Teaching is a stressful profession that requires individuals to balance their time, resources, and emotions. While many districts have plans in place to support the needs of their new teachers, few resources exist for those individuals who have given the most to the profession--veteran teachers. Attrition in education negatively impacts…

This study explored the letter-writing practices of incarcerated adult students at a facility within the Los Angeles County jail system. The study sought to understand the role that letter writing plays in the lives of these individuals, their unique composition processes and products, their beliefs about themselves and their skills as writers,…

The ability to navigate emerging technologies is necessary for social and economic participation in the world. Research shows that children from privileged households receive the support needed to develop digital literacy skills, while children from families with lower socioeconomic status do not receive this support. It is the responsibility of…

This ethnographically-oriented, multi-year study examined an epistolary writing relationship between third grade students and the teacher's uncle, known to them as Uncle Billy, who, at the time of the study, was corresponding from prison. Taking place within a Reformed Christian school, this study encapsulates the pedagogy of Ms. Thompson, the…

This study was conducted to determine which admission criteria are most commonly utilized in selecting students into sonography programs, and whether a relationship exists between admission criteria and academic success in sonography education. All program directors from CAAHEP-accredited or CAAHEP-accreditation seeking sonography programs were…

The problem addressed in this critical autoethnographic study concerns the lack of higher education opportunities for musicians in the state of Sonora, Mexico and the ways in which that impacts music educators from the region. In particular, I look at the different paths music teachers take to follow their vocation by critically examining my…

The purpose of this systematic, grounded theory study was to explain the educational processes used by homeschooling families of gifted and twice-exceptional children. For this study, educational processes were defined as instructional methods, curriculum, and structure used by homeschooling parents in the academic development of their gifted and…

This dissertation examines the surviving archival evidence from several 19th century prominent West Feliciana families found in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at the LSU libraries in an effort to understand how Louisianans' value and support education. The antebellum period was chosen for study because it was…

Community colleges are an increasingly important entry point into higher education for adults in the United States (21st-Century Commission, 2012). Students often hold diverse opinions on and engage in complex meaning-making around the community college institution (Daiute & Kreniske, 2016; Deil-Amen, 2016). Furthermore, students' varied…

An important institutional and societal dilemma is how to notify people when they are not meeting performance standards, such as in placing people on a probationary status at school or work. A critical and underappreciated aspect of this dilemma, this dissertation suggests, is that people commonly understand themselves to be in relation with…

There has been a proliferation of student loan debt over the past decade. The indebtedness that students incur while attending college reduces their discretionary income once they enter repayment after graduation. For graduates, there is an opportunity cost along with personal and professional life decisions being made based on this debt. For…

The purpose of this study was to identify the frequency and outcomes of Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Office for Civil Rights rulings as a result of complaints initiated by students with disabilities against community colleges from 2016-2018. The secondary purpose of this study was to analyze corresponding Office for Civil…

The purpose of this research was to explore how practicum students respond to receiving supervision letters from their instructor and what aspects of the letters influenced students in their development as counselor trainees. Participants were five master's students enrolled in a mental health practicum course and their instructor. The instructor…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe lived experience during School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) implementation for School Wide Positive Behavior coaches in Pennsylvania public schools. Participants, identified as co-researchers throughout this study, included 11 SWPBS coaches selected from seven…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the needs of parents when discussing alcohol use behavior with their student, related to the notification of a campus conduct code violation by a Dean of Students Office. This study sought to address the research question: What assistance do parents report needing from student conduct professionals to…