Professional staff, non-faculty employees who support the work of faculty and students, are one of the fastest-growing segments in the higher education workforce (Nadler et al., 2010; Mousavizadeh, 2021). Despite their expertise in a myriad of functional areas on a college campus, staff are not privileged as participants in the shared governance…

This qualitative case study examined changes resulting from implementing a democratic strategic planning process and leadership characteristics that influence organizational change. The study's research questions are explored through the lens of Kotter's (2019) 8 Accelerators and 4 Change Principles. Purposeful sampling was used to select the case…

In this dissertation, the researcher examined teachers' and students' discourses through a social constructionist framing of democratic education to understand how they disrupted or maintained traditional schooling discourses. Data were generated during four consecutive days of video and audio recording of teachers' and students' discourses. Other…

The American democracy is experiencing strain from the erosion of democratic norms and its political, judicial, social, and economic institutions. In short, the American democracy shows signs of democratic deconsolidation. Community colleges are higher education institutions that help consolidate the U.S. democracy by representing democratic…

The purpose of this self-study was to examine my enactment of 3S Understanding, a holistic, democratic and inquiry-based curriculum theory, in a university-based, English-to-speakers-of-other-languages (ESOL) writing course grounded in Subject Learning, Self Learning, and Social Learning. Through disciplined reflective inquiry and collaboration…

This qualitative, phenomenological study examined the experiences of public high school social studies teachers in 11 U.S. states in teaching democratic principles in their classes since the 2016 presidential election. The study utilized semi-structured interview questions and inductive analysis to assess teacher experiences, including instances…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe the perceptions of participants of PeaceJam towards personal and collective power, service learning, social justice and democratic education as examined through participant observations, interviews, focus groups, artifacts, and documents of individuals engaging with the non-profit…

Scholars like Foa and Mounk (2016) have demonstrated that democracy is feared to be in decline in the United States, especially amongst younger generations. This research study identified lessons learned about building democratic values from community engaged and politically engaged U.S. college students and detected differences in perceptions of…

The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative study was to explore how curriculum specialists in middle leadership positions perceive their use of democratic leadership to build teachers' leadership capacity across high schools within one Midwestern public school district. The key democratic leadership practices that guided this study include…

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…

Ongoing worldwide crises have imposed profound challenges on school leaders. Principals face increasing pressure to understand and address the multifaceted needs of their communities. However, traditional paradigms often isolate principals by emphasizing individualism, patriarchy, and management, thus maintaining separation between school leaders…

This dissertation project explores the research question of whether or not legislators in democracies act on their own genuine pro-trade preferences. For several decades, the International Political Economy literature has been dominated by an assumption that legislators, particularly in democracies, are merely conduits for the preferences of…

John Dewey (1916) asserted that deliberate and systematic educational systems provide capacity to all members of society in order to solve problems and is the foundation for participatory democratic education (Harbour, 2015). Learning is also a social process that allows people to live purposefully. The goal of this qualitative, narrative inquiry…

Global learning is among the declared 21st century learning outcomes of higher education deemed essential for meeting the challenges and opportunities of the global world. Since global learning is "a framing theme for college student learning" (Schneider, 2015, para. 3; Kinzie et al., 2017, para. 2), it is important to find ways to make…

Since the beginning of public education in the United States, there has been a strong tradition of viewing schools as the mechanism for preparing young people for their role as citizens in a democratic society. Moreover, citizenship education has held a foundational place in social studies classrooms. However, despite this central focus of social…