Realist methodologies have been increasingly advocated for the investigation of complex social issues. Public health programs, such as those designed to prevent adolescent risk behavior, are typically considered complex. In conducting a realist review of the empirical literature relating to such programs, we encountered several challenges,…

This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence student engagement in mathematics classes. It explored the relationship among emotional, organizational, and instructional support and the impacts of characteristics of teacher, such as years of experience, and sexual orientation, on student engagement. Data were taken from the Consortium…

Nationwide, women woodland owners are increasingly taking on the primary decision-making role for their land. In Wisconsin and beyond, most existing landowner outreach efforts target mixed-gender audiences. We explored how facilitation techniques can be incorporated into a women-centric workshop to increase women landowners' confidence, knowledge,…

Educational researchers and school-based practitioners are increasingly infusing Motivational Interviewing (MI) into new and existing intervention protocols to provide support to students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. To date, however, the majority of the research in this area has focused on feasibility of implementation rather…

Educational attainment is an important determinant of one's success. Yet, absenteeism among adolescents jeopardizes chances of achieving their educational goals. Absenteeism can lead to an increasing disinterest in school and the chance of dropping out in school. Thus, this study determined how parental involvement affects absenteeism among 60…

Parents and families of Title I schools in a large urban school district expressed communication as one of the barriers to their engagement. This occurred after Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources were increased district wide. The barrier generated a problem of practice for the Title I office because parent engagement was one…

In this dissertation, I argue that there is value in treating students as implementors during processes of educational innovation. I lay the groundwork for this argument through a review of literature comparing best practices in the implementation of innovations in higher education with best practices from active learning, blended learning, and…

A collaborative and inclusive Individualized Education Program (IEP) results in higher achievement for students, therefore, there is a societal need to better understand parent perspectives regarding this process. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how parents on an IEP team describe the influence of the four…

Free, public education is a foundation of this country's democracy. Improving levels of student achievement is a critical aspiration to the development of a citizenry that is competitive in future global markets. This study was created with the intent of determining if traditional formats used for professional development have an impact on student…

The idea of what "rural" means and the influence of this setting is very complex. The impact on the resources and services available to the family, school district, and community goes beyond geographic barriers. Despite there being known problems with service provision for children with hearing loss in rural areas, little is being done…

Off-task activity is ubiquitous in classrooms, yet little understood. Building on recent work that illustrates the utility of off-task activity to disrupt relations of power among students, this article explores the potential functions of off-task participation during collaborative mathematics problem-solving. We examined 56 instances of off-task…

Off-task activity is ubiquitous in classrooms, yet little understood. Building on recent work that illustrates the utility of off-task activity to disrupt relations of power among students, this article explores the potential functions of off-task participation during collaborative mathematics problem-solving. We examined 56 instances of off-task…

Despite efforts, education has failed to provide meaningful solutions to the global inequality crisis. In response to the crisis, education policymakers remain committed to human capital approaches among other flawed policy paradigms. This paper advocates for explicit teaching about labor unionism in schools as a tool for enabling young people to…

This paper uses micropolitical perspectives to analyze the ability of a prominent but under-studied reform, student based budgeting (SBB), to substantially engage teachers and parents in decision-making processes at the school level. We test this particular strand of SBB's theory of action on an in-depth study of a "critical case" of…

This study examines the general question of how classroom characteristics are linked with differences among students in civic competence, which is seen to be an important basis for political inequality. A resource-mobilisation account of youth civic competence is presented, and this is tested using hierarchical linear modelling and International…