An emerging approach to diversity and inclusion initiatives within the sciences is to consider the assets and resources (in the form of capitals) held by individuals from underrepresented groups. In Chapter 1 of this dissertation, we performed a systematic literature review to explore the secondary types of capital that exist within the STEM…

This study assesses the relationship between job satisfaction and attrition of special education teachers. The study uses The Job Satisfaction Survey by Spector (1985) to determine the level of satisfaction of special education teachers. In this quantitative study, the independent variables were the nine facets measured by the survey: pay,…

This study investigated the collection development process in school libraries and the environment of school libraries as it pertains to the collection of materials with LGBTQ+ themes and characters. The study determined the willingness of school librarians to purchase materials with LGBTQ+ themes and characters and surveyed their purchases of the…

This dissertation examines the dynamic relationship between written language and literary fiction in modern and contemporary Japanese-language literature. I analyze how script and narration come together to function as a site of expression, and how they connect to questions of visuality, textuality, and materiality. Informed by work from the field…

This study aimed to learn more about what contributes to experienced special education teachers staying committed to the field, rather than focus on a deficit model of why educators leave. Five participants were interviewed about the development of their teaching and personal identities over time and their interactions across ecological systems…

This qualitative-interpretive study explored technology as an innovation, design principles of digital badges, the core features of professional learning, and adult learning theory's assumptions to conceptualize digital badge quality and rigor and facilitate digital badge evaluation as a professional learning design. A problem exists in designing…

Special education teachers' varying levels of awareness of evidence-based practices (EBPs) leads to personalizing practices that can be either positive or negative for student learning outcomes. There is a gap in practice in the research literature regarding special education teachers' perceptions of why and how they personalize EBPs to teach…

To combat high dropout rates and low motivation for online courses, we gamified a history of science course. To do so, we used an online educational program called 3DGameLab to convert what had been a well-liked face-to-face lecture and discussion course to an online format, for the purposes of long-distance teaching and learning. Within…

Lord's paradox arises from the conflicting inferences obtained from two alternative approaches that are typically used in evaluating the treatment effect using a pre-post test design. The two main approaches for analyzing such data are: (1) to regress the change from pretest to posttest on the treatment indicator (change score approach; CS); (2)…

Exploring the longitudinal development of second language (L2) lexical use has been one of the important topics in L2 vocabulary research. One approach to examining longitudinal changes in L2 lexical use is to capture changes in lexical features as found in learner production, such as L2 writing, over time. To further facilitate this approach, the…

By the year 2044, more than half the United States population will be non-white. Extension is faced with the challenge of being inclusive in our multicultural world; thus, it is important that Extension educators receive cultural competency training. Cultural competency training based on and informed by intercultural theory and practice leads to…

This paper is a critical case study, which proposes intellectual solidarity as a grounding framework for education. Our initial assumptions considered the following: first, what are those antagonisms limiting authentic human relationships and social transformation in schooling and society? Second, what are some of the dispositions, pedagogies, and…

The introduction of the new National Curriculum in England, was initially viewed with suspicion by practitioners, uneasy about the radical departure from the previous National Curriculum, in both breadth and scope of the content. However, this paper will suggest that upon further reflection the brevity of the content could lend itself to a total…

A primary motivation for people to behave as they do is the need to belong socially to a group and to have relevance. A positive learning environment for young students is created when students are recognized and accepted by their peers and their teachers, and studies reveal that in such environments, students perform better academically and tend…

Spatial thinking is an important predictor of mathematics. However, existing data do not determine whether all spatial sub-domains are equally important for mathematics outcomes nor whether mathematics-spatial associations vary through development. This study addresses these questions by exploring the developmental relations between mathematics…