Linguistic diversity is an integral thread in the tapestry of America. As such researchers how linguistic differences across ethnoracial groups can be understood as resources rather than problems. The aim of this study was to examine ideologies concerning race/ethnicity and language in the discourse of educational language policies that guide…

State funding for higher education is one of the most pressing issues facing both institutions and policymakers in 2022. Colorado has seen significant declines in the amount of state funding per student over the past two decades, resulting in increases in student burdens for tuition. Policy discourse analysis through a poststructural and…

This qualitative dissertation critically analyzes proposed and enacted state-level, tuition-free college legislative documents. Taking a three-article approach to the research, this study adds to the recent literature of tuition-free programs focusing on program design characteristics and the inequitable outcomes for students. The first article…

This dissertation considers the social, political, legal, cultural, historical, temporal, and other contextual forces concerning educational access for young people experiencing forms of state custody and surveillance at the intersections of multiple identity markers and inquires into efforts to resist injustices. It also explores educational…

Foucauldian genealogy provides a space to think differently. Through an analysis of policy documents from the field of education and practitioner-oriented publications in the field of art education from 1983 to 2019, this genealogical dissertation traced the emergence of teacher effectiveness as a normalized discourse in educational policy and…

Policies in education ensure that educators and educational leaders are receiving and implementing equitable and adequate educational services and opportunities to all students. Some of these policies are proactive and others are reactive. In 2018, Judge Singleton decided in the "Yazzie-Martinez v. NM" (2018) court case the State of NM…

Drawing upon feminist poststructural policy analysis, this study revealed dominant discourses of professionalism and the marketplace, working in tandem with a discourse of affirmation, to produce images of a regulated and vulnerable dietetics profession(al) who is striving to create and maintain perceptions of competence and expertise within a…

Beginning in April 2020, the Japanese government continued its English education language policy reform by introducing foreign language instruction as an academic subject for Grade 5 and Grade 6 students. The purpose of this study was to investigate how stakeholders across the education system have contended with policy creation, policy…

Previous policy analysis of the Top Ten Percent Plan (TTPP) has focused on the outcomes of the policy (e.g., Card & Krueger, 2005; Kain & O'Brien, 2004; Long, 2004), answering questions such as whether the TTPP led to increased or decreased access for particular groups. Absent from the literature is an analysis of the policy-change process…

This investigation focuses upon the nation of Finland. Described by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs ("This is Finland", n.d.) as a parliamentary democracy, Finland is a free-market economy with a young but progressive history. While the nation's scores on the 2015 triennial PISA continue to indicate above average performance on all three…

High-risk drinking is an endemic health and safety issue for college campuses in the United States (U.S.). While public health officials have recommended various models for campus alcohol prevention efforts, in 2008 a group of college presidents recommended a controversial strategy: reconsidering the U.S. minimum legal drinking age (MLDA). The…

Many colleges and universities have established student learning outcomes for diversity education as a part of their broad undergraduate education program. These education goals, developed for assessment purposes or other policies, reflect a range of possible diversity and multicultural learning purposes. The emphasis on some purposes, and the…

This study interrogates how federal policy discursively shapes Latino educational opportunity and equity. The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (WHIEEH) represents the pre-eminent federal discourse on Latino educational opportunity, and sets the parameters by which institutions are able to be informed and respond to…

Of the numerous public policy debates currently taking place throughout the United States, perhaps no issue receives more attention than the persistence of "chronically" low-performing public schools. As of 2009, approximately 5,000 schools--5% of the nation's total--qualified as chronically low performing (Duncan, 2009d). Certainly,…

This dissertation studies the creation and implementation of service learning policy and the implications of these programs for democratic citizenship and political participation. The project focuses on service learning centers at three universities in the Los Angeles area, framing the creation and implementation of these campus-wide centers as an…