This three-study dissertation explored: "How are higher education stakeholders radically (re)imagining liberatory, abolitionist, decolonizing, and queering futures within U.S. higher education and beyond?" With diverse cohorts of Collaborators, I examined this question through a bricolage methodology (Hammersley, 2008), which blended the…

Historically, the field of program evaluation has been dominated by middle class White practitioners often lacking diversity in race, gender, and cultural perspectives (Fitzpatrick, Sanders, & Worthen, 2014). Recent years, however, have seen a concerted effort to promote diversity among evaluators. According to Hopson and Rodriguez (2014),…

Pellow's (2018) four pillars of Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ) provided a framework to address environmental justice challenges in this study of the San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition's (SDUSC) Climate Ambassador Program. I used participatory action research to collect data from six participants in a key-informant interview,…

Student underachievement in math and social-emotional difficulties represent two urgent problems in our schools which have only been exacerbated since COVID-19. The reciprocal relationship between academic challenges and social-emotional problems, along with limited time and resources, suggest that a combined academic and growth mindset…

Impending climate crises, profound wealth inequality and unprecedented vulnerability to global catastrophe at the hands of technology make working towards justice a necessity, and a desperate one at that. However, engaging in work towards justice requires deconstructing the dominant narratives and norms that restrict what actions are permissible…

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the lived experiences of queer Latino men in the community college borderlands and how community college spaces shape the activation and deactivation of their identities. Twenty-one queer Latino men enrolled in San Diego County community colleges provided insight into the role that interlocking…

In the ever-evolving landscape of higher education research, the intersection of performance-based funding policy, export control laws, and research endeavors presents a complex web of challenges and opportunities. This dissertation explores this intricate interplay through two distinct yet interconnected lenses. The first paper, a law review…

Using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (BEST) and intersectionality, this mixed methods study explored the complex experiences of Black men who face racial and gender-based challenges in a racially systemic employment arena, particularly those with a prior history of incarceration (PHI). The researcher interviewed Black men with PHI…

There is growing concern about the pervasive underrepresentation of qualified Black women superintendents, despite women significantly outnumbering men in public education. This study sought to shed light on the lived experiences of Black women superintendents in North Carolina. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to gain…

This research delves into the critical and often underexplored nexus of race and elementary reading instruction and assessment, with a focus on teacher discourse. While the significance of addressing racial equity in education is widely acknowledged, the ways elementary teachers engage in discussions about race within the context of reading…

While gender-based achievement gaps have been widely explored in academic motivation research, gender-related variables such as sexual orientation and other-gender similarity radically shift understandings of these disparities. Recent research has shown that gay men have a notable bachelor's degree attainment advantage over heterosexual men while…

Latina students exhibit high levels of academic resilience evidenced by increased rates of educational attainment despite social, cultural, and structural barriers. Although research has identified factors that positively and negatively impact their academic resilience, little attention has been given to the influence of identity. To address this…

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the effects of stereotype threat on women's construction of gender and mathematical identities, and to examine how these various cognitive negotiations may affect their mathematical reasoning on challenging definite integral applications. This was a qualitative study that primarily utilized the…

Immigrant parents are being challenged in several different ways to maintain their heritage language (HL) in the United States. Majority White, affluent communities are one of the many complex language ecologies that exist across the variety of U.S. societies. The research setting of this study, Southern California, is one of the wealthiest…

Building on the existing concepts of multiliteracies and of translanguaging repertoires, I propose the concept of transliteracy repertoires--or the idea that individuals' idiolects do not naturally delineate between named languages or named modes. I theorize that these transliteracy repertoires: (1) are deeply connected with individuals'…