This study explores the lived experiences of older students who work and have family responsibilities while attending an undergraduate program full-time. Research indicates that this segment of the student population is the only one that is growing today and is projected to grow in the future; this also is the largest the group of students that does not finish their studies in spite of the many services aimed at supporting students' academic success. This study critically investigated the category of the nontraditional student and reviewed the literature about students' college experiences, including the limitations of its theoretical assumptions to describe and explain the nature of the college journey of older students with substantive life experiences. From the notion that learning is lifelong and holistic (Jarvis, 2006), this study combined a student-centered approach with a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology to respond to the following research questions: What is the lifeworld of undergraduate nontraditional students with significant life experience as they encounter college life? What resources sustain the college experience of undergraduate nontraditional students of and allow navigating the space of college life? What are the changes undergraduate nontraditional students live, the meaning they construct while encountering, and navigating college life? Themes that resulted from the analysis included the participants' experiences as essentially different from that of traditional students. These nontraditional college students bring skills and knowledge that they deploy on behalf of their specific academic goals. The pace of their lives is fundamentally different from the traditional university student's sense of time; they are self-sufficient, making decisions and navigate obstacles. Their new identity as students is re-negotiated with the identities they live outside of campus and they establish ad hoc relationships with members of the university community.

This Dissertation in Practice employed a mixed-methods design to identify preferred instructional methods in a college level science course as well as the self-reported challenges to learning science in college by students with a learning disability. In addition, the relationships between preferred instructional strategies and learner characteristics such as declared major, and learning disability were examined. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected from a sample of 48 participants using an electronic survey. Additionally, eight participants participated in focus groups to collect in-depth qualitative data. All participants are current students enrolled full-time at Beacon College. Each participant completed a science college course and has a diagnosed learning disability. Analysis of the data demonstrated hands-on instruction guided by the instructor is the preferred method of learning and the use of traditional lecture and cooperative learning are self-reported as being least helpful to this student population to learn science. Findings from this study were provided to Beacon College to shape instruction in science courses as well as to shape recommendations for future research activities. Intentional design of instruction following the recommendations found in this study should assist in increasing student performance in college science courses as well as increase engagement to science as a process and field of study.

The focus of this study was the advising style preference of graduate-level students and advisors in online and hybrid programs at a university in rural Arkansas. Students and advisors will benefit from the results because the advisors will have a greater understanding of expectations during an advising session. The problem stems from the fact that graduate level advising is not considered important by administrators at the study institution. The purpose of this study was to determine how graduate level advisors can better serve students and to use the results as a tool for advisor training. The study was guided by Crookston's developmental advising style, in which the advisor and student work together to ensure student success. The key research questions for the study were the preferred advising style of graduate-level students in online and hybrid programs and the advising style preferred by graduate-level advisors. A mixed method with an explanatory sequential design was used, and the Academic Advising Inventory was administered to the population of graduate students and their advisors using a web-based survey. After completing each section of the inventory, respondents had an opportunity for open responses to clarify their selections. Student responses to the inventory indicated their preferred advising style, the advising style they had received, and their satisfaction with the advising they had received. Advisor responses detailed the form of advising they practice. Data were collected from students (n = 224) and advisors (n = 9). Responses were analyzed by following the Academic Advising Inventory Manual and using SPSS for calculations. The responses were recoded to separate the prescriptive and developmental responses. Next, the items were calculated to determine if each respondent was advised prescriptively or developmentally. Finally, the advising satisfaction level for students was calculated to determine student satisfaction with each form of advising received. The results indicate that graduate-level students in both online and hybrid programs prefer developmental advising over prescriptive advising. Students enrolled in hybrid programs indicated greater satisfaction with the advising they received than students enrolled in online programs. Overall students who received developmental advising reported higher satisfaction rates than those who received prescriptive advising. Results of this study will serve as the basis for graduate advisor training and the creation of a training manual.

Research shows that 50% to 70% of higher education employees in the United States are disengaged in the workplace. Some higher education institutions are negatively affected by imposing strict guidelines restricting employees' freedom of self-expression in the workplace. Using Herzberg's 2-factor theory of motivation as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by higher education institution leaders to manage workplace self-expression without negatively affecting motivation and work productivity. The population was 9 leaders from 3 higher education institutions in central and northern New Jersey. Data collection was conducted through semistructured interviews and review of institutional data and information. Data were analyzed using inductive coding, and member checking was used to ensure credibility. Three themes emerged: workplace environment, management relationships, and barriers in the workplace. The study findings revealed that the policies implemented in higher education institutions to restrict self-expression in the workplace did not have a negative effect on employee motivation and work productivity. Leaders in higher education institutions might apply these findings to develop an enriched workplace environment, which could improve employee retention rates. The implications for positive social change include the potential to increase economic contributions of the students who receive the education delivered by engaged higher education employees, and the subsequent increased tax base resulting from increased earnings.

Local level leadership for the enhancement of learning and teaching in higher education is an under-researched area in the leadership literature. The growth of the ‘quality agenda’ in HE over the past 20 years has led to an increase in the number and range of local leadership roles. These posts, although not usually requiring the exercise of management responsibility, have the potential for considerable influence on practice in local academic communities. This study aimed to explore local leaders’ experience of their role and to examine the barriers and opportunities they faced, in order to determine the optimum conditions for the conduct of this work. The study was focused on one regional HEI in NW England, CountyUni. A subset of data was obtained from another HEI, MetroUni, for comparative purposes. The research design adopted employed an interpretive, ethnographic approach, generating qualitative data from 29 interviews and three focus groups over the course of six years. The majority of the participants were HE staff in local level leadership roles at department or faculty level. Additionally, 8 staff in managerial roles were interviewed. Data collection focused on the characteristics and practice of local level leadership in the context of learning and teaching. Purposive sampling was used to identify participants. An iterative process was used to generate interview questions, so that significant themes could be tested for ‘saturation’ as the study progressed. Data was analysed thematically, based on the approaches of Grounded Theory. A model of the features of local leadership at department level was generated from the data. The discussion of results incorporated contributions from a number of theoretical strands in social science: structuration theory; communities of practice; networks; academic culture. The nature of local level leadership was contrasted with other extant models of leadership. The findings showed that, although leadership was demonstrated by local level leaders, there was a low level of recognition and uncertainty of the leadership aspects of these roles, with individuals often feeling that they had “responsibility without power”. The importance of leadership for learning and teaching at all levels of the institution was identified as critical to the effective implementation of local enhancement activities. It was concluded that local level leadership in this context has characteristics in common with leadership elsewhere. The absence of managerial responsibility but the presence of significant responsibility for establishing links between local academic communities and the policy development tiers of an organisation, provides particular challenges. It was shown that success was dependent upon leadership and commitment at all levels of the institution. The roles provide valuable experience for career development. Opportunities for further avenues of investigation were identified.

Professional academic advisors play an important role in higher education—especially at large, research institutions where their use is more prevalent. This study explored professional advisor perspectives about the impact of the NACADA Statement of Core Values (SCV) on the practice of academic advising. This study explores advisor perceptions about the impact of the SCV on advising practice. An in-depth, qualitative interview conducted via e-mail was used to discover advisor perceptions about the SCV in relation to advising practice. The interviews addressed advisor perceptions about the impact of the SCV in regard to (a) academic advising in general, (b) their own day-to-day practice of advising, and (c) specific functions commonly associated with academic advising. Ten professional academic advisors at a large research institution within the Florida State University System took part. The results demonstrate that the NACADA Statement of Core Values (SCV) is important to advising practice—especially those values relating to the fundamental relationship between advisors and the students they serve. The participating academic advisors expressed strong support for the SCV overall while also indicating limited prior knowledge or training. Several themes were apparent in the interview responses, including: the provision of accurate information, the students’ responsibility in the advising interaction, the importance of lifelong learning, and advising as a form of teaching.

Despite evidence that an understanding of the individual's interpretive framework is an important factor in understanding effective teaching, there is little research in higher education which addresses this variable. The purpose of the study was to facilitate an understanding of the personal context within which the behaviors and strategies of effective teachers exist. Designed as a case study of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Teaching Award winners from 1962 to 1995 (N = 47, 69% of total population, representing all of the Schools/Colleges within the University), it employed a written survey to gain data about faculty backgrounds and adoption of teaching attitudes and activities which the literature has identified as characteristic of effective teachers, followed by in-depth interviews (N = 14) to explore the participants' personal constructions of the process of teaching. The major findings include: all participants' definitions of teaching reflected a constructivist orientation to the process; a consistency in participants' definitions of the major goals and processes of teaching, and motivations and rewards for teaching across age, discipline, and sex; close attention to their own and their students' experiences is the primary source of learning about and motivation for teaching; the goal of relating to students is to facilitate learning, thus participants define an appropriate faculty-student distance in their relationships with students; teaching is considered an activity with intellectual value; evidence of individual shifts in the construction of their goals for teaching and of their relationships with students, their content and the context that parallel established schema for epistemological and intellectual development, indicating the possibility of a psychological developmental aspect to the development of effective teachers. Some implications for further research include the need for efforts to clarify possible epistemological developmental aspects to the development of faculty as teachers, to research the connections between developmental stage and teaching effectiveness and conceptualization of efforts to improve teaching as incorporating more than attention to methods.

This study observes and investigates the relationship between a predominantly White institution of higher education and its African-American student population. It explores how Black students conceptualize the uniqueness of their experience at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in terms of the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black and other Minority Students (CCEBMS) Program. Three different methodologies were utilized to assess the inquiry. Focus groups, individual interviews, and survey-questionnaires were implemented to gain greater insights into the realities of Black juniors and seniors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A total of fourteen--nine women and five men--participated in the focus groups and interviews. The focus groups met twice and took place over a two-week period. Six individuals out of the original fourteen volunteered to be interviewed, so as to look closer at the issues previously raised in the focus group sessions. Lastly, survey-questionnaires were generated based upon the information revealed via the focus group and interview sessions. Over two hundred-fifty surveys were disseminated across campus to African-American juniors and seniors in an effort to weigh their responses against the data previously collected. The qualitative and quantitative instrumentation used examined the attitudes of African-American students towards university practices and whether or not the construction of a culturally-specific programming, otherwise known as the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black and other Minority Students (CCEBMS), helped shape or modify their opinions. The findings of this study revealed that: (1) Black students in social science courses encounter a highly racialized climate, which expects Black students to represent the entire Black collective; (2) Black students, initially, are frustrated by having to negotiate where they belong and how they're supposed to behave in a racially segregated setting in all contexts that relate to campus life; (3) the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black and other Minority Students (CCEBMS) Program minimally influences or impacts how African-American collegians interpret their experience at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and (4) that many Black students believe that their success relies on their ability to effectively balance the duality of their reality, which requires them to be part-student/part-politician.

In this qualitative research study, I examined the autobiographies, oral narratives and life stories of twelve African American scholar-activists (including myself) who have used higher education as a vehicle for teaching and learning, as a tool for personal transformation and as an ingredient for social change. The research questions that the study was designed to address were: How have African Americans used scholarship as a means for personal and social transformation? What is the role and responsibility of scholar-activists who choose to root their genius in the academy? What lessons can be learned about how to use higher education for the purposes of transformation? Through a contextual analysis involving the personal lives of selected scholar-activists, I learned about the power that higher education has to shape identity and influence actions. This study also highlights how African American culture and spirit are components of research, teaching and activism; celebrates some of the contributions that African Americans have made to higher education; identifies five dimensions of teaching and transformation; and posits seven ways that higher education can contribute to the process of transformation.

A comparative case study was used to explored the orientations to teaching of three college teachers. The educational conceptions about teaching and classroom learning environments were investigated to determine how ideal orientations to teaching matched the reality of classroom practice. Each of the teachers was observed for the duration of eight class sessions (introductory level and upper level). Participants were interviewed on four occasions using a semi-structured interview format consisting of open-ended questions that focused on their conceptions of teaching and learning. Teachers' identified influences that affected their orientations to teaching and discussed their academic discipline, design and use of course syllabi, and their conceptions of students. Interpretation of the data revealed that the participants' ideal teaching orientation was based on their experience as a student and conceptions of the requirements of their academic discipline. Ideal teaching orientations were compromised based on a variety of contextual influences. The study builds theory on teaching orientations and forms a foundation for further research to investigate the influences of professional development, academic discipline, and gender on teaching orientation.