The purpose of this intrinsic qualitative case study was to understand the meaning-making experiences and experienced-based decision making that occur among middle school girls while playing the tabletop role playing game Dungeons & Dragons through the online videoconferencing platform zoom. table-top games have been played in some form for…

Centered on the theories of Carol Dweck (2006) and James Burns (1978), an expanding theory case study approach was used to analyze how growth mindset and transformational leadership influence instructional decisions made specifically for economically disadvantaged students. In addition, analysis of how leaders perceive these decisions to have…

This study examined the long-term effects of democratic education on alumni of Liberty School, an alternative learning community in rural Maine active during the 1990s and 2000s. It investigated how participation in a democratic school environment influenced students' civic engagement, personal agency, and development in adulthood, drawing on…

Using the Compassionate Music Teaching (CMT) framework as a lens, in this study I explored the ways that teachers of adults learning recreationally in music lessons may align their teaching approaches to learners' adult-specific needs. Adult education scholars have accentuated the need for facilitators of adult learning to consider adult learners'…

This research study explored the development of a teacher-researcher identity and investigated the pedagogy of two teachers who completed an action research course. I sought to investigate the development of a teacher-researcher identity in connection to the utilization of critical responsiveness in order to address the stifling of teacher agency…

National efforts have been made to increase STEM participation among racially marginalized individuals (Ro & Loya, 2015). However, women, especially African American women, remain underrepresented in STEM fields, particularly in engineering and computer science disciplines. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to…

This study focused on the difficulties and challenges experienced by sons who had absent fathers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of sons who grew up with absent fathers and the effects on them as adults at home, in school, in their neighborhoods, and their decision-making processes. The sample consisted…

The COVID-19 pandemic has negative effects on children, adolescents, and adults. Despite these effects, information about the nature of mental health concerns and services provided to address these concerns by elementary school counselors is unknown. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to examine mental health concerns elementary…

In this study, I sought to discover factors that contributed to candidate success in gaining admission to the San Jose State University Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) Training Program. Social Cognitive Career Theory suggests that the interplay between an individual's personal characteristics and life experiences lead to self-efficacy…

Gulf-War-era-II combat veterans have made professional contributions to the civilian workforce since returning from Iraq and Afghanistan combat operations. Service members in California encounter transition issues related to employment and adjusting their self-identity in the civilian employment culture. These complexities have led to career…

I examined the role of social perspective taking in leadership decision-making by investigating how a group of 70 leaders made sense of a hypothetical workplace dilemma in order to understand how they used their capacity for social perspective taking as part of their decision-making process. The majority of these leaders work in North America, are…

The main purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the experiences of Vietnamese international students who returned to Vietnam after graduation from a U.S. higher education institution (henceforth, the repatriates). Areas to be explored include the transitional period, perceptions of the relevance of the U.S. education to their current…

The purpose of this study was to understand how undergraduate students manage the barrier of being denied admission to a School of Education at a particular university, how they make career choices, and how they come to understand their decisions. Marcia (1966) and Josselson's (1987) identity development statuses, Baxter Magolda's (2000)…

This study examined the perceptions of school counselors regarding administrative supervision practices in K-12 public schools in South Carolina. Specifically, the goal was to gain insight into how school counselors view current building-level supervision practices in relation to Pajak's Twelve Dimensions of Supervisory Practice, as well as how…

This current study investigated Janis and Mann's (1977) Conflict Model of Decision Making. Specifically, Janis and Mann's model was tested to examine decision-making styles (coping patterns) and students who either have already decided or who have yet to decide on their college major. Furthermore, the current study is aimed to expand Janis and…