Higher education is experiencing leadership turnover and during these transitions colleges and universities are relying on interim leaders to fill this leadership gap. The purpose of this study was to identify ways to support interim leaders and leverage their experience into the development of professional growth opportunities at a large…

Educational policy in the United States in the past decade has focused on eliminating the achievement gap by establishing legislation orienting educators toward research-based evidence and increased accountability at all levels of the system (Daly, Liou et al., 2014). Educational leaders play an important role in initiating and maintaining change,…

This volume provides alternatives for tackling existing empirical, methodological, and analytical challenges. It does so by providing a broad overview of less established, as well as emerging methods, which are of great relevance for current research on professional learning and development. As such, it offers a comprehensive collection of…

This study examined next generation business officers' (NGBOs) perceptions of their readiness for assuming the chief business officer role (CBO). Originally created in 1920, the CBO role has changed over the decades in response to changes in the higher education landscape. Once thought of as the person in the back office keeping the books, the CBO…

This grounded theory study asks, among teachers who have had transformative professional experiences, what elements emerge to explain their transformational experience? The purpose of this study is to explain the elements which may foster individual teacher professional transformation at a rural New England school district. Participants are…

This study encompasses research on the role of mentoring in the experiences of instructional supervisors in K-12 school districts and how mentoring contributed to their professional development. The method used for this research included a questionnaire, one-to-one interviews, and a panel discussion to capture the essence of the work of the…

Professional development in higher education is increasingly shifting to online formats. However, online professional development often does not lend itself well to fostering meaningful human interconnection. Taking a constructivist approach, we share findings from a qualitative research study that explored what participants found meaningful in a…

This dissertation was conducted using case study methodology to examine how teachers of different content areas integrate media literacy into their instruction to address the specialized knowledge and discourses of their disciplines after participating in a media literacy online professional development, how they applied the content from the…

A significant contributor to student success is engagement in the school setting. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can be a helpful framework for increasing student engagement and creating an inclusive environment for all learners. This study investigated the relationship between teachers' understanding and implementation of Universal Design…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are an integral part of the instructional personnel in undergraduate general chemistry courses. Professional development programs for GTAs are well-established across STEM disciplines ranging from two-day to week-long sessions, covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from pedagogy and safety standards to…

Social studies classrooms are often lauded as ideal spaces where productive conversations centered around race/ism can, and should occur. Unfortunately, social studies classrooms have yet to live up to this reality as traditional social studies instruction--a type of standards-based instruction characterized by lectures, rote memorization, and…

This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to explore teacher perceptions of both traditional and virtual professional development in schools. Structured interviews were implemented with fifteen participants to determine differing teacher perceptions on professional development, and the results of this study support…

Schools and districts face continuing pressure to implement educational reforms that will bring about improved academic outcomes for all students. Successfully implementing these needed reforms requires individual administrators to distribute leadership activities throughout the network of leaders present at the site and district level, more…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine what preparational experiences are necessary for assistant principals to effectively transition to the principalship. Fifteen principals completed a 21-item survey and answered seven interview questions to better understand how the North Carolina Standards for School Executives aligned with…

Historically, teacher preparation programs do not adequately prepare teacher candidates to effectively integrate technology into teaching and learning. In addition, an underlying concern is if teachers are ready for online learning and teaching, and sparse research has focused on the preparations of teachers in integrating technology and online…