Participants' beliefs about educational risk and resilience in Energy Express, a summer intervention program for West Virginia's elementary schoolchildren

Abstract

Energy Express is a six-week summer program to promote the school success of elementary school children living in rural and low-income communities of West Virginia. Throughout the course of the program, college student AmeriCorps members provide literacy, art, and recreation activities for multiage groups of 5 to 8 children under the direction of a site coordinator, most often a local education professional. The purpose of this study was to describe the beliefs of Energy Express participants about educational risks faced by West Virginia schoolchildren, and to examine the effects of those beliefs on daily program decisions and interactions with children. Data collection strategies for qualitative case study at one Energy Express site included interviews, observations, document analysis, and focus group interviews with attending children. Qualitative study yielded eight themes portraying participants' definitions, priorities, recruitment methods, activities and beliefs in addressing educational risk. A Participant Beliefs Survey, comprised of a 45-question Likert scale section and a section in which respondents ranked educational risk variables by importance, was also developed for this research effort. Energy Express personnel statewide (n = 543) responded to the survey. Principal components analysis of Likert scale responses yielded 4 factors believed to predict educational risk. Analysis of the ranking survey revealed that family and within-child factors were believed to contribute the most strongly to educational risk. iii DEDICATION The author wishes to dedicate this dissertation to my husband, Bryan K. McMullen. Your constant love, leadership, encouragement, support, and commitment to my well-being during this very long process have been a shining example of resilience-building. You are my hero! In thankfulness to my Heavenly Father, to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to the Comforter and Encourager among us, the Holy Spirit. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge so many people with gratitude for their patience, prayers, support and encouragement. Thanks to the members of my committee, individually and as a collaborative group. Your commitment to my growth as a professional educator, researcher and human being has been awesome! Thanks especially to my friend, mentor, and committee chairperson, Gretchen Butera, for cheerleading, direction and expectation of the best. Thanks for being here for me! Van Dempsey provided the inspiration for my dissertation research and modeled both the joys and the rigor of qualitative research. Thanks for allowing me to learn from the best! Thanks to Ruthellen Phillips for allowing me to do doctoral research in the setting of Energy Express-a multifaceted gem of a program, reflecting all of your best efforts on behalf of children in West Virginia. Luise Savage inspired me to jump into the doctoral program in the first place, and was a constant source of encouragement along the way. Tha...