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For the past two decades, colleges and universities have focused significant attention on helping female faculty balance work and family by implementing a series of family-friendly policies. Although most policies were targeted at men and women alike, women were intended as the primary targets and recipients. This groundbreaking book makes clear that including faculty fathers in institutional efforts is necessary for campuses to attain gender equity. Based on interviews with seventy faculty fathers at four research universities around the United States, this book explores the challenges faculty fathers--from assistant professors to endowed chairs--face in finding a work/life balance. Margaret W. Sallee shows how universities frequently punish men who want to be involved fathers and suggests that cultural change is necessary--not only to help men who wish to take a greater role with their children, but also to help women and spouses who are expected to do the same. (An Index is included.)

This volume discusses why faculty and administrators of academe should care about implementing family-friendly policies and practices, as well as how they can advocate for policy changes. In section one, the book's focus is on empirical studies that demonstrate the need for innovative programs and policies for faculty at colleges and universities. These pieces explore issues such as the value of work/life programs for employee retention, the need for a variety of family support policies including elder care, and the influence of workplace culture on the use of existing policies. Section two includes case studies of the process of formulating family-friendly policies and their adoption at a variety of universities. The subjects of these chapters include use of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the enactment of a parental leave policy, the development of a unique \"life cycle professorship program,\" and strategies used to implement new policies. The case study chapters provide descriptions of the identification of faculty and staff needs and the process of policy development as well as advice to faculty and administrators who seek to develop similar policies at their institutions.

CHOICE 2015 Outstanding Academic TitleWhat do women academics classify as challenging, inequitable, or \"hostile\" work environments and experiences? How do these vary by women's race/ethnicity, rank, sexual orientation, or other social locations?How do academic cultures and organizational structures work independently and in tandem to foster or challenge such work climates?What actions can institutions and individuals-independently and collectively-take toward equity in the academy?Despite tremendous progress toward gender equality and equity in institutions of higher education, deep patterns of discrimination against women in the academy persist. From the \"chilly climate\" to the \"old boys' club,\" women academics must navigate structures and cultures that continue to marginalize, penalize, and undermine their success.This book is a \"tool kit\" for advancing greater gender equality and equity in higher education. It presents the latest research on issues of concern to them, and to anyone interested in a more equitable academy. It documents the challenging, sometimes hostile experiences of women academics through feminist analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, including narratives from women of different races and ethnicities across disciplines, ranks, and university types. The contributors' research draws upon the experiences of women academics including those with under-examined identities such as lesbian, feminist, married or unmarried, and contingent faculty. And, it offers new perspectives on persistent issues such as family policies, pay and promotion inequalities, and disproportionate service burdens. The editors provide case studies of women who have encountered antagonistic workplaces, and offer action steps, best practices, and more than 100 online resources for individuals navigating similar situations. Beyond women in academe, this book is for their allies and for administrators interested in changing the climates, cultures, and policies that allo

Using Schein's (1992) framework of cultural change, this study examined two institutions of higher education that have achieved or attempted a cultural change to understand if and how to develop a culture of work-life balance for faculty and staff. The results identified a narrative of eligibility that arose from the discourse of faculty recruitment/retention, defining work-life for tenured and tenure-track faculty only. Moreover, situating work-life in campus traditions and histories revealed the espoused beliefs of work-life as a gender issue and perpetuated the socio-historical connection of women, pregnancy, and work-life.

Despite decades of effort by federal science funders to increase the numbers of women holding advanced degrees and faculty jobs in science and engineering, they are persistently underrepresented in academic STEM disciplines, especially in positions of seniority, leadership, and prestige. Women filled 47% of all US jobs in 2015, but held only 24% of STEM jobs. Barriers to women are built into academic workplaces: biased selection and promotion systems, inadequate structures to support those with family and personal responsibilities, old-boy networks that can exclude even very successful women from advancing into top leadership roles. But this situation can—and must—change. In Building Gender Equity in the Academy, Sandra Laursen and Ann E. Austin offer a concrete, data-driven approach to creating institutions that foster gender equity. Focusing on STEM fields, where gender equity is most lacking, Laursen and Austin begin by outlining the need for a systemic approach to gender equity. Looking at the successful work being done by specific colleges and universities around the country, they analyze twelve strategies these institutions have used to create more inclusive working environments, including • implementing inclusive recruitment and hiring practices • addressing biased evaluation methods • establishing equitable tenure and promotion processes • strengthening accountability structures, particularly among senior leadership • improving unwelcoming department climates and cultures • supporting dual-career couples • offering flexible work arrangements that accommodate personal lives • promoting faculty professional development and advancement Laursen and Austin also discuss how to bring these strategies together to create systemic change initiatives appropriate for specific institutional contexts. Drawing on three illustrative case studies—one focusing on Case Western Reserve University, a second on the University of Texas at El Paso, and a third on the University of Wisconsin–Madison—they explain how real institutions can strategically combine several equity-driven approaches, thereby leveraging their individual strengths to make change efforts comprehensive. Grounded in scholarship but written for busy institutional leaders, Building Gender Equity in the Academy is a handbook of actionable strategies for faculty and administrators working to improve the inclusion and visibility of women and others who are marginalized in the sciences and in academe more broadly.

This study aims to improve the conceptual understanding of the interrelationships among individual-level and school-level factors of academic performance by presenting a context-based conceptual framework of academic performance and articulating relationships among the factors. In addition, this study intends to advance the statistical methodology of local regression analysis through a case study analyzing predictor variables of American College Test (ACT) score for 447 public high schools in Missouri. A school-level statistical model of ACT score with nine predictor variables relevant to student, teacher, and school characteristics is tested. Ordinary least squares (OLS) global regression analysis derives a model of five predictor variables, showing that schools with higher parent income and education levels, more double-parent family background, larger class size, and more experienced teachers tend to have higher ACT scores. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) local regression analysis is conducted using the five globally verified predictor variables to minimize violations of regression assumptions, particularly multicollinearity, in local models. Geographic distributions of local regression coefficients are examined at a series of local regression neighborhoods to draw integral conclusions of variable effects for local areas. Analyses show that using globally verified predictor variables in GWR effectively avoids multicollinearity that would otherwise appear. The results highlight critical local regression neighborhoods at which certain local areas start to show opposite local variable effects from the global variable effects.

Orientations Toward Political Consciousness Researchers (Gomez, Rodriguez, & Agosto, 2008a; Su, 1997) also have found that Latino/a teacher candidates are articulate concerning social injustice perpetrated on people of color and those of low socioeconomic status by institutions such as schools.\\n Too often, we have heard from White, middle class prospective teachers that their peers from low-income families and families of color seem angry or upset, and likewise from teacher candidates of color, that their White peers are \"clueless\" about what happens to people of color and those living in poverty in this nation. [...] we believe the ultimate beneficiaries of such practices and policies will be students, who will have a more diversified teaching staff.

This case study conceptually illustrated how a leadership living-learning community provided an educational context well suited to enhance development of leaders within changing leadership and educational paradigms. Specifically, it highlighted how both leadership and learning have come to be viewed as sociocultural processes, and presented theoretical and applied descriptions of “communities of practice” and the identity formation process of “legitimate peripheral participation” (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The unit of analysis for this case study was a first-year, leadership-themed living-learning community at a four-year, land-grant university in the Eastern United States. The purpose of the study was to explore how college students constructed leadership identities as they moved from first year members to second year peer leaders in the living-learning community. Nine sophomore students serving in peer leader roles and four faculty members serving as program instructors were the primary study participants. In-depth qualitative interviews with students and faculty, analysis of key program documents and students’ written assignments, and a confirmatory student focus group contributed to the creation of eight primary themes and one overarching theme describing how students constructed leadership identities through community participation. The eight themes included access to experiences of membership, meanings of the first-year experience, beliefs about leadership, peer leader roles and practices, knowing in practice, meanings of multi-membership, and embodiment of the program mission. The overarching theme illustrated how peer leaders embody the mission-oriented program design as they move through-and ultimately out of-the community. Students’ representations of their beliefs and practices enacted through community leadership roles emphasized college success strategies, foundational leadership knowledge and skill development, and preparation for future leadership roles. The findings of this study provided insight for educators who desire to design programs that foster college student leadership development. The findings revealed social and cultural implications related to higher education's call to enhance students' leadership capacity. There is a need to further explore leadership identity formation within other contexts, as well as the long-term impact of learning community experience on students’ representations of leadership identity.

This qualitative study focused on the experiences of eight male first-generation college students attending Kenmont College (pseudonym), a highly selective, residential liberal arts college located in the Midwestern United States. While first-generation college students have been studied in various contexts, very little is known about what attracts these students to highly selective institutions, particularly liberal arts colleges, and what environmental attributes influence their curricular and co-curricular experiences through college. Using a collective case study as the methodological roadmap (Case, 1995), the students, each viewed as a distinct case, were purposively selected from a sample of 28 male first-generation students who matriculated at Kenmont College in the fall of 2009 and persisted to their final year of undergraduate study. To better understand how this small cohort of first-generation college students came to know, chose to attend, and, ultimately, experienced the academic and campus environments at Kenmont College, this study drew upon human ecology and social capital theories to frame the research. Applying cross-case analytic techniques enabled several themes to emerge from the case participants' experiences and environments. Within their pre-college environments, parental influences, siblings, friendship groups, and schooling experiences--from elementary through secondary--emerged as salient themes. In terms of the participants' college selection process, institutional reputation, academic prestige, financial aid, and enrollment and class size emerged as the primary attractors to Kenmont College. While attending Kenmont, themes emerged from both the curricular and co-curricular environments. Within the curricular environment, the case participants referenced the college's academic expectations, interactions with faculty, classroom environment, and structure and content of the liberal arts curriculum as distinctive features. Within the co-curricular environment, the case participants cited the intellectual student body, supportive campus atmosphere, campus diversity, and abundant learning opportunities as influential features of their college experience. The collective narrative from these eight participants reveals that dynamic and complex environmental features—both before and at college—influenced their decisions to attend and persist through Kenmont College. Of import to several stakeholders, the findings from this study are particularly germane to the work of faculty, staff, and administrators at residential liberal arts colleges akin to Kenmont College. In the absence of a formal, visible support program for first-generation students (e.g., TRIO Student Support Services), the findings from this study may compel these institutions to reconsider the ways they identify, engage with, and unveil the first-generation student community on their campuses. Additionally, how these educational pioneers are welcomed, oriented, and advised on their respective campuses may also warrant additional consideration. Despite this study's contributions, additional research focused on the role of first-generation student birth order, friendship groups, and race and gender is needed. Furthermore, a longitudinal study following first-generation students before, during, and after college would contribute significantly to our collective understanding of this important population of college students.

A qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study conducted through interviews with 20 non-traditional (NT) Hispanic/Latino female part-time community college students and located at an urban community college in southern New Jersey explored for factors of persistence and discontinuation. Six themes emerged. Theme 1: Institutional persistence factors included college employee commitment to students and college environment perceived as a comfort zone. Theme 2: Institutional barriers included insufficient time and personalized attention to entry interviews and inadequately trained entry-level advisement counselors. Theme 3: Academic persistence factors included positive classroom experiences and, perceptions of quality faculty, accessible faculty, and accessible tutors. Theme 4: Academic barriers included ESL transitions and lack of ongoing academic advisement. Theme 5: Personal persistence characteristics of independence, focused decision maker, self-advised, resilient to negativity, belief in self, and positive familial and employer support were most consistent in the 20 women interviewed. Theme 6: Personal barriers included multiple responsibilities of job, family, and school, limited time to access resources, reluctance to seek academic advisement, and lack of familiarity on how or unwilling to create academic alliances.