This paper represents our collective engagements and productive struggles with queer pedagogical-methodological (im)possibilities across a constellation of educational contexts. Following in the footsteps of queer theorists-pedagogues before us, we approach queerness as a horizon, a unique opportunity to experiment, take risks, explore new forms…

Transgender/gender diverse students report experiences of feeling unsafe in school due to their gender identity and expression (Greytak, Kosciw, & Boesen, 2013). School support personnel (e.g., school psychologists, counselors, and social workers) are well positioned to collaborate with stakeholders to promote a safe and supportive environment…

Student retention is a problem that continues to challenge American colleges and universities, especially two-year technical colleges. Students are enrolling in two-year colleges, but they are not persisting to graduation. The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between students' initial enrollment goals, their feeling of school…

Principals implement a variety of strategies to improve the quality of instruction within their school buildings. These strategies can range from teacher development to professional learning communities to teacher evaluation systems to various ways to provide feedback to teachers on the quality of instruction. Working in our nation's schools to…

This dissertation study reports on an IRB-approved qualitative study of ten students who took class-assigned writing and moved it beyond the curriculum, I examine the curricular and extracurricular contexts that drove students to voluntarily develop projects that involve writing. The findings I share in this dissertation are based on interviews…

Metacognition, an awareness of one's own cognitive processes in learning, is a crucial component of self-regulatory behavior that facilitates successful language learning. Therefore, the current study sought to find out the role of different types of goals in participants' metacognitive awareness. A total of 118 university students enrolled in an…

In this study, I centered the experiences of individuals who identify as polyamorous or ethically non-monogamous. My purpose was to explore how polyamorous students at one institution made meaning of their polyamorous identity and how they described the relationship between the postsecondary environment and their meaning-making. The philosophical…

This qualitative descriptive study explored what human resource leaders understood to be high-impact practices in the acquisition, development, and retention of quality teaching talent for nonurban public school districts in Texas. This study answered three research questions that included what human resource leaders identify as high-impact…

This study sought to validate the Self-Efficacy in Study Abroad Scale (SESAS), determine whether there were differences in students' goals and self-efficacy in cross-cultural competence, resilience, study behaviors, international mindedness, and problem solving prior to and upon return from studying abroad, and understand undergraduate students'…

There is an emerging need to better understand how orientation practices and strategies affect a sense of belonging for new faculty members, especially the growing number of adjunct faculty hired at community colleges throughout the U.S. each year. Establishing an orientation process for newcomers helps to ensure that new members are better able…

A clear set of student performance goals can serve as the central driver of not only a state's accountability system, but also the entire education system. Well-articulated goals serve numerous critical purposes, including clarifying the state's aspirations and priorities for its students, schools, and the future of the state more broadly;…

This study addresses critical gaps in English proficiency assessments, particularly for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, by focusing on the foundational aspect of needs analysis in designing a platform to assist EFL students in preparation for real English proficiency tests. The existing tests, such as TOEFL and IELTS, often fail to…

Mary L. Rasmussen is a sociologist of education with expertise in studies of gender and sexuality. This angle of scrutiny (Harwood 2006) is her point of departure in conversations about schooling and religion. From this angle, Rasmussen believes that schooling and religion can be incredibly powerful in creating community. She is also clear that…

This paper is a reply to Mary L. Rasumussen's paper, "Critical Exchange: Religion and Schooling: What Should Their Relationship Be?" In this paper, Julian Stern makes three claims: (1) the need for a messy conversation; (2) the need to include "whole" people in schools; and (3) the need to consider existentially significant…

The goal of physical education is to instill physical literacy within students. As an important motivation framework, achievement goal theory has been widely used to understand and explain students' cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. In this paper, we reviewed studies examining achievement goals and outcomes in K-12 physical education…