Education Commons^™

The Rural Post-Graduation Plan Development Model: Advancing Student College Choice By Centering Rural Communities, Steve Jenks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

College choice models have been used since the 1980s to try and explain the processes and influences high school students use to decide if and which college to attend after graduation. These models focused solely on college attendance and lacked attention to the nuanced needs and resources found in rural communities. In this three-paper dissertation, a new, rural-centric model is proposed, tested, critiqued, and revised. The first paper proposes a new conceptual model of Rural Post-Graduation Plan Development using a critique and synthesis of prior college choice models, Critical Rural Theory, Funds of Knowledge, and socio-ecological models. The second paper …

Resistencia Indocumentada: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Higher Education Undocumented Students In The San Diego-Tijuana Border Region, Adan Escobedo Sanchez

Dissertations

Undocumented students face myriad obstacles while attending higher education institutions that would deter them from completing their academic journeys. Furthermore, they are placed with a dual narrative that labels them as either dangerous or exceptional. This study explored the lived experiences of undocumented students in college in the San Diego-Tijuana border region to consider what factors have led to resilience and resistance in their academic journey. By understanding these factors, the research aimed to tackle the dual narrative that burdens undocumented students from the illegality as a master status they possess.

This study used narrative inquiry and a literature review …

Creating Systemic Support: Cross-Sector Partnerships As A Catalyst To Institutional Transformation For Southeast Asian Student Support, Brianna Lourdes Edoria Pascua

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper investigates the potential impact of cross-sector partnerships between nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and universities on the educational attainment of Southeast Asian American (SEAA) students, particularly those from disenfranchised or nontraditional backgrounds. Guided by the research question, "Can cross-sector partnerships between NPOs and universities contribute to increased educational attainment among SEAA students?", the study seeks to comprehensively explore SEAA student experiences, challenge the Model Minority Stereotype, enrich SEAA higher educational achievement literature, underline the significance of disaggregated data and cross-sector collaborations, and create an adaptable framework for other communities. By adopting an Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) lens, the research …

“Why You Always So Political?”: A Counterstory About Educational-Environmental Racism At A Predominantly White University, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

Using critical race counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race and space and racism in higher education, I argue that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. Through narrated dialogue, Aurora (a composite character) and I delve into a critical conversation about how educational-environmental racism is experienced by MMAX students through a racialized landscape in the …

Critical Civic Engagement: Creating Yards And Building Community At Predominately White Institutions, Heather Moore Roberson

Journal of Research Initiatives

This article details the journey of a Black Greek professor who created yards on a predominately white campus. This piece of scholarship challenges the historical narrative of the civic engagement movement and considers equity and inclusion with existing civic engagement literature. Specifically, this research contends that civic engagement scholarship must consider the historical legacy of historically Black Greek letter organizations, their commitment to service, and undergraduate education. The construction of “yards” is a civic engagement initiative that builds meaningful connections between college campuses and local communities.

Extra-Institutional Bonded Social Networks: A Qualitative Study On Their Impacts On Adult Learner Entry/Re-Entry, Persistence, And Transfer/Graduation At A Technical And Community College, Matthew J. Leisen

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Adult Learners are no longer a minority population in the higher education landscape in the United States. They enter and re-enter technical and community colleges with a vast array of experiences and are often influenced by their Extra-Institutional Bonded Social Networks (EIBSN) which are identified in this research as: Family, Friends, Work, Community, and Religious/Spiritual. The college student’s academic journey is outlined in three major phases, what are identified in this research as: Entry/Re-Entry, Persistence, and Transfer/Graduation. This study researches the social impacts of the five identified EIBSN at each of the three phases and is underpinned by several theorists’ …

Deconstructing The University: Contemporary Dei, Neoliberal Rationalities, And The Abolition Of The Administrative Apparatus, Jonah Henkle

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

The following chapters attempt to develop some working theories to combat capitalist exploitation and racist and gendered oppression in the university, culminating in a call for the abolition of the university’s administrative apparatus. The project is divided broadly into two parts, which are referential to each other, but maintain slightly different areas of focus. Part 1 details a preliminary critique of the political-economy of the contemporary neoliberal university, drawing influence from Marxian economics and structuralist theories of ideology, critiquing contemporary discourses of diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI). Part 2 focuses more directly on issues pertaining to oppression and difference, maintaining …

A Student Conduct Administrator’S Journey To Wellness, Corie Amanda Marie Mccallum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation research chronicles my experiences with emotions and learning as a student conduct administrator throughout the arduous process of investigating, becoming, and transforming by engaging sociocultural theory. Grounded in Authentic Inquiry (Tobin, 2006), this research centers my lived-experience and nuances the role of emotions in student affairs and especially student conduct practices. Throughout this dissertation I address themes surrounding reflexivity (Bourdieu, 1992), emotions (Turner, 2002) (Collins, 2004), and self-care. Each chapter is interpretive and impressionistic and represents my thinking as a researcher and conduct administrator. Throughout the chapters I narrate salient events and experiences in my student conduct practice …

Reviewing The Interdisciplinarity Of Professors At Colleges And Universities Globally Through A Meta-Analysis Of Current Literature, Carson Babich

Major Papers

The lineage of interdisciplinarity throughout history pushes us towards understanding the need for interdisciplinarity more than ever in a modern climate. Through a meta-analysis of current literature, topics and themes will be discussed to find answers on how interdisciplinarity of professors are present within institutes of higher learning on a global scale; in addition, the implications that can be drawn from interdisciplinarity of higher education professors. This global outlook of research will focus on a continental approach to observing the divergent forms of interdisciplinarity in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania with nineteen different articles across nineteen …

Afro-Brazilian Cosmology As Praxis For Student Affairs, Catarina E. Campbell

The Vermont Connection

In this article, one will find a friendly introduction to several orixás, the archetypal forces of nature in Yoruban and Afro-Brazilian cosmology, in order to explore the applicability of their teachings within the realm of student affairs. With each orixá comes a teaching story, series of reflection questions, and a tangible pedagogical practice. When employed with reverence to their origin and context, these tools can catalyze self-development, sense of purpose, and breadth of perspective for both for our students and ourselves.

"Because It's Free": Interviews Of Successful Tennessee Promise Students On How They Value Their Community College Experience, Susanna C. Miller

Doctoral Dissertations

Tennessee Promise is a tuition-free community college scholarship program for high school graduates that was initiated in Tennessee in 2015. This program is part of the State of Tennessee’s Drive to 55 initiative, the goal of which is to have 55% of the state’s workforce with a post-high school credential by 2025. This qualitative study was designed to learn how students who used TN Promise and graduated between 2015 and 2019 value their community college education experience. The research questions are: 1) What value do TN Promise students place on their education given that it is tuition-free? 2) What are …

The Pragmatist’S Call To Democratic Activism In Higher Education, Eric Thomas Weber

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

This essay defends the Pragmatist’s call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a necessary development of good democratic inquiry. Some criticisms of activism have merit, but I distinguish crass or uncritical activism from judicious activism. I then argue that judicious activism in higher education and in philosophy is not only defensible, but both called for implicitly in the task of democratic education as well as an aspect of what John Dewey has articulated as the supreme intellectual obligation, namely to ensure that inquiry is put to use for the benefit of life.

“I Knew What I Was Going To School For”: A Mixed Methods Examination Of Black College Students’ Racialized Experiences At A Southern Pwi, Kamden K. Strunk, Sherry C. Wang, Andrea L. Beall, Cory E. Dixon, Daniel J. Stabin, Betool Z. Ridha

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Researchers have consistently documented a range of racialized inputs and outcomes in U.S. higher education. Those dynamics appear especially salient, and their consequences especially pronounced in the U.S. region often referred to as the Deep South. This overwhelming body of evidence, including the documented patterns of racial segregation in Deep South higher education, disparate opportunities and advantages, and inequitable outcomes, offers less insight on how Black students make sense of their experiences. This study used explanatory mixed methods to document racialized differences in campus experiences and to understand how Black students made sense of and navigated those racialized experiences. Our …

Higher Education In The Era Of Illusions: Neoliberal Narratives, Capitalistic Realities, And The Need For Critical Praxis, Ali H. Hachem

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

The modern American university is in transition, undergoing major changes to its very structure and function. While few of these changes are reflective of the rhetorical language of economic freedom, liberty, choice, and rights used in promoting the neoliberal state project, many others are clear indications of the re-coronation of a capitalistic oligarchy and the reinstatement of its class supremacy through the exploitation of society. While most of the critical literature in higher education attends to the structural macroscopic effects of the new capitalism, it is the argument in this article that more attention should be paid to the subjective …

Developmental Education Redesign: An Analysis Of Cooling Out In A Community College Mathematics Assessment Preparation Program, Megan Rector

Higher Education: Doctoral Research Projects

Developmental education is a critical issue in higher education, particularly within community colleges. Each year, thousands of students enroll in community colleges, yet many are unprepared for college-level work. These students are often required to enroll in developmental courses before they can enroll in college-level courses, and these courses are often a barrier to student success. In recent years, a number of community college systems across the United States have redesigned their developmental education programs in an attempt to improve student outcomes.

This project examines one such statewide redesign that uses a qualitative case study analysis to apply Burton Clark’s …

Academic Performance, Retention Rates, And Persistence Rates Of First-Year, First-Generation, Latino College Students, Jaime Duran

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this causal-comparative quantitative study was to examine the relationships between the efficacy of a Summer Bridge Academy (SBA) and the impact on students by measuring the Grade Point Averages (GPAs), retention rates, and persistence rates of first-generation, first-year, Latino college students who participated in a SBA at Central Valley Community College against like students who did not participate in same program. The independent variable was participation in a 6 week long SBA, which took place during the summer of 2011. The dependent variables were GPAs, retention rates, and persistence rates, and the control and intervening variables, students …

Navigating Intercultural Space: A Narrative Analysis Of College Student Learning In A Global Village Living-Learning Program, Brendan James O'Farrell

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) has termed our century “The New Global Century” and begun touting the importance of internationalization and global learning outcomes as a necessity in the post-9/11 era. These outcomes suggest students should be immersed in an unprecedented level of intercultural difference and rest on an assumption that student success is contingent upon students’ ability to navigate intercultural difference. Institutions across the country have embraced strategic interventions designed to support intercultural exchange and learning. This study focuses on intercultural learning as it unfolds in one such intervention: the international living-learning program (LLP).

The study …

The Georgia State University Early College Program: A Practice In Student Success Relevance, Tene Davis, Kalisha Woods, Cedrick Dortch, Chloe Jackson

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The session will present specific programmatic strategies implemented within the Georgia State University Early College program that have successfully produced over 600 attendees and graduates of the program since 2007. The session will demonstrate the effective partnership between secondary and post-secondary educational entities that has resulted in a 99% high school graduation and an 87% college attendance rate.

Mid-Term Report, July 2014: Shu Internationalization Task Force, Carrie Wojenski

Carrie Wojenski

The Internationalization Task Force is poised to develop the University’s internationalization plan and support global learning opportunities for its faculty and students.

Catholic Higher Education For The Common Good, Brian Stiltner

Brian Stiltner

This is a lecture in honor of the Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, president of Saint Anselm College, before his retirement. The lecture addresses the challenges facing Catholic higher education. Part One lays out philosopher Martha Nussbaum's view of the crisis of the humanities. Based in her ideas, Part Two examines four challenges facing Catholic higher education. Part Three gives an account of the Catholic philosophy of higher education for the common good, featuring Jacques Maritain’s educational and political philosophy. The Conclusion revisits the challenges in light of Maritain's, and the author's, Catholic philosophy of education.

Catapulting The Walls Of Higher Education, John R. Kilbourne

John R. Kilbourne

As we move further into the twenty-first century administrators and faculty members of colleges and universities must rethink their approach to valuing and sharing the research and scholarship that is created at their respective institutions. The fences and walls must not only be catapulted over, they must be removed. The fences and walls can be removed by valuing research and scholarship when it is presented via the popular press and, by teaching faculty members the steps they can take to move their research and scholarship to a wider audience. Our collective well-being can only be enhanced by such movement.

American Higher Education And The “Collegiate Way Of Living” (美国高等教育和 “学院制生活”), Robert J. O’Hara

Robert J. O’Hara

Institutions of higher education in the United States are remarkably diverse in their educational purposes, their organizational structure, and their architectural styles. But underlying all this diversity are two distinct historical models: the decentralized British “collegiate” model of university education, and the centralized Germanic university model. Early American higher education grew out of the British collegiate tradition and emphasized the comprehensive development of students’ intellect and character, while the Germanic university tradition, introduced in the late 1800s, shifted the focus to technical scholarship and research. The Germanic university model held sway for much of the twentieth century, but there is …

The Human Journey: Embracing The Essential Learning Outcomes, Michelle Loris

English Faculty Publications

At the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, a new vision for college learning is clearly in view. Through its Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has outlined what contemporary college students need to know and be able to do--in ever-changing economic, political, environmental, global, and cross-cultural contexts. The LEAP essential learning outcomes provide a framework to guide student learning in both general education and the major. The LEAP initiative calls upon college administrators and faculty members to give priority to these essential learning outcomes in order to …

Global Learning Through Partnered Inquiry, Rebecca Hovey

Rebecca Hovey

The emergence of Global Learning associated with the internationalization of U.S. higher education signals a convergence of international/global studies and international education with the potential to dramatically innovate and transform the academy. Over the past decade the original aim of international education to foster intercultural understanding has become linked with the aims of international studies to enhance our knowledge of the world, and in particular, the ways in which new knowledge is created through non-western epistemologies and cultural perspectives. This paper seeks to situate the emerging discourse and initiatives around global learning in an understanding of the transformation potential of …

A "História Da Educação" E O Ensino Pós-Secundário Nos Estados Unidos (1840-1910) [The “History Of Education” And Post-Secondary Education In The United States (1840-1910)], Karl M. Lorenz

Karl M Lorenz

A Historia da Educação era uma das matéria mais profícua nos séculos XIX e XX. Este trabalho examina a historia da disciplina nos cursos de formação docente em escolas normais e instituições superiores, e discute a natureza e a transformações de seus conteúdos através do tempo. Relata o desenvolvimento da disciplina nos Estados Unidos desde 1840, ano que marca seu surgimento como disciplina profissionalizante do magistério, até 1910, ano aproximado em que a interpretação dos conteúdos da disciplina assumiu uma orientação mais objetiva. As datas delimitam um período em que Historia da Educação, com seus enfoques diversificados, emergiu como um …

A "História Da Educação" E O Ensino Pós-Secundário Nos Estados Unidos (1840-1910) [The “History Of Education” And Post-Secondary Education In The United States (1840-1910)], Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

A Historia da Educação era uma das matéria mais profícua nos séculos XIX e XX. Este trabalho examina a historia da disciplina nos cursos de formação docente em escolas normais e instituições superiores, e discute a natureza e a transformações de seus conteúdos através do tempo. Relata o desenvolvimento da disciplina nos Estados Unidos desde 1840, ano que marca seu surgimento como disciplina profissionalizante do magistério, até 1910, ano aproximado em que a interpretação dos conteúdos da disciplina assumiu uma orientação mais objetiva. As datas delimitam um período em que Historia da Educação, com seus enfoques diversificados, emergiu como um …