Given that the majority of college courses are staffed with instructors who have little, if any, teaching experience (Boysen, 2011), research has called for more innovative approaches to providing teaching development opportunities for graduate student instructors (GSIs) (e.g., BrckaLorenz et al., 2020; Chew et al., 2018). The purpose of this…

The goal of this action research was to bring awareness of the first-generation community college identity and acknowledge that this identity has many layers. It is important community colleges across the state use the information provided in this action research to be well-informed on how to better support first-generation students. This…

The research team in a small undergraduate social work education program explored the implementation of antiracist best practices for pedagogy and practice, utilizing transformational learning and critical race theories to guide and inform this action research study. The research team sought to explore the impact on the faculty, students, and…

This doctoral action research dissertation is coauthored as a qualitative three-article dissertation; each article leverages a different qualitative approach to the research. Article 1 focuses on the existing depth of literature regarding higher education faculty and their practice of social justice within their roles. Article 2 is a critical…

There is a great opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) career centers to add value to the business strategy of their institution, particularly employment outcomes, which has become a critical metric for legislators that determine public funding, and student and parent consumers seeking a strong return on their…

Due to ongoing financial cuts and budget restraints, community colleges have turned to alumni association fundraising to support their mission and advance their institution. Fundraising for any organization is challenging, but community college alumni institutions have a more difficult time than their university counterparts in recruiting alumni…

In this dissertation, I examine three perspectives on a collaborative action research project centered on revising the "Foundations of Education" course in George Mason University's Secondary Education (SEED) program for students seeking a Master of Education degree and/or initial teacher licensure. This course revision project was…

In higher education, teacher empathy is a term that refers to the empathetic skills of teachers and has been researched since the 1980s. Multiple studies in fields such as medicine, nursing and psychology have shown that teacher empathy has reduced teacher burnout, improved teacher satisfaction and student performance. Within engineering…

Starting a new job can be likened to be thrown into the deep end of a pool and being expected to swim with no prior lessons. Not only is this practice dangerous at actual swimming pools it is also detrimental in the workforce. Student Affairs is a high turnover field with over 50% of new employees leaving the field completely within the first 5…

This study examined the lower enrollment of Black students in graduate programs compared to their enrollment in undergraduate programs. In today's climate with the recent Supreme Court case rulings and the enrollment cliff, recruiting Black students is both challenging and incredibly important. To address this problem, the study explored how a…

This study sought to understand individualized information literacy instruction for first-year students of color in higher education, and the impact of that instruction on student performance and confidence levels. The study was conducted at a four-year doctoral granting higher education institution and was designed as a QUAL+quan convergent…

The purpose of this action research study was to improve the implementation of a large-scale redesign of teacher preparation programs at Arizona State University. This was a highly complex redesign that impacted over 150 courses across 27 programs, involving more than 200 faculty and 2,500 students annually. As a result, implementing the redesign…

This study introduces a novel approach for conducting Systematic Literature Reviews(SLRs) by incorporating a unique mixed-methods design into the well-established SLR process. The proposed approach, identified as Mixed-Methods Based Systematic Literature Review (MMB-SLR), not only provides researchers with a broader perspective on their research…

The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement, and study a reciprocal mentoring program for online instructors in Writers' Studio (WS) at Arizona State University (ASU) and to explore what happened when instructors participate in the program. WS employs over 100 faculty who teach online in courses they do not design…

This action research study implemented an intervention, the Learn at Work program, for operational employees in facilities management at William & Mary earning less than $19 an hour. One of eight dimensions in the Workplace Inclusion Scale, developed by Lennox et al. (2022), is "access to opportunity" (p. 27). This study's…