Over time, the concept of social movement has evolved as society has changed, but has always implied collective action in the public space. The form of social contestation has changed, according to the conjuncture of each historical period. In 18th century, the transition from the Old Regime to Liberalism provoked movements considered by some…

The recent increase in mental health concerns and service utilization for students has been characterized as the "mental health crisis in higher education." At the same time, there are social inequities on who "gets" to be well and under what conditions. This three-paper dissertation analyzes the well-being support networks of…

The significance of this study was its ability to further inform district and state level leaders and policy makers on the supports of the advancement and service of North Carolina's Latinx educators in school leadership roles. More specifically, this study shed light on the barriers and supports faced by Latinx public school administrators in…

Using a literacy framework, this case study explores parents' assessment literacy in South Florida (United States). Data were collected using focus-group interviews of public-school parents (N = 32) and a document artifact. Findings illustrate how parents drew upon verbal and virtual information and social interactions to learn about the…

By 4 years of age, White children from across the United States begin to exhibit an awareness of racial inequalities, along with in-group preferences for other White children. The present study explored how the size and racial diversity of White children's social network (e.g., friends, family, and classmates) and neighborhood (zip code) are…

This thesis consists of two projects I worked on simultaneously throughout my PhD. Although neither project builds on the other, both investigate social systems as networks, and draw on a common set of statistical tools and methods.In the first project, I analyse the academic employment and doctoral education of tenure- track faculty at all…

This study employs social network analysis (SNA) to identify influential individuals and their communication patterns within Chinese schools in Wenzhou. The research also aims to reveal communication and advice-seeking patterns that significantly impact the overall distributed leadership structure and practices within the schools. The study…

Strong evidence suggests that U.S. high schools are falling short of graduating college- and career-ready students, giving rise to calls for more focus on the factors that impact students' success in college and career. The main purpose of this research was to identify the impact of social support networks on college readiness across genders in…

Over the past two decades, a growing body of research has investigated college students' friendships and how these relationships can both enable and constrain students' success. I review this body of literature, describing the characteristics and processes of college students' friendships. First, I review work that describes characteristics of…

Agricultural Education relies heavily on national and state professional associations to serve School Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers. Because there is not 100% membership in these organizations across the country, it is vital to learn what is holding teachers back from joining and identify the needs of current members to encourage…

This study investigated the perception of pre-service science teachers on the effect of the ban on Twitter- use in Nigeria in building learning communities, linkages, and accessing information. While the ban was predicated on allegations of hijack of the microblogging site for negative activities, there were outcries of its impact on learners who…

This study aimed to determine the difference in students' level of understanding before and after using synchronous and asynchronous network learning modes. This quantitative study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Data were obtained from 87 students who were divided into two experimental groups. The results show a higher level of…

Purpose: The Women in Leadership Development (WLD) Initiative is a year-long, multifaceted co-curricular leadership development opportunity created to support the unique developmental needs of emerging women leaders. WLD was intentionally designed around the context of second-generation gender bias with a firm grounding of research and theory on…

Demand for cybersecurity professionals from industry and institutions is high, driven by an increasing digitization of society and the growing range of potential targets for cyber attacks. However, despite this pressing need a significant shortfall in the number of cybersecurity experts remains and a discrepancy has emerged between the skills…

Promoting progressive discourse and sustained inquiry is a focus area of knowledge building research. Although different approaches for scaffolding productive discourse have been documented, the experimental investigation into the impact of teacher scaffolding on students' knowledge building processes and outcomes in technology-supported…