Date of Award

Fall 11-25-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Admin

First Advisor

Maria L Serpa

Second Advisor

William Stokes

Third Advisor

Brenda Matthis, and Claudia Rinaldi

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated educational equity at the University of Notre Dame Bangladesh (NDUB), a coeducational Catholic institution founded in 2014 in Dhaka, by the Holy Cross Order. Educational equity in higher education is pivotal to advancing social justice in Bangladesh, a developing country with a long history of oppression and social justice challenges. Participants included 3 top university administrators, 20 professors, and 30 minority students selected to via snowball sampling. Open- and closed-ended survey items focused on institutional policy, and on administrators’, professors’, and students’ perceptions/perspectives on educational equity as a dimension of social justice at NDUB. In addition, relevant university policy documents were reviewed. Data were analyzed in two ways: a tabulation of descriptive statistics using Qualtrics to reflect the basic features of the surveys; and thematic analysis. which generated six themes/areas: financial equity, gender equity, ethnic equity, student-professor relationships, student support, and professional development. Findings indicated that (1) university policies supported financial equity for 90% of the 12% of low-income minority students; (2) although students were 55% male and 45% female, 75% of faculty and all top administrators were male; (3) ethnic minorities were represented in the student body, but not in the faculty or administration; (4) professors provided extra support and mentoring to minority or female students, and cared about them as people. Recommendations include addressing gender inequities in faculty and administration; and supporting preparation of ethnic minorities to become faculty and administrators.

Keywords: higher education, Bangladesh, educational equity, minority students, Catholic education, social justice.

© Rozario 2018

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Language

English

Embargo Period

12-3-2018

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