Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-159). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-78). Also available via Humboldt Digital Scholar.

This qualitative study investigated how alcohol policy education and enforcement influenced student drinking behavior and norms at a large state university. Data collection consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with sixteen traditional-age freshmen and sophomores who lived in two different campus residential areas. One purpose of this study was to gain insight into the actual drinking practices of students who reside in campus residence halls while another focus was to determine how policy education and enforcement influenced students' decisions to drink. The study participants, who served as "informants" for the purpose of the research, were also asked how they made sense of the situation. The findings suggest emergent themes related to the high incidence of student drinking in the residence halls, the lack of University-sponsored education and enforcement of the alcohol policy, and the manner in which the students' developmental stage influenced their drinking behaviors. In their observations, students talked about a "If we don't see it, hear it, or smell it" enforcement policy and openly criticized the University for its hypocritical stance. Students also revealed strong feelings of disappointment and remorse because their residence hall drinking had negatively impacted their academic standings and their overall well-being. The data suggest that the lack of policy education and enforcement creates an environmental press that encourages student drinking and actually impedes student development. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this research was to examine the socialization experiences of new family and consumer sciences teacher educators, including their interpretations of career preparation, their first job, socialization during the first year, continuing socialization and career development, and respondents' recommendations for improving the socialization process. Organizational socialization provided the theory base. Telephone and personal interviews were conducted with ten female family and consumer sciences teacher educators who held positions in comprehensive and research institutions across the country. The constant comparison method was used for analysis of the data. Results of the study revealed that graduate school professors provided the role modeling participants believed was crucial in preparing them for their future career. Participants who had challenging and relevant coursework and opportunities for a variety of professional experiences during graduate school felt they were well prepared for their faculty roles. However participants for whom this was not the case felt their transition to a faculty role was much more of an overwhelming and unhappy experience. New faculty orientation sessions and career development facilitated success at the university level, while department chairs and faculty peers provided support at the department level. Inhibitors of respondents' success included feelings of being overwhelmed with their workload, inability to balance professional and personal lives, and department pressure to conduct research and publish articles. Overall, participants indicated that lack of time was the primary inhibitor of their success. In spite of the overwhelming feelings of confusion, frustration, stress, and unhappiness during their first year in their new role, respondents reported that their second year was more positive. Implications for improved practice include examining graduate program coursework to ensure relevance and application and including opportunities for increased responsibility in professional experiences related to teaching, research, and professional service. Departments with new faculty should provide opportunities for new faculty to meet both formally and informally with the department chair to discuss policies related to promotion and tenure. Further research could be done to examine the socialization experiences of new faculty in other areas of family and consumer sciences and vocational education to determine similarities or differences. / Ph. D.

This thesis explores the social construction of classed, ‘raced’ and gendered identities of Bengali female learners of ESOL (English for Speakers of other languages) from a post-structuralist feminist position. My research is conducted within the post-compulsory educational context, exploring how Bengali women construct identities in relation to educational experiences of learning English as a second language, and considering how Bengali women are positioned, in turn, by contemporary popular, academic and political discourses. This study is intended to contribute to creating ‘a third space’, within which shifts in cultural meanings that occur through colonialisation and diaspora, offer possibilities for reworking and resisting notions of passivity, inactivity and docility assigned to women within popular and some white academic discourses (Hall, 1992; Khan, 1998; Gilroy, 1992; Spivak, 1999). To open up spaces for non-hegemonic readings of Bengali femininities I identified discursive strategies actively employed by Bengali women to trouble/unsettle dominant discourses that reduce Bengali women to ‘docile bodies’ (Foucault, 1979). Applying a feminist post-structuralist framework has illuminated differences and similarities between, and within, Bengali women’s accounts of ESOL education, to substantiate the view that there is no one truth and no unitary subject. I also draw upon post-colonial, black feminist perspectives to argue that the voices from the margins that have traditionally been excluded from the knowledge making processes can bring into dispute the current discourses about ’race’, class, gender, culture, religion, patriarchy and femininity. The research was undertaken at two educational sites in East and central London over five years. In total, 20 Bengali female learners of ESOL participated in life history interviews over the period of 2 years. The sample was diverse in terms of age, class, education, employment, marital and maternal status. In addition, I also conducted one-to-one interviews with two members of teaching staff per institution. I do not present my interpretations of Bengali female accounts of employment and education as ‘truth’ since post-structuralist approaches challenge the notion of singular truth for all South Asian women. Rather I present these accounts as alternative truths which expand and challenge deep-seated inequalities that position South Asian women as passive victims within existing, dominant oppressive discourses.

People perceive children’s behaviour in many ways based on their own socio-cultural beliefs. Research in western countries has looked at behavioural problems from a psychological/ scientific perspective. However, perception of what kind of behaviour is unacceptable depends significantly on the socio-cultural context of a country. In this regard, the current study investigated the perspective of teachers and parents on children’s behaviour in early childhood, both at school and home to ascertain what constitutes socially acceptable behaviour in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to investigate the parents’ and teachers’ perception of socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviours of pre-school children in Saudi Arabia. The study employed a mixed methods approach and used questionnaires and focus groups as data collection instruments. Data revealed that disobedient behaviour is socially unacceptable in the Saudi Arabian society because of the culture and moral standards that influence behaviours. The high-power distance culture of Saudi Arabia values authority and is strictly against acts of disobedience towards those who are perceived to have a higher social status. This research finds that parents’ perception of socially acceptable behaviour among preschool children is heavily influenced by Saudi culture and other factors, such as whether the family is a single-child or multiple-child family. The education, knowledge and experience of the parents, as well as their age, somewhat affects their perception of socially acceptable behaviour in Saudi Arabia. This research also finds that the perception of teachers and parents on socially unacceptable behaviour in pre-school children differs in certain matters, with parents generally presenting a more liberal view than the teachers. These differences stem from several factors, such as different kind of relationships that these individuals have with the children, the environment in which they observe the children and their professional qualification and experience in dealing with such behaviour.

This thesis is an exploration of the inter-relationship between class transition and education, in a bid to understand the impact of both in the formation of self and identity. This thesis considers that processes of recognition, deeply personal, but also located in institutional encounters, are essential to moving beyond feelings of illegitimacy and to moving across class boundaries. It is a story of one woman’s agency and greater capacity to talk truth to power. Using an auto/biographical approach, I illustrate how education has enabled me to cross class boundaries to become a senior lecturer in a university, and to confront how my class origins and family status have had an enduring impact on my epistemological beliefs. I highlight how misrecognition can become a source of agency, to the benefit of self and those whom I teach. Drawing on critical theory and feminist approaches, I argue that auto/biography provides a legitimate means of illuminating the minutiae of self/other encounters. A psycho-social multidisciplinary lens encompassing concepts of habitus and recognition, has enabled me to chronicle and theorise the lived experience of class relations and how these can be understood and transcended. This is a story of ‘une miraculée’ (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1990). Using the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Axel Honneth, as interpretive frameworks, I present a phenomenological perspective of what it is like to be a ‘lecturer from the working class’ in class-ridden society and a neoliberal education system, and the disrespect and misrecognition these can bring. Writing auto/biographically, augmented by the use of a collaborative narrative approach (Arvay, 1998), I confront feelings of illegitimacy in academia and demonstrate how undertaking the PhD has had an impact on me personally and professionally. The aim of this thesis was to speak the truth about the dominant middle class ideology in the academy; and to challenge the academic community, in particular middle class colleagues, to confront their unconscious class prejudices. Furthermore, I anticipate that this research will make an important contribution to the existing research paradigm that uses auto/biographical approaches to show the lived experiences of people’s lives; and show that writing auto/biographically is therapeutic, educational and reflexive, as well as agentic.

<p> The purpose of this study was to determine if students learn clinical judgment as effectively using computer-based simulations as when using high-fidelity mannequin simulations. There was a single research questions for this study: What is the difference in clinical judgment between participants completing high-fidelity human simulator mannequin simulation or computer-based simulation? A convenience sample of 50 associate degree nursing students in the last medical-surgical nursing course of their program were invited to participate in this study. Analysis of the demographic data confirmed the similarity of the two groups in terms of the potentially important confounding variables such as age, sex, education and prior healthcare experience. The score for each participant from the computer-based simulation (Simulation 2) and the percent of interventions completed in the high-fidelity human simulator simulation (Simulation 3) by each participant was added together to obtain an aggregate clinical judgment score for participants in Group C and Group M. Two-tailed <i> t</i> test for independent means was used to determine if a significant difference existed between the aggregate clinical judgment score for Group C and the aggregate clinical judgment score for Group M. Results from the test indicated that there was no difference between groups at the 95% confidence interval. The similarity of the clinical judgment scores of the computer-based simulation group to the scores of the high-fidelity mannequin simulation group indicates similar utility of the two instructional methods. The use of carefully planned and well-designed computer-based simulations can allow students to practice skills and develop confidence, self-efficacy and clinical judgment independently, freeing faculty for other instructional tasks.</p>

<p> Disparities exist in healthcare related to language barriers and lack of cultural understanding between caregivers and recipients. Increasing the linguistic and cultural diversity of caregivers may decrease the healthcare disparities observed. The research study described in this manuscript was conducted to explore the undergraduate student experiences of nurses representing multiple cultural groups, speaking multiple languages, and representing a cross section of the population of interest. The challenge of speaking English as an additional language (EAL) and belonging to differing cultural groups presents difficulties while successfully completing a baccalaureate nursing program of study. The Theory of Margin was the theoretical framework utilized for the study conducted to achieve an understanding of the educational experience from the student perspective. A qualitative methodology of conversational interviews was utilized to explore the experiences of successful senior nursing students and recent graduates with EAL. Six different languages were spoken by study participants with EAL. Findings of the study revealed participants did not perceive having EAL to be an obstacle to learning. Language challenges resulted from the use of colloquialisms in presentations, handouts, and test materials. Study participants expressed a preference for solitary study practices and a dislike for random assignment to group projects. Support from others was reported to enhance the participants' ability to succeed. Participants expressed feelings of empathy for the patients who were also from diverse backgrounds. Implications of the findings would suggest the need for careful review of course materials to remove colloquialisms and identification of improved and supportive teaching strategies such as purposeful group assignments for nursing education faculty with similar student populations. Future research investigation may explore the perceptions of nurses with EAL who have completed their baccalaureate with more diverse patient populations and examination of the effect of simulation scenarios to improving communication skills of students with EAL.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine why diabetes is persistent in Native Americans using demographic characteristics, physical activity, self-reported health status, socio-economic status, and race. This study used secondary data from the California Health Interview Survey. There were 47,614 adults who participated in the survey, of which 1,369 participants identified themselves as American Indians. </p><p> Chi square analysis was used to substantiate the association between diabetes in Native Americans with diet, exercise, obesity, self-reported health status, and socioeconomic status. Statistical test results found that there was an association between all independent variables suggesting that diabetes in Native Americans is more complex than other races. There were limitations to the study. due to the small number of Native Americans participating in the survey. A further study is recommended at a national level to look more closely at underlying causes of the persistence of diabetes in Native Americans. </p>