Digital Commons Network^™

A Distributed Leadership Perspective For Critical Consciousness In Middle Grades, Kenneth M. Bond, Daniel P. Tulino

Middle Grades Review

In middle-grades settings, students are cultivating critical consciousness to apply general knowledge of equity to their local context(s) (Nojan, 2020). As educators work to foster environments that allow middle-grade students to cultivate critical consciousness, expectations have shifted in the area of leading for equity. We have outlined a leadership framework we believe will advance the collective critical consciousness with examples for middle-grade contexts. Our focus is working toward equitable outcomes through one’s sociopolitical development and creating ways to further the collective critical consciousness of the entire school community through a distributed leadership perspective. Through this lens, our hope is to …

Application Of Multicultural Literature In The Early Childhood Classroom, Deborah Wheeler, Jennifer Hill

Journal of English Learner Education

Culture equates to identity; therefore, the implementation of multicultural literature in the early childhood curriculum is an essential method for securing children’s concept of self and cultural identity. This qualitative study explored the implementation of multicultural literature in early childhood classrooms, and the research included questions pertaining to multicultural literature training, instructional methods, and barriers encountered. The purpose of the study was to answer questions regarding teachers use of multicultural literature in the classroom, how often teachers read multicultural literature and how teachers integrated multicultural literature into instruction. An additional question inquired about what multicultural books titles were teachers reading …

Centering Equity In Stem Teaching: Stem Ideas That Change The World, Ileana Vasu

Feminist Pedagogy

No discussion on equity/inequity makes sense without bringing power into that discussion. As instructors we need to ask questions such as “who decides and controls what knowledge is”, “whose identities are empowered and whose are erased”, “who has access and opportunity and who doesn’t”. Traditional teaching in STEM, including mathematics, assumes knowledge is objective, transmittable, repeatable to everyone. When educators follow a traditional curriculum, just like their teachers before them, they do so thinking their methods ensure equality and objectivity. These practices not only deny the role that Western patriarchal cultures have played in creating these so-called equitable practices, but …

Feminist Pedagogy In Stem: The Intersection Of Stem Pedagogy And Feminist Theory, Lesley-Ann Giddings, Candice R. Price

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Review Of Fighting Better, Kriesberg, Oxford 2023, Neil Katz

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Socially Engaged Engineering: A Framework For K-8 Education, Christine M. Cunningham, Gregory J. Kelly, Ashwin Mohan

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Socially engaged engineering provides for student learning of the design, analysis, and practices of engineering as well as the ways that engineering is situated in sociocultural contexts. This paper provides a conceptual framework regarding socially engaged engineering for K-8 educators, researchers, and curriculum designers. The framework identifies ways to support youth learning of engineering and considerations of technical, social, environmental, and ethical dimensions of engineering. As engineering enters K-8 educational settings, it is important to introduce the discipline in equity-oriented ways. We draw from the field of engineering for social justice to build this framework for examining engineering at the …

Widening The Aperture: A Case Study Of Widening The Definition Of Evidence For Strategy, Jennifer James, Sandra Hilliard

The Foundation Review

The need to “widen the aperture” to consider different types and sources of evidence is paramount to sharpening grantmaking strategies that are in service of those we seek to serve. This article describes an underlying process of identifying and applying equity considerations in the evidence considered for strategy development in the context of a large, national foundation.

The aim was to develop a “common evidence base” — the core of which was a database library — and what was understood from the evidence was synthesized to bring together what was currently known, the edges of the foundation’s understanding, and emerging …

A Year Of Learning: Educating The Philanthropic Community About Racialized And Stigmatized Nonprofits, Shariq Siddiqui, Rafeel Wasif, Abdul Samad

The Foundation Review

Islamophobia and a lack of legitimacy heavily impact Muslim-led nonprofits and limit their relationships with philanthropy in the United States, resulting in an anemic, continually underfunded sector. This article explores that disconnect within a discussion of the Year of Learning, a unique series of virtual workshops that brought together foundations and nonprofits serving the Muslim American community.

Among the barriers to more effective relationships that emerged from the workshops were the presence of Islamophobia within society at large and philanthropy in particular, a hesitance among U.S. foundations to fund faith-based work, and a lack of capacity among Muslim-led nonprofits. Also …

Place-Based Philanthropy With An Adaptive Lens: Actively Balancing Community-Driven And Foundation-Driven Orientations, Douglas Easterling, Tanya Beer, Kristen Burwell Naney, Mina Silberberg, Laura Gerald, Adam Linker

The Foundation Review

With place-based philanthropy, a foundation provides extensive, long-term support for a comprehensive mix of programs within specific communities, with the expectation that this will produce benefits at a communitywide level. One of the key questions in designing a place-based initiative is how much the foundation will control local decision-making.

In some initiatives, the foundation dictates the issues that community groups must address and/or the nature of the planning process that will be used to develop solutions. This sometimes produces ineffective or irrelevant solutions. In contrast, other initiatives allow local groups considerable discretion in naming the issues and choosing the solutions, …

Engaging Higher Education Students In Creating Curricular Content To Increase Equity, Gloria Mcdaniel-Hall, Elizabeth Teahan, Sadia Warsi, Terry Jo Smith, Shaunti Knauth

i.e.: inquiry in education

This study aims to explore replicable strategies and principles for re-imagining higher education students as co-creators of course content through small-scale curricular experiments. The research takes place at a broad-access, minority and Hispanic-serving university that seeks to disrupt patterns of inequity in higher education. The university has established an undergraduate college and doctoral programs designed to support underserved students and working adults, respectively. To promote equitable teaching and learning practices, the university integrates scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) fellowships into its strategic plan. SoTL involves systematic inquiry into teaching and learning practices with intentional design, diverse methodologies, and public …

Consent?, Jasmine Kar Tang

Writing Center Journal

Reflecting on a few everyday situations, this “provocation” considers the question of consent at the writing center.

Confusing Cy Près, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.

Georgia Law Review

American courts have increasingly considered the possibility of prolonging the life of charitable trusts through cy près and the closely related doctrine of equitable deviation. This requires courts to interpret the material purposes of trusts and even the administrative terms on which settlors of charitable trusts condition gifts in trust made for public benefit. Yet, the implicit reasons why courts might invoke cy près to change a charitable trust’s material purpose have not been explored in significant depth heretofore—and neither has a common but vexing trend of courts conflating cy près with deviation, which negatively impacts charitable trust-making.

I analyze …

Teaching Current And Future Professionals Techniques For Lay Communication: Validation Study Of Published Training Material, Jafra Thomas, Jasmine C. Wong, Solana R. Martin, Yi Sheng Wu

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Thomas et al. (2023), developed two mock physical activity promotion (PAP) material, which university students (and others) could practice critiquing and revising using the suitability assessment of materials (SAM) protocol. Their objective, however, was to produce mock material at two reading grade levels (11th & 8th RGL), meaning they did not compute suitability scores for other sub/main areas (eg, font size, literacy demand, respectively). PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to (1) establish trustworthy baseline data in other SAM sub/main areas for students to compare their own scores to (2) compare mock material SAM scores to one …

Advancing Accessibility Research In Kinesiology: A Mixed-Methods Case Study Of One Survey Website, Yi Sheng Wu, Jafra D. Thomas, Jasmine C. Wong

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

While some studies in kinesiology have investigated the accessibility of educational material and electronic applications used to promote physical activity (eg, ease to perceive/navigate content resources), few studies report on the accessibility of survey tools before their use in research. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to measure the accessibility of one survey website to a study directly investigating comprehension of mock physical activity promotion material created by Thomas et al. (2023). METHODS: The website was for study participants to complete an online version of a cloze form (for a visual, see Nielsen, 2011; eg, see Cardinal …

Our Lives Are Worth Celebrating, Darius M. Phelps, Brian Mooney

New Jersey English Journal

No abstract provided.

“You Are The Key”: A Co-Design Project To Reduce Disparities In Black Veterans’ Communication With Healthcare Providers, Anna M. Barker, Renda S. Wiener, Dave Crocker, Makayla Dones, Oluwabunmi Emidio, Abigail N. Herbst, Jenesse Kaitz, Lauren Kearney, Danielle Miano, Gemmae M. Fix

Patient Experience Journal

Interventions are needed to overcome a key barrier to patient-provider communication, namely that patients hesitate to participate in clinical conversations because they believe their expected role is to be passive. This expectation is reinforced for veterans, who replicate their experience of military hierarchy in the patient-provider relationship. Black veterans, moreover, encounter structural racism that compounds this power imbalance. This paper describes a co-designed intervention to empower Black veterans to talk with providers, using shared decision-making (SDM) for lung cancer screening (LCS) as an exemplar. We worked with a diverse group of 5 veterans to develop materials that normalize participating in …

Promising Practices For Creating More Diverse, Equitable, Inclusive, And Racially Just Summertime Programs And Camps, Meagan Ricks, Jim Sibthorp

Journal of Youth Development

LGBTQ+, racial/ethnic minorities, youth from low-income contexts, and youth with cognitive and/or physical disabilities often face constraints to access and participation based on social and structural inequality. Understanding access and inclusion in summertime recreation program and camp settings for LGBTQ+, racial/ethnic minorities, individuals from low-income contexts, and individuals with disabilities begins with examining promising practices and policies already applied in some of these settings. The purpose of this study is to compile current promising practices implemented by youth-serving summertime recreation programs and camps recognized for their work in diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice (DEIRJ). Representatives from both national organizations …

Book Review It Takes An Ecosystem: Understanding The People, Places, And Possibilities Of Learning And Development Across Settings, Denise Montgomery

Journal of Youth Development

It Takes an Ecosystem: Understanding the People, Places, and Possibilities of Learning and Development Across Settings, edited by Thomas Akiva and Kimberly H. Robinson, is a call to take a holistic and dynamic ecosystem approach to thinking about, designing, developing, and investing in the allied youth fields to more equitably and effectively support young people’s learning and development. Published in 2022, the volume outlines a vision for out-of-school time programs and systems, schools, community-based organizations, and the public sector to move beyond focusing separately on individual systems to a learning and development ecosystem approach that more accurately and inclusively reflects …

Why Rural Matters 2023: Centering Equity And Opportunity: A Discussion With The Research Team, Sara L. Hartman, Jerry Johnson, Daniel Showalter, Karen Eppley, Bob Klein

The Rural Educator

Authors of the Why Rural Matters 2023 report discuss its development and key findings.

Gender Undone: Confronting Bias In The Nuclear Field, Sneha Nair, Christina Mcallister, Annina Pluff, Katherine C. Mack

International Journal of Nuclear Security

In the face of evolving security needs, diversity is critical in nonproliferation, nuclear security, and other related fields. Despite multiple studies highlighting the need for gender balance and diversity in the nuclear nonproliferation and security space and targeted recruitment and capacity-building efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency and states, gains in the representation of women (as well as historically underrepresented groups) have been set back by the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and slow cultural change at nuclear facilities and organizations. This issue is in large part due to the inability of initiatives aimed at diversity, equity, inclusion, …

Nuclear Security: Making Gender Equality A Working Reality, Muhammed Ali Alkış, Polina Sinovets

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Gender equality is an indispensable part of both democracy and justice, and it is fundamental to peace and security worldwide. As various research on gender equality has shown, teams with diversity, equity, and inclusion achieve the best outcomes. Having gender equality and women’s presence in the workforce in nuclear fields is a requirement to contribute to peace and security discussions, adding value and sustaining policies and long-lasting positive outcomes. In this regard, the paper will discuss the importance of gender equality and why the Odesa Center for Nonproliferation has committed itself to this issue. The article also details the Odesa …

Soft Skills Don’T Have To Be Hard: Embedding Soft Skills Instruction In Moroccan Secondary Schools, Dc Lambert

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

In an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, the need for the development and mastery of soft skills has perhaps never been greater. Schools can play a key role in soft skills education, but implementation in the classroom has faced a range of challenges that have impeded instruction. One solution is embedding soft skills within an extant academic curriculum, with the advantages that the academic infrastructure is already in place, and few additional materials or time are needed. This field study found that embedding soft skills had excellent outcomes, even with limited resources, materials, and training, a notable first step in …

A Multi-Method Analysis Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Websites Of Fortune 500 Agricultural And Food Companies, Garrett M. Steede, Rebecca Swenson, Troy Mckay

Journal of Applied Communications

Each year, Fortune magazine publishes a list of the 500 largest corporations in the United States of America based on total revenue in the previous fiscal year. As successful companies, these organizations must prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for a multitude of reasons. The purpose of this study was to determine how agricultural and food companies on the 2021 Fortune 500 list demonstrated a commitment to DEI efforts on their corporate websites. Thus, we analyzed the DEI website of each food and agricultural company listed on the 2021 Fortune 500 list. Quantitatively, most websites only required two clicks to …

Catalyzing Change For Equitable Participation, Liza Bondurant, Seema Rivera

Journal of Practitioner Research

This manuscript discusses the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles designed to help math teacher-researchers (TRs) create more equitable discourse patterns in their classrooms. Before the first cycle, TRs were asked to complete gender and race implicit assessment tests (IATs). Then, TRs planned and recorded a video of themselves facilitating a math discussion. Next, math teacher educators (MTEs) used the Equity QUantified In Participation (EQUIP) classroom observation instrument to code and analyze the discussion. Subsequently, TRs had an opportunity to reflect on the EQUIP and IAT results and set goals for making their teaching practices more equitable. MTEs provided guidance …

Fostering The Multicultural Efficacy Of Principal Candidates, Karen D. Jones

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This mixed methods study was completed with principal preparation candidates. Data was collected using the Multicultural Efficacy Scale (MES) and focus group interviews. Principal candidates’ multicultural efficacy was measured before and after participating in monthly diversity seminars and reflections. The diversity seminars provided first-person storytelling from diverse members of school communities including individuals from different LGBTQ, race, religion, socio-economic status, and language backgrounds. The study found principal candidates had improved multicultural efficacy at the end of the year-long diversity series. Research shows this could lead to supportive behaviors as social justice-oriented school leaders.

Toward A Theory Of An Integrated Theoretical Approach Of Literacy For Black Boys, Aaron M. Johnson

Michigan Reading Journal

In the education landscape the literacy of Black boys is viewed from deficit framing. Often, educators, politicians, and laypeople point to scores on standardized assessments such as the MSTEP, NAEP, ACT, SAT, and NWEA, these tests only tell a part of the story. The part of the story that those assessments do tell is the abject failure of schools’ ability to engage Black boys in school-based literacy and catapult them into proficient and advanced proficient reading levels. The part of the story that those assessments do not tell is the literate lives that Black boys lead. Furthermore, schools do a …

Leveraging The W.H.O.L.E. Experience Framework To Elevate Inclusive Learning, Morris Thomas, Susan Winchell Thomas

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The case study methodology was used to analyze instructional strategies to discuss and refine diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in two psychology courses at a community college in California’s Bay Area. A mentor and mentee professional development experience, referred to as the DEI studio, used four sessions over 5 weeks to explore reflective practice using the W.H.O.L.E. Experience framework as a guide to review current DEI practices and implement additional strategies intended to improve the engagement, experience, and success of all students. Student feedback and data were collected via a six-question student evaluation of the courses. Results showed that …

Is This The Best Way? The Impact Of Out-Of-School Suspension On Middle Grades Students, Lianne Jones

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Suspension is a commonly used discipline approach in schools across the country. In particular, out-of-school suspension refers to a student's removal from the school setting for a period of time, typically no more than five school days. Although out-of-school suspensions have been traditionally reserved for major behavioral infractions, they are not being more frequently utilized for repeated misbehaviors and classroom disruptions. Studies show that punitive disciplinary measures are often ineffective in eradicating student misbehavior and contribute negatively to students' life outcomes and success in school. Moreover, suspensions are disproportionately applied to certain groups of students including minorities, boys, economically disadvantaged …

In Conversation: Two Community Foundations In Dialogue About Their Equitable Evaluation Framework™ Practice, Madeline Brandt, Kelly Casey, Jean-Marie Callan, Joel Hicks-Rivera, Kim Leonard, Madeline Nguyen, Elena Tamanas Ragusa, Cierra Stancil, Kimberlee Salmond, Becky Seel, Kate Szczerbacki

The Foundation Review

This conversation between staff at the Oregon Community Foundation and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving shares how we are infusing the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ into our practice as we aim to be less extractive, shift power, and honor all ways of knowing and being as valid. In sharing this conversation, we want to pull the curtain back and offer a behind-the-scenes view into the conversations, realities, and challenges involved in doing this kind of work.

We sat down together for 90 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, and the following is a rough transcript of our time together. The intention …

Learning, Unlearning, And Sprinkling In: Our Journey With Equitable Evaluation, Jane Mosley, Leigh W. Quarles, Jason L. Williams

The Foundation Review

The Health Forward Foundation recently completed a two-year journey with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative as a practicing partner. This partnership provided us with the support to push for change that better aligned with our new focus, prioritizing racial equity and economic advancement.

The partnership also allowed us to explore a number of questions fundamental to our work in learning and evaluation: what we really know about the impact philanthropy is making in our communities; how we can explain that to board members, and how we honor the personal experiences of the people we serve.

In this article we discuss our …