Student Number : 0301924V - MA dissertation - School of Psychology - Faculty of Humanities / In the field of mentoring the psychological needs of mentors have been given little attention in previous research. The aim of this study is to analyse mentors’ psychological needs within a corporate environment. The research approach is exploratory and was conducted within a qualitative framework. A sample of 5 mentors within the corporate environment was drawn and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. Thematic content analysis was applied to report and summarise the data and Covey’s (1989) four dimensions of human functioning (mental, social-emotional, physical and spiritual) was used to categorise mentor needs. The key findings of the study from a mental perspective indicate that mentors identified continuous and experiential learning as a method for continual mental growth. Further mentor training was recommended by the mentors to assist in addressing their mental needs and help them to improve their time-management skills. Mentors’ social-emotional needs focused around the need for a supportive social network from significant others to maintain a state of well-being. The ability to be understanding, to be good listeners and the ability to set appropriate boundaries within the mentoring relationship were identified by mentors as emotional skills (needs) that they would like to improve. From a physical needs perspective, all the mentors revealed an awareness of the need to stay healthy in various ways. Every mentor stated that he/she was affected by stress and that it manifested in different ways, however, the mentors were satisfied with the resources provided by their organisation for their health and well-being. From a spiritual perspective, mentors experienced satisfaction from assisting in others’ growth, suggesting a need for engaging with and learning from others.

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / This study sought to better understand the complex relationship between family, social class, and career development. Social class, which is largely influenced by family of origin, contributes to work opportunities and work, in turn, can determine social class (Diemer & Ali, 2009). As such, work has the potential to promote social mobility among individuals from low-income backgrounds (Blustein, 2006; Matthys, 2012). For young people who have not yet entered the workforce, career expectations, which have been shown to lead to positive outcomes in work and overall wellbeing (Koen et al., 2012; Perry, 2008; Taber & Blankenmeyer, 2015; Zacher, 2014), provide a promising entry point for understanding and influencing the relationship between social class, career development, and social mobility (Perry & Wallace, 2013). Previous research has shown that family, a crucible for the development of social class identity (Brown, 2004), is also a significant predictor of career expectations (Whiston & Keller, 2004). Given the intergenerational nature of social class (Wagmiller & Adelman, 2009), the current study postulates that family, social class identity, and career expectations interact to perpetuate social inequality. The purpose of the present study was to tease apart these interactions through the lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 2002). Broadly, it was hypothesized that one of the ways in which family influences both social class identity and career development is through vicarious learning; children integrate information about class and the world of work through observing their parents’ work experience. This relationship was examined by surveying 298 young adults online and in person. Individuals responded to a survey asking about their caregivers’ work experiences, as well as their own social class identity, parent support, mentoring experiences, and career expectations. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and findings revealed that, overall, the hypothesized model describing social class as partially mediating the relationship between caregiver work experiences and work expectations was an excellent fit to the data. Results of the model also suggested that the quality of caregiver work experiences and work expectations is more important to overall work experience than actual occupation. Gender differences were found in the overall fit of the model, as well as the influence of specific variables, such as mentoring. The results are discussed in the context of their contribution to existing literature on intergenerational social mobility and career development. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations of the study, are considered.

This qualitative dissertation explored the professional learning experiences and perceived needs of four beginning high school English teachers in two NYC schools and the ways and means those needs were being addressed or not addressed. Through in-depth interviews with the teachers, my renderings from the interviews focused on how discourse shapes an understanding of the professional learning opportunities that operate as openings and constraints for teachers’ professional growth. I drew on the work of historian Michel Foucault as a theoretical framework to examine the production of a teacher’s sense of “self” as an effect of power/knowledge relations circulating within the dominant school discourses in which they are situated and the larger educational context at this historic moment.

The research aim is to contribute to scholarly inquiry on best practices for institutional leaders in health care organizations who are leading improvement work. The goal is to investigate how a specific sustainable continuous improvement methodology—lean management (LM)—is experienced by leaders charged with implementing it to improve health care locally. Adult development can be understood as stage-based theory of growth across the human life-span and has been successfully applied to enhance understanding of how adults approach uncertainty and complexity, yet it has not been applied to understand how institutional leaders go about understanding, implementing, and leading improvement work via LM. The primary research focus is how improvement leaders in an academic health care organization describe the implementation experience of LM and how, if at all, LM varies as a function of improvement leaders’ stage of development, as represented by their assessed action-logic. This study represents the first step in an exploratory agenda to integrate adult developmental theory with LM application in health care by first understanding how LM’s application in hospital settings may vary with individual project leaders’ stages of development and how their descriptions of LM implementations during key implementation points within an advanced and internally offered Black Belt training program may match the intent of LM as a systemic, principle-based approach to health care change within an organization implementing it as organization-wide strategy for improvement.

Many school districts do not require science in the elementary school curriculum or place significantly more emphasis on the performance of students on the ELA and Math tests. With science education shifting to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there is a critical need for high quality science instruction in elementary schools. This study examines the experiences of 28 elementary teachers engaged in a science education professional development program that was comprised of 60 kindergarten through twelve grade teachers. I examine the experiences of the 28 elementary teachers as they work in vertically aligned professional learning communities with middle and high school teachers. Findings in this study indicate that the model provides a supportive environment for elementary teachers to grow and develop both personally and professionally in their science teaching practice. Evidence is presented that shows how a learning community of elementary, middle and high school teachers can provide an opportunity for elementary teachers to socially construct knowledge of how to best support student success in science. Additionally, the findings show that elementary teachers are able to socially construct knowledge about effective teaching practices in science that support core science teaching practices. The findings also indicate that the nature of these learning communities also provided many structures that can support increased efficacy amongst elementary science teachers. Finally, the experiences of elementary teachers engaged in his study were overwhelmingly positive, leading to increased trust and respect amongst peers and improved confidence and motivation to teach science at the elementary level.

Professional development (PD) is often viewed as essential to improve classroom practices--as a way to create changes in districts, changes in classrooms, and changes in teachers--which, in turn, strives to improve student learning. Many insist that for a PD initiative to be successful, it needs to create changes in teachers’ classroom practices, who are indeed at the ground level of interpreting, implementing, adapting, and enacting what PD offers. Researchers claim that teacher resistance is the central problem of PD failure (Janas, 1998). Confined to the duality of compliance vs. resistance to PD, teachers either change or do not change according to the grading system that the administrators and researchers impose. A binary view of teachers who meet the expectations and those who do not meet the expectations of the district and PD personnel is, then, inadequate to studying the process of what happens beyond that narrow conception of teachers who participate in district/school-wide PD. V. Richardson (2003) argues that teacher resistance is a symptom of a disconnect between a structural reform agenda and teachers’ concern for teaching students well. Within the context of a locally initiated PD program that included elements of effective PD proposed by a body of research, I examined a select group of participating teachers’ experiences. Based on the classroom practice of a teacher whose students have shown drastic growth on high stakes tests despite social factors, the district had expanded the program as a district-wide initiative. Using care theory, I specifically explored changes in 12 teachers’ beliefs and practices as a result of their PD participation, in addition to identifying factors that facilitated program implementation. The results showed that the “caring teacher” identity mediated classroom practice changes, that teachers selectively used PD based on the feedback from their students rather than changes to their knowledge and beliefs. Based on this reciprocity, teachers’ self-identification as caring teachers defies traditional labeling of participating members as “compliant” or “resistant”; all teachers in the study described how caring about and caring for their students led to program implementation with a varying degree of fidelity.

This national case study reports on the development of a national network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education, with specific focus on the inclusion of environment and sustainability, also known as education for sustainable development (ESD) in the South African teacher education system. It reviews and reports on the history of environment and sustainability education in teacher education, and from this, the national case study begins to conceptualise a new approach to environment and sustainability teacher education within a new curriculum policy environment, and a new teacher education and development policy environment. Action research case study methodology is used to document the first phase of the emergence of this network, and this report covers Phase 1 of the initiative, which covers formation of the network, review of previous practices, three conceptual development pilot studies undertaken in both in-service and pre-service teacher education environments and a piloting of a ‘Train the Trainers’ or ‘Educate the Teacher Educators’ programme, which complements and extends the actual teacher education and development (TED) programme under development. The study highlights critical insights of relevance to the shift to a content referenced curriculum in South Africa, and shows how the ‘knowledge mix’ which forms the foundation of the new Teacher Education Qualifications Framework can be engaged. It also highlights some features of the changing knowledge environment, and what dominant knowledge practices are in environment and sustainability-related teaching and teacher education practices, opening these up for further scrutiny. It raises concerns that dominant knowledge work, while integrating a range of forms of knowledge (as is expected of the teacher education system under the new policy), tends to be limited by content on problems and issues for raising awareness, and fails to develop deeper conceptual depth and understanding of environment and sustainability, as issues based knowledge dominates. Similarly, it fails to support social innovation as a response to environment and sustainability concerns, as awareness raising dominates in dominant knowledge work. The study provides a revised conceptual framework for the Teacher Development Network (TEDN) programme, with guidance on key elements necessary to take the programme forward in Phase 2.

Magister Artium - MA / The primary aim of the study was to examine factors that influence career choices such as the individual, situational and environmental variables. The study was conducted in the motor retail industry whereby 223 respondents participated in the study by completing the questionnaire. Participants indicated that parents’ or relatives’ advice, association with others in the field, talent, skills and abilities, business opportunities and personal interests as significant influences on their career choices. The participants also identified perceived benefits such as employment security, potential for personal growth and development and opportunity to use skills and abilities as influential factors on career choice. The study also found that in the motor retail industry participants indicated that their gender has influenced their career choice; however educational levels were not seen as an influential factor on career choice. Furthermore, the study also examined participants’ perception of organisational career support with regards to utilisation of career support activities and management’s support for career development purposes. Even though participants indicated that the organisation has exposed them to career support activities, the participants’ use of career support activities were limited to training and mentoring within the organisation or externally to assist them with career development. It is the hope of the researcher that the identified factors influencing career choice and the examination of the organisational career support systems would be helpful to human resources practitioners and career counsellors, in order to assist individuals with career decision making as well as career development within the organisation as well as externally.

A single case study was used to examine internships at an (AACSB) accredited business school located at a Research 1 university in the southeastern United States. Internships are the dominant form of experiential learning used within the college under study and the “preferred method of business schools worldwide to give students practical experience and help them transition to the real world” (Kosnik, Tingle, Blanton, 2013, p. 616). The Grant University College of Business, pseudonym selected for this case, supports an internship and career services office that oversees nine internship courses representing six departments within the college. At minimum, each department is responsible for outlining their individual internship guidelines and requirements. The staff within the internship & career services office are primarily responsible for enforcing those guidelines, administering course content, and working with employers to promote meaningful internship experiences. The dean, associate dean for undergraduate programs, six administrators, six employers, and five students participated in this study. After three months of interviews, a focus group, and document reviews, data were analyzed to determine participant perception of internships and also to gain insight into future recommendations. This study was significant because it sought to address a gap in the literature on internships in undergraduate business education and to provide additional evidence that internships contribute to success in career, curriculum, and relationship development as evidenced by the in-depth analysis of a single case.

This research explores the lived experiences and career decision making styles of three Vietnamese refugees in the United states. Since this study involves the lived experience of the participants pertaining to their everyday activities (i.e. living, making decision, and working in the United States), the phenomenological approach (Van Manen, 1990; Moustakas, 1994) is used to appropriately grasp the meaning of these experiences. I interviewed all the participants with phenomenological semi-structured questions in two in-depth sessions. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. Pertaining to the refugee condition, the following main themes emerged from the data: 1) The third culture: Vietnamese culture in the American context; 2) Different roles and responsibilities in the new land; 3) Feeling of being left out and discriminated against; and 4) The language barrier. In the career related area, I explored and discussed with the participants the meanings of the following career counseling issues: 1) Decision making styles, 2) Influential factors in the career decision making process, 3) Meaningful characteristics of job (values and interests), 4) Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, 5) Career counseling, 6) Counseling relationship, and 7) Working as minority professionals in the United States. The participants' lived experiences related to working in America reflect a dynamic theme of both resistance and adaptation to new changes. As Vietnamese professionals, they are all moving toward understanding and accepting more and more American styles of career decision making and career counseling. Further phenomenological research should be conducted to shed light on the complex dynamic of forming the third culture in America to improve career counseling services for refugees in our country. / Graduation date: 2001