Ten women superintendents in Texas were interviewed for this phenomenological narrative study to understand their mentoring experiences framed within transformational leadership theory. The research used a guided protocol to conduct face-to-face interviews. In this study, authors sought to answer questions about the influence of mentorship…

Despite historical patterns of racial homogeneity, the composition of suburban areas and their schools are changing throughout the United States. This fact presents major challenges to the suburban schools charged with educating all students, including those that do not fit a suburban stereotype. This study focuses on one suburban community in…

Current literature has identified a growing achievement gap experienced by students raised in poverty. However, some students from poverty can defeat the odds and succeed academically with advanced degrees. Nine graduate students self-identified as being raised in poverty participated in this study. The home-related experiences that led to their…

Enrollment rates for Latino male students continue to increase at community colleges; unfortunately, compared to their other racial and/or ethnic male counterparts they are less likely to earn a college credential or degree. This qualitative study explores the narratives of six presidents at Texas community colleges designated as Hispanic-Serving…

This article is a response to calls for more first-person accounts from researchers using narrative formats to interpret data. The authors examine the practice of ethnodrama as a means of exploring and analyzing the experiences of a Latina public-school student in a small South Texas coastal town during the 1950s and 1960s as she attempted to…

In this study, Michelle M. Espino uncovers the ways in which twenty-five Mexican American women PhDs made meaning of conflicting messages about the purpose of higher education as they navigated within and through educational structures and shifting familial expectations. Participants received "consejos", or nurturing advice, from parents…

Training programs that combine learning English with career and vocational skills are highly desired to prepare many displaced workers that are English speakers of other languages (ESOL). Globalization has caused jobs to be exported and brought to this country, people with needed skills that do not have full command of the English language. The…

The problem researched in this study is that many African American secondary students are not reading as proficient as their peers. In addition, parental involvement in secondary education is significantly less than during their elementary school years. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative phenomenological study was to explore parents' or…

This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to explore the lived experiences of African American male community college instructors using interviews, classroom observations, and personal testimonies conducted at a Southeast Texas community college. Brown (2009) previously conducted a study on African American male…

Classrooms tend to be absolute spaces, places where fluidity is rejected and nearly everything--from people, to ideas, to practices and policies--is viewed and organized through binary logic. Because binary logic is implicitly accepted as the natural order in schools and the structures resulting from it are highly unmalleable, individuals who…

In this article, the authors conducted a research metasynthesis of publications by a group of Latina tenure-track faculty participating in a peer mentoring group, the Research for the Educational Advancement of Latin@s (REAL) collaborative, housed in one Hispanic Serving Institution. Due to the small representation of Latinas in the academy, the…

This study investigated the lived experiences of students in one Early College High School (ECHS) in southeast Texas. A qualitative narrative inquiry was implemented and data were collected through individual interviews. Eight students participated in the narratives. Study findings suggested ECHS students may not always have a clear understanding…

This qualitative study examined the evolvement of self-efficacy and the lived experiences of five undocumented Latino/as during their first semester in a Texas college or university. The snowball sampling method was used to identify participants who were undocumented, immigrated as children and enrolled in K-12 public school, and self-identified…

School districts across the U.S. are experimenting with various reforms in an attempt to bridge the gap between secondary and postsecondary education and create greater access to postsecondary education for all students. One such reform initiative is the Early College High School (ECHS) model, which allows high school students to earn a diploma…

This article is a focused response to the call for a "conscious use of crystallization," in qualitative research. To this end, the author brings into play a full-bodied textual metaphor, the "palimpsest," to stimulate the expansion of an integrated crystallization typology--comprised of woven and patched approaches.…