Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item PART OF THE WHOLE: FACULTY CAMPUS SERVICE DECISIONS AT A CATHOLIC LIBERAL ARTS UNIVERSITY(2021) Kilmer, Sarah Jane; O'Meara, KerryAnn; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Faculty members in higher education institutions are typically evaluated based on their labor in research, teaching, and service. Although varying by institution type, research and teaching are often rewarded more heavily in tenure and promotion decisions than service work. Research indicates that women faculty perform more campus service work than do men faculty within academia, with important consequences for career advancement. One explanation for women’s greater participation in service is that colleges and universities are gendered institutions, with structures that preserve and promote differential expectations for men and women faculty. Within these gendered organizations, cultural and gender stereotypes shape the choices and behaviors of men and women faculty in important ways, including what they sign up for, what they are asked to do, and how they evaluate themselves and others. This study explored the impact of cultural and gender stereotyping as well as institutional context on the decisions that men and women faculty make regarding campus service at one Catholic liberal arts institution in the United States. Distinctive contextual factors such as mission and institutional culture can also influence decision-making around campus service in different ways, and this study examined how environmental factors, alongside the structural nature of gender norms, affected the campus service-related decisions of faculty in this particular case. Guided by the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), Social Role Theory (SRT), and March’s (1994) Decision-Making Theory, the findings from interviews with 21 faculty participants and analysis of over 50 institutional documents and key campus artifacts indicated that participants were aware of gender stereotypes and social roles and sometimes influenced by them. However, the distinctive institutional context had an important effect on participants’ campus service decisions. Participants made campus service decisions inside a women-founded institution where campus service was key to the institutional mission and campus service work was fully integrated into the faculty role, while also emphasized, expected, and rewarded by the institution. Data from the study suggests that participant reasons for engaging in campus service included a desire to understand the university better, make positive contributions to the common good, build meaningful relationships, and perform campus service work that was consistent with their values and strengths. As such, faculty members frequently employed rational choice motives but were also influenced to an important degree by the institution’s mission to engage in rule following decision-making. There are implications for faculty hiring and fit and tenure and promotion guidelines at institutions with distinctive foundations, as well as implications for campus service equity for faculty members and for addressing gendered and racialized norms within Catholic higher education.Item HIDDEN FIGURES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE CAREER TRAJECTORIES OF BLACK WOMEN IN SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS(2020) Staples, Candice L; Griffin, Kimberly A; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze and examine the career development of Black women in senior academic administrative positions. Although every senior administrator does not aspire to become a college president, there is a traditional pathway for those who reach the presidency. Women are underrepresented in college presidencies, but Black women in particular are underrepresented as presidents of predominately White research institutions. The theoretical frameworks guiding this study are Black Feminist Thought and Community Cultural Wealth, which both provide a better understanding of the diversity within Black female experiences and the unique capital they cultivate to proceed through the academy. Narrative inquiry was the methodology selected to conduct this nationwide study of 15 Black women who had the career titles of a chair, dean, or provost. Each participant was interviewed once for approximately 90 minutes in a semi-structured format. The transcribed interviews were hand-coded to highlight the emerging themes: participants were recruited into administration, the significance of faculty rank and the department chair position, support was largely found outside of the participants’ institution. Participants acquired capital through their parents, partners, and sister circles (friends). The women were able to leverage their capital to help mitigate some of the obstacles and to influence their career decisions.Item AN EMERGING GROUNDED THEORY OF FACULTY HIRING PROCESSES IN UNIONIZED COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES(2015) Lounder, Andrew; O'Meara, KerryAnn; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: AN EMERGING GROUNDED THEORY OF FACULTY HIRING PROCESSES IN UNIONIZED COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES Andrew D. Lounder, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor KerryAnn O'Meara Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education Growth in part-time faculty workforces in U.S. higher education since 1970 has been remarkable. Part-time faculty growth as a percentage of the whole has occurred most rapidly in comprehensive universities in recent years and carries with it important implications for student instruction. Comprehensive universities are of critical importance to the realization of higher levels of educational attainment by underserved and nontraditional college populations. The purpose of this study is to understand instructional faculty hiring processes in comprehensive universities. The study is derived from an application of grounded theory research methods within and across three university settings. Analysis shows administrators at all levels of the organizational chart (i.e., department chair, dean, and provost) follow a cycle of activities that results in both direct and indirect (or systemic), outcomes in faculty hiring. First, they scan the environments in which they are situated for possible risks to their work including faculty hiring. Second, they perceive risks, including risks of opportunity, from their own viewpoints. Third, and of central importance, they assert decision role changes in response to the risks they perceive. That is, they take action. Finally, they establish ownership of new decision responsibility. A visual model depicting the grounded theory is shared. Findings position faculty hiring as an outcome of rule following decisions and risk response rather than rational choice. Part-time faculty hiring is found to function as an organizational release valve, which circumvents role tension of the sort experienced among department, college, and university administrators in full-time faculty hiring. Implications for university-level faculty hiring policy and practice, as well as for future research, are discussed. One conclusion is that university decision makers should be more strategic about faculty hiring by aligning the process with desired outcomes.Item Faculty Agency: Departmental contexts that matter in faculty careers(2012) Campbell, Corbin Martin; O'Meara, KerryAnn; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to investigate the organizational factors that influence faculty sense of agency in their professional lives and whether the relationship between organizational factors and faculty agency manifests differently by gender. Past literature on faculty has largely taken an approach that was termed a "narrative of constraint," focusing on the challenges that faculty face in modern academe, such as increased academic capitalism, striving, and new technologies (O'Meara, Terosky, & Neumann, 2008; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006). More recently, certain scholars sought to understand what keeps faculty satisfied and thriving in a higher education context with multiple challenges (Baez, 2000a; Neumann, Terosky, & Schell, 2006; O'Meara, Terosky, & Neumann, 2008). The construct of agency is a powerful perspective to uncover how faculty navigate academe and succeed in their own goals. Guided by the O'Meara, Campbell, and Terosky (2011) framework on agency in faculty professional lives, this study used Structural Equation Modeling to investigate which organizational factors (perceptions of tenure and promotion process, work-life climate, transparency, person-department fit, professional development resources, and collegiality) influenced faculty agency perspective and agency behavior and whether agency was associated with important faculty outcomes, such as intent to stay, satisfaction, and productivity. Then, this studied investigated whether the resulting model differed by gender. Results showed that work-life climate and person-department fit had a positive direct influence on agency perspective and a positive indirect influence on agency behavior. Professional development resources had a positive influence on agency perspective, but a negligible influence on agency behavior. Results also showed a very large effect of agency perspective on agency behavior. The invariance test by gender demonstrated that the relationships between organizational factors and faculty sense of agency were the same for men and women. This study illustrated the importance of departmental contexts in faculty professional lives, regardless of gender. It has important implications for administrators regarding departmental role in faculty agency, and also contributes to the continued development of a theoretical framework on faculty agency.Item A Case Analysis of a Model Program for the Leadership Development of Women Faculty and Staff Seeking to Advance Their Careers in Higher Education(2011) Calizo, Lee Scherer Hawthorne; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this case study was to explore a model of leadership development for women faculty and staff in higher education. This study is significant because it explored the only identified campus-based program open to both faculty and staff. The campus-based Women's Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) program at the University of Cincinnati evolved over a few years and became a regionally-based program subsequently called the Higher Education Collaborative (HEC). These two programs at the University of Cincinnati served as the foci of this case study research. Using methods consistent with case study research, I interviewed six past participants of the programs (three from each), plus the program coordinator, and several other campus administrators. Document reviews were conducted on marketing materials, progress reports, websites, budgets, status of women reports, and other documents found in university archives. A focus group was conducted with the primary informants of the study as a way to check identified themes with the participants. Findings suggest that elements of the leadership development programs did have influence on the participants in terms of their leadership self-efficacy, career aspirations and career paths. A comparison of the WILD and HEC programs suggest that the regionally-based HEC provided a solid opportunity for skill development and training, while the campus-based WILD program excelled at providing opportunities for participants to develop meaningful relationships and gain insights into the operations of the University. Participants in the HEC program engaged in the experience to learn about ways to advance in their careers, unlike the women in WILD who participated in order to be better in their current positions. WILD alumnae had changed positions, taking on more responsibilities and in some cases higher ranking titles since participating in the program. It was too soon to tell the career path implications for the HEC participants. Other universities wishing to create a pipeline for women to advance into leadership can learn from the University of Cincinnati. Elements of both the WILD and HEC programs serve as valuable models for creating effective leadership development opportunities for women. Making sure women understand the purpose of an all-women experience is an important component that was missing from the UC programs.Item Living Feminism in the Academy: South African Women Tell Their Stories(2009) Corneilse, Carol; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies about North American and European women predominate the literature on gender issues in higher education, particularly research that focuses on female academics who are self-described feminists. The literature tells us that there are differences between the institutional experiences of feminist faculty, as opposed to female faculty in general. Most universities are male-dominated institutions and inequalities in status, rank, and salary persist, although the gaps have shrunk over time. Female faculty who self-identify as feminists are more likely to challenge discriminatory institutional practices, because feminism, by its nature, challenges the status quo. And they are more likely to be ostracized and ridiculed when they confront unequal treatment. Yet the presence of feminists in the academy signals their belief in its value as an institution. Universities offer the intellectual space to theorize about women's position in society, to generate knowledge that brings about greater understanding of women's lives, and to develop strategies for change. There is a small, but growing, body of literature documenting the experiences of female faculty in South Africa's higher education institutions. Few studies have focused on feminist faculty, however. In this qualitative study, six diverse women share their experiences of being feminist faculty in South African universities over a thirty-year period, beginning in the early 1970s. Their personal narratives begin in their formative childhood years when they first become aware of social injustice. The study documents their growing feminist consciousness, their initial encounters with feminist theories, their struggles as university and community activists, and as young faculty. The women recall pivotal events and experiences that have shaped them, and describe what it has been like to live out their feminist values on a daily basis in South Africa's universities.