Typically, students have had limited voice in their schooling (Erickson & Schultz,1992). The purposes of this study were to explore the concept of student voice in the elementary school and to develop strategies that develop student voice in the curricula. An elementary school principal and four teachers participated in an action research study that examined and attempted to develop student voice in their classrooms. Acting as a coach, the principal supported the four teachers as they implemented their classroom research on student voice. Four case studies were developed based on artifacts such as journals (student and participant), lesson plans, meetings, surveys and observations. Data were analyzed for emerging themes and compared across cases.Findings indicate that there was a difference in the teachers' emerging understanding and promotion of student voice. These differences were explained on the evolving commonalities being discovered in each case study. First and foremost were the instructional strategies utilized by the participants that engaged the learners and promoted their voice? Next, the organizational structure of the building and classes played an important role. Time and size of classes either promoted or restrained student voice. Finally, the culture of the organization and the belief system of the individual teacher played an important role. / Ed. D.

This paper explores the manner in which campus culture during the middle of the twentieth century idealized the image of the campus sweetheart, which had become common within higher education during the period, to project characteristics and beliefs that adhered to a restrictive feminine standard. By analyzing newspapers and yearbooks produced at multiple Midwest universities during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the paper demonstrates how the image of the sweetheart promoted an unrealistic feminine standard pertaining to beauty and monogamy to young women entering higher education during the period. In addition, the paper illustrates the detrimental effect of the sweetheart image for women's educational experiences through an analysis of Sylvia Plath's journals from her time at Smith College.

In a time of upheaval in American higher education, student retention continues to be a chief concern on most campuses. Peer tutoring, like other peer-based programming, is asked to serve multiple functions as a low-cost, high-impact model. This study explored the cultures of these semi-structured, co-curricular, academic-social spaces and sought to understand what happens in a group peer tutoring context that impacts students. Data was generated with students on two campuses during the spring 2014 semester using a two-phase qualitative approach. Data generating activities included observation of students and peer tutors in the tutoring spaces on each campus. The second phase of data generation included focus groups with more than 30 students on each campus. Findings suggest that the student participants on these two campuses conceive of tutoring spaces as unique, that they engage with their peers in such contexts differently than they do in other places, and that programmatic structures may influence the outcomes they achieve. Implications range from contributions to more nuanced understanding of social learning theory to the critical importance of vulnerability in student help-seeking behavior.

The drinking culture within the college life has been a recognized problem for long. Despite this, students still witness a continuing of the perceived peer pressure to consume alcohol. Since the college years are an important part of the life that youths look forward to at an early age it is often difficult to go against the norm they find at each university. This research aims to examine the effect that the social student culture has on the alcoholic consumption of young students. Young students find themselves in a precarious situation on the issue of alcohol use when they start their studies at a university-level. Earlier research indicates that young adults are in a danger zone regarding the use of alcoholic-beverages and this also applies to students. Thus putting young students in a particularly risky zone in this issue. Based on the research we have studied and the theoretical framework that we felt were most suitable for our research we will try to gain a deeper understanding of the choices that the students are making and the reasoning behind these decisions. We used a qualitative method to approach our issues and semi- structured interviews in the interviews that we did with four students from two different universities. Our results and thus the conclusion of the thesis is that the decisions that students make to a large extent is influenced by the social student culture and the view on alcohol that the students perceive that the universities are sending out. The lack of a stance by the university against alcohol legitimizes the current drinking culture that is prevailing in the college life and amplifies the image of the alcohol-centric student culture.

This thesis is aimed at getting a better understanding of drinking games as a social phenomenon. Data has been collected in form of individual interviews with five students that has been taken part of drinking games. The focus of this study is to understand what function the games and the drinking they involve have for the students. Randal Collins theory of interactional rituals combined with Robert Mertons concept of sociological ambivalence is applied to analyze how the students construct meaning relating to the phenomenon drinking games. The results indicate that the games serve as a gathering point at a social event, and provides a way for participants to interact and socialize that eases the otherwise uncomfortable feeling that can be experienced when meeting new people. The alcohol seems to have a central role in the games as an investment for the players, at the same time as it helps them to get  intoxicated. The games thereby become a convenient solution for the partying students that wants to get drunk and socialize together. But the ritualistic perspective also helps to uncover two secret rules that must be followed to take part of the ritual in the “right” way.

M.A. / This study entailed research into the variables that play a significant role in the development of student culture, the specific nature of student culture at RAU and extent of the relationship between student participation in student culture and their work ethic/work orientation. In the qualitative phase of this study a total of 10 in-depth group interviews were conducted with 21 students in order to determine the nature of student culture at RAU. From these interviews certain variables of student culture at the RAU were identified and used to construct a questionnaire that was completed by a representative sample of 1000 students (quantitative phase). The questionnaire consisted of questions on the biographical- and academic background of students, their work ethic/work orientation and various aspects of student culture and -subcultures. By means of factor analysis and item analysis, eight scales were developed. These scales measured the work ethic/work orientation of students, the extent to which students regard academic merit as important, their participation in student culture, their conformation to academic student norms and the extent of their identification with the academic-, occupational-, college- and outside-campus student subcultures. The scales were further analysed in terms of the biographical- and academic background of students, making use of one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe's paired comparisons, Hotelling T2 and t-tests and Pearsons correlation's. Using bundle analysis four student subcultures, namely the active-, passive-, hardworking- and occupational subcultures, were identified at the RAU. These subcultures were also analysed in terms of students' backgrounds making use of crosstabulations with Chi t- tests. It was found that students have a relatively high work ethic/work orientation: The most important factors that bring about a difference in terms of students work ethic/work orientation are gender, the faculty within which students study, the method students use to pay for their studies and the RAUstudent subculture that students belong to.

This explorative study focuses on young, university attending males (22-27 years) and their understanding and pratice of the classic tail coat. It is based on five qvalitatively interpreted interwievs with a total of six participants, and through open questions regarding individuality and identicalness, limits and possibilities and inclusion and exclusion, a masculininty of a less contemporary hue takes shape. These conversations have revealed the tail coats potential of respresenting a male stereotype that can set a foundational and minimal standard for inclusion. Above this layer these males can then manifest and negotiate their masculine position in a homosocial hierarchy which decides the amount of passage, privilieges and confirmation of self- worth received for the wearer. These negotiation is performed by value bearing symbols (such as medallions, cordons and the like) allowed by the wearer and by the actions that systematically ensure that the lines of the tail coat are watched and unbroken. This is to preserve the priviliege of being allowed to deconstruct the unit of the tail coat, as this would be an absolute indication of achievement of the correct masculinity and the surrounding of the right spectators. The guarding of the tail coats limits lies within the tendencies of wanting to correct each other with feelings of either irritation or sympathy, a practice that seem rather unreflected by these men themselves. This pratice could be interpreted as a form of ”subjectfying” performed between these men, collectively and systematically (as well as unreflected) ensuring the image of masculinity remains unflawed. The tail coat allows the somewhat questioned homosociality to stay vital by forming a third gender sphere which is separated from the rules of the public (male) sphere and the private (female), but can still transcend and interact with these. In a society that porgressively have condemned the homosocial practice of men choosing and protecting other men in aspects regarding both work and domesticity, the third gender sphere becomes a sanctuary which can allow this structure to continue. However, these young men also experiences a duality, an awareness of the problems involved with gender exclusive contexts which could be a symptom of this homosocial sphere cracking in its surface. However, the overall experience of the tail coat and its connected contexts seems to be understood as fun and easy, neutral and uncomplicated, and the tail coat itself as an form of ”pavlovian conditioning” on the pleasantries connected to it.

The university habitus is not comprised of neutral structures but carries with it a history of privileging certain ways of doing, learning and being. Students who identify as Aboriginal draw from a number of identities at the University that become more or less relevant depending on the context. In this narrative study, seven students who identify as Aboriginal are interviewed about their experiences at the University of Saskatchewan. As a result of these interviews, a perspective of the university takes shape where Aboriginal culture welcomes and comforts students in a supporting role but does not always seem relevant in an academic context. Connections to others and to oneself can impact a student’s engagement in classroom curricula and stereotypes about Aboriginal peoples and grades play an important role in shaping the experiences of students who identify as Aboriginal at university, their definition of success and even their decision to attend university. The “narrative of struggle” can influence students’ choices to frame themselves either in relation to a non-Aboriginal reference group or question why Aboriginal educational success is framed in terms of exceptional individual cases rather than as a group norm. While students’ experiences at the university vary, their purpose for attending university is closely connected to their identities both now and their hopes for creating a better self in the future.