Thesis (M.S.)--Middle East Technical University, 2004. / Keywords: Hope, Study Skills, Test Anxiety, Worry, Emotionality.

Thesis--University of Pittsburgh. / Includes bibliographical references.

Methods. Four reliability estimation models were employed to obtain estimates for faculty appointment and gender group measures derived from four questionnaire scales of a Faculty Climate Survey. Faculty responses were analyzed via (a) coefficient alpha, (b) IRT-Rasch, (c) IRT-Unfolding, and (d) CFA methods. Estimates and their components were compared across-groups within scale and within-group across scales to determine differences among estimation models and to uniquely characterize those differences. Scale dimensionality was assessed per-scale per-group using CFA. Secondary analyses included: (a) independent and dependent-group tests to determine the statistical significance of coefficient alpha differences; (b) bootstrapping simulation to determine the effect of sample size on estimates; and (c) analysis of variance to determine whether attitudinal differences existed between appointment, gender, or appointment-by-gender groups. Results. (1) Reliability estimation models identified important differences between appointment and gender group estimates for scale measures and among scale estimates for each group's set of scale measures. (2) Models were not equally sensitive to detecting differences, either between groups or among scales per group. (3) Alpha and CFA estimates did not always function as lower- and upper-bounds of an expected estimate range: 30% of alpha-CFA range "endpoints" were underestimates of observed ranges. (4) IRT-based estimates were generally located between alpha and CFA estimates, closer to alpha than to CFA estimates. (5) IRT-Unfolding estimates were frequently but not always greater than IRT-Rasch estimates: 30% were less. (6) Alpha and CFA estimation components did not provide comparable item-level information; thus, alpha and CFA plans for characterizing and improving scales differed. (7) IRT-Rasch and IRT-Unfolding estimation components did not provide comparable person-measure information, thereby informing observed differences in IRT-based estimates. (8) Sample size had an effect on CFA estimation: samples of N = 50 achieved highest estimates; samples of N = 500 best reproduced original estimates and components. (9) Modeling error via CFA made meaningful contributions to understanding scale functioning. (10) ANOVA findings were potentially modifiable (e.g., effect sizes), considering obtained reliability estimates. Conclusion. Reliability estimates have group, measure, and model-dependencies that influence the size and nature of obtained estimates and must be accounted for when estimates are interpreted.

Across the globe, governments, private business and industry are implementing international economic integration, thus altering economic, cultural, and educational contexts within nation-states. Public higher education institutions are linked to globalization for the following reasons. (1) it provides research essential to the development of global products; (2) it has historically served as a primary creator and transmitter of national culture (simultaneously with maintaining national identity), and currently (3) it may play a central role in educating professional workers for a global economy, world consumers of global products, and citizens of a global culture. This study is a comparison of two case studies in a cross-national investigation of curriculum creation, maintenance and alteration within processes of globalization between 1990--2000. I used mixed methods: analysis of descriptive statistics, interviews, texts and observation data, to explore change in two professional education curricula (Primary Teacher Education and Finance units of Business Colleges). I selected two institutions, the University of Arizona, in America, and the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, in Mexico. I draw primarily on two bodies of theory: (1) globalization theory, and (2) curriculum theory. The major research questions, are as follows. (1) What is the scope of change in curriculum and course content? (2) Who or what, internally and externally, is involved in changing the content of academic programs and courses? (3) Who or what, internally and externally, is involved in changing the content of courses and curriculum? What are the associated mechanisms used to effect change? I intend to contribute empirical evidence to ongoing dialogues among legislators, professors and administrators, parents and students, and other stakeholders, about the relevance and purpose of higher education within the context of globalization. Curriculum at these sites has changed, from 1990-2000, and is a site of contention in all four departments. Finance is sustained by greater connections to actors and forces in the private sector, and Teacher Education is sustained by greater connections to actors and forces in the public sector, and overall, professional academic degree programs and curricula are accountable to actors and forces seeking to influence them.

This dissertation presents a qualitative study examining faculty reactions to globalization and NAFTA in selected engineering departments in a Northern Mexican urban area. The dissertation provides an overview of the history of engineer training in Mexico, and how past presidential administrations' policies affected engineer training. The literature review also provides an overview of the theories utilized in the analysis of the data. The theoretical perspective of World System Theory as presented by Wallerstein, and Dependency Theory in Higher Education as presented by Altbach were the two primary theories utilized along with other theoretical perspectives that pertain to globalization. Mexican writers such as Gonzalez Sousa and Louvier Calderon, were presented as two varied perspectives of resistance to globalization. Faculty members from three universities were interviewed regarding issues of influence from core nations on the instructional and training activities in their departments. The perceptions of faculty members were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed. Major themes emerged regarding issues of international influence on local industry and business that in turn affected these departments, the use of academic resources from other countries, and resistance to globalization on the part of these faculty members.

This study examines the relationship between levels of state appropriations and voluntary support at public colleges and universities. It first describes levels of state appropriations and voluntary support at public institutions for the period of 1993-2001. Changes over time and differences across institution types are highlighted. Additional analyses breaks down the figures into the sources (alumni, other individuals, corporations, and foundations) and the form (restricted or unrestricted) of voluntary support. Using ordinary least squares regression (OLS) and fixed effects regression techniques, this study then investigates how changes in state appropriations are related to private philanthropic giving to state supported institutions of higher education. This study uncovers the changes in form, source, and magnitude of voluntary support to public higher education resulting from changes in state appropriations. The study also examines whether these relationships differ by institutional competitiveness or Carnegie classification. The results of this study have important implications for higher education policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. Most important, the results suggest that donations to public universities are positively related to changes in state appropriations. That is, donors seem to be willing to support public universities if state appropriations increase; however, donors do not seem to be willing to replace reductions in state appropriations. Additionally, the results of this study reveal that disparities in voluntary support to public universities are a function of institutional complexity and prestige. Finally, the results of this study provide evidence that donations to public universities are typically restricted in nature. Consequently, the results herein provide no evidence that suggests that increases in voluntary support to public universities are replacing state appropriations or that public universities are "privatizing."

Using a mixed methods approach, this study examines the role of higher education professional associations in the academy-industry relationship. A quantitative analysis of the interorganizational field and a case-study of a single higher education association are used to test a new model of "intermediating organizations." Intermediating organizations are entities situated between the state, market, and higher education system. Intermediating organizations, usually non-profit in classification, are characterized by a high degree of corporate involvement and the ability and proclivity to span and challenge public/private boundaries. Three transactional processes are associated with intermediating organizations: the flow of actors, the flow of resources (knowledge, money, prestige), and the flow of commerce. The model contributes to the field of interorganizational networks, and is useful to other areas of organizational studies. Further, the study helps to re-define the university-industry relationship and to understand the formation of ties between higher education and corporations.

Higher education, like many large institutions, has integrated technology into many aspects of its daily operations. As a result, many policies and resultant enforcement procedures have been put into place. The question arises as to the privacy of the students' actions online. To what degree monitoring of the network is occurring is of great interest. In addition, what is happening outside the university in the law related to online privacy may provide a window into the level of privacy afforded to students utilizing the campus network. This exploratory case study attempts to integrate four perspectives on online privacy: the law, policy, administrative, and student perspectives. It is expected that over time, privacy online has decreased within the law and on campuses, while the interests of the state and university administrations have taken precedence over individual privacy online. In addition, it is expected that student and administrative perspectives will favor increased individual privacy online. The implications of this study are far reaching, as the area of privacy online is continuously emerging.

The overall purpose of this study has been to examine how international patterns of neo-liberalism and rationalization have contributed to changes in higher education policy in Norway in the 1990s and explore how these changes have been experienced and enacted among faculty and students in different fields and institutions. The study is informed by several social science theories, particularly Max Weber's ideas of rationalization and modern extensions of this theory to modern phenomena, neo-liberal political theory, process theories of professionalization, and postmodern perspectives emphasizing the role of consumers and consumption in contemporary society. Empirically, the study is based on a structured qualitative research design. Data collection methods consisted of interviews with faculty and students and analysis of public policy texts. The main conclusion in the study is that two contradictory forces influence Norwegian higher education: rationalization processes emphasizing efficiency, control, standardization and predictability, and an increasing dominance of neo-liberal market ideology in public administration requiring more room for ambitious institutions to develop new capacities and engage in entrepreneurial activities. The study suggests that Norway is struggling to find a "third way" in the space between these two forces, but that social democratic rationalization processes and state dependence still dominate higher education in Norway. The structure of faculty work is changing, but contrary to the development in many other countries Norwegian faculty are more concerned about being increasingly managed than pressured to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Reduced professional autonomy and increased intensification of academic work have resulted in rational organizational behavior in which faculty pursue their individual goals and implement pragmatic coping strategies to reach calculated rewards. Norwegian students are becoming increasingly consumer-driven actors concerned with freedom in pursuing their academic interests, flexibility and useful education. They are generally very satisfied with their existence as students, but are often disengaged from their studies. Being a student is for many only one among several identities, often not the most important.

New student affairs professionals encounter a myriad of socialization challenges as they undergo both graduate and professional socialization and organizational socialization. More often than not, these environments are socializing new student affairs professionals in ways that are incongruent and perhaps even oppositional. Layered on top of these general socialization tensions is the emergence and encroachment of academic capitalism into student affairs professional environments. For the purpose of this dissertation, the term Market Effect with be utilized in place of academic capitalism to depict how academic capitalism has manifested itself in the student affairs profession. This case study of four college student personnel programs seeks to understand how new student affairs professionals make sense of and resolve socialization tensions in professional environments and the extent to which these socialization tensions are created by the marketization of the student affairs profession. The literatures drawn upon in this study include, the sociology of professions and professionalization, professional socialization and education, student affairs history and professional ideology, and academic capitalism and the marketization of student affairs. Implications and recommendations are made in the final chapter.