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Another Research Community Project

Flight or Fight? Motivations for Academic Achievement through Quality Education

by Dr. Dominique M. Gendrin
Dr. Pamela N. Waldron-Moore

Researchers, educators, and administrators in higher education agree that students' quality of education is grounded in their ability to learn roles, feelings, attitudes, norms, and social expectations from the social context, institutional structures, and classroom experiences (Giroux, 1981, 1997). Assessing students' perceptions of their educational success in relation to institutional structures, the socio-psychological environment, and the classroom setting may aid an understanding of how students are able to reach their goals at Xavier University. The research community aims at exploring the following question: ''What motivates students to commit to their educational endeavors and reach for their goals at Xavier University?'' This research community comprises Dr. Pamela Waldron-Moore from the Department of Political Science, Dr. Dominique M. Gendrin from the Department of Communications, and two undergraduate students with a major/minor respectively in these fields. Through their research expertise, these two faculty members will integrate the issue of allocation of values and the research and application of communication strategies to address the socio-psychological and educational contexts of learning at Xavier University. The two disciplines have played an important advocacy role in promoting a more just and humane society. Thus, the interdisciplanary nature of this study readily lends itself to a collaborative effort combining rigorous methodological approaches with the necessary message strategies to answer essential questions of values associated with the goals of higher education. The objective of creating a more just and humane society emanates from a positive and supportive environment in which students can learn and grow as future community leaders and active citizens.

Start date: Saturday, June 1, 2002
Finish date: Tuesday, December 31, 2002