In January 2022, music teacher shortages accounted for eight percent of all vacancies in U.S. school systems. After emerging from COVID-19 lockdowns, many education stakeholders began to reconsider the ways in which teaching and learning have shifted. By committing to a strong understanding of teacher self-efficacy and empowerment, administrators…

Using narrative inquiry (Chase, 2011; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), this dissertation investigates the stories new teachers encounter during their licensure program and first years of teaching, how those stories work on the identities of new teachers, and the ways these teachers engage with those stories as they construct, revise, and/or smooth…

This dissertation explores the depth of the Black educator turnover problem in today's public schools. Black educators across the country have experienced higher than average turnover rates, eroding the success of recent minority teacher recruitment efforts. This epidemic has left the field of teaching consistent with the status quo, white and…

Issues of women's empowerment and gender inequality have been of paramount importance, particularly in the two decades since the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995. At that conference, the campaign for women's empowerment was initiated to implement laws promoting gender equality. This research explored the perceptions of nine academic…

One of the greatest outcomes of experiencing culturally responsive teaching is a sense of empowerment. In teaching a graduate course on culturally responsive teaching, I wanted my students to experience that power. To accomplish this, I decided to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of culturally responsive pedagogy and a holistic…

This study demonstrates the potential for teacher research to lead to critical inquiry and change in social studies classrooms. It presents four portraits of experienced social studies teachers engaged in critical teacher research. These teachers posed critical questions about the means and purposes of schooling, while engaging their students in…

This conceptual paper explores racial microaggressions and their effects on African American and Hispanic students in urban schools. Microaggressions are pervasive in our society (Sue et al., 2007), and although often manifested in subtle ways, can be detrimental for their long-term effects on students' psychological, socialemotional, and…

Open-access admissions policies and greater affordability position community colleges at the forefront in addressing equitable academic outcomes. Yet, most community college students fail to complete their certificate, degree and transfer goals. The failure rate is particularly high for low-income, Black and Latino(a) students. Much has been…