The objective of this research was to examine the relationship between academic achievement and home factors in third grade students attending urban and rural schools in Guatemala. The sample consisted of 4,952 students selected at random (52% males and 48% females). Mathematics and reading tests were administered to the students and other associated factors were obtained through a questionnaire. The data was analyzed using two statistical approaches: multiple regression and analysis of multiple correspondence. Results showed that an important percentage of the variance in reading achievement is explained by the variables related to home environment. The rest is probably related to factors associated to the teacher or school per se or by individual characteristics of the students that were not possible to measure. / La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo examinar la relación que existe entre el rendimiento escolar y los factores asociados al hogar de alumnos de tercer grado de primaria que asisten a escuelas primarias localizadas en áreas urbanas y rurales de Guatemala. Se tomó al azar una muestra de 4,952 estudiantes (52% niños y 48% niñas) de tercer grado a nivel nacional. Se aplicaron pruebas de lectura y matemática y se obtuvo información de los factores asociados al rendimiento. Se analizaron los datos mediante dos técnicas estadísticas: análisis de regresión múltiple y análisis de correspondencia múltiple. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que un porcentaje importante de la varianza en el rendimiento, especialmente en lectura, se explica  por ciertas variables relacionadas con el entorno del hogar. El resto, probablemente, se podría explicar por factores relacionados con el docente y con la escuela en sí, o por características individuales de los alumnos, que no pudieron ser medidos.

The Celts, as a distinct and culturally-unified people, are a social construction as much as an historical reality, endowing Celtic antiquity with a certain availability of outline, and a certain scope. When the Celtic world began to be scrutinised in the eighteenth century, its borders could, therefore, be filled with concepts drawn from other antiquities. Classical antiquity, and particularly its Greek variety, was a vital coordinate in this navigation of the past. This thesis explores the history of these Graeco-Celtic negotiations. Using Reinhart Koselleck's theory of asymmetric counterconcepts, it calculates the precise angles of the relation between Greek and Celt in antiquarianism, comparative mythology and folklore, Classics and Celtic Studies, from the early eighteenth and to the late nineteenth centuries. The thesis then puts forward one particular writer as an original and unique interpreter of the tradition of Graeco-Celtic relations, the Irish playwright J.M. Synge. Through archival research, it demonstrates quite how deeply Synge was immersed in this scholarly tradition; in the last years of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth, he followed a deliberate path of reading in antiquarianism, Classics, Celtic Studies, comparative linguistics, mythology and folklore. It then argues that Synge transformed such Graeco-Celtic scholarship into a formidable authorial strategy, in his prose account of his travels on the Aran Islands and his famous, controversial plays. By identifying this strategy, it reveals how Synge's work exploits the continued presence and power of antiquity. Most studies of the reception of Greek antiquity in Irish literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries assume a straightforward, inherent connection between Ireland and Greece. This thesis complicates that connection by identifying the powerful history of Graeco-Celtic relations and, particularly, its transformation at the hands of J.M. Synge. This will allow for scrutiny of what actually happens at the crux between Greece and Ireland in literary texts.

D.Phil. (Sociology) / Increasingly religion is recognised within public debate, as realising the post-secular according to Habermas. Furthermore for Habermas citizen participation is possible via publics that are literary which operate within the public sphere that is in turn open to all citizens. On the other hand when individuals, while being religious, are educated in so called closed Islamic educational institutions, it has been argued that they retreat from public life. In effect this would mean that although Muslims may be citizens with access to the public sphere, when they choose to be educated in Islamic institutions participation in debate is inhibited. Institutions of Islamic education for women, where secular education is regarded to have less importance, are especially noted to eschew participation in national life. Learners and parents at institutions of Islamic education are however shown to desire involvement in a broader social life, but also maintain their Islamic values and principles. This thesis thus asks if Islamic education for women can allow for the expression of post-secular citizenship. The secularisation theory, deprivatisation, as well as the post-secular construct as defined in this thesis are unable to explain how individuals, while they are religious, may be able to participate in public life. Weber‟s thesis in the Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism illustrates how individuals while they are religious can direct public debate. Protestants were able to do so due to the fact that their rational religious ethic altered their behaviour according to a particular set of patterned actions. A catalyst to patterned action premised on religion, according to Weber, is doctrinal development – the systematising of religious concepts within religious texts – in particular canonical and dogmatic texts or writing. In addition, vernacular writings are also established as an element of doctrinal development, specifically its ability to communicate a set pattern of behaviour to the laity. In the process of developing a doctrine, individuals also constitute a literary public because both require similar activities – writing texts and then reading as well as discussing them. The thesis then contends that one way to assess whether Islamic education can allow for post-secular citizenship is to determine whether it contributes to doctrinal development. In this way those who are educated in Islamic education institutions could participation in the public sphere and express post-secular citizenship. The Deobandi education movement, demonstrated to be a dominant Islamic doctrine in South Africa in relation to public participation, is then found to be involved in doctrinal development. An effect of doctrinal development, the rationalisation of religion, realises a set pattern of action. Doctrinal development can thus also spawn Muslim publics – those who act according to an interpretation of Islam in a public space. The thesis relates, from literature on women‟s Deobandi institutions, that patterned behaviour intent on engendering a particular interpretation of Islamic womanhood can be seen as reflected in the public sphere. Further research at Deobandi Islamic education institutions for women is thus advocated to explore the phenomenon. Data were gathered at an institution of Islamic education for adolescent women, Warda Madrasa (WM), finding a strong association with the Deobandi education movement. In addition a set pattern of action or behaviour is endorsed at WM via a particular corpus of texts. Findings from the data presented that was gathered at WM strongly tie the institution to the development of a doctrine, Muslim public and literary public. Moreover the findings point to an additional element in doctrinal development, through patterned action – specifically purdah, engendered at institutions such as WM. Purdah allows the body to be read like a book; to become a bodily text and thus bringing an interpretation of Islam into a public space and directing debate in the public sphere. As such, the thesis concludes, Islamic education for women in South Africa can allow for the expression of post-secular citizenship.

Informed by archival data and oral history interviews, this dissertation explored stories of the lived experiences of the stakeholders of Mercer University’s Beloved Community. The goal was to gain insight into how higher educational institutions (HEIs) engaged community partners to address long-term racial injury through the process of racial reconciliation. This study included the insights of 18 participants in a racial reconciliation project named the Beloved Community; which began in 2005 and was sponsored by Mercer University, a private higher educational institution; formerly affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. An aim of the project was to sustain a frank discourse within a safe, public forum, that would address the present and past injuries of racial segregation at the local church level and include the injured in problem solving. Mercer is one of few formerly segregated southern universities engaged in such an endeavor. The research questions were: 1) What do Mercer University’s Beloved Community stakeholders perceive as the primary goals of higher educational institutions in addressing racial reconciliation? 2) What are Mercer University’s Beloved Community stakeholders’ perceptions and lived experiences of racial reconciliation, through this project? 3) What patterns and contradictions are there in the stakeholders’ stories about their perceptions and lived experiences of racial reconciliation? The findings validate the research of Androff (2012) that reconciliation is a slow process, occurring at multiple levels, and provides insights into such an endeavor at a local level. Further, this study found that enactment of the project is influenced by social identity, collective memory, and intergroup interaction. A culture of social reconciliation, in the form of building interpersonal relationships and creating forums for racial dialogue, was the dominant form of reconciliation found within Mercer’s Beloved Community. This study is significant in examining the role of HEIs who include community partners to extend sustained scholarship, learning, and civic engagement.

abstract: In this study, I explore how employees with a diverse range of standpoints co-constitute pathways for creating an inclusive workplace. I use a participant-driven methodology to understand how employees with diverse social identities envision characteristics of an inclusive workplace. I then use Interpretive Structural Modeling (Warfield, 1976) to understand how participants perceive the relationship among the key characteristics. The results and analysis suggest one particular pathway for creating an inclusive workplace. First, having a diverse workforce across all levels of the organization and an environment of psychological safety increase the likelihood employees would then commit to inclusion. After establishing a genuine commitment, employees would more likely enact intercultural empathy and advocate for an inclusive organizational infrastructure. Based on these findings, I offer metatheoretical, theoretical, and methodological contributions that, when taken together, work to reimagine how people can organize around diversity and inclusion. More specifically, I add to the conversation of engaged scholarship, communication as constitutive of organizations and diversity management studies, and Interactive Management. I then offer three practical implications organizational leaders can use to inform future organizing efforts: intentional hiring practices, creating an environment of psychological safety, and educational programming. I conclude by offering limitations and future directions for researchers and practitioners. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication Studies 2020

Many studies have noted the detrimental impact adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have on individuals’ developmental trajectories and, as a result, the utilization of trauma-informed practices has been of increasing interest within the field of education. Most research on trauma-informed pedagogy is derived from samples of children in grades K-12, whereas research on trauma-informed teaching practices within higher education is comparatively scarce. The specific aims of the current investigation are two-fold. The first aim is to explore the effect of postsecondary instructors’ disciplinary specialization (i.e., person-thing orientation) on their receptivity to compassionate teaching practices. The second aim is to implement a brief (i.e., one hour, single session), asynchronous intervention to inform instructors about ACEs, subsequent effects on learning, and evidence-based, trauma-informed teaching practices. Results indicated that participants’ thing-orientation scores negatively predicted their post-intervention receptivity scores and that there was a significant increase in knowledge about compassionate teaching practices from pre-assessment to post-assessment. Future studies should seek to replicate these findings and continue to identify factors that may influence one’s receptivity to compassionate teaching practices.

<p>What is game studies? What separates that inter/disciplinary space from a larger notion of games research—and who decides? In recent years, scientometric research within game studies has increased as scholars have attempted to more concretely define a field which has been volatile since its formal origins in the early 2000s. But a recent controversy between scientometrics and gender studies (Lykke, 2018) has revealed a potential shortfall with relying on metric studies alone. Metrics can reveal which theories, themes, and scholars have been most privileged within a discipline, but only within predetermined boundaries, a limitation in a multi-disciplinary field which begs the question of who gets to determine those boundaries. Games research draws from many fields, from media studies to literature to computer science and psychology, but unless that work makes it into game studies journals, it will never be included within a metric analysis of game studies. In many fields, these boundaries may arise organically to create disciplinary lines. In game studies, however, anecdotal evidence indicates such boundaries have historically excluded work grounded in feminist, queer, and critical race theories. This project therefore employs a mixed methods approach to metrics research that allows for a broader view of not just game studies, but games research. This mixed methods approach, which I call <i>rhetorical metrics</i>, utilizes contextualized metric data to create a rhetorical approach to the scientometric measurement of a field, thereby providing empirical data underscoring anecdotal knowledge of exclusions in game studies. </p><p>In this project, I build on previous metric analyses of game studies by thickening data with additional perspectives. This data includes gender identity information, keyword clusters on themes beyond traditional game studies, such as information on race or queerness in games, and data on scholars who publish inside and outside of game studies journals. By revealing where different types of scholarship on games appear, and where certain knowledges are privileged (or not), this form of expanded, intersectional metric analysis allows for a more inclusive view of games studies than current studies provide, and results in a flexible research methodology that can be similarly applied to other inter- and multidisciplinary fields. </p>

Institutions of higher education are widely known to be places that help solve the problems of society; however, few college professors seem to practice engaged scholarship after receiving tenure. In a time of decreased funding for public higher education institutions and increased competition for students with private institutions, public higher education institutions would do well to maintain their images as community partners. In this regard, public institutions need to know whether engaged scholarship among the professoriate has decreased, why this may be occurring, and how to inspire professors to create positive social change. This qualitative case study applied Frederick Herzberg's motivational theory of job satisfaction on engaged scholarship and tenure to determine the extent to which faculty members practice engaged scholarship pretenure and posttenure. The main research question addressed was whether the study participants perceived a negative relationship between tenure status and engaged scholarship. Fourteen face-to-face interviews of faculty and administrators, obtained through purposeful convenience sampling, provided the answer to this and other questions. Interviews were coded according in alignment with the methods used in the Herzberg study in 1959. The data analysis revealed institutional issues to address, specifically, to include institutional support for engaged scholarship and the accuracy of perceived administrative and faculty workloads. From this analysis, a comprehensive engaged scholarship program evolved that, on implementation, would address the concerns of the participants and increase faculty engaged involvement in scholarship that higher education institutions can continue to contribute to positive social change.

This was a study about the New Century Scholarship (NCS) program offered to Utah high school students at commencement for earning an AA degree by the time of high school graduation. The scholarship paid 75% of the remaining 2 years of tuition over a 5-year period. The goal of the program was to assist students to bachelor degree completion faster than the traditional time. This program has been in Utah for the past 20 years, but little to no information about the program exists. Annually, the cost to taxpayers is approximately $2 million dollars. This study was conducted to determine if the NCS expedites bachelor degree completion and if so for whom, and what variables on the career pathway assisted toward quicker completion. The Utah System of Higher Education emailed and mailed 613 surveys to graduates from the three cohort groups of high school graduates earning the NCS from 2004-2006. The response rate was 56%. This response rate was high enough to generalize results. Descriptive data, statistical analysis, and multiple-regression tests were run on the data. Perhaps, the most significant discovery was the fact that the NCS does expedite bachelor degree completion for both males and females with time to completion of 3.57 years on average. The significant variables in this study were: gender, choice of college major, and college selection. Females did complete their degree earlier than males by half a year and females tended to major in art, social science, and education, while males were more likely to major in business and STEM. Students could also graduate at least 1 year earlier depending on the college or university they selected to attend. Another very important finding was the rate of completion with a bachelor degree. Eighty-three percent of the recipients who responded to the survey had completed their bachelor’s degree. For this group of respondents, the matriculation rate from high school graduation to college was 100%. Using multiple-regressions analysis, several additional variables were identified that expedited bachelor degree completion for these scholarship recipients. These variables were attending school full time, enrolling in and attending only one college, and the acceptance of the AA courses the student had completed by the college toward their bachelor degree. Variables such as quality of counseling, GPA, finances, and other life circumstances, with the exception of religious service were not significant in this study. The workforce of the future will need to have more education than ever. In order to meet these demands Utah has a goal of 66% of the adult population ages 20-64 earning a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2020. The NCS program was successful in expediting graduation and the NCS recipients had a higher than average college graduation rate. It is one way Utah and perhaps other states can help students to gain faster access to a degree in higher education.

The idea of a scholarship program is almost as old as the oldest institution of higher learning. The universality of such a program is almost completely comprehensive throughout the world. Although the purpose of scholarship programs has varied as much as each of the institutions varies, in most of the situations the programs have been well acclaimed. The success of these programs in terms of the student has often been tested or at least scrutinized. This type of study has been attempted several times. However, both Harris and Endler, in reviewing the literature from 1931 to 1959, report that there is little agreement as to the relative merit of any particular kind of test, scores, grades, or other subjective evaluations used to select successful scholastic achievers. Henceforth, throughout this paper, these selective factors and others to be cited will be referred to as factors or variables predictive of academic success or predictive factors. A more complex type of problem associated with the granting of scholarships has been that of predicting the successful scholarship recipient. That is, the scholarship recipient who will be successful in college. An extensive review of the literature to date reveals only a few scientific studies on the predictors of successful scholarship holders. Most of the studies were conducted in an attempt to predict college success, using the grades for the first year of college as the criterion of success. Therefore, with confusion in the area of predicting college success as indicated by the author cited above, the need for such a study is evident. The purpose of this investigation will be to identify some of the variables which appear to be predictive of or correlates of the successful scholarship recipient. In this study it will be necessary to define what the writer means by successful scholarship recipient. Hereafter the term successful scholarship recipient will refer to those students who have been able to maintain, during their freshman year of college, a grade point average of 3.0 or B average. Universities and colleges generally require that a student maintain at least a grade point ranging from C to B to retain his scholarship. He must also live in accordance with the rules and regulations of the institutions. Very few scholarship recipients, for example, lose their financial aids for reasons of incorrigibility. The criterion for success, therefore will be that of maintaining the grade point average required. In this investigation the writer will attempt to answer the following questions: (a) What type of test scores, grades, evaluations or non-intellectual or biographical factors can be used to identify scholarship recipients who will be successful in college; (b) will the use of several factors together be more predictive of the academic success of scholarship recipients; (c) are nonintellectual or biographical factors useful in selecting scholarship recipients; (d) can the factors predictive of academic success now in use be validated.