Esta pesquisa se dedica a investigar possíveis contribuições do Projeto Rondon, enquanto atividade de extensão universitária, para pensar a formação política dos estudantes na universidade pública. Refletir sobre o tema tem significativa relevância na atualidade, momento em que o modelo econômico neoliberal demonstra sua força, trazendo consequências que enfraquecem a constituição dos sujeitos políticos, capazes de pensar e contribuir com as questões coletivas que permeiam a esfera pública. Nesse sentido, com aporte teórico de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Hannah Arendt, Antônio Joaquim Severino, José Dias Sobrinho, Enrique Dussel, dentre outros, tensionam-se modelos e práticas de formação universitária voltados à mera profissionalização e aquisição de habilidades técnicas, uma vez que as possibilidades de transformação social embasadas em alternativas contra-hegemônicas precisam valorizar uma formação ampliada, ética e politicamente comprometida. A pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa compreende um estudo de caso sobre o Projeto Rondon, sendo os dados produzidos por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas com estudantes e docentes rondonistas da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul e da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, além de análise de documentos referentes ao Projeto Rondon e à Extensão Universitária. Estes foram trabalhados a partir da análise textual discursiva, que implica a identificação de unidades de sentido, seguida do processo de categorização, que reaproxima as unidades, buscando compor sentidos, e da posterior produção dos metatextos e dos textos interpretativos Os resultados elucidam possíveis contribuições da experiência do Projeto Rondon, enquanto atividade extensionista, para o processo de formação política dos estudantes, tais como a possibilidade de partilhar experiências com a sociedade, oferecendo a ela um retorno das aprendizagens proporcionadas pela universidade, entendida como bem público, a sensibilização para as diferentes realidades e problemáticas sociais, o aprimoramento da dimensão humana e a ampliação da formação acadêmica para além dos aspectos técnicos e profissionais, na medida em que se identifica o potencial interdisciplinar e dialógico da experiência e a possibilidade de relacionar teoria e prática a partir de uma práxis comprometida com a transformação social. Por outro lado, também se percebem fragilidades em relação à valorização da extensão universitária frente às demais funções da universidade, assim como na proposta do Projeto Rondon, como a descontinuidade das ações, a inexistência de um processo de avaliação participativa e o distanciamento entre a coordenação feita pelo Ministério da Defesa e as instituições de ensino, o que compromete o efetivo engajamento destas com o Projeto Rondon enquanto espaço de formação e comprometimento social. Portanto, de modo transitório, sempre inacabado, considera-se que a experiência extensionista do Projeto Rondon apresenta potencialidades e fragilidades para a constituição de sujeitos políticos, críticos, reflexivos e socialmente comprometidos com os processos de emancipação e valorização da dignidade humana. / This research is dedicated to investigating possible contributions of the Rondon Project, while a university extension activity, to think about the political education of students at the public university. To reflect on the topic has significant relevance today, at which time the neoliberal economic model demonstrates its strength, bringing consequences which weaken the constitution of political subjects, able to think and contribute to the collective issues that permeate the public sphere. In this sense, with theoretical support from Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Hannah Arendt, Antônio Joaquim Severino, José Dias Sobrinho, Enrique Dussel, among others, university education models and practices aimed at mere professionalization and acquisition of technical skills are tensed up, as the possibilities of social transformation based on counter-hegemonic alternatives need to value an ethically and politically committed, enlarged training. The qualitative research includes a case study on the Rondon Project and the data produced through semi-structured interviews with students and teachers of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the University of the Santa Catarina State who participated in the project, as well as analysis of documents related to the Rondon Project and to University Extension These were studied from the discursive textual analysis perspective, which implies the identification of meaning units, followed by the categorization process that reconnects the units seeking to build meanings and the subsequent production of metatexts and interpretative texts. The results shed light on possible contributions of the experience of the Rondon Project while an extension activity for the political education process of students, such as the possibility to share experiences with society, offering it a return of the learning provided by the university, understood as a public asset, the awareness of different realities and social issues, the improvement of the human dimension and the expansion of academic education beyond the technical and professional aspects, in that it is identified that there are an interdisciplinary and dialogic potential in the experience and a possibility to link theory to practice from a praxis committed to social transformation. On the other hand, weaknesses are also perceived regarding the appreciation of extension university in relation to other university activities, as well as regarding the proposal of the Rondon Project itself, in face of the discontinuity of the initiatives, the lack of a participatory evaluation process and the gap between the coordination by the Ministry of Defense and the educational institutions, which undermines the effective engagement of these with the Rondon Project as an area of training and social commitment. Therefore, on a transient mode, always unfinished, it is considered that the extension experience of the Rondon Project has strengths and weaknesses on forming subjects that are political, critical, reflective and socially committed to the processes of emancipation and enhancement of human dignity.

The most commonly cited reason for dropping-out of a college program is financial issues (Johnson, Rochkind, Ott, & DuPont, 2009). While some financial issues may be related to access to financial resources, others may be related to how college students respond to financial stress. Boss’ (2002) model of family stress (Figure 1) noted the ability to cope with a crisis is influenced by available resources and perception of an event. This framework suggests the amount of financial distress perceived by young adults is influenced by available resources (e.g., parental support or financial knowledge), and internal (psychological) factors, such as self-esteem and locus of control (Boss, 2002). It is hypothesized that perceived financial well-being (perceived outlook of their financial situation), the level of control students have (e.g., locus of control) and how they perceive themselves (e.g., self-esteem) will influence perceived financial distress (ability to manage finances and education), above and beyond, and financial knowledge. To conduct the analysis, a convenience sample of 612 undergraduate college students from a Southeastern University were surveyed to determine whether their financial knowledge (i.e. credit and debit, savings, taxes, and insurance knowledge), perceived financial well-being, self-esteem and locus of control had an effect on financial distress. The results of a multiple linear regression revealed respondents’ well-being (β = .61, p < .01) and locus of control (β = .18, p < .01) are significant indicators of financial distress among college students. Specifically, for every one point increase in financial well-being, financial stress decreases by .69 points (b = -0.69, p < .01) and for every one point increase in locus of control (suggesting an increase in external locus of control), financial stress increases by .21 points (b = 0.21, p < .01). Furthermore, financial knowledge and self-esteem was not significantly related to financial stress among college students (β = -0.04, p = .11, and β = -0.10, p = .02 respectively). As such, college student’s financial distress is lower when students possess a positive outlook on their financial well-being, have an internal locus of control, and have high self-esteem. Financial knowledge had less influence on financial distress, but this finding may be a product of the level of financial knowledge among college students.

This thesis explores the skill sets of the current American workforce, the skills required in modern, technically advanced U.S. manufacturing facilities, and the multiple approaches postsecondary education has employed to bridge the gap between the two. Millions of dollars are spent each year educating and training the incumbent workforce without any definitive measure of whether the financial investment or effort is actually providing a return. To illustrate, organizations typically require a projected return-on-investment (ROI) before committing funds to a project. However, the same approach does not seem to be applied when investing in human capital for the purpose of improving the technical skills required of the incumbent workforce in manufacturing. Training efforts and effectiveness are typically measured by the amount of training dollars spent and some form of post-training satisfaction survey. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that postsecondary education and workforce development organizations do not have performance metrics that align with manufacturing or industry metrics. The misalignment becomes more evident when trying to determine if the funding is actually paying off once an incumbent worker completes their training and returns to the shop floor. This project sought to determine if a return on training dollars could be quantified and measured so that industry can discern whether training is value-added or if postsecondary training providers should better align their product with customers’ expectations. Experiments were conducted with incumbent production workers to determine if an educational intervention translated to a quantifiable return on an organization’s training investment. Measurements in the time it took to repair a piece of production equipment were taken and compared to post-intervention times for the same activity to determine if hypothesized improvements actually occurred. Data was also collected and analyzed to determine if incumbent workers’ prior maintenance experience had an impact on the reduction of time to repair the production equipment. The experiment illustrated a statistically significant difference in the repair times for those who received the intervention. The second phase of the experiment that sought to determine if prior maintenance experience was beneficial to improving repair times did not support the hypothesized outcome.

This qualitative study was designed to identify factors that might affect the psychological and educational wellness of nontraditional students in nontraditional graduate programs in Education. Specifically, informants were selected purposefully from three Oregon State University extended-campus graduate programs in Education. Student informants were working professionals with family obligations. Faculty informants were selected because of their extensive involvement in the delivery and instruction of these programs. The informants shared their experiences and opinions in focus group and in-depth interviews. The initial focus group interview yielded basic concepts and categories that guided subsequent in-depth interviews with nine students and three faculty members. Transcripts of the in-depth interviews, along with focus group data, were crafted into narrative profiles of the informants. Analysis and comparison of the informants' profiles enabled examination of patterns and commonalities that appeared to be present among their experiences. The following conclusions were generated from the findings: 1. Family support and involvement are foundational factors in the attainment of the degree. 2. Financial implications must be of prime concern in the student's preliminary plans to enroll in a graduate program. 3. Wellness, both psychological and physical, can be significantly impacted by preoccupation with the academic demands of the program. 4. Time management is basic to successfully balancing family and career responsibilities and the institutional demands of higher education. 5. Workplace support and the field application of course work are critical elements in maintaining career momentum while undertaking a meaningful learning experience. 6. Institutional and program requirements must be clearly understood by the student at the time of admission. 7. The program coordinator and the student's major professor are the main agents for institutional interface and outcome attainment. 8. Flexibility is required on the part of all stakeholders in these programs. This is especially important in three areas: (a) scheduling, (b) delivery, and (c) curriculum and instruction. 9. The cohort model provides a "second family" that is generally the best coping mechanism within the program. This study has implications for all stakeholders in nontraditional higher education: administrators, faculty, students, and employers. / Graduation date: 1998

This study addressed the controversy among academics in conventional universities over the credibility of distance education for degree credit. Faculty scepticism has slowed the development and expansion of distance education despite increased demands for it. Distance education is an educational method in which the teacher and learners are separated in time and space for the majority, if not all, of the teaching-learning process; two-way communication occurs primarily via print, postal service, and telecommunications (Keegan, 1990). There is little empirical evidence about the reasons for the antagonism between the supporters and opponents of distance education. The purpose of this research was to explain why some faculty support distance education while others do not. Support was defined as how faculty would speak about and vote for proposals to offer distance education courses for degree credit. The conceptual framework drew on studies of faculty attitudes towards university expansion and distance education, and literature on academic culture and change. An interpretive perspective and qualitative methods dominated the two-phase study. First, a mailed survey (n=487) investigated the extent of faculty familiarity with and support for distance education. Then faculty (n=50) were interviewed from three categories of support for distance education identified by the survey: supportive, divided support, and opposed. The interviews explored how faculty understood the compatibility and feasibility of distance education. Compatibility was defined as the congruence of distance education with faculty beliefs and values about the accessibility and quality of university education. Feasibility was the perceived ability to successfully implement distance education. In general, faculty were not very familiar with or supportive of distance education, except for undergraduate courses. There was very little support for a graduate program by distance education. There were significant differences in faculty support by discipline and gender. The reasons for variations in faculty support for distance education are best explained by the concept of compatibility. Faculty supported distance education if it was congruent with their beliefs and values about university education in general. Faculty thought about distance education as promoting social justice, as an educational method, or as the distribution of information. Faculty who were supportive held the beliefs and values Trow (1973) associated with mass education while those who were opposed tended to believe in an elite approach to university education. There was a substantial divided group who were in a conflict about the priority that should be given to the major values involved, the accessibility and quality of university education. The study contributes to the development of theory about different conceptions of university and distance education and provides insight into the study of disciplinary cultures. It presents a revised conceptual framework for further research on the topic. The results have implications for educational planning and for the development of distance education.

This thesis considers the teaching of English literature within extramural organisations for adults in England between 1885 and 1910. This challenges the assumption that the beginnings of English as a tertiary-level academic subject can be traced back only as far as the foundation of the Oxford English School at the end of the nineteenth century; in fact extramural English courses had been flourishing for decades before this, and these reached their zenith in the final years before it was introduced at Oxbridge. Oxford created an Honours School of English in 1894, and the Cambridge English Tripos was established in 1917; in ideological terms, such developments were of course crucial, yet it has too often been the case that the extramural literary teaching being conducted contemporaneously has been sidelined in studies of the period. My first chapter will consider the development of English in various institutional and non-institutional environments before 1885, including Edinburgh University, Dissenting Academies, and Mechanics’ Institutes. Thereafter I will explore the campaign, led by University Extension lecturer John Churton Collins, to incorporate English literature as an honours degree at Oxford. Focusing on the period between 1885 and 1891, this second chapter will assess the veracity of some of Collins’s most vehement claims regarding the apparently low critical and pedagogical standards in existence at the time, which he felt could only be improved if Oxford would agree to institutionalise the subject, and thereby raise the standard of teaching more generally. Collins’s campaign enjoyed more success when he drew attention to the scholarly teaching available within the University Extension Movement; my third chapter is underpinned by research and analysis of previously unexplored material at the archives of London University, such as syllabuses, examination papers, and lecturers’ reports. I examine the way in which English literature, the most popular subject among Extension students, was actually being taught outside the universities while still excluded from Oxbridge. Thereafter my penultimate chapter focuses on an extramural reading group formed by Cambridge Extension lecturer Richard G. Moulton. This section considers Moulton’s formulation of an innovative mode of literary interpretation, tailored specifically to suit the abilities of extramural students, and which also lent itself particularly to the study of novels. Uncollected T. P.’s Weekly articles written by Arnold Bennett highlight the emphasis that he placed on pleasure, rather than scholarship. My final chapter considers Bennett’s self-imposed demarcation from the more serious extramural pedagogues of literature, such as Collins and Moulton, and his extraordinary impact on Edwardian reading habits. A brief coda will compare the findings of the 1921 “Newbolt Report” with my own assessment of fin-de-siècle extramural education.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Agricultural Information Science and Education. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-163). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-163). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.