This dissertation is aimed at articulating and empirically characterizing an expansive orientation to field-based socio-ecological systems learning that elevates participatory and ethically-engaged approaches to teaching and learning. Grounded in relational ways of knowing, this dissertation works to expand and transform normative educational…

Critical peace education sets forth a process-oriented pedagogy with key tenets that include inquiry, reflection, dialogue, critical value-assessment, and empowerment. Empowerment as tenet is unique because, when viewed comprehensively, it is recognized as an integral element required for the actualization of all other tenets within CPE. Although…

This dissertation describes the experience of a group of international school teachers engaging in a cooperative inquiry exploring the influence of mindfulness-based social-emotional learning (MBSEL) practices on their personal and professional lives. The current reality for educators is one of systemic stress and burnout, with teachers working…

This research seeks to better understand the attitudes and dispositions of advanced-level English Language Arts students toward the activities of academic research and writing, and to explore the ways that critical pedagogies focused on authentic inquiry and composition interact with these attitudes. The project draws upon research in student…

Novice teachers benefit from individualized and cohort mentoring to help them successfully navigate student teaching and the first years of independent teaching. However, schools are experiencing a rise in attrition rates post-pandemic, especially in math and science. Mentoring, goal setting, and community-building are deemed important for…

How might teacher educators build a reflective and supportive community of practice with pre-service teachers? How might a visual (intermedia) journaling practice support critical and reflective thinking? How might an arts-based intermedia approach to analysis inform teacher educator pedagogical methods? These questions evolved and emerged…

This action research dissertation provides an overview of inquiry based learning in online general chemistry course. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many science course have been converted to an online format. In order to increase student learning and attitudes in online chemistry class, two inquiry based learning activities were developed and…

Schools are becoming increasingly diverse; yet, most elementary teachers are White, middle-class females (NCES, 2021; Urrieta, 2009). Principals are charged with support all students' literacy instruction, not just those whose cultural background aligns with school leaders and teaching staff. In this study, an elementary principal designed a…

The aim of this action research study is to link research to action in order to meet individual learner needs through the creation of collaborative inquiry based teams that seek to provide equitable learning experiences through differentiated instructional practices. Key findings include the results of the primary goal of this study, which was…

This dissertation is an autoethnographic poetic illness narrative based on the author's year-long ordeal with unrelenting undertreated chronic pain. The project is grounded in the epistemological tradition of Black Feminist Thought and presented in alignment with the emergent methodological paradigm of critical arts-based inquiry. The purpose of…

Recent reforms in science education call for efforts to engage students in authentic and sustained science practices. In order to engage students in authentic science practices, students need to enact epistemic agency over the processes of inquiry in line with how knowledge is constructed and practiced in the real world. A critical research…

Mentor teachers (MTs) play a key role in a teacher candidate's (TC) learning to teach and teaching a TC to become a teacher is complex work. While there has been some scholarship that indicates MTs benefit from collective inquiry into and examination of their mentoring practice, there is minimum attention to engaging MTs in deliberate activity…

This dissertation was a case study of student perceptions in two history classrooms in a large suburban high school. In each classroom examined for this study the teacher was committed to using social studies inquiry and mobile technology in their instruction. Students were also expected to complete assignments and conduct inquiry with mobile…

African American males with disabilities meet challenges in K-12 public education and higher education. Educational practices often focus on a deficit interpretation of the abilities of African American males with disabilities. Educational stakeholders who do not reflect their layered identities of race, gender, ability, and socioeconomic status…

Cross-community collaboration which expands community members' interaction to a larger social scale plays a crucial role in increasing information exchange and extending inquiry learning. This dissertation uses a design-based research approach which aims at testing a multi-level emergence design in multiple learning communities. This design serves…