High school graduation and successful entry into post-secondary education or the workforce has been a priority for educational policymakers, career development scholars, and educators for decades. Consensual qualitative research methods were used to analyze 11 education professionals working in high schools with high free and reduced lunch rates…

What should the core purpose of educational wind bands in the United States be? Many music students may not pursue the activity in college (or may not even play a band instrument again after their formal schooling). Musical and artistic values, however, can be applied in creative practice throughout one's life. This dissertation explores what it…

This research examines the reasons why parent(s)/guardian(s) have chosen to enroll their child in a Catholic high school in the New Orleans area. Currently enrollment in Catholic high schools in the area is down post-Hurricane Katrina. This research is a qualitative study utilizing Grounded Theory methodology. An anonymous survey was sent to…

Raising livestock for food production is a unique cultural phenomenon. It has been well documented that showing livestock as part of 4-H contributes to practical skills, knowledge, and life skills. While it is common to view livestock production through skills-based or economic lenses, there are subtle nuances of the phenomenon, social, cultural,…

There is a broad disconnect between the beauty cultivated by disabled communities and the ways in which schools continue to position disability as a problem that resides in the individual student. To shift conceptions of disability in schools, there is a significant need to educate folks about disability history and pride, especially disabled…

The increasing ubiquity of social media use among teenagers has resulted in varied research findings and often contradictory advice from experts. While there is evidence of negative outcomes for excessive use of social networking sites (SNS) by adolescents, there is also evidence of positive benefits of SNS to young people. This study focused on…

Purpose: In contrast to traditional portfolio practices that focus on the individual, this paper aims to reenvision portfolio practices to encompass sociocultural aspects of learning by considering how young makers, both in- and out-of-school, imbue digital cultural practices into the documenting and showcasing of their work, as well as observe…

Teacher connectivity represents a relatively new and exciting construct within school based agricultural education. Existing research identifying a relationship between teacher connectivity and career commitment illuminates the need for additional research on teacher connectivity within school-based agricultural education. Framed using the…

Despite adolescent girls' superior school achievement and high career aspirations, fewer women than men achieve career eminence. Understanding early influences on the development of gifted girls' career-related values and aspirations may help to explain this discrepancy in career outcomes. This article reports findings from a qualitative,…

This article explores the education experiences of Syrian and Iraqi refugee children, specifically girls, enrolled in high schools in Australia, Lebanon and Sweden. Symbolic interactionism frames the analysis of in-depth interviews, demonstrating the adolescent girls' ability to take perspectives on their home environment, school, community and…

As two White, privileged educators and researchers, we have questioned, challenged, and examined how to best operate in diverse classrooms, keeping in mind our joint goals of advancing socially just teaching agendas alongside our desire not to "whitesplain" issues centering on race to students of color. Through narrative case…

This interview study explored the experience of principals as they mediate reforms marked by high-stakes accountability and competition between schools at the intersection of gentrification occurring in their school communities. School principals of high schools within New York City are called to mediate mandated school choice with the continued…

The Action Mapping Project (AMP) is a youth-oriented participatory action project that conducts research and education programs in high schools and middle schools in Tacoma, Washington. AMP uses participatory community mapping to generate new forms of data and conducts educational programs with high school students that center on the use of GIS…

This study examined the potential of a residency/concurrent enrollment program to support rural students that are interested in the field of education. With 17 students in the program, the goals were to make a career in teaching more accessible to rural high school students through concurrent enrollment, to help future teachers solidify their…

The dropout social problem has been the focus of researchers, business and community leaders, and school staffs for decades. Despite possessing significant academic high school capabilities, some gifted students drop out of school. The research problem for this study includes how and why former gifted urban high school students chose to drop out.…