<p> The representation of female students and students of color within the civil engineering discipline has been relatively stagnant during the last thirty years. <i>Leaky pipeline</i> approaches attempt to provide measures or programs that try to reduce the exiting of female students or students of color without necessarily addressing the social complexities of the environment itself. This ethnographically informed case study provides an explanation of social complexities that may prevent female students and students of color from fully fitting inside their civil engineering discipline. </p><p> Specifically, this study explored how female students and students of color navigated their civil engineering discipline as juniors or seniors at a medium-sized public university in the United States Southwest. During 2013, five staff members (all female) and eight students&mdash;both male and female&mdash;were interviewed. In addition, the researcher observed two upper division classes for a month and half, three times a week. The researcher also observed public spaces inside the engineering building. Finally, the researcher reviewed and analyzed public websites, syllabi, degree progression plans, and newsletters to further support findings. </p><p> Using a Grounded Theory approach and informed by critical and post-structural feminist and race theory, the researcher adapted a Grounded Theory Paradigm Model (Strauss &amp; Corbin, 1990) to expose contradictions for explaining the social complexities of the context. The researcher found that students who identified outside the dominant white male role saw nuances of the context because of their Border Identities. Border identities, which evolved as a result of students coming from a different ethnicity, community background, and gender, allowed contradictions to be exposed and examined. As a result, the researcher discovered that highly regulatory educational contexts such as a civil engineering discipline support rituals leading to professionalization of students (in this case, as future engineers). Professionalization, which espouses values of sameness as related to the individual, in fact penalizes "the different." Through the professionalization of students, values of hard work, productivity, meritocracy, and effort intend to homogenize the experience of civil engineering students across the board, despite differences of identity, in order to maintain and preserve the dominant white male context.</p>

<p> While there is an abundant amount of research relative to coaching and mentoring programs, there is little understanding about the interaction between coaches/mentors and students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate student perceptions of their academic coaching and mentoring experiences at two Southern California community colleges. Alexander Astin's input-environment-output (I-E-O) model and theory of involvement was used alongside an interpretive model to help explain students' understanding of their experiences with coaches and mentors. One-on-one interviews and a focus group were conducted and provided data that led to the emergence of themes related to role models, empowerment, and motivation. In addition, the one-on-one interviews and the focus group also illustrated students' strong desires to pursue advance and professional degrees. In addition the findings highlighted the importance of race and ethnicity in the establishment of rapport and the need to validate individuals as college students with the abilities to peruse advance degrees in higher education. Lastly, the research identified role modeling, cultural connectedness, opportunities for mentoring, and the various institutional agents who may occupy the status of a mentor or coach as important factors in the mentoring and coaching experiences. </p>

<p> Commuter students, or students who do not live in institutionally owned or operated housing, have consistently struggled to persist to graduation. Since commuter students make up the collegiate majority, identifying ways to support this student population's academic success is imperative. Because of the positive association between social integration and student persistence, this study examined the relationship between student involvement in extracurricular activities and sense of belonging among commuter students at 4-year institutions set in urban areas. Student involvement and sense of belonging were measured using scales from the fourth edition of the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ). A random sample of 712 was drawn from the 2012 administration of the CSEQ. Structural equation modeling, including latent means and multiple group analyses, was used to answer the study's research questions. The findings suggest that commuter student involvement mirrors Astin's theory of student involvement; sense of belonging is heavily influenced by meaningful relationships with faculty and administrators; there is a positive relationship between student involvement and sense of belonging; parental education, race, transfer status, and employment patterns are background characteristics that account for student subgroup differences; and employment patterns impact student involvement, sense of belonging, and the relationship between these variables. These findings can inform institutional practice and direct future research efforts in order to further support the commuter student population.</p>

<p> Organizational Identity Formation Processes: A Case Study Examining the Relationship between the Emergence of Organizational Identity Labels and the Creation and Negotiation of their Meanings The social constructionist perspective of organizational identity (OI) is that it resides in collectively shared beliefs and understandings about central and relatively permanent features of an organization. Gioia, Schultz and Corley (2000) suggest that the content of an organization's identity consists of two tangled aspects: labels and the meanings associated with them. This qualitative case study explored the OI labels and their associated meanings of a newly established organization focused on diabetes. The research objective was to examine the relationship between the emergence of OI labels and the creation and negotiation of their meanings during the organizational identity formation processes (OIFP). Data were gathered from audio visual materials, documents, interviews, and observations. Findings demonstrated that four OI labels emerged and associated meanings were created during the OI formation processes. The OI label "not-for-profit" originated during the initial phase of development of the now-established organization and was predetermined by the State of New York and the IRS. The OI label "focused on diabetes" described the specific disease that the organization addressed. The OI label "healthcare practitioner driven" described the occupation of NEO members. The OI label "educators" described the community outreach activities NEO offered. The phrase "African American-based" and term "young," which were used at the intrasubjective level to describe the organization, did not move beyond the individual level; there was no "interchange or synthesis of two, or more, communicating selves" (Wiley, 1988, p. 258) related to these terms/phrases or their associated meanings. Conclusions offer refinements to OI theory, suggesting the utility of the two tangled aspects of the content of OIFP, the emergence of the labels and the creation and negotiation of their associated meanings, and provide a practical application to newly established organizations.</p>

<p> In this study, a multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of a social narrative on teaching appropriate social skills to three students with autism. Currently, guidelines for Social Story&trade;, as established by Carol Gray, have become very popular despite minimal scientific evidence to support their efficacy (Bellini, Peters, Benner, &amp; Hopf, 2007; Sansosti, Powell-Smith, &amp; Kincaid, 2004; Reynhout &amp; Carter, 2006). This study deliberately deviates from Gray's guidelines in an attempt to evaluate the contribution of the narrative to social literacy in students with autism.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between bullying others, perceived school connectedness, academic achievement, and selected demographics among female high school athletes. A purposive sample of all in-season (Fall 2012) female athletes enrolled in three schools located in an urban school district in Northeast Ohio was recruited to participate in this study. Subjects completed a 54-item instrument designed to assess their self-reported involvement in bullying others. Further, subjects were asked to provide responses about the construct of school connectedness. Data were obtained using a one-time anonymous paper/pencil instrument. Data were analyzed using the one-way and two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) techniques and Correlation analysis. </p><p> Findings revealed a statistically significant relationship between bullying others and race, and bullying others and current achievement. Also, the data revealed a statistically significant correlation between bullying others and perceived school connectedness. The results from this study support the current body of literature dedicated to this relationship between bullying others and perceived school connectedness. Interestingly, much less is known about the relationship between the independent and dependent variables used in this study as it occurs among female high school athletes. More research with athletes is recommended to better elucidate the effects of sports participation on these variables.</p>

<p> This case study focuses on the way a neighborhood association connects schools to broad change in an urban neighborhood of a large Midwestern city. The first section provides a review of the literature on community involvement in school and neighborhood reform. It reviews the historical origins of the current school-community relationship, the reasons behind the movement to increase community involvement, the diversity of understandings about the nature of community participation, the processes used to improve the capacity of both the school and the community to act as effective partners, and the different programs organizations use to participate in the school improvement process. The second section is a qualitative case study on the programs and processes the neighborhood association uses to revitalize one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Believing strongly in the need to think holistically about neighborhood improvement, the neighborhood association engages a diversity of stakeholders in creating a comprehensive plan to address social and physical conditions. The plan encompasses the areas of academic achievement, housing, healthy eating, commercial development, crime, health and wellness, jobs, and family and youth. Local schools are active participants in creating the holistic plan for broad revitalization. The neighborhood association considers schools an on-going partner in carrying out initiatives tied to academic achievement. Building a higher level school-community relationship challenges historical traditions of school resistance to meaningful involvement with community groups working to improve schools. The study focuses on the way the neighborhood association works to connect two public schools to the academic achievement piece of the comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plan. This study finds high levels of school participation in the process of plan creation, but patterns of school behavior and current demands on time continue to be obstacles to on-going participation in neighborhood association-led change. The study also finds that neighborhood association-led initiatives in areas outside the four walls of the school have improved surrounding conditions, but these improvements have not yet significantly impacted the performance of neighborhood public schools.</p>

<p> Graduate programs in nursing for non-nurses (GPNNN) are rapidly proliferating in response to demands for innovative strategies to increase the number of nurses to meet health care demands, both actual and anticipated. Transitions Theory (Meleis et al., 2000) provided a framework to identify the gaps in knowledge related to how individuals transition to nurse within these programs. One of the gaps in the literature that was identified was a description of the transition to nurse experience of students enrolled in a GPNNN. This qualitative descriptive research was conducted in response to this gap. It examined the transition from non-nurse to nurse through a GPNNN which prepared non-nurses for advanced nursing practice. The study had three aims: to describe the transition experienced by the students; to describe how they used their prior education and experiences in this transition; and to describe the factors they saw as facilitators and hindrances to this transition. </p><p> Responsive interviewing (Rubin &amp; Rubin, 2012) with a purposive sample (n=17) of registered nurses enrolled in the advanced practice curriculum of the GPNNN was used. Data was collected from these nurses between September and December, 2013. Data analysis included initial codification of interviews, and within and between interview comparison of codes, resulting in re-coding and collapsing of codes. To assure the trustworthiness of the data, the criteria thoroughness, accuracy, believability and transparency were used (Rubin &amp; Rubin, 2005).</p><p> Data analysis revealed a process of transition that occurred over three distinct time periods, <i>Coming to Nursing</i> (pre-enrollment), <i> Beginning to Learn the Role as Nurse</i> (pre-licensure), and <i> Practicing as Nurse</i> (post-licensure). Influences that impacted the transition across periods included personal goals, knowledge, skills, and professional growth. Indicators of transition that were known to the individual and to others were described. The individual's utilization of prior education and experiences in their personal transition experience was described as primarily influencing study habits and clinical experiences. Facilitators and hindrances to the transition included experience working as a nurse, self-identification as nurse, personal goals, the accelerated program, the programmatic focus on NCLEX style testing and the nursing pedagogy.</p><p> Interpretation of the findings of this research was informed by the literature. Identification of three periods of transition through nursing education has been described in transition to nurse in other nursing education populations (Shane, 1980a, 1980b; Neill, 2010), and is consistent with transitional patterns (Meleis, 2010). However, the three transitional periods identified in this study are peculiar to the transition experience through a GPNNN, and don't mirror the characteristics identified in transitional periods in other populations. A rich description of the transition experienced by the participants is presented including characteristics of the transitional periods, the influence of prior education and experience within the transition, and identification of factors that facilitated or hindered the transition experience. This description has not previously been described in the literature.</p><p> There are implications of this research for practice, theory, education, policy and research, and these are discussed.</p>

No description available.

The research is an analysis of the 'process of development' of a sample of sixteen subjects who attended 'public school' during the term of office of the present government.The specific methodology of the study was that of the 'life-history', in which each subject produced a written account of their life. This was followed by a taped interview which allowed elaboration of issues raised and discussion of aspects of experience not previously covered. Questionnaires were sent to headmasters in order to (a) gauge the specific values of particular schools and (b) to triangulate, where possible, information provided by subjects on the nature of their schooling.The research offers a contribution to sociological discussion at a number of levels:(1) it provides information on the process of elite production and reproduction, and the role in this of 'institutions of influence' and the individual's mediation of the input from these sources;(2) central sociological themes and concepts have been utilized, assessed and developed;(3) aspects of public school life previously accorded limited or inaccurate attention have been subject to empirical and theoretical analysis. The interaction of class and gender, control and hierarchy, the continued relevance of 'fagging' and the 'old boy' network and crucially the nature of sub-cultural affiliations are the principal examples;(4) the nature of the sector's self presentation is outlined;(5) this specific utilization of the life-history technique illuminates its value and potential as a sociological method.