Browsing by Subject "United States"
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Item The 21st century classroom : integrating educational technology with 21st century competencies in support of workforce development(2011-05) Bailie, Christine Marie; Treisman, Philip Uri; King, Christopher T.Information and communication technology demands are increasing across a range of occupations, creating intense global competition for highly-skilled workers. In order to meet the economic needs of the next century, education reform must prioritize student-directed learning that fosters innovation and creativity, enabling the United States to compete internationally in attracting and creating high-quality jobs for its citizens. Our system must strive to create lifelong learners and ensure equity in preparing all students for college- and career-readiness, which increasingly, are considered one in the same. Manor New Technology High School, in Central Texas, has successfully used technology immersion and project-based learning to expand the opportunities for its minority-majority population. Emphasis is placed on teaching students how to learn and in making authentic learning connections with the world through applied, and interdisciplinary coursework. An understanding of how educational technology can be used to create better student outcomes, through investment in teacher peer-to-peer supports to effectively integrate technology into instruction, has led to a sustainable and scalable model of technology immersion at Manor Independent School District. Through its partnerships with local businesses and not-for-profit organizations, Manor New Technology High School is graduating highly skilled and college-bound students, while concurrently promoting sector-based economic development within the high-tech industry. State educational agencies are ill-equipped to meet the challenges of workforce development; therefore, new mechanisms and incentives should be created to encourage and enable school districts to pursue 21st Century competencies (analytic skills, interpersonal skills, ability to execute, information processing, and capacity for change), which are enabled through the “invisible tool” of educational technology in the classroom.Item A comparison of university students, faculty, and industry assessments of characteristics and skills necessary for a successful career in restaurant and hotel management by American and Russian hospitality graduates(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Annaraud, Katerina DThe purpose of this dissertation was to determine the skills sets necessary for career success by hospitality students upon graduation. Multiple studies were conducted in the United States and in Russia in order to determine what skills and characteristics future hospitality managers need to possess. However, hospitality education is a relatively new university discipline in Russia and does not have a long history in comparison with the United States. This research study compares the assessments of American and Russian hospitality students, faculty, and industry. Respondents included hospitality students, hospitality faculty, and hospitality industry representatives in Texas (USA) and St. Petersburg (Russia). Students and faculty from major universities in Texas and Russia participated in the study as well as general managers and recruiters from restaurants and hotels in Russia and the USA. The instrument for this study was developed by Su, Miller, and Shanklin (1997). The instrument was modified and tested using two pilot studies. The results of the study indicated that respondents in both countries believe that human relations characteristics and skills are the most important trait hospitality managers need to possess, followed by conceptual characteristics and skiils and technical skills. Respondents in both countries valued the importance of work experience however students and faculty members in Russia had much less actual practical experience than American students and faculty members. Russian university need to offer additional assistance to students and faculty members to support their acquisition of industry practical experience, analyze the hospitality educational experience of such countries as the United States, and build international partnership.Item A long quavering chant : peonage labor camps in the rural-industrial South, 1905-1965(2013-05) Reynolds, Aaron Kyle; Jones, Jacqueline, 1948-; Bsumek, Erika; Sidbury, James; Falola, Toyin; Bremen, BrianThis dissertation is a study of social and environmental conditions inside rural industrial labor camps throughout the U.S. South between 1905 and 1965. The use of peonage labor, i.e., the coercion of labor against ones’ will through indebtedness or violence impacted nearly a fourth of rural workers in the postbellum south, particularly in isolated railroad construction sites, lumber operations, turpentine camps, and commercial vegetable farms. Though employers’ various peonage labor regimes changed within the context of the camps’ physical environment and evolved over time, they continually took advantage of marginalized social groups, immigrants, African-Americans, and the poor. The relative inability of workers, their families, and reformers to prosecute employers and foremen for labor abuses stemmed from the collusion of local law enforcement and the indifference of federal government officials. Ultimately, broader market forces of globalization and technology changed peonage labor regimes, not the enforcement of federal statues outlawing the practice.Item A new perspective on U.S. Supreme Court certiorari behavior: cues v. attitudes(Texas Tech University, 1979-08) Armstrong, Virginia CrounseNOT AVAILABLEItem A Study of The Impact of Workplace Spirituality on Employee Outcomes: A Comparison Between US and Mexican Employees(Texas A&M International University, 2014-04-16) Daniel, Jose Luis; Mayfield, Jacqueline R.The concept of workplace spiritualty (WS) has gained importance in the last years. However, most of the research has been qualitative and focused on culture in the United States. The purpose of this study is to expand the understanding of workplace spirituality by conducting an empirical analysis of its impact on employee outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and individual innovative behavior in Mexico and the United States. The research model predicts that workplace spirituality will have an effect on all employee outcomes. A total of 304 employees from different industries in Mexico and the US were surveyed. Results from PLS analysis show that workplace spirituality has a positive and significant relationship with all employee outcomes including turnover intention. The latter is different from what was hypothesized, however, a possible explanation is offered. In addition, a test of workplace spirituality perception differences between the two countries was conducted. The result indicates that people from both countries perceive workplace spirituality differently.Item A study to identify cognitive frames accessed by special education administrators under conditions of required change(Texas Tech University, 2000-12) Shipley, Steven DaleEducational decisions by school administrators inevitably shape the lives of all students. With the passage of IDEA, the decisions made by special education administrators have been primarily concerned with how to implement the changes required by this legislation. How these required changes are implemented can impact significantly on the effectiveness of that implementation with a probable reduction of litigation and excessive costs. Organization theory and leadership theory inform the subject of school administration. This study grew from the research by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal describing the management decision-making process through the use of the cognitive frames approach. In this model, an instructional leader views situations from different perspectives depending on the unique characteristics of the particular situation. Their research describes how through the use of reflective analysis of each situation, the instructional leader can find clarity and meaning amid the confusion of organizational life (Bolman & Deal, 1997). They have found that everyone has preferred frames through which they (1) gather information, (2) make judgments, (3) guide behavior and, (4) explain behavior (1991). The four cognitive frames are the Structural Human Resource, Political, and Symbolic. This study was designed to examine whether special education administrators when faced with required change access a cognitive frame inferred by the required change or access their preferred frame. The following research questions were addressed: • Based on the data, do special education administrators "reframe" their perspectives to fit a given situation? • Do the results vary significantly based on gender? • Do the results vary significantly based on rural or urban location? • Do the results vary significantly based on the size of the district? Statistical analyses include chi-square analysis to determine the correlation between the two instruments and multivariate analysis of variance to examine the existence of statistically significant mean differences among the demographic data. Analysis of the data revealed that in conditions of required change, special education administrators do employ frames other than their preferred frame. This finding was contrary to the findings of Bolman and Deal. However, the alternate frames they did access were not the one(s) inferred by the required change. Implications for fixture research and application include staff development for special education administrators in the utilization of appropriate frames, particularly in conditions of required change and research into the cognitive processes that would lead special education administrators to switch from their preferred frame to other more appropriate frames in conditions of required change.Item "A Tolerable State of Order": The United States, Taiwan, and the Recognition of the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979(2012-10-29) Hilton, Brian PaulAmerican policy toward the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China from 1949-1979 was geared primarily toward the accomplishment of one objective: to achieve a reorientation of Chinese Communist revolutionary foreign policy that would contribute to the establishment of a "tolerable state of order" in the international community based on the principles of respect for each nations' territorial integrity and political sovereignty. China's revolutionary approach to its foreign relations constituted a threat to this objective. During the 1960s and '70s, however, Beijing gradually began accepting views conducive to the achievement of the "tolerable state of order" that Washington hoped to create, thus contributing significantly to the relaxation of Sino-American tensions and the normalization of relations in 1979. From this basic thesis four subsidiary arguments emerge. First, the seven presidential administrations from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter pursued a common set of objectives toward which their respective China policies conformed, thus granting American China policy a degree of consistency that historians of Sino-American relations have not previously recognized. Second, the most significant dilemma American officials faced was striking an effective balance between containment (to punish aggression) and engagement (to emphasize the benefits of cooperation). Third, American policy toward the ROC throughout virtually the entire period in question remained a function of Washington's effort to reorient Beijing's foreign policy approach. Fourth, domestic American opinion was of secondary importance in determining the nature and implementation of American China policy.Item Advancement of ecological risk assessments within the Department of Defense(Texas Tech University, 2001-12) Wireman, Jody RayWhile documentation exists on how the Department of Defense (DOD) develops ecological risk assessments (ERAs), there has been no effort to provide an in-depth evaluation of ongoing ERA activities and discuss potential advancements that could be made to globally improve DOD ERAs. The focus of this research is on the use of ERA techniques and strategies based on the evaluation of past and current DOD research, guidance, and policies, and installation-level ERA activities. Approaches used by the DOD to evaluate ecological risks are discussed along with recommendations for improvement. This is supplemented by case studies that provide insight into the diversity of ERA activities and influences of stakeholder input at the installation level. Also described, is the importance of providing sufficient guidance to risk managers in regards to whether remediation is needed, what potential ecological impacts are likely to occur from restoration activities, and recommendations regarding potential remedies most likely to be protective of the site contaminants and most beneficial to the site-specific ecosystem. There are a number of projects and self-assessments that need to be accomplished to further the DOD ERA process. Descriptions of terrestrial toxicity reference values (TRVs), including those being developed by the DOD, are provided. This is followed by a discussion of the advantages and shortcomings of each of the TRV methodologies and includes recommendations on how they can be utilized and improved. Another data gap addressed is the lack of databases for biomarker, demographic, and toxicity assay information that currently exists. The advantages of developing databases are described.Item Agricultural romance : constructing and consuming rural life in modern America(2011-05) Hajdik, Anna Thompson; Davis, Janet M.; Hoelscher, Steven D.This dissertation illuminates the links between agriculture, popular culture, social class, and agrarian nostalgia. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I draw from the fields of American Studies, American History, Agricultural History, Environmental Studies, popular culture, and cultural geography. Consisting of four diverse case studies, my project focuses on America's evolving relationship with its agrarian roots from the late eighteenth century to the present. Each case study pays close attention to the ways in which the forces of modern consumerism have shaped public understanding of agricultural issues. The dissertation pivots on two main arguments: 1) the modern realities of industrialized agriculture have sparked a desire for highly romanticized visions of farming, particularly tourism to rural places that promise temporary pastoral transcendence to consumers, and 2) as a result of the public demand for idyllic constructions of American rural life, agrarian nostalgia has frequently been deployed in the service of commerce. From the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Laura Ingalls Wilder, to Currier and Ives painting, Martha Stewart's media empire, and state fairs of the American Midwest, I analyze a variety of highly romanticized cultural forms that enrich our understanding of the nation's agrarian heritage. Yet, I also make important links between the past and present, and demonstrate how and why debates about such issues as farm policy and the politics of food once again stand at the forefront of popular consciousness in the twenty-first century.Item American Suppliers: The Role of Americans in the Perpetuation and Maintenance of the Postwar Black Market in Germany(2012-02-14) Fasulo, MichealAmericans are curiously absent from the literature as forces in the black market prevailing in Germany after World War II. Aside from Rundell's study of failed currency control policy during the Second World War and the subsequent occupations of Germany and Japan, historians have failed to accord the American presence on the black market its proper status. They receive mention in narrative fashion, authors noting that Americans could make money on the black market, or relating a story about what a soldier bought or sold there. Then, like bit players in a movie, Americans recede from view, and Germans and displaced persons resume their places in the lead. This thesis has two objectives. Through support from the archival record, first, it demonstrates that Americans did in fact execute a specific function with respect to the maintenance and perpetuation of the black market - they were the market's suppliers. Second, by positing this role, this thesis attempts to correct a view of the black market as an essentially German experience, populated in the main by Germans and displaced persons. In so doing, I posit a schema of American illicit supply to Germans and displaced persons. This thesis argues that Americans operated as suppliers of illicit goods to the indigenous population. This supply occurred in three ways: Americans selling on the black market; misappropriation of materiel (usually food); and theft of goods from American installations. Furthermore, each type of supply was predicated upon the fulfillment of a certain condition. Americans sold on the black market when they were certain they could make a profit. Americans misappropriated US government property (usually food) as a consequence of a relationship with a German or displaced person; in practice, because those with access to American goods were young men, the relationships were only with women, and always included some gradation of intimacy. Germans and displaced persons committed larceny from American installations to procure goods for the black market, which insured handsome profits.Item American wasteland : a social and cultural history of excrement, 1860-1920(2012-05) Gerling, Daniel Max; Davis, Janet M.; Engelhardt, Elizabeth D.; Hartigan, John; Meikle, Jeffrey L.; Smith, Mark C.Human excrement is seldom considered to be an integral part of the human condition. Despite the relative silence regarding it, however, excrement has played a significant role in American history. Today the U.S. has more than two million miles of sewer pipes underneath it. Every year Americans flush more than a trillion gallons of water and fertilizer down the toilet, and farmers spend billions of dollars to buy artificial fertilizer. Furthermore, excrement is bound up in many complicated power relationships regarding race, gender, and ethnicity. This dissertation examines the period in American history, from the Civil War through the Progressive Era, when excrement transformed from commodity to waste. More specifically, it examines the cultural and social factors that led to its formulation as waste and the roles it played in the histories of American health, architecture, and imperialism. The first chapter assesses the vast changes to the country’s infrastructure and social fabric beginning in the late nineteenth century. On the subterranean level, much of America’s immense network of sewers was constructed during this era—making it one of the largest public works projects in U.S. history. Above ground, the United States Sanitary Commission, founded at the onset of the Civil War, commenced a widespread creation of sanitary commissions in municipalities, regions, and even internationally, that regulated defecation habits. Chapter Two assesses the social and architectural change that occurred as the toilet moved from the outhouse to inside the house—specifically, how awkwardly newly built homes accommodated this novel room and how the toilet’s move inside actually hastened its removal. The third chapter shifts focus to the way Americans considered their excrement in relation to their body in a time when efficiency a great virtue. Americans feared ailments related to “autointoxication” (constipation) and went to absurd lengths to rid their bodies of excrement. The fourth chapter analyzes the way excrement was racialized and the role it had in the various projects of American imperialism. The colonial subjects and potential American citizens—from Native Americans to Cubans, Filipinos, and Puerto Ricans—were regularly scrutinized, punished, and re-educated regarding their defecation habits.Item An examination of elements containing religious references in selected secondary school united states history textbooks(Texas Tech University, 1994-12) Schreiber, John H.The following study provides an examination of the presentation of religious references in selected secondary school United States history textbooks. The inclusion of material reflecting religion in secondary school textbooks paid for with public tax dollars and utilized by students in public schools is controversial because of the evolutionary separation of church and state in American culture. The earliest origins of what was to become the United States of America were highly religious in nature. Many of the first settlers came to the eastern shores of Colonial America seeking the opportunity to practice religious beliefs that were unpopular or illegal in their European homelands. These first settlers based their entire lives, including their social practices, government and educational institutions, on their religious dogma. At a time of religious and political upheaval in Europe, the New World, in this case the colonial holdings of England, provided a unique and vast area where followers of many diverse religious philosophies could settle and practice their particular faiths. This widespread and growing diversity was to set the stage for the dilemma that faces textbook writers and publishers today.Item Analysis of resource adequacy constructs in the US and Australia and future paths forward(2011-05) Thundiyil, Kevin; Baldick, Ross; Rai, VarunDeregulation of the electricity industry has altered the investment landscape for new resources. Multiple resource adequacy constructs are in use today around the world and represent diverging opinions of how much interaction regulators should have on the procurement of new resources. The report compares the resource adequacy constructs in Australia, Texas, California and the Northeast of the United States and discusses the future of resource adequacy. The report concludes that a hybridized construct that blends the high offer caps of energy-only markets, the prescriptive nature of resources in capacity markets and a strong price-responsive demand will likely be the future of resource adequacy.Item Assessing the effectiveness of Title V permitting as a compliance tool in Texas(2011-05) Janecka, Joseph Albert; Lewis, Kyle, 1961-; Newburger, ManuelThis paper is a study to determine whether the Title V program, as implemented in Texas, fulfills one of the goals of the Clean Air Act. That goal is to provide an effective compliance tool for particular sources (major sources of air contaminants). The study will include a description of elements that are a direct or indirect result of the Title V program including regulations, programs, permit and related documents, enforcement cases and violation data, etc. that will result in measurements or logical arguments to support the claim that the program is an effective compliance tool as compared to any system in place before it. I discuss Title V program elements that appear to detract from the compliance effectiveness, and explore the impact of these elements on compliance determination.Item Austin housing and the critical workforce(2011-05) Connor, Patrick Thayer; Kahn, Terry D.; Cahoon, JosephThis professional report is a study of urban housing market forces, housing opportunities of the critical workforce population, Austin’s housing market and an analysis of the apartment market in Austin between 2000 and 2010. The report analyzes the supply and demand of property, its influence on the costs of development and how cities intervene into the market to create housing opportunities for the critical workforce. The income levels of the critical workforce in Austin are related to the current market conditions of the apartment market.Item Austin Logistics Inc : assessing defect density(2010-12) Nanchari, Nithin Krishna; Perry, Dewayne E.; Krasner, HerbertAustin Logistics Inc. Solutions provides tools that help centralize resource management, optimize and maintain compliance of calling schedules for consumer financial service organization (banks, financial institutions). With the increasing number of customers, the amount of rework and availability of resources had been notably decreasing over time; thereby negatively affecting the overall cost and quality of the software being delivered. The improvement objectives of the company and its departments were broadly stated but lacking a goal-driven nature. The software measurement Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) approach was chosen and used for this research initiative to better support business driven quality improvement. Software defect density data was collected and analyzed to identify significant deviations in the software development life cycle.. The results of the initial analysis on the transformed defect-tracking data helped identify the negatively affected areas within the software development life cycle. The data showed significant variations in the requirements, design and implementation phases of the product life cycle, thus helping identify various process improvement opportunities. On quantifying the change in defect density, the effectiveness of using GQM has also provided valuable insights for process improvement. Based on these results, we were able to identify some of the weaknesses and shortcomings in our application development process.Item Beauty and consensus : practices for agreeing on the quality of the service in client-professional interactions(2009-12) Oshima, Sae; Streeck, JürgenThis dissertation is a microanalytic investigation of professional communication in beauty salons in the United States and Japan. In particular, it centers on the analysis of a common, yet very important occurrence found in cosmetology sessions: what I call the "service-assessment sequence", in which service-provider and client determine whether or not the completed work in a given session is adequate. This is a crucial moment in the haircutting activity (and in other fields of the service industry) in order to bring a satisfactory closure to the session, as well as maintain a healthy relationship for future sessions, retain clients in general, and ensure client satisfaction overall. Using the methodological frameworks of microethnography and conversation analysis, I examine the moment-by-moment unfolding of interaction, focusing on how participants smoothly conduct the service-assessment sequence and how they achieve the successful completion of a service encounter through a number of tactics. The findings include: the participants' systematic coordination of talk and physical inspection through multiple second pair parts; the participants' coordination of talk and action to negotiate sequence closure; the participants' professional use of head nods in the middle of physical inspection and at sequence completion during service encounters in Japan; and the participants' employment of a unique combination of verbal and embodied actions to transform the event of revision into a mutual decision. These findings suggest several important aspects of professionalization in beauty salons. Notably, the professionals' ability to harmonize talk and action is a special trait. Also, despite the fundamental regularities, the service-assessment sequence is frequently adapted to specific circumstances of each beauty salon that may vary across different services and cultures. Finally, the production of professional assessments and agreements are achieved by the participants' constant work on dramatization through the use of various communicative resources. The study is applicable not only to the field of cosmetology, but to a range of professional-client interactions where people evaluate the quality of service with their subjective perspectives, enhancing our understanding of negotiation-in-interaction in the workplace and what it means to professionalize communication in such situations.Item Biketivists, hipsters, and spandex queens : bicycle politics and cultural critique in Austin(2011-05) Ronald, Kirsten Marie; Davis, Janet M.; Engelhardt, ElizabethThis paper uses an interdisciplinary, multiperspectival approach to analyze biketivism and various anticapitalist biketivist projects in Austin, Texas, in the hopes that a “glocalized” exploration of past and current biketivist struggles can help locate potential sites for political agency in ways that more placeless rhetorical studies cannot. Because the form and content of present-day bike politics in Austin are heavily dependent on biketivism’s historically tense articulations with capitalism, a historical analysis of biketivism as an outgrowth of Progressive Era and Appropriate Technology narratives reveals its crystallization around issues of technological, spatial, and social politics. Three case studies then apply this framework to different sites within the Austin bike community: the sales rhetoric of pro-custom bike shops, the debates over installing a Bike Boulevard in downtown Austin, and the missions and forms of several bike-related cultural organizations. Together, these perspectives on Austin’s bike community indicate that the incorporation (and sometimes outright co-optation) of biketivists’ technological and spatial demands and practices into mainstream culture may fragment the movement into physical and social agendas, but this fragmentation does not necessarily silence biketivism’s more radical social politics. At least in Austin, co-optation of biketivism may paradoxically be helping biketivists meet their goal of bringing (pedal) power to the people.Item Bringing policy back into the policy making process(2011-05) Shafran, Jobeth Surface; Jones, Bryan D.; Theriault, Sean M.My research project is a break from the current trend in the literature that focuses on the conflict associated with roll call voting—party polarization and institutional friction. I am interested in determining how policy characteristics of roll call decisions can affect legislators' vote choices. Bills not only differ according to issue content—agricultural policy versus social welfare policy—but also according to how ambiguous they are—a collection of disparate issues versus one specific issue. Using a dataset of House roll calls from 1985-2004 and the Policy Agendas Project content coding scheme, I show that variation in both policy area and policy ambiguity of a given bill is associated with variation in the accuracy of ideology in predicting roll call vote choice.Item Brownfield redevelopment in Rockford, Illinois(2011-05) List, Kathleen Marie; Sletto, Bjørn; Paterson, RobertSmall and mid-size cities often struggle with the financial and social costs of brownfield redevelopment, even when they receive funding for environmental remediation from federal and state governments. This paper examines how cities can address the gap between administering technical funding for environmental remediation and creating local economic and social opportunities on redeveloped brownfields sites. Specific attention is paid to mid-size cities, and Rockford, Illinois will be used as an example of a city struggling to attract investors to its abandoned industrial brownfields.