Gender Equity in Education Commons^™

Reclamando Corazón Y Voz: Latinas Speak Their Truth Through Plática As Resistance In California Community College Learning Disabilities Assessments, Maricela Becerra

Dissertations

Although California Community Colleges (CCCs) offer learning disability (LD) assessments to determine eligibility for academic accommodations, for Latina students navigating converging forces of race, gender, language, citizenship, and ableism, these assessments often surface unspoken histories of harm. This study advanced Chicana feminista DisCrit (CFDC), extending disability critical race theory through Chicana spirituality and cultural intuition to examine possibilities when an educadora situates assessments in a plática grounded in consideración—respectful, relational, and unhurried care.

Rooted in Chicana feminist pláticas methodology and authored from the positionality of a disabled Latina scholar–practitioner, this qualitative decolonial dissertation explored how Latina students reflected on …

Rainbow Promises, Uneven Promises: Framing Lgbtqia+ Educational Policy And Possibility In Education, Gerardo Lorenzo-Saucedo

Dissertations

Despite the expansion of LGBTQIA+ inclusive policies in K-12 education, disparities in students’ experiences with safety and belonging persist. This qualitative case study examines how such policies are interpreted and enacted within a high school and district in Southern California, and how these processes shape LGBTQIA+ students’ experiences.

Guided by ecological systems theory, queer theory, and multiple streams theory, this study conceptualizes policy implementation as a dynamic and socially constructed process influenced by power, ideology, and institutional context. Data were collected through interviews, document and artifact analysis, and observations, with analysis that used a multi-phased coding procedure.

Findings revealed that …

“We Talked About Straight People Sex”: The Health Education Experiences Of Queer And Trans Youth In Utah, Sonny Partola

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This article explores how Utah’s health education curriculum shapes the experiences of queer and trans youth. Drawing on critical ethnography conducted at an urban public high school, the study foregrounds the voices of six queer and trans students. Findings reveal that abstinence-focused and heteronormative curricula render these youth invisible, exclude critical information on queer, trans, and intersex health, and compromise students’ well-being. Participants described feelings of discomfort, irrelevance, and pressure to act as informal educators for peers. Their accounts highlight the urgent need for queerly responsive health education that affirms diverse identities, normalizes inclusion, and provides accurate, relevant information. Such …

Critical Hope As A Discipline: Resisting Neoliberal Education And Teaching Toward Futurity, David H. Kahl Jr.

Feminist Pedagogy

The university was founded on the principles of critical thought and the critical examination of ideas. However, this vision has gradually eroded over time due to the permeation of neoliberal thought into the university’s walls. Since the last 1970s, hyper-capitalist ideologies have disrupted efforts to develop students into engaged citizens of the world who speak out against gendered, racial, sexual, economic and other forms of marginalization by propagating post-truth messages. Specifically, neoliberal entities produce messages that teach students that their role in life is not to build community and communal bonds among people. Rather, neoliberal entities produce post-truth messages that …

Content And Consequences: Impact Of Representation In Stem Higher Education Instructional Content On Marginalized Students, Nichole Ventura

Doctorate in Education

This qualitative study examined representation of historically marginalized students in STEM instructional content at the higher education level and its impact on their learning experiences. Despite growing diversity initiatives in STEM enrollment, curricular materials often fail to reflect the identities of underrepresented students. Using critical theory and interpretivist approaches, this research investigated how representation—or its absence—shapes students' sense of belonging, academic identity formation, and persistence. Through semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students from historically marginalized backgrounds, and purposeful sampling, this study captured the lived experiences of students engaging with STEM instructional materials. Interview protocols explored how students perceive their representation in …

Becoming A Beloved Community: A Restorative Reckoning For A Radical Conversion To Transform Discourse In Higher Education, Latasha Tomay Varlack-Butler

Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines the misappropriation of Restorative Justice Discourse (RJD) within three predominantly white institutions (PWIs), analyzing 59 institutional documents through Critical Discourse Analysis, Relational Critical Discourse Analysis, and Rhetorical Criticism (Fairclough, 1995; Vaandering, 2021; van Dijk, 2008). Tribal Colleges and Universities and South African institutions have emerged as exemplars of authentic RJD, countering co-optation within PWIs. The findings demonstrate that RJD as applied in PWIs is framed in ways that attenuate its transformative potential, perpetuating color-evasiveness (Bonilla-Silva, 2017) and obscuring the intersectional experiences of Black, Indigenous, and disabled communities (Crenshaw, 1991; Million, 2009).

Grounded in decolonial praxis (Smith, …

Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Professional Development And Its Relevance To Student Achievement, Gabriel A. Orosco Dr.

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As Ethnic Studies becomes a graduation requirement across all public schools in California, the importance of Ethnic Studies professional development cannot be understated. This is a tumultuous time in our world today. Multiple world conflicts are happening today, and many governments are facing challenges to their very existence. Ethnic Studies programs and classes challenge dominant narratives and close the opportunity gaps for historically marginalized communities.

This study examines the impact of Ethnic Studies (ES) professional development on student achievement within California’s public high schools, where ES has been mandated as a graduation requirement through Assembly Bill 101. The research emphasizes …

A Qualitative Study Of Iranian Efl Teachers’ Perceptions Of A Digital Diversified Education, Seyed Mohammad Reza Marvasti Zadeh, Azizollah Dabaghi Varnosfadrani Advarnosfadrani, Mohammad Amiryousefi

The Qualitative Report

Because Iran is a country of learners of diverse languages, socio-economic classes, genders, and ages, digital diversified education seems appropriate to address needs in English language education. However, there is a notable gap in research on teachers’ perceptions about this type of education. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate the perspectives of Iranian teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) regarding a diverse digital education. Data were collected via an open-ended survey with 30 EFL teachers, both male and female, who were selected through convenience sampling. Analysis revealed several key themes, including the utilization of diverse …

Queerly Cultivating Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy, Laurie Fuller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Queerly Cultivating Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy raises questions and analyzes classroom practices based on adrienne maree brown’s (2017) Emergent Strategy, a radical self-help manual for our current political climate that calls for a paradigm shift in organizing work. Black, mixed, queer, pansexual, feminist writer, pleasure activist, facilitator and sci-fi scholar, brown builds on a continuous tradition of women of color feminists resisting oppression to bring together science fiction and permaculture, biomimicry and organizing, pleasure and activism. She offers fresh perspectives on how to imagine liberation and provides dynamic ways to think about teaching and learning. Emergent Strategy provides principles to …

Unlocking Ai's Potential, Upholding Our Principles: An Equitable Approach For Social Studies, Micah Miner

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds transformative potential in social studies education, but its integration is fraught with challenges that must be navigated with care. This article delves into strategies for leveraging AI's capabilities in social studies classrooms, upholding principles of academic integrity, digital citizenship, and equitable access. Our analysis of recent national assessment results highlights a decline in civics and history proficiency, underscoring an urgent need to reimagine social studies pedagogy through AI literacy. The study explores how AI can make learning more engaging and personalized, while emphasizing the necessity of developing critical perspectives on issues such as privacy, bias, and …

Subjective Experiences From The College Remedial Student, Deborah A. Quinones

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to write individual narrative stories about the subjective experiences of six students who entered college and had to take at least one remedial course their first semester. A subjective experience refers to the emotional and cognitive impact of the personal account of an experience (Subjective Experience, n.d.). The participants, including the researcher, were students who entered college for the first time without the minimum requirements for college enrollment; therefore, each was considered a remedial college student. The students were required to take remedial courses in math, writing, and /or reading before taking any credit …

Assessing Higher Order Thinking In The New Jersey Social Studies Standards For Grades K-8 By Using Artificial Intelligence (Ai), Connie Sanchez

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

New Jersey consistently ranks as one of the top-performing states in the country when it comes to education. Most recently, it was ranked third in the nation. A look at the state standards in any subject shows the state works diligently to vertically align standards while also challenging students in order to better prepare them for the future and to be able to live in a global society. It is evident in looking at the New Jersey Department of Education’s standards that the planning they do is performed with an eye toward the future. The social studies standards are no …

“A Real Man . . .”: Deconstructing Machismo Heteronormative Standards With K–12 Latino Male Educators Through Dialogic Spaces, Mario Echeverria

Dissertations

In a K–12 educational landscape where 75% of educators are white women, recruitment of Latino male educators is crucial for diversification, yet these educators represent just 2% of the teaching workforce in the United States (NCES, 2020). These educators grapple with a layered sense of identity as they navigate expectations of hegemonic masculinity and machismo norms that dictate their roles as disciplinarians and saviors, especially for young boys of color (Brockenbrough, 2018; Lara & Fránquiz, 2015; Martino & Kehler, 2006; Mills et al., 2004; Singh, 2021). Unfortunately, Latino male educators leave the profession at twice the rate of their Latina …

Incorporating Sex-Diverse And Gender-Inclusive Perspectives In Higher Education Biology Courses, Breanne N. Harris, A Kelsey Lewis, Sam L. Sharpe, Teri J. Orr, Christopher T. Martine, Chloe C. Josefson

Faculty Journal Articles

Inclusive teaching is teaching in a way that reaches all students in the classroom; this is beneficial for everyone, particularly for those with minoritized identities. Instructors play a critical role in scaffolding how students are exposed to and learn science content in the classroom. In this manuscript, we discuss how biology instructors can make their classrooms more inclusive with regard to sex and gender diversity content. Many topics in biology are based on androcentric, heteronormative, and oppressive framing, even though those lenses are more reflective of our own history and culture than they are of the diversity we see in …

Close To The Pain: Alternative Education And The Unheard Voices Of Young Adults’ Transformative Learning Experiences, Vicki Lynn Lock

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on amplifying the voices of marginalized students in alternative education, with an emphasis on the positive impact of resilience on their outcomes. The study addresses the challenges these students face, particularly those from BIPOC communities, in navigating educational systems that have historically marginalized them. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the experiences of BIPOC students in a Central Valley alternative education program, highlighting how nurturing relationships, resilience, and the fulfillment of basic needs contribute to their academic success and personal growth. Utilizing a framework that incorporates theories of resilience, educational equity, and transformative leadership, …

From The Invisible Man To Cozy Closets: Gender Diverse Student Narratives In Ontario Catholic Schools, Yvonne Runstedler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the province of Ontario, Catholic schools have public funding from the Ministry of Education and ecclesial oversight from the local Catholic diocese. Transgender students who attend these schools experience both governmental spaces and religious ones. The inherent secular and theological tensions responsive to Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender, intersex, Asexual, and other queer-identities [2SLGBTQIA+] students are the overarching contexts of this study. While many Catholic school boards have completed publicly-facing acts of inclusion for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, such as raising the Pride Flag in June in recent years, there is a scarcity of literature responsive to how transgender students make …

Redefining “Lgbtq+ Interculture” In Academia, Samantha Winterberg, Michelle Mccraney

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Members of the LGBTQ+ community often face discrimination, harassment, and exclusion in academic settings, which can negatively impact their academic and personal success. Studies have shown that LGBTQ+ students are more likely to experience negative mental health conditions, drop out of school, and struggle to find employment after graduation. Cultural humility fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is critical to ensuring an equitable educational experience for all students, particularly those from marginalized communities. Intercultural understanding is essential to develop cultural humility so that attitudes reflect empathy and tolerance of differences, including sexual or gender orientation variances or ambiguity. Understanding how …

Policy Analysis Of Girls’ Primary School Completion In Rural Sindh: Root Causes And Policy Recommendations Using Iiep Education Policy Toolbox, Sajid Ali, Aisha Naz Ansari, Mushtaq Ahmed, Zobia Israr Ahmed, Naveed Saleh Siddique, Naveed Ahmed Shaikh, Shazia Solangi, Mujeeb Rehman Khatri, Tauseef Lateef

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This report emerged from the policy analysis work produced as part of the course titled ‘Diagnostic tools for improving education policy planning’ by the IIEP-UNESCO with support from KIX. This course enabled us to explore diagnostic tools and their implications, specifically for developing countries, and helped the team unpack diagnostic tools and learn the history of their evolution. We further learned how the education management information system works and how data is essential for policy decisions. Finally, we engaged with real policy analysis using the IIEP Education Policy Toolbox. As a team, we chose to study the issue of girls’ …

Moving Forward Together: Reflections Of A National Survey Of Ot/Ota Students’ Perceptions Of Culturally Aware Educational Content Delivery, Adair M. Sanchez, Iris W. Burns, Tina M. Deangelis, Maclain Capron, Abigail Mills, Taylor Kligerman

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

In June of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd and the additional atrocities against historically marginalized people and communities across the United States, the Commission on Education (COE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) sought to act within its scope. A retrospective survey (N= 1,692) was developed, deployed, and analyzed in accordance with the COE’s standard operating procedures relating specifically to monitoring trends that impact the education of occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students. This survey aimed to capture perspectives from OT/OTA students regarding the delivery of culturally aware educational content in curricula …

Teaching Twelfth Night And Queering The Canon In Michigan English Language Arts Classrooms, Anne D. Lippert

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Recent legislation across the country has advocated for the complete disregard of queer topics and identities within public school classrooms. Within this essay, I lay out the issues that stem from ignoring marginalized identities in the ELA classroom, specifically queer identities, and offer an example of a text (Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) that can be used to incorporate discussion of queer identity into the curriculum.

Cutting As A Literacy Practice: Exploring The Fractured Body, Desire And Rage Through Queer And Trans*+ Youth Embodiments, Bess Van Asselt

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

By attending to the ways in which cutting manifests in the life histories of three queer and trans*+ youth of color, I argue that cutting is a literacy practice. I focus on the life histories of three youth, Jay, Harper and Sam, who have different experiences, reasons for, and reactions to their cutting. With each story, we learn something new about the act and how it pushes us to the brink of literacy pedagogy. Jay’s narrative forces us to reckon with youth who refuse to or cannot maintain their bodily integrity. Harper’s story brings to the fore the violence of …

Implementing Faculty Development Modules To Increase Readiness For Addressing Social Determinants Of Health, Implicit Bias And Equity In Course Content, Claudia Ngafeeson

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Implicit bias is viewed as an unconscious and involuntary attitude that lies below the surface of consciousness but can influence behavior, and cognitive processes (Maina et al., 2018). Social determinants of health are considered to be the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age; these circumstances are usually shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national, and local levels, which in turns determines the distribution of the value of medical care. Existing literature on implicit bias has been fragmented in different fields such as; cognitive psychology, business ethics, and higher education, but …

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round: Rethinking The St. Louis Busing Program, Tango Walker, Ketosha Harris

Dissertations

This autoethnography shares our personal experiences and counter-narratives in the St. Louis busing program. Through our mission we expound on experiences and real-life situations as seen through our lens as a student and a mother in the St. Louis busing program. Critical race theory (CRT) was used as an essential framework allowing us to focus on the following four tenets: counter-stories, permanence of racism, whiteness as property, interest convergence. (Anderson, et al., 2017). Critical race theory (CRT) is the framework in social sciences that examines society and culture as it relates to categorization of race, law and power (Lynn & …

Breaking Bias, Building Belonging: Racism And Misogyny In Campus Communities, Kayla Batalha

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

Breaking Bias, Building Belonging: Racism and Misogyny in Campus Communities is a project that uses art as a research medium in order to first understand how the Bryant community perceives issues of race, gender, and bias, as well as using creative modes of expression to educate participants on issues that are often invisible and go undiscussed on campus. Using qualitative and ethnographic research methods, this exhibit is infused with both primary and secondary research. Data gathered from the literature review explores the theme of community, which serves as the foundation for this project that was subsequently narrowed to focus on …

Responding To Diversity With More Than Simple Lip-Service, Donna L. Miller

The Montana English Journal

Using contentious topics like those addressed in Joe Limer’s poem “White Hollywood” as catalysts for sparking conversations on complex social issues has potential to raise social consciousness and to support collaborative conversation. Miller’s GREEN APPLE acronym guides teachers and learners in honoring diversity and nurturing social justice. In critical race theory fashion, GREEN APPLE questions enable students of all races and ethnicities to have informed, productive conversations about the forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the society in which they live.

How Female Stem Undergraduate Students Form Their Science Identity, Todd Martin Medovich

All Theses And Dissertations

This qualitative case study describes how female science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students choose their undergraduate major, the obstacles they faced when making that choice, and how they overcome gender-based obstacles. These descriptions illuminate the manner in which they form their science identity.

There is a gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Viadero, 2009). This has been attributed to both biological and sociocultural causes. The biological basis for this disparity includes evidence of physiological differences between females and males, as well as the microaggressions and sexual harassment stemming from these differences (Bottia et al., 2015). …

A Decolonial Middle School Social Studies Curriculum: 19th Century U.S. Westward Colonization, Leah Chatterji

Master's Projects and Capstones

Social Studies education throughout the United States sustains settler futurity, white supremacy, and coloniality, as it rarely engages with Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) hxstories and structural violence. For middle schoolers, this is especially troublesome as social justice pedagogies are minimal for this demographic. To shift this, this field project offers an 8^th grade decolonial Social Studies curriculum on 19^th century U.S. Westward colonization; this topic was intentionally chosen as it is an opportunity to disrupt settler epistemologies. It centers: Land; relationality; and collective liberation. It complements the California unit 8.8 standards, yet different grades, subjects, …

Behavioral Health Issues Among War Veterans, Michelle Guzman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Monterey County Military & Veterans Affairs Office is a government agency that helps Veterans and their dependents with Military services that are offered in the Monterey County area. Some of the main problems that returning veterans are facing from coming back from OEF and OIF are behavioral health issues as far as PTSD, substance abuse and many more different health issues. Behaviors required to outlive in a war zone, such as keeping up a consistent state of alertness, may at first decipher into troublesome behaviors in civilian life, such as feeling tense or unsteady and being easily startled. Some …

For Every Gender: Being Who We Are, Katherine Lewis

Faculty Authored Books and Book Contributions

Teaching about Gender Diversity is an edited collection of teacher-tested interdisciplinary lesson plans that provides K–12 teachers with the tools to implement gender-inclusive practices into their curriculum and talk to their students about gender and sex.

~publisher's description~

Cracks In The Bathroom Stall: A Discourse Analysis On Transgender Bathroom Usage At Garden Spot High School, Kirsten D. Corneilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, high schools across the country have seen the concern around transgender students using gendered facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, come to the forefront. Often, dissenters raise worries of privacy and of “catering to a minority,” no matter what decision is reached. At Garden Spot High School in New Holland, Pennsylvania, the site of this research, one such concern has led to a district-wide decision to eliminate gendered facilities and move to single-use facilities, in the name of preserving student privacy. Through the examination of historical precedent and discourse analysis, this paper examines how transgender surveillance …