abstract: To foster both external and internal accountability, universities seek more effective models for student learning outcomes assessment (SLOA). Meaningful and authentic measurement of program-level student learning outcomes requires engagement with an institution’s faculty members, especially to gather student performance assessment data using common scoring instruments, or rubrics, across a university’s many colleges and programs. Too often, however, institutions rely on faculty engagement for SLOA initiatives like this without providing necessary support, communication, and training. The resulting data may lack sufficient reliability and reflect deficiencies in an institution’s culture of assessment. This mixed methods action research study gauged how well one form of SLOA training – a rubric-norming workshop – could affect both inter-rater reliability for faculty scorers and faculty perceptions of SLOA while exploring the nature of faculty collaboration toward a shared understanding of student learning outcomes. The study participants, ten part-time faculty members at the institution, each held primary careers in the health care industry, apart from their secondary role teaching university courses. Accordingly, each contributed expertise and experience to the rubric-norming discussions, surveys of assessment-related perceptions, and individual scoring of student performance with a common rubric. Drawing on sociocultural learning principles and the specific lens of activity theory, influences on faculty SLOA were arranged and analyzed within the heuristic framework of an activity system to discern effects of collaboration and perceptions toward SLOA on consistent rubric-scoring by faculty participants. Findings suggest participation in the study did not correlate to increased inter-rater reliability for faculty scorers when using the common rubric. Constraints found within assessment tools and unclear institutional leadership prevented more reliable use of common rubrics. Instead, faculty participants resorted to individual assessment approaches to meaningfully guide students to classroom achievement and preparation for careers in the health care field. Despite this, faculty participants valued SLOA, collaborated readily with colleagues for shared assessment goals, and worked hard to teach and assess students meaningfully. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2018

abstract: In college, students are continuously learning and maturing, prompting transitions, as they grow to enhance their academic, vocational, and personal development. As such, institutions of higher education must also consider how to support students in these transitions. At the Teachers College at Southwestern University, 59% (N=86) of students in Educational Studies, a non-certification major, transitioned from teacher certification majors. In an ecology that centralizes students pursuing teacher certification, students majoring in Educational Studies do not receive the adequate support, particularly in addressing their concerns and curiosities regarding their future career trajectories. This qualitative study drew on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological models of human development and Moos’ ecology model as the theoretical underpinnings to examine how students cultivated adaptability amidst the transition of changing majors. On the forefront of support as students change majors, this study utilized academic advising to highlight a career advising program designed with an ecological approach to reimagine academic advising support in proactive and responsive ways. Findings from a grounded theory approach suggested students adapted through a network of support, network of information, and network of self-concept. The career advising program designed to draw upon multiple systems in one’s ecology capitalized on the reciprocal dynamic between an individual and their ecology. Cultivating adaptability addresses economical, societal, and personal goals and needs, economical, societal, and personal needs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2018

abstract: This study was conducted to (a) explore high achieving high school students' perceptions of the teaching profession, (b) examine the influence of these perceptions on intentions to teach, and (c) test a recruitment suite of tools to determine the effectiveness of recruitment messaging and strategies. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) served as the theoretical framework for this study. Using the TPB allowed examination of students' behavioral, normative, and control beliefs as well as their attitudes, subjective norms, and efficacy and how those components affected intentions to teach. Participants included high school seniors in the top 20% of their class. A mixed methods approach was employed to identify how the characteristics that students value when considering a profession were aligned with those they believed to be true about the teaching profession. Additionally mixing methods allowed for a more thorough exploration of the matter and an in-depth depiction of perceptions and intentions to teach. Results from a confirmatory path analysis showed students' perceived behavioral control, a measure of efficacy, and attitudes toward teaching were predictive of intention to teach and accounted for 25% of the variation in intention to teach scores. A series of exploratory structural equation models was developed to examine additional paths that might be useful in understanding students' intention to teach. Three additional, important paths were found among TPB variables that accounted for an additional 14% of the variation in intention scores. Additionally, these paths had implications for recruitment practice. Five themes emerged from the qualitative data--status, societal importance, influences of important others, teaching as a backup option, and barriers. The discussion focused on implications for recruitment practice and research, limitations, and conclusions. The following conclusions were drawn: (a) students must be provided with knowledge about the teaching profession to overcome stereotypical beliefs, (b) recruitment must begin much earlier, (c) parents must be better informed about teaching, (d) use of a longer recruitment process with multiple touch points must be used to inform and inspire students, and (e) students must be provided with practice teaching opportunities and systematic observational opportunities, which can foster increased efficacy for teaching. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013

abstract: In a conscious effort to combat the low enrollment of women in construction management, a program was created to retain women through a mentorship program - Advancing Women in Construction. A qualitative analysis, facilitated through a grounded theory approach, sought to understand if the program was indeed successful, and what value did the students derive from the programs and participating in the mentoring process. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013

abstract: The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to assess the impact and influence of a pre-international experience course on Arizona State University (ASU) students before they study or intern abroad. Currently, the study abroad pre-departure orientation for ASU participants consists of online modules and a two-hour face-to-face orientation. In this action research study, the practitioner-researcher re-designed an ASU School of Politics and Global Studies (SPGS), one-credit course that focused exclusively on cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity. A needs assessment was distributed to a sample of 800 returning study abroad participants and was used to influence the study, along with an extensive literature review and two cycles of action research. The dissertation research and study was conducted during the ASU fall 2013 semester. Quantitative data and qualitative data were collected using eight different measures. To better understand the impact of a pre-international experience curriculum for ASU study abroad and international internship participants before they go abroad, this research study investigated the following research questions: (1) What cultural impact does a pre-international experience course have on students who complete the course before studying or interning abroad? (2) What specific cultural competencies are gained by the participants after participating in the pre-international experience course? (3) How has developing the curriculum, teaching the curriculum and implementing the innovation influenced and informed my practice as an international educator and the Assistant Director of the Arizona State Study Abroad Office? The following five assertions were identified within the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected data to answer the three research questions: (1) Students are more confident in their abilities to cross cultures after successfully completing taking the new course; (2) Students are more aware of other cultures and their own culture after successfully completing taking the new course; (3) Students gained important knowledge about understanding others' worldviews after successfully completing taking the new course; (4) Students gained general openness toward intercultural learning and to people from cultures different from their own after successfully completing the new course; (5) Developing and implementing a pre-international experience course changed me as a leader, instructor and researcher. Implications for future implementation and research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2014

abstract: This study examined instructional and attitudinal changes influencing faculty members in a proprietary college after the parent company divorced itself from day-to-day leadership decisions during a "teach-out." A teach-out is the process of school closure, when the college stops enrolling new students, but teaches out currently enrolled students. It explores the strongest influences on faculty members during the teach-out process; how faculty members negotiate their work and how the changes appeared to impact students. Study findings revealed that the strongest influences were fellow faculty members. Several rose as leaders and essentially became educator activists starting a movement focused on what they believed to be an essential component of education and what had been missing previously, namely, creativity. They were supported in this endeavor by local leadership who served as "uplinks" and silently gave power to the movement. Students and the organization became beneficiaries of the renewed engagement of their instructors, which led to increased retention and placement rates. This study sought to understand the marked shift in the organizational culture and climate that governed faculty work life through the framework of organizational discourse as well as from a social justice context of freedom from oppression. Through the use of phenomenology and qualitative methods, including autoethnography, this study found that the structure of the teach-out effectively created a space for transformational leaders to emerge and become educator activists. This initial study provides a promising model for faculty engagement that appears to have positive outcomes for individual faculty members, students and the organization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2014

<p> For racial minority faculty, racism is associated with adverse outcomes, including poor job satisfaction and less motivation, which may lead faculty to leave the teaching profession. It is unknown what relationships, if any, exist among perceived racial microaggression, job satisfaction, and employee motivation among African American (AA) faculty and other faculty of color in colleges and universities in the southeastern United States. Critical race theory provided a framework to investigate the relationship of perceived racial microaggressions toward AA faculty and other faculty of color with motivation and job satisfaction. This study involved a correlational design using multiple linear regressions to determine the relationships between the variables in a sample of 42 AA faculty and other faculty of color. In the multiple linear regression analysis, the predictor variables were 6 microaggression subscales (assumptions of inferiority, second-class citizen and assumption of criminality, microinvalidations, exoticization/assumptions of similarity, environmental microaggressions, and workplace and school micro-aggressions). The outcome variables were employee motivation and job satisfaction. The results of the analysis indicated no significant relationships between perceived level of microaggressions and job satisfaction or between perceived level of microaggressions and employee motivation. To determine possible bivariate relationships, Pearson&rsquo;s correlations were performed. Assumptions of inferiority and microinvalidations were negatively correlated with job satisfaction, which suggests that when examined in isolation, higher assumptions of inferiority and microinvalidations were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. Implications for positive social change pertain to ways that oppression and racism can be eliminated in colleges and universities.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore how self-identified academically successful students perceived their nonresident African American fathers&rsquo; involvement in their education and to determine ways to encourage paternal participation in schools. Joyce Epstein&rsquo;s Six Types of Parental Involvement Typology was used as assess how the nonresident African American fathers were involved in their children&rsquo;s education. The research design used for this study was a basic interpretive qualitative approach. Participants in this study were students who attend or have previously graduated from a four-year university or college. There were 25 participants in the study. The students were 18&ndash;23 years of age. The data collection method for the study was in the form of a 60-minute in-depth interview with each participant. Semistructured interview questions were used to collect information for the study. </p><p> Data obtained from the interviews revealed eight themes: (a) encouragement, (b) breaking the cycle, (c) sports, (d) help with schoolwork, (e) offering advice, (f) financial assistance, (g) phone calls, and (h) helping others with similar struggles. The participants revealed that their fathers were not involved directly in their schools, as measured according to Epstein&rsquo;s six types of parent involvement, but rather the fathers were involved in indirect ways in accordance to Dewey&rsquo;s view on education. </p><p> Two of the themes were more participant based: (a) the need to break the cycle of paternal absence, so that their children would not grow up without knowing their fathers; and (b) the desire to be of some support and to offer assistance to others going through the same struggle of not having their fathers in their lives. </p><p> The findings revealed that the involvement of the nonresident African American fathers in this study did not conform to Epstein&rsquo;s parental involvement model, but rather their involvement was indirectly involved in their children&rsquo;s education. Physical absence of the father does not mean that he is not important, but rather that various factors may hinder his involvement with his children. Schools should make a conscious effort to foster relationships between fathers and their children. Nonresident African American fathers can make a difference.</p><p>

<p> This case study was designed to explore policies that were in place to attract, recruit, and retain qualified faculty for 4 community colleges in Sierra Leone. The research was necessitated by the apparent inability of Sierra Leone educators to train and retain faculty possessing the required academic credentials. The research questions were designed to address the policies and strategies used to attract and recruit faculty, better prepare faculty, improve the quality of classroom instruction, and retain qualified faculty at community colleges. The literature review yielded results about the benefits of community colleges in developing countries, thus reinforcing the need for qualified faculty. Case study methodology and open-ended interviews with 12 purposely selected participants were used to ensure trustworthiness and reveal the essential characteristics of how community colleges in Sierra Leone may succeed in faculty attraction, recruitment, and retention. Participants reported that word of mouth solicitation was the primary method for faculty recruitment, and that the top challenge faced by these institutions was fiscal constraints. Although findings from this study are specific to 4 institutions, they may serve as a guide for qualified faculty retention at all community colleges in Sierra Leone, and hopefully bring about social change by improving academic excellence throughout the country.</p><p>

<p> This document analysis synthesized student learning outcomes (SLOs) and assessment methods from a sample of 36 student government associations in the California Community College system. Student learning outcomes were grouped according to <i>governance, ethical and civic behavior</i>, and <i>experiential learning</i> functions. Using Bloom&rsquo;s Revised Taxonomy (Forehand, 2005) as an interpretive framework, findings revealed that this taxonomy&rsquo;s six levels of cognitive development were well represented but not identically across the functions. In the <i>governance</i> function, the levels of <i>understanding, evaluating</i>, and <i> creating</i> were represented. In the <i>ethical and civic behavior </i> function, the levels of <i>remembering, understanding, applying </i>, and <i>evaluating</i> were represented. In the <i> experiential learning</i> function, all levels of the taxonomy were represented (<i>remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating</i>, and <i>creating</i>). Findings also reveal that three of the 36 institutions, including Cuesta College, Orange Coast College, and Saddleback College, have explicit student learning outcome statements, although Cuesta College is the only one written as a true statement of objectives that could be measured. One of those colleges, Orange Coast College, also utilizes a formal system of measuring students&rsquo; learning through implementation of assessment methods. </p><p> Implications for practice and policy include new applications for institutional accreditation, revised policy for professional associations, and resources to guide creation of student learning outcomes for student government association participants. Implications for research include the replication of the study in other higher education systems, and further analysis of individual colleges and groupings of colleges based on demographics.</p><p>