The American democracy is experiencing strain from the erosion of democratic norms and its political, judicial, social, and economic institutions. In short, the American democracy shows signs of democratic deconsolidation. Community colleges are higher education institutions that help consolidate the U.S. democracy by representing democratic…

The purpose of this study was to examine professional learning practices of school districts that have included choice and differentiation in their approaches to professional learning, and to examine the impact educational leaders' knowledge of andragogy, or adult learning theory, may have had on program development. Andragogy is often ill-defined…

The term post-truth refers to a condition in which facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal beliefs. The modern media landscape has created opportunities for various forms of fake news to proliferate at unprecedented rates. Consequently, many elements of democracy and its institutions are being…

Youth today are participating in political and civic life in new and emerging ways--some positive and some negative--but there is scant evidence that these new forms of engagement spawn enduring forms of participation to enhance democratization at all levels in society. How, then, do we educate for democracy and for what type of democracy,…

The New Deal represented an unprecedented expansion of the federal government into new realms, including educational initiatives through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the National Youth Administration (NYA). Both programs, attempting to alleviate the "youth problem" of massive youth unemployment, took young people into the…

This qualitative study addressed an information gap on both the presence and frequency of human rights education (HRE) available to international students attending the US military war colleges as participants in the State Department-funded "Expanded International Military Education and Training" program. The study was specifically…

Twenty-first-century competencies have been identified as vital thinking and working skills for the 21st century. Students could contribute to social change by using information and communication technology (ICT) while developing 21st-century competencies, but this type of experience is not frequent at schools. The purpose of this qualitative case…

Our nation's 16,800 school districts spend billions of dollars a year on professional development. The best professional development is a critical need. Many educators enter teaching underprepared, especially in our communities of concentrated poverty. However, in reality, professional development often reflects our most anachronistic practices,…

In the wake of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections and the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing public attention has been paid to the ability of citizens to use and understand news media, information, and digital technology. Conversations about media literacy--the ability to critically engage with media--are ongoing in the press, schools, and…

There are two important premises at the core of the American democracy: inclusion and dissent. Focusing on the premise of democratic dissent, the overarching goal of this study is understanding how colleges may encourage desirable civic outcomes. This dissertation is proceeds in an alternative format, containing three distinct manuscripts. Chapter…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to investigate the experiences of a group of high school administrators in assessing teacher dispositions that are reflected in post observation conferences. It is argued that through a better understanding of the techniques used by these administrators and the way the Danielson Framework for Teaching…

Policymakers have long been infatuated with education reform (Berliner & Biddle, 1995; Stein, 2004), including at the state level (Lusi, 1997). Consistent with this longer tradition, the Nebraska State Legislature (a.k.a. the "Unicameral') passed Legislative Bill 438 (LB 438) in 2014, providing a statutory outline for a new education…

This study develops a critical understanding of how democracy and neoliberalism shape community college (CC) internationalization. CCs are sites of ideological struggle as they navigate and balance their democratic values of access with societal pressures to economically rationalize their existence. Within the growing movement of CC…

Higher education in the United States is threatened by the continued decrease in state and federal funding, increasing competition for the ever-decreasing funds. The need to understand and articulate institutional value is critical so institutions can communicate their worth as a means of ensuring viability. There currently exists an unclear…

Democracy does not automatically maintain itself by prescribed constitutions and procedural codes (Dewey, 1939), but rather its citizens must have certain dispositions to protect and strengthen it (Biesta, 2006). According to John Stuart Mill (1859/1991), people can tyrannize one another within the structures of a democracy, a concept he phrased…