Education Commons^™

Understanding The Pursuit Of Higher Education Among Active-Duty Military Personnel In The Face Of Deployment, Using The Lens Of Schlossberg’S Transition Theory, Marcia Brown

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this research study was to identify gaps in understanding of the specialized educational needs of active-duty military service members enrolled in higher education and to develop new insights that may be helpful to colleges and universities in designing initiatives, strategic plans, and resources to address these needs most effectively. In addition to the many recent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and support missions and operations abroad, U.S. involvement in peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has resulted in significantly increased deployments of active-duty students. In existing literature, the impacts of deployment—specifically, effects of war-zone experiences such as post-traumatic stress …

Strategic Indicators At Assemblies Of God Colleges, Charles Bryan Davis

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify strategic indicators for use at Assemblies of God colleges. Strategic indicators are metrics which synthesize data to report on the current condition and trajectory of an institution in terms of the institution’s ability to pursue its mission. While some indicators are useful to almost all types of institutions of higher education, other indicators reflect the unique mission and goals of the individual institution. These indicators can be used to monitor trends over time at the same institution, or to compare data among a group of peer institutions. Peer institutions compare their …

A Place For Scholarship In Campus Activities Practice: A Collective Case Study, Cindy Kane

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study explores the integration of forms of scholarship in campus activities practice at four institutions in the Northeast. Using a collective case study approach, interviews were conducted with a total of 23 campus activities staff members and six senior student affairs officers at four institutions achieving comprehensive recognition for excellence in campus activities programs from one professional association. Administrators explored Boyer’s (1990) frames of scholarship and shared experiences with the engagement with the four frames of scholarship in their daily work. Findings presented highlight a strong identification between participants and the scholarship of teaching, moderate engagement with application and …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Undocumented Latino Students To Enroll In And Persist At A Four-Year Public Hispanic-Serving Institution In Texas, Angela C. Stuart-Carruthers

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Undocumented students in the United States are trapped in a myriad of completing federal, state, and local laws that impact their lives daily. While approximately 60,000 undocumented students graduate from high school each year, the college going rate for this population is substantially lower than their documented peers. Since President Obama signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order, undocumented students have gained national attention. Despite this new focus on undocumented students few studies have been conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the live experiences of these students.

Framed by Tinto’s (1993) Theory of Student Departure and Latino …

The Impact Of Urbanicity On Student Engagement At Small, Residential, Liberal Arts Colleges, Todd Clark

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study analyzed the impact of urbanicity on student engagement at small, residential, liberal arts colleges. Data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were analyzed from 29 schools (14 rural and 15 urban) using five scalets developed by Pike (2006) and six demographic variables from the NSSE survey. This analysis determined how urbanicity impacts student engagement and which group of students is particularly affected from among the demographics studied. The effects of urbanicity were measured in three ways: aggregate student data, school level data, and within-school data. These analyses showed that urbanicity does significantly impact student engagement, though …

Exploring The Factors That Influence And Motivate Female Students To Enroll And Persist In Collegiate Stem Degree Programs: A Mixed Methods Study, Rosemary L. Edzie

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nationally, the need for an increase in interest, enrollment, and degrees awarded from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs continues to suffer. While students are enrolling in collegiate STEM degree programs, it is not occurring at a rate that meets the workforce demand. In addition to the concern that there is not a sufficient amount of collegiate STEM majors, there is a concern over too few females enrolling and persisting in collegiate STEM degree programs.

This mixed methods sequential exploratory research study considered the factors that influence and motivate undergraduate female students to enroll and persist in collegiate …

The Transition Experience: Understanding The Transition From High School To College For Conditionally-Admitted Students Using The Lens Of Schlossberg’S Transition Theory, Samantha Elizabeth Devilbiss

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Higher education in the United States is both a public good, providing educated, critical-thinking, prepared, and productive citizens; as well as a private good, giving individuals opportunities to improve their financial situation and possibly their statuses in society. In order for these goods to be earned, students need to be retained by colleges and complete their degrees. However, many students, especially conditionally-admitted students, are not retained by colleges and universities. Further, there is a lack of qualitative research on the transitional experiences of conditionally-admitted students as well as a lack of studies utilizing Schlossberg’s transition theory to make sense of …

Exploring The Multiple Dimensions Of Intelligence Identity In High-Achieving Students, Amy A. Holland

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the important elements reported by second-year undergraduates at Midwestern University (MU) as they renegotiated their intelligence identity of being the smart one. The five participants were members of the 2012-2013 first-year cohort of Jumpstart Business Community (JBC). Per inclusion in JBC, the students identified as high-achieving students and/or were classified as accelerated learners in high school. The reconceptualized model of multiple dimensions of identity from Abes, Jones, and McEwen (2007) informed this study in the examination of renegotiation of the intelligence identity.

The main research question of this study was what …

Capturing Awareness: The Perception Of Higher Education At An At-Risk, Urban Middle School, Kristen M. Upp

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study is to understand at-risk, urban middle school students’ perceptions of higher education through the minds of young students from a diverse, inner city schooling background. This study sought to understand barriers preventing students from attending college and the positive contributing factors encouraging them to do so. Written interviews were conducted in an 8^th grade urban middle school in the southern United States.

One hundred five (105) students voluntarily participated in the research study, writing their thoughts pertaining to higher education and their feelings on the topic. The following themes were found: Family Involvement, Financial …

Experiences Of African American College Graduates, Aundria C. Green

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons that African-American alumni from a historically Black university (HBCU) and a predominantly White university (PWI) chose to attend, remain in, and graduate from college. The central research question was how do African Americans describe their college experiences? The secondary research questions were (a) What led the participants to attend college? (b) What led the participants to persist in college? (c) What led the participants to graduate from college? and (d) How was race described by the participants? Thirty-seven African-American graduates from a historically Black university (HBCU) and a predominantly White …

Naspa’S New Professionals Institute: Exploring The Personal And Professional Impact Of A Two-Day, Intensive Professional Development Experience, Ashley Stone

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Professional development experiences, like professional development literature, are vast. While existing professional development literature discussed the needs for and barriers toward professional development as well as the benefits and types of professional development experiences, no research existed about NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education’s (NASPA) New Professionals Institute (NPI), an intensive, two-day leading professional development experience for student affairs professionals who have been in the field for less than five years. Therefore, I conducted a phenomenological qualitative study, which explored the meanings NASPA’s Region IV-West NPI participants made of their two-day professional development experience as well as the personal …

Not Designed With Us In Mind: Exploring The Experiences And Needs Of Adult Learners At A Public Research University, Stephanie N. Meyer

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Adult learners are a rapidly expanding student population, constituting more than 40 percent of college students today (Stokes, 2006). Research on adult learners has historically focused on their experiences within adult-centered institutions where they make up the majority student population. Although older students challenge the status quo of higher education, traditional institutions continue to dismiss their needs in the development of policies and practices. The structure of higher education is historically designed to serve youth and assumptions are often made about students that often overlook the needs, availability, and interests of adult learners. For many adult learners who prefer the …

Making Their Own Way: The Experiences Of Gay Male Students In Stem Fields, Adam R. Smith

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis focuses on the experiences of gay male undergraduate students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. These fields are often thought to be very masculine or hyper-genderized, which could conflict with the dominant culture’s perception of a gay student’s identity. It follows, then, that a hypergenderized environment could have negative effects on those who do not identify strongly with the hegemonic masculine identity that may be present in the classroom.

Using phenomenological principles, students were asked to participate in a series of three interviews, which included two reflective exercises designed to explore their experiences in and …

Validation: Latino Voices In Higher Education, Krista Navarrette

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative study explored Latino men’s experiences in higher education and their capacity to succeed at a Predominately White Institution (PWI) in the Midwest region of the United States. The study focused on six participants as they navigate through college and how they viewed their validation as Latino males in college. The literature review discusses the current state of Latino/a’s in higher education and how they are lacking in the education race in regards to white students. The researcher used Validation Theory to investigate Latino males - deemed the “invisible population”—in order to find new implications for persistence, pursuit, and …

Vietnamese International Student Repatriates: An Exploratory Study, Anh Le

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the experiences of Vietnamese international students who returned to Vietnam after graduation from a U.S. higher education institution (henceforth, the repatriates). Areas to be explored include the transitional period, perceptions of the relevance of the U.S. education to their current life, reflections on their experience in the U.S., and their future plans. The knowledge drawn from this study can serve as useful reference information for current and future recruitment efforts, support services, and courses geared toward Vietnamese international students.

The current study aimed to explore the experiences of the mostly unheard …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Retirement Transition Of K-12 Educational Administrators In The State Of Alabama, Lee A. Hicks

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This phenomenological research study explored the experiences of educational administrators in the transition from their administrative responsibilities into retirement. The study was guided by a grand tour question addressed by three sub-questions. Data collected during the individual interviews with 10 retired educational administrators provided the basic understanding of the issues and lived experiences as they transition into retirement from fulltime employment as educational administrators to retirees from the State of Alabama educational system. An analysis of interview data revealed four themes regarding the perceptions and lived experiences of recently retired K-12 educational administrators from the State of Alabama. These four …