Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-268). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Duquesne University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-131) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1999. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-219).

Thesis (Ph.D)-University of Pretoria, 2004. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 382-397). Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

BARRY RAY HANCOCK, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in WORKFORCE EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT, presented on May 9, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PERCEPTIONS OF ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS ON THE IMPACT OF THE U.S. ECONOMIC RECESSION AND STATE FINANCIAL PRESSURES ON PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. John S. Washburn The United States economic recession is now in its third year and continues to have a serious impact on the American higher education system, including Illinois' public community colleges. Illinois community colleges are seeing increases in enrollments while at the same time seeing significant decreases in state funding. The purpose of this study was to provide data leading to a systematic understanding of how Illinois community college continuing education programs are delivered in the 21st Century. The analysis included survey data from community colleges presidents and continuing education program managers (CEPMs) and interview data from three presidents and three CEPMs representing urban, suburban and rural community colleges. Several findings and conclusions were discovered as a result of this study, including: (1) respondents indicated offering courses which do not meet profit expectations, but they do and should continue to because they are testing or building new curriculum, (2) primary state funding sources are inadequate and unreliable and secondary funding options, such as grants, endowments, and donations are used to support programs, (3) financial pressures are having an adverse effect on continuing education departments and their budgets, (4) approximately 35% of the state community colleges' enrollment can be attributed to continuing education enrollments, yet most colleges only allocate 1-10% of their institutional budgets to this purpose, (5) about one-quarter of the respondents do not feel their colleges' continuing education program is prepared for the influx of senior citizens. Several general recommendations were made, including dissemination of study results to state associations, community college presidents and CEPMs. The study concludes with recommendations for practice for presidents and CEPMs as well as recommendations for further research.

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2006 / A uniquely African framework for training community counsellors is urgently required to address the range and impact of contemporary community counselling needs in Africa. Training methodologies utilised in Christian higher education throughout Africa shoulddynamically reflect on the socio-cultural context in order to gain a regional understanding of community counselling needs and apply distinctively regional interventions. This study has found that a limited number of Christian higher education institutions in Africa is actively engaged in undergraduate training of community counsellors - primarily in the sphere of Christian counselling. At the same time, the range and severity of community mental health needs is accelerating rapidly, requiring a new generation of community counsellors who have received relevant and effective regional training at an undergraduate level of study. Presently, amongst those institutions where such training is provided, the emphasis within the curriculum has revealed a marked bias towards western knowledge constructs and values - particularly in parts of Africa where European influences are so strong. The study reveals that psychosocial phenomena as experienced in the context of developed societies of Europe and North America have questionable relevance to the distinctive regional challenges facing Africans today. This study presents a case for Christian higher education in Africa to adopt a uniquely African framework for training community counsellors to address the range and impact of contemporary community mental health needs. The study has explored a curriculum development process that dynamically reflects on the socio-cultural context in order to gain a regional understanding of community mental health needs to ensure that community counsellors are provided with effective intervention skills. A unique strategy for integrating the outcomes of such a community assessment into a relevant curriculum design is presented. This strategy comprises a four-step community assessment model utilising focus groups to investigate the range and severity of counselling needs in communities throughout the Great Lakes region (Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi). The results of this community assessment provide guidelines intended to assist Christian higher education in this regional selling to re-curriculate existing undergraduate curricula in community counsellor training and to develop new curricula. The author demonstrates how lessons learned from conducting one such regional study can be meaningfully applied to other regions on the African sub-continent. The global relevance of this study is reflected in the interface between the 'bio ecological systems theory' of Uri Bronfenbrenner (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the pedagogic paradigm developed in this study. Both emphasise the vital importance of exploring and understanding socio-cultural frameworks if training methodologies are to be psychologically and culturally valid.

This thesis enquires into the kinds of citizenship taught and learned in formal and informal settings of citizenship education in Scotland. There has been a ‘perceived’ crisis in democratic citizenry in the UK and elsewhere across the world since the 1990s and this has brought about renewed interests in citizenship education whereby young people are a specifically targeted group. Yet, citizenship education is a fundamentally contested domain where conflicting and contrasting ideologies co-exist and the Scottish version of ‘education for global citizenship’ is an archetypal example of this. By exploring similarities and differences between accounts of ‘what adult practitioners do’ and ‘what young people learn’ in each setting, the thesis emphasises tensions and challenges of citizenship education and their implications for the wider debates about the complex relationship between citizenship, democracy and education. The thesis deploys a synthesised theoretical framework for differentiating and analysing the types of education and learning that are legitimate points of reference in citizenship education for democratic life. It distinguishes between approaches to education for citizenship that focuses on membership of the community (relationships and service work in communities), formal political participation (political literacy in terms of institutions, processes and procedures) entrepreneurial citizenship (employability skills and economic participation) and social and political activism (the commitment and capacity to think critically and act collectively to realise the inherent goals of democracy). These different approaches entail a broad ideological mix of civic republicanism, liberalism and neoliberalism which informs citizenship education. The increasing emphasis on economic participation in educational contexts resonates with what can be termed as a neoliberal version of ‘responsiblised citizenship’ that promotes an individualised and depoliticised conception of citizenship by equipping young people with knowledge, skills and experiences to get on and get into the labour market through their own individual efforts rather than being concerned with the collective needs and interests of young people. Formal education and, to some extent informal community education, tend to overlook the de facto issues, experiences and contributions of young people as engaged citizens and the need to focus on the commitment and capacity to think critically and act collectively in order to realise the inherent goals of democracy as an unfinished project. Consequently, the experience of citizenship education is one young people often feel marginal to or marginalised from. This thesis challenges the dominant assumption of ‘disengaged youth’ to focus instead on the democratic deficit at the heart of citizenship teaching and learning. Along with the ‘invited’ spaces of citizenship education, in both formal and informal settings, the goal of democracy should include the ‘invented’ spaces of citizenship learning which reflects the lived experience, concerns and aspirations of young people.

M.Ed. / This research was conducted in order to elicit and describe the perceptions of a group of young women who have participated in the Umendomuhle Community Education Project as to how it has influenced their lives. The secondary aim was to discover weaknesses and strengths in the project, and to help improve it. The Umendomuhle Community Education Project was initiated in order to increase the number of adult learners at the community centre, to help improve the standard of living for the community, and to empower young women with practical skills so as to increase self-employment. The project’s secondary aims were to develop the young women’s independence and to free them from the mentality of perceiving men as their source of income. This study was conducted with a sample of ten young women participating in the Umendomuhle community development project. The findings indicated that participants developed a change in self-esteem by respecting and trusting the self, respecting others, developing values acceptable to community and interpersonal skills. They also developed practical skills like agricultural skills, business skills, and personal finance management.

This study explores how the Mir Centre for Peace community programmes in Castlegar, BC, respond to the calls from critical and feminist perspectives in adult education toward social justice. These perspectives call for conscientization, democratization and active citizenship, personal and social transformation, emancipation and empowerment. They also call for processes that use the arts, creativity and imagination, and pay attention to issues such as gender, race, class and the environment. Lacking from these calls is attention to peace, particularly how it is understood and taught, and in areas where a relative peace seems established. To conduct this study, I used a case study design that consisted of five semi-structured interviews with study participants who were involved at the Mir Centre as educators/facilitators, organisers, advisory board members, or a combination of these roles. I also used content analysis of relevant documents found on their webpages, and my participatory observation from nine of their events held during the 2015-2016 year. Through these I glean how this centre organises, educates, and acts for social justice and for peace. Four areas emerged as significant to the literature in critical and feminist perspectives in adult education. These are their attention to reconciliation as a practice of building peace, their attention to ‘place’ as a teaching tool, how they integrate and pay attention to spirituality, and how they construct ‘peace’ as an orientation that includes ‘conflict.’ Recommendations based on my understanding of the calls from critical and feminist adult education are also made to the Mir Centre. / Graduate

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