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This dissertation consists of three chapters that contribute to the fields of macroeconomics, economic development, and entrepreneurship. In the first chapter, "Entrepreneurship Selection and Performance in the U.S. and Across Countries: The Role of Human Capital," I seek to establish a set of stylized facts related to entrepreneurship and human capital, the latter being proxied by years of formal education. Analyzing individual-level survey data from nearly 100 countries unveils new empirical facts: there is a strong positive link between the mean-adjusted rate of entrepreneurship for higher educated individuals and output per worker or estimated total factor productivity (TFP). Further focus on the U.S. economy, again at the micro level, reveals a non-linear and time-varying relationship between the rate of entrepreneurship and educational attainment exhibiting an asymmetric U-shape with its left branch declining over time. At the same time, higher education is strongly positively associated--not U-shaped--with numerous measures of business outcomes among active firm owners/managers. Conditioning on a rich set of socioeconomic and demographic observables, the robustness of these results is confirmed under proper repeated imputation inference. The second chapter, "Entrepreneurship, Human Capital, and the Allocation of Talent," raises new points of inquiry and attempts to enrich the discussion in the relevant literature. Is the allocation of human capital between entrepreneurs and workers a key determinant of aggregate productivity and income? How pervasive are its implications for macro-development? To organize the discourse on addressing these questions, I propose a versatile heterogeneous-agent model with occupational and educational choices, which is able to rationalize the empirical findings of Chapter 1 while remaining broadly consistent with aggregate and survey data. Under the hypothesis that entrepreneurial human capital may enhance productive capacities via costly technology adoption, the entrepreneurship-education nexus has first-order aggregate and distributional consequences. As new generations build skills through schooling and form expectations about their future labor market prospects, this mechanism also affects the accumulation of human capital economy-wide. Calibrating the model to the U.S. economy is successful in replicating a wide spectrum of targeted and non-targeted moments, thereby capturing salient features of micro and macro data. Quantitative explorations suggest sizeable and persistent losses in output and total factor productivity (TFP) across nations due to inadequate complementarity between idiosyncratic talent and human capital. This novel channel can often account for a major share of cross-country income differences vis-a-vis the U.S., as it drastically affects both factor accumulation and endogenous TFP formation. In the third chapter, "Sometimes Less is More: Growth, Risk Aversion, and the Suboptimality of Entrepreneurial Insurance" (joint work with Neville N. Jiang, Ping Wang, and Haibin Wu), we aim to address two major research questions. Is promoting entrepreneurship always conducive to long-run economic growth? To what extent should policymakers strive to insure entrepreneurial risk away? We study these questions by developing a tractable endogenous growth model with occupational choice, where individuals are heterogeneous in their risk attitude and entrepreneurial ability. Less risk-averse and sufficiently productive agents become entrepreneurs and contribute to growth by expanding product variety. More risk-averse and less productive agents become workers and foster growth by enhancing human and physical capital formation. As occupational choice induces an inverse association between risk tolerance and entrepreneurial talent at the margin, encouraging firm creation may hinder aggregate productivity. The interplay of these forces leads to a non-monotone relationship between the rates of entrepreneurship and balanced growth. A competitive equilibrium entails suboptimal allocations with either too few or too many active entrepreneurs, even in the absence of distortions or financial frictions. Insuring some entrepreneurial risk away is almost always growth-enhancing, but it is almost surely never optimal to provide full insurance. Calibrating the model to U.S. data reveals substantial output-side misallocation, with most of income growth and aggregate TFP losses stemming from the intensive margin due to the presence of risk aversion. [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.]

For the purposes of this study, criteria for non-traditional students were: adults ages 25 and older, race/ethnicity, gender, entry date or transfer to a community college in Middle Tennessee during fall 2015 through summer 2021, and Pell/Grant eligibility. The problem is that non-traditional students have lower completions than traditional students. Former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed the Drive to 55 Initiative, also called the Tennessee Reconnect Grant (TN Reconnect) that proposed the first program in the nation that allowed adults without a postsecondary credential to be able to obtain one for free. This intervention became effective fall 2018. As such, the focus of this study was to assess the likelihood that more non-traditional students enrolled at community colleges in Middle Tennessee would complete either a certificate or associates degree within three years after TN Reconnect intervened (experimental group) as compared to non-traditional students that graduated three years before TN Reconnect intervened (control group). The research involved a quasi-experimental design that used generalized linear models on a year-group comparison from 54,692 random samples of secondary data from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission's longitudinal database. Findings were that the number of completions in the experimental group were higher than in the control group. The strongest predictors of completions were term hours and entry type; Pell Grant eligibility was not statistically significant to completions. [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.]

Economic development theory focuses on a country's human capital development which is its greatest resource. Human capital development is the empowerment of citizens which comes through education and training. A major player in this process is Community colleges which its mandate is to bridge the skills gap and attend to the academic needs of its immediate environments. Is there a reason why these students do not graduate? Is there anything community colleges can do to prevent students from leaving early? These are important questions that require stakeholders to give their perceptions on this matter. For there to be economic development the government must be integral to this process, not only through legislation of policy but funding as well. When the government invests in human capital through free tuition policy initiatives this is one of the variables that contribute to economic development. However, there are institutional and external factors that can determine how efficacious the policy initiative will be. The objective of any funding tuition policy initiative is to increase enrollment and graduation rates by making education more accessible and equitable. Consequently, two indicators of funding policy initiative success are the increase in enrollments and graduation rates over a period. If the reduction in cost or price of tuition does not give a comparative increase in enrollment then there is an inelastic demand, which means that price or cost of tuition is not the major determinant for enrollment. It is with this in mind that the stakeholders' perceptions will provide clarity to these issues. [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.]

Physician assistants/associates (PAs) are regarded as valuable members of the healthcare team and work in a team-based collaborative model with physicians. In recent years, there has been a debate regarding the most appropriate entry-level and terminal degree for PAs and an urgency to explore optimal team practice. Due to the important collaboration between the collaborating physician (CP) and the PA, how this degree change may impact the quality of relationship is broadly unknown. The purpose of this study was to describe the demographic characteristics of physician assistants/associates (PAs) who have doctoral degrees, describe work-related characteristics of PAs who have doctoral degrees, and identify any association between holding a doctoral degree and PAs' perception of the quality of collaborative relationships with their CP. In this quantitative, retrospective, exploratory study, descriptive statistics and chi-square test of independence was performed using data from the American Academy of Physician Assistants 2021 Salary Survey. Data analysis revealed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between demographic and workplace characteristics of PAs with and without doctoral degrees. The PA perception of positive, neutral, or negative relationship with the CP based on whether the PA had a doctoral degree was also statistically significant (p < 0.05). Due to limitations, caution should be taken when applying the results of this study toward recommendations in the doctoral degree debate in the PA profession. This study expands the knowledge of clinically practicing PAs with doctoral degrees and how they rate their relationship with their CPs. The results of this study provide professional organizations, healthcare teams, and individual healthcare providers a better understanding of the importance of the cultivation of positive collaborative 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.]

Internalized oppression is a pervasive issue that disproportionately affects Women of Color in education. Continuous exposure to systemic oppression, such as sexism and racism, can further exacerbate existing internalized oppression (Crenshaw, 1991) and can result in severe implications on the overall emotional, physical, and spiritual health of those affected (Bryant-Davis & Comas-Diaz, 2016). It is critical to recognize and challenge these internalized beliefs to foster personal growth and collective liberation. By engaging in practices that resist internalized oppression, individuals can reclaim their power and work toward dismantling oppressive systems. Integrating critical action research (Fine & Torre, 2021; Ledwith, 2007) with critical radical feminism (hooks, 2000), this qualitative study used an arts-based approach (Bhattacharya & Payne, 2016) and hypnotherapy (guided meditation; G. Smith, 2022) to explore the use of hypnotherapy (guided meditation) as a liberatory praxis (Freire, 2018) for confronting, transforming, and resisting internalized oppression. The participants of this project included Women of Color from various education settings. The findings of this study offer insight into how a decolonized approach to hypnotherapy (guided meditation) can support Women of Color in education as a praxis for spiritual and emotional health by cultivating a space for empowerment, redemption, resistance, and restoration. [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.]

Throughout my life, grief's torrents have run undercurrent to my personal and professional journey. It has taken my arrival to mid-life, decades of professional and life experiences as well as higher education for this awareness to flow. I have been grieving for my lost self as woman; my shattered voice as a teacher; and the freedom to choose as a daughter of this nation. Utilizing a Marxist feminist lens, I will examine how patriarchal loss and capitalistic constructs rooted in an undeveloped class consciousness have perpetuated my own sense of powerlessness, detachment, and compulsivity, reifying my indoctrination into the teaching profession (Apple, 1988, 2019; Gilligan & Snider, 2018; Seeman, 1959). Coming into this awareness has been the work of discernment whereas healing has been the result of grief work (Boyd & Myers, 1988). This dissertation is an examination my of lived experiences with disenfranchised grief and subsequent transformational learning within my personal, professional, and pedagogical intersectionality. Storying my way within these concentric spheres through autoethnography, a healing methodology, I will examine dialectically how my positionality intersect with my profession and pedagogy, perpetuating grief while promoting healing (Chang, 2008; Ellis et al., 2011; Pennebaker & Evans, 2014; Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016; Poulos, 2021). To shed light on disenfranchisement within any context, voices from the culture itself must rise up; silences must rupture (Adams et al., 2014). Stories must be shared to shed light on the struggles, and they must be accessible to reach the intended audience--educators from K-12, adult education, and higher education (Adams et al., 2014, Chang, 2008; Holman Jones et al., 2013; Poulos, 2013). It is my hope that by sharing my story, my lived experiences, others will shatter their own silences and heal with me. [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 modern society, some African American women are choosing a career before accepting the traditional role of birthing a child or children at an early age and marriage is not always part of the equation. Women's freedoms (i.e., equality, personal choice, sexuality) have increased since their early struggles for their rights as citizens and as women. Some are viewed as agents against the norm by some conservative-minded people by not having a child or children well into their adulthood, especially if they are over the age of 50. Research suggests that women without children are perceived negatively by others and experience adverse and challenging outcomes in society (Crandall & Eshleman, 2003). Childlessness can be an emotional hurdle for some African American women to easily overcome after establishing their career and going past the fecund period define as; (the age where women are still able to bare children with low health risks), of their life without procreating, often prompting them to adopt a child or children. For other childless African American women, but want a child or children, infertility has cursed them from motherhood, and this is a scar that tugs at their heart. Also, physical trauma or illness contribute to this fact, preventing conception. Before these women surpass their fertile stage and are childless, they must develop healthy management schemes to avoid unnecessary stresses of daily life from society, marriage, and personal living to enter their twilight years without regrets of childlessness, if possible. [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 theoretical, methodological, and empirical networking study investigated the potential of inferentialism to contribute to the study of meaning and collective argumentation in mathematics. I carefully attended to my worldview and explicated my philosophical process for identifying inferentialism as my theory of choice. I then drew on Prediger et al.'s (2008b) networking strategies to theoretically, methodologically, and empirically compare and contrast inferentialism with radical constructivism and the sociocultural perspective. Inferentialism and radical constructivism were compared with respect to the meaning of mathematical concepts; inferentialism and the documenting collective activity (DCA) methodology (Rasmussen & Stephan, 2008), which is based on sociocultural theories, were compared with respect to collective argumentation. The extant data I used to empirically network the theories were from two related sources. The first source was video data from the first of three content courses, each paired with a pedagogy course, for prospective secondary mathematics teachers (PSTs) prior to student teaching. Amidst the content course, clinical interviews were performed with nine of the PSTs as part of an overarching teaching experiment (Steffe & Thompson, 2000b). The PSTs were interviewed twice--near the beginning of the semester and near the end of the semester. These clinical interviews were my second source of extant data. As a result of my study, I clarified the identity of inferentialism, explicated an inferentialist analytic methodology, and furthered inferentialist research on collective argumentation and students' mastery of multiple mathematical concepts. I also identified the affordances and limitations of inferentialism in comparison to the other theories. Radical constructivism has a more established tradition of research to draw on, but inferentialism enabled me to analyze the social and contextual factors at play in students' mathematical reasoning. Furthermore, my analysis underlined the power of DCA's ability to move across grain sizes to make general claims about the collective learning of a classroom. Inferentialism, however, allowed me to foreground individuals' learning within collective argumentation and simultaneously attend to how ideas received normative status in the classroom. Implications for future inferentialist research in mathematics education are discussed. [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 realist synthesis study is threefold: (a) to examine the relationship between young autistic adults between 18 and 30 years of age and their clinical providers (e.g., doctors, therapists, educators, caregivers, etc.), (b) to understand what conditions contribute to trusting and inclusive relationships between young autistic adults and their clinical providers, and how more trusting and inclusive relationships can be maintained, and (c) to develop a new conceptual framework to address what was believed to be conflicting ideologies between proponents of the Neurodiversity movement and their clinical providers--what the researcher calls Neuro-Unity. Using a systematic search and review process, the researcher searched, screened, and reviewed an initial set of 262 qualitative studies published in the U.S. and U.K. between 1980 and 2022 to select 23 qualitative studies that met all inclusion criteria for data extraction. Following the multistage extraction process of a realist synthesis according to the RAMESES I protocol, findings were coded into themes of empathy, respect, and dignity; integrated support systems; inclusion of autistic voices; and education about autism spectrum disorders. Themes were used to develop the Neuro-Unity conceptual framework. This new framework describes how to facilitate, form, and maintain trusting and inclusive relationships between young autistic adults and their clinical providers. Implications for future theory development and practice, study limitations, and recommendations for future research are also 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.]

Public education for children is one of the few institutions in which citizens have opportunities to access affordable information and tools needed to survive. These years of a person's life bear great weight on the stage that is set for them and for the society they will function in as adults. It is imperative that they receive this information in a way that can be retained and accessed throughout the lifespan. Of course, life's messiness and unpredictability shapes how each person ultimately comes to learning what they learn. For these reasons, the educators that contribute to the shaping of such learning must be informed on the institution their line of work originated from, where it stands, and where it can go to best enhance their performance. By doing so, it can only enhance the learning of students, and consequently strengthen the fabric of society they in turn go into. Some of the most pervasive elements in the world of education is the risk of burnout and the potential for compassion fatigue (CF). "Burnout", for the purposes of this discussion, will be defined as the following: the physical, mental, and/or emotional state of exhaustion that results from prolonged stress (Brown, 2021). Brown (2021) also explains that CF, comparatively, is a kind of stress that results from caring or otherwise working with traumatized individuals and/or within traumatic settings. While CF is a concept that has been discussed in other lines of work that involve care, such as nursing, discussion of CF within the world of academia is relatively minimal. Regardless of how these symptoms emerge, they will likely negatively impact the amount of attrition in the workplace, including in the field of Special Education (SPED) which in turn can affect the quality of education our most at-risk students receive (Park & Shin, 2020). This in turn can add to the cocktail of influences that result in important experiences, such as interpersonal relationships, occupational mobility, mental health, financial states of being, and the perpetuation of systemic class divides (Gandara & Hopkins, 2010). There is additional risk with CF in the workplace, as some consequences of it can contribute to organizational complications, such as low morale, higher rates of turnover, and short-staffing (Sawchuk, 2022). In the world of academia, CF can contribute to the growth of achievement gaps and disproportionality in special education (Anderson, 2020). With the risk of such immediate and long-term consequences, CF is something that deserves more understanding and management, including from its earlier stages in the debut of modern education (from the 1970's) to the era of the post-pandemic world of education (today). This results in gaining more awareness of where the designs of modern education is at greatest risk for fostering CF amongst educators. From there, CF is analyzed, from its emergence, to its symptomology, to its immediate consequences over the course of an educator's tenure. Discussion of ways to support educators from a "top-down" approach, including professional development from administrators, superiors, and local/federal government are analyzed and recommended to pair with "bottom-up" approaches for educator support, such as the support individuals can provide themselves and for their colleagues. The importance of reviewing, understanding, and managing CF in education is also analyzed for future implications, including those pertaining to occupational equity, stronger mental health resilience, and positive societal change. [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.]