This dissertation explores, in three papers, the experiences of college readiness practitioners (CRPs), or practitioners that support college readiness in out of school time spaces. In the first paper, I argue for a relational approach to college readiness grounded in the key tenets of relational sociology. I explain why a relational perspective…

"Just Innovation" problematizes taken-for-granted assumptions about innovation in education as "just" about new devices like laptops, computers, or smart-phones. It also aims to open conceptual space for considering what is "just," or fair in twenty-first century contexts by investigating the cultural politics of…

The relationship between learning and labor has long been a topic of concern for sociologists of education. In this dissertation, I conduct an ethnography of open learning in the United States following the 2008 economic crisis and argue that a new style of learning is emerging amidst changes in the labor market. I call that new style of learning…

Traditional models of student success in higher education focus on access and retention of students, and fall short in their ability to explain the nuanced dynamics of identity formation that occurs for underrepresented STEM students. Drawing on Multicontextual Theory, I examine how academic environments offer non-traditional ways of developing an…

Leadership for American higher education is increasingly receiving more attention due to the rapidly changing academic world of the twenty-first century. Academic leadership development, thus, warrants serious study and lively discourse. The emergence of music as a fully organized discipline in the twentieth century, and the development of a…

Community colleges have changed notably over the past quarter century, as have the demographics and educational trajectories of the growing proportion of traditional-age college students who attend them at some point along their transition to adulthood. This dissertation extends the literature on how institutional attendance intersects with change…

This study examined the institution-building efforts of a leading charter school management organization, Achievement First. The study used a conceptual framework derived from institutional theory in sociology that offers two competing policy contexts in which charter schools and charter management organizations operate--a bureaucratic versus…

Working between bibliometrics and theories in the sociology of knowledge, this research demonstrates a method for aggregating and studying the content of citations in order to both quantitatively capture and qualitatively describe significant patterns in the uses of prominent writing theorists and their books over time. Realized specifically as a…

Within the context of schools, it can be argued that trust is a complex absolute necessity if students are to be successful learners; if educators are to be successful facilitators and champions of learning; if the staff is to be successful providers of educational support; if parents, guardians, and families are to be successful partners with the…

This study is about access for low-income students at an elite boarding school. As "feeder schools" to elite colleges and universities, elite boarding schools play a significant role in determining which students will be in the upper class in America; however, little is known about the history of low-income students at these schools. The…

This qualitative case study examined South Korean elementary teachers' beliefs about the goals of multicultural education in relation to practices and contexts within social studies instruction. The first research question examined the distinguishing features of South Korean elementary teachers' beliefs about the goals of multicultural education.…

International mathematics assessments have established students in East Asia as among the best in the world and their U.S. counterparts as mediocre. What is not clear is why this "achievement gap" exists. The last major study to address this question, Stevenson and Stigler's (1992) "The Learning Gap," was published prior to…

Research regarding homeschooled students and their transition to college has been focused on two distinct areas: their academic performance and success integrating into a university community. The purpose of this study was to analyze the transition experiences of students who were homeschooled prior to attendance at a residential university campus…

In 2009 of the 9,793 undergraduates attending the University of Wyoming during the fall semester, 3,453 of them were first generation college students. The cultural assimilation often associated with college for first generation college students is often experienced by not only the student, but also the family left at home. This research serves as…

W.E.B. Du Bois offered an educational theory that sought to contextualize the role of schools and their relevance to social justice. Responding to the social-historical malaise of African American subordination, he proposed that schools could provide the impetus towards cultural, economic, and political empowerment. Moreover, his theory of…