Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2006 / "Publication number AAT 3240442. "

<p> Incivility has infiltrated our institutions of higher learning as well as the world of nursing. All too familiar in nursing is the phrase &ldquo;eating their young,&rdquo; which aptly describes how nurses treat other nurses, even though they should be nurturing and caring professionals. The investigator explored nursing and health science students&rsquo; perceptions of student and faculty uncivil behaviors within the academic environment, seeking the levels and frequency of the problem. Bandura&rsquo;s social learning theory presents a sound theoretical framework for this dissertation. The research methodology consisted of a quantitative descriptive approach. The Incivility in Higher Education-Revised (IHE-R) Survey was used to compare nursing and health science student perceptions of the level and frequency of student and faculty incivility. Descriptive statistics and independent t tests were used to compare the different student perceptions. The study results indicated that perceptions of student behavioral levels were between <i>somewhat </i> and <i>moderately</i> uncivil. Student perceptions of faculty behavioral levels were found to be more <i>moderate</i>. Review of the frequency levels reflected students&rsquo; frequencies to be <i> never</i> as compared with faculty, which indicated a frequency of <i> sometimes</i>. These results indicated that students perceived incivility to not be problematic within their individual programs, although it found faculty behavior levels were more uncivil even when similar behaviors were demonstrated by students. In general, these results were atypical than other results as incivility is found to be a rising problem. Further study is needed to confirm these results. </p><p>

<p> Largely because it puts higher education within reach for all people, the community college is thought to play a vital role in the democratic functioning of American society. Partly driven by an ethos of American egalitarianism, low-cost and open access community colleges enroll, train, and educate nearly anyone who aspires to higher education. For low-income and first-generation college students, the community college serves as a primary vehicle for social mobility. Problems associated with low retention and graduation rates have lowered the public perception of community colleges and threaten to exacerbate growing concerns over income and wealth inequality in America. Therefore, it becomes important for policy analysts to explore and better understand the nature of community colleges in an effort to create improvement strategies. </p><p> This qualitative study seeks to understand the community college experience from the perspective of low-income, first generation students. It asked first year students about their background experiences and analyzed how those experiences shaped their transition to the first year of college. It also asked how low-income, first generation students perceived the community college in order to understand how students evaluate it and define its purpose. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to make sense of student experiences and to give voice to community college students who, as a studied population, receive far less attention than students at four-year colleges. </p><p> This study finds that low-income, first generation community college students lived experience includes managing class-based disadvantages; this made navigating their first year of community college challenging. Students had come to the community college expecting to learn skills that would help them to form new professional identities so that they could begin transforming their lives, making it possible to ascend the socio-economic ladder. In order to succeed in this new environment, students had to learn and adapt to a new set of social norms and expectations that the institution uses to socialize its students. Based upon the analysis of student experiences and perceptions, this study makes six recommendations to help improve student success which may lead to improved public perception and funding for community colleges. </p><p>

<p> In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for academic health centers (AHCs) to adapt and change through collaboration between their many separate groups of healthcare professionals. Research on collaboration in healthcare organizations to date has concentrated on how collaboration impacts patient care and organizational efficiency. Research has not focused on whether collaboration among healthcare professionals, influences learning for individuals or the organization. Socio-cultural learning theory, which takes into account the individual, the organization and the larger system, emphasizes that &ldquo;collaborative learning&rdquo; is an important component of the learning process. It also emphasizes that problem solving facilitates the development of insights and solutions. On this basis, the link between collaboration and learning needs to be explored. This research focused on exploring the association between collaboration and learning as perceived by clinician educators and other healthcare professionals with whom they have collaborated in AHCs. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 healthcare professionals who had participated in collaborative activities in the past 18 months, and who had familiarity with relational coordination (RC) as a framework for collaboration. Interview questions elicited interviewee descriptions of positive and challenging collaboration experiences. Data were analyzed using an inductive analysis approach and coded to identify implicit and explicit learning outcomes from those experiences. Findings indicated that all participants had extensive experience of informal collaboration with professional colleagues and learning resulting from their collaboration experiences. Four categories of learning outcomes were identified; process and quality improvement, professional relationships with colleagues, emotional awareness, and growth in technical and adaptive knowledge and skills. The majority of learning outcomes in each of the four categories were implicit, indicating that participants did not recognize the learning that was occurring through their participation in collaborative activities. Learning appears as a currently invisible outcome of collaboration as described by the participants in this study. Further research is needed to determine the potential value of the learning for the individual and the institution.</p><p>

<p> Hybrid High School education is a disruptive innovation that has begun to replace traditional brick and mortar schools for many students world-wide. In addition to a traditional school model are the traditional metrics by which schools are compared. These metrics have been achievement data, success rates, and funding analyses. These metrics do not account for the lived experience of the high school students, in the same way that the traditional model of education does not account for the changing methods available for learning. This study is a phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of high school students who have attended hybrid educational programs. These programs utilize the digital advances available for learning by offering at least half of their curriculum online, while maintaining face to face instruction during the rest of curricular time. The premise of this study is that high school provides an <i>ethos</i>, or manifested culture, for each student served. The questions used in nine interviews to understand this ethos were created using research in the area of adolescent life satisfaction. The research resulted in focus areas to be discussed: autonomy, engagement, social capital, and community connectedness. Participants in this study age 18&ndash;20 recently graduated from four years attending a hybrid program. The participants were introspective and detailed in their explanations of life experiences during their time in hybrid programs, and how their ethos was shaped by experiences in each of the areas of life satisfaction listed above. The interview analyses led to four conclusions regarding hybrid high school student life. First, the hybrid program graduates interviewed have a rich sense of community. These communities vary and most are members of multiple communities. All feel a sense of belonging and are connected to groups beyond family. Second, the hybrid program graduates are highly self-reliant. Participants pointed out that they have relationships with people who are supportive, but that they are independently responsible for overcoming life&rsquo;s obstacles. Third, these conclusions are intended to influence design of future innovational programs. Finally, the hybrid high school did serve as a disruptive innovation which had clear benefits for the adolescents participating. This study, in combination with additional studies focusing on specific program elements, could result in quality innovative programs that meet the needs of a changing adolescent population.</p><p>

<p> Between the months of October, 2013 and July, 2014, United States Customs Border protection reported that an estimated 63,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the United States. border, 75% of which came from Central America, specifically Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala (Renwick, 2014). These Central American youth are being pushed out of their home countries due to high levels of violence and poverty that has been caused by gangs and suffering economies. At the same time, they are being pulled into the U.S. to reunite with family, especially parents, many of who migrated to the U.S. during times of war in their home countries. Upon their arrival to this country, these youth are enrolling in U.S. schools, the institution with the highest amount of interaction with these youth as they begin their newcomer journey. </p><p> This qualitative case study focuses on the schooling experiences of immigrant, newcomer youth from Central America in a single high school in a large urban district in Southern California. Conducted through the lenses of Critical Race Theory, Latina/o Critical Theory, and racist nativism, the study asks (1) How does racist nativism mediate the schooling experiences of Central American students at an urban high school in Southern California? (a) How do they negotiate/navigate being students despite the challenges that they may face?; and (2) What does success mean to these youth? (a) How do they become successful on their own terms, and how are they working to get to that? Participants consisted of first-year newcomer youth from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.</p><p>

<p> This study advances the premise that African-American parents are deliberately involved in their children&rsquo;s education; however, many educators may not recognize their involvement because it may not always align with dominant cultural expectations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore beneficial social capital and cultural capital that low-income African-American parents use to involve themselves in their children&rsquo;s suburban school education. Data was collected for this study, in a suburb outside of a large metropolitan city, through the use of a World Caf&eacute; (a type of community discussion group) and semi-structured interviews. Using portraiture research design, the findings of the study are highlighted through six participant portraits, which narrate their involvement in their children&rsquo;s education. </p><p> In summary, all of the participants utilized both social and cultural capital to become involved in their children&rsquo;s education. Generally, each interview participant&rsquo;s family cultural capital motivated her to participate in her child&rsquo;s education, in a manner unique to her own educational experiences. In addition to understanding and utilizing valuable dominant forms of cultural capital (attending parent-teacher conferences, volunteering, and communicating with the teachers, working with children at home, and having educational expectations), participants in this study also referenced the use of culture-specific forms of capital, such as: family cultural capital, family networks and church, teaching cultural knowledge, community collective beliefs, and African-American networks. Additionally, participants used the following forms of social capital to benefit their children&rsquo;s education: relocating, hiding poverty, utilizing community service resources, and using intergenerational closure. </p><p> Suggestions are made for educators to recognize and honor these non-dominant social and cultural forms of parental involvement, so that low-income African-American parental involvement can benefit their children&rsquo;s education. Participants called for more supportive social and cultural African-American parent networks to be created within schools, to help parents feel more welcome and supported in the schools, and become more knowledgeable about the schooling process. </p><p>

This dissertation describes and examines the fictional representations of friendship between middle-class boys at all-male public boarding schools during the nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries in England. In the texts under consideration, romantic friendships embody educational, social, and spiritual ideals; readings of sermons, letters, memoirs, and book illustrations contextualize these ideals and suggest that they mirror a broader ideological framework in the culture. Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) and F. W. Farrar's Eric (1858), which consolidate the tropes of the schoolboy narrative, self-consciously reflect the philosophical and educational standards of Thomas Arnold, Headmaster at Rugby School from 1828 to 1842. For Arnold, highly emotional friendships, based on Christian values, helped to develop piety and to reflect, in earthly terms, the spiritual brotherhood that all "men" share with God. Friendships in Charles Dickens's fiction also conform to many of these narrative and ideological constructs. Nicholas Nickleby (1838-9) represents the comforts of compassionate friendship, while David Copperfield (1849-50) illustrates the torturous complexity of the schoolboy romance. In Our Mutual Friend (1864-5), Dickens alludes parenthetically to Mortimer and Eugene's school days in order to evoke the history and depth of their adult friendship. Edwardian fiction presents a revised discourse on schoolboy friendship, with expressions of affection breaking through a strenuous emotional reserve. In E. M. Forster's A Room With a View (1908), the schoolboy Freddy Honeychurch invites George Emerson to share an uninhibited bond (the "Sacred Lake" bathing scene) that both contrasts with the atomized heterosexual relations in the novel and presages their eventual brotherhood (when George marries Freddy's sister Lucy). The animals in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908) inhabit a homosocial society modelled on Grahame's fantasy of the public school. E. F. Benson's David Blaize (1916) dignifies friendship between boys in spite of the political, intellectual, and aesthetic breakdown of male identity and relations that resulted from the oppressive traumas over masculinity indicative of the fin-de-siecle.

The purpose of this study is to listen to teachers’ stories and reconstruct their classrooms in the midst of the global upheaval of people’s movements in the 1960s-70s through teachers’ narratives. The primary research questions are: How did social movements in the 1960s-1970s influence their teaching practices? What was their intention and how did they carry out their daily teaching practice? In the educational research field, narrative inquirers explore teachers’ stories, their life experiences and teaching practices, in order to understand how teachers view the world. I collected stories, through in-depth interviews, of ten Japanese teachers who taught in Japanese public school system, and were active in social and educational movements during the 1960s-70s in order to understand how teachers understood and resisted dominant oppressive forces which create and perpetuate social inequality. Teacher narratives were analyzed using two complementary methods: contents analysis and interactional positioning theory. First, stories of teachers’ struggles in their classrooms and schools were contextualized in a wider social struggle for humanity and a more just society, in order to explore teachers’ understanding of social oppression and their resistance, and multiculturalism in Japanese classrooms in the 1960s-1970s. Through their stories, an indigenous multicultural nature of Japanese classrooms was revealed, even before the multiculturalism became an imported educational topic in the 1980s. Furthermore, using interactional positioning theory, I discussed how teacher activist identities were constructed during the narration, at the same time, uncover how social stigma of being an activist possibly suppressed the participants overtly constructing an activist identity in narratives.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1974. / Also available in print.