Addressing Student Attrition in an Era of Evolving Student Demographics

Student attrition is a concern for all organizations that provide education, as high levels of attrition can have a significant impact on an organization’s finances and reputation. Online learning provides access to individuals of varying educational and experiential backgrounds who may not have otherwise embarked in an education or training program (referred to here as “Underserved Students”). While education supports personal and professional growth, if students feel that an Education Program is not meeting their needs in terms of curricular relevance or student support, attrition will likely result. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses a problem of practice concerning high attrition rates among Underserved Students in Organization X’s (a pseudonym for an organization offering professional education in the business/finance field) Education Program. Organization X is an established organization rooted in by-laws, policies, and procedures, and the OIP’s overarching leadership lens is informed by the functionalist paradigm. The political and structural frames provide perspective on Organization X’s internal and external environments. Recognizing that attrition among Underserved Students is a multifaceted problem, and acknowledging Organization X’s functionalist attributes, the OIP proposes that a formal committee that relies on stakeholder input be formed to investigate and address the needs of the Underserved Student population. Lewin’s Three-Step Change model and Schein’s extension of it are used to lead the change plan described in this OIP, which will require transformational and distributed leadership. Nadler and Tushman’s Organizational Congruence model is also discussed, as it provides an assessment of the disparity that exists between Organization X’s current and desired organizational state

Educational Opportunities For Aviation Management Students in Aviation Manufacturing

Despite the variety of courses dealing with various segments of the aviation industry, there is one portion of the industry which the SIU-C curriculum does not address, and yet many of its students focus their employment goals within this specialized area. As the largest segment of the aviation industry, (employing 1.2 million, versus 400,000 employed in commercial aviation for 1980), it is hard to believe that specialized coursework is not provided which deals with the subject of Aviation Manufacturing

Tactical mediatization and activist ageing: pressures, push-backs, and the story of RECAA

This case study examines the incorporation of digital media technologies and practices into Respecting Elders: Communities Against elder Abuse (RECAA), an organization of activist elders. By studying RECAA’s specific transition and following the work of Michel de Certeau (1988), I distinguish between tactical mediatization and strategic mediatization. Organizations such as RECAA must negotiate with political, ideological, administrative, and economic agendas that exert pressure and provide incentives for organizations “to mediatize” in order to survive in the current Canadian context. ‘Tactical mediatization’ is used to understand RECAA’s very deliberate and considered response to these pressures. This distinction provides a framework for conceptualizing how activist organizations such as RECAA struggle to exert agency within meta-processes that place mounting and insistent pressure on the organization to incorporate digital media technologies into its mandate and system of values

Not only an athlete: a curriculum for athletes at NCAA institutions

Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016Despite there being plenty of research regarding identity, athletic identity, and athlete transition, there is limited research on assisting athletes with blending their athletic identity with other roles in their life. Most retired athletes have difficulties letting go of their athletic identity, creating a new non-athletic identity and getting a job. Olympic committees, professional sport organizations, and collegiate athletics have created different transition programs for their athletes to aid them in transitioning to their life upon athletic retirement by helping them realize skills learned from sport are transferrable into the workforce and other areas of life. Researchers have found that athletes should not let go of their athletic identity; but rather learn to blend their athletic identity with their other identities. The following examines the extent to which student-athletes identify with their athletic identity, athletic retirement symptoms, and current athlete transition programs. The end product is a four year curriculum geared towards college level student-athletes

ASFA updates, the Aquatic Science Collection, and the all-new Proquest platform

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Understanding a Dialectical Materialist CHAT Perspective on Social Movement Learning

This paper addresses adult social movement learning (SML) dynamics. Drawing on a specific dialectical materialist variation of a socio-cultural learning theory called Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) I explore findings from a large-scale research project in Toronto (Canada) called the Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning (APCOL). I offer some preliminary evidence for the importance of something referred to as “object-work/skill” for discerning differences in anti-poverty activist learning lives

Anti-Poverty Activism from a CHAT Perspective: A Comparison of Learning across Three Organizations

Based on research from the Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning (APCOL) project, Marxist Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is used to explore forms of anti-poverty activist learning: i) program-based community anti-poverty activism; ii) grassroots capacity building; and iii) direct collective action. Different types and origins of contradictions and key mediating artefacts are shown to offer