This case study observes five first-term college students as they adapt, apply, or reject academic literacy practices in two of their core courses at Georgia Southern University. This information is intended to help the teacher-researcher as well as her university identify how students make the difficult transition from high school to university literacy expectations. During the sixteen-week fall semester, the researcher observed students in their classroom environments, interviewed each i...
Kathy Seymour Albertson.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hayward, Nancy.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

College students often perceive the university as alienating; reading and writing impersonal research texts can intensify this sense of disconnect. College professors often feel passion and enthusiasm toward their own research yet find it difficult to create this excitement in their research writing classrooms. This qualitative study explored student and teacher perceptions and instructional approaches in a university research writing course, seeking clues to student engagement. Data colle...
Susan Beth Kanter.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Over the past twenty years, the number of female inmates incarcerated for drug offenses has dramatically increased. This surge has led to a large portion of the female prison population coming into the corrections system with substance abuse problems. Currently, drug relapse is the number one reason for female recidivism. Robert Johnson (2002) has suggested that if inmates learn mature coping skills, while in prison, they will be better prepared for the world outside and will be less likel...
Danielle McDonald.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gido, Rosemary.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

The present study examines the effects of individual and law school factors on the perceptions of African-American, gay, and lesbian hate crime victims for 283 law school students from two schools in western Pennsylvania. Although research on the perceptions of hate crimes and hate crime victims has increased over the last decade, research has neglected to focus on this particular population of students. This population is important because many of these law students will seek roles in the cr...
Jenifer Ann Lee.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gossett, Jennifer L.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Many professional Appalachian women have built their careers in employment environments which expect the language of the academy---Standard American English (SAE). This expectation, along with societal beliefs that Appalachian English (AE), the native vernacular of these women, is an inferior language variety, has led many women to balance the two language varieties through bidialectism. This qualitative study explored the language attitudes of twelve professional Appalachian women, seeking a...
Kristina Holland McBride.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to understand the impact on librarians, faculty, and students of changes in information literacy instructional methodologies that were piloted as an innovation within a particular institutional setting. The following questions were considered. In what ways and to what extent has a more holistic approach to teaching information literacy been assimilated by faculty and librarians? In what ways and to what extent have faculty attitudes toward tea...
Patricia B Serotkin.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yan, Wenfan.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English

Of the many identity issues that students face as they enter university writing courses---those of gender, class, age, and race---the issue of white privilege is one that is seldom addressed. In the predominately white Southern university where I teach, African American students make up 26% of the incoming freshman population, reflecting the racial demographics of the state. Although the visible majority, white students benefit from racial privilege that seems invisible, at least to them. I a...
Nancy Bishop Dessommes.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hurlbert, Claude Mark.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2006.
English