This qualitative multiple-case study explored the supports and barriers experienced by nine first-generation Hispanic male high school students who met the college entrance requirements for the University of California and California State University systems. Research indicates that Hispanic males lag behind other underrepresented populations when it comes to college readiness, application, and enrollment rates. Given that parent education level is a strong predictor of degree attainment and that Hispanics have some of the lowest parent education levels, it is essential to examine how first-generation college-bound Hispanic males experience supports that help mitigate the barriers they face when pursuing college enrollment. Particularly in California, where the Hispanic population continues to rise exponentially, it is important for educational practitioners to develop a better understanding of how to support first-generation Hispanic students. This study aims to contribute to the research on improving college access for underrepresented populations using resiliency theory as the lens through which to examine this issue. Rather than look through a deficit-oriented lens, resiliency theory focuses on the protective factors or supports that help mitigate risk factors or barriers. Using data collected through interviews and document analysis, the findings here showed the significant role of supports such as academic capital and college knowledge, a systematic focus on college readiness, college readiness and bridge programs, and a strong counseling program for these students. In addition, it was evident that the students’ familial connections to college had a significant impact on the level of academic capital of each of them, reinforcing the need to look beyond the label of “first-generation”.

This study sought to examine how teachers' experiences with instructional rounds helped develop the tenets of a learning organization. This case study used observations, semi-structured teacher interviews, and document analysis to gather data from a low-income, rural school located in California's Central Valley. The theoretical framework on learning organizations developed by Garvin, Edmondson, and Gino (2008) helped in examining the data. Findings from the research suggests that leadership and the four-step process that guides instructional rounds, along with the protocols used within the instructional rounds practice, influences the development of a learning organization. As a consequence of this study, educators may focus on utilizing instructional rounds to develop habits of learning, while leading and developing a learning organization in a collaborative setting.

To maintain a sense of identity and self-confidence, humans rely on cognitive structures that allow individuals to identify similarities between prior experiences and new ones brought about by change. Educators are subjected to work environments that are in a state of constant change brought about by continuous series of new educational policies that teachers are tasked to implement within their classrooms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how five elementary school teachers experienced and responded to educational policy changes that influenced their instructional practices. This study also investigated the role and influence school sub-cultures had on elementary school teacher's experiences of and responses to educational policy change, and the role school sub-cultures played in teacher-initiated change during periods of policy change. Data were collected through focus groups, interviews, and journal response by teacher-participants. This study was framed by two concepts: communities of practice , by which individuals, who share common concerns or passions, interact with others routinely to learn from one another in a way that improves his or her particular practice, and organizational culture which views organizations as structures that consist of multiple smaller groups or cultures. Following the phenomenological data analysis process described by Creswell and Patten, the primary themes that emerged from the experiences of the five teachers in this study were: 1) Perceived student academic needs , 2) The influence of the principal , 3) Curriculum changes and professional communities , 4) Professional development , 5) Grade level team influences , 6) Teacher identity , and 7) Teacher emotion . Findings of this study provide a deeper understanding of: teacher decision-making as they try to understand and integrate new policies into their instructional practices, the importance of how school principals lead and support teachers during periods of policy change, the inconsistency of professional support provided by their school district, and how changes in professional networks brought about by policy changes create conflict between teachers identities and altered educational environments. The findings of this study provide researchers insights for future research how teacher identities and communities of practice influence teacher responses to educational policy changes.

Western and Chinese literature have suggested that early childhood education (ECE) is a feminized profession and many men remain invisible and silent gendered subjects in this field and fail to understand or accept the gendered realties. Employing a combination of theory of gendered organizations and concepts of masculinities as the theoretical framework, this study draws on in-depth interviews with three male teachers in Shanghai public kindergarten for a greater understanding of their lived experiences in a feminized profession. Kindergarten websites also provide opportunities to identify the ways in which the male teachers are represented in the kindergarten setting. Data analysis suggests five main themes, including realistic entry into ECE, challenges, rewards, perception of male teachers' roles, as well as professional development. Through male teachers' stories readers gain a deep understanding of how they manage every weekday and how they make sense of their lived experiences in Shanghai public kindergarten. This study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and areas for further study.

The STEM fields are in the process of expanding and requiring highly trained technicians to support this growth. Community colleges are places that offer technician training to students in preparation for high technology jobs. Unfortunately, community colleges are generally underfunded and poorly positioned to offer professional development for discipline-specific skills or pedagogy training. The National Science Foundation and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) have situated themselves to provide support for the STEM fields through their federally funded programs for technician teachers. A component of ATE grants is a focus on faculty development designed to help STEM teachers in community colleges. ATE helps community colleges fill in the gaps in professional development facing instructors in the STEM fields. The purpose of this study was to analyze the pedagogical characteristics of ATE-funded professional development for community college faculty and its intersections with campus-funded professional development. This study used a qualitative, multiple case-study design. Three interviews were conducted at three different ATE sites in California of the center leader, a professional development coordinator, and a participant. The major findings were 1. ATE provides educational and technical training to adults with common traits in backgrounds and goals. 2. The technical professional development at ATE centers is hands-on and interactive and has shown to provide positive learning outcomes to adult learners. 3. ATE centers address the needs of an evolving workforce by conducting research on new or current industry expectations. 4. Partnerships to industry are important to the curriculum and infrastructure of ATE professional development. 5. Evaluation is necessary for the growth of ATE professional development programs. 6. ATE helps build a collaborative community within a technical field by supporting relationships between professional development participants. 7. Each ATE center provides industry educators with resources they can access after a workshop. 8. One out of three ATE center professional development projects in this study intersects with campus-funded professional development. Understanding how these three ATE centers provide professional development can help inform the professional development practices at newly emerging or already established ATE centers across the nation. This study includes recommendations for future research and implications for practice.

The purpose of this research was to survey allied healthcare and medical practitioners who were approved clinical instructors (ACIs) of an accredited Athletic Training Education Program to gain insight into their self-efficacy and competence on the acute care of pulmonary injuries and illnesses category in the 5 th edition of the Athletic Training educational competencies. The conceptual framework guiding this study was grounded in the contributions of ACIs' self-efficacy beliefs and cognitive competence were evaluated to assess if the Athletic Training clinical educator are confident and knowledgeable on the new Athletic Training Competencies. Major findings of the study were that the ACIs' self-efficacy ratings were high, and the self-efficacy ratings were statistically (p < .05) beneficial to specific subcategory competence in the acute care of pulmonary injuries and illnesses. When using 70% as the minimal accepted percentage to be considered competent the ACIs' responses led to the analysis of inadequate competence in immediate emergent management (62.2%), transportation (65.2%), and education (50.2%) on the acute care of pulmonary injuries and illnesses, and there were specific Competency subcategories in which ACIs' responses led to the analysis of inadequate competence. The demographic variables, gender and years of education, had statistical relationships with the ACIs' competence on the acute care of pulmonary injuries and illnesses. In conclusion, institutions that host ATEPs, the ATEP administrators and the ATEPs' associated ACIs should use this research to note that improvisational education or spontaneous teaching are not always efficient for clinical education. Even though clinical educators have high self-efficacy on areas of professional competence, this does not translate to actual competence. So Athletic Training students may not be receiving adequate evaluation and assessment of their clinical and cognitive knowledge, which could ultimately translate into patient care and in worse care scenario, the death of a patient. So those individuals who have the most opportunity to aid in the evolution of professional knowledge have the most responsibility to cultivate more resources and more accountability to the universities, ATEPs, and ACIs.

The purpose of this study is to examine how traditional school districts create online schools and how they navigate contingencies to establish online organizational structures. This study uses the theoretical framework of contingency theory to understand how school districts structurally adapt to internal and external factors, or contingencies to establish new online schools. This multiple case study collected data from three online schools in California that have opened in the past two to seven years. While some research exists concerning the challenges of creating online schools, little has been done as to the challenges and factors that traditional school districts encounter in creating and organizing online schools. The findings from this study revealed that online schools must adapt to contingencies through adaptation features. These identified features were divided into categories that included addressing the context; systems planning, management, and leadership; and in-process adaptability. These findings have important implications for traditional school districts with online schools or exploring the option of creating an online school, as well as for policy makers who help define the contingencies online schools face.

This study was a non-experimental research which has been conducted in Shanghai, China. It aims to explore the relationship between the Shanghai elementary school climate and the level of faculty trust as well as to investigate whether the Shanghai elementary school climate can predict the development of faculty trust. Thirty elementary schools of 726 teachers in Jiading District of Shanghai have participated in this study. Each teacher completed a questionnaire with two measurements: School Climate Index (SCI) and Omnibus Trust Scale (OTS). Both have been translated, revised and tested for reliability and validity in a pilot study in order to better and more accurately measure school climate and faculty trust of the Chinese elementary schools in Shanghai. The criterion variable, faculty trust, was measured from three dimensions: faculty trust in principal, faculty trust in colleagues and faculty trust in clients (parents and students). The predictor variable is the Chinese elementary school climate which has three constructs: collegial leadership, teacher professionalism and academic press. The control variables are school types and faculty's employment type. Results of this study indicated that faculty trust is positively related to all dimensions of Chinese elementary school climate. Despite of different school types and different faculty employment types, each kind of faculty trust has the same set of school climate predators.

In response to the continued reduction in higher education funding at the state and federal levels, educational administrators at both public and private institutions have had to reduce the number of course offerings, resulting in layoffs of those faculty members who do not meet regulated degree requirements for enough courses to retain their fulltime status. This study examined the effect of instructors' content knowledge (subject matter degree) on the results of the students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETE) at a private for-profit junior college. The study employed an ex post facto causal-comparative research design. The data were analyzed through a hierarchical multiple linear regression in order to determine how much of the variance in students' responses on their evaluations of teacher effectiveness was accounted for by the instructors' content knowledge after controlling for gender, course experience, formal training in education and/or instruction, and time of day (session). The questions were categorized into four subscales using Shulman's Model of Pedagogical Reasoning and Action: comprehension, transformation, instruction, and evaluation. The data were then disaggregated into the following course subjects: English, math, natural science, psychology, and sociology. Results of the analyses suggest that instructors' content knowledge may have a negative effect on SETE results for the subscale evaluation. No effect of content knowledge was found on SETE data in the areas of comprehension, transformation, or instruction. The data suggest that the control variable of morning session has a negative effect on SETE data for the subscales comprehension, transformation, and instruction, while course experience shows evidence to suggest a positive effect within comprehension and transformation. When disaggregated by course subject matter, data suggest a negative effect of formal training on SETE results for English and psychology. Data also suggest a negative effect of morning session on sociology while course experience had a positive effect. The evidence suggests that a subject matter degree has no practical significance in defining instructional effectiveness from the perspective of the student, and that decision makers look to other assurances of instructional quality and not rely solely on a subject matter degree as a proxy for the requisite content knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceived changes in cultural, human, and social capital as a result of professional development. Research in the area of effective professional development is substantial. Similarly, the body of research on cultural, human, and social networks is extensive. This research is significant in that it aims to marry the body of research surrounding professional development and the bodies of research in cultural, human, and social capital. A case study approach was used to conduct an in-depth look at teachers' practices through teacher interviews and classroom observations. All teachers in the study participated in a high school level college-access program aimed at increasing the college-going rate of under-served youth. Further, each participant had at least three years' experience in the program. The research suggests that there may be a teacher typology even within a voluntary college preparatory program. This typology is not limited to the suggested categories of this study. Nor does this typology suggest that teachers are stagnant categories of this study. Nor does this typology suggest that teachers are stagnant within their assigned typology. Rather, the research suggests that there is a continuum of teacher ability with regards to implementation of practices and ideas around cultural, human, and social capital. Outcomes suggest that school administrators should examine their practices in monitoring and supporting the implementation of professional development. Further, school administrators should consider matching school reform initiative with teacher type. Recommendations for future research include expanding the research both within the college-preparatory program and with teachers not involved in a college-preparatory program. Future research may also want to analyze how professional development influences the development of other forms of capital.