The purpose of this project was to lift up the stories of Filipinx staff and their meaning-making, meanings, and enactments of decolonization. Through journaling, an online group meeting, and individual interviews with five staff in higher education in the United States, I aimed to answer the following research questions: How do Filipinx higher…

Attrition rates for first year students enrolled in community colleges remains high and results in poor first to second year retention and overall poor retention. The average national attrition rate remains averages 38% resulting in poor retention and completion rates for students enrolling in community colleges (NCES, 2019). To address the issue…

The purpose of this dissertation was to further support female students success in mathematics as it related to the classroom and beyond. The study documented girls' experiences and feelings about math learning and contextualized their responses by comparing them to those of their male classmates. This study provided insights to what educators can…

As globalized industries evolve, leaders of today and tomorrow will need multifaceted skills for multilayered engagement in an international environment. One method to develop competencies built for a global setting is study abroad, where U.S. colleges embed students in a travel context beyond classroom walls and borders. Study abroad is made up…

The development plan in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Saudi society includes accepting female students and affording them the opportunity to study abroad under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP). In 2005, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, and President George W. Bush, of the United States, agreed to increase the number…

Schools are under tremendous pressure to close achievement gaps and increase students' college and career readiness. Research has shown that students' interactions with rigorous curriculum and instructional practices positively impact their postsecondary outcomes (e.g. Adelman, 2006; Oakes and Saunders, 2007). With an established standard of rigor…

Partnerships between schools, universities, community organizations and private businesses have become an increasingly popular response to the privatization of resources accompanying market-based education reforms (Rodriguez, 2020; Warren, 2005). Through these partnerships, stakeholders mobilize resources across sectors and scales in an effort to…

The purpose of this study was to better understand the influence of educators' attention to identity construction as tenth grade Emergent Bilinguals and native English-speaking students develop mathematical, social, and epistemological empowerment in a mathematics classroom. I incorporated a framework detailing critical consciousness as a mediator…

African American students in K-12 classrooms have struggled to achieve at the same level as their Caucasian peers in the mathematics classroom. The achievement gap between African American students and their Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian peers is a concern for administrators, teachers, and parents. Educators are being tasked to examine their…

Many U.S. schools in poor communities are implementing restorative practices, which comes from the restorative justice model that has been implemented in many juvenile systems. Many schools are implementing restorative practice interventions to improve their drop out rates, graduation rates, and improve their relationships between students and…

"The Leader in Me" (Covey, 2008) is an approach to fostering social and emotional learning that has been adopted by more than 3,000 schools across the globe, but which has received relatively little empirical attention. Grounded in the seven habits from Stephen Covey's (1989)" The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", the…

Student voice is the process of allowing students to work collaboratively with adults to produce a learning culture that is conducive for optimum growth in every student. In a traditional setting, the adults make the decisions and the students are passive observers in the learning process. Data has shown that this traditional culture is not…

This dissertation in practice employed a multiple case study design to better understand how two executive directors within a national network of arts and technology educational organizations defined, nurtured, and measured empathy with in their students. Empathy can connect diverse people and improve relationships, and it has been proven to…

Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade (2009) wrote that if failure to provide quality education continues, it will not be because we lack the know-how to effectively educate all children, it is because we lack the resolve to do it. As a steadfast leader of teaching and collaborating with children, Duncan-Andrade mentors hope in students and teachers alike. This…

The purpose of this study is to explore student perceptions regarding the transition from elementary school to middle school and to provide an opportunity for student voice to be included in the develop of an improved, data-informed, comprehensive transition program designed to assist all students as they move through this transition. Secondary…