<p> The purpose of the study was to examine the role of a middle college as a viable educational alternative to the traditional school environment and as one that supported student transition from high school into post-secondary education. Middle college is a unique transitional program in which students can participate in high school and college courses, typically on a college campus (Middle College National Consortium (MCNC), 2014a). Student participants usually experience more student support services, and practical, real-world education (Lieberman, 2004). The study consisted of a mixed-methods design, with five total research questions, and included participant data from the target years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. The qualitative component included a focus group discussion with seven former student graduates of MMC. The quantitative research included a t-test analysis of four student factors: pre- and post-MMC intervention attendance, pre- and post-MMC intervention high school grade point averages, student participant dropout rate compared with state-wide data, and subsequent college enrollment at the target site institution. Despite the growth of transitional programs like middle college, limited research exists on the effectiveness of transitional programs (Adelman, 2006; Rodr&iacute;guez, Hughes, &amp; Belfield, 2012). It is imperative formal evaluations and research be done to document the benefits of these programs. In doing so, this study may be able to document the value of MMC being studied as well as guide the direction of future middle college programs.</p>

<p> Political advocacy is comprised of speaking on the behalf of a cause or participating as part of a political action group (Weerts, Cabrera, &amp; Sanford, 2010). Because state financial support for public higher education has not been maintained at previous levels, higher education (HE) institutions have been recruiting alumni in an attempt to win state appropriations. As discovered by Avery (2012), very little research exists on the role of alumni associations in political advocacy efforts. In this study, a quantitative research approach was conducted to gather data on D1 public college and university alumni associations. The instrument utilized in this study was an online survey. Executive directors of alumni associations were invited to partake in the political advocacy survey over a 30-day period. The majority of alumni association executive directors reported their alumni association played a minor role in political advocacy. The largest group of alumni directors stated their associations had been politically active for more than 20 years. The most used tactic in political advocacy efforts was email. The least used tactic was to organize and hold public demonstrations. Data were collected for alumni associations nationwide and were compared by region of the country where each alumni association primarily operated. A majority of alumni directors said they did not collaborate with other colleges and universities. Even fewer alumni directors admitted collaborating with non-profit organizations or corporations. Alumni directors were asked to rate their level of support from the two major political parties in state legislatures. Ratings were assigned for political parties, HE committee members, and party leaders. Overall, Democrats and Republicans were rated somewhat similar except in the descriptive options of very supportive and unsupportive.</p>

<p> Many colleges and universities have expanded their mission to include adult learners. Programs range from scheduling traditional courses in the evening to designing new programs tailored to meet the needs of working adults. Program designers have relied on theorists such, as Mezirow (1991), Houle (1996), and Knowles, Holton, and Swanson (1998), to develop programs that apply adult learning theory. Lindenwood College, now Lindenwood University, established The Lindenwood College for Individualized Education (LCIE) in 1975 to serve adult students in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The program has evolved over the course of 40 years, and this program evaluation evaluated the program effectiveness in its current delivery format.</p><p> This program evaluation employed a mixed-method design to answer one main research question and two sub-questions. The main research question asked, How does LCIE, in its current incarnation, address the ideals of adult learning theory, the needs of busy contemporary adult students, and the requirements of the accrediting agency? Sub-question #1 asked, How have LCIE learning processes evolved since 1975? Sub-question #2 asked, Is there congruency between LCIE mission and practice?</p><p> The outcome measurement data was gathered through a comparison of pre-test and post-test data collected by the university to assess critical thinking skills of entering and graduating students. The university employed the ETS Proficiency Profile, and a sample of 30 students was extracted from that data set for comparison for this study. The findings showed that the differences between pre-test and post-test scores were not significant.</p><p> The process measurement data was gathered through interviews with volunteer faculty (3) and students (9) from the program. A series of interview questions was posed, and the responses coded to identify three emerging themes. The three themes were general satisfaction, the importance of job preparation and career mobility, and program rigor.</p><p> The program evaluation found that LCIE is currently applying adult learning theory and there is congruency between the program mission statement and the program practice. The answer to sub-question 1 concerning the changes in the program was inconclusive as the students had not experienced the changes and therefore felt unqualified to comment.</p>

The context of the work of universities, in Cameroon is one of high levels of poverty, scarcities and uncertain and fragile economies. Yet, the actual and potential role of universities in such a context, in relation to its civic responsibilities, remains unclear. The research offers a case study of one particular university, in a predominantly rural area of the country; and using qualitative enquiry methods, it engaged, dialogically, with diverse samples of people living in the area, and those working in the university. The aim was to build a systematic understanding of how people construct the existing and potential role of the university, and what might be required to meet their aspirations and desires in more developed and dialogical ways. Based on interviews, focus groups, observations and documents reviewed, specific methodologies by which the university’s contribution to community development can be enhanced, with particular emphasis on community-based service learning, but also community-based research and community-based adult education was to be articulated. This research found that although the community has priority needs, and the university’s engagement can fundamentally be a force for community transformation, it seldom consist of objectives and processes aimed at addressing these needs due to lack of interconnections within the university and between the university and the local community. This thesis therefore argues that by complementing the university’s engagement activities in the community with interconnections with the community but also within the university, uneven power relations and communication gaps existing within the university and between the university and different segments of the local community which had hitherto limited the university’s engagement from addressing local needs can be mitigated. It also maintains that through commitment to engagement and embracing a collaborative form; broadening participation; adopting relevant channels to ascertain community ideas and needs; operating accessible community centres; researching local concerns such as water supply, agricultural systems and electricity generation and customising educational programmes to demonstrate local and global relevance, the interconnected university can be epitomised. Furthermore, through interconnections within its community, as well as with the wider community and its concerns, the university can be seen not only as an agent of community development but also fostering mutually beneficial engagement.

Since the onset of Welsh devolution, the higher education (HE) sector in Wales has experienced a number of policy-led developments. One of these developments includes the strategic expansion of HE-level, Welsh-medium provision across Wales’ HE institutions. This development is being spearheaded by a new language promotion and planning agency, Y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (the Coleg). If the Coleg implements this development successfully, then this development can play an important role in ensuring the lasting vibrancy of the Welsh language and the long-term success of the Welsh Government’s Welsh language and Welsh-medium education strategies. This thesis presents the results of an investigation into the Coleg and its language planning role. Because of the Coleg’s age, it is too early to evaluate whether it can successfully implement its language planning aims in toto. Instead, this investigation has evaluated the ways in which the Coleg’s leadership approach the challenges associated with Welsh language provision planning at the HE-level, and whether these collective patterns of response are conducive to effective language planning. The result of the investigation appears to be the first known organisational and leadership analysis of the Coleg. The Coleg is comprised primarily of university-based academics who have taken on a number of different leadership roles both within the Coleg and within the universities in order to ensure that Welsh-medium higher education can be developed. This thesis provides an analysis of these academic leaders’ organisational structure and their collective response to the challenges associated with the development of Welsh-medium higher education. This analysis can be used as a basis for future research into the Coleg, Welsh-medium higher education, and Welsh Government language planning. In addition, the thesis concludes with a list of recommendations that are intended to enhance these academics’ leadership by highlighting areas of strength and identifying opportunities for growth.

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of a cohort of first year undergraduate students embarking on their undergraduate degree in Applied Education Studies in order to identify any strategies that might be seen to support them in learning mathematics. The research stemmed from an initial tracking of first year undergraduate students over a period of four years prior to the start of this research, whereby the mathematics education units were identified as the ones that they were most anxious about. As the majority of the students on the degree course worked with children as unqualified teachers or teaching assistants, and many planned to go on and train as teachers, I wanted to explore the possibility that there may be strategies to support them in becoming more confident in learning mathematics. Concerns linked to adults passing on their anxieties to children they work with was an issue that I was aware of (Hembree 1990; Haylock, 2010) and I wanted to support the students with the aim of avoiding this outcome. The study tracked a cohort of 75 first year undergraduate students through their first year of study and data was collected via audits, questionnaires and focus group discussions. Students identified that there were three key themes affecting them in learning mathematics: the role of the teacher, their personal perceptions and working with others. However, the overriding factors that were identified by the students in affecting their ability to learn mathematics were the effect of the teacher and the teaching strategies used. As a result of this, seven strategies for supporting adults in learning mathematics have been identified for further consideration.

The aim of this thesis has been to explore the implementations, impacts and experiences of Personal Development Planning at a single UK university. Combining an illuminative evaluation mixed methodology (Partlett & Hamilton 1972) with a Sartrean existential model of identity formation, the study has sought to examine both the systematization of PDP within a range of disciplinary cases and the ways in which student beliefs, attitudes and motivations have impacted on the ability of those systems to drive personal development as a product of each particular learning context. Traditionally, PDP research has focused on the systems into which the innovation has been integrated, the individual student often a secondary concern to the motivations and practices underpinning the creation of the system in question. Research that locates the individual student at the centre of the PDP process has therefore been scarce, and the application of a Sartrean philosophical ground in this instance may therefore be seen as a response to this particular viewpoint, focusing as it does on individuals as fundamental drivers of their own personal development. Here, identity is formed within a political, and often paradoxical, negotiation between ‘self’ and ‘other’, with each party, or parties, demanding different responses from the other, or others. Where these demands of each other exist in conflict so development is framed within the ability to resist or comply with external pressures to develop in particular directions; be those socio‐economic, professional or personal. Drawing on Sartre’s position of student‐as‐motivated‐individual, an idiographic focus subsequently highlighted the role of congruence within student and lecturer attitudes and actions. For lecturers, decisions on how they would engage with PDP often appeared dependant on how they saw the discipline they were working in and their role within it. Consequently, what lecturers often expected from their students could be seen as a mirror of how they viewed themselves. In contradiction to authors such as Bernstein (1996) and Clegg & Bradley (2006a) staff attitudes to PDP were not constrained by discipline or professional category in a generalized sense, but were determined by individual perceptions of those categories by their members. With each variation in understanding came different attitudes to assessment, practice and tutorial support, where significantly PDP was most commonly located. Each member of staff could on some level be seen to be defending their own perceptions and identities, projecting their own image out to their group as an exemplar. This was a position that was also commonly reflected in the attitudes of staff members to the motivations of government, and the sector, to impose PDP on pedagogic practice. For the student, entering university with a particular identity based on a milieu of past experiences and expectations, and working towards particular personal ambitions, their willingness to adapt appeared equally reliant on the levels of congruence that existed between ‘self’ as learner and members of staff as exemplars. Where contact between the two parties was minimal then students in this study often appeared to be working around the system in a way that offered them the least challenge. Inevitably, the levels of compliance appeared linked to the degrees of congruence between the many parties involved, both educationally and socially, and the allowance within the PDP system to either comply or ignore the preferred states being offered them. As with staff members, students within this study appeared prone to act defensively in order to maintain their existing sense of ‘self’.

Headteacher supply is of critical concern to policy makers and Governing Bodies in England as many schools continue to experience difficulties in recruiting school leaders despite succession planning and school organisation strategies at national and local level. Church of England schools appear to experience greater difficulties in recruitment and a lack of focus on leaders of Anglican schools in the empirical literature has resulted in little being known about the nature of Anglican school headship and why headteachers of this category of schools leave. This study focused on the scale and nature of headteacher departure of headteachers leaving Church of England primary schools in England during one academic year, examining the influences leading to headteachers' decisions to leave a post and exploring what might have persuaded headteachers to remain in post as Anglican school headteachers. In employing a sequential explanatory qualitative dominant mixed methods design, the study utilised data from two postal surveys and a number of semi-structured interviews with headteachers and Chairs of Governors in a complementary and negotiated manner. An inductive thematic analytical approach allowed a focus on the experiences and voices of headteachers which are heard through the conceptual framework of Wenger's theory of communities of practice. The haemorrhage of headteachers leaving Anglican school headship includes a group of headteachers not currently recognised in the discourse about headteacher supply: headteachers choosing to leave headship altogether and Anglican school headship in particular. Many headteachers leaving headship altogether are leaving with few or no plans and with no intention to return to headship at a later date. Of those headteachers leaving for a substantive headship many are electing to move to a non-Anglican school. Some of these are leaving with no intention of returning to headship of an Anglican school in a future career move. Headteachers experience dis-identification with members and/or the practice of four communities of practice (Professional, Nurture, Family, and Spiritual) as they negotiate meaning for themselves through relationships, mutuality of engagement, imagination, alignment and participation. This thesis argues that there are substantive issues associated with Anglican headship which influence headteacher departure. Anglican headship has a historical dimension which intersects with public and personal dimensions of headship in particular ways which reflect historical aspects of Christianity and Anglicanism, the history of Anglican schools in England and individuals' own faith perspectives. Five expectations coalesce in the experiences of headteachers as members of the spiritual community of practice which present challenges as headteachers negotiate meaning for themselves in their own identity work. The expectations can lead to 'dis-ease' and dis-identification with members and/or the practice of the spiritual community. It is this 'lack of fit' which can lead to a decision to leave an Anglican school, headship per se and Anglican school headship in particular. Personal faith can be a powerful influence in the lives of some headteachers and this study also concludes that experiencing a calling from God can influence headteacher departure. The thesis concludes with implications for policy and practice which would enable schools to reduce the haemorrhage of experience and expertise from Church of England schools.

In recent years the development of new marine colleges across the world has seen the growth of overseas collaborative partnerships in marine education. In the UK these partnerships have been mainly between UK and Indian marine colleges. These partnerships have brought a new and different type of overseas learner to the UK FE/HE market. The learners are often much younger than those who previously came to the UK for marine training, have their fees paid by their parents or a sponsoring employer and have little or no experience of working at sea. They therefore bring a different set of requirements, expectations and skills to the UK than have been traditionally encountered in marine education. The academic success of these students is often achieved only after re-sits and remedial work which presents the students and the college with additional stress and expense. The overall aim of this research was to find ways to improve the learning experience of the Indian collaborative students and to produce a strategy which would benefit both the students and the participating colleges. To increase the breadth and depth of this research a multi-method research strategy was adopted. Firstly, an investigation into the preferred ways of learning, (“learning styles”) of the overseas students was undertaken. A questionnaire about learning styles was undertaken with 270 students from 16 groups of marine engineering students from both the UK and India. Learning style theories look at how students prefer to learn and how this knowledge should be used to influence the teaching methods used in the classroom. The use of learning styles questionnaires presented an insight into some significant differences in the preferred methods of learning between overseas and UK students. Secondly, to triangulate the findings from the above survey an investigation into “best practice” in UK-India collaborative programmes was conducted. This was based on a review of personal audit visits undertaken with collaborative partners and a review of published reports by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). The summary of best practices derived from this review, in addition to educational matters, included administrative matters such as risk assessment, marketing, visit planning, and visit reports. From the review of educational matters, a model of the key factors in the educational experience of the student in UK- India collaborative education was developed. The model highlighted where the strengths and weaknesses of the current educational experience of the student lay. The knowledge gained from this work on learning styles and “best practice” was combined to produce a strategy for enhancing the learning experience of Indian Marine Engineering Students. This strategy was disseminated at an International Maritime Research Conference in Chennai, India in January 2010. In addition to being published in the Conference papers, it was also published in New Delhi, (Business Archives, Vol.-1, No II) India in November 2010.

<p> First-generation, low-income, and disabled college students are an increasing population (Tinto, 2012). TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) is an academic support program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that seeks to support this demographic to overcome challenges and thrive while in college (Coffman, 2011). Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the goal of this study was to examine the student success outcomes of retention and grade point average of TRIO SSS students compared to students who are similarly qualified but not being served by TRIO SSS at a Midwestern, large, public, four-year institution. In addition, TRIO SSS seniors were interviewed during focus groups. During focus groups, students reflected on their overall programmatic experiences in TRIO. A total of 1,913 students were involved in the quantitative analysis, and 16 TRIO seniors participated in the focus groups. Data analysis resulted in the emergence of four major themes: (a) relationships, (b) loyalty, (c) trust, and (d) transformation. These findings were consistent with other studies conducted within the scope of Tinto&rsquo;s (2012) theory of student retention. All of the interview participants identified a profound and personal emotional connection to their time in TRIO SSS. This study was significant due to the lack of previous research that couples the experiences of students with quantitative data. Implications for practice included, but were not limited to, stronger support for first-generation students through a range of campus partnerships and initiatives. Recommendations for future research included expanding this study by examining TRIO programs at other institutions and gathering perceptions of first-generation students through multiple focus groups.</p>