Students moving from high school writing to college writing are, from a sociocultural perspective, transitioning from one "community of practice" to another, from one "Discourse" to another (Gee, 1992; Wenger, 1998). This process can be difficult, not only for basic writers (Bartholomae, 1985; Shaughnessy, 1977) but also for…

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in a period of change in higher-education systems across the former Eastern bloc. Reform-minded leaders in the region sought to introduce western models and policies promoted by foreign development aid agendas. Private higher-education institutions emerged. This qualitative multiple case study examines…

This case study investigates the selection of partner institutions for international joint degree programs at the graduate level utilizing Knight's (2008) challenges to the development of such partnerships which are: Academic Alignment, Mobility and Language concerns, and Recognition and Legitimacy concerns. This study focuses on the criteria used…

The following study is an extended ethnographic case study of a "black intellectual insurgency" within the predominantly white space of the U.S. intercollegiate policy debate activity. A growing number of black students are entering the debate activity and insisting that "whiteness" be confronted and interrogated and that…

With the burgeoning of the Latina/o student population in postsecondary institutions, the federal government now designates institutions enrolling 25% or more undergraduate Latina/o students as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Enrolling over 50% of all Latina/o college students, HSIs are important contributors to the enrollment, persistence,…

This dissertation explores and explains the organizational responses of Mexican public state universities to an ambitious incentive-based policy created by the federal government in 2001: "The Integral Program for Institutional Strengthening" ("PIFI"). Drawing upon literature on organizational-environmental relationships and on…

More than a decade ago, art historian Carol Duncan (1993) questioned the legitimacy of the democratization of an "elite" liberal arts education, challenging assumptions held by educators, administrators, and scholars that "the democratization of an elite liberal arts education is possible." This study is a direct extension of Professor Duncan's…

This project focuses on the dynamics of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a non-binding multistakeholder debate about information policymaking. Using the theory of structuration and critical discourse analysis, I explore how the nation-state-centric and the internet-community-centric perceptions of authority and approaches to decision-making…

Single parent households are on the rise, and female headed households are more likely to live in poverty than other single parent households (Holyfield, 2002). Many single mothers who do not have an undergraduate degree see education as a way out of poverty (Holyfield, 2002; Heller & Bjorklund, 2004). This research was undertaken to highlight…

As a result of the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering programs, the culture is male-dominated and perpetuates an unsupportive and biased climate that discourages undergraduate women from connecting to their gender. Using a social identity framework, this study addresses how gender influences undergraduate women's perception of…

Organizations involved in crisis relief after a natural disaster face the multifaceted challenge of significantly changing needs of their various stakeholders, limited, ambiguous and even incorrect information, and highly compressed time limitations. Yet the performance of these organization in these high velocity environments is critical for the…

The public higher education economic and competitive environments make it crucial that organizations react to the circumstances and make better use of available resources (Duderstadt, 2000; Floyd, 2008; Shulman, 2007; State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), 2009). Viewing higher education through the perspective of new institutionalism…

Higher education in post-apartheid South Africa has experienced a relatively rapid changing landscape (Cloete, Maassen, Fehnel, & Moja, 2006). As such, the organizational environment in which university administrators operate is an increasingly important area of study. This study is grounded in organizational theory and adopts an open systems…

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived leadership experiences of Black women senior-level administrators in traditionally White community colleges. Research suggests that Black women administrators, particularly those employed on White college campuses are often faced with multiple challenges as they attempt to maintain their…

Corporal punishment was long used in Taiwanese schools as an informal disciplinary tool for improving students' academic performance as well as for disciplinary violations. Based on thirty-five interviews and three school activity observations across a nationwide sample of junior high teachers and schools, this study examines the impact of…