The purpose of this qualitative case (preregistered) study is to interview rural young Americans, deeply explore how they think about higher education as they prepare for life beyond high school, and analyze how those views and perceptions translate into barriers or motivators to its pursuit. Rural Americans feel less optimistic about their…

Across American higher education interest in interdisciplinary education has exploded, and perhaps nowhere more so than in undergraduate general education. While students are the ultimate recipients of interdisciplinary curricula and vital stakeholders in the quality-monitoring process, the perspectives and experiences of students have been…

This quantitative cross-sectional research study investigated differences in the perceived attitudes of students in different grade levels toward themselves and toward school. Data from 774 surveys of students in third through eighth grade were examined. The study took place within two public school districts in the suburbs of Chicago. The…

There have been few, if any, metacognitive studies conducted on what community college students think about their learning when augmented reality technology is introduced to the learning environment. This qualitative collective case study looked at how emerging technologies, specifically augmented reality, within a community college classroom…

An ample amount of research has been conducted on teenage pregnancy and its adverse effects. However, there is limited research on the educational resiliency of teenage mothers. This phenomenological study explored the experiences of former teen mothers who have successfully completed a master's or doctoral degree. Their personal journeys were…

This quantitative study aimed to expand upon existing research, which discussed student expectations, the relationship between expectations and retention, persistence, and student success, as well as why understanding student expectations is important to supporting student success. This research study explored these concepts from a lens of…

Retention has long been an issue within the academic world, with retention being a proxy for prospective students to determine institutional success and commitment to their students. Within the nursing field this problem is compounded by even lower than average retention rates within academic institutions and a field that is losing professionals…

This study investigated the relationship between a collaborative inquiry teacher professional group (Mills Teacher Scholars (MTS)) and participating teachers' sense of their efficacy in teaching. My mixed methodology used a modified version of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) and background…

The field of higher education has experienced many changes due to political, economic, and social pressures. As a result, public institutions can no longer rely on government and state funding for primary sources of revenue. A shift in reliance of tuition dollars for funding subsequently has changed higher education from a buyer's market to a…

As graduates have transitioned into the workforce, employers have complained that these younger employees lack the soft skills that are needed to be successful in the workforce. Soft skills are personal traits and skills that employers seek in employees. Internship programs can be used to develop soft skills. Few qualitative studies have looked at…

College access among underserved youth in the United States has expanded dramatically in recent decades, due in part to "achievement ideology," or institutional and cultural messages that equate hard work plus educational attainment with upward mobility. But, college completion rates for this group have remained low, and student loan…

Student perceptions of academic dishonesty and clinical integrity were explored in this qualitative study, with Bandura's social learning theory utilized as the primary framework for the study and Kohlberg's theory of moral development as the secondary framework. A basic qualitative methodology was employed to answer the research question: what…

This study examined media coverage of testing in schools in two newspapers--the "New York Times" and "Education Week"--over the 20-year period from 1996 to 2015. Using a conceptual framework informed by framing theory and a quantitative text analysis technique called structural topic modeling on a dataset of over 8,000…

The United States spent nearly 12 billion dollars on veteran education benefits in 2018 to support the approximately 900,000 military-connected students that accessed educational benefits (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2019). In reference to prior research, veteran and military-connected students reported issues with discrimination based on…

Lower self-efficacy among students from lower income families may have negative impacts on student success, such as discrepancies in test scores, high school graduation rates, and college graduation, as these students lack the self-confidence and social persuasion to achieve academic success. The purpose of this qualitative intrinsic case study is…