A shortage of professional mariners to work onboard commercial vessels exists in the United States and in the world commercial fleets. State maritime academies graduate third mates and third assistant engineers ready to take up these positions, yet even after their training, not all choose to do so. The purpose of this study was to understand how…

This research focuses on the social pressures experienced by parents at schools identified as middle class across southern California. The literature review of school finances, the LCFF, funding levels, and studies stretches all the way back to the Coleman report. Within this vast body of prior research remained a void in the data. This missing…

The purpose of this research dissertation was to investigate and explore consciousness in millennial African American men. This study defined consciousness in the form of self-concept or self-conceptualization, the image we have of ourselves (Akbar, 1991; McLeod 2008). The research question under investigation is, How do African American college…

Special education eligibility determinations are decision making processes that involve multiple stakeholders who bring a variety of power, privilege, and influence that impacts the overall decision and trajectory of the evaluation team. Eligibility for special education is a prescriptive process outlined by federal and state regulations that…

The analysis of factors influencing the Common Criteria certification process adoption in the private sector industrial complex of the defense industrial base for Information Assurance (IA) and IA-enabled devices was performed with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework. The UTAUT theory has been the basis for…

This piece of research is designed to achieve the following: (1) to highlight the salient biopsychosocial factors shared amongst many of the perpetrators of this school shooting phenomenon; (2) to reveal many of the noteworthy environmental factors, both, within the assailant's school system and in his/her immediate environment; (3) to discuss the…

Past researchers have identified high levels of mental health concerns among graduate and professional students as well as some of the key predictors which lead to these concerns. They have also highlighted the negative consequences - both short and long-term - for untreated mental health concerns as well as the benefits for students who do seek…

Within the discipline of school psychology, social justice is a fundamental concept and an aspiration of practitioners. Recently, a myriad of pleas has been made for school psychologists to act as agents of social justice change. Further, bullying, which is a prevalent issue in schools, has been identified as a school-based social justice…

Decision-making within school environments is critical to the continued improvement of services for all populations. Despite this high level of importance, there is limited information related to how systemic decisions are made in charter schools. There is also limited information on how charter school leaders interact with teachers and the impact…

The pandemic and post pandemic job market showed the importance of online professional training for employees to improve professional skills necessary to acquire skills to adapt to the new environment and get promoted in their current professions, while contributing to organizations' success. The present dissertation study utilized the Unified…

In this dissertation, the researcher examined teachers' and students' discourses through a social constructionist framing of democratic education to understand how they disrupted or maintained traditional schooling discourses. Data were generated during four consecutive days of video and audio recording of teachers' and students' discourses. Other…

The current sociopolitical context of the United States has created a divide among the nation which has transpired into Kindergarten-12th grade public school settings. Throughout the United States school boards of education have banned books and Critical Race Theory while attacking social justice teaching pedagogies. Presently, there is growing…

In California, Filipina/x/os continue to be overrepresented in the nursing workforce, with the percentage of nurses identifying as Filipino increasing from 13.4% in 1993 to 20.6% in 2018 (Spetz et al., 2018). While a particular ethnic group being overrepresented in a certain industry is not problematic on its own, certain careers come with greater…

Significant research regarding longevity existed for many professions. However, very little research was conducted on longevity for small college athletic coaches. This case study sought to identify barriers that affected athletic coaches who served at small colleges in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Participants in this study were…

In the United States, teachers have been both respected and villainized in popular culture and politics. These varying and conflicting cultural ideas and representations of teachers impact policy design, shaping the distribution of benefits and burdens imposed on teachers. The media play an important role in both crafting and reinforcing cultural…