College of Education

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1647

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Political Science, General

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Undergraduate College Students' Perceived Sense of Civic Responsibility and Social Change Behaviors in the Context of Service, Advocacy, and Identity-Based Student Organizations
    (2010) Chowdhry, Chetan; Quaye, Stephen J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study utilized data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) to explore the differences between college students involved with service, advocacy, and identity-based student organizations, as well as those not involved in any of these organizations, in their perceived sense of civic responsibility, as well as their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. In addition, it explored the relationship between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. The researcher utilized two one-way ANOVAs to see if there were significant differences in perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among students who were involved exclusively in service, advocacy, or identity-based organizations, as well as students who were involved in a combination of these organizations, and students who did not participate in any of these organizations. The researcher found significant differences between students in the different organizations, with students in a combination of organizations and students involved exclusively in advocacy organizations having the highest mean scores on perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. Students in identity-based organizations and those not involved in any of the organizations had the lowest mean scores on these two variables. In addition, the researcher found a positive, medium strength correlation between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among all of the involvement categories. Overall, this study provides important initial findings regarding the civic engagement characteristics of students involved in particular student organizations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Children Who Ran For Congress and the School Up On The Hill: An Oral-Institutional History of Capitol Page School, 1926-1983
    (2008-05-01) Gonzalez, Darryl James; Finkelstein, Barbara J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Although the corpus of work on Congressional history is impressive, there is one aspect of life inside the Capitol that has been neglected for over 200 years. Young messenger boys, or Pages, have worked for Congress since its early sessions but have never received much attention. This dissertation traces the evolution of Capitol Page School and by doing so, also follows the evolution of the larger Page system. The purpose of the study is to find out what the historical record can reveal about the history of Capitol Page School. Once that story is told, conclusions can be drawn about things like institutional inertia in Congress, preserving tradition, unusual childhood occupations and informal civic education, among others. Using both a documents review and an oral history approach allowed for a rich description of the evolution of Capitol Page School. Chapter Two reports on Page culture before 1926, concentrating on the relationships between Members of Congress and the boys, and how Pages formed their own culture and community as adjuncts of the Congress. Chapter Three examines the social conditions that were present in the 1920s which forced the formation of a school specifically for Pages inside the Capitol, run as a private enterprise by an individual teacher, and the subsequent attempts to continue the school. Chapter Four describes how Senator Harold Burton intervened to improve conditions at Capitol Page School, and also includes a previously unknown cache of information and behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Chapter Five explains the physical move of the school and then traces the substantial legislation that Congress failed to pass in order to give Pages an official residence to live in, and describes the precarious nature of the school. Chapter Six gives special attention to three noteworthy subcultures within the Page system: girls, African-Americans and Supreme Court Pages, and describes how each group began and received special consideration. Chapter Seven reports on how Capitol Page School was forced to dissolve in the early 1980s and how two new schools were formed to replace it. Chapter Eight discusses what can be learned from the historical record.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Constructing Civil Society in Transitional China: Case Studies of One Private University and One Non-governmental Institute for Peasant Education
    (2007-07-11) Liu, Yan; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The political shift in China in the last two and a half decades, from an emphasis on ideological orthodoxy and centralized economic control, to an emphasis on national economic development for modernization, has made it possible for non-governmental actors to enter into fields previously controlled by the government and to take initiatives in making social changes. This dissertation examines the capacity that non-governmental organizations demonstrate in their fight against all odds and their promotions of a civil society in China, using two non-governmental organizations working in the field of education as examples. The cases are analyzed from a historical institutionalism perspective to show how organizations' actions are affected by the contextual factors and meanwhile how their actions influence the institutions. In the case studies, the interaction between the society and the state government is carefully studied; moreover, the associational, ideological and cognitive dimensions of the civil society construction in China are comprehensively examined. Two non-governmental institutions are examined in this study. Their increasing participation in educational practices provides alternatives to the educational model in government-managed organizations. The dissertation also examines the development of the two organizations and pays special attention to the constraints imposed on the organizations by the existing political and educational system: The government is alert to their increasing power and attempts to restraint it. However, both organizations were successful in negotiating spaces for their survival and gained increasing influence in the society. Case analysis showed that the most important feature in the state-society interaction in China is trust-building which requires sophisticated strategies. While sticking to their non-state identity, these organizations have made significant efforts in establishing channels of discourse with the government, and won their trust in this way. Overall, the civil society groups in China showed divergence in their goals and practices from other countries, but also share certain convergence in their features and strategies for the redefinition of state-society boundary. In the dissertation, a dynamic interaction between the institutional factors and the agency of social actors is discovered. The institutional contexts shaped the social actors' vision and strategies, and the institutional environment was also transformed by the action of social groups. The direction of political and social reform is co-steered by the state-government and the society, instead of being determined by the government alone.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Preconscious Influences on Decision Making about Complex Questions
    (2005-01-31) Sran, Deep Singh; Alexander, Patricia A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    There is evidence that the most widely accepted theories and models of judgment, decision making and reasoning are inadequate because they do not accurately describe what people do or are able to do when making decisions. One shortcoming of existing theories and models may be that they do not account for the potential influence of preconscious processes on decision making and conscious reasoning. The present study investigated whether preconscious processes influenced decision making about complex questions based on interviews with 41 state legislators and 18 doctoral students. This inquiry also examined whether participants' decision making processes differed by issue and whether legislators and doctoral students differed in how they made policy decisions. Participants were asked to make two educational policy decisions and were asked follow-up questions about each decision. These follow-up questions were designed to collect data concerning the source and quality of participants' evidence, their ability to generate counterarguments, their certainty in the accuracy of their decisions, whether the policy questions evoked an affective response, and how much participants reported knowing about each decision topic. The study also measured and compared how quickly participants made decisions and provided reasons to support their decisions. To complete the interview, participants were asked to review two decision-making models, a traditional purely-conscious model and a second intuitive model that incorporated preconscious processes, and to select the model that better described how most people and how the participants themselves made political decisions. Based on the data collected there is reason to believe that preconscious processes may influence decisions about policy and other complex questions. Participants made decisions quickly, with little external evidence to support the decisions. They were quite certain about the accuracy of their decisions even though many reported having little or know knowledge about the decision questions. Participants' comments also suggested that one or both decision topics evoked an affective response to the policy question. And most participants described their own decision making using the decision model that depicted the influence of preconscious processes. These findings do not support the accuracy of traditional, purely conscious models of judgment and decision making.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Connecting Political Discussion to Civic Engagement: The Role of Civic Knowledge, Efficacy and Context for Adolescents
    (2003-12-04) Richardson, Wendy Klandl; Torney-Purta, Judith; Human Development
    The relationship between participating in political discussion and civic engagement was examined using survey data collected for the IEA Civic Education Study from a large, nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States. This study extends previous research by considering the extent to which political discussion occurring in different contexts relates to several kinds of civic engagement and by considering the influence of civic knowledge and efficacy as possible intervening factors. Interviews with a separate sample of 32 14-year-olds provided descriptive data that enriched the presentation of statistical findings with respect to the reasons adolescents see for their participation in discussion. Results from statistical analyses found that adolescents who report more frequent discussion of politics with peers, parents, and teachers, and perceive their class as a supportive environment for discussion are more likely to believe they will engage in civic activities as adults. This is the case for both conventional activities such as writing a letter to a newspaper about an issue and social movement-related activities such as participating in a non-violent protest. Furthermore, these adolescents were more likely to report that they are currently involved in civic-related organizations. The one exception is that adolescents' perception that their classroom supports the discussion of political issues is not related to their current involvement in civic-related organizations. Adolescents' civic knowledge was not related to their expectations for future or current civic engagement when controlling for political discussion, nor did it change the relationship between political discussion and civic engagement. When adolescents' reported a sense of competence in politics and in their participation at school, they were more likely to expect they would engage in civic activities as adults and report that they currently participate in a greater number of civic-related organizations. However, these indicators of civic efficacy did not moderate the relationship between political discussion and civic engagement. These findings affirm the positive role political discussion plays in promoting the civic engagement of young people. Learning more about the quality of political discussions in different contexts and adolescents' sense of competence in politics will help educators and parents strengthen this connection.