Despite mental illness related to learning, social life, and overall well-being being prevalent among students, college students may not feel comfortable disclosing their mental health issues due to stigmas and campus barriers. Consequently, a high number of students experience mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation,…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth of color (LGBTQ-YOC) face disproportionate risks of adverse mental health outcomes, including higher rates of depression and suicide-related thoughts and behaviors (STB) compared to their White LGBTQ and heterosexual peers. Despite the documented disparities, there is a critical lack of…

Across the United States, Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs have risen in popularity in recent years with the promise of producing biliterate and bicultural students. Many families of both the dominant and minority culture have gravitated towards these choice programs to enrich the school experience for their children. With the success of DLI…

This study examined the relationship between quality of friendship and social networking site (SNS) usage, co-rumination, and self-disclosure among 355 adolescents aged 11 to 15. Participants completed an online questionnaire addressing frequency, intensity, and rate of their online communication, how they perceived the positive and negative…

Career technical education and skilled trades have been the subject of a social stigma that continues to make it a habit of mind that career technical education is inferior to a 4-year college education. This stigma is partially responsible for a shortage of skilled labor. This study aimed to explore how educators describe and understand the…

As our society has changed, calling for a focus on transparency and accountability, so have our perceptions of both the roles higher education and its purveyors, the faculty. As a result, university administrators have turned to managerial assessment strategies to provide stakeholders with quantitative measurements of what has historically been an…

Educational outcomes for students with ADHD are often negative. To better understand this problem, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the representation of individuals with ADHD in contemporary American English. Data was obtained from the Corpus of American Contemporary English (COCA), using all sections except the academic…

Despite teachers being centrally implicated in teacher evaluation policy reform, we know little about the effects of its policies and procedures on teachers' work in their school district, and we see limited discussion about the possibility of teachers as policy actors to reflect upon and possibly improve or overcome teacher evaluation. Using data…

I was a person who identified as culturally Deaf but at the same time had progressive vision loss. I embraced my Deaf identity, but I did not embrace any inkling of identifying myself as a DeafBlind person considering the stigma associated with it. Due to that stigma, the journey of identifying as a DeafBlind person is difficult mentally,…

Inclusive research based on collaborative partnership with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has the potential to lead to relevant and meaningful research outcomes. An inclusive research approach is necessary for research endeavors which strive to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people with intellectual and developmental…

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…

This study sought to understand the perceptions of African American males enrolled in remedial education courses within two-year institutions. The researcher gathered information by interviewing ten African American male students at community colleges in southern urban locations. This qualitative research allowed the researcher to learn directly…

As the Hispanic population in the United States continues to grow, Spanish teachers are increasingly responsible for incorporating heritage language (HL) research and practice into their curriculum design. However, many language teacher preparation programs in the country are not tailored to equip future HL educators, focusing instead on second…

Constructs like turnover intentions, burnout, perceived flexibility, and perceived organizational support (POS) have been studied for decades. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, turnover rates reached historic highs in 2021. Simultaneously, the shift to remote or hybrid work evidenced more widespread implementation than ever before to meet…

This study focused on Black women faculty experiences of inclusion at predominantly White institutions in the United States. Despite diversity and inclusion initiatives, there has been limited progress in recruiting and retaining Black women faculty. The study used Collins' (1986) Black feminist thought and Shore et al.'s (2011) inclusion…