I did not go to the library on Saturday or Sunday as my friend Curtis was visiting. He absolutely motivated me to keep on my pace or even to work harder. I absolutely MUST finish this dissertation this year before December and graduate in June of 2012. That is my goal and I will not be distracted. Today I went to the library and I continued to read research reports, incorporated the tips from Curtis and contacted Margaret about weekly status meetings via Skype.

For the past week I have been reading and summarizing studies, books, and articles for my chapter 2. I have made great progress. I have decided that until I find my next income opportunity that my job will be to finish my dissertation. So, each day I get up and go to the library as if it was a job. I arrive at 8 am and try to stay at least until 2pm when my daughter has to be picked up at school. I plan to go on Saturday's and Sunday's as well. This week I finished Radical Equations and did summarizes for multiple studies. The goal for this weekend is to continue to organize and categorize my work and determine if I need more before I lay down the first draft of the chapter. The goal is 50 write-ups.

Today I went to the library and I read 3 studies. I still need to summarize them however. I also started reading from the Jossey Bass reader only to find it won't be as helpful as I had hoped. Next session I plan to write up the articles I read today and read several more. There were a few sources I learned of today that I will read as well.

Tonight I wrote up the article Digital Inequality: Differences in Young Adults' Use of the Internet. The main point of this study is that online skill is an important mediating factor in the types of activities people pursue online. I may use this as part of a section in my chapter 2. I also examined: Insisting on Digital Equity: Reframing the Dominant Discourse on Multicultural Education and Technology. I should finish reading it on Thursday and complete the summary.

Read a few more studies and articles today. Only to find that these are not really related to my research. Of the 5, I read today,I maybe can use one. The next session I should finish my articles and move on to the citations from the study I am replicating and checking out the jossey bass reader. Then I will know if I need to actually go out and seek more literature.

Yesterday I spent more time reading research reports for my literature review. Mostly, none of them were useful, but that is still good, as it allowed me to get rid of them or decide to use them in other work.

Today I continued my work on my lit review. I studied the Degrees of Success report. This also gave me the idea to possibly do a similar approach with HBCUs. I also covered the Bayer Study embedded in the U.S Gets Poor Grades in Nurturing STEM Diversity as well as the Why So Few report by The American Association of University Women.

Yesterday was more of the same. I read, organized and summmarized the studies I will use to craft my literature review. I will do more of the same today.

Today I did more summmaries as I continue to develop my literature review map.

Over the weekend I attended the Nu Skin Kick Off 2011 for the product launch of Vitality in Orlando. While I was there I spent some time with my good friend Dr. Plinkske. Kathleen gave me several pointers on completing my dissertation and on both flights I got some work in regarding my literature review. I read 7 papers (4 of which I will use in my paper) and today I will summarize and categorize them and begin work on several others. These are the papers I read:

1. Why Students with an Apparent Aptitude for Computer Science Don't Choose to Major in Computer Science, Lori Carter

2. Factors that Attract African American Males to Computer Science: A Study of Aspiring and Current Professionals, Jerlando Jackson, Lavar J. Charleston, Phillis George, and Juan E. Gilbert.

3. Developing the STEM Education Pipeline, ACT

4. Making Computer Science More Enticing, Michelle Quinn

5. Degrees of Success, Higher Education Research Institute



3. Developing the STEM Education Pipeline

Think about modeling the Bayer Study. Although the Bayer Study surveyed several minority groups, I only want to survey African American men. But, they used email and surveys to collect their data. That appeals to me at this point. They were already scientists. And they surveyed them.

Today I continued reading research reports on my goal to 50. One of which I am sure to use. It is the Bayer Study. It once again the idea to interview students of BPDA and/or NSBE. I tried this before and Margaret did not like the idea. I will have to ask again why. I think I will finish reading this study and call it a day.

Tonight I finished reading

Single-Gender Schools and Inner City; Can They Work? Is a Single Gender Setting a positive educational setting for African American Males
by Mateen Diop.

Next up is The Operative Paradigm of Hispanic-American Women Business Leaders: A Narrative, Qualitative Study. It is 123 pages long. My goal is to get it read this week. I also plan to find a study similar in topic to mine and read the chapter 2 of that one as well.

I am reading literature reviews to get a better idea of what is expected of this chapter. I have completed my reading of The Next Generation of Community College Presidents: Critical Characterstics, Competencies and Professional Experiences written by Kathleen Plinkse. I learned a lot from reading this one. Right now I am reading Single-Gender Schools and Inner City; Can They Work? Is a Single Gender Setting a positive educational setting for African American Males by Mateen Diop. I should finish reading it on Friday and then I have one more I would like to read before I develop my first draft. Here is what I have learned and planned to do.

1. Review each of my articles (try to have 50 or so)
2. Write a Summary of each one
3. Do a literature map based on the categories that emerge
4. Organized what I have to itegrate the content
5. Weave the content in a way to present where my study adds to
6. I also intend to do a a little more research (new content)

My goal is to send my literature review map to Margaret by next Friday. Once I get that back I intend to produce my first draft a few days after that. That is the plan.

Today I finished my reading in Creswell on writing the literature review. I know have a better understanding of what I am supposed to do. Now I will start reading, summarizing, and categorizing what I have as well as drawing my literature review map. I have many reports that I have obtained since I started the project. I will categorize ad summarize what I have as well as search for new reports. In my next session I will be officially working on my literature review.

Started reading Creswell to get a better understanding of how to go about constructing my chapter 2 (the review of literature). I was totally confused. Reading the work of others did not help me. My next task is to finish studying this chapter. After that I will read a couple of literature reviews. The reading of Creswell has helped. Then I will map out plan and start writing. I intend to have produced some work by the end of the work. Maybe not a rough draft, but at least a plan and a few summaries of some of the works that I have read.

Today I spent about an hour working on my research questions and finished up editing based on the last comments I received from Margaret. I was still unsure about one of her comments. I sent her a new copy with my changes. In my next session I will write my first draft of my literature review. I am taking a look at a couple of dissertations so that refresh my mind and generate ideas for how I want to structure my chapter 2.

Today I found a few moments to use the feedback I received from Margaret to change the paragraph regarding BDPA. I also emailed a new, cleaner copy to Jane Margolis for feedback. In the next session, I will make the changes to the research questions and submit another copy to Margaret. I also have started to ask the questions and think about the chapter 2.

I have been unable to work on my paper since October 15. My efforts to find a new job, family obligations (Birthdays, etc) had pushed it back on my priority list. I still have not found a job but I have decided to put my doctorate back to the top of the list. After being inspired by my good friend Dr. Vicki Perry (I attended her graduation last weekend), and talking with my wife about priorities I have decided to go for it. So, I am back. There will be much more activity here in the next couple of months. Today I was able to make most of the edits that came back from Margaret with my last submission. In my next session, which will be tommorow my plan is to finish those edits and resubmit the chapter. Here is the workflow for my next section:

1. rewrite the research questions
2. Review email
3. run through turnitin on pepperdine
4. email dr. margolis
5. The top of document regarding bdpa

add to chapter 1 or 2: http://www.tntech.edu/pressreleases/ttu-tsu-collaborate-on-study-of-stem-minority-student-success/

Minority students majoring in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines perform better if they aren't singled out for preferential treatment in the classroom.
That's one conclusion from research findings developed by investigators at Tennessee Tech University and Tennessee State University under a Tennessee Board of Regents diversity research grant. The collaborative study sought to understand the experiences of racial minority undergraduates studying STEM subjects.

The research was completed by Matthew Zagumny, professor of counseling and psychology at TTU, and David Shen-Miller, assistant professor of counseling psychology at TSU in Nashville.

Further, the researchers found that minority STEM students performed better if they perceived that their university has a commitment to racial diversity in the classroom, among faculty and administrative staffers as well.