Academic Writing & Publication: My Journey of Learning Through the Development of Articles from my Masters Thesis

Abstract: In this essay, I discuss how I turned my masters thesis into three peer reviewed publications and the lessons I learned about academic writing and publication in the process

Professionalization of Academic Advising

The purpose of this collected papers dissertation was to better understand the professionalization of academic advising. Advising can claim several features of widely-agreed upon professional components, but the question of whether academic advising constitutes a “profession” has caused much debate. Three primary obstacles stand in its way: advising is misunderstood and lacks a consistent unifying definition; there has not been a substantial literature to define the content and methodologies of the field; and there is insufficient empirical research demonstrating its effectiveness. Two studies were conducted. Study #1 was a structured literature review of higher education, student affairs, and academic advising to understand how these fields have conceptualized their professional status, especially with respect to clearly defining disciplinary boundaries given significant overlap with one another, and having insufficient knowledge bases. Findings were organized by field and revealed three themes in each. Obstacles for higher education concerned the diversity and rigor of its scholarship, the (mis)conception of being a singular field, and confounding the field with the industry of higher education. Themes that emerged from the student affairs literature were scholarship, professional preparation and development, and community. For academic advising, obstacles were scholarship, expansion of graduate programs, and community. Implications for the professionalization for these three fields are: loose boundaries separating the fields, interconnectedness between educational programs, practitioner’s credential lacks currency, inconsistent language used in fields, autonomy, and demonstrating effectiveness. Study #2, a phenomenological ethnography, sought to further clarify defining functions of academic advising and to elucidate how further definition of the scope of academic advising will help professionalize the field. To acquire a description of the essence of academic advising, approaches from phenomenological and ethnographic methodologies were used. The analysis revealed that through academic advising, students learn and develop, make meaning, and connect with a caring institutional representative. The findings from this dissertation will help inform NACADA: the Global Community for Academic Advising, to help move academic advising toward professionalization, further develop academic advisors and position them to be better scholars, to educate our constituents, and to add to the body of literature on professionalization in any field

The Experience of “Bottoming”: Considerations for Identity and Learning

Bottoms—Gay men who prefer to be penetrated, sexually—are more stigmatized than other gay men, and may develop and experience identities differently than other gay, bisexual, or heterosexual men. This paper explores intrinsic dispositions and extrinsic motivations that may lead bottoms to perform and embody psychosocial and sexual identities in intimate, interpersonal, and social contexts

Erotica as Public Pedagogy: Learning Identity through Popular Cultural Sources

Women who are feminist and submissive struggle to learn about and navigate their identities. This study found popular cultural texts played a key role in identity construction for these women

Erotica as Public Pedagogy: Learning Identity through Popular Cultural Sources

Women who are feminist and submissive struggle to learn about and navigate their identities. This study found popular cultural texts played a key role in identity construction for these women

A Study of the Relational Component in an Academic Advisor Professional Development Program

The purpose of the study was to investigate the significance of the relational component of academic advisor training and development in the learning opportunities of the professional development program and the advisors’ evaluation score at Florida International University

Mandatory Continuing Education: Considerations of Dewey and Ohliger’s Work

This paper explores discrepancies between Mandatory Continuing Education and Dewey’s ideas on authentic learning. Dewey believed education must serve the goals of the person and the society in which s/he lives

Program evaluation primer: A review of three evaluations

Program evaluation—a “tool used to assess the implementation and outcomes of a program, to increase a program’s efficiency and impact over time, and to demonstrate accountability” (MacDonald et. al, 2001, p. 1)—is an essential process to program assessment and improvement. This paper overviews three published program evaluations and considers important aspects of program evaluation more broadly

Queer Representation and Public Pedagogy in American Musical Theatre

This paper explores the Broadway musical as a site of queerness and queer representation through the lens of queer public pedagogy

The Clinical Usefulness of Measuring Apolipoproteins in Diabetic Patients: A Preliminary Report

A commercial assay for apolipoproteins A-1 and B as well as total cholesterol, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was applied to 12-hour fasted serum from 24 insulin-dependent and 19 noninsulin-dependent diabetic persons. Women with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) had the highest levels of total cholesterol and apolipoprotein B. Apolipoprotein B values fell within the normal range in all patients except the NIDDM females, where four of the ten (40%) samples were elevated. When apolipoprotein B was elevated, total cholesterol was also elevated, over 220 mg/dL. Apolipoprotein A-1 values fell within or above the normal range in all subjects, and a considerable discordance was observed between apolipoprotein A-1 elevations and HDL cholesterol elevations. The divergence between HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-1 supports the altered composition of HDL in the diabetic persons studied. Further study should elucidate the clinical usefulness of apolipoprotein measurements in diabetic patients