This study investigated the involvement of re-entry women in learning and in campus life. It sought answers to the following questions: (1) What constitutes "involvement" for returning women? (2) How is their involvement evidenced in behavior and actions? (3) How do they perceive their own involvement in learning? (4) Does their involvement differ from that of traditional students? (5) If it does differ, what implications does that have for institutional policy and practice? / Using Astin's (1985) theory of involvement plus Schlossberg's (1989) and Gilligan's (1982) constructs relating to "mattering" and "the ethic of care" as a conceptual framework, the study examines the responses of the participants to determine the extent to which they reinforce or diverge from the theoretical constructs presented. / This study assumed that "involvement" for returning women would be different from that of traditional students due to the varied roles these women assume and due to their individual life stage circumstances. / The methodological approach selected to conduct this study was naturalistic inquiry. Three in-depth interviews were conducted with seven returning women spanning a seven-month period of time. Participants were selected on the basis of matching individual women students over the age of 25 at The Florida State University with selected profiles of re-entry women as found in the research literature. The study was limited to full-time, upper division undergraduate students who were seeking bachelor's degrees. / The study depicted each individual participant's "story" which was accomplished through "thick description" as advocated by both Geertz (1973) and Lincoln and Guba (1985). It included verbatim translation of the interviews of each participant, field notes and reflective comments by the interviewer, summaries of the data, and "member checks" by the participants themselves to assure accuracy of the final information selected for inclusion in the report. / Then the data was analyzed for common threads or themes that emerged and recommendations were made to institutional planners concerning policy and procedures as they relate to returning women. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: A, page: 0779. / Major Professor: Joseph Beckham. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78439 |
| Contributors | Fleishman, Sylvia Saari., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 227 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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