The United States (U.S.) is in the midst of a paradigm shift in who creates news. It is widely known that the internet has in the past few decades displaced television and print newspapers as the primary medium where news is consumed. However, the past two decades have also seen a shift in "who" is communicating the news. People…

The purpose of this dissertation study was to identify the nature of 23, 4th grade children's talk in social justice awareness circles about topics representative of DEI issues. Omitted in prior research on student talk is the "situatedness" of the classroom discussion and how local context, school climate, media coverage of sensitive…

Mathematics is central to human activity and hence to education. Although the usefulness and importance of mathematics are unquestioned, many students find mathematics difficult, uninteresting, and dry. Based on my personal experience as a mathematics teacher, teacher educator, and researcher, I have witnessed numerous students expressing their…

This study explored the relevancy of media literacy as college students obtained their news and information from social media sites. The past several decades have experienced a transformation from single-sourced, trusted news in newspapers and television to a multi-sourced, unchecked, and growing social media presence. News shapes social and…

Black male teachers in PK-12 make up less than 2% of the teacher workforce with an undetermined representation in elementary education. Although there have been efforts to increase their representation in the field, there remains a lack of Black males entering the classroom as teachers. In addition, there has been limited research examining…

This dissertation explored the transformative impact of integrating the pedagogical philosophies of Fred Rogers and LeVar Burton into virtual learning environments amid the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Adopting an autoethnographic approach reflected the author's journey as an educator striving to create…

The current study aims to contribute to knowledge by examining the effects of high school and college relative standings on the self-esteem and academic self-concepts of Texas college students. Texas is a special context for high school students where class rank is especially salient. Currently, high school graduates within the top 6% of their…

This qualitative case study examines the intersection of the legacy of Mister Fred Rogers as a master relationship-builder, and his impact on relationship-building between educators and students in contemporary classrooms. The timeless relationship-building practices of Fred Rogers, as well as the ways educators are extending Mister Rogers's…

This dissertation investigates the availability of higher educational opportunities in the Santa Clara Valley for mixed blood American Indian males in the Santa Clara Valley from lower middle class and middle-class backgrounds born between the early 1980's and early 1990's who enrolled in community college courses but did not graduate. The study…

The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution…

The stereotypes present in popular television shows often become barriers that limit Black women in higher education, influencing the ways in which they experience college campuses, including how they are treated by faculty and peers and how they interact with others in these spaces. This study examined the perspectives of Black women regarding…

This work examines how social media users learn language alongside their progression of becoming active participants in online social spaces. Using an ecolinguistic view, it explores how the process of posting and commenting on Reddit (one of the world's most popular social sites) is both afforded and constrained by the unique sociocultural…

The media is an important source of sexual information for young people, and exposure to media content influences how young people interpret and behave in sexual situations in real life. The media the youth attend to depicts alcohol use and sexual activities together, however, alcohol use is one of the major risk factors of sexual assaults, and…

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) will drive the economy of the West in the future. The competitiveness and strength of the U.S. economy are reliant on a workforce with the skillset necessary to ensure that the nation remains a powerful force in the global economy. As a result, the under-representation of women in STEM is a…

As increasing numbers of foreign language programs have employed multimedia into their curricula, the importance of ways and means to optimize the students' language learning through multimedia has been emphasized. While multimedia with on-screen text in the target language is extensively adopted by foreign language learners, there is no study of…