An underrepresentation of women from diverse backgrounds in all areas of STEM continues to exist despite the policies, programs, initiatives and legislation aimed at addressing the issue. Providing girls and young women the academic and emotional support they need to pursue and persist in STEM is critical if more women are going to succeed in STEM…

The African American dropout rate and retention rate for college is higher than their Caucasian counterpart which may be because of many issues such as financial, social, medical, and physiological. The problem addressed in this study was: African Americans are not completing their undergraduate degree at the same pace as their Caucasian…

According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA, 2018), at least 4,420,000 children between the ages of 6-12 and 2,454,000 children between the ages of 13-17 participate in outdoor soccer in the United States. Arguably, their coaches have a significant impact on these children's development. The purpose of this study was to…

This mixed methods study explored the lived experiences of first-generation college seniors to develop a deeper understanding of the presence of impostor phenomenon during their college journey. Through a social constructivist lens, this study focused on the lived experiences of first-generation college seniors. This resulted in the understanding…

Education faces a severe crisis when it comes to the ability to staff every classroom with a highly qualified educator (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Ingersoll & May, 2011; Liu & Johnson, 2006). Teachers who have substantial experience and expertise in their field of study are needed for maintaining stability within the education system. They…

This study aimed to investigate and improve the persistence of first-generation college students at a mid-size, private school in the Northeast. Many institutions treat their students equally, thinking that adopting this stance will be equitable. Unfortunately, a blanket approach to student services can sometimes render inequities among groups…

Teacher turnover is a high priority topic within Texas Public Schools. Educator concerns were not being properly addressed, causing annual teacher shortage. The purpose of this single qualitative case study was to investigate educators' perceptions of factors that influence teacher retention and turnover. The central research question for this…

Student-parents face unique postsecondary persistence and completion challenges as they balance raising children with the demands of coursework and possibly employment. To help low-income student-parents earn degrees and credentials, the federal government provides Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grants to institutions of…

The Accelerate Cancer Education (ACE) summer research program at The University of Kansas Cancer Center (KUCC) is a six-week, cancer-focused, summer research experience for high school students from historically marginalized populations in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Cancer affects all populations and continues to be the second leading…

African American school psychologists are very much underrepresented in school psychology; over 85% of school psychologists who completed the 2020 National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) membership survey were White, while just 3.9% of members identified as Black or African American (Goforth et al., 2021). This represented a slight…

Community colleges provide an education to a large share of college students. Yet, there is a paucity of research on LGBTQIA community college students, particularly how their experiences of marginality and mattering impact their sense of belonging, academic persistence, and personal development. Using the qualitative method of narrative inquiry,…

This hermeneutic phenomenology addressed the problem of falling teacher retention rates of K-12 teachers due to teacher burnout by exploring the lived experiences of teacher leaders and how they are motivated by physical artifacts. The theory framing this study is thing theory. Thing theory framed the study by exploring life experience and the…

The proliferation of Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment taken by high school students expanded over the past few decades due concerted efforts to make the accelerated mechanisms more available to historically underrepresented groups and to reduce the cost of higher education. Supported by years of research correlating improved first-year…

For this study the researcher investigates the motivations of educators of color for entering and persisting in the field of education. It examines teachers' formative educational experiences as students to determine how K-12 environments can create programming and experiences to encourage students of color to consider the field of education as a…

STEAM contests play a pivotal role in maintaining students' interest and motivation in STEAM education. Finding factors that are related to students' continuance intention (CI) to participate in STEAM contests is important for promoting STEAM education. Previous studies mostly focused on exploring the relationships between students' behavioural…