This dissertation examines the course-enrollment behavior of first-year students at a public Midwestern university. Using the student choice construct, modern college choice theory, and the constructs of habitus, human capital, financial capital, social capital, cultural capital, along with background variables such as gender and locus of control,…

Reintegrating students with emotional and behavioral disorders from alternative school settings to the mainstream school environment presents significant challenges. Students are frequently unsuccessful when they return to home districts. Most researchers address the problem in a variable-centric manner, and explore specific student, teacher,…

The discourses of "trauma" and "post-trauma" have become pervasive in representations of life as it is lived in contemporary globalized culture. As new media technologies make the world more accessible, we become accustomed to overwhelming social, political, and personal circumstances, and we come to see "trauma" everywhere, all the time. My…

Yuki and the other Northern Yukian languages, Huchnom and Coast Yuki, were spoken until recently in Mendocino County in Northern California. This dissertation is a grammar of Yuki based primarily on spoken narratives recorded in the first decade of the twentieth century, so it provides a description of the Yuki language as it was spoken at that…

This research examined the extent to which future job prospects, peer and parental influence and or intrinsic interest impacted the college major selection processes utilized by freshmen and sophomores. Using a mixed method approach, the researcher interviewed six college recruitment officers, administered surveys to 466 freshmen and sophomores…

To pursue doctoral degrees is a growing choice for many adult learners who come to doctoral study with a range of personal, professional and educational backgrounds. This qualitative study explored perceptions about writing collected through a phenomenological interview process. The study applied socio-historical perspectives of writing in…

Belenky et al. (1997) found five ways of women's knowing (silent knowing, receiving knowing, subjective knowing, procedural knowing, and constructed knowing) according to the study conducted on women who majored in the social sciences and liberal arts. This study is built on the same model found by Belenky et al.'s study to collect open-ended…

Wikis have been found to be an easy-to-use, low-cost, and Internet-based technology useful in creating and mobilizing knowledge. Wikis hosted within firms (corporate wikis) have become a popular way for employees to share information and collaborate. Preliminary research suggested that as few as 6% of wiki consumers contributed to the…

Companies and schools in different types of market economies face a dilemma. Public schools are performing poorly at a time when companies need better skilled employees to compete globally. The trend toward greater participation of companies in the public schools is a consequence of this dilemma. It poses the question: "What are the implications…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact on Taiwanese students' English vocabulary retention, task difficulty ratings, and task utility ratings under varied task load conditions (reading only, fill-in-the-blanks, writing) when controlling for level of trait anxiety. The task loads were based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis. The…

Research indicates that the term mentor in the context of higher education currently has multiple definitions and is used to describe a variety of programs, efforts, and formal as well as informal activities. In recent years, interdisciplinary perspectives on traditional undergraduate students have been converging around the idea that the…

The purpose of this study was to reveal the ways in which first-generation women in Tanzania explained their success in pursuing a university education despite cultural and social obstacles. Such obstacles include social policies, socio-cultural factors, and academic factors. A review of the literature revealed that issues such as patriarchy,…

This dissertation offers a history of white college students' relationship with alcohol between 1820 and 1933. The years that frame this study represent a long crisis regarding alcohol in the United States. A dramatic rise in alcohol consumption began around 1800, the negative consequences of which led growing numbers of Americans, for the first…

Community colleges offer students an alternate pathway for baccalaureate degree attainment. Statistical data has shown that degree-seeking students can use community colleges to facilitate transfer to four-year institutions. Transfer rates from community colleges to four-year institutions are between 25% and 40%. Community college enrollment is…

With increased accountability and newly introduced alternative paths to administrative licensure, stakeholders are compelled to re-conceptualize the preparation of principals from a front-loaded process during the pre-service phase to a well-distributed plan across a principal's career. In a recent review of state policy, states have shifted their…