The teaching profession has always been a difficult one. This reality has only continued since the COVID-19 school closures as many teachers were attempting to return to "normal." For novice teachers (within their first five years), they did now know what normal was and therefore could not return to it. This group of teachers continue to…

This dissertation investigates the dynamics of adult online learners within an urban community college setting, exploring relationships between specific adult learning predictor variables and online course grades. Understanding these relationships is crucial for informing educational policies, designing effective online learning environments, and…

This paper explores children's encounters with migration in global contexts through storytelling. Children from two primary schools in Manchester, UK and Cape Town, South Africa, developed stories of self through object elicitation, poetry and self-made artefacts. The children had either directly or indirectly experienced migration across borders.…

While much has been studied addressing the topic of academic resilience, few researchers have examined adolescent perceptions of the factors that contribute to school success. This qualitative interpretive study explored individual protective factors that can promote academic resilience in urban middle school students. One-on-one interviews (N=20)…

Racial microaggressions, or subtle race-based insults are associated with negative consequences for receivers. Institutional racism in education directly influences the dissemination of these transgressions in schools, as school personnel may engage in microaggressive behavior toward each other and their students. Given recent calls to address…

Private tutoring is a growing industry globally. Past research into the effectiveness of private tutoring has proved inconclusive. Studies dedicated to the non-academic implications of private tutoring are scarce. Using a mixed-method approach, our study examined A-Level students' experiences of private tutoring and their perceptions of benefits…

This dissertation presents the results from a mixed methods study designed to understand what beliefs urban middle school general education teachers hold when it comes to supporting students with disabilities (SWDs) in an inclusion classroom including classrooms that implement the integrated co-teaching (ICT) model. The quantitative portion of…

Background: Research shows that serving as an assistant principal is a typical steppingstone to the principalship (Folsom et al., 2015; Goldring et al., 2021; Hitt & Player, 2019; Osborne-Lampkin & Folsom, 2017) and assistant principals serve important leadership roles in schools, supporting principals and teachers (Marshall & Hooley,…

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' reactions to and perceptions of an online professional learning (PL) experience within a microcredentialing program. Using a qualitative multiple case study design with cross case analysis, this study explored the experiences of five kindergarten through fourth grade (K-4) literacy teachers in a…

The decisions that administrators make can ultimately enhance or impede the culture of a school setting. When faced with situations, whether simple or arduous, the decision-making should be done in an ethical manner that brings about productive results. On a day-to-day basis, there may be situations that arise that require administrators to…

School counselors working in urban populations are often exposed to stress and potential burnout. Due to the various changes in the school counseling profession and the growing needs of urban populations, school counselors are expected to be social justice advocates as well. This role potentially involves the need for the school counselor to speak…

This study examines the experiences of recently graduated students with and without disabilities in a seven-month inclusive rehearsal and performance process of a musical theatre production in an urban performing arts high school. This qualitative, participatory/practitioner action research (PAR) based investigation provides insight into the field…

Teacher Leadership Teams (TLTs) are cross-functional teams, and thus knowledge integration is central to their teaming. Importantly, the existing literature maintains that cross-functional teams apply the traverse or transcend approach differently to integrate divergent knowledge, but few studies have directly focused on it within the context of…

This study examined students' perceptions of their science learning environment and how it relates to their metacognition and self-efficacy. An exploratory study (N=186 South Korean secondary science students from a large-city urban school) used two instruments: Outcomes-Based Education Learning Environment Questionnaire [OBLEQ]; Self-Efficacy and…

College science courses pose complex challenges to students. Textbooks are dense and laden with textbook features that may be confusing to students unfamiliar with science texts. Courses are especially challenging because they presuppose a certain degree of disciplinary literacy, or understanding of the knowledge and practices possessed by those…