Institutions of higher education seek to promote global citizenship among students. International Service-Learning (ISL) programming is a common approach to further those ends. While ISL programming has been shown to promote global citizenship in the short term, few studies have persuasively demonstrated its impact is lasting. It has been…

The future of the nation, and the future of world civilization, will soon rest in the hands of today's youth (Kleon & Rinhart, 1998). Youth organizations such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4-H provide lifelong leadership and life skills that youth of all ages will continue to use throughout their life. Leadership and positive youth…

Skills such as information literacy, global awareness, critical thinking, and problem solving have always been part of human development. Today's local and global economies necessitate having these skills for success. The purpose of this study was to gain an overall understanding of teacher perceptions of how their districts' one-to-one (1:1)…

The origins of the American educational system have always included a character education component. Teaching students moral values and the ability to know right from wrong is a component of the educational mission of our society. Character education evolved over the centuries, yet the core values of implementing right from wrong and the necessity…

Preparing students for responsible citizenship is important in higher education because we need graduates who are able to address the many issues in today's society (e.g., over-consumption of material goods, deeper political divides, fewer civic alliances, an inability to discuss public issues with civility and respect). In order to address these…

Youth participation in meaningful and purposive civic organizations and activities not only impacts the participants' development, but also influences their involvement in their communities both today and in the future. The combination of the two studies included in this dissertation examine just that. Both studies were conducted utilizing…

Upon assuming the presidency of the Republic of Korea in 2013, Park Geun-hye announced her administration's priority to address the country's "Four Social Evils"--sexual violence, domestic violence, school bullying, and unsafe food products. As part of this initiative, the ROK national government urged police officers to implement…

Service-learning is a teaching methodology instituted by colleges and universities that allows students to make connections between theoretical learning in the classroom and authentic experiences in society. Historically, mission statements for institutions of higher education have reflected an idea of service and preparing active and socially…

Student misbehavior in the classroom is often reported as an area of concern for teachers. Having to focus on classroom management rather than content results in a loss of important instructional time, which can have a deleterious impact on student academic achievement. The purpose of the study was to examine whether a character education program…

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the use of Character Education in South Carolina's public high schools. Every high school in South Carolina is given a yearly survey from the South Carolina Department of Education that deals with both character education and violence in the school. This quantitative study used public accessed data,…

Higher education student leadership development programs have grown exponentially since the 1990's. Over this time, research has indicated that student leadership development programs are beneficial; however, the research on what makes these programs effective has not kept pace. The subjects of this study included students enrolled in three…

This dissertation explores unexamined assumptions linking the context of small learning communities to the outcome of quality civic education. Civic education scholars and advocates for small learning communities espouse similar visions of education based on democratic ideals; the purpose of this study was to explore whether and in what ways small…

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of non-formal education and training in the organizational change process of Civil society organizations (CSOs) in post war Liberia. CSOs are the local foundation for democracy and development in Liberia, and serve a wide range of roles in local communities. For example, in post-war Liberia,…

This thesis illustrated what can happen when academic culture disconnects from the cultures surrounding it. It showed that formal school environments are not always the best places to learn. A discussion of the debate between coherence and fragmentation learning theories illustrated academic chasms and a mindset that science education must…

This study builds on education abroad, global citizenship and academic development literatures by assessing the extent to which embedding brief international travel experiences into residentially-taught courses enhances academic development and promotes global citizenship. Such faculty-led, education abroad programs are referred to as…