National and local data sets reveal that students with disabilities have yet to gain full access to the opportunities that science, technology, and engineering (STE) education has to offer. Through an improvement science lens, this three-manuscript dissertation attempts to define, diagnose, explain, and address this pervasive problem of practice.…

The Texas community college systems served culturally diverse students in asynchronous courses. However, attrition rates remained low for culturally diverse students. Instructors had the potential to increase attrition rates of culturally diverse students. However, there was limited research exploring the implementation of such approaches by…

Asian Americans (AA) are one of the most rapidly growing populations in higher education, increasing by 36% since 2010. AA students are considered the model minority group who are generally academically successful. However, recent studies by Vang (2016) and Nguyen (2018) have disaggregated data and found while many Asian immigrants came to the…

This dissertation conducts an evaluative case study on a community college's Career-Technical Education (CTE) Cultural Resource Management (CRM) technical certificate program to bridge the CRM workforce gap. The study assesses the program's design and development quality by aligning the program theory with stakeholders' needs, including…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine and understand educators' perceptions of the community support offered to kindergarten students and their families by the partnership between the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium Robert B. Daugherty Education Center and Bancroft Elementary. These educators included those teaching or leading…

The Latinx population in California surpassed 15 million in 2022, constituting 39% of the state's residents. Despite Latinx students making up nearly half of the California Community Colleges (CCC) student body in 2019, there remains a notable lack of Latina representation in CCC leadership. To understand this disparity, a qualitative study…

The rapid proliferation of online learning in higher education has accentuated the need for a deeper understanding of attentional distractions that affect learners. This study explored how doctoral students experience and manage attentional distractions in asynchronous online learning environments. Drawing on the Community of Inquiry framework,…

This dissertation describes the experience of a group of international school teachers engaging in a cooperative inquiry exploring the influence of mindfulness-based social-emotional learning (MBSEL) practices on their personal and professional lives. The current reality for educators is one of systemic stress and burnout, with teachers working…

Farmed animal sanctuaries provide lifelong care to formerly farmed animals. Many strive to educate their community about farmed animals and promote more compassionate lifestyles, such as veganism. Important to this is cultivating empathy and concern for the well-being of individual farmed animals. Essential to well-being is agency, which is the…

Purpose: This paper presents a case study of successful rural school leadership in Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices were adapted to secure rural school success. Design/methodology/approach: The author used the International Successful School Principalship Project research protocols to…

A theory of change is a prediction about desired outcomes and the actions that may prompt them. Research on educational change suggests that explicit theories of change are essential for effectively engaging in academic change work. While many centers for teaching and learning (CTL) express aims around organizational change, a recent study was not…

Objective: To describe how veterans feel about disclosing their military status on campus and impacts on engagement with social and health-related services. Participants: Thirty-one university student veterans who participated in a student veterans' health study. Participants self-identified as White and male (90%) with an average age of 29.5…

This report describes how six Colorado community colleges used $1.4 million of pandemic relief funding to support individuals pursuing short-term credentials. The authors examined state and college decisions about program eligibility, student eligibility, grant amounts, funding uses, and application requirements as well as outcomes for those…

Employing the concept of practice-based research (Sato and Loewen 2022), this study argues for the creation of applied linguistics communities of practice (CoPs) as a capacitating space for researchers and practitioners, mutual exchange, and meaningful collaboration. This is needed given the existing gap between research and practice, which is…

There is a need for increased collaboration between mental health providers who work with children and youth to increase continuity of care across settings. While schools can be an optimal location for mental health support, school psychologists often have to work with clinical providers given the increases in youth mental health needs and the…