Child maltreatment is a widespread issue across the United States, directly impacting young children's learning and behavior. Yet, variability found in early education pre-service training does not include focus on this topic. Early education teachers often experience low wages, long work hours, and a lack of support to meet the needs of young…

In this study, I use theories of poststructuralism, feminist new materialism, posthumanism, and affect to investigate and theorize my experiences as a classroom teacher entangled with dominant discourses related to gender, social class, neoliberalism, and postfeminism. This dissertation is non-traditional in structure, as it addresses teacher…

Collaboration is an underused teaching strategy despite its benefits and the call for curriculums worldwide to increase its use. To aid in discovering why the strategy is underused, more information was needed about the implementation of collaboration in the mathematics classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate mathematics teachers'…

Students' social and emotional learning (SEL) skills have been linked to positive behavioral and academic outcomes for students. Responsive Classroom is an evidence-based SEL program that promotes academic, social, and emotional growth of students through the implementation of student-centered practices designed to create engaging and nurturing…

The resolution of educational disparities for Hispanic students is a continual endeavor embedded deeply in historical, societal, and educational norms. Without deliberate structural and systematic initiatives, these educational inequities cannot be eliminated. This interpretive qualitative study delved into how New York state suburban,…

With the roll-out of the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education framework (2018) for New York State schools, teachers have been given guidelines for creating a welcoming and affirming classroom environment. Therefore, it is critical to focus on how teachers envision and redesign culturally responsive physical classroom spaces. This grounded…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) demand that science educators shift from traditional to NGSS teaching and learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the change process of shifting from traditional one-dimensional teaching to NGSS three-dimensional teaching and learning. A survey was sent to all science…

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) practices are becoming more and more necessary to overcome the discrepancies in cultural representation in today's schools. The most effective learning settings mirror the students' values, experiences, and cultures. School administrators are also tasked with monitoring, assisting, and evaluating teachers'…

Early childhood educators have struggled to teach children with challenging behaviors, which can lead to suspension and expulsion. Although early childhood educators have limited professional development training in challenging behaviors, they are often not equipped to teach children with challenging behaviors. There is little research on how…

This study delved into the perceptions of educators regarding the impact of student trauma on teachers and how they coped within classroom settings. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 selected candidates in rural West Texas School Districts, the research aimed to shed light on the need for enhanced teacher training programs. The findings…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to represent the professional lives and work of four experienced music educators who teach in multiple music classroom contexts. The central question developed for this study was: How do participants describe the key elements in their professional lives and work in multiple music classroom contexts?…

Classroom engagement is an excellent indicator of students' learning, grades, achievement, test scores, retention, and graduation. However, classroom engagement is heavily dependent on teacher-student interactions. Teachers' role in engaging students in the lesson learned is critical. Using a free and convenient tool, such as teachers' humor, can…

School-related sedentary behaviors are associated with adverse health outcomes and poor academic achievement of elementary students. Dynamic seats, where chairs allow movement, are an intervention that increases physical activity without interrupting academic instruction. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore teachers'…

This dissertation examined the relationship between elementary school science teachers' epistemic orientation and classroom learning environment type--generative or replicative--they established for science knowledge development. Drawing on the theory of epistemological development and understanding, the influence of teacher epistemic beliefs on…

The need to improve school instruction quality has led the education stakeholders to discover practical approaches to achieving that goal. This research aimed at establishing the impact of single-sex classrooms on K-12 female academic achievement. The objectives include establishing the perceptions of teachers on how single-sex female classrooms…