Education Commons^™

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer And A Four-Year-Old: Lessons For Leadership & Life, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Last week while I was in the shower, my four-year-old daughter, Raquel, walked into the bathroom and asked me an interesting question. “Mom, why doesn’t anyone like Rudolph’s shiny red nose?” My daughter was supposed to be in bed sleeping. I am 99% sure she was lying in bed reflecting on her day.

Many nights I have quietly checked on her before going to bed myself only to find her talking to herself while she makes vivid hand gestures and motions. On this particular evening, her talk and gestures must have focused on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. After thinking about …

Qualitative Research In Teaching Diversity In A Non-Diverse High School Setting Using Contemporary Art, Robin L. Reczek

Art Education Projects

Abstract

This qualitative action research study examined the effects of introducing diverse contemporary artworks into a non-diverse educational setting. For 3 months, 18 female high school students explored a range of artists, art styles, and artworks, in aid to discovering their own diverse qualities as well as the diversity of their classmates. Through participatory action research, I investigated how diverse contemporary artwork impacted student actions, discussions, and artworks. With the assistance of the transformative learning theory, I expected to convert students with non-accepting diversity views into unbiased young women. My research included data gathered from an assortment of alumni interviews, …

Putting ‘Maori’ In The Mainstream: Student Teachers' Reflections Of A Culturally Relevant Pedogogy, Steven S. Sexton

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on student teachers experiences of an education program that was explicitly designed to be grounded in both Kaupapa Māori and mainstream pedagogy. This program started from the Kaupapa Māori view to be Māori as Māori. This was then supported by mainstream epistemology of New Zealand focused good teaching practice. A Kaupapa Māori approach was taken in this qualitative study that used participant driven spiral discourse. The paper suggests that this combined Kaupapa Māori and mainstream approach allowed these student teachers to find their place in education. Conclusions suggest that a culturally relevant pedagogy modeled as good teaching …

International Education Week! Nov 14-18, Allison Roberts

Allison Roberts

Poster created for the UT Libraries Diversity Committee joins the International House and the Center for International Education in International Education Week 2011! Check out our display of culturally enlightening titles in the Culture Corner section first floor Galleria, Hodges Library. International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in …

A Work In Progress: The Lived Experiences Of Black Male Undergraduates At One Predominantly White University, Wayne D. Lewis, Steven Thurston Oliver, Jennifer L. Burris

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

This exploratory study examines the lived academic and social experiences of current black male undergraduate students, including their perceived barriers and their strategies for persistence and achieving success. Study participants included black male undergraduate students at one predominantly white, four-year, public research university. Data collection methods included two focus group interviews with a purposeful sample of 12 undergraduate, black male students. Students reported that explicit and implicit messages of racial hatred have contributed to a general campus atmosphere of discomfort for black male students. The students described an environment where they continually encounter racial micro aggressions and prejudice. Students reported …

Urban-Serving Research Universities: Institutions For The Public Good, Desiree D. Zerquera

Higher Learning Research Communications

This manuscript seeks to situate access to higher education as part of the public good of universities, and connect that specifically to the mission of institutions that are charged with carrying this out more than others. One such institution—the Urban-Serving Research University (USRUs)—has a distinct mission that emphasizes not just location within the urban context, but being composed of the city they inhabit. A key and significant part of the USRU mission is to provide access to urban and historically marginalized students in their regions, populations typically underserved by higher education. Further, this manuscript highlights the tensions inherent in this …

Are We There Yet? Results Of A Gap Analysis To Measure Lis Students' Prior Knowledge And Actual Learning Of Cultural Competence Concepts, Kafi D. Kumasi, Renee Franklin Hill

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

This paper reports on the preliminary results from a pilot study conducted to examine library and information science (LIS) students' perceptions of their level of preparation for becoming culturally competent LIS professionals. Students participated in an electronic survey, which contained a Likert Scale measuring three areas of cultural competence: self awareness, education, and interaction. A gap analysis technique was employed to detect discrepancies between students' prior knowledge and actual learning relative to cultural competence. This article discusses student-reported gaps in knowledge for the section of the questionnaire on "Education." Students indicated that all of the concepts introduced in this section …

Inside Job: Finding Respite, Release, (Un)Learning And (Re)Imagining Teacher Transformation Through Race-Based Equity Work, Susan Adams, Jamie Buffington-Adams

Susan Adams

Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, Dayton, OH, October 14-15, 2011.

Students’ Perception Of Diversity In An International Classroom, Loïse Jeannin

Higher Learning Research Communications

This paper presents students’ perception of diversity in an international classroom in one international university in Thailand. The aim of this exploratory study is to better understand students’ perception of diversity to better meet their learning needs. By conducting a survey among students enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s international programs, this study explores how students perceive their classmates’ diversity, such as, but not limited to, cultural, language, and knowledge differences. How does diversity affect students’ learning in an international setting? What kind of diversity is the most disturbing for learners? Some recommendations grounded in the conceptual framework of cultural responsive …

Changing The World With One Cell: The Story Of Hela, Allison Roberts

Allison Roberts

Poster Created for the Diversity Committee Fall 2011 Culture Corner featuring The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks’ cell culture spawned changes in medicine, science, ethics, society and the world. This Semester’s Culture Corner features selections from UT Libraries collection that highlight the areas effected by this one human and her immortal cell.

Teaching Social Justice Through The Lens Of Multicultural Education, Alana Cimillo

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

With public school populations growing in socio-economic and racial diversity, as projected by the Census Bureau, there is a clear need for an understanding of this diversity to occur at the early childhood level. In order to truly adopt multicultural education as an integral part of a student’s academic growth, teachers must consider the meaning of “cultural competence”. In the first years of a student’s education, fundamental values can be developed as the building blocks for future culturally responsive human beings. This presentation will review concrete evidence that supports the incorporation of multicultural education early childhood classrooms.

The Persona Doll Project: Promoting Diversity Awareness Among Preservice Teachers Through Storytelling, Mary Ellin Logue, V. Susan Bennett-Armistead, Soojoung Kim

Child Development and Family Relations Faculty Scholarship

The Persona Doll Project describes an experiential intervention with undergraduate preservice teachers designed to increase awareness about diversity and apply this awareness to curriculum planning and advocacy for children. Sixty-three undergraduate students in a social studies methods class were each assigned a persona doll for the semester whose background differed from their own. Each was charged with becoming the advocate for the child, represented by the doll, by telling informed stories that would help other students better understand a level of diversity beyond what they knew from their own lives. Students heightened awareness of their own assumptions through narrative, inquiry …

How Canadian Diversity And Anti-Oppression Educators Handle The Emotional Challenges Of Their Practice, Kirsten Somers

Adult Education Research Conference

This study investigates the perspectives of diversity and anti-oppression educators working in the non-profit, settlement and education sectors in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Toronto, Ontario. The researcher explores how Canadian diversity and anti-oppression educators handle the emotional challenges of their practice. This paper also explores how language, identity and teacher recognition impact the learning process, and highlights the imperfect yet courageous practice that the diversity and anti-oppression educators in this study embark upon when facilitating discussions about diversity and oppression.

Learning Democracy And ‘Difference’ In Civil Society, Sara Carpenter

Adult Education Research Conference

Civil society has captured the imagination of many adult educators and has become a central focus of both local and international development work. Volunteerism has come to be seen as a source of democratic learning and this emphasis calls adult educators to deeply interrogate its contours. This paper reports on an American volunteerism program organized to recruit young people into participation in civil society and examines the relationship between learning about citizenship or democracy and understanding social inequality, or ‘social problems’.

Bridging Racial Divisions In Urban Graduate Education, Catherine A. Hansman, Catherine H. Monaghan

Adult Education Research Conference

One of our core beliefs is that we, as adult educators, are responsible for providing environments that include spaces where dialogues of race and racism occur, which facilitate the learning and transformation of students, our practice and ourselves. However, as white faculty we find ourselves caught in a fabric woven of power and privilege that constantly challenges us to recognize how we live in the paradox of contributing to the ongoing nature of racism as we simultaneously try to transform it. The purpose of this roundtable discussion is to wrestle with this paradox and encourage dialogue and perspectives among adult …

The Forgotten Voices Behind Designated Diversity Initiatives: Perspectives From Students Of Color Living In A Multicultural Residential Community, Kathy Sisneros

Open Access Dissertations

Colleges and universities have become increasingly diverse since Brown .v Board of Education requiring that institutions figure out how to manage a more racially diverse student body. Unfortunately, many predominantly White institutions (PWIs) continue to fall short in attending to the specific needs for students of color to feel included and supported. The primary purpose of this study is to learn more about how students of color experience and make meaning of cross-racial relationships in designated multicultural program. I intend to specifically focus on the experiences of students of color who have self-selected to live in a designated multicultural community. …

Tipping Point: The Diversity Threshold For White Student (Dis) Engagement In Traditional Student Organizations, Dhanfu E. Elston

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

During a time when most institutions of higher education are in search of underrepresented student participation, Georgia State University (GSU), a majority White institution, has observed a lack of involvement of White students in co-curricular activities. The purpose of the research study was to critically examine White students’ (dis) engagement in traditional student organizations at this university that has a significant student of color population. I used case study methodology that allowed for a breadth of conceptual frameworks and research options. The methods of collecting data included interviews (formal, informal, and oral history) of current and former students, as well …

Invisibly At Risk: Low-Income Students In A Middle And Upper-Class World, Jennifer O. Duffy

Jennifer O'Connor Duffy

Women's studies programs, multicultural centers, and organizations to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students are campus fixtures. Few now question diversity's contribution to the education of all students. Jennifer Duffy suggests that it's time to acknowledge, support, and celebrate one more form of diversity that is mostly hidden: social class.

The Grizzly, April 14, 2011, Katie Callahan, Jessica Long, Sara Sherr, Lisa Jobe, Sara Hourwitz, Allison Nichols, Sarah Bollert, Katie Haldeman, Joshua C. Walsh, Kyu Chul Shin, Anna Larouche

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Ursinus Enjoys Sixth Annual CoSA Event • Students Participate in 30 Hour Famine • Haverford Professor Guest Lectures on Physics Theory • Dr. Ruth Rosenberg Speaks on Holocaust Remembrance • Ursinus Welcomes Patti Smith • Tips on Surviving and Salvaging Bad Internships • Hypnotist Brings Laughs • How to Avoid Allergy Season • Linking Up with LinkedIn • Internship Spotlight: Lindsay Budnick • Opinions: Response to Article "Segregation in the 21st Century"; Verizon's DroidX-R2D2 has Cool Features But is Not for Me; President Obama Sends CIA Agents to Libya • How Far Ursinus Goes to Keep Students Safe on Main …

Change In Cultural Competency Among Students During An Intentional Human Relations Experience, Camille Mcnabb, Samantha Tupy

Education Presentations at National and International Conferences

This study measured changes in the intercultural competency of undergraduate students in a course, Human Relations in a Multicultural Society. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is encouraging teacher preparation programs to foster and measure culturally responsive teaching (2010). The hypothesis for this study was that the intentional, cross-cultural experiences of students will have an impact on the cultural competency of each student. This course is taught each semester at a Midwestern public university. The study included 70 undergraduate students between 18 and 35 years old who voluntarily enrolled in the course and represented students in academic …

Transforming Undergraduate And Graduate Candidate Social Perceptions About Diverse Learners Through Critical Reflection, Tonnie Martinez, Janet Penner-Williams, Socorro Herrera, Diane Rodriguez

Educational Considerations

Each preservice or inservice teacher who faces the prospect of student diversity in clinical experiences or practice settings does so with an individual set of assumptions about cultures and languages that differ from his or her own. Mezirow (1991) maintained that reflections on such assumptions and presuppositions about oneself and others can lead to “transformative learning”; or “learning that transforms problematic frames of reference."

Promoting Diversity Through Multilevel Activism: An Organizational Approach, Patricia Alvarez Mchatton, Barbara J. Shircliffe, Deirde Cobb-Roberts

Educational Considerations

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) was founded in 1954 to serve as an independent body in promoting high quality teacher preparation programs.

Teaching Outside One’S Comfort Zone: Helping Diverse Millennials Succeed, Miriam Chitiga, Patrica Chogugudza, Tinotenda Chitiga

Faculty Working Papers from the School of Education

This paper discusses some ways educators may utilize their knowledge of generational characteristics and differences to enhance their teaching and inter-generational relationships with Millennials. It cautions against over- generalizing the popularly accepted generational characteristics to diverse students; it suggests that, like any other category of social classification, generational difference should be considered within the larger context of social diversity, including race, class, and gender,and geographical region. This paper critically discusses specific strategies that educators, who are working outside their comfort zones, can employ to increase the effectiveness of the educational experiences they facilitate for diverse millennial students.

An Ncate-Approved School Of Education Self-Study On Diversity: Faculty And Student Perceptions, Susan R. Warren, Maria A. Pacino, Tami Foy, Torria Bond

Educational Considerations

Accreditation bodies for institutions of higher education like the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) require colleges and universities to create campus climates and experiences for students that foster diversity.

Diversity: Its Essential Importance To Ncate Accreditation, Jeff Zacharakis, Joelyn K. Foy

Educational Considerations

This issue of Educational Considerations focuses on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Standard 4 - Diversity. It is not without merit that our teacher preparation institutions are held to a diversity standard by the most prominent accrediting agency.

The Urban Teacher Residency Program: A Recursive Process To Develop Professional Dispositions, Knowledge, And Skills Of Candidates To Teach Diverse Students, Kathleen Tindle, Maxine Freund, Bridget Belknap, Colin Green, Jay Shotel

Educational Considerations

To be prepared to teach in an urban setting, preservice teachers must exit their teacher preparation program with a professional disposition toward equity and social justice as well as the knowledge and skills required to meet the needs of all students in their classroom.

The Grizzly, March 31, 2011, Katie Callahan, Tim Jordan, Sara Hourwitz, Jarod Groome, Lisa Jobe, Eva Bramesco, Katie Haldeman, Julia Fox, Jessica Orbon, Sarah Bollert, James Shelton, Sean Miller, Kyu Chul Shin, Anna Larouche, Shane Eachus, Christopher Michael

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

SIFE Wins Regionals for Second Year in a Row • Career Webinar Series Comes to Ursinus College • Director Domenick Scudera Presents Two Woody Allen Plays • John Prendergast Talks About Human Rights • "The Vagina Monologues" • Culture Shock While Studying Abroad in Spain • Internship Spotlight: Bob Wise • Opinions: Response to a Past Article; Give Artist a Break; United Nations Take Action Against Gaddafi; It's More Than Fruit: Rant About Women Power • Ursinus Community Celebrates Ground Breaking

The Grizzly, March 24, 2011, Katie Callahan, Brett Cohen, Jessica Orbon, Nikhil Popat, Lisa Jobe, Dixon Speaker, Kristen Wampole, Eva Bramesco, Allison Nichols, Sarah Bollert, Traci Johnson, Fran Macera, Anna Larouche, Kyu Chul Shin, Thomas Nucatola, Nick Pane, Sara Hourwitz

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Phi Kappa Sigma Wins Airband 2011 • Music Department Visits Ireland During Spring Break • Students Give Back Through Philadelphia Reads Program • Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky Speaks • "Playing Favorites" with Bobbi Block • UC Community Comes Together to Break Ground for New Stadium • Planned Parenthood No Longer Able to Provide Services • Jamaica Welcomes Bonner Leaders for Spring Break • Junior Jumpstart • Diversity through Film • Theater Review: "Playing Favorites" • Opinions: Japan Equipped to Rebuild after Natural Disaster; Facing Segregation in the 21st Century Through Campus Programs • Women's Lacrosse Looks for Return …

“One Nation, Indivisible”: The Value Of Diversity In Higher Education, Nancy Cantor

Chancellor's Collection

For many of us, certainly for me, it seems particularly appropriate to be reflecting today on the value of diversity in higher education from a podium at the University of Michigan. This is a place where many of us crafted a defense of diversity as a critical element of educational excellence in the Supreme Court cases of Gratz and Grutter. The State of Michigan is also a place that has now turned its legislative back on affirmative action to achieve diversity in higher education. Indeed, with the passage of Proposal 2, the State of Michigan joined with many other …

The Grizzly, February 24, 2011, Katie Callahan, Brett Cohen, Chris Capone, Allison Nichols, Lisa Jobe, Hillary Anderson, Eva Bramesco, Katie Haldeman, Traci Johnson, Jessica Orbon, Sarah Bollert, James Shelton, Carly Siegler, Kyu Chul Shin, Pamela Horn, Shane Eachus, Michael Schmidt

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Greek Recruitment Week Underway • Collegiate Learning Assessment for Graduating Students • Kwesi Koomson Talks About Heritage Academy in Ghana • Sexy Talk with a Twist of Love and Revolution • Birthright Provides Unique Experience • The Women of Whitians Honor Society Make Moves • WeCan Attempts to Bring Change to UC Dining Services • Relay for Life Recruits for a Strong Turnout • Internship Profile: Chris Michael • Positive Changes Made to SPINT • Diversity Column: Language of Race • Opinions: Egypt President Falls, Other Countries Hopeful • Men's Basketball Season Ends on Sour Note • Men's Club Soccer …