<p>A teacher?s working conditions can affect his or her performance, satisfaction, how long he or she stays at a particular school site, and how long he or she stays in the profession. In order to attract and retain highly qualified teachers, working conditions need to be as optimal as possible. As demands placed upon teachers continue to increase, more needs to be studied about what constitutes optimal working conditions. The purpose of this hermeneutic, phenomenological study was to investigate the working conditions and professional beliefs of eight Southern California secondary (6th-12th grade) school teachers who had two years of teaching experience in the same content area or grade level in both a public school and a district charter school, with at least five years of consecutive full-time teaching experience, to learn more about what constituted ideal working conditions for secondary teachers. More specifically, this study, via in-depth individual interviews, invited participants to (a) describe the work conditions they experienced in a traditional setting, (b) describe the work conditions they experienced in a charter setting, (c) compare the traditional and charter school work conditions that they experienced, and (d) describe what they believe to be the ideal school work conditions for secondary teachers. This study had three conclusions related to working conditions in both traditional public and district charter secondary school settings. The first was that teaching at the secondary level is professionally challenging, in all types of environments. The second was that teachers prefer a blend of traditional public and district charter school environments. The last was that teachers like to have autonomy with opportunities to collaborate and build relationships with colleagues.

<p> Throughout the nation, teacher unions are under fire. Their popularity in recent polls shows Americans see teacher unions as a negative influence on public schools; however, the polls also indicate Millennials express favorable opinions of and support for unions.</p><p> The primary objective of this quantitative study was to examine Millennial teachers' perceptions of the California Teachers Association (CTA) and their local unions. Using surveys, interviews, and document analysis from union leaders representing multiple school districts in Orange County, California, this study explored views of their profession, education reform, union leadership, and the role of the union in representing Millennial teachers. Once data was collected, themes were illuminated to identify common perceptions among the participants to determine the future of teacher unions in California.</p><p> Findings from the study suggest that Millennials' views on wages, benefits, and working conditions are not contradictory to those held by veteran colleagues. However, Millennials recommend a more inviting approach to generate more Millennial involvement in teacher unions. Finally, Millennials suggest the status quo change to be more open to reform and flexibility in teacher evaluations, tenure, and the traditional workday. This study provided data that suggests that Millennials' perceptions of the function of the union are that it should continue to play its historical and traditional roles of negotiating contracts and protecting working conditions, but as union membership changes the perceptions of union members have moved into the 21st century.</p>

<p> Collegiate secret societies, as distinguished from Greek-letter fraternal organizations, enjoyed prominence within many American campus communities from the early nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century (Baird, 1879; Hitchcock, 1863; Slosson, 1910; Veysey, 1965). The establishment of these elite groups preceded the maturation of university administrative structures responsible for managing students&rsquo; extracurricular life, as well as the mass democratization of American higher education which occurred after World War II (Rudolph, 1990; Cohen, 2010). The presence of prestigious secret societies is documented and celebrated in college yearbooks and newspapers, reflecting a period in higher education's past when the hegemony of the white, male prevailed in student culture and fostered the composite ideal of the &ldquo;Big Man on Campus&rdquo; (&ldquo;B.M.O.C.&rdquo;) &ndash; the handsome varsity athlete, fraternity man, and club president destined for success in American public life.</p><p> Although collegiate secret societies &ldquo;disappeared&rdquo; on many campuses in the Civil Rights Era amidst accusations of elitism and reactions against established white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant norms, their legacy lingers into the twenty-first century, along with many unanswered questions about their historical role as a source of student power on campus. Their roots can be traced to the prestigious all-male boarding schools of the Northeastern United States in the late nineteenth century where patterns of upper-class masculine socialization developed. Due to a dearth of historical research on this topic, however, institutional leaders are challenged to understand the origins, purpose, and legacy of this type of student association that still holds meaning for students and other stakeholders in some campus communities. </p><p> This study utilized critical social theory from Bourdieu and Gramsci and the emerging scholarship of whiteness studies to provide an historical analysis of the rise and fall of the Order of Red Friars senior class secret society that was active at Duke University (Trinity College prior to 1924) between 1913 and 1971. Student leaders who manifested the &ldquo;B.M.O.C.&rdquo; ideal were tapped for membership in this group and collaborated with presidents, trustees, administrators, and select faculty on an agenda for student life (Durden, 1993). Utilizing archival research methods and oral history interviews, I was able to explore the involvement of the Order of Red Friars in the administration of student affairs at Duke University for sixty years during the twentieth century. This study provided basic knowledge about the phenomenon of the collegiate secret society and a deeper understanding of the cultural hegemony from which they emerged that continues to influence campus cultures today.</p><p> The history of American higher education literature documents how faculty discarded their <i>in loco parentis</i> responsibilities for managing student behavior as their field professionalized in the late nineteenth century (Rudolph, 1990; Thelin, 2011; Veysey, 1965) and how specialization of the student affairs profession coalesced four decades later in the 1930s (ACE, 1937; Biddix &amp; Schwartz, 2012; Lloyd-Jones, 1934; Schwartz, 2003). Yet, the historical role of students in the campus power structure of the early twentieth century, and particularly their role in sustaining their extracurricular affairs during this period, has been largely unexamined. This study addresses the gap that exists in the history of higher education literature about collegiate culture in the early twentieth century in the South, as well as the phenomenon of the collegiate secret society as a source of power on campus. (Thelin, 1982; Veysey, 1965).</p>

<p> The Emergency Immigrant Education Act of 1984 (EIEA) was passed by the 98th U.S. Congress to provide funds to states to "meet the costs of providing immigrant children supplementary educational services" (Emergency Immigrant Education Act of 1984, Title VI, Sec. 607). This study analyzes the culture, values, and political context in which the Emergency Immigrant Education Act of 1984 was developed, passed, and amended through its most recent reauthorization. EIEA is the only federal legislation that specifically targets new immigrant students. However, EIEA has been largely overlooked by education policy analysts, because new immigrant students are rarely considered as different from limited English proficient (LEP) students. The study employs historical document and content analysis, applying Kingdon's (2011) theoretical framework of agenda-setting and Manna's (2006) concept of borrowing strength to explain EIEA's path to the agenda. In addition, it applies McDonnell and Elmore's (1987) policy framework to EIEA to understand how policymakers sought to realize EIEA's goals, as well as that of Wirt, Mitchell, and Marshall (1988) to identify the cultural and political values revealed in the rhetoric of the legislation. In tracing EIEA's 30-year route, I describe how the nature of the legislation changed from a primarily capacity-building policy to more of an inducement. In addition, the study revealed a change in an egalitarian culture to one that emphasizes quality.</p>

<p> Whether in slavery or in freedom, African Americans understood the important role education played in their quest towards citizenship. As enslaved people, they risked their lives to learn to read and write so they would be prepared when freedom came their way. As free people, they continued to strive for an education that would move them beyond their prescribed station in life. Throughout the history of African Americans, they actively pursued their educational aspirations instead of patiently waiting for them to be granted. </p><p> The research associated with educational agency before and after the Civil War provides some insight into the ways African Americans worked towards liberation. From paying for their own teachers to building their own schools, African Americans are primary players in the narrative of educational advancements in the South. These stories of agency are in direct contrast to the stories of Northern philanthropists being responsible for African American education in the Southern states. Many of these narratives of African American agency are relatively new to the field and don't take into account border states such as Missouri. </p><p> This dissertation looks at African American educational agency in St. Louis, Missouri, a city in a state that was North enough to be in the Union, but South enough to permit slavery. Because of this dichotomy of ideology, Missouri is usually left out of discussions on issues of race and education because it did not neatly fit into a geographical region. Instead of asking how and why Missouri fit into the national narrative of African American education, such questions were merely a footnote, if they were mentioned at all. </p><p> Instead of viewing the duality of Missouri's state identity as something to be ignored, this dissertation views it as a challenge to propel the story of African American educational agency in St. Louis to center stage. Starting with the creation of an African American school board in the 1860s through the construction of Vashon High School in 1927, the story of African American agency is told through the lens of the citizens' councils that were organized to advocate for educational advancement. The men who comprised the citizens' councils worked tirelessly to insure that the educational dreams of former enslaved people were realized generation after generation.</p>

<p> Many studies have examined private higher education in China as a roughly whole since 1978, or treated the most significant sector of China&rsquo;s private higher education system, the independent college, as a transient phenomenon, while its development has led to a constant progression of private higher education since the late 1990s. This paper adopted the theory of institutional isomorphism and explored how intertwined coercive, mimetic, and normative forces rooted in a dynamic socioeconomic, political, and cultural context shaped the evolution of the independent college in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in China from 1999 to 2005. The study amplified the progression of the independent college as well as private higher education through a systematic lens, and provided profound examination of this complex social progress that pulled and pushed this evolution of the independent college.</p><p>

<p> Racial disparities have been, and continue to be, a major obstacle facing post-secondary educational institutions throughout the United States. In response to the call for institutional and external accountability by stakeholders interested in higher education, the aim of this dissertation is to provide an historical analysis of race and diversity at the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB). UCB was chosen as the focus for the current study because it is the flagship public university in the state of Colorado and is recognized as such by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). In order to relay the history of UCB accurately, a wide variety of sources are utilized, some published and others unpublished, including information obtained from the university's archives. Data collected in this study provide evidence of the lower college admission, retention, and graduation rates of minority (African American and Hispanic) students when compared to White and Asian students at the University of Colorado Boulder. Factors that contribute to the success of minority students on college campuses in general provide a starting point from which efforts being made to rectify the racial disparities present today at UCB can be assessed and analyzed in hopes of creating a campus environment to which minority students are attracted, admitted, retained, and graduated. As the higher education community of scholars continues to embrace the crucial role of diversity on college campuses and as the use of race-conscious educational policy continues to be threatened, this study highlights the role universities play in the larger debate. As UCB has historically struggled to attract, retain, and graduate students of color, I expect that a thorough examination of the data included here will inspire educational stakeholders to find new ways to provide new opportunities for educational advancement for minorities and seek to erase all evidence of a racial achievement gap into the future.</p>