This dissertation sought to explore the way preservice teachers grappled with race/ism and citizenship during a social studies methods class. Relying on the theoretical framework of racial civic literacy, this instrumental case study examines six white preservice teachers as they confront issues of race/ism in a young adult fiction novel and…

General education curricula are constantly evolving. Though the initial purpose was to prepare graduates for the broad requirements of active citizenship, the impetus has shifted since the early 20th century to center the impacts of globalization and to help students understand and address rapid change. General education curricula are currently…

Despite steady growth in national diversity, women of color continue to struggle in accessing higher education and persisting to graduation in STEM fields. Recent shifts in the national narrative from a deficit-based approach towards a strength-based approach to understanding women of color in academic settings, illuminate cultural and social…

Students with school refusal behavior (SRB) often present complex cases that include variations of internalizing (anxiety and depression) and externalizing (opposition and defiance) mental health struggles. Historically, incongruent classification methods and terminology have hindered the progress of effectively or consistently assessing SRB.…

Black women are severely underrepresented in faculty careers. To begin moving towards action in eradicating the policies and practices used against Black women to keep them from successfully obtaining faculty roles, we must first look to challenges and opportunities faced during doctoral training that negatively impact the faculty pipeline. As…

The importance of culturally responsive pedagogy has gained prominence in the last few decades. Educational leaders have a significant impact on student outcomes and, as such, it is important that leaders are culturally responsive to meet student needs. The purpose of this study was to use qualitative case study methodology to gain a better…

Black men in America have a long-standing, strained relationship with authority in this country. History has shown time and again that racism has allowed authority figures to abuse their power and for some this subjugation causes Black men to be resistant to authority all together. In the field of higher education, limited research exists…

The landscape of higher education research and practice on Queers of Color (QoC) is increasingly offering possibilities of research paradigms and frameworks that best articulate and capture the unique experiences of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. And, as research on queer Latinx/a/o people in higher education increases, researchers and…

The purpose of this study was to develop an approach to increasing antiracist actions among white college students. The study was developed within the framework of critical race theory (CRT) with a methodology grounded in participatory action research (PAR). In this study, a team of seven white college students and an academic researcher worked…

Latina students face numerous barriers within the financial aid application process that impact the success rates of their higher education attainment. The financial aid application process is initiated through the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Unfortunately, the FAFSA, as it is currently written is not…

This dissertation further investigates predominant issues in the educational pipeline, that is, both the higher education and K-12 context. In particular, I first attempt to answer why post-secondary enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities has increased among all students, but racial/ethnic and gender inequalities persist in the college…

For almost a decade, the teaching profession has seen a drastic shortage of Black educators. The closing of many schools in urban areas has helped reduce the number of Black teachers in the profession. Also, evaluative protocols and rubrics that measure effective teaching practices harbor biased lenses that impact how Black educators maintain…

Based on an ethnographic study at a middle school in a Midwestern city, this article examines the difficulty in creating anti-racist educational spaces, even in schools with a stated desire to do so. The school's curriculum was mainly based on teachers' abstract ideas of social justice and was not grounded in students' everyday realities. It…

Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is one of the simplest classroom management strategies to implement and considered an evidence-based practice. Unfortunately, teachers underuse BSP and deliver more reprimands to students in their classrooms. Secondary students receive the highest rates of reprimands and exclusionary discipline (i.e., office…

Many educators in California are unaware of just how harmful out of school suspensions can be. When suspended students are barred from attending school, more often than not, the rule broken was some form of minor misconduct. This update of "Lost Instruction Time in California Schools" demonstrates that despite the important efforts by…