This dissertation evaluates the effects of three development interventions on female education in Afghanistan: (1) effects of foreign military withdrawal on females' demand for higher education; (2) impacts of PEZAK, a community-driven university entrance preparation, on student enrollment and performance in tertiary education; and (3) long-term…

This research seeks to explore how the metal arts are taught to women in Kuwait in an undergraduate setting, making the call for the use of feminist pedagogy when teaching the metal arts to women in Kuwait. This research is achieved using the qualitative methodology of analytic autoethnography. The theoretical framework is a feminist lens bridging…

This dissertation examined the contribution of higher education to the understanding and practice of women's empowerment, as perceived by adult Afghan men and women living in the city of Kabul who attended universities either in or out of Afghanistan. While studying the concept of women's empowerment, this work defined empowerment through its core…

This dissertation investigates the historical and socio-cultural dynamics of Korean international students in American higher education from 1945 to 2020. It explores the local motivations and global trajectories that have shaped patterns of student mobility over the decades, focusing on how social structures and changes influence individual and…

Despite the population in British Columbia, Canada becoming increasingly diverse, there is still a lack of representation of women of colour within K-12 educational leadership roles. Research questions were: What intersectional barriers are contributing to the lack of women of colour in K-12 educational leadership roles such as school…

As women secondary school principals navigate their career paths and manage their work-life roles, they encounter varied obstacles and barriers requiring them to shift, pause, restart and maneuver to reach their goals. The purpose of this qualitative study is to capture an understanding of how women secondary school principals in British Columbia,…

This dissertation comprises essays focused on women's development issues. Specifically, it discusses minimum marriageable age policy, early marriage, and female education in Nigeria. Essay 1 discusses the factors that affect state adoption of the minimum marriageable age policy in the 2003 Child Rights Act (CRA), a policy aimed at eliminating…

The goal of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how younger generations of Southeast Asian Americans, and particularly Vietnamese American women in Southern California, are navigating their gender, ethnicity, and bicultural identities that ultimately resulted in hyper selection of pharmaceutical science as a career path. Literature…

This is a narrative inquiry study that presented types of women's activism during and after the conflict in Aceh, Indonesia (1976-2005). The study sought to explain how divergent women's activism becomes possible against the backdrop of this conflict and how the establishment of peace alters the patterns of their activism. Women's activism here…

Higher education in Nigeria is provided by institutions, such as the universities, colleges, and polytechnics in conjunction with the monotechnic (accredited by federal, state, and private institutions specialized in providing instructions on a single scientific or technical subjects, such as agriculture and related disciplines). Supervisory…

Increasing women's participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has become a policy goal for many countries. This dissertation focuses on the origin and measurement of gender gaps in student achievement and self-perceived ability, as well as their potential role in predicting college career choices in STEM. The first…

The purpose of this qualitative multiple participant case study was to identify the influence of social media on Saudi graduate students who are active social media users. Social media have been influencing Saudi students differently than those in other socio-cultural contexts due to the uniqueness of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in terms of…

This participatory and grounded theory ethnography focuses on mobile learning practices of a group of adult Romani women and their families. Framed through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and technofeminism, these practices challenge existing integration programs with their binary approach as insufficient to analyze informal…

Researchers have suggested that faculty motivation influences profitability of academic programs. The problem researched in this mixed method study was the motivational factors that reduce faculty member effectiveness in improving the profitability of their universities' academic programs. Based on Maslow's theory of needs, the purpose of the…

Using qualitative research methods, this dissertation closely examines discourses and representations of disability from the cinematic images of disabled characters and their families in two South Korean films, "Oasis" (C. Lee, 2002) and "Malaton" (Y. Jung, 2005) as well as from the responses of nineteen Korean graduate…