<p> Students receiving special education services for an emotional and/or behavioral disorder (EBD) have shown minimal gains academically and behaviorally in longitudinal studies conducted since the 1980&rsquo;s (Bradley, Doolittle, &amp; Bartolotta, 2008). The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional relation of a self-monitoring strategy with a cross-aged peer-mentoring intervention on the disruptive behaviors of elementary students with EBD who struggle to regulate their behaviors in the classroom. This study used a multiple-baseline across participants and changing conditions combined design to investigate the functional relation of self-monitoring with a cross-age peer mentor component for students with EBD. The results from this study did not indicate a functional relation between the use of a self-monitoring checklist and the use of a self-monitoring checklist with a cross-age peer mentoring component. However, there were promising components to continue to build on intervention research for students with EBD.</p>

<p> This research project employs youth development and critical race theory to understand the participation gap in social media. It does this by prioritizing youth voice as the focal point of knowledge creation. It explores why this is such vital topic for academic discussion within education and youth development. It delves into previous work on the topic through a literature review. This qualitative study is based on four focus groups (6 -8 youth each) and three in-depth follow up interviews across four different high schools in the Sacramento area. An inductive grounded theory approach was used to analyze the focus groups and interviews. This paper will explain that process as well as state findings and potential implications for youth, parents, and teachers. This research will provide an examination of the online trends of youth activity and help inform strategies for healthy social media use.</p>

<p> Despite the growing population of Muslim students in U.S. public schools, few empirically grounded studies appear in the literature that have reported the opinions and viewpoints about U.S. public schools from the perspective of Muslim parents. This study deeply investigates the perceptions Muslim parents hold about U.S. public schools and focuses on how Muslim identity and other factors shape those views. <i>Q</i> Methodology, a mixed methods technique for the systematic study of subjectivity, is applied to reveal and analyze a varied set of distinct models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents about public schools in the U.S. Data were analyzed from 54 Muslim parents in the metropolitan New York City region. This study identified and examined 8 models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents. Further analysis demonstrated the relative prevalence of each of the revealed shared viewpoints about U.S. public schools and ways in which the identified models reflect disagreements, consensus, and absence of salience in views about U.S. public schools. Muslim parents&rsquo; Muslim identity, their experience attending schools in the U.S., their children&rsquo;s experience attending schools in the U.S., their experience as school teachers or administrators, their gender, and their highest level of education were examined to predict the likelihood a parent would share views with a particular <i>Q</i> model. Understanding the shared viewpoints of Muslim parents can be useful for educational policymakers, leaders, and teachers, who must ensure an effective and comfortable learning environment for all of their students.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines the special issue of peer harassment of students with disabilities through a legal lens, exploring the legal standards used in cases involving three federal statutes&mdash;Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (&ldquo;Section 504&rdquo;), the Americans with Disabilities Act (&ldquo;ADA&rdquo;), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"). Using legal research methods, litigation trends regarding the number of cases and the legal standard used and applied were explored. There has been no Supreme Court case on the legal standard to be used under Section 504, the ADA, or IDEA in peer harassment of students with disabilities, and circuit courts of appeals have not reached consensus on which legal standard should apply. Instead, courts have applied several different legal standards, including the Davis standard, a modified <i>Davis</i> standard, bad faith and gross misjudgment, deliberate indifference, disability discrimination, intentional discrimination, and denial of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This dissertation synthesizes the relevant legal standards used in each federal circuit and identifies trends that might guide the future of this type of litigation.</p><p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2007. / Title from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 25, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0770. Adviser: Brian Powell.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Susan Noffke. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-231) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> Healthcare, hospital environments, and the nursing workforce have been a focus of late in both the professional literature and public media especially in the wake of the Institute of Medicine's reports <i>Keeping Patients Safe-Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses</i> (IOM, 2004) and <i>The Future of Nursing-Leading Change Advancing Health</i> (IOM, 2011). These reports address patient safety and workforce issues such as staffing, organizational culture, and workforce characteristics. Very little research has been undertaken on the culture of night nursing or the roles, experiences and characteristics of night nurses. Therefore, a study of night nursing, using a qualitative ethnographic methodology, was chosen to address this gap. Because subcultures can influence the larger culture, knowledge regarding their unique characteristics and attributes becomes critically important especially in the culture of a large hospital.</p><p> The purpose of this study was to develop a description of night nursing as a subculture within the larger culture of nursing care and nursing practice that exists in a hospital setting. Data were collected during the researcher's 100 hours of participant observations on five differing nursing units in two hospitals, using semi-structured transcribed interviews with eight nurse informants on these same units, and through an analysis of relevant hospital documents. A synthesis of the collected data identified a subculture of night nursing with shared domains or attributes such as unique roles, rituals, hierarchies, and insider/outsider perspectives.</p><p> The final description included four themes that were extrapolated from the synthesized data: (1) night nursing is characterized by camaraderie and teamwork; (2) the environment of a night nurse is conducive to the development of critical thinking; (3) night nurses engage in a constant reflection about sleep; and (4) night nurses share a feeling of being undervalued.</p><p> The findings from this study have implications for administrators who must be aware of and understand the needs of night nurses especially related to being valued and included. For nurse educators, important implications center on preparing students for the uniqueness of the role of the night nurse, and planning formal educational offerings during the night shift for nurses. Further research is warranted using quantitative methods to validate and explore the themes and domain descriptions identified in this study.</p>

<p> This investigation examines the effect of a peer mentoring service-learning program established by the University of Maine on empathy and moral reasoning. The methodology is qualitative in nature, using a semi-structured interview protocol and a conceptual framework based on the review of the literature. Mentoring, empathy and moral reasoning were the focus of the literature review, which revealed these two key components of social and emotional learning are associated with academic performance and pro-social behaviors in adolescence, and mentoring is a service learning modality associated with similar benefits. </p><p> Two rural high schools were recruited to participate in an innovative collaborative effort with the University of Maine. Volunteer mentors, screened by local guidance staff, were trained in peer mentoring theory, skills, and techniques in three all day workshops. Ongoing onsite guidance was provided by a University of Maine graduate school intern and on site counseling staff. Each mentor was assigned a mentee, whom they met with regularly throughout the school year. In the spring, twelve mentors, representing approximately half of the mentor population, was interviewed about their experiences and perceptions.</p><p> A conceptual framework was developed based on a detailed review of relevant literature. A semi-structured interview was based on this framework, which was then utilized to guide data collection in the interviews. The interview transcripts were coded and analyzed to detect the emergence of themes with high frequency and prevalence. Mentor profiles were also developed for each of the twelve mentors who participated.</p><p> The mentor profiles and findings from the interview thematic analysis were then compared and contrasted with the review of the literature, and the conceptual framework was refined into the final concept map. The findings support a strong conceptual connection between moral reasoning and empathy, mediated through the empathic connections of the mentors including family, friends, and mentees, as well as the various moral dilemmas that they encountered in their high school experience. The implications for conceptual development through research with adolescents is reviewed, as well as opportunities for future research to increase the effectiveness of service learning programs that develop social and emotional capacities in youth.</p>

<p> Servant leadership as envisioned by Robert Greenleaf (1970) is a philosophy whereby leaders put the interests and growth of the follower ahead of themselves. Though the concept has been around since antiquity, scholars and practitioners in organizations began to embrace and expand the idea since the early 1990s. There are currently 20 models of servant leadership with 16 associated survey instruments. Colleges and universities may want to instill servant leadership in their students. This study used Wong and Page&rsquo;s (2003) model and their Revised Servant Leadership Profile instrument along with interviews to conduct a mixed-method, concurrent triangulation phenomenology consisting of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. It proposed eight research questions to see if there are any relationships between eight independent variables and the seven dimensions of servant leadership in Wong and Page&rsquo;s model: (a) developing and empowering others; (b) vulnerability and humility; (c) authentic leadership; (d) open, participatory leadership; (e) inspiring leadership; (f) visionary leadership; and (g) courageous leadership. Specifically, the study examined whether exposure to servant leadership concepts at Southeastern University (SEU) make a difference in students&rsquo; self-perception of servant leadership. The eight independent variables are (a) gender, (b) ethnicity and nationality, (c) age, (d) academic college, (e) leadership-related courses taken at SEU, (f) SEU Leadership Forum attendance, (g) leadership positions held at SEU, and (h) number of years at SEU. The findings showed that gender, ethnicity, attending the SEU Leadership Forum, and taking leadership-related courses at SEU were not statistically significantly related to any of the seven servant leadership dimensions. A student&rsquo;s college was related to vulnerability and humility. Years at SEU was related to developing and empowering others. Age was related to developing and empowering others, inspiring leadership, visionary leadership, and courageous leadership. Holding a student leadership position at SEU was related to developing and empowering others, inspiring leadership, and visionary leadership. The study concluded with the implication of the findings, areas for future research, and advice on encouraging servant leadership development.</p>

<p> This study confirmed the prediction of Coleman and Hoffer (1987) that a school actively supported by one employer and nested within the parents' workplace could replicate the functional communities surrounding Catholic Schools that raised the academic outcomes of disadvantaged urban youth. Rather than a single `something new' suggested by Smrekar (1990), this small sample suggested that a whole spectrum of school communities had emerged around workplace neighborhood schools sponsored by commercial real estate developers in cooperation with providers from franchisor-operated and national chains of workplace neighborhood schools. It was found that rather than being created in school communities, social capital had become a commodity in the "education marketplace" that was donated, purchased, and bartered. Working parents indicated that schools with high levels of parental involvement made their personal involvement more manageable. Gatekeepers and school cultures that marginalized parents impaired the flow of high quality social capital into school communities. Longitudinal data surfaced that suggested charitable social capital that marginalized the families of disadvantaged urban children had a negative impact on the professional career trajectories of "scholarship kids" in their adult lives. Finally, it was also noted that interracial marriages appeared to promote interracial informal familial bonding among co-workers and within school communities. </p>