Over the course of 18 months, I found myself on a journey that began with two research questions based on my wonderings and observations about the lives of the women I witnessed engaging with young Black children in ways that the academic literature had not expounded upon. In this article, I use poetic inquiry to elucidate the liberatory practices…

To secure the economic well-being of our country in the current global society, we must be concerned with all students, and all means all. This qualitative research study asserts the need to stop focusing on the achievement gap and work to close opportunity gaps through equitable school practices. This narrative inquiry study critically analyzed…

The focus of this research study was to explore math interventions for students with emotional behavioral disorders in secondary settings. The problem that was addressed in this qualitative, descriptive study was that students with emotional behavioral disorders are not receiving effective math interventions in secondary math classrooms, therefore…

For decades there has been much research done on the best ways to prepare teachers for racially diverse students. With over 50 years of U.S. teacher education program (TEP) reform (Liu & Ball, 2019), TEPs are still in a nascent stage for training preservice teachers to teach Black and Brown students. Public schools have fallen short of…

How instructors teach argumentation and research skills influences students' epistemic development and performance on critical thinking tasks. Therefore, it was necessary to explore the existing beliefs, values, and knowledge of university instructors to inform future research, faculty support, and curriculum development on how to support these…

The three studies included in this dissertation collectively aim to highlight the negative impact that culturally homogenous academic, social, and financial systems on college campuses have on the experiences of culturally diverse college students. Currently the academic, social, and financial experiences of college students are not structured to…

This study examines the professional experiences of three teachers in a national network of urban, low-income serving, Catholic high schools. These teacher-participants were chosen to participate in this study because they engaged in experiential, community-based pedagogy within this national network and exemplified a commitment to social justice…

The three articles that comprise this dissertation use a variety of methods associated with the field of educational measurement to address distinct research questions related to psychometric tools and their implications for practice in education. All three articles involve methods related to instrument design, while drawing on different…

The purpose of this study was to group instructors based on their patterns of implementing activities in their online courses, to examine factors that influenced differences within clusters, and to explore whether cluster membership affected instructor satisfaction. Data were collected from faculty at a university in the western United States with…

This article describes the New Ukrainian School reform and its conceptual framework. The reform builds on advanced pedagogical experience, best education practices, European competency frameworks and the promotion of national values. The system-wide reform focuses on competency-based content for teacher professional development, safe learning…

Grounded in Developmental Systems Theory, especially Ecological Systems Theory, and through the strength-based and whole child lenses, this study examines 15 interviews with Head Start professionals and explores alignment degree of their school readiness perception and practices. Adopting dual mapping, theme screening and in vivo coding, the…

This qualitative collective case study examined the relational and professional practices literacy tutors used to support learners with dyslexia in virtual learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through individual interviews, literacy tutors who rapidly transitioned to online teaching described their lived experiences during this…

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a three-tiered model utilized by teachers to support students. The first tier represents instruction and services provided to all students at the classroom level. The second tier focuses on short-term instruction for small groups of students, and the third tier centers around the most intensive level of…

It is a fact that digital technologies have profoundly transformed society and culture. In this new scenario, education plays a fundamental role. It ensures, from a rights-based approach, access to information, knowledge generation, and civic participation, thus contributing to inclusive social development. In Latin America, governments have…

Highly effective learning progressive (HELP) environments can prepare students to be future-ready with the needed knowledge and skills to thrive in an ever-changing world. This case study captured the characteristics and measured the effectiveness of an international school working to become a HELP environment using the high-reliability schools…