Educational Leadership Commons^™

Reshaping Education In Memphis: A Single Case Study Of Turnaround Districts In An Inner-City Neighborhood, Edrika S. Thigpen

Student Theses and Dissertations

Memphis, Tennessee leans on two radical approaches to take responsibility for their most underperforming schools and turn them around. The Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) is the state’s approach to school reform and turnaround, while the local school district elected to create an Innovation Zone (iZone) to improve schools and achieve school turnaround locally. These efforts employ strategies and approaches as outlined and defined in national and state turnaround policies. The relationship between these interventions and school improvement has not always shown a positive correlation. Students throughout the school district, especially those in historically low-performing neighborhoods and school communities of …

More Than A Test Score: Toward A More Balanced School Accountability System, Joel A. Leader, Barbara L. Pazey

School Leadership Review

Using a zone of mediation framework, we explore how one school district designed a community-based accountability system (CBAS) reflecting community stakeholders’ values, priorities, and goals. We collected rich data sets from a document analysis, focus group, and individual interviews. Our findings indicated a strong dissatisfaction with test-based accountability that led the district to engage its stakeholders in designing a CBAS using multiple achievement measures to report on district success. The importance of collaboration with other districts and leaders at the local, regional, and state levels also emerged. This study highlights the importance of stakeholder involvement, leadership, and collaboration when making …

Three Sides To Success: Exploring How Inclusive Partnerships Can Nurture Robust Family And Community Engagement In The Classroom For African-American Students, Orianna Vaughn

Education | Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which conscious family and community partnerships with middle schools can play an integral part of academic achievement for Black children. Family and community engagement play a critical role in a student’s success as support, and knowledge of their scholar’s strengths and interests can be an asset not only in the classroom, but to the scholar’s overall academic success, which can “lead to higher educational aspirations and increased student motivations'' (Bartz, et al. 2017). However, presiding narratives of disengagement and disinterest from Black parents in their scholar’s academic life have …

Assessment Of Student Leadership Training Program Based On Student Leaders Perceptions: Case Of A Private Secondary School In Zimbabwe., Constance Chifamba, Florence Zimunya

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

The purpose of this was to evaluate the effectiveness of Student Leadership training program carried out for the newly elected student leaders of a private secondary school in Zimbabwe. A qualitative descriptive case study was used in this study. Ten 10 student leaders were purposively selected from a total of 24 student leaders. In-depth interviews were used to solicit the student leaders’ perceptions on the effectiveness of the student leadership training offered to the newly elected student leaders. Data collected was analysed using thematic Analysis. Findings of the study indicate that the student leadership program was deemed effective as it …

Enhancing Culturally Responsive Practices: A Phenomenological Study On How Elementary School Leaders Demonstrate Cultural Proficiency In Teacher Development, Dana Synora Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In education, a lack of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) may mute the success of students of color. A lack of culturally responsive pedagogy practices can drastically alter students’ educational outcomes and their outlook on the value of education. This hermeneutic phenomenology explored the experiences of elementary school leaders on their mission to implement culturally responsive practices through teacher professional development. The theory guiding this study is Khalifa’s theory on Culturally Responsive School Leadership which was developed to make teaching and the entire school environment responsive to the schooling needs of all demographics of children. This phenomenological study focused on teachers’ …

A Multiple Case Study Examining Collaborative Nature Of Bahamian Pastoral Teams Considering Contextual And Biblical Transformational Leadership, Kevin Andrew Hall

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine the nature of pastoral leadership teams in Bahamian churches. Three Bahamian pastoral leadership teams served as the sample frame for this research, with four research questions narrowing its scope to identifying collaborative and transformational behaviors and attributes. The study collected qualitative data regarding leaders’ character formation and the role of the Christian doctrine in shaping (pastoral) team dynamics, along with data regarding pastoral (team) leadership development and the usage of spiritual gifts. The data was then analyzed to determine if the leaders’ behaviors aligned with Cooper’s (2005) contextual and …

Teacher Migration And Retention In Title I High Schools: A Phenomenological Study, Kenethia Lasundra Zachary

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teacher migration is a fundamental challenge facing many school districts in the United States (Djonko-Moore, 2016). School leaders in Title I schools, which predominately serve minority and low-income students, expressed difficulties retaining teachers who were opting to transfer to lateral positions in non-Title I schools (Whipp & Geronime, 2017). The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological research study was to identify intrinsic and extrinsic factors that led to teachers’ lateral migration from a Title I to a non-title I school. In order to highlight participants’ rationales, the principal researcher posed the following research questions: What were teachers’ perceptions of the organizational …

The Impact Of A Stem Education Program On Female And Racial Minorities' Knowledge And Attitude, Amira S. Flores

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a STEM education program, specifically STARBASE, on the STEM knowledge and attitudes of fifth grade students, as well as its effect on their pursuit of STEM careers, with a focus on female and racial minority students. Based on a sample of 197 fifth graders from a school district in Southern California, the intervention took place at STARBASE, while the control group remained at their respective schools. A quasi-experimental design was used in the study, with four experimental and four control groups. A STEM knowledge assessment and S-STEM attitude survey …

High School Teachers' Experiences Of Work-Related Stress And Resilience: A Phenomenological Study, Deana A. Diluggo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe public high school teachers’ experiences of work-related stress and resilience in the state of Connecticut. The theory guiding this study is Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory (SDT), as it looks at the impact of motivation on human behavior and the fulfillment of the three basic psychological needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. This study was designed to answer the central research question, uncovering public high school teachers’ experiences with work-related stress and resilience. The researcher obtained informed consent from 12 participants who participated in semi-structured interviews. Eleven of the interviewed participants …

The Experiences Of Elementary General Education Teachers Working With Students With Mental Health Deficits: A Phenomenological Study, Jordan Cole Swineford-Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of general education elementary teachers attempting to meet the mental health needs of students in their care. Ten teachers from an Eastern Virginia school district were selected to participate in this study. Individuals with experience working with distressed students were selected through purposive criterion and snowball sampling. The theories guiding this study were Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs and trauma theory (Caruth, 1995). Data from survey/questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups were collected and analyzed per transcendental phenomenology procedures to identify emerging themes from the data. The following four …

A Phenomenological Study Of Church Growth Strategies Used By Pastors Of Digital Churches During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicholas D. Cole

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the digital church growth methods that pastors of digital churches in the United States used to increase church attendance during the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic. For the purpose of this study, pastors of digital/online churches were studied. Since the 1950s, the church growth strategy for many Christian churches has been to attract as many people as possible for in-person worship services. However, in-person church attendance has declined consistently for the past 20 years. The shutdowns of churches worldwide during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic amplified this trend. The only option available …

Thriving: Best Student Ministry Practices For Reaching Generation Z Most Effectively, Seth Conner Peterson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In 1972, the Jesus movement’s proliferation brought on the professionalization of student ministry into Southern Baptist churches. Over the last 50 years, the U.S. population has increased by 110 million, yet student ministry baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention continue to decline. Despite recent efforts by The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to reverse the downward trend of student ministry baptisms (ages 12–17), the phenomenon persists. The public profession of baptism remains as a strong indicator that an individual has been effectively reached with the Gospel. Operating under this premise that increased baptisms indicate effectiveness in student ministry, the researcher …

Leaning Into A Critical Theory Of Love To Adaptively Engage In Teaching And Learning During Covid-19 In India And The Us, Matthew A. Witenstein, Narender Thakur

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This article considers the experiences of teachers and learners in higher education institutions that led to the need for adapted learning modalities during COVID-19. It is critical to provide reflective faculty narratives. We position them as Street-Level Bureaucrats on the front lines, who as de facto policymakers, made adaptive decisions impacting students’ educational opportunities. Consequently, this article engages experiential reflections of two university professors in the field of education, one in the US the other in India. It examines how known ways of learning changed as universities closed and teachers and students were mandated to switch to online, remote or …

Campus Safety And The Impact Of Emergency Alert Systems, Madelyn Elliott

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the impact emergency alert systems have on campus safety for Rowan University members using a quantitative survey. With a need to examine how universities and campus communities react to emergency scenarios, this study will focus on the reactions of those at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and how they respond to emergency alerts. Through the research completed, we will look into how community members of Rowan University view their safety on the Glassboro campus, the effectiveness of Rowan’s emergency alert systems, when Rowan sends out the emergency alerts, and how …

University Administrators’ Visions For The Recovery Of International Student Exchange In A Post–Covid-19 World, Yusuke Sakurai, Yukiko Ishikura, Ryoko Nakano, Yuki Nabeshima, Yu Sengoku, Akito Okada, Sachihiko Kondo

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: Little is known about how international functions of higher education, such as exchange programmes, can be resumed during recovery from a disruptive global crisis, such as COVID-19. We collected the opinions of administrators of international exchange programmes regarding their plans to resume their exchange programmes in the recovery phase and identified variations in the responses concerning institution type (public vs. private) and the presence or absence of a medical school.

Method: We used multiple-choice survey questions in our study, resulting in 180 valid responses. We examined overall patterns using descriptive statistics and institutional uniqueness using Fisher’s exact test.

Results: …

Overview Of The Proceedings Of The 2022 Inclusion In Science, Learning A New Direction, Conference On Disability (Island), Cary A. Supalo, Jasodhara Bhattacharya, Daniel Steinberg

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The 13th annual Inclusion in Science, Learning a New Direction, Conference on Disability was hosted by the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a National Science Foundation funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), and Princeton University on September 16-17, 2022 at Bowen Hall. This annual conference included presentations that featured innovative research done by science educators in formal and informal education contexts, ranging from pre-K-12 to higher education, and science education researchers, access technology developers, and others interested in the full inclusion of persons with disabilities into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. The 2022 ISLAND …

From The Editors..., Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Special Education: Inclusion And Exclusion In The K-12 U.S. Educational System, Erik Brault

Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education defines students with disabilities as those having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities. Previous research has found that students with disabilities placed in inclusive environments perform better academically and socially compared to students with disabilities who are placed in segregated environments. Yet, we know that inclusion in K-12 general education classrooms across the country is not consistently implemented.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the effects, if any, of general education high school teachers’ personal and professional experiences and knowledge on their attitudes toward educating …

Utilizing New Technologies To Measure Therapy Effectiveness For Mental And Physical Health, Jonathan Ossie

Dissertations

Mental health is quickly becoming a major policy concern, with recent data reporting increasing and disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, increased substance abuse, and elevated suicidal ideation. One specific population that is especially high risk for these issues is the military community because military conflict, deployment stressors, and combat exposure contribute to the risk of mental health problems.

Although several pharmacological approaches have been employed to combat this epidemic, their efficacy is mixed at best, which has led to novel nonpharmacological approaches. One such approach is Operation Surf, a nonprofit that provides nature-based programs advocating the restorative …

Equalizing Postsecondary Transition For At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services: A Chance To Succeed, Karla R. Sanchez

Dissertations

Postsecondary transition can be difficult for At-Promise Youth Receiving Special Education Services (APYRSES). Special educators supporting postsecondary transition often manifest traditional and institutionalized forms of oppressive education while dismissing collective values and beliefs.

This qualitative case study examined the beliefs and attitudes shared by three special education teachers after being introduced to a justice-focused, humanizing intervention to facilitate postsecondary transition for APYRSES. The conceptualized intervention was grounded in liberatory educational frameworks and drew from critical, culturally affirming, sustaining, and humanizing theories that foster cultural reciprocity, self-determination skills, and antiracist social–emotional justice learning to afford opportunities for APYRSES to succeed. The …

Racism Without Race: The Racialization Of Middle Eastern And North African Students At U.S. Colleges, Hannah Mesouani

Dissertations

Although a growing body of literature covers the experiences of international students at U.S. colleges, the stories of those who do not fit into the U.S. racial schema remain untold. This study examined how Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) students understood their racial identities given the United States’ tense history with Islam and the MENA world. Using foundational texts on critical race theory, current scholarship on Arab Americans and foreign-born students, and facets of the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS), this study examined the experiences of MENA students who study amid a national backdrop of xenophobia and racialized Islamophobia. This …

Leadership Styles In Ncaa Division I Athletic Administration And Their Relationships To Job Satisfaction, Valerie Gomez

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

As an industry, college athletics has become a focal point of much attention and scrutiny as a result of increasing moral and ethical scandals, as well as lucrative media and personnel contracts. Scandals such as admissions fraud, academic cheating, and financial crimes are a cause for concern regarding the leadership within Division I athletic departments. Organizational and individual outcomes have been associated with leadership. While extant research has focused on the leadership of coaches and the athletic director, the leadership of the senior-level leadership team has been largely neglected. Given the structure of many Division I athletic departments, the senior-level …

Active Imagination, Wellbeing And Ways Of Seeing: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Experiences Of Adult Learners With Visual Impairments, Steinberg Henry

Educational Studies Dissertations

Six female and two male adult learners who became blind between the ages of 20 and 75 years participated in this study conducted by a blind researcher. The purposely sampled eight were interviewed virtually by way of Zoom. In combination with Johnny Saldana’s work on codes, this study used the NVivo framework for determining structuring categories, selecting node themes, code frameworks and final codes from the first interview. 291 codes were clustered under 26 node themes. NVivo’s word frequency search and Word Tree were applied to clarify and lend a number value to participants’ codes. The second interview, administered after …

When Culturally Responsive Practices Meet Social-Emotional Learning: A Guide For Educators, Sharon Ju-Ting Cheng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many educators hope to give their students quality and well-rounded education while balancing all the contents they need to learn. Social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching, however, are two areas that teachers seem to struggle with (Stark et al., 2021). Teachers have encountered situations where it was difficult for them to support their students due to the cultural differences between the teacher and student (Heineke & Vera, 2021). This lack of professional development in the culturally responsive aspect is concerning.

The shortfall of training leads to failure to apply these practices into schools. For newcomer students, who are usually …

'Formation In Distinctive Dimensions Of Our Way Of Proceeding': Preparation Of Lay Directors Of Works In Jesuit Schools, Perry T. Petrich Sj

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine how lay directors of works in Jesuits West secondary schools can be formed to best serve as faith leaders. The study consisted of secondary research in which interview data and surveys from studies on lay formation in Jesuit universities and lay leadership of Bay Area Catholic High Schools were used to determine whether or not formation of lay directors of works in faith leadership is possible, what the objectives of that training should be, and how that training can be offered. This analysis determined that lay formation is both possible and necessary. …

Interest Convergence And Neoliberalism: Effects On Entry-Level Staff Of Color Who Perform Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Higher Education, Jesse N. Avila

Master's Theses

Higher education was not originally built to benefit people of color. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are many ways in which universities seek to change higher education. However, higher education has a staff retention problem and is at risk of losing more than half of its current workforce. Retention problems also impact entry-level staff of color who perform DEI in universities. Through a lens of interest convergence and neoliberalism, this qualitative study gathered the experiences of entry-level staff of color who perform DEI in student affairs, looked at how their experiences are shaped by the structures of the university, and …

Leading Department Causes Of Acculturative Stress Among International Students At A South Jersey Public Institution, Meagan Kathleen Mcferren

Theses and Dissertations

The study in this paper was conducted at Rowan University, a South Jersey public institution founded in 1923. The purpose of this study was to collect data regarding various university departments that might cause and affect acculturative stress in international students and determine which area has the greatest impact on the students’ stress levels at the university. During the 2022-23 academic year, I distributed an anonymous online survey to the majority of Rowan international and domestic students, both undergraduate and graduate, to better understand their perspectives of specific campus resources and departments. In this paper, I state my questions as …

Local Voices: Counterstorytelling And Retention Of Faculty Of Color In Oregon's Community College System, Kristin Christophersen

Dissertations and Theses

The Oregon community college system employs a full-time faculty workforce that is overwhelmingly White. This study aimed to research why the representation of faculty of color in the state’s community colleges remains low by conducting interviews with faculty of color about their experiences at these public 2-year institutions using counterstorytelling as research methodology. Using critical race theory as a theoretical framework, this study collected and analyzed the counterstories of seven faculty of color in a variety of institutions and regions across one state about their experiences with institutional racism and how it impacts their persistence strategies and retention patterns.

Equity And Inclusion For Gender Diverse Middle School Students, Xiaoyan Nadler

Education | Master's Theses

About a third of teenagers experience an anxiety disorder, with steadily increasing numbers (McCarthy, 2019). LGBTQ+ students have a history of being a group without a voice because the dominant gender classification was a binary male or female model. They have seldom dared to express and identify their real selves. According to Lewis (2020), this form of oppression could make them feel unwelcome, overlooked, and unsafe, eventually creating tremendous anxiety. This qualitative research focused on understanding what creates an inclusive and safe learning environment for all students, including students who identify as LGBTQ+. Interviews were conducted with students, parents, and …

Accreditation, Affordability, And Accessibility Of New Non-Profit Colleges In The United States, Adam Braus

Education | Master's Theses

Time-series data analysis demonstrates that the number of new colleges has dropped off gradually since its peak in the 1960s, and precipitously after the 1990s. The total number of new colleges is severely depressed, and among new colleges, religious, for-profit, and public colleges have started at a rate of 5x the number of private, secular, and non-profit ones. Interviews with contemporary secular, non-profit college founders and accreditation experts suggest that accreditation is the primary barrier to starting a new college. If we view higher education as an oligopoly or “cold cartel,” it explains the gradually falling quality and precipitously rising …