The schooling experiences of early adolescent at-risk females attending a rural middle school were explored in this ethnographic study which integrates race, class, and gender. The research questions were: (1) How do at-risk early adolescent females experience schooling? and (2) What meanings do they attach to these experiences? Critical education theory and feminist theory were used as a working theoretical model to guide data collection and analysis. Ethnographic procedures of participant observation and formal and informal interviews were utilized. The girls' schooling experiences were accounted for via six empirical themes: experiencing schooling as routine, resisting schooling, searching for relevance and understanding, experiencing school discipline, experiencing schooling as a deficient student, and experiencing schooling as an alternative education student. / One aspect of these young girls' schooling experiences surfaced as worthy of deeper examination. From the first interview, it became apparent that the sexual lives of these young girls influence not only how they experience schooling, but how they experience life. Six themes emerged to describe the girls' sexual experiences: experiencing sexual harassment and abuse, experiencing sexual violence, experiencing sexual pleasure, experiencing sex and birth control, experiencing sex without relationships, and experiencing negative messages about sex. / Throughout the analysis in this study, the voices of these early adolescent at-risk females are presented. Their voices tell of the poverty conditions in which they live, the failure they have experienced, and the oppression and victimization they have endured. Their voices also tell of the hopes and dreams they have for the future. / The girls' oppressive status due to their race, class, and gender are evident in this examination of their schooling and sexual experiences. The girls are not passive participants in school or in life. They are taking action through resistant behaviors. However, their resistance serves to maintain their oppressive status. Pedagogical implications which may foster empowerment are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-08, Section: A, page: 2819. / Major Professor: Kathryn Scott. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The purpose of this study was to examine information provided by Florida State University undergraduate advising personnel regarding undergraduate academic peer advisement programs. Academic peer advisement, the use of upper division students trained to assist in advising matters, utilizes the existing human resource pool, provides low cost delivery systems, accessibility to students, formalization of the informal "student grapevine", and effective advising. / As a key element in institutional effectiveness, academic advising is being viewed by accrediting associations as an integral part of the higher education process. This study is designed to provide knowledge which may assist in developing strategies which utilize an existing resource (students) by providing information on a program to which students identify and relate. It was also designed to assist in the interpretation of organizational culture and perceptions of academic administrators which may have an impact on the undergraduate academic advisement processes. / Participants in this study included (1) sixty-nine undergraduate advising coordinators, (2) sixty-eight undergraduate faculty advisors and (3) twelve undergraduate academic advising administrators/deans at Florida State University. Data were collected by means of three instruments, the first of which was the Peer Advising Survey (PAS) distributed to advising personnel. The second was to supplement and ground the information obtained by the survey instrument with semi-structured key-informant interviews. Third, selected data from a university-conducted survey, the Academic Advising Evaluation Form (AAEF)) requesting information from administrators, faculty, and students provided information regarding existing advising systems at Florida State University. / The data obtained supplied information regarding organizational culture and how it impacts on innovation and change. Although this study revealed some reluctance to change, due to the decline of faculty resources, over-enrollment, and lack of faculty commitment to advising, academic administrators indicate an inclination to explore alternative methods of academic advising which may aid in the utilization of existing human resources (students) and therefore stretch the institutional resources to obtain maximum benefits. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 1959. / Major Professor: John S. Waggaman. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Counseling Psychology, 2007. / Title from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 25, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0519. Adviser: Michael L. Tracy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Thomas A. Schwandt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-135) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Adviser: Arnold Spokane.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: B, page: 3822. Adviser: James Rounds. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-98) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> This investigation examines the effect of a peer mentoring service-learning program established by the University of Maine on empathy and moral reasoning. The methodology is qualitative in nature, using a semi-structured interview protocol and a conceptual framework based on the review of the literature. Mentoring, empathy and moral reasoning were the focus of the literature review, which revealed these two key components of social and emotional learning are associated with academic performance and pro-social behaviors in adolescence, and mentoring is a service learning modality associated with similar benefits. </p><p> Two rural high schools were recruited to participate in an innovative collaborative effort with the University of Maine. Volunteer mentors, screened by local guidance staff, were trained in peer mentoring theory, skills, and techniques in three all day workshops. Ongoing onsite guidance was provided by a University of Maine graduate school intern and on site counseling staff. Each mentor was assigned a mentee, whom they met with regularly throughout the school year. In the spring, twelve mentors, representing approximately half of the mentor population, was interviewed about their experiences and perceptions.</p><p> A conceptual framework was developed based on a detailed review of relevant literature. A semi-structured interview was based on this framework, which was then utilized to guide data collection in the interviews. The interview transcripts were coded and analyzed to detect the emergence of themes with high frequency and prevalence. Mentor profiles were also developed for each of the twelve mentors who participated.</p><p> The mentor profiles and findings from the interview thematic analysis were then compared and contrasted with the review of the literature, and the conceptual framework was refined into the final concept map. The findings support a strong conceptual connection between moral reasoning and empathy, mediated through the empathic connections of the mentors including family, friends, and mentees, as well as the various moral dilemmas that they encountered in their high school experience. The implications for conceptual development through research with adolescents is reviewed, as well as opportunities for future research to increase the effectiveness of service learning programs that develop social and emotional capacities in youth.</p>

This study researched the impact of parental shiftwork schedules on the performance, behavior, and development of middle-school students as seen through the eyes of their teachers. Located in a company-owned town in southeastern Arizona, the study focused on the experiences of middle-school teachers by asking them to consider and reflect on their observations of middle-school students in terms of the shiftwork schedule their parents worked. The teachers were also asked to respond to questions regarding what they had done in their own classrooms and what school leaders could do to lessen these impacts. By analyzing their responses, conclusions may be drawn as to the extent of these impacts, their variability and scope, and their implications for school leaders.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis, can academic advising, based on the adult learning characteristics of andragogy, be an effective advising approach in assisting undergraduate students in their developmental learning, decision making strategies, and transition and adaptation into a university. This study examined two groups, each with ten graduating seniors, who were advised in the advising center of a large public institution of higher education in the Southwest. One student group was advised in the university's conventional advising manner; the second group was advised using the Advising Learning Method of Andragogy or ALMA. The methodology used to examine the hypothesis was done in the following manner: The quantitative stage, consisting of the ALMA Likert student survey and ALMA and Non-ALMA student group grade point average chart. These findings demonstrated an initial grade point average difference between the ALMA and Non-ALMA groups favoring the Non-ALMA group. While both groups improved their mean grade point average, the ALMA group's grade point average improved at a consistent pace as these students transitioned into the university, with both groups' mean grade point average reaching near convergence after five years. The qualitative stage, the survey and interview findings revealed that the ALMA and Non-ALMA groups were similar in their views that the university's large size, bureaucratic complexity, and limited advising resources had adverse effects on their success and sense of participation within the university community. The ALMA and Non-ALMA groups differed in several respects. The Non-ALMA group frequently mentioned the importance of outside support of family, friends, high school advisors, the use and retrieval of prior learned skills, and peer competition, while the ALMA group did not. The ALMA group frequently mentioned the importance of university OAS advising, technology, and study skills acquired at the university, while the Non-ALMA group did not. ALMA advising is not merely a change in the perspective method undergraduates use to access advising. ALMA represents a shift in the paradigm and approach taken in advising, which focuses on facilitating the development of the student's problem-solving skills and decision-making strategies.

The purpose of this research was to examine the decisions made by school leaders in the aftermath of a student suicide in the context of the four frames of organizational leadership as described by Bolman and Deal (1989). The four frames were: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic. The researcher obtained an understanding of the leadership behaviors through the use of two qualitative research methods: interview and document analysis. This study utilized a case study of one middle school located in southern Arizona and a second case study of one high school from the same school district. Both schools experienced a student suicide one to two years prior to the data collection for this study. The case studies examined the leadership decisions and strategies implemented by the principal and others in relationship to the suicidal death of the student. Some of the implications for educators were staff training, crisis response handbook, printed guidelines discouraging student memorials, district crisis team, staff training, assessing the impact of the student death, unwillingness of suicide victims' parents to accept their son's death as a suicide, assisting the parents in planning the memorial service, and consistently implemented crisis response activities. The two schools provided very different looks at how school leaders responded and the myriad of decisions that were made in the aftermath of a student suicide. The four frames of organizational leadership provided a powerful lens from which to view those leadership decisions.