Perceptions of Social Mobility in Community College Scholars at Bucknell University

While national leaders have joined the discussion more recently, scholars in the fields of education, psychology, and sociology, have been exploring the ways in which students? socioeconomic background affects the outcomes they experience as a result of their education (Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, 2003).Furthermore, the role played by the education system in creating or diminishing socioeconomic disparity has also been studied in depth (Bourdieu, 1977; Boudon, 1977). However, the journeys of students from low-income families that begin their education at community colleges and continue it, through careful planning or chance, at elite four-year institutions, has not been the subject of much attention. This thesis explores these students? perceptions of social mobility as they have been shaped by their experiences so far in life. This includes the exploration of changes in their perceptions as the contexts for their lives have been changed. Quantitative analysis of survey results and qualitative analysis of participant interviews serve as the data set for this study. The implications ofthe findings for student affairs practitioners are also explored.

INCREASING PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASSROOM FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Active participation is as essential a skill to children with autism as it is for children without autism, as children are expected to engage in these skills both in and outside the classroom. Without participation skills, children are at a disadvantage when it comes to school and other settings, such as extracurricular activities and the workforce. Recent research has shown that there are interventions available that aim to improve the social skills of children in the home and in the school. These interventions can be delivered in varying forms with the primary caregiver as the interventionist, the specialist as the interventionist, and naturalistic interventions. The purpose of this study was to investigate one of the naturalistic interventions, the Competent Learner Model, and determine its effects on the participation and social skills of students with autism. Three middle school male students diagnosed with autism from a rural northeast middle school participated in the study. They were assessed using the Competent Learner Repertoire Assessments of the Competent Learner Model and the adaptive measures of the Vineland-II and ABAS-II. The results showed improvement for one of the three students and little to no improvement for the other two students.

Wom(b)anism: Reading Relationships Between the Community and the Womb in Sankofa, The Women of Brewster Place, and Corregidora

This project attempts to contribute to the various discourses within the black womanist tradition. In 1983, Alice Walker published her landmark collection of essays entitled In Search of Our Mother Gardens: Womanist Prose. At the outset of the volume, Walker defines the core concept of womanism. After a poetic four-part definition of the term womanist, Walker concludes by stating, 'womanist is to feminist as purple to lavender' (Phillips 19). Although this analogy is critically engaged, the scholarly discourse that emerged in response to Walker's proposition shapes the intellectual inner workings of this project. Certain established concepts (such as ancestral mediation or the laying on of hands) work in conjunction with my own concepts of 'wom(b)anism' and 'the communal womb' to frame the interpretive discussions throughout these pages. Wom(b)anism and the communal womb both emerge from the black feminist and womanist traditions, especially via the role of ancestral mediation but also within the contested discourses on womanism itself. I apply the two concepts (wom(b)anism and the communal womb) to my readings of Haile Gerima's Sankofa, Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, and Gayl Jones' Corregidora. The relationship between the community and women's wombs across each of these texts construct a narrative that features ancestral mediation (or intervention), various acts of violence committed against women's bodies, and the complicated circumstances through which women heal themselves andtheir communities.

Teacher Self-efficacy and Accommodating for Students with Disabilities in the Regular Education Classroom

The purpose of the present study is to investigate how teachers feel about their abilities to educate students with special needs, how their degree of teacher self-efficacy compares to intended courses of action, if teachers develop learned helplessness over time, if there is a relationship between low teacher efficacy and high learned helplessness, and if teacher self-efficacy and learned helplessness differ by gender, educational level, years of teaching experiences, and grade level taught.

Effect of Classroom Gender Composition on Students' Development of Self-Regulated Learning Competencies

Success in any field depends on a complex interplay among environmental and personal factors. A key set of personal factors for success in academic settings are those associated with self-regulated learners (SRL). Self-regulated learners choose their own goals, select and organize their learning strategies, and self-monitor their effectiveness. Behaviors and attitudes consistent with self-regulated learning also contribute to self-confidence, which may be important for members of underrepresented groups such as women in engineering. This exploratory study, drawing on the concept of "critical mass", examines the relationship between the personal factors that identify a self-regulated learner and the environmental factors related to gender composition of engineering classrooms. Results indicate that a relatively student gender-balanced classroom and gender match between students and their instructors provide for the development of many adaptive SRL behaviors and attitudes.

Psychological Sense of Community: A New Construct for the Field of Management

This article introduces a new construct to the field of management called Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC). This is important because management scholars are calling for the creation of communities in organizations in an environment that lacks appropriate construct development. The aims of this article are threefold: (a) develop a working definition of PSOC via a review of the extant literature on PSOC from other disciplines with the goal of translating it into the domain of management, (b) synthesize findings from parallel literatures on the outcomes of PSOC with an eye toward exploring the relevance of such outcomes in management contexts, and (c) assess the value of PSOC as it relates to its uniqueness in relation to other prominent management constructs and its scope of applicability in a variety of management inquiry areas.

Learning to Live in a Therapeutic Community: A study of elderly inpatients.

Fifty-two elderly mental patients in a state hospital were transferred to a new milieu ward. In order to evaluate patient success in the unit, three outcome categories were defined nine months after the unit opened: discharge to the community, adjustment to the setting, and return to the previous ward. Despite the unit's emphasis on performance criteria for success, staff evaluations of the patients' personality rather than the patients' achievement of the behavioural criteria, accounted for success in the setting.

Does Mental Illness Affect Consumer Direction of Community-Based Care? Lessons From the Arkansas Cash and Counseling Program

Purpose: Previous research from the Cash and Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation (CCDE) in Arkansas, New Jersey, and Florida suggests that giving consumers control over their personal care greatly increases their satisfaction and improves their outlook on life. Still, some argue that consumerdirected care may not be appropriate for consumers with intellectual disabilities or mental health diagnoses. This study examined how Cash and Counseling— a new option allowing consumers to manage an individualized budget equivalent to what agencies would have spent on their care—changes the way consumers with mental health diagnoses meet their personal care needs and how that affects their wellbeing. Design and Methods: Using the Arkansas CCDE baseline and the 9-month follow-up data for individuals in the treatment and control groups, we compared and contrasted the experience of elderly consumers with and without mental health diagnoses utilizing logit regression. Results: After examining several outcome measures, including satisfaction with care arrangements and the paid caregiver’s reliability and schedule, unmet needs, and satisfaction with the relationship with paid caregivers, this study found evidence that, from the perspective of consumers, the Cash and Counseling program works well for participants with mental health diagnoses. Implications: Considering the growing need for long-term-care services and the limited resources available, a consumer-directed option makes sense, and it can be a valuable alternative for persons with mental health needs.

Teaching the Millennial Generation in the Religious and Theological Studies Classroom

This essay provides an overview of the distinctive challenges presented to teaching and learning in religious and theological studies by the conditions and characteristics of “millennial” students. While the emerging literature on this generation is far from consistent, it is still instructive and important to engage, as students that are immersed in technology and social networking have different facilities and difficulties that educators would do well to carefully address and critically employ. Teachers in theological and religious studies are distinctly positioned to grapple with such conditions, particularly around the practices of identity formation, media literacy, and embodiment. Attention to the development of such practices engages key issues for both the millennial students and the religious and theological studies teacher: virtual reality, spiritual identity, globalization and violence, critical consumption and ethical creativity, focused and contemplative thinking, and intercultural and interpersonal respect.

Investing in Community Colleges of the Commonwealth: A Review of Funding Streams

Community colleges play a pivotal role in Massachusetts’ higher education system. They award associate’s degrees, offer an affordable pathway to a bachelor's degree, and provide access to higher education for underserved populations. Community colleges also offer workforce development and industry certification for those entering the world of work, those who are currently employed but need more training or retraining, and those who have been dislocated from their careers by the global economic crisis. To increase access to both college credits and improved work skills, community colleges provide remedial or developmental education to ensure all students can pursue a program of study (Dougherty & Townsend, 2006; Mullin, 2010b).

Understanding Research Fatigue in the Context of Community-University Relations

Community research fatigue has been understudied within the context of community-university relationships and knowledge production. Community-based research (CBR), often occurring within a limited geography and population, increases the possibility that community members feel exhausted or over-whelmed by university research —particularly when they do not see tangible results from research activities. Prompted by informal stories of research fatigue from community members, a small graduate student team sought to understand the extent to which community members experienced research fatigue, and what factors contributed to or relieved feelings of research fatigue. In order to explore these dimensions of research fatigue, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 21 participants, including community members (n = 9), staff and faculty (n = 10), and students (n = 2). The objective of the research was to identify university practices that contribute to research fatigue and how to address the issue at the university level. Qualitative data analysis revealed several important actionable findings: the structure and conduct of community-based research, structured reciprocity and impact, and the role of trust in research. This study’s findings are used to assess the quality of Clark University’s research relationship with its adjacent community. Recommendations are offered; such as to improve partnerships, the impact of CBR, and to develop clear principles of practice.

Selection of Matching Variables in Community Health Intervention Trials

In a matched experimental design, the effectiveness of matching in reducing bias and increasing power depends on the strength of the association between the matching variable and the outcome of interest. In particular, in the design of a community health intervention trial, the effectiveness of a matched design, where communities are matched according to some community characteristic, depends on the strength of the correlation between the matching characteristic and the change in the health behavior being measured. We attempt to estimate the correlation between community characteristics and changes in health behaviors in four datasets from community intervention trials and observational studies. Community characteristics that are highly correlated with changes in health behaviors would potentially be effective matching variables in studies of health intervention programs designed to change those behaviors. Among the community characteristics considered, the urban-rural character of the community was the most highly correlated with changes in health behaviors. The correlations between Per Capita Income, Percent Low Income & Percent aged over 65 and changes in health behaviors were marginally statistically significant (p < 0.08).

Post-project assessment and follow-up support for community managed rural water systems in Panama

The Environmental Health (EH) program of Peace Corps (PC) Panama and a non-governmental organization (NGO) Waterlines have been assisting rural communities in Panama gain access to improved water sources through the practice of community management (CM) model and participatory development. Unfortunately, there is little information available on how a water system is functioning once the construction is complete and the volunteer leaves the community. This is a concern when the recent literature suggests that most communities are not able to indefinitely maintain a rural water system (RWS) without some form of external assistance (Sara and Katz, 1997; Newman et al, 2002; Lockwood, 2002, 2003, 2004; IRC, 2003; Schweitzer, 2009). Recognizing this concern, the EH program director encouraged the author to complete a postproject assessment of the past EH water projects. In order to carry out the investigation, an easy to use monitoring and evaluation tool was developed based on literature review and the author’s three years of field experience in rural Panama. The study methodology consists of benchmark scoring systems to rate the following ten indicators: watershed, source capture, transmission line, storage tank, distribution system, system reliability, willingness to pay, accounting/transparency, maintenance, and active water committee members. The assessment of 28 communities across the country revealed that the current state of physical infrastructure, as well as the financial, managerial and technical capabilities of water committees varied significantly depending on the community. While some communities are enjoying continued service and their water committee completing all of its responsibilities, others have seen their water systems fall apart and be abandoned. Overall, the higher score were more prevalent for all ten indicators. However, even the communities with the highest scores requested some form of additional assistance. The conclusion from the assessment suggests that the EH program should incorporate an institutional support mechanism (ISM) to its sector policy in order to systematically provide follow-up support to rural communities in Panama. A full-time circuit rider with flexible funding would be able to provide additional technical support, training and encouragement to those communities in need.

Clean water in the classroom : understanding the importance of water quality

This study’s objective was to answer three research questions related to students’ knowledge and attitudes about water quality and availability issues. It is important to understand what knowledge students have about environmental problems such as these, because today’s students will become the problem solvers of the future. If environmental problems, such as those related to water quality, are ever going to be solved, students must be environmentally literate. Several methods of data collection were used. Surveys were given to both Bolivian and Jackson High School students in order to comparison their initial knowledge and attitudes about water quality issues. To study the effects of instruction, a unit of instruction about water quality issues was then taught to the Jackson High School students to see what impact it would have on their knowledge. In addition, the learning of two different groups of Jackson High School students was compared—one group of general education students and a second group of students that were learning in an inclusion classroom and included special education students and struggling learners form the general education population. Student and teacher journals, a unit test, and postsurvey responses were included in the data set. Results suggested that when comparing Bolivian students and Jackson High School students, Jackson High School students were more knowledgeable concerning clean water infrastructure and its importance, despite the fact that these issues were less relevant to their lives than for their Bolivian counterparts. Although overall, the data suggested that all the Jackson High students showed evidence that the instruction impacted their knowledge, the advanced Biology students appeared to show stronger gains than their peers in an inclusion classroom.