The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the perceptions of school administrators regarding the benefits of the virtual teacher hiring processes adopted when in-person interviews were impossible due to COVID-19. Specifically, this research investigated the ways that teacher hiring changed during school closures and the extent to…

Engaging in discussions of texts featuring diverse expressions of bilingualism is important at the elementary level to move away from historical conceptions of bilingualism focused on language proficiency and instead embrace a translanguaging view focused on linguistic practices. To successfully engage in these conversations, understanding…

With the increased workplace demand for STEM specialists, and the trend in capable students opting out of higher levels of secondary mathematics, the psychological influences on mathematics subject choice are important issues to explore. Expectancy-value theory is used to examine the factors influencing such achievement choices. In the present…

Fanfiction is a valid form of literacy expression often overlooked in academic settings. This study used a mixed-methods approach to understand the facets of fanfiction reading and writing in adults. Survey data was first collected to understand who are the adults choosing to read and write fanfiction. Based on survey results, individual cases…

General education programs often offer students a choice among various courses to fulfill a specific requirement. However, the extent to which these courses equally enable students to achieve the intended learning outcomes can vary, potentially giving some students an unintended advantage. This article evaluates whether students are inadvertently…

Secondary teachers use digital resources for teaching, yet little is known about how they find, evaluate, organize, and share these resources. This basic qualitative study was conducted to fill the gap and examine the experiences and practices of secondary educators in curating digital resources. Findings on how teachers manage digital…

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the ways in which the selection of educational materials results in implications that impact access to these materials. This is necessary considering the evolving nature of educational materials offered by traditional publishers, and the increase in the availability of online learning materials, among…

Diversity and inclusion at research one Predominantly White Institutions continues to be an investment for administrators in higher education. To increase faculty diversity at any research university, there must be multiple innovative strategies to recruit diverse applicants while also reducing bias in the search process. One such initiative, the…

In this dissertation, I explore inequalities in higher education and at the intersection of higher education and the labor market. Chapter 1 explores the employment effects of strengthening anti-discrimination laws for minority workers in the context of two recent changes to the Missouri Humans Rights Act. First, I use data from Missouri's circuit…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to examine the possible relationships between co-curricular scheduling models, student choice of co-curricular courses, and scores on the English Language Arts and mathematics Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) scale for students in sixth, seventh, and eighth…

In the United States with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)'s emphasis on learning science while doing science, laboratory activities in the secondary school chemistry continues to be an important component of a strong curriculum. Laboratory equipment and consumable materials create a unique expense which chemistry teachers and schools…

Utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a conceptual framework, this study examines student perception of faculty of color in academia from student professor preference. Using an experimental design to test the effect of race on selection of faculty with whom to take a course, we showed student participants two types of pairings of faculty: first,…

This convergent mixed-methods study investigated what urban fourth-grade students self-reported for navigating multimodal science books. Reported strategies included general reading processes, clarifying understanding, selecting portions to read, choosing an order to read the text, and interpreting the process in the text. A range of metacognitive…

The COVID-19 epidemic is affecting all areas of life, including the training activities of universities around the world. Therefore, the online learning method is an effective method in the present time and is used by many universities. However, not all training institutions have sufficient conditions, resources, and experience to carry out online…

Policies and programs intended to increase the racial diversity of the US teaching population have failed to make meaningful inroads in an overwhelmingly white profession despite extensive research demonstrating the need for more teachers of color. This article explores teacher diversity efforts in one non-urban district through a qualitative case…