Online teacher professional development (oTPD) has gained momentum globally as a mode of teacher professional development (Dede et al., 2009; Lieberman & Mace, 2010), appealing to teachers who prefer the convenience of online learning and/or the autonomy of self-paced learning. With oTPD gaining traction, especially in this climate of COVID-19 pandemic where many face-to-face interactions have shifted to an online space, there is insufficient research done on teachers’ learning experiences and the type of reflective thinking observed during teachers’ participation in oTPD activities. This is compounded by the ubiquitous but poorly defined use of reflection in literature pertaining to learning and professional development (Finlay, 2008; Roessger, 2014). In Singapore where teachers have access to a range of oTPD opportunities, this problem is similarly observed. Very few studies have been undertaken in Singapore to understand teachers’ learning experiences and how teachers reflect when they engage in TPD or oTPD. In light of the growing popularity of oTPD as a means for Singapore teachers to learn and improve their classroom practice, this exploratory case study sought to contribute to TPD research by studying the oTPD experiences of Singapore teachers. Specifically, this study explored factors that facilitated and/or impeded teacher learning in oTPD and the level of reflective thinking observed in teachers’ oTPD participation. The motivation for this study stems from an appreciation of the complexity of classroom practice and the recognition that what teachers do in their respective classrooms is pivotal to student learning. This study recognizes the crucial need to support teacher learning through oTPD. Findings from this study may inform the design and implementation of oTPD in Singapore and address the paucity of research in this area by providing qualitative case study data on the understudied area of oTPD and teacher learning. Recommendations pertaining to the design and implementation of oTPD may benefit professional development providers and the teachers they serve, as well as teacher leaders hoping to support teacher learning. This study and the recommendations it proposes will also be of interest to researchers in educational research who seek to understand the phenomenon of oTPD.

This study explores the challenges that elementary science educators face when teaching science in a time of crisis, as well as how to best provide elementary teachers with ongoing support for their science teaching during the novel COVID-19 pandemic. Using a phenomenological approach, this research focuses on elementary science teachers, educators, and formal and informal leaders to understand their experiences during the pandemic and how to best support them during remote and in-person science teaching. Using data collected from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions, findings discuss the specific experiences and challenges faced by elementary science first-year teachers, early career teachers, and leaders. Following the transactional model of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and the buffering effect of social support (Cohen & McKay, 1984), first-year and early career elementary science teachers used multiple coping mechanisms to handle the stress of science teaching during the pandemic, including problem solving and collaborating with other educators. From a distributed leadership perspective (Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2001b), district-level elementary science curriculum specialists and coaches act as leaders in science education. When faced with constraints and challenges due to the pandemic, these district-level leaders used this opportunity to reimagine what their leadership work could look like, including rethinking what supports they can offer classroom teachers when they cannot easily access classrooms, how to design effective science curricula for remote teaching, and how to collaborate with other educators in new ways.

The covid-19 pandemic forged a more intensely digital world, complicating civil society actors’ menu of options for channeling and framing their advocacy goals. As both a product and study of pandemic-era politics, this dissertation is concerned with understanding how the internet and social media shape associational life in Kazakhstan. I draw on three forms of ethnographic data collected online between October 2020 and February 2022, including semi-structured interviews, visual analysis of social media posts, and digital participant observation. I demonstrate how Kazakhstani civil society actors devise strategies to pursue reform, how they debate theories of political change, and how they exercise agency in a political system that seeks to control the public sphere. I argue that civil society groups use social media platforms to leverage power differentials across levels of administration to advance rights claims and negotiate for reform. Activists and rights defenders flock to various social media platforms because of each site’s unique technological infrastructure. They leverage different logics of visibility and bridge physical and digital forms of contentious politics to demand accountability from an authoritarian government. In addition to providing a more complete understanding of civil society dynamics in Kazakhstan, this study suggests that, in repressive contexts, civil society actors who opt for within-system engagement have not necessarily been coopted and activists do not always take dissent underground. This dissertation is an example of digital political ethnography, which stands to grow not only as a standalone method, but also a bridge to big data analysis in political science. I demonstrate the importance of an ethnographic sensibility while approaching the internet as a site of inquiry to understand political subjectivity.

This dissertation aims to explore the relationship between social support and social and psychological wellbeing in the adult population of sexual and gender minorities, or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) adults. We apply Antonucci’s (1987) Convoy Model of Social Relations as a lens through which to conceptualize social support across four dimensions: structure, function, quality, and closeness. Chapter One contains an introduction to the LGBT adult population; a description of the Convoy Model of Social Relations and of technology used to exchange social support; and an outline of the specific aims addressed in this dissertation. Chapter Two is an integrative review of literature about social support networks of LGBT older adults age 50 years and older. Chapter Three is a study designed to investigate relationships between LGBT identity, social support characteristics, the use of online social communication, and psychological and social wellbeing. Chapter Four is a qualitative descriptive study that explores LGBT older adults’ attitudes, perceptions, and uses of technology for social connectedness and support during COVID-19. Chapter Five contains a synthesis of all findings in this dissertation; a discussion of the results as they relate to the Convoy Model of Social Relations; and implications for clinical interventions and future research.

My dissertation examines the experiences of Teachers College faculty that transitioned to online teaching for the first time during the forced circumstances of COVID-19. More specifically, I explore: 1) the relationship between feeling prepared, supported, and connected with professional development; 2) the experiences of faculty making the transition to online teaching; and 3) how faculty described re-evaluating, as Boud describes it, their teaching experiences. To better understand this, I used the case-selection variant of the explanatory sequential, mixed-methods design (quan → QUAL). I surveyed 85 participants (Phase 1) that engaged in professional development opportunities provided by the institution to better understand their experiences preparing for this transition and then interviewed 10-participants (Phase 2) to better understand their unique experiences. I found that most participants that made this transition grew both in their ability to use technology and comfort with teaching online. Participants described the experience as a challenging transition, especially as there was little time to prepare; however, participants also learned (through consultations, intensive programs, colleagues, and students) from this experience. In Phase 2, 7 of 10 participants indicated that they will take their learnings from teaching online and integrate them into their face-to-face teaching.

This study seeks to expand notions of research, what it can be and how it can be conducted, through focusing on children’s approaches to exploring their worlds. The purpose of this study was to examine how children employ literacies of research across spaces. Through this framework, I conceptualize children’s literacies of research to include the social practices children engage in when investigating issues that matter to them. Previous participatory studies with young people have focused on apprenticing youth and children into traditional research practices in order to then conduct studies with them that are relevant to their lives. This study builds on this work but begins by exploring the notion of research itself, seeking to understand children’s perspectives on how they examine topics of interest. Framed by critical and transformative theoretical frameworks, specifically critical childhoods, sociocultural approaches to literacy, and youth participatory action research (YPAR), this study engaged a small group of nine- and ten-year-old children, representing a range of racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, as co-researchers. The following research questions shaped the study: How do nine- and ten-year-old children in a participatory research group engage with opportunities to follow their own lines of inquiry?; What themes do they investigate and how?; What literacy and research practices do they draw on, resist, remix, and/or transform and how?; and How do adults interact with children around child-led research? The findings suggest the playful, relational, dynamic, intertextual, and resistant natures of children’s literacies of research. This study was interrupted by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the research group transitioned to a virtual space. The findings also indicate the innovative ways children resisted the isolating circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic through creating and repurposing digital platforms to sustain friendships and connect with classmates. Children’s literacies of research have implications for how research is conceptualized and taught in literacy classrooms and in the academy as well as how researchers engage with children in studies.

The online convenience sample of 249 nurses all treated COVID-19 patients in the past year—with 45.0% in the emergency department and 36.9% in intensive care. Nurses were 68.7% female with a mean age of 32.17 years, as well as mostly white (69.1%). Some 28.5% had COVID-19, with 16.1% testing positive more than once in the past year. Using paired t-tests comparing scores for before versus during the pandemic, their physical health status and mental/emotional status were each significantly worse during the pandemic, their level of self-efficacy for performing nursing tasks was significantly worse during the pandemic, and their fear level was significantly higher during the pandemic. Nurses negotiated the pandemic with just moderate social support, while having moderate work setting concerns (e.g., safety), and rating the work climate as “to some extent” less favorable than before the pandemic. Nurses suffered moderate burnout using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory—while females suffered higher burnout than males (p = .000) and non-whites higher burnout than whites. Past month mean Perceived Stress Scale scores were moderate. Nurses used alcohol/drugs closest to 30% of the time to cope with stress, while 35.7% increased use during the pandemic. They reported moderate mental distress over the past year, while 61.0% reported insomnia, 57.4% anxiety, 39.0% depression, 35.7% trauma, and 27.3% received counseling. Nurses reported moderate well-being over the past two weeks, and moderately high satisfaction with life. Backward stepwise regression found higher burnout significantly predicted by: fewer years working in nursing; higher Body Mass Index; more concerns at work (e.g., safety); higher past month perceived stress; higher past year mental distress; and, lower past two weeks’ well-being—with 52.2% of the variance predicted. Qualitative data reinforce important recommendations.

High PM2.5-related mortality and morbidity has become a public health concern in China. To date, there have been few studies investigating individual implementation and use of protective behaviors to counter outdoor PM2.5 air pollution levels in China. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate adults’ attitudes toward evidence-based protective behaviors against outdoor PM2.5 air pollution, the results of which might inform health educators and health promotion specialists about what they should emphasize when educating communities about protective behaviors in the PM2.5 air pollution days. Utilizing the purposing sampling method, a WeChat-based survey was conducted among 300 adult participants living in B residential area in Yuhuatai district of Nanjing, which is a representative city of high urbanization level and PM2.5 air pollution in China. The survey included total 16 items assessing participants’ background information, attitudes toward four evidence-based protective behaviors against PM2.5 air pollution, and knowledge regarding possibly effective protective approaches specifically related to Chinese medicine in the PM2.5 air pollution. The results showed that the importance adults in Nanjing attached to wearing N95 respirator when walking outside, putting air filter (HEPA) at home, and avoiding unprotected outdoor sports activities in the PM2.5 air pollution was greater than closing all the doors, windows, and many openings in the PM2.5 air pollution. Regarding comparison of attitudes between pre- and post-controlled COVID-19 periods, the value adults gave to closing all the doors, windows, and many openings in the PM2.5 air pollution was higher during pre-COVID-19 period, whereas the opposite of circumstance took place when referring to other three protective behaviors. Regarding comparison of attitudes between biographic variables, adults aged 18-50 (including 50) attached greater importance to all the four protective behaviors than those aged 50+. In addition, adults having the habit of checking daily AQI ranked the behaviors of avoiding outdoor sports activities and wearing N95 respirator when walking outside in the PM2.5 air pollution in a higher position than those not. Implications for future research and practice are discussed, based on a critique of the present work.

The purpose of this multi-site comparative study was to engage music educators in a process to uncover broader perspectives on their pedagogy by breaking down the barriers between general education pedagogy and music education. The curriculum planning and instruction of music teachers were observed through Schwab's Commonplaces framework to identify connections between their initial approaches and changes made during the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. Participants were seven New York City middle school general music teachers. Data were collected from participants in two sets, each consisting of one questionnaire in Qualtrics, and one interview on Zoom for a total of four instruments. The data analysis process was as follows; (a) data organization, (b) first cycle structural coding, (c) second cycle coding, and (d) synthesis and cross-case analysis. The study addressed the following research questions: (a) How can the curriculum planning, and instruction of music teachers be observed in relation to Schwab's commonplaces? (b) What connections might be inferred between these observations and any later curriculum or instructional changes (or lack thereof) made by teachers? (c) How might the schooling changes resulting from the Covid-19 outbreak have impacted these decisions? (d) What impact and/or changes in student engagement and learning might be observed by teachers during the period of this study? The findings were as follows; (a) Commonplace lens/es for curriculum planning and instruction were misidentified by participants, Learner was the most emphasized Commonplace instruction lens and four participants were unable to differentiate between curriculum and instruction, (b) Teachers' more accurately identified the Commonplace lens/es in the second data set, Learner was the most emphasized Commonplace lens for curriculum planning and instruction, and student feedback and/or engagement influenced curriculum changes, (c) COVID-19 affected participants' emotions, attitudes, and decision-making, school reopening structures frequently changed, participants simplified curriculum content for remote and reduced instruction time, and altered curriculum and instruction to prioritize students' social-emotional well-being and engagement, and (d) Student engagement and learning looked different due to COVID-19 schooling changes, in-person students showed improved engagement and quality of work, other subjects affected student engagement and learning, which improved after curriculum changes.

This dissertation applies place-based assimilation theories to understand the role of the school and other community-based institutions in the lives of immigrant families in a small rural town. The rate of immigration is increasing globally and over time, more and more children and families will be immigrants, finding themselves in a new community, making it imperative to understand the lived experiences of immigrant children and families. For most migrant families with school-aged children the school is the first point of contact in a new community. Thus, the school is well positioned to assist families in the integration process providing them with vital information and connections to resource-rich community-based institutions. This dissertation explores the relationship between families and community-based institutions in Provincetown Massachusetts, a small, coastal, rural community with a significant immigrant population. It is a narrative inquiry that employs qualitative research methods, specifically semi-structured interviews and visual research methods including photographs taken by immigrant students and photo elicitation interviews to answer the following questions: 1) What role does the school play in the process of immigrant families integrating into a new community?; 2) How do community-based institutions help or hinder immigrant families accessing resources and developing a sense of belonging?; 3) In what ways has the current COVID-19 health pandemic affected the work of community-based institutions and immigrant families’ interactions with them? Newly arrived families to Provincetown face food and housing insecurity and a lack of access to health care. There is however, a comprehensive web of community-based institutions with programs and resources to meet those needs. Access to most of these resources requires a referral or connection from an agency like the school, so families are reliant on schools for connection to these institutions. The school has formal mechanisms in place to help families. There are also informal mechanisms in the school to help families. This consists of individual teachers who develop deep and lasting relationships with a particular student and assist this student and his or her family using their own time and resources. This dissertation also explored the ways in which immigrant children in Provincetown find belonging. The children reported that they find belonging in the natural environment, through enrichment activities such as art clubs and sports teams, and through participation in the tourism work force, either by helping family members or beginning to work on their own. There are many institutions that work with the school and families to provide access to this enrichment programming, but there are barriers to participation. Immigrant children are often prevented from participating in enrichment activities outside of school hours because they have to care for younger siblings or lack transportation to and from afterschool events. There is also a disconnect between institutions and families because some institutions struggle to communicate with families. Some institutions have tried to respond to these barriers by providing transportation and parallel programming for siblings. This study also found that the school was the most successful way for institutions to communicate with families because of the well established communication patterns, available translation services and presence of school personnel who have taken an active interest in the outside lives of students. Many solutions in Provincetown are place-specific and the experiences of families in Provincetown are atypical because there are several factors that make Provincetown unique. It is a tourist town with access to financial resources that can fund many institutions and opportunities. The town is small, making the relationship between families and institutions more personal so that individuals and institutions become more invested in the lives and outcomes of individual families in a way that would not be possible in an urban area.