Engaging recent points of discussion within academia and practitioner research focused on access/ibility in the cybersecurity workplace, this dissertation examines the impacts of National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) cybersecurity workforce frameworks on people and communities within the field of cybersecurity. The emerging era in…

The concept of new vocationalism reached its height in the 1990s and 2000s as views evolved regarding how community colleges should provide relevant vocational education for students. The concept of new vocationalism is here brought into the present moment by mapping theoretical lineages and emphasizing the current and future practical…

This study is situated within a large-scale national high school level engineering education initiative that aims to "demystify" engineering for high school students, teachers, and counselors through an all-inclusive high school level engineering course. Counselors participated in a series of PD activities centered on the following…

High-quality, stable early care and education can have long-lasting benefits for both children and society. The COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of the role early educators play as an essential source of support that anchors communities. It also has exposed the underlying fragility and economic vulnerability of the early care and…

Roughly 75 million Americans don't have the work or wages they need to get by. They either lack the skills employers seek or can't access jobs with sufficient pay. These are America's untapped workers--people who are unemployed or underemployed, but who can succeed in the nation's rapidly changing economy if offered the right education, training,…

The Micro-Credential Program is a digital badging system composed of competency-based pathways that move forward early childhood professionals to achieving mastery in employability skills. These skills are crucial for early childhood professionals to have to provide high-quality, nurturing learning environments to children in their care as well as…

According to data, there are few Southern communities where a child born in poverty has more than a 6 percent chance of moving to the upper income quintile as an adult. In Network communities, 31 to 39 percent are expected to remain in the lowest bracket. Improvements to the talent development system and its surrounding ecosystem are crucial to…

Background: People who are racialized, gendered, or otherwise minoritized are underrepresented in computing professions in North America. This is reflected in undergraduate computer science (CS) programs, in which students from marginalized backgrounds continue to experience inequities that do not typically affect White cis-men. This is especially…

Ensuring that students of all backgrounds are smoothly transitioned through the stages of access, participation and completion in higher education has been the focus of much public policy and research in recent decades. Subsequently, public policy discourse treats those who do not complete their higher education degrees as unsuccessful, despite a…

Access to professionals and insider knowledge of industry is most often enjoyed by students from privileged families. Higher education institutions have a moral imperative to create access for underrepresented minority (URM) students; the business case and industry demand for diverse candidates support this imperative. This paper describes an…

The "ACTE Quality CTE Program of Study Framework™" offers educators an evidence- based blueprint for evaluating career and technical education (CTE) programs of study and targeting areas for improvement. Detailing 12 elements integral to high-quality CTE programming, educators can use the Framework and accompanying self-assessment…

"Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: The Impact of Adult Learning across the UK" identifies a range of economic and social policy challenges confronting the four nations today and argues that adult learning can make an important contribution to addressing these and promoting a fairer and more inclusive society. Published in 2017, the report draws…

Black women represent the greatest underrepresentation in STEM fields, particularly the technology sector. According to a 2015 article in "The Verge," Black women make up between 0% and 7% of the staff at the eight largest technology firms in the United States. This points to a glaring problem in terms of equity and inclusivity in the…

When the Wayne Township Adult Education team shifted from traditional to virtual learning, they made a commitment to continue delivering high quality education. The team created curriculum portals, online registration portals, web pages, and many other innovations to achieve a new level of performance never imagined prior to the pandemic. These…

This study aimed to examine the impact of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1973; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977) on the access and equity of C-STEM learners of color under the following four tenets of Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth model: aspirational, familial, social, and navigational capital. A theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory…