This research investigates significant moments in college students' drawn life stories in mathematics with the aim of examining implications for STEM engagement and potential reasons for gender-related differences in participation in mathematics intensive STEM fields. My research employs drawn life stories in mathematics specifically focused on…

Increasing students' performance in school-based mathematics is a constant focus that is fueled by differences in students' performance outcomes. Research that examines students' experiences with learning mathematics has shown that students take on different ways of knowing that either align or are at odds with the type of classroom instruction…

The purpose of this descriptive, nonexperimental quantitative research study was to examine Illinois High School Principals' perceptions of principal leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Areas of focus include daily leadership responsibilities, instructional leadership, and associated stressors. Quantitative data were collected through a…

The present dissertation is a synthesis and meta-analysis of the 15-year-old research domain of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) model initiated by Dornyei (2005). The study is based on data from 100 studies involving 144 unique samples and 51,905 participants, and it addresses the inter-relationships of L2MSS elements (i.e., the Ideal L2…

Implementing curriculum standards in high school social studies education often challenges educators in shaping their instructional decisions and students' learning experiences. North Carolina social studies educators have faced challenges in balancing the requirements of curriculum standards with the need to teach sensitive topics such as race,…

The purpose of this convergent mixed methods study was to examine environmental worldviews and to explore influencing factors, such as the relationship between affective disposition toward learning experiences and environmental worldviews, for students at a public four-year university. A convergent mixed methods design provided qualitative and…

The divide between those who do and those who do not excel in mathematics is patterned in problematic ways. Women and people of color are typically underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and other quantitative fields (ex. Finance) where mathematics plays gatekeeper. However, mathematics is not a subject these groups…

This study applied feminist theory (Crossman, 2018) and glass ceiling theory (Dunlap & Schmuck, 1995) through the lens of a transformative worldview framework (Creswell, 2014) to understand the formal and informal learning experiences of superintendents in southern California. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between…

Middle school (G5-8) students' cognitive engagement, motivation, and future aspirations in science were quantified within informal contexts (week-long summer camps) with self-reported measures of cognitive strategies, self-regulation, value, self-efficacy, and future aspirations over the course of two phases (N = 152, N =140). The participating…

English has become a common medium that has impacted Saudi Arabia's educational system. While Saudi Arabia, on the global stage, is known for its conservative practices especially in relation to women, there has been a significant rise in Saudi women graduating from universities, surpassing their male counterparts. As this rise in Saudi women…

In a phenomenological case study, the author sought to gain an awareness of the lived experiences of 4th and 5th grade ESL students, their parents, and their teachers who participated in the MindUp mindfulness curriculum. The author was interested in the relationship between the mindfulness curriculum and SEL based on the perspective of all three…

In this mixed methods action research study, the teacher-researcher designed a blended learning model for a fifth grade class of Spanish in an independent private school in Northern New Jersey. The need for the study was to update the Spanish curricula, allocate resources to promote Spanish outside the classroom by providing a cost-effective…

The following project uses both narrative and feminist poststructural lenses to consider how narratives operated in one undergraduate social foundations of education class purposefully designed around issues of social justice. These theoretical frameworks were useful in exploring the ways students and myself, the course instructor, were variously…

The study adapted an existing instrument to examine perspective transformation and its associated factors in participants of evangelical faith-based adult nonformal education in the Midwestern United States. Stratified random one-stage cluster sampling of 11 churches produced a nonprobability sample ( N = 597) that was significantly (p < 0.05)…

This study reports the opinions of Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) students to facilitate positive change in our educational system as we prepare our students for a competitive global economy. IMSA is a recognized leader in math and science education through exemplary inquiry-based methodologies. Students need new skills for citizenship,…