Education Commons^™

21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities: Research And Findings With Kathy Harris, Kathy Harris

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Kathy Harris, the Director of the Literacy, Language and Research Group in the Department of Applied Linguistics at Portland State University, discusses 21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities: Research and Findings. 21 CLEO is a research project launched to increase the understanding and of the complexities of learning ecosystems in employer supported training and education initiatives for individuals struggling with the digital literacy skills required to navigate life in the 21st Century.

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Arts Course-Taking And Math Achievement In Us High Schools With Daniel Mackin Freeman, Daniel Mackin Freeman

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Daniel Mackin Freeman, a Ph. D. candidate in the sociology department at Portland State University, discusses the results of a study that asked if fine arts coursework is positively correlated to mathematics achievement in high schools at low, middle, and high socio-economic levels. Freeman and PSU sociology professor, Dara Shifrer recently publish the results of their study, "Arts for Whose Sake? Arts Course-taking and Math Achievement in US High Schools," online in Sociological Perspectives.

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Reflections On A Fellowship And Time As A Dei Coordinator With Oscar Fernandez, Oscar Fernandez

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Dr. Óscar Fernández, a contingent faculty member in University Studies at Portland State University, discusses his work during a diversity fellowship at UC Irvine. That work resulted in the forthcoming essay, "Queering a Coordinator's Diversity, Equity, and Illusion (DEI) Work in Academe: Disappointments, Self-Deceits, and Hopes Disclosed," to be published by the University of California Humanities Research Institute's journal Foundry. Fernández opens up about his experiences as a DEI officer for University Studies, how that experience informed his essay, and thinking about DEI efforts within the context of higher education.

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Oer In University Language Courses, Jenny Ceciliano

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Open Educational Resources (OER) offer incredible advantages in language teaching and learning. Implementing an OER curriculum can result in benefits that go far beyond controlling costs for students, which is itself a significant step toward improving equity. Drawing on your own experience and expertise as language educators, as well as the contributions of collaborators around the world, it is possible to build a curriculum customized for your unique student group. With thoughtful design, your program can help students achieve desired learning outcomes not just in language acquisition, but also in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In this talk, I will …

Equity & Social Justice In Mathematics Education With Eva Thanheiser, Eva Thanheiser

PDXPLORES Podcast

Professor Eva Thanheiser's research lies at the intersections of mathematics education, social justice, and critical theory. In her work, she collaborates with teachers, students, parents, and community members to develop and implement anti-bias mathematics education that allows students to connect mathematics to their worlds. In this episode of PDXPLORES, Thanheiser discusses this work and its impact on mathematics education.

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"Like A Family": Fostering A Sense Of Belonging In A Minority Majority University Classroom, David Peterson Del Mar, Raya Alkharroubi, Arina Borodkina, Kenyn Davila Samayoa, Daira Maldonado Ortega, Jennifer Marquez Marquez, Laihha Organna, Estefani Reyes Moreno, Han Tran, Brianna Tuy, Tony Vo

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Teaching Note, co-authored by nine university students and their Peer Mentor and professor, at the end of a year-long course, argues that the growing socio-cultural gap between students and faculty requires pedagogies that foster a sense of student belonging by faculty becoming "more receptive than authoritative." All of these students are from immigrant families, and most felt very anxious upon arriving at Portland State University and feared that they did not belong. Co-creating a space of mutual vulnerability enabled students to feel both cared for and confident.

Fostering Resiliency And Care Integrating Self-Compassion Into A Graduate Course, Heather L. Burns

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Self-compassion, which involves mindful awareness of feelings and offering ourselves compassion, has been shown to support balancing emotions, overcoming challenges, and achieving goals. This action research study integrated self-compassion theory and practice in a graduate course in which students wrote their final comprehensive papers in sustainability education. This study found that self-compassion practice resulted in more self-awareness, more acceptance of difficult emotions, and more ability to handle stress. Additionally, students experienced more clarity and calm in the writing process and began to integrate self-compassion into their lives and work. This study points to the promise of self-compassion as a beneficial …

Examining Perspectives Of Immigrant Working Learners & Education Providers: Crt As Analytical Framework, Jen Vanek, Kathy Harris, Gloria E. Jacobs, Jill Castek

21CLEO Presentations and Publications

Research questions in this article include:

• What supports English learners’ participation and engagement in workplace learning?

• Who gets access to learning opportunities?

• Whose workplace learning leads to advancement?
• What do the perspectives of adult working learners reveal about their education and training when viewed through a CRT lens?

"We Support You... To An Extent": Identities, Intersections, And Family Support Among First-Generation Students In A School Of Social Work, Miranda Mosier

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Family support is a critical part of college student retention. Given the strength of parental educational attainment in predicting access and persistence among college students (Choy, 2001), some have questioned the capacity for families to support first-generation college students. Family support may be especially critical for first-generation college students, who value interdependence more highly than continuing generation students (Stephens et al., 2012). This paper centers the perspectives of first-generation students in a school of social work and their experiences of family support. Focus group conversations were analyzed using the Listening Guide/Voice-centered relational data analysis (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). My interpretations …

Who We Are: Focus On… Student Identity, Yarina Aguilar Becerra, Cecilia Diojuan, Jasmine Walker, Neera Malhotra, David Peterson Del Mar, Vicki Reitenauer

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In short

• Increasingly, professionals in higher education are acknowledging the short- and long-term impacts on individuals and communities of institutional failures to create welcoming, inclusive, and caring environments for traditionally underrepresented students.
• Student voices, reflecting on their lived and felt experiences in college, have been less frequently present in the discussions about inclusion in higher education.
• Listening to students from underrepresented groups has the potential to redefine and renew how we understand education and ourselves, offering a template and a foundation for the dense network of relationships that a student-focused institution of higher education ought to aspire to and build …

Book Review Of, Unimpeded Volition: William Of Ockham: Questions On Goodness, Virtue, And The Will, Bennett B. Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book Review of: Unimpeded volition Eric W. Hagedorn (trans. & ed.): William of Ockham: questions on goodness, virtue, and the will. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, xxvii + 344pp, $110.00 HB. ISBN 9781108498388

An Existential Philosophy Of History, Bennett Gilbert, Natan Elgabsi

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we delineate the conditions and features of what we call an existential philosophy of history in relation to customary trends in the field of the philosophy of history. We do this by circumscribing what a transgenerational temporality and what our entanglement in ethical relations with temporal others ask of us as existential and responsive selves and by explicating what attitude we need to have when trying to responsibly respond to other vulnerable beings in our historical world of life.

Entertainment-Education Behind The Scenes: Case Studies For Theory And Practice, Lauren B. Frank, Paul Falzone

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Open Access book tracks the latest trends in the theory, research, and practice of entertainment-education, the field of communication that incorporates social change messaging into entertaining media. Sometimes called edutainment, social impact television, narrative persuasion, or cultural strategy, this approach to social and behavior change communication offers new opportunities including transmedia and digital formats. However, making media can be a chaotic process. The realities of working in the field and the rigid structures of scholarly evaluation often act as barriers to honest accounts of entertainment-education practice. In this collection of essays, experienced practitioners offer unique insight into how entertainment-education …

“Building That World”: Movements Of Vision In The Carceral Classroom, Rhiannon M. Cates, Benjamin J. Hall, James Broughton, Andrew Reeves, Faith Hocutt Ringwelski, Kathryn Zaro, Jenna Richards, Lani Roberts

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

An article in which two teaching assistants and six students of a university course taught inside a correctional facility, "Writing as Activism," collaboratively examine their experience as co-teachers and co-learners in a humanities-based prison classroom. Fostered and framed by their instructor’s critical and transformative pedagogical approaches in this course, the authors locate integrated learning and collaborative writing within carceral classrooms as sites for intentional and resistant futures to be enacted and embodied as a practice of post-carceral world-building. The students enter their individual narratives into this location of their experience of envisioning and enacting resistant futures together in this space …

Teaching Remotely In The Time Of Covid-19: Answering Frequently Asked Questions: A Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Coordinator Perspective, Óscar Fernández

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

FAQ about teaching online in the time of COVID-19. My FAQ is based on three experiences:

1. my role as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator (2017-2020) in University Studies;
2. I teach a fully online SINQ course, Healthy People/Healthy Places; and
3. for the past year (AY 2019-2020), I have been interviewing University Studies faculty about online teaching and learning. Why? I am hoping to propose an online Immigration, Migration, and Belonging FRINQ in the near future.

Teaching Spanish In The United States In The Digital Age: Strategies And Approaches On Teaching Spanish In Online And Hybrid Classes, Liane She, Eli Sears

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Virtual technologies are omnipresent in everyday life and are becoming essential to either online, or hybrid classes. In higher education institutions in the United States, virtual platforms are increasingly used for teaching Spanish as a foreign language to students from varying backgrounds. As such, this article proposes an approach to teaching grammar in virtual spaces, that takes into account the communicative goals established in a given syllabus. The methods and strategies we propose offer an attractive language course that allows students to remotely learn and practice a language. As Spanish professors who teach beginning to intermediate level students, we will …

Investigating A Multiple Mentor Model In Research Training For Undergraduates Traditionally Underrepresented In Biomedical Sciences, Thomas E. Keller, Jennifer Lindwall

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Models of persistence and success in undergraduate research training emphasize the importance of engagement and integration across social, educational, research, and career settings. Students are likely to benefit from multiple sources of mentoring to meet their multidimensional needs for support across these domains. As part of a comprehensive training initiative for traditionally underrepresented students aspiring to careers in biomedical research, BUILD EXITO implemented a multiple mentoring model matching each undergraduate scholar with a research mentor, a faculty mentor, and a peer mentor. By design, each mentor has a different functional role. This study investigates whether the nature of support scholars …

Cyberpdx: An Interdisciplinary Professional Development Program For Middle And High School Teachers, Ellie Harmon, Veronica Hotton, Robert Liebman, Michael Mooradian Lupro, Wu-Chang Feng, Lois Delcambre, David Joel Pouliot

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

CyberPDX is an annual professional development program hosted at Portland State University. Our long-term goal is to broaden participation in cybersecurity. Since 2016, over 70 middle and high school teachers from the Pacific Northwest have participated in the STREAM program, which offers interdisciplinary instruction in programming, cryptography, personal security, policy, literature, and arts. In this poster, we share our interdisciplinary curriculum, present data on short-term impacts, and describe our in-progress work to evaluate the program’s longer term impacts.

Securing The Next Generation, Wu-Chang Feng, Robert Liebman, Ellie Harmon, Veronica Hotton, Michael Mooradian Lupro, Lois Delcambre

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Weak authentication practices that rely on passwords for security have led to widespread data breaches and successful phishing attacks. Recent advances in the cost and usability of hardware security tokens have made the prospect of effectively augmenting password-based authentication or removing it altogether a possibility. To actualize this, a paradigm change in how people learn to authenticate accounts on-line must occur. Towards this end, we describe a curriculum to teach high-school students the perils of passwords and a program to distribute hardware security tokens to them as they are first setting up their on-line presence in order to improve the …

Portland State University: General Education And Equitable Assessment, Rowanna L. Carpenter, Vicki Reitenauer, Aimee Shattuck

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University is not only Portland, Oregon’s public research university, but a place of innovation and engagement. Portland State offers over 200 degree programs, and is very engaged in community development as it sits in the heart of downtown. Originally founded in 1946 to serve returning World War II veterans, Portland State has “grown into Oregon’s most diverse urban public research university with 26,000 students.” Of the students served, 25% are students with children, 37% are first-generation, 45% receive Pell grants, and 48% are students of color. Espoused values of the university include the promotion of access, inclusion, and …

Teaching An International Bestseller: Reflections On Encouraging Caring Global Citizenship, Evguenia Davidova

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article discusses an integrative model of gradual scaffolding of curricular and pedagogical strategies, based on the theoretical framework of a “caring global citizenship.” It provides concrete practices for internationalization of general education that could be implemented in a wide variety of institutional settings. Such a model addresses ethnocentrism by expanding students' knowledge and perspectives on societies influenced by American politics, and fosters empathy as both value and skill.

Performing Self, Performing Community, Performing Care: A Polyphony, Lindsay M. Goldman, Musonda Mwango, Vicki Reitenauer

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article traces a performative arc across time and distance, starting in the men's carceral setting in which the co-authors first met in a gender studies course called Writing as Activism; through their continued co-learning (and individual authorship of self) in a campus-based course, Women, Writing, and Memoir; to and through the co-construction of this essay. These co-authors are variously situated relative to the institutions in which they were positioned; embody difference related to race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, religion, age, and national origin; and are co-committed both to creating learning communities in which a socially just pedagogy might be …

Insights From Alumni: A Grounded Theory Study Of A Graduate Program In Sustainability Leadership, Heather Burns, Megan Schneider

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This grounded theory action research study examines the impact of a graduate sustainability leadership program through the lens of its alumni. The study reveals elements of the leadership program that had the most impact on the lives and careers of its alumni, as well as suggestions for how the program could better prepare students in the future. This study finds that impactful sustainability leadership programs might incorporate opportunities for: paradigm and perspective shifts; a culture of support and care; holistic personal growth and development; experiential community-based learning opportunities; and leadership tools and skills that students can practice and use. This …

Out Of Time: Accomplices In Post-Carceral World-Building, Benjamin J. Hall, Rhiannon M. Cates, Vicki L. Reitenauer

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

An article in which a faculty member, a university staff member and former student, and a currently incarcerated student and teaching assistant collaboratively examine their experiences as co-teachers and co-learners in a humanities-based prison classroom, and as co-authors of the article itself. Fostered by the faculty member’s pedagogical approach and design of the course, the authors pose that critical practices of writing and learning are dynamic sites of imagination and collaboration, and in turn, avenues by which informed and intentional futures can be enacted. Locating their practice and experience of partnership within a prison, the authors enter their co-created and …

'A Practice Of Freedom': Self-Grading For Liberatory Learning, Vicki L. Reitenauer

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay offers readers a model for self-grading as a mechanism to catalyze liberatory learning. Drawing inspiration from the feminist and participatory pedagogical approaches of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Adrienne Rich, the author grounds this discussion within her disciplinary field and professional role, identifies key elements of the model and the teaching practice that surrounds it, and addresses the changed learning environment that has resulted from the implementation of this approach.

Teaching Sustainability: Recommendations For Best Pedagogical Practices, Heather L. Burns, Sybil S. Kelley, Heather E. Spalding

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although sustainability has become a key focus in higher education, developing a better understanding of how sustainability competencies can be cultivated in college and university courses and programs is still needed. This article argues that learners who are to become capable of affecting holistic sustainable change, transforming values and culture, healing the earth and human communities, and designing creative solutions, must have the opportunity to engage in learning processes that reflect these learning outcomes. We outline key elements of sustainability pedagogy and suggest best pedagogical practices for designing engaging and holistic sustainability learning, and highlight these practices through a sustainability …

Taking High-Impact Practices To Scale In Capstone And Peer Mentor Programs, And Revising University Studies' Diversity Learning Goal, Óscar Fernández, Dana Lundell, Seanna M. Kerrigan

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

University Studies, Portland State University's general education program, is now more than twenty years old; its leaders frequently answer questions from other higher education institutions regarding how the program takes high-impact practices to scale. In this article, three program leaders detail how University Studies' Peer Mentor and Senior Capstone Programs and one recently revised diversity learning goal demonstrate the opportunities and challenges of taking high-impact practices to scale. This article used published assessments of the program, experiences by current program leaders, and interviews from faculty members and peer mentors. Overall, the coauthors conclude that three dynamic qualities contribute to a …

Co-Developing An Electronic Campus Equity Walkthrough Evaluation (Cewe) To Assess Students’ Sense Belonging And Equity Mindfulness, Oscar Fernandez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this presentation, attendance members learn how ePortfolios--and eWorkbooks--help students recognize their sense of belonging on a college campus. By asking a series of equity-minded, student-centered questions, the CEWE eWorkbook is a toolkit for assessing whether or not resources on campus are diverse and equitable for a variety of learners.

The Sharing Campus Equity Walkthrough Evaluation (CEWE) eWorkbook is available online: https://pebblepad.com/spa/#/public/GctzZ7RbZczmzs3q4q4jp3zRWy?historyId=Rsz4bQlCTk

University Studies Leadership: Vision And Challenge, Maurice Hamington, Judith A. Ramaley

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although University Studies at Portland State University often receives attention for its signature curricular structure of year-long thematic mentored Freshman Inquiry, thematic mentored Sophomore Inquiry, thematic departmental Cluster courses, and community-based Capstone courses, it is the underlying pedagogical values and philosophy that represent the real revolution in higher education—a revolution that is ongoing at Portland State. Few large state universities can claim to offer a quarter-century of experience with general education change of this magnitude. This article addresses how a shared purpose evolved over the course of University Studies' history and was impacted by what various leaders emphasized during their …

Assessment As Critical Programmatic Reflection, Vicki Reitenauer, Rowanna L. Carpenter

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article argues that general education assessment is an opportunity for engaging faculty and the general education program as a whole in critical reflection on the practices and pedagogies that affect the entire undergraduate body. Through intentional assessment practices tied to learning outcomes, pedagogical expectations, and faculty and student classroom experience, an assessment program can meet accreditation expectations while serving as a rich location for critical reflection and continuous improvement. To illustrate, this article takes the reader through a year in the life of University Studies' assessment at Portland State University. It provides details about the individual elements of our …