For my dissertation requirement, I conducted two research projects, collaborating with my dissertation advisor on both projects. In my first project, I employed a phenomenology methodology to investigate how teachers' professional needs, practices, and motivations align with the goals of the professional learning community to enhance teacher…

Online professional learning experiences can address K¬--12 computing teachers' need for content knowledge and professional communities. However, it can be difficult to design effective, large-scale experiences that reach broader audiences while addressing individual teachers' professional needs. We facilitated a two-week online professional…

Challenges in teacher staffing continue to persist in America's public schools, with districts across the country reporting more vacant positions than in previous years. Nationally, teacher turnover appears to be increasing, while the supply of teachers has declined. On a recent University of Rhode Island survey, one third of Rhode Islanders say…

The literature contained a gap related to a lack of studies of veteran teachers' perspectives on the leadership practices of their principals that promote teacher retention in Title I schools. The problem for investigation was the need to understand how veteran teachers of Title I campuses narrate their experiences with principal leadership…

New Zealand schools are increasingly digitally infused with computer applications and tools underpinning education and influencing teachers' work. Teachers entering the profession need to develop professional digital competence and while existing frameworks can guide initial teacher education (ITE), they might not be appropriate because student…

This paper examines factors associated with the retention and mobility of teachers of colour in one state in the USA, with a special focus on beginning and novice teachers. We examine year-by-year retention and mobility rates for four time periods, beginning in 2015-16. We use logistic regression models to investigate the relationship between…

This study approaches the idea of teachers' commitment to stay at their job by considering their perceptions of efforts by leadership to support working conditions in schools. Data from 85,000 teachers from the 2016 school year in North Carolina were used in the mediation analysis. Results show that administrative effort had a direct effect on…

It is not new for mother-scholars to face challenges in balancing work and life demands; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has redefined the meaning of mother-scholars as they maneuver working from home, caring for their dependents, and maintaining their research productivity. The following manuscript is a collection of autoethnographic studies of…

This study aims to determine the topic-specific nature of two experienced chemistry teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the topics of interactions between chemical species and states of matter. The teachers' PCK on these topics was investigated in terms of the following components: orientations toward science teaching (OST), knowledge…

The aim of this study was to comparatively examine in-service physical education teachers' and preservice physical education teachers' levels of belief in education. This study, which was carried out with the participation of physical education teachers (n=266) employed in various cities of Turkey, as well as first grade (n=73) and fourth grade…

This paper investigates how academics in the current global higher education system -- which often prioritises metrics of research activity and income generation over rich conceptualisation of transformative teaching -- can sustain identities that encompass deep care for teaching. This is a significant area that has been little researched,…

The educational acts of the 21st century have affected public education for twenty years. Their roots historically go back to the 1960s. The original goal was to create an equitable education for children of color so that the achievement gap and dropout rate would be eliminated. Although well intended, these acts may have spawned many unintended…

This qualitative study uses the traditions of interpretive phenomenological analysis to identify the effective instructional practices of educators that address the social, emotional and academic achievement of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The guiding question that fuels the study is: What are the perceived effective…

This case study examines how two Professional Development School partners, J.D. Lever Elementary School and the University of South Carolina Aiken, identify and ultimately select mentor teachers to work with teacher candidates. This article traces the evolution of this process, starting with selections premised mainly on established personal…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the extent to which instructional leaders providing principal feedback to teachers with five or more years of teaching experience influence student high value-added growth in urban Ohio middle schools, specifically in regard to their Black students. It examined statistical information between…