Schools and teachers must create optimal instructional learning environments for increasingly diverse student populations. Achieving such a learning environment requires teacher educators and teachers to recognize the voices and ways of knowing for students with dis/abilities who must be heard and accorded legitimacy. The purpose of this case…

Going beyond teaching knowledge to develop students' competencies challenges contemporary universities because acquiring knowledge is insufficient without the capacity to implement it in real environments. Complex thinking is among the most valued competencies. It allows people to reason to solve problems, integrating their scientific, systemic,…

This dissertation critically examines grading practices within schools, tracing the evolution from traditional to modern approaches and highlighting the social dimensions and debates surrounding grading. Through a mixed-methods study spanning three empirical chapters, it explores students' and teachers' perceptions of grading practices, the impact…

Since the COVID-19 crisis manifested, it has drastically changed educational landscapes worldwide, with the Philippines grappling with digital disparities exacerbating inequality. Current studies mainly explored the immediate impact of forced remote learning on academic performance and practical skills. However, there was an underexplored area…

Students' sense of school belonging is associated with healthier psychological functioning and improved academic outcomes. Currently, most research on school belonging has been conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, resulting in school belonging practices and interventions largely biased towards Western school…

To better understand inequality in higher education, we qualitatively explore students' fit in college using three domains based in theories by Bourdieu, Du Bois, and Bonilla-Silva: academic, social, and racial. We demonstrate the interconnected nature of these three domains, how students' habitus shift over time, and students' agency as they…

Teachers must robustly understand how race and racism operate both in and out of the classroom to structure inequity. However, the existence of a deeply entrenched majoritarian mindset remains a principal obstacle to preparing such teachers. In this empirical paper, the author draws on the critical race theory construct of "majoritarian…

There is a significant gap in the number of women who go into college as computer science majors and decide to pursue the field in the workforce. There are challenges present for female students since the start of their education that their male counterparts do not face, which ultimately contributes to this gender gap. Such challenges include a…

Academicians, administrators, and policymakers in New Orleans have pointed toward a disproportionate academic and life-cycle outcome where Black American males are particularly disadvantaged as compared to White students. An often-cited cause of these disproportionate outcomes for Black male students is inequality and mistreatment in schools.…

Oklahoma's universal pre-K (UPK) program has long been a classic "man bites dog" story. In 1998, Oklahoma became the second state in the U.S. to offer free pre-K to all four-year-olds. Coupled with growing evidence of the critical importance of the early years in brain synapse formation, results like Tulsa's have encouraged state and…

In the pursuit of a just and equitable society, the role of education is vital. One of the key determinants of this success lies in the quality of leadership within educational institutions. The study aims to analyze the multifaceted impact of leadership characteristics, bias mitigation (BM) efforts, and community engagement (CE) on academic…

Previous research on student learning outcomes has begun to advocate for the inclusion of student researchers. To fully grasp undergraduate student perspectives of learning objectives, this study was co-created and conducted by undergraduate student researchers, allowing for an inclusive, equity-centered research model to guide our findings. We…

Classrooms today are more ethnically and linguistically diverse. Unfortunately, students of color demonstrate a history of marginalized educational inequities (Williamson et al., 2007). These marginalized educational inequities impact academic achievement across all content areas especially literacy, math, and science. To improve the academic…

Trinity Access (TA) is a post-primary initiative, in the authors' university, that offers programmes for students, teachers and schools in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. The aims of the programme include helping students develop the knowledge, networks and skills needed to make informed decisions about future educational opportunities, and…

During the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector implemented online teaching using a variety of online learning platforms (OLPs). Pakistan, a developing country, was not fully ready for this sudden move from offline to online teaching methods. Despite the effectiveness of online platforms in academic learning, concerns related…