Student enrollment in higher education is becoming increasingly diverse. Despite this increase in diversity, students from traditionally marginalized groups such as students of color or from low-income families continue to be underrepresented. A lack of cultural understanding and the presence of biases and prejudices are considered a root cause of…

Everything is designed. From the fork you hold in your hand, to the car you drive, to the public transportation you use, to the mechanisms for justice within a society, to the process of designing itself. Embedded in these designs are the assumptions that underlie the design methods and toolkits used in the design process. In practice, design…

School violence has been increasing in recent decades. Approximately 77% of public schools reported one or more crime incidents during the school year, amounting to 1.4 million incidents or 29 incidents per 1,000 students (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022). Education leaders continue to explore strategies to improve school safety and circumvent…

Many contemporary leadership models fall short on delivering desired results and improving the effectiveness of leadership in the real world. Apostolic leadership seeks to integrate Eastern and Western approaches to leadership. Built on Hebraic wisdom, the experiences of the early apostles of the Christian church, and non-Western perspectives on…

Western science largely controls what is learned, funded, studied, and published, yet few scientists are aware of the particular ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions that form the foundation of the Western scientific worldview. Western science is not universal, acultural, or objective, and only the privilege and power of…

This project seeks to chronicle the history of Hindu students at American colleges and universities. When did these students, identified as Hindu, begin to appear on campuses? How did they navigate their faith identities while in this context? How did they see themselves and how were they perceived by others? What was their relationship with…

As the body of research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has grown over the last few decades, a gap between how individuals and families experience and cope with such adversities in Western societies versus in non-Western communities has also widened. Moreover, many studies conducted in low/middle-income countries on ACEs have looked at…

This autoethnographic case study examines the localization of the literature circle (LCs) methodology within a Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) pedagogy course, focusing on the training of prospective educators. Most Chinese K-12 EFL teachers, having graduated as English majors, frequently lack exposure to innovative, student-centered…

This dissertation examines how Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Traditional Knowledge (TK) systems interact with Western Scientific Knowledge (WSK) in contemporary efforts to reintroduce traditional agro ecosystems and build transnational collaborations among Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). I focus on the role of education, broadly…

The problem that this study addressed was the lack of a survey tool to adequately assess the impact of practicing capoeira, including for People of Color who are male adults attending undergraduate and graduate universities. Thus, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the value and utility of a new survey designed to enhance research and…

In this study the experiences of Chinese higher education (HE) faculty members at American universities were analyzed to determine whether their experiences were consistent with China's HE reform policy for faculty development, part of China's world-class university reform. Berry's acculturation theory and China's HE reform directives provided the…

This ethnographically informed study explored how 32 former participants in the Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) Program in rural Uganda used learning from the program in their daily lives, the perceived outcomes of applying the practices learned in the program, and the meanings that literacy held for participants. Learning domains included…

Theological education has not widely utilized the PBL approach and there is very little research examining the utility of PBL in theological education. Lectures are currently the preferred teaching method in theological education, however, it is recognized that there is a need for a more holistic approach. As theological education is used in both…

Students at the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) are eligible to concurrently study both Western medicine, as reflected by the Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND) program, and Eastern medicine, as exhibited by the Master of Science in Oriental Medicine (MSOM) degree program. The dual track is unique in that the dominant Western…

This research illuminated how five first-year teachers described the intercultural development that occurred while student teaching in a non-Western culture, and the value that those experiences abroad brought to their classrooms during their first year of teaching. The focus was to capture the essence of the experiences abroad as perceived and…