Against the current: A grounded theory study on the estrangement experiences of a select group of Filipino gay older persons

According to Healthy People (2011), in order to understand the health concerns of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT), the oppression and discrimination that they have faced must be scrutinized. Among the many issues they face, their estrangement experiences are one of the most understudied. However, little is known about how it is experienced by the gay elderly population, hence, this investigation. This grounded theory purports to describe the process by which estrangement is experienced among the Filipino gay older adults. Strauss and Corbin’s Grounded Theory (1990) design was utilized. A total of 10 gay older persons were purposively chosen to participate in semi-structured interviews. Field texts were subjected to thematic analysis involving open, axial, and selective coding. The study generated The Sailing Model of Estrangement. Remarkably, three phases relative to estrangement emerged, namely: sequestering, striving, and surviving. Primarily, the sequestering phase involves the gay persons’ need to express self, search for acceptance, and its subsequent reactions. The striving phase typifies the struggle in dealing with estrangement leading to either feelings of depression, remorse and shame or positivity, hopefulness, and motivation. Finally, in the surviving phase, gay persons may either feel contented and fulfilled or sad, lonely, and remorseful as they acquiesce aging with estrangement. Findings of the study offer an understanding of how Filipino gay older adults employ coping strategies in response to estrangement.     

Breaking the tyranny of office hours: Overcoming professor avoidance

ABSTRACT

Studies have found that Faculty–Student Interaction (FSI) has many positive benefits for students including academic support, professional development, mentoring, and career planning. Research-intensive universities exhibit the lowest levels of faculty–student interaction within higher education. This article utilises qualitative methods to explore faculty, student, and staff perceptions of faculty–student interactions, particularly those that take place out of the classroom, at a research-intensive public U.S. university. We identify social distance between faculty and students based on unequal status within a rigid, hierarchically-organised culture as a key barrier to FSI. We then discuss methods that some of the faculty in our study used to mitigate their social distance with students in an effort to increase FSI.     

To be or not to be ‘a disabled student’ in higher education: the case of a postgraduate ‘non‐declaring’ (disabled) student

This paper draws on data from a research project that was funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy. The project focused on the experiences of disabled students in one English higher education institution, and a key feature of the project was to attempt to access the perspectives of ‘non‐declaring’ disabled students. This paper draws on the experiences of one of the ‘non‐declaring’ respondents, Anna, a postgraduate student. In the UK, some students declare their disabled status on entry to a higher education institution, some do so once at the institution and some never let the institution know of their impairment. It is the perspectives of this latter group that are particularly difficult to access. Anna's experiences as a postgraduate student provide some insight into what may affect decisions about declaration of impairment. Drawing on a social‐relational understanding of disability, factors that influenced her decision not to ‘declare’ and the consequent effect on her experience of higher education are explored.     

Validity and use of an instrument for assessing classroom psychosocial environment in higher education

A strong tradition in research in primary and secondary schools has involved student and teacher perceptions of psychological characteristics of actual or preferred classroom environment. This paper provides a foundation for the extension of this tradition to the higher education level by describing the development, validation, and use of a new instrument, the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), suitable for small higher education classes often referred to as seminars. The CUCEI assesses students' or instructors' perceptions of the following seven psychosocial dimensions of actual or preferred classroom environment: personalization, involvement, student cohesiveness, satisfaction, task orientation, innovation, and individualization. Administration of the CUCEI to 372 students in 34 classes and to 20 instructors attested to the internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity of the actual and preferred forms with either the individual or the class mean as the unit of analysis, and supported the ability of the actual form to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. A research application of the CUCEI involving associations between student outcomes and classroom environment tentatively suggested that the nature of the classroom environment affects outcomes. Another research application suggested that both students and instructors preferred a more favorable classroom environment than the one actually present, and that instructors viewed classroom environments more positively than did their students in the same classrooms. Desirable future applications of the CUCEI for research purposes and in improving teaching in higher education are considered.The first main aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation of a new instrument to assess perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment in university and college classrooms. The second major purpose is to report the first two research uses of this instrument in, respectively, a study of associations between student outcomes and classroom environment and an investigation of differences between students and instructors in their perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environment. As well, desirable future research directions involving the new instrument are suggested. Before describing the development and use of the new instrument for the higher education level, important background information about analogous work at the primary and secondary school levels is briefly reviewed in an attempt to place the new work into context.     

A study of Indonesian students' perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment

Extensive research conducted in developed countries has established classroom learning environment as a thriving field of study. The present investigation makes a contribution to classroom environment research in that it involved the translation into Indonesian of scales previously available only in English, and the subsequent validation and use of these translated scales among Indonesian students. The new Indonesian instrument consists of nine seven-item scales based upon the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire and the Classroom Environment Scale. Analyses of data collected from a sample of 373 Indonesian students from nine schools supported the new instrument's internal consistency, discriminant validity, ability to differentiate between classrooms, and predictive validity (i.e. ability to predict student outcomes). Potential applications of the new instruments in Indonesian classrooms are suggested.

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Zusammenfassung Die in entwickelten Ländern durchgeführte umfassende Untersuchung beweist, daß die Klassenumwelt ein emporkommendes Untersuchungsfeld ist. Die jetztige Nachforschung trägt zur Klassenumweltsuntersuchung bei, insofern als Tabellen bis jetzt nur auf Englisch erhältlich waren und sie durch ihre Übersetzung ins Indonesische auf ihre nachfolgende Gültigkeit und Anwendung bei indonesischen Schülern untersucht wurden. Das neue indonesische Instrument besteht aus neun sieben-Punkte-Tabellen, die sich auf den Fragebogen bezüglich individualisierter Klassenumwelt (Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire) und auf die Klassenumweltstabelle (Classroom Environment Scale) stützen. Analysen von gesammelten Daten einer repräsentativen Auswahl von 373 indonesischen Schülern aus neun Schulen bestätigen die inhärente Folgerichtigkeit des neuen Instruments, seine Unterscheidungsgültigkeit, seine Fähigkeit zwischen Klassen zu differenzieren und seine Genauigkeit in der Vorhersage (d.h. die Fähigkeit, die Resultate der Schüler vorherzusagen). Die Untersuchung schlägt potentielle Anwendungen der neuen Instrumente in indonesischen Klassen vor.

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Résumé La recherche approfondie qui a été menée dans les pays développés sur le milieu d'apprentissage qu'est la classe en a fait un champ d'étude florissant. La présente enquête apporte une contribution à la recherche sur le milieu scolaire en ce qu'elle introduit la traduction en indonésien d'échelles d'évaluation qui n'existaient jusqu'alors qu'en anglais, et qu'elle examine la validation ultérieure et l'application de ces échelles, une fois traduites, par les étudiants indonésiens. Le nouvel instrument indonésien consiste en neuf échelles de sept items basées sur le Questionnaire portant sur le milieu scolaire tel qu'il est vécu par chaque individu et sur l'Echelle du Milieu Scolaire. Les analyses des données recueillies auprès d'un échantillon représentatif de 373 étudiants indonésiens appartenant à neuf écoles différentes ont confirmé la valeur intrinsèque du nouvel instrument d'évaluation, sa justesse de discernement, sa capacité à différencier entre les classes, et l'exactitude de ses pronostics (c'est-à-dire la capacité à prédire les résultats des étudiants). Cette étude suggère différentes applications potentielles de ces nouveaux moyens d'évaluation dans les classes indonésiennes.