This naturalistic, non-experimental inquiry explored relationships among life, human life, and place in school communities along with their expressions in school curriculum. I used educational criticism and connoisseurship to richly describe, interpret meaning, evaluate significance, and discern thematics surrounding relationships and how those…

The Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) team provides critical research administration services for the research community at the University of Denver. As research funding continues to rise at the University of Denver, retention of research administrators is critically important. Job satisfaction is key to employee engagement and retention.…

In a time in which teacher recruitment and retention play such a vital role in reducing the teacher shortage, principals need to be cognizant of their leadership style and the potential impact it can have on not only teachers, but on the school climate as well. Within this study, I explored the relationship between leadership style and school…

Secondary traumatic stress (STS) impacts professionals who assist others experiencing trauma. Assistant principals and principals help both students and staff members suffering crises yet remain an understudied population in relation to STS. This study sought to answer: what is the prevalence of STS in secondary campus administrators, and does the…

Little has changed about the physical properties of public schooling in the United States since the industrial revolution--desks, rows, and teachers at the front of the room (McCoy, 2007). Foote (2019) has argued there is no better way to create a more modern learning space than to do a complete redesign. Given the dramatic redefinition of…

This dissertation examined how the perception of the achievement-emotion of boredom impacted the academic agency of sixth-grade mathematics students. The study for this dissertation was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods study, sixth-grade mathematics student volunteers from a Midwest middle…

This quantitative, exploratory study examined perceptions of preparedness among entry-level student affairs professionals for an active shooter event (ASE) on campus. Institutions of higher education (IHE) have experienced an uptick of deadly and destructive ASEs in the last two decades. Colleges and universities vary on whether they provide…

The experience of teachers who cope with the potential of violence in their workplaces was the topic of this dissertation. The research question was the following: What is the process of coping with the increased potential of violence in the school/work setting for teachers? This question was posed to examine how teachers process and cope with the…

Culturally Relevant Education is seen as a vehicle for educational equity. As school populations in America continue to shift racially and ethnically, it is essential that educators understand the barriers that are preventing students from high achievement. Intricate and multidimensional in nature, understanding teacher perspectives can provide…

Schools are turning to social emotional learning (SEL) to improve educational outcomes for K-12 students and provide them with the skills to think, relate to others, and lead responsible lives. The purpose of this research was to help educational leaders better understand the impact of SEL programming on the school climate of elementary schools.…

The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study was to understand the work adjustment of expatriate teachers employed in Chinese internationalized schools. The theory guiding the study was Dawis and Lofquist's theory of work adjustment. This theory explained the process of employee adjustment at the workplace as the result of job…

Students enter higher education vocal music programs (HEVMP) with various singing techniques from home and desire to supplement that knowledge with professional classical singing skills. However, often the curricula of these programs are not structured to allow the music perspectives of home to influence students' understanding and application of…

This research study explored the experiences of this teacher-researcher and eight student-participants in a Montessori-inspired, nature-based mathematical environment. I utilized an action research study framework with a critical event narrative analysis to describe mine and my student-participants' experiences throughout this study, using…

This basic qualitative study was an exploration of the successful approaches that a sample of elementary school principals used to support collaboration between special education teachers and general education teachers to ensure an inclusive educational (IE) environment for students with disabilities (SWD). This study may help to close the gap in…

Problem Statement: The problem addressed in this study was the experience of Latinx women leaders from multiple Southern California state universities who cry, or have been close to crying, about work in front of colleagues or followers. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the experience of Latinx women leaders, who held…