A Comparative Analysis of Return Migration Policy: Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan

The intent of this thesis is to analyze and compare the return migration policies in Germany, Russia, and Kazakhstan. It is a relatively new category of migration policy, having only been identified in the 1970s. There is no uniform policy for return migration and consequently, each country has its own unique policy. Ethnicity plays a major role in all three countries\u27 policies. However, some policies of return migration are more successful than others

Mme. de Pompadour: Self Promotion and Social Performance through Architecture and the Decorative Arts

The structure of this thesis relies on the physical locations of Mme. de Pompadour. Although the chapters are roughly chronological, beginning with her arrival at Versailles in 1745 and ending with her death in 1764, this work makes no attempt to comprehensively chronicle the entirety of her involvement in the decorative arts. Rather, it focuses on several specific aspects of her patronage, with the goal of illuminating her social position and public image, and how she worked to control the two. Chapter One deals with the first rooms Mme. de Pompadour inhabited, from 1745-1750. These upper apartments characterize her early attempts to convey meaning through décor and to shape social interactions within a constructed environment. Chapter Two follows Mme. de Pompadour’s move downstairs, to the lower apartments in 1750. This move parallels an important evolution in her role at court and seeks to explore how her newly political functions were expressed through these interior spaces. Chapter Three is more expansive, examining three architectural projects undertaken by Mme. de Pompadour and Louis XV on her behalf, over the course of her nineteen years at court. These independent homes represented an opportunity for Mme. de Pompadour to actively work to change public perception of herself and her role, an opportunity that she did not waste

Christian Education and the Examination of Apologetics Curriculum

The purpose of this action research project was to evaluate the ability of Christian high school students to explain and defend their faith. The main focus of the project was to compare the current apologetics curriculum used by Cedar Park Christian School to a new curriculum designed for the sake of this study. The new curriculum sought to provide grade-level resources as source material for each student. Additionally, it approached the course with the expectation for students to articulate their learned knowledge conversationally. There were forty-nine total participants, all who were either a junior or senior at the start of the 2021 fall quarter. There were twenty-two students in the control group and twenty-seven in the test group with the new curriculum. Every student was given the same theological assessment on both the first day and the final day of the quarter so that growth could be measured. Students also ranked their level of confidence in discussing their faith at both the beginning and end of the quarter. The assessments were then coded and graded anonymously according to a pre-determined grading scale. This researcher did not know whether it was a control or test group assessment being graded. Once the assessments were graded and sorted, results yielded significant differences in the scores between the groups. Those who had received training from the new curriculum were much more successful in explaining and defending the Christian faith. They also recorded higher confidence levels

“How to Follow Jesus for Life”: Reconstituting Youth as Ideal Christian Subjects in Short-Term Mission

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Input effects on the acquisition of a novel phrasal construction in five year olds

The present experiments demonstrate that children as young as five years old (M = 5;2) generalize beyond their input on the basis of minimal exposure to a novel argument structure construction. The novel construction that was used involved a non-English phrasal pattern: VN1N2, paired with a novel abstract meaning: N2 approaches N1. At the same time, we find that children are keenly sensitive to the input: they show knowledge of the construction after a single day of exposure but this grows stronger after three days; also, children generalize more readily to new verbs when the input contains more than one verb

An empirical assessment of administration & planning activity and their impact on the realization of sustainability related initiatives and programs in higher education

Administrators in higher-education settings routinely create planning documents that help steer the organization in mission-centric ways. In the area of sustainability planning, strategic plans, sustainability plans, climate action plans are the most common methods used. However, the academic literature contains relatively few empirical studies that demonstrate the capacity of planning on the realization of sustainability outcomes. The present study was designed to evaluate if specific forms of planning predict sustainability outcomes. This question was evaluated via an empirical archival study of the AASHE STARS database in relation to Planning, Administration, and Governance credits and criteria to determine if specific forms of planning were predictive of sustainability implementation outcomes in the categories of Education and Research, Operations, Diversity and Affordability, Human Resources, Investment, Public Engagement, and Innovation. Findings support the notion that climate action plans were most predictive of achieving sustainability outcomes, and strategic plans were best able to predict educational outcomes. These findings have important implications for the design and execution of sustainability planning processes in higher-education institutions

The Quest for Sustainability in International Library Development: The Experience of the Riecken Foundation

The Riecken Foundation provides support to communities in developing countries to create sustainable partnership library programs focusing on collection development, technology applications, and assembling professional staff and volunteers. This article studies the experience of the Foundation through research gathered in interviews with Bill Cartwright, President and CEO of the Foundation, along with onsite observations at six participating libraries, and offers analysis of documentation related to these sustainability initiatives. The study also examines the transition of the Foundation from a private foundation to a public charity and the effect this has had in its programming

An Investigation of Posttraumatic Growth Experienced By Parents After a Miscarriage

This quantitative study examined relationships between demographic and pregnancy loss related predictors and scores on the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Participants included 355 women and men who had experienced at least one miscarriage before January 1, 2018. Data were collected through an online survey that consisted of the 21-item PTGI and a demographic and pregnancy loss related factors information sheet. Demographic information collected included gender, age, ethnicity, race, annual household income, and relationship status. Pregnancy loss related factors collected included number of pregnancies, number of miscarriages, length of gestation, assistance with conceiving, and whether the participant sought formal mental health support after the loss. Data analysis included descriptive statistics related to demographics and pregnancy loss related factors, correlations, validity and reliability analyses, and multiple regression analyses. Findings indicate several relationships between factors and PTGI scores, as well as predictions made through multiple regression analyses. Finally, limitations and implications for future research are discussed