Emerging research has demonstrated high food insecurity rates among college students in the United States (US). The goal of this dissertation is to expand upon the literature evaluating food insecurity on college campuses to improve relief efforts. A literature review and mixed methods were used to measure and compare food insecurity prevalence…

The purpose of this grounded theory qualitative study is to understand and explain how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped Chinese professors' teaching practices in hybrid classes. The context of this study was a College English program in a state-owned university in an underdeveloped region of China. Grounded theory was employed in this study to…

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act improved access to postsecondary education for disabled students, yet they are still marginalized and leave university at rates 17% higher than nondisabled students (Lombardi & Lalor, 2017). The specific problem is that disabled students face compounding barriers to success, including oppressive…

The purpose of this study is to identify common traits shared by first-generation college graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds who grew up in the inner-city. This research was inspired by Duckworth's grit research at Westpoint Academy which sought to predict which cadets would graduate (Duckworth, 2007). Sixty-three first-generation college…

Black students who attend PWIs often experience social exclusion on campus. To gain a greater understanding of this issue I conducted a qualitative research study that allowed me to gain insight of the difficulties that Black undergraduate students experience at PWIs. The institutions in this study excluded Black students by not providing the…

Institutions, including collegiate schools of music, tell stories about the ways in which they have transformed to include and support diverse students, but what do students say about their institution? Collegiate music students possess powerful and intimate knowledge, and their stories can reveal the lived reality of their experiences of equity…

In this inquiry I used Black Feminist Thought as the interpretive lens to investigate the characterizations and experiences of high achieving Black women undergraduate engineering and mathematics majors at a predominantly white institution. The qualitative inquiry considered intersecting oppressions to evaluate the experiences of this population.…

Physician workforce shortages in California are projected to grow rapidly in the next ten years, particularly in inner-city and rural regions. In response to this anticipated need, the University of California's medical schools are increasing enrollment and working to implement and evaluate new programs and curricula to prepare graduates to work…

Obtaining a bachelor's degree favorably makes an impact in marginalized groups because it promotes social mobility to individuals who live in poverty. The students from the Academic Special Services Program of the Rio Piedras Campus at the University of Puerto Rico come from disadvantaged areas of society. The research was focused on finding out…

During 2 decades of debate about teacher preparation education practitioners and policymakers have called for a more skilled professional teaching force (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Of particular concern has been poverty's impact on education--specifically in struggling urban schools--prompting legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB),…