All 50 states have licensing standards for professional counselors and all require a minimum of a graduate-level degree in counseling or a related field. For most graduate-level counseling programs, in addition to coursework, students must be exposed to a certain number of hours face-to-face with clients in a clinical setting. Typically, that…

Purpose: The purpose of this ethnographic research was to study the culture and experiences of elementary administrators who were coached in the blended coaching model. This study used a qualitative ethnographic design to explore the context and processes of the coaching experience of elementary administrators that enhanced transformational…

This study applies transformational leadership theory practices, specifically inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way and enabling others to act to examine the purposeful ways in which principals work to build the next generation of teacher leaders in response to the dearth of K-12 principals. The purpose of this study was to discover how one…

Despite the educational advancements as the world becomes more integrated, the problem of disparity in assessment of academic value still lingers with the criteria for validating foreign students' credentials. This can leave these students unable to further their education at different universities or even different departments within the same…

This qualitative phenomenological study examined the occupational downgrading experiences of six adult immigrants. Occupational downgrading happens when an individual's occupation post immigration does not match his or her education credentials and previous professional experiences. The goal was to make sense of the participants' narratives…

The purpose of this case study was to investigate what impact the child development associate (CDA) credential has on the performance of childcare providers in the 6 CDA competency areas. Each participant was interviewed using 9 open-ended questions regarding their experience. Over the past few years, a number of studies have examined the effects…

Workers are remaining in the labor force at older ages and despite their desire to work, those without jobs face unprecedented durations of unemployment. Many of the unemployed lack current skills for jobs in demand and need to either upgrade their skills or be trained for a new occupation to become reemployed. An aging workforce combined with…

This descriptive study compares the entry-level pedagogical content knowledge of single subject mathematics credential candidates based on career status and undergraduate majors. Career changers from science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) fields are compared to first career candidates to see if they bring different skills and knowledge to…

The importance of music improvisation can be seen in its inclusion in the National Standards for Music Education and the accreditation standards for the National Association of Schools of Music. The purpose of this study was to examine the pedagogical techniques and materials of improvisation instructors who do not hold academic credentials. The…

More than two dozen North Dakota K-12 schools begin each academic year with a school counselor designate because of state mandates for services in each building and a lack of qualified applicants to provide these services. School counselor designates are individuals who hold a North Dakota professional educator's license, have completed a minimum…

What is the meaning of Korean women's career-leaving experience? To answer this question, this study adopted a hermeneutic phenomenology approach. My intention was to search for the deeper meaning of Korean women's career-leaving experience from their perspective. Ten Korean women who had left their careers due to their domestic roles in their…

Educational credentials are clearly linked to economic success, but the reasons for this link are not clear. Common theoretical approaches provide explanations but lack direct employer perspectives on credentials' meaning and the context in which employers make sense of credentials. In this study, I used an alternative perspective based in Meyer's…

The education system in California currently faces three major challenges--teacher shortage, lack of diversity in the teacher population in terms of gender and ethnicity, and a need for more effective teachers. After school programs have the potential of addressing all these challenges in a cost-effective manner. However, for these programs to…

Issues surrounding female participation in graduate theological education are complex and multifaceted. One important problem concerning female theological students is the lack of research exploring the experiences and unique challenges faced by conservative evangelical female Master of Divinity (M. Div.) students as they pursue academic and…

The General Educational Development (GED[R]) Tests, established in 1945, helped determine soldiers' high school qualifications for the workforce, as they returned home from WWII. Because many soldiers dropped out of school to join the military, achieving a certain score on the test was a way for them to demonstrate that they had attained high…