This dissertation is composed of three articles analyzing the use of sensory rooms in schools to support student need as well as its use in other settings. Sensory rooms are rooms equipped with a variety of resources, strategies, and equipment to support an individual in de-escalation. They have been implemented in various settings including…

The purpose of the study is to understand how Latina community college students perceive and experience academic advising that has been redesigned within the guided pathways framework. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is used to frame the research study from a racialized lens and to problematize the race-neutral framework of guided pathways. I utilized…

A narrative inquiry was conducted to explore the stories of students of Color with low-socioeconomic status perceptions of predominantly White institutions through their college experiences. This narrative inquiry explored if those experiences influenced their identity as college students, and if so, in what ways. Transition theory and the…

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the factors that support and hinder reform of career and technical education in Maine. The single case study design examined the experiences of eleven participants connected to a single Career and Technical Education (CTE) Regional School in Maine. Based upon the lived experiences at a single site,…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and describe how a realistic and evidence-based simulation training on clinical skills impacts nursing students' proficiency, self-assessment of proficiency, confidence, enjoyment, and anxiety. The study explored the impacts this simulation training program had on FSU's nursing students enrolled in 2nd and…

This qualitative research study aimed to examine how radical healing justice practices could be implemented in traditional 9-12 school settings to assist in the healing of Black girls. Intersectional theory and healing justice were used as the conceptual frameworks for this study. The instrument for this study was a case study in which a…

This book addresses how peer group mentoring in higher education can contribute to the development of supportive and collaborative working environments for faculty staff. It draws on an extensive empirical study examining how group based peer-mentoring methods are implemented and experimented within four different academic communities at one…

The purpose of the phenomenological transformative study (Mertens, 2010) is to understand Black teachers' perceptions of students in predominantly Black, low-income schools. Seven Black teachers took part in this qualitative study in individual virtual interviews. Five of the participants were interviewed in a virtual focus group interview. The…

The Latino population is a rapidly growing group in California, yet the rates of Latino student athletes competing at the NCAA Division I level is maintaining an alarmingly low percentage. The discrepancy in these numbers continues to have a substantial impact on the college completion rate of Latino students. The problem addressed in this study…

This dissertation qualitatively studied the social interactions students with IDD had in Inclusive Postsecondary Education (IPSE) programs. Through a DSE lens, I analyzed the experiences of 15 current and former IPSE students to determine the phenomena of social interaction while at IPSE. Methods included focus groups, participant observations,…

The demographics of our nation's public schools continue to diversify. Less than 50% of our nation's public school students are white, however, less than 25% percent of superintendents identify as People of Color. To that end, retention of diverse leaders specifically, Black Women across all sectors is in decline. The mission of The Surge…

There have been few, if any, metacognitive studies conducted on what community college students think about their learning when augmented reality technology is introduced to the learning environment. This qualitative collective case study looked at how emerging technologies, specifically augmented reality, within a community college classroom…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of online learning in a rural school district post-COVID-19. The study investigated students', parents', and teachers' experiences to gain insights into online learning as pandemic-related restrictions eased. Students' work-related attitudes and academic progress were also examined to…

White men who enslaved people of African descent and wrote the U.S. Constitution never imagined Blackwomen as persons who would become educated citizens. Acknowledgments and legal interpretations to affirm Blackwomen's personhood are absent from the romanticized document. We argue that in academia the intersecting contract is imposed on…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the characteristics of playful literacies in case study research examining digital games in secondary English classrooms. It analyzes how educators use play as a resource for meaning-making and the impacts of play on student learning. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a keyword search in relevant…