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The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived professional and self-developmental impact of a nontraditional baccalaureate degree program. Data were collected through self-reports of graduates from three predominantly black colleges in the United States. Surveys were mailed to a total of 272 May, 1991 through May, 1994 graduates in Organizational Management from Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, Florida; Saint Paul's College, Lawrenceville, Virginia; and Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio. Data analyses were based on the total number of 170 returns. The data analyses included frequencies, means, percentages, and cross-tabs for demographics, and also information on enrollment, current employment, graduate school, and assessment of program experiences. Chi-square tests were performed to show the relationships between participants' responses to inquiries by race and gender. The findings of this study revealed that in addition to meeting the needs of students to help them obtain their degrees, the contract Adult Degree Completion Program has been instrumental in helping students to achieve their goals for improving their professional and personal life situations. Overall, it was found that the program presented a major challenge to all students, but the significant findings of the research indicated that some students enjoyed a higher degree of success in their experiences with the program than others. This research suggested that blacks were more apt to change careers upon program completion than other groups; black females were the primary beneficiaries of the portfolio project, and males received a greater level of monetary support from employers than their female counterparts. / Ph. D.

Since the 1970s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been promoted as an alternative to the singular reliance on pesticides to control agricultural pests. IPM involves the combination of chemical and non-chemical pest management practices to minimize pest damage to crops and reduce overall pesticide use. Although IPM has been promoted in both industrialized and Third World countries to reduce environmental and human health problems associated with pesticide use, it has not been widely adopted, particularly among small-scale farmers in the Third World. An important technical constraint to the adoption of IPM is the lack of simple, effective IPM techniques that farmers can easily incorporate into their existing farming systems. However, numerous non-technical constraints discourage farmers from adopting those IPM practices that have already been shown to be effective. Non-technical constraints to the adoption of IPM are the external political-economic forces and location-specific environmental, social and economic factors that may create obstacles to the adoption of IPM practices at the farm level. This thesis will use a political ecology approach to identify and examine the non-technical constraints to the adoption of IPM in the community of Denbigh Kraal in Jamaica. / Master of Science

This qualitative study was designed to investigate the influences on nontraditional pre-service teachers as they negotiated the teaching of science in elementary school. Based upon a sociocultural theoretical framework with an identity-in-practice lens, these influences included beliefs about science teaching, life experiences, and the impact of the teacher preparation program. The study sample consisted of two nontraditional pre-service teachers who were student teaching in an elementary classroom. Data, collected over a five-month period, included in-depth individual interviews, classroom observations, audio recordings, and reviews of documentations. Interviews focused on the participants' beliefs relating to the teaching of science, prior experiences, and their teacher preparation program experiences relating to the teaching of science. Classroom observations provided additional insights into the classroom setting, participants' teaching strategies, and participants' interactions with the students and cooperating teacher. A whole-text analysis of the interview transcripts, observational field notes, audio recordings, and documents generated eight major categories: beliefs about science teaching, role of family, teaching science int he classroom, teacher identity, non-teacher identity, relationships with others, discourse of classroom teaching, and discourses of teachers. The following significant findings emerged from the data: (a) the identity of nontraditional student teachers as science teachers related to early life experiences in science classes; (b) the identity of nontraditional student teachers as science teachers was influenced by their role as parents; (c) nontraditional student teachers learned strategies that supported their beliefs about inquiry learning; and (d) nontraditional student teachers valued the teach preparation program support system. The results from this qualitative study suggest that sociocultural theory with an identity-in-practice lens provides a theoretical frame work for understanding the influences that affect why nontraditional pre-service teachers select strategies to teach science in the elementary classroom. / Ph. D.