Exploring Academic Goal Commitment and Grit in College Education: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study of the Experiences of African American Male Graduates

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to explore how African American male graduates experience and understand academic goal commitment and grit regarding college education in a small Southeastern regional North Carolina district. Duckworth’s grit theory was the framework used to explore the learning problems students encounter based on the premise that everyone can use the constructs of passion, perseverance, sustained interest, and sustained effort toward achieving long-term goals. Data from 10 African American male graduates came from a questionnaire; one-on-one, open-ended interviews; and focus groups. The approach used for data analysis was reactive awareness toward bringing a range of meanings to life’s experiences or phenomena. Epoché, or bracketing, was used to block biases toward the essence of the graduates’ experiences with the phenomenon. Three Themes emerged from the data that include the belief Education Is Key, First-Generation College Graduates and Academic Support, all constructs of which the graduates within SERDC utilized toward their passion to persevere and achieve academic goal commitment and college success

Berita Volume XXXI, Number 4 (2007)

Table of Contents Editor’s note... 1 Periodicals...…..….….1 Books...9 Conferences, papers and manuscripts...11 Amnesty International...12 Prospectus...12 Research Staff...12https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/berita/1020/thumbnail.jp

Entrepreneurial Learning and Mentoring: A Multicase Study of the Experiences of African Entrepreneurs in Oklahoma and Impacts on Their Business Ventures in Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda

The study's purpose was to describe the views of 22 individuals from Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda (14 men; 8 women) regarding their entrepreneurial experiences after participation in a U.S. Department of State-funded professional development fellowship hosted by Oklahoma State University. The fellowship occurred in two cohort groups with each being five weeks in duration and culminating with conferences in Washington, DC. This study described the Entrepreneur Fellows' perceptions of the program's impact, including its mentoring component, on their entrepreneurial endeavors after returning to their home communities. The unique entrepreneurial education and support needs of women and other marginalized groups were also explored. Decisive steps were taken to ensure the quality of this qualitative study based on protocols identified by Stake (2006), Tracy (2010), and Saldaña (2013). The study's semi-structured interviews included six research questions and related probes. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the researcher. These transcriptions were provided to all participants for member checking to ensure credibility and accuracy (Creswell, 2007). The Fellows' reflections were conveyed as 22 cases or facets of crystallization forming the study's quintain (Stake, 2006). Analysis of more than 235 pages of interview data resulted in identifying 2,059 codes, 15 categories, five themes, and supported two substantive interpretive frameworks, human capital theory and the theory of planned behavior. The 15 categories aggregated to create five themes: commitment to youth development; entrepreneurial skills and concepts; mentoring relationships; new media usage integral to entrepreneurial endeavors; and financial needs for business development. Statements supporting the themes were mostly positive regarding the Fellows' perceptions of their personal growth and future entrepreneurial aspirations. Recommendations for practice include training on youth mentorship and entrepreneurship education, especially in and for the agricultural sector; suggestions for facilitating job shadowing/internship-type field experiences; and the provision of financial support to further capitalize the Fellows' ventures. Recommendations for future research include the need to investigate mentor and mentee perceptions of entrepreneurial field experiences, familial influences on the intentions and practices of fellowship participants, and the role of new media in promoting and sustaining global entrepreneurial relationships among various stakeholders and other interested collaborators.Agricultural Educatio

NAFTA-Land Security: The Mérida Initiative, Transnational Threats, and U.S. Security Projection in Mexico

This thesis explores recent U.S. bilateral aid to Mexico through the Mérida Initiative (MI), a $2.3 billion assistance commitment on the part of the United States (U.S.) officially justified as helping Mexico build its capacity to take on violent drug cartels and thereby improve security in both countries. There has been a good amount of engaging work on the MI. However this extant literature has not undertaken detailed policy analysis of the aid programme, leading to conclusions that it is a fresh approach to the Mexican counternarcotics (CN) challenge, or that CN is a ‘fig leaf’ for the U.S. to pursue other ‘real’ goals. This is a core gap in the literature this project seeks to fill. Through policy analysis, I make an empirically supported argument that Mérida is a component of a far more ambitious policy agenda to regionalise security with Mexico more generally. This involves stabilising Mexico itself, not least in response to serious drug-related violence. However the U.S. also aims to improve its own security by giving greater ‘depth’ to its borders, and seeks protect the political economy of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) from variegated security threats. In this way, recent U.S. policy in Mexico is both derivative of its wider grand strategic traditions in stabilising key political economies in line with its interests, and representative of some distinct developments stemming from the deeply integrated U.S.-Mexican economy as part of NAFTA. To assure U.S. interests accrued to it through the increasingly holistic North American economy, the U.S. has used the MI as the main vehicle in the construction of a nascent ‘NAFTA-land Security’ framework

Technology transfer practices and strategies: Issues for Nigerian construction organisations and for research

Technology transfer is increasingly being seen as an important issue for economic development and growth. Arguably, this is why developed and especially developing countries are very keen on technology transfer. However, there are those that contend that organisations in the Nigerian construction industry are not as engaged in technology transfer as many would like, and that potential benefits of doing so are not realized. In the same vein, the challenges that confront construction organisations in Nigeria in terms of technology transfer have received very little empirical studies. This paper, therefore, presents a thorough review of literature on strategic issues and choices that Nigerian construction organisations face in grappling with technology transfer, together with associated challenges. Consideration is also given to what technology transfer actually means to such organisations, and how this is viewed in line with other terms such as innovation. The paper argues and concludes that the challenges that confront construction organisations in Nigeria are multifaceted and likely to impact on their strategic choices. In the same vein, it is also argued that these have implications for researchers attempting to investigate technology transfer practices and strategies in construction organisations in Nigeria in terms of their choice of research strategy and design