A Portraiture of Six Hispanic Women's Academic Pursuit in a Community College Setting: A Qualitative Study
Community colleges in the United States serve as social, cultural, and intellectual hubs that take the role as gatekeepers by committing to opening up the doors of opportunity to the public (Vaughan, 2006). Community colleges prepare their students for the workforce by providing credit or non-credit courses, certifications, or degrees. Depending on the community, programs are established to provide access to postsecondary programs. The purpose of this research is to investigate the successful experiences of six Hispanic immigrant women, who are English Language Learners, as they journeyed through a southwestern community college in the United States. The women have continued their educational studies regardless of the language barriers they faced. Learning English as their second language has been their greatest challenge in higher education. When language issues are addressed in higher education, the ideology essentially revolves around English-only instruction. English proficiency has been a requirement to successfully complete college level courses, yet absent is the methodology that focuses on other supportive factors for English Language Learners. The participants' lived experiences are shared through a narrative format. They immigrated as adults to the United States from Mexico and became first generation students in higher education. Their purpose for attending community college was based on their desires to learn about early childhood education while working toward an early childhood certification. The overall guiding research questions were geared to inquire about their success, challenges, and barriers during their educational journey. Portraiture was used as the instrument in conducting this qualitative research study. Portraiture aimed at highlighting the participants' voices in this study. Field notes, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, journal writing, and photography were identified as the multiple methods to collect data. Themes were established and crystallization was the tool used to analyze the data. In summary, the greatest influences that led to the participants' successes were generated from relationships with their families, friends, colleagues, and professors. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Education Level: Two Year Colleges; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Early Childhood Education
Presents basic aspects, specific for foreign language teaching, of the utilization of teaching aids, types of teaching aids and the nature of teaching material units. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)
Provides a check list for principals to use in assessing the use they are making of professionally prepared school television materials. (IRT)
Descriptors: Check Lists, Educational Television, Elementary Education, Principals, Television Curriculum, Video Equipment
Provides a historical look at the development of academic biology. Attempts to project some presently recognized forces and organizational structures influencing the development of the field. Differentiates how the discipline is now as compared with the past. (TW)
A Semantic and Prototype Discussion of the "Be Easy to V" Structure: A Possible Explanation of Its Acquisition Process.
Analyzes the "easy to be V" structure in terms of the semantic features of sentences with this structure. These sentences can be classified into types, ranging from the "prototype" with the most features contributing to its transparency, to the "peripheral" with the fewest of such features. (Author/CB)
Results from 99 college students support hypotheses that subjects would rate leisure activities higher on several dimensions (freedom, intrinsic motivation, facilitative arousal, commitment, absorption in task, lack of focus on self, feelings of freedom, enriched perception of objects, increased sensitivity to feelings, increased emotional intensity, and decreased awareness of time passage) than they would either work or maintenance activities. (Author/NB)
Descriptors: College Students, Higher Education, Leisure Time, Recreational Activities, Theories, Validity
What if there was a secret ingredient that would produce happier customers, better employees, and more profits?
Companies with a strong set of values do better than companies without them. Business owners who operate their company by a strong set of values see many benefits compared to those who don’t, including:
A leader who operates their business with a strong set of values creates a strong culture. That culture attracts people who believe in the values and are committed to the mission of the business. That makes them more engaged in their work.
What you end up with is a staff who wants to succeed, not just collect a paycheck. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. A company with strong values that they believe in gives them that. In return, employees are invested in the company’s success.
A company that lives its values attracts customers who share them. Consumers vote with their wallets. If given the choice to spend with a company who supports their values, that’s what they’re going to do. They are also likely to be big advocates for the company in their networks.
Of course, you need to offer a quality product or service. Values aren’t going to save you if your basic business model is flawed or your product is garbage. Assuming you get those basics mostly right, values becomes the differentiator.
Having a set of strongly held values also gives you a clear guide to making decisions. Doing something is either consistent with the company’s values or it isn’t. If it isn’t, it becomes an easy decision to say no.
This filter works for decisions by leadership. It also is a powerful tool to empower employees to make decisions in the moment. A clear set of values gives employees guidance about what to do in situations outside of standard operating procedure.
Employees feel empowered when they can “do the right thing” without management approval. That makes them feel better about their jobs and about the company.
It makes customers feel valued and respected. Issues are resolved quickly and in accordance with what the company claims to stand for.
It makes hiring and firing decisions easier. For most positions, it isn’t difficult to find many candidates who are technically qualified. When you look at how those candidates fit with the values, it makes the hiring decision easier.
Firing for values is just as important. It is a necessary step to preserve the culture by eliminating people who don’t buy into it. It also reinforces with employees that living the values is taken seriously by management.
Are you willing to fire a high performer for values? If not, maybe you aren’t living those values as strongly as you should be.
In “Built to Last,” Jim Collins shows core ideology separates enduring business from less successful ones. He uncovered this through empirical study of data, not any sort of wishful thinking or theorizing.
Goldman Sachs compared the performance of companies with and without strong values. They found those with strong did an average of 75% better than companies without them.
Another example involves Southwest and American Airlines. These are two companies in the same industry, serving the same market, headquartered in the same state.
Southwest has delivered a return of about 4000% since 1990. American Airlines went bankrupt in 2011. One big difference between the two companies, values.
Southwest is legendary for strongly held values and a strong culture. American Airlines, not so much.
First, the values have to be authentic. If they aren’t, employees and customer will see through it. When (not if) that happens, the fallout will be disastrous.
Second, as I mentioned earlier, you need a viable business model and a quality product. Values aren’t going to fix a bad business model or a garbage product. Values are going to transform a good business model and a good product into a great company.
When was the last time you thought about your company’s values? Do your employees know what they are? Do they embody them in their work?