<p> The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the phenomenon of being a student-parent by identifying the lived experiences of nursing students that are parents, specifically their perceptions of their experiences of how they balance their family life with their academic life successfully. Two participants were involved in the pilot test and 21 main study participants were included in the sample. The data obtained through semi-structured one-on-one interviews were analyzed using Giorgi&rsquo;s method of phenomenological research. The findings of this study identified eight themes resulting from descriptions provided by the student-parents while in undergraduate nursing school and included: (1) <i>All challenges are subjective to the personal circumstance</i> reflecting the unique home situation, (2) <i>Unmet personal expectations occur while in nursing school</i> through role conflict and guilt, (3) <i>Post-secondary education has particular demands</i> through financial and academic obligations, (4) <i>Support is essential to nursing school success</i>, (5) <i> Processes enabling student-parent success</i> contain compromises and strategizing balance with flexibility, (6) <i>Interactions and outcome from negative spillover</i> imbalance family and academic obligations, (7) <i>Organization culture of campus attributes to the student-parent perspective</i>, and (8) <i>Participant recommendations to stakeholders </i>. The essence of the student-parent experience influenced a formation of a comprehensive model, titled PARENTS to inform campus leaders of strategies to enhance the student-parent experience and accommodate family influences brought to campus. Future qualitative research suggestions include exploring support systems of student-parents, children experiences of student-parents, and campus stakeholder perspectives of breastfeeding and parent planning and family-centred accommodation on campus.</p>

<p> This qualitative study examined the process of adopting online education at three private colleges. All three institutions participating in the study were private Catholic colleges that offered their first online courses in the late 1990s. The research question posed for this study was: Within the participating institutions, how did online education get started and what was the process for its development? </p><p> Findings from this research indicated that, for an institution to successfully implement online education, four elements emerged: (a) some form of infrastructure needed to be in place that could support online education, (b) a latent force, referred to as an engine, was necessary to provide ongoing support, (c) an innovator, who had a strong interest in online education, was imperative, and (d) a bridge builder, who provided credibility, communication, and coordination between stakeholders, was critical to the sustainability of the online initiative. The institution successfully implementing online education also needed significant amounts of personnel, funding, and technology. </p>

<p> The current study tested the hypothesis that student spirituality would relate positively to the construct of calling and that these constructs together would lead toward career decidedness. To test this model, a sample consisting of 1139 students from a large Midwest university was surveyed. Results supported these hypotheses only in part. The results suggest the spirituality construct to consist of spiritual identity, spiritual quest, and equanimity consistent with the Astin, Astin, and Lindholm spirituality study. Both search for calling and presence of calling consisted of three parts consistent with Dik and Duffy's concept of calling: transcendent summons, purposeful work, and prosocial orientation. The career decidedness construct also consisted of three domains in accordance with Savickas' formulation: career path, academic major, and occupation. </p><p> Spirituality, in general, highly correlated with search for calling. Correlations were also high between search for calling and presence of calling. Because of this, search for calling was found to mediate an indirect influence of spirituality on presence of calling. However, the manner in which career decidedness related to the model was not expected. According to the data, career decidedness weakly but directly correlated with presence of calling and was determined to be a predicting influence, contrary to the hypothesis. Although no meaningful correlations were discovered between spirituality and career decidedness, equanimity was discovered to meaningfully associate with both spirituality and career decidedness. Theoretical and practical implications are explored.</p>

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The investigation sought to determine the significance and or the effects of an ex post facto staffing intervention involving the addition of a Regional (mid-tier) team of instructional leaders as a viable and sustainable solution for increased operational effectiveness year over year, and, if there could be implications on employment outcomes. Furthermore, to determine whether this staffing intervention of adding a Regional (mid-tier) team of instructional leaders affected the primary Andragogical factors used for instructional effectiveness and did the change create a conducive condition for learning for Career Services Leaders from the perspective of Andragogy. </p><p> <b>Design/Methodology/Approach.</b> Mixed-method research utilizing the Modified Instructional Perspectives Inventory (MIPI) originally designed by Henschke (1989), modified appropriately. This study will compare the gap between the Regional Director (RD) and the Director (D) scores on the MIPI to measure possible contributions to employment placement outcomes and determine primary Andragogical factors used for instructional effectiveness for Career Services Leaders. </p><p> <b>Findings.</b> Regarding the influence of Andragogy on placement outcomes for 2011 compared to 2012, the conclusions were as follows: There was no significant relationship of note, however, observably, the wider the gap, the lower the placement rate for 2011. However, the 2012 Employment Rate (ER) indicated that there was a moderate, negative relationship between the gap in Andragogical instructional perspectives and employment rates. The leader learners were operationally effective as a result of the instruction they received from the instructional leaders. The research results support this point, since 2012 employment rates related to the Andragogical gap indicating trust, and both 2011 and 2012 employment rates were dependent upon the region from which they were generated. </p><p> <b>Practical Implications.</b> In higher education for-profit environments involving leadership development, instructional leadership staffing paradigms form the rationale for increased performance and operational effectiveness. </p><p> <b>Originality/Value.</b> The results of this study provided empirical validation for the decision to restructure the Career Services leadership model for continued implementation and sustainability in higher education leadership settings. </p><p> <b>Keywords.</b> Andragogy, Leadership, Career Services, Instructional Leadership, Adult Learning, Trust in Leadership, Regional Directors, Middle Management.</p>

<p> Problem: Paramedic educators have a short time frame (840 didactic/laboratory plus 500 clinical/internship hours) and limited resources to prepare their students to have competent clinical skills, safe medical practice, and appropriate leadership and teamwork skills. New learning approaches including simulation, audiovisual feedback, and structured debriefing have been suggested as a way to meet this challenge within paramedic education. While some individual components have been studied, no study has examined these three technologies together in paramedic training programs. The overarching research question that guided this study was: What and how do paramedic students learn in a high-fidelity healthcare simulation program that includes audio/video and instructor-facilitated feedback? </p><p> Method: The investigation was a mixed methods study; however, the study tended towards qualitative methods primarily using intrinsic case study methodology based on the work of Yin and Stake. The investigation reviewed the outcomes achieved through the use of high-fidelity healthcare simulation coupled with audio-visual feedback, when implemented within a paramedic education program. A variety of data was collected including audio-visual recordings of briefs, simulations, and debriefs, multiple student documents and logs, and copious researcher notes and documents. </p><p> Results: The simulation laboratory was a realistic, safe, controlled setting allowing students to make autonomous decisions without potential harm to human life as a consequence of errors. Simulation technology augmented traditional clinical experiences by providing more uniformity of experiences between students, providing less familiar clinical experiences, and acting as a time-efficient method for achieving deficit competencies. In evaluating student skill performance, simulation provided better quantified measures and observation accuracy. </p><p> Leadership skills were developed in simulation by taking advantage of safe learning aspects; an environment to learn from mistakes which used leadership skill autonomous practice. Participation as a leader and follower allowed the learner a better understanding of the leadership role when exposed to well-crafted scenarios. Simulation was a unique methodology facilitating safe learning from errors committed by students, a result of knowledge gaps within individual learning. Simulation was unlike traditional learning methods such as lecture, laboratory, or clinical experiences. </p><p> The facilitator/debriefer assisted the paramedic in learning within the simulation environment by: creating a safe learning environment, helping learners identify what knowledge was needed, reinforcing identified needed learning, assisting participants to identify correct actions in response to individualized errors, and promoting learner reflection. A debriefing provided the environment whereby the bulk of learning took place in the simulation experience. The simulation environment contributed to student growth in three domains (cognitive, psychomotor and affective) of learning identifying knowledge or performance gaps for students in the specific practice of assessment, leadership, treatments, planning, evaluation, situational awareness, communications, and teamwork. Simulation provided an alternate method for achieving clinical experiences not available in the actual setting. During the debriefing, the audio-visual feedback and interactive probing procedures worked together to promote student learning. The audio-visual component provided a "big picture" viewpoint for the learner used by the debriefer during interactive probing to help students identify errors and alternate actions. </p><p> A learning model was constructed which represented how students learn. The use of simulation allowed the participant to determine unknown knowledge gaps from previous learning through processes of simulation experience, identification during debriefing, and reflection on alternate-decision pathways. Learning occurred in learning process conclusion: the application of alternate pathways in behavior. The learning process has been summarized in a simulation learning model presented in this study. The simulation learning model is applicable for cognitive, affective, and psychomotor elements. </p><p> Within the study, analysis developed emergent themes. Emergent themes included: <i>Context Is Vital, We Often Don't Know What We Don't Know, Learning From Mistakes, Learners Must Have a Safe Learning Environment, Learning Lessons From Other Industries, and Teaching Leadership Challenges for Paramedics.</i> </p><p> Conclusions and Recommendations: Students often don't know what they don't know in individualized previous learned knowledge; thus, a learning mechanism is required, such as simulation with facilitated debriefing interactive audiovisual feedback. Simulation technology acts as a safe and non-threatening environment to allow learning from mistakes without a human cost. Valid fidelity healthcare simulations augment traditional clinical experiences by providing unfamiliar virtual realities in a uniform way to strengthen the participants' overall experience repertoire. This study recommends that the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) industry, educators, and policy makers establish standards requiring simulation learning within initial training programs to decrease the potential for loss of human lives as a result of human error.</p>

<p> Leaders are frequently required to lead change due to mergers, expansions into new markets, and new initiatives to enter global markets compounding the need for change leadership. Frequent change is more the rule rather than the exception. Change is more needed today yet a poor result from leading change can adversely impact a leader's influence. How does a leader know when to lead a change initiative or when to take the easier route and simply stay with the status quo? </p><p> An in depth study of what appeared to be a very risky and highly successful organizational change initiative was thought to possibly shed light on answering these difficult leadership questions. This inductive qualitative case study discovered a university that achieved a successful, sustainable organizational change. The leader overcame the organizational change odds of one-third to two-thirds of the outcomes are often unsuccessful (Beer &amp; Nohria; Bibler; as cited in Gilley, Dixon, &amp; Gilley, 2008). "The rate of failure to deliver sustainable change at times reaches 80&ndash;90%" (Cope as cited in Gilley, Dixon, &amp; Gilley, 2008, p. 153). </p><p> The leader in the private university organization in the Midwest that led the successful organizational change was inspired by his personal vision. He did not lead change using a theoretical framework. He was successful in persuading the board to authorize implementation of his vision. The president established goals to lead the way for workers to help achieve the organizational change. He effectively communicated his vision and goals and met resistance due to the status quo. The president overcame the challenges of status quo, and the successful organizational change resulted in an effervescent campus environment with record breaking-fundraising. Regardless of the type or size of the major change, organizations that seek to make change may glean insights from this study of how leaders of one organization approached significant change.</p>

<p> Community college trustees are critical to the success of the organization and the students they serve because they provide the voice of local needs in alignment with the college mission. Community college trusteeship in California is vital given the changing student demographic, the growing number of Latinos enrolled, and their need for responsive institutions. The diversity of the board is therefore critical to ensuring that the diverse needs are being met. However, little is known about the lives of California's community college trustees and how they transform educational settings. </p><p> The purpose of this qualitative study is to shed light on the personal, educational, professional, and trusteeship journey of five Chicana/Latina trailblazers, the first Chicana/Latinas to be elected to their district. Using testimonio methodology to give voice to this group of women, this study is set in the Chicana Feminist Epistemological stance, which put these participants in the center of this study, providing the participants an opportunity to co-create knowledge, and allowed the researcher to apply the use of Chicana intuition, to guide the study design. The theoretical framework, Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit) was used as the analytical lens exposing raced, classed, and gendered experiences in the school setting. Through the use of a LatCrit lens, this study exposed the participant's experiential knowledge, critical to their successful navigation oftheir trusteeship, creating more responsive institutions. </p><p> The findings reveal that these participants, as a collective, felt the trauma of the race, class and gendered experiences in the educational setting. These experiences shaped their worldview. Nonetheless the women developed aspirations to become educators and these aspirations led them to college where they were able to move beyond internal oppression by developing a social consciousness and develop a Chicana identity. These experiences led them to social activism, which served as the path to community college trusteeship. They became the first Chicana/Latina community college trustees in their district, taking a seat at the dais and it is there that these trailblazers created a legacy of inclusion and transformed the educational setting.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative non-experimental comparative study was to measure and compare the leadership styles of higher education professionals across levels of responsibility between Asian-American and Caucasian-American individuals. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and additional demographic surveys were used to obtain measurements and personal leadership traits for the dependent and independent variables. A self-rated questionnaire of the MLQ survey measured nine characteristics of leadership qualities (subscales) of the transformational, transactional, or passive/avoidant (laissez-faire) of the participants. Stratified random sampling technique helped identify these two groups of higher education leaders. Inferential statistical tests of the Mann-Whitney U test were used to identify if significant difference of leadership styles existed for the independent variables of race, mentored experience, birth country, SES background, age, and gender between Asian-American and Caucasian-American higher educational leaders. Significant differences were indicated on transformational leadership quality subscale for IM and transactional leadership quality subscale for MBEA. A third independent factor of age also indicated a significant difference between older and younger leaders in the transformational leadership quality subscale for IS. Higher education institutions and decision makers could use the study result as a point of reference to guide diverse Asian-American individuals in higher education to leadership training and development in their institutions with the aid of a modified PDCA map for a conceptual framework of implementing such process. Such action could advance Asian Americans into open leadership positions and make institutions more diverse to represent its respective community.</p>

<p> Low graduation rates are a significant issue for colleges. The majority of higher education institutions in the United States offer learning communities (LCs), which have been found to be effective for improving course success and persisting to the next semester. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of LCs with different types of populations and different types of LCs. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to identify the most effective types of LCs. Research questions addressed the effects of different types of LCs on different student success outcomes for community colleges. The study was based on Tinto's interactionist model of student departure and Astin's model of student involvement. Studies examining the relationship between student success and participation in college LCs provided the data for the meta-analysis. A random effects model was used to generate the average effect size for 39 studies and 50 individual effect sizes. The results showed that LCs are most effective with community college students when they include additional support strategies, counseling is available to students, one of the linked courses is an academic skills course, at least one of the linked course is developmental, and the focus is on increasing course success or student engagement. The implications for positive social change suggest that LC programs implement two linked courses, include an academic skills course, focus on developmental courses, and provide access to a counselor and additional student support strategies. In addition, LC programs are most effective when the goals of the program are student engagement and course success.</p>

<p> Postconflict governments and counterparts have collaborated to provide skills training to communities as a critical postconflict development strategy. In these undertakings, the role of community members remains largely undefined. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to understand the perceptions held by rural community members regarding the role they played in influencing government's policy priority for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as a local human development strategy in postconflict Liberia. The conceptual framework was based on human capital theory and concepts of motivation and achievement. Fourteen participants were purposefully selected for the study. Data were collected from interviews, focus group discussion, and documents and analyzed using constant comparison. Results indicated that increasing human capital, restoring self-esteem, encouraging civic participation, and building peace were among the community members' motivations for establishing a skills training institution. Leadership, advocacy, and ownership were major roles community stakeholders played in establishing their local skill training institution; voluntarism and collaboration were found to be strategies for support to the local TVET initiatives. Findings have positive social change implications for facilitating community-initiated TVET programs for youth employment as well as informing TVET policies in countries transitioning from conflict to development.</p>