This qualitative phenomenological study focused on determining and describing teachers' lived experiences in implementing inclusion for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Inclusion as an educational practice entails that special education students are provided access to the general education curriculum. While progress has been noted…

Educators are vital in capturing students' STEM interest. An integrated approach to STEM education is necessary to promote students' interest and curiosity while building the foundation of STEM concepts needed to fuel the STEM workforce. This exploratory case study examined K-5 STEM educators' perceptions of a successful STEM elementary school.…

Researchers have reported that preservice teachers are unprepared for teaching in inclusive classrooms (Gilmour & Wehby, 2020; Swindlehurst et al., 2019; Texas Education Agency, 2019). The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze novice elementary educators' perceptions on their preparedness to teach inclusive classrooms. For this…

Music teachers in urban, suburban, and rural communities face a multitude of challenges and opportunities. To identify and examine specific experiences that may be unique to rural general music teachers, we recruited six teacher-participants to complete a 5-week online professional development (PD) course for this exploratory study. We created a…

This study explores the experiences of current Pre-K through 12 teachers in South Texas school districts and their immediate need to transition from a traditional classroom setting to virtual instruction as a result of the worldwide health crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using naturalistic inquiry, this qualitative study transcribed and…

Created by Tufts University through a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project, the Novel Engineering website explains that "Novel Engineering is an integrated approach to teaching engineering and literacy" (2018) that asks teachers to support students' engagement in a project-based endeavor of problem-and-solution processes and…

Research has affirmed the importance of principals and mentors in supporting novice teachers; however, little is known about how teacher leaders contribute to this work. We employed a mixed methods design to examine teacher leaders' contributions to induction by surveying principals, teachers, and other staff (n = 246) and interviewing teacher…

This article focuses on a teaching-research relationship between a teacher and a university professor who are a married couple. The article highlights how we navigated our relationship during a project with second graders with the hope of opening Third Space for students to engage in collective storytelling in an environment that interrupts…

African American male third graders in U.S Title I schools frequently fail to read on grade level. However, in three Title I schools in East Texas, this demographic demonstrated exceptionally high reading ability. This explanatory case study investigated the instructional strategies and practices linked to high reading achievement for these…

The purpose of the researcher in this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between principals' leadership practices, school culture, and student achievement as perceived by elementary school teachers. The researcher established the 5 research questions to: (a) determine the differences between high- and low-achievement schools on the…

Purpose: An increasing number of schools and districts across the US are requiring teachers to collaborate for the purpose of data-driven decision making. Research suggests that both data use and teacher collaboration are important ingredients in the school improvement process. Existing studies also reveal the complexities of teacher collaboration…

In response to the low passing rate of its students with disabilities, administrators at a small urban elementary school in south Texas implemented coteaching. Guided by Nonaka and Takeuchi's collaborative learning framework, this qualitative instrumental case study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of collaborative teaching in the…

Response to Intervention (RtI) has been widely accepted by many school districts in the United States as an instructional method that can be used to consistently decrease learning gaps and ultimately enhance learning for all students. Though implementation of RtI as an instructional method has not been legally mandated, many school districts have…

The focus of this correlation study was to explore teachers' set of perceptions of a university partnership; their beliefs in the partnership, the necessity of such partnership, and the partnership itself, student supports and teacher affiliation. Thirteen out of thirty five teachers responded to this survey. Although the data indicated there was…

In this study, the authors narrate the results of a linguistically accommodated environmental education workshop in which monolingual and bilingual preservice teachers were exposed to instruction in English and Spanish. The authors contend that environmental initiatives, such as Project Wildlife in Learning Design, can promote an understanding of…