<p> The percentage of male teachers is at its lowest number in 40 years. The problem is that fewer males are choosing elementary teaching as a career choice. As a result, many elementary students rarely see a male teacher during their formative education years. This issue is a concern for superintendents, college of education deans, recruiters, school administrators, and parents whose children are not being exposed to a diverse teacher workforce that includes male elementary teachers. The purpose of this study was to better define and understand the unique experiences of male elementary teachers in today's classroom. The conceptual framework for the study incorporated Levinson's adult male development theory, Palmer's teaching landscape, and Mezirow's transformative learning theory. This qualitative study investigated the experience of 6 male elementary teachers in 3 different school districts in a southeastern state. This study followed Moustakas's phenomenological method utilizing criterion sampling. Data were collected, analyzed, and coded for preliminary categories and themes. Four themes emerged: (1) male role modeling, (2) readying students, (3) establishing mentoring relationships, and (4) mattering. The findings show that male elementary teachers are a crucial voice for some students, and they fulfill a needed role in the elementary school. This study addresses positive social change by providing a voice for the male elementary teacher, a diminishing but important teaching population, while also illustrating how the male elementary teacher's presence in the classroom can serve as a positive role model, mentor, and diverse elementary learning experience for the children. </p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the essence and underlining structure of a hybrid identity development process among undergraduate students who lived a transborder lifestyle in the U.S.-Mexico border region by identifying the factors that influenced the phenomenon. In the 1990s transnational and transborder individuals were identified by scholars as part of a new understanding for the movement of populations. Today researchers state that this phenomenon is ever most prevalent at the world's busiest international border shared between the cities of San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. Part of the transborder phenomenon is college students who collaborate internationally between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico because they reside in both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border while attending higher education institutions in San Diego, California. Currently there is no information about how many students live a transborder lifestyle in the San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico border region and few researchers have explored the understanding of their experiences. As a result, the lack of research about the development of this student population called for further investigation. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with twelve undergraduate students who lived a transborder lifestyle in the San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico border region; they took place at a higher education institution in San Diego, California. The central finding of this study is the illustration of the developmental process of a Hybrid Identity; therefore, a conceptual framework for the systematic understanding of the phenomenon was created. The stories which participants shared as part of their interview illustrate how their hybrid identity development was influenced by the transborder lifestyle they lived through the transborder context in the U.S.-Mexico border region. The influential factors of their hybrid identity development are identified as the obstacles they faced through the transborder context and the different ways they coped with and adapted to the barriers of their milieu.</p>

<p> This thesis has been written with the interest and concern for the symbolic meaning of the tale of &ldquo;Beauty and the Beast,&rdquo; as it illustrates a young woman&rsquo;s journey of individuating, ultimately in order to meet with her own animus and true Self. The methodology for writing this thesis is hermeneutic, in that it involves a search for meaning from what has been written about the fairy tale among different texts and films that were created based on the original tale. In this thesis, &ldquo;Beauty and the Beast&rdquo; is analyzed by exploring what has been written about it by Jung, the post-Jungians, and Freudian thinkers. Images or objects of significance in the tale that hold meaning or power for the overall analysis of the tale are included and explained.</p>

<p> Research examining success in college and career suggests that success in college, when measured by GPA, may not be a strong predictor of success in work, including salary and career satisfaction. This study examined how individual person variables, such as personality, motivation and drive, may better the predictive value of GPA. Predictors of college success, extrinsic career success and intrinsic career success as measured by GPA, salary and job satisfaction, respectively, were examined. Three models were developed and analyzed using structural equation modeling. In the models, demographic variables, personality, work motivation and work drive were assessed. Participants included 64 male and female undergraduate participants from a small private university and 107 male and female graduates of the same university. Those with higher GPAs tended to be female and to show more Conscientiousness, work motivation and work drive. Higher salaries were associated with being male, having obtained a higher educational degree and being less neurotic. Higher career satisfaction was associated with being male, White, having obtained a higher educational degree, having a higher undergraduate GPA, being less neurotic and less open. Results highlight the incongruencies between the personal attributes that tend to be associated with success at school and those that tend to be associated with work.</p>

<p> This study investigated middle and late adolescents&rsquo; judgments of and reasoning about an incident of homophobic harassment in four conditions, where the genders of the victim and perpetrator were varied (N = 104). Participants were asked whether they thought the victim in their scenario was upset, as well as whether or not the perpetrator had a negative intention. Social cognitive domain theory served as the framework for coding adolescents&rsquo; reasoning. In addition, adolescents&rsquo; endorsement of gender stereotypes was measured. As expected, having had a male victim, as opposed to a female victim, was related to lesser odds of believing the harassment was completely wrong among tenth graders, and lesser odds of believing the victim was upset. Participants in tenth grade were also more likely to use conventional reasoning in justifying their judgments about harassment than those in twelfth grade. Participants in the male victim/ perpetrator condition were less likely to believe the perpetrator had a negative intention than those in the female victim/ perpetrator condition. Contrary to expectations, endorsement of gender stereotypes was unrelated to the use of conventional reasoning. The effects of endorsement of gender stereotypes and use of moral reasoning in relation to judgments of harassment were significant among participants in the male victim condition, but non-significant among participants in the female victim condition.</p>

<p> While substantiating the effectiveness of honors programs to increase learning among the academically gifted, assessment and any associated outcomes should also be effectively used to understand the psychosocial development challenges of these students and, at the same time, increase their learning in and out of the honors environment. Robinson's (1997) research showed that, saddled with the typical college student's at-risk characteristics, e.g., first-generation status, low-income, financial limitations, etc., gifted students also face unique adjustment challenges in terms of their social development. These challenges include habits and attitudes associated with and/or resulting from not having to work at their studies in high school, such as `grade shock,' mediocrity, and an expectation of naturally being at the top of their class; not knowing their strengths and weaknesses due to a lack of academic challenge; not experiencing having to ask for help; and having multiples gifts and talents that are or can be channeled in multiple directions. This mixed methods study examined how educators may be able to use psychosocial student development theory and research in the use of personality type assessment instruments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to support these students whose unique attitudes and behaviors put them at risk of losing their educational and career opportunities.</p>

<p> This study looked at the impact of a weeklong visual art program informed by clinical art therapy on empathy development with two groups of adolescents in their school setting. The study used a mixed-methods approach to uncover any quantitative change in empathy as well as identify emergent themes seen through qualitative data. Quantitative outcomes indicated no change in empathy development as seen through analysis of a survey measure. Qualitative analysis uncovered several key findings seen through observations, participant interviews, and visual art data; most specifically, participants illustrated beginning levels of empathy by way of increased self-awareness and several cognitive functions involved in empathy development.</p>

<p> Parent involvement has been shown to have positive effects on student achievement and engagement, yet the lack of necessary social and/or cultural capital prevents some parents from being involved. Applying a conceptual framework based on Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital, this study examines the social and cultural capital that one parent advisory group possessed and the influence their involvement had on student engagement at an upper middle class high school. This qualitative study used a semi-structured interview protocol and narrative inquiry approach. Using NVivo software, 15 participants' interviews were coded and analyzed for emergent themes in the areas of social and cultural capital. Twelve themes emerged. Social capital themes included: Group memberships that provided a sense of empowerment and responsibility, social networks that highlighted the importance of the community and knowing the right people, and relationships that were purposeful, caring, supportive, and trusting. Cultural capital themes included: having privileged status, knowing how the system works, setting priorities for action and change, and having high expectations and values. Despite the fact that these parents had an extensive network of social and cultural capital, the findings from this study suggests caring relationships that instill a value in education, and that high expectations might be the most important form of capital parents need to be effectively involved. Implications and recommendations for practice and future research are discussed.</p>

<p> Informal classroom walk-throughs conducted by school principals with feedback provided to teachers has been demonstrated to improve learning achievement in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) education. Principals are often trained by experts to conduct these walk-throughs. Unfortunately, research shows that experts may omit up to 70% of the critical information needed by trainees to replicate their expertise. The purpose of this study was to capture the knowledge and skills expert K-12 principals use when they conduct informal classroom walk-throughs and provide feedback to teachers. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) semi-structured interviews were conducted with three principals who were qualified as experts using both qualitative and quantitative measures. Action and decision steps, as well as standards, equipment, and conceptual knowledge from individual subject matter experts (SMEs) were captured and aggregated into a gold standard protocol which was reviewed by a fourth expert. The study also sought to identify and quantify the number and percentage of expert knowledge and skills omissions when the principals described how they conducted classroom walk-throughs and provided feedback to teachers. Findings indicate that expert principals omitted an average of 54.76% of the action and decision steps when compared to the gold standard protocol. This study extends the potential negative effects of relying on experts for instruction and curriculum development. The expert knowledge and skills captured by CTA methods may be used to train pre-service and in-service principals in performing the complex instructional leadership task of informal walk-throughs and providing feedback to teachers, which may ultimately improve teachers' classroom instruction and student achievement.</p>

<p> The enrollment of students with invisible disabilities has continued to increase unabated in postsecondary environments. As a result of the applicable laws governing the provision of accommodations and/or modifications in higher education, the impetus and responsibility to succeed rests almost entirely with the individual student. Research showed for many students with invisible disabilities, the transition from a more passive role in the acquisition of education at the primary and secondary levels to a more active role in the acquisition of higher education at the post-secondary level was difficult, as evidenced by a large percentage of such students failing to complete their degrees (Barber, 2012, Hadley, 2006; 2011, Skinner, 2004). Nonetheless, some of the same research indicated some students with invisible disabilities succeeded and completed their degrees (Barber, 2012, Skinner, 2004). The literature suggested that certain characteristics, particularly self-determination, were at least in part responsible for the success of these students. </p><p> The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the level of self-determination in successful students with invisible disabilities who participated in higher education. Data were collected through the administration of an online, anonymous, and untimed survey that ocnsisted of Wehmeyer and Kelchner's (1995) Arc Self-Determination Scale, as modified by Jameson (2007), as well as supplemental questions both adapted from Stage and Milne (1996) and created by the investigator. Levels of self-determination between successful students with invisible disabilities and their otherwise non-disabled peers were measured and analyzed for significant differences in means. The quantitative data revealed no significant difference in means on any domain score, including the Self-Determination Total score between groups, as measured by the modified Arc. Subsequent content analyses of supplemental questions revealed identical emerging themes in both participant groups, which aligned with Wehmeyer's essential characteristics of self-determination. </p>