In cyber charter schools, middle-school students face many barriers to developing STEM identity. My theory of improvement was to address sense of belonging in a large virtual classroom to develop STEM identity in my students. By utilizing diverse STEM role models that reflected my students' racial or ethnic identities and an inquiry-based approach…

This dissertation explores the issue of minority underrepresentation in K-12 educational leadership roles, examining its perceived causes and implications within academic settings. The research utilized a qualitative approach involving detailed surveys and interviews with school administrators from K-12 schools in Western North Carolina, Upstate…

For many years, there have been discrepancies between masculine and feminine populations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The problem was the gender disparity in middle and high school STEM classrooms, in which teachers often lack an understanding of the underlying reasons and measures needed to lessen the gender…

Critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and responsibility are essential when preparing students for the workforce. One national initiative to address these skills is the Career Pathways Model, which provides core classes designed to complement the students' career choices. The problem addressed in this study was that underserved high school…

The gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) professions results from several factors that deter females from pursuing careers in STEM. Girls' low interest in science and lack of feeling both belonging and efficacy in science, which emerge as early as middle school, are believed to be part of the problem. This study reports…

Research suggests that there are Queer educators in nearly every school in America (Woog, 1995). With the knowledge that there are Queer educators working within schoolhouses across the nation, it is necessary to understand their experiences in order to close gaps in the literature and to identify implications of the understanding of their…

The historical context of education in the United States reveals a consistent failure by American schooling to effectively educate Black boys. Multiple indicators of how Black male students are underserved have necessitated interventions to reverse decades of adverse outcomes. The single-gender school design became one such intervention dedicated…

Over the past fifty years, women in the United States have made great strides in education and in entry into the workforce. However, despite these advances, women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Women's representation is lower than men's at most levels of STEM. This level of…

Although girls perform just as well as boys academically in math and science, women and girls are less likely to pursue STEM-related careers and activities (Halpern et al., 2007; Robnett, 2015; Hand, Rice, & Greenlee, 2017). By not pursuing careers in STEM, girls and women are forgoing significant opportunities for self-improvement as well as…

Students are not succeeding in post-secondary education in California: 52% of community college students and 46% of students in 4-year institutions fail to graduate within 6 years. Traditionally underrepresented students have far higher rates of non-completion. In part this is because they have not been given an opportunity to engage in a…

This study was designed to explore, record, explain and describe the lived experiences of African American male students engaged in mentorship programs for post-secondary education. This study takes an exploratory phenomenological approach to research and is conducted at a mentorship program site. The following research questions guided this study…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of African American male Upward Bound participants to determine their identity status and to document their perceptions of Upward Bound's influence on their academic outcomes. This study examined the experiences of eight African American male Upward Bound participants at…

The purpose of this sequential mixed-methods study was to explore the feelings, thoughts, critical incidents, and coping mechanisms of female high school principals and their experiences with the impostor phenomenon. A hierarchical multiple regression revealed that none of the demographic factors such as number of years as a head high school…

The underrepresentation of women and minorities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is a major concern for researchers, policymakers, and educators. Many causes of this issue have been identified over the years. However, effective methods for increasing minorities' and women's participation in STEM may still be…

The growing and pervasive presence of technology and media in the lives of children reveals the need for incorporating critical media literacy instruction into the official curriculum of schools. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative study was to examine how American middle school girls experience the documentary film "Girl Rising."…