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This thesis argues for the inclusion of religious exploration among the commonly accepted list of high impact practices at institutions of higher education. In the last decade, colleges and universities have turned to high impact practices to bolster positive student outcomes in retention, graduation, campus involvement, and deep learning. In its basic forms, religion and spirituality have always been one way that humans have made sense of our most elemental questions: Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? At a time when faith and religion have become wedded to increasingly narrow ideological and political positions, student affairs professionals and educators are in a unique position to reclaim the meaning-making power of religious stories and help students examine their fundamental assumptions about their identities and purpose. To this end, I examine high impact practices as transformational experiences, and discuss how both general religious literacy and individual religious practice transform a student’s college experience and their life beyond. Using scholarly personal narrative, I recount my own quarterlife religious exploration and contrast that experience with what we know about how college students approach faith and religion today. Finally, I make specific recommendations about how to incorporate religious and spiritual learning in our curriculum and open a campus dialogue about faith and its role in the meaning-making endeavors of our quarterlife students.

During disaster operations in Ghana in 2015, as a result of flood and fire, there was evidence of poor coordination between the workers and victims of the NGO, as well as inappropriate use of funds, which consequently caused compounding problems for disaster victims especially the outbreak of diseases. Little, however, is known about what conditions precipitated these events that may have delayed humanitarian, non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) ability to engage in disaster relief to victims. Using Freeman's stakeholder theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study of the 2015 fire/flood disaster in Ghana was to understand from the perspective NGOs what events and conditions may have contributed to lack of coordination and inefficient practices. Data were collected from 13 executive directors, employees, and volunteers of the NGO through personal interviews. Interview data were deductively coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Findings revealed that participants perceived that the NGO provided financial accountability to donors, but not to disaster victims, nor were victims involved in the NGO's operations. The study's findings have implications for how future researchers in related disasters may approach studies in disaster management by including the perspectives of both NGO and victims in humanitarian aid operations. Implications for social change include recommendations to NGO management to develop and engage in accountability practices to ensure financial accountability to all stakeholders as well as active involvement of the disaster victims.

The Region 4 Study, a four-county research project completed in July 1971 for the New York State Education Department under the direction and organization of the author, was approved by Walden University as the outline for this dissertation. The statistical data and committees' recommendations were adapted for this thesis without altering, hopefully, the substance or intent of the documented findings. The dissertation has been footnoted to indicate the use of Region 4 data in Chapters V, VI, and VII. The study was undertaken to seek methods of improving programs in occupational education and of coordinating those programs among the school districts to open up many more opportunities for students to learn about the world of work such an investigation involved many specialists, as well as the executives of business and the administrators of governmental agencies. In the process, communication between educators and the men responsible for running the businesses of the four counties was greatly enhanced. A start in this direction, made five years before the Study by the author in his capacity as county coordinator of occupational education for Westchester-Putnam counties, served as an opening wedge for this cooperation over one 'hundred individuals participated in the gathering of statistical data during the eight months of the Study, all of which had to be summarized for the report to the State Education Department. The charts and graphs were made by gleaning data from other statistical sources as well as doing original research. The organization and editing of the Study were directly controlled by the author. Chapter I of the dissertation covers the problems in occupational education from a four-county perspective. Chapter II gives the authors view of 'what ought to be' in occupational education generally, and what he knows is feasible for the four counties particularly. Chapter III sets the geographical and historical background of the counties. Population growth and economic development are given in Chapter IV, and Chapter V deals with the numbers of students in the schools and the need for manpower. Occupational education courses offered presently on all educational levels are listed in Chapter IV, with a summation indicating how far short we fall in meeting our goals. Chapter VII reflects specific and general views of the participating committees in the summing up of conclusions and recommendations. Projections are made for enlarging programs and improving curricula; the considerations of area-wide needs encompass the hopes and aims of men and women concerned with pragmatic goals and the ideals of a good society. A very significant recommendation is the one expressing the need for continual planning and for improving regional coordination through the resources of active advisory committees.

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The relationship between 'individual' and 'community', or others, is a focal concern in philosophy both in China and in the Euro-western world. Individualism and collectivism, the two entirely different traditions of philosophy that describe a different relationship between 'individual' and 'community', have a long polemic history and are still practiced in our everyday lives. They play an essential role in schools in terms of the way teachers teach our children and relationships children develop with their classmates. This dissertation is a philosophical comparative effort to explore the conceptions of individual and community, and the relationship between the two in Confucian Grand Union and Deweyan democracy. Confucius's and Dewey's shared dedications to a philosophy of social engagement, philosophy of education, and social organism provide a theoretical ground for them to engage in a philosophical conversation. The researcher's perspective as a philosopher and cultural studies scholar is analytical, pragmatist, and social feminist. The rejection of private/public and individual/social dichotomies in both Confucius's and Dewey's work is a hope for human unity that involves taking the human society as an organism and helps actualize the best possibilities of individuals as well as the human community. This theory of human unity with an emphasis on a pluralistic relational view of human community has much to offer for schools and will contribute significantly to the improvement of educational opportunities for all people. The implications for schools are developed in this work.