Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how school leaders in high poverty California Distinguished schools utilize readiness for change strategies, in conjunction with their understanding of their context, to build a grounded theory of the processes and practices which lead to successful change implementation. Conceptual Framework: The…

As the world contends with a global pandemic, climate catastrophes, white supremacy, coloniality, and concurrent genocides my attention splinters. In an act of futurity, or future making, I ask myself: "What is needed to move from this place toward softer, more liberatory futures?" This body of work finds its answer in exploring two…

Engineering education research can benefit from comprehensive tools for assessing student self-concept and its relationship to identity development. This research addresses this gap by introducing a novel framework for evaluating engineering self-concept and exploring its influence on identity status transitions among first-year students. Key…

Because they offer feedback and communicate school administration goals to teachers, instructional coaches are generally seen as leaders. Balka et al. (2010) discovered that instructional coaches can model lessons or team-teach with teachers to achieve teaching goals. Due to its multifaceted nature, instructional coaching can improve teaching…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there has been a change to the scores on the Texas State Peace Officer Licensing Examination over a given time, and if been a so, identify subjects where scores improved or declined. By recognizing stagnation or declination in test scores, interventions can be designed to enhance the adult learning…

This dissertation in practice focused on the use of Motivational Interviewing in the school environment between school staff and families. More specifically, this program evaluation sought to see if the use of Motivational Interviewing by school staff could improve parent participation rates in student attendance improvement conferences (SAICs).…

Student success is an integral part of systemic change research. However, students' lived experiences and voices are often subdued in this programme, leaving the change that occurs to be evaluated upon measures that do not capture a holistic view of the experiences students and their shifting identities during the roll-out of those changes. These…

Some international students live with their aunts and uncles while studying in the United States. Living with aunts and uncles shapes these students' college going experience. However, research about college student family issues has not specifically explored the role and impact of local extended relatives on this student population. The purpose…

The purpose of the study is to examine how professional growth is sustained over time through exploring a teacher's narrative of personal and professional growth. The central question of this dissertation is: What creates sustainable and continuous positive professional change and growth in a teacher's professional life? In this study, I discuss…

Emerging adult learners returning to higher education must balance family, friends, work, community members, and many other responsibilities when they return to school. As higher education institutions struggle to increase enrollments, they can no longer ignore the critical population of students who now understand how returning or beginning…

The purpose of this study is to analyze which behaviors are or are not helpful for debugging when a novice is in a state of unproductive persistence. Further, this project will exploratorily use a variety of analytical techniques -- including association rule mining, process mining, frequent sequence mining, and machine learning-- in order to…

This research study breaks new ground in exploring differences in how managers' reflection patterns, do or do not differ across levels of adult development as delineated by Robert Kegan's Constructive-Developmental Theory. It was a basic qualitative study exploring upper-level managers' thought processes and patterns of reflection in revisiting…

Community Colleges (CCs) have been particularly impacted by a deluge of "development" and "good" leadership frameworks removed from the very communities in which leading remains paramount. A paradigm shift is needed to support current and aspiring CC leaders in a manner that prioritizes the very essence of learning in the…

There is significant disagreement about the Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) designation and how it should function within the overall structure of the athletic department (Smith et al., 2020). The purpose of this policy analysis case study is to fill the gap in research and better understand what people in Missouri who hold the SWA designation do…

The study is a qualitative case study of school board members (SBMs )knowledge of school Mental Health (MH) issues including two points. First, it is unknown to what extent School Board Members are knowledgeable about contemporary MH issues. Second, it is unknown if SBM knowledge of School District Mental Health (SDMH) policy is representative of…