The South Carolina Master Naturalist Program provides nature-based education to citizen volunteers who will promote environmental stewardship and is offered at six host sites across the state. We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation (the integration of qualitative and quantitative data) of the South Carolina Master Naturalist Program. Overall, the…

The impact of children's health, wellbeing, and family environment on their learning and development is evident. Identifying the needs of children and their families is the first step to effectively developing and implementing programs that promote child development. This research employed a convergent mixed methods design and incorporated…

This photovoice study engages a Black feminist thought lens to identify the sites of oppression that posed barriers to the well-being of 22 graduate Students of Color (GSOC) enrolled at Clemson University and their subsequent mechanisms of resistance. Findings point to individual, cultural, and institutional forms of domination and students'…

Survey research frequently involves the collection of data from multiple informants. Results, however, are usually analyzed by informant group, potentially ignoring important relationships across groups. When the same construct(s) are measured, integrative data analysis (IDA) allows pooling of data from multiple sources into one data set to…

Background/Context: Progressive human resources thinking has suggested the importance of employee experiences for workforce engagement, inclusion, and retention, but the intentional design of positive employee experiences requires a deep understanding of workers' lived experiences in order to respond to their differentiated needs. Although the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory analysis of campus community member (i.e. students, faculty, staff) definitions of sustainability, their perceptions of select elements of sustainability culture and the relationship between the two. Design/methodology/approach: Researchers implemented a cross-sectional design where…

Background: In South Carolina (SC), 42% of youth are overweight or obese. Two sets of modifiable behaviors contributing to obesity are physical activity (PA) and dietary habits. School-based interventions have successfully improved these behaviors. The purpose of this study was to identify SC public school personnel perspectives on the most common…

The lack of women in elected leadership roles trickles down to student governance at colleges and universities (American Student Government Association, 2016). The researcher sought to understand how women student leaders made meaning of their experiences as a leader and how their understanding influences their actions and motivations. Through the…

This qualitative investigation about Latinx K-12 teachers in South Carolina fills a gap in the academic literature because there is a dearth of research examining Latinx teachers' spatial/racial experiences in the U.S. South. Centering an explicitly spatial frame, I map out three broad relations to what many participants described as hostile…

Environmental education (EE) is instrumental in developing environmentally literate citizens with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to support sustainable development. In the case of EE school field trips in the USA, these experiences also foster learning and skill development that supports meeting state and national educational…

Background: In this study, we examined moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) of children in a school district serving children from low-income and minority households. Methods: This observational study was conducted in 8 rural elementary schools in South Carolina. Children (N = 719, age = 7.7 years, 48.0% girls, 88.0% African American)…

For more than 100 years, education communities have debated how best to educate the young adolescent. Proponents of both the junior high school model and the current middle school model have advocated for a specialized approach to educating adolescents that emphasizes the developmental needs of students. To accomplish this, various organizational…

The reasons a student may choose to enroll and matriculate at a particular postsecondary institution are many. Yet a sense of belonging and a strong emotional connection often supply all the incentive students need. Campus environments play a central role in the college choice process as the ecology, climate, and culture of an institution…

Recruitment, retention, and preparation of students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are critical to meeting the global challenges of the 21st century. Gamification--game playing concepts used in another activity--has been postulated as an active teaching strategy that engages students, encourages a sense of community,…

Poverty shapes the experience of more than twelve million children in the United States. To further an understanding of the relationship between poverty and school performance in South Carolina public schools, we investigated the association of high and low poverty levels with a range of state report card variables for three school levels:…