Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Callings'

This phenomenological study seeks to explore the lived experiences that have led Millennials through a meaning-making process to discover their callings. The primary research question framing this study addresses what the relationship is between Millennials’ meaning-making process and the discovery of their calling. Secondary questions address how Millennials who have found their calling define and conceptualize the concept and sources of calling, what the lived experiences are that have led Millennials to discover their calling, and how Millennials make meaning of the experiences and influences that have led them to discover their calling.

Perceiving and living a calling is associated with various life and work outcomes such as life satisfaction/meaning, job satisfaction, and meaningful work. However, little is known about how callings develop. Furthermore, there remain conflicting views on the conceptualization and source of calling. In addition, the existing research on calling is focused primarily on previous generations, university students, and individuals of religious-based backgrounds. It is important for researchers and practitioners to understand how members of the Millennial generation develop a calling, because this generation is currently in the workforce and is reported to be the biggest U.S. generation yet. While there is significant research on the career expectations of Millennials and how they value meaning in their work, there is little known about what experiences lead them to develop their callings and how they make meaning of those experiences to discern their callings. Thus, this study extends the body of research beyond these groups to Millennials who are currently in the workforce and living their callings in order to ensure that their perspectives and experiences of calling are incorporated into the literature.

Eight Millennials who are currently living their calling were selected for participation in this interview-based study. The findings of the study are presented within the following three main themes: the conceptualization of calling, the lived experiences in developing a calling, and the meaning-making process as it pertains to developing a calling. Bases on these findings, conclusions were developed and implications and recommendations are suggested.

While having a calling can produce great results, in recent studies on calling the key to reaping the rewards has been closely linked to being able to live out the call. For pastors in particular, “The Call” is fundamental to their lives and work. Most enter the ministry because of a deep sense of calling from God. A pastor’s relationship with God is also key in this experience and was hypothesized to be a factor in the calling model for this career subgroup. The goal of this study was to explore how pastors experience calling in their lives and work; specifically, the relation between belief in their calling, fulfillment of that calling, life satisfaction, and how satisfaction in their relationship with God might interplay throughout the process. After accounting for missing data and outliers, the study sample consisted of 144 pastors enrolled in an online leadership development tool. Participants ranged in age from 23 to 98, 80% identified as male, and 98.6% were Protestant. Regression analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS to estimate a moderated mediation (Model 58). The proposed mediated relationship was significant, with calling fulfillment mediating the relationship between calling belief and life satisfaction for pastors in this sample ( R² = 0.215, F(2, 141) = 19.274, p < .001). The proposed moderating role of satisfaction in relationship with God was not a significant predictor at either proposed stage. Overall, these results reveal that for pastors, the key in the relationship from calling to life satisfaction is living out the calling.

Twenty five percent of individuals diagnosed with autism are nonverbal and need to learn to communicate using alternative means (National Research Council, 2001) in order to build functional spontaneous communication. Joint attention behaviors are critical for communication development (Mundy & Newell, 2007). This study introduces a video calling intervention to target the joint attention behaviors, eye gaze, verbalization and gestures. The purpose of this study was to discover what relationship exists between video calling and joint attention in nonverbal children with autism and to explore the perspectives of parents and their communication interaction with the child. This case study of two children is a quantitative ABA withdrawal design and a qualitative narrative design. The ABA design uses seven-inch Prestige 7 Connect tablets and Skype, video calling software program to communicate during game, reading and discussion activities. Observing and recording procedures were used to collect the data and visual analysis was conducted using graphs, tables. The narrative design used parent interviews and questionnaires to build themes. The findings indicate that video calling had a positive impact on eye gaze and verbalization behaviors during discussion and game activities. From the narrative analysis emerged a theme of engagement and focus. The conclusions indicate that video calling has impact on some joint attention behaviors and increases engagement in nonverbal children with autism. Implications for this study include using video calling in the classroom for peer interactions and skill building. Further study is needed to increase the generalizability of these findings.

Keywords: joint attention, video calling, nonverbal, autism, engagement

Developing a smart home environment for the assistive living requires great efforts. The key element of the smart environment is the ubiquitous voice user interface with several additional capabilities such as the recognition of several gestures, which can be a new feature of voice controlled devices. There are many identification technologies used in current intelligent guard systems. Relative to other techniques, the voice recognition technology is generally regarded as one of the convenient and safe recognition techniques. The assistive device project has incorporated the technology of voice recognition to perform the GSM calling. Arduino UNO is the microprocessor used to create an interface between the voice module and the GSM module SIM900. Platform was developed using inexpensive hardware and software elements available on the market People with disabilities showed high robustness for assistive device. Sample voice commands were stored in the temporary memory for the ATMEGA 328P when field tests with several sets of voice commands was done. The GSM module SIM900 could easily connect to the local cellular network carriers. Hence voice recognized emergency calling can be the future of biomedical field.

U.S. rhetoric that embraces immigration is juxtaposed with the lived experiences of Latinx immigrants, the country’s largest immigrant group. Intergenerational research shows how immigrants’ social mobility depends on socioeconomic and environmental factors, impacting occupational attainment. Immigration policies portray immigrants negatively—contrasting deserving/good with undeserving/bad. This study uses d/Discourse (i.e., everyday talk/societal understandings) to investigate how immigrants from different generations make sense of policy, immigrant portrayals, and their lives through the lens of “calling.” Here, calling is used to understand differences across generations, rather than positioned as an individual pull toward an occupation. Specifically, this study answered three questions: (1) What occupational and intergenerational d/Discourses are perceived by immigrants?; (2) Whose interests are served by these d/Discourses and who is marginalized?; (3) How do immigrants experience “callings” across generations? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with different generations of immigrants (N=36). Generational and intergenerational sensemaking themes are identified using d/Discourse, while critical discourse analysis is used to explain inequalities and in whose interests d/Discourses are created. The main theoretical contribution of this study suggests that callings can be enacted and fulfilled intergenerationally. Within immigrant families, first-generation immigrants often hold visions of who their children (second-generation immigrants) will become. This vision often includes high educational attainment, a prestigious occupation, and documentation in the United States. Second-generation immigrants felt a pressure to perform well in school and validate the sacrifices made by their parents. They recognized that the visions for their future constructed by their first-generation parents were riddled with tensions. The occupational decisions of the second-generation immigrants often tried to find a middle ground between fulfilling their parents’ vision but also practicing in occupations that they were personally interested in. Several barriers made the path to fulfilling intergenerational callings more difficult. Second-generation immigrants recognized the privileges they held that their parents did not, including language barriers and acceptance into the country tied to documentation and acceptance based on racial models in the United States. While first-generation immigrants accepted these challenges as part of their intergenerational calling, the second-generation struggled to do the same. Finally, in fulfilling intergenerational callings many immigrants unintentionally reproduced deservingness narratives. In short, this study contributes theoretically and practically by challenging immigrant portrayals and viewing callings as intergenerational but filled with internal and external challenges.