charitable Gifts, A Sargeant, C Routley

Plymouth Business School

Decisions taken in respect of the disposition of possessions often parallel a life transition or change in identity. In this article, we examine decisions taken in a will where disposition can be viewed not as a representation of the identities an individual wishes to shed, but rather as the continuation of those for which the deceased wishes to be remembered. We examine the meaning that such donors ascribe to their giving and the rich pattern of utility it offers both the individual and those he or she will ultimately leave behind. Using grounded theory, we report the results of 20 …

Privatization, State Militarization Through War, And Durable Social Exclusion In Post-Soviet Armenia, Anna Martirosyan

Dissertations

In the literature focusing on various aspects of the twin transitions from socialism, development and social well-being are mainly analyzed with respect to privatization process (Stark and Bruszt 1998, Applegate 1994); economic growth and institutional design (North 1990; Elster, Offe, and Preuss 1998; Kolodko 1999; Norgaard 2000); party and election politics, the development of social networks and deliberative associations (Stark and Bruszt 1998); and the bargaining power of labor (Bandelj and Mahutga 2005). While the importance of these factors is not underestimated, this study addresses a significantly understudied theme – social exclusion as a consequence of overweening state power. The …

Examining Teacher Efficacy In An Urban School District Through An Induction And Mentoring Program, Vonda Kim Scipio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Induction and mentoring programs are being implemented throughout the nation by school districts as intensive professional development for new teachers. These programs are designed to accelerate the development of novice teachers as a strategy to improve the academic achievement of preschool to 12th-grade students. In an effort to assess the relative importance of school-level factors that might further such teachers' growth, the purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of three cohorts of mentored teachers with respect to five working conditions: (a) colleagues' contributions to new teachers' professional growth; (b) principal support of new teachers' professional growth; (c) …

High School Teachers' Perceptions Of Data Driven Decision Making Within A Response To Intervention Framework, Benikia Kressler

Open Access Dissertations

A general education initiative supported by IDEA (2004), Response to Intervention (RtI) holds promise for improving the academic achievement of at-risk students through evidence-based instruction and data driven decision making (DDDM). However, most of the research on RtI has been conducted within elementary settings. Thus, this study examined high school teachers’ perceptions of DDDM for improving academic performance of at-risk high school youth within an RtI framework. Using qualitative methods consisting of interviews and field observations of six high school teachers implementing RtI in two Title 1 high schools, constant comparison methods of data were conducted. From this data, three …

Property Constructs And Nature's Challenge To Perpetuity, Jessica Owley

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 4 in Environmental Law and Contrasting Ideas of Nature: a Constructivist Approach, Keith H. Hirokawa, ed.

Animals And Law In The American City, Irus Braverman

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 6 in Environmental Law and Contrasting Ideas of Nature: a Constructivist Approach, Keith H. Hirokawa, ed.

Whereas a large and growing scholarly literature is dedicated to studying human populations in the city, not much has been written about nonhuman animals in this space. This essay explores the presence of nonhuman animals in the American city through a legal lens. I begin with a few general contemplations about the legal classification of animals in American cities, and then move to explore specific legal classifications of animals in cities: domestic and companion animals, agriculture or livestock animals, wild animals, …

The Effects Of Community Support On Posttraumatic Growth Outcomes For Parents Of Children With Chronic Illness, Colleen Gannon

Theses and Dissertations

Parents of children with chronic illnesses face many stressors on multiple fronts as a result of their child's care needs. Posttraumatic growth is positive psychological outcomes of stress for those who have experienced a traumatic event, such as the diagnosis of a child with a chronic illness. While much is known about the challenges of caring for a child with a chronic condition, there is little research on these parent's growth outcomes. Of the research that does exist, much focuses on internal predictors of posttraumatic growth, such as personality characteristics. The purpose of this study is to begin to investigate …

Spatial Analysis In Cancer Surveillance, Recinda Loraine Sherman

Open Access Dissertations

The burden of cancer is a significant physical, psychological, and financial toll on individuals and populations. Cancer is more common in older populations, so advances in other areas of medicine will inevitably increase the numbers of cancer patients. The development of cancer is prolonged over years which makes it difficult to identify etiologic causes. And the treatment of the disease can also be quite protracted. In the case of advanced or aggressive disease, medical treatment is sometimes reduced to a series of clinical interventions that do little to change the timeline to mortality. Currently, our most effective tool in cancer …

Objectified In The Best Possible Way: A Radical Feminist Solution To The Kantian Sex Problem, Daniel Mattox

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Daniel Mattox on July 16, 2014.

6 Myths About The Future Of Small Towns, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Covered myths about the future of small towns.

Featured:

Nenzel, Nebraska • Located in the Sandhills • Population 13 (2014) • Competed for a grant to build a new community center and heritage museum • Public buildings are supposed to last 50 years

Wray, Colorado • Located on Highway 34 across the Nebraska border • Once a major thoroughfare but today only local traffic • New hospital, modern K 12 school, raised money for a recreation center • Won a National Civic League All America City Award, the first rural community to be honored

'Would You Let Your Daughter Color Her Hair Blue?', Rebekah Mccloud

UCF Forum

I recently took a ride on the new SunRail. I was among the throng onboard for a free ride and to see, as Dr. Seuss would say, “Oh, the places I could go.” When I entered the overstuffed car, a young woman immediately stood up and said to me, “Here, Momma, take my seat.” And I did. I thanked her and commented about the kindness of her gesture.

The Alestle - Vol. 66 No. 40 - 07/16/2014, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The Alestle

Vol. 66 No. 40

Exploring Economists & Society: Constructing Expert Identity, Joseph Fitzgerald, Brendan O'Rourke

Conference papers

The recent economic crisis has created a heightened interest in economics and greater demand for economics experts. The media has played an important role in meeting this demand as mediated expertise is relied upon to understand the complex relationships within society (Albaek, Christiansen and Togeby 2003; Beck 1992; Boyce 2006; Giddens 1990). Such interactions of experts with media are a key element of the knowledge flows within society (Sturdy et al. 2009) and so have attracted research attention (Ekstrom and Lundell 2011; Hutchby 2006; Montgomery 2008). This paper contributes to this literature by focusing on the under-researched area of the …

The Effect Of Evaluator Reputation On Feedback Acceptance, Lauren Andrea Spencer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This experiment examined whether acceptance of feedback is affected by evaluator reputation, defined as the feedback recipient's perception of the source as a generally easy versus hard evaluator. It was hypothesized that when feedback valence was inconsistent with the evaluator's reputation concerning feedback, feedback would have a greater effect on the recipient's self-perceptions, and secondarily, that feedback acceptance would depend on self-esteem level. Participants received false feedback on their levels of social awareness after completing a task and being told that the experimenter was either a hard or easy evaluator. Participants then provided post-feedback ratings of self-perceived social awareness. Results …

From The Hill, Gerry Boyle, Jacob Mccarthy, Erika Mailman, G Calvin Mackenzie, Elizabeth Leonard

Colby Magazine

Hats off to CAPS: “extraordinary” Sciences program gives students from underrepresented groups the tools to succeed

What Birds Tell Us: By playing the songs of chickadees, Katerina Faust ’14 may reveal forest secrets

Exploring Common Ground: Jorge Olivares and writer Reinaldo Arenas found parallels in their pasts and presents

Another Century, in Real Time: Doris Kearns Goodwin ’64 explores a time when unlikely reformers fought the good fight—and won

Slavery Played a Key Role in the War—of 1812

The Adventures of a Regular Colby Guy, at Home and at War

Recent Releases:
On Goddesses, Aliens, and Avatars: Waterfall, Alpha Goddess, …

Full Issue

Colby Magazine

Colby Magazine vol. 102, no. 3 (Fall 2013): full issue

Do-Gooders-Really: Inspired At Colby, These Alumni Choose To Face Society’S Problems Head On, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Inspired at Colby, these alumni, including Catherine McDonough ’99 (above), tackle society’s most daunting problems.

Colby News

Colby Magazine

David A. Greene Named Colby’s 20th President

Environmental Fellow: Food Is Window to Society’s Challenges

2013 Lovejoy Award Goes to Truth Teller

Smoking Banned on Campus

Ethnic Violence Means Open Season on Burma’s Muslims

A Tome of Epic Proportions

Concussion Study Expands to Include Alumni

Meet the Class of 2017, Complete with Vexillologist

Museum Is Big News

Anonymous Alum Funds Nonprofit Course for Local Causes

The Recruitment And Selection Of Pension Trustees: An Integrative Approach, Susan Sayce, Johanna Weststar, Anil Verma

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

The role of a pension trustee is significant, which makes the recruitment and selection of labour trustees an important issue. In this article, we examine and combine aspects of two approaches to recruitment and selection: the political nomination model and the more professional HRM approach. We argue that an integrative approach would acknowledge the political, regulatory and organisational context while incorporating valid selection criteria such as domain‐specific skills and performance on the job. Such an integrated process can help trade unions in filling labour trustee positions with talented individuals who are more likely to be effective in achieving labour's goals …

Completions 2013-14, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

IPEDS

IPEDS Report created by the SWOSU Office of Institutional Research

Related Foster Parents Less Likely To Receive Support Services Compared With Nonrelative Foster Parents, Wendy A. Walsh, Marybeth J. Mattingly

Carsey Publications

This brief identifies gaps in support services among foster parents using data from a nationally representative survey of children involved in the child welfare system (the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being). Authors Wendy Walsh and Marybeth Mattingly report that the percentage of foster parents who received recent support services (within a six month timeframe) varies dramatically by foster placement and support service type. Kinship foster parents (both formal and informal) in all households regardless of poverty status are less likely to have received training, used respite care, or participated in peer support groups in the past six …

Order And Disorder In The Urban Forest: A Foucauldian-Latourian Perspective, Irus Braverman

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 9 in Urban Forests, Trees, and Greenspace: A Political Ecology Perspective, L. Anders Sandberg, Adrina Bardekjian & Sadia Butt, eds.

We pass by street trees everyday. Their existence as well as their particular location in the city seems obvious, innocuous, natural. But, as is the case with most taken-for-granted "things" (Brown, 2011), some excavation is bound to reveal a more complicated and even ideological story. This study focuses on such a story: the story of the clandestine governance of nature and of humans by way of nature - all through the construction and regulation of city street …

Impact Of The English Advanced Placement (Ap) Program On College Grade Point Average Among Rural Appalachian Students, Shannon Deaton

The Rural Educator

This study explored the impact of the English Advanced Placement (AP) program on college success among rural Appalachian students attending four private colleges in central and eastern Kentucky: Alice Lloyd College, Georgetown College, Lindsey Wilson College, and University of the Cumberlands. A Pearson Product-Moment Correlation r and an independent-samples t-test were conducted. With respect to rural Appalachian students, statistical analyses revealed that the English ACT score is a better predictor of first-semester college grade point average than the English AP score. Analyses also revealed no statistically significant difference between first-semester college GPAs of rural Appalachian students with English AP credit …

Teachers’ Beliefs About Poverty And The Impact On Learning Disabilities Identification In A Poor, Rural School District, Renee Chandler

The Rural Educator

This qualitative case study examined a rural school district where many of the students live in poverty. The purpose of the study was to develop a deeper understanding of the learning disability (LD) identification process as implemented in a high-poverty rural setting. Analysis of the data revealed the prevalence of some stereotypical beliefs regarding poverty. In addition, the findings revealed use of a traditional, Intelligence Quotient (IQ)-Achievement discrepancy model rather than Response to Intervention (RTI). Furthermore, participants conveyed that their deliberations do not typically include the legally required consideration that other factors (such as poverty) may be the primary reason …

Dominican Joins Coursera For Learning Hubs Project, Sarah Gardner, Dave Albee

Press Releases

Dominican’s decision to participate as a Learning Hub grew from work initiated as part of a planning grant from the New York-based Teagle Foundation. Dominican is leading a consortium of West Coast liberal arts colleges on a project examining how best to integrate innovative technology in education with high-impact educational practices commonly used in small liberal arts colleges and universities.

The Statesman, V. 58, I. 01, Stony Brook University

Stony Brook Statesman-Sucolian

v. 58, i. 01

Law School Training For Licensed 'Legal Technicians'? Implications For The Consumer Market, Elizabeth Chambliss

Faculty Publications

In January 2014, the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education released its report calling, among other things, for limited licensing and the expansion of independent paraprofessional training by law schools. In Washington State, all three law schools are collaborating with community college paralegal programs to design and deliver specialized training for “Limited License Legal Technicians” (LLLTs), who will be licensed to deliver limited family law services beginning in 2015. At least three other states, including California and New York — which together contain nearly twenty-six percent of U.S. lawyers and seventy-six law schools — are actively seeking …