This dissertation thesis examines the lived experiences, life stories, and storytelling of five Afro-Caribbean and Latina people, who are all local from the borough of Queens, alumni of New York City's public schools, and since then, became their local public school teachers, classroom practitioners, and local community teachers. We refer to this…

In alignment with strengths-based role strain adaptation models (Bowman, 2013), my dissertation investigates how social psychological strengths that Black and Latinx students bring to predominantly White higher education environments influence their perceptions and behavior in college. Strength-based models (SBM) highlight the importance of…

Latinidad and Blackness are typically conceptualized as individual cultural and ethnoracial identities throughout the United States. Latinidad embraces diverse experiences based on ethnicity, race, geography, dialect, citizenship, food, and more. Despite the rapid population increase of Latinas/os/xs in the United States, especially in higher…

Graduate programs in business and STEM fields face a persistent challenge of recruiting and enrolling domestic Black and Latinx students. As an administrator for one such program, the M.S. in Product Management program, located in the Northeastern United States, I aimed to increase the number of domestic-born Black and Latinx applicants to consist…

This case study highlights the methodological and practical implications of modifying an investigation with community partners to fit an online format. Research interactions took place between November 2020 and June 2021, under the social distancing restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve Latinx parents/caregivers participated in…

The retention and degree attainment rate of men of color (MOC) remain pressing issues, particularly for those attending predominantly White community colleges in the United States. Though 62% of MOC begin their academic journey at a two-year institution, only 25% graduate with a degree or certificate within three years (Hilton et al., 2012; Huerta…

Social studies education over its hundred-year history has often focused on predominantly white and male narratives. This has not only been detrimental to the increasingly diverse population of the U.S., but it has also meant that social studies as a field of scholarship has systematically excluded and marginalized the voices, teaching, and…

Latino children constitute a large and growing segment of the U.S. population. By 2060, it is estimated that they will comprise one-third (32%) of the three-to-four-year-old population. More than four million children enrolled in preschool programs in the United States are dual language learners (DLLs), and more than 75% of Latina/o children over…

A growing number of colleges and universities in the United States offer Spanish classes intended to meet specific needs of heritage speakers. In predominantly White institutions, beyond the language focus, these classes can also provide Latino students with a unique place on campus to strengthen their sense of belonging in ways that might not be…

The 2014-2015 academic year marked the first year that American, preK-12 public school enrollment became majority nonwhite, with Hispanic/Latino as the largest minority. Population shifts have continued to occur, with Latinos now representing 28% of public school students. American public schools are in trouble, with national achievement reaching…

Background: Retaining women and racially minoritized individuals in engineering programs has been a subject of widespread discussion and investigation. While the sense of belonging and its link to retention have been studied based on student characteristics, there is an absence of studies investigating the importance of students' social identities…

This study harnessed the power of testimonio as a methodological approach and method, along with applied critical leadership as a framework to answer the following questions: What were defining aspects of the leadership journeys of four Latina assistant principals that enabled them to get to and thrive in their positions? How did their cultural…

The literacy faculty at a regional, comprehensive university in the southeastern U.S. explored the perceptions of students in their undergraduate and graduate literacy programs--as well as students in contiguous, supported programs--regarding the achievement gaps between Latinx and bi/multilingual students and their White, English-dominant peers.…

Background: Integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education initiatives are becoming an increasingly popular approach to narrow the opportunity gap among underrepresented minority (i.e., Black, Hispanic, and first-generation) students. However, there are limited studies on the impact of exposure to integrated STEM…

In this qualitative narrative study, the stories of 10 Latino men students were used to understand their transfer experiences from a community college to a university. The Hero's Journey conceptual framework was used in this narrative study to understand what motivates and influences Latino men to transfer from a community college to a university.…