The purpose of this study was to assess benefits of completing a doctoral degree in education for females versus males relative to expected benefits upon entry to Virginia Tech. Relationships between expected benefits, accrued benefits, and selected demographic data by gender were studied. The basic design of the study involved a survey completed by 265 (90%) of the doctorate recipients between 1980-1984. Specific computational procedures utilized in data analyses included frequency distributions, percentages, and chi-square procedures. Results of the study indicated more similarities than differences for the female (87%) and male (93%) respondents. Median age at doctorate was 38.5 years. Most respondents (75.4%) were married. Approximately 62% respondents reported their career decision assumed equal or greater importance than spouses’ career decisions. Most spouses (79.6%) were employed full-time. Most respondents (94.4%) were employed full-time. Respondents (74.9%) earned $12,000-$35,988 annually prior to entry into the doctoral program. Following the completion of the degree respondents (45.5%) earned $24,000-$35,988 in 1984. Research indicated some significant differences in expected versus accrued benefits by gender. Females expected significantly more opportunity to use training or schooling and more autonomy and independence on the job following completion of the degree. Males perceived that they had accrued significantly more benefits relative to improved autonomy and independence at work, congeniality of work relationships, visibility for jobs at other institutions or organizations, and mechanical ability. The females and males expected the same 18 out of 20 most important benefits and perceived that they had accrued the same 18 out of 20 most important benefits relative to improved aspects of employment and intellectual qualities and skills. Relationships between the age at obtaining the doctorate and accrued benefits were found for the youngest age group (27-34) for four of 36 benefits: working conditions, congenial work relationships, public speaking ability, and academic ability. Among respondents, 91.4% reported the doctoral degrees had a positive effect on career development. Respondents perceived personal benefits were primary. Professional and financial benefits were second and third, respectively. Ninety-one percent of the respondents reported it was worth the time, effort, and expense‘ involved to complete the doctoral degree. / Ed. D.

Bien que la relation entre les universités et l’ordre dominicain, nettement orienté vers l’étude depuis ses premières années, attire l’attention des historiens du Moyen Âge depuis longtemps, la rencontre des Prêcheurs avec le système universitaire des grades, qui constituait le premier attrait de l’universitas pour ces religieux, n’a pas encore donné lieu à des études systématiques. Focalisée sur l’époque postérieure au milieu du XIVème siècle, où la prolifération rapide des facultés de théologie en Europe a offert aux dominicains davantage d’occasions d’accéder aux grades universitaires, la présente thèse a pour objectif de mesurer l’impact qu’a exercé le magisterium sur les normes, pratiques et idées des fils de saint Dominique de France, dont l’idéologie était étroitement liée aux activités universitaires. Dans les provinces françaises de l’ordre, où le réseau des studia dominicains ont vu un véritable essor, l’élite intellectuelle se procurent l’estime des frères et de nombreux avantages dès le XIIIème siècle. L’aspiration au statut privilégié des frères savants s’accentue au fur et à mesure que le système des grades de théologie, établi tout d’abord au sein de l’université de Paris, est implanté dans bien des communautés universitaires d’Europe. Il en découle que les supérieurs de l’ordre ont voulu contrôler plus rigoureusement la conquête du diplôme par les frères, ce qui a donné lieu à un régime de surveillance des candidats dominicains aux grades universitaires, codifié dès le début du XVème siècle en vertu d’une nouvelle constitution de l’ordre et raffiné grâce à de nombreuses ordonnances du chapitre général. Les règlements étant établis de façon à conditionner l’obtention des grades universitaires, la relation entre les normes et les pratiques s’avère cependant loin d’être univoque, ce que nous montrent les données prosopographiques des dominicains autorisés à poursuivre le magisterium. Parfois, les normes restrictives s’adaptent aux pratiques que vivent nos religieux. Cette élasticité des législations dominicaines augmente l’importance du jugement ad hoc des supérieurs pour examiner et garantir les qualités intellectuelles et morales des religieux admis à l’obtention des grades, dans la mesure où, après le foisonnement des facultés de théologie, le chapitre général, auquel incombe de façon exclusive la décision finale de l’envoi des religieux vers les universités, se trouve étouffé à cause de l’entassement des dossiers de candidature des frères aspirant au doctorat. D’où un enchevêtrement sensible qui caractérise les pratiques d’autorisation de la conquête du magisterium, auxquelles participent de manière active les religieux désirant le diplôme eux-mêmes. En revanche, la famille religieuse ne semblait pas très préoccupée des actes académiques accomplis en pratique au sein de la faculté, car, en s’appuyant sur la faveur pontificale généreusement accordée, elle pouvait conférer le magisterium aux frères qui le méritaient. La prédilection de nos religieux pour le magisterium est d’autant plus inébranlable que cette dignité s’associe étroitement à la conscience de soi des fils de saint Dominique. Le regard des frères vis-à-vis des magistri se révèle cependant à double tranchant, car l’état doctoral ne peut jamais se libérer de la suspicion de la vanité mondaine. Particulièrement intéressés par cette question récurrente de l’arrogance magistrale, les observants se montrent aussi attachés aux grades que les frères qui n’embrassent pas la cause de la réforme. L’ancrage du système universitaire des grades dans l’idéologie des fils de saint Dominique s’avère si profonde que, voué à un idéal analogue à celui des universitaires – participation par voie intellectuelle à la prospérité de l’Église –, l’ordre dominicain apparaît à son tour comme une universitas des docteurs de la science sacrée à la fin de notre époque. / Although the relationship between the Universities and the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages has attracted historians’ attention for a long time, the impact of the University degree system upon the Friars Preachers has not yet given rise to systematic studies. Focusing on the fifteenth century, where a rapid proliferation of faculties of theology in Europe has given Dominicans more opportunities to access university degrees, this dissertation aims to measure an influence that the magisterium had on the norms, practices and ideas of French Dominican friars, whose ideology was closely linked to university activities. In the French provinces, where the network of Dominican Studia was highly developed, the intellectual elite earned the respect of brothers and enjoyed many advantages within the Order. Aspiration to the privileged status of scholarly Dominicans is accentuated as the degree system of faculty of theology, first established within University of Paris, is implanted in many universities of Europe. As a result, the superiors of the Order wanted to control more rigorously friars’ obtaining of the magisterium. Finally, the Order established a system of supervision for Dominican degree candidates, which was codified in the Order’s new constitution enacted in the beginning of the fifteenth century and refined through many ordinances of the General Chapter. In spite of Dominicans’ efforts to condition the obtaining of university degrees, the relationship between norms and practices was fairly complex, as shown by a prosopographical analysis of the friars authorized to pursue the magisterium. Sometimes, restrictive norms adapt to practices. Such an elasticity of Dominican legislation increased the importance of ad hoc judgments by the superiors, who were responsible to examine and guarantee intellectual and moral qualities of the friars admitted to the degree. Hence, authorizing process of Dominican degree candidates became quite complicated, as the friars who were eager for the degree committed themselves actively in such a process. On the other hand, the Order did not seem very interested in the academic acts which Dominicans performed in practice within the faculty, because, relying on pontifical favor generously granted, it could confer the magisterium on the friars who deserved it. The predilection of Dominicans for the degree seems all the more unshakable as the magisterium is closely associated with their self-consciousness. Friars' view of the magistri is, however, double-edged, for the doctor can never be free from suspicion of worldly vanity. The Observant Dominicans were particularly interested in this recurrent question of masters’ arrogance. They were nevertheless as attached to the degree as the non-reformed friars. The University degree system took root so profoundly in the Dominicans’ ideology that they shared an ideal with University men, that of intellectual contribution to a prosperity of the Church, and the Dominican Order appeared as an universitas of doctors of theology.