Attracting and retaining strong faculty members in dental schools have long been challenges in the United States. Faced with an emerging crisis in the availability and quality of dental educators, many researchers have focused on analyzing data and trends related to this subject. Even though there are substantial studies that provide a picture of why domestic dentists choose to become dental educators, there are no dedicated studies investigating why foreign-educated dentists want to become dental educators. This distinct area is of particular importance as we witness increasing diversity of patients and an increased need for a more diverse health care workforce. The purpose of this study was to analyze the reasons why foreign-educated dentists became dental educators in United States and furthermore, at University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, California. The research data was collected by means of surveys and in-depth interviews of foreign-trained faculty and IDS graduates on staff at Pacific. The data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics for the survey and a process of thematic analysis for interviews. The surveys' analysis yielded the following six factors that most positively influenced foreign-educated dentists in deciding to embrace a career as an academic educator: (1) Intellectual challenges and stimulation; (2) Opportunity to always be on the cutting edge; (3) Interest in science, new discovery, exploration; (4) Opportunity for regular interaction with other faculty dentists; (5) Desire to be a teacher. (6) Collegial environment of the university. There were two most negative factors identified, as follows: (1) Income differential compared to private practice; (2) Pressure to generate income for the university. Corroborated by analysis of the interviews, the following themes emerged: (1) Drive for research; (2) Desire to be on cutting edge. (3) Desire to share knowledge through teaching; (4) Social and personal factors and perceptions with emphasis on mentors' influence; (5) Negative influence of salary difference with respect to private practitioners. The findings of this study were similar to the available studies on foreign-trained dentists and to most of the studies already done on domestically trained dentists. The major factors found were comparable with the up-to-date literature. The elevated research drive, the intellectual challenges, the work environment, the desire to teach, and the mentors' influence were among those which mirrored almost perfectly the other studies. Some fine differences were found for foreign-trained dentists, such as a lighter financial burden caused by smaller student debt and the irrelevance of military practice experience. The study provides a number of suggestions for enhancing the recruiting and retaining process for dental academia: (1) Support and enhance the research capacity of dental schools; (2) Create structures to develop mentors; (3) Invest to build prestige; (4) Find creative ways to offset lower salaries; (5) Foster a pleasant academic working environment; (6) Use international activities to recruit international dentists. The study revealed factors that have been influential in participants' decisions to choose an academic career, in general and at Pacific. It is hoped that this study will be a useful reference in the increasingly difficult endeavor of adding and retaining world-class dental educators.

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Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This study examined the gender socialisation process among ten recent high school graduates and the reasoning behind their chosen career paths. Three institutions: the family, school, and media, were examined to explore how these institutions could possibly have affected the participants’ career choices. This was accomplished through qualitative research by conducting in-depth interviews among five nursing students (three females and two males) and five engineering students (three females and two males) who were 18 or 19 years of age. The interviews revealed that the participants were aware of current gender stereotypes and had experienced gender socialisation through bedroom décor and/or parental roles. The interviews further revealed ‘influencers’ (such as one’s peer group or a close relative) as a significant factor leading males into nursing and females into engineering. Participants within each program revealed differences in personal definitions of success and thoughts on work-family balance. / Sociology / M.A. (Sociology)

Recent studies have shown that there may be evidence that children with reading difficulties have particular compensatory spatial ability, although the exact spatial ability has not been identified. This study used qualitative and quantitative methods to examine closely two spatial abilities, spatial visualisation (mental rotation from memory) and visual realism (three-dimensional drawing and construction ability) in students with reading problems and students with no problems. The aim was also to explore the question of whether students with spatial ability and reading problems were encouraged to use these strengths either in or out of school and whether such abilities could be identified in the early years environment. Equally, the question of motivational failure related to possible unrecognised potential, particularly in the area of non-verbal/spatial ability was also examined. This study used longitudinal case studies with five children and their mothers over a period of ten years. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using a grounded theory approach. Researcher observations as the teacher of the five children in their primary years provided additional evidence of their reading and spatial abilities at an early age. In addition, the study uses a Further Education College survey that examines spatial ability and reading problems in 133 post-16 year olds that provides the quantitative element of the study providing evidence about students with spatial abilities and their career choices. The data analysis revealed that the five case studies had largely overcome their reading problems due to early intervention strategies for reading together with encouragement and support outside school for their spatial abilities. Additionally, they have pursued careers, which for the most part, uses their spatial skills. The data analysis of the College survey showed that the link between spatial ability and reading problems was less secure, although there were a number of students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) who had high spatial abilities and this proved to be important from the point of view of identifying strengths alongside weakness in literacy, particularly in the early years at school. Early identification and acknowledgement of spatial ability as a perceived strength and used to support learning, as opposed to identification of reading problems, a perceived deficit, proved to be a key finding of the research.