Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
In search of connection: How graduates from all-girls high schools describe their leadership involvement at a coeducational university
Abstract
The impetus for this research came from a desire to understand how women who graduated from all-girls high schools described their leadership involvement at a coeducational university. I was interested in understanding how women who graduated from all-girls high schools adjusted to a coeducational environment. The study was conducted at a private university in the Midwest. Admissions data were used to identify possible participants. All participants were in their senior year in college. This study is significant because research about women who graduated from all-girls high schools is limited. Research on all-girls education is limited to aspects of elementary and secondary education. By using a qualitative research design, I sought to discover how the participants related to their environment and how they described their involvement experiences. The data suggest that participants who experienced high levels of leadership involvement in high school connected more quickly in college and held higher positions within those organizations than those participants who had lower levels of leadership involvement in high school. All participants sought “connections” through relationships regardless of their level of leadership involvement. The following theoretical propositions emerged from the study. (1) Women who graduate from all-girls high schools and then attend a co-educational university may seek “connections” through leadership involvement on campus. (2) Women graduates may base leadership opportunities on relational benefits rather than “power” or “position” in the organization. Women may stay in activities where their input and contributions were appreciated. (3) Women graduates from all-girls high schools may have their self confidence impeded during the transition to a co-educational environment. (4) Women who graduate from all-girls high schools and then attend a co-educational university may be less likely to have interacted with young men in co-curricular opportunities. The information gathered in the study may provide insight and direction for those who work with young women who select a single sex high school experience and then choose to attend a coeducational college. The findings of this study may assist professionals who work with the leadership development of women at both the high school and college level.
Subject Area
School administration|Curricula|Teaching|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Svartoien-Conway, Jody I, "In search of connection: How graduates from all-girls high schools describe their leadership involvement at a coeducational university" (2000). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9973604.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9973604