Mathematics education in the United States has faced persistent challenges, with proficiency rates plateauing since 2005 and a significant gap in proficiency between Latino and White students. Although various factors have contributed to this gap, scholars have highlighted teachers as pivotal in the achievement of Latino students. Recent research…

The goal of this action research was to bring awareness of the first-generation community college identity and acknowledge that this identity has many layers. It is important community colleges across the state use the information provided in this action research to be well-informed on how to better support first-generation students. This…

This qualitative case study explored the experiences of staff and student participants in a men of color program at one California community college. The research aimed to understand how program staff creates environments conducive to exploring masculine identity among men of color. Grounded in validation theory and the multiple masculinities…

Doors to other educational opportunities and future professions are closed when students have a low motivational profile in mathematics starting in elementary school and continue with an unchanged profile into high school (Lazarides et al., 2020). Students must learn how to increase their mathematical self-efficacy in order to increase their…

This qualitative study seeks to illuminate the leadership stories of classified staff who participated in prototype leadership development courses in a Southern California school district. Interviews with eight participants revealed that leadership development impacts classified employees' perceptions of leadership, but few support staff members…

Students with disabilities have lower rates of graduation from institutions of postsecondary education as compared to their nondisabled peers (National Council on Disability, 2020). Supports for disabled students in higher education have relied primarily on a deficit-based, regulatory model of access, ignoring a more wholistic approach to access…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine the decision-making skills of senior management leaders in the higher education sector and how those leaders drew on their moral and ethical skills when making decisions that presented ethical dilemmas. This examination was conducted among several public universities within the…

This study utilized critical leadership praxis (CLP) (Pak & Ravitch, 2021) framework in an intrinsic case study of Institutional Effectiveness/Institutional Research (I.E./I.R.) leaders within the California State University (CSU) system to explore how data-informed decision-making processes incorporate the understanding of varying…

This study explores the math identities and teaching practices of six female educators in Los Angeles. Through in-depth interviews, the study finds that math identity is a complex intersection of multiple identities, representation is important for encouraging female students to pursue STEM fields, and the Common Core standards provide a valuable…

Burnout has become a prevalent issue in workplace environments, significantly affecting individuals' mental, emotional, social, and physical well-being. This qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of burnout among community college counselors in Southern California, a group often overlooked in existing research. While…

This dissertation investigates how feminist and LGBTQ undergraduate students involved in activism on UC Davis use language to construct their identities, focusing on two gender and sexuality-based resource centers (the women's center and LGBTQ center). It seeks to address two research questions. First, how do cisgender, trans, and nonbinary…

College students balance multiple demands while pursuing their educational objectives and aspire to attain a career aligned with their area of study. For first-generation and underrepresented students, their backgrounds contribute additional considerations to the career development journey. Understanding how identity informs career development is…

Intern teachers are more likely to be placed in hard-to-fill content areas, such as math, science, and special education, which exacerbates their initial teaching experiences as teachers of record. For new teachers in their intern credential program, these factors compound the stress of attending coursework while managing their experience as a…

The purpose of this narrative qualitative study was to investigate the impact of ethnic/racial ambiguity and legal invisibility on racial identity perception and experiences of differential treatment of Arab and Arab American Muslim students at U.S. public higher education institutions. Guided by the multilevel model of intersectionality…

Significant environmental impacts such as climate change, reduction in biodiversity, increasing food scarcity, impacts on water supply and availability, and exacerbation of human health problems are occurring and are expected to increase. Despite these environmental challenges the teaching of California's environmental literacy standards, the…