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This study examined whether measures of social capital were significant predictors of enrollment in postsecondary education for students from a low SES background. Results take the form of two articles. The first article addresses enrollment in four-year institutions of postsecondary education, and the second article addresses enrollment in two-year institutions of postsecondary education. The research questions for this study were: 1. Does probability of enrollment in a four-year postsecondary institution or a two-year postsecondary institution for low SES students differ by mean school SES? 2. Does probability of enrollment in a four-year postsecondary institution or a two-year postsecondary institution for low SES students differ by school locale? 3. When controlling for contextual or environmental variables and student background characteristics, are low SES students with higher levels of social capital more likely to enroll in a four-year postsecondary institution or a two-year postsecondary institution than low SES students with lower levels of social capital? 4. When controlling for contextual or environmental variables, background characteristics, and level of social capital does probability of enrollment in a four-year institution of postsecondary education or a two-year postsecondary institution vary by race for low SES students? When controlling for school level variables, academic achievement and preparation, and select background characteristics, low SES students with higher levels of social capital are more likely to enroll in a four-year college. Students whose parents expected them to obtain more education and those students who obtained more information about attending college were more likely to enroll in a four-year university. In the analysis of enrollment in four-year institutions of postsecondary education, African American low SES students were three times more likely to enroll in a four-year college or university than low SES Caucasian students. Only one measure of social capital, information acquisition, was significantly related to enrollment in a two-year institution of postsecondary education. No significant variability in probability of enrollment in a two-year institution of postsecondary education was observed by either of the school level variables used. Race was not a significant factor when controlling for background characteristics and the measures of social capital used in this study. / Ph. D.

M.A. / The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the South African post-matric programmes on career maturity and self-efficacy. The research design employed in order to measure this impact was a non-equivalent three group, pre-posttest design within a quasi-experiment. Post-matric students in the experimental group were taken from nine independent schools in South Africa. Two control groups were used, one consisting of matriculation students and the other of first year university students. Post-matric is an additional year of schooling aimed at bridging the gap between school and university. The difficulties experienced by young people during this school to work transition and the main reasons for students partaking in post-matric programmes are presented. In order to comprehensively outline the construct career maturity, the theories of three authors, namely, Donald Super, John Crites and Ronelle Langley, are discussed. The construct self-efficacy is also fully outlined with a theoretical exposition of the work of Albert Bandura, John Krumboltz and Nancy Betz. Measurement instruments used in this study are a biographical questionnaire, the Career Development Questionnaire (CDQ) and the Career Decision-Making Self- Efficacy Scale (CDMSES). Various hypotheses were formulated and Hotelling's T 2- tests, Students t-tests, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Scheffe test were used to test the hypotheses. Results of these statistical tests showed that the three groups of participants started off unequally with regard to the measures of career maturity and career decision-making self-efficacy, but the two school groups improved to such an extent that their mean scores on all scale variables compared favourably with those of the university group at the end of the study. It is especially the career maturity and career decisionmaking self-efficacy of the post-matric students that improved significantly within the nine month period during which the post-matric programmes were implemented. This finding reflects positively on the impact of the post-matric programmes. As the CDMSES is an overseas research instrument being used extensively in South Africa for the first time in this research, certain statistical procedures were carried out in order to highlight its psychometric properties. Of particular interest is the finding that in South Africa the CDMSES measured only one factor which can be named as Forethought with regard to Career Knowledge. In conclusion it is recommended that full use be made in educational institutions of the measurement instruments used in this study as diagnostic aids to enhance the effectiveness of career counselling. It is also recommended that further research in this topic be carried out on the broader community in South Africa.

A human being's resilience refers to his or her abilities to combine internal and/or external resources effectively in response to significant contextual challenges in order to best succeed in a given environment. As such, this concept is vital across the lifespan and has been widely researched. However, few researchers to date have studied resilience as it relates to adult learners, and, significantly, those with immigrant status. Immigrant adult learners are facing compounded risks, which create challenges in various societies to identify this group's unique needs and/or to fully understand their experiences in diverse contexts, such as the Cayman Islands. Informed by the social cognitive theory, this convergent mixed methods study defined and examined resilience (dependent variable) among immigrants in the Cayman Islands, and explored immigrants' experiences as they participated in postsecondary education (independent variable). Seventy-nine participants completed the cross-sectional survey to provide quantitative data, and 15 of these participants were interviewed in depth to obtain qualitative data. Correlation, t tests, and thematic analysis were independently done then merged to provide combined findings, which showed that there are high levels of resilience among this group, although resilience did not positively correlate with postsecondary education participation. Through this research, existing literature is expanded with contextual information about definitions of resilience, and brings to the forefront this group's unique experiences. Educational and psychological stakeholders and practitioners are provided ways to implement programs and support services. These findings also provide immigrants with relevant and timely information to positively negotiate lifespan events while adjusting to postsecondary participation.

The numbers of students with disabilities enrolling in postsecondary institutions has increased since the passage of key disability rights legislation. As a result, the need for information about accommodating postsecondary students with disabilities has increased in the last two decades, especially since the passage of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998. This study used Dick and Carey's (1996) model of instructional design to conduct a formative evaluation of a Web-based performance support system (WPSS) designed for academic administrators, instructional employees, and auxiliary service administrators to enhance accommodations for postsecondary students with disabilities. Formative evaluation consisted of expert review, one-to-one, consumer analysis, and field trial phases. During the expert review phase, subject matter experts, instructional design and usability experts, and individuals with disabilities completed surveys to assess the degree to which the WPSS contained current content, included elements of effective design, and was accessible to individuals with disabilities. During the one-to-one, consumer analysis, and field trial phases, academic administrators, instructional personnel, and auxiliary service administrators on the University of Kentucky campus completed a questionnaire using the WPSS to assess the degree to which the WPSS was effective in providing information. In addition, users completed a survey to assess their perceptions of the WPSS. Finally, data were collected to assess difficulties encountered by users. Results from the expert review phase of the evaluation suggest that the WPSS contained current content, included elements of effective design, and was accessible to individuals with disabilities. Analysis of the questionnaire scores from all phases revealed that users obtained a mean accuracy rate of 74% or higher on the in-session questionnaire. In addition, all users required a mean of 3.9 minutes or less per question to locate responses for items on the questionnaire. The perceptions of all users about the WPSS were positive. Results also indicated that users reported a variety of technical difficulties; however, the majority were related to server errors. Revisions made to the WPSS after each phase of evaluation are described. Implications of the investigation for researchers and Web developers, limitations of the investigation, and areas for future research also are discussed.

As individuals, college students make choices that both reflect their past lives and constitute their futures. In this research I examine the ways five college sophomores built their lives in the complex world of a research university campus. Using case study analysis I look at how the students negotiated the considerable academic and social demands of their daily lives. College impact models and literature about theories of practice and decision making inform the analysis. Human agency and fields of practice help to explain the behaviors of these students. The research reveals that students take a myriad of paths to negotiate the intricacies of the college context and construct their lives, but that they are guided along those paths by their goals for the future. I interviewed five sophomores at a Doctoral/Extensive university repeatedly over one semester. I discovered that their families and their pre-college academic experiences mattered throughout their first few semesters as they learned to play the college game. Survival depended on their backgrounds, their skills, and the strategies they used to adapt to their new environment. The extent and quality of their interaction with peers, faculty, and other adults on campus also reflected their instrumentalism and indicated their efforts to find a space within the larger campus. Their adjustment to the field of the academy showed a commitment to vocational goals in the long and short term. My analysis illuminates the idiosyncratic process of choosing a major and the nature of a students commitment to a discipline. Taken together, these categories of student life show a complex building process with some similarities and many individual variations.

Approximately 30 million graduate students enrolled in programs in Fall 2016 (National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES, 2017). Based on current trends this number is expected to continue to rise due to many reasons (NCES, 2017). Simultaneously, the supply of postsecondary graduates continues to rise to meet the labor demand. Furthermore, employment in the U.S. has drastically shifted from a manufacturing economy to a service and technology economy, both of which call for postsecondary education. Parents influence the future of their children’s lives. Parents’ involvement in their child’s education often reflects their expectations. Although, much of the parent expectation research pertains to parent-child relationships this research may also contextual the parent-adult child/ parent-graduate student relationship. What is less clear is an understanding of why graduate students are up to the challenge of pursuing a postsecondary education (i.e. graduate school). It would be helpful to know if parental influence can also help children to continue their education into graduate studies. Thus, providing the supply of highly educated professionals in the workplace that will meet our economy’s demand. Therefore, the purpose of this practitioner research study (using qualitative methods) was to explore the meaning of the relationship between parent expectations and graduate student educational attainment with graduate students at a research-intensive university in the U.S. Undergirded by the Family Systems Theory (Broderick, 1993) and Self-Efficacy Theory (Bandura, 1997), I conducted a small pilot focus group which fits the nature of my research objective. Participants included (N = 1; 2 African Americans, 1 European American; 100% female; age range 26-29 years old) 2nd year graduate students enrolled in a Marriage and Family Therapy doctoral program at a Southeastern university in the U.S. The data collection site was my university office because the layout worked well for group discussion and required key access. Data collection instruments included informed consent, basic information survey, and a focus group interview guide. An example question from the interview guided included, “How did you come to understand your parent expectations?”. Participants were solicited using purposive sampling via. Data instruments and confidentiality were reviewed before audio-recording. The 30-minute pilot focus group interview was recorded on a protected device. I utilized Microsoft Word and a play-back device for transcription (see Figure 1). Using a phenomenological and thematic approach to code the interview, codes were compared back to my research purpose to ensure a recursive data reduction process. Member checks improved study validity. I found three main themes and two sub-themes (see Figure 2). Themes included: 1) Parent used direct communication, 2) Parent used indirect communication, 3) Parent used blend of communication, s1) Communication can be verbal or non-verbal, and s2) Graduate students interpreted their experience. Overall, findings provide insight into the meaning-making process that graduate students use to understand their parents’ expectations. Implications include far-reaching impact parent expectations have on influencing their children to pursue postsecondary education. Family researchers and educators should remind parents they are vital in shaping the future of their children’s academic future and the families of tomorrow.

This study explores six English as a foreign language students in an English content-based course of critical thinking delivered via distance at the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) in Iran. Framed within cultural-historical activity theory, the study seeks to shed light on the complex nature of students' course-related activities with a particular focus on contradictions that underlie any human activity. The construct of contradictions provides a theoretical lens to understand the complex web of relationships among a number of elements in the course taking activity situated in a cultural-historical setting beset with political controversies, technological challenges, and demands of the bilingual curriculum of the university. To capture the complex nature of contradictions, the study employed a naturalistic methodology and relied primarily on in-depth interviews with the participants, observations of their online behaviors, and the artifacts that student participants produced by the end of the semester. The findings indicate that most participants had multiple activity systems within the course environment, some of which were oriented towards academic and others non-academic objects. According to the data and theoretical interpretations, most participants had primary, secondary, and quaternary contradictions. Most primary contradictions had the nature of use and exchange value, which in practical terms indicates the orientation towards genuine learning or earning a grade. Primary and quaternary contradictions led to many secondary contradictions. Furthermore, it transpired that content-based instruction pushed the participants to engage actively in actions oriented towards improving English even for the participants who did not have the object of improving English. Among many other findings are detrimental consequences of contradictions that are traced back to the persecutions of BIHE students, faculty, and staff.

Current literature on the gender gap in higher education lacks in-depth exploration of how the gap between males and females in postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment differs among racial/ethnic groups and among students of differing socioeconomic status (SES). This thesis explores the potential mediating role of student attitudes and behaviors and whether or not inclusion in certain racial/ethnic or SES groups moderates the relationship between gender and intentions to continue one's education immediately after high school graduation. This study uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. Results suggest that student attitudes mediate more of the relationship between student gender and postsecondary education intentions and that this mediation was strongest for Hispanic students. Additionally, results also suggest that the gender gap in postsecondary education intentions is smallest among Hispanics, indicating that Hispanic identity moderates the relationship between student gender and postsecondary education intentions. Results pertaining to the moderating role of SES were inconclusive.

This in-depth qualitative, phenomenological (Smith & Fowler, 2009) research study attempted to understand the experiences of young adults with intellectual disability who had completed a 2-year, inclusive postsecondary education program. 13 participants (4 former students with ID, 5 parents, and 4 Postsecondary Education staff members) participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were coded to provide themes amongst each individual group of participants. A document review was also conducted to better understand the program components and add validity to self-reports from interviews. Results were analyzed and used to provide implications for future research and program development.