Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item Learning Together: The Lived Experience of Bridging in Scholars Studio(2023) Nardi, Lisa; Hultgren, Francine H; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This hermeneutic phenomenological investigation tends to the connections made in Scholars Studio—an interdisciplinary learning community for first-year students at a public Historically Black College and University (HBCU). In this study, I ask, What is the lived experience of bridging in Scholars Studio? I conceptualize bridging as a pedagogical orientation characterized by making connections across disciplines, between theory and praxis, across time and distance, and with one another. Bridging creates dynamic spaces that resist binary relationships, thus creating the potential for transformation. This study is grounded in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Mariana Ortega, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Edward Casey, and David Michael Levin, and follows the methodological structure set forth by Max van Manen. This research captures conversations that bridge the experience of twelve participants—including faculty, students, and staff—who partook in a learning community focused on Black men in education. Through these conversations, the participants affirm the importance of curricula grounded in African American and African history and culture. As participants cross the metaphorical bridge, they consider the “edges” they encounter that are both full of risk and possibility. These edges push them outside of their comfort zones in search of wholeness and create potential sites for improvisation. I end by opening new possibilities for Scholars Studio, including grounding the work in African principles and considering future directions.Item A GENDER ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING PHD STUDENTS’ CAREER DECISION-MAKING PROCESS USING A BOUNDED AGENCY MODEL(2019) da Costa, Romina Bobbio; Stromquist, Nelly P.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative research study applies a bounded agency model in investigating the career decision making process of engineering PhD students at a large, public research university in the United States. Through a gender analysis of the career decision-making of men and women PhD students in engineering, this study sheds light on the reasons why men and women choose different career trajectories in engineering, with implications for diversifying the professoriate. This study highlights the ways in which men and women PhD students in engineering experience the university as an institution differently, and form different impressions of the academic career. The bounded agency model allows for a holistic examination of the organizational barriers, as well as the individual level dispositions and characteristics that work to limit the range of feasible alternaives and choices for men and women as they make their career choices. The findings provide insight into the career decision-making of men and women PhDs as an iterative process of information gathering, crystallization of values, and narrowing down of options. Gender differences are outlined at each stage in this process, providing a framework for furthering understanding of other underrepresented populations in the professoriate. Additionally, the findings have implications for graduate education in engineering, and for PhD student career development and choice, both in the United States and beyond. keywords: agency, bounded agency, career choice, career development, diversity in STEM, engineering education, gender, graduate student agency, graduate student experience, higher education, STEMItem Going to the Source: A Case Study of Four Faculty and Their Approaches to Writing Instruction(2015) Callow, Megan; O'Flahavan, John; Malen, Betty; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines four college professors’ approaches to writing instruction in the disciplines of history and engineering. An investigation of writing instruction in two disparate disciplinary contexts contributes to our understanding of how instructors approach writing instruction in the disciplines, and which factors encourage and inhibit writing instruction. This study proposes and assesses the validity of a guiding conceptual framework, which posits that the primary factors influencing faculty’s approaches to writing instruction are academic biography, disciplinary identity, and educational ideology. The study employs a qualitative case study methodology, and data sources include in-depth interviews, field observations, and analysis of documents such as syllabi and writing prompts. This dissertation is founded on a premise that the instructor is an under-studied but essential player in the Writing in the Disciplines movement. The study reveals more about the nature of discipline-based writing instruction, and proposes a conceptual framework for future research on instructional approaches to disciplinary writing.Item Navigating Power and Politics: Women of Color Senior Leaders in Academe(2012) Huang, Belinda Jung-Lee; Fries-Britt, Sharon L.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to understand how women of color who are at the senior level of academe continue to advance while navigating and maneuvering through power and politics encountered in the organizational system. Although we know that there are few women of color at the senior level of administration, this qualitative study provided information about the challenges and obstacles women of color senior level leaders face at micro- and macro-levels in a doctoral granting or baccalaureate granting university. The major research question guiding this study was: How do women of color navigate power and politics to arrive at the senior level in academe? The research design was nine individual case studies of women of color at nine institutions: three African Americans, two Asian American Pacific Islanders, two Latinas, and two American Indian women at doctoral granting and baccalaureate granting universities. Five women were senior leaders at minority serving institutions; seven were presidents, one was a provost, and one was a vice-provost. Three participants came from historically Black colleges and universities, one woman held a position at a Tribal college, and one worked at a Hispanic serving institution. Drawing upon five theoretical frameworks, four themes emerged that were grounded in the data: 1) Advancing Women Through Opportunity and Experience; 2) Challenges of Race and Gender: Inviting Partnership with Community; 3) Inclusive and Persuasive Leaders: Creating Positive Change; 4) Using Power and Politics to Achieve Goals. Participants saw power as the ability to bring people together and to use a strategy to achieve one's objectives. They defined power as the privilege one has because of social identity or as something that was borrowed or loaned. Women of color leaders described using politics for the community, to reap benefits, not for oneself but to achieve a broader goal. Participants maneuvered through the system by finding allies, and enlisting people to intervene on their behalf. Women of color senior leaders saw politics as a means to get things done and to emerge with a win-win situation.Item APPROACHING GENDER PARITY: WOMEN IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AT AFGHANISTAN'S KABUL UNIVERSITY(2010) Plane, Jandelyn Dawn; Selden, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explores the representation of women in computer science at the tertiary level through data collected about undergraduate computer science education at Kabul University in Afghanistan. Previous studies have theorized reasons for underrepresentation of women in computer science, and while many of these reasons are indeed present in Afghanistan, they appear to hinder advancement to degree to a lesser extent. Women comprise at least 36% of each graduating class from KU's Computer Science Department; however, in 2007 women were 25% of the university population. In the US, women comprise over 50% of university populations while only graduating on average 25% women in undergraduate computer science programs. Representation of women in computer science in the US is 50% below the university rate, but at KU, it is 50% above the university rate. This mixed methods study of KU was conducted in the following three stages: setting up focus groups with women computer science students, distributing surveys to all students in the CS department, and conducting a series of 22 individual interviews with fourth year CS students. The analysis of the data collected and its comparison to literature on university/department retention in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics gender representation and on women's education in underdeveloped Islamic countries illuminates KU's uncharacteristic representation of women in its Computer Science Department. The retention of women in STEM through the education pipeline has several characteristics in Afghanistan that differ from countries often studied in available literature. Few Afghan students have computers in their home and few have training beyond secretarial applications before considering studying CS at university. University students in Afghanistan are selected based on placement exams and are then assigned to an area of study, and financially supported throughout their academic career, resulting in a low attrition rate from the program. Gender and STEM literature identifies parental encouragement, stereotypes and employment perceptions as influential characteristics. Afghan women in computer science received significant parental encouragement even from parents with no computer background. They do not seem to be influenced by any negative "geek" stereotypes, but they do perceive limitations when considering employment after graduation.Item Examining the Status of Equity in Undergraduate Enrollments for Black, Latino and Low-Income Students at Public Four-Year Universities and Flagship Campuses(2007-11-27) Gerald, Danette Stacie; Milem, Jeffrey F.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study extends prior research (e.g., Bensimon, Hao & Bustillos, 2006; Perna, et al., 2006) that has examined postsecondary access and equity in enrollments for underrepresented student groups. Descriptive statistics are used to examine the status of equity in undergraduate enrollments for Black, Latino and low-income students, as well as trends in the status of equity for these groups from 1994 to 2004, at public flagship campuses and at other public four-year universities. Multivariate regression analyses are used to test the study's conceptual model which explores whether a relationship exists between variables shaped by human capital and institutional isomorphism, and institutions' equity indices. This study advances understandings of the degree to which the public four-year sector is adequately enrolling students from underrepresented groups, the relationship between institutions' flagship status and the enrollment equity indices for various groups of, the relationship between the pursuit of prestige and equity in undergraduate enrollments, and how variables within institutions' purview of control are related to their enrollment equity indices. The study's findings suggest that Black, Latino and low-income students do not achieve equity in undergraduate enrollments at public four-year universities or flagship campuses in a majority of states. In most states, Black and low-income students are more likely to achieve equity at public four year universities than at flagships, while Latinos are more likely to achieve equity at flagship campuses than at other public four-year universities. Of all three student groups, however, low-income students are most likely to be underrepresented in undergraduate enrollments at both public four-year universities and flagship campuses. The descriptive analyses also show that, over a 10-year period, the enrollment equity indices for Black and Latino students have decreased at public four-year institutions and flagship campuses in a majority of states. Conversely, the enrollment equity indices for low-income students increased at public four-year and flagship universities in a majority of states during the same time period. However, despite the upward trend in the enrollment equity indices for low-income students, in 2004 this group achieved equity at public four-year universities in only five states and at the public flagship university in only one state. The results of the multivariate analyses suggest that a relationship exists between human capital and institutional isomorphism variables, and the enrollment equity indices for Black, Latino and low-income students. The analyses also reveal a statistically significant negative relationship between institutions' flagship status and their enrollment equity indices for Black and low-income students, but not for Latino students. The study's findings have implications for policy, practice and research. Specifically, the findings underscore the need to examine the status of equity within state-specific contexts, and to calculate separate equity indices for different institutional sectors. The study also identifies several directions for future research.Item Dwelling in a Pedagogy of In-Between: A Phenomenological Study of Teachers of Writing(2007-04-29) De La Ysla, Linda S; Hultgren, Francine; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This phenomenological study explores "in-between" as a pedagogic site in the teaching of writing at two large public universities. The writings of Ted Aoki, Edward Casey, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Hans Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, and Max van Manen orient the study philosophically and methodologically. The notion of in-between is grounded in the author's life experiences, and is metaphorically suggested by her knowledge of scuba diving. Six teachers of writing, who are also writers, are engaged in individual and group conversations to bring forward the lived dimensions of their pedagogy as teachers of writing. The rendering of audio taped conversations suggests themes of a paradoxical nature that might yield insights into the teaching of writing: knowing and not knowing whether one's teaching makes a difference for student writers; comfortable to be uncomfortable as it relates to the creation of a classroom atmosphere where writers are willing to take risks; as teachers, taking attendance and being in attendance of student rosters, both seen and unseen; process under pressure as a pedagogical dimension where writing detours and bewilderment coexist with personal and institutional resistance; the sustenance of response, including a revisioning of judgment and the virtue of failing together; successful risk and other blessings for writing teachers who are at once avenging angels and sympathetic souls; and the pleasures of paradox: dwelling in the I-You relationship, nurturing the presence of the absence, and loving one's work in all its imbalances. Dwelling in the tensions suggested by these themes has the possibility of moving teachers of writing toward acceptance and exploration of their pedagogic identity. Furthermore, writing teachers who articulate and value the centering power of both/and are more attuned to coach students in becoming stronger, and more courageous, writers. A pedagogy of "equilibrium in motion" has the potential to re-vision teacher preparation--as well as curriculum in university writing classrooms.Item The Meaning of the Student Advisory Board Leadership Development Experience to the Student Board Members(2004-05-07) Janc, Jelena; Mawhinney, Hanne; Education Policy, and LeadershipThis case study explores the nature of leadership development framed in the relational model through the perceptions of five members of the Student Advisory Board on their development as leaders. The central research question is, How does the experience at the Student Advisory Board create meaning to Board members in their leadership development? The findings exhibit students' leadership development in three dimensions: I - understanding oneself as a leader; you - understanding others' leadership backgrounds and ideas; and we - working as a team to accomplish the Board's goals. The case study contributes to the existing research on the strategies that state-level higher education coordinating bodies can use to engage higher education students in the policymaking process. The research also creates an understanding of the meaning that public policy opportunities have on students' leadership development. Finally, the case study provides significant validation of the relational model of leadership development.