A Qualitative Investigation of How Student Parents Cope with Multiple Roles

Postsecondary education is associated with higher incomes, positive mental health, positive parenting practices, low levels of parenting stress, children\u27s academic success, and children\u27s social competence. The purpose of the study was to investigate the stressors college student-parents experience and the coping strategies they use to manage their multiple roles (i.e., parent and student). Interviews also aimed to understand how parents avoided having their stress negatively spillover into the parent-child relationship. Semi-structured qualitative interviews (N = 14) were conducted with college student parents who had a child aged 36 months or younger. Results revealed four categories of themes that lent insight into student-parent experiences: responses to being a student-parent, causes of stress, coping strategies, and motivation. Implications are discussed

The effects of blending and segmenting decoding strategies on reading

This study investigated the effects of a reading intervention that integrated blending and segmenting decoding strategies on the word recognition performance of five first grade students who were considered below grade level expectations set by the school district. The intervention evaluated students’ abilities to decode short vowel closed syllable words with digraphs through blending and segmenting phonemes. Six assessments were used to analyze the effects of the decoding performance of the five students. All students demonstrated significant gains in their ability to decode short vowels and digraphs, and segment phonemes. Students also increased their accuracy when reading words in isolation, and spelling words. The effects suggest the impact of incorporating blending and segmenting strategies when designing an intervention for students reading below grade level expectations

Praxis Convergence: How Special Educators in One Texas District Reimagined Inclusion Through Reflective Action

Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, Texas schools could no longer use a modified standardized test for students labeled with disabilities due to the loss of a federal waiver. The US Department of Education rescinded the waiver that had allowed Texas to give two percent of the students, specifically those labeled with disabilities, a modified high-stakes exam. Through the lens of Disability Studies and the use of phenomenological methods, the researcher explored the lived experiences of special education teachers and administrators who are making changes to their pedagogical practices and philosophical beliefs to provide students labeled with disabilities the knowledge they need to be successful with the general curriculum and standardized test. Through analysis of the data collected, an analytical framework emerged, the Praxis Convergence framework. This framework consists of three cyclical moments that reflect the shared realities of teachers and administrators during the implementation of the new policy directive examined in this study. The Praxis Convergence framework consists of three moments: Political Catalyst, Practice Collision, and Praxis Convergence. The first moment was the Political Catalyst, or the policy directive, that provided the impetus to make changes in the education of students labeled with disabilities. These changes collided with the current operations within the district which gave rise to the second moment of the framework, Practice Collision. Practice Collision was signified by local shifts in the place, people, pedagogy, and philosophy of education regarding the instruction of students labeled with disabilities. These collisions gradually gave way to Praxis Convergence, or a set of newly developed normative praxes, which were actualized through professional development, personal transformation, and the vision of possibilities. This framework will be useful to researchers, school districts, schools, departments, and even teachers to provide a description of the various aspects that should be considered when conflict arises during the implementation of a new policy and to illustrate how reflection can lead to positive changes which should ultimately advance the goals of a more equitable and democratic public education

That Face: A Costume Design

This abstract tracks the concept and costume design process for That Face. Through written explanation, research, drawings, renderings, fitting and production photos, I will explain how the costume design for That Face was completed. It was produced at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. The production opened February 21, 2010 and closed March 14, 2010. It was directed by Rahaleh Nassri, set designed by: Luciana Stecconi, lights designed by: Colin Bills, and sound designed by: Elisheba Ittoop

Praxis Convergence: How Special Educators in One Texas District Reimagined Inclusion Through Reflective Action

Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, Texas schools could no longer use a modified standardized test for students labeled with disabilities due to the loss of a federal waiver. The US Department of Education rescinded the waiver that had allowed Texas to give two percent of the students, specifically those labeled with disabilities, a modified high-stakes exam. Through the lens of Disability Studies and the use of phenomenological methods, the researcher explored the lived experiences of special education teachers and administrators who are making changes to their pedagogical practices and philosophical beliefs to provide students labeled with disabilities the knowledge they need to be successful with the general curriculum and standardized test. Through analysis of the data collected, an analytical framework emerged, the Praxis Convergence framework. This framework consists of three cyclical moments that reflect the shared realities of teachers and administrators during the implementation of the new policy directive examined in this study. The Praxis Convergence framework consists of three moments: Political Catalyst, Practice Collision, and Praxis Convergence. The first moment was the Political Catalyst, or the policy directive, that provided the impetus to make changes in the education of students labeled with disabilities. These changes collided with the current operations within the district which gave rise to the second moment of the framework, Practice Collision. Practice Collision was signified by local shifts in the place, people, pedagogy, and philosophy of education regarding the instruction of students labeled with disabilities. These collisions gradually gave way to Praxis Convergence, or a set of newly developed normative praxes, which were actualized through professional development, personal transformation, and the vision of possibilities. This framework will be useful to researchers, school districts, schools, departments, and even teachers to provide a description of the various aspects that should be considered when conflict arises during the implementation of a new policy and to illustrate how reflection can lead to positive changes which should ultimately advance the goals of a more equitable and democratic public education

A New Woman in Print and Practice: The Canadian Literary Career of Madge Robertson Watt, 1890-1907

Madge Robertson Watt was a successful female Canadian writer, editor, and reviewer whose literary career flourished between 1890 and 1907. Robertson wrote prolifically for numerous publications such as the University of Toronto's student paper The Varsity, the Ladies Pictorial Weekly (which she also edited in 1892), The Globe, and the British Columbia-based Victoria Times. During this period, a form of feminism emerged in Canada expressed by women who associated themselves with the phenomenon known as "New Womanhood." Some of the social changes New Women advocated included increased access to higher education, paid work for women, and marriage reform. The purpose of this paper is to consider the journalism career of this Canadian, university-educated woman and to explore the New Woman ideas that are implicit in Watt's writing. Watt's writing contained many of the ideas that were typical of New Woman writers, but compared to the better-known New Woman novelists of the 1890s, her writing was at once both more popular and more conservative because it also perpetuated an air of Victorian propriety by praising traditional female gender roles. Indeed, throughout her writing career, Robertson reflected the ambiguities that Canadian women faced as they adopted elements of New Woman thinking into their writing and their lived experiences

Human resources: a key aspect in company innovation

Innovation is a key factor for companies. It is also essential on an individual scale for employees. To ensure they are utilizing employees to the utmost efficiency, companies must implement practices to ensure the attraction and retention of top employees. Human resource practices can help to define and explain essential techniques to help employees gain satisfaction from their work, creating intrinsic motivation, and allowing them to ultimately perform more efficiently and perhaps even creatively for the company, helping to generate significant profits. The intent of this thesis is to analyze human resource practices on an empirical study of eight companies (provided from a previous study by Erwin Danneels, Ph.D.) and to determine whether or not human resource practices can help predict a firm\u27s ability to enter new markets and implement new technologies, ultimately leading to innovation. Companies are grouped depending on their residual values generated from Danneels\u27 study and analysis. His research observes the ability to predict new market entrance and technology implementation through five company characteristics: constructive conflict, willingness to cannibalize, slack, learning from failure, and various types of environmental scanning. This thesis seeks to find positive relationships between human resource practices and the companies where the model proves to be a good fit. I define human resource practices by the following six categories, breaking them up into incentives and skill development: extra benefits, fitness incentives, social responsibility, and continuous learning, global opportunities, and rewards/opportunities for advancement. This analysis hopes to contribute to further research by generating an association between human resource practices and company innovation