Empowerment And Advocacy Culture Within Higher Education For Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Qualitative Case Study, Rachel R. Kovach

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to understand the impact that advocacy and empowerment practices have on the intellectual disabilities community in academic and social constructs for students within community colleges and disability programs on the West Coast of California. The theories that served as the foundation of this study are intergroup contact theory and empowerment theory. Intergroup contact theory assures that the acceptance of societal norms and expectations must be agreed upon and embraced by all within a subpopulation for cultures to adapt and advance. Empowerment theory states that a fundamental goal during moments of progress and struggle …

Power Of A Feminist Identity On Sense Of Self And Purpose, Kerry Diekmann

Adultspan Journal

This study centered on feminist-identified women and the meaning they made from their feminist identity. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis design, eight women were interviewed to understand their lived experience and the influence their social or political identity had on how they experienced and made sense of their world. The overarching finding was that all participants exuded a strong sense of self, which seemed to provide resilience and empower participants to navigate sexism and other injustice. Themes that support this finding include exhibiting confidence and self-advocacy, confronting sexism, and describing a connection between feminist identity and career or activism. Implications …

Democratic Belonging As Informed Citizenry - Empowering Faculty To Empower Learners Via Information Literacy, Anna Santucci, Amanda K. Izenstark, Mary C. Macdonald

Public Services Faculty Presentations

Presentation at the AAC&U 2022 Annual Meeting as a Pre-Meeting Workshop.

Responsible citizens need the agility to navigate a changing information landscape. Intentionally designing learning experiences that integrate accessible Information Literacy (IL) skills for all students is a crucial step towards educational justice, a paramount responsibility in the democratic mission of our institutions. With this goal, the University of Rhode Island’s Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning has partnered with instruction librarians since 2018 in developing and facilitating a High Impact Teaching Seminar for faculty. Participants will learn about the seminar’s theoretical framework, impact and structure, engage in …

Autonomy And Empowerment To Be Creative And Engaged In A Collaborative Culture, Mohamed S. Hanif

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

This document is an Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP). The purpose of the OIP is to address a specific problem of practice (PoP) at a private career college in Ontario (the College). The PoP at the College is the need for instructors to have autonomy and empowerment to be creative and engaged in a collaborative culture. An organizational analysis at the College determined that the present functionalist theoretical organizational framework and its hierarchical structure inhibit collaboration. After a comprehensive review of scholarly literature, this OIP recommends that a postmodernist theoretical organizational framework and a follower-centric approach to leadership using the transformational …

From Sisterhood To The Senate: The Sorority Experience And Preparing Women For Political Leadership, Kelli L. Susemihl

Honors Thesis

Since the founding of the first Greek organizations in colonial America, fraternities and sororities have aimed to provide communities of support and empowerment for their members. Research on outcomes of sorority participation has shown increased social skills, confidence in leadership, and professional networking and connections. Existing literature surrounding women’s underrepresentation in U.S. politics shows that to bridge the political gender gap, more women need to be encouraged to run for office and have prior political socialization and experience. To compare skills acquired from the sorority experience and preparation for political careers, this study conducts a survey of 274 current and …

Qualitative Research And Arts-Based Research: From Experiments To Empowerment, Rama Cousik

The Qualitative Report

This is a review of the book, Empowering Students as Self-Directed Learners of Qualitative Research Methods, edited by Janet C. Richards and Wolff-Michael Roth (2019). Authors of the book include university faculty members and their students who share how they teach and learn to conduct qualitative research. Inclusion of international authors who describe how they use a variety of Arts Based Research methods and specific examples of steps in conducting and reporting qualitative research are some of the strengths of this book. In this review, I will focus on chapters that highlight the strengths of the book and its …

Social-Emotional Learning In Higher Education: A Program Evaluation, Liza D. Johnson

Dissertations

This program evaluation presents an assessment of a three-credit-hour undergraduate Social- Emotional Learning Competencies course in a regionally accredited, private, American, and Christian university. This course focuses on core life skills in the areas of self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and relationship management. The social-emotional learning (SEL) framework used in other educational settings has not yet been applied to a higher education population or setting (Conley, 2015). Due to a lack of pragmatic literature on SEL school-based programming in higher education, this program evaluation addresses a prominent postsecondary curriculum gap and provides a model for institutions to review and consider for adoption. …

Consultants In The Classroom: Pilot Study Assessing Multidisciplinary Center Collaboration, Carl Brown, Ashley B. Rapp, Adrienne Wallace, Jennifer Torreano, Melanie Rabine, Patrick Johnson

Knowledge Market

Communication center clients come in various forms. Many centers work with individuals and groups while some work with entire classrooms, departments, or colleges. Very few centers both partner with other campus consulting services and interact with large units. While a considerable amount of literature focuses on one-on-one consultations and some work focuses on collaboration between similar centers (McCall, Ellis, & Murphy, 2017), little, if any, research deals with these unique partnerships and how they collaborate to serve groups. This article examines how one communication center partnered with two other campus consulting services to create a purposeful and collaborative relationship with …

Entrepreneurship Education Empowers Youth To Change Their Lives, Marianna Brashear, Jason Riddle

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) aims at equipping Title 1 schools with free, hands-on, engaging materials that any teacher can facilitate either individually or in a classroom setting with no background in entrepreneurship necessary. These versatile lessons, courses, and workshops teach the entrepreneurial mindset optimizing opportunities for grades 8-12 students no matter which life/career path they choose.

Supporting Teaching And Learning Transformations Through The National Professional Development Framework: Establishing And Recognising An Inclusive Community Of Practice For All Who Teach In Irish Higher Education., Roisin Donnelly, Theresa Maguire

Articles

The Natonal Forum (NF) for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning has recently completed an inital implementaton of the Natonal Professional Development Framework (PDF) for all who teach in higher educaton. Prior to the publicaton of the PD Framework in 2016, there was no mechanism or route in place natonally to give structure, focus and support to individual staf to avail of relevant professional development and utlise it to realise their full potental in their teaching role. This important work is deepening sectoral understanding of the PDF itself and leading towards natonal recogniton of an individual’s commitment to their professional …

Empowering Students To Perform An Enhanced Role In The Assessment Process: Possibilities And Challenges, Paul Dervan

Articles

Assessment is key to student learning. This paper examines the case for increased participation by higher education students in the assessment process to deepen learning and improve learner motivation. While increased student participation may not solve all problems relating to assessment, a review of the literature dealing with enhancing the role of students in the assessment process, and original research conducted amongst academics and students at the author's institution, suggests improvements can be made leading to increased student satisfaction, motivation and competency. This paper therefore argues for change in the approach to assessment by empowering students to become partners in …

The Empowerment Of Academic Women Leaders At Saudi Universities And Its Relationship To Their Administrative Creativity, Azala M. Al Ghamdi

Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the influence of leaders’ sense of psychological empowerment for women leaders on those leaders’ administrative creativity in both established and emerging universities in Saudi Arabia. The five guiding research questions were used at both established and emerging Saudi universities: (1) what are both male and female leaders’ perceptions of women leaders’ psychological empowerment? (2) What are their perceptions of the administrative creativity among women leaders? (3) How do perceptions of both psychological empowerment and administrative creativity differ between male and female leaders and between established and emerging universities? (4) What other …

A Study Of The Relationships Between Empowerment, Decision-Making Style And Job Satisfaction In Female Middle Managers Within Ontario's University Registrarial Units, Lee Ann C. Mckivor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

An emerging body of literature has sought to explore the role of variables such as decision-making styles and structural empowerment in predicting job satisfaction in various populations and contexts. This study aimed to advance this knowledge by questioning the predictive ability of structural empowerment and decision-making styles in female registrarial middle managers in Ontario universities. It was hypothesized that when female registrarial middle managers feel empowered, dependent on their decision-making style, they experience high job satisfaction.

An online survey tool comprised of the Conditions for Workplace Effectiveness Questionnaire (CWEQ-I), the General Decision-Making Scale (GDMS), and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), …

Case Studies To Enhance Graduate Employability: Indigenous Employment And Supports., Cecily Knight, Shelley Kinash, Linda Crane, Madelaine Judd, Matthew Mclean, Kirsty Mitchell, David Dowling, Ros Schwerdt, Caroline Lovell

Linda Crane

This is one in a series of case studies to enhance graduate employability. The theme of this case study is:

• Indigenous employment and supports

Before putting a spotlight on Indigenous graduate employability, there is a requisite to acknowledge that Australia’s Indigenous population is under-represented in the university system and consequently in the graduate body. Universities Australia (2014) reports: “According to the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, Indigenous people comprise [sic] 2.2 per cent of the overall population, but only 1.4 per cent of student enrolments at university in 2010, including …

Internship Inspires Students To Campaign For Roots Of Peace, Sarah Gardner, Dave Albee

Press Releases

The junior, who is studying marketing in the Barowsky School of Business, is working for Roots of Peace, a San Rafael-based nonprofit founded by Heidi Kuhn in honor of Princess Diana committed to global demining with a goal of bringing economic empowerment to populations living in post-conflict regions. Brooks’ goal is to raise funds and spread awareness of Roots of Peace’s Social Entrepreneurs Challenge along with the Skoll Foundation to help farmers, family and community in Vietnam replace landmines and rebuild their lives.

Portraits Of Women’S Leadership After Participation In A Culturally Based University Tribal College Partnership, Catherine Calvert

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study explores the leadership, change, and empowerment stories of Native American women who participated in a tribal university partnership culturally based higher education program. In light of research identifying a prevailing lack of higher education completion rates for Native American students, my intention is to share the success stories of Native American women who persisted, graduated, and influenced their communities. Narratives of students’ higher education persistence, community leadership, and empowerment are important to inspire future generations of students to first see the possibility of higher education for themselves, and then investigate their options and participate as students. After reviewing …

Social Networking, Learning, And Civic Engagement: New Relationships Between Professors And Students, Public Administrators And Citizens, Angela M. Eikenberry

Public Administration Faculty Publications

Social networking is increasingly ubiquitous, and there is growing demand for professors and public administrators to use social networking to engage with students and citizens in new and more collaborative ways. However, using such tools effectively poses challenges for professors and public administrators. The focus of this paper is to explore the implications of using social networking for learning, professor-student relationships, and civic engagement. Using social networking applications in public affairs classrooms may provide an opportunity for professors to connect with students in new ways to enhance student empowerment and learning and enable students to learn how to more effectively …

Cultural Perspectives On Social Responsibility In Higher Education, Iris M Yob

Higher Learning Research Communications

The writers of the UNESCO document, Rethinking education: Towards a global common good? challenge educators to address their efforts to meet the current threats to sustainable life for all who share this planet. One way that higher education has been attempting to do this is through campus-community partnerships working to solve social problems locally or further afield. In this exploratory study, answers were sought to the question of why faculty members and administrators participate in these service partnerships, both in terms of what motivates them to do so and what they hope to accomplish, and how cultural context may influence …

Strengthening The Academic Department Through Empowerment Of Faculty And Staff, Abour Cherif, Benjamin Ofori-Amoah, Lin Stefurak

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Empowerment of employees has been a primary concern of business for many decades, under the premise that involvement of employees in decision making leads to superior performance and results. Acceptance of the practical value of empowerment by colleges and universities is more recent and more rare, despite the centrality of ideas such as faculty governance and recognition of the faculty’s essential role in the academic enterprise. Empowerment in academe is defined as the process whereby stakeholders are encouraged and supported in utilizing their knowledge, skills, and creativity to embrace ownership and accountability for the well being of their department and …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Empowerment And Organizational Commitment, Gholamreza Jandaghi, Reza Borghei, Hasan Matin, Nasrin Dastani

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

A rapidly changing environment threatens the survival of many organizations. The global economy propelled by booming regional economies, new media and information technology, universal consumer cultures, emerging global standards, and opportunities for corporate cost-sharing, has dramatically changed the environment in which organizations exist today (Ohema,1998,p.17). The survival of many organizations is threatened, in part, by reluctance to adapt to the changing environment. “Ecology evolutionary theory suggests that uncertain, volatile environments will support diverse organizational forms and that the apparent winners will fluctuate from time to time as conditions change” ( Hannan and Freeman, 1989, p.27).