<p> In the United States public discourse, climate change is often framed as a polarized and intractable issue. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore deliberation about climate action, and to evaluate whether effective responses to climate change can be facilitated through new structures and processes that enable and encourage dialogue on the subject of how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Working with sustainability leaders at the University of Montana and in the community of Missoula, Montana, the author convened three public deliberations, in which a variety of solutions to climate change were discussed. Three questions guided this study: 1) what motivated individuals to engage in deliberation about climate action; 2) how did individual engagement vary and affect the quality of the deliberation; and 3) how effective were the deliberations in building a sense of individual agency and generating collaborative action strategies to address climate change. Based on a rigorous statistical analysis of survey responses combined with qualitative data, this action research study offers a holistic exploration of the three deliberative events convened. The deliberative processes generated collaborative action strategies and increased participants' sense of agency to take action on climate change; the findings also revealed differences in the ways individuals engaged and affected the quality of the overall group deliberation. This dissertation contributes to the literature on collaborative responses and collective action on climate change, broadens understanding of deliberative processes, and provides new insight into opportunities for leading deliberation about climate action.</p>

<p> Several decades of research document a growing communication gap between older adults and younger generations, with retirees limiting the information they share with younger generations. This limitation is often due to older adults' low self-efficacy and technology as a communication distraction, a trend which has resulted in the loss of intellectual capital for younger generations. The purpose of the study was to understand and increase knowledge transfer between retirees and unrelated younger people in a rural Canadian community. Communication theory of identity and social cognitive theory provided the research frameworks. The research questions examined what knowledge retirees could pass down, retirees' reasons for sharing knowledge, and the community's influence on generational communication. A qualitative case study incorporated several data sources including in-depth semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups (<i>N</i> = 40), and an analysis of existing literature. Transcribed recordings and field note analysis using open coding and peer debrief review resulted in 5 emergent themes. Key findings indicated participants felt they had little or nothing to share despite a variety of life experiences, found communication success with nontechnology-based catalysts, and felt the community has closed social circles. Transferring identity during retirement was difficult for many participants, a finding which supported the resulting project: a retiree social transition workshop. These findings suggest that those approaching retirement may benefit from identity transition support from employment to retirement, resulting in increased well-being in retirement, increased self-efficacy and motivations, and improved knowledge transfer to younger generations.</p>

<p> The goal of this study was to determine how the Acadiana cultural region (St. Martin, St. Landry, Acadia, Vermillion, Lafayette and Iberia parishes) used social media in crisis response strategies. The researcher used a purposive sample and qualitative long interviews to gather data from six public relations practitioners in Acadiana. Practitioners were selected from the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce website in the section labeled "Advertising &amp; Media" (http://business.lafchamber.org/list/ql/advertising-media-1). Results proved the hypotheses that practitioners used Twitter for the dissemination of information and Facebook was perceived to have the most interaction among all social media sites in the study. In addition, the results determined how practitioners used social media in the following categories and themes: usability, service and frequency.</p>

<p> This study investigated how the sociomaterial features of e-mail shaped the dynamics of teacher work expectations and work actions in one high school. Drawing on Greenhalgh and Stones' (2010) Strong Structuration Theory Incorporating a Technology Dimension, the study utilized Stones' (2005) Quadripartite Cycle of Structuration to make meaning from the data. The research site was a k-12 independent school in the Southeast United States. The network-in-focus was the high school and the agents-in-focus were high school teachers. Three administrators, all of whom taught at least one high school class, were also included in the sample. Data were collected primarily through interviews with the participants, supplemented by relevant documents, and a participant-generated e-mail communication log. Data were analyzed through a multi-step open coding process, as well as document analysis and analysis of the e-mail communication logs. The study's findings demonstrate that the sociomaterial features of e-mail played a significant role in shaping the dynamics of teachers' work expectations and work actions at Southeast. Teachers all utilized e-mail on a daily basis as both an efficiency and accountability device; however, some also appropriated it for task and work management purposes. Those teachers that used a smartphone in the execution of their jobs experienced feelings of increased availability, stress, and disruption to their work/home lives. There was a strong theme of accountability that was enabled--perhaps even encouraged--by uninhibited e-mail use. Finally, the research demonstrated that e-mail was at the center of how teachers understood their job(s) and what it meant to be "professional." </p>

<p> Twenty five percent of individuals diagnosed with autism are nonverbal and need to learn to communicate using alternative means (National Research Council, 2001) in order to build functional spontaneous communication. Joint attention behaviors are critical for communication development (Mundy &amp; Newell, 2007). This study introduces a video calling intervention to target the joint attention behaviors, eye gaze, verbalization and gestures. The purpose of this study was to discover what relationship exists between video calling and joint attention in nonverbal children with autism and to explore the perspectives of parents and their communication interaction with the child. This case study of two children is a quantitative ABA withdrawal design and a qualitative narrative design. The ABA design uses seven-inch Prestige 7 Connect tablets and Skype, video calling software program to communicate during game, reading and discussion activities. Observing and recording procedures were used to collect the data and visual analysis was conducted using graphs, tables. The narrative design used parent interviews and questionnaires to build themes. The findings indicate that video calling had a positive impact on eye gaze and verbalization behaviors during discussion and game activities. From the narrative analysis emerged a theme of engagement and focus. The conclusions indicate that video calling has impact on some joint attention behaviors and increases engagement in nonverbal children with autism. Implications for this study include using video calling in the classroom for peer interactions and skill building. Further study is needed to increase the generalizability of these findings. </p><p> Keywords: joint attention, video calling, nonverbal, autism, engagement </p>

Thesis (Ed.D.)--California State University, Fresno and University of California, Davis, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3283067. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: A, page: 3736. Adviser: Karen Watson-Gegeo.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin-Madison. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves : 35-39).

Thesis (Ph.D. in Nursing -- University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-109).

<p> This dissertation served two purposes. The first purpose was to examine the relationships between the two dimensions of family communication patterns (i.e., conversation orientation and conformity orientation) and four student classroom communication behaviors (i.e., out-of-class communication, in-class oral participation, instructional dissent, and students&rsquo; motives to communicate with their instructors). The second purpose of this dissertation was to investigate academic resilience as a mediator in the relationship between family communication patterns and student classroom communication behaviors. It was discovered that students&rsquo; family conversation orientation was associated positively with their oral participation and the relational, functional, participatory, and excuse-making motives to communicate with instructors. Conversation orientation was associated negatively with vengeful dissent. Students&rsquo; conformity orientation was positively associated with their use of vengeful dissent and the relational, participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic motives to communicate with instructors. It was also discovered that conformity orientation moderated the relationship between conversation orientation and academic resilience. Additionally, a conditional indirect effect was discovered in the relationship between conversation orientation and the functional motive to communicate with instructors through academic resilience, as it was conditional upon levels of conformity orientation. These results and implications were discussed in light of existing research findings on family communication patterns, academic resilience, and students&rsquo; classroom communication behaviors. The results of this dissertation should be interpreted with caution due to the structural validity issues of the instruments and the data collection procedures.</p><p>

<p> With the recent attention being paid to student success and student equity, as well as outcomes for historically and currently disadvantaged students including those who begin at community colleges, this study examines the extent to which positive changes have been observed that are favorable to community college student success after transfer. Data from the 2005-2012 administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) are examined to determine the extent to which out-of-class student faculty interaction &ndash; a known contributor to student success &ndash; has increased over time for community college transfer students at a subset of bachelor&rsquo;s-granting institutions. Corresponding data from the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), as well as IPEDS data, are used to identify institutional conditions that positively impact institutional change over a period of at least three years in a measure of out-of-class student-faculty interaction with community college transfer students. The overall purpose of the current study is to explore what baccalaureate colleges and universities can do to enhance the outcomes of students who transfer from community colleges. Results confirm that overall positive changes in out-of-class student-faculty interaction for community college transfer students have occurred in the group of institutions examined. In addition, the number of institutions that report an increase of practical significance in out-of-class student-faculty interaction for community college transfer students is about double the number of institutions reporting a significant decrease. Selected additional findings show that the institutional proportion of full-time undergraduates, as well a measure of campus support, help lay the groundwork for positive future changes in out-of-class student-faculty interaction for community college transfer students. Future quantitative and qualitative research is recommended to further examine the practices and attributes of institutions where positive changes in community college transfer student-faculty interaction have been observed.</p>