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An autoethnographic study on the experience of a Midwest rural school counselor represents a personal and professional perspective on trauma, burnout, and posttraumatic growth. Content includes rural adversity, grief, and career progression. The research aimed to examine professional and private adversities to inform and improve the practice of professional school counselors. The following research questions were addressed: How did personal and secondary trauma impact a rural school counselor's professional trajectory? What insight can be offered to other school counselors or educators experiencing the challenges that come with this work and, sometimes, that come from sources that are not from work but still affect one's professional practice? An intense reflexive process revealed themes of persistence, identity development, and posttraumatic growth. Through the story of my career and intertwining personal life, I offer insight into lessons learned as a professional school counselor. Through the autoethnographic process, I could provide thoughtful insight into a rural school counselor's practice and lessons learned. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation explores the intersection of disability studies and special education, focusing on the integration of disability-affirming practices within special education teacher preparation programs. The overarching goal is to enhance the preparation of preservice special education teachers by incorporating disability studies content, promoting a more inclusive and affirming approach to disability in education. Chapter 2 presents a critical autoethnography that examines the author's personal journey of discovering their disabilities--Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism (AuDHD)--while enrolled in a doctoral program in special education. This exploration highlights the dissonance the author discovered between the prevalent deficit-driven perspectives of disability they were taught in their special education program and disability studies' more holistic, identity-affirming views of disability that they found through their own identity exploration. The autoethnography delves into the challenges faced by disabled students in higher education, the absence of disabled voices in special education curricula, and the impact of ableism within academic settings. The study underscores the importance of incorporating disability studies perspectives to foster a more inclusive and supportive educational environment for disabled students. Chapter 3 critically examines the extent to which disability studies content is included in introductory special education courses across 10 of the top 12 undergraduate programs in the US. Through a transformative analysis of course syllabi, this study reveals a significant gap in the integration of disability studies concepts within preservice special education teacher preparation. The findings indicate that current curricula predominantly adhere to a medical model of disability, emphasizing deficits and interventions rather than a holistic understanding of disability identity and culture. This study advocates for the inclusion of disability studies perspectives to enrich the training of future special educators, promoting a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to teaching disabled students. Building on the findings from Chapter 3, Chapter 4 offers practical recommendations for integrating disability studies content into an introductory special education teacher preparation course. This practitioner-focused guide provides a roadmap for incorporating disability-affirming practices, including a sample syllabus, assignments, and project ideas. The recommendations aim to equip instructors with the tools to provide future special educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to foster an inclusive classroom environment that respects and celebrates disability as a part of human diversity. Additionally, the study addresses potential barriers to implementation and offers strategies for overcoming these challenges. Together, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing discourse on the integration of disability studies in special education. By highlighting the tensions between special education and disability studies, the dissertation calls for a paradigm shift in how special education is taught and practiced. The work advocates for a more inclusive and affirming approach that recognizes and values the voices and experiences of disabled individuals. This dissertation ultimately seeks to bridge the divide between special education and disability studies, fostering a more holistic and equitable educational landscape for all students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In the present era of inclusion, special schools increasingly serve as spaces for the delivery of supplementary education and rehabilitation services for mainstreamed disabled children. A history of segregation and institutionalization weigh heavily on the sector, prompting many special educators to advocate for students' continued mainstreaming (often against students' wishes) through mastery of the necessary compensatory techniques and technologies that promise to help them attain equality with their non-disabled peers in mainstream schools. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic research, including bi-weekly in-person participant observation and semi-structured interviews with educators and parents, in a public special school for the blind and visually impaired in southern France, this dissertation explores the narratives and practices that maintain educators in a deficit mindset vis-a-vis disabled lives, a mindset from which it becomes difficult to see the potential of visual impairment to contribute to an enacted, non-representational epistemology in an education system based on ocular-centric objectivism. Nevertheless, students harness being together disabled at the school to make sense of the world through their unique phenomenology in which sight often plays a surprisingly important part. Engaging anthropology, embodied cognitive science, and critical disability studies, I argue that sight shows up for the children as a tool of playful curiosity for learning in an always emergent present, a disposition I call "sight as question" that stands in contrast to the objectivist "sight as power" standard in mainstream schools. In re-conceptualizing the special school as understated space of embodied knowledge creation, my dissertation makes three primary contributions. First, I show how the French state's race to mainstream all students has exacerbated reactionary approaches to educating disabled children, a reality now hidden behind an innovative facade of assistive technology. Second, I document how such situation continues with the full compliance of otherwise progressive-minded educators because of a historical cultural context wherein national public education is instilled with the status of meritocratic authority responsible for vetting all children for epistemic conformity as a matter of "égalité." Finally, I offer an alternative perspective for repurposing special schools to spaces of phenomenological potential led by members of the disabled community and explore what, as such, they might contribute to teaching and learning in an age of artificial intelligence. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

An ongoing concern in higher education is the disjunction between how faculty teach and how students learn best. A primary objective of higher education is to produce content experts, which does not automatically translate to expert teachers of content. Lacking formal instruction on how to teach their content, faculty often teach in the same manner they were taught. Rooted in critical theory and transformative learning theory frameworks, this analytic autoethnography explored the relationship between inherited mindsets and pedagogies and current teaching beliefs and practices to raise awareness and transform teaching. Data were collected through critical incident reports from my 20- year teaching career in higher education, a survey of faculty teaching beliefs and practices from a state-wide university system in the Northeast, and semistructured interviews with former faculty colleagues. Data analysis consisted of three stages: deductive coding derived from the researcher-designed conceptual framework, inductive coding to capture themes outside the framework, and triangulating the findings from the three data sources to identify consistencies and contradictions in the categorization and theming. Key findings revealed: (a) a disconnect between faculty's teaching beliefs and their teaching practice; (b) faculty were not exposed to Socratic-based mindsets and pedagogies in their undergraduate studies; (c) apart from teacher education programs, faculty received little to no formal training in how to teach; (d) whether conscious of it or not, faculty rely on inherited mindsets and pedagogies for their teaching practice; (e) signature professional development, particularly critical self-reflection, is vital in transforming teaching beliefs and practices; and (f) the institution's teaching culture is a source of support or discouragement for student-centered teaching mindsets and pedagogies. The study produced a conceptual framework (Comparative Teaching Paradigm), a survey instrument (Faculty Survey on Teaching Beliefs and Practices), and a professional reflective practice (Faculty Teaching Mindsets & Pedagogies Inventory) to assist faculty and administrators in better understanding the nature of the problem of quality undergraduate instruction and methods for transforming teaching mindsets and pedagogies from a faculty-focused practice to a student-centered learning experience. The next steps include refining the faculty survey and researching the impact of the study's conclusion on transforming undergraduate teaching. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill went into effect in 2009, there has been tremendous growth in the number of military-connected students enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities. In response to this influx, higher education stakeholders developed dedicated resources and services to remove barriers students often faced when transitioning from the military to civilian cultures. This study introduces a critical analysis to understand how institutions with diverse resources and services for military-connected students transition those students to a civilian higher education culture and whether those resources and services effectively facilitate this transition. Using social and cultural capital as a theoretical framework, this institutional ethnography investigated how military-connected students transitioned into higher education at four non-profit universities in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States: two campuses with military-connected student resource centers, one with a dedicated office to serve military-connected students, and one with a dedicated administrator to certify GI Bill benefits. Methods included observations of campus structures and military-connected student interactions with different campus stakeholders, semi-structured interviews with students, alumni, and campus administrators and faculty, and analysis of government, non-government organizations, and campus documents. Results indicated how some campuses created military-connected-specific services that sometimes provided social and cultural capital that primarily served to meet federal regulation requirements. The mil-con students utilizing all-encompassing services were successful as students but centered their military-connected identity without fully integrating elsewhere in the campus community. Campuses that embedded transition services for military-connected students facilitated opportunities for students to cultivate social and cultural capital in both military-connected-specific and civilian spaces to transition to campus. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Educational leaders today are well versed in the complex and often overwhelming nature of their respective roles. The difficulty of educational leadership increases exponentially when implementing innovative practices like competency-based learning that challenge every aspect of the traditional structure and function of schools, thereby requiring a strategic change framework to ensure fidelity and sustainability of the implementation. The transformative autoethnography research design guided this study, for the purpose of uniquely highlighting one administrator's reflections and perspective when creating an innovation configuration map draft that could be used to support implementation of competency-based learning. The map draft was shared with current and former educators who provided feedback on their perspectives of the elements within the map and the usability of the map. The data reveal the importance of educational leaders using a reflexive process and aligning experience and expertise with the change leadership process. Findings also demonstrate how important it is for educational leaders, particularly campus administrators, to access, understand, and use research-based tools to support strategic change implementation. Themes that emerged were (1) the importance of clarity of purpose and audience in the creation of the map, and (2) the importance of honoring a collaborative process when creating a map. Future researchers could use this transformative autoethnographic research design and additional components of the concerns-based adoption model to study or implement a similar and a different innovation, as well as benefit from the personal and professional growth this method offers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Translanguaging research among multilingual students has received considerable attention across different contexts of practice. The most robust contexts in translanguaging research have been the classroom contexts between teacher and students. This study examined the affordances of translanguaging spaces "between class sessions" in school and at home contexts. This study focused on examining translanguaging moments that show the affordances of social spaces and practices of multilingual minority students across home and school contexts. The study was conducted following the translanguaging approach which combines conventional methods including ethnographic methods and newer analytical frameworks such as the 'moment analysis' used in this study. The data collected for the present study included interviews and naturally occurring conversations which were audio recorded by three multilingual 'Kuteb speaking' students within a total period of 8 weeks. Using the moment analysis which is the "spur of the moment analysis" of translanguaging practices, also within the framework of "translanguaging space", the findings show affordances of different translanguaging spaces for conversations at school and in the same way the affordances of different translanguaging spaces for conversations at home contexts. The school setting provided the students with spaces for the expression of their multilingual identities through translanguaging practices for conversations in the contexts of conflict, marriage and school-built relationships, while the affordances of translanguaging spaces at home contexts opened-up spaces for more non-controversial conversations and casual talk in the context of talk with neighbors, family, and friends. Each translanguaging moment opened up unique translanguaging space (s) across contexts ranging from spaces for the expressions of identity to spaces for discourse on conflict. The findings in this study show the importance of the school context as unregulated space (s) involving discourse among equals in enhancing the multilingual students' expressions of their multilingualism captured by translanguaging. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion in translanguaging research on 'spaces' afforded the multilingual students and points to the potential of translanguaging moments in understanding the complexity of multilingual behavior observed through language in unique spaces. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The Los Angeles Unified School District has undertaken an experiment in the education of immigrant students learning English. Over the 2021-2023 school years, the district opened three new high school Academies for recently-immigrated students explicitly tasked with centering their home languages to support their success in school. The students and educators in these Academies are predominately Latinx and 25% of students reported a Mayan language as their home language. Recognizing that Indigenous languages and the home languages of young people from racialized communities represent knowledge- and value-systems historically excluded from and suppressed by schools, this dissertation asks what language policy in "newcomer" schools teaches about the futures we build with and for marginalized young people. Based on two years of ethnographic research across the three Academies, this study examines the official and practiced policies governing students' home languages and the possible futures those policies facilitate or constrain. By analyzing classroom observations, student work, more than 75 interviews with students, educators, and district leaders; and participant-observation in a youth-organizing group, this study engages the concept of relationality to argue that the enrollment of Indigenous, immigrant young people in U.S. public schools to achieve their self-determined goals is an insurgency against the colonial design of schooling. Drawing on the critical ethnography of language policy and raciolinguistic ideologies, this dissertation describes how progressive language policy can operate as a form of state counterinsurgency against immigrant young people's claims to citizenship by operating as a flexible enclosure that works in concert with carceral institutions to control the mobility and sociality of immigrant young people. Thinking with abolition, the study identifies how educators develop subversive solidarity with immigrant educational insurgency through transnational teacher organizing. These insights demonstrate contemporary interrelations between language, race, and schooling from which we can identify the specificities of shared struggle and imagine anticolonial relationships between schools, educators, and racially minoritized communities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In Catholic high schools, the positions of campus minister and theology teacher have shifted from vowed religious and clergy to the laity. The job descriptions and expectations of these positions have not changed to reflect the realities of those who hold them. Based on my own experience and anecdotes of colleagues, I have noticed a consistent theme of long work hours, low salaries, and a lack of awareness of lay ministers' life demands. Using appreciative inquiry through ethnography and reflexivity, I explore the reality of six lay ministers in Catholic high schools. Placing my own experience in conversation with that of the six interviewees, I address the following questions: What are some of the ways that institutional power can be managed to achieve a just and humane treatment of lay ministers? How can clear boundaries and expectations that are appropriate for lay ministers be drawn? And how can the role of lay ministers in Catholic educational institutions be redefined in a sustainable way? I juxtapose the interviewees' experiences with a personal hermeneutical interpretation of different church documents. These documents are at the conciliar, congregational, and local levels of the Catholic church. Through my interpretation of these institutional church documents, I shed light on gaps between expectations and realities faced by some lay ministers in Catholic high schools. I concentrate on issues regarding professional development, unjust wages, unreasonable expectations, among others. This research is meant to inspire dialogue in Catholic institutions where similar issues might be present in the hopes of addressing them and finding solutions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This is an empirical, ethnographic study about middle school students' mathematical joy in a formal math classroom. This study is situated in a year-long Research Practice Partnership with 6th grade mathematics teacher and 21 students in her 3rd block class. Through this collaboration, the teacher and I sought to design tasks to support students' unique joyful mathematical engagement. We did this through an iterative design approach involving three phases of data collection and three analytic cycles. Qualitative open coding, case studies, and abductive postcoding analysis were conducted to determine: (1) What are some characteristics of joyful mathematical engagement? and (2) What conditions support students' joyful mathematical engagement in a formal math classroom? Findings revealed that sociomathematical norms of this classroom characterized knowing and doing mathematics as product-oriented, competitive, compliant, and a complex negotiation of fun and stressful. Additionally, when students engaged in tasks that were intentionally designed to support mathematical reciprocity, many students across the class demonstrated joy while engaging in math learning in multifaceted ways (for example through humor, movement, debate, and encouragement) that represented their multifaceted well-being. This is not to generalize to say that we can design for all students' mathematical joy by incorporating reciprocity or in fact any single dimensions of design. Joy that emerged for these students resulted from listening to students varied ways of communicating their experience with both humanizing and dehumanizing mathematical experiences in this cultural environment. It was by attending to them, treating them as human, listening to their stories, watching their grins and winces that we could see more clearly, albeit imperfectly, learn how to design more humanizing formal mathematical learning experiences that supported their unique joy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Colleges face growing pressures to maintain or enhance the quality of what they offer while being challenged to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse range of students. Staff in higher education face the challenge of supporting students to feel they belong and are valued. The co-creation of teaching and learning is one model in which we may be able to meet these challenges. The purpose of this study was to describe the process, benefits, and challenges of co-creating teaching and learning experiences in one college classroom from the perspectives of both teachers and students. A qualitative research methodology was used to explore and describe the implementation of a co-created curriculum model in a college classroom. Ethnographic field notes of the researcher's reflections on implementing a co-created curriculum were collected in narrative form, and data from students' perspectives were collected using open-ended survey questions. This study found that co-creating teaching and learning experiences in a college classroom included the process and preparation of implementing the model. Similar to previous research, this study's results show the benefits of autonomy, gaining experience and skills, motivation and engagement, and challenges that fall under the categories of resistance and institutional norms and practices. Implications for practice from this study include implications for both students and faculty. Implementing a co-created teaching and learning model allows for greater collaboration and engagement for students and faculty and develops a stronger sense of community in the classroom. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This qualitative critical ethnographic study aimed to investigate the role of health literacy access among adult Hispanic Americans and how it affects self-care attitudes. The goal of this qualitative critical ethnographic study design was to see if previous healthcare service experiences influenced Hispanic American adults' attitudes toward obtaining personal healthcare services, health literacy, and self-care services (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Fetterman, 2020). According to Creswell and Poth (2018), in this qualitative study, the critical ethnographic research technique was used to describe and assess the shared and learned patterns of values, actions, beliefs, and language in a culture-sharing group. This strategy reacts to today's culture, in which power, prestige, privilege, and authority help marginalized people of all classes, ethnicities, and genders. The study's findings support the idea that adult Hispanic Americans' healthcare experiences influence their views regarding self-care. Other study findings include the significance of opposing viewpoints and the concept of self-care based on access to health literature and doctor's appointments. The findings also stressed the significance of obtaining health literacy through internet access, the cost of insurance, doctor visit experiences, and the significance of quality of care for self-care. The intention of this study is to gain a better understanding of the function of health literacy access among adult Hispanic Americans and how it influences self-care attitudes (Fetterman, 2020). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This critical autoethnographic dissertation delves into the personal journey of a Black female counselor and mother, whose path meanders through the complex terrain of education, leading her to a profound transition into the realm of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) leadership. Drawing from memories, emotions, and ongoing encounters, this critical autoethnography uses braiding as a framework for bringing together stories of identity development, self-reflection, cultural context, social dynamics, while working at the intersection of various counseling and leadership frameworks alongside Black feminism, spirituality, and motherhood. Stories of belonging, faith, family, and community emerge in harmonious and dissonant ways through the autoethnographic process. Yet, these stories also serve as crucial anchors for starting a courageous conversation during a personal and professional transition to DEIB leadership roles. Furthermore, these stories shape the author's sense of self and social presence, along with themes of vulnerability and empowerment while working through systems which intertwine, showcasing the transformative potential of embracing one's unique voice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

With the development of increasingly advanced technologies, interactions with and via these technologies have become even more central to human activity. Technology is utilized in both sanctioned and unsanctioned ways within language and literacy classrooms around the world making questions, concerns, and curiosities around educational potentials and ethical consequences abundant (Holmes et. al, 2021). Even as online interactions across national, cultural, ideological, linguistic, and virtual borders become more frequent and complex, equity in these interactions has not increased and representation remains disproportionate (Acey et al., 2021). Material modes and tools of communicative practices are complicit in the ways groups and individuals engage amongst, and make meaning of, themselves and global peers. In this dissertation, I engage a New Materialist framework (Braidotti 2013; Barad 2007) to complicate notions of agency and authorship in my analysis of data from an ethnographically informed study exploring the meaning making and literacy practices of youth engaging in transnational, digital communication. This thesis examines the everyday digital literacy practices and material entanglements within which youth participants in Mexico, Uganda, and the United States make sense of themselves and others through materially-discursive practices (Barad 2007). Through my analysis, I found that in these engagements meaning making was an emergence of layered, local histories, and embodied experience. I also examined the differential roles similar technologies and platforms took up in different contexts finding that digital literacy holds the potential for both oppression and liberation. I end this dissertation with implications for research and pedagogy along with a call for researchers and educators to critically examine and responsibly engage with the unintended outcomes of digital literacy entanglements in order to inform critical language and literacy pedagogy that is relevant and responsive to the globalizing and digitally mediated landscape of the 21st century. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Using autoethnographic, arts-based, and embodied methods, this postformal dissertation study establishes the first of a two-part research-as-community-building template designed with racially and socioeconomically diverse school communities in mind. Imagined as a double helix in an echo of human DNA, it describes an arts-based, embodied self-study (Helix 1) as a prerequisite for later study of community (Helix 2, not yet complete) typified by mindful engagement across socially constructed lines of difference and attention to the potential building blocks of collaborative leadership across those same lines. As a prerequisite to community work, I explored my lifetime encounters with others of difference (Chang, 2008) by creating, analyzing, and interpreting 74 individual crayon/watercolor/salt artworks representing my memories of key historical encounters and relationships. The collective artwork (Glyph Spiral) and the stories it contains form a model classroom for the practice of "critical pedagogy as onto-epistemology" (Kress & Lake, 2018). Lessons have surfaced about seeing and being seen, sharing, slowing down, structural awareness, feelings and healing, and working with memory, history, and time. Each finding is relevant to the future community work, to the experience of research-creation (Springgay & Truman, 2017), and to arts-based research (ABR) in general. This methodological experiment is my first step in exploring how creative, embodied research-as-community-building might work as Family Community Collaboration (FCC) (Ishimaru et al., 2019) and support a movement toward "beloved community" (Kipton, 2016) in the context of diverse schools. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Play is an important dimension of learning for all students. When students are allowed to play, amazing things happen. Students start to tell stories, explore new concepts, and learn in authentic ways. Some of these experiences are constructed with peers, while others are created individually. Discoveries are made by connecting one student's ideas with another and this new knowledge or idea is then shared with classmates. Play is a tool for student learning, discovery, and understanding. It's where they discover ideas, experiences, and concepts, and where they can analyze these discoveries and their consequences. When students explore ideas generated through play with student-led interest projects, they take agency in their own learning. Play and play-based learning allow all students access to innovative and creative educational experiences. In this study, students' stories and experiences with play are analyzed and shared using narrative inquiry and autoethnography. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this study, I explore a 20-plus-year process of how one research-intensive university in the United States integrated entrepreneurship into a university-wide initiative to develop an entrepreneurial culture. This research study focuses on the process of how entrepreneurial culture was developed through the implementation of three social entrepreneurship pitch competitions. I designed and implemented this study using organizational and critical ethnography methodologies. Organizational ethnography is a qualitative research approach that immerses the researcher in the natural context of an organization to understand its social dynamics, cultural practices, and lived experiences. Critical ethnography is an interpretive research methodology that aims to uncover power dynamics, social inequalities, and injustices within organizations by examining the underlying structures that shape individuals' experiences and interactions. I used qualitative research methods to understand the everyday work and activity that shaped the experience of entrepreneurial culture through textual document analysis, observations, and interviews with students, faculty, and staff. My work was guided by the following research question: How do faculty, staff, administration, and students create entrepreneurial culture through the production of social entrepreneurship education at a research-intensive university? Through this analysis, I discuss how pitch competitions serve as a prominent ritual and routine of entrepreneurship education at Startup U, in most cases fostering existing entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, a disconnect exists between faculty intentions for developing an entrepreneurial mindset and the organizational structures supporting student learning, with pitch competitions outside the classroom often emphasizing high-tech, high-growth ventures, potentially excluding ideas developed from Startup U's broad operating definition of entrepreneurship. These findings highlight the influence of philanthropic giving on student opportunities within the university's entrepreneurship ecosystem and how 'training unicorns' limits the potential of engaging students in a university-wide initiative. I conclude this study with theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical implications section advocates for a deeper exploration of entrepreneurial mindsets beyond traditional business contexts, urging scholars to focus on exploring community development versus community growth. The practical implications section proposes the use of critical reflection to bridge entrepreneurial knowledge and skills with an entrepreneurial mindset. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study utilized a basic interpretive design to explore the experiences of parents/guardians who enrolled their children in the Build Our Kids for Success Program (BOKS) and autoethnography to explore the experiences of the researcher while implementing the BOKS program. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 individuals representing 13 families. The participants were parents/guardians of elementary school-aged students with or at risk for high incidence disabilities. These participants were living in Wards 7 or 8 in Washington, DC and enrolled in the BOKS programs within the last 4 years. The study explored how parents or guardians of elementary school-aged children with or at risk for high incidence disabilities perceive the benefits and challenges for their children enrolled in the BOKS program. Parents/guardians provided insight on their perspective of extracurricular activities and the BOKS program. Through interviews participants were able to provide a narrative about their experiences. Responses from the parents/guardians provided insight on how parents or guardians of elementary school-aged students with or at risk for high incidence disabilities make meaning of their decision-making processes to enroll their children in the BOKS program. Comparative analysis of the data resulted in five interrelated themes that participants identified as their reasoning to enroll and re-enroll into the BOKS program: the program has no cost--"I Would Pay for It If I Had To"; BOKS Encourages Positive Behaviors; BOKS Provides Structure: "The Rest of His Days Seem to Run Smoother; It Also Offers More Structure"; BOKS Is a Supportive Environment for Students with Disabilities: "I Think BOKS Is "Disability Approved"; BOKS Engages Families: "I Like the Family Aspect of It and Participating Together." When recounting the experiences of the researcher using autoethnography, four themes emerged: Scheduling/Setting, Adaptability/Community-Based Program, Student and Family Engagement, "In a Good Light": A Place to Shine. Findings are revealed and discussed. Recommendations for practice, policy, and future research are provided. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study is focused on exploring ways to disrupt imbalanced power dynamics in educational settings, specifically elementary schools. It includes reflections of the researcher's journey and experiences as a teacher in District of Columbia public and charter schools and how those experiences shaped who she became when she entered school leadership. The goal of the study was to understand in what ways power dynamics can be shifted to ensure both the teacher and the school leader are being heard and valued within the school system. Transformation learning theory was used to guide the reflection of the school leader and collaborative leadership principles were used to create a more collaborative feedback protocol that created a space where teachers and school leaders can leverage their experiences and create a space for a genuine reciprocal learning relationship. The journey toward reaching this study's goal started with an in-depth knowledge review that contextualized the problem of practice and contextualized approaches to intervening in it. Part one of the knowledge review dived into anti-racist pedagogy and how that pedagogy was used to analyze problematic leadership practices within my school community, it also explored neoliberal practices and how neoliberalism dehumanizes teachers within charter schools. Additionally, the knowledge review dove into humanizing leadership characteristics as a response to the dehumanization of teachers within charter schools including liberatory conscious theory and collaborative leadership principles. Autoethnography was used as the qualitative research method to analyze the personal reflections and experiences of a first-year vice principal as she embarked on a journey to dismantle the imbalanced power dynamic and perpetuation of White supremacy culture characteristics that existed within her leadership practices. Furthermore, the school leader implemented a collaborative feedback loop protocol with one teacher and analyzed the reflection of the teacher as it related to the new leadership practices adopted by the school leader. The study found that when the leader implemented the collaborative feedback loop, the teacher expressed experiences of feeling valued and uplifted as an expert in her classroom and regaining trust in the leader. The research concludes by outlining the limitations and implications of the study which includes the issue of time management of the leader while implementing the collaborative feedback protocol with multiple teachers. Recommendations include a push for school leaders to closely interrogate their journey in education and how those experiences contribute to their current mindset around school leadership. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation aims to define the connection between one's perceptions of self and how one conceptualizes leadership. This study first conceptualized my own identity, seeking to connect my past experiences and interactions with others utilizing a term borrowed from Eastern philosophy, samskara, to see how they impact my current practice within leadership. Within the current body of research, various forms of leadership approaches, such as relational, appreciative, feminist, queer, and conscious leadership, were described and explored. What was found to be missing from the current body of work was a connection between who a person is, how they identify, and what connections they have to their leadership approach. This dissertation aims to provide an example of this connection as I have worked to gain a deeper sense of self-awareness (Hayden, 2017) and my conceptualization of leadership. This study will then take it a step further as I draw a connection between my conceptualization of leadership and uncomfortably reflect on how that impacts my interactions with others. Autoethnography is utilized in this dissertation as both process and product (Jones, 2012), as this work is self-reflective and narrative. I invite readers into a world I have created (Ellis, 2004) so that they can understand the connections between my identity markers and the interconnectedness of my conceptualization of leadership. Discussion centers around the findings within his study, such as the connection between the person and the personal identities of a leader, as well as the implications this work has on leaders, the individuals they work with, and the practice of leadership. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Career and technical education (CTE) is a vital education model in 21st century America. Furthermore, disciplinary literacy has gained traction over the last 20 years as an essential way to develop literacy skills across content areas. However, most disciplinary literacy studies focus on the academic subjects of English, history, science, and math. This focus leaves a gap in the literature that explores the specifics of CTE. This mini ethnography explored the disciplinary literacies that were part of a manufacturing program. Specifically, this study explored the following research questions: 1. What disciplinary literacy practices do students in career and technical education courses engage in? 2. How does a community of practice within career and technical education shape disciplinary literacy practices? 3. How does a community of practice within career and technical education shape students' perceptions of themselves as literate professionals? The researcher observed many uses of math, science, and other disciplinary literacies that merged into a distinct set of practices specific to the manufacturing program. These skills were developed through a community of practice. Furthermore, this community of practice and disciplinary literacy development played a role in students developing an identity as a professional tradesperson. Many disciplines could benefit from incorporating the literacy skills of the manufacturing program. The manufacturing literacy skills were a robust conglomerate of skills applicable to 21st century learning and careers. Further research would benefit from investigating different CTE programs in different contexts and understanding how those skills could apply to a variety of disciplines. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although researchers have studied the impact of teacher evaluation laws on teachers and administrators, we know very little about how administrators, who assume most of the responsibility for implementing the state-mandated teacher evaluation system, proceed in making use of the evaluation tool their district uses for its performance evaluation system for teachers. Using an ethnographic approach, this multiple-case study seeks to gain a more comprehensive understanding of these complexities by examining the practices of three assistant principals from the same southeast Michigan school district. Major findings triangulated using multiple data sources including reflective journaling, questionnaires, interviews, artifacts, and focus groups, revealed administrators face substantial challenges implementing the state-mandated teacher evaluation system. Nonetheless, they persist, developing innovative solutions (e.g., tools) to help them implement the system with fidelity and engage in continuous cycles of self-improvement, which leads to increased self-efficacy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this study, I investigated marriage and family therapy (MFT) accredited graduate programs' utilization of social media as a platform to educate the public about the MFT profession's unique systemic relational orientation. This study also explored MFT graduate programs' representation on social media and highlighted the issues of public awareness surrounding the MFT field. The variety of competing mental health professions creates a challenge for the field of MFT to differentiate its services from those outside the field. This investigation implemented the social media ethnography method to explore how MFT's accredited graduate programs use social media to educate the public about the MFT profession's unique worldview. In the results section, the data was presented in a table format, which helped identify themes relevant to the study. The common themes were how MFT programs use visual aids, describe their identity online, and incorporate diversity and inclusion within their social media pages. In the discussion section, the results were interpreted and provided insightful implications for promoting the field of MFT through accredited graduate programs and advancement in the current digital age. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation investigated the relationship between students and teachers in the context of writing pedagogical practices and writing curriculum. This study sought to extend the understanding of classroom relationships, specifically centered around writing instruction. Three dyads of teachers and students were observed as they interacted and moved through the mandated curriculum and normal routines of the classroom. Through a basic, interpretive qualitative methodology using principles of ethnography, this investigation sought to identify, describe, and interpret the themes of relationships between teacher and student in the writing classroom. Over the course of several weeks, data was collected from the dyads through participant observations and audio/video recordings of these observations. Additional data, serving as a secondary dataset were collected from semi-structured interviews with the teachers and students, and writing samples were collected from the students. The relational themes were interpreted and described in detail as well as triangulated via secondary data sources. Results of this investigation demonstrated how the relationship between student and teacher influenced and interacted with pedagogical practices and curriculum. Five relational themes were identified and described in detail. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this three-paper dissertation project, I explore how 'English' becomes a recognizable object within the context of adult ESOL education. Building on scholarship on named languages (Garcia, 2019; Makoni & Pennycook, 2006), the historical construction of languages (Bonfiglio, 2010; Irvine & Gal, 2000), and raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Rosa & Flores, 2017), I analyze how language, both as an abstract concept and as a collection of linguistic features, is treated within adult ESOL, looking at specific contemporary classrooms, as well as historical texts. This work culminated in the three studies I present here -- focused, in turn, on classroom discourse and pedagogical practices, curriculum, and language scholarship -- as something of a "self portrait" of English (del Valle, Lauria, Orono, & Rojas, 2021). I start with "'The good English': The ideological construction of the target language in adult ESOL", a study which employs classroom-based ethnography and classroom discourse analysis (Rampton, 2006; Reyes, 2011; Rosa, 2019) to look at the construction of 'English' in a nonprofit, community-based adult ESOL program in New York. I argue that the structural conditions of the program promote reliance on a conception of 'English' shaped by linguistic racism, despite the program's progressive ideals. Drawing on ethnographic observation and interviews, I outline the discursive and pedagogical practices that uphold this conception of 'English', and how students destabilize it, with an eye toward possibilities for alternate conceptions and pedagogies. In the next paper, "English by the book: Linguistic (and social) normativity in adult English curriculum over time", I explore how the ideologies I observed in contemporary classrooms developed over time by looking at 12 adult English textbooks from the 20th and early 21st centuries. Drawing on raciolinguistic genealogy (Anais, 2013; Flores, 2021), metapragmatics (Cutler, 2020; Urban, 2006), and the discourse analysis of textbooks, I argue that while normativity remains a core focus of mainstream adult immigrant education from its early institutions into the contemporary moment, linguistic normativity has become increasingly more central to mainstream conceptions of adult English learning (and, therefore, immigrant socialization) than broader social normativity. I end with a discussion of the potential reasons for this shift, and the ways it perpetuates the marginalization of adult immigrants. In the last paper, "Whiteness as the standard: Shifting ideologies, race, and social context", I explore how these ideologies developed more broadly, analyzing historical language scholarship, again employing elements of raciolinguistic genealogy and metapragmatics. I find that while the linguistic features of 'nonstandard' English have remained remarkably consistent in the popular imagination, they became increasingly linked with Blackness, especially during and after white backlash to the Great Migration (and other cultural and political changes) in the mid-20th century. I argue that this represents a larger pattern in the relationship between language and race in the United States, and conclude with a discussion of the implications this has for adult immigrants and the ESOL classroom. With this dissertation, I aim to fill in gaps in my own syllabi, and to create helpful tools for the educational linguistics classroom. Together, I hope these studies help current and future educators better understand the connection between language norms and racism, and to be aware of the history they are inheriting and also their role in it now, so they can, with their students, imagine and co-create alternatives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

We humans are cultural and ecological beings. This is a study about children's drawing as a device for expressing intertwined cultural and ecological relations. Countless studies have examined children's drawing from psychological, anthropological, linguistic, and aesthetic perspectives, while recently posthuman perspectives have put forward notions of drawing as material entanglement. Because of its apparent instinctual process and popularity as modes of expression and communication, drawing is often utilized as a tool for facilitating learning and instrumented as a momentary visualization of a child's perspective. Few studies concerning children's drawing have attempted to examine the possibilities of intersubjectivity between humans and nonhumans, or the affective forces that shape children's participation in social and ecological systems. In this arts-based education research (ABER) study located in the southwestern high desert of the current U.S., I examine children's drawing practices occurring within a science-informed environmental learning setting in connection with ecocultural identity. I employ a conceptual framework of place as sensed experiences amid relational assemblages (Booth, 2008, 2015; Casey, 1996; Tsing, 2015) and a theoretical foundation of sympoiesis, or making-with (Haraway, 2016). I submit a methodology of "lichenizing" inspired by the heterogeneous making-with of Lichens, consisting of methods drawn from visual ethnography, multispecies ethnography, and arts-based research. I ask the following research questions: How do children's graphical meaning-making manifest the a/effect of the assemblage of place? How do human/nonhuman collaborations prompt and influence the formation of ecocultural identity? Data were generated over 10 months through participant and place observations, participant drawings, and unstructured interviews, and include video recordings and detailed memos of drawing events, and photographs of the children's drawings created individually and collaboratively. In my interpretation of the data, I tell interspecies stories of drawing events and intersperse the writing with small drawing interludes. The illuminations of this study offer relational ways of understanding drawing as co-produced by multifarious forces and entities that link to the formation of children's ecocultural identities. This study highlights a critical need to continually examine the ways in which multidisciplinary, ecocentric education for children is conceived, constructed, and carried out, and to be more attentive to the ways in which children respond. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Many believe that teacher leaders can positively impact a school system, lifting the level of student achievement as well as cultivating a positive professional culture of learning (Carver & Feiman-Nemser, 2009; Lieberman & Miller, 2004; Nolan & Palazzolo, 2011; York-Barr & Duke, 2004). Drawing on the researcher's own lived journey of teacher leadership, this autoethnographic study takes an autobiographical narrative structure, drawing from the researcher's reflective journal entries and professional artifacts (i.e. job application statements, presentations, published narratives and reports). Data analysis employs a self-reflexive approach so as to discover potential intersections between author, other, and contextual conditions. These intersections provide themes as to the influences building my teacher leader identity. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study focused on the aspects shared by nursing faculty that impact the teaching and evaluation of clinical judgment in the traditional classroom environment. Literature revealed the importance of clinical judgment in the practice of nursing, and the National Council State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) also demonstrated the importance of competence in clinical judgment with the release of the next-generation National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) (NCSBN 2018a; NCSBN 2018b; NCSBN 2023). Much of the literature focused on the development of clinical judgment, but a gap in the literature was identified in the lack of research including nursing faculty perspectives and experiences with the evaluation of teaching strategies associated with clinical judgment development. This study utilized a focused ethnographic approach to explore nursing faculty's experience with evaluating clinical judgment teaching strategies in the prelicensure classroom environment. All participants in this study were full-time nursing faculty members, and data saturation was reached upon the tenth interview. The interview transcripts were coded using first and second-cycle methods as described in Saldana (2016). The data was then analyzed using thematic analysis with two major categories and eight major themes emerging from the data. The findings of this study provided insight into the faculty voice and perspective of the current state of evaluating clinical judgment teaching strategies, as well as the perceived role that faculty members take on when teaching and evaluating clinical judgment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study was a critical ethnography of the educational struggles of emergent bilinguals. Emergent bilingual newcomers who immigrate to the United States and enroll in U.S. schools at the secondary level struggle to meet the necessary requirements to graduate from high school. The focus was on finding what structures, policies, and practices affect emergent bilinguals' completion of the necessary requirements to graduate. More specifically, the following research questions guided the study: What structures, policies, and practices hinder the completion of school graduation for emergent bilinguals? How do pedagogical practices limit the attainment of graduation requirements for emergent bilingual students? Where and what are the points of promise and opportunities for emergent bilingual students to complete their high school education? The personal stories and experiences of the researcher were embedded in the study to introduce the topic, inform the analysis, and make meaning of the findings and recommendations. The study involved an analysis of the current literature on policy, practice, and theory and the authentic information shared by each research participant about their schooling and life experiences. Platicas and life maps were used as methodologies to collect the data and a qualitative inductive research approach was used to analyze the data from the stories shared by each participant. The analysis revealed how the implementation of policies and practices proved to be detrimental to the lives and schooling experiences of the three emergent bilinguals. More specifically, the main themes, or pillars revolving around (a) crossing the borders, (b) reception into a new country, (c) the welcome into a new learning environment and community, and (d) post migration, identified the main causes of why each emergent bilingual struggled to complete the requirements to graduate. In addition, the lack of support systems and awareness of the assets that each emergent bilingual possessed caused social, emotional, and academic distress. Results can be used to contribute to improvements in the implementation and interpretation of bilingual education program policies and practices that inform the way we meet the needs of emergent bilinguals who navigate through the realities of two distinct worlds and the challenges they face as they seek a better future. The implications and recommendations of this work will raise the level of agency required to support emergent bilinguals who are born in the United States and emergent bilingual newcomers who immigrate to the United States in search of a better life and an opportunity to continue and further their education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study is to create a model of tertiary vocational education in Kenya. Despite considerable progress in Kenya over the last 20 years, current education models, low attendance, and low academic proficiency levels preclude many vulnerable learners from becoming employable. Utilizing semi structured interviews of eight Kenyan participants, this study explores the testable design principles necessary to create such a micro-trade model. Utilizing Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA), a quantitative ethnographic technique, to model the structure of connections in data, this study attempts to systematically identify a set of constructs, as they are recorded in interview codes, connected to one another within these interviews. Two intellectual parallels emerged pertaining to the lack of fundamental and essential needs many Kenyans experience as well as salient issues of corruption often hindering the development of Kenya's politics, economy, and democracy. It was imperative that a targeted approach to education was maintained and underpinned the trajectory of the micro-trade model when identifying the design principles for this study. This study reports the finding that a fresh model of tertiary vocational education, micro-trade, could impact the ability of vulnerable youth to become economically independent. It proposes such a model appearing in Chapter 4, schematizing barriers to tertiary education, micro-trade as a response to those barriers through the lens of Kirkpatrick's model of education, and aspirational results from careful design and blend of Kirkpatrick's model with micro-trade. Such design and blending through design-based research constitute proposed next steps for this effort. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Sharing the stories and experiences of Black and African American students is becoming ever more important here in the United States. Increasingly, scholars express the need for a methodological approach that centers the voices of Black students. With this critical autoethnography, I investigated Black students' determining factors for pursuing terminal academic degrees and highlighted the various support systems that aid these students during their journey and towards completion. More specifically, I explored my own doctoral journey as Black trans student-parent from Trinidad and Tobago using critical autoethnography informed by Afro-Trinidadian oral storytelling. I analyzed my experiences through the lenses of Black trans feminist thought, Otherparenting, and Quare theory. I found that to in order to enroll and complete my PhD, the support of family of origin, my created family, my church community, several Black women both in and out of academia, and institutional support which included my doctoral advisor. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although researchers have shown interest in international students regarding their academic performance and on-campus lives since the 1990s, their off-campus lives have received less attention. After a period of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are resuming social activities and connections, and international students are regaining their mobility to study abroad. In the 2021/22 academic year, nearly one million international students studied at higher education institutions in the United States. On a related note, in recent years, some researchers, public media, and college communities noticed that Chinese international students in particular had a tendency to buy expensive cars in the United States. What these researchers were not aware of was that a small sect of Chinese international students started to dive into the car modification culture in their off-campus lives and made their own community within the larger university communities. Consequently, this present study aims to investigate the role of personal interests for international students as they engage in place-making practices in college communities by studying a group of Chinese international students who are interested in car culture and car modification as they make a place for themselves in a college community in the Northeastern United States. Grounded in Massey's (1994) theories of 'the progressive sense of place' and 'the global sense of place' and leveraged interaction analysis and thematic analysis, this ethnographic study suggests the significance of international students' off-campus lives and provides a fresh gateway for scholars and higher education institution administrators to gauge how to provide more support for international students at the university level. In addition, this study also reveals the potential that international students can influence other local or distant places through the place they made in their off-campus lives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This doctoral action research dissertation is coauthored as a qualitative three-article dissertation; each article leverages a different qualitative approach to the research. Article 1 focuses on the existing depth of literature regarding higher education faculty and their practice of social justice within their roles. Article 2 is a critical duoethnography that unpacks the social justice (mal)practice of well-meaning White women who have worked in the caring professions, including higher education. Article 3 used Group-level Assessment to uncover the motivators and barriers to social justice actualization of the cabinet at a particular midwestern institution of higher education. Individually, each article views a different lens of higher education and focuses on a different level of insight and interaction with social justice motivators, barriers, and approaches. They each provide different implications for the audiences that hold or lead those with those identities. Together they tell a story of historical, personal, and systemic approaches to social justice in higher education, providing implications for what individuals and systems within higher education can do to fulfill the commitments they wish to make to social justice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is motivated by the limits of current conceptualizations of college transition-- the metaphorical bridges, pathways, and tracks to college that represent a linear trajectory upheld by normative educational progress narratives often oriented toward Eurocentric, English-dominant, text-based standards for academic writing and research. Guided by Latina Feminist theories, I offer a reconceptualization of college transition as a dynamic, expansive, and liminal "borderland" space by tracing the composing practices of eight first-generation (first-gen), Latinx students whose living and learning in boundary-crossing spaces position them as epistemically privileged guides for such an inquiry. In this study, I asked: How did a group of first-gen, Latinx students navigate and research the transition from high school to college? To investigate this question, I conducted 18 months of ethnographic and participatory research while facilitating participants' production of YouTube videos about their college transition experiences. Through qualitative and collaborative analysis, I identified ways that participants engaged in writing, art, and media-making practices to negotiate, resist, and transform the limiting, narrow standards of "academic" writing and research on the "college track." More specifically, I explored how participants engaged in composing at the nexus of high school and college to assert their bilingual, bicultural identities through multiliteracies; to navigate unexpected pathways to college through autobiographical writing; and to expand the boundaries of academic writing and research through participatory methodologies. I conclude by suggesting how participatory research and students' nepantla literacies (Lizarraga & Gutierrez, 2018) can expand and transform the borders that currently constrain academic knowledge production--and, by extension, "college-level" writing and "college-track" curriculum--by centering the literacies, epistemologies, and identities historically relegated to the margins. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although evangelicals have long been skeptical about non-sectarian higher education, the current climate in the United States necessitates a fresh look at possible sources of their beliefs. This is relevant since many of the current culture wars center on education. For instance, book bans in Texas public schools, funded by evangelicals, take aim at non-heteronormative sexuality, abortion, and transgenderism. Likewise, in Florida, legislation promulgated by evangelicals and signed by the governor takes aim at "woke-ism" in public K-12 and post-secondary institutions. Furthermore, while some evangelical student groups have been unrecognized by university administrators seeking to implement "all-comers" policies, others have been denied funding for conservative speakers on campus. Simultaneously, evidence suggests that whereas enrollment at non-sectarian colleges and universities has declined or stagnated, it has increased at evangelical institutions. The present study therefore seeks to understand how evangelical high school students navigate the college enrollment process in the current polarized climate. Since individual students are impacted by actors such as family, peers, church, and school, the research adopted an ecological approach. To ensure this, the findings draw from 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork at a Southern Baptist church in Charlottesville, Virginia. Specifically, participant observation and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with five students and their families, peers, clergy, and teachers across a variety of contexts. Using discourse analysis and inductive coding, three major findings emerged. First, when considering post-secondary options, youth clergy urged students to get "plugged in" to evangelical culture due to a perceived ontological security threat represented by a rapidly shifting society. Second, evangelical understanding of "imago Dei" explains their ire about "cultural issues" prevalent in education today, such as non-heteronormativity, abortion, and transgenderism. This, in part, forms the basis of a unique social identity that preferences the in-group and otherizes outsiders. Third, although models of college choice theory partially explain how evangelicals decide where to enroll, an important factor not included is their worldview. Taken together, these findings indicate the need for university administrators, faculty, and parachurch organization leaders to consider the evangelical mindset toward non-sectarian higher education and implement opportunities for students to feel included and engaged. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this critical autoethnographic study was to explore, (a) the role that race played in shaping my responses to demographic changes in the public school district that I served, (b) how I could use this new understanding to improve my practice as an educational leader, and (c) how my research and experience could serve as a model for other White leaders, who like me, represent most educational leaders serving all students and in particular, African American children. This critical autoethnography analyzed data from personal writings generated over a two-year period:194 Personal Journal Entries and 67 Emails to my parents. The results of this study showed that I, like most White people, chose to lead a segregated life. Leading a segregated life allows the common sense of White hegemony to thrive as there is no challenge to it in daily interactions. It was through forced integration that I experienced in my work environment that exposed me to the voice of color which provided the counter story to the common sense of White hegemony. Through this process, I learned how difficult it is for White people to recognize their race and the impact that race has on the lives of people of color. I learned that by becoming critically conscious, I have a new appreciation for the stories that all students, especially African American students bring to the classroom. This new understanding and appreciation of the lived racial experiences of others will help me improve my decision-making process when leading in school districts. This study, its process, and its results, should serve as a model of self-reflection and critical self-assessment for educational leaders. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation examines how the transmission of language ideologies on a US campus shapes Chinese international students' experiences regarding English academic writing. The study is motivated by past research that demonstrates the challenges of mastering English academic writing, particularly for people who did not speak English early in life. Given that socially shared conceptions of what constitutes "good" academic writing are institutional and societal, I apply the theoretical framework of language ideologies, which stresses that language-related attitudes mediate social action, reify preexisting social hierarchies, and obtain at different levels of social organization. Operationalizing language ideologies into three main strands--aggressive monolingualism, progressive multilingualism, and economic pragmatism--I track individuals' language-ideological alignments in addition to larger institutional language-ideological alignments; I apply a novel methodology combining social-network mapping with writing-focused ethnographic interviews. Based on interviews with 14 Chinese international students and 17 campus community members with whom they discussed English academic writing, I show, first, that all of these individuals experienced the pull of multiple competing and conflicting language ideologies, and they could shift their language-ideological alignments dynamically in different contexts, in line with what past language-ideological scholarship has argued (e.g. Irvine & Gal, 2000; Kroskrity, 2007). Building on language-ideological theory, I demonstrate that language ideologies are cumulative: when multiple language ideologies (e.g. valuing so-called "nativelike" English first as an end in itself [aggressive monolingualism] and second as a means to achieving career success [economic pragmatism]) overlap, they become more powerful. I demonstrate that explicit language-evaluative talk among instructors, especially in officially sanctioned contexts like staff meetings, is a particularly potent influencer of people's language ideologies. Further, I identify that language-ideological silence--when individuals, especially instructors, leave their language-evaluative criteria unspoken--leaves the door open for aggressively monolingual language ideologies to take root as the tacit norm of US universities. Based on these findings, I argue for further language-ideological research to apply a social-network-focused approach within a wider range of communities, developing a clearer picture of how language ideologies shape multilingual people's experiences with English academic writing. Additionally, I offer recommendations for stakeholders in educational contexts, especially advocating for all university stakeholders who interact with multilingual students to develop explicit and justified language-evaluative criteria to share with their students. Overall, this dissertation argues for a deeper awareness of how university stakeholders'--especially instructors'--attitudes toward multilingual people's English can shape their experiences in college. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This critical ethnography examines how the language ideologies of non-teaching staff (NTS) shape language practices in a bilingual PreK-8 school. Recent research on two-way bilingual education reveals the ways that the language ideologies of teachers, administrators, and parents can support the privileging of English in bilingual programs by prioritizing the values and needs of English-dominant students and families over those of language-minoritized students and families. This study shifts the focus to another inner layer of the policy onion, the NTS who comprise half of school staff. Non-teaching staff interact with students, families, and other staff in the hallways, cafeteria, playground, front desk, and other non-instructional areas of the school site, and they too are policy agents who impact language uses and school culture. The findings of this study reveal that (1) NTS make the entire school site at El Sol a bilingual and bicultural space; (2) NTS model the ways that bilingualism is process, not outcome; (3) NTS come to work at El Sol because they want to give back to their community by sharing their own linguistic and cultural lived experience; (4) the actions of NTS at El Sol are the action of educators who work to carry out the mission and vision of the school; and (5) NTS resist the privileging of English at El Sol, yet there exist still hierarchies of Spanish. Non-teaching staff protect the school from mission drift by challenging English dominance and transforming non-instructional spaces into sites of bilingualism and biculturalism. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This healing feminist autoethnography examines my gendered experiences as a school principal during the 2021-2022 school year, centering upon two research questions: How can personal accounts of sexist experiences disrupt gendered norms in educational leadership? And how can I, as a feminist leader, exist authentically and truthfully in patriarchal institutions without placing myself in professional or academic peril? From July of 2021 through June of 2022, I collected 62 journal entries detailing critical encounters, experiences, and reflections and shared them with a critical friend who helped me process them. I then analyzed them within the context of relevant literature to examine emergent themes. The findings revealed three dominant themes: localization of patriarchal norms, small feminist disruptions, and grace. Each theme elucidated the intricacies of external gendered dynamics and internalized patriarchy, locations for feminist disruption, and the challenges of enacting an ethic of care with all individuals whom I encounter professionally, including myself. I conclude the study by considering further locations for feminist disruption and how I might expand the work into a more explicitly activist realm. This study explicitly elevates emotional and spiritual knowledges as valued ways of knowing and is grounded in the belief that everything is connected, as Anzaldua (1987) asserted. To highlight the importance of spirituality in this dissertation process, I used major arcana tarot cards as symbolic representations of each facet of the study. Individually, these cards serve as touchstones for important moments and facets of this study, and collectively, they represent this study's journey. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

While research around attrition during doctoral programs exists, the lived experience of grief during a doctoral program has little footing in the current literature. This autoethnography examined the lived experience of one doctoral student, acting as both the researcher and the researched. The purpose of this study was to have a meaningful understanding of the broad grief process, and its impact on one doctoral student's identity development through sharing, analyzing, and interpreting their most raw stories in an effort to name and normalize the challenges and opportunities related to doctoral program persistence and identity development. The following research questions were explored: Q1 What might I learn about the way that my life's primary grief experience transformed my sense of identity as a doctoral student using autoethnography to evoke, recall, write about, and analyze my experiences and my reactions to them?; and Q2 What can doctoral students, program faculty, administrators and other stakeholders learn from my experience that may help students persist toward completion of their programs in the face of grief experiences of their own? Exploration and analysis uncovered themes related to academic persistence, identity development, and completion with regard to living through a grief experience during a doctoral program. This narrative description of the lived experience of grief may illuminate often taken-for-granted elements of a student's grief experience, and the overall potential prevalence for grief in doctoral students. The author offers insight into ways that doctoral program stakeholders may better understand and support grieving doctoral students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This is an ethnographic case study that explores and examines the translanguaging practices of three bilingual teachers in a rural elementary school in deep south Texas. Translanguaging guides this analysis. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Remote scientific research settings embody a long-term combination of extreme conditions, physical boundedness, and blurred boundaries among work, play, and sleep that challenge traditional notions of how individuals perceive and interact with infrastructure. In such settings, individuals often use creative outlets to form social bonds with on-site colleagues and to document and share their experiences with distant friends and family; furthermore, they frequently--and often unconsciously--practice a more pragmatic form of creative work as they manipulate station infrastructure and use limited materials in innovative ways to facilitate work and domesticate an austere living environment. Despite the critical implications of polar science, the creative processes at work in everyday life in polar research settings have received little scholarly attention. This research seeks to bring attention to this overlooked but important area of study by exploring how, and to what purposes, science and creative work interact through material, technical, and social infrastructures and how these interactions support scientific knowledge production. This research uses literature from information studies, STS (particularly infrastructure studies), sociology, cultural geography, anthropology, and history to ground the ethnographic fieldwork--primarily participant observation--conducted over two-and-a-half months at an Arctic research station during the 2018 summer field season. Subsequent semi-structured interviews with scientists and support staff from the same station augment the ethnographic fieldwork. This research finds that "Infrastructural Hypervisibility" is a characteristic of ICE research environments, and that with time, insiders learn "Infrastructural Hypervigilance," the ability to effectively interact with station infrastructure and prioritize issues that arise with it; in work life, this interaction is particularly important to scientific knowledge production and science-adjacent activities such as maintenance, repair, and planning. "Infrastructural Hypervisibility" can be unsettling, and as such, people push back against this visibility through "Infrastructural Normalization," thereby lessening the foregrounding of infrastructure. Sociality plays a key role in normalization, and within sociality, making and sharing are crucial. Creative work, however, is not just related to sociality, it is also a key component of science that directly relates to the maintenance, repair, and planning work that is so crucial to knowledge production in ICE environments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Communities of color have been fighting for equal rights in society throughout history, resulting in the development of different social movements. In 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement was founded and protests erupted across America as Black lives were lost at the hands of law enforcement. In the summer of 2020, the protests continued, serving as a catalyst for schools to begin interrogating their practices and curricula, moving towards efforts to be pro-Black and antiracist.Grounded in Critical Social Theory and Critical Race Theory, this autoethnographic study explores the experiences of me, a Latinx teacher in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) professional development (PD), intended to train teachers in how to be antiracist educators. This study centers my experience as both an educator of color and teacher, interrogating my experience through critical self-reflection and document analysis. This study explores the ways Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) teachers experience DEI professional development within this context of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the racial reckoning of 2020. The purpose of this study is to inform future professional development practices so that the BIPOC educator experience is considered within professional development (PDs), but specifically within DEI and antiracism work. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, the Kansas State Department of Education implemented the Kansans Can School Redesign project (Redesign, hereafter) with the aim of fundamentally changing teaching and learning. The project was borne out of the feedback Kansans from across the state provided about what they believed education should be for current and future preK-12 students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to make meaning, from my lens as a coach, of secondary school leader experiences as they led their school through the Redesign process. This qualitative research study is an autoethnography where the researcher observes the interactions of key players and then, from the researcher's perspective, shares the resulting impact on the culture by blending storytelling with research literature. Qualitative data was collected from field notes and observations of the school leadership team meetings and interviews with building principals. Through an analysis, the degree to which the school Redesign team balanced two leadership skills, acting as change agents and providing order to the change process, had a major impact on the culture within the school. Focusing too much on challenging the status quo with little consideration for structure and order, or vice versa, resulted in a lack of trust and ownership of the results of the Redesign process by the adults (teachers and community) and students. Those school Redesign teams that skillfully balanced disrupting the traditional environment of school while also providing order through predictable routines and protocols, were able to increase trust and ownership by the adults and students in the school. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation investigates secondary educators' participation in a community of practice to determine how educators' discourse reveals a discerning stance of cultural humility and an understanding of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Applying critical race theory and Chicana feminist framework to a qualitative auto-ethnographic study, the author explores how educators' beliefs and ideologies emerge when engaging in dialogic exploration around transformative social emotional learning (SEL) and culturally sustaining pedagogy. Findings in this study illustrate that educators employed various dialogic maneuvers when co-designing transformative SEL curriculum and experiencing moments of tensions. The author categorizes these dialogic maneuvers as tactics of whiteness and tactics of culturally sustaining pedagogy and examines how dialogic clashes in ideologies fracture a community of practice. Additional findings show that restorative practices and critical design principles supported the reparation of a community of practice and educators' development of "convivencia" (Jasis & Ordonez-Jasis, 2004; Villenas, 2005) and cultural humility. This study carries implications for teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers in their efforts to design critical professional learning experiences that support the development of culturally sustaining pedagogy and curriculum. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This autoethnography explored my experiences in designing a nature-based literacy unit in Hawai'i. Whereas a small body of research highlights a positive relationship between nature-based experiences and literacy outcomes, there is minimal research on the planning process. I wanted to understand the experience of planning for nature-based literacy learning events. Using Rosenblatt's transactional theory, this study explored how outdoor spaces can promote literacy learning. Data collection included lesson plans, unit plans, researcher journals, and artifacts. Data analysis and interpretation was conducted using familiarizing, coding, grouping, and writing. The findings indicate that the local environment can be read as an environmental text while simultaneously serving as a context for traditional print text reading and writing. Four themes emerged from the data: the environment as text, cultural significance at the center of the unit, challenging nature of logistics, anxiety, and unpredictability, and motivation and engagement are central aspects of planning. The research demonstrated that educators must determine what constitutes 'nature,' question the boundaries of efferent versus aesthetic reading, and should recognize how their prior experiences influence their lesson and unit planning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation considers how English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors can reimagine notions of academic writing by exploiting multimodal texts in ways that invite students' fuller language repertoires into the classroom. Using ethnographic data collected during the Spring 2022 semester of a college EAP class, this study argues that a multimodal approach to second language writing can help instructors reframe academic writing through a culturally responsive lens, supports students' metalinguistic awareness, and offer students new ways of thinking about language and the writing process. Each article in this dissertation uses a different framework to consider the challenges and affordances of multimodality as well as the ways in which multimodality supports culturally responsive learning for students in higher education. The first article uses discourse analysis to demonstrate how engaging with multimodal texts enacted students' deeper learning and critical thinking around the writing process. The second article uses "third space theory" (Gutierrez, 2008) to demonstrate how students co-constructed meaning in ways that were contingent on their own experiences and knowledge. Finally, the third article looks at peer-review sessions and classroom interactions across the semester to show how students developed new ways of thinking about their own language and writing practices by engaging with multimodal frameworks. This work contributes to EAP research on multimodal learning, instruction, and culturally relevant pedagogy in higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this qualitative ethnographic and autoethnographic study, I examined a co-teaching partnership between a general education teacher and special education teacher in an international school. The school inclusion policy, which resulted from a shift in student demographics by admission of students with significant learning needs, supported the ecologies of knowing to encourage intentional engagement of co-teachers. The study goal was to tell the story of two co-teachers' experiences as they worked collaboratively to overcome the general education/special education teacher dichotomy in their classroom and develop a robust co-teaching partnership. The overarching question that guided the study was: "How do a general education and a special education teacher develop a co-teaching partnership?" Using an ethnographic and autoethnographic research methodology, the study offered the opportunity to collect and analyse thick descriptions of participant experiences. I analyzed reflective memos, co-planning meeting notes, field notes, classroom observation reflections and other artifacts to determine emerging themes. After two phases of inquiry over 10 months, we uncovered key elements of success about our co-teaching learning process to co-develop an ecology of co-teaching that would promote student achievement and access. Two findings contribute to understanding the intricacies of co-teaching partnerships: (1) Catalytic moments in a co-teaching relationship can contribute to a shift in practice; and (2) "in situ" professional development is key to co-creating an effective ecology of co-teaching. The co-instructors identified and addressed obstacles to co-teaching when they capitalized on catalytic moments. Despite the absence of common planning time, each teacher brought knowledge, experience, and skill to the partnership and learned to use each other's skills and dispositions to be productive. Other schools that use or intend to use co-teaching as a service delivery model can better understand how the teachers' professional learning is a complex and multidimensional process that has far-reaching consequences for teacher relationships and classroom practice. When teachers share certain values and beliefs, they can garner sufficient support from each other to co-teach inclusive classrooms. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The goal is to shine light theologically on the role of transformational leadership in the missional church. What concepts about pneumatological discipleship, influence, power, authority, and transformational leadership suit a radically missional church? Radical missional challenges demand new notions about servant and transformational leadership. Pneumatological discipleship, as well as transformational leadership, must reflect the identity, calling, life, and order of the church. This autoethnographic action research project, therefore, addresses life in the Trinity and participation in the Missio Dei and outlines the radically missional church as the point of entry to develop transformational leadership insights and pneumatological discipleship practices. It contributes towards creating an appropriate model of pneumatological discipleship and transformational leadership for radically missional churches. Recent developments in the theology of mission seem to address the area of missional ecclesiology comprehensively. However, there is a gap in the development of pneumatological discipleship and transformational leadership models based on the concept of authority in the radically missional church. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This ethnographic study aimed to understand how the educational goals of Multilingual Learners at community colleges were shaped and examine how institutions may influence goal orientation. A critical ethnographic case study was utilized, employing data triangulation through observations and interviews as data collection methods. Participants included seven multilingual learners who were enrolled at a community college English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program in the Southern region of the United States. This study sought to better understand how institutions may influence goal orientation of these learners. The study was framed through a conceptual framework of goal orientation theory and discourse theory. The four key findings of the study are: Educational Goal Alignment, Oral Communication, Intrusive Advising Support, and Student Labels. These findings are described alongside support interventions that could help multilingual learners reach their goals and simplify institutional and state policy that can label and hinder admissions processes, degree selection, and tuition costs. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]