Ever since the emergence of gifted education in the United States in the beginning of the twentieth century, the concept of giftedness has been used to marginalize, segregate, and exclude students of particular backgrounds from specialized academic programs. Among the factors that contribute to unequal access to gifted education for ethnically,…

The purpose of this study is to explore how teachers using culturally responsive instructional practices negotiate a high-stakes testing environment (HSTE). Culturally responsive pedagogy, an asset-based approach to improving student outcomes for marginalized students of color, has been established as an effective means of closing the 'opportunity…

Despite the widespread commitment of many colleges of education to advance equity and social justice using critical theories, many students exit teacher preparation programs without a tangible idea of how to enact critical theories within their classrooms. The dominant approach to fostering critical practices among preservice…

Science teachers in the United States are not prepared to teach the students in their classrooms. Teachers are most often White females, while the children in their classrooms are from diverse backgrounds. Multicultural pedagogies exist, but teachers must be educated during their teacher preparation courses to understand their own relationship…

As the number of international students studying in the United States increases, it is important to analyze how specific subsets of international students understand their experiences in order to ensure student success in specific populations. Both female students and Saudi students have individually been given very little attention in the…

As calls for institutions of higher education to educate globally competent citizens have intensified over the last two decades, the field of international service learning (ISL) has responded resoundingly. ISL programs have been implemented at many institutions and there have been countless studies that demonstrate the great power for student…

The use of literary criticism has served to provide different lenses to analyze, evaluate, and interpret the content and context of the written text in all its forms and varieties, especially in children's and young adult (YA) literature. This study was aimed at analyzing the way in which "Feminist Criticism" may be applied to young…

This research study examined black college students lived experiences with racism and white studies. A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted with five black college students. They participated in entrance interviews, a white studies workshop that incorporated a focus group, wrote reflective journals, had exit interviews, and a group…

Contemporary scholarship has provided important research regarding the effectiveness and potential for Hip Hop pedagogy to facilitate liberation among Black American learners in formal learning settings. In contrast, there is little research on rap and Hip Hop as lifelong informal transformational learning as a mode of resistance to oppression and…

My dissertation, a self-reflective autoethnography, examines, analyzes, and interprets children's dances created by seventeen nine-11 year olds attending a Midwestern, urban elementary school. The significance of this longitudinal study is in the offering of a fresh perspective on children's dance-making as a mode of embodied understanding and as…

Teacher education programs across the United States must prepare teachers who have the content area knowledge, pedagogical expertise, and cultural competence needed to teach an increasingly diverse student population. One consistent suggestion for programs committed to preparing culturally responsive teachers is to incorporate investigations of…

Different conceptualizations of service-learning are found in higher education, ranging from charity to social justice focused. Little is known about the lasting impact of social justice focused service-learning on undergraduate participants, especially in a global education setting. This study examined the experience and meaning making of…

This qualitative study examines educational and socio-cultural experiences of seven Kenyan women pursuing higher education in the United States. The study uses in depth interviews to explore the participants' socio-cultural experiences, how they negotiate their multiple identities, and their transformative learning experiences. Three theoretical…

This dissertation examines the experiences of Kigali Institute of Education students using a framework of democratic education theories. In Rwanda, the discriminatory and non-critical education system is believed to have been one of the major causes for the civil strife that has characterized the country, beginning in its post independence to its…