This work approaches the concept of social media engagement through a lens of participation theory. Following the work of Goffman (1981) and others, this dissertation uses the concepts of the participation framework and the participant role to explore engagement as a function of participation in interaction. The purposes of this dissertation are…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the use of social media among principals in the state of Indiana. Data from the national 2009 report, "A Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and other Content Sharing Tools," were used to compare national results and data collected from Indiana. A survey was also created to…

First-generation college (FGC) students have been described as an underrepresented group in comparison to their continuing-generation counterparts (non-FGC students). Studying college students' socialization experiences and their use of academic resources can help us understand how to facilitate their academic success. Incorporating…

With increasing usage of social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as e-commerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy…

The role a principal plays in school improvement has evolved over time. The transition from principal as manager to principal as instructional leader began with and was driven in large part by the effective schools movement of the 1970's and 1980's (Hallinger, 2003; Zigarelli, 1996). Since the inception of NCLB in 2001, the leader's role in…

Research has documented numerous benefits of parent involvement in children's education including increased attendance, increased test scores and better behavior. Access to increased and meaningful communication between home and school enhances parent involvement. The utilization of technology through the use of the Internet and e-mail for school…

Adolescents use media that exposes them to sexual material. This study focused on adolescents in the Czech Republic, a country with relatively high rates of exposure to sexual material (ESM). A sample of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years ("N" = 495) taken from the project EU Kids Online II was examined for predictors of the following:…

This paper arose through a chance meeting between the two authors who are feminist mothers of teenage and 20 years plus daughters. We were attending an Economic and Social Research Council-funded seminar focusing on "new femininities" in the light of post-feminism and their worth and currency within the new politics of consumption and lifestyle.…

In this article, the authors discuss the development of the "Sudan Game," an interactive model of the country in the time period leading up to the Sudanese referendum on the secession of the South. While many simulations are designed to educate about their subjects, the "Sudan Game" is intended to be a prototype for policy…

Biology is the most rapidly evolving scientific field of the 21st century. Biology graduates must be able to integrate concepts and collaborate outside their discipline to solve the most pressing questions of our time, e.g. world hunger, malnutrition, climate change, infectious disease and biosecurity. University educators are attempting to…

A considerable amount of research has examined the link between children's peer acceptance, which refers to the degree of likability within the peer group, social functioning and emotional wellbeing, at a same age and in a long term perspective, pointing out to the contribution of peer acceptance for mental wellbeing. Our study proposes a…

The purpose of this study was to analyze Black male collegiate coaches' understandings and perspectives about building a coaching career in NCAA Division I athletics and the function of the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) as a mechanism to help facilitate more coaching opportunities. The participants were seven Black male assistant coaches…

Although social ties are a necessary condition for social capital, there is a dearth of research on the factors associated with the existence of such ties among school staff. Using a mixed-methods approach, we examined the role of both formal organizational infrastructure and individual characteristics in shaping advice and information…

Background: The popularity of communication technologies such as text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking sites has grown exponentially, especially among adolescents. At the scale of growth along with the pressures and normative use of communication technology, psychological effects of these technologies need to be further…

This paper begins the exploration of disruption as an analytical construct that allows for the investigation of how individual learning and changes in local practice mutually influence the other within a purposefully designed learning context. We seek to describe the types of learning experiences that emerged using disruptive pedagogies and tools…