Abstract:With this volume we seek to demonstrate the ways that we as scholars turn our quantitative skills toward asking and answering critical questions in higher education research. We examine a variety of higher education issues from a critical stance, using quantitative methods. Collectively, our work demonstrates ways of moving beyond traditional conceptualizations of quantitative research. We use our scholarship to push the boundaries of what we know by questioning mainstream notions of higher education through t… Show more
“…In this study, the authors take a quantitative criticalist approach (Stage, ; Stage & Wells, ) to explain persistence in different majors—PEMC‐STEM, other‐STEM, and non‐STEM—among FGCSs at one urban research university. The purpose of this quantitative case study is to understand how well different pre‐college factors and early college experiences explain persistence among students based on major at an institution with significant proportions of FGCSs and transfer students among its entering student population.…”
Section: Purposementioning
confidence: 99%
“…“As we analyze data in large mixed groups, we learn about the majority but little about those on the margins” (Stage, , p. 96). Following our intent to more equitably describe the educational experiences of FGCSs in STEM, we consider dominant models of college student persistence (e.g., Tinto, ), yet focus solely on FGCSs as the target population in the study, rather than FGC status as one variable in persistence.…”
“…In this study, the authors take a quantitative criticalist approach (Stage, ; Stage & Wells, ) to explain persistence in different majors—PEMC‐STEM, other‐STEM, and non‐STEM—among FGCSs at one urban research university. The purpose of this quantitative case study is to understand how well different pre‐college factors and early college experiences explain persistence among students based on major at an institution with significant proportions of FGCSs and transfer students among its entering student population.…”
Section: Purposementioning
confidence: 99%
“…“As we analyze data in large mixed groups, we learn about the majority but little about those on the margins” (Stage, , p. 96). Following our intent to more equitably describe the educational experiences of FGCSs in STEM, we consider dominant models of college student persistence (e.g., Tinto, ), yet focus solely on FGCSs as the target population in the study, rather than FGC status as one variable in persistence.…”
“…This second research question represents an important step in demonstrating that the OLM reliably distinguishes between the school leadership contexts it is constructed to represent and that the quality of school leadership varies in consistent ways as a function of non-malleable school demographic characteristics. In undertaking this distinctly critical purpose, the study is informed by quantitative critical inquiry (Stage, 2007) in harnessing the broad, generalizable findings of quantitative inquiry to interrogate the relationship between social and institutional structures and educational inequality. In doing so, this study adds to the persistently disturbing finding that schools serving high-need populations are characterized by conditions of ineffective school leadership and a function, not of any inherent quality of the communities or students those schools serve, but rather of a system that reinforces structural inequality through conditions that perpetuate high teacher and principal turnover and low expectations for students and staff alike.…”
Purpose: This article presents the design and test of a measure of school leadership as an organizational quality through the interaction of principal and teacher instructional influence. The Organizational Leadership Model hypothesizes four distinct conditions of school leadership, and the analysis investigates the relationship between teacher, principal, and school outcomes; school descriptors; and a school’s category in the Organizational Leadership Model. Theoretical Orientation: Ogawa and Bossert’s conception of leadership as an organizational quality serves as the theoretical foundation of this study, along with contemporary theories of distributed leadership, influence as leadership, and measurement of leadership. Data Source: This study draws teacher, principal, and school restricted-use data from the 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey. The sample consists of 7,950 schools, their principals, and a random sample of teachers from each school. The school is the primary unit of analysis. Analysis: This study is conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, the Organizational Leadership Model (OLM) is tested for its ability to discriminate between teacher, principal, and school outcomes through a series of one-way ANOVA models. In Phase 2, a series of brr weighted ordered logit models explores the predictive power of school descriptors in determining the OLM category of schools. Findings: The analysis finds evidence that the Organizational Leadership Model is a robust measure of leadership as an organizational quality that effectively captures differences in school leadership contexts at the level of principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of their influence that precede task-oriented behaviors. Additionally, the study highlights the troubling relationship between schools serving high-need populations and those typified by low levels of school leadership. Implications for Research and Practice: The article identifies several avenues for future research to extend inquiry on the potential of the Organizational Leadership Model to develop additional nuance in discriminating between relationships among school contexts, leadership conditions, and teacher, principal, and school outcomes. The article further urges those implicit in maintaining the status quo of poor leadership accountability in schools, including those in the research community, to seek interventions at the level of principal and teacher perceptions of and professional standards for their practice.
“…Third, the choice to conduct institution-specific analysis may be considered a limitation because the sample size does not afford conducting a confirmatory factor analysis. Nonetheless, conducting an institution-specific analysis is consistent with scholars' (LaNasa et al, 2009;Stage, 2007) call for reconceptualizing student engagement wherein an institution's unique cultural environment, its efforts toward inclusion, and diverse ways of fostering students' interactional relationships and behavioral involvements both within and outside the classroom engagement is paramount. It is essential for institutions to examine their own data to understand how engagement manifests at their own campuses (Kuh, 2009;LaNasa et al, 2009)-the relative composition of diverse students and its associated campus climate and diversity (Chatman, 2008;Denson & Chang, 2009;Nuñez, 2009) may both play a critical role in how Latino students' engage, their sense of belonging, and their perceptions of the campus climate.…”
Using critical race theory and quantitative criticalist stance, this study examines the construct validity of an engagement survey, Student Experiences in the Research University (SERU) for Latino college students through exploratory factor analysis. Results support the principal seven-factor SERU model. However subfactors exhibited differential structure patterns suggesting sense of agency, initiative-taking, self-competency, and self-efficacy as a means of reflecting potential cultural nuances relative to Latinos. Implications highlight sociocultural values and perspectives to understand engagement based on Latino students' unique college experiences and meaning making.
ResumenUsando la teoría racial crítica y una posición crítica cuantitativa, este estudio examina la validez cultural de una encuesta de compromiso, SERU-Experiencias Estudiantiles en la Universidad de Investigación a través de análisis factoriales exploratorios. Resultados apoyan el modelo principal SERU factor -7. Sin embargo sutilezas culturales exhibieron sub-factores que enfatizan el papel de la cultura latina, el sentido de pertenencia, la toma de iniciativas, el sentirse competente, y el ser autosuficiente. Implicaciones subrayan valores y perspectivas socioculturales, las cuales definen el compromiso basadas en significados y experiencias universitarias únicas de estudiantes latinos.
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