Education Commons^™

Cross-Cultural Validation Of A Measure Of Contemplativity With A Chinese College Sample, Maryann Krikorian, Ran Tao, Randy T. Busse

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The purpose of this article is to present the results of an exploratory cross-cultural validation study of a measure of contemplativity with a Chinese sample. The Scale of Contemplative Practices in Education (SCOPE) was administered to 144 Chinese college students. The results of an exploratory factor analysis accounted for 68% of the variance with a five factor structure, although high correlations among the factors indicate that a single factor may be the best current quantitative measure of contemplativity. Internal consistency estimates were strong for the full scale (.95) and adequate for the factors (.66 to .90). Higher scores on the …

Disability, Race, And Origin Intersectionality In The Doctoral Program: Ableism In Higher Education, Theodoto W. Ressa, Scot Danforth

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper explores the experiences of a doctoral disabled student at a university to examine how ableist structures in graduate programs affect access to higher education and post-degree outcomes. Guided by the DisCrit framework and autoethnography approach, the article illuminates systems and processes that disadvantage graduate disabled students. Through intersectional analyses of disability, race, and origin, the article makes visible manifestations of disability microaggressions and systemic ableism, racism, and xenophobia. It interrogates the perpetuation and normalization of academic transgressions, including exclusionary practices that degrade and oppress graduate disabled students and hinder them from seeking success. Finally, the argument is made …

Still A Private Universe? Community College Students’ Understanding Of Evolution, Meredith A. Dorner, Philip Sadler, Brian Alters

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Measuring what students know and retain about evolution is essential to improving our understanding of how students learn evolution. The literature shows that college students appear to have a poor understanding of evolution, answering questions on various instruments correctly only about half of the time. There is little research regarding evolution understanding among community college students and so this study examines if those students who are enrolled in life science classes, who are assessed using questions based on grade eight standards, show a better understanding of evolutionary principles than younger students and if there are differences in knowledge based …

Nurturing Cultural Humility And Responsiveness Through Restorative Pedagogy In Graduate Education, Annmary S. Abdou, Kris T. De Pedro, Arantxa De Anda, Ivette Merced, Karen Mao

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In an increasingly diverse world that is characterized by significant social and educational inequities, the development of educators and leaders who embody cultural humility and culturally responsive practices is necessary and transformational. Moving beyond individual and deficit-centered models of student support systems towards ecological and relational paradigms of education are critical to the goals of equity and justice. In order to make progress on these goals, training programs must prioritize and embed the values of cultural humility and culturally responsive practice as foundational constructs for future educators. This multi-authored reflective paper describes the use of Restorative Pedagogy, an approach grounded …

Protecting The University As A Physical Place In The Age Of Postdigitization, Ryan M. Allen, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Covid-19 forced higher education sectors across the world to digitize the entire university experience online. There are now calls for universities to continue chasing continued and further digitization, often from for-profit businesses and those in Silicon Valley who have been promising to disrupt the sector for decades. We argue that the pandemic has illustrated how crucial universities are to their local communities, and efforts should be made to emphasize their physical place and space. The destruction of American cities in favor of auto-centric suburbs provides a parallel for the possible future of higher education. The Cult of Efficiency mindset and …

First Things First: Black Women Situating Identity In The First-Year Faculty Experience, Nakia M. Gray-Nicolas, Angel Miles Nash

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The first year in the education professoriate is an ineluctably critical time to establish a pathway for long-term professional success mirroring a scholar’s commitment to positively influencing students, schools, and communities. For Black women, the distinguished dual marginalization that they endure based on race and gender creates challenges and opportunities during that important start to their career. Through Black feminist thought and portraiture’s intentional blurring of art, life, and scientific boundaries, two Black women tenure track faculty use their ‘pens as weapons’ to explicate the first-year professional experiences. They draw on their narratives and that of three other Black women …

Campus Racial Climate, Boundary Work And The Fear And Sexualization Of Black Masculinities On A Predominantly White University, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This article presents data from a study of Black men and masculinities at a predominantly White university. I argue that the campus racial climate on predominantly White universities are important sites of boundary work where fear and sexualization of Black masculinities are normalized in ways that shape Black men’s social relations on college campuses. In doing so, I will share narrative data of how Black male college students perceive the campus racial climate, with a focus on how they are feared and sexualized in predominantly White spaces. I also analyze the ways in which they managed race, gender, and sexuality …

Talented, Yet Seen With Suspicion: Surveillance Of International Students And Scholars In The United States, Ryan M. Allen, Krishna Bista

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The attacks of September 11, 2001, put terrorism at the forefront of the American political landscape. Donald Trump played into these fears of terrorism through his political rhetoric during his presidency, particularly targeting international students as “threats” to the nation. However, we argue that the labeling of international students as security threats was not started after 9/11 nor invented by Trump. Through historical records and accounts across decades of policies related to this issue, we seek to answer two questions: How has the U.S. government monitored visa policies and programs for international students? How have U.S. national policies evolved to …

Adding An International Lens To The University Striving Model: How Both Global And National Indicators Influence The Chinese Higher Education Hierarchy, Ryan M. Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Institutions that are most attuned to university rankings are known as “strivers.” These striving universities chase prestige by altering policies to match league table indicators, while also benchmarking against elite universities within the domestic hierarchy. However, this model has mostly been ascribed to studies in the United States and it has not been considered in non-Western contexts. Through interviews with 48 academics and administrators from Chinese universities, the research explores striving behaviors in China and expands the US-centric model to include global competition with international rankings. The findings show that striving universities in China have placed considerable emphasis on international …

Why Deteriorating Relations, Xenophobia, And Safety Concerns Will Deter Chinese International Student Mobility To The United States, Ryan M. Allen, Ying Ye

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Collaborations between American and Chinese universities have been critical to global knowledge production. Chinese students accounted for over a third of all international students in the United States prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic paused most global mobility in 2020. We argue that this international mobility to the United States will not fully recover if larger stressors are left unaddressed. First, relations between the United States and China have deteriorated in recent years, especially under the Trump administration, with growing suspicion against Chinese researchers and scholars. Second, viral acts of violence and anti-Asian incidents have painted the United States as …

Faculty Attitudes Toward Technology-Driven Instruction In Developmental Mathematics, Jenna W. Kramer, Stephany Cuevas, Angela Boatman

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Innovation in instructional technology has contributed to the rapid implementation of technology-driven instructional platforms, particularly in developmental math coursework (Bickerstaff et al., 2016). In this phenomenological study, we investigate how faculty perceive and respond to a mandated, technology-driven instructional model for developmental math coursework at public colleges in Tennessee. Through interviews with faculty members across four colleges, we find that many faculty agreed that technology helped them to better track student performance, provide more targeted assistance, and communicate directly with students. Faculty also expressed concerns that technology provides the opportunity or temptation to game the system, interfering with true learning, …

New Working Group: Teaching Mathematics For Social Justice In The Context Of University Mathematics Content And Methods Courses, Eva Thanheiser, Frances K. Harper, Christa Jackson, Naomi Jessup, Crystal Kalinec-Craig, Cathery Yeh, Amanda Sugimoto

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"There are three goals for this new working group: 1) To create a community of mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) who are (or are interested in) collaboratively teaching mathematics for social justice (TMfSJ) in their university content and/or methods classes. 2) To collaboratively select/develop/modify TMfSJ tasks and implement those in mathematics content/methods classes. 3) To research the implementation of TMfSJ tasks in content and methods classes."

Construction Of A Scale Of Contemplative Practice In Higher Education: An Exploratory Study, Maryann Krikorian, Randy T. Busse

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for a relatively new concept known as contemplative practice. The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a self-report measure, the Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE), and (b) to explore issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE. An extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale …

(In)Visible Men On Campus: Campus Racial Climate And Subversive Black Masculinities At A Predominantly White Liberal Arts University, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

There is an emerging body of literature examining the academic success of Black men attending predominantly White colleges and universities, though less is known about Black college men’s experiences at liberal arts institutions. In this paper, I draw upon semi-structured and photovoice interview data from a study on Black male college students attending a predominantly White liberal arts institution in the USA. Specifically, I will present narrative and visual data of how Black college men perceive the campus racial climate and make sense of their (in)visibility at the university. Drawing upon poststructuralist theories of gender and critical race theory, I …

Understanding Campus Spaces To Improve Student Belonging, Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Michelle Samura demonstrates that we can gain insight into students’ experience of connectedness with a campus community by considering how they use physical, human-built spaces and the meaning they attribute to them.

Interview With Peter Mclaren: “Critical Education Must Transform The World”, Javier Collado-Ruano, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Javier Collado-Ruano interviews Peter McLaren about his views on critical pedagogy and how to transform traditional formal education away from capitalist structures.

Factors That Influence Stem-Promising Females’ Decision To Attend A Non Research-Intensive Undergraduate Institution, Roxanne Greitz Miller, Ashley J. Hurlock

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Non research-intensive institutions of higher education are effective at narrowing STEM gender gaps in major selection and persistence to degree completion, yet the decision to attend such a setting is likely seen as counterintuitive when such institutions typically have lower levels of research, financial resources, and total student enrollments in the sciences. This case study identifies institutional factors reported by ‘STEM-Promising’ females, defined as females who completed at least one Advanced Placement (A.P.) STEM course in high school, as influencing their decision to attend their non research-intensive undergraduate institution. Using a quantitative, crosssectional research design and original survey, 23 out …

Can Philanthropy Be Taught?, Lindsey Mcdougle, Danielle Mcdonald, Huafeng Li, Whitney Mcintyre Miller, Chengxin Xu

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, colleges and universities have begun investing significant resources into an innovative pedagogy known as experiential philanthropy. The pedagogy is considered to be a form of service-learning. It is defined as a learning approach that provides students with opportunities to study social problems and nonprofit organizations and then make decisions about investing funds in them. Experiential philanthropy is intended to integrate academic learning with community engagement by teaching students not only about the practice of philanthropy but also how to evaluate philanthropic responses to social issues. Despite this intent, there has been scant evidence demonstrating that this type …

Remaking Selves, Repositioning Selves, Or Remaking Space: An Examination Of Asian American College Students' Processes Of "Belonging", Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"Only a few studies have examined Asian American students’ sense of belonging (Hsia, 1988; Lee & Davis, 2000; Museus & Maramba, 2010). Scholars who study Asian American college students have suggested that Asian Americans are awkwardly positioned as separate from other students of color vis-à-vis the model minority stereotype (Hsia, 1988; Lee & Davis, 2000). Furthermore, Asian Americans often are viewed as overrepresented on college campuses, yet they remain under-served by campus support programs and resources and overlooked by researchers. Many Asian Americans have gained access to higher education, but the ways in which they belong on campuses is unclear. …

“I’M Trying To Get My A”: Black Male Achievers Talk About Race, School And Achievement, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study seeks to challenge deficit views on Black male education by highlighting the perspectives of academically successful Black males in a secondary school setting. Employing interpretive qualitative methods, I present the narratives of academically successful Black males, emphasizing their reflections on race, school and academic achievement. In particular, this study highlights the educational dispositions and expectations of Black males, including the influences of their support systems on their academic trajectories. One support system comprised of parents, including the academic expectations held of their sons as well as their racial socializing practices. Another support system included their teachers, particularly those …

Success After Failure: Academic Effects And Psychological Implications Of Early Universal Algebra Policies, Keith Howard, Martin Romero, Allison Scott, Derrick Saddler

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, the authors use the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS:09) national database to analyze the relationships between algebra failure, subsequent performance, motivation, and college readiness. Students who failed eighth-grade Algebra I did not differ significantly in mathematics proficiency from those who passed lower-level courses, but initially demonstrated significantly lower mathematics interest, mathematics utility, and mathematics identity. Both groups were less likely than the general population to meet college requirements in the eleventh grade, although students who passed a lower-level mathematics course fared better than those who failed Algebra I. Implications for policies addressing mathematics course enrollments are …

Wrestling With Expectations: An Examination Of How Asian American College Students Negotiate Personal, Parental, And Societal Expectations, Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This research draws on a broader study that situates Asian American college students within larger sociohistorical and political contexts. I examined Asian American college students’ experiences and what it means to be “Asian American” in and through these experiences. Two types of expectations emerged from the data: students’ internal expectations—the expectations that they have for themselves as well as their college and postcollege experiences, and external expectations from family and society. The various ways that students negotiate internal and external expectations translate into particular understandings of freedom and possibility they carry into college. I also discuss students’ precollege racial awareness …

The Interrelationships Among Culture, Communication, And Conflict In A Newly Formed Doctoral Program, Julie Brockman, Joel A. Colbert, Michael Hass

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The purpose of the Setting Expectations and Conflict Resolution project was to provide faculty and doctoral students with a professional development program that addressed conflict resolution using an interest-based approach. The program included two days of training focusing on setting expectations, exploring sources of conflict, and designing interventions to address conflict as it occurs. At the end of each day, participants were given a questionnaire to evaluate the usefulness of the training and its impact on their attitudes toward conflict. Focus groups were also held to assess the impact of the program. Preliminary results indicate that the program met or …

Responses To Lynne V. Cheney, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"In November of 2001 Lynne V. Cheney announced the release of a report entitled Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done about It on behalf of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C... The editor of Taboo invited several educational scholars to reflect on the report and Cheney’s introductory comments."