Methodological Reparations is a 2-study multi-methods inquiry aimed at illuminating important nuances for engaging counter hegemonic empirical inquiries for Black, gender expansive and Black LGBTQI+ communities. If Black gender expansive youth are studied, they are often studied within the larger LGBTQI+ umbrella. Unfortunately, this makes them vulnerable to compulsory heterogenderism which often obscures their unique experiences transgressing racialized gender norms and with racialized gender oppression. This study makes methodological considerations called methodological reparations that begin to address the ways empirical research often negates, misunderstands, and obscures students’ identities as singular, stable over time and aligned with their sex assignment. It is important for researchers, data scientists and educators to challenge these hegemonic assumptions to ensure that Black gender expansive communities are visible and to ensure that education policies are data-driven, inclusive and effective. The United States Transgender Survey and the Gay and Lesbian Students Education Network have begun to conduct surveys that begin to address the complexity of gender within LGBTQI+ populations. Their surveys reveal horrific school climates that LGBTQI+ youth of color experience especially Black LGBTQI+ youth. The first study in this dissertation is a mixed methods study that focuses on Black gender expansive students’ experiences. The second study responds to the first study by providing an example of inclusive Black LGBTQI+ curriculum taught through a Black queer pedagogical approach. Since the presence of LGBTQI+ inclusive curriculum in schools has been linked to increased feelings of safety in schools in Black LGBTQI+ student populations, this study showcases James Baldwin’s final novel Just Above My Head, as a piece of blues literature that discusses racialized homophobia in a culturally relevant way. Baldwin’s work can be an important tool for Black LGBTQI+ students who do not have access to Black queer curriculum taught through a Black queer pedagogical approach.

This seven-month critical performance ethnographic study explores the livedexperiences of Latinx youth artivist-researchers. The data collected through participant observations, arts-based elicitation and semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and analytic memos reveal how Latinx youth utilize artmaking towards transformational resistance. Their participation in an arts-based youth participatory action research project and intergenerational theatre ensemble I call Estrella Theatre (ET) company indicates how art and social justice-driven inquiry produce powerful benefits towards positive youth development; a transformational pedagogy that fosters critical consciousness, civic engagement, and identity construction. To illustrate these distinct yet intertwined processes, I composed an ethnodrama to show how Latinx youth in the U.S. embody transformational resistance in their lives as they traverse school, home, and community spaces. The purpose of the play is to utilize the experiences of the participants to spark critical dialogue and generate knowledge to help society understand the experiences of Latinx youth in K-12 schooling and challenge majoritarian narratives by showcasing how they combine art, research, and social justice towards educational leadership.

Since the genesis of the long experimental project known as the United States of America, the country has invested in the creation, implementation and maintenance of exclusionary policies and practices which have effectually denied whole and equitable access to educational spaces for Black children. These conventions have presented in a myriad of ways from: ignorance compulsory laws, segregation, disparate rates of school suspensions and expulsions, school closures, school funding inequities, denial of access to rigorous classes, burdensome school admissions policies and the disproportionate funneling of Black children into disabled and low-track class designations. Throughout this constant contortion of approaches to educational exclusion, Black mothers have had to guide, cover and encourage their children as they navigate these barriers and dodge the pitfalls of educational removal. This critical ethnographic oral history seeks to investigate the ways that a grassroots community organizing group led by a cadre of Black othermothers, known as the Aurora Coalition of Black Mothers, strategize to challenge the educational structures that support pushout and the continued exclusion of Black children from schools. Employing the frames of Critical Race Theory, BlackCrit and Black Feminist Thought, this study seeks to interrogate the following overarching concerns: 1) How does the mothers’ standpoint affect their response to school system inequities. 2)What is the influence of their efforts towards school equity? What is revealed is the mothers’ ability to employ a strategic wisdom that acknowledges the limits of systems change, perseveres against the intractability of White supremacy and works towards a freer Black education future for their children.

There is tremendous value in bringing fresh voices and perspectives to theory and practice, as it is through these novel lenses that research advances in rich and more equitable ways. However, the importance of first-generation college students being involved in this process has been vastly underestimated and undervalued by researchers and practitioners alike. Extrapolating from interdisciplinary research on counterstorytelling and networked counterpublics, the aim of this study was to explore how the proposed theoretical model of networked counterstorytelling—as presented through a grassroots digital storytelling campaign—could create space for first-generation student voice and leadership to help inform current theoretical understandings of social capital and community cultural wealth. Using a multimethodological approach—combining large-scale network analytics with qualitative netnographic analysis (Kozinets, 2015)—this study (1) produced novel methods for measuring and analyzing social capital within social media communities and (2) demonstrated how grassroots digital storytelling campaigns, facilitated by the affordances of social media platforms such as Instagram, can function as means for inviting the leadership, voice, and perspectives of first-generation college students into the design of higher education research and practice.

This study investigates Black male students' perceptions of their teachers' curricular expectations in mathematics classrooms. Curriculum in this study refers to what knowledge students are expected to learn, and the manner in which they are expected to learn it. The topic of this dissertation is in response to persisting and prevailing achievement disparities experienced by secondary Black male students in mathematics. These disparities exist at the school, district, state, and national level. Utilizing an action research methodology, multiple cycles of data collection led to the final iteration of the study, collecting strictly qualitative data and drawing from critical race methodology to address the three research questions.

The three research questions of this study seek to address how Black male students perceive their mathematics teachers’ curricular expectations, what practices they have found to be effective in meeting their teachers’ higher curricular expectations, and to determine how they view the reform practices as part of the intervention. Research questions were answered using one-on-one and focus group interviews, classroom observations, and student journals. An intervention was developed and delivered as part of the action research, which was an attempt at curriculum reform influenced by culturally relevant pedagogy, warm demander pedagogy, and youth participatory action research.

Findings from the qualitative methods, led to four assertions. The first assertion states, despite achievement disparities, Black male students care very much about their academic success. Second, a primary factor hindering Black male students’ academic success, as communicated by participants, is what they are learning and how they are learning it. Speaking to teachers’ expectations, participants believe their teachers want them to succeed and think highly of them. Additionally, participants preferred interactive, enthusiastic, and caring teachers, even if those teachers are academically demanding. Finally, participants found learning mathematics addressing a problem that affects them, while incorporating components that address their invisibility in the curriculum, increased relevance, interest, and academic self-awareness.

This dissertation examines the first impressions that occur between Deaf consumers and American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreters prior to a healthcare appointment. Negative first impressions can lead to a disconnect or loss of trust between Deaf consumers and interpreters and increase the risk for Deaf consumers to receive inadequate healthcare. The recognition of this risk led to an action research study to look at barriers to successful interactions between ASL/English interpreters and Deaf consumers. The mixed methods research design and associated research questions discovered factors and perceptions that contributed to the disconnect and subsequently informed a 10-week intervention with a small group of ASL/English interpreters and Deaf consumers. The factors that influence connection are system related and a lack of a standardized approach to using name badges, missing or incorrect appointment details, and an inconsistent protocol for interpreter behavior when a healthcare provider leaves the room. The intervention allowed the interpreter participants to generate solutions to mitigate these barriers to connection and apply them during the 10 weeks. Deaf consumer feedback was gathered during the intervention period and was used to modify the generated solutions. The generated solutions included re-design of an interpreter referral agency’s name badge, using small talk as a way to learn information about the nature of the healthcare appointment and proactively discuss procedures when a healthcare provider leaves the exam room. These solutions resulted in a positive influence for both interpreters and Deaf consumers and an increase of trust and connection. The findings of this study show new approaches that create a connection between interpreters and Deaf consumers and may lead to more satisfactory healthcare interactions for Deaf consumers.

The purpose of this action research study was to implement and analyze an intervention designed to improve perceptions of working with others as well as practice and improve emotional tools related to such interactions through the systematic development of ability emotional intelligence (EI) related skills. The present study sought to: (1) explore high school students’ perceptions of their role as part of a team during teamwork; (1a) investigate how perceptions differed by EI level; (2) examine how students’ perceptions of their role in teamwork were influenced by being paired with more advanced (ability EI) peers or less advanced peers, based on ability emotional intelligence test scores; (3) determine if ability emotional intelligence related skills could be developed over the course of a 7-week intervention.

The intervention took place in a 12th grade US Government & Economics classroom with 34 participants for examination of general trends, and 11 focal participants for focused and in-depth analysis. Students were taught about emotion theory and engaged in two weeks of ability emotional intelligence skills training, followed by a five-week project cycle in which students were required to work together to achieve a common goal. The research design was mixed methods convergent parallel. Quantitative data were collected from post- and retrospective pre-intervention surveys regarding student perceptions about working with others and their ability EI related skills. Qualitative data were collected through on-going student reflective journal entries, observational field notes, and interviews with the focal group of participants.

Results suggested the intervention had a significant effect on students’ perceptions of working with others and perceived ability emotional intelligence related skills. Significant positive change was found through quantitative data analysis, revealing students’ perceptions about working with others in teams had improved as a result of the intervention as had their perceptions about their ability EI related skills. Qualitative analysis revealed rich, thick descriptions exploring this shift in perception among the 11 focal students, providing the evidence necessary to support the effectiveness of the intervention. Results suggested the possibilities for improved teamwork in the classroom.

Writing centers are learning settings and communities at the intersection of multiple disciplines and boundaries, which afford opportunities for rich learning experiences. However, navigating and negotiating boundaries as part of the learning is not easy or neutral work. Helping tutors shift from fixing to facilitating language and scaffolding literacy learning requires training. This is particularly true as tutors work with second or subsequent language (L2) writers, a well-documented area of tension. This mixed methods action research study, conducted at a large university in the United States (US), centered on a tutor training intervention designed to improve writing tutors’ scaffolding with L2 learners by increasing tutors’ concrete understanding of scaffolding and shifting the ways tutors view and value L2 writers and their writing. Using a sociocultural framework, including understanding writing centers as communities of practices and sites for experiential learning, the effectiveness of the intervention was examined through pre- and post-intervention surveys and interviews with tutors, post-intervention focus groups with L2 writers, and post-intervention observations of tutorials with L2 writers. Results indicated a shift in tutors’ use of scaffolding, reflecting increased understanding of scaffolding techniques and scaffolding as participatory and multidirectional. Results also showed that post-intervention, tutors increasingly saw themselves as learners and experienced a decrease in confidence scaffolding with L2 writers. Findings also demonstrated ways in which time, common ground, and participation mediate scaffolding within tutorials. These findings provide implications for tutor education, programmatic policy, and writing center administration and scholarship, including areas for further interdisciplinary action research.

This study took place at SUNY Buffalo State College in Buffalo, NY during the 2018-2019 academic year, and was conducted to examine the effect of the Health Ambassador (HA) program on reducing drinking, drug use, and other potential detrimental health behaviors among Greeks and athletes. Study participants included 147 participants derived from two groups of undergraduate students. Group 1 included 18 students who participated in the Health Ambassador program. Group 2 included 129 men and women who were recruited from three athletic teams and two campus sororities. Group 2 was further divided into intervention and control groups.

A five-week multi-phase health and leadership intervention, consisting of health and leadership trainings and workshops, was implemented over two semesters. Through a blended approach, which incorporated both in-person and online trainings, health ambassadors were educated in health and leadership content and developed prevention workshops to positively influence Greeks and athletes’ perceptions and behaviors toward substance use. Following the trainings, the health ambassadors delivered these substance prevention workshops to members of the intervention group. Self-Efficacy Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior served as the theoretical frameworks for this study in order to determine health ambassador opinions around serving as student leaders and assess Greek and athletic student beliefs over engaging in potentially unsafe health behaviors, including alcohol and substance abuse.

The study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods approach where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently, analyzed separately, and compared to determine if the results substantiated each other. Taken from surveys, questionnaires, group interviews, observations, and field notes, this study shows that (1) past 30 day use of alcohol, binge drinking, and marijuana positively decreased following the health ambassador intervention, (2) intervention group participants became more effective at refusing drugs and alcohol and were more confident in making healthier choices, (3) health ambassadors overcame initial fears and biases toward working with Greeks and athletes, and achieved success presenting health material and functioning as student leaders, (4) the individual and collective efficacy of the health ambassadors positively increased. Additionally, study limitations, implications for research, implications for practice, and conclusions were discussed.

To meet the increasing demands for more STEM graduates, United States (U.S.) higher education institutions need to support the retention of minoritized populations, such as first-generation Latinas studying engineering. The theories influencing this study included critical race theory, the theory of validation, and community cultural wealth. Current advising practices, when viewed through a critical race theory lens, reinforce deficit viewpoints about students and reinforce color-blind ideologies. As such, current practices will fail to support first-generation Latina student persistence in engineering. A 10-week long study was conducted on validating advising practices. The advisors for the study were purposefully selected while the students were selected via a stratified sampling approach. Validating advising practices were designed to elicit student stories and explored the ways in which advisors validated or invalidated the students. Qualitative data were collected from interviews and reflections. Thematic analysis was conducted to study the influence of the validating advising practices. Results indicate each advisor acted as a different type of validating “agent” executing her practices described along a continuum of validating to invalidating practices. The students described their advisors’ practices along a continuum of prescriptive to developmental to transformational advising. While advisors began the study expressing deficit viewpoints of first-generation Latinas, the students shared multiple forms of navigational, social, aspirational, and informational capital. Those advisors who employed developmental and transformational practices recognized and drew upon those assets during their deployment of validating advising practices, thus leading to validation within the advising interactions.