The focus of this study was the experience of students who had successfully achieved the transition from foster care to enrollment in Virginia Community Colleges. The following questions guided the inquiry: How do students who are emancipating from foster care describe their transition to enrollment at one of the Virginia Community Colleges? What…

This is cross-case analysis of four new African American female principals who reported that coaching was critical to their success. They described the challenges inherent to all newcomers with particular attention to how their professional socialization was further confounded by factors of race and gender. The conceptual framework used for this…

This phenomenological study explores how African-American female administrators (individually and collectively) perceive the relationship between their identity and their leadership voice. The study focuses upon perceptions of 11 African-American female administrators who serve the 14 main campuses of the universities constituting the Pennsylvania…

The purpose of this action research study was to better understand and improve my efforts as a Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) instructor to transform the attitudes, beliefs, and understandings of preservice teachers (PSTs) with regard to issues of social justice, specifically by achieving equality by providing opportunities and…

This dissertation seeks to understand the interplay between informal articulations of social categories and formal instantiations of those categories in official language. Specifically, it explores the process of social categorization as it is used to identify threats to national security. The research employed a qualitative, document-based,…

Mezirow's theory of transformative learning (1978, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2009) posits "perspective transformation" as a central learning process. Key to this transformation is the critical examination of the individual's deeply held assumptions and beliefs through discourse to examine new perspectives and test new ideas. The availability…

A short-term intervention on participants' knowledge of cultural competence was provided to 38 students in a baccalaureate nursing program at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). The study examined the effectiveness of this intervention. Although WSSU is a Historically Black University, the majority of students in this program were White. Six…

Historically, women's struggle with work-life balance has been founded upon societal expectations. Most notably is the dearth in the representation of women and women of color in top leadership positions. As a result, the internal and external challenges they navigate lead them to seek and cultivate alternative strategies and support networks to…

Children with dis/abilities the world over are widely required to sacrifice their human rights to education, equity, community, and inclusion. Fewer than 10% of children with dis/abilities in developing countries attend school. Namibia, Africa, where this study took place, is no different. Despite Namibia's adoption of international covenants and…

There are an estimated 14 million children with one or more parent who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT), but there is little to no research about these children's experiences in schools. This study investigated elementary school-aged children with lesbian mothers from five families as they moved between their (gay)…

This study explores how academically talented Black girls read, write and narrate their lived experiences while attending a predominantly white, selective admissions urban high school. Black girls in these types of settings often experience feelings of isolation and silencing, unjust treatment, and underrepresentation in the curriculum (Carter,…

For as long as time, struggling adolescent readers have filled classrooms and communities. In many cases, these functional aliterates typically could read, yet could not understand or evaluate text, provide relevant details, or support inferences about the written documents they had read. "Second Chance Reading" (SCR), an instructional…

Dual language programs have been shown to be one of the most successful models for closing the achievement gap between English-speaking and English-learning students, which can be considered a strong indicator of educational equity. However, questions remains about how equity is achieved within these programs and what equity means to…

A sexual assault intervention was designed using applicable research from social psychology (i.e., social norms). Undergraduate men were randomly assigned to the experimental intervention or an active control condition. Attitudinal and behavioral data were collected preintervention, post-intervention and at a one month follow-up. Significant…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender school educators are practically invisible within the nature of heterosexist and homophobic education (Blount, 2005). "Openly gay and lesbian teachers were once thought of as immoral, and in some states coming out is still a risk to one's job" (McCarthy, 2003, p. 182). One's sexual orientation has nothing to…