The COVID-19 global pandemic had a profound impact on all industries globally, and significantly affected K-12 education. The impact was so severe that schools were forced to close abruptly, therefore, requiring teachers to find alternative learning modalities for their students in the wake of the crisis. Teachers, students, parents, and school…

The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine institutional change initiatives in STEM and to understand the impact of engaging with a specific change strategy on a biochemistry educator's instructional practice. Institutional change initiatives involve executing an intentional strategy to influence teaching practices within a specific…

One accreditation-mandated outcome of social work education is to increase students' understanding of social injustice and prepare them to work to reduce such injustices. This has been called critical consciousness (CC). This study explored the relationship between mindfulness as a pedagogical tool to support CC development in social work…

Since the inception of public education in the United States, members of the public have fought for control over what is taught to students and how concepts are presented. Public education lies continually in the crosshairs of politics and polemics related to issues ranging from prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance to language teaching and the…

This descriptive case study aimed to understand the perception and needs of Michigan public high school science teachers during the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and subsequent preparedness to teach the content found in the new curriculum. A questionnaire was distributed to science teachers state-wide, with twenty…

This dissertation explored Beninese English teachers' prior experience in writing in English and its implications for teaching writing in English in the Benin Republic. Grounded in a social constructionist paradigm, this dissertation used a qualitative research approach with initial survey, autobiographical narrative essay, and interviews to…

This qualitative case study examined communication strategies and interactional resources that junior and senior high school Spanish teachers use more often in their oral activities in central Pennsylvania public schools. A mismatch in students' knowledge and use of Spanish motivated the investigation. Twelve Spanish teachers were the purposely…

The problem addressed by this study was that educators struggle with knowing which authentic literacy instructional practices and strategies were effective for improving student engagement and achievement levels in the middle grades. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to examine the instructional strategies related…

Until recently, many early childhood educators, particularly those in nontraditional preschool spaces, leaned on a color-evasive approach to their work, largely ignoring systemic racism and bias, claiming love and acceptance of all children in their care. While well-intentioned, these practices left young children to construct their own…

Drawing upon Weick's (1995) theory of sensemaking, this qualitative study described how high school social studies teachers make meaning of culturally responsive sustaining education (CR-SE) as outlined in New York State's (NYS) CR-SE framework. This study also examined how that sensemaking is reflected in social studies teachers' curricular and…

Due to their mostly normative and legitimatory nature, public policies at large and education policies in particular are liable to frame perceived problems in the social domain as seen through the policy-making elite's perspective and seek to advance solutions to them. On the surface, the staged process of policy design, implementation, and…

Responsible Management Education (RME) seeks to prepare students to address social and ecological crises via going beyond a traditional narrow understanding of shareholder wealth maximization. Past research has shown mixed results regarding the effectiveness of RME courses to change students' subsequent behavior. We examine whether taking an RME…

This article adopts Geertz's view of cultural analysis and embodiment theory, creating a theoretical lens to explore how participatory drama can support students in their understanding of the culture connoted in Tang poetry -- a significant cultural heritage of China. A case study was conducted on fourth-grade (10-11 years old) primary school…

This study examines the persuasive English language in MasterClass's video advertisements. An analysis framework was formed using twenty-four techniques to identify persuasive language, and the purposes of using different techniques in one hundred and forty-one MasterClass's video scripts. The analysis included identifying the primary argument of…

This article presents a theoretically grounded methodological approach to investigate the interplay between language teacher cognition and critical language teacher identity development. To answer the question as to what social, cultural, historical, and political aspects lead teachers to position themselves as language teachers for social…