This dissertation investigated the relationship between students and teachers in the context of writing pedagogical practices and writing curriculum. This study sought to extend the understanding of classroom relationships, specifically centered around writing instruction. Three dyads of teachers and students were observed as they interacted and…

Adaptive tutoring systems often model student knowledge in ways that break away from a "one size fits all" approach to learning. Nonetheless, the strengths of these systems can often be limited, as knowledge representations are not easily interpreted by teachers, which make these systems difficult to integrate into pedagogical practices.…

Scripted/narrowed curricula are tangled in the webs of school reforms and standardization. Teachers are experiencing a monumental challenge: the deprofessionalization of their roles as educators. I sought teachers' understandings of how scripted/narrowed curricula impact their curriculum autonomy, specifically, their professional responsibility…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to collect data from 18 published augmented reality researchers to determine their perceptions on: (a) how augmented reality will influence high school education in the future; (b) how augmented reality will impact curriculum and instruction, taking into account specific content areas (e.g., science,…

In this self-study, I propose a curriculum fragment methodology to work toward a greater understanding of the boundaries (Herdandez-Saca et al., 2023) between special education and disability studies that strengthens both teacher education and disability studies in education (DSE). Specifically, I engage in critical reflection on my teaching…

School administrators are key components in improving educational experiences for ELL students with disabilities. However, no studies have assessed how administrators perceive equitable school experiences for ELL students with disabilities in the Pacific Northwest. This qualitative study included semistructured interviews with 12 school…

The fast development and spread of artificial intelligence (AI) in the education field is prompting educational stakeholders to study how new AI technology will influence teaching and learning. The problem this basic qualitative study will address is the lack of teacher knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI) due to limited pedagogy, which is…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how high school marching band instructors described extra-musical life skills teaching strategies in Northern California within the Western Band Association (WBA) organizational circuit. Theoretical foundations of this study were social emotional learning (SEL) based on the seminal…

Teacher agency has been a burgeoning topic of research in education and music education. In education research, professional agency has been associated with the influence of policy, teacher demographics, teacher beliefs, professional developments, and teaching environments. In music education, music teacher professional agency is a music teacher's…

As teachers engage with what is taught, rather than a sense of the distribution of inert knowledge, there can be a feeling that the "what" is moving and adapting with them. This is especially true when teachers are working with topics like anti-Black racism. The what being taught, or the curriculum-as-a-whole has been analyzed by cutting…

Democratic engagement and socially just leadership education are emergent approaches to community engagement and leadership education. Three critical and timely tensions set the stage for this study: tensions between higher education's exclusionary roots and public purpose; tensions between leadership education's neoliberal foundations and social…

This qualitative instrumental case study examines the practices, curriculum, and experiences of teacher educators and White preservice teachers at one credential program in NorCal through the frameworks of White Racial Identity Development and Critical Pedagogy. This study examined five teaching constructs: policy, pedagogy, curriculum, discourse,…

A national preschool company is using the Ascend Curriculum to help prepare students for kindergarten. Yet the curriculum currently has no school readiness outcome data. Because of curricula's critical role, schools should investigate their curriculum's effect upon students' outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was…

Sixty-eight percent of fourth-grade public school students in the United States performed below the National Assessment of Educational Progress proficient level on the 2022 reading assessment, yet Massachusetts fourth-grade students demonstrated better reading outcomes. The problem addressed through this study was a lack of knowledge regarding the…

This dissertation outlines a comprehensive research endeavor focused on the history of elementary literacy instruction in the Kansas City Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) from 1990 until 2022. The research methodology combines historical analysis of artifacts, archives, and oral histories to answer the overarching research question, "What is the…