Highlighting the relationship between the racial slavery in the formation of U.S. colleges and universities and the archive of Black student revolt, this dissertation examines one of the longest and most violent Black student strikes in the history of postsecondary education--the San Francisco State College strike in 1968-1969. Rather than…

This mixed method sequential explanatory study provided analysis of North Carolina (NC) school leaders' dispositions in eliminating opportunity gaps, outlined in NC's strategic plan. The study's quantitative phase used descriptive and correlation analysis of eight Likert subscales around four tenets of transformative leadership (Shields, 2011) and…

Despite extensive research documenting the negative outcomes of teaching students in segregated settings, research and national statistics have continued to demonstrate the persistent segregated placement rates for students with disabilities who require extensive support needs (ESN). However, some research has begun to explore the influence of…

With the large discrepancy between the undergraduate graduation rates of Hispanic students and students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds, it is both an equity issue and an economic imperative that higher education institutions focus on retaining Hispanic students. This qualitative phenomenological study seeks to understand the barriers and…

This phenomenological study examines the ways Black students attending predominantly White high schools were connected to their school environment. Set in a suburban county located outside of a large urban city, this study included 15 participants who self-identified as Black American and had graduated between 2017 and 2020 from schools where…

Institutions of higher education strive to create a diverse, inclusive, and civically engaged student body. Encouraging students to critically engage in social justice enhances the ability of universities to achieve these desired outcomes and empirical studies link activism to greater gains in civic engagement and democratic ideas later in life…

This study seeks to understand global mobility patterns of international graduate STEM students studying in the United States. Using data from the NSF Graduate Students in Science Survey (GSSS), this study investigates the political, economic, and social factors affecting students' intent to stay or go, identifying differences based on students'…

Over the past decade, due to globalization and expansion of higher education institutions worldwide, the U.S. has positioned itself as the top choice for students pursuing university degrees abroad, with a record of 1,078,822 international students in 2016-2017 (Institute of International Education, 2017). Nonetheless, a 5.5% decline in new…

This study explores the interplay of bilingualism, identity, literacy and culture for CubanAmerican students in the Cuban diaspora. I contextualize their experiences within the social, historical, and political background of Cuban immigration, situating their stories within the conflicting narratives of Cuban-American imagination in the U.S., to…

This dissertation focuses on examining the motivations, experiences, and perspectives of socially elite urban Chinese students who attend emerging internationally focused public high schools in China and who plan to study at U.S. universities. Drawing on critical theory, I integrate critical curriculum studies with educational policy studies to…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a political culture of fear and power distance on student perceptions regarding the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) relationship with faculty, and their perceptions of nature of leadership in Libyan business schools. 650 Faculty members and students from business school in seven Libyan…

This study examines the development of first-generation African American and Latino college students' sociopolitical consciousness in the context of their learning of sociology as a component of their liberal education studies. Given the paucity of research on how college students develop sociopolitical consciousness, this study addresses: (1) the…

This qualitative study uncovers the voices of five Latin@ students who are high-"achieving" and undocumented and have strong aspirations in science, in a Southern, Title I high school. Through critical race methodology and these students' "testimonios"/counter-stories, these students' struggles and successes reveal their…

The research was guided by the research question: How do full-time single Turkish international graduate students conceptualize their experiences as international students? Participants in the study included three doctoral students and three master's students who participated in a series of semi-structured interviews. The data was transcribed and…

The history of the sixties at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is both typical of other large universities in the United States and, at the same time, distinctive within the national and even international upheaval that marked the era. Madison's history shows how higher education transformed in the decades after World War II, influenced…