This qualitative study explored how people in rural Nepal understand and make meaning of development, Bikas, at the local level. In Nepal, the terms "development," Bikas, and "modernization," Adhunikaran, are often used interchangeably. At the community level, the experience of change is how most people describe their perception of development. Open ended in-depth interviews and participant observations were the primary methods used. The research questions engaged the participants in reflecting about past and present experiences with development in their community, especially in how they have observed their quality of life change. Additionally, the members of the Mothers Group, Ama Toli, were also interviewed. The members were interviewed for two reasons, (1) to better understand the role of women and their experiences with development and (2) to develop a case study to understand how community based organizations can be agents of change. The findings showed that local people have recognized that development does not necessarily mean good changes for everyone. The rich narratives provided a glimpse into how different generations and gender experience development. These findings have major implications for sustainable development in rural communities. How individuals or groups of individual experience development will have an impact on how they participate, support or resist future initiatives. Additionally, what each group believes the gains and losses to be is important for those working as change agents. The study raises to the surface the experiences and views of those whose views and opinions are generally not included even though they are the supposed recipients of development. The development discourse focuses on the critical need for sustainability. This study affirms that for development to be sustainable all members of the community must have a voice and role in determining the community's course of change/development.

In this dissertation, I explore a different concept in program evaluation. There is little literature on using evaluation research as a tool for social justice. The Oppression Evaluation Approach I am introducing is about an alternative method in conducting program evaluation under dominant political conditions, simply dealing with the ethical question: whose side are the evaluators on? The study is based on the experiences of environmental activists in Sudan who have worked under oppressive environments for decades, and how this reflected on the microenvironment of projects run by authoritative managements. The purpose of this study was: (1) To critically review the concept of educational evaluation, with a focus on areas that are not usually tackled, e.g., evaluation abuse. I introduce a number of illegitimate purposes for doing program evaluations in addition to the ones cited in the U.S.A evaluation literature. I also highlight major contemporary models and approaches, which have emerged during the past three decades. (2) To introduce a new approach or model, tentatively called Oppression Evaluation, to develop its theoretical framework based on my experience with evaluation projects in the Third World. I accomplished this and introduced the distinct characteristics of this approach (pre-starting conditions, evaluators' role, covert agenda, power relationships, type of data, risk factors, etc.). This was a major achievement of this research. (3) To explore similarities and differences of this approach in two environmental social justice projects in Sudan and Massachusetts, using a comparative case study design. The key findings were similar methods used in both cases, even with different political environments, due to the shared environmental vision by the two organizations. The adopted methodology in this research was qualitative, focusing on detailed descriptions of the two case studies. I relied on my role in the Sudanese case on reviewing its literature and documents, and introducing a distinguished data gathering technique that is used among left movement in Sudan, and called “Zameel Network.” In the second case, I gathered data via email, media documentation, in-depth interviews, direct and participant-observation, and photography.

This study describes and analyses a collaborative research process used to initiate inquiry and change in a health system in a First Nation, Aboriginal community in Canada. As background, the author reviews issues in transferring government health programs to local control, describes traditional and government health systems in the Split Lake Cree First Nation community and grounds the rationale for the research approach in the traditions of action research and participatory research. The case presentation covers the first year and a half of participatory education and collaborative research activities. Initially it deals with the formation and development of a community research group, with the author serving as co-operating external researcher and training resource. This represents the first instance in Canada of an Aboriginal group doing its own study in preparation for taking over and transforming its health system rather than employing an external consultant to do the study. Specific activities include the preparation of a proposal for funding a study to help with the transfer and the initial design and field work on a study of traditional health practices and resources in the community. The account is based on audio recordings and transcriptions of fourteen meetings, each two to three days in length. In the meetings, the efforts, constraints, interactions, training and skill development of the research group as well as its analysis of systems and reflections on its own process are documented. The author intersperses his own observations in italics. In conclusion, the author reflects on issues arising out of this innovative experiment and on insights it offers for specific problems in collaborative research. Finally, there are recommendations for the use of such an approach as a means for community empowerment and control over change in local health systems.

This study reports on the results of a research project designed to explore the everyday life experiences of women who work as popular educators. Popular education is defined as education that seeks to promote change; is based on dialogue; begins with an examination of people's everyday experience; employs a highly participatory methodology; and promotes action and reflection. By examining the experiences of women who work as popular educators, this study seeks to understand how women have come to understand themselves as actors in the world and their reflections on education as part of a process of radical social change. Two primary questions framed the research: (1) who are the women who choose to work as popular educators and (2) what has been the nature of their everyday experience. The study examines common themes that emerged from the interviews, and draws out implications so that all practitioners of popular education may reflect on the potential for a gendered analysis of their work. The study was undertaken by conducting phenomenological interviews with an international sampling of ten women who have substantial experience working as popular educators. The information gathered from these interviews is "represented" here in four ways. Autobiographical profiles introduce the participants and provide contextual data on the range of their experience and background. Five selected work profiles are then presented for the purpose of focusing in on everyday practice and experience. With this information as background, the study then examines five themes that emerged from the interview data: identity; social and political activism; participation and organization; power; and resistance and independence. The women's voices are then brought forward once more in a final section entitled reflections. The final chapter of the study looks at the implications of the knowledge brought forward from the women's voices, and posits some initial thinking regarding gender issues in popular education, as well as the potential for further research and study.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of change in corporate colleges between 1985 and 1989 and to examine the evolution of these institutions to structures and programs which more closely resemble traditional institutions of higher education. A random sample of three institutions was selected for analysis from the first of corporate colleges identified in the Carnegie Study, Corporate Classrooms: The Learning Business, conducted in 1985.;Data collection instruments were sent to 17 of the institutions identified in the Carnegie Study. of the institutions contacted, 11 responded which represented a return rate of 64.7 percent. All of the institutions, including non-respondents, were contacted by phone for the information or to clarify and refine data. A case study approach was applied as a methodology to analyze and compare the institutions. In order to determine if these institutions were becoming more like traditional institutions, a degree from one of the 18 institutions was compared with one offered in a traditional postsecondary institution.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the claim that nursing students in nontraditional curricula achieve program outcomes consistent with nursing students in traditional generic curricula. Clinical decision making and clinical judgment are essential components of critical thinking in nursing. Self-perception as a decision-maker was measured by the Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale (CDMNS) and clinical judgment was measured by the Clinical Judgment in Nursing Series #1: Emergencies in Adult Client Care Test (CJS:EACC).;Participants were recruited from three regional universities. One curricular group consisted of a generic (traditional) BSN group. One nontraditional curricular design was RN-BSN Completion programs designed for RN's to return for degree completion. The second nontraditional curricular group represented an Accelerated BSN program designed for adult learners with a previous baccalaureate degree to achieve a career change to nursing.;No significant outcome differences in self-perception as a clinical decision-maker as measured by mean scores on the CDMNS or in the decision making process as measured by subscale scores on the CDMNS were found between Traditional and nontraditional student groups. The hypotheses that there would be no differences in either self-perception as a decision maker or the decision making process were supported.;A significant difference was found between group scores related to clinical judgment as measured by the CJS:EACC. The nontraditional curricular groups, primarily adult learners, achieved higher scores than the generic group. The attributes of age, work experience, self-directedness, and readiness to learn may have influenced the adult learner's ability to achieve, through nontraditional program structures, at the same level or higher as traditional students. Age was an influencing variable on CJS:EACC scores. The instrument measures nursing assessment and intervention related to adult medical/surgical clients. The hypothesis that there would be no difference in clinical judgment could not be supported.;Interview responses representative of each curricular group were consistent with previous studies of the goals, barriers, learning needs, and characteristics of the adult learner.

There has been limited research on the benefits nurses' derive from participation in continuing nursing education (CNE). Researchers have investigated sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics of CNE participants or the effects of CNE on nursing practice.;The purpose of this study was to determine what factors influenced registered nurses in the Southeastern region of Virginia to participate or not to participate in CNE. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship of socialization (defined as level of nursing education, reading of professional nursing journals and professional nursing memberships), benefits (defined as either personal or social/professional type) derived from CNE attendance, the importance or non-importance of these derived benefits and participation or nonparticipation in CNE. Respondents' socialization was characterized as either high or low for the purposes of this study.;The theoretical framework used in this study was the Expectancy Valence Model of Participation (Rubenson, 1977). Valence was described as anticipated satisfaction (i.e. the benefits accrued); it was viewed as the positive and negative values of the effects of participation. Expectancy was defined as an expectation that particular actions would lead to certain outcomes; it related to individuals' perceptions of themselves as successful participants.;Data for the study were collected through the use of two questionnaires which were mailed to a sample of 400 registered nurses selected by systematic sampling. One hundred and fifty-five responses were received (38.75%). Data were analyzed by Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS) software using descriptive statistics, Chi square analysis and log linear analysis.;Findings indicated that level of socialization and participation in CNE were positively related. The importance of benefits derived from CNE participation and participation in CNE were not related. Level of socialization, importance of benefits derived from CNE participation and participation in CNE were positively related. High levels of socialization were related to participation in CNE while benefits of CNE were not related.

Stewardship, a trust that we have been given to pass our Earth on to future generations so that they may benefit from its wealth as we have, is a powerful concept. The more that people can begin to understand it and harness it in order to set a course for action, the greater will be our cause for hope, and perhaps even optimism, about the future of the Earth and the lives our children will enjoy. Increasingly over the past fifteen years or so, a number of small, community-based environmental groups have embraced stewardship as a core component of their mission. While their approaches to advocacy and action are diverse, and while the foci of their work may vary, these groups hold in common a deep sense of responsibility to preserve and protect the natural resources of their home place. People engaged in the work of these groups, whether as volunteers, paid staff, or affiliates, come from a range of educational and professional backgrounds, as well as life experience. As a result, there may be a number of different reasons why they initially got involved, why they remain involved over a period of several years, and how they address any personal learning needs that arise from their involvement. Nevertheless, patterns may be discerned for all of these dynamics, across educational and professional backgrounds, as well as within and across different groups. Further, there is a potential for meaning perspective transformation from engagement in community-based environmental stewardship. This takes many forms, with the end result a significant change in one's worldview. Through a review of primary source literature produced by each of the three groups included in the study, a series of short, structured interviews with thirty participants (ten from each group), and a series of nine longer, unstructured second interviews with nine of the original thirty (three from each group), data was collected for the study. Data was analyzed first by creating profiles of the three community-based environmental stewardship groups, using the primary source literature and interview responses. Categories within the four dynamics of personal involvement (patterns of initial involvement, patterns of sustained involvement, patterns of ongoing learning, and patterns of transformation) as well as organizational dynamics (patterns of community building, group dynamics) were discerned from the data and analyzed. The results of the analysis offer a number of suggestions for stewardship educators working with community based environmental groups. However, it should be noted that findings from this research are not generalizable—the study was qualitative, and participants were not randomly selected. A number of suggestions for further research are therefore offered.

The purpose of this dissertation in practice was twofold; The first purpose was to design a Professional Development (PD) program for a specialized group of civilian employees working in a large military organization, and the second purpose was to evaluate and refine that PD program using mixed-methods empirical research. The study focused on a group of approximately 100 Instructional System Specialists and Research Psychologists. These employees are highly educated, with the majority holding advanced degrees in their respective fields, yet they lacked a clear path to career development within their organization. Following the tenets of design-based research, a PD program was developed for these employees based on design principles drawn from a review of extant literature. The program artifacts included a set of assessment rubrics to assess the employees' knowledge and skills, a curriculum design plan to inform curriculum development efforts, and a policy manual to guide program implementation. Once these artifacts were drafted, they were refined through several cycles of formative evaluation. Throughout each phase of the research, quantitative and qualitative data showed strong, positive stakeholder support for the program. Qualitative findings contributed substantially to formative evaluation and revision of the program, although quantitative data did not show a statistically significant improvement from initial draft to final revision. These findings are interpreted to indicate that the program was well-design, even at initial draft, and there was little need for measurable improvement. The methods described in this study resulted in a sound, research-based PD program, and these design-based research methods can be generalized to be used in similar situations. As such, this study adds to our body of knowledge in the areas of curriculum and instructional design, and it serves as an applied example of design-based research in an authentic setting.

The purpose of this study was to investigate host site participants' perceptions of a shared distance learning experience. The participants for the study were 12 students enrolled in the course, Teaching Strategies in Elementary Education at Hunt University during the fall semester of 2000. The course was offered simultaneously to students at a distance site. Both groups of students received instruction from the same instructor during the course. According to the review of the literature numerous studies have been conducted to obtain data from the perspectives of distance site students. However, no literature was found that pertained specifically to the perceptions of host site participants. As a result, this study is unique and significant as it provides data from the perspectives of the host site participants. A case study was the research design for this study. The researcher collected data through classroom observations, individual interviews and documents. Data were triangulated from multiple data sources to answer each of the following five research questions: 1. What motivated the participants at the host site to enroll in this course? 2. How do the participants at the host site perceive the quality of instruction? 3. How do the participants at the host site rate the quality of communication between the instructor and themselves? 4. To what extent do the participants at the host site perceive the instructor to be accessible? 5. What improvements can be implemented to ensure the success of the program at the host site? Reflective analysis was utilized to draw conclusions about the data collected. Overall analysis revealed that participants were satisfied with their experience in the course. Recommendations to improve the course included the following: 1. Potential students should be told in advance that the course will be offered simultaneously to students at a distance site. 2. A facilitator should be provided at distance sites to communicate with the instructor about student participation. 3. Technology problems or difficulties should be anticipated and handled swiftly. 4. The instructor should provide ongoing feedback on course assignments throughout the semester. 5. The instructor should respond to electronic mail from students promptly. 6. The instructor should monitor the pacing of the course to avoid unnecessary delays.