This dissertation explores North/South partnerships in higher education, shedding light on their practices and underlying logics. Recognizing the growing importance of these collaborations in addressing global challenges, universities are actively working to strengthen these ties. However, concerns about the potential replication of imperialistic…

The fundamental social problems plaguing education are "wicked" (Rittel & Webber, 1973), for they are challenging, messy, and multifarious. Currently, very few problems of this magnitude are solved independently within one school entity. Instead, school leaders routinely find themselves cooperating with leaders across sectoral…

Sino-foreign cooperative education, a cornerstone of China's international higher education collaborations, plays a pioneering role in its higher education reforms. This mode not only offers a bridge to global education markets but also shapes the trajectory of higher educational reform. The research presented here aims to improve the…

Although not officially named in the shared governance of an institution, instructional designers play an important role as they collaborate with administrators and faculty to create high quality, regulatory-compliant courses for enrolled students. Instructional designers working in centralized, academic reporting units may be well-positioned to…

Faculty in higher education come from a wide variety of disciplines and settings and bring with them a wide variety of unique personal and professional knowledge, skills, and experiences. Faculty are expected to create learning experiences that are high-quality, effective, and that meet certain standards (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Faculty…

This work investigates a cross-organizational technology-focused Community of Practice, namely Azure for Education, which supports educational organizations as they learn and implement Microsoft Azure platform technologies to solve business challenges in an environment of rapid technology innovation and evolution. While most research on…

Educational leadership and informal teacher leaders are the heartbeat of school initiatives, successes, and growth, and they serve as the foundation of positive school reform. However, it is not known to what extent teacher leaders engage in informal leadership roles or how they use these informal leadership roles to enact change and make positive…

Parents and educators are at the forefront of promoting children's health and well-being. Yet little is known about the factors that contribute to forming a positive relationship between parents and their children's educators. Very few researchers have investigated the perceptions of parents, teachers, and support staff regarding the factors that…

This study investigated the comprehensive implementation of the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) within a school district, focusing on the engagement and collaboration of educators in refining and executing MTSS strategies. The problem investigated was the effectiveness of MTSS implementation and collaboration among educators. This action…

Cross-sector education collaborations, sometimes termed "collective impact" or "cradle-to-career" initiatives, have emerged in recent years across the U.S. as local interventions attempting to align services among educational institutions, local government, businesses, other community-based organizations, and philanthropies to…

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…

The purpose of the study was to examine the behaviors and actions of the administrative team as they work to grow the leadership team's capacity to improve the instruction culture using action research cycles. The challenges of building a positive school culture at the high school level are vast; however, building a culture specifically around…

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into how elementary school leaders work collaboratively to foster Science of Reading instructional strategies to enhance early literacy. A multiple case study design was implemented whereby six elementary schools in the metro Birmingham area were purposely selected based on their documented increases…

Intervention fidelity is crucial in ensuring efficient and quality support for students in need. Several coaching strategies have evidenced positive impacts on intervention fidelity and virtual approaches of coaching have been developing rapidly, especially during the pandemic. However, current literature is still limited in examining the effects…

Instructional coaches support teacher professional improvement and subsequent student learning through their instructional leadership; however, individual interpretations of district-wide instructional goals influence the work each instructional coach carries out at different school sites. This leads to a lack of systemic focus to ensure the work…