This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore how Latina professionals in supervisory roles described a long-term affiliation with a professional association in Arizona. The fundamental theoretical foundation of the study is the social cognitive career theory, which led to four research questions. The idea was to describe Latina…

The three articles that comprise this dissertation examine different ways that current teachers can express leadership outside of their classrooms, through labor activity and within-school instructional leadership. I use descriptive and quasi-experimental quantitative analysis to examine which teachers take on these roles, their effectiveness, the…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how resilience factors from teacher training influenced blended learning incorporation in the 9-12 classroom. Kumar's resilience theory was the foundation for the overall research question: How do 9-12 teachers perceive training that influences resilience in the incorporation of blended…

This dissertation explores the integration of Place-Based Scientific Inquiry (PBSI) into science education through participatory design-based professional development for instructors at Sky School, an outdoor education program in southern Arizona. PBSI emphasizes student-centered, inquiry-driven, experiential learning grounded in outdoor contexts.…

Teachers must meet a variety of students' mathematics learning needs but are often not trained to do so. Little is known about how teachers perceive their efficacy to meet diverse math learning needs. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to explore teacher attitudes and perceptions of professional development (PD) and…

One of the major issues confronting education in Arizona and across the United States has been the consistent low performance of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in comparison to their peers as evidenced by the disparity of the achievement gap at every level in the educational pipeline. A contributing factor has been the lack…

This study employed Participatory Action Research (PAR) which applied critical pedagogy, actor-network theory, and social network theory to create and implement an "Application Framework for Critical Pedagogy" (AFCP) with the goal of making critical pedagogy more broadly accessible to a wider range of faculty in higher education.…

Racial injustice in U. S. society cannot be separated from that which happens in U.S. classrooms. Indeed, many battles between white supremacy and antiracism are waged in the public school arena---such as, the whitewashing of slavery in textbooks, and the Supreme Court decision to ban Mexican American Studies in Arizona. Thus, this dissertation…

Technology is being integrated inside classrooms to aid in student engagement, learning, and academic growth. The accessibility to mobile devices is on the rise in educational institutions. The change is known as 1:1 computing, U-learning or Ubiquitous learning Schools are implementing these initiatives to enhance learning in all grade levels and…

Connectivism has been studied primarily in online college classes and was shown to increase the self-regulated learning behaviors of tertiary students. It was not known how Arizona public middle school teachers from a single metropolitan school district perceived the influence of connectivist learning networks on the self-regulated learning…

Prior to this research study, it was not known if, and to what degree a relationship exists between the four key areas of Catholic school climate (collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press and institutional vulnerability) and the organizational citizenship behavior of teachers. The purpose of this quantitative correlational…

This dissertation examines contemporary issues that 18 (im)migrant university students faced during a time of highly militarized U.S.-Mexico border relations while living in Arizona during the time of this dissertation research. Utilizing critical race theory and public sphere theory as theoretical frameworks, the project addresses several related…

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine the effect that Career and Technical Education (CTE) concentrators, non-CTE concentrators and academic concentrators have on the on-time graduation of 1035 high school students in 7 high schools in Arizona for the 2015--2016 school year. There were three research questions…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a mentoring program on self-efficacy beliefs. High-risk undergraduate students at Arizona State University majoring in Public Health and other closely-related fields represent this study's sample. Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory guides this study's theoretical framework. This study used a…

Patterns of representation of African Americans in K-12 special education programs vary across the United States. A school district in Arizona has a 13% African American population, yet the African American special education representation is 17%. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to generate an understanding of the processes related…