Abstract Writing continues to be difficult for adolescents throughout the United States. There is little known about writing from the adolescent's perspective. This case study describes six 8th graders' thoughts and motivations on writing. The purpose of the current study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of struggling adolescent writers by taped participant interviews of six students, three male and three female, which scored below proficient on their state writing assessment. The conceptual theoretical framework for the current study is Bandura's social cognitive theory. The central research question of this study focused on the experiences of adolescents who struggle with writing on state assessments. Qualitative data were collected during a three week period and analyzed in two stages. Stage 1 was the analytical compiling of the data into categories; stage 2 examined the data for patterns, themes, and relationships. Thematic analysis revealed six themes. Analysis of data supported the theoretical framework that students who struggle with writing were low on morale and motivation on writing assignments. Results of the study included a desire in the students to excel on their writing assignments, but the eagerness was subdued by the challenges they faced in writing. The data showed that students struggle with the amount of knowledge they have on a given topic and the techniques used to write a coherent sentence. Students stated that they need guidance to gather information on a given topic and with organization of their writing. In response to the students' perceptive, teacher can plan, implement, and guide students towards success in writing. This study can contribute to social change as it will guide teachers of writing instruction strategies that will respond to the challenge of mastering a difficult and complex subject.

A decline in parent participation in one impoverished Pre-K through Grade 5 school in Texas over recent years has been an ongoing concern for school administrators. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to investigate parent perceptions of the school's efforts to involve parents in the school. Research questions focused on identifying factors that inhibited parental involvement concentrating on parent perceptions of school efforts. Constructivist theory and the advocacy/liberatory framework formed the conceptual framework for this study. A triangulation method for data collection included parent interviews, teacher questionnaires, and observations of parental involvement activities over 12 weeks. Participants were a typical sampling of 9 teachers and 9 parents. Observations were logged and coded. Teacher questionnaires were thematically coded and used to create probing questions for parent interviews. Interview transcripts were coded, and member checks validated findings. Results indicated that school practices for parent involvement were unclear to parents, inconsistently implemented, and poorly communicated. Parents reported that consistent communication and encouragement could help break down barriers to participation. As a result of these findings, a parental involvement project was formulated including research based goals, a plan for implementation, and a program evaluation. These findings and proposed project could lead to positive social change by assisting local staff to design a parental involvement program that gives parents a voice in school practices and by providing a model for other schools struggling to involve parents.

In the years between 1950 and 1965, three significant developments in American culture left women struggling to merge the housewife archetype of the Cold War era with changing attitudes toward sexuality. Because of these cultural shifts, the developments that dominate the research presented here are; first, the changing elements in the lives of the women who pass through the halls of academia during this time of societal flux; second, the impact of the development of the birth control pill; and third, the impact of the publications of Playboy magazine and Sex and the Single Girl. These developments mark a shift from an age of idealism that permeated the consciousness of postwar Americans to an age of realism concerning American sexuality.

This thesis analyzes why people volunteer in two counties of East Tennessee. The study describes the concept of volunteering and its positive impact upon society on a regional and national level. The characteristics of people who volunteer, why people choose to volunteer, and the significance of their volunteering were assessed through a survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was administered in Carter County (Elizabethton) and Washington County (Johnson City) Tennessee to 13 charitable and non-charitable agencies that utilize volunteers aged 18 years and over. Out of 243 survey questionnaires distributed in Elizabethton and Johnson City, Tennessee, 124 individuals responded. Data collected in the areas were analyzed to determine how the region related to national profiles of those who volunteer. The data collected revealed reasons why people in this section of the mountains of East Tennessee volunteer and helped identify the characteristics of those who volunteer.

In an effort to make Appalachia a more acceptable and productive region to the rest of the country, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was created in 1965. This agency continued some of the efforts began by other redevelopment agencies, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), and the Area Redevelopment Agency (ARA). What was not in the original plan, however, was keeping an enormously rich existent culture alive. Having effected tremendous advancement in infrastructure, followed by continued industrial growth and health, social, and educational reform, Appalachia continues to experience the repercussions of those changes on the cultural level. Using personal interviews with volunteers who are older-generation, native Appalachians, regarding their experiences of life before, during, and after the ARC was introduced, this thesis explores the significance of cultural preservation, not only for rural Appalachians, but also for other groups threatened by cultural extinction.

The purpose of this interdisciplinary study was to examine the behavior of two artificial neural networks cross-wired based on the synesthesia cross-wiring hypothesis. Motivation for the study was derived from the study of psychology, robotics, and artificial neural networks, with perceivable application in the domain of mobile autonomous robotics where sensor fusion is a current research topic. This model of synesthetic sensor fusion does not exhibit synesthetic responses. However, it was observed that cross-wiring two independent networks does not change the functionality of the individual networks, but allows the inputs to one network to partially determine the outputs of the other network in some cases. Specifically, there are measurable influences of network A on network B, and yet network B retains its ability to respond independently.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak, mostly affecting Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, is the largest ever recorded. The Ebola response encountered resistance in some affected communities, where some residents accused relief agencies from the Global North of denigrating local cultures. This thesis examines mainstream Western media and health experts’ representation of culture in the Ebola-affected region and employed Foucauldian analysis of discursive power to discuss the impact of such a representation on the concerned communities. Through a content analysis of selected journal and news articles by Western scholars and media and official reports by some relief agencies involved with the Ebola response, the study discovers evidence of culture bias. There was a use of significantly negative words in describing aspects of culture in the Ebola-affected region. Western media and health experts also largely associated the epidemic with African “backwardness.”

Mandates on reading and math achievement in elementary education in rural Georgia have led to a decline in writing proficiency as the subject becomes increasingly neglected. At the same time, schools strive to increase parental involvement programs. Consequently, there is a need for more research on the impact of parental involvement on student writing proficiency. Accordingly, this qualitative case study examined the impact of Family Message Journals (FMJ) and parent participation on teaching writing across the curriculum. Participants included 6 third-graders and their parents. Students wrote in journals 4 days per week across the 4 months of the study, and parents provided parallel responses each night. Student entries were examined and coded by academic subject and the 4 domains of the Georgia Writing Assessment Rubric to document students' growth in specific writing skills; parental responses were coded according to the type of response. Inductive analysis was used to analyze and interpret structured interview data to document emergent themes and search for patterns of meaning. All FMJ data were triangulated in a data source matrix with interviews of parents and students to explore linkages across sources. Findings revealed that (a) using FMJ increased students' writing ability, (b) teaching writing across the curriculum provided time for writing instruction, (c) comprehension was enhanced in subject content areas, and (d) parents felt more informed and appreciated. This study will prove beneficial for educators desiring to include writing without compromising time in currently mandated content areas, and also for parents who want to be informed, involved, and empowered. Teachers using FMJ can initiate social change by preparing more proficient students with a positive attitude for writing. Ideally, these attributes will build and follow these students into the workforce.

Motivation, which is based on experience, is crucial in promoting literacy acquisition; however, little research has explored what children experience during literacy activities such as poetry reading and writing. This phenomenological study explored what elementary students experienced during literacy activities focused on poetry. Educational reform inspired by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is based on a narrow range of quantitative research and does not consider the multifaceted nature of literacy and the experiences of the learner. Bruner's psychocultural theory and the belief that an individual's experiences are the core of existence were the philosophical and theoretical frameworks used to craft this research. This study was conducted to illuminate children's experience during literacy activities, including Poetry Break, which has been observed to be an eagerly anticipated part of daily classroom rituals at a culturally diverse Title I school. Interviews were held with 22 fifth through twelfth grade students from culturally diverse backgrounds. Fourteen were English-language learners. Students were asked to reflect upon and describe their experiences of poetry reading and writing when in the third or fourth grade. Data were analyzed by isolating thematic statements to glean the essence of the poetry experience. The experiences of fun, being center stage, working with friends, emotional outlet, expressing oneself, choice, creating community, improved reading, and writing were some of the themes that emerged. Implications for positive social change include the use of these findings by educational planners to create motivational and engaging literacy learning activities that can result in improved literacy.

Only one quarter of American students in Grades 4, 8, and 12 were considered at or above the proficient level in writing in 2002 and 2007. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the effect of the instructional strategy known as writer's workshop on students' writing achievement. Writer's workshop is an instructional strategy involving daily writing and systematic lessons. The research question guiding this study examined the writing achievement of students taught through writer's workshop versus students taught through the county's writing curriculum which utilizes journal writing on a regular basis but does not involve systematic lessons or daily writing. Writer's workshop was implemented in 3 Kindergarten classrooms, totaling 45 students, and scores from these students were compared to the scores of the students in the control group, totaling 45 students, none of whom had been exposed to writer's workshop. The participants were 90 Kindergarten students enrolled in a suburban elementary school in the southeastern United States. The students were randomly placed in experimental and control conditions. A pre- and posttest derived from a 10 stage developmental writing rubric was used to measure writing achievement. An independent-measures t test on posttest scores determined a significant difference in writing achievement when the writer's workshop strategies were integrated into the curriculum. Results from this study may contribute to positive social change by maximizing young learners' academic success, confidence, and self-image as their written communication abilities and skills improve.