Education Commons^™

Rural Student Postsecondary Decision-Making: Navigating Narratives Of The Purpose And Value Of Higher Education, Ashley Renee Leggett-Bradley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The narrative surrounding the purpose and place of higher education has shifted dramatically over the past few decades, despite the persistent perceptions of the necessity of an educated society. With these shifts and conflicting narratives comes the question of how students are influenced by these narratives as they make their postsecondary decisions. This study seeks to illuminate the unique way that rural students receive, understand, and are influenced by these potentially conflicting narratives through a qualitative multi-site case study. All three sites are located within the North Central Appalachian portion of the state of West Virginia, and encompass a range …

The Appalachian Medical Student Experience: A Case Study, Jason Scott Hedrick

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Appalachian region is a rural swath of mountainous terrain home to a historically distinct culture. The region’s population suffers from a multitude of health issues and disparities. Notably, the region also experiences a major healthcare provider shortage despite the fact that states, like West Virginia, produce per capita, a high volume of physicians. Appalachia, and particularly West Virginia, also suffers from a number of educational disparities, which culminates into low numbers of college graduates within the population. There is a plethora of research that has explored the first-generation college student, students from rural and Appalachian backgrounds, first-generation and rural …

The Heritage Leadership Process: Exploring Meaning Making And Social Emotional Competencies In Heritage Interpretation And Education For Sustainability, Lynn Cartmell, Tonia Herndon, Thomas Moffatt, Katy Mike Smaistrla Lampe

Dissertations

This study explores qualities identified as being critical to leadership work in heritage fields as identified by established leaders in heritage work. It also establishes a foundational definition of the term heritage leadership. After reviewing existing data to identify significant questions related to heritage leadership, the research team interviewed leaders in HIn and Education for Sustainability with a specific focus on leadership, meaning making, and social emotional competencies as guiding constructs in heritage leadership. A proposed definition of the term heritage leadership resulted: Heritage leaders aspire to serve others and to create meaningful connections to shared natural and cultural heritage …

The Making Of An Engineer: Examining The Planning Process And Educational Outcomes, Richard L. Raleigh

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations

This quantitative study uses data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002) to examine how aspiration levels of planning (or intention) and action (or choice) affect degree attainment for college students who expressed interest in pursing an engineering degree. Utilizing Social Cognitive Career Theory as derived from Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, I investigated whether students' self-efficacy along with personal aspects of motivation and their aspirations influence educational attainment outcomes. These attributes are indicative of future intentions, and essential in students' persistence to overcome barriers toward completing an engineering degree. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics to compare Aspiring-engineers …

Pre-Service Teachers' Science And Web 2.0 Affect And Aspiration: A Survey Study, Yu Song

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Teachers’ affect and aptitude towards science and technology influence their students through their teaching, other activities, and informal interactions. The study explored and understand Ontario pre-service teachers’ affects toward science and Web 2.0 by designing and validating a questionnaire that includes demographic, usage, and scale questions; and by surveying 134 B.Ed. students. The science part of the survey was validated and analyzed, the Web 2.0 scale items were excluded because of low correlation.

The results indicate that: (1) Pre-service teachers have overall high motivation, high self-efficacy, a positive attitude, and medium aspiration towards science. (2) Science motivation, self-efficacy, attitude, and …

Evaluating High School Biology Modeling Instruction In South Florida: A Comparative Case Study, Feng Li

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation, with a collected papers approach, focused on evaluating the implementation of MI curriculum in high school Biology I classes in south Florida. The dissertation included the development and validation of the Biology Identity and Persistence Survey (BIPS), the connection of instructors’ teaching practices with students’ biology identities, evolution identities, and career aspirations, and the connection of instructors’ teaching practice with students’ conceptual understanding in evolution. In the first part of the dissertation study, the BIPS was validated through expert review and student cognitive interviews for its face and content validity. Confirmatory factor analysis addressed the construct validity of …

The Absence Of Aspiration In The Era Of Accountability, Mary R. Martinez

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Reforms early in the 21st century purported to close the achievement gap between White students and students of color, to provide accountability and transparency to taxpayers, to implement meaningful consequences for low-performing schools, and to create the workforce for the century. In this study, I investigated the effects of school reform on the lived experiences of students who graduated from high school in 2014 by inquiring into six young people’s perceptions of their schooling. I sought to better understand whether participants were aware of the existence and intent of school reforms, and how or whether their aspirations for their futures …

Imagination And Aspiration: Flames Of Possibility For Migrant Background High School Students And Their Parents, Loshini Naidoo

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper aims to show how imagination is an important tool in the formation of aspiration and ethnic capital for young high school students and their parents in the city of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. Through semi-structured focus group interviews with parents teachers and students, the data from the demographic space of the school revealed that despite the limitations in economic capital there was social and cultural capital in migrant families, which provided reinforcement for the realisation of various goals, especially through education and “hard work”. The students from migrant backgrounds had an opportunity to aspire and imagine a …

Recognising Aspiration: The Aime Program's Effectiveness In Inspiring Indigenous Young People's Participation In Schooling And Opportunities For Further Education And Employment, Valerie Harwood, Samantha Mcmahon, Sarah Elizabeth O'Shea, Gawaian Bodkin Andrews, Amy Priestly

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A strong feature of the widening participation agenda is improving the aspirations of groups that are underrepresented in higher education. This paper seeks to reposition the utility of this as a focal point of educational interventions by showcasing the success of a mentoring program that takes a different approach. The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) significantly and positively impacts Australian Indigenous high school students' aspirations to finish school and continue to further study, training or employment. AIME is not read as a classic intervention program for raising aspirations. Instead, AIME builds upon the cultural wealth of participants and adopts an …

Developing Aspiration, Pathways And Access, Sarah Elizabeth O'Shea, Paul A. Chandler

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Keynote presentation made at The 5th Social Inclusion in Higher Education Conference, 2-3 December 2013, Sydney, Australia