Counselors are tasked with being knowledgeable about assessing and treating a broad range of mental health issues. There has been an overall rise in mental health symptoms in individuals during the current COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the increased use of online internet forums as part of help-seeking behaviors. Obsessive-Compulsive...
There is a national interest in improving the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in institutions of higher education in the face of mounting difficulties. Reports by the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 and 2020 found that the dissemination and adoption of effective, timely change initiatives...
Understanding the spiritual worldview of clients is a core element of multicultural competency for mental health professionals. One spiritual and religious population is members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and related Latter-day Saint populations. The Book of Mormon is an important sacred text of this population....
Home-based counseling (HBC) occurs when counselors provide therapy services to individuals and families within the clients’ home environment. Since its inception in the 1980s, HBC has become a common practice within the counseling field. In 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014) named HBC one of the fastest-growing divisions...
Establishing a therapeutic alliance or a therapeutic bond has long been seen as an essential component of obtaining positive treatment outcomes in clinical practice. More recently, the idea of recognizing therapeutic alliance ruptures (disagreements about the tasks or goals of therapy or a problem in the therapeutic bond) during counseling...
Health anxiety prevalence is increasing (Tyrer et al., 2019). Health anxiety is a preoccupation or overestimation of the serious physiological symptoms that cause significant distress (Salkovskis & Warwick, 2001). Those with health anxiety may endure significant suffering, intense misery, and for some health anxiety leads to suicide (Tyrer & Tyrer...
Counselor education programs traditionally have student counselors role-play therapy sessions to enhance skills in rapport building, aligning with a theoretical orientation, and other essential communication skills. Students, however, are often left to determine their own choice of words when engaging in these practice sessions, and consequently, experience uncertainty regarding how...
Teacher preparation programs must ensure that course and clinical work provide a solid practice and theoretical foundation upon which new teachers can grow and thrive. Part of this process is the need for theory and research learned in coursework to mesh and enrich classroom practices. In this study we interview...
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have generated considerable excitement and considerable skepticism since their recent inception (e.g., Kim, 2014; Perna et al., 2014). By fall 2015, approximately 35 million people had participated in 4200 courses offered by over 550 institutions (Shah, 2015). In addition to MOOCs’ potential for expanding access...
Ethical and training standards across counseling-related professions contain competencies related to race and ethnicity as necessary research and practice components. One such counseling-related sub-specialty is Play Therapy, which acknowledges that professionals utilizing play therapy techniques must consider racial and cultural context, trauma, and intersectionality when working with children. However, there...
This dissertation consists of two qualitative grounded theory studies on the professional development process experienced by first year high school counselors during the United States’ 2020 public health and sociopolitical crises. Chapter two contains the first study which answers the research question: What is the professional development process experienced by...
K-12 teacher retention is an enduring concern in the United States as teachers are vital for educational achievement and change. National trends demonstrate how widespread an issue teacher retention is, yet teacher labor markets remain highly localized and highlight the complexity of teacher retention decisions. We need an improved understanding...
In counselor education, gatekeeping is essential practice, particularly as new and learning counselors enter the field of counseling (Benshoff & Gibbons, 2011). While the expectation of gatekeeping is clear and valued in the profession of counselor education, gatekeeping is difficult for faculty (Chang & Rubel, 2019). Two intersecting factors that...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent issue that impacts individuals around the world. Mental health professionals need comprehensive and inclusive IPV training to support victims/survivors well. The IPV literature posits several concerns surrounding the quality of IPV training that counselors-in-training (CITs) receive. Obtaining an understanding in how master’s level...
Spirituality is an important component in the lives of many Black Americans. Black American life has spirituality woven into multiple aspects. From what clothes to wear, what words to use when creating a dialogue with others, which television shows to watch, which jobs to pursue, how to treat those who...
The experience of empathy is one of the essential counselor capacities considered necessary for developing a robust therapeutic relationship. However, as the development of technology made therapeutic interaction possible in virtual settings, the experience of empathy in telemental health via videoconferencing (TMH-V) has not been researched until now. Understanding the...
Issues of injustice in society (e.g. racism, classism, sexism, ableism) are perpetuated in and through educational opportunities, including mathematics learning (Freire, 1970/2000). Those that are committed to disrupting the interlocking systems that create disparities and oppression in mathematics education are considered to be “pursuing justice.” Pursuit of justice can involve...
Hybrid programs can often be a desirable option for students entering a graduate program in counseling. However, the rigor of such programs, including academic challenges and maintaining personal wellness, could be a barrier to students from marginalized social locations. Additional support through a hybrid orientation might help these students address...
In this dissertation I explore the Arms representation and activities for teaching quantum mechanics invented at Oregon State University. In the Arms representation students embody quantum states. The Arms activities are presented as an exemplar of the unique physics classroom culture of the upper-division Paradigms in Physics program. In the...
The Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs) describe ways of thinking and doing mathematics that parallels how mathematicians engage with mathematics (National Governors Association for Best Practices, 2010). These standards reflect a broader goal in K-12 mathematics education focused on moving beyond K-12 learners acquiring knowledge of mathematical...
Mental health disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide. The strong need for mental health services has prompted intensive global efforts to develop, evaluate, and deliver effective mental health treatment, especially for low- and middle-income countries. The counseling profession in the United States has responded to this global need...
The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of school-based agriculture education (SBAE) teachers who self-identified as blended pedagogues. This study specifically focused on SBAE teachers' beliefs and how those beliefs influence their blended teaching classroom practice. Teacher beliefs are personal, subjective, and temporally and contextually stable....
The self-help literature is full of texts on both self-compassion and postpartum depression. However, there has been minimal scientific exploration of the literature on these topics. As such, mental health researchers and practitioners have little sense of the psycholinguistic discourse contained in this literature. This study aimed to fill this...
The very essence of talk therapy is rooted in the spoken word between counselor and client. A client’s painful traumatic experiences can often serve as a barrier to accessing the traditional consulting room. Despite the high prevalence of trauma and its status as a known risk factor for nearly all...
The dominant narrative of Asian Americans in higher education is one of high achievement, success, and wellness. Dominant voices of white supremacy have primarily constructed this narrative. Asian Americans are regarded as the model minority or the dichotomous “model” while simultaneously maintaining “minority” status. This study centers on seven Asian...
Community engaged scholarship has gained attention as public universities begin to answer calls to return to their roots of serving the public good. The scholars at the heart of community engagement play an important role in this mission, but their experiences in the academy are not well understood. As institutional...
It was only when I reached a graduate-level education that I began to make meaning of my educational experiences. I found validation in my upbringing through the CSSA program, and I gave myself permission to accept myself. I have always felt I needed to
“catch up” with white students. I...
Entrepreneurship is regarded as a viable way for women to enter the economy and improve their quality of life (Morris et al., 2018). However, little attention has been paid to understanding how women, and specifically women of color, utilize their ways of knowing to learn entrepreneurship. Grounded in Chicana/Latina feminism...
The proportion of professional staff on higher education campuses has significantly grown in recent decades. Despite this growth, the racial makeup of this employee population still does not reflect the increasing diversity of students in higher education. While higher education institutions pronounce their commitments to developing diversity, equity, and inclusion...
Research overwhelmingly suggests that Black and Brown students face unjust and inequitable environments in K-12 schools in the United States (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Carter et al., 2017; Coles & Powell, 2020). These injustices often occur as a result of systemic racism and are replicated because of embedded racist policies...
Over the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in the popularity of online gaming in the United States culture. There are many factors that have contributed to this spike in popularity, but the most significant are advancements in technology, televised competitions, social media, lucrative cash prizes, product...
The process of coming out by an individual of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) community involves recognition and disclosure, and it is a personal and important part of identity development. The process of coming out is also a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community’s self-disclosure of their sexual...
The literature on first-generation South Asian American (SAA) mental health is limited despite the increased focus of studies on help-seeking behaviors and subjective well-being over the past decade. Therefore, we designed a web-based survey seeking to address two research questions. Research Question 1 informed Study 1 of this dissertation project:...
For my CSSA portfolio, I developed a graduate-level education course about disability in the United States and in higher education. In this paper, I will provide an introduction to my life and work in disability support services, and how my experience as a disability support services professional and graduate student...
Corpus linguistics studies involving lyrics continue to grow. While previous research has pointed to a positive relationship between certain personality traits and music types, the relationship between lyrics and suicide is understudied. As such, mental health researchers and practitioners have little sense of how the language of someone who has...
The shortage of physicians serving rural communities is well documented. To address the rural shortage, medical schools have developed extracurricular programs, called rural health tracks, with an intent to foster medical students’ interest in serving rural communities. While there has been some research about the effects of these tracks, almost...
The dominant narrative of U.S. Muslims in higher education is associated with violent rhetoric, anti-American values, and terrorism. After terrorist attacks took place on September 11th, 2001, this narrative expanded to include a depiction of U.S. Muslims as being oppressed and submissive. Hate crimes, discrimination, and Islamophobic attacks towards Muslims...
This presentation was given as a keynote at the Improving Instruction, Assessment, and Policies for Secondary English Learners Across the Content Areas Conference held in Washington DC on May 8-9, 2023.
Persistent reading difficulties are prevalent in U.S. schools and can lead to lower student performance across all subjects as well as distress, anxiety, and depression. In 2022, only 32% of fourth graders in the United States tested as proficient in reading. While there are many factors which affect reading progress...
This study sought to explore the relationships between changes in net revenues and the changes in different classifications of institutional expenditures within community colleges in the United States in order to identify trends in how teaching-focused colleges prioritize their efforts in response to financial stimuli using multivariate multiple linear regression....
For many young bilingual students in school settings, demands of curricula and standardized assessments take precedence over writing pedagogies that invite and welcome students’ identities and languages into their writing. Pedagogies of voice are a means of providing culturally and linguistically responsive instruction that support bilingual students learning to write...
The purpose of this study was to explore how campus climate at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) influences degree completion for Black women. As the number of HSIs has increased in the past decade, there exists a need to understand how Black women fare in such an institutional context. Though there is...
Student conduct has become increasingly significant in higher education as demands to address campus safety, student behaviors, and classroom management are increasingly prominent. Existing research focuses on the efficacy of student conduct policies and practices, but has not established how individuals understand student conduct as a myth, or a concept...
This paper offers a brief reflection on my personal journey and development as I embark as a paraprofessional into the world of higher education, focusing on my growth as a practitioner, learner, scholar, leader, and human. I will share formative experiences that contributed to my development and discuss my process...
Co-teaching and collaboration are an increasingly popular service model for English as a second language (ESL). In this model, the language specialist, sometimes called the ESL teacher, works together with a content teacher, each using their respective expertise to meet the needs of students who are identified as English learners...
University supervisors are critical to improvement in K-12 teaching and learning due to their roles in designing field experiences, managing relationships, mentoring, and supervising teacher candidates. The encouragement, support, and feedback shared by university supervisors in respect to the teaching performance of teacher candidates is especially powerful, and is a...
The Malawi public education system uses Chichewa as a language of instruction and content, with English as an independent subject for the first four years of primary school (Malawi Institute of Education, 2017). From fifth grade, English becomes a language of instruction and content in all subjects except for Chichewa,...
Despite ongoing initiatives and research efforts, the persistent underrepresentation of marginalized groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines in the U.S. has seen little improvement. This study posits that a fundamental change in teacher preparation can lead to more inclusive STEM learning environments. It centers on the development...
Counseling as a profession has been on a journey of self-examination as CACREP approaches the release of its revised standards and the world recovers from the tumultuous few years under the shadow of the pandemic. Cultural shifts in perspective have prompted new conversations around concepts related to sexuality, racial identity,...