This study applies a critical discourse analysis framework to an examination of the constitutive effects of three regulatory proceedings, called “The Computer Inquiries,” on contemporary notions about communications infrastructure policy. The Computer Inquiries are a trio of interrelated U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dockets focused on problems posed by the convergence of regulated telephony with unregulated computing services. The Inquiry docket texts, which date from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, are a basis for the liberalization of common carrier1 regulation and are the empirical evidence that the dissertation draws upon to trace the incremental evolution of terms used to define the boundaries between these converging services. Datasets include the 23 documents contained in three case studies: Computer Inquiry I (FCC Docket 16979), Computer Inquiry II (FCC Docket 20828), and Computer Inquiry III (FCC Docket 85-229). The first case study traces the incremental construction of a concept called “hybrid” services as the foundation for an FCC policy of “maximum industry separation” between common carriers and data processing companies. The second case study illustrates how the FCC subsequently re-engineered the hybrid concept into regulatory categories of “basic” and “enhanced” services. This definitional shift justified liberalizing the FCC’s maximum separation policy into a “modified” policy based upon a resale structure. The third case study demonstrates how the FCC further relaxed the resale policy by implementing accounting controls to distinguish between regulated common carriers providing the telecommunications infrastructure (conduit) used by unregulated information services (content) companies. Research reveals the malleable and somewhat arbitrary nature of regulatory distinctions between content and conduit as a basis for the FCC’s shifting jurisdictional authority over common carriers. During the course of the Inquiries, the FCC transitioned from a proactive to a reactive regulator with a discursive strategy involving what the dissertation calls “linguistic engineering.” Finally, the study notes the lack of attention to First Amendment and democracy concerns in all three Inquiry dockets. The dissertation concludes by calling for a Fourth Computer Inquiry to reconsider the legacy of the Computer Inquiries through which the principle of nondiscriminatory carriage of information by telecommunications providers has been eroded. / text

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This qualitative research focused on the political knowledge holdings of adults. The research was conducted from the perspective and for the field of adult education. A purpose of this dissertation research was to provide a new and expanded footing for future inquiry and to enhance the further development of both theory and practice. The methodology was selected with that in mind.This study involved two distinct components. Part one involved a systematic random sample of 30 adults from a small midwestern city. A 16 question telephone survey was administered to each of the 30 adults. The survey consisted of the type questions used by previous researchers to measure political knowledge. The questions required respondents to identify political figures and election issues. Respondents were also asked to answer political parties questions and civics questions.The qualitative component, part two, was the primary thrust of this research. Seven informants were identified from different life circumstances. The informants and the 30 randomly selected adults resided in the same community. A minister, a law enforcement officer, a small business person, a retired person, a minimum wage worker, a factory worker, and an adult college student were individually interviewed on twoseparate occasions. Each interview was transcribed and analyzed by the researcher. At the conclusion of each informant's final interview, the 16 question survey, previously given to the 30 telephone respondents, was administered to each informant.Conclusions of this study were not generalized beyond the study's research participants. The informants were found to have varying areas of political knowledge. These varying areas of political knowledge arose from the informants varying personal experiences and life circumstances. Informants were not well informed, nor were they equally informed, across multiple areas of political knowledge. The seven informants performed virtually the same as did the thirty telephone respondents on the sixteen question survey.This study demonstrated that qualitative research methodology can illuminate and make meaningful that which is undetected through the use of questionnaires. Where the results of the questionnaires reflected a sameness between and among the informants and telephone respondents, the seven case studies uncovered distinct differences. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study was to understand the differences of conscious constructive responses and shifting strategies with the goal of understanding reading comprehension while reading nonfiction, fiction, and poetry texts. This naturalistic diagnostic study uses a think-aloud methodology. The study examines verbal, retrospective, and recall reports from fifteen seventh-graders of varying reading abilities; good, average, and weaker from one private school in the Midwest. After collecting a total of ninety verbal reports in three sessions, verbal reports were scored according to level of conscious constructive responses. Retrospective reports were scored for shifting utilization. Recall reports were scored to identify a reading comprehension score that was correlated with strategies. Based on these results, it was evident that conscious constructive responses existed with seventh-grade readers regardless of ability and text type. There were differences between utilization with text type, but little differences with ability level. Shifting strategies were evident with seventh graders, but there were no significant differences when text type and ability level were taken into consideration. Two conscious constructive responses, relating text to text and relating text to prior knowledge, correlated with recall scores demonstrating an increase in reading comprehension. Two shifting strategies, making liberal interpretations and looking for useful information significantly improved reading comprehension. Findings support the model of constructively responsive reading (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). / Department of Elementary Education

The aim of this thesis is to understand the experiences of eight American high school students who have been diagnosed with cancer. By increasing understanding of the challenges that adolescents in cancer survivorship experience, better support can be identified. The experience of cancer survivorship influences the physical, psychological, and social experiences of patients. As the survival rate of childhood cancers continues to increase, death becomes less likely making the need to maintain educational engagement during survivorship increasingly important. The research questions for this study were designed to address two main gaps in the current field of research. The first research question aims to address how the physical and psychological effects of cancer and treatment impact the participants' engagement with school. The second research question aims to understand the role that school plays for adolescents in cancer survivorship, including how participants experienced supplemental education during and after cancer treatment. This study uses a qualitative research methodology to address the research questions utilizing primarily semi-structured interviews and an adjusted version of the Adolescent Coping Scale. When used in combination with the interviews, the scale provides a picture of what the participants experienced and how they have been able to cope with the challenges they have faced. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to provide structure to the interview analysis. The results of this study show that fatigue and a compromised immune system have an impact on school attendance more than other physical effects during cancer treatment. As a result, adolescents are most at-risk of experiencing challenges in educational engagement during treatment. The results of this study also show that the feeling of uncertainty throughout cancer survivorship promotes fear and the feeling of a loss of control. Once treatment ends, fear of relapse is common. Physical and psychological effects were felt to improve as time passed. Another key result of this study is that the cancer experience results in a shift in perspective that becomes incorporated into the formation of identity. Participants feel different from peers as a result of the physical and psychological effects of the cancer experience. The results from the Adolescent Coping Scale indicate that school achievement, relapse and the worsening of physical side effects, and being treated different by peers were common concerns for the participants regarding their school, illness, and social concerns, respectively. Lastly, the participants view supplemental education as successful if it meets their personal academic and physical needs, is implemented consistently, and helps them to feel emotionally supported and socially connected. However, more research is needed that focuses on the implementation of policy at the state and district levels to discern whether this is a common challenge unique to this population of students with a physical or medical disability. The sample available for this research topic is not only limited to an extremely small population, but they are also a highly guarded population, making access for recruitment challenging. However, while generalization is difficult with a study of this size, the evidence collected on the participants' experiences during and after treatment provides valuable data on aspects of supplemental education implementation.

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The negative impact of human activities on the Earth's ecosystems has gained more attention in the last few decades; in turn interest and scholarship in the area of environmental rhetoric has also grown. This case study provides an in-depth examination of outreach material generated by Tampa Bay Watch to determine if grassroots environmental organizations are using rhetorical appeals that recent scholarly literature argues are ineffective. Alternative rhetorical appeals are also examined for their persuasiveness. Using an open coding approach, the analysis finds that the organization used persuasive appeals which varied from those predicted by the literature, and that a combination of appeals produced better results that any one appeal alone. The group also varied its appeals based on the type of outreach. The study reveals that qualitative study of one organization's persuasive appeals renders more nuanced findings than have quantitative studies of multiple organizations or analyses of single rhetorical documents. / by Kimberly L. Estep. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This qualitative study sought to provide a list of outcomes that mentors have as a result of being involved in a service-learning course over the course of one academic semester. The service learning course, Leadership in the Community, requires the enrollees to serve as a mentor to a local middle school student. Specifically, this study examined the mentoring outcomes of student development, self-esteem, and personal reflection. Data included semistructured interviews, researcher observations, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), mentor journals, and personal reflection papers. Twenty-one participants were included in this study. An analysis of the data sources illustrated how each participant experiences mentoring and its outcomes and was informed using literature on mentoring, self-esteem, student development, and service-learning including: Maslow (1976), Chickering and Reisser (1993), Boyer (1990), Kram (1985), and Rosenberg (1965). In summary, this study's purpose was to identify mentoring outcomes and how participation in a service- learning course can contribute to changes in student development, self-esteem levels, and personal reflection. This study found that participants enrolled in the course for specific reasons, which included (a) forming relationships, (b) providing hope and promoting personal development, and (c) modeling goal setting. In regards to self-esteem development, the Leadership in the Community course provided the participants with a positive support system, a forum for sharing personal accomplishments, and an outlet to serve the local community by serving as a mentor. The participants displayed the ability to personally reflect about themselves and their mentoring experience in classroom interactions, mentor journals, interviews, and personal reflection papers. Themes and patterns noted in the participants' personal reflection were reflections about (a) personal growth, (b) identity formation, (c) past experiences, and (d) experiences with their classmates. This study suggests that service-learning courses that require mentoring as an enrollment requirement provides participants with an opportunity to develop as a student and as a person by contributing to the local community, increasing self-esteem, and reflecting upon one's past experiences. This study also makes a contribution to the literature by examining the mentoring relationship from the mentor's perspective. This departure from the existing literature on the mentoring relationship provides a new perspective for future research. / text