In this dissertation, I engage in three analytic cuts to think about/with a relational ontological orientation to data and data literacies/science education. The analysis focuses on the following question: What possibilities for teaching and learning about data are made possible when we attune to the relational, noisy, liminal, and material…

Critical incident case managers serve students at institutions of higher education by responding to a student's experience of a life event that is having a negative impact on them, providing direct support and assistance, and coordinating resources in response to the critical incident. Case managers are boundary spanners who work across…

Recently, theory and research have supported collective psychological capital (cPsyCap) as a core construct linked to positive outcomes at the group and team level. However, to date, little attention has been given to cPsyCap emergence, or development, through training interventions. To fill this gap, this mixed-methods study involved first…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the motivation to educate during times of uncertainty for high school educators at an urban Virginian public high school. This study examined the influence of different factors on job satisfaction relating to recognition, growth, relationships, and remuneration. The theory of…

Community schools are a national initiative gaining traction due to the recent identification of the community school model as an evidence-based approach to education that satisfies requirements set forth by the Every Student Succeeds Act. The community school model centers around four pillars: integrated student support, extended and enriched…

This empirical study explores how international school directors find novel ways to develop and lead through ambiguity. The research examines whether and how international school leaders' abilities to perceive, experience, and navigate ambiguity are linked to their stage of ego development. It investigates what kinds of internal and external…

A phenomenological qualitative research study was conducted to answer the research question: How do first-generation college students experience ambiguous loss towards their cultural identity because of cultural mismatch? To what extent do first-generation college students experience ambiguous loss of their cultural identity? The researcher…

Physics education researchers have called for a shift from traditional laboratory (lab) instruction to labs that focus on the development of experimental skills. Although research has demonstrated the efficacy of such reformed labs, much work remains to determine what these labs can and should teach students and how best to achieve these goals.…

The purpose of this narrative qualitative study was to investigate the impact of ethnic/racial ambiguity and legal invisibility on racial identity perception and experiences of differential treatment of Arab and Arab American Muslim students at U.S. public higher education institutions. Guided by the multilevel model of intersectionality…

The field of Kinesiology has grown over the centuries from a discipline primarily focused on sport to one that includes a more scientific focus, leading to an increase in scholarship and research. This study provides an overview of Kinesiology's history, highlighting the connection between African and the Greek Philosophers that paved the way for…

Communications Officers, the core of law enforcement emergency centers, are the first point of contact in an emergency. It is imperative to provide effective training and support geared towards retention and success in a comfortable environment. The purpose of this study was to create a training program evaluation supportive of persistence,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between role stress, school-related factors, and the general perceived self-efficacy of elementary school counselors. Specifically, this study was concerned with the predictability of role stress factors (role ambiguity and role conflict) and school-related factors (school classification…

The purpose of this study was to learn from the experience of adopting a deliberately developmental approach to delivering the co-curriculum to first- and second-year undergraduate students on a residential college campus to better equip them to navigate the increasingly complex future that awaits them. The project's goal was to create conditions…

A growing body of literature focusing on undergraduate biology education calls for students to engage in the ways of thinking, feeling, and doing that reflect those in which biologists engage. Such reform efforts suggest that learning is best fostered when students engage in practices, concepts, and scientific reasoning as they endeavor to explain…

Graduate students are often overlooked as a critical audience when universities strategically communicate scientific research, and few resources are traditionally dedicated to graduate student recruitment. Graduate students additionally possess a myriad of characteristics -- including cultural -- that contribute to their decision to enroll in a…