Informed by post-humanism, my research examines the entanglement of more-than-human forces at the Bread Loaf School of English. The oldest professional development institution of its kind, the Bread Loaf School of English has invited teachers to spend six-weeks each summer studying at its mountain campus since the summer of 1920. When the physical…

The purpose of this project was to explore current methods of onboarding, mentoring, and training district lay leaders in The United Methodist Church in an attempt to provide a new model based on situated learning (legitimate peripheral participation) for doing this work in the changing environment of the church and culture. The author surveyed…

This qualitative phenomenological study researched the perceptions of job embedded professional development (JEPD) facilitated by instructional coaches at a secondary high school in southeast Texas. Five research questions guided the study of ten teacher's JEPD perceptions experienced the previous school year either weekly/biweekly and whole day.…

The heightened use of "safe space" in educational settings has been the subject of polarizing contemporary controversy and protested by conservative and progressive camps alike, raising concerns about whether "safe space" remains an educationally viable concept. In response to claims that safety is conflated with…

Nurses need to possess clinical reasoning skills to provide safe, quality patient care. The aim of nursing education is to provide nursing students with opportunities to grow and develop into safe and functional entry-level nurses. Research has shown new graduates enter clinical practice unprepared and unable to use necessary clinical reasoning…

This dissertation describes the literate practices and layered technological strategies writers utilize in creating professional documents, particularly the literate activities, interaction with technologies and multimodal texts of senior writers in a workplace where many types of texts are produced and distributed as participants plan, manage,…

While deep disciplinary knowledge will be required to develop next-generation clean energy technologies, the skills to work across disciplines and with diverse stakeholders will also be required. Providing authentic and explicit opportunities for graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to engage in the broader…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore cooperating teachers' perceptions of a year-long teaching residency program at a four-year college located within the Midwest. This exploration is critical considering that residency programs appear to show promise and continue to grow in number and influence, still limited scholarly research…

Implementing ambitious teaching practices is a student-led teaching style that emphasizes being student-centered instead of a teacher-centered teaching approach. This qualitative descriptive study looks at how special education teachers describe their use of authentic activities, social context, and classroom culture in the implementation of…

Many students who enroll in online universities will never graduate. Attrition in higher education is accepted and expected; however, in exclusively online programs, it is prolific, with more than 80% of those students who begin an online program leaving before graduating. It is well known in the academic literature that isolation is related to…

In the context of rapidly advancing technologies, the significance of noncognitive skills is increasingly recognized by academia and industry as essential qualities in the era of knowledge economy. However, the study of Chinese students' noncognitive skills development during their college period in China was scarce. This research adopts a case…

This study utilizes Wesleyan models of discipleship to design a model of resourcing churches to enable church planting and the creation of ecclesial communities by training identified laity for future leadership roles in a Methodist setting. This intervention allows for a small but formative sample of the means needed to recruit, equip, and form…

Radiology Informatics is a niche field with few formal educational programs to prepare learners for a successful career in the field. Employees often join the Radiology Informatics department at the University of New Mexico Hospitals without the skills required to complete their daily duties efficiently, accurately, and self-sufficiently. They are…

Scholars in the field of Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy have called for more work on the intersections of race and technologies (Banks, 2006, 2011; Gilyard & Banks, 2018; Haas, 2018; A. H. Powell, 2007). There is a particular need for research on how Black Americans engage with digital technologies beyond school settings. This project…

As graduates have transitioned into the workforce, employers have complained that these younger employees lack the soft skills that are needed to be successful in the workforce. Soft skills are personal traits and skills that employers seek in employees. Internship programs can be used to develop soft skills. Few qualitative studies have looked at…