The value of higher education, and particularly the four-year undergraduate venture influenced from the liberal arts tradition, is largely framed around the impact it has on a broad range of skills and dispositions that serve to enhance human flourishing. Employers and society more broadly can benefit from individuals who are committed to careful…

Mindsets have been gaining popularity recently in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). There have been studies exploring language mindsets in relation to emotions such as anxiety and fear of failure (e.g., Lou & Noels, 2017), anxiety, rejection sensitivity, contact avoidance, and willingness to interact (e.g., Lou & Noels,…

Education is a moral enterprise, and higher education has the accountability to produce skilled learners with cognitive, psychological, and social-emotional competences. Formal and informal approaches of character education increase in demand. On the one hand, students should be guided to gain character strength and moral compass to confront the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of social media, specifically Twitter, as a way for women in higher education to connect with one another. Seven women who developed a specific hashtag were interviewed in a semi-structured initial process followed by a reflective follow up. These interviews were transcribed, coded, and sent to the…

Black women have a unique process in forming their identities, because of the subordinated status of both their racial and gender identity. Black women in America have urged American society at large to understand the complexity and multidimensionality of the Black woman identity, due to issues of inequality being addressed through a single axis…

This qualitative case study was created to explore with experienced online adjunct faculty in higher education their perceptions of the ways they learned to stay competent within their discipline to continue to be proficient in their online instruction. Their experience teaching online ranged from five to 17 years and all participants taught…

The field of study abroad for language learning has drawn extensively on related fields such as applied linguistics and psychology to conceptualize learners' experiences, which then informs how practitioners go about designing programs for those learners. Research has encouraged practitioners to increase learners' access to the target language…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), as an emerging educational innovation in the field of online education, successfully garnered attention from the academic community since 2012. Studies in MOOCs primarily focused on learner experiences and insights, context and impact as well as design. Little attention was placed on MOOC instructors. This…

The presence of first-generation college students (FGCS) continues to grow in post-secondary education. However, their success rates have not kept the same pace. Only 27% of first-generation college students earn degrees within four years (Whitley et al., 2018). The purpose of this research study was to co-create supports with participants and…

Using the Compassionate Music Teaching (CMT) framework as a lens, in this study I explored the ways that teachers of adults learning recreationally in music lessons may align their teaching approaches to learners' adult-specific needs. Adult education scholars have accentuated the need for facilitators of adult learning to consider adult learners'…

This study explores the transformative and healing experiences of doctoral students enrolled in the first fully online Indigenous Health Ph.D. program at the University of North Dakota. The research aims to understand the unique experiences and supports influencing the success of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in this program. The…

Despite the massive influx of new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion roles created across the public and private sectors since 2020, there remains a glaring gap in research in this critical area. While existing research showcases the disparities that systems of oppression created for Black women, what's missing is research providing actionable…

Today's globally-recognized servant leadership philosophy was born from a series of essays written by Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s. In his manifesto, Greenleaf underscored how through the precedence of a desire to serve and then to lead, servant leaders are motivated to help meet the needs of others. Researchers identify various dimensions and…

This mixed-methods research project investigated how active-duty Marines used social media sites to engage in self-directed professional development and personal support activities in response to their military identities and experiences. Quantitative data was collected through surveys with 200 active-duty Marines. Survey results were further…

This longitudinal narrative inquiry explores the influences on a first-year elementary teacher's mathematics-related teacher identity, employing a community of practice lens. Identity is a complex concept. In this study, identity is viewed as socially constructed through new experiences. These social interactions can be seen as an individual…