Undocumented youth have been powerful leaders in the undocumented immigrant rights movement to advance a more just society for immigrant communities (Nicholls, 2013; Perez, 2016). Community colleges are important spaces in the higher education sector because most undocumented college students attend community colleges (Teranishi et al., 2011).…

This dissertation explores academic persistence among Latinx students at City College of San Francisco (CCSF), using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to emphasize the culturally-mediated nature of goal directed human activity. The study investigates factors related to persistence within the context of CCSF's Metro Transfer Program…

The goal of this project was to reduce parent-child conflict and promote intergenerational harmony among Central American families who had experienced long-term parent-child separations in the immigration process. Through combining intensive case study of six families with experimental design, we show how a series of four workshops for immigrant…

Understanding how learning environments productively mobilize children's ideas as resources for participation in joint activity is an ongoing focus of research on classroom instruction. We investigated whole-class mathematics conversations in which multiple students participated in ways previous research suggests are consequential for learning. We…

Traditional teacher professional development (PD) programs frequently lack sufficient face-to-face preparation time to adequately support the implementation of evidence-based pedagogical strategies in classrooms, with teachers citing insufficient preparedness and training time for new methods. To investigate potentials for online PD methods to…

Students do not uniformly feel welcome in university environments, and their experiences vary across race. Drawing on 19 interviews with Black and Latino men at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, this study demonstrates that participants perceive the campus racial climate at the organizational level differently. However, perceptions and experiences…

Guided by family/work border theory, this phenomenological study explored the effects of stress while attempting to balance work and home through the lens of six high school female principals from the Central and Northern parts of California. This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to examine the effects stress had on the physical…

This study examined the experiences of students with disabilities transitioning from high school to the post-secondary institution. Participants were seven successful students enrolled in their second year at a Southern California community college and two resource specialists who worked closely with them. A case study was determined to be the…

This study investigated former foster youths' lived experiences and perceived Teacher Efficacy as P12 educators in California. This study used Bandura's self-efficacy theory and funds of knowledge to shed light on the assets former foster youth bring to their classrooms and schools. Through the stories collected from the participants in this…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a social network analysis (SNA) toolkit aiming to enable leaders, educators and researchers work together to deepen their understanding of classroom social network dynamics. In doing so, the authors provide both theoretical and practical steps in building a bridge between theory and practice and a…

To date, most studies seeking to explore the impact of COVID-19 school closures on student outcomes have focused on cognitive/academic losses. This study explores changes in adaptive behaviors experienced by children and youth with autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities when in-person, one-to-one behavior training was…

Background: The increase in the number of autistic children being identified has led to increased demand on public schools to provide high-quality services. Effectively scaling up evidence-based practice (EBP) use for autistic students is challenging, given the complicated organization of special education. Teachers have significant challenges…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how leaders in educational organizations cultivate positive school culture through culturally responsive leadership practices while building teacher and administrator efficacy. Data collected from this study (a) highlighted how classroom teachers at the school sites promote culturally responsive…

This study examines the perceived changes in the geography of student support for racial/ethnic minoritized students after pursuing federal Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) designation and grants. Specifically, this qualitative multiple-case study examines the decision-making related to, and perceived changes in, space and place aimed at…

While the role of parental ideologies on children's bi/multilingual development and the role of children's beliefs about multilingualism are well-documented, less work examines how parental and student ideologies are enacted through talk. That is, how do students interpret what their family caregivers tell them about bi/multilingualism, and how do…