This qualitative study investigated staff retention in higher education by focusing on the retention of academic advisors. Academic advisors play an integral role in student success and advising is notably one of the fields in higher education with the greatest turnover. This turnover comes at great costs, financial and otherwise, for the…

This dissertation explores the use of place-based pedagogy as a tool for teaching for transfer in a college composition class in West Virginia. Although existing composition scholarship indicates that themed classes (such as a place-based class) are unlikely to facilitate transfer among the students, this is mostly due to instructors of themed…

The main goal of the present work was to introduce a new conceptual framework for quantifying and classifying the environment by imposing a structure for sequencing contextual influences that echoes the study of genes. According to Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Human Development (BMHD), children's developmental outcomes are the result of…

As higher education tries to reimagine its value in the post-pandemic world, professional live-in staff members are fleeing from their positions at a higher rate than new professionals are entering the field. These professionals are expected to work through challenging issues, with minimal training, experiencing secondary trauma, while working in…

Over the last century, the expected role of the classroom teacher has shifted dramatically. We have begun to move away from someone whose main purpose is to provide rote instruction to students, to a shift that educators are facilitators of learning that work to meet the needs of the whole child and not just their academic growth. An increased…

Highly sensitive students are in every classroom, but few educators know of their presence or the problems that they face in the learning environment. This group of children often struggle in silence as twice-exceptional individuals who have both significant gifts but also particular challenges to navigate a neurotypical school environment. Both…

The migrant student population in the United States has significantly increased in the last few decades. While these students are enrolled in K-12 institutions, the challenges they face as migrant children and the educational systemic barriers they encounter continue to present obstacles for their college completion. Educational agencies must seek…

The African American population has faced adversity in the United States in many ways since the arrival of their first known ancestors in Jamestown in 1619. This narrative of systemic oppression creates obstacles and challenges for this people group even today. Using a transcendental phenomenological approach, the researcher, who has a long…

In March 2020, 90% of schools shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many schools responded by quickly moving classes online into a period of what has been called emergency remote learning (ERL). The problem addressed in this research study is the lack of engagement among middle-school students due to the home environment during emergency remote…

Despite decades of research and policy efforts, socioeconomic disparities in educational outcomes persist in the United States. In this dissertation, I examine these disparities, focusing on access to higher education during the later years and on academic achievement during elementary school. I explore the importance of family, neighborhood, and…

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a methodology Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) utilize to help facilitate functional communication for a child who is non-verbal or limited-verbal. There are often disconnects in a student's generalization of AAC usage across the school and home environment. The purpose of this case study was…

Translanguaging research among multilingual students has received considerable attention across different contexts of practice. The most robust contexts in translanguaging research have been the classroom contexts between teacher and students. This study examined the affordances of translanguaging spaces "between class sessions" in…

The purpose of this research was to gain understanding and awareness of the perspectives of Black teachers who were raised in Africana Vernacular English (AVE)-speaking households and how they used their upbringing to navigate home and school settings. The specific linguistic and cultural needs of AVE speakers are not being adequately accommodated…

Occupational stress among university and college faculty has significantly increased over the past decade. Employee wellness programs aim to reduce work-related stress through a class of evidence-based activities known as Stress Management Interventions (SMIs). During the COVID-19 pandemic, new challenges in the daily work of academics have…

The purpose of this project was to create a systematic, spiritual formation plan for Central Christian School that strategically integrates the Bible curriculum into the chapel programming of the school and connects it to the home. The project involved a three-part strategy consisting of statistical testing of surveys, classroom-type observations,…