Education Commons^™

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion: Three Essays In The Educational Context, James D. Paul

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many universities and K-12 public school systems express a significant, formal commitment to the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Relative to the emphasis on DEI in America’s educational institutions, however, there has been little research describing DEI trends and evaluating the efficacy of DEI bureaucracies. This three-chapter dissertation examines DEI trends that have been the subject of much discussion—but rarely studied empirically.

For example, chapter one analyzes how universities promote DEI when hiring new faculty. I audit a subset of academic job postings and present the first evidence on how many require DEI statements, as well as the …

A Case Study Of Four Districts' Procedures For Identifying And Serving Culturally, Linguistically, And Economically Diverse Gifted And Talented Students In One State, Mackenzie Anderson

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

The underrepresentation of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students is a problem historically researched in gifted and talented programs. This problem largely comes from the way districts identify for giftedness as well as the programming for gifted students. Traditional methods of identification often largely exclude students due to racial or ethnic bias and harsh cut-off scores on tests. This study investigated the current identification procedures of four districts in one state. Additionally, the study addressed programming and how these districts specifically targeted underserved populations within their district. Data were collected through interviews with four District Coordinators from school districts with …

The Attracting Intelligent Minds Conference: An Assessment Of Graduate Diversity Recruitment, Alfred T. Dowe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graduate student recruitment is one of the most important factors in growing university enrollment. Unlike undergraduate recruitment, graduate recruitment is a coordinated effort facilitated between graduate faculty and program coordinators and graduate recruiters who often work outside of the department. An essential element in graduate recruitment is the effectiveness with which underrepresented minorities are identified and recruited. Graduate schools are commonly using initiatives known as intervention strategies to help enhance their traditional recruitment strategies and campus visitation programs have become a popular recruitment tool within those strategies.

Since the 1990’s, the University of Arkansas (UA) has employed various intervention strategies …

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Faculty With Disabilities In A Research University In The South, Gonzalo Camp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While diversity and inclusion has become a benchmark for universities all around the country, faculty with disabilities remain in the margins of higher education discourse and are a neglected population across the spectrum of academia. This thesis aims at exploring the experiences of faculty with disabilities at a specific research 1 university in the South. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five faculty members who self-identify as having a disability. Four themes emerged from this study: able-bodied lens, fear, social isolation, and coping mechanisms. Building on the existing literature, these findings offer new information to expand the knowledge on the challenges …

Intercultural Competence Among Early Childhood Educators, Sara Fanous

Human Development and Family Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess and develop intercultural competence among birth through kindergarten teachers. Intercultural competence is an integral part of creating a welcoming environment for all students in a classroom. It is not only the acknowledgement of individual differences, but the acceptance and celebration of what makes each person an individual and member of a cultural group. This project assessed the intercultural competence of 24 birth through kindergarten teachers and staff at a child development center in the mid-south. Participants completed the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) as pre- and post-assessments. In between assessments, our team conducted …

Master’S-Level Counseling Students’ Experience Of Expressive Arts Techniques In A Cacrep Multicultural Counseling Course, Cameron Houin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Counseling governing bodies have defined what should be prioritized in multicultural counseling courses, including students’ multicultural knowledge and awareness; however, best practice regarding how to teach these multicultural concepts has largely been left up to the counselor educator. Counselor educators have begun implementing expressive arts techniques in the classroom, but very little literature exists related to using such techniques in a multicultural course in a manner that positively influence counseling students’ multicultural competency.

The purpose of this study was to explore master’s-level counseling students’ experience of expressive arts techniques utilized during their multicultural counseling course. Ten student participants took part …

A Gender Bias Habit-Breaking Intervention Led To Increased Hiring Of Female Faculty In Stemm Departments, Patricia G. Devine, Patrick S. Forscher, William T.L. Cox, Anna Kaatz, Jennifer Sheridan, Molly Carnes

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Addressing the underrepresentation of women in science is a top priority for many institutions, but the majority of efforts to increase representation of women are neither evidence-based nor rigorously assessed. One exception is the gender bias habit-breaking intervention (Carnes et al., 2015), which, in a cluster-randomized trial involving all but two departmental clusters (N = 92) in the 6 STEMM focused schools/colleges at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, led to increases in gender bias awareness and self-efficacy to promote gender equity in academic science departments. Following this initial success, the present study compares, in a preregistered analysis, hiring rates …

Nursing Workforce Shortage And Diversity Disparity In Northwest Arkansas, Jeffery T. Collins, Yi Liu

Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this analysis is the ascertain: 1) if market conditions in Northwest Arkansas (the study area) are sufficient to support the proposed planning effort by Northwest Arkansas Nursing Education Consortium (NANEC) to create a bilingual nursing student recruitment model and 2) to determine of that model is portable to other geographies.