Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of (the qualification as per the PG2 form), Human Resource Management, Durban, University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / This study evaluated the effect of government expenditure on education attainment in South Africa by assessing the effect of the amount spent by government on education from 1980 to 2014 on human capital development. The study is centred around two objectives: (1) to analyse the effect of government expenditure on education attainment; and (2) to investigate the effect of education attainment on human development. Human capital development was measured using Gross Enrolment Ratio for secondary school, supplied by the South African Reserve Bank. Data on government expenditure on human capital was acquired from the Treasury database. The study draws from the human capital theoretical framework in explaining the effect of education expenditure on human capital development. The findings of the study showed that there is a positive relationship between human capital development and government expenditure. These findings showed a strong relationship between government expenditure and gross enrolment ratio at 99 % confidence interval (p< 0,0001). The theory of human capital is thus confirmed with these findings. / M

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Margaret G. Shroyer / The goal of this research study was to identify the factors that influence community college students’ educational attainment as future teachers. In this naturalistic case study, three forms of data collection were used to answer the research question: 1) documents and reports; 2) student surveys; and 3) student interviews. The case for this study was the teacher preparation program at a mid-sized community college, Butler Community College (Butler), in El Dorado, Kansas. The population of the study included 83 elementary education majors enrolled in the teacher preparation program at the community college. Document and report analysis provided a detailed description of the teacher preparation program at Butler Community College, to include Butler’s role in teacher education. Survey analysis provided a demographic profile of the research population, as well as the barrier and support factors that influenced the educational attainment of these elementary education students. Interviews were conducted with a select group from the population (22 students) who had completed all of the education courses at Butler Community College and were ready to transfer to a four-year teacher education program. Interview analysis provided a detailed demographic profile of participants, as well as a more detailed description of the specific barriers and supports elementary education students experienced while attending Butler. The barriers and support factors were categorized as: 1) institutional barriers or supports; 2) instructional barriers or supports; and 3) personal barriers or supports. The greatest barriers students experienced were personal barriers, such as time management and financial issues. The major institutional barrier was lack of staff support, primarily advising support. Instructional barriers, such as the irrelevance of general education curriculum or problems with a specific course curriculum, were only minor barriers for students. The greatest overall support students experienced at the community college was in the form of instructional support, both faculty support and practical education coursework with accompanying field experiences. The major institutional support was staff support, namely, advising. Family support was cited as the major personal support.

This thesis explores the implications of cultural resources for educational attainment and socioeconomic progression among Caribbeans in Britain - one of Britain's most disadvantaged [social] ethnic groups - since the 1940s. More specifically, it offers, first, a review of Caribbeans’ experiences in education and socioeconomic domains in Britain, as have been researched throughout the decades since the World Wars, and explores, second, how cultural resources through which Caribbeans understand their social world and mediate their experiences therein impact upon their educational attainment and socioeconomic progression. Cultural resources, as implied in studies undertaken by DeGraaf (1986; 1989; 2000) in the Netherlands, are acquired in settings such as the family and schools in which individuals are socialised, i.e., learn their culture and how to live in their social world. These settings are held to be influenced by cultural and societal factors that are interrelated and are, in effect, sociocultural (Wertsch, 1994; 1995). Such settings are posited in this thesis as vital to understanding Caribbeans’ educational and socioeconomic outcomes. This is demonstrated through adopting a sociocultural approach from which analyses was undertaken into the experiences of ten families of three generations and ten individuals - all of Caribbean descent - who participated in a quasi-ethnographic inquiry that formed the empirical part of the study. The participants had a range of educational, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, which characterised a purposive sample that they formed. Their accounts of their experiences, which were the source from which inferences about their educational attainment, socioeconomic progression, and cultural resources are made, were elicited through ethnographic interviews, participant observations, and researcher’s diaries, and are presented in this thesis as family case study analyses and sociocultural settings analyses. The inquiry revealed that the participants across the whole sample were socialised in a key set of sociocultural settings that were identified in their accounts of their experiences as family, community, religion, education, and occupation. In-depth interrogation of patterns in their lived experiences in these settings revealed that their socialisation processes were diverse and, consequently, reflected in diversity in their acquisition and usage of a common set of cultural resources that were discovered and, through analyses, reified as familial influence, community orientation, religiosity, familiarity with formal education processes, and occupational aspiration. Diversity in their acquisition and usage of these resources in the various settings reflected in diverse patterns of educational and socioeconomic outcomes across the three generations. However, two distinct patterns are herein defined and discussed as a ‘trajectory of advancement’ and a ‘trajectory of urgency’. The former characterises the outcomes of participants who had attained educationally and progressed in socioeconomic terms across generations in their family, and the latter characterises the outcomes of participants who had not attained educationally and remained disadvantaged in socioeconomic terms across generations in their family. These findings are tentative, but they suggest, nonetheless, that cultural resources are salient in shaping Caribbeans’ educational and socioeconomic outcomes. Such findings are significant in that they interrupt the ways that Caribbeans’ experiences and outcomes in education and socioeconomic domains have been understood historically and, at the same time, offer the sociocultural approach as another way from which to understand these experiences and outcomes. In addition, the sociocultural approach from which these finding are derived and the concept of cultural resources are introduced, in this thesis, in an understanding of patterns of educational and socioeconomic outcomes that persist across generations. This understanding, it is herein suggested, is crucial to any debate surrounding persistently low achievement in education and socioeconomic domains among social groups - particularly among groups such as Caribbeans that are disadvantaged in education and socioeconomic domains.

Les différences de genre quant à l’exposition et l’impact d’événements de vie stressants contribuent à expliquer la prévalence différentielle de difficultés d’adaptation comme la dépression ou les problèmes extériorisés. Cette recherche vise à déterminer si de tels processus différentiels s’appliquent également à une autre dimension clé de l’inadaptation des adolescents, soit le décrochage scolaire. Pour ce faire, les événements de vie stressants ont été évalués auprès d’un échantillon d’adolescents âgés de 14 à 18 ans (N= 545, 52 % de garçons), recruté suivant un devis à cas témoins appariés et divisé en trois catégories : 1) des élèves ayant récemment abandonné leurs études; 2) des élèves appariés résilients et 3) des élèves normatifs. Lorsque tous les types d’événements stressants étaient considérés simultanément, l’exposition globale, de même que le lien entre cette exposition et le décrochage scolaire, était similaire pour les adolescents et adolescentes. Toutefois, des différences entre les genres ont émergé pour certains types spécifiques d’événements, les garçons étant particulièrement exposés aux événements en lien avec la performance (échec scolaire, suspension) et les conflits avec des figures d’autorité (enseignants, police), alors que les filles étaient particulièrement exposées à ceux impliquant des problèmes relationnels avec des membres de la famille, des pairs ou des partenaires amoureux. Une association spécifique aux garçons a également été observée entre les événements de vie stressants liés à la performance et aux conflits avec les figures d’autorité. Les implications théoriques et pratiques de ces résultats sont abordées en discussion. / Gender differences in exposure and reactivity to stressful life events contribute to explain adolescent girls’ and boys’ differential sensitivity regarding adjustment difficulties like depression or behavioral problems. However, few studies focus on stressful life events in relation to school dropout and even fewer studies analyze this link considering gender differences in adolescence. This research aims to fill this gap. For this purpose, individual interviews were conducted to assess stressful life events in a sample of academically vulnerable adolescents between the age of 14 and 18 years old (N= 545, 52% boys). This sample included three different groups of participants: 1) students who had recently dropped out of high school, 2) matched students at risk, that were persevering in school and 3) normative students. Global exposure was the same for boys and girls, when all the types of stressful life events were considered as a whole. However, gender differences emerged for specific stressful life events, with boys being more exposed to stressful life events related to performance (e.g., school failure, suspension) and conflicts with authority figures (e.g., teachers, police officers), and girls with stressful life events involving relational conflicts with family, peers and romantic partners. Moreover, stressful life events related to performance and conflicts with authority figures were significantly associated with dropout only for boys. It thus appears important to take into account those gender differences in order to better understand the unfolding of school difficulties that can lead to serious mental health and well-being issues later in their life.

South Africa is experiencing a financial skills shortage with a severe shortage of accountants and chartered accountants in particular. The aim of this study was to measure accessibility of public higher education in South Africa, in general and specifically relating to accountancy programmes with special emphasis on chartered accountancy programmes in South Africa, by making use of selected accessibility indicators. Although some of these indicators have been used to measure accessibility of higher education in general both locally and internationally, they are not often used to measure accessibility of a programme for a particular profession such as accountancy or chartered accountancy. This study aimed to fill this gap by measuring the selected accessibility indicators and providing subsequent rankings of the four public universities selected for this study. The results can be used by institutions that offer accountancy and chartered accountancy programmes as well as the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, as the profession’s Education and Training Quality Assurance body, to evaluate the accessibility of accountancy as well as chartered accountancy programmes. / Financial Accounting / M. Compt. (Applied Accountancy)

Determining the effects of military service on those who volunteer is of vital importance in an age when service may lead to the loss of bodily function or life. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of military service with consideration for the demographic statuses of race, gender, and educational attainment on economic outcomes. Data for this study came from the Current Population Survey July 2010 with Veterans Supplement (N=83,000). Results from this study suggest that some veterans, namely those of minority racial status and lower educational attainment benefit from their military serve by achieving increased levels of household income as compared to similar non-veterans. Conversely, non-Hispanic White veterans and those with higher levels of educational attainment suffer negative consequences to levels of household income. Furthermore, differences among veterans were assessed. These results provide further insight into the experiences of veterans in the United States.

South Africa is experiencing a financial skills shortage with a severe shortage of accountants and chartered accountants in particular. The aim of this study was to measure accessibility of public higher education in South Africa, in general and specifically relating to accountancy programmes with special emphasis on chartered accountancy programmes in South Africa, by making use of selected accessibility indicators. Although some of these indicators have been used to measure accessibility of higher education in general both locally and internationally, they are not often used to measure accessibility of a programme for a particular profession such as accountancy or chartered accountancy. This study aimed to fill this gap by measuring the selected accessibility indicators and providing subsequent rankings of the four public universities selected for this study. The results can be used by institutions that offer accountancy and chartered accountancy programmes as well as the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, as the profession’s Education and Training Quality Assurance body, to evaluate the accessibility of accountancy as well as chartered accountancy programmes. / Financial Accounting / M. Compt. (Applied Accountancy)

This thesis explores the entire cycle of education, from initial access to schooling, over degree completion, to returns to education. Despite recent gains in increasing access, an tens of millions of children worldwide are still out of school. Abolishing school fees has increased enrollment rates in several countries where enrollments were low and fees were high. However, such policies may be less effective, or even have negative consequences, when supply-side responses are weak. The first part of the thesis evaluates the impacts of a tuition waiver program in Haiti, which provided public financing to nonpublic schools conditional on not charging tuition. The chapter concludes that school's participation in the program results in more students enrolled, more staff, and slightly higher student-teacher ratios. The program also reduces grade repetition and the share of overage students. While the increase in students does not directly equate to a reduction in the number of children out of school, it does demonstrate strong demand from families for the program and a correspondingly strong supply response from the nonpublic sector.Pertaining degree completion, it is well established that natural disasters can have a negative effect on human capital accumulation. However, a comparison of the differential impacts of distinct disaster classes is missing. Using census data and information from DesInventar and EMDAT, two large disaster databases, the second part of the thesis assesses how geological disasters and climatic shocks affect the upper secondary degree attainment of adolescents. The chapter focuses on Mexico, given its diverse disaster landscape and lack of obligatory upper secondary education over the observed time period. While all disaster types are found to impede attainment, climatic disasters that are not infrastructure-destructive (e.g. droughts) have the strongest negative effect, decreasing educational expansion by over 40%. The effects seem largely driven by demand-side changes such as increases in school dropouts and fertility, especially for young women. The results may also be influenced by deteriorated parental labor market outcomes. Supply-side effects appear to be solely driven by infrastructure-destructive climatic shocks (e.g. floods). These findings thus call for differential public measures according to specific disaster types and an enhanced attention to climatic events given their potentially stronger impact on younger generations.It is also widely appreciated that natural disasters can have negative impacts on local labor market outcomes. However, the study of differential types of negative capital shocks, the underlying labor market mechanisms, and the context of the poorest countries have been neglected. Following testable predictions of economic theory, the third part of the thesis exploits the exogenous variation of destruction of human and physical capital caused by the 2010 Haiti earthquake to disentangle the differential impact on local individual monetary returns to education. Employing individual-level survey data from before and after the earthquake the chapter finds that the returns decreased on average by 37%, especially in equipment-capital intensive industry. Higher educated individuals adjust into low-paying self-employment or agriculture. The returns are particularly shock-sensitive for urban residents, migrants, males, and people over age 25. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Dans cette étude, j’examine la propension à former une union interethnique parmi les Canadiens arabes de seconde génération et de génération 1.5 en utilisant les données du recensement canadien de 2016. L’analyse descriptive montre que les unions interethniques sont fréquentes au sein de cette population. Environ la moitié des hommes (56%) et des femmes (49%) sont dans une union interethnique avec une personne non-Arabe d’origine immigrante ou un(e) Canadien(ne) de troisième génération ou des générations suivantes. La régression logistique multinomiale révèle que les hommes et les femmes avec un niveau d’éducation plus élevé, une ascendance partiellement arabe et un statut d’immigrant de deuxième génération sont significativement plus enclins à être en union interethnique qu’à être en union intraethnique avec un immigrant de première génération. Conformément à la théorie de l’assimilation segmentée, ces résultats suggèrent que l’intégration socioéconomique et l’acculturation contribuent à la propension des descendants arabes à former des unions avec des individus non-arabes. La propension des descendants arabes à être en union intraethnique avec des immigrants de première génération ou des descendants est aussi une problématique dont je discute. / In this study, I examine the propensity to form interethnic unions among the 1.5 and second generations of Arab Canadians using the 2016 Canadian census data. The descriptive analysis shows that interethnic unions are common within this population. About half the men (56%) and the women (49%) are in an interethnic union with a non-Arab person with an immigrant background or a Canadian of third generation or subsequent generations. The multinomial logistic regression reveals that men and women with higher educational attainment, part Arab ancestry and second-generation immigrant status are significantly more prone to be in an interethnic union than in an intraethnic union with a first-generation immigrant. In accordance with the segmented assimilation theory, these results suggest that socioeconomic integration and acculturation contribute to the propensity of Arab descendants to form unions with non-Arab individuals. The propensity of Arab descendants to be in intraethnic unions with first generation-immigrants or with descendants of immigrants (1.5 and second generations) is also discussed in this thesis.

This quasi-experimental study explored African American student's sense of belonging (SOBE), academic self-efficacy (ASE), parents' educational attainment (PEA), and academic success (GPA) at historically Black colleges and universities and predominantly white institutions. The purpose of the present study measured how the factors influenced the rate of persistence to see how colleges and universities could assist to retain African American students in the pursuit of full matriculation through an independent samples t-test, multiple regression analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling with the results from methods such as item parceling, factor scoring, and sum scoring being compared. Results indicated that the second-order SEM, item parceling, and factor score regression approaches were found to have consistent results in terms of significant predictors. Parental educational attainment was found to not have an effect on academic achievement or collegiate persistence, but sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy were found to be significant predictors of GPA and CP with ASE being the strongest indicator for collegiate persistence and academic achievement. Implications for future research suggest additional schools be included and higher education institutions should seek further assessment to ensure their African American students feel included in an effort to increase overall persistence amongst African American students.