This paper examines the relation between the nature of updates in training curricula and graduates' skills and wages. Using vocational education and training (VET) curriculum texts as data, we apply natural language processing methods to identify the nature of changes in curriculum updates based on before-after comparisons of the skills the…

This paper addresses the urgent reality of the environmental crisis, underscoring its irreversible nature and the critical need for transformative action. It explores the complex intersections of capitalism, consumer culture, and climate justice, highlighting the profound societal challenges these forces create. Through case studies of two…

This three-manuscript dissertation in practice used improvement science as the methodological approach of disciplined inquiry into a problem of practice--the discrepancy of male and female participation in engineering design-based (EDB) courses and clubs in Starr School District. Manuscript 1 centered around diagnosing the problem and delved into…

Care is something we expect educators to demonstrate towards their students, but are they themselves being taught the importance of care in education and prepared to enact it in their classrooms? The existing literature on care and care theory in education is limited, but shows a link between care and student success; many educators also point to…

The purpose of this study was to understand how secondary mathematics teachers in underserved communities learned to teach online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used three different methods of data collection: surveys, critical incident questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The survey sample consisted of 51 participants, with 20…

This ethnographic dissertation research project focuses on a digital storytelling workshop called Food/Stories which took place in collaboration with Black Yield Institute in Spring of 2023. The Food/Stories workshop is the case study that I used to explore the effectiveness of Collaborative Visual Storytelling, a methodological approach that…

To increase student completion, community college leaders have focused on the implementation and sustainability of organizational change efforts, particularly guided pathways, since 2015. Although researchers have studied many different change efforts and types of change in higher education, the focus of this research was on describing guided…

In this Dissertation in Practice (DIP), the lived experiences of professional women who have chosen to leave their jobs in higher education in Indiana are explored. The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study is to communicate the essence of their lived experiences with leadership development in Indiana higher education. The aim is to…

Worldwide, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has emerged as a valid and reliable benchmark for assessing students' performance and for gaining significant influence over educational policy and decision-making. Since 2001, Qatar has engaged in massive educational reform, with high expectations for improving students'…

This pioneering study investigates the transformative shift in the nature of education during the Neolithic revolution, utilising Göbekli Tepe's role as an archaic open school that attested to this change. This exploration is underpinned by the premise that "if education is a process of acculturation, its origins must be sought in the…

To emphasize to learners how factors outside individual control impact health, scholars introduced the concept of structural competency. Structural competency refers to the development of analytical skills that reveal the larger societal context beyond the patient-clinician interaction that shapes health outcomes. The growing adoption of…

Higher education institutions are facing a challenging operating environment as enrollment declines pressure revenue, inflation pressures budgets, endowment earnings remain volatile, and concerns that fewer Americans see the value of post-secondary education threaten institutions' financial viability. Policymakers and Boards rely on financial…

This qualitative narrative study shares the lived experiences of formerly incarcerated women, their reintegration into the community, and their journey to and through college. The eight participants span between 25 and 64 years of age, have spent varying lengths of time incarcerated, and are now either in college or recent graduates of both public…

This study assesses the role a teacher-led social studies group played in the evolution of three teachers' professional biographies over the course of seven years. It uses a conceptual framework based on Priestley, Biesta and Robinson's (2015) theory of teacher agency to explore the ecological relationships between professional biography, the…

The high rates of premature contract termination (PCT) in vocational education and training (VET) programs have led to an increasing number of studies examining the reasons why adolescents drop out. Since adolescents' trajectories after a PCT are quite diverse, a thorough assessment of different "dropout directions" is called for.…