Browsing by Subject "Higher education"
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Item Aspirational Meaning Making: A Qualitative Case Study of Education for Global Citizenship in U.S. Higher Education(2023) Burden, KathrynIn recent decades, Education for Global Citizenship (EfGC) has emerged as a prominent way to discuss internationalization and global learning efforts in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The concept of global citizenship is a controversial one though, and there is no consensus on a definition of global citizenship nor on EfGC. Much of the extant literature has focused on typologizing EfGC efforts or on assessing student learning outcomes or programs. This leaves a critical gap in understanding the crucial yet overlooked role university instructors play in HEI’s internationalization and global citizenship efforts.In this qualitative case study at one U.S. university, I focused on: (1) how university instructors made meaning around the concept of global citizenship; (2) how instructors believed they educated for global citizenship and how students perceived EfGC efforts; and (3) how educators felt motivated, enabled, or constrained in their pedagogical pursuits around global citizenship. To answer these questions and analyze how these understandings and educational practices are shaped by specific personal, contextual, and temporal factors, I propose a theory of aspirational meaning making and models of Ways of Understanding Global Citizenship and Ways of Educating for Global Citizenship based on instructors’ ways of knowing, being, doing, and aspiring. Findings from this research suggest that instructors’ understandings of global citizenship and ways of educating for global citizenship are deeply complex, context-specific, and far more dynamic and adaptable than has been acknowledged in previous studies. Taking place during a uniquely challenging time during the COVID-19 pandemic, findings from this study demonstrate how the ambiguous and adaptable nature of EfGC, combined with the contextual adaptations instructors made, allowed instructors to keep their educational efforts responsive and applicable to contemporary concerns. The findings of this research have important implications for theory, teaching and learning, and policy and practice. This research contributes to the fields of comparative and international education, higher education, and global citizenship education by addressing a gap in the literature on internationalization and global learning, specifically on how global citizenship and EfGC is understood and practiced by individuals in a particular temporal and situational context in a U.S. HEI.Item Being and becoming: an exploration of student spirituality in the second year of college(2015-02) Melin, LeeAnn JessenSpirituality is a critical component of the holistic development of college students. This phenomenological case study explored the ways in which 11 second-year students conceptualized and experienced spirituality while enrolled in a course addressing life purpose at a large public research institution. Their unique journeys captured how students encountered a spirituality framed in meaning, purpose and connectedness during their second year of college. Their experiences were shaped by influences of their past, present and future which therefore created a unique and individualized spirituality. Students experienced connectedness as a sense of belonging in college and in relation to a universal connectedness. Students' spirituality emerged in how they experienced diversity, the campus climate, their spiritual practices and wellbeing, and through co-curricular involvement. The busyness and pressures of college life served as a barrier to their spirituality. A course exploring life purpose provided a guiding framework to accompany, support and stimulate the motion of spirituality during their second year. Implications of the study address intentional policies and practices that encourage and support students' spiritual development.Item Big 10 Transgender Inclusive Policies and Practices(2020-12-22) Transgender Advisory Action Team; Maldonado, BrizaTransgender students across spaces of higher education face particular adversities both inside and outside of the classroom which translates into lower levels of graduation and higher levels of mental distress. Transgender faculty and staff face social stigma, wage disparities, and challenges in updating legal documents resulting in their misrepresentation in the workplace. Additionally, transgender university members across the country have reported higher rates of harassment and fear of their physical safety on their campuses. Given that transgender university members across the country face varying levels of stigma and adversity, this report aims to discuss the current policies and practices in place that enhance campus climate for transgender university members across institutions in the Big 10 collegiate conference.Item The burden of privilege: navigating transnational space and migration dilemmas among Rwandan scholarship students in the U.S.(2014-08) Baxter, Aryn RayeThis dissertation is an ethnography of the transnational education space inhabited by higher education scholarship recipients from Rwanda pursuing undergraduate degrees in the United States. It examines how this space is produced through the representational practices of actors in the U.S. and Rwanda and, in turn, constitutes the relationships, dilemmas, transformations, and representations that occur within these spaces. Employing a transnational lens, the study describes a space of opportunity as well as tension between contrasting narratives of change, national and familial priorities, and the "magical" expectations of various actors that contrast with students' lived experiences of undergraduate education in the U.S. Most centrally, it argues that navigating the diverse expectations associated with a U.S. education is a significant yet under-addressed challenge faced by scholarship students from low-income and post-conflict contexts. Understanding this burden--the burden of privilege--is its primary focus.The study demonstrates that spatial analysis offers a promising approach for illuminating the experiences of internationally mobile students and for informing the design and implementation of international higher education scholarship programs. It concludes that scholarship students would benefit from program designs that create space for open dialogue about the migration dilemmas that accompany international mobility, particularly those related to the weighty expectations of family and nation for those privileged to have received scholarships to study in the U.S. This is particularly crucial for programs involving youth from low-income and post-conflict contexts--a group for whom the burden of such a privilege is particularly pronounced.Item Charting the Way: A Handbook for Postsecondary Educational Interpreters(University of Minnesota, 2003) University of Minnesota. Disability Services; Harbour, Wendy; Van Nostrand, CatharineItem Charting the Way: Sign-to-Voice Presentations(University of Minnesota, 2003) University of Minnesota. Disability Services; Harbour, Wendy; Van Nostrand, Catharine; Bilotta, EvonneItem Charting the Way: Voice-to-Sign Presentations(University of Minnesota, 2003) University of Minnesota. Disability Services; Harbour, Wendy; Van Nostrand, Catharine; Bilotta, EvonneItem The College Search Process: Differences between Hmong and Somali Students(2012) Karl, Bryan; Rauschenfels, DianeThe researcher explored the college search process of three Hmong and one Somali student at four Minnesota higher education institutions using a phenomenological approach. Minority students, underrepresented/underserved students, are highly sought after by colleges across the nation. There are more than 60,000 Hmong and 30,000 Somali within the state of Minnesota. The author presented results utilizing six themes that emerged as noteworthy contributors of research participants during their college search process. The themes include: Residence, Ethnicity, Gender, Family Educational Background, Predispositions to Education, and Secondary Contributors.Item The Correlation between College Student Engagement and 1st to 2nd Year Retention(2016-05) Zobel, Emily JThis study sought to contribute additional research to the field of education that directly connects student engagement with student outcomes, as the literature calls for further validation in this area of postsecondary educational research. The study utilized National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) results from first-year college students at a mid-sized, public university in the Midwest. Quantitative analysis was used to explore the relationship between student engagement and student outcomes, specifically first to second year freshman retention and cumulative grade point average (GPA). Logistic regression revealed an association between NSSE student engagement indicators, gender, and freshman retention. Hierarchical multiple regression showed little predictive power for cumulative GPA using NSSE student engagement indicators.Item Cost of Attendance: The Development of Financial Literacy for First-Generation, Low-Income, Community College Students of Color(2018-02) Wallace, Nicholas LesterFirst-generation, low-income, community college students of color represent one of the fastest growing segments of the undergraduate student population in the United States. With college costs continuing to rise, student debt levels at record highs, and socioeconomic disparities that include growing income and wealth gaps, it is particularly important to understand the development of financial literacy for these students. This qualitative research is a critical phenomenology and is rooted in critical race theory. Employing a semi-structured long-interview protocol, textural-structural themes and invariant constituents gleaned from the coded responses in 22 interviews were used to create 22 sub-thematic categories that organized the findings. A portion of these data are presented as ten counterstories, organized in four main themes that address the three questions presented in this research. The first theme that emerged from the data is that first-generation, low-income, community college students of color demonstrate tremendous resilience from early socioeconomic challenges in the development of their financial literacy. Second, first-generation, low-income, community college students of color expand understanding of students who attend community college by challenging flawed sociocultural assumptions of deficit. Third, a focus on financial assets versus financial deficits is key to development of financial literacy for these students. Finally, in the development of financial literacy for first-generation, low-income, community college students of color, structural racism originates and harms from inside as well as outside communities of color. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of theoretical implications for the development of critical race method as well as practical implications for financial aid and student services professionals, faculty, and other institutional administrators.Item The Creative Mindset In Design Education(2019-04) Choi, JoungyunCreativity is an important problem-solving tool in the design context. People who are in design education treat creativity as an important component of their self-identity. Thus, it is imperative to develop and be mindful of creativity in design education. Most traditional design fields focus on creative outcomes that impact revenue, trends, and popularity. However, this current research shows that it is even more important to focus on people’s state of mind (mindsets) and attitude in building their creative ability. Depending on people’s attitudes toward their projects, some design solutions are more creative than others. This research originated from two different types of attitudes and their subsequent outcomes involving students’ mindsets in regard to the decision to be creative in an educational context. The decision to be creative is related to people’s beliefs regarding their psychological traits and abilities, which plays an important role in influencing their own motivation and behavior (Dweck, 1999). According to Dweck’s conceptualization, people hold different beliefs that represent their state of mind and explain their subsequent behavior. Some people perceive their abilities as fixed (fixed mindset: unable to change), while others believe that their abilities are malleable (growth mindset: able to change) (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). This research takes the perspective that the creative mindset is related to a growth mindset toward creativity. The primary research objective of this study is to identify the presence of design students’ creative mindset and how it is manifested in their work. This research also seeks to discover how the creative mindset operates and develops with respect to students’ creative performance by incorporating the concept of the fixed/growth mindset toward creativity. In order to address these purposes, grounded theory was used with a qualitative triangulation. For a good sample selection, the growth mindset concept was applied to define high creative growth mindset students. Throughout semester-long observations and interviews with these high growth mindset students selected from the existing implicit belief survey, the qualitative data established the fact that: 1) The creative mindset involves students’ attitude toward design projects and is manifested as a positive attitude, such as having an open mind and demonstrating readiness at the beginning of their design process; 2) A positive attitude from students’ creative mindset is closely related to learning goals, which is one of the main concepts of the growth mindset; 3) The creative mindset greatly affects the outcome of the design, and more specifically improves one’s design ability, which contributes to student success from a long-term perspective; and 4) The creative mindset can be developed/enhanced through learning. The major findings of this study provide a number of important implications for improving pedagogical strategy, utilizing the concept of the growth mindset within a design education context. Moreover, this study provides directions for future research regarding the creative mindset in design education and suggestions for expanding this study to contribute to other disciplines.Item Crossborder management education alliances:case study of the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration in Bangkok, Thailand.(2011-06) Pembleton, Deborah JacksonThe Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok has celebrated a twenty-five year partnership with the graduate schools of business at Northwestern University (Kellogg) and the University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School) in the United States. The research question for this study is: "What factors have contributed to the success and sustainability of the crossborder management education alliance at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration?" The objective of this study is to understand and describe the intercultural working relationships between U.S. and Thai faculty and staff who work within the alliance. By incorporating the U.S. perspective as well as the Thai perspective, this research demonstrates how the national cultures of Thailand and the U.S. influence organizational effectiveness within the crossborder education alliances among these universities. Methods for data collection have involved major triangulation, including participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Several months of fieldwork were undertaken in Bangkok interviewing key Thai faculty and staff as well as the U.S. visiting faculty and staff. There are three major implications of this study. First, the case demonstrates that organizations rooted in quite different cultures can collaborate effectively and successfully create a long-term sustainable relationship. A key factor related to this success is the cross-culturally sensitive leadership demonstrated by all parties and their abilities to negotiate significant cultural differences. Second, given the escalating costs of higher education associated with the Baumol Disease, alliances among universities can provide a cost-effective approach to providing high-quality and innovative education. Third, the alliance described in this study is an example of the effective internationalization of higher education in a multicultural transnational context. Abstract – Thai Version: available on-lineItem Effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning structures on college student achievement and peer relationships: a series of meta-analyses(2013-06) Hilk, Caroline LualThis series of meta-analyses investigates the effects of social interdependence (cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning structures) on achievement and peer relationships among college students. This study quantitatively synthesized the literature on the effects of social interdependence on achievement and peer relationship outcomes based on 1,204 effect sizes from 231 experimental studies involving 37,422 college and graduate-level students. The overall effects of cooperative compared to competitive and individualistic learning structures on achievement resulted in moderate effect sizes (g = .42 and .36 respectively. The estimated effects of cooperative learning on peer relationships was statistically significant and positive for the comparison to competitive structures (g = .88) and individualistic structures (g = .71). These findings are consistent with the conclusions of previous meta-analyses examining this population. Explanatory models were constructed to examine the variance in effect sizes and the potential influence of several moderating variables including: unit of measure (group vs. individual measures), level of cognitive task (high vs. low complexity), and methodological quality of primary studies (high, moderate, low quality). Only unit of measure was identified as a statistically significant contributor to the overall variance in the effect size for achievement when comparing cooperative and individualistic learning structures. Possible reasons for the remaining unexplained variance in these meta-analyses, along with implications for practice and future directions for research, are also offered.Item Engagement Means...: Community College Students' Understandings and Applications of Engagement(2017-06) Lee, CrystalThe engagement culture at many community colleges is viewed as limited because of the existence of barriers that are less common at four-year institutions. Such barriers include: commuting to and from campus, obligations to family, and work outside of school. Much of the literature on student engagement blames community college students for low levels of engagement, but what is commonly overlooked in these arguments are students’ own definitions, beliefs, and applications of engagement. It is imperative to consider community college students’ narratives in student engagement research in order to create and facilitate equitable engagement opportunities, reflect on current institutional practices, and explore better ways to serve students with diverse engagement experiences. This study used grounded theory as a framework to examine the lived experiences of 11 community college students from an urban community college in the Midwest. Participants were asked to discuss their understandings and applications of engagement in interviews. Implications for practice and research, as well as an informal theory of community college engagement will be explored.Item Faculty Agency in a U.S.-Colombia University Development Partnership: Bending Toward Justice(2017-06) Pekol, AmyThis dissertation explores faculty engagement at the crossroads of higher education and international development policy through a comparative case study of a U.S.-Colombia human rights university partnership. There is a tendency for ideologies, policies, and practices to flow from North to South in university development partnerships, which reinforces deeply entrenched hierarchies and structural inequalities within the global political economy. This study investigates the cumulative effect on faculty working within such partnerships. Faculty engagement is examined through interviews with faculty participants and international development specialists across five universities and two development agencies in the United States and Colombia. Interviewees reflect on faculty engagement at various stages—design, initiation, negotiation, collaboration, and conclusion—of a three-year partnership. A focus on faculty engagement—namely faculty agency perspectives and behaviors—across four dimensions—individual, institutional, partnership, and geopolitical—highlights multiple layers of influence and inequality within these partnerships. This study advances two key arguments. First, this study calls for greater attention to the role of professional capital —a product of human, social, and decisional capital—in perpetuating or overcoming inequalities within university development partnerships. Second, this study affirms the importance of empathy and the potential of individual participants to reduce and even reverse the power dynamics inherent within many North-South partnerships. Although university development partnerships do not occur on equal terrain, this study reveals opportunities for participants to make them a little more equitable and expand faculty agency in the process.Item Faculty perceptions of success in cross-border university-to-university partnerships.(2012-05) Wilson, Elisabeth AnneIn international development the strategy of cross-border university-to-university partnerships is drawing more attention. Funders such as U.S. Agency for International Development are offering large amounts of financial support for the development of university partnerships, networks, and consortiums. Despite the money that is going into university partnerships and networks, there is only limited research on whether this strategy is effective. This study was conducted at Makerere University, the oldest university in East Africa. Makerere has been engaged with international partners in scores of partnerships, making it an ideal setting to look for perspective on the process and impact of university partnerships. Interviews were conducted with 38 faculty members and content analysis tied what faculty said back to a four-stage model based on literature on partnership development. The first stage of the model focuses on initiation, particularly leadership and motivation. The second stage looks at negotiation of context, the depth of understanding that partners have of where the partnership is based, including organizational structures and the physical and cultural environment. Trust in implementation is the third stage and the final stage is how faculty members evaluate the success of partnerships at their conclusion. In addition to testing the adequacy of the model, this study sought to identify distinctions between partnerships that were internally funded and those that were externally funded. For the most part, the model proved to be a useful tool to represent the process of partnership. However, there were nuances identified, including the large degree to which faculty are motivated by individual benefits; internal challenges at the university that hinder partnership development and impact; informal faculty mentorship that happens during partnerships; and reinforcement of dependence on external funding. These findings were used to offer revisions to the original partnership development model. In this study, all the partnerships that were described were externally funded; the faculty members who were interviewed provided no examples of successful, internally funded partnerships. Implications that the university participates in only externally funded partnerships may indicate that the partnership strategy does not hold promise for future sustainability.Item A futures study of internationalization of the Carlson School of Management: diverse perspectives of key stakeholders.(2010-08) D’Angelo, Anne MarieInternationalization is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional and complex concept described most notably as a higher educational process that integrates an international perspective into its organizational leadership, vision, and curricular goals. Success is dependent upon ongoing engagement of a multitude of internal and external stakeholders with an approach towards the future (Ellingboe, 1998). Today businesspeople operate in an open, global environment wherein interactions manifest themselves differently for each individual and depend upon one's abilities to adapt to and access interpersonal and inter-organizational relationships. The intricacies of these interactions occur at multi-dimensional levels - individual, organizational, and global - and present unique challenges for managers to maintain balance between independence and interdependence. Studies suggest that corporate leaders expect business schools to prepare graduates to be more competent and adaptive to these dynamic global challenges (Webb, Mayer, Piocher, and Allen, 1999). Using StoryTech, a futuring tool to develop desirable scenarios, this qualitative, futures study draws on specific ethnographic tools and methods and employs the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management as an exemplar of analysis regarding its internationalization strategies. The researcher examines how stakeholders, both internal and external to a business school community, envision their contributions in shaping internationalization strategies and how business school leaders should engage them in ways that are more effective and future-oriented. Preliminary data suggest stakeholders define internationalization in myriad ways reflecting unique perspectives consisting of cognitive, relational, and transactional factors for business schools to be more innovative in the development of internationalization strategies. Additional data support a systems approach to internationalization as most effective with business schools serving as focal points for these interconnected stakeholder communities. Broader implications of the study recommend that business school leaders develop and adopt a global meta-strategy approach to enhance broader school-wide initiatives. Moreover, a meta-strategy serves as a means to engage stakeholders from business school communities in unique ways focused on present day realities of globalization (global actualization) while creating desirable future scenarios and engagement for the betterment of new knowledge and applications for future professionals in the workforce. A consequence is the examination of a new, expanded role for international educators, one that broadens the professional realm.Item Higher education's impact on changing the sustainable behaviors of students(2013-05) Stary, Wendy RaeThe purpose of this research study was to establish understanding of the capability of universities to change the behaviors of students towards pro-sustainability behaviors. In particular, the University of Wisconsin-Stout was studied due to the nature of prosustainability initiatives already implemented on the campus and the ease with which the researcher could gain access to the necessary documentation and student participants. The Robert Yin methodology of a positivistic case study was used for this research study and Paul Stern’s Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Environmentalism became the theoretical framework upon which a model for influencing pro-sustainability behavior in students attending universities was built. Review of the literature related to prosustainability behavior change and higher education allowed for enhancement of the theoretical model to include specific contextual and personal capability factors. Seven theoretical propositions were derived from the factors of the model and served to help refine the data collection process, as well as guide the data analysis. The results of the study showed that all seven theoretical propositions were supported to some degree. Additional findings of interest were related to feedback mechanisms, perceived limits and a temporal component to self-efficacy development, and the effects of prior experiences with pro-sustainability behavior.Item How Am I going to pay for that?!: first-generation university students and their financial concerns(2013-09) Shultz, Judith J. AndrewsThis study examines first-generation research-university students in relation to their financial considerations. It is driven by the question, What is the relationship between first-generation college-student status and financial considerations among research-university students? It explores the impact of such variables as first-generation student status, parents' educational levels, student demographics, student's financial status, and academic considerations on students' financial concerns including the level of student financial concerns associated with paying for college, the behaviors students might choose, the manageability of college costs, and the worry associated with those costs. The results indicate that first-generation research- university students have unique financial concerns and responses to these concerns which are tied to their educational and family related backgrounds that influence their financial decision-making.Item The Institutional Role of Campus Policing for Black Undergraduate Students: A Critical Race Phenomenological Study(2020-02) Walker, KeganSince the 1900s, researchers have probed the sociological intersections between race and policing in the United States. Several 20th century social movements scrutinized an intractable tension related to racialized experiences with the police (Schafer, Huebner, & Bynum, 2003), and extensive research has explored Black and African Americans’ experiences with policing within diverse environmental contexts (e.g. Brunson & Miller, 2006; Brunson, 2007; Bizer, 2008; Callanan & Rosenberger, 2011; Peck, 2015). The recent proliferation of raced policing incidents has reintroduced police relations into the public discourse. However, very few studies have empirically examined this phenomenon within the context of higher education. This dissertation study explores the ways that Black undergraduate students experience, interpret, and make sense of campus policing at a large, predominately White, public, research university. In this study, I conceptualize campus police officers as “institutional agents” (e.g. Stanton-Salazar, 2011) to better contextualize the practical implications of campus policing in students’ institutional experiences. Drawing upon critical and philosophical theories of race, this research centralizes the social constructs of race and antiblack racism, while interrogating intersections of marginalization. Semi-structured interviews generated the primary data, which yielded four overarching themes illustrating the racialized contexts that framed participants’ experiences with and interpretations of campus policing. These themes include: 1) precollege experience and socialization, 2) the racialized frame of campus policing, 3) conceptions of safety and protection, and 4) the role of institutional climate.
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