The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the intersectional awareness of preservice general education teachers as experienced through an internship in an urban, Title 1 funded school. Intersectionality Theory (Boveda, 2016; Crenshaw, 1990; Dill & Zambrana, 2009; Jones & Wijeyesinghe, 2011) was used as a theoretical framework to inform this study. A descriptive phenomenological design (Creswell, 2013; Moustakas, 1994) was used to examine preservice teachers' (PSTs)lived experiences within their teacher preparation program courses and internship. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews with preservice general education teachers. Data analysis was completed using Colaizzi's (1978) seven-step process as outlined by Sanders (2003). Thematic analysis resulted in three primary themes around how participants experienced intersectionality in their internship experiences. The primary themes included: (a) Understanding my role and identity as an intern and teacher in an urban, Title 1 funded school; (b) Acknowledging the context of my students and my school; and (c) Serving all students through my knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Data and results from this study inform research, practice, and policy related to intersectionality and its application to teacher education to advance educational equity. This research builds upon the work of scholars committed to enhancing teacher education to develop teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to serve all students.

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This mixed methods study investigated changes in preservice teachers' affective response to disruptive student behavior within the TeachLivE, immersive simulation classroom. Preservice teachers completed two simulation teaching sessions, during which they were exposed to five different disruptive student behavior events in each. All teaching sessions were recorded and post-processed using iMotions Affectiva Affdex software to collect data on preservice teachers' emotion expression and valence during their teaching experiences. At the end of each teaching session, participants completed a self-report survey on their level of stress. Simulated teaching sessions were followed-up with video stimulated recall sessions where participants reflected on their feelings during the simulation. The goal of this research was to examine changes in preservice teachers' affective response to stress, with repeated exposure to disruptive student behavior, to determine if it had a "desensitization" effect, potentially increasing emotional regulation ability and decreasing negative emotional responses. Descriptive statistics were used to examine differences in emotional valence by disruptive student events and teaching sessions. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to examine if mean differences existed in self-reported stress within and between teaching sessions. Additional qualitative analysis of video stimulated recall sessions was conducted using thematic analysis. Analysis revealed minimal difference in preservice teachers' positive or negative emotional valence in response to disruptive student behavior events within and between teaching sessions. There was a statistically significant change in self-reported stress from the first simulated teaching session to the second. Analysis of video stimulated recall reflections revealed themes of cognitive dissonance, behavior-induced stress, and difficulty with virtual behavior management.

When a team works together on a collaborative grant proposal, each member will bring expertise and past experience in developing this complex text. Online collaborative tools can be used to support this effort, but it is important to understand how team members perceive the tools, the ways they can or should be used, and the impacts of using them. By adapting the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model to this context, we can consider perceived task and technology characteristics, performance impacts, and utilization. Trends can be analyzed regarding the perceived fit of specific online collaborative tools to support collaboration, productivity, and quality of writing. Two online unstructured collaboration tools were used in this mixed-methods study. Perceptions collected from faculty who had used one of the tools in the past to develop a collaborative proposal provided insight into how research teams utilized available resources for this work, the perceived advantages and disadvantages of using similar tools, and what aspects would benefit from further advancement. It was found that use of the tools is generally perceived to impact collaboration and productivity, but there were mixed perceptions whether quality of writing is also impacted. Users felt the tools required different strategies based on communication channels but afforded greater access to information. Users also felt that using the tools required active productivity management but contributed to efficiency gains. Lastly, users felt that the quality of writing might be impacted due to simultaneous activities and time savings, but also that the specific expertise of the team members significantly impacted quality.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study was guided by two questions: (1) does the quality of preservice teachers' writing improve over the course of one semester and (2) in what ways do two teacher educators' writing instruction affect preservice teachers' quality of writing within the timeframe of a single methods course? The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test for statistically significant differences in the writing quality of 48 preservice teachers. Participant writing samples were collected before and after taking a single writing methods course. The criteria used to measure the writing quality was the 6 + 1 Writing traits: ideas, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Semi-structured interview verbatim transcripts were collected using an online recording and transcription application. Additionally, observations of teaching and field notes were used. These data were collected to better understand which instructional strategies for teaching writing were used in an attempt to improve preservice teacher writing quality. Quantitative results showed a 1.46 increase between the pre sample mean (50.27) and the post sample mean (51.73). This was not considered a statistically significant difference as reported by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (z = 1.15, p =.252). The qualitative analysis found the presence of six research-supported writing pedagogies: modeled writing, choice in writing topic, extensive opportunities to write, explicit instruction in the writing process, providing feedback, and engaging in genre specific writing strategies. Inductive codes such as experience, collaboration, and mentoring were also present and collapsed into themes. The results did not yield a statistically significant difference in the quality of writing produced by the preservice teachers over the course of one semester. This study may help teacher educators and those responsible for teacher preparation program writing instruction to provide different ways to increase writing quality of preservice teachers. The findings may also guide future research on which teacher educator instructional strategies should focus for improving preservice teacher writing quality.

Over 95% of states in the nation experience teacher shortages in at least one subject or certification area (Espinoza et al., 2018). Specifically, special education is acknowledged as an area with a critical shortage of teachers (Florida Department of Education, 2018; U.S. Department of Education, 2018). The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher shortages through the analysis of the relationship among first-year teachers, teacher licensure, teaching assignment, professional learning, and teacher retention. This study examined the relationship between first-year teacher retention and whether a cohort of first-year teachers remained within the same school, moved to another school within the school-district, or left the school-district and/or the profession between 2015 and 2019. This study used descriptive statistics, chi-square of independence, and cross-tabulation tables to analyze first-year teacher retention as it related to type of licensure, teaching assignment, and professional learning. The results of this study indicate that there are statistically significant differences in retention based on type of licensure (p < .05) and professional learning (p < .001). The results of this study could assist school-district and school level instructional leaders to design targeted programs to support groups of teachers taking into consideration their unique needs based upon practices, guidelines, and programs that are consistent with retaining first-year teachers.

In this study, I conducted a content analysis to investigate engagement in online graduate technical communication programs. I wanted to evaluate this topic because online learning and engagement evolve, so it is fitting to evaluate how educational policies, learning methods, and technology have developed in technical communication education. The content analysis consisted of coding course material from three technical communication courses, mostly assignment descriptions, and instructions based on the language in the documents. I found strategies that develop skills 21st century technical communicators should have, such as discussions, service learning, and research papers.

COVID-19 has changed the world we know, especially our educational system. This study explores the impact of schools' lockdown during COVID-19 on teachers' preparation programs in Kuwait. This qualitative research explores the adjustments that higher education institutes in Kuwait adopted to fulfill their teachers' preparation programs. Two public higher education institutes were the focus of this study by investigating the available syllabi and curricula of their teachers' preparation programs. The reviewed data revealed in-school learning stopped as institutions adhered to the government's closure directive. This study also revealed that higher learning institutions introduced changes to their training curriculum to prepare teachers for new teaching models. The findings established in this project accentuate the need for all higher learning institutions to modify their teacher-training curriculum to make technology integration a fundamental learning component.