Thesis advisor: Joseph O'Keefe / Thesis advisor: James Marini / Using social capital theory as a conceptual framework, this qualitative study of one Massachusetts district analyzed how principals’ relational trust and interconnectedness with central office administrators (COAs) correlated with their perceptions of district efforts to support their growth and development. Data included interviews with principals and COAs and document analyses. Findings revealed a decided split among principals, with some reporting high trust levels and close connections with COAs and others reporting distrust and isolation. Of the district’s five major initiatives designed to support principals, two were perceived positively by most principals, two received mixed reactions with connected principals more favorable than isolated principals, and one received widespread negative perceptions. District initiatives widely perceived to be effective mirrored principal goals, provided opportunities for COA direct assistance, and were structured to facilitate the development of professional assistance relationships. Conversely, the initiatives with mixed or negative perceptions lacked such relationship-building opportunities. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / Parents are the primary educators of their children and the consistent teachers throughout their lives. However, with raised expectations through curriculum state standards and high stakes testing for students, teachers and schools, families are being left behind. A particular turning point in students' education is during the middle school years when intellectual, character, social and emotional transitions occur and habits are formed. Therefore, this qualitative, single case study uses data sources of interviews, observations and artifacts to determine the appropriate role of parents at the middle school level as perceived by administrators, teachers with administrative duties, teachers and parents. Additionally, this research sought to determine the unique factors that impede more effective partnerships between home and school and analyze the current situation using the sociocultural theory to determine if beliefs and values match the social structures in place at this particular school and provide implications for practice. Findings reveal the parent role is defined by consistent communication between home and school for unified adult expectations. Unique factors impeding parent participation at this level are based on this particular age of the students. Using sociocultural theory, it is evident that the school community culture prevails over individual beliefs and is impeded by two underlying sub cultures of rationalizations and assumptions, which allow participation to remain infrequent. There are additional overarching issues discussed that go beyond sociocultural theory. Finally, recommendations for practice are made for this particular school and the middle school level. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Among the many researched outcomes of childhood sexual abuse (‘CSA’), relational difficulties have been well documented. However, male CSA survivors may experience several outcomes that are unique to their gendered experience and yet remain largely under-represented in the literature. A gap was identified in the research around the experience of the male survivor in therapy for childhood sexual abuse, particularly where it relates to relationship building. Therefore the research aimed to explore this from the perspective of the survivors, with a focus on trust within the therapeutic relationship. To achieve this, the researcher interviewed 6 male survivors of sexual abuse, all of whom had greater than one years’ experience in a therapy that focused on their abuse. The researcher adopted a semi-structured interview format which facilitates partial guidance by the new data introduced by the participant. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenal analysis with a consistent curiosity stance that allowed the researcher to partially bracket their prior knowledge. The analysis resulted in four master themes emerging; i) Finding and Connecting; ii) Negotiating Masculine identity, iii) Accepting and Committing to the process; and iv) Trust. Findings highlighted the necessity of reducing epistemic vigilance in the early relationship and the importance of negotiating power dynamics with support for challenge by the client in order to facilitate trust. The experience of masculine social expectations in a male CSA survivor is explored with regards to the trust relationship and an unexpected finding was made in the importance of group work. These findings were linked to previous research in the area of male CSA, recommendations are made for future research and implications for practitioners were explored.

In the past three years, educational leaders in the United States were called to fight for equity and dismantle the oppressive systemic racism that afflict our schools. Yet, as so many of our school leaders and educators are White, they feel unprepared to confront the historic and evolving problem of racial inequality that has frequently been viewed as a “Black problem” (Singleton, 2015, p. 37). With a renewed commitment to educational equity, school leaders are seeking ways to build less divisive and more inclusive schools. This qualitative study describes the role of trust and collaboration in developing culturally responsive school leadership through the perceptions, beliefs, dispositions, and strategies of five school leaders. This study is a narrative inquiry into the experiences of five current school leaders in Massachusetts collected from interviews from June -October 2022. Their staff were also surveyed electronically. Participants were selected based on the following criteria: (a) Experienced (>5 years) principals and assistant principals (b) Current employment in public schools in Massachusetts (c) Leaders with diverse backgrounds and racial identities, including people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) including both male and female leaders and (d) Graduate coursework in culturally responsive school leadership. Their narratives are analyzed through the frameworks of both critical theory and critical race theory. The analysis is organized around four components of equity leadership described by the school leaders: core values, leadership roles, barriers to trust, and influence and identity. The study recommends practices for equity-focused school leadership and suggests ways districts can support, identify, and recruit culturally responsive school leaders. This dissertation aims to deepen our current understanding of the relationship between staff trust and culturally responsive school leadership while also describing an emerging leadership identity that is shaping current educational practices.

La thèse porte sur la problématique de l’efficience du financement intermédié des processus de croissance et de développement économiques. Elle s'intéresse d’une part à la résolution des problèmes d’inefficience liés à la présence d’asymétries informationnelles et de l’incertitude sur les marchés du crédit grâce aux mécanismes réputationnels mis en œuvre dans le cadre des relations de long terme banques-emprunteurs et d’autre part, aux conditions dans lesquelles ces mécanismes peuvent émerger et se développer, en particulier dans un pays en développement comme le Cameroun.La thèse a donc une portée à la fois conceptuelle, empirique et normative.En premier lieu, nous avons cherché à alimenter le débat théorique sur la pertinence et l'intérêt du mécanisme réputationnel dans le processus d’intermédiation bancaire. Nous montrons que, contrairement aux modèles habituels d’intermédiation de la théorie d’agence, où les mécanismes de sanctions ou de coercitions judiciaires restent souvent inefficaces et coûteuses, le caractère auto-exécutoire du mécanisme de la réputation suffit seul à garantir l’efficacité de son fonctionnement. De plus, le mécanisme réputationnel nous semble mieux concilier deux conceptions opposées du comportement des acteurs que sont l’homo economicus et l’homo sociologicus. De ce fait, ce mécanisme est susceptible de constituer un cadre d'analyse intéressant pour la modélisation des comportements bancaires notamment dans le contexte des PED africains où les incertitudes restent exacerbées et où prédominent des rationalités économiques beaucoup plus fondées sur les valeurs. En second lieu, les résultats de notre enquête statistique de terrain permettent de montrer qu'au Cameroun, par rapport aux Institutions Financières Décentralisées (IFD) comme la MicroFinance, les Institutions Financières Formelles (IFF) semblent accorder une moindre importance aux pratiques réputationnelles dans leur comportement d'allocation des capitaux, en particulier aux PME. Ceci est susceptible d'apporter une des meilleures explications au différentiel de performance micro-économique, se situant ici à l'avantage des IFD.Enfin, la même enquête nous permet de mettre fortement en évidence l'existence de nombreux facteurs à la fois internes et externes empêchant aux deux catégories de banques une meilleure prise en compte du mécanisme réputationnel. Ce constat nous conduit à proposer des axes ou pistes de réflexion, à formuler et à justifier un ensemble de recommandations à la fois organisationnelles, institutionnelles et réglementaires associées. Ceci dans l’objectif de construire un système bancaire camerounais plus fiable et plus solide en incitant les banques à mieux intégrer les pratiques réputationnelles dans leur jugement d'octroi de crédit aux emprunteurs. / This thesis focusses on the problematic of the efficiency of intermediate finance on the economic growth and development processes. It concerned, on one hand, the resolution of inefficiency problems resulting from the presence of asymmetric information and uncertainty involved credit markets when reputational mechanisms implemented through banks-borrowers long-term relationships are used and, on the other hand, the conditions in which these mechanisms could emerged and expanded, in particular in a developing country such as Cameroon.The thesis thus has, at the same time, conceptual, empirical and normative purpose First of all, we tried to enrich the theoretical debate about relevance and interest of the reputational mechanism relating banking intermediation process. We show that, while in the models of agency where judicial penalties and pressures mechanisms are often ineffective and expensive, only the auto-enforceable character of the reputational mechanism is enough to guarantee its efficacious functioning. Furthermore, for us, the reputational mechanism seems better to reconcile the two usual opposite conceptions of agents behaviors that are homoeconomicus and homosociologicus. Therefore, this mechanism might constitute an interesting analysis framework for modeling banking behavior, in particular in the context of African economies where uncertainties remain aggravated and where much more economic rationalities based on the values prevail.Secondly, our statistical survey issues clearly shows that in Cameroon, with regard to decentralized financial institutions (DFIs) like Microfinance unities, formal financial institutions (FFI) seem to attach less importance to reputational practices in their capital allowance behaviour, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is likely to provide a better explanation of the differential micro-economic performance, situated here to the advantage of DFI.Finally, the same above mentioned survey strongly reveal the existence of many both internal and external factors preventing both categories of banks in a better consideration of reputational mechanisms. We then proposed axes or lines of reflection, formulated and justified a set of corporate, institutional and regulatory associated recommendations. This with the aim to build a more reliable and more solid Cameroonian banking system by inciting banks to better integrate reputational practices in their judgment of granting credits to borrowers.