Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-202).

Pre-college programs designed to increase the intentions of minority students to attend college have become commonplace on many college campuses. Evaluation of such programs has focused on measuring the effectiveness of the delivery of services provided to students. At other times, evaluation of program effectiveness focused on measuring increases in individual skill development. Both of these components of evaluation are acceptable means of determining program effectiveness but have limitations because they may not address students intentions to attend college.This study as evaluation research was designed to investigate whether student participation in the Summer Scholars Residential Program resulted in changes in the intentions of the students toward participation in higher education. The population of the study was 184 minority junior high and senior high school students in Indiana who attended a week long Summer Scholars Residential Program 1992.Several methodologies were used to gather evidence regarding students' experiences in the program. One hundred and eighty four pre- and 164 post-questionnaire instruments were completed by students during four separate weeks of participation in the Scholars Program. A select number of 10 students maintained journals of their experiences. Finally, 21 students responded to interviews after one year to gather evidence on the long term effects from participation in the Scholars Program and to obtain more specific feedback from students.Comparisons were made between student responses on the pre-questionnaire and the post-questionnaire as one method of determining possible changes in students' intentions to pursue higher education before and after participating in the Scholars Program. Other comparisons were made of students intentions to enroll in specific courses in high school including pre-college courses. The evidence gathered showed that participation in the Scholars Summer Program did reinforce and increase students' intentions to attend college. In addition, the follow-up phone interviews showed that students changed their courses in high school from general to college preparatory. / Department of Educational Leadership

This dissertation is a study of the minzu stream for ethnic Tibetan students in the context of bilingual degree programs in China’s tertiary education system. It draws attention to the significance of bilingual ‘diversity’ education and its presumed role in ensuring cultural and social inclusion of Tibetan students in study programs and equity in educational and occupational attainment. This study finds that Tibetan students’ learning outcomes and career pathways are systemically restricted due to limited availability of specialized study areas in bilingual programs, poor education quality, homogenized academic training, and discrimination regarding the value of Tibetan graduates’ credentials for employment. As a result, Tibetan students’ educational and occupational opportunities are largely shaped by the structural conditions of the binary choice in ethnic streaming policy in tertiary education and the university mission that is primarily occupied with the political socialization of ethnic minority groups. Drawing on Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory, I argue that the social exclusion of Tibetans from fully participating in national tertiary education and exercising their language rights in academic study programs has been institutionalized in minzu higher education. The institutionalization of cultural and social exclusion effectively conceals the systemic inequalities embedded in the streaming practices and reproduces structural inequity in educational and occupational attainment.

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The purpose of this qualitative teacher research study is to explore the ways in which the use of performance in the college composition classroom can impact under-represented writers and their engagement in the writing process. Through the lens of performance theory, this study identifies how students present their sociocultural knowledge through writing and explores how this presentation, as a performance of the self, informs pedagogical practice. One of the major problems typically troubling developmental or basic freshman composition classrooms is that too many of the students seem detached from their own writing and indifferently engaged in their own writing process. This study focuses on examining how the students’ presentation of their knowledge and their own lived experiences through writing and performing their writing in collaboration with classmates influences the quality of their engagement with their own writing and their attitudes toward the academic work of a freshman English class. To this end, data were collected in the form of observation field notes of student writing conferences and performances, student responses to reflective questions, and student writing. The study used discourse analysis to examine, compare, and analyze the data collected. My interpretations of data were framed by my own performance experiences and the discourse of performance theory, which allowed me to analyze my students’ conferences and group work as rehearsals and preparation for the final performance of their writing and their writing as a performance of the self.

Minorities stand increasingly under-represented in the teaching profession; they continue to be under-represented in graduate teacher preparation programs. Despite calls for increased numbers of minority teachers, despite countless well-intentioned recruitment and retention programs, the relative proportion of newly prepared minority teachers is in fact decreasing (Carter & Wilson, 1992). Literally hundreds of studies examine retention programs, identifying the deficits of minorities, noting what program elements work, and establishing characteristics of supportive institutional environments. Unfortunately, knowing what can be done to I increase persistence does not yet translate into doing it. By focusing on a positive correlate--those minority students who successfully complete their programs—this study contrasts with the deficit approach. Employing a critical analysis and feminist and ethnic interpretive perspectives, this qualitative study investigates the experiences of minorities who did complete graduate teacher education programs at 10 predominantly white, public and private, urban, suburban, and rural institutions in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, the study examines how these minority students understand and interpret their experiences, which events they perceive as enhancing their successes and which ones they know interfered. All minorities who had completed graduate teacher preparation programs at the 10 institutions since 1990 were surveyed. Sections of the survey correspond to categories previously found to correlate with persistence (AME/OMHE, 1992; Attinasi, 1989; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1990; Tinto, 1987). Of the 72% who returned the surveys N = 61), 83% asked to be interviewed. Subsequently, seven respondents representative of the surveyed population each participated in two face-to-face interviews. Ethnographic methods were used to inductively analyze the empirical materials gathered in the research study. Content analysis of the subjects' journals combined with their interview transcripts and surveys enabled triangulation within three different sources of the respondents' own words. Results confirm that minorities see themselves as outsiders within predominantly white institutions. Belonging, or not, frames their institutional experience and mirrors their everyday lived realities in mainstream American culture. Respondents attribute their achievements to individual persistence; examples of persistence cited align remarkably with psychological profiles of resiliency (Benard, 1991). Retention program components are viewed as less significant than the personal resiliency each respondent evidenced.

Since the late 1960's, there has been a growing body of research seeking to provide explanation for why blacks continue to be underrepresented in higher education enrollment; however, none of these studies provides a full explanation. Ogbu (1969, 1978, 1985), who has given the fullest explanation of black underachievement for students at the primary and secondary levels, suggests that his caste system paradigm be used to explain black underrepresentation in higher education. This paradigm suggests that blacks are members of a caste because of a history of discrimination and exploitation. This past history led to a folk theory of unequal opportunity, which has affected the way that blacks perceive, interpret, and respond to educational barriers. In this exploratory study, the researcher investigated a lower socioeconomic community in Baltimore, Maryland, which in many ways represents the general black population, to learn if Ogbu's caste paradigm explained black underrepresentation in higher education. It was learned that the caste system was in operation, and a very recent history of discrimination and exploitation existed. A folk theory of "unequal opportunity" and a collective identity that "blacks cannot compete with the white man," led to the use of oppositional/counter cultural strategies to "get ahead." Such strategies as pushing drugs, "beating the system" and stealing, coupled with high incidents of homicide, violence and teen pregnancy, impacted upon the ability of residents to graduate from high school and enroll in college. Furthermore, strategies used in the community were operational in the school, which served to detract from school learning. / Ed. D.

This study initially was designed to produce an in-depth profile of minority students at North Texas State University. After the original dissertation proposal was presented and accepted the "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974" was passed. Considerable time passed while NTSU officials developed a legal basis as to the kind of information that would be accessible to doctoral students. The problem of this study was to construct a profile of minority students at NTSU who enrolled during the Fall and Spring semesters, 1974-75. It appears, and very significantly so, that the population percentage for minority students at NTSU is quite disproportionate when compared with the minority population percentage of the State of Texas. For the period examined, one out of every four students of minority designation was Latin-American while three out of four were of Afro-American ethnicity. The average minority student is from a population center that may be designated as a medium sized city to a large metropolitan area. The average minority student at NTSU is admitted from a large urban area high school, and not much preference seems to be given to native Texans. It appears that most minority students are admitted on the same basis as students from the dominant group--Scholastic Achievement Test score of 675. Minority female students outnumber the males at NTSU. The average minority student expects to graduate on time from the university. Also, the average minority student is unmarried with a preponderance of their numbers being "Freshman" as relates to academic level.

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