Scholarship & Research
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Item Education For Sustainability (EFS) as a lived experience at a land grant university (MSU): a case study of MSU teaching faculty(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2022) Short, Daniel Owen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael BrodySustainability is a contentious and awkward topic to teach. Increasing concern and awareness of sustainability issues drives a need to study sustainability through an education lens. Education, specifically Higher Education (HE), is a vital source in understanding and ultimately addressing sustainability issues. However, HE institutions continue to promote unsustainable patterns on a local, regional, and global scale. There is an alignment between MSU's mission as a land grant institution and that of Educations for Sustainability (EfS). The shared mission is to serve local regions and citizens by addressing local, regional, and global issues through education, research, and service. This exploratory qualitative study aims to examine and describe the lived experiences of educators at MSU who teach 'fundamental' EfS courses. Data collected is from Interviews, course artifacts, a survey, and observations from the sample of four (n=4) MSU faculty and their courses. The research used a collective case study methodology. A central finding of this study is the faculty's dedication to accurately representing the complexities of sustainability to their students. The faculty's beliefs and experiences manifest in their courses by promoting inclusive scholarship and adaptable course design. This study offers a reflection of a small sample of MSU faculty teaching EfS to promote further research into EfS at MSU.Item Anonymous anomaly: nonresident undergraduates on a 21st century land grant campus(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2021) Hicks II, James Merle; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Tricia SeifertThe experiences of nonresident undergraduates enrolled in US public universities have remained understudied. Accordingly, the purpose of this qualitative intrinsic case study was to explore the nonresident undergraduate's experience, persistence and sense of belonging on a land grant university campus. Combined, findings were intended to expand the literature base, methodological approaches and practitioner programming regarding nonresident persistence. Existing transition and institutional logics theory formed the basis of the study's theoretical framework. Nine first-time, full-time third year undergraduates from states across three time zones were interviewed twice during their sixth semester of college enrollment. Additionally, data was collected through photovoice and document analysis methods. Findings for each research question were reported through a thematic analysis. Themes related to experience included: adapting from home to university life, motivating from enrollment to degree, and recreating as a lifestyle. Themes related to persistence included: accessing campus resources, familying from afar, and socializing to stay. Themes related to sense of belonging included: transforming through personal growth, identifying across groups and areas, and supporting across communities. Lived experience findings supported existing literature on socioeconomic and enrollment management while extending the literature on financial challenges. Persistence findings supported past literature on third year priorities and extended the literature on nonresident peer groups and family support. Sense of belonging findings supported literature on the theoretical construct of interdependence while extending the literature on the influence of community characteristics and campus climate. Policy implications for nonresident retention centered on leveraging outdoor curriculum, addressing nonresident insurance, revising nonresident tuition models and expanding nonresident mentoring programs. Practice implications for nonresident retention focused on innovations to summer orientation programming, expanding transportation options, expanding family weekend opportunities, and offering more resources on the surrounding community. Future recommendations focused on expanding research both in methodological scope and duration to better understand the nonresident experience.Item Schools of empires: the role of higher education and colonization in the American West and Japan(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Colgrove, Clinton Allen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael ReidyThe historical relevance of the role of the university is related to research in both local and global exchanges, the accessibility to forms of higher education, and the decentralization and use of scientific knowledge. Using institutions at Gottingen, Amherst, New York, Bozeman, and Sapporo, this dissertation interrogates how geographical space, settler colonialism, and socio-cultural contexts inform scientific, agricultural, and engineering practices, research, and education from the nineteenth into the twenty-first century. Beginning with Wilhelm von Humboldt's twin pillars of academic freedom and the combination of research and teaching, this dissertation traces the migration of approaches to higher education from German schools to the American East. American conceptions of higher education evolved as educators like Frederick A. P. Barnard called for reform and academics returned from abroad. In the 1860s, the land grant school and the school of mines provided models to reshape the educational and geographical landscape of the country. As settlers colonized the American West, boosters established new schools based on civic or religious interests before state and industrial entities funded other institutions. In Montana, proximity to mining facilitated the establishment of its first school of mines and political interests led to the decentralization of the state schools. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan sought new forms of knowledge to strengthen its imperial rule, and in the colonization of Hokkaido, Kiyotaka Kuroda identified the land grant model displayed under William Smith Clark's leadership in Massachusetts as the ideal example to adopt. Both case studies demonstrate higher education's adaptability and its tenuous relationship with government expectations and funding. As Japan's empire crumbled, evolving geopolitical matters influenced the American government to increase federal funding opportunities leading to the alignment of schools and programs with the Academic-Military-Industrial Complex. Laboratories such as the Electronics Research Laboratory at Montana State University demonstrate how this relationship affected new forms of technology and research. Based on archival research and personal interviews, this dissertation analyzes the historical, multifaceted role of the university, its accessibility, and how Humboldtian ideals, reflected in practice, shape our understanding of the present and future role of higher education.Item Retention planning for the future : challenges facing the rural land-grant university in the twenty-first century(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1999) Stryker, Janet CourtneyItem Anti-democracy's college : an outline of the corporatist culture of organized social machinery and the leadership of the land-grant agricultural colleges in the 'Progressive' era(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1990) Scoville, Gordon Gary; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Billy G. Smith and Donald L. Robson.The Morrill Act of 1862 established a national system of land-grant colleges and universities. Generations of scholars have viewed these institutions as democratic because the schools supposedly diffused opportunity to realize the traditional liberal principle of individual freedom for self-determination. Through an analysis of the leaders - presidents, deans, and directors - of the land-grant agricultural subdivisions in the "progressive" era, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine whether the leadership's completion in that period of a tripartite organization of resident instruction, research, and extension accorded with democracy. Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony guided the examination. This idea refers to a cultural process of practicing principles in such a way as to form class alliances that secure popular consent to a dominant politics. Use of the historical method of "internal criticism" established the credibility of primary material that entered a dialogic encounter with the Gramscian conception, which provided a provisional explanation of the original documents. The results of the dialogue show the tripartite structure as a class alliance embodying the Newtonian world machine as a business corporation based on corporatist principles of centralized authority, priority of office over individual, and fragmented functions. Agricultural college leaders helped convey specific forms of organized corporatism to farming people. Corporatism consisted of organization that supplanted popular reconstruction of society with central coordination of mass objectives as the fragmented pursuit of single-issue interests. In the countryside, this conveyance sought to reproduce elements of the organizational design exemplified by the tripartite arrangement, and thus aimed to secure consent to a dominant politics of corporate liberalism that shifted liberal agency from individuals to centrally coordinated groups. The study concludes that collegiate participation in and support of this rising mode of political dominance took form in assistance in constructing a "corporatist culture of organized social machinery" -- the extension of corporatist principles and practices in a society that the college leadership imagined to be a machine. This diffusion constituted an anti-democratic denial of the individual and popular capacity to determine their societal destiny.Item A survey of trends and practices in child development centers among land grant and state universities(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1971) Brown, Mary StewartItem A comparative analysis of factors affecting productivity levels in professors of education in U.S. land-grant universities(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1991) Schoenstedt, Linda JoItem Incentive/reward systems and faculty orientations toward academic activities at a land grand university(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1980) Kohl, Joye BrownItem Perceptions of the Montana land grant system held by legislators and faculty(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2004) Duffey, Lisa Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Van Shelhamer.A survey was conducted to determine the perceptions of the agricultural components of the Montana land grant system (College of Agriculture (COA)/Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) and Extension Service (ES)) held by Montana legislators and faculty working in the system. Surveys were mailed to 150 legislators (85 returned) and 198 faculty members (85 returned). Responses were analyzed using SPSS 12.0. Results found that legislators and faculty preferred an administrative structure with one leader for all three components of the agriculture land grant system. Overall, both populations agreed with the nine assumptions defined by the Montana land grant system leadership that served as the foundation for the strategic plans. There was agreement between the two groups with the stated goals of COA/AES and ES. A large number of "Don't Know" responses by legislators indicated a need for improved communication with them about the goals of the land grant system. Both populations identified high levels of success in offering quality scholarly activity, conducting high quality research, and developing the confidence, competence, and character of the state's youth. Significant differences in perceptions of success were found between the two groups for goals such as being accountable to the state's citizens, strengthening Montana's families and communities, and helping people understand stewardship. Priorities identified by the respondents for 2010 included funding for COA, crops and economics for AES, and communication and staffing for ES. Personal contacts and agricultural publications were the primary sources of information about agricultural issues for faculty, while legislators turned to daily newspapers and agricultural publications. During the legislative session, legislators look to agricultural lobbyists, other legislators, and constituents for information about agricultural issues. Results indicate a breakdown in communication between the land grant system and Montana legislators and, in some cases, faculty employees of the system that needs to be addressed to ensure the successful future of the Montana land grant system and Montana agriculture. Changes to the form and function of the land grant system and its relationship with the Legislature are recommended to address the needs of Montana agriculture and Montana's citizens