RERCEPNDNS or EMPLOYERS REGARDING , moRERANVE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL Dissertation for the Degree of Ph. D. f = ’ ,1 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ROGER WILLARD HUTT ' 7 1975 ‘ ' I T m 1. ;. ;W This is to certify that the thesis entitled PERCEPTIONS OF EMPLoiBRs REGARDING C(DPERATIVE DISTRIBUT IVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL presented by Roger Willard Hutt has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Bllsmess and degree in Distributive Education Ph.D. ,‘ i F “ l, / . 1/ I Q I UM) C7 1— aa‘ai/DM Major professor Date April 23, 1975 0-7639 ABSTRACT PERCEPTIONS OF EMPLOYERS REGARDING COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL BY Roger Willard Hutt A cooperative education program is based on a three- way partnership between the student, the employer, and the school. Very little formal literature is available concerning the factors which motivate employers to participate in cooperative distributive education programs or the percep- tions that employers have toward such programs. This study was undertaken to provide data on employer perceptions that would be of assistance to educators in the effective develop- ment, operation, and evaluation of cooperative programs. Statement of the Problem. The problem of the study was to assess the perceptions of employers who have partici- pated in cooperative distributive education programs and to ascertain their recommendations regarding the operation of such programs. The Specific objectives of the study were as follows: 1. Develop a clear and concise description of distributive education program objectives as seen by employers. Roger Willard Hutt 2. Determine which components of the distributive education program are known and understood by employers. 3. Ascertain the benefits that employers derive from participation in distributive education programs. 4. Learn how employers became aware of distribu- tive education. 5. Ascertain recommendations for making improve- inents in distributive education programs. 6. Identify employer preferences regarding compe- tencies that should receive priority in classroom instruc- tion. 7. Provide a model for analyzing the types of experiences that employers have had in working with distributive education. Research Procedure. The case study form of descrip— tive research was used in the study. Information needed to develop cases was gathered from semistructured group inter- views. It was believed that more revealing data could be obtained by interviewing the business people who hire, supervise, and assist in the training of distributive educa- tion cooperative students. Five communities in Michigan were chosen as the focus of case study reports. Each community was represented by a group of from five to nine employers who had worked with cooperative distributive education programs. An interview guide which listed the open-ended questions to be asked, as well as their sequence, was used Roger Willard Hutt in each group session. An audio tape recorder was used at each interview to record answers to questions, comments, and reactions of respondents. Transcripts were typed from the audio tapes and analyzed for content. Theme categories were derived from responses of interviewees and findings were summarized. Conclusions. The major conclusions of the study were : l. Employers described the objectives of distri- butive education in broader terms than those found in the literature or as proclaimed by distributive education leaders. These terms did not always refer specifically to the field of distribution and marketing. 2. Employers displayed an overall satisfaction with the distributive education cooperative program. In addition, the group interview format encouraged participants to share their experiences. 3. Employers believed there was little difference between the roles of the c00perating supervisor and the supervisor of all other employees. 4. Participants demonstrated an awareness of only a few characteristics or components of cooperative distri— butive education. 5. Businessmen obtained both intangible and tangi- ble benefits from participating in distributive education. Self-satisfaction and the opportunity to obtain dependable employees were examples from those respective categories. Roger Willard Hutt 6. Participants were typically introduced to c00perative programs in their communities by teacher- coordinators. 7. The majority of recommendations for improving distributive education were proposals that could be acted on by teacher-coordinators and would not require additional financial resources. 8. Employers preferred classroom tOpics, such as basic mathematics and communication skills, that were drawn from a variety of subject matter areas and then applied to distribution. This is in contrast to the preferences of distributive education leaders who believe that instruction should focus on the specific content of distribution and marketing. 9. The semistructured group interview was found to be an appropriate technique for ascertaining the percep- tions of employers regarding distributive education. PERCEPTIONS OF EMPLOYERS REGARDING COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL BY Roger Willard Hutt A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Secondary Education and Curriculum 1975 C1“ \. 'I ‘5. n \u“ ((9 Copyright by Roger Willard Hutt 1975 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of many individuals whose interest and support made this study possible. I am indebted to Dr. Peter G. Haines who served as chairman of the guidance committee and director of this investigation. He has guided me since the outset of my doctoral program through friendship, professional advice and personal example. His dedication to helping students achieve personal and professional goals has made a lasting impression on my life. I am sincerely grateful to Professors James W. Costar, W.J.E. Crissy, and Cas Heilman who served on both the guidance and dissertation committees. Dr. Crissy provided assistance in methodology and design of the study and served as moderator in the initial group interview. The enthusiasm for research that he imparted to me has added much to my professional preparation. Dr. Costar and Dr. Heilman gave much time and effort without hesitation. They were always available when I needed advice on the doctoral program and the research study. iii This study would not have been possible without the cooperation of distributive education teacher-coordinators and employers in five communities in Michigan. These individuals wished to remain anonymous. I am indebted to my mother and late father for the inspiration and encouragement they provided me in pursuing my goals in life. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the love, encourage- ment, and cooperation provided by my wife, Judy. This dissertation and the entire doctoral program would not have been possible without her continued sacrifice and support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Chapter I. PROBLEM OF THE STUDY . . . . . . . . . 1 Statement of the Problem . . . . . . 5 Purpose of the Study . . . . . . . . 7 Need for the Study . . . . . . . . . 9 Limitations of the Study . . . . . . . 13 Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . 13 Procedures for the Study . . . . . . . 16 Method . . . . Population . . . . . . . . . . 1? Selection of Participants . . . . . l7 Instrumentation . . . . . . . . 18 Interview Procedures . . . . . . . 18 Analysis of Data . . . . . . . 18 Validation of Interview Data . . . . 19 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE . . . . . . . 20 The Nature of Cooperative Distributive Education Programs . . . . . . . . 20 Views About Cooperative Education . . . . 24 Formal Studies About Cooperative Distributive Education . . . . . . . 30 Informal Literature About COOperative Distributive Education . . . . . . 34 Research on the Methodology of the Group Interview . . . . . . . . . 38 Semistructured Group Interviews . . . 39 Content Analysis Procedures . . . . 42 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Chapter Page III. RESEARCH PROCEDURES AND METHODOLOGY. . . . . 48 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Population . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Selection of Participants . . . . . . 56 Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . 59 Interview Procedures . . . . . . . . 62 The Role of the Moderator . . . . . 63 Recording the Data . . . . . . . 63 Interview Format . . . . . . . . 64 Analysis of Data . . . . . . . . . 65 IV. FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Case Study A--A Middle-Sized City With a Heavy Industrial Base . . . . . . . 72 Profile of the Participants . . . . 72 Objectives of Distributive Education . 76 Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 80 Role of the Employer . . . . . . 93 Visible Components of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . 95 Benefits to the Employer . . . . . 98 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 100 Recommendations for Improvement . . . 103 Preferred Classroom Topics . . . 105 Case Study B--Small Residential Community Near a Middle- Sized City . . . . . . 111 Profile of Participants . . . . . . 112 Objectives of Distributive Education . 116 Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 118 Role of the Employer . . . . . . . 126 Visible Components of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 128 Benefits to the Employer . . . . . 131 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 134 Recommendations for Improvement . . . 135 Preferred Classroom Topics . . . . . 138 vi Chapter Page Case Study C--A Middle-Sized City with an Industrial and Governmental Agency Base . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Profile of Participants . . . . 141 Objectives of Distributive Education . 145 Experience with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 148 Role of the Employer . . . . . . . 153 Visible Components of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . 156 Benefits to the Employer . . . . 159 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 163 Recommendations for Improvement .. . . 164 Preferred Classroom Topics . . . . . 166 Case Study D-—Sma11 City with a Diversified Industrial Base . . . . . 170' Profile of Participants . . . . . . 170 Objectives of Distributive Education . 174 Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . 177 Role of the Employer . . . . . . . 184 Visible Components of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . 185 Benefits to the Employer . . . . . 187 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 190 Recommendations for Improvement . . . 192 Preferred Classroom TOpiCS . . . 196 Case Study E--A Small City Located Within A Major Metropolitan Area . . . . . . 200 Profile of Participants . . . 200 Objectives of Distributive Education . 204 Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . 206 Role of the Employer . . . . . . . 212 Visible Components of Distributive Education . . . . . . ., . . . 214 Benefits to the Employer . . . . 216 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . 219 Recommendations for Improvement . . . 220 Preferred Classroom Topics . . . . . 222 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 vii Chapter V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS Problem of the Study . . . . . . Need for the Study . . . . . Procedures for the Study . . . Limitations of the Study . . . Findings . . . . . . Objectives of Distributive Education Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . Role of the Employer . . . . . Visible Components of Distributive Education . . . . . . Benefits to the Employer . . . Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . . . . . Recommendations for Improvement . Preferred Classroom TOpics . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . Recommendations and Implications . . BIBLIOGRAPHY . APPENDICES A. Interview Guide . . . . . . . . . B. Background Information Questionnaire . . C. Interview Validation Questionnaire . . . viii Page 228 229 230 231 234 235 235 236 239 240 242 243 244 246 247 249 253 259 260 261 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Enrollment in Federally Aided Vocational Distributive Education in Secondary and Post-Secondary Schools . . . . . . . 10 2. Number of Participants in Each Group Interview . . . . .‘ . . . . . . . 57 3. Distributive Occupational Program Areas Represented by Group Participants . . . . 60 4. Case Study A: Background Characteristics of Respondents . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 5. Case Study A: Number of Themes Per Topic Area . 76 6. Case Study A: Themes Regarding Objectives of COOperative Distributive Education Programs . 77 7. Case Study A: Themes Regarding Employers‘ Experiences with Distributive Education Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 8. Case Study A: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 9. Case Study A: Neutral Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education O O O O O O O O O O O O 8 6 10. Case Study A: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 11. Case Study A: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education . . . . . 94 12. Case Study A: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 ix Table 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. Case Study A: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education . . . . . . . Case Study A: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . Case Study A: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education . . . . . . . Case Study A: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers . . . . . . . . . . Case Study B: Background Characteristics of ReSpondents . . . . . . . . . . Case Study B: Number of Themes Per Topic Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study B: Themes Regarding Objectives of Cooperative Distributive Education Programs Case Study B: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs I O O O O O O O O O O 0 Case Study B: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study B: Neutral Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education I O O O O O O O O O 0 Case Study B: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study B: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education . . . . Case Study B: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program . . . . .. . . . . . . . Case Study B: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . Page 99 101 103 105 113 115 116 120 122 122 126 127 129 132 Table Page 27. Case Study B: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . 134 28. Case Study B: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education . . . . . . . . 136 29. Case Study B: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers . . . . . . . . . . . 139 30. Case Study C: Background Characteristics of Respondents . . . . . . . . . . . 143 31. Case Study C: Number of Themes Per Topic Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 32. Case Study C: Themes Regarding Objectives of Cooperative Distributive Education Programs . 146 33. Case Study C: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 34. Case Study C: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education 0 I O O I O I O O O O O 151 35. NCase Study C: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education 0 O O O O O O O O O O O 152 36. Case Study C: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education . . . . . 154 37. Case Study C: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive , Education Program . . . . . . . . . . 156 38. Case Study C: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 39. Case Study C: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . 163 40. Case Study C: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education 0 O O O O O O O O O O O 164 xi Table 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. Case Study C: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Background Characteristics of Respondents . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Number of Themes Per Topic Area 0 O . O O O . O O O O O 0 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Objectives of C00perative Distributive Education Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . O O . . . . . O O 0 Case Study D: Neutral Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education . . . . Case Study D: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program . O . O O . . . . . O 0 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . Case Study D: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . Case Study D: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . xii Page 167 172 174 175 179 180 182 183 184 186 188 191 193 Table Page 54. Case Study D: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers . . . . . . . . . . . 196 55. Case Study E: Background Characteristics of Respondents . . . . . . . . . . . 203 56. Case Study E: Number of Themes Per Topic Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 57. Case Study E: Themes Regarding Objectives of Cooperative Distributive Education Programs . 205 58. Case Study E: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 59. Case Study E: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education 0 O O O O O O O C O O O 20 9 60. Case Study E: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 61. Case Study E: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education . . . . . 212 62. Case Study E: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 63. Case Study E: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 64. Case Study E: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education . . . . 219 65. Case Study E: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education 0 O O O I O O O O O O 0 221 66. Case Study E: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers . . . . . . . . . . . 223 67. Comparison of Relative Emphasis Placed on TOpic Areas in Five Case Studies . . . . . 226 xiii CHAPTER I PROBLEM OF THE STUDY According to a generally accepted description, distributive education is: . . . comprised of programs of occupational instruction in the field of distribution and marketing. These programs are designed to prepare individuals to enter, or progress or improve competencies in, distributive occupa- tions. Emphasis is on the development of attitudes, skills, and understanding related to marketing, merchandising and management. Instruction is offered at the secondary, post- secondary, and adult education levels and is structured to meet the requirements for gain- ful employment and entrepreneurship at specified occupational levels.l Distributive education came into existence as a federally supported vocational program in 1936, through a provision of the George-Deen Act, to provide education for 1U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, OE-80061 (Washington,7D:C.: Government Printing Office, 1969). P. 19. those already engaged in a distributive occupation.2 After three decades of using only the cooperative plan at the secondary level distributive education adopted the goal of helping those who planned to enter a career in marketing by use of an alternative plan--the project laboratory. This new approach came about through the Vocational Educa- tion Act of 1963.3 The following statement of the goals of distributive education is contemporary and indicates that distributive education is both an educational service to people as well as a service to the marketing and distri— bution sector of the economy: 1. To offer instruction in marketing and distribution. 2. To aid in improving the techniques of distribution. 3. To develop an understanding of the wide range of social and economic responsibilities which accompany the right to engage in dis- tribution in a free, competitive society. Distributive education serves the distributive occu- pations. Such occupations are found throughout the vast marketing and distributive structure that directs the flow of goods and services from the producing sector to the 2Lucy C. Crawford and Warren G. Meyer, Organization and Administration of Distributive Education (Columbus: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1972), p. 266. 3 Ibid., p. 39. 4U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, A Study of Curriculum Development in the High School CooEerative Program, OE-82000 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1960), p. 20. ultimate consumer. In addition to retail and wholesale trade, students can receive training to pursue occupations in insurance, real estate, and transportation. As Crawford and Meyer have pointed out, ". . . it takes people--great numbers of people of various ages and a wide variety of abilities--to make the mass distribution system work."5 Following are examples of distributive occupations taken from the USOE publication, Vocational Education and Occupa- tions: diSplay manager, copy writer, fashion coordinator, salesperson, automotive service representative, bank cashier, food store cashier-checker, food concession manager, store manager, merchandise manager, hotel manager, insurance examiner, real-estate agent, and warehouse manager. Expansion and changes in the marketing sector of our society will call for continued emphasis on training, retraining, and upgrading of employees engaged in distribu— tion. It is assumed that high school distributive education programs will continue to play a significant role in educat- ing youth for distribution and marketing because a large portion of the jobs require training at less than the college level.7 But the question is: how well is 5Crawford and Meyer, op. cit., p. 4. 6U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, op. cit., pp. 20-34. 7 Crawford and Meyer, loc. cit. distributive education doing now according to the percep- tions of employers? There are two curriculum plans which are basic to providing in-school students with instruction in distribu- tive education. These plans of instruction are the cooperative plan and the project plan. Both accept the premise that the student has a career goal in marketing which gives meaning to instruction. The cooperative plan coordinates experience on the jdb with a related class in the school. The project plan, also called project lab, combines classroom instruction 'with.coordinated laboratory activities that are related to each student's occupational interests. In describing the cooperative plan, Nelson stated: The cooperative plan of organization is developed through voluntary arrangements between schools and employers. Employers provide an organized sequence of training on the job through regularly scheduled paid part-time employment. In effect, the employer or the training sponsor he designates becomes the laboratory teacher for those students whose voca- tional goals are compatible with his type of business. The cooperative arrangement, then, provides the student with Ian opportunity to learn the skills, information and attitudes required by his career-goal job by working in a related job. 8Edwin L. Nelson, "The Program of Distributive Education” (paper Presented at the meeting of the Adminis- trative Management Society, Washington, D.C., February 28, 1967). Nelson has described the project plan in the follow- ing manner: The project plan of organization is developed through contracts between the students and the teacher-coordinators. Projects are highly individualized activities related to each unit of instruction and to each student's job goal. Their purpose, like that of cooperative educa- tion, is to help students identify with work activities and employment standards.9 In a paper prepared for use in developing programs under the Manpower Development Training Act, Marks presented her VieWpoint of the project plan as: A series of individually selected activities that give students an opportunity to experience theory in practice while developing competencies through assignments related to their career goals.10 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Employers who provide training stations for distri- butive education students are key partners in the operation of cooperative programs. The problem of the study was to assess the perceptions of employers who have participated in cooperative distributive education programs to determine what they believe about the distributive education program and to ascertain their recommendations regarding the opera- tion of such programs. 91bid. loMary V. Marks, "Characteristics of Employment in Distribution" (Washington: U.S. Office of Education, 1962), P- 3- The results of this study may have dual impact. First, what employers believe about distributive education should be of interest to educators who have responsibility for such programs. Second, the findings may enrich the literature by adding new information about education— business relationships and establishing some avenues for further investigation. To attain the overall goal of the study, the research was focused on the following questions: 1. What do employers perceive the objectives of distributive education to be? 2. What types of experiences have employers had in working with distributive education programs? 3. What do employers perceive as their role in the distributive education program? 4. What specific components or Operational charac- teristics of the distributive education program are known and understood by employers? 5. What are the benefits that accrue to the employer who participates in the distributive education program? 6. How do employers become aware of distributive education? 7. What recommendations for improving high school distributive education programs are offered by employers? 8. What knowledge and skill areas do employers believe should be emphasized in the distri- butive education classroom? PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study was to provide data on employer perceptions of distributive education that would be of assistance to educators in the effective development, Operation, and evaluation of cooperative programs. More specifically, it was anticipated that the study would provide a basis for: 1. Developing a clear and concise description of distributive education_program objectives as seen by employers. First, these objectives will be clearly defined. Second, distributive educators will be provided with the opportunity to assess the degree of congruency between their own perceptions of program objectives and those held by employers. 2. Determining which components of the distributive education program are known and understood'by emplOyers. Findings from this portion of the study should be of value in planning contacts with the business community. Program areas in which employers have little or no knowledge can be given priority as discussion topics in coordination visits. 3. Ascertaining the benefits that employers derive from participation in distributive education programs. It has been established that the problem of the study was to discover how employers perceive of their role as partici- pants in cooperative distributive education. An ensuing point was to ascertain the benefits that employers receive in return for the functions they are expected to perform. These results would be valuable in tailoring informational and educational programs to merchant organizations, school district officials, trade associations, and businessmen with particular emphasis on recruiting new training sponsors. 4. Learning how employers became aware of distri- butive education. Recognizing the diversity of communica- tion'channels available for informing employers about distributive education, the study sought to establish how employers were introduced to the program. This inquiry should reveal which channels have been successful in carry- ing the message about distributive education to the business community. 5. Ascertaining recommendations for making improve- ments in distributive education proggams. It was antici- pated that information provided would assist distributive educators in evaluating, and modifying if necessary, current programs. 6. Enabling educators to determine employer prefer- ences as to what competencies should receive priority in classroom instruction. The net result is an identification of knowledge and skill areas that should receive emphasis in the curriculum. 7. Providing a model for analyzinggthe types of experiences that emplgyers have had in working with dis- tributive education. Such an analysis would be helpful to coordinators in orienting prospective or new training sponsors to distributive education by relating the actual experiences of other employers. NEED FOR THE STUDY Distributive educators have frequently assumed that they share a common set of beliefs about distributive education with employers in the business community. In addressing this point, Marks stated: Some businessmen told me that they felt the program was good for the community and that they were glad to judge contests and employ part-time D.E. students. They did not com- municate to me, however, any real perception of the program as being Specifically designed to prepare students for careers in their lines of business. There is a need, therefore, to learn what employers believe about the distributive instructional program. Such.an understanding is essential if distributive education is to compete successfully for community support for, as Marks added, "Half-truths make for poor competition."12 The magnitude of distributive education is indicated by the 11Mary V. Marks, "New Directions for Distributive Education--What We Must Do" (Speech to the Distributive Education Division, American Vocational Association, Boston, Massachusetts, December, 1969). 12Ibid. 10 continuous growth in federally aided vocational distributive education in secondary and post-secondary schools as illus— trated in Table 1. Table 1 Enrollment in Federally Aided Vocational Distributive Education in Secondary and Post-Secondary Schools .A.—_.—.—— -m .o‘ “a -. .- __.._.——.....- ..-..._.. ”—- fl. ~-_.——..— -—— ._ ——- -—-——._____—__—. Secondary Post-Secondary Total Year Schools Schools Enrollment 1966 101,728 15,833 117,561 1967 151,378 21,003 172,381 1968 175,816 44,824 220,640 1969 184,206 60,718 245,924 1970 230,007 82,160 312,167 1971 241,119 85,859 326,978 1972 262,730 102,844 365,574 1973 303,272 105,916 409,188 Source: U.S. Deparment of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Digest of Educational Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974). P. 43; and U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Summary Data, Vocational Education--Fisca1 Year 1973 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1974), p. 9. A c00perative education program is based on a three- way partnership between the student, the employer, and the school as represented by the teacher—coordinator. In view— ing this partnership, Mock noted: ll Cooperative education programs are offered in secondary and post-secondary schools and in senior colleges throughout the United States and Canada, and in every instance, the employer is the key person in making this partnership possible. 3 In his comments on involving industry in vocational educa- tion programs, Burt noted: . . . there is little, if any, meaningful, sus- tained,coordinated, and systematic participation and involvement of industry as a 'way-of-life' for occupational education in a vast number of schools and school systems. Much of the fault rests squarely with vocational and technical educators, for they have demonstrated a lack of knowledge as to the nature of and motivation for industry participation.14 Burt stated further that: A variety of factors motivate industry groups and individuals to volunteer their advice, services, and participation in school prOgrams designed to prepare students for employment in particular occupations. An understanding of these factors will help educators better perform their critical role of leadership.15 Thus it can be seen that the partnership between the high schools offering c00perative distributive education programs and the employer is a vital one. Very little formal liter- ature is available concerning the factors which motivate l3Perry Mock, "The Employer: What Would We Do Without Him?", American Vocational Journal, XLVIII (November, 1973), p. 54. 14Samuel M. Burt, "Involving Industry in Local Vocational and Technical Education," Industrial Arts and Vocational Education, LVI (January, 1967). P. 28. lsIbid. 12 employers to participate in cooperative distributive education programs or the perceptions that employers have toward distributive education students and programs. There are some items though which show a need. Dailey, in com— menting on the partnership of school, the community, and businessmen, noted: Much of the fault for lack of significant occupa- tional education lies with the educational family on the local school level, for they often demon- strated a lack of knowledge as to the nature of and motivation for business, community, school, and student participation and involvement. In addition, a recent observation by Furtado suggests that a reassessment of relations between the business community and distributive education personnel is needed. She stated: Looking at the early history and reflecting on the present, there is question as to whether Distri- butive Education has gotten too far away from a hand-in-hand relationship to the business sector which it once had.l7 Professional opinions such as those quoted stress the importance of gaining a better understanding of the business community. This reinforces the need for this study. 16Ross T. Dailey, "A Profile of DECA in New York State with Selected Educators' and Secondary Students' Perceptions Regarding Functional and Operational Beliefs of that Organization" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, 1972), p. 7. l7Lorraine T. Furtado, "An Interpretative History of Distributive Education 1936—1972, As Seen by Selected Leaders" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, 1973), p. 315. 13 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The following limitations apply to this study: 1. Limitations as to participants. This study was limited to those employers who volunteered for the inter— view sessions and who had participated in a c00perative distributive education program for high school students for at least one out of the previous three years. Partici- pants for the study were chosen from a broad range of dis- tributive businesses so as to represent the types of employment held by high school cooperative students. The study did not relate to the post high school program. 2. Limitations of the findings of the study. While much can be learned from the case study research method, it does not permit the generalization of findings beyond the cases under study except as they might represent similar situations in other states. 3. Limitations of the group interview. It is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of information obtained in the group interview. Some individuals may choose to withhold information or give answers which they feel are more acceptable. But, the case study is "real" and repre- sents people and their beliefs. DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms were defined according to the way they were used in this study: l4 Distributive Education. A program of instruction that prepares individuals, according to their career goals, for entry, upgrading, and retraining in occupations related to distribution and marketing.18 Cooperative Education Plan. A plan of instruction which, according to Mason and Haines: . . . have as their central purpose the develop- ment of occupational competence, using employment in a real-life job as a source of learning . . . . Class work in school provides those learnings basic to employment and to the occupation sought.19 Distributive Occupations. "Occupations followed by persons engaged primarily in the marketing or merchandising of goods and services, at both management and nonmanagement 20 levels." Such occupations typically involve direct con- tact with the customer. Teacher-Coordinator. The teacher appointed by the school to teach distributive and related subject matter to students preparing for employment. He also coordinates classroom instruction with on-the-job learning activities of students.21 18U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, loc. cit. 19Ralph E. Mason and Peter G. Haines, C00perative Occupational Education (2d.; Danville: Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 15. 20Luch C. Crawford, "Basic Beliefs in Distributive Education," American Vocational Journal, XLVIII (March, 1968), 25. 21Ibid. 15 Training Sponsor or Sppervisor. The person in the distributive organization who is delegated the responsibility of training and supervising a student employee. The term 22 cooperative employer is also frequently used. Student Emplgyee or Learner. A student enrolled in a cooperative program recognized as being part of the student's overall educational program.23 Training Station. "The business establishment pro- viding cooperative experiences for the student—learner."24 Direct Supervision. That cooperative employment situation where the student reported directly to, and was evaluated by, the respondent on a regular basis. A depart— ment manager responsible for assigning daily tasks to an employee would be a direct supervisor of that employee. Indirect Supervision. That cooperative employment situation where the respondent supervised or evaluated the student on an infrequent basis. The personnel manager in a large department store who is responsible for evaluating all employees annually or semi-annually would be an indirect supervisor. 22Ibid. 23Vocational Education and Career Development Ser- vice, Guidelines for Regular Secondary COOperative Voca- tional Education Programs (Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1973), P. 7. 24Ibid. 16 PROCEDURES FOR THE STUDY The study procedures involved seven areas: (1) method, (2) p0pulation, (3) selection of participants, (4) instrumentation, (5) interview procedures, (6) analysis of data, and (7) validation of interview data. Method The case study form of descriptive research was selected for use in the study. Information needed to develop cases was gathered from semistructured group inter- views. It was believed that more revealing data could be obtained by interviewing the business people who hire, supervise, and assist in the training of distributive educa- tion c00perative students.25 Advantages of semistructured group interviews are that they encourage participants to make personal comments and express their feelings, result in a variety of descriptions or definitions of a given situation, and serve to activate forgotten details.26 25This method was suggested by Dr. W. J. E. Crissy, a recognized authority in the field of marketing research and management development. 26Robert K. Merton, Marjorie Fiske, and Patricia L. Kendall, The Focused Interview (Glencoe: The Free Press), pp. 141-146. 17 Population Cooperative distributive education is offered by 243 high schools in Michigan.27 The majority of these programs are located in the more populated areas in the southern half of the state's lower peninsula. 'Five communities were chosen from this geographic area to serve as the focus of case study reports. Each community was represented by a group of employers, with the result that 11 percent of cooperative distributive education programs in the state were represented in the sample.28 Selection of Participants Participants for each case study were selected on the basis of two criteria. First, only those employers who had participated in a cooperative distributive education program for at least one out of the prior three years were eligible. Second, participants were chosen from a range of distributive businesses so as to represent the types of employment held by high school cooperative students. Five to nine employers participated in each interview session. 27Vocational Education and Career Development Service, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building Program Report (Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1974). ZBIbid. 18 Instrumentation An interview guide (Appendix A) was used as the primary data collection instrument in the study. An addi— tional instrument, a brief questionnaire (Appendix B), was used to obtain data on the background of the participants. The interview guide lists questions that are to be asked and the sequence in which they will be presented during the interview. Interview Procedures Each interview session was conducted by a moderator who introduced the topic and opened up new areas of dis- cussion when necessary. An audio tape recorder was used at each interview to record answers to questions, comments, and reactions of respondents. In order to get the group interview effectively underway, the moderator explained the purpose of the gather- ing, defined his own role and that of a respondent, and defined the relationship among respondents. Analysis of Data Transcripts were typed from audio tapes of each group interview. The transcripts, therefore, represented the source data for the content analysis procedures that were used. Content analysis was selected because of its appropriateness for processing data derived from Open-ended 19 questions. Findings were presented in the form of a case report for each interview. Validation of Interview Data A follow-up questionnaire was mailed to participants subsequent to the interviews. Each participant was asked to review the summary of findings and to be prepared to react in a forthcoming telephone interview by indicating agreement or disagreement, or by adding ideas which may have been missed in the interviews. This procedure served to validate data collected in the group sessions. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A search of related literature in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) was conducted; items found are shown in the bibliography. The related litera- ture is presented in five categories: (1) the nature of cooperative distributive education programs, (2) views of various groups concerning both c00perative education pro- grams in general and cooperative programs in occupational areas other than distribution and marketing, (3) views per- taining specifically to cooperative distributive education that were revealed in research studies, (4) business per- sons' views of distributive education as described in speeches and articles, and (5) information related to the methodology of the group interview. THE NATURE OF COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS A c00perative distributive education program is based on a three-way partnership between the student, the employer, and the teacher-coordinator who represents the 20 21 school. Mason and Haines have described the central pur- pose of cooperative education as: . . . the development of occupational compe- tence, using employment in a real-life job as a source of learning. The overall goal of c00perative education, then, is to provide instruction for those persons who are either currently employed or preparing to enter a specific occu- pational area. Some specific objectives of cooperative training, as stated in a nationally-published handbook are: 1. To provide the student participating in this program an actual real—life situation in which he might apply instruction learned in the class. 2. To provide direct and strict supervision to the student so that he may obtain correct procedural knowledge immediately from skilled supervisors. 3. To provide the business community with an opportunity to directly participate in the preparation of our youth for gainful employment. 4. To provide a communication link.between what is taught in the classroom and what is applied on the job.2 The fact that a student is released from school for part of the day to work does not necessarily mean that he is enrolled in a cooperative education program. The follow- ing key elements of the cooperative plan, as stated by 1Ralph E. Mason and Peter G. Haines, Cooperative Occupational Education (2d ed.; Danville: The Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 15. 2Carroll B. Coakley, ed., Distributive Education Teacher-Coordinators' Handbook (Danville: The Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., 1972), pp. 114-115. 22 Mason and Haines, provide the framework for distinguishing it from 1. program a general work experience program: The primary and overriding purpose is to provide occupational competence at a defined entry level . . . The instruction both in—school and at the training station is based upon the student's career goal . . . The kind, extent, and sequence of the train- ing station learning experiences are corre- lated closely with the kind, extent, and sequence of the in-school learning experi- ences . . . Students may elect the cooperative plan only when they possess the employability charac- teristics acceptable in the market place as well as necessary basic knowledges and skills prerequisite to employment . . . - The employment situation must be truly a training station where the firm understands and accepts its teaching responsibility and where an individual is given time to act as a training sponsor, one who can fulfill the role of the downtown laboratory teacher. The employment conditions are not only legal employment, but acceptable by all other standards of the school. The coordinator has sufficient time to carry out his coordination responsibilities and be accountable for quality education. Instruction is characterized by its individual- ization, by the use of projects, by remediation as required, and by interaction with the proqram of a youth organization. Distributive education can be broadly defined as a of instruction which prepares individuals for 3Mason and Haines, op. cit., pp. 15-17. 23 entry, upgrading, and retraining in occupations related to distribution. Crawford surveyed experts in distributive educa- tion, school administration, vocational education, and the field of distribution to determine basic beliefs about distributive education. The purpose of that study was to derive a set of objectives that could be used as guidelines for all phases of the program. She concluded that the dis- tributive education program should: 1. Engender an understanding and appreciation of the American private enterprise system as a cornerstone of American democracy. 2. Foster an awareness of the civic, social, and moral responsibility of business and society. 3. Encourage and promote the use of ethical standards in business and industry. 4. Stimulate the DE student's interest in his chosen occupational field by giving him an understanding of the opportunities it offers him to be a contributing member of society. 5. Prepare distributive personnel to analyze consumer demand and to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers intelligently, efficiently, and pleasantly. 6. Provide training that results in increased efficiency in distribution and marketing. 7. Be sensitive to changes in distributive and marketing practices and procedures as they are affected by societal, economic, technical, and educational developments, and adapt to such changes. 8. Advance the objectives of the total educational program. 24 9. Strive to develop among employers, employees, and consumers a wider appreciation of the value Of distribution. VIEWS ABOUT COOPERATIVE EDUCATION The Southeastern Michigan Coordinators Association sponsored a study in 1960 to determine the opinions of high school teachers concerning cooperative occupational educa- tion programs. This study was based on teacher Opinion of the cooperative occupational education students in their classes. The study indicated that, in general, the coopera— tive occupational education program is well received by the teachers in Michigan high schools. Seventy—nine percent of the respondents agreed that cooperative occupational educa- tion should have a place in the curriculum of the compre- hensive high school. Seventy-four percent of the teachers believed that the program should be made available to more students who could benefit from it.5 In answer to the question, "If you believe there are values in the cooperative plan, what do you believe is its greatest strength?" Some of the comments, taken at random, were 3 4Lucy C. Crawford, "Basic Beliefs in Distributive Education," American Vocational Journal, XLIII (March, 1968), 25-26. 5Southeastern Michigan Coordinators Association, Opinions of Michigan High School Faculties Concerning Cooperative Occupation Education (Ann Arbor: University Of Michigan Vocational Instructional Materials Laboratory, 1960), p. 36. 25 Bridging the gap between book knowledge and a real job; learning to get along with others. Develop a better attitude toward school. Citizenship is improved. I believe that this plan motivates the student to continue his high school education. Applying daily school to a specific job.6 Shupe, using the questionnaire that had been developed for the Southeastern Michigan Coordinators Associa- tion project, conducted a study to determine the opinions held by teachers in two Michigan high schools toward the cooperative plan. Results of the Shupe study showed that teachers strongly agreed that the OOOperative education plan Of instruction was a necessary and vital part of the total educational program. Ninety-seven percent of the teachers at one high school and 94 percent at the other school agreed that COOperative education should have a place in the curriculum Of the comprehensive high school. The proportion Of teachers at each school who were in favor of making the cooperative plan available to more students was 94 percent and 81 percent respectively.7 In a doctoral study, Sanders used questionnaires to gather information about COOperative occupational education from graduates, their parents, OOOperating employers, and 61bid., p. 35. 7Richard J. Shupe, "The Values of Cooperative Education as Held by Teachers" (unpublished Master's study, Michigan State University, 1962), p. 29. 26 current employers. Cooperating employers viewed the program as a means of: 1. Employing students at a lower wage rate than normally paid similar full-time or out-of- school employees. 2. Finding a continuous source of part-time employees year after year. 3. Supplementing full-time employees by assign- ing trainees to the more routine tasks.8 After competing a study of the status and effective- ness of cooperative Office education in New Jersey, Kingston concluded: The businessmen were strong supporters of the cooperative Office education program. In addition to supervising the students while on the job, the businessman assisted in the development of the program. Kingston also reported that a cOmparison of cooperative Office education graduates with other beginning Office workers resulted in these findings: The job supervisors give higher ratings to the cooperative office education graduates in every area Of job performance. Areas measured were: quantity of acceptable work, quality Of accept- able work, initiative, work attituds, attitude toward others, and over-all value.l 8Lester E. Sanders, "A Comparison of Two Methods of Preparing Youth for Employment: Cooperative Occupational Education Versus the Preparatory Vocational-Technical School" (unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri, 1967). P. 14. 9Carmela C. Kingston, A Study of the Status and Effectiveness of COOperative Office Education in New Jersey, 1968369, Monograph No. 8 (Trenton: New Jersey State Depart- fiéfiE—Of Education, 1970), p. 16. loIbid., p. 21. 27 Cushman, Hill, and Miller conducted a study of directed work experience programs in ornamental horticulture and agricultural mechanics to determine the concerns and 11 expectations of participants. Directed work experience programs, as described in this study, were very similar to cooperative education programs. The following comments indicate the concerns of employers regarding the programs: A majority of the employers will share two concerns: whether or not the students will work long enough at a time to make their work worthwhile, and whether or not employers will have a choice in selecting the students who will work in their businesses. Findings of the Cushman study related to employer expecta- tions Of the directed work experience program are described as follows: A majority of the employers will expect the students to perform varied types of work, and to have good work habits and desirable personal attributes; they will want the school to provide specific training for the occupation; they will insist that the students work long enough at a time to make it worthwhile; and they will expect the teacher of agriculture to coordinate the program and solve problems that arise.1 The Michigan Advisory Council for Vocational Educa— tion made a study to determine Opinions of various groups toward vocational education in Michigan. It was reported 11Harold R. Cushman, Charles W. Hill, and John K. Miller, The Concerns and Expectations Of Prospective Parti- gipants in Directed Work Experience Programs (Ithaca: Department Of Education, Cornell University, 1967), p. 26. lzIbid. 13Ibid., p. 27. 28 that 89 percent of the employers felt that the high school vocational program should emphasize the following topics: 1. 2. Broad, basic skills that would be used in a variety of occupations. Very specific training for a specific job (welder, typist, cook, dairyman, etc.). Fundamentals (arithmetic, reading, writing, and spelling). Personality development (getting along with others, leadership, etc.). Understanding the world of work (such as labor management, occupational Opportunities, labor laws, social security, production problems). Occupational counseling and guidance services (such as learning about your own interests, aptitudes, and abilities, then being helped to select a career). Burt, in his study Of industry-education COOperation in vocational education, found that business executives want to become involved in occupational education programs in the schools because they: 1. Would like to have the school system assume the burden Of costs of initial job entry training Of new employees, as well as skill upgrading of present employees; Would like to have a reliable source for a continuing supply Of well-educated new employees in order to reduce their costs of recruitment and selection; WOuld like the prestige which accrues to the industry as a result of having a program in the schools; 14Michigan State Advisory Council for Vocational Education, Opinions About Vocational Education in Michigan (Lansing: Michigan State Advisory Council for Vocational Education (1971), p. 107. 29 4. Consider their work with schools as fulfilling a community public service responsibility; 5. Seek the Opportunity to engage in an educa- tional activity that provides them as indivi~ duals, some measure Of prestige among their associates, neighbors, friends and inner- family circle; 6. May satisfy their desire to be considered altruistic and philanthropic by providing prizes, awards, and financial aid to young people; 7. Desire to take advantage of such public and customer relationships that may result from participating in educational programs; 8. Are satisfying a personally felt moral and social responsibility for helping young people to prepare themselves to become productive and useful citizens; 9. Believe that the industry they represent can provide young people interesting and worth— while career Opportunities and want to help young people to take advantage of these Opportunities as they were helped when seeking a career.15 Haines and others measured the effectiveness of cooperative education in secondary schools by assessing the employment status of former trainees after graduation. The study found that cooperative trainees fared well in the labor market, were able to gain employment quickly, and experienced a low rate of unemployment.16 The researchers 15Samuel M. Burt, "Involving Industry in Local Vocational and Technical Education," Industrial Arts and Vocational Education, LVI (January, 1967), 29. 16Peter G. Haines and others, How High School COOpera- tive Trainees Fare in the Labor Market: Phase D, Educational Research Series, NO. 394(East Lansing: College of Education, Michigan State University, 1967), p. 53. 30 also found that one Of the reasons why employers participate in a cooperative program is: . . . to gain the advantage of securing full- time employees who have been screened by the firm over a period of time, who know the firm and its purposes, and w 0 have been trained in the firm's methods. FORMAL STUDIES ABOUT.COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION There is a very limited amount of research concern- ing the factors which motivate employers to participate in cooperative distributive education programs or the percep- tions that employers have toward distributive education students or programs. Egan conducted a study to Obtain both a student and employer evaluation of the distributive education course 18 Questionnaires were returned by 228 Offering in Utah. businessmen who served as training sponsors and 503 students who were enrolled in a cooperative distributive education class. In ranking various elements of course content, the unit on personality improvement was selected as being the most important by both students and businessmen. Units on merchandise mathematics, salesmanship, merchandise informa- tion, and job placement also received high ratings from businessmen, while the unit dealing with the Operational 17Ibid., p. 31. 18Ronald Egan, The Distributive Education Curriculum as Evaluated by Businessmen and Distributive Education Students of Utah (Logan: Utah Research Coordinating Unit for VOcational Technical Education, 1968). PP. iv-v. 31 structure of distribution was ranked lowest. Businessmen considered distributive education course content as being valuable to students who are preparing for careers in distribution and marketing. In another study employer preferences and teacher- 19 Distributive coordinator practices provided the focus. education teacher-coordinators and employers in a five state area were surveyed by Harris. Emphasis in the study was placed on what the employer prefers in terms of distri- butive education cooperative students and relations with the teacher-coordinator. Among the conclusions were: (1) Employers indicated that establishing good working relations with the business establishment is the most important acti— vity tO be performed by the teacher-coordinator, (2) A major problem identified by employers was that many students view the program primarily as a way to make money, with lessor value being placed on its instructional value, and (3) Employers indicated that the number one reason for participating in the distributive education program was to secure part-time workers. Some 15 years ago Warmke conducted a study for the purpose Of analyzing the Opinions Of distributive education leaders about current issues in distributive education. For purposes of the study, leaders were identified by asking 19E. Edward Harris, Employer Preferences and Teacher-Coordinator Practices in Distributive Education (New York: Gregg Division/McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1971), pp. 7-19. 32 appropriate personnel at local, state, and national levels to submit nominations.20 Conclusions from the Warmke study that relate to the present study include the following: 1. Eighty percent of the leaders agreed that class- room instruction and on-the-job experiences were of equal importance in the high school COOperative program. 2. Eighty-two percent of the respondents indi- cated that distributive education classroom instruction should be limited to content Specific to distribution and marketing. On occasion, however, instruction in English, mathematics, and social studies may be included. 3. Seventy-eight percent of the sample said that cooperative classes should be open to those who are inter- ested in a career in the distributive field in addition to being employable and desiring the instructional program. TWenty percent felt that classes should also be open to those students who do not have career goals in distribution. 4. Eighty-six percent of all respondents agreed that high school level programs should be promoted wherever there is a need, while 14 percent took the position that the community should reCOgnize the need and request the instruc- tion. 5. Seventy-five percent of the leaders stated the minimum number of hours that a cooperative student should 20Roman F. Warmke, Distributive Education Issues, Monographs in Business and Economic EducatiOn, No. 102... (Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1961): p. 111. 33 work each week is fifteen, while higher and lower totals were chosen by 12 percent and 13 percent respectively.21 In 1974, Weatherford published a study that up-dated the Warmke study of 1960. Weatherford, like Warmke, sought to determine the opinions of distributive education leaders . . . . . . . 22 regarding current issues in distributive education. Conclusions appropriate to the present study were: 1. The primary responsibility of distributive education at the secondary level should be to prepare most students for entry level positions in general areas as well as pre- paring for specialized areas when facilities are adequate. 2. Assuming that on-the-job experience is required, the experience must be coordinated by a teacher-coordinator or coordinator. 3. Distributive education students should be paid for their on-the-job training on the basis of the same salary as paid to any part-time employee. Leaders in Weatherford's sample failed to agree on alterna- tives to these issues which relate to the study at hand: 1. Who should make the final selection of students for the distributive education program? 2. The percentage of distributive education classroom instructional time in the cooper- ative program that should be devoted by the student-trainee to the study of his specific job. 211bid.. pp. 19-32. 22John Wilson Weatherford, Identification and Apalysis of Issues in Distributive Education, Monographs in Business and Economic Education, No. 127 (Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1974), p. l. 23 Ibid., p. 75. 34 3. Should an occupational or career objective in a distributive occupation be required of all distributive education students?24 Among the recommendations for further research, Weatherford included the statement: "A study similar to the present one should be conducted to obtain Opinions about issues from school administrators, guidance personnel, and . 25 buSinessmen." INFORMAL LITERATURE ABOUT COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTIVE EDUCATION Various individuals and groups have expressed their beliefs about distributive education in periodicals and other publications which are not necessarily research oriented. These sources have, nevertheless, communicated specific viewpoints regarding the topic at hand. Mock, for example, received the following comments when he asked business people to express their feelings about distributive education: You bet we want to work with others and we want you to work with us. We need to work together to help educate young peOple embarking on careers so that they will serve our customers more efficiently and effectively. As never before, the food industry needs dis- tributive education programs that are account— able to its needs and suitable to its standards. The food industry has no place to turn for the 24Ibid., p. 76. 251bid., p. 77. 35 solution to its price-cost problem except to increase productivity via better training and more efficient methods of food distribution.26 In another study Hampton summarized his Observations of how the business community views distributive education: . . . the simple fact is that too many employers (the people who do the hiring, the paying, etc.) merely look upon the distributive education student as an inexpensive form of part-time labor . . . . We have not been able to sell the bulk of employers on an honest-to-goodness accept- ance of the values of our program. Some views about distributive education are shown in speeches and articles. For example, the vice-president of a nationwide hotel corporation referred to the need for close ties between the business and educational segments in defining his viewpoint. He stated his position as: There is need for improving the partner relationship between educators and business . . . . Close working relationships between schools and business are necessary to further the success of distributive education . . . . This can be done only when schools and com— munity and business leaders work cooperatively to develop the best programs of practical training. 8 26Perry Mock, "The Employer: What Would We Do Without Him?" American Vocational Journal, XLVIII (November, 1973), 56-57. 27Robert E. Hampton, "Distributive Education Strengthens Its Offerings to Meet Change," Business Educa- tion Meets the Challenges Of Changp, ed. Frank W. Lanham (Washington, D.C.: National Business Education Association, 1966): p. 279. 28Foster N. Kunz, "Hotel and Restaurant Industry: Thousands Needed," American Vocational Journal, XLVI (February, 1971), 64. 36 In speaking on behalf of a trade association in the wholesale sector, Courtney expressed the desire to see more distributive education students trained for his specialized field. He commented: It becomes perfectly Obvious therefore that, ideally, students seeking careers in whole- saling would benefit greatly from Specialized DE training in the last year or two of high school . . . . Our industry training needs are very similar tO those which DE teachers and coordinators have so long been familiar with. The emphasis would perhaps be Slightly different, less stress on salesmanship and more on marketing, communications and economics.29 Industry reliance on distributive education to provide personnel may be another indication of the program's values, especially when individual businesses contribute their own resources. When faced with a Shortage of quali- fied dealers, a petroleum marketing company looked to distributive education for assistance. The result was a joint project which was described in the following manner: Called 'Learn and Earn,‘ the new project (now in its pilot stage in Tulsa) will give high school boys in their senior year a chance to develop retail marketing skills in a new kind Of dealer training program . . . . The aim of the project is twofold--to give the boys a marketable Skill . . . and to provide a valuable source 8f trained and qualified dealers .3 29Paul L. Courtney, "Distribution Revolution Gener- ates New Careers," American Vocational Journal, XLVI (February, 1971), 61. 30M. J. DeBenning, "Learn and Earn-~Industry- Sponsored DE Course," American Vocational Journal, XLI (May, 1966), 30. 37 In another example of industry interest and coopera— tion, Ristau described how distributive educators at a high school in Wisconsin were assisted in Operating a distributive education laboratory. He explained: Even stores which do not participate in the COOperative work-experience phase participate wholeheartedly in lending equipment and mer- chandise for display purposes. Some of the displays set up at Oshkosh have had merchan- dise worth several hundred dollars.31 An article in Business Week documented the experi— ences that several large retail corporations have had in working with distributive education programs at the high 32 school level. In addition, reference was made to the need to interest students in retailing by offering part—time jobs. The article continued: Finding someone to mind the store has always been one Of the basic problems of retailers. . . . Companies are getting a foothold on campus by participating with schools in joint programs called distributive education-- familiarly, DE.33 The vice-president for personnel in a retail chain organization described his firm's policy this way, "I would say that probably wherever there is a DE program, 34 and we have a store, we participate." The primary focus of the article on distributive education was summarized by 31Robert A. Ristau, "A Forward Look in Facilities for DE," American Vocational Journal, XL (January, 1965), 32. 32"How Retailers Woo Bright Young Talent," Business Week, No. 1988 (October 7, 1967), 116-118. 33 Ibid., pp. 116-117. 34Ibid., p. 118. 38 the executive vice-president of the National Retail Mer- chants Association who stated: There is a gradual realization among our membership that something has to be done at the high school level—-where attitudes are formed--to interest these kids in retailing.35 In describing what he viewed as pressures for change in distributive education, Adamson indicated that the dis- cipline has an unclear image to many peOple. "The problem for distribution and marketing," according to Adamson, "is not only what we teach, but what people think we teach."36 He elaborated further by pointing out: The term 'distributive education' is a learned code word--it doesn't compute unless someone explains and translates its meaning. It does serve as an ice breaker to start a conversation, but for every educator, parent, businessman, and most importantly student who bothers to ask, there must be 10 others who aren't likely to show their ignorance or bother to find out.37 RESEARCH ON THE METHODOLOGY OF THE GROUP INTERVIEW A review Of the literature regarding semistructured group interviews and content analysis revealed that the procedures have been used by researchers who were interested in assessing the attitudes of individuals toward a 3SIbid. 36Douglas Adamson, "Pressures for Changes in Dis- tributive Education," Business Education Forum, XXVIII (February, 1974), 45. 37ibid. 39 particular group, institution, institutional practice, product, or service. Semistructured Group_Interviews Kollat and his colleagues described the values to be gained from the group interview in the following way: An interview with a group of five to nine people focused on the topic under investigation is fre- quently more useful than the same number of individual interviews. The advantages stem from group synergisms, snowballing effects of ideas, interpersonal stimulation of thinking, willing- ness of respondents to speak more freely in a group than with a single interviewer, and spon- taniety of solutions to problems.38 During the 1969-70 academic year, the semistructured group interview format was used in a series of small con- ferences in Georgia. Educators met with executives from business and industry to explore a wide range of topics . . 39 related to common concerns of buSiness and education. Johnson described the setting for the meetings, which were funded by the Georgia State Department of Education, in this way: A tape recorder was placed in the middle of the conference table, and participants were encour- aged to examine issues which they felt to be urgent and in need of change. 38David T. Kollat, Roger D. Blackwell, and James F. Robeson, Strategic Marketing (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1972), p. 86. 39Beverly B. Johnson, "Conversations with Business and Industry," American Vocational Journal, XLVI (May, 1971), 59. 40Ibid. 40 Direct quotations were taken from the audio tape and placed into the three broad categories of philosophy, problems, and suggestions for possible action. Some selected comments which Johnson chose as being representa- tive of the general tone of the conferences were: 1. Businessmen want a closer working relation— ship with schools. They are willing to devote time and talents to school programs-- actually to come into schools to work with students. 2. The cooperative programs such as VOT and DE help bridge the gap between school and work, and give a young person some business experience. The problem with them is that they reach so few students. 3. Businessmen find that students who have just finished their schooling and are starting on their first jobs have no idea what is expected Of them by their employers. 4. Schools need to be more careful to train young people in precision . . . . Some of the instructional methods seem to tolerate haphazard or sloppy responses. Industry must have accuracy. 5. Business and education Should have more frequent opportunities to Observe the work of the other. 6. Businessmen Should be invited to come to a high school to be guest lecturers in specific classes. Goldman reported on some studies which incorporated semistructured group interview procedures.42 While the findings were not considered to be relevant to the present study, reference to those studies could serve to illustrate 4lIbid., pp. 59-61. 42Alfred E. Goldman, "The Group Depth Interview," Journal Of Marketing, XXVI (July, 1962), 63—68. 41 the methodology. Brief descriptions of portions of those studies, which were drawn from the marketing research and consumer behavior areas, were as follows: 1. Physicians who appear impatient, constrained, cautious, or curt when interviewed alone, seem considerably more garrulous, frank, and at times argumentative when in a group with other physicians. At the beginning of a 2 1/2 hour session, a group Of jobbers individually expressed loyalty to, and appreciation of, their suppliers. After an hour, most of these same group members joined in the expression of a pervasive and deeply felt antagonism toward their manufacturers--attitudes which they had not previously expressed for a variety of reasons . . . . . . . members of a minority group at first vehemently denied favoritism in buying from members of their own group. Later, following a profound and emotional discussion of racial and religious intolerance, all admitted that they preferred to buy from a salesman of their own ethnic group. Wolfe and others compiled a list of cases which illustrated how various manufacturers of consumer products pretested advertising campaigns.44 Semistructured group interviews were used to determine: 1. 2. Housewives' attitudes about packaged meats for a meat packing company. Dog owners' conceptions of canned dog food and its ingredients for a pet food packing company. 43Ibid., p. 63. 44Harry Deane Wolfe and others, Pretesting Adver- tising, Studies in Business Policy, No. 109 (New York: National Industrial Conference Board, Inc., 1963), pp. 76-204. 42 3. Product features to emphasize in advertising a new line of kitchen ranges for an appliance manufacturer. 4. The appeal of radio advertisements about food products fog the producer of vegetable juices and soups.4 Researchers conducting studies dealing with atti- tudes and perceptions toward various subjects, such as in the foregoing illustrations, choose semistructured group interviews because they permit a more thorough understand- ing of the reasons behind opinions than would be possible in individual interviews or mailed questionnaires.46 Borg and Gall summarized this point of view by saying, "It provides a desirable combination of objectivity and depth and Often permits gathering valuable data that could not be successfully obtained by any other approach."47 Content Analysis Procedures A literature search indicated that content analysis procedures have been used to process data in a number of research areas, ranging from education to personnel manage— ment and marketing. Brief descriptions of selected studies were included to illustrate how the methodology has been applied. 4SIbid.. pp. 82—163. 46Kollat, op. cit., p. 86. 47 Walter R. Borg and Meredith D. Gall, Educational Research: An Introduction (2d. ed; New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1971), p. 214. 43 Borg and Gall listed examples of educational research studies in which content analysis procedures were appro- priate: 1. Content analyses of pupil compositions . . . can give us a classification of grammatical and spelling errors. 2. A content analysis of current textbooks in first year algebra can tell us such things as: What topics are covered by all books? What emphasis is placed on each topic? In what sequence are topics usually presented?48 The studies mentioned above relied on simple fre- quency counts of such variables as spelling errors, gramma— tical errors, or number of words used. A more complex study was carried out by Tyler who sought to develop statements Of Objectives for the various courses offered by the Air University. According to Borg and Gall, Tyler's study consisted Of "a large number of documents relating not only to the Air University programs but to many aspects of Officer performance and job requirements were analyzed . . . ."49 The results of the study were used as a basis for curriculum development and evaluation. Crissy and Regan used content analysis procedures 50 to study the "halo effect" in the employment interview. "Halo effect" refers to the notion that first impressions 481bid., p. 251. 491bid., pp. 252-253. 50W. J. E. Crissy and James J. Regan, "Halo in the Employment Interview," Journal of Applied Psycholpgy, XXXV (October, 1951), 338-341. 44 color subsequent impressions of a person. This tendency is typically analyzed in situations where an observer rates a person on a number of behavioral dimensions. Crissy and Regan described their study as: In one client company a semistructured selection interview was introduced. In the procedure prescribed each interviewer was required to quantify his judgment of each applicant on nine traits plus a summary recommendation to hire or not. Furthermore he was asked to furnish, in Spaces provided on the report form, evidence to substantiate each judgment on each trait. Evidence to substantiate each judgment was analyzed in terms of the number of idea units utilized by the inter- viewers and a comparison was then made between applicants in accepted and rejected groups. The terms idea unit and evidence unit were central to the processing of data. "An idea unit," according to Crissy and Regan, "was arbitrarily defined . . . as a concept expressed in one or more terms."52 Any statement by the interviewer regarding the applicant's past history, comments made in the discussion, or behavior during the interview were classified as evidence units. The researchers concluded that content analysis of idea units and evidence . . 5 units showed promise as a way to measure the "halo effect." 3 Open-ended responses from interviews lend them- selves to quantification by content analysis. Jackson, for SlIbid., p. 339. 521bid., p. 340. 53Ibid., pp. 340-341. 45 example, used the technique to provide legal evidence for a company under investigation by the Federal Trade Commis- sion because Of alleged misleading statements in its tele— 54 vision advertisements. According to Jackson and others: Respondents were asked whether they have viewed a particular commercial and if they had what they remembered about it. The open ended responses to these questions were then content analyzed to determine whether they supported the FTC's allegations. Each response was classified as 'no' (did not support the FTC'S allegation) or 'yes' (did support the FTC'S alle- gation) and finally which of the above allega- tions, if any, was supported by each response. Based on an analysis of more than two thousand responses, a case was made to support the dismissal of charges. SUMMARY A comprehensive search of the literature revealed little information concerning the perceptions that employers have toward cooperative distributive education programs. While studies dealing directly with the research question were not located, portions of some studies dealt with the topic indirectly. 54Donald W. Jackson, Jr., Gary M. Grikscheit, and W. J. E. Crissy, "Content Analysis of Marketing Communica- tions" (unpublished faculty working paper at the authors' respective institutions of Arizona State University, Univer- sity of Utah and Michigan State University, 1974), p. 11. 551bid., pp. 11-12. 46 In summary, the following statements can be made regarding employer perceptions toward cooperative education programs: 1. The cooperative program provides the employer with a continuous source of reliable partstime employees. 2. Employers are strong supporters of COOperative programs. 3. The reasons why business people want to become involved in vocational education range from an interest in having the school system assume the costs of entry-level job training to the desire to work with young peOple who are in the process of making career choices. Studies relating Specifically to cooperative distri- butive education programs can be summarized as follows: 1. Employers believe that some students enroll in cooperative distributive education to make money and not necessarily to receive instruction in distribution and marketing. 2. Employers are anxious to help educate young people preparing for careers in distribution. 3. A number of employers are not sufficiently informed about distributive education and have not com- pletely accepted its values. Semistructured group interviews have been used to assess the attitudes of individuals toward a particular group, institution, institutional practice, product or 47 service. Likewise, content analysis procedures have been employed in a wide array of studies. Complexity of the analyses ranged from simple frequency counts of words or symbols to higher levels of SOphistication in which responses to Open-ended questions were classified into categories. CHAPTER III RESEARCH PROCEDURES AND METHODOLOGY The research procedures and methods which were undertaken while conducting this study are described in this chapter and can be categorized as follows: (1) method, (2) population, (3) selection of participants, (4) (6) was the instrumentation, (5) interview procedures, and analysis of data. METHOD The problem of this study, as stated in Chapter I, to determine the perceptions that employers have toward cooperative distributive education programs of which they are a part. The case study form of descriptive research was chosen as the most appropriate method for achieving this Objective. Hill and Kerber point out that: Descriptive research is a broad category which includes those efforts that describe and interpret certain sets of facts con- cerned with situations, communities, indi— viduals, relationships, attitudes, Objects, 48 49 events, classes of events, systems, trends, conditions, processes or phenomena as they exist at a given time.1 The position of Hill is supported by Good and Scates: Description tells us what we reckon with. Further, it is becoming clear that, through noting the coincidence of certain conditions and certain apparent consequences, survey studies furnish valuable clues as to cause— effect relationships. In both these ways descriptive studies help us in learning how to accomplish desired purposes. For this study the semistructured group interview was selected as a means of gathering the information needed. It was believed that more revealing data could be Obtained by interviewing the business peOple who hire, supervise, and assist in the training of distributive education coop- erative students than by a printed questionnaire. The personal interview provided an opportunity to detect the subtle reasons for the employer's participation in distri- butive education.3 In Offering support for the interview method of data collection, Oppenheim commented: There remains the undisputed advantage that the richness and spontaneity of information collected by interviewers is higher than that which a mailed questionnaire can hope to obtain. 1Joseph E. Hill and August Kerber, Models, Methodgy and Analytical Procedures in Educational Research (DetrOit: Wayne State University Press, 1967), p. 108. 2Carter V. Good and Douglas E. Scates, Methods of Research (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1954), p. 256. 3This method was suggested by Dr. W. J. E. Crissy, a member of the dissertation committee, who has a national reputation in marketing research. 50 The researcher may also feel a sense of security due to the fact that all the data were collected in face-to-face situations, even if biases crept in now and then. The semistructured group interview is designed to be flexible in the proportion of time devoted to each topic or question. Open—ended questions posed by the interviewer are intended to focus the respondents' attention on the tOpic under investigation, to raise specific points that are to be covered in the interview session, and to keep the interview moving. Wolfe and others referring to the semi— structured interview as a useful approach stated: The purpose is to elicit ideas or feelings that structured questioning would not bring forth . . . because the reSpondent is not consciously aware of them. They further commented: The theory behind the group interview is that the interaction among the respondents may elicit ideas and feelings that would otherwise remain concealed. One respondent may cause a second to come up with a thought that would not have occurred to either in an individual interview.6 The rationale for the group interview also suggests that the range of variation in pertinent opinions and responses is likely to increase with more peOple reporting. 4A. N. Oppenheim, Questionnaire Design and Attitude Measurement (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1966). p. 32. 5Harry Deane Wolfe and others, Pretestipg Advertis- ing, Studies in Business Policy, No. 109 (New York: National Industrial Conference Board, Inc., 1963), p. 39. 6 Ibid. 51 Therefore the decision was made to use Open-ended questions in the study because the method invites the reSpondent to reply in his own words, rather than restrict him to those responses of predetermined narrow categories. Free and Open answers to questions are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of employer perceptions toward distributive education. There is an element in the method selected; that of group synergism. For example, Hess states: In the group interview the common ground can be covered rapidly, leaving time for exploring, groping, forcing or otherwise seeking new areas of insight . . . .7 This synergism is reflected also by Goldman who enumerated five advantages of the group interview in which he points out that information from the group differs in quality and quantity from individual interviews: 1. . . . the interaction among group members stimulates new ideas regarding the topic under discussion that may never be men- tioned in individual interviewing. 2. In the group interview, respondents react to each other, and their behavior is directly Observed. 3. The flexibility or rigidity with which an Opinion is held is better exposed in a group setting than in an individual inter- view. 7John M. Hess, "Group Interviewing," Marketing and the New Science of Planning, ed. Robert L. King (Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1968), p. 194. 52 4. Discussion in a peer group often provokes considerably greater spontaneity and candor than can be expected in an individual inter- View. 5. . . . the group setting is emotionally provocative in a way that an individual interview cannot be. Depth of impressions was stated as a major advantage for group interviewing by several sources in the literature. Stevens and Axelrod, for example, were quoted as saying, "People are said to talk with a spontaneous frankness that might not be readily achieved in a personal interview."9 And another writer, Hess, made the following comment in addressing the topic, "Furthermore, the idea not only appears, but there's a good chance that the item can be exposed, developed and brought to full significance."10 Merton provided a list of advantages for grOUp interviewing in a manual designed for applied social science researchers. The advantages, which closely parallel those suggested in the foregoing paragraphs, were: 1. Release of inhibitions. Group members become more willing to make personal comments as the interview progresses and any sensitive areas are approached in a 8Alfred E. Goldman, "The Group Depth Interview," Journal Of Marketing, XXVI (July, 1962), 62-63. 9William D. Stevens and Joel Axelrod, "Market- Testing by Group Interview," Printers' Ink, CCLXXXI (December 7, 1962), 66. 10 Hess, op. cit., p. 195. 53 gradual manner. It is also suggested that group rapport builds with the prOgression of the interview. 2. Widening range of regponse. It is likely that the researcher will identify a variety Of descriptions or definitions of a given Situation by virtue of the number of people present. 3. Activating forgotten details. The comments made by one participant may remind another of a matter which was overlooked or forgotten. This point alone could add much to the quantity and quality of interview data.11 POPULATION High school level distributive education in Michigan is Offered in 243 schools which offer the COOperative pro- gram and 115 schools which Offer the project-laboratory program.12 A particular high school may offer both or only one Of the two instructional methods. The project-laboratory method is described in Guidelines for Distributive Education in Michigan as: This method centers around individually designed learning activities which are coordinated with classroom instruction and the student's voca- tional Objective . . . . Projects are designed around specific tasks that have been analyzed as 11Robert K. Merton, Marjorie Fiske, and Patricia L. Kendall, The Focused Interview (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1956). pp. 141-146. 12Vocational Education and Career Development Ser— vice, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building Program Report (Lansing: Michigan Department of EducatiOn, 1974). 54 those which employees in the field must be able to perform in order to enter and maintain employ- ment.13 According to the Michigan Department of Education, cooperative vocational education is: . . . a technique of instruction used in voca- tional education programs for persons who have successfully completed prescribed performance Objectives or are enrolled in a preparatory program that runs concurrent with the on-the- job experience.14 The three distributive education curriculum models available in Michigan's high schools are as follows: 1. Distributive education preparatory instruction in the eleventh grade followed by the coop- erative plan in the twelfth grade. 2. Distributive education preparatory instruction and the cooperative plan offered simultaneously in the twelfth grade. 3. A two-hour project—laboratory in the twelfth grade. Short-term work experiences may be included.15 13Vocational Education and Career Development Ser- vice, Guidelines for Distributive Education in Michigan (Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1972). 14Vocational Education and Career DeveIOpment Ser- vice, Guidelines for Regular Secondary Cooperative Vocational Education Programs (Lansing: Michigan Depart- ment of Education, 1973), p. 1. 15Vocational Education and Career Development Ser- vice, Guidelines for Distributive Education in Michigan, loc. cit. A11 55 three models are not necessarily available in all high schools offering instruction in distributive education. This to employers distributive programs are southern hal nities were the focus of following li community pr areas in Mic 1. investigation consisted of case studies limited in Michigan involved with the cooperative education plan. The majority of the cooperative located in the more populated areas in the f of the state's lower peninsula. Five commu- chosen from this geographic area to serve as case study reports. As indicated in the st, the case studies represent five different Ofiles that are descriptive of urban and suburban higan: Case Study A: Flint. A middle-sized city with a heavy industrial base. Case Study B: Okemos. A small residential community in the metropolitan area of a county which houses the seat of the state's government and Michigan State University. Case Study C: Lansing. A middle-sized city with an industrial and governmental agency base. Case Studpr: Jackson. A small city with a diversified industrial base. Case Study_E: Trgy. A small city located in the Detroit metropolitan area. 56 Each community was represented by a group of employers, with the result that 11 percent of distributive education pro- grams in the state were represented in the sample.16 The limited number of cases was a necessary condi- tion for using the case study approach. According to Hill, "Case study research . . . describes and interprets all pertinent data from a particular case or a limited number of cases."17 Likewise, it was anticipated that the smaller number of case studies would provide the depth of informa- tion needed in addressing the problem of the study. In referring to the case study based on group interview data, Goldman stated: Its basic function is to indicate 'why' rather than 'how many.‘ That is, it focuses on under~ standing the motives of behavior rather than cataloging the number of individuals who behave in a particular way.18 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS Participants for each case study were selected on the basis of two criteria. First, only those employers who had participated in a cooperative distributive education program for at least one out of the prior three years were selected. It was decided that this minimum amount of experi- ence was necessary to respond to the Open-ended questions. 16Vocational Education and Career Development Ser- vice, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building Program Report, loc. cit. 17Hill, Op. cit., p. 109. 18Goldman, Op. cit., p. 67. 57 Second, participants were chosen from a range of distribu- tive businesses so as to represent the types of employment held by high school cooperative students. Data provided by teacher-coordinators in the communities was used to determine the range of training stations. Five to nine cooperative employers were invited to participate in each interview session. This particular range in Size for each group was chosen because it appeared to be Optimum in terms Of two considerations. First, a group of this size should be large enough to offer greater coverage than an individual interview. Second, a group of this Size is not so large that it would inhibit adequate 19 The actual number of participation by its members. employers who participated in each meeting is Shown in Table 2. Table 2 Number Of Participants in Each Group Interview Case Study Group Area Number of Participants Case Study A Flint 6 Case Study B Okemos 7 Case Study C Lansing 5 Case Study D Jackson 6 Case Study E Troy 5 19 David T. Kollat, Roger D. Blackwell, and James F. Robeson, Strategic Marketing (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1972), p. 86. 58 Interview information was secured on the basis of a pledge that names Of individuals, business firms and school districts would be concealed. It was necessary, therefore, to develop a coding procedure that would permit participants to remain anonymous. Groups and correspond— ing case studies were, therefore, identified by letters and individuals were identified by numbers. A questionnaire (Appendix B) was used to obtain information from reSpondentS that could be used to provide a descriptive profile for each case study report. Some questions were directed toward determining the extent of each participant's involvement with distributive education. Answers to other questions provided the basis for classi- fying participants according to the Size of the establish- ment and according to the U. S. Office Of Education (U.S.O.E.) instructional program areas with corresponding code numbers.20 All participants in the study had the experience of supervising distributive education students on a direct basis. Some had also served as supervisors on an indirect basis. Direct supervision referred to that situation where the student reported directly to, and was evaluated by, the respondent on a regular basis. The term indirect supervision was used in referring to those instances where the respon- dent supervised Or evaluated the student on an infrequent 20U.S., Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, OE-80061 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969), pp. 20-37. 59 basis. AS an illustration of this distinction, the per- sonnel manager in a large department store who is responsible for evaluating all employees annually or semi— annually would be an indirect supervisor. A department manager, in that same store, responsible for assigning daily tasks to an employee would be a direct supervisor Of that employee. Table 3 Shows the numbers of employers for each instructional program area. Other background character- istics of the respondents are discussed in Chapter IV in the case study reports. INS TRUMENTATI ON An interview guide was used as the primary data collection instrument in the study. This instrument listed the questions that were to be asked and the sequence in which they were to be presented during the interview. A degree of standardization was added to the study by using the guide.21 Tentative questions were selected from interviews with distributive educators and business people and a review of literature relevant to the tOpic. Eight Open- ended questions were selected to elicit responses pertinent to employers' perceptions regarding distributive education. The questions dealt with the following topics: 21Walter R. Borg and Meredity D. Gall, Educational Research: An Introduction (2d ed.; New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 197177'p. 213. 60 1. Objectives of Distributive Education 2. Experiences with Distributive Education 3. Role of the Employer 4. .Visible Components of Distributive Education 5. Benefits to the Employer 6. Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 7. Recommendations for Improvement 8. Preferred Classroom Topics Table 3 Distributive Occupational Program Areas Represented by Group Participants Number of Participants U.S. Office of Educationa in each Case Study Instructional Code Program .A B C D E 04.01 Advertising - ~ 1 — - Services 04.02 Apparel and - 3 2 2 - Acessories 04.03 Automotive - - - - l 04.06 Food 1 l - - - Distribution 04.07 Food Services 2 - - - - 04.08 General 3 3 2 3 4 Merchandise 04.18 Recreation and - - - l - Tourism aU.S., Department Of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office Of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, OE-8006l (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969): PP. 20-34. 61 An additional instrument, a brief questionnaire, was prepared to Obtain information on the background of the participants. Data provided was used to develop a descrip- tive profile for each case report. The interview guide and questionnaire were adminis- tered to a group of participating employers. Interviewees were asked to review the clarity of questions used in both instruments. Suggestions for improvement were solicited and appropriate revisions were made. A copy of the final interview guide used in the study is given in Appendix A, while the questionnaire is in Appendix B. An interview guide was used in conjunction with group interviews to enhance the possibility of discovering not only the perceptions of employers toward distributive education but also the circumstances or incidents that brought the perceptions into being. Social science and marketing researchers have supported the use of group techniques when such depth in the level of information is desired. That the use of a questionnaire, instead of an interview guide, as the primary data collection instrument would hamper group interaction was pointed out by Merton: For this would abandon a distinctive merit of the interview . . . the give—and-take which helps the interviewee decode and report pas meanings which a Situation held for him. Merton indicated his further support of the semi- structured guide in group interviews when he related, 22Merton, Op. cit., p. 13. 62 ". . . it uncovers what is on the interviewee's mind rather than his opinion of what is on the interviewer's mind."23 Based on the foregoing comments, it can be said that open- ended questions encourage group members to respond in their own words and, further, to place responses in a context they deem appropriate. In addition to obtaining a wide range of comments, the group interview that incorporates semistructured ques- tions is also said to invite spontaneity and elicit depth reports. Hess described this process as the snowballing effect and added, "A random comment by one individual Often sets off a veritable chain reaction of response from other participants. Those responses, in turn, feed in new ideas to keep the reaction going."24 Major points Of interest may develop from comments that were initially considered to have little Significance. INTERVIEW PROCEDURES Identical procedures were followed in conducting the five group interview sessions. Specific procedures used can be classified and explained in three categories: (1) the moderatOr's role, (2) methods for recording the data, and (3) the format followed in the interviews. 23Ibid. 24Hess, loc. cit. 63 The Role of the Moderator The researcher served as the moderator of all group 25 sessions, with the exception of the initial meeting. In describing the role of the moderator in semistructured group interviews, Wolfe and others stated: the The role of the interviewer in a group inter- view is tc lead and moderate an exchange of views among the respondents. Once he has introduced the topic, he serves primarily as a conversational catalyst, probing, seeking for elaborations, opening up new avenues of discussion when necessary.2 Borg and Gall presented a similar description of moderator's role in a group interview when they stated: . . . the interviewer first asks a series of structured questions and then probes more deeply, using Open-ended questions in order to obtain more complete data . . . . After the respondent gives his initial reaction to these questions, the interviewer can use the resulting information to probe for additional insight into his central concern . . . .27 Recording the Data An audio tape recorder was used at each interview session to record answers to questions, comments, and reactions of respondents. Researchers recommend that and 25Dr. W. J. E. Crissy, an industrial psychologist specialist in executive develOpment, served as moder- ator in the initial group interview. He played this part in training the researcher to act as moderator in inter- views that followed. 26Wolfe, loc. cit. 27Borg, Op. cit., p. 214. 64 answers be recorded exactly as given when open-ended ques- tions are used.28 The tape recorder is the best tool avail- able for gathering information in an exact and original form. Other advantages cited for the tape recorder are: (1) it eliminates the unconscious selection Of data by the interviewer, (2) tape recorded data can be reviewed a num- ber of times, and (3) it facilitates the interviewing process by minimizing the need for extensive note taking.29 Permission to tape record interviews was granted by all participants in advance of the interview sessions. Interview Format Some researchers have suggested that much of the success of the group interview depends on the respondents' 30’31 With understanding of the purpose of the interview. this observation in mind, the following items were included in the interview agenda to get the session effectively under way: 1. Explanation Ofgpurppse. It was explained to each group that their perceptions of coopera- tive distributive education programs were Of interest to educators who plan, develop, 28Earl R. Babbie, Survey Research Methods (Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1973), p. 175. 29 Borg, Op. cit., p. 216. 3OIbid., p. 218. 31Merton, op. cit., p. 171. 65 implement, and manage such programs. Emphasis was placed on their perceptions and actual experiences. 2. Defining roles Of moderator and regpondents. The moderator encouraged respondents to freely express both positive and negative Opinions. As a further attempt to promote group rapport, a circular seating pattern was used with the moderator placed as one Of the group. "The circular arrangement," according to Merton, "promotes the informality which is a prere- 32 quisite for an effective group interview." 3. Defining the relationship among respondents. The moderator pointed out that he did not neces- sarily expect agreement among group members on perceptions regarding distributive education. Merton described the need for this clarification when he stated, ". . . the interviewer helps define a group norm in which conflicts of Opinion are not taken as Signs of interpersonal conflict."33 ANALYSIS OF DATA Transcripts were typed from the audio tapes of each group interview. Research data pertaining to each case 321bid., p. 140. 33Ibid., p. 175. 66 study were interpreted and presented through the use of two procedures: 1. In order to present a summary of respondents' perceptions, portions of the final report were stated in narrative form. Some observations and verbatim comments made by respondents were included in the report. 2. Content analysis techniques were used through- out the report. "Content analysis," according to Berelson, "is a research technique for the Objective, systematic, and quantitative descrip- tion Of the manifest content of communication."34 The transcripts, therefore, represented the source data for content analysis procedures used. Content analysis was selected because Of its appropriateness for processing data derived from open-ended questions, such as those in a semi- structured group interview. In reference to content analysis, Jackson and his colleagues stated: This tool can be very effective when attempting to find out what people think about a particular issue for it allows the investigator to deal 34Bernard Berelson, Content Analysis in Communica- tion Research (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952), p. 18. 67 with open ended responses rather than, say, scalar judgments or yes-no answers to questions.35 Appropriate categories and units must be defined before content analysis can become operational. These two basic elements typically become identifiable once the research question is stated. According to Jackson and his colleagues, "Categories are the compartments used for classification Of the content being analyzed and units are the excerpts Of content being analyzed."36 An example of a category in a marketing study might be "whether consumers' responses regarding their feelings about an advertisement were favor— able or not."37 The unit, or excerpt of content, selected for the study was the theme. "The theme," according to Berelson, "is among the most useful units of content analysis . . . because it takes the form in which issues and attitudes are usually discussed."38 A theme, also referred to as an I O I I 0 39 idea unit, is "an assertion about a subject-matter." It is a concept expressed in one or more terms. As an example from the present study, one interviewee may use Sixty words 35Donald W. Jackson, Jr., Gary M. Grikscheit, and W. J. E. Crissy, "Content Analysis of Marketing Communica- tions" (unpublished faculty working paper at the authors' respective institutions of Arizona State University, Univer- sity Of Utah and Michigan State University, 1974), p. 12. 361bid., p. 3. 37Ibid. 38Berelson, Op. cit., p. 139. 391bid., p. 138. 68 in stating that an objective of the cooperative distri- butive education program is to provide students with work experience. Another interviewee may use twenty words in describing the same Objective. In analyzing the two responses, both interviewees would be credited with eliciting the same theme, that Of work experience, even though one response contained many more words than the other. In a frequency count, a theme is coded as one unit regardless of the number of words used to express it. A theme can also be defined as to whether it is a negative, neutral, or positive assertion about a subject. In a study using the written comments of personnel inter- viewers as the source data, Crissy and Regan used the term negative evidence in referring to "a unit of evidence which was cited by the interviewer to demonstrate a weakness in the applicant with respect to a given trait."4o In the present study, theme categories were derived from the responses of interview participants to eight ques- tions on the interview guide in Appendix A. The number of units in a theme category was determined by the number of responses or idea units included in that category. Responses were content analyzed according to the following topics: 40W. J. E. Crissy and James J. Regan, "Halo in the Employment Interview," Journal of Applied Psychology, XXXV (October, 1951), 340. 69 Objectives of Distributive Education a. b. Each theme representing a different Objective was coded as one category. A frequency count for each category was indicated. The total number of objectives stated was indicated. Experiences with Distributive Education a Each theme representing a different positive, neutral or negative experi- ence was coded as one category. A frequency count for each category was indicated. Totals representing positive, neutral, and negative experiences were indicated. Role of the Emplgyer a. b. Each theme representing a different role function of the employer was coded as one category. A frequency count for each.category was indicated. The total number of role functions was indicated. Visible Components of Distributive Education a. Each theme representing a different com- ponent or Operating characteristic of the COOperative program was coded as one category. A frequency count for each category was indicated. The total number of components mentioned was indicated. Benefits to the Employer a. b. Each theme representing a different benefit was coded as one category. A frequency count for each category was indicated. 70 c. The total number of benefits elicited by participants was indicated. 6. Initial Awareness of Distributive Education a. Each theme representing a different means of becoming aware of distributive education was coded as one category. b. A frequency count for each category was indicated. c. The total number of ways of becoming aware of distributive education was indicated. 7. Recommendations for Improvement a. Each theme representing a different recom- mendation for improving the distributive education program was coded as one category. b. A frequency countfbr each category was indicated. c. The total number of recommendations for improvement was indicated. 8. Preferred Classroom Tgpicsp a. Each theme representing a preference for a different classroom tOpic was coded as one category. b. A frequency count for each category was indicated. c. The total number of preferred topics was indicated. Subsequent to the group interview sessions, a follow- up questionnaire (Appendix C) tO validate interview data was developed and mailed to participants. The instrument con- sisted Of a summary of findings from the case studies. Each participant was asked to review the summary and to be prepared to react, in a forthcoming telephone interview, by indicating agreement or disagreement, or by adding ideas which may have been missed in the group interviews. CHAPTER IV FINDINGS Five case reports comprise the data base of the study. Findings are presented for each case. Each report begins with a description of the respondents. Topics in each case study are organized as follows: 1. 2. 8. 9. Profile of Participants Objectives of Distributive Education Experiences with Distributive Education Role of the Employer Visible Components Of Distributive Education Benefits to the Employer Initial Awareness of Distributive Education Recommendations for Improvement Preferred Classroom Topics The concluding section Of this chapter contains a summary Of the findings in the five case reports. 71 CASE STUDY A--A MIDDLE-SIZED CITY WITH A HEAVY INDUSTRIAL BASE The group meeting of employers conducted to gather data for Case Study A was held in Flint, Michigan, a city with a population of 193,000.1 Six high schools are located in the city. Enrollments in those schools range from 800 to 2400.2 Each school Offers cooperative distributive education to its students.3 Profile of the Participants The background characteristics of participants in Case Study A include (1) an identification of the distri- butive education program area (type of distributive business) represented by each employer, (2) the number Of years of experience as a cooperating employer, (3) the number of 1U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census Of POpulation, Number of Inhabitants, Michigan (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971), pp. Michigan 24-24. 2Michigan Education Directopy and Buyers Guide 1973-1974 (Lansing: Michigan Education Directory, 1973), pp. 152-154. 3Vocational Education and Career Development Service, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building Prggram Report (Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1974). 72 73 students supervised, and (4) the total number of employees in each establishment. I Table 4 shows the distribution of employers accord- ing to the U.S. Office of Education instructional program name and code number.4 Three employers represented the General Merchandise classification; of these, two held management positions in discount-price department stores while the third was employed as a manager in a full-service, full-line department store. The Food Service area was represented by the manager of a franchised fast-food outlet and the manager of a limited-menu family restaurant. The Food Distribution category was represented by the service manager of a large food and general merchandise retailer. The service manager's primary responsibility was to super- vise cashiers and bag boys in the grocery department and was, therefore, placed in the Food Distribution rather than the General Merchandise category. As Shown in Table 4, the amount of experience that participants had as employers of cooperative distributive education students ranged from two years to seven years. A further indication of each employer's past involvement with distributive education is given in Table 4 where the number Of students supervised to date is presented. 4U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office Of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, OE-80061 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969), PP. 20-33. 74 Respondents were asked to indicate how many students were supervised on both a direct and an indirect basis. As shown in Table 4, the six respondents repre- sented different store-size categories, based on the number Of employees in each establishment. Based on the total of full-time and part-time employees, the smallest business establishment had twenty;five employees while the largest had 400. Content analysis procedures make it possible to describe a group of interviewees in terms of the relative importance placed on their responses to the open-ended questions on the interview guide (Appendix A). Relative emphasis devoted to each of the eight tOpics by Case Study A participants is shown in Table 5. Because the number Of participants may vary from group to group, the percent of themes column is more appropriate than the number of themes column when group comparisons are made. The open-ended question generating the most responses dealt with the preferred classroom topics. Thirty percent Of the themes elicited by interviewees were in reference to that topic. Experiences with distributive education and role of the employer accounted for 26 percent and 10 percent Of the themes respectively. Comparable figures for each of the other five tOpics ranged from 4 percent to 8 percent. 75 on mauomuwp xuoa msmwmmm HmmOHoEm may mum£3 coaumsuwm van» on mummmu soflmw>nmosm uOOHflo .mwmmmo mgflusflum usmEsHm>ow .mfimmn ucmswwumgw am so mosmeuomumo on» mmumsam>w cam on xuo3 mgmwmmm HOmOHoEm may wnma3 gowumsuwm umnu on mummmu soamw>ummsm uomuwosHo .mongHOmHmo m.mm>OHmEm on» wouMSHm>m haumasmmu new mmmoamaw Ozu n .mmuom .am .Sppms u.U.Q .goumswsmmzv Hmoomlmo .msowvmmwooo can sowumosom ngoflumoo> .COHHMOSOM mo moammo .mummamz pcm .coHumosom .nuammm mo ucmfiunmmma ..m.Dm coausnwuumwo cow omm omH om me a ooom mo.vo w mmflpgmnoumz msa om mma ma m m Hmnmgmw mo.vo m mmflosmsoumz om om om m ma m Hmumgmu mo.vo v mmfiosmzoumz ooa om om ma ma n Hmnmsmu mo.vo m mm om NH m NH m mmow>nwm poom no.wo m mm Hm v m ma m mmOfl>umm poem so.vo H Hopoe mEHB OEHB OMHuOOHHOgH mauomuwn Homoamem opgmenmfianmumm OOOU mummoamam upumm usage b .m.o 6 mo wows .m.o.m.o mm mummy usmfinmflanmuwm ca mmmwoaofim mo HOQESZ Ommfl>ummsm musmpsum .m.o mo umnssz musmpsommmm mo mOHumwumuomHmno ossonmxomm v wanna “d mosum mmmo 76 Table 5 Case Study A: Number of Themes Per Topic Area Number Percenta of Of Topic Area Themes Themes Objectives of Distributive Education 6 8 Experiences with Distributive Education 20 26 Role of the Employer 9 10 Visible Components of Distributive Education 3 4 Benefits to the Employer 6 8 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 5 6 Recommendations for Improvement 6 8 Preferred Classroom Topics 23 30 Total 78 100 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. opjectives of Distributive Education In order to begin the group interview on the tOpic of Objectives, the following open-ended question was asked: How would you describe the objectives of cooperative distri- butive education programs? Content analysis procedures revealed that six themes, that could be further classified into three theme categories, were introduced during the interview. These results are presented in Table 6. 77 Table 6 Case Study A: Themes Regarding Objectives of COOperative Distributive Education Programs Theme Number Place students in career goal jobs 1 Provide job experience 4 Test student's interest in a career 1 Total 6 Provide job experience. In discussing Objectives, Case Study A employers as a group placed emphasis on pro- viding high school students with basic job experience to the extent that they will learn the responsibility of hold- ing a job. Employer #2, the manager of a franchised fast- food outlet, stated the objectives of distributive education in terms Of this theme as: The basic job experience, the responsibility of a job. It is actually the first independent move out of the home that you're going to get. For the student, they're either at home or at school, and their actual first job on their own is their first independent move and it's a whole experience in itself. That's where they are going to make or break themselves on their own with nobody else's assistance. Additional responses on the theme of job experience and responsibility were provided by Employer #2 and Employer #4. The former commented, "It is their first job and you have to teach them responsibility," while the latter stated, "It kind of gives them a jump on life too." 78 When asked to describe her perception Of the Objectives Of cooperative distributive education programs, Employer #6 responded by pointing out that such programs can serve as a mechanism by which students learn to accept responsibility and can, in addition, aid students in the maturation process. She commented: . . . the co-Op is to add to the maturity of someone who has almost graduated from high school, to estab- lish respect for themselves and to be able to accept responsibility and just to mature along these lines gradually with a step-by-step responsibility. Once they've learned to handle one position, to go on to a different position, so they can see their maturity and they can accept more responsibility. Provide career goal_job. Another theme category derived from Case Study A was concerned with the capability of the cooperative distributive education program to provide students with an Opportunity to begin employment in the career field Of their choice. The Objective of the program, according to Employer #1, is to: . . . put kids in high school into actual jobs that they may be interested in in the future. If they want to be, like myself, in the restaurant business or auto mechanics, why waste their time with some- thing else? Test students' career interests. The discussion of objectives by the group as a whole prompted one member to point out the importance of assisting students to acquire enough experience in a Specific occupational area SO they can selectively screen themselves out of it if its demands and rewards are not congruent with their interests, abili- ties, and expectations. Employer #5 elaborated: 79 I do think if they are interested in one field, and they start working in it maybe they'll find out that isn't what they want. It gives them a chance to work on the job, and change their minds or do whatever they want. Two Observations can be made after review of inter- view data regarding the topic of objectives in Case Study A. The first is that some employers described objectives in broad terms which suggests that they view the program as one which encompasses a range of occupational areas, and not limited specifically to distribution and marketing. Based on their responses, these employers apparently see distributive education as being synonymous with cooperative education in general. For example, Employer #1, a restau- rant manager, was quoted above as saying that high school students should have the opportunity to work in jobs that are related to their area of career interest. He elaborated by mentioning the restaurant business and auto mechanics as examples. Yet, professional educators see food service activities associated with a restaurant clearly within the domain of distributive education while auto mechanics is classified in the Trade and Industrial category. A second Observation is that the employers in Case Study A view the Objectives of cooperative distributive education to be to provide high school students with a job, which in turn can serve as the basis for learning respon- sibility. In their statements Of Objectives the employers, for the most part, did not use such terms as distributive education, distribution, retailing, or marketing. 80 One of the reasons for using the semistructured group interview format is that it provides an environment that is appropriate for Observing and noting what inter- viewees say, as well as what they neglect to say, about the topic at hand. Those areas of the distributive education program that employers are aware of can, therefore, be pinpointed through the use of this procedure. Likewise any distributive education objectives or components, or words and phrases distinguished as distributive education terminology, which are conspicuous by their absence from the group discussion may indicate a lack of awareness by employers or a lack of communication between teacher— coordinators and employers. That distributive education is a training program designed specifically for those high school students pursuing careers in distribution and marketing is a concept that was not mentioned in the Case Study A interview. Experiences with Distributive Education The persons with whom employers interact as partici- pants in COOperative distributive education formed the basis for the classification scheme used to process responses to the second question. Whereas each employer response is considered a theme or separate unit for purposes Of analysis, each theme detected is placed in a larger compartment known as a theme category. The theme categories derived from 81 content Of the interview and selected for use were: experiences with teacher-coordinators, experiences with students, and experiences with distributive education, other than those with coordinators or students. Employer experi- ences were organized for ease of discussion by further classifying each response according to whether it was a positive, neutral, or negative statement of experience. The result Of this content analysis procedure is depicted in Table 7. The purpose of this phase of the semistructured interview was to identify those themes and ideas, Speci- fically related to cooperative distributive education, that employers have selectively attended to and have brought into conscious awareness. The attempt was, therefore, to Observe and record those responses provided by employers as being descriptive of their experiences with distributive education. The following question, as included on the inter- view guide in Appendix A, was used to shift the focus of the cooperating employers' discussion to the topic at hand: What have been your experiences with distributive education? Additional statements were made by the moderator, where necessary, to get this part of the interview underway. For example, participants were encouraged to relate those experiences that come to mind, without regard to whether they were positive, neutral, negative, significant or insignificant. AS can be noted in Table 7, 60 percent Of Case Study A: 82 Table 7 with Distributive Education Programs Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences Theme Subjects Row Totals Nature of Teacher- Miscel- a Response Coordinators Students laneous Number Percent Positive Number -- 3 -- 3 15 Percenta Of row -- 100 -- Percenta of column -- 25 -— Percenta of total -- 15 -- Neutral Number 1 3 l 5 25 Percenta of row 20 60 20 Percenta Of column 20 25 33 Percenta Of total 5 15 5 Negative Number 4 6 2 12 60 Percenta of row 33 50 17 Percenta of column 80 50 67 Percenta of total 20 30 10 Column Totals: Number 5 l2 3 Percenta 25 60 15 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. 83 the responses related to experiences involving students, while 25 percent concerned teacher-coordinators, and 15 percent were accounted for by miscellaneous topics. Additional information is afforded by a further examination Of Table 7. By examining the row totals, it can be seen that 60 percent of the response themes or idea units were classified as being negative, 25 percent were neutral, and 15 percent were positive. Further analysis Shows that four of five (80%) themes about teacher- coordinators and Six of twelve (50%) themes about students were negative statements. Themes identified by content analysis procedures are presented in Tables 8 through 10. The twelve themes identified as having positive connotations, for example, are given in Table 8. Positive themes about students. Three responses out of a total of twenty, or 15 percent, were positive state— ments about distributive education. In addition, COOpera- tive students were the subject of all three positive themes, while no positive references were directed toward teacher- coordinators. The themes of those responses are included in Table 8. Employer #2's statement is representative of the two themes pertaining to improved performance on the job. The manager elaborated: 84 The two students that I have were both with me before they even started the school year. One was an excellent worker to begin with, the other was kind of borderline. When he got into the distributive education program he took on a lot more responsibility on his own and Showed a great deal more concern about his work and how he per- formed. I mean before it was just car payment and gas money, where now it's a job too, with a capital 'J.‘ Table 8 Case Study A: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Student's job performance improved after enrolling in distributive education 2 Some distributive education gradu- ates have stayed with the company 1 Teacher- coordinators Not mentioned Miscellaneous Not Mentioned Total 85 Employer #3 recalled a positive experience that he had recently had in his relationship with distributive education students: Last year was a good example. I think we had five that graduated from the same school. And three of them stayed on now. We actually pro— moted one who is up through the ranks to our advertising department now. The other two are more or less in charge of departments, and the co-Op kids from other schools are no longer with us. It would be well to point out at this time that the small number of positive themes about cooperative programs in general, and the lack of such statements with respect to coordinators, is not sufficient evidence to conclude that employers have little or nothing of a positive nature to say about distributive education. It indicates that Operating characteristic of the semistructured group inter- viewencourages participants to discuss those ideas which are foremOst in their minds at that particular moment in the interview. It does not necessarily describe their overall feelings. Neutral themes about students. Five neutral themes are listed in Table 9 . These idea units were considered to be neither positive nor negative in reference to coopera- tive distributive education. They were included in the case report to give additional insight into the direction that participants chose to take in the group discussion. Two employers described female students as being more mature 86 and responsible employees than male students. A department store representative elaborated: There seems to be a difference between the male and female co-op students. It seems like the female takes more interest than the male does. More mature. I don't understand it. It might be our fault, too, as far as opportunities after graduating from high school. We've got a four-year management training program that we'd like to get co-Op people into. I talked to a couple last year, some stock boys that were on co-Op, and they weren't interested. I just can't understand the big difference, why the females are more interested in staying with the company. A restaurant manager continued the discussion of maturity and interest in the job by describing how his young female employees have excelled in providing service to customers. He explained his experience as: Table 9 Case Study A: Neutral Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Females are more mature as workers 2 Students' parents work more regular hours than is the case in retailing 1 Teacher- Students will be motivated if the coordinators coordinator is motivated 1 Miscellaneous Some student employees think the employer is the initial contact for enrolling in distributive education 1 Total 5 87 In our business the girls are more mature and they see more than a guy would. The guy gets mad because he has to carry the tray and he's not going to go off on back there and get him [a baby] that little seat, where a girl will just about 99 percent of the time. Where guys don't even like that kind Of job and the girls have helped me bring the customers back because of the small things. It helps me and that's why my whole shift right now on days is girls except for myself. In making an Observation of why younger employees in his area were not interested in working during the evening and on weekends, Employer #2 stated: Most of their parents are in the Shops here, and so they are on a Monday through Friday . . . [schedule] . . . during the day and that's your job, whereas in our business our peak periods Table 10 Case Study A: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Unreasonable about request for time Off 5 Unreasonable expectations about letter grades g... Teacher- Did not accompany students on coordinators initial contact Did not contact employer after a student was fired for stealing Sent too many students for job interview Visits to employer are infrequent bah: Pi is Miscellaneous Grading procedures not consistent among schools 2 Total 12 88 are when other people aren't working, which is Friday and Saturday night and it's hard for them to get used to that kind of schedule when they've grown up with going to school during the day, their parents work during the day, and your leisure time is Friday night and Saturday night. Natural theme about teacher~coordinators. The final neutral theme which was classified as a miscellaneous response, was presented by Employer #3 who supervises eighty full-time and twenty part-time employees. This manager related that several part-time employees, who are also high school students, are unaware of the established procedure for enrolling in distributive education and they approach him, rather than the teacher-coordinator, as the initial contact. Negative themes about students. Six negative state- ments were made in reference to cooperative students, with five themes being concerned with the problem of dealing with unreasonable requests for time Off or schedule changes in the work schedule. One employer said: There are so many young kids, especially on their first job, if they want to go to a ball game that evening they will call in and say, 'Well, I can't make it today.‘ Another employer concurred when he stated: If they want a Special day Off . . . they'll say, 'I don't have to work here, my co-Op teacher will get me another job,‘ and they're gone. You spend time training them and because they can't get the prom Off or a football game off, they quit because they know the man here [the teacher-coordinator] will get them another job in another field. They'll come in to him and give him a sob story, and bingo, it's his job to find them a job, and he does it. And yet it hurts us because they use it as a weapon sometimes. 89 The personnel manager of a full—line department store discussed how the scheduling of days off was handled in her store. By her choice of words, She communicated her understanding Of the needs cooperative students have by virtue of their being both employees and high school stu— dents who have an interest in social activities. Although She indicated her willingness to accommodate changes in the work schedule, she revealed a dissatisfaction with students who use spurious excuses or lie about their inability to report to work as scheduled. She summarized her position as: I try to work with the students for any days or nights that they have activities at the school. But I'd like to know far enough in advance to schedule them, and I don't like to be lied to, I mean I like them to tell me what they have and we can work around it. But this last minute being sick, or turning an ankle or something, and then you find them at the ball game. I just don't like to be lied to, because we can work it around in the schedules if we know far enough in advance. The only other theme identified as being negative with regard to cooperative students dealt with the problem Of assigning letter grades on the evaluation form provided by the teacher-coordinator. Case Study A participants agreed that cooperative students probably expected employers to recommend that they be given the highest possible grade for doing little more than coming to work on time and as scheduled. A department manager in charge of the cashiers and baggers in a full-line discount- department store appeared to summarize the feelings Of the 90 group when she said, "If they don't get A's, they wonder why." Negative themes about teacher-coordinators. The data in Table 7 Show that one-third of the negative themes expressed by Case Study A employers referred to past experiences with teacher—coordinators. Employer grievances pertained to the manner in which certain coordination activities, primarily visitations, were administered. Employer #1, who usually employs cooperative students from three or four high schools, recalled: With some co-Op teachers you only see or hear from them at grading time and sometime you don't even see them then. They'll send it [evaluation form] through the mail or the kids will bring it them- selves. ' Employer #2, the manager of a franchised fast-food outlet, noted a similar pattern in dealing with distributive education programs at some of the high schools in his area. He elaborated: I have two students from one of the schools and I didn't even know they were on co-op until some guy walked in and I found out he's their co-op instructor, and I had never met the fellow, had never talked with him, hadn't gotten any forms from the school or anything on it. They are people that I hired on my own, it just so happens that they are on co—op, but there was never any contact made. Another variation on the subject of imprOperly administered coordination visits, or a lack thereof, was the way a coordinator handled the situation when one of his students was fired from a department store. The store's 91 representative, with the title of associate general manager, explained the event: It was about two weeks ago we had to fire one co-op student for stealing. And I was sure then that within the next ten or fifteen minutes, or the next day, I would hear from his co-op teacher, but I haven't heard from him since. Reviewing the quotation again, it appears that the employer was at least as disturbed about not hearing from the coordinator as he was about the theft itself. It all fairness, it Should be stated that a judgment about this particular coordinator's competence cannot be made on the basis of one statement and without knowing other pertinent facts. Nevertheless, the incident was still fresh in the memory Of the employer two weeks after its occurrence. Employer #6 supervises a large department which has approximately twenty full-time and 155 part-time employees. She is accustomed to the frequent interviewing of job applicants as a consequence of the heavy reliance on part— time help. For reasons that are not evident, one coordi- nator has made her job more difficult. She elaborated: They say, 'Well, we're going to send out five to ten students,' and you allow yourself approxi- mately 10 to 15 minutes for the first interview, and when you turn around and you've got 50 [students] it gets to be a little irritating. And then you have him call back and say, 'Well, you've interviewed these 50 people, you want to take 30, right? Employer #6 mentioned problems of a slightly dif- ferent nature after she hired some students who were the responsibility of the teacher~coordinator in question. She explained: Right now I suppose I've taken six of his students and have never seen or heard from him again, unless I call and make the appointment. Miscellaneous negative themes. The two final negative themes, from TablejuL to be discussed were classi- fied as miscellaneous because they were not in reference to either distributive education COOperative students or teacher-coordinators. They dealt, instead, with the forms and procedures for evaluating student job performances. Employer #1 appeared to sum up group sentiments on evalu— ation forms when he said: It's the lousiest way to try to grade a kid, they are too general. 'Does he wear the right uniform?', that's a stupid question because if he didn't you'd send him home. You're not going to let somebody wear blue jeans to work. The co-op form that we have to use, I don't like the word grading because we don't actually give him an A or a B, is very poor. Some concern was expressed for the lack of consis- tency among schools in grading procedures and evaluation forms. Some forms,;&n-example, require that a letter grade be assigned by the employer, while others ask the employer to rate various aspects of the student's job performance and progress on a bipolar scale. A third type Of evaluation form combines a letter grade with the scalar rating. 93 Role Of the Employer Effective Operation of the cooperative program depends upon the performance of specific functions by each partner in the relationship. The following question was asked in the interview sessions to provide a basis for describing how employers View their role as participants in cooperative distributive education: How would you describe the role of the employer who participates in the cooperative distributive education program? Reactions Of individual employers to the question were content analyzed and summarized. Table 11 Shows a list of nine themes from that summary. Train and teach students. Themes or responses that described the employer's role as being one of training, teaching, and evaluating job performance were grouped into one category. One employer succinctly expressed her view Of the employer's role as being to, "Train, teach. That's two of the biggest things." In continuing the discussion, Employer #4 commented: You have to teach them, I mean bear with them until you do teach them, that their job should come first before their pleasures, if they want to work. So this is a big responsibility in the stores, or wherever they work. 94 Table 11 Case Study A: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education ._._~ Theme Number Train, teach, evaluate job performance 3 Expect the same from co—op students as from other employees of same age . 6 Total 9 The personnel manager from a department store, who was in her second year as a cooperating employer, emphasized that the age and maturity of COOperative students must be considered in carrying out the training task. She elaborated: Even if you hired a 25 year Old and they had never worked before, you'll have a certain amount of training to do anyway. Although the older person would grasp it quicker. But you know this when you take a co-op. Same role as to other employees. Further examina- tion of Table 11 shows that six themes had the common element that employers expect the same from COOperative 95 students as they do from other employees of similar age. Employer #2, who has supervised 12 cooperative students in the last two years, remarked, "I train and teach just as I would any other employee. Training for the job. Evaluate how well they do on the job." Another employer expressed his agreement with that answer and added, "I'll take into consideration their age, but whether or not they're on co-Op, it makes no difference as to how I work them." Two additional reSponses provided further insight into how interviewees discussed the age and maturity Of employees. One comment was: You can't expect a 16 or 17 year old person to have the maturity of somebody that you've got doing the same job that's 25 or 26 years Old. Employer #3 reacted to the previous statement by saying, "Some of our 25 and 30 year Olds are less dependable than the co-op kids." Visible Components Of Distributive Education Question #4 was included in the interview guide (Appendix A) to determine which components of the distribu- tive education program are known by employers. Specifi- cally, the intent was to stimulate a discussion in which interviewees would elicit responses indicating their awareness of various Operating characteristics of such programs. This part of the discussion brought out three 96 themes, two Of them being similar enough to be classified in the same category. A summary of themes is shown in Table 12. Table 12 Case Study A: Themes Regarding Visible Components Of the Distributive Education Program Theme Number Cooperative students are available for work early in the day 2 Cooperative students can legally operate certain pieces of equipment 1 Total 3 Students can work variable hours. A department store executive answered question #4 by saying: Well, the main thing is that will come in handy as far as they can come in at 12:00 or 1:00 p.m., and right at that time our regulars go to dinner, so they can cover. Another employer followed with this related comment: Another benefit of them being able to get out of school earlier, we do have the child labor laws with it, combined school and work hours can be so many hours a week. Further discussion disclosed that the employer was alluding to that child labor law provision which is stated as follows: This law restricts minors from.working for a period longer than an average of nine hours a day for a 54 hour week and not more than 10 97 hours in any one day. Students, when attending school, may go up to ten hours a day of school and work hours. Under no conditions can a minor student accumulate more than 54 hours of school and work hours in any one week. Students can operate equipment. The third theme identified in the interview was also in reference to a provision of child labor laws. It was, however, placed in a separate theme category because its basic meaning differed from the two previously mentioned themes. A restaurant manager, who used a large number of part-time employees, summarized his viewpoint on the topic by saying: You certainly couldn't have a regular 16 or 17 year Old do some jobs. The child labor laws say they cannot use a beef slicer, but under this co-op they can. There are certain items and certain jobs that they can do that your people that can't get on co-Op can't do for you. The statement indicated the restaurant manager's awareness of the state statute that provides for the employ- ment of cooperative students in hazardous occupations. Operating a beef slicer in a restaurant is considered to be a hazardous occupation, even if the student performs that function for just a few minutes in a work day. The statute pertinent to the employer's comment is: When completing the 'Training Agreement,‘ the school representative is responsible for listing the type(s) of hazardous work to be done and any 5Michigan Department of Education, The Michigan Guide to Child Labor Provisions for Cooperapive Education Programs (Lansing: Michigan Department of EducatiOn), p. 4. 98 qualifying conditions or restrictions the coordi- nator wishes to impose for the safety of the student.6 Benefits to the Employer The purpose Of a previous section of this case study was to discover how employers perceive of their role as participants in cooperative distributive education. This section was included to ascertain the benefits that employers receive in return for the various functions they perform. Six response themes were produced by the following question: What are the benefits or payoffs of distributive education to the businessman? The themes were content analyzed and classified into four categories with one theme each and one category with two themes. The themes are presented in summary form in Table 13. Discussion of benefits by Case Study A employers included the subjects of (1) getting employees at an age when they can be trained, (2) providing an opportunity for community involvement, (3) having employees who can work flexible schedules, (4) being able to rely on the assistance of a teacher-coordinator, and (5) getting an employee that may stay with the company for a career. Students are easily trained. Employer #2 began this portion Of the interview by explaining: 61bid., p. 5. 99 You're getting employees generally at a more moldable age I guess you could say. I'd rather take a 16 year Old with no job experience than an 18 or 20 year old that has had a couple of different jobs, and get them to work the way you want the job done where any results are because of your training or lack of training, whatever the case may be, and not because of previous job experience that they've had. Table 13 Case Study A: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education Theme Number Get employees at a moldable age 1 Community involvement 1 Available to work a flexible schedule 1 Assistance of the teacher-coordinator 1 Recruiting full-time employees 2 Total 6 Community_Involvement. When asked if he had either additional comments in relation to his answer or any other benefits to state, the employer added that participation in cooperative distributive education gave him the opportunity to broaden his outlook. He explained this as, "Community involvement if nothing else. You're not in your own little shell. You're working with the peOple that you have to do business with." 100 Flexible scheduling. A third theme attributed to Employer #2 was that the cooperative program provided employees who were available to work on a flexible work schedule. AS he stated, "This does make them available whether it be day or night for more hours of work per week." Coordinator provides assistance. The comments pro- vided by one respondent indicate a willingness to partici- pate in distributive education because of the presence of a teacher-coordinator in the program. This is illustrated by the following statement: If you cannot succeed through one or two communi- cations [with the cooperative student] then you have a third person to help you. The third person being the coordinator. Recruit full-time employees. Two themes, which com- prise the final category to be discussed, described the desire of employers to arouse student interest in careers with their companies. In the words of one respondent: Because a lot of the co-Op students that we do have, have stuck along right with us, and we train them on the job for their benefit and also ours. Initial Awareness of Distributive Education An effort was made to ascertain how employers became aware of or were introduced to the cooperative distributive education program in which they are now involved. Themes apprOpriate to this topic are summarized in Table 14. 101 Table 14 Case Study A: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education Theme Number Participation recommended by central office 1 Coordinator initiated contact 1 Employer initiated contact 2 Employee inquiry 1 Total 5 In discussing the initial contacts with their present distributive education programs, Case Study A interviewees elicited themes under the categories of: (l) participation recommended by the firm's central Office; (2) contact initiated by the teacher-coordinator; (3) con- tact initiated by the employer; and (4) employee inquiries. Employer made contact. Two respondents addressed the theme of initial contact being initiated by employers. Employer #3 described his experience as: We opened in 1973. Our [regional] personnel supervisor, who.I worked with back.in Ohio, she's all game for co-Op. She was a co-Op person herself in high school. And you get a person who started in co-op and worked their way up through the ranks, they always keep this in- mind that this is how they did it. So she is more or less the one that contacted some of the schools about co-op. 102 Another employer continued the discussion of this theme category by commenting on the difficulty attracting job applicants to a new restaurant: I walked into the school and asked for the co-op director . . . What is funny is we put a Sign up and put an ad in the paper and we were sitting there looking at each other. Nobody came in to be hired. So we . . . called them [schools] up and asked for an appointment with the co-op directors. Recommended by compapy. Attention in a second theme category was directed toward those companies that recommend the use of cooperative distributive education students as part-time employees. In describing how he became familiar with the program, a fast—food restaurant manager stated: It comes highly recommended from our main Office and they work with it from that. When I came into this district it [distributive education] was already used rather extensively . . . and we intend to continue it. There's no reason not to, it's worked out fine. It came recommended very highly because all across the country they've had good experience with it. Coordinator made contact. A response given by a respondent was that teacher—coordinators made appointments with prospective COOperating employers to solicit their participation in local distributive education programs. Employee inquiry. Finally, it was mentioned that occasionally a young employee will introduce an employer to distributive education by requesting that his job become part of a cooperative program. 103 Recommendations for Improvement The most frequently mentioned recommendation for improvement in Case Study A was that selection procedures should be used in admitting students to the cooperative distributive education program. Other themes mentioned were in regards to (l) employer visits to the classroom, (2) more frequent visits to employers by teacher—coordinators, and (3) the grading of coordinators by employers. Themes relating to this portion of the interview are presented in Table 15. Table 15 Case Study A: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education Themes Number Student selection 3 Employer visits to classroom 1 Frequent visits to employer by coordinator 1 1 Employers should grade the teacher-coordinator Total 6 Student selection. The issue of student selection procedures was raised by the interviewee who said: If you have a student in your co-op class, and you're the coordinator, and that student is sitting at his desk half laying, and everytime he talks to you it's 'Hey man,‘ or 'I don't care,‘ why bother to take up another employer's time, 104 to take up 15 or 20 minutes of that person's time, to put them through an interview, just for the sake of putting them through an interview. .Employer #1 came into the discussion at this point and added, "Shouldn't co-op be for an A or a B student, instead of a C or D [as it is] on a lot of occasions?" Employers Should visit classroom. One concern expressed by the group was that employers were not aware Of how the teaching function was carried out in the classroom. One employer addressed this subject when he said: I know one thing that would be good to add to the programs. We really don't know what goes on in the classrooms. Why not have the employers come 'and hear sometimes just to see actually what they talk about? You know, a lot of times, I'm sure they'll [students] tell problems that they wouldn't come and tell me. And this would help a lot to see what gripes they have about any problem they've had at our store. Coordinator Should visit frequently. Another area Of concern was the lack of rapport, as indicated by infre- quent visitations, between employers and teacher-coordinators. In making a recommendation, Employer #1 commented: If you want good programs, I think the co-op directors should go to the stores themselves because there are some co-op directors I won't even bother saying 'Hi' to . . . . They're the ones that tell you to grade them [students], and he never stOpS in the store. Coordinators Should be evaluated. Another respondent indicated his agreement with the previous comment and added, "we Should grade the co-op teacher." 105 Preferred ClaserOm Topics Specific classroom topics suggested by business personnel during the interviewing process of this case study were (1) attitude and personality development, (2) job application and interviewing skills, (3) personal appear- ance, (4) duties and tasks involved in distributive jobs, (5) basic mathematics and counting change, (6) customer relations, (7) initiative on the job, and (8) manner of speech. Twenty~three themes, classified into eight theme categories, resulted from a content analysis of employer responses. Table 16 presents a summary and frequency dis— tribution of these themes. Table 16 Case Study A: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom TOpics as Suggested by Employers Themes Number Attitude and personality development Job applications and interviews Personal appearance Job definitions Basic mathematics and counting change Customer relations Initiative I-‘NNU'Iwi-‘O‘w Manner of speech [0 on Total 106 Job applications and interviews. Six of the twenty- three themes stressed the importance of training students in the skills Of filling out employment applications and preparing for employment interviews. Some selected theme responses from this category are as follows: They Should be instructed on how to fill out applications. I think they Should be instructed on how to fill out the application and how to go through an interview. Just basic job skills they are going to need the rest of their lives, like you don't need a resume for most Of our jobs, but you will sometime in the future. Employer #5 added that the skill areas just men- tioned should be taught to students before they have the first interview for a cooperative job. She remarked: That should be one of your very first classes, showing them how to make out an application because if they don't put in addresses or if they don't even know what a personal reference is, and they fill out their brothers and sisters [names], and no addresses, no, I won't call them. Computational skills. The theme category with the second highest count in the frequency distribution was basic mathematics and counting change. Five themes were classified in this category. A department store personnel manager lead Off with this statement: We have a little test that we give them. A math test . . . . But you'd be surprised at the students that come in on this co-op, this is just a Sixth grade test, and the students can't make a 70 on it. This is all we ask. You must make a 70 on the test . . . . If they're going out in the world to work they should know a little math. 107 In addition to basic mathematics another computa- tional skill, making change, was brought up as a necessary classroom topic. Here are typical comments: Well in our area, we need somebody who can count change fast. This is something that even by the time that they are in high school you would think that most peOple can, but if they can‘t, they just can't. Even with the computer cash register, they don't really always know exactly how much [change] to get out. They can't count change, they almost have to ask you [the customer]. Attitude and personality. Theme categories pertain- ing to attitude or personality development and duties and tasks involved in distributive jobs contain three theme or idea units each. When asked to suggest those classroom topics she would like to see emphasized, Employer #5 responded: Basically, I think attitude alone, working with attitude, respect, respecting themselves first, because so many of the kids you see now . . . don't even have respect for themselves, let alone to respect anybody else. And in a closely related fashion, Employer #5 added the importance Of "A pleasant personality, a smile on your face." Realizing the complexity of this particular topic, one respondent pointed out, "Of course, attitude and respect are a very difficult thing to teach in just one class. It's an overall environment at home and at school." 108 Job definitions. Three reSponses expressed a con- cern that students, prior to employment on their COOperative jobs, were not aware of the various tasks and duties involved in distributive jobs. Furthermore, employers stressed the importance of gaining such knowledge in the distributive education classroom. A department store representative commented on this need: I think the coordinator Should tell the students . . . the responsibility, not really the respon- sibility, but some of the duties that, if they work at our store, what they'd be doing. I know a lot of times a person might come out there and start working for us and not really like the job. A personnel manager, also representing a department store, chimed in on the discussion and added, "Most coordinators should know if it's a department store, that they [students] would have certain duties." Customer relations. Teaching students not only how to interact with customers, but also how to appreciate the role they play in the economic system, was mentioned as a preferred classroom topic by two employers. In the words of one interviewee: These kids that are on co-Op should also realize that those customers that are coming in, that the customer is paying their paycheck. Without that customer coming in there wouldn't be a job for them in the first place . . . . I tell people when I hire them, 'What I expect you to do when you're waiting on a customer is treat that customer the same way that you would want to be treated. Now you wouldn't want to come in and have the cashier throw your groceries into a bag any old way, so I don't expect you to do the same.‘ 109 A second employer commented on the importance OngOOd customer relations by describing a survey that his company used to monitor the performance of employees. The study is conducted periodically by an independent firm which sub- mits findings in the form of a written report. The inter- viewee elaborated: Ninety percent of the report is just common courtesy things, [e.g.] the way you're greeted, were you thanked? And even more so now, that guy is putting across his hard-earned money for what you got to sell, you say thank.you for coming to you. Initiative. Group participants, in raising yet another theme for consideration, related to how important it is for the student to take initiative in performing the job. Two themes are particularly relevant to this viewpoint. Employer #5 took this position: It's always the little extra things that help. [Employees] putting themselves out a little bit extra, not just being there and putting in their time and expecting a paycheck . . . . [for example] when you greet a customer with a smile, and just a little extra personality. A restaurant manager continued the discussion on this particular theme and added that the teacher-coordinator should attempt to: . . convey to the co-Op students that if you [they] are hired, maybe [their] paychecks won 't climb in a week or two, but in the long run the person that does that little extra will make a little extra [money]. Additional topics. Other classroom topics suggested by interviewees were that (1) the elements of good personal 110 appearance and the necessity of being dressed appropriately for the job should be stressed, and (2) students should be taught to speak clearly and directly and without having to rely on slang phrases. CASE STUDY B--SMALL RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY NEAR A MIDDLE-SIZED CITY The group meeting of emplOyerS conducted to gather data for Case Study B was held in Okemos, Michigan, a town with a population of 7,800 but a suburb in a county domi- nated by a city of 130,000 and fimzsite of state govern- ment and Michigan State University.7 A cooperative distri- butive education program was not available in the high school in the local school district. COOperative distributive education programs were Offered, however, by high schools in two neighboring school districts as well as by the area vocational center serving the county. The area skill center, which used both COOperative and project laboratory instruc- tional methods, had a close relationship with the business community. Employers present at the group meeting had employed COOperative students from the area center program and had also supervised students on work exploration experi ences. .Students were not paid for work exploration activi- ties which typically lasted less than two weeks at one 7U. S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census Of kPopulation, Number of Inhabitants, Michigan (WaSHington, D. FC.: Government Printing Office,l 1971), pp. Michigan 24- 25. 111 112 establishment. In contrast, the cooperative program required that the student work at least fifteen hours each.week for PaY- Profile of Participants The background characteristics of participants in Case Study B include: (1) an identification of the distri- butive education program area (type of distributive business) represented by each employer, (2) the number of years Of experience as a cooperating employer, (3) the number Of students supervised, and (4) the total number Of employees in each establishment. Table 17 shows the distribution Of employees accord- ing to the U.S. Office of Education instructional program name and code number.8. Three employers represented the Apparel and Accessories classification; of these, one was the assistant manager Of a store selling mens' and boys' clothing, while the other two managed women's readyhto-wear stores. The General Merchandise area was represented by the managers of three stores Specializing in the three product lines Of piece goods and sewing accessories, toys and games, and gifts and decoratiVe accessories. The Food Distribution category was represented by the manager of a Speciality food store. 8U.S., Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office Of Education, Vocational Educatkuiand Occupations, OE-80061 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969): PP. 20‘33. . 113 .mwmmn ucmsomumcfl so so nonmanomumm may nwumsam>m one on xuos mgmwmmm Homoamsm msu muons sowumsuwm use» on mummmu sowmfl>nmmsm uomuapsHo .wocmEHOmumo n.00mOHoEm we» moumsam>m mammasmmu use ommoaosm we» on manomnflo Muos msmwmmm Homoamsw Onu muons composuflm omen on mummou sowmfl>umosm uomuwo .wmmuom .am .impaa .mowmmo mgflucfium usmssuw>ow u.o.Q .soumsflnmmzv Hmoomlmo .wsoflnmmdooo pom sowumosom Hmsoflumoo> .coaumosom mo moammo .mummamz can .gowumospm .npammm no acmeuhmmma ..m.Dm n m n N h N m mumpsmnoumz mo.vo h Hmumsmo m m o o m N onwpsmnoumz mo.vo m Hmumsmo om OH ea NH m a mmwuommmoo< No.vo m was Hmummmd NH 5 m H N N mmwuommmood No.vo v pom Heywood mm ON ma 0 N H mmfinommmood No.vo m use awesome OH m N o w v mmflpcmeoumz mo.vo N . Hmuosmw m n N n m m sowusnwuumfln mo.¢o H ooom Hmuoa OSHB mafia omauomuHOGH nmduomufla Hmaoamsm opcmEnmNHnmumm coco Homoamsm spams usage .m.o no mass .m.o.m.o m we ucmaemflanmumm so pmmw>umo9m;musmpsum muse» mommoamem mo Honesz .m.o mo HmnEsz musmpsoommm mo moaummumuomumso pcsoumxomm um monum mmmu ha OHQMB 114 As shown in Table 17, the amount of experience that participants had as cooperative employers ranged from one year to four years. The number of students supervised to date was another indication of each employer's past involvement in distributive education cooperative programs. Respondents were asked to indicate how many students they had supervised on both a direct and an indirect basis. Further examination of Table 17 Shows that the respondents represented two store-size categories, based on the total number of employees in each establishment. Four of the stores had between nine and twelve employees, with the two remaining stores having thirty and thirty-five employees reSpectively. Using content analysis procedures it is possible to describe a particular group of people in terms Of the relative importance placed on their responses to open-ended questions. Relative emphasis devoted to each of the eight topic areas on the interview guide (Appendix A) by Case Study B interviewees is shown in Table 18. Because the number of participants may vary from group to group, the percent of themes column is more appropriate than the number of themes column when group comparisons are made. 115 Table 18 Case Study B: Number of Themes Per Topic Area Number Percenta of of Topic Area Themes Themes Objectives of Distributive Education 5 ll Experiences with Distributive Education 12 27 Role of the Employer 4 9 Visible Components of Distributive Education 4 9 Benefits to the Employer 5 11 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 2 5 Recommendations fin:Improvement 9 -21 Preferred Classroom Topics 4 . 7. Total 45 100 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. .The Open-ended question generating the most dis- cussion, as measured by the number of responses, was in reference to previous experiences with distributive education. Twenty—seven percent of the themes elicited by interviewees dealt with that tOpic. Recommendations for 116 improvement accounted for twenty-one percent Of the themes, while each of the other six tOpics accounted for smaller portions Of the discussion and ranged from five to eleven percent. Objectives of Distributive Education One of the purposes of this study was to provide a basis for developing a clear and concise description of distributive education program objectives as seen by cooperating employers. The following Open-ended question was asked in order to begin the group interview on this topic: How would you describe the Objectives of cooperative distributive education programs? Content analysis procedures revealed that five themes, that could be further classified into four theme categories, were introduced during the interview. These results are presented in Table 19. Table 19 Case Study B: Themes Regarding Objectives of Cooperative Distributive Education Programs Theme Number Place students in career goal jobs Provide job experience Test student's interest in a career k‘ (a P4 to Teach store Operations Total 5 117 Place students in career goal jobs. Group members Case Study B stated two themes that described the objec- tives of distributive education as being to place students in career goal jobs. Employer #4, the assistant manager Of a men's clothing store, stated his vieWpoint in terms of this theme as: It's to give the high school students an Oppor- tunity to go out and usually work in a field that they feel they are going to get into. And it gives them an opportunity to see if this is really what they want. Give them a taste of it and maybe get into it or maybe go on to a school. It gives them an opportunity to make their decision. When asked to describe her perception of the objec- tives Of cooperative distributive education programs, Employer #7 responded by suggesting that the high school level program should be available to those students who will be studying marketing and distribution in college as well as those who will enter the field upon graduation from high school. She commented: I think this program should be not only for somebody who just wants to go out and get a job . . . but also because I do think there is a definite need for more professionalism in retailing. Test student's career interests. Another theme category derived from Case Study B was concerned with the capability of the COOperative distributive education program to provide both the student and the employer with the Opportunity to evaluate each other. Employer #1 supported this particular viewpoint by stating: 118 It gives not only the retailers a chance to evaluate the person they are thinking maybe of hiring on a full-time basis, but it also gives the person a chance to evaluate the retail business itself. Whereas in real life, if a kid graduates from high school or graduates from college, he's going to go into a job, he's almost stuck, he can't go from job to job. Provide job experience. The discussion of objec- tives by the group as a whole prompted one member to point out the importance of getting employment experience at a young age. Employer #5 added that students, by virtue of their age, are easier to train on the job: You have the opportunity to treat them and train them and really work them over so that by the ’time they are seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen years old they know where to go and what to do. Teach store operations. The final theme from this portion Of the interview was that distributive education should help the student to gain an overall insight into what is actually involved in Operating a retail store. The student, according to Employer #6, should be taught: . . . to always keep an Open mind to see what the manager is doing and at the same time what the stockboy is doing and what the sales clerk is doing and always keep an Open mind about what is going on. Experiences with Distributive Education The persons with whom employers interact as parti- cipants in COOperative distributive education formed the basis for the classification scheme used to process data related to the second question on the interview guide 119 (Appendix A). Whereas each response from an interviewee is considered as a separate idea unit or theme for content analysis, each theme detected is placed in a larger compart- ment known as a theme category. Prior to the meeting with Case Study B employers, it was anticipated that the theme categories to be derived from content of the interview would be: experiences with teacher-coordinators, experiences with students, and experi- ences with distributive education, other than those with coordinators or students. The interview itself, however, produced themes that related solely to students. Employer experiences were organized for ease of discussion by further classifying each response according to whether it was a positive, neutral, or negative statement Of experience. The result of this content analysis procedure is depicted in Table 20. The purpose of this phase of the semistructured interview was to identify those themes and ideas, specifi- cally related to distributive education, that employers have selectively attended to and have brought into conscious awareness. The attempt was, therefore, to Observe and record those responses provided by employers as being descriptive of their experiences with distributive education. The following question was asked to start the employers' discussion on a new topic: What have been your experiences with distributive education? Additional state- ments were made by the moderator to get this portion Of the 120 Table 20 Case Study B: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs Theme Subjects Row Totals Nature Of Teacher- Miscel- Respone Coordinators Students laneous Number Percenta Positive Number -- 7 -- 7 54 Percenta of row -- 100 -- Percenta Of column -- 54 -- Percenta of total -- 54 -- Neutral Number -- 3 -- 3 '23 Percenta Of row -- 100 -- Percenta of column -- 23 -— Percenta of total -- 23 -- Negative Number -- 3 -— 3 23 Percenta of row -- 100 -- Percenta Of column -- 23 -- Percenta Of total -- 23 -- Column Totals: NO. -"" 13 -— Percenta -- 100 -- aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. 121 interview underway. For example, interviewees were encouraged to relate those experiences that come to mind, without regard to whether they were positive, neutral, negative, significant or insignificant. In Table 20 it can be seen that 100 percent Of the responses related to experiences involving students. Conspicuous by their absence from Table 20 are references to teacher-coordinators and to experiences with distributive education, other than those with coordinators or students. Additional information is afforded by a further examination of Table 20. By examining the percentage of column figures under the student category, it can be seen that 54 percent of the response themes or idea units were classified as being positive, 23 percent were neutral, and 23 percent were negative. Themes identified by content analysis procedure are presented in Tables 21 through 23. Positive themes about students. Examining Table 20, it can be seen that seven responses out of a total of thirteen, or 54 percent, were positive statements about distributive education students. The themes of that portion Of the interview are included in Table 21. Employer #5 described his overall experience with distributive education students when he said: I think that most Of them are serious, most of them want to work and they will do just about anything they can to learn. The kids in high school I have found work out real, real good. 122 Table 21 Case Study B: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Some graduates have stayed with the company 3 Work experience helped student mature as an employee 2 Student was one of the better salespersons 1 Students are hard workers 1 Teacher- Not mentioned coordinators Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 7 Table 22 Case Study B: Neutral Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Students' parents work regular hours 1 Students enrolled for course credits and were not interested in the career field 2 Teacher- coordinators Not mentioned Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 3 123 Another participant, the manager of a women's clothing shop, agreed with Employer #5 and added: We are begging constantly for people and these people that we get from these classes . . . I would say that about Six out of eight of them worked out real good. One of the girls I have right now is my Sportswear manager. She is going to be training for assistant manager, and she is only eighteen years Old. Themes on the topic of hiring distributive education graduates as full-time employees, were also registered by Employer #4 and Employer #7. The former referred to a particular student and said, "After his training period was over, we hired him and he is working for us and he is very serious . . . He is learning all the aspects of selling." In a similar fashion the latter commented, ". . . I'm hiring one Of them as a manager trainee." Employer #3 recalled a positive experience that she had recently had with a student: She will be with me until September when She will be going to Kalamazoo to college and has a guarantee for a job with our store in Kalamazoo. And I think that says quite a bit for the program . . . . She has been one of my best girls. She averages $65 an hour [in sales] and works thirty- eight hours a week. I have very experienced gals that have been in retailing a long time and just haven't accomplished that. Two employers described how they observed distribu- tive education students develop into mature workers as a result of their work experience. A retailer of gifts and decorative accessories elaborated: I had one girl when we first started that worked out very well. I felt that the work experience did her good, she was a very shy girl. 124 Employer #4 described the experience with a student as, "He was learning retail with books . . . and he started working for us, he started learning that he had to experi- ence what's involved in selling." Neutral themes about students. The three neutral themes enumerated in Table 20 are listed in detail in Table 22. Neutral idea units or themes were those that were neither positive nor negative in reference to cooperative distributive education. They were included in the case report to give additional insight into the direction that interviewees chose to take in discussing experiences with students. Two employers were concerned that a number of cooperative students were more interested in earning course credits for graduation than they were with preparing for a career in distribution and marketing. Employer #6, for example, commented: The kids who did work for me were good and they were interested, but not as a career type of thing. Most Of them take it just for the credit and to get out of the school building. Another employer, who had been associated with distributive education cooperative programs for fouryears, stated a Similar Opinion: I think they have a lot Of kids going into it for the credit, rather than what is in it . . . [and] really being interested in retailing. l i 'l(‘ 2 1 All!" I I 5 'I. III. 'I [I lit] 7'. II III I ‘1 l ' | I III III .‘I [it‘ll 125 Employer #5 requested that he be given the Oppor- tunity to react to the foregoing comments and explain why some students were not attracted to careers in the retail trade. He began by saying: I think it's the retailers' fault more than anyone's fault. They [students] have to work every night. They have to work every other Sunday, they have to work Saturdays . . . . they don't have any of their personal life. Employer #5 concluded by saying that parents of many students worked during the day and were off on the weekends. The students, therefore, became accustomed to more regular work schedules which were available in occu- pational areas other than retailing. The absence of themes with respect to teacher-' coordinators or other aSpects of distributive education should be viewed with two considerations in mind. The first is that the semistructured group interview encourages participants to discuss those ideas which are foremost in their minds at that particular moment in the interview. Likewise, some points may be more fully develOped and elaborated on than others. Second, employers may have little or no knowledge about distributive education, with the exception of their contacts with students. Negative themes about students. The seven themes identified as having negative connotations are given in Table 23. As indicated, two of the three statements referred to past cooperative students who diSplayed little 126 or no interest in retailing as a career field. One employer said, "I went through about two or three students and I had bad experiences. I decided that these were kids that really weren't cut out for retailing." The manager of a store specializing in piece goods and sewing accessories described how one particular student could not handle money properly. She elaborated: One of them got our cash receipts all mixed up. It was unbelievable. We were short varying amounts almost every day she was there. Table 23 Case Study B: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme ‘ Subject Theme Number Students Could not handle cash receipts 1 Were not interested in the job 2 Teacher- coordinators Not mentioned Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 3 Role of the Emplgyer .A cooperative education program is based on a three- way partnership between student, employer, and school. Effective Operation of the program depends upon the per- formance of Specific functions by each partner. To provide a basis for describing how employers view their role, the following question was included in the interview guide: 127 How would you describe the role of the employer who participates in cooperative distributive education? Responses of employers to the question were content analyzed and summarized. Themes from that summary are presented in Table 24. Four themes were identified and were further classified into two theme categories. Table 24 Case Study B: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education ..—_ ~- ——.——— ..__-,, Theme Number Teach students 3 To interest students in retailing 1 Total 4 Teach students. Idea units that described the employer's role as being one of teaching were grouped into one category. One employer was particularly interested in teaching the fundamentals of management to younger people. He supported his views by saying: I feel that if a person is going tolearn management I would rather take a raw individual and teach them management as far as my store is concerned. I would rather teach them management and not worry about how they belt or button a dress or how they handle a customer. Other interviewees agreed that teaching was a central part of the employer's role, but took exception with the foregoing statement and what should be taught. Employer #2, 128 the manager of a small store, felt that concepts other than management techniques Should be stressed and added: I'm the stockboy. I'm the one who brings in the shipments . . . . I usually level with them about how many hours I put in a week. They say, 'Isn't that awfully hard?', and I say, 'Yes, but you get used to it.‘ . . . I would hope that everyone is telling them like it is, and not how we would like it to be. Interest students in retailing. A second and quite different theme was provided by a retailer of women's fashions who was in her second year as a distributive educa- tion cooperating employer: I really enjoy my work. I try to tell this to the young girls that come to work for me. I think it's a very exciting business. I've had a lot of the kids say, 'You really got me excited about this.‘ Visible Components of Distributive Education Question #4 was included in the interview guide (Appendix A) to determine which components Of the distribu- tive education program are known by employers. The specific intent was to initiate a discussion in which respondents would elicit themes indicating their awareness or knowledge of various operating characteristics of such programs. Four different themes were identified in this portion of the interview. A summary of themes is shown in Table 25. 129 Table 25 Case Study B: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program —- "‘ -....- .. Theme Number Students are available for work early in the day 1 Students are graded by employers 1 Not aware of classroom activities 1 Project-laboratory activities 1 Total 4 Students can work variable hours. A merchant began this round of discussion by comparing COOperative students with student—employees who work after school hours: The difference between a high school student just working for you or being on co-op is that they [cooperative students] can get out of school earlier and they can put in more hours for you. Further discussion disclosed that this particular respondent managed a store that was Open more than seventy hours each week and employed one additional full-time employee and eight part-time employees. In commenting on the larger number of hours that cooperative students can work each week, and the resulting flexibility Of scheduling, She con- cluded the comparison by saying, "It's a big difference to us. Michigan child labor laws permit a minor student to accumulate no more than fifty—four hours of school and work 130 hours a week.9 The typical cooperative student attends school for fifteen hours each week and is, therefore, able to work up to thirty-nine hours. In contrast, the student attending school for full day would not be permitted to work more than twenty-four hours in a week. Grading procedupes. A second theme elicited during this phase of interviewing concerned another technical detail involved in the Operation of COOperative programs; that is, the forms used by employers to report student per- formance to teacher-coordinators. According to one partici- pant, "Some of the schools that I've had kids from go so far as that you give them [cooperative students] their letter grade for their report cards." The employer continued her discussion of procedural details by stating, "The only requirement for a person to be on co-Op is permission of the school in the fact that they already have the job." Project-laboratory activities. Employer #6 has supervised five cooperative students and has assisted students with project~laboratory assignments during the last two years. He related his experience with the project- 1aboratory class from the area vocational center in which students were assigned a hypothetical location in a Shop— ing center and asked: 9Michigan Department of Education, The Michigan Guide to Child Labor Provisions for Cooperative Education Programs (Lansing: Michigan Department of Education), p. 4. 131 . . . to use their limited marketing abilities, and research the area and find out what store would do well there, find out how many square feet were there, how to set it up with everything from Office furniture to payroll to turning the keys on the front door. The employer served on a panel with other merchants and critiqued the project upon its completion. When asked to comment on the value of the project as a learning experience for students, Employer #6 responded, "It was very constructive. They realized a lot of their mistakes and there was an awful lot of work involved in it." Not aware of classroom activities. A final comment was supplied by a participant who admitted that he did not know what went on in the distributive education classroom, even though he had been involved in the program for two years. Benefits to the Employer The purpose of this portion Of the study was to ascertain the benefits that employers receive in return for the various functions they perform as partners in coopera- tive distributive education. Five themes were produced in the discussion that started with the question: What are the benefits or pay- offs of distributive education to the businessman? Themes were content analyzed and classified into three categories; of these, two contained two themes each and the other 132 contained one theme. Themes and their respective categories are presented in summary form in Table 26. Table 26 Case Study B: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education Theme Number Available to work a flexible schedule 2 Method Of recruiting full-time employees 2 Self-satisfaction 1 Total 5 Discussion of benefits by employers in Case Study B included the subjects of (1) having employees who can work flexible schedules, (2) self-satisfaction, and (3) getting an employee that may stay with the company for a career. An employer with three years of experience in work- ing with distributive education began discussion on this topic by saying: I don't know that the payoff is that great for a store, at least like ours, or any store materially. For every DE student you've got, if you've got four, you'll usually have one pretty enthusiastic young man. But usually you've got to bring it out of them. 133 Flexible scheduling. Other employers took a dif- ference approach in answering the question and elicited specific benefits. The desire of employers to have personnel who can work on a schedule determined by sales trends was described in two themes. The manager of small store with a limited payroll budget responded, "The co-op kids are terrific in that you can work them as little as fifteen hours a week or as much as thirty hours a week." When another interviewee was asked about benefits to the business, he said, "I don't know what, other than giving you coverage at hours that you need in this business, I don't know any other benefit." Recruit full-time employees. Employer #4 had recently hired a former distributive education student as a full-time employee and joined in the discussion by saying, "It [cooperative education] is a potential way for recruit- ing young people and also getting self—satisfaction." The employer continued on this line of thought and said: I think retailers, in general, are always looking for someone young enough where you can interest them at the time and hopefully, as time goes on, they will stay with you. The overall tone of the response by Employer #4 communicated his interest in working with young people who are in the process of making career plans. He also displayed an element Of pride in his occupation that he enjoyed sharing with students. 134 Initial Awareness of ' Distributive Education An effort was made to learn how various employers became aware of or were introduced to the COOperative dis- tributive education program in which they are now involved. Responses appropriate to this theme are summarized in Table 27. Table 27 Case Study B: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education _——.. —— -. -_- -._—.—- 1.... « Theme Number Coordinator initiated contact 2 Total 2 It is readily apparent from Table 27 that inter- viewees in Case Study B had very little to say about their initial contacts with distributive education. The body Of literature concerned with group interviewing was reviewed in pursuit Of an explanation for this phenomenon. Goldman described an occurrence he Observed in group interviews: The idea can be discussed briefly and then dropped not to be mentioned again. Sometimes, and most significant of all, it can be studiously ignored and avoided, despite the moderator's reiteration of the idea.10 10Alfred E. Goldman, "The Group Depth Interview," Journal of Marketing, XXVI (July, 1962), 62. 135 A general merchandise retailer summarized the two identifiable themes by saying, "I would say that the teachers brought it [cooperative distributive education] to the retailers." Two retailers recalled that a teacher-coordinator Obtained their support for his new project—laboratory program by emphasizing the free labor aspect of it. Specifically, students would work in stores for one or two weeks, without pay, while the employer served as an on-the- job teacher. The two employers believed that this type of instruction was good preparation for students going into cooperative programs. Recommendations for Improvement One Of the purposes of this study was to ascertain employers' recommendations for making improvements in distributive education programs. It was anticipated that information provided would assist distributive educators in evaluating, and modifying if necessary, current programs. In order to stimulate the sharing of ideas on this tOpic, employers were asked: What recommendations for improving distributive education would you like to Offer? Three of seven employers in the group believed that teacher-coordinators had been attending to most aspects of the partnership relationship. They did not, therefore, Offer specific suggestions. Themes with recommendations for improvement on the subject were identified in six . [I (ll Ii Iflil‘ I’JJIA’l Ill )l‘ Ill" 136 responses. Those findings are presented in Table 28 and include (1) more public relations work by the coordinator, (2) employer visits to the classroom, (3) student selection procedures, and (4) the use of school stores as an instruc- tional technique. Table 28 Case Study B: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education .—._ .- —.- Themes Number Teachers have covered important items 3 Employer visits to classroom 2 Student selection 2 School stores 1 Public relations work by teachers 1 Total 9 More public relations work. Importance of the teacher-coordinator's role as a representative of the educational system to the business community was stressed by the interviewee who said, "I think the PR [public rela- tions] work Of the coordinators is probably the most important thing." Empleyer visits to classroom. Another participant joined the discussion and changed the focus from the business community to the classroom: 137 I think you should have people into the classroom from a particular business and have them Sit down and tell students what it is really like. What it takes to become a department manager, what you feel it takes to be a success. They don't put this in books, at least I've never seen it. Student selection. Two themes suggested that employers in distributive business were concerned about the dual problem of attracting students to and selecting students for the cooperative distributive education program. Employer #7 cited examples Of why She felt former student- employees should have been screened and concluded, ". . . these kids were going into it [distributive education] for the wrong reasons . . . Just because you are in high school doesn't mean that you Should take a retail class." The other side of this bewildering situation was described by another employer: When I went to school, in the retailing program at the university, they were just flooded with students. Where are these students in high school? I don't see many of them getting involved in this distributive education program. In her foregoing comments, the interviewee was suggesting that high school level instruction in distribution and marketing should be of interest to students with varying career plans. Students headed for further formal education in the field as well as those interested in obtaining entry level jobs could benefit from distributive education. School stores. Over a three year period, Employer #7 had employed a number of cooperative students and had 138 been a participant in various project-laboratory activities conducted by students from the area vocational center. She was particularly concerned with how the in-school portion Of distributive education was handled and favored the use Of school stores as an instructional strategy. She clarified her position by saying: . . . by setting up an actual store in the school I think you could create some real excitement, instead of it [distributive education class] being someplace where you cut out of school and gO to some classroom. I think you would really have it down to the people interested in this facet of the business. Preferred Classroom Topics Specific classroom topics suggested by distributive employers were ascertained in an effort to identify possible gaps in the distributive education curriculum. Data collected during the interviewing process were content analyzed with the result that three theme categories were identified. Themes elicited by participants in Case Study B included (1) duties and tasks involved in distributive occupations, (2) basic mathematics and counting change, and (3) attitude and personality development. A summary Of themes is presented in Table 29. Job definitions. Two of the four themes strongly recommended that students be taught what to expect, as well as what will be expected of them, as employees on 139 Table 29 Case Study B: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers Themes . Number Job definitions 2 Attitude and personality development 1 Basic mathematics and counting change 1 Total 4 cooperative jobs in retailing. Employer #5 described what he would do if he were a teacher-coordinator, "I think one of the first things I would do is let the kids know, in reality, what retail is." He continued the discourse and added: And make them understand perfectly what retail is because it's not the sort of thing that they can get out and pull their nine to five job . . . . Once they make the decision that they want to get into retail then you may have a chance to really work with them. Other employers joined in the discussion at this time and pointed out the need to emphasize the differences between management and nonmanagement responsibilities. One example of such a response was: I believe that management is one category and your [sales] floor is another category. Top management does not need to know the floor. Top management needs to know how to direct the floor but they do not need to know how to get out there and handle the floor itself. 140 The foregoing quote was clarified as being appli— cable to those students who are looking at the retail business as a possible long term career. Computational Skills. This comment by a general merchandise retailer was representative of the beliefs of interviewees about the basic skills of mathematics and counting change, "Let them [students] practice making change or at least show them the fundamentals of making change." Attitude and personality. In raising yet another theme for consideration as a classroom topic, group partici- pants stressed how important it is for students to have the proper attitude about obtaining and holding a job. Employer #1 took this position: The most important thing to me when a young person comes to me for a job is [them] being able to be forward and certainly not afraid to talk to you in the interview and [my] feeling he has the desire. If they've got the desire to do it then we can take care of the rest of it. CASE STUDY C-—A MIDDLE-SIZED CITY WITH AN INDUSTRIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY BASE The group meeting of employers conducted to gather data for Case Study C was held in Lansing, Michigan, a city with a population of 130,000.11 The four high schools in the city had enrollments that ranged from 1,275 to 1,968 students. Three high schools in adjoining districts, which utilized cooperative training stations in the city, had enrollments ranging from 1,306 to 1,510 students.12 Each of the six secondary schools Offered instruction in cooperative distributive education.13 Profile of Participants The following background characteristics Of inter- viewees in Case Study C were included as an aid to llU.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants, Michigan (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971), pp. Michigan 24-25. 12Michigan Education Directory and Buyer's Guide 1973-1974 (Lansing: Michigan EducatiOn Directory, 1973), pp. 147-173. 13Vocational Education and Career Development Ser- vice, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building Pregram Report (Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1974). 141 142 understanding the overall situation of the group under study: (1) an identification of the distributive educaion program area (type of distributive business) represented by each employer, (2) the number of years of experience as a cooperating employer, (3) the number of students super- vised to date, and (4) the total number of employees in each establishment. Table 30 shows the distribution of participants according to the U.S. Office of Education instructional program area name and code number.14 Two participants represented the Apparel and Accessories classification; of these, one managed a shoe store while the other served as assistant manager of a women's ready-to-wear shop. The General Merchandise area was represented by a department store manager and a per- sonnel manager in a department store. The fifth partici- pant was the display manager in a full-line department store. Table 30 contains data related to other characteris- tics descriptive of participants in Case Study C. The amount of experience that interviewees had as cooperative employers ranged from two years to eleven years. The number of students supervised on both a direct and a non- direct basis is a further indication of each participant's past involvement in distributive education. 14U.S., Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Vocational Education and Occupations, OE-80061 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969). pp. 20—33. ‘ 143 .moflwmo mcflucflum ucmEcum>oo .mfimmn ucmswwumcfl cm :0 wocmEMOMHmm on» mwumsam>w pom 0p xuoa mcmfimmm HomonEm map mumsz coflumsuflm umcu on muommu coflmfl>nmmom uomuflocHo .mocmEHOMHmm m.mm>oamam mnu mmumsam>m mammasmmu cam mmonmEm on» up .MMION manomuflp xuoz mcmflmmm ummonEm on» mumsz coaumouflm umnu 0p mummmn coflmw>ummsm uomuwo n .mm .Ammma u.U.Q .coumcflnmmzv Hmoomlmo .mcoflpmmsooo paw GOHDMOSpm Hmcoflumoo> .coflpmosum mo monumo .mumwamz can .coflumoscm .nuammm no ucmEuummmn ..m.sm vma om wm vm m Ha mmflpamnoumz mo.vo m Hohmcmw m m m 0 NH m mmflnommmoom mo.vo v paw Hmummmfl omH mm mm m H N mmwwcmnonz mo.vo m Hmumcmo om OH OH 0 ca v mmwuommmood No.vo m can Hmummmd oma om om o m m mmow>umm Ho.vo H mcwmfluum>pm Hmuoa mEHB mEHB omauomHHUcH anuomHHQ Homoamfim mucmazwflanmumm mpoo HomonEm . luhmm IHHSM .M.D MO ®Q%B .m.0.m.D o no ucmfinmwaamumm cw pmmfi>ummsm mucmvsum mummy mmmhoamam mo Hmnfioz mo umnfisz mucmucommmm mo mowumflnmuomumsu pcsoumxomm om OHQMB no mpsum mmmo 144 All five respondents had directly supervised dis- tributive education cooperative students within the last three years. TWo of them currently held positions in which they had both direct and indirect contact with students. Participants in Case Study C represented both very large and very small retail establishments, with the total number of employees ranging from five to one hundred fifty. Content analysis procedures make it possible to describe a group of interviewees in terms of the relative importance placed on each question on the interview guide (Appendix A). Relative emphasis devoted to each of the eight topics by participants in Case Study C is shown in Table 31. Because the number of interviewees may vary from case study to case study, the percent of themes column is more appropriate than the number of themes column when group comparisons are made. The four questions dealing with experiences, visible components, benefits, and preferred classroom topics each elicited 17 percent of the responses or themes. The employer's role accounted for 10 percent of the discussion. Comparable figures for each of the remaining three topics ranged from 6 percent to 8 percent. 145 Table 31 Case Study C: Number of Themes Per Topic Area Number Percenta of of Topic Area Themes Themes Objectives of Distributive Education 5 8 Experiences with Distributive Education 10 17 Role of the Employer 6 10 Visible Components of Distributive Education 10 17 Benefits to the Employer 10 17 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 4 6 Recommendations for Improvement 5 8 Preferred Classroom Topics 10 17 Total 60 100 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. Objectives of Distributive Education The first question asked in the group interview was: How would you describe the objectives of COOperative distri- butive education prOgrams? It was anticipated that responses to this question would provide the data base for developing a concise description of distributive education as seen through the eyes of employers in the business community. Content analysis procedures revealed five themes from this 146 first portion of the interview. The themes were placed into appropriate categories and are presented in Table 32. Table 32 Case Study C: Themes Regarding Objectives of Cooperative Distributive Education Programs .._.___.._.—__.. Theme Number Attract young people into retailing 2 Test student's interest in a career 2 Provide job experience 1 Total 5 Provide training in distribution. Two employers described distributive education as an instructional pro- gram that was specifically designed to prepare students for careers in distribution. When asked what he thought the purpose of distributive education was, Employer #1 responded: . . . to interest and train and entice young people into this business . . . [to] give them some back- ground in school that will interest and direct them along this way. And then get some practical experi- ence with the employer himself that would put the academics and practical work together, hopefully to make the decision to come into retailing. Employer #2 took a similar approach in answering the question and suggested that cooperative education would give .the student an opportunity to find out what type or size of distributive business he or she preferred to work in. The 147 respondent, a shoe store manager, started off by saying, ". . . this will decide what phase of retailing they [students] want to get into." After saying that students should be given some choice in choosing their cooperative job, he continued his answer by saying: If they enjoy working in a big operation or they may like a small operation such as mine, where it is more on a one-to-one basis than a large organization. Provide job experience. Whereas the two foregoing themes referred specifically to the field of distribution, an additional theme described distributive education as a behicle for providing job experience in a general sense. Employer #2 commented: They [students] learn to get along too with other people and associate at a young age because they are coming to us at about [age] sixteen and they haven't done anything yet. Test students' career interests. The group's dis- cussion of objectives prompted one interviewee to point out the importance of helping students to acquire enough exposure and experience in a specific occupational area to find out if they like it. Employer #2 elaborated on this point by saying, ". . . they [students] find out whether they like it [retailing] or not in a short time." Further comments by the interviewee lead to this statement that hinted at the desirability of making career decisions while still in high school, ". . . if they wait until after they [{l’! I 148 graduate then find they don't care for it [retailing] then they have to grope for something else to go into." Finally, a personnel director in a department store came into the discussion. She reiterated previously stated ideas and also added some additional points about coopera- tive distributive education: . . . it helps them [students] decide in what field they are going to pick out later. Some- times they feel that they want to go into the retail field as Opposed to office work or something like this. They find out very shortly whether they like it or not and it really helps them out. Respondents in Case Study C were specific in their comments about the topic under examination. In their statements of objectives, the employers frequently used such terms as distributive education or retailing. Like- wise, they saw the program as something that was designed for their line of business. Experience with Distributive Education An effort was made to find out what types of experiences employers had in working with distributive education. The semistructured group interview provided the opportunity for observing and recording experiences that interviewees have selectively attended to and brought into conscious awareness. The following question, as included in the inter- view guide in Appendix A, was used to shift the focus of the cooperating employers' discussion to the topic at hand: 149 What have been your experiences with distributive education? Additional statements were made by the moderator, where necessary, to get this part of the interview underway. Interviewees were encouraged to share any experiences that came to mind. In Table 33 it can be seen that 50 percent of the responses elicited by interviewees related to experiences involving students and 50 percent concerned teacher- coordinators. Additional information is provided by a further examination of the table. The row totals show that 80 percent of themes were stated in a positive manner and 20 percent were negative. Positive connotations were suggested in four of five about teacher-coordinators and four of five themes about students. Themes identified by content analysis procedures are shown in Tables 34 through 36. Positive themes about students. Positive states ments accounted for eight of ten responses and were evenly divided between students and teacher-coordinators. The assistant manager of a women's ready-to-wear shop made a statement that was typical of positive experiences with. students: To my knowledge we've had no bad experiences with them [COOperative students]. They seem eager to work and they want to do everything they can for you . . . . When they come there, that is what they're interested in . . . . 150 Table 33 Case Study C: Themes Regarding Employers' .Experiences with Distributive Education Programs Theme Subjects . Row.Totals Nature of Teacher- Miscel- Response Coordinators Students laneous Number Percenta Positive Number 4 4 -- 8 80 Percenta of row 50 50 -- a Percent of column 80 80 -- Percenta of total 40 4O Neutral Number -- -- -- -- -- a Percent of row -- -- -- Percenta of column -- -- -- Percenta of total -- -- -- Negative Number 1 l -- 2 20 Percenta of row 50 50 —- a Percent of column 20 20 -- Percenta of total 10 10 -- Column Totals: Number a 5 5 Percent 50 50 -- aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. 151 The display manager explained how his student employees have done a good job of handling customer inquiries even though the job does not typically involve customer contact. He said, "They seem to feel the sense of respon- sibility to handle a customer correctly no matter what their position is in the store." Positive themes about teacher-coordinators. A detailed listing of positive statements about distributive education teacher-coordinators is shown in Table 34. Employer #4 elaborated on his relationship with the coordi- nator from one of the high schools: The teacher tends to screen the students before he sends them out to find a job or to my busi- ness. Maybe he's more selective with me knowing the exact operation I'm going to be in. The tone of discussion prompted another interviewee to add, "They're [students] screened pretty thoroughly, the Table 34 Case Study C: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Dependable workers 3 Some graduates have stayed with the company 1 Teacher- Screens students 2 2 coordinators Makes frequent visits Miscellaneou- Not mentioned Total 8 152 DE coordinator that has lined people up for me here, I think, has been particularly good at that sort of thing." Two interviewees spoke with enthusiasm about coordinators who visit them frequently and keep up-to-date on the progress of their students. One employer talked about a recent experience by saying, "I worked very closely with him, . . . [he] was very aggressive and enthusiastic and therefore I got very interested in it [distributive education] . . ." Negative themes about students. The two themes identified as having negative connotations are given in Table 35. A personnel manager gave an account of a cooper- ative student who did not come to work as scheduled: . Last year I had one student that was absent three or four times . . . . Finally we decided that this [retailing] isn't what she was interested in . . . . Table 35 Case Study C: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Frequently absent from work 1 Teacher- _ coordinators Visits to employer are infrequent 1 Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 2 153 Negative themes about teacher-coordinators. Employer #4 mentioned the single negative theme about teacher-coordinators: There should be more communication between the teacher and the manager . . . instead of [him] just coming around with the report card. The employer followed the negative theme with the suggestion, "I think they [teacher-coordinators] should try to become more involved . . ." Themes with neutral connotations or themes with subjects other than students or coordinators were not identified in the discussion of experiences by employers in Case Study C. Role of the Employer Effective operation of cooperative education depends upon the performance of specific functions by each partner in the relationship. Employers were asked the following question in an effort to understand how they view their role as participants in distributive education: How would you describe the role of the employer who participates in the cooperative distributive education program? Employers' responses were content analyzed and summarized. Table 36 shows a list of themes from that summary. 154 Table 36 Case Study C: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education Theme Number Explain different phases of the business 4 Teach store's procedures 1 Provide career advice 1 Total 6 Six themes related to the employer's role were classified into three theme categories. Responses or idea units that described the employer's role as being to show different phases of the business to students were grouped into one category. Themes in reference to teaching the store's procedures and providing career advice comprised two additional categories. Explain different phases of the_pusiness. Employer #1, who had been a cooperating employer for six years, believed his role should take the best interests of both students and the company into consideration. He stated: 155 I might recognize an interest in another area of retailing. I think I would be only fair to them [students] and to the company to try to direct them into the area where they would best fit. The,employer added yet another dimension to his role definition by adding, ". . . it would certainly be to our advantage to give them all the information, hoping that they will stay with us." In continuing the discussion, Employer #4 commented: I think you [employers] should try to interest the student in business and give him an insight into what's going on in the business . . . try to involve him in other operations of the business. Employer #4 displayed his understanding of the necessity of coordinating classroom instruction with on-the- job experiences when he said, ". . . try to get them [students] interested in your business or in retail business as a whole, as a furthering of their teaching in school." A final theme on the topic of exposing students to an array of business operations was contributed by a per— sonnel manager who said, ". . . the employer should try to encourage them [students] into going into different areas . . . to try to expand them into more than just selling." Teach procedures. The training station supervisors role as a teacher of those concepts that are best learned on the job was defined by a general merchandise retailer who said, "We have to teach them our procedures . . . because all stores have different procedures." 156 Provide career guidance. That an employer serves serves as a career counselor and advisor to cooperative students was brought up by Employer #2: They [students] want to know if I'm enjoying my job and I think they are trying to find out if they are going to enjoy their job for later life in what they're doing. Visible Components of Distributive Education Components of the distributive education program which are familiar to employers is another dimension of their perceptions regarding those programs. A question (Appendix A) was included in the semistructured group interview to stimulate discussion appropriate to that topic. Ten themes were identified and are shown in Table 37 in summary form. Table 37 Case Study C: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program -... _. — m _ ,_ M ,-'__ ,__.4_-..__..—_._ .p ._—. z: I. I _,__ —.—-__-._..... .'——._—_ . Theme Number Students must work at least 15 hours each week 3 Training agreements are used 3 Some schools have distributive education laboratories 2 Aware of some teacher—coordinator duties 1 Aware of some of the textbooks 1 Total 10 157 Discussion of operating characteristics or compo- nents of distributive education by participants in Case Study C included the subjects of (1) hours in students' work week, (2) training agreements, (3) laboratory facili- ties, (4) teacher-coordinator duties, and (5) textbooks used. Student work week. One employer who had supervised six students in six years reflected as follows about the fifteen hour minimum work week for cooperative education: It is important that they do get in the hours . . . because if they are cut short on those hours it does affect their grade, which is something I was not aware of until an occasion came up and I realized that. When asked if she was familiar with any particular facets of distributive education, the assistant manager of a small women's fashions shop replied, "Not really, except for the hours [requirement]." The third theme in this category was elicited by Employer #4, a shoe store manager. Training agreements. When asked to comment further about components of distributive education, Employer #4 reflected as follows about training agreements: They made that [training agreement] very thorough now because there were lawsuits . . . where a student was given work that was not explained on his permit . . . an injury resulted . . . Employer #4 told the group about a talk he had with a teacher-coordinator in which he was asked to be very exact about listing students' job duties on the training 158 agreement. It was emphasized that the best interests of both students and employers would be served by this com- plete listing of duties. Themes identified in the reSponses of two other employers were indicative of a working knowledge of cooperative education training agreements. Distributive education laboratories. A third theme category was in reference to various pieces of equipment, such as cash registers and display materials, used in the laboratory portion of a distributive education classroom. As Employer #3 recalls, "I had the Opportunity last year of going to the actual classroom and seeing the displays." "I had never been this well informed about distributive education," she added. Another interviewee remarked, "I have helped some with diSplay materials to help them [classes] out and have explained what is necessary [in retailing]." Distributive education textbopks. Employer #1 was the only group participant who was familiar with distribu- tive education textbooks and instructional materials other than laboratory equipment. Speaking in retrospect of a classroom visit, a display manager stated: I looked in some of their books to see what they had studied . . . and I think it's very highly theoretical . . . some of the textbooks are lacking in that respect but perhaps that's where the practical experience makes up the difference. 159 Teacher-coordinator duties. An understanding that the teacher-coordinator's job consists of both in-school and out-of-school duties was displayed by one of the inter- viewees. She commented: They have a lot of students that are out on co-op and they have to get all kids into classes in the morning so they can be put on their jobs in the afternoon . . . . they have to have a good schedule planned. Benefits to the Employep The purpose of a previous section of this case report was to discover how employers in the business com- munity see their role as participants in COOperative dis- tributive education. The section was included in the study to carry the investigation forward by ascertaining benefits that employers receive in return for their contribution. Ten separate idea units were produced when the following question was asked: What are the benefits or payoffs of distributive education to the businessman? Themes, grouped into appropriate categories, are presented in summary form in Table 38. Interested employees. Four of ten themes described distributive education as a way for merchants to obtain employees who are interested in their line of business. A display manager, for example, commented: I think an employer would be delighted to have a student who already has expressed a desire to get into retailing. I think you're ahead of the game right there . . . . when you are hiring 160 people . . . you're always taking chances and you do on co-ops too, but nevertheless, here's someone who expresses a desire to get into retailing, not just a job necessarily. Table 38 Case Study C: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education —-—..—_ 0‘- .—.—._ —__.¢——- Theme Number Obtain employees who are interested 4 Recruit full-time employees 3 Favorable public relations 2 Self-satisfaction 1 Total 10 It was suggested that a student's interest in a cooperative job is a function of the coordinators prepara- tion of that student. Giving the student a preview of what to expect in a particular business firm would be one part of this preparation. A shoe retailer, who had supervised twelve students, made the following statement in this regard: The teacher I have worked with for four years here in Lansing knows what I expect from the student so he can judge the student. He can also explain to the student what type of operation he will be going into, what type of person he will be dealing with by knowing me personally and that's a great advantage too . . . . 161 TWo additional themes attributed student interest in their jobs to the fact that they are graded for perform- ance on the job. Employer #3 commented: I find that I get better service from distribu- tive education . . . . Because of their grade I guess, they [cooperative students] seem to do a better job than someone that isn't being graded for it. Similarly, the representative from a women's fashions shop asked if she could insert a comment at this point and said, ". . . they [students] are interested in that report card, they're quite eager to see what they've been marked." Recruit employees. Three themes credited distribu- tive education with being a dependable source of future employees at both management and nonmanagement levels in the business. Employer #3, for example, commented: You can pick this person up and maybe eventually have them as a manager . . . they can work their way up which is a great benefit to us because you don't have to have a new person every six months . . . . Another respondent continued the discussion at this point and gave an example about COOperative students who go on to college: If they are majoring in advertising, . . . and if they come back in the summer, you may even- tually get them as full-time employees . . . The third theme was a slight variation on the other two in that it focused on building up a pool of trained employees who can be employed during peak selling seasons. 162 "They [former students] will also come back on their vaca- tions [from college] . . . . We have a couple of girls that come back every Christmas . . . they'll come back and work in the summertime," according to Employer #2. Favorable public relations. The public relations aspects of being a participant in distributive education were identified in two theme statements. Employer #1 sug- gested that the student who has enjoyed the cooperative experience may well become a lifetime customer for that merchant. In addition, that same student may become the source for favorable word-of-mouth communications about the store. The employer commented in this regard as follows: Even if the student doesn't come back into retailing after they leave school, if they've had a good relationship with you, the chances are you've got a customer because they're oriented to your store . . . and they do a good public relations job for you too. Self-satisfaction. What may be appropriately termed an intangible benefit was revealed in the words of a group participant who said: You [the employer] get a certain amount of gratification out of it too when you find that the co-op student that you've had has done a real good job. You feel that you've trained them well . . . and you feel a little proud that this kid will be good even in another field. 163 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education Themes describing how employers were introduced to the cooperative distributive education program in which they participate are summarized in Table 39. All four themes referred to initial contacts being made by the teacher-coordinators from the local area. Table 39 Case Study C: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education Theme Number Coordinator initiated contact 4 Total 4 One manager thinking back about his early contacts with distributive education remarked: . . . I was approached by a teacher [who] asked if I would be willing to come and talk to a class regarding my area of distributive educa- tion . . . . I don't think I had any experience of a student working with me until later on. But I was more than happy to take them after having had the first experience. Similarly, Employer #4 commented as follows: I was contacted by a teacher of distributive education. He explained the program, the benefits, what would be involved and that the student would be trained, to a certain extent, in the classroom for you [an employer]. 164 The foregoing discussion reminded Employer #3, now a personnel manager, that she was introduced to distributive education when she was assigned to an area of the store as a department manager. The cooperative student was already working in the department, having been hired by her predecessor. Recommendations for Improvement The most frequently mentioned recommendation for improvement in Case Study C was that distributive education teacher-coordinators should up-date their knowledge of developments in the practical aspects of operating a busi- ness. Another theme was in regards to selection procedures used in admitting students to the cooperative program. Themes are presented in summary form in Table 40. Table 40 Case Study C: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education —— Themes Number Teacher-coordinators should keep abreast of changes in the business world 4 Student selection 1 Total 5 165 Coordinators should keep abreast of business changes. When asked if he would like to offer any recom- mendations for improving distributive education, an inter~ viewee replied: I might be misreading or misjudging, but I don't think the teachers themselves are in touch with what actually goes on right within the store, . . . very seldom, to my knowledge, do . . . [they] . . . familiarize themselves with all areas of retailing. Continued discussion revealed additional beliefs about the amount of practical business knowledge that teacher-coordinators should possess. In reacting to the statement that teachers are out of touch with actual store operations, Employer #2 replied, "I would say that's really true. Especially when they really don't know . . . what their [students] work is . . . I don't think the teacher realizes how much work the kids really do." Two themes contained specific suggestions as to how coordinators could acquire this needed experience. For example, a respondent stated: . . . if the teacher would like to come out and maybe work one or two days with us so she then would see what we're doing and what we really expect of them [students] she would be better informed . . . . When asked if she had anything else to add, this same employer replied that well-informed coordinators could then help employers by preparing students for the realistic demands of the job. A final statement about this particular topic was provided by a shoe store manager: 166 One DE teacher that I have from the schools here expressed the desire one time to come out and work with me a Couple of days, but it never materialized. I thought that was a very good idea on his part. Student selection. A recommendation that some counseling should take place before a student is enrolled in cooperative distributive education grew out of some concerns expressed in the interview. The rationale behind the recommendation was well expressed by an interviewee who stated: Some counseling should be done with kids that take up retailing, they may not fit with people at all . . . . to meet the public I think they should know they should feel comfortable doing that. And if not, maybe they're looking in the wrong direction. Preferred Classroom Topics Specific classroom topics suggested by business personnel during the interview for this case study were (1) customer relations, (2) job definitions, (3) attitude and personality development, (4) personal appearance, and (5) basic mathematics and counting change. A theme summary is shown in Table 41. Customer relations. Three of ten themes stressed the importance of teaching students how to interact with customers. According to Employer #2, students should be prepared in such a way that "they don't have any fears to walk up to a customer and want to help that cusomer, be more aggressive really." 167 Table 41 Case Study C: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers Themes Number Customer relations 3 Job definitions 3 Attitude and personality development 2 Personal appearance 1 Basic mathematics and counting change 1 Total 10 Employer #4 favored the use of frequent class dis- cussions with the intent being to encourage students to feel comfortable in talking to other peOple. The employer described the typical new employee as being afraid to approach customers who enter the store. Still another interviewee remarked as follows about customer relations, "They [students] should go into the job knowing that the ultimate purpose . . . is to sell a product or sell service to a customer." Job definitions. In raising yet another theme for consideration, group participants related how important it is for students to be aware of the duties and tasks involved in various distributive occupations. One respondent said the most important classroom topic was job definitions; for 168 example, ". . . what's involved in being a department manager in this store, what's involved in being the manager, what's involved in being the head man on the receiving dock . . ." The interdependence of various jobs in the distri- butive business was the focal point of another respondent's answer: They [students] get touches of advertising, . . . display, . . . credit operation, . . . personnel but I'm not so sure that the whole thing is pulled together . . . . I don't think they understand how they [jobs] all mesh together. Attitude and personality. Two themes expressed a concern that enough emphasis was not being placed on the development of an attitude and personality appropriate for holding a job. For example, when the group was asked to suggest classroom topics that should be emphasized, one interviewee stated: The emphasis could be put more on developing a personality because it's [retailing] a person- to-person job. It's how you present yourself to a customer that . . . [determines] . . . their opinion of your company . . . your per- sonality reflects the company. Additional reasons for including this topic in the curriculum were provided by Employer #3, who remarked: I think they [teachers] should put some emphasis on a person as a person. You're as important as a sales girl as the manager is to the company. No matter what level you're at, . . . the per- sonality of the person reflects on the store. 169 Additional topics. Other classroom topics sug- gested by interviewees were that (l) the elements of good personal appearance and the necessity of being dressed appropriately for the job should be stressed, and (2) students should be given enough instruction, followed by practice drills, that they are competent in basic mathema— tics and counting change before going on the job. CASE STUDY D--SMALL CITY WITH A DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIAL BASE A group meeting of cooperating employers was conducted in Jackson, Michigan, to collect data for Case Study D. The city, with a population of 45,000, was served by three high schools located in two school dis- tricts.15 The three secondary schools had enrollments ranging from 800 to 1400 and offered instruction in cooperative distributive education.16 Profile of Participants The background characteristics of participants in Case Study D include: (1) an identification of the distri- butive education program area (type of distributive business) 15U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants, Michigan (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971), pp. Michigan 24-26. 16Michigan Education Directory and Buyer's Guide 1973-1974 (Lansing: Michigan Education Directory, 1973), pp. 168-169; see also Vocational Education and Career Development Service, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building PrOgram ReportITLansing: Midhigan Department of Education, 1974). 170 171 represented by each employer, (2) the number of years of experience as a cooperating employer, (3) the number of students supervised, and (4) the total number of employees in each establishment. A summary of background information is presented in Table 42. These participants represented the General Merchan- dise classification; of these, one managed a variety store, one managed a toy store, and the third operated a store specializing in gifts and decorative accessories. The Apparel and Accessories area was represented by the manager of a jewelry store and the manager of a shop selling women's ready-to-wear fashions. The sixth participant was a book- store manager and was, therefore, classified as a representative of the Recreation and Tourism category.17 The amount of experience that participants had as cooperative employers ranged from one year to five years. The number of students supervised to date was another indi- cation of each employer's past involvement in distributive education cooperative programs. Respondents were asked to indicate how many students they had supervised on both a direct and an indirect basis. .Direct supervision was defined as that cooperative work situation where the student reported directly to, and was evaluated by, the respondent on a regular basis. 17U.S., Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, VOcational Education and Occppations, OE-80061 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969), pp. 20-33. 172 .mHmmn ucmsmmumcH as so mosmEMOMMmm on» mmumsHm>m was on xuoz mcmHmmm HomonEm may mumn3 coHumsuHm umnu o» mummmu come>umm5m pomHHUCHo .mocmfiuomuom m.mm>0HmEm on» mODMSHm>m wHHMHsmmH was OOMOHmEm on» 0» mHuomHHp xuo3 mcmHmmm Homonam on» mumsz cOHumsuHm umnu ou mummmu GOHmH>Hmmsm uomuHQn .mmuom .mm .imsma .OOHmmo OCHucHum ucmEch>ow u.U.Q .noumcHnmmzv HOOOOImo .mcoHummsooo pcm GOHHMUSOM HmcoHumoo> .GOHumoswm mo OOHmmo .mHMMHOS was .CoHumosom .suHmmm mo ucmfiunmmmo ..m.Dm Hm mm O O O m mmHHommmood ~O.¢O O was Hosanna OOH OO ow ON OH m mmesmnoumz OO.vO m Hmumcmu O N O O H H EmHusoB OH.vO O was COHpmmHomm NH m O O N m mmHnommmoo< ~O.¢O m was Hmnmmmd m m m O m m mmHUsmsonz OO.vO N Hmumsmw h m O O v m mmesmnoumz mO.vo H Hmumcmw Hmuoe mEHB mEHB owHuomHHUsH anuomHHo H0»0Hmam musmfizmHHnmumm mmcou Hmhonfim nunmm nHHsm .m.o no mass .m.o.m.o m as unmaanHnmumm :H pmmH>ummsm musmpsum mummy mommoHQEm mo anEsz .m.o mo Hwnasz IIIDII. mucwpsommmm mo moHumHHmuomumzu pcdonmxomm “a Mpsum mmmo Nv OHQMB 173 Indirect supervision referred to those instances where the student was supervised or evaluated by the respondent, but on an infrequent or irregular basis. The range in the number of students supervised directly was from one to ten. The only interviewee in the group who had directly and indirectly supervised students was Employer #5. Based on the total of full-time and part-time employees, the smallest business establishment had five employees while the largest had 100. Using content analysis procedures it is possible to describe a particular group of people in terms of the relative importance placed on their responses to open-ended questions. Relative emphasis devoted to each of the eight topic areas on the interview guide (Appendix A) by inter— viewees in Case Study D is shown in Table 43. Because the number of participants may vary from group to group, the percent of themes column is more apprOpriate than the number of themes column when group comparisons are made. The open-ended question generating the most discus- sion, as measured by the number of responses, was in refer- ence to previous experiences with distributive education. Twenty-three percent of themes elicited by respondents dealt with that topic. Benefits to the employer and recommendations for improvement accounted for 19 percent and 17 percent of the themes respectively. Comparable figures 174 for each of the other five topics ranged from 3 percent to 14 percent. Table 43 Case Study D: Number of Themes Per Topic Area Number Percenta of of Topic Area Themes Themes Objectives of Distributive Education 7 ll Experiences with Distributive Education 14 23 Role of the Employer 3 5 Visible Components of Distributive Education 2 3 Benefits to the Employer 12 19 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 5 8 Recommendations for Improvement ll 17 Preferred Classroom Topics 9 14 Total 63 100 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. Objectives of Distributive Education One of the purposes of this study was to provide a basis for developing a clear and concise description of distributive education as seen by cooperating employers. The following Open-ended question was asked in order to begin the discussion on this topic: How would you describe the objectives of cooperative distributive education 175 programs? Content analysis procedures revealed that seven themes, that could be further classified into three theme categories, were introduced during the interview. A summary of responses is presented in Table 44. Table 44 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Objectives of COOperative Distributive Education Programs Theme Number Provide job experience 4 Test student's interest in a career 2 Place students in career goal jobs 1 Total 7 Provide job experience. Group members in Case Study D stated four themes that described distributive education as the vehicle by which high school students could obtain basic job experience. Specific reference to occupations in distribution and marketing was not made in these themes. As one interviewee observed: . . . the goals of the program to me are to teach high school kids what it's like out in the real world . . . getting a job, getting responsibilities giving him confidence . . . . It gives him a chance to prove himself to somebody that he can do a job well. In commenting on the same tOpic, a second employer expressed the belief that cooperative education was the 176 starting point in the work history of a young person. In the words of Employer #6, ". . . quite often you can't find anything [jobs] if you haven't had experience, and by taking this training program you become experienced." The essential elements in these two responses were found in two additional themes. Test students' career interests. Discussion of objectives by the group as a whole prompted two members to point out the importance of students being able to acquire enough experience in a Specific occupational area so they can selectively screen themselves out of it if its demands and rewards are not congruent with their expectations. As Employer #2 stated, ". . . some kids will find that they are not cut out for merchandising . . . they should be in something distinctly and definitely different.“ Employer #5 indicated his agreement by giving a similar response. Provide career goal job. Another theme category derived from Case Study D referred to the capability of the cooperative program to provide students with an oppor- tunity to begin employment in the career field of their choice; specifically, distribution and marketing. Speaking of careers in distributive businesses, together with.need to have broad preparation for a lifetime of work, one interviewee commented: We are facing a new era in our world of employment and economics where every individual is going to have to know at least two or three skills. If these kids don't learn to work in various ways and learn to be adaptable now, they will never learn it. 177 In reviewing objectives of distributive education as defined by employers, it can be seen that specific references to careers in distribution were made in three instances. The four remaining idea units attributed goals to the program that encompassed the world of work in general and not to distribution specifically. Experiences with Distributive Education An effort was made to identify the types of experiences that employers had in working with distributive education. The semistructured group interview provided the opportunity for observing and recording experiences that interviewees have selectively attended to and brought into conscious awareness. The following question, as included in the inter- view guide in Appendix A, was used to shift the focus of the cooperating employers' discussion to the tOpic at hand: What have been your experiences with distributive education? Additional statements were made by the moderator, where necessary, to get this part of the interview underway. Interviewees were encouraged to share any experiences that came to mind. The theme categories derived from content of the interview and selected for use were: experiences with teacher-coordinators, experiences with students, and experiences with distributive education, other than those with coordinators or students. The term miscellaneous was 178 used in referring to the last category listed. Employer experiences were organized for ease of discussion by further classifying each response according to whether it was a positive, neutral, or negative statement. The result of this content analysis procedure is depicted in Table 45. In Table 45 it can be seen that 78 percent of the responses related to experiences involving students, while 14 percent concerned miscellaneous subjects, and 8 percent referred to teacher-coordinators. Additional information is afforded by examining the row totals in Table 45. It can be seen that 57 percent of the response themes or idea units were classified as being positive, 29 percent were negative, and 14 percent were neutral. Themes identified by content analysis procedures are presented in Tables 46 through 48. Positive themes about students. Five or eight posi- tive themes were in reference to students. This accounted for 36 percent of all experiences described by interviewees in Case Study D. Employer #6, the manager of a shop specializing in women's fashions, recalled her experience: Every girl that I've had has been very satisfactory, have worked out well. A number of them have stayed with me. I have four of them right now that started as co-op students and are full-time employees right now. 179 Table 45 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs Theme Subjects Row Totals Nature of Teacher- Miscel- a Response Coordinators Students laneous Number Percent Positive Number 1 5 2 8 57 Percenta of row 13 62 25 Percenta of column 100 46 100 a Percent of total 8 36 14 Neutral Number -- 2 -- 2 '14 Percenta of row -- - 100 __ Percenta of column -- 13 _- Percenta of total -- 14 _- Negative Number -- 4 -- 4 29 Percenta of row -- 100 -- Percenta of column -- 35 -- Percent3 of total -- 28 -- Column Totals: No. a 1 ll 2 Percent 8 78 14 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. 180 Similarly, Employer #2 related a similar experience when he said, "I have one girl right now who will be put in a supervisory position simply because she has been working for me for a little over a year [on the cooperative programl." One employer described how he observed a distri- butive education student develop into a mature worker as a result of the experience in his business: . . . [she] didn't have much self—confidence or self-respect. She walked around hanging her head . . . She came in and we treated her with respect, treated her as a person and all of a sudden she came to life and she became an ideal little gal around the store. Case Study D: Table 46 Experiences with Distributive Education Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Theme Subject Theme Number Students Some graduates have stayed with the company 2 Real hard workers 1 Work experience helped students mature as workers 1 Are especially good with older customers 1 Teacher; Has worked in the store, without pay, coordinators to learn the business 1 Miscellaneous Have been please with the overall program 2 Total 8 181 Cooperative students were described as dependable and hard working employees by one respondent. Still another employer conplimented student employees by remarking: . . . a middle-age employee looses patience with a middle—age customer, or an older cus- tomer, where a young employee, particularly a young student . . . has more patience. Positive theme about a teacher—coordinator. The single positive theme in reference to an experience with a teacher-coordinator was provided by Employer #3. The employer was apparently quite pleased with the fact that a local teacher-coordinator worked in his store, without pay, to learn more about the particular business Operation. The teacher, according to Employer #3: . . . would come into the store for the entire day and work as manager and go around and see actually what we do as a company. The employer believed that this type of experience would benefit other coordinators because, as he said, . . . this would help in a respect as far as picking out the right kind of kids for the right kind of stores." Miscellaneous positive theme. One positive idea unit was classified in the miscellaneous category because it did not refer directly to either students or teachers. Employer #6 indicated her overall satisfaction with coopera— tive distributive education by commenting, "I'm anxious to start again in the fall. I have been very satisfied with the young people. They've been very cooperative, the school has been very cooperative." 182 Neutral themes about students. Employers in Case Study D elicited two neutral themes about students they have employed. Those statements that were neither positive nor negative with respect to some portion of distributive education were classified in the neutral category. Such responses were included in the case report to provide addi- tional insight into the direction that interviewees chose to take in the group session. One employer was concerned that some cooperative students were more interested in earning course credits for graduation than they were with preparing for a career in distribution and marketing. Some students, according to Employer #1, feel that the cooperative program"is one way to get a grade. They feel it might be easier than a Table 47 Case Study D: Neutral Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Most of the students received average grades in school 1 Students are interested in the course credits and not a career 1 Teacher- coordinators Not mentioned Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 2 183 college prep program." In a related observation, Employer #4 indicated that he had not employed a student who had grades higher than a C average. The overall tone of his comment suggested a concern that students with higher grades did not select distributive education. Negative themes about students. Four negative statements were made in reference to cooperative students; of these, two described students who were not interested in the job. A typical response to this negative theme was expressed by a jewelry store manager as follows: Jewelry stores sometimes find it quite difficult to find the right kind of help. We had a couple of kids that just didn't care enough or didn't have an interest in jewelry itself. Employer #3, the manager of a bookstore, advised the group that he encountered the very same situation in his store with one particular student. Table 48 Case Study D: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Were not interested in the job 2 Could not handle cash receipts 2 Teacher- coordinators Not mentioned Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 4 184 The second theme category identified as being negative with regard to COOperative students dealt with the problem of employees who consistently had trouble in making change at the cash register. Negative themes with respect to teacher-coordinators or the miscellaneous tOpic were not revealed in the discussion. Role of the Emplgyer A cooperative education program is based on a three-way partnership between student, employer, and school. Effective Operation of that program depends upon the per- formance of specific functions by each partner. To provide a basis for describing how employers view their role, the following question was included in the interview guide: How would you describe the role of the employer who parti— cipates in COOperative distributive education? Responses of employers were contentaanalyzed and summarized. Themes from that summary are presented in Table 49. Table 49 Case Study D: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education Th eme Numbe r Teach students about retailing . 3 Total 3 185 The three themes or idea units identified in the interview were classified into a single category. Employer #2, who had been a cooperating employer for two years, described his role as teaching: . . . the mechanics of retailing, [for example], building a display, customer service, maintenq ance, this sort of thing. We also get them into the philOSOphy of retailing and they often find that it does interest them. Other interviewees agreed that teaching was a central part of an employer's role, but favored different approaches in introducing students to the work situation. For example, one group member recalled what he told new employees on their first day at work: I tell them that it's going to take them three months to six months before they're going to be even a profitable clerk, because there's so much they have to learn. Another typical reaction regarding the request to define the employer's role was, "If you take a little time out and show them [students] that you do care, then they are going to show you that they care also." Visible Components of DiStributive Educatibn An effort was made to determine which.components or operating characteristics of distributive education cooperative programs are known by employers. Responses appropriate to the theme are summarized in Table 50. It 186 is readily apparent from the table that participants in Case Study D had very little to say about this particular topic. Table 50 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program Theme Number Coordination between classroom instruction and on-the—job training 1 Students are graded by employers 1 Total 2 Coordination activities. Employer #2 exhibited his awareness of the teacher's role in coordinating classroom instruction with on—the-job learning activities. That role, according to the respondent, is to "parallel what they're [students] learning in class in order to teach them the philOSOphy . . . in an actual work situation." Grading procedures, A second theme elicited during this phase of interviewing concerned grading procedures for cooperative students. As an employer commented, "Once a month we have to grade them." The limited number of responses with respect to visible components of distributive education can be viewed with two considerations in mind. The first is that the 187 semistructured group interview encourages participants to discuss those ideas which are foremost in their minds at that particular moment in the interview. Whether a dis- cussion topic results in the identification of few or many idea units is dependent entirely on the interaction of group members. Likewise, some points may be more fully developed and elaborated on than others. Second, researchers experienced in the use of group interviewing techniques advise against attempts to elicit additional information when initial probing fails to prompt a discussion.18 Inherent in the excessive use of probing techniques is the risk that interviewees may view it as a cross-examination. Cooperation and spontaneity may, therefore, be limited in the remainder of the interview. Benefits to the Employer The purpose of this portion of the study was to ascertain the benefits that employers receive in return for the various functions they perform as partners in cooperative distributive education. Twelve themes were elicited in the discussion that started with the question: What are the benefits or payoffs of distributive education to the businessman? Themes were content analyzed and classified into five categories. A summary of responses is presented in Table 51. 18Walter R. Borg and Meredith D. Gall, Educational Research: An Introductigp (2d. ed.; New York: Dav1d McKay Campany, Inc., 1971), p. 219; see also Alfred E. Goldman, "The Group Depth Interview," Journal of Marketing, XXVI 188 Table 51 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education Theme Number Obtain employees who are interested 4 Opportunity for community involvement 3 Self-satisfaction 2 Public relations 2 Contact with consumer market segment 1 Total 12 The discussion of benefits included the subjects of (l) obtaining employees who are interested in the job, (2) community involvement, (3) self-satisfaction, (4) public relations, and (5) contact with a consumer market segment. Obtain employees who are interested. Four responses described distributive education students as being interested in their jobs because they are graded on their performance. For example, one employer stated, "The individual is extremely interested if for no other reason than he has a grade to get. At the same time, he or she is picking up a little pocket money." Other themes typical of this cate- gory were as follows: They [students] are working for a grade . . . they are already premotivated. 189 They are more concerned with doing a good job it's part of their schooling. You get good reliable people, they know they have to show—up for work. Opportunity for communipy involvement. That partici- pation in distributive education gives employers a chance to contribute to the community at large was identified in three statements, "A retailer," according to Employer #2, "has to feel a sense of responsibility to the greater community as a whole. He just can't take the money, he has to give something back." Similarly, Employer #3 commented that employers can "help not only in the community now but in the future of the community itself." Self-satisfaction. In recounting what he believed were benefits of distributive education, the operator of gift store stated: It helped the self-respect of a few of my peOple [regular employees] . . . . They became teachers in a sense . . . It made them know that they knew their field and it enhanced their idea of the importance of the job. When asked if she had anything to add to the dis- cussion of benefits, an interviewee replied: I don't know that there is a benefit other than the satisfaction of seeing a good finished product, somebody that you trained or worked with. Public relations. While indicating that it was not a primary motive for sewing as a cooperating employer, two participants mentioned that favorable publicity could result 190 from their involvement with an educational program. For Employer #3 stated, "I think it's good public relations if it ever becomes known." Likewise, a general merchandise retailer looked on distributive education as a way to introduce his store to potential customers for now and the future. He stated his viewpoint as, "A lot of peOple don't know what [store name] is." Provides contact with consumers. The final cate- gory to be discussed contained a single theme that was revealed in the reply of the manager of a small shop. The respondent described his reliance on student employees to advise him on trends in consumer goods preferences when he said, "I work with a very youth-oriented organization. The type of merchandise we sell is youth—oriented." Initial Awareness of Distributive Education An effort was made to learn how various employers became aware of or were introduced to the cooperative dis- tributive education program in which they now participate. Five themes on this topic were identified; of these, three referred to initial contacts by local teacher-coordinators, while company policy and initial contact by the employer were each mentioned in one statement. A summary of themes is shown in Table 52. 191 Table 52 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education _-_~.—__—__ ...1.__ ————-————.——- ' ‘——-— _ Theme Number Coordinator initiated contact 3 Company policy 1 Employer initiated contact 1 Total 5 Coordinator made contagp, A typical reaction to the question about initial awareness was expressed by an interviewee as follows: He [teacher-coordinator] came into the store one day and familiarized me with the program. I became interested right away for I knew it was something we did not have in my high school days. A toy store manager related how he found out a cooperative student was working in the store where he had been assigned: I came down here and saw mysterious papers in my file cabinet and I was aware that something was going on. And then [the teacher-coordinator] came in and explained the program to me. Further discussion revealed that the so-called mysterious papers were copies of the training agreement for the distributive education student working in the store. Companypolicy. Employer #5, a store manager for a nationally-known chain store organization, described participation in distributive education as a recommended 192 policy within the company. The interviewee had worked with cooperative programs for several years, and in several locations, and was not able to pinpoint his first contact with the program. Employer initiated contact. Employer #2 had super- vised cooperative students in a store in the Detroit area and was pleased with the distributive education program. Shortly after he was transferred to his present store, he made inquiries to determine if cooperative distributive education programs were offered in local high schools. His comments on the results of the search were as follows, "Fortunately, there was a co-op program, although it was pretty much in its infancy." Recommendations for Improvement One of the purposes of this study was to ascertain employers' recommendations for making improvements in dis- tributive education programs. It was anticipated that information provided would assist distributive educators in evaluating, and modifying if necessary, current programs. The following question was asked in order to get the dis- cussion started on this topic: What recommendations for improving distributive education would you like to offer? Interviewees' responses were content analyzed and summarized. Results of that summary are shown in Table 53. 193 Table 53 Case Study D: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education Theme Number Student selection 3 Employer visits to classroom 3 Program should be promoted 2 Students hould be able to change jobs 1 Teacher-coordinators should keep abreast of business changes 1 Teachers should meet with groups of employers 1 Total 11 Student selectigp. Three themes recommended that selection procedures should be used in connection with distributive education. The objective would be to attract interested students to the program while counseling uninter- ested students about alternative courses of study. Employer #4 expressed his beliefs on this matter as: The people who are in this area on the high school staff should recruit the better students just as vigorously as a high school coach recruits the best athletes. Employer #1, in commenting on the same topic, suggested that procedures should be develOped to: . . . sort out the people [students] coming in there with a sincere interest and the peOple that were just coming in there [cooperative distributive education] just so they would not have to go to a classroom for the afternoon. 194 Employers should visit classroom. The group pointed out the need for employers to make frequent visits to the classroom to interact with students and teachers. The rationale behind this suggestion was expressed in three separate idea units. "Different managers," according to one interviewee, "could stress the distinctiveness of their particular type of store." Another respondent indicated that student interest in the subject matter could be maintained, or even increased, by having employers come into the classroom to conduct some discussions on current topics. As that employer remarked: When a store manager comes in and gets a session for an hour or so, maybe there's a little more awareness of what's going on. Maybe they are answering questions about the jewelry business, . . . or whatever the case may be, on a higher merchandising level. The desirability of having groups of merchants meet with groups of students for question and answer sessions about topics of mutual interest was also mentioned. Program should be promoted. Two themes stressed the importance of promoting distributive education in the com- munity. An interviewee with two years of eXperience as a cooperating employer remarked, "They [teacher-coordinators] ought to make the retailing community aware of exactly what they have to offer." Further insight on this topic was added by the respondent who said, "The employer who parti- cipates must understand what the prOgram is supposed to accomplish." 195 Students could change jobs. When asked to comment about any recommendations she may have in mind, Employer #6 replied by stating that students should be permitted to "change [jobs] if they find out when they start that they are not satisfied." The overall viewpoint that she com- municated was that students' grades and credits should not be jeopardized by their changingcf jobs during the school year. Additional recommendations. Further suggestions for improving the management of local programs were con- tained in two themes. It was stated, for example, that teacher-coordinators should work in distributive occupa- tions during the summer months to up date their experience. In addressing this idea, Employer #2 said, "Have the teacher get familiarized with the particular situation [store] because . . . he contributes his knowledge to students of what he learns within the stores." This interviewee added that a teacher-coordinator who is familiar with local business could do a better job of watching students with jobs. One respondent referred to the group meeting that he was participating in as an example of how teachers could gain a better understanding of distributive jobs. He explained that a meeting could be set up by: . . . taking a group of managers and having the teacher sit down and talk to individual store managers and find out why each store functions the way they do and what their particular func- tions are. 196 Preferred Classroom Topics Nine themes, classified into six categories, were identified in the discussion that started with this ques- tion: What knowledge and skill areas should be emphasized in the distributive education classroom? A summary of themes is presented in Table 54. Table 54 Case Study D: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom Topics as Suggested by Employers —— ___..‘—_- Theme Number Basic mathematics and counting change 3 Customer relations 2 Attitude and personality development 1 Penmanship 1 Job definitions 1 Economics of Distribution 1 Total 9 Compgtational skills. The most frequently men- tioned idea unit was to place more emphasis on the topics of basic mathematics and counting change. The rationale behind these suggestions was expressed by Employer #2 who stated that teachers "can use two or three hours a day, five days a week trying to teach a student to make change, 197 whereas in a work situation you don't have time." A book- store manager continued the discussion and added, "I've had people who still can't figure tax in their head . . . I think persons could be taught in the classrooms so they can expedite their math." A variety store manager explained that he hires cooperative students even though many of them have poor mathematics skills as determined by the company's testing program. He commented: If a person can't count when he or she comes to apply for a job, we can't use them and won't hire them unless they're a student in a distri- butive education program. The employer made exceptions for distributive education students because he believed they would receive classroom instruction in those areas where their skills were not adequate. Customer relations. Teaching students how to interact with customers was mentioned as a preferred tOpic in two themes. One interviewee believed that when students report for a cooperative job they should be able to "come right in and talk to people." The same employer added, "I've taken a couple of girls who were very shy, very quiet, and very insecure." A second employer commented on the importance of good customer relations and stressed the need to answer customers' questions in a businesslike manner. The interviewee elaborated: 198 I think these people [students] are going to have to learn to say, 'I'm sorry, I don't have it,‘ instead of saying 'No.‘ No one can be so abrupt . . . . They need to say, 'I'm sorry,’ or 'I'm sorry we don't have it,‘ or 'We hope to have it in the near future. Can I take an order for you?‘ All these things can be learned in the classroom. Attitude and personality. Speaking of the need for a helpful attitude and a pleasant personality, Employer #3 said, "I don't think there is enough emphasis put on it in the classroom . . . . These are things the kids have to learn before they can go out and really do a self— satisfying job." Penmanship. When asked what topics she thought should be emphasized in the classroom, the manager of a shop specializing in women's fashions commented: We find that if we take any new person at the desk, penmanship is important. We find that they don't stress penmanship enough in schools now. Job definitions. The concern that students were not aware of various jobs in distributive industries, or the importance of those jobs to the success of a business, was expressed in one response. The representative from a general merchandise retailer commented: I think if they [students] are made aware of what the goals of a retail store are and the importance of their participation in making it run, they would be more anxious to step in and start. 199 Economics of distributigp. In a final comment it was mentioned that some topics should be handled in the classroom because there is not sufficient time to teach them on the job. An example was that students should be familiar with the total production and marketing process that begins with the procurement of raw materials and ends when a finished product is placed in the hands of a con— sumer. Referring to this classroom tOpic, an interviewee stated: I think this is a good background because the more an individual knows about what went on before, and what is going on next in his job, he is going to do a better job. He is going to be more flexible and he may even be a little innovative. CASE STUDY E--A SMALL CITY LOCATED WITHIN A MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREA The group meeting of employers conducted to collect data for Case Study E was held in Troy, Michigan, a city with a population of 39,000.19 The majority of cooperative distributive education students working in the area were from eight high schools in the immediate area. Enrollments in these schools ranged from 1100 to more than 2,000.20 Profile of Participants The background characteristics of participants in Case Study E include (1) an identification of the distri— butive education program area (type of distributive business) represented by each employer, (2) the number of years of experience as a COOperative employer, (3) the number of 19U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants, Michigan (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971), p . Michigan 24-31. 20Michigan Education Directory and Buyer's Guide 1973-74 (Lansing: Michigan Education Directory, 1973i, pp. 212-214. 200 201 students supervised, and (4) the total number of employees in each establishment. Table 55 shows the distribution of participants according to the U.S. Office of Education instructional program name and code number. Four employers represented the General Merchandise classification; of these, three held management positions in full-line department stores while the fourth was employed as the manager of a small shop specializing in clothing for men. The autonotive area was represented by the manager of the tire, battery, and auto- motive accessory department of a department store. This department, which provided a wide array of repair services, was operated as a separate unit of the store. As shown in Table 55, the amount of experience that participants had as cooperative employers ranged from one year to twenty-eight years. A further indication of each employer's past involvement with distributive education is also given in Table 55 where the number of students super- vised to date is presented. Respondents were asked to indicate how many students were supervised on both a direct and an indirect basis. 202 As shown in Table 55, the five participants repre- sented establishments ranging in size from six to 1400 employees. Content analysis procedures make it possible to describe a group of interviewees in terms of the relative importance placed on their responses to the open-ended questions on the interview guide (Appendix A). Relative emphasis devoted to each of the eight topics by partici- pants in Case Study E is shown in Table 56. Because the number of participants may vary from case study to case study, the percent of themes column is more appropriate than the number of themes column when group comparisons are made. The open-ended question generating the most responses involved employers experiences with distributive education. Twenty percent of the themes elicited by inter- viewees were in reference to that topic. Visible components of distributive education and preferred classroom topics accounted for 18 percent and 16 percent of the themes respectively. Comparable figures for each of the other five topics ranged from 6 percent to 12 percent. 203 .HOmH>HOOOm uomuHO 6 mm mocmHummxm usmowu cm: OmHm .Hmmm comm mocmwsum mm on no mmmH>ummsm wHuOOHHch 0:3 Hmmmcme HOOGOOHOQ O .OO HOmOHmEMO .mHmmn ucmsqmumcH so :0 mosmEHOMHOm mop mmumsHm>m paw OD xno3 mcmHmmm HmmonEO mop mumoz COHumsuHm umzu ou mummmn OOHmH>HOQOm uomHHOsHo .OOGOEHOMHOQ m.mmm0HmEm mop mmumsHm>m MHHOHDOOH paw mmonmEm may on mHuomuHO xuos msmHmmm HomonEm mop mumos GOHDOODHO poop on mummmu conH>HOm5m DUOHHQ .mmuom .oo .AmooH .OOHmmo msHusHHm Damasum>oo ".U.Q .coumstmmzv HOOOOumO .mcoHpmmsooo paw coHumospm HmcoHumoo> .OOHDOOOOM mo OOHMOO .OHOOHOB UGO .OOHDOOSOM .ouHmOm mo usmEDMmme..m.Dm o ' OmHOCmnoumz O m O O N N Hmuwcmw O0.00 m mmHOsmnoumz OOOH OOO OOOH Omm NH ON Hmumcmw O0.00 v OOHOQOQOHOZ NO OO NN m N H HOHmcmw OO.vO m OOHUCOQOHOZ om ON n O O N HOHOGOO OO.vO N ON 5 HN O O O m>Hposops< OO.¢O H Hmuoe OEHB OEHB owHuomqusH anuomuHo HOMOHQEM usmfianHomomm mmpoo mHOhOHQEm uuumm IHHsm .m.o o no mess .m.o.m.O mm mummy unmeomHHnmumm CH pmmH>Hmmsm mucmpdum mmmonmEm MO,HOQEOZ .m.Q mo HOQEDZ musmpsommmm mo OOHumHumuomumno Ocsoumxomm "m mpsum mmmo mm OHQMB 204 Table 56 Case Study E: Number of Themes Per TOpic Area Number Percent . of of TOplC Area Themes Themes Objectives of Distributive Education 4 8 Experiences with Distributive Education 10 20 Role of the Employer 6 12 Visible Components of Distributive Education 9 18 Benefits to the Employer 5 10 Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 3 6 Recommendations for Improvement 5 10 Preferred Classroom Topics 8 16 Total 50 100 Objectives of Distributive Education The group interview session began with the question: How would you describe the objectives of cooperative distri- butive education programs? The question was rephrased in the following form: From your viewpoint, what is this pro- gram supposed to accomplish? The rephrasing and restating of the question was done to place the question in a conver- sational format so as to maintain informality in the group. Four themes were identified when the responses of interviewees were content analyzed. The themes were further classified into four separate categories and are shown in detail in Table 57. 205 Table 57 Case Study E: Themes Regarding Objectives of COOperative Distributive Education Programs Theme Number Test student's interest in a career 1 Teach students to relate to people 1 Provide job experience 1 Attract young people into retailing 1 Total 4 Test student's career interests. One of the four themes indicated that the distributive education program was designed to provide students with those experiences necessary for making career decisions. According to Employer #1, distributive education should: . . . help students find out if this is the field for them. A lot of kids don't know what they want to do, but they do want to work, and some need to work, but they can find out if this is really their field. Teach interpersonal relations. when asked if she had any comments to add to the discussion, an employer stated that the distributive instructional program "helps these children to develop poise, it helps them to under- stand how to relate to people." Provide job experience. A stockroom supervisor described objectives of cooperative distributive education 206 in terms of what he believed students gained from the pro- gram. The first part of his response was focused on the opportunity for students to gain basic job experience and thereby learn the responsibility of holding a job. The second cOmponent of the employer's answer referred to what students learn by working in his department. As he said, "They [students] learn the background of what goes on in sales supporting positions." Attract young people into retailing. When asked to describe her perception of cooperative distributive educa- tion programs, Employer #4 responded by pointing out that such programs can serve as the mechanism by which students learn about retailing and are possibly attracted to it as a career field. She described the instructional program as: A source of recruitment and also a source of immediate labor, immediate workers that are interested and motivated in their job. Employer #4 added that a number of cooperative students had continued their employment with the company after graduating from high school. This particular employer, who had worked with distributive education for twenty-eight years, described objectives in a way that also communicated benefits that result from participation. Experiences with Distributive Education The persons with whom employers interact as parti- cipants in cooperative distributive education formed the 207 basis for the classification scheme used to process responses to the second question included in the interview guide (Appendix A). The following question was used to start the second phase of the group interview: What have been your experiences with distributive education? Theme categories derived from content of the interview and selected for use in the study were: experiences with teacher-coordinators, experiences with students, and experiences with distributive education, other than those with coordinators or students. Statements or responses were classified according to whether they had positive, neutral, or negative connotations. Statements referring to experiences not involving students or teacher-coordinators were classified as miscel- laneous in the study. Miscellaneous themes were not identified when content analysis procedures were applied to data collected in the group meeting for Case Study E. In addition, themes with neutral connotations were not revealed while those with positive and negative connotations were found. As can be noted in Table 58, nine of ten, or 90 percent, of the responses were related to experiences involving students. One response, equal to 10 percent of the total concerned teacher—coordinators. By examining the row totals in Table 58, it can be seen that 50 percent of the responses were positive and 50 percent were negative. 208 Table 58 Case Study E: Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Programs Nature of Response Theme Subjects Row Totals Teacher- Coordinators Students Miscel- laneous a Percent Positive Number a Percent of row Percenta of column Percenta of total Neutral Number a Percent of row Percenta of column Percenta of total Negative Number a Percent of row Percenta of column Percenta of total 20 100 10 Column Totals: Number Percenta 1 10 80 44 40 100 56 50 9 9O 50 50 aPercent figures rounded to nearest integer. 209 Positive themes about students. Four of five themes as shown in Table 59, were positive statements about distributive education students. An interviewee represent- ing the automotive parts and service business summarized his relationship with cooperative students by saying, "I have not had a bad experience." Another employer in recounting his contacts with students commented: I'm real happy with the people I get. It's like an 'ace-in-the-hole' because they want to try and do good. After a couple of months they get the hang of it and most of the time they're really good. Table 59 Case Study E: Positive Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Overall experience has been positive 3 Are mature employees 1 Teacher- Had pleasant relationships with coordinators teacher-coordinators 1 Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 5 210 A department store personnel manager, with twenty— eight years of experience with cooperative distributive education, compared cooperative students with other young employees and remarked, "The young people we hire off the street, on the whole, do not do as well as the co-op students that we get." When asked to comment about her experiences, another interviewee stated, "The co-op student shows a great degree of maturity." Positive themes about teacher-coordinators. One participant thinking back about her years of experience with distributive education remarked: I've never had any bad situations develop with any co-op coordinator. The schools and the coordinators have been just pleasant. Value judgments based on the number of positive statements compared to the number of negative statements should not be made until certain operating characteristics of group interviews are considered. That is, the semi- structured group interview encourages participants to dis- cuss those ideas which are foremost in their minds at a particular moment in the interview. It does not necessarily describe their overall findings. Negative themes about students. Employers in Case Study E indicated a general satisfaction with distributive education students who had worked in their businesses. However, statements about experiences were made by group 211 members who believed that at least some mention should be made of negative aspects of their relationships with students. Four of these comments were as follows: Some of them have been caught taking merchandise. They were security risks. Some have personal problems to such an extent that it hampers their ability to work on the job. There are some [students] we could classify as immature. They don't have that sense of responsibility or motivation . . . . We have one right now who needs one hour of credit in order to graduate . . . . That's the reason she wants to stick it out. While they discussed these unpleasant experiences with students, participants in Case Study E were quick to point out that they occurred infrequently and were not typical situations. Table 60 Case Study E: Negative Themes Regarding Employers' Experiences with Distributive Education Theme Subject Theme Number Students Were not motivated 2 Were not interested in the job 1 Had personal problems that interfered with work 1 Some were security risks 1 Teacher- coordinators Not mentioned Miscellaneous Not mentioned Total 5 212 Role of the Employer The following question, as included on the inter- view guide in Appendix A, was used to shift the focus of the cooperating employers' discussion to another topic: How would you describe the role of the employer who parti- cipates in the COOperative distributive education program? Reactions of interviewees to the question were content analyzed and summarized. Table 61 shows a list of six themes in summary form. Table 61 Case Study E: Themes Related to the Employer's Role in Distributive Education _— m- . .—._____- _. —-— —- —..——_——--_..—-—_ -«_ -~__—_____._—_ .._. Theme Number Expect the same from co-op students as from other employees of same age 2 Evaluate performance of students 2 Assist students with special projects 2 Total 6 Employers in Case Study E elicited six themes which were classified into the three categories of (l) expecting the same performance from co-op students as from other employees of the same age, (2) evaluating performance of students, and (3) assisting students with special projects. 213 Same role as tocther employees. Table 61 shows that two themes had the common element that employers expect the same from cooperative students as they do from other employees of similar age. Employer #1, who had supervised eight students in the last two years, remarked, "We train them [cooperative students] just like we would any other new person." Another participant openly agreed with the comments of Employer #1. Evaluate performance of students. Two additional responses provided further insight into how interviewees viewed their role as partners in COOperative distributive education. A department store representative commented on the performance evaluations which are made in conjunction with each marking period in the school year: There is closer scrutiny of these [cooperative] employees than there is on other employees because of the grading situation, because we have evaluation sheets. When asked how she viewed her role as a cooperating employer over a two-decade period, a personnel manager replied by comparing cooperative students with other store employees. She stated, "There might be additional evalua- tions that are required, additional markings and gradings." Assist students with special projects. Two final themes elicited in response to the question about the employer's role referred to assistance that was given to 214 students who were preparing written reports for their classes. For example, according to one interviewee: I've had several of them [students] that have had to make special reports. I've taken time to help them with that and give them ideas. If they have any questions about retail or how the store is run we try to help them. Visible Components of Distributive Education Question #4 was included in the interview guide (Appendix A) to determine which components of the distri- butive education program are known by employers. The Specific intent was to stimulate a discussion in which group participants would elicit responses indicating their awareness of various operating characteristics of such programs. This part of the discussion brought out themes that were classified into five theme categories. A summary of themes is shown in Table 62. Child labor laws. A department store representa- tive, with responsibilities for supervising stock handling and package pickup activities, started this phase of the interview with the comment: There are some restrictions in my category because of the hours and weight [lifting] restrictions. They [students] can't life over fifty pounds if they're under eighteen years old. And they can't work more than five hours without a lunch break. Another employer followed with this related comment: 215 . . . and they're not being able to operate a freight elevator. Now in our modernized freight elevators, all you have to do is walk inside, push a button, the gates automatically close, and the elevator starts up. Table 62 Case Study E: Themes Regarding Visible Components of the Distributive Education Program Theme Number Child labor law restrictions 4 Students are graded by employers 2 Students must work at least 15 hours a week 1 Students must attend school before reporting for work 1 Year-end banquets 1 Total 9 Further discussion disclosed that other employers were aware of child labor law provisions that applied to COOperative students who were minors. Another comment on this item of discussion was that, "Students [minors] are not allowed to climb ladders. Quite a bit of the shelving is ten and twelve feet high." The general tone of the interview during the time when child labor laws were mentioned indicated that employers felt the laws were not relevant in some circum- stances. Interviewees were, however, knowledgable of the 216 statutes and made sure they were enforced in their establishments. Students are graded by employers. As can be seen in Table.62, the second most frequently mentioned theme regarded periodic evaluation of cooperative students. Two employers brought up this topic and explained that when they hired distributive education students they knew that they would be approached by the teacher-coordinator and asked to evaluate performance on the job. Additional topics. Other visible components or operating characteristics mentioned by participants in Case Study E were (1) students must work an average of fifteen hours each week, (2) students must attend classes at school before reporting for work on any given day, and (3) some schools sponsor year-end banquets for distributive educa- tion students and employers. Benefits to the Employer The purpose of a previous section of this case report was to determine how employers perceive of their role as partners in cooperative distributive education programs. This section was included in the study to ascertain the benefits that accrue to those employers as a result of their participation. Five response themes were elicited when the follow- ing question was asked in the group interview: What are the 217 benefits or payoffs of distributive education to the businessman? Themes are presented in summary form in Table 63. Table 63 Case Study E: Themes Regarding Employer Benefits from Participation in Distributive Education Theme Number Mutual benefit of company and student 1 Self-satisfaction 1 Recruit full-time employees 1 Obtain employees who are interested 1 Assistance of the teacher-coordinator 1 Total 5 Discussion of benefits by interviewees in Case Study E included the subjects of (l) a relationship that results in mutual benefits to both the sponsoring company and students, (2) self-satisfaction, (3) recruiting poten- tial full-time employees, (4) obtaining employees who are interested in the job, and (5) being able to rely on the assistance of a teacher-coordinator. Mutual benefits. Employer #4, a personnel manager began this round of responses by stating, "The co-Op pro- gram continues to flourish because it is for our mutual 218 benefit. It benefits the student and it benefits the company." Self-satisfaction. The focus of the interview was shifted to the realm of intangible benefits by the employer who remarked: It is a real pleasure to take one of these young, timid, tender students and watch them gradually develop and mature into experienced workers on the job. And as peOple they mature too. Recruit full-time employees. A third theme attri- buted to Case Study E described the desire of employers to arouse student interest in careers with their companies. In the words of one interviewee: In many instances that same person wants to stay with you after graduation. ‘She's all trained, she's a good worker, she likes the job and wants to stay where she is . . . . I presently have two or three young ladies who are on co-op and who have expressed a distinct interest to stay on in June after they graduate. Obtain emplgyees who are interested. When the group was asked if there were additional comments on the topic at hand, a participant representing the automotive parts and service category stated, "You're getting a good person, a good worker, who is mature and reliable. They're interested." Coordinator provides assistance. The comments pro- vided by one interviewee indicated a willingness to partici- pate in distributive education because of the presence of a teacher-coordinator in the program. This is illustrated by the following statement: 219 The co-op student is more inclined to put forth a greater effort because she knows she has two people to answer to, her immediate supervisor at work and her educator [teacher-coordinator]. lpitial Awareness of Distributive Education In an effort to determine how members of the group became aware of or were introduced to the cooperative dis- tributive education in which they now participate, the following question was asked to stimulate discussion: How did you become aware of distributive education? Themes revealed in the discussion are summarized in Table 64. Table 64 Case Study E: Themes Regarding Initial Awareness of Distributive Education ....~... .__.. r..._ ‘.-...._._ m--__.._.-_-~.. - _-.--.——..__.__-- ”h ’ 71.-.“. ~ -_ ___..._.- __. _.___'-—._-._-__.-— -._ _, .. __ Cooperative students had been used in the company for a number of years 3 Total 3 Examining Table 64 it can be seen that participants in Case Study E had only a few comments to make with respect to their initial contacts with distributive education. Quotations from the three employers who responded to the question may provide some clues as to why there was limited discussion of the tOpic. 220 According to Employer #1, "When I needed an employee in the department, I got a co-op student through personnel [department]." Additional questions were used in an effort to find out how the respondent knew to request a COOpera- tive student from the personnel department or what his reaction was when the first cooperative student reported for work in his department. These probing attempts, however, did not result in any additional information. . Another theme representative of this portion of the interview was provided by Employer #3 who stated, "I've been aware of it [COOperative distributive education] for quite awhile. I worked with them [cooperative students] when I was a stock boy." The focus of the interview was shifted to the next question on the interview guide when the question on initial awareness of distributive education, followed by probing procedures, failed to stimulate a discussion. It was believed that further probing would hamper spontaneity of discussion during the remainder of the group interview. Recommendations for Improvement When interviewees in Case Study E were asked: What recommendations for improving distributive education would you like to offer?, five themes were elicited. Themes, classified into their respective categories, are presented in Table 65. 221 Table 65 Case Study E: Themes Regarding Employer Recommendations for Improving Distributive Education Themes Number Child labor laws should be reviewed 2 Parents should be informed of students' job responsibilities 1 The fifteen-hour minimum work week rule should be reviewed 1 Student selection procedures should be used 1 Total 5 Review of child labor laws. The issue of child labor laws was raised by the interviewee who said: We would like to see something a little more realistic in the way of lifting [restrictions] and elevator operating, and climbing of step ladders for sixteen and seventeen year olds. In agreeing with the foregoing statement, another respondent added, ". . . there are many departments where we cannot place them [minors] because of the labor restric- tions." It should be pointed out that these two recommenda- tions pertain to state statutes under the jurisdiction of the Michigan Department of Labor. Distributive educators do not, therefore, have the authority to implement the recommended changes. Informing parents about students' jogs. One con- cern expressed in the interview session was that parents of 222 students should be apprised of the duties and responsibilities concurrent with a cooperative job. One employer addressed this subject when she said, "It's important for the parent to realize that the child has a responsibility to the com- pany. If she has accepted a job, she has to be there." Flexible work schedule. A department store repre- sentative suggested that the fifteen hour minimum work week be relaxed to accommodate a schedule where a student could work more than fifteen hours some weeks and less than fifteen hours in other weeks. The interviewee elaborated by saying, "January and February are traditionally the worst months in the retail business. We must cut back [on hours worked] to a realistic level and the averaging of hours of co-op students helps." Student selection. A participant in his second year as a cooperating employer brought up the final theme to be considered. The employer suggested that students should not be placed on jobs until they have determined the areas of their career interests. It would then be the teacher- coordinator's responsibility to "screen applications of what they're [students] interested in in the retail field." Preferred Classroom Topics Participants in Case Study E suggested six tOpics that they believed should be included in the in-class portion of the cooperative distributive education curriculum. 223 Those theme categories were (1) initiative, (2) honesty and store security, (3) attitude and personality development, (4) interpersonal relations, (5) personal appearance, and (6) teamwork. Table 66 presents a summary and frequency distribution of themes. Table 66 Case Study E: Theme Categories Regarding Preferred Classroom TOpics as Suggested by Employers Themes Number Initiative 2 Honesty and store security 2 Attitude and personality development 1 Interpersonal relations 1 Personal appearance 1 Teamwork 1 Total 8 Initiative. Two idea units described how impor- tant it is for the student to take initiative in performing the job. Employer #5 stated, "There is a great need for them [students] to be motivated." The discussion of this particular theme was continued by the interviewee who commented: . . . tell every student that they should motivate themselves when there is nothing to sell. I don't want to have to tell them to do this or do that. You like to have them know that they are to keep working and motivate themselves to do a job. You want people who are aggressive. 224 Honesty_and store security. This theme was sug- gested by two employers who took two different approaches in discussing it. Employer #2 believed that teacher- coordinators should teach that "honesty pays off." Presenting a slightly different viewpoint, Employer #4 stated that teacher-coordinators should: Describe the security prOgrams within stores and how they operate and what are the security offenses for which a person can be fired . . . . A two-cent file or a battery can be just as incriminating as taking $100 from the cash register. Teamwork. The need for students to understand that, as employees, they will be part of a team effort was stressed by a merchandiser of automotive parts and service. He elaborated: A department [in a store] is one great big team. They're a member of that team [as employees]. Maybe they should have more projects where they have to depend on each other to get to the end result. When asked how teamwork could be taught in the distributive education classroom, this same interviewee replied: Have them [students] take turns being in charge of a group of four or five. 'Put the shoe on the other foot,‘ let them see how it is to get some— thing out of somebody [when working toward goals]. Additional tgpics. Interviewees were asked for other suggestions near the end of this phase of interviewing. The themes elicited were accompanied by little or no 225 elaboration. Typical comments about what should be taught in the distributive education classroom were: Human relations, getting along with peOple. How to work with peOple, how to talk to people. Treating people as they [students] would like to be treated. You can't help but wonder if the students couldn't be given a little more training in character. Personal appearance. SUMMARY A comparison of the relative emphasis placed on each of the eight major interview topics in the five case studies is shown in Table 67. The open-ended question referring to experiences with distributive education I generated uuamost discussion in three groups, while pre- ferred classroom tOpics were emphasized in a fourth group. Participants in Case Study D elicited an equal number of responses on each of those two topics. A further examination of Table 67 shows that recommendations for improvement was the second most fre- quently discussed topic in one group, while topics dealing with experiences with distributive education, visible com- ponents of the programs, and benefits to the employer received that rank in four groups respectively. Subsequent to the group interview sessions, follow-up questionnaire (Appendix C) to validate interview data was developed and mailed to participants. Each participant 226 .HmmwucH ummHmmc ou Ompssou mesOHm usmoummm OOH OO OOH OO OOH OO OOH OO OOH OO Hmuos OH O OH O OH OH O O OO ON monoe acoummmHO cmuummmum OH O OH HH O O HO O O O ucmsm>oumsH now mcoHumncmssoomm O O O O O O O O O O coHumozom O>Hu5nHHumHQ mo mmmcmumzd HOHuHsH OH O OH OH OH OH HH O O O HOOonsO on» on muHmoomO OH O O O OH OH O O O O coHumoacm O>HuOnHHumHQ mo musmsomeou mHaHmH> OH O O O OH O O O OH O umOonsm on» no OHom Om OH Om OH OH OH Om OH ON ON coHumoscm O>HuooHHumHQ oqu mmosmHummxm O O HH O O O HH O O O :oHumosom m>HusoHsumHo mo mm>HuooOno OO .02 mm .02 MO .02 «O .02 mm .02 mmua UHmoe m Ocsum o Owsum O Oosum m Owsum 4 Ocsum mmmo mmmu mmmu mmmu mmMU mepsum mmmo mme CH mmmu< OHQOB co UOUMHO mHmmnmEm m>flumHmm mo somwummaou NO OHQOB 227 was asked to review the summary of findings and to be prepared to react, in a forthcoming telephone interview, by indicating agreement or disagreement or by adding ideas which may have been missed in the group interviews. Follow-up procedures indicated that the summary was an accurate description of the discussion in the group interviews. CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS According to a generally accepted description, distributive education is: . . . comprised of programs of occupational instruction in the field of distribution and marketing. These programs are designed to prepare individuals to enter, or progress or improve competencies in, distributive occupa- tions. Emphasis is on the development of attitudes, skills, and understanding related to marketing, merchandising and management. Instruction is offered at the secondary, post- secondary, and adult education levels and is structured to meet the requirements for gain- ful employment and entrepreneurship at speci- fied occupational levels. There are two curriculum plans which are basic to providing high school students with instruction in distri- butive education. These plans of instruction are the cooperative plan and the project plan. Both accept the premise that the student has a career goal in marketing which gives meaning to instruction. 1U.S., Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education, Vocational Educatippmand Occupations, OE-80061 (washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 19. 228 229 The cooperative plan coordinates experience on the job with a related class in the school. The project plan combines classroom instruction with coordinated laboratory activities that are related to each student's occupational interests. Expansion and changes in the marketing sector of our society will call for continued emphasis on training, retraining, and upgrading of employees engaged in distri- bution.2 It is assumed that high school distributive educa- tion programs will continue to play a significant role in educating youth for distribution and marketing because a large portion of the jobs require training at less than the college level.3 But the question is: how well is distribu- tive education at the secondary level doing now according to the perceptions of employers? PROBLEM OF THE STUDY The problem of the study was to assess the percep- tions of employers who have participated in cooperative distributive education programs and to ascertain their recommendations regarding the operation of such programs. The Specific objectives of the study were the following: 2Lucy C. Crawford and Warren G. Meyer, Organization and Administration of Distributive Education (Columbus: Charles E. Merrill PubliShing Co., 19727, p. 4. 31bid. 230 1. Develop a clear and concise description of distributive education program objectives as seen by employers. 2. Determine which components of the distri- butive education prOgram are known and understood by employers. 3. Ascertain the benefits that employers derive from participation in distributive education programs. 4. Learn how employers became aware of distributive education. 5. Ascertain recommendations for making improvements in distributive education programs. 6. Identify employer preferences regarding competencies that should receive priority in classroom instruction. 7. Provide a model for analyzing the types of experiences that employers have had in working with distributive education. Need for the Study A cooperative education program is based on a three- way partnership between the student, the employer, and the school. Very little research is available concerning the factors which motivate employers to participate in cooperative distributive education programs or the 231 perceptions that employers have toward distributive educa- tion students and programs. However, in formal literature, including speeches at meetings, distributive educators have expressed opinions stressing the importance of gaining a better understanding of how the business community feels about distributive education. It is anticipated that this study will enable distributive educators to plan and develop programs that are congruent with the needs and interests of employers while meeting the instructional needs of the students. Procedures for the Study The study procedures involved six areas: (1) method, (2) population, (3) selection of participants, (4) instru- mentation, (5) interview procedures, and (6) analysis of data. Method. The case study form of descriptive research was used in the study. Information needed to develop cases was gathered from semistructured group interviews. It was believed that more revealing data could be obtained by interviewing the business people who hire, supervise, and assist in the training of distributive education COOperative students. Population. Cooperative distributive education is offered by 243 high schools in Michigan. The project plan 232 is offered in 115 high schools.4 The majority of these programs are located in the more populated areas in the southern half of the state's lower peninsula. Five communi- ties were chosen from this geographic area to serve as the focus of case study reports. Each community was repre- sented by a group of employers, with the result that eleven percent of cooperative distributive education programs in 5 the state were represented in the sample. Selection of participants. Participants for each case study were selected on the basis of two criteria. First, only those employers who had participated in a COOperative distributive education prOgram for at least one out of the prior three years were selected. Second, parti- cipants were chosen from a range of distributive businesses so as to represent the types of employment held by high school COOperative students. Data provided by teacher- coordinators in the communities was used to determine the range of training stations. Five to seven employers parti- cipated in each interview session. Instrumentation. An interview guide was used as the primary data collection instrument in the study. An additional instrument, a brief questionnaire, was used to obtain data on the background of the participants. 4Vocational Education and Career DeveIOpment Service, 1973-74 Vocational Education School Building Program Repgrt TLansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1974). 51bid. 233 The interview guide lists questions that are to be asked and the sequence in which they will be asked during the interview. Interviewmprocedures. Each interview session was conducted by a moderator who introduced the tOpic and opened up new areas of discussion when necessary. An audio tape recorder was used at each interview to record answers to questions, comments, and reactions of respondents. In order to get the group interview effectively underway, the moderator explained the purpose of the gathering, defined his own role and that of a respondent, and defined the relationship among respondents. Analysis of data. Transcripts were typed from audio tapes of each group interview. The transcripts, therefore, represented the source data for the content analysis pro- cedures that were used. Content analysis was selected because of its appropriateness for processing data from open-ended questions. Theme categories were derived from the responses of interview participants to questions on the interview guide. The number of units in a theme category was determined by the number of responses or idea units in that category. Portions of the report of findings is in the narra— tive form in order to summarize the attitudes of respondents. Verbatim comments were included in the report. A follow—up questionnaire was mailed to participants subsequent to the interviews. Each participant was asked to 234 review the summary of findings and to be prepared to react in a forthcoming telephone interview by indicating agreement or disagreement, or by adding ideas which may have been missed in the interviews. This procedure served to validate data collected in the group sessions. Limitations of the Study The study was limited to those employers who volun- teered for the interview sessions and who had participated in a cooperative distributive education program for at least one out of the last three years. Other limitations included: 1. The findings of the study. While much can - be learned from the.case study research method, it does not permit the generaliza- tion of findings beyond the cases under study. 2. The group interview. It may be difficult to ascertain the accuracy of information obtained in the group interview. Some individuals may choose to withhold infor- mation or give answers which they feel are more acceptable. 3. The geographical location. The study was confined geographically to employers located in five communities in Michigan. Likewise, 235 the data were collected using a nonproba- bility sample, consequently the findings are not necessarily indicative of employers in other locations. FINDINGS All findings have been categorized and are reported according to the eight topic areas explored in the study. Objectives of Distributive Education 1. All five of the groups described the objectives of the cooperative distributive education program as being: (a) to provide students with basic job experience. Note that the field of distribution and marketing was not speci- fically mentioned in these responses; (b) to give students the opportunity to acquire enough experience in a distribu- tive job to determine if they are interested in the career field. 2. Only three of the five groups mentioned that distributive education was designed to place students in career goal jobs in the broad field of distribution and marketing. 3. Two groups referred to distributive education as a program designed to attract young peOple into retail- ing, in contrast to the more inclusive field of marketing, which distributive educators see as their domain. 236 4. Two of the five groups believed that distribu- tive education programs should: (a) teach students about the Operations of specific retail stores, and (b) teach students how to relate to other peOple. Experiences with Distributive Educatiom_ 1. Negative experiences that employers had in their past relationships with cooperative distributive education students encompassed eight categories. a. Participants in three of the five groups had employed some students who were not interested in the job. b. Responses in two sessions indicated that some students were not able to handle cash receipts properly. c. Unfavorable experiences mentioned in only one group meeting referred to those instances where students were: (1) Frequently absent from work (2) Not motivated (3) Had personal problems that interfered with . their work (4) Security risks (5) Unreasonable about getting time off from work (6) Unreasonable about the letter grades they should receive for learning and job performance 2. 237 Positive experiences that employers had in their past involvement with distributive education students were described in seven theme categories. a. Four of the five groups indicated that some graduates of the distributive education program stayed with the company for careers. Favorable experiences that were enumerated by three groups were: (1) Work experience helped the student employees to mature (2) Cooperative students were hard workers Positive experiences with students described in only one case study were: (1) Job performance improved after the student enrolled in distributive education (2) Students were above average as sales persons (3) Students were patient with older customers (4) Overall experience had been positive Negative experiences that employers had in past rela- tionships with distributive education teacher-coordi— nators included four categories. a. Two of the five groups stated that some teacher- coordinators did not visit work stations Often enough to keep abreast of student performance. Negative experiences described in only one group meeting were that a teacher-coordinator: 238 (1) Did not accompany students on the initial visit to the employer (2) Did not contact the employer after a student 4 was fired for stealing (3) Sent too many students to the store for job interviews The single negative theme in the study that was not directed toward either students or teacher-coordinators was that employers had difficulty in evaluating students because grading procedures were not consistent among schools. The following four statements were used in describing positive experiences with teacher-coordinators: a. Selection procedures were used in matching students with cooperative jobs. b. Frequent visits were made to the work station to monitor student job performances. c. A coordinatOr worked in a store, without pay, to learn the business. d. There was an overall pleasant working relationship with the coordinator. Themes that were considered to be neither positive nor negative in reference to COOperative distributive education were classified as neutral. Four neutral theme categories referred to students. a. Each of the following categories was mentioned in two case studies: 239 (1) Some students had difficulty in adjusting to the irregular work schedule in retailing because their parents worked more regular hours (2) Some students may enroll in distributive education for the course credits and not because they are interested in the career field b. Neutral statements attributed to one group were: (1) Female COOperative students appeared to be more mature than males of the same age (2) Few above average students enrolled in COOperative distributive education One group stated the neutral theme that students will be motivated if the teacher—coordinator is motivated. One group stated that some student employees think the employer, rather than the teacher-coordinator, is the initial contact for enrolling in distributive education. Role of the Employer 1. According to participants in three groups, the employer's role in cooperative distributive education consisted of teaching and training students to perform a specific job and then evaluating their performance. Teaching duties included explaining the different phases of the 240 particular business and clarifying those procedures which vary from company to company. Two groups of employers indicated that their role as supervisors of cooperative students was not different from the role as supervisors of other employees. Descriptions of the employer's role mentioned in one group were: a. Business people should try to interest students in retailing as a career. b. Cooperating employers are an important source of career information and advice. c. The employer frequently assists the students who are preparing reports or projects on various phases of business. Visible Components of Distributive EducatiOn 1. Discussion in three of the five sessions suggested that one of the obvious operating characteristics of the cooperative distributive education program was that students were to be evaluated and graded on a periodic basis. Components of distributive education that employers in two groups exhibited an awareness of were: a. Cooperative students are available for work earlier in the day than other employees who are also in high school. 241 Some schools have stores and project-laboratories that are used in the teaching of distributive education subject matter. Cooperative education requirements include a minimum work week of fifteen hours. Teacher-coordinators are responsible for teaching students in the classroom and coordinating that teaching with each student's on-the—job learning experiences. Child labor laws prohibit cooperative students from performing certain tasks. Visible components of cooperative distributive education revealed in one case study were: a. Before a student reports for work, a training agreement must be completed and signed by student, parents, teacher-coordinator, and the employer. Some of the textbooks used in the classroom take a theoretical approach to the subject of distri- bution and marketing. A student may not report for work on a day when he or she was absent from school. Distributive education employer-employee banquets are held at the end of the school year in some communities. 242 Benefits to the Employer 1. Four of the five groups in the study listed the follow- ing benefits that accrue to the employer who partici- pates in cooperative distributive education: a. An opportunity to recruit full-time employees is provided. b. An employer gets self-satisfaction from helping a young person develop into a mature and responsible employee. According to participants in three groups, distributive education is a source of employees who are interested in the job and motivated to perform it properly. Benefits to employers revealed in two case studies were: a. Cooperative students are typically available to work a flexible work schedule. They can work between thirty-five and thirty-nine hours each week, including afternoomsand evenings. b. Participation results in favorable public rela- tions for the business. c. An opportunity is provided for the employer to become involved in and contribute to the better— ment of the community. d. The employer is assisted by the teacher~ coordinator in supervising the employee. This was particularly important in the early stages of employment. 243 Benefits mentioned in only one group were: a. Employing students helps the manager stay in contact with the consumer market segment composed of young peOple. b. Employees are obtained before they have developed poor work habits in some other job. Initial Awareness of Distributive Education 1. Four groups were introduced to distributive education by teacher-coordinators from local schools. Statements made in two case studies referred to company policies that encouraged managers of local units to employ COOperative distributive education. students. Two responses, according to two respective groups, were that: a. An employer, who was not aware of cooperative education, contacted the local.high school to determine if any students were interested in a part-time job. b. -An employee, who was in high school, asked the employer howhe could enroll in cooperative education. The employer contacted the school and was introduced to the program. 244 Recommendations‘for‘Improvement 1. All of the groups recommended that selection procedures be used for enrolling students in cooperative distribu- tive education. It was suggested that attempts should be made to place students in work stations that are compatible with their interests and career goal plans in distribution and marketing. It was suggested in three of the five case studies that cooperating employers should be invited to visit the classroom on a more frequent basis than is now the case. Several managers demonstrated their interest in conducting some classroom discussions and also talking informally with groups of students. . Recommendations mentioned by two of the five groups were that teacher-coordinators should: a. Acquire a public relations attitude and promote distributive education more aggressively to prospective employers and to the community at large. b. Keep up-to-date on changes in the business world -and particularly in the area of distribution and marketing. Several participants indicated a willingness to have teacher—coordinators spend some time in their establishments to learn the jobs that cooperative students perform on a daily basis. These contacts would be in addition to 245 those required to monitor student job performance which should also be done more frequently. Recommendations for improving distributive education made in only one of the various case studies were: a. School stores could be used for teaching funda- mentals to students before they are placed on cooperative jobs. b. Parents should be made aware of the responsibility that students have when they accept a cooperative job. The implication was that parents could reinforce the importance of being on time for work and reporting for work on assigned days. c. Child labor laws should be reviewed and revised to meet modern business practices. Minors, for example, are not permitted to Operate freight elevators even though they are now very similar to passenger elevators. d. Students Should be permitted to change jobs during the school year if they so desire. e. The fifteen hour minimum work week rule should be relaxed to accomodate the situation where a Student would be assigned considerably more hours some weeks and considerably less in other weeks. f. Teacher-coordinators should meet periodically with groups of employers for informal talks about both business and distributive education. 246 g. Employers should evaluate the performance of teacher-coordinators. Preferred Classroom Tgpics l. A suggestion common to all five groups was that the need for a cooperative attitude, a pleasant personality, and self-confidence should be stressed in the distribu- tive education classroom. Necessary Skill areas suggested in four case studies were: a. Basic mathematics and practice drills on counting change at the cash register. b. Duties and tasks involved in the types of jobs- typically held by cooperative students and also in managerial jobs in the field of distribution and marketing. Three of the five groups indicated a desire for more in-class instruction on the appropriate manner of interacting with customers and the fundamentals of good grooming and dressing appropriately for the job. That students should learn the significance of being self-motivated and taking the initiative in tackling additional tasks when they have completed assigned duties was a preferred classroom topic in two groups. Preferred classroom topics suggested in only one of the various case studies were: 247 a. Basic communication skills including training in speech and penmanship. b. Interpersonal relations and role playing exercises in which the principles of working as a part of a team are emphasized. c. How to fill out an application for employment and how to conduct one's self during a job interview. d. An overview of the total production and marketing process that begins with the procurement of raw materials and ends when a finished product is placed in the hands of a consumer. e. The importance of maintaining a record of being an honest employee and the rationale behind. security procedures used in a retail store. CONCLUSIONS 1. Employers described the objectives of distributive education in broader terms than those found in the literature or as proclaimed by distributive education leaders.6 That is, those terms used by employers did knot always refer specifically to the field of distribution and marketing. 6For example, see Roman F. Warmke, Distributive Educa- tion Issues, Monographs in Business and Economic EducatiOn, No. 102 (Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1961), p. 15; and Lucy C. Crawford, "Basic Beliefs in Distributive Education," American Vocational Journal, XLIII (March, 1968), 25-26. 248 While a number of negative experiences were discussed, the overall tone was one of satisfaction with the distributive education program. Employers believed the roles of the cooperating super- visor and the supervisor of all other employees were almost identical. They did not necessarily see them- selves as "downtown" teachers of COOperative students. Participants demonstrated an awareness of only a few characteristics or components of the COOperative dis- tributive education program. Formal and legal require- ments pertaining to the employment of students were among the most frequently mentioned statements. Businessmen obtained intangible as well as tangible benefits from their participation in the COOperative program. Self-satisfaction derived from working with young people comprised the former category, while the latter included the opportunity to recruit employees who are interested and who may stay with the company. Participants were typically introduced to the distri- butive education programs in their communities by teacher-coordinators. Company policies in some chain organizations encourage managers of local units to make the initial contact if they were not visited by a teacher-coordinator. The majority of recommendations for improving distri- butive education were proposals that could he acted 249 on by teacher-coordinators and would not require addi- tional financial resources. 8. Leaders in distributive education believe that instruc- tion Should be content-Specific.7 Employers, however, believe that the instructional program should have a broader focus and include such topics as computational skills, personality development, and communication skills. 9. The semistructured group interview is an appropriate technique for ascertaining the perceptions of coopera- tive employers regarding distributive education. RECOMMENDATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The following statements are offered as recommendations and implications that this study may have for present and future distributive education programs at the secondary level: 1. This investigation revealed how employers per- ceive the objectives of distributive education. It is recommended that distributive educators compare these find- ings with their own perceptions of objectives. Results of this comparison could be helpful in pinpointing possible misunderstandings of role performance between employers and educators. 7Roman F. Warmke, Distributive Education Issues, Monographs in Business and Economic Education, No. 102 (Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1961), pp. 19-20. 250 2. This study found that employers were most familiar with those components of distributive education programs that pertain directly to the work station. Little awareness of other characteristics such as related instruc- tion or training agreements was indicated. It is recommended that formal training seminars be conducted for employers to educate them about all aspects of the cooperative program. Recognition in the form of a certificate should be given to those employers who complete the instructional program. 3. Statements describing benefits that accrue to cooperating employers should be used by teacher-coordinators in tailoring informational programs to merchant organiza- tions, trade associations, and individual businessmen for the purpose of recruiting new training sponsors. 4. A number of proposals for improving distributive education were revealed in the study. The majority of recommendations were for changes in existing teacher- coordinator practices such as career counseling and selec- tion procedures for enrolling students in distributive education. It is recommended that each teacher-coordinator assume the role of career counselor and assist students in exploring careers in distribution and marketing prior to their enrollment in distributive education. 5. Employers expressed the desire for more personal communication with teacher-coordinators. Teacher-coordi- nators can facilitate the communication process by visiting the store often and by encouraging the employer to visit the 251 classroom on a frequent basis. An advantage of a meeting in the classroom is that the employer could talk with groups of students. An added benefit is that the employer would not be subject to the interruptions that occur in the store and would be able to give undivided attention to the distribu- tive education program. 6. If educators are to be consistent with employer beliefs, the secondary level distributive education curri- culum should provide instruction in content drawn from a variety of subject matter areas, such as basic mathematics and oral communication, and then integrated with the content of distribution and marketing. 7. The review of current literature which indicated that the semistructured group interview technique was appro- priate for collecting research data was confirmed in this study. It is recommended that teacher-coordinators use this procedure to collect data for the periodic review of their programs. The group format encourages participants to share knowledge and beliefs with the result that information is collected that could not be obtained in individual inter- views. However, a guide or manual for interviewers must be prepared to orient teacher-coordinators to the use of the technique. In addition, teacher educators should consider training teacher-coordinators to use group interview techniques. 8. Employers believe that some provisions of Child labor laws restrict employment opportunities for cooperative 252 students. These provisions should be brought to the atten- tion of the appropriate governmental agencies for review and possible revision. 9. There is need for a study of the beliefs of businessmen who are aware of distributive education but do not participate as cooperating employers. This study should be made to determine if the perceptions that these employers have regarding distributive education differ from those of cooperating employers. 10. A longitudinal study should be conducted to determine if employers' perceptions regarding distributive education change as a result of their participation in a series of semistructured group meetings. 11. A study should be undertaken to determine if the semistructured group interview technique educates parti- cipants about distributive education. Pretests and post- tests should be used to detect any changes in the knowledge of participants. 12. It is recommended that research be conducted to determine if perceptions regarding distributive education differ between employers who manage chain stores and those who manage independent businesses. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Babbie, Earl R. Survey Research.Methods. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1973. Berelson, Bernard. Content Analysis in Communication Research. Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952. Borg, Walter R. and Meredith D. Gall. Educaional Research: An Introduction. 2d ed. New York: DavidVMcKay, Inc., 1971. Cannell, Charles F. and Robert L. Kahn, eds. The Handbook of Social Psyghology. 2 vols. Reading: Addison- Wesley Pfiblishing Company, 1968. Coakley, Carroll B., ed. Distributive Education Teacher- Coordinators' Handbook. Danville: The Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., 1972. Crawford, Lucy C. and Warren G. Meyer. Organization and Administration of Distributive Education. Columbus: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1972. Good, Carter V. and Douglas E. Scates. Methods of Research. New York: Appleton—Century-Crofts, Inc., 1954. Harris, E. Edward. Employer Preferences and Teacher- Coordinator Practices in Distributive Education. New York: Gregg Division/McGraw-HilliBook Company, 1971. Hill, Joseph E. and August Kerber. Models, Methods, and Analytical Procedures in Educational Research. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1967. Kollat, David T., Roger D. Blackwell, and James F. Robeson. Strategic Marketing. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1972. 253 254 Mason, Ralph E. and Peter G. Haines. COOperative Occppa~ tional Education. 2d ed. Danville: The Interstate Printers and Pfiblishers, Inc., 1972. Merton, Robert KO,Marjorie Fiske, and Patricia L. Kendall. The Focused Interview. Glencoe: The Free Press, 1956. Oppenheim, A. N. Questionnaire Design and Attitude Measure- ment. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1966. Articles, Periodicals and Monographs Adamson, Douglas. "Pressures for Changes in Distributive Education." Business Education Forum, XXVIII (February, 1974), 44-45. Burt, Samuel M. "Involving Industry in Local Vocational and Technical Education." lpdustrial Arts and Vocational Education, LVI (January, 1967), 28-30. Courtney, Paul L. "Distribution Revolution Generates New Careers." American Vocational Journal, XLVI (February, 1971), 60-61. Crawford, Lucy C. "Basic Beliefs in Distributive Educa- tion." American Vocational Journal, XLIII (March, 1968), 24—26. Crissy, W.J.E., and James J. Regan. "Halo in the Employ- ment Interview." Journal of Applied Psychology, XXXV (October, 1951), 338—341. DeBenning, M. J. "Learn and Earn-~Industry-Sponsored DE Course." American Vocational Journal, XLI (May, 1966), 30. Goldman, Alfred E. "The Group Depth Interview." Journal of Marketing, XXVI (July, 1962), 61-68. "How Retailers Woo Bright Young Talent." Business Week, No. 1988 (October 7, 1967), 116~118: Johnson, Beverly B. "Conversations with Business and Industry." American Vocational Journal, XLVI (May, 1971), 59-61. Kunz, Foster N. "Hotel and Restaurant Industry: Thousands Needed." American Vocational Journal, XLVI (February, 1971), 64. 255 Mock, Perry. "The Employer: What Would We Do Without Him?" American Vocatignal Journal, XLVIII (November, 1973), 54-57. Ristau, Robert A. "A Forward Look in Facilities for D.E." American Vocational Journal, XL (January, 1960), 30-32. Stevens, William D. and Joel Axelrod. "Market-Testing by Group Interview." Printers' Ink, CCLXXXI (December 7, 1962), 66-67. I"‘ warmke, Roman F. Distributive Education Issues. Mono- graphs in Business and Economic Education, No. 102. Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1961. Weatherford, John Wilson. Identification and Analysis of Issues in Distributive Education. Monographs in Business and Economic Education, No. 127. Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1974. WOlfe, Harry D. and others. Pretesting Advertising. Studies in Business Policy, No. 109. New York: National Industrial Conference Board Inc., 1963. GovernmentLgUniversitnyand Association PublicatiOnS Cushman, Harold R., Charles W. Hill and John K. Miller. The Concerns and Expectations of Prospective Parti- cipants in Directed Work Emperience PrOgramS. Ithaca: Department of Education, Cornell Univer- sity, 1967. Egan, Ronald. The Distributive Education Curriculum as Evaluatéd“by Businessmen andiDistributive Education Students of Utah. Logan: Research Coofdinating Unit for VocatiOnal Technical Education, 1968. Evans, Rupert N., Garth L. Mangum, and Otto Pragan. Educa- tion for Emplgyment: The Background and Potential of the 1968 Vocational Education Amendmentg. Ann ArBOr: Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, 1969. Haines, Peter G., and others. How High School COOperative Trainees Fare in the Labor Market: Phase D. Educational Research Series, No. 39. East Lansing: College of Education, Michigan State University, 1967. 256 King, Robert L., ed. Marketingiand The New Science of Planning. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 1968. Kingston, Carmela C. A Study of the Status and Effective- ness of Cooperative Office Education in New Jersey, 1968-69. Monograph No. 8. Trenton: New Jersey State Department of Education, 1970. Lanham, Frank W., ed. Business Education Meets the Challenges of Change. Yearbook No. 4. WaShington, D.C.: National Business Education Association, 1966. Michigan Education Directory and Buyer's Guide 1973-74. LanSing: Michigan Education Directory, 1973. Michigan State Advisory Council for Vocational Education. Qpinions About Vocational Education in Michigan. Lansifig: Michigan State.Advisory Council for' Vocational Education, 1971. Peck, Charles E. and F. L. Denman. Survey to Determine Appropriate Occupational Programs in the Field of Qietribution and Marketing at VariOus Levels of—' Education. Final Report. V61ume I. UT§., EducatiOnal Resources Information Center, ERIC Document ED 027 428, 1968. Riley, E. Clayton. An Experimental Comparison of the Effects of Three Methods of Conducting Visitation anferences in Cooperative Distributive Education Programs. U.S., Educational ResourceS—informatian Center, ERIC Document ED 042 018, 1970. Southwestern Michigan Coordinators Association. Opinions of Michigan High School Faculties Concerning Cooperative Occupational Education. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Vocational Instructional Materials Laboratory, 1960. The Michigan Guide to Child Labor Provisions for Cooperative Education Programs. Lansing: Michigan Department ofIEducation, [n.d.]. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants, Michigan. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971. ' U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. A Study of Curriculum Develgpment in the High School Cogperative Prggram. OEOBZOOO. WaShington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1960. 257 U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. ‘Digest'of'Educational Statistics. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. Summary Datay_Vocational Education-- Fiscal Year 1973. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1974. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. Vocational Education and Occupations. OE-80061. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969. Vocational Education and Career Development Service. Guide— lines for Distributive Education in Michigan. Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1972. Vocational Education and Career Development Service. Guidelines for Regular Secondary Cooperative Vocational Education Prggrams. Lansing: Michigan Department of Education, 1973. Vocational Education and Career Development Service. 1973-74 Vocational Education School Buildipg Program Reporp, Lansing: .Michigan Department of Education, 1974. Wohl, Seth F. An Evaluation of the Municipal Cooperative Education Program of the High Schools of the City of New York. U.S., Educational Resources Informa- tion Center, ERIC Document ED 041 958, 1968. Uppublished Materials Dailey, Ross T. "A Profile of DECA in New York State with Selected Educators' and Secondary Students' Per- ceptions Regarding Functional and Operational ~Be1iefs of that Organization." Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, 1972. Furtado, Lorraine T. "An Interpretative History of Distri- butive Education 1936-1972, as seen by Selected Leaders." Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University, 1973. 258 Jackson, Donald W., Jr., Gary M. Grikscheit, and W.J.E. Crissy. "Content Analysis of Marketing Communica- tions." Unpublished faculty working paper at the authors' respective institutions of Arizona State University, University of Utah, and Michigan State University, 1974. Marks, Mary V. "Characteristics of Employment in Distri- bution." Washington, D.C.: U.S. Office of Education, 1962. Marks, Mary V. "New Directions for Distributive Education-— What We Must Do." Speech to the Distributive Education Division, American Vocational Association, Boston, Massachusetts, December, 1969. Nelson, Edwin L. "The Program of Distributive Education.“ Paper presented at the meeting of the Administrative Management Society, Washington, D.C., February 28, 1967. Sanders, Lester E. "A Comparison of Two Methods of Preparing Youth for Employment: Cooperative Occupational Education Versus the Preparatory Vocational-Technical School." Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Univer— sity of Missouri, 1967. Shupe, Richard J. "The Values of COOperative Education as Held by Teachers." Unpublished Masters study, Michigan State University, 1962. APPENDICES lllit Illifi APPENDIX A INTERVIEW GUIDE INTERVIEW GUIDE How would.you describe the objectives of coopera- tive distributive education programs? What have been your experiences in working with COOperative distributive education? How would you describe the role of the employer who participates in the distributive education program? What specific components of the distributive education program are you most familiar with? What are the benefits or payoffs of distributive education to the businessman? How did you become aware of distributive education? What recommendations for improving distributive education programs would you like to offer? What knowledge and skill areas should be emphasized in the distributive education classroom? 259 APPENDIX B BACKGROUND INFORMATION QUESTIONNAIRE Name BACKGROUND INFORMATION QUESTIONNAIRE Name of store or firm 1. Including the current school year, how many years have you served as an employer to a distributive education student? How many distributive education students have you directly supervised? . How many have you indirectly supervised? What is your present position and title? How many full-time employees are in your establishment? How many part-time employees are in your establishment? 260 APPENDIX C INTERVIEW VALIDATION QUESTIONNAIRE INTERVIEW VALIDATION QUESTIONNAIRE I would like to thank you again for participating in the interviews that I conducted to collect information about cooperative distributive education programs in the high schools. Many business peOple throughout Michigan participated in the interview phase of the research study between July, 1974 and February, 1975. I have summarized the comments made in the interviews and have enclosed a copy of the summary for your information. Because I am interested in your opinion, I will contact you by telephone within the next ten days to determine if you agree or disagree with the summarized information. In addition, I will also welcome any further comments you have concerning the topics on the enclosed summary. Sincerely, Roger W. Hutt Graduate Student Michigan State University Enclosure 261 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS Business people were asked to answer eight questions in the interviews. A list of statements representing the answers is presented below. I will contact you within the next ten days to determine your comments about this summary. QUESTION #1: ANSWERS: How would you describe the objectives of cooperative distributive education programs? Interviewees stated the following objectives: a) b) C) d) e) f) Provide jobs for students who are inter- ested in careers in the distribution sector of the economy Provide job experience Test student's interest in a career Teach about store Operations Attract young people into retailing Teach students how to relate to other people Concerning Question #1, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education programs in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #2: ANSWERS: What have been your experiences with distri- butive education? Interviewees described the following experi- ences: a) b) Teacher-coordinators screen students who enroll in COOperative distributive education Some teacher-coordinators visit employers frequently and are COOperative 262 C) d) e) f) g) h) i) j) k) l) m) n) 0) 263 Students are patient with older customers Some teacher-coordinators have worked in stores, without pay, to learn the business Some students were not interested in the job and were immature Work experience helped students to mature as employees Students are dependable workers Some graduates have stayed with the company as permanent employees Some students enrolled in distributive education for the course credits and not necessarily because they were interested in the career field Grading procedures are not consistent among schools Some students are frequently absent from work Some teacher-coordinators do not visit employers often enough Some students cannot handle cash receipts prOperly Some students are unreasonable about requests for time off Some students have unreasonable expecta- tions about course grades Concerning Question #2, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education pro- grams in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #3: How would you describe the role of the employer who participates in the distributive education program? ANSWERS: Interviewees described the following roles or aspects of this relationship as being to: a) b) C) d) e) f) 264 Interest students in and teach them about retailing Explain different phases of the business Provide career advice Expect the same performance from coopera- tive students as from other employees of the same age Occasionally assist students in preparing reports on retailing for their classes Evaluate performance and report it to teacher-coordinator Concerning Question #3, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education programs in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #4: What specific components of distributive educa- tion are you most familiar with? ANSWERS: Specific components stated were: a) b) C) d) e) f) 9) h) i) Students are available for work usually around noon or 1 p.m. Students are graded by employers Students must work at least 15 hours a week Training agreements are used Some schools have distributive education laboratories There is coordination between classroom instruction and on-the—job training Cooperative students may legally Operate certain pieces of equipment that other minors may not Operate Certain labor laws pertain to students who are minors A student who is absent from school in the morning may not work that day 265 j) Year-end banquets are held for students and their employers k) Distributive education programs have become more widely available over the last several years Concerning Question #4, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education pro- grams in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #5: ANSWERS: What are the benefits or payoffs of distribu- tive education to the businessman? The following benefits were stated by inter- viewees: a) Students are available to work a flexible schedule b) A method of recruiting full-time employees c) Provides an element of self-satisfacti on to the employer d) A method of obtaining employees who are interested in the job e) Favorable public relations f) An Opportunity for community involvement g) Receive the assistance of the teacher- coordinator h) Provides contact with a segment of the consumer market Concerning Question #5, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education pro— grams in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #6: ANSWERS: How did you become aware of distributive education? Responses to this question included: a) Teacher-coordinators introduced the program to the business people 266 b) Central offices of some companies recommended participation c) Some managers were former distributive education students or had worked alongside students Concerning Question #6, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education pro- grams in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #7: What recommendations for improving distribu— tive education would you like to offer? ANSWERS: Interviewees made the following recommendations: a) Employers should be invited for frequent visits to classrooms b) Selection procedures should be used for enrolling students in cooperative distri- butive education c) Teacher-coordinators should keep abreast of changes in the business world d) Distributive education should be promoted more aggressively in the community e) Teacher—coordinators Should visit employers more frequently f) Students should be able to change jobs during the school year 9) Employers should evaluate teacher- coordinators h) School stores should be used as a method of teaching distributive education 1) Rather than scheduling students for a minimum of 15 hours each.week, employers should be able to schedule students for fewer hours in some weeks and an offset- ting greater number in other weeks j) Teacher-coordinators should encourage students to talk to their parents about job responsibilities 2 67 k) Labor laws pertaining to cooperative students should be reviewed to determine if modifications are needed Concerning Question #7, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of cooperative distributive education pro- grams in general? Do you have additional comments? QUESTION #8: What knowledge and skill areas should be emphasized in the distributive education classroom? ANSWERS: The following classroom topics were suggested by employers-of distributive education students: a) Basic mathematics and counting change b) Attitude and personality development c) Proper procedures for relating to customers d) Definitions of the various jobs in retail- ing, marketing, and the entire area of distribution ‘ e) Personal appearance f) Appropriate procedures for job applications and interviews g) The need to be motivated on the job -h) Relating to other employees and functioning as a team member to get the job done i) The importance of being an honest employee should be stressed Concerning Question #8, do you feel that these statements are descriptive of COOperative education programs in general? Do you have additional comments? 3 1193 03083 0487