International and Comparative Education Commons^™

A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Pre-Service Mathematics Teacher Preparation Approaches In Jamaica And Historical Black Colleges And Universities In The Southeast United States, Sandra Riley-Brown

Dissertations

This qualitative comparative case study embarked on an in-depth exploration and comparison of the approaches to pre-service mathematics teacher preparation programs (PMTPP) in Jamaica and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the Southeast United States (U.S.), employing a cross-cultural lens. The primary objective of the study was to identify and analyze the similarities and differences between the methodologies utilized in PMTPP across these two regions, with a specific focus on how HBCUs addressed the preparation of culturally responsive educators. The research took two distinct phases. The initial phase involved a thorough analysis of documents provided by the participants. This …

Precarious Privilege: Exploring The Intersection Of White Teacher Habitus And Social Justice In International Schools, Kevin L. Workman

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the underresearched phenomenon of White teacher allyship within an emergent diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) movement in international schools. Gaining momentum in 2020 as a digital, postcolonial counterstory, the movement exposed structural inequities and racism across the international school ecosystem. Applying an antiracist reading of Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of practice, the study analyzes how White teachers (n = 8) from diverse international contexts understand, experience, and assess their participation in DEIJ activities. Thematic analysis of interview data corroborated the digital voices, explicitly identifying White supremacy as a key force shaping the field’s doxa. The study …

Expanding Capabilities: The Impact Of International Student Mobility On Peacebuilding, Kathleen Kirk

Dissertations

From the 2010s to 2020s international student enrollment decreased in the United States (IIE, 2024), leading to economic, intellectual, and social ramifications and notably affecting the country’s reputation as a place that fosters intercultural understanding and innovation (IIE, 2024; Song and Li, 2022; Laws and Ammigan, 2020).While international student mobility has increased since, ongoing issues such as political polarization exacerbate international education efforts to build intercultural understanding. Yet, it is such educational efforts that are crucial to nurturing peacebuilding (O’Hair and Woods, 2024; Reardon, 2001).

This dissertation employs a global survey and semi-structured interviews to investigate how international students leverage …

Private School Principals’ Leadership Roles In Times Of Change Within The Dominican Republic, Benedicta Calderon

Dissertations

As in many other countries around the globe, the Dominican Republic (DR) has recently implemented important educational changes. The curriculum changed from a content-based to a competence-based approach, and grade configurations changed from four-year to three-year cycles, moving seventh and eighth grades out of elementary and into high school. These changes impacted public and private school structures, with implications on principals’ leadership role. While there is much previous research on principals as instructional leaders implementing significant change; prior to this study, no research was found that looked at private school principals in such roles within a developing country like the …

Borderland Voices: Exploring The Educational Journey Of Transfronterizx Students, Families, And Educators For Enhanced Engagement And Empowerment, Sobeida Velazquez

Dissertations

Transfronterizx students and their families cross the U.S.–Mexico border for academic, economic, social, cultural, and linguistic reasons. Socioeconomic disparities, deportation, and work have propelled some families to live in Mexico and enroll their U.S.-born children in U.S. schools to provide more socioeconomic opportunities in the United States. Educators of transfronterizx students are uniquely tasked to work with these nontraditional students. Moreover, transfronterizx students and their families have distinct needs in U.S. schools; as such, there is a need for further research on the transfronterizx experience in the U.S. K–12 system. This qualitative narrative inquiry study aimed to understand the experiences …

Leadership And Teacher Agency For Inclusive Classrooms: Insights About Integrating Students With Disabilities Into Inclusive Classrooms From Teachers And School Leaders In Three International Schools, Chad Wood

Dissertations

As international schools continue to flourish, they must consider how to be inclusive and meet the needs not only of multicultural populations of students, but also the needs of students with diagnosed learning difficulties (i.e., students with special needs). Promoting teacher agency is a potentially important component in successfully implementing inclusive practices given that teachers are key actors in the implementation process. Currently, however, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the interconnectedness of teacher agency and inclusion of special needs populations in international schools.

This qualitative research explores the role of school leaders in promoting teacher agency to support the …

Steminism: Analyzing Factors That Improve Retention Of Women In Stem, Kira Carter, Jane Kelley, Jason Vasser-Elong, Rc Patterson

Dissertations

Our co-authored research ‘Steminism: Analyzing Factors That Improve Retention for Women as STEM Majors’ analyzed factors that contributed to the retention of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs at Missouri University of Science & Technology (Missouri S&T). Women make up half of the US population, and while careers in (STEM) are an integral part of the US economy, women are underrepresented in these career fields. The purpose of our dissertation is to address the underrepresentation of women in STEM majors. Our methodology included homogeneous sampling to collect qualitative data. More specifically, we consulted with academic advisors and …

An Exploratory Case Study Of Leadership Practices That Enable International Schools To Become Highly Effective And Learning Progressive Environments, Santha Kumar Sankara Narayanan

Dissertations

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 (HRS) framework and the leadership practices that enabled them.

This mixed-method study used an explanatory sequential design, beginning with a survey of 122 teachers based on the HRS model (Marzano et al., 2014), where teachers were asked to respond to a series of statements designed to measure the case-study school’s effectiveness and …

Online Education: Benefits And Challenges For Refugee Students, Roza Badritdinova

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Currently, only 3% of refugees are pursuing higher education opportunities compared to the 37% higher education participation rate globally. There is an urgent need for quality academic work to leave behind the endless descriptive accounts of refugee life and move toward identifying effective strategies and successful solutions that could facilitate the integration of refugees into higher education. Technology has proffered some hope in providing access to public education for marginalized populations. This study looked specifically at how one online education organization attempts to address refugee education and multiple barriers that prevent the majority of the world’s university-age refugee youth …

School Principals As Leaders Of Educational Environments In School Settings: Recontextualization Of American Educational Practices In China, Wei Zhang

Dissertations

Chinese principals play a significant role in recontextualizing the U.S. principals’ practices in leading their school reform and student outcomes in Chinese social, cultural, and educational contexts. The purpose of this basic qualitative study is twofold: (1) to describe and interpret how Chinese principals make meaning of their experiences as active democratic leaders and (2) to identify the challenges they are going through in creating an educational environment based on the creative use of U.S. research and theory supporting best practices for principals. The study has a total of 50 participants (n=50) across the United States (n=32) and China (n=18). …

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 …

Remote Learning - The Future Of Education: Effective Instructional Strategies Used By Parent Educators And Recommendations For Building Capacity, Raelene Ferguson Haugen

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods Delphi study was to identify the remote learning instructional strategies used by expert Southern California parent educators for implementing the anticipatory set, modeling, checking for understanding, and guided practice elements of Madeline Cheek Hunter’s Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) framework. The study sought to identify how expert Southern California parent educators rated the effectiveness of the remote learning instructional strategies in the aforementioned elements of Hunter’s ITIP framework. Additionally, the purpose was to generate recommendations from expert Southern California parent educators to build capacity in the identified effective instructional strategies.

Methodology: The classical …

International Students’ Perceived Support And Barriers Adapting To The New Cultural Experience In A Southern California University, Jeanette Ayala

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenology study was to explore the lived experiences of international students’ perceptions regarding the types of support they received to adapt to a new culture experience and barriers to their successful adaptation to a new cultural experience while enrolled in a southern California university.

Methodology:

Qualitative research was the methodology used for this study because it was the approach best suited to gain a better understanding of the phenomena of international students’ lived experiences. The present study involved a qualitative design with a phenomenological inquiry approach. The technique of using semi-structured interviews is a method …

The Acquisition Of Dental Competencies And Clinical Skills: Perceptions From Students, Faculty, Practicing Dentists And Industry Professionals In The Dominican Republic, Laura Virginia Reyes Alardo

Dissertations

The Dominican healthcare system faces many challenges, and dental education is not an exception. The lack of competencies established for dentistry is one of the most critical challenges that dentistry faces. There is no way to guarantee that all dentists receive the same quality education with no standards and lack of competencies. Previous research has revealed that the competencies achieved by dental students determine the way such students develop their professional practice in the future as dental graduates (Alcota, De Gauna, & González, 2016). However, there is a lack of shared language observed in dental education around the world. Not …

From Barriers To Success: How Elementary School Principals Strategically Lead Schools To Become 21st Century Learning Exemplar Schools, Heather Gold

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the barriers and support systems elementary principals describe, through the lens of Activity Theory, they experienced while leading their schools to achieve 21st century learning exemplar status.

Methodology: This phenomenological study examined the perceptions of 15 elementary and K-8 principals and their respective assistant principals regarding the barriers and support systems they experienced while leading their schools to achieve 21st century learning exemplar status. Participants were selected based on the criteria that they had been identified as exemplary by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21); were public, non-private, …

Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness Among The Undergraduates Through Intentional Design In A Culture Course In The Us—An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Experimental Design, Hua Wang

Dissertations

The cultivation of intercultural competence is a growing trend globally, and integration of intercultural competence into coursework was widely acknowledged as a valid strategy to achieve this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine (1) the effects of the intervention of connecting one’s own culture to affect students' cross-cultural awareness development in American colleges; and (2) students’ perceptions of their own cultural‐awareness changes. Data was collected through pre-and post-questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. This study also compared between-group participants’ posttest ratings on a cross-cultural awareness scale, as well as pre- and post-test ratings within each group. The quantitative and …

The College Choice Of West African International Students: A Generalization Of The Hossler And Gallagher Model Of Student College Choice, Zeambo Wynger Dahnweih

Dissertations

After decades of research, the question of a universal college choice still abounds. In the United States scholars still advance disparate data on how students make college choice decisions that meet their particular needs. And, whereas research is replete with studies on the college choice of black families, there remains a dearth of studies on Black people of foreign descent, an integral demographic of the overall U.S. higher education enrollment.

This qualitative case study focuses on the college choice plights of West African students who enroll at U.S. public universities. It employs a West African-centric version of the Hossler and …

The Relationship Among Children Born With A Congenital Heart Defect, Effects Of General Anesthesia, And Special Academic Needs, Lorilynn Bowie

Dissertations

Abstract

I initiated this study due to experience in the public education system in one state in the United States. I noted a lack of understanding among educators on how to meet the educational needs of children born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) who had undergone general anesthesia related to their CHD. A lack of communication between the medical sector and the educational world led to extensive delays in children receiving the educational support they needed to be successful academically. There were two primary exploratory questions that drove my study: 1.) Is there a relationship between children born with …

Academic Field Influence On Acquisition Of Global Awareness In Undergraduate Study Abroad Students, Tim Schmalz

Dissertations

Very little comprehensive research has been done thus far examining the effects of academic discipline on study abroad outcomes. This study investigated potential differences between global awareness scores across different academic disciplines for students that participated in study abroad during their undergraduate academic programs. Five hundred and eight-five current and past university students took a short survey modified from a Chieffo & Griffiths 2004 study. Overall global awareness scores, as well as scores for four sub-characteristics: intercultural awareness, personal growth & development, awareness of global interdependence, and functional knowledge of world geography & languages – were compared across student majors …

Leadership Approaches Federal Government Civilian Employees Perceive Most Effective For Enhancing Employee Morale And Productivity, Darryl E. Powe Sr

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to identify and describe the leadership approaches (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) federal government employees perceive as most and least effective to enhance employee morale and productivity.

Methodology: Fifteen U.S. Army civilian employees from 5 paygrades were selected based on specific criteria and organized using the stratified random sampling method. The full-range leadership model provided the theoretical framework for the study and was used to design interview questions that focused on the aforementioned leadership approaches. Data were collected and coded from interviews and artifacts, and aided the identification of key themes and …

Teaching Perspectives Of Faculty Members At Arab Universities: Andragogy And Islamic Humanism, Layla Goushey

Dissertations

Cultural differences exist between Western perspectives on humanistic teaching methods and methods developed during the past 100 years in the Arab region based on English and French colonialist systems. Political structures and economic challenges in the region uphold the rigid societal and security structures that limit faculty governance and academic freedom, which impacts teaching and learning perspectives. This study utilized basic qualitative design methods based in constructivist grounded theory. Questionnaires, surveys, and email interviews that invited open-ended, explanatory, and descriptive answers were central to this work. Taking an observer’s approach to this study, I analyzed survey responses of Arab university …

A Meta-Synthesis Of The American And The European Standards For The Accreditation Of Counseling Training Programs, Natalia Zapolsky

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how the European Standards for the accreditation of counseling training programs compare to CACREP standards and to each other. The differences and commonalities between standards have been defined through a meta-synthesis of integrated findings from a large body of inter-related qualitative studies and reinterpretation of the synthesized data.

This qualitative meta-synthesis research was intended to contribute to the process of counseling globalization by exploring the unique cultural features and aspects of the European and the U.S. accrediting systems for counseling training programs. This research revealed 1) the commonly recognized areas that …

Accessibility To Resources For Homeless Documented Immigrant Families: A Case Study, Antaniece P. Carter

Dissertations

This study seeks to explore the experience of a homeless documented immigrant family attempting to access school and community resources. Research has shown that due to disadvantages including but not limited to lack of economic mobility, employment access, lone parent families, and cultural background, some immigrant families may face challenges accessing services (Arnold, 2004). Difficulty accessing services then can inhibit adjustment and may lead to homelessness.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the issue of homelessness as experienced by immigrants within an urban community. A case study will highlight the experience of a homeless immigrant family, as defined …

Perceived Teaching Style And Academic Growth In An International School Setting, Jamie Elizabeth Martin

Dissertations

The presence of international schools has grown significantly around the world to accommodate a growing need for academic instruction that differs from that provided in local schools and to meet the rapid demands of globalization. As demands for international schools increase, demands for student performance are also increasing.

This quantitative correlational study seeks to determine if correlations exist between teaching style and student academic growth in mathematics within an international school setting. The study also determines if a dominant teaching style exists and if correlations between teacher grade level and teaching style can be made among international teachers who teach …

The Cultural Adaptation Experiences Of Chinese Higher Education Students In The American Deep South: A Comparison Across Disciplines, Xiaonan Song

Dissertations

In the past decade, Chinese international students have been found as one of the largest international student groups at American institutions across the country. However, the American Deep South was not less frequently studied in the past. Due to the distinctiveness of the Deep South, the researcher conducted this qualitative research on Chinese international students studying in this historically and culturally distinctive region. Mississippi was chosen as a representative state of the Deep South in the current study. The researcher collected data from in-depth interviews from three publicly funded institutions in Mississippi. Besides reporting many common issues regarding to cultural …

Understanding Chinese International Undergraduate Students’ Experiences At The University Of Missouri - St. Louis, Yujia Wang

Dissertations

This study examines the challenges and stressors Chinese international undergraduate students face while attending the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL) in relation to their study abroad experience. Surveys were initially used to gather information and to gauge students’ familiarity and use of university support services available to help with specific challenges and stressors. Follow-up interviews were conducted to collect additional in-depth data. As consistent with the literature review, the study found that UMSL students confronted language barriers, academic challenges, and cultural differences when transitioning to UMSL’s academic culture and social environment. Additionally, financial stresses were exacerbated by issues …

Think Large And Bring The World To Lyon: A Case Study Of Iae Lyon's International Week Program, Pamela J. Decker

Dissertations

Educational Leadership Doctoral Program Western Kentucky University As a result of globalization, the world truly is a smaller place. Today’s business school graduate no longer has to board a plane to transact with international markets—all that is needed is a mobile device and an internet connection. Therefore, a global mindset cannot be limited to only those students who have an opportunity to study abroad; universities must find ways to provide all students with international exposure. A review of the literature shows that, even though business schools are providing students with the necessary technical skills to work within a globalized economy, …

Do You Want Kentucky?” “… No Thank You, I'M Not Hungry.”: A Case Study Of International Student Choice In Higher Education, Wouter Van Alebeek

Dissertations

In order to attract international students, it is important to know why students select a particular institution and how they experience the selection process. Additionally, there seems to be limited agreement among researchers on a conceptual framework for international student college choice and how it might differ from a model used to organize domestic students’ college choice experiences.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to gain insight into the stages of college choice for international students by testing an expansion of the Hossler and Gallagher (1987) theoretical model that adds the push and pull factors related to the …

Cultural, Linguistic, Curricular And Financial Stories Of Andrews University International Undergraduate Students And Their Experiences Of Coping During The Academic Year 2014-2015: A Narrative Study, Renaude Etienne Saint-Phard

Dissertations

Problem

The internationalization trends indicate that global growth of international students moving from one country to another is predicted to exceed 7.2 billion in 2025 (IIE, 2011)). This crossing of borders inevitably evokes that international students confront multifaceted challenges in their host country. Although many facets of research have addressed their multilayered challenges, most of these studies do not give a voice to international undergraduate students nor do they seek to understand their cultural, linguistic, curricular, and financial narratives. Most importantly, these studies do not explore how international undergraduate students cope with their challenges. It is essential to understand how …

Minority Middle And High School Students' Interest In Science: An Exploration Of Teachers' Perceptions, Caroline Makere

Dissertations

A high school teacher conducted a study about minority middle and high school students’ interest in science. The problem was to find out why African American and Hispanic students were showing very little interest in science. The researcher used four middle school science teachers and nine high school science teachers, all from inner city schools in a big city of the Midwest United States except for one middle school teacher from a nearby suburb. The participants answered a survey questionnaire followed with a face-to-face recorded interview. The findings of the study confirmed that students showed little interest in science due …