Education Commons^™

Ua3/10/2 A New Year, Wku President's Office - Caboni

WKU Archives Records

Email from WKU president Timothy Caboni to faculty & staff regarding the fall semester.

Career Coaching: A Study Of Veterans Health Administration (Vha) Leaders', Jerelyn Dugas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore and describe the impact of career coaching on the career performance growth and retention as perceived by healthcare’s emerging leaders who participated in selected coaching program institutes for a minimum of 1 year at VHA hospitals in Southern California.

Methodology: The researcher selected a qualitative multiple case study to explore and describe VHA leaders’ perceived impact of coaching on their career performance growth and retention. Further, the researcher conducted semi-structured, interviews with 15 participants to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of the participants at the …

Revelations From A Resident Assistant Mentoring Study: Misalignment On Mentoring, Sherry Early Phd, Britt Frye, Jessica M. Hanna Edd

Sherry Early

What do we really know about mentoring Resident Assistants (RAs)? Does mentoring affect RAs’ leadership efficacies? To address these two research questions we created a successful collaborative research project between Housing and Residence Life (HRL) and Leadership Studies faculty. We wanted to learn more about mentoring encounters/relationships and leadership efficacy (self-efficacy and leadership behaviors). Any successful assessment or research project requires communication and delegation of tasks.

Cultivating Contextual Attributes In The Integration Of Latin@ Educational Leadership, Yuleinys A. Castillo, Suzanne Maniss

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Although the Latino population is growing rapidly in the United States, there is a disproportionate paucity of literature on the perspectives and challenges of Latino/a educational leaders. Culturally aware educational leadership can help to improve retention and student engagement of Latino students. The purpose of this article is to explore the factors influencing the educational experience and perspective of Latino/a students and leaders to expand the understanding of Latinos within the education system. Identifying role models, creating network and professional development opportunities, as well as offering training programs are practices to enhance the training and expertise of Latino educational leaders. …

Investigating The Effectiveness Of A Community Leadership Program Based On The Experiences And Perceptions Of Alumni Participants, Sandi Wolff

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the perceptions of alumni who participated in a civic leadership program (LP) in a large, metropolitan city with over 1.7 million residents in its local community. The program, with a 42 year-long history, had no formal data on its participants, the program, or its efficacy. The research investigated the expectations, experience, and engagement of participants over its 42-year history. To examine these concepts, the study was motivated by three research questions: (1) What is the relationship between the participants’ program satisfaction and the program elements? (2) To what extent did the program meet expectations, based on participant …

The Initial Planning Process Of An International Service-Learning Pilot Initiative Under Development, Denise P. Krohn

Theses & Dissertations

This research explored the initial planning process of an international service-learning (ISL) initiative under development that involved a collaboration among a south-central Texas private university, a ministry of Catholic Sisters in Peru, a U.S. non-profit organization, and a Peruvian optometry school. Three collaborators were founded by the same religious order. An overlapping in mission and values influenced the context. By delving into the expectations of higher education and its pedagogical practices, ISL’s history and conceptualizations, and concepts of program planning and designing related to the fields of ISL and adult learning, this study presented significant program development aspects. Furthermore, the …

Ua3/10/2 Fall Semester Fast Approaching, Wku President's Office - Caboni

WKU Archives Records

Email from WKU president Timothy Caboni to faculty & staff regarding fall semester.

Dragon Ambassador Manual: A Guide For Dragon Ambassadors And Supervisors, Jamie Wepking

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This Action Plan B Project is the creation of the Dragon Ambassador Manual. This comprehensive manual was created to aid in the supervision of the Dragon Ambassadors and to provide information and resources to Dragon Ambassadors as they participate in the student leadership program.

Significant research exists that student leadership programs provide great service to our student leaders, faculty, staff, and campus communities. Implementing this manual to Dragon Ambassador program will allow the involved student leaders to work with prospective students and their peers more effectively while creating meaningful experiences and interactions.

Prospective students of MSU Moorhead will benefit from …

Leadership From The Middle Pays It Forward: An Academic Administrator Of Color’S Career Development Narrative In Postsecondary Education, Cecil Dean Campbell

The Qualitative Report

The ongoing underrepresentation of administrators of color in higher education suggests that traditional career pathways make racial equities in administrative leadership elusive. This personal narrative explores middle-manager educational and career experiences—some often-overlooked aspects of higher education administration. Using leadership and career development theories, I draw on qualitative approaches to examine my own career journey as one academic affairs administrator of color who has experienced a history of career change, lay-off, and non-traditional moves within and across diverse institutions. Through an inductive approach for analyzing data in my career narrative, emergent themes incorporate data references “calling,” citizenship, and cultural change in …

Ua35 Temporary Administrative Assignments, Wku Academic Affairs

WKU Archives Records

Email from WKU Provost David Lee to faculty & staff regarding Academic Affairs administrators.

Experiences Explored Through The Prism: Out Gay And Lesbian Pathways To University Presidency, Patrick Englert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

The profile of university presidents has changed very little in the past twenty-five years, with the majority being white males (Kim & Cook, 2013). The presence of the ‘lavender ceiling’ (Friskopp & Silverstein, 1995) in higher education is evidenced in there being less than one percent of university presidents who openly identify as lesbian and gay (L&G) (Rivard, 2014). Colleges and universities continue to be largely heteronormative and struggle to create safe, supportive, and just campuses; mirroring instead the bias and microaggressions that occur outside the insulated walls of academia (Bazarsky, Morrow, & Javier, 2015; Vaccaro, 2012).

This multi-case qualitative …

Participatory Action Research Examining The Role Of Physical Activity In Mentoring For Resilience, Francesca Gable

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study examined the use of physical activity-based mentorship programs to positively influence student mental health and resilience in post-secondary institutions. The process of relationship building was observed through regularly implemented physical activity interactions over time. The purpose was to determine the ability of a physical activity-based mentorship relationship to positively influence student resilience. A participatory action research methodology was used to engage with a population of ninety undergraduate Kinesiology students (30 mentors:60 protégés) over an eight-month period. Sixty interviews and thirteen focus groups were conducted, and fifteen-hundred pages of journal reflections were consulted to further understand the relationship building …

Understanding Emotion In Educational And Service Organizations Through Semi-Structured Interviews: Some Conceptual And Practical Insights, Izhar Oplatka 9512056

The Qualitative Report

The aim of this paper is to illuminate the challenges, complexities, and strategies of semi-structured interviewing in studies about emotion in educational organizations, in general, and about teacher emotion and emotion in educational leadership, in particular, and, thereby, enable interviewers to make thoughtful decisions concerning planning and implementing future interviews on this sensitive issue. After a short review of the literature on semi-structured interviews, I analyze the distinctive characteristics of the planning phase (e.g., sample, sampling, location) and the implementation phase (e.g., the opening stage, rapport, hazards) in interviewing teachers and educational leaders about their emotion management, emotion regulation and …

Bringing About Community Change, Connie Loden, Sharon Gulick, Norm Walzer

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Community Change Initiative

• A Community Change Network was formed in 2010 to understand ways to help small communities bring about effective change. It incorporates past experiences of mainly university outreach programs with histories of successful outcomes plus a survey of thirty-five programs with documented outcomes.

• CCN held sessions in annual CDS and IACD Conferences in New Orleans, Louisiana, Boise, Idaho, Cincinnati, Ohio, Charleston, South Carolina, Dubuque, Iowa, and Glasgow, Scotland.

• Several special issues of Community Development, Journal of the Community Development Society and articles focused on innovative approaches to change and related topics. Edited volume in the …

Hannah And Her Sisters: Theorizing Gender And Leadership Through The Lens Of Feminist Phenomenology, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D

Education Publications

This article explores how feminist phenomenology can add conceptual richness to gender and leadership theorizing. Although some leadership scholars engage with phenomenological and existential inquiry, feminist phenomenology receives far less attention. By addressing this critical gap in the scholarship, this article illustrates how feminist phenomenology can enrich gender and leadership scholarship. Specifically, by engaging with the work of four women existential phenomenologists - Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young, and Sara Ahmed, the rich diversity of phenomenological inquiry is explored. First, Arendt shows the benefits of conceptualizing leadership as collective action, rather than as concentrated in one person, …

Educating Boys In Jamaica: In Search Of A New Lens, Marcia Sharon-May Chin

Dissertations

The need for innovative solutions to enhance educational outcomes for Jamaican high school male students is evident. For over two decades, national exam results demonstrate that these students have consistently underachieved. Using aqualitative research design, this study explores the possibility of scaling up a student leadership educational model, developed by one U.S. school that has proven successful in educating an inner city minority male student population, to a similarly placed Jamaican high school. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with stakeholders at an all male Jamaican school and with administrators at the Ministry of Education, to understand their perceptions regarding …

Tracing The Change Process: Fostering And Sustaining Student Affairs Cultures Of Assessment, Margaret Leary

Dissertations

Student affairs professionals have long been strong contributors to college student learning and development and supporters of the perspective that holistic postsecondary learning is critical for not only the individual but society as well. With more attention focused on the value of this learning, student affairs has taken steps to foster and establish cultures of assessment by creating positions for individuals to coordinate assessment efforts across the division – a student affairs assessment leader. Most of the literature focusing on student affairs is informed by valuable practitioner experience and can be strengthened by empirical study. This explanatory single case study …

Black Mothers' Counter-Narratives Of Agency: A Pulse On Racism And Parent Involvement Strategies In Twenty First Century Schools, Sharnee N. Brown

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This qualitative study examined African American mothers’ perceptions of their children’s schools (public, charter, and private) within the context of institutional, structural, and individual racism. Employing qualitative techniques, interviews and focus groups of middle to lower working class Black mothers were conducted to explore their lived experiences with individual, institutional, and structural racism within American schools. The goal of this study was to learn how these mothers make meaning of the educational institutions that serve their children, the racial barriers they encountered and the strategies of contestation they employed in order to address these perceived barriers.

The results of the …

A Qualitative Study On The Practice Of Executive Coaching To Improve Leadership Capacity In Academic Deans At American Higher Education Institutions, David Bertrand

Education Policy and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

The history and sociology of faculty career transitions to deanships is an intriguing phenomenon, given that the skill sets of accomplished scholars vary immensely from the duties and responsibilities of academic deans. On top of that, today’s academic deans face particularly challenging leadership dilemmas. Navigating the transition from a scholarly focus to adopt a more team-oriented, managerial approach may prove difficult, especially when personal interests might need to be sacrificed for the unit’s collective gain—an idea not necessarily supported or rewarded in a researcher/scholar paradigm. This exploratory, qualitative study sought to examine if executive coaching is an effective strategy to …

Developing A Study Abroad Program For Student Veterans, Andrea Dame

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

Universities across the nation are seeing an increase in student veterans who are taking advantage of the educational benefits offered for life after the military. These students are non-traditional and come from diverse backgrounds bringing in a unique perspective to higher education institutions (Howard and Brode, 2013). Since 2009, there have been more than 1.7 million Post-9/11 GI Bill users (Department of Veteran Affairs, 2017). This educational benefit has been instrumental in helping veterans and their dependents go to school and obtain a two or four-year degree but there is a 36-month limit to this educational benefit which reduces the …

Creating Meaningful Relationships Between New Members In Fraternity And Sorority Life, Elizabeth Aiello-Coppola

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of this study is to build meaningful relationships with the new members which would strengthen the community within Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) at University of San Diego (USD). My research question is: ‘How can I as a student affairs professional support the development of stronger relationships with new members involved in Fraternity and Sorority Life in building community at USD?’ Through this research, I hope to gain a better understanding of how I can contribute to building stronger relationships between different groups of students at USD. Furthermore, I hope to learn how these strengthened relationships impact building …

Reshaping What Emerges: Empowering Student Employees To Be Authentic, Amber Williams

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my study was to understand who my students are authentically and discover what keeps them from being authentic within the workplace. I focused on culturally minoritized students in the context of professional expectations and intersecting identities. The research questions that guided my study are: How do I help students be authentic in their role as culturally minoritized employees at a multicultural center? What does authenticity look like for the students I work with, and where do they find it most difficult to express their most authentic selves within the United Front Multicultural Center? What interventions and/or practices …

Foster Youth Access To Higher Education, Raul Enciso

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

This exploratory qualitative research paper aims to discover how foster youth are able or unable to access to higher education while enrolled in high school. This paper intends to highlight and explore reasons as to why there is a huge gap from high school to college. It will also serve as a foundation that policy makers may refer to when thinking of coming up with new programming to support foster youth in regards to their education. This research paper will examine different factors that led or misled foster youth from obtaining an post-secondary education. This paper is guided by the …

Promoting Community Through Caring Leadership: An Action Research Project, Hazel Claros

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The overall purpose of this study was to increase collaboration across USD’s decentralized graduate admission departments through the approach of caring leadership (Uusiautti, 2013). The study was guided by the overarching question: How can I use caring leadership (Uusiautti, 2013) within academic affairs to encourage effective collaboration and understanding and foster a sense of community across departments? It was also guided by the sub-questions: Does gender impact the practices of collaboration and exchange of ideas within decentralized admission offices? If so, how does the current culture and structure of USD’s graduate admission offices aid/impede the practice of caring leadership (Uusiautti, …

Ua3/10/2 A Look Back & Forward, Wku President's Office - Caboni

WKU Archives Records

Email from WKU president Timothy Caboni to faculty & staff regarding commencement and strategic planning.

Fostering A Sense Of Belonging: The Asian American Student Experience, Linh Phuong Nguyen

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my research is twofold: to examine the ways that Asian American graduate students within the School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) experience a sense of social belonging at the University of San Diego (USD) and to create a means through which their sense of social belonging may be enhanced. There were two cycles, consisting a total of three focus groups, which worked through the four phases of appreciative inquiry. Cultural themes, such as difficulty approaching authority figures, preference for ethnic subgroup identification, and experiences of marginalization by those from within the Asian American community, other people …

Gender Norms Influence On Student’S Career Goals And Outcomes, Meagan Trudeau

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of this research is to examine women’s understanding of gender norms in relationship to their studies and career aspirations at the University of San Diego (USD). This research provided students with a better understanding of the social constructs that exist in the classroom and workforce, specifically in business related industries. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycles is the method I used to analyze my professional development as a career counselor and educational development as a researcher. Achieving this required the six participants to share stories in regards to their academic and professional experiences in a one-on-one interview. Participants also created …

Building Belonging: The Impact Of Physical Space On Student Sense Of Belonging In Student Leadership, Involvement, And Changemaking At The University Of San Diego, Madeline Kreig

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of this research is to understand how the structure of the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Changemaking (SLIC) space influences students’ sense of belonging. This study uses Mills’ (2000) Dialectic Action Research Spiral in conjunction with surveys, interviews, and focus groups to explore the questions: How does the structure of the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Changemaking space influence undergraduate students’ sense of belonging? Also, how can I, as a student affairs practitioner, enhance students’ sense of belonging in the SLIC?

In the context of this study, sense of belonging refers to the extent that one feels accepted, respected, included, …

Understanding Hidden Diversity: The Third Culture Student Experience At Usd, Bianca Chau

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The intention of this research was to expand the common notion of who international students are. This research uncovered the unique experiences of third culture students at the University of San Diego with the hopes of raising awareness of the existence of this group of students. The term third culture [student] was defined as an individual “who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parent’s culture” (Pollock, Van Reken, & Pollock, 2017, p.23). Third culture students have experienced a highly mobile life; a kind of lifestyle that is unique and unfamiliar to many USD …

Looking At Innovation Dialogically: Teaching Communication And (Social) Change In The Innovation Engineering Program At The University Of Maine, Mark J. Congdon Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Higher education institutions face two concurrent demands: preparing students for the job-market, while also developing informed and engaged citizens (Frey & Palmer, 2014; Gould, 2003). How universities reconcile these demands varies. The Innovation Engineering program (IE) at the University of Maine strives to both, “change the world by enabling innovation” (concern for social issues) and educate entrepreneurs (students) whose innovations reach markets quicker and at a decreased risk (capitalist orientation) (Hall, 2013; Kelly, 2014). The program uses a systems approach to innovation by teaching tools and methods for creating, communicating, and commercializing meaningfully unique ideas. Processes and contexts are important …