Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Healing Racial Trauma From Public School Systems, Lisa Y. Collins

Journal of Research Initiatives

Oregon needs Black educators in the K-12 public school system. In 35 school districts throughout the state, the number of students of color has risen by over 40% in recent years (Oregon Chief Education Office, 2019). The number of educators of color in the state is under 10%. The number of Black educators is even lower. Research has shown that Black educators improve all students' academic, cultural, and social aspects, especially Black students. Nationally, Black educators were impacted by the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. At that time in history, Black communities fought for civil rights as they experienced …

Associations Between Multicultural Distress, Academic Achievement, And General Stress Among Racial/Ethnic Minority College Students At A Minority-Serving Institution, Alexandra O. Gil, Franklin Dickerson Turner, Aaron A. Gubi

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study explored the relationship between multicultural distress and general stress symptoms and the academic achievement of college students attending a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). Research suggests that students who identify as being from a racial or ethnic minority background are likely to experience multicultural distress. Such students are believed to be at greater risk of experiencing mental health and academic challenges. Many contend that being in a diverse learning setting serves as a protective factor, shielding racial/ethnic minority students from some degree of distress and thereby promoting mental health and academic well-being. In contrast, other research findings suggest that multicultural …

Exploring Intersectionality Of Gender, Race, And Personality Traits For Black Women Leaders In Online Higher Education, Shanaya K. Anderson

Journal of Research Initiatives

Researchers have used previous literature to suggest that Black women face challenges and obstacles in seeking leadership roles at higher education institutions (HEIs). Many of these Black women have consistently and pervasively faced prevailing stereotypes, biases, and barriers as they seek career advancements at online HEIs (Nigar, 2020; Tarbutton, 2019). This qualitative phenomenological study was undertaken to examine the intersectionality of gender, race, and personality traits of Black women leaders who hold positions of department chair level or higher in HEIs. Using the theoretical framework of Black feminist thought, this research was conducted to understand better the lived experiences of …

Can I Live: Examining The Self-Worth Of Black Men Enrollment In Community College, Lavon Williams

Journal of Research Initiatives

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This study aimed to describe Black men’s self-worth and lived experience in community college. According to research, community colleges are the first option for many Black men. Through qualitative research methods, this study examines the believed self-worth of Black men enrolled in community college and matches its findings to Jay Z’s (1998) classic song Can I Live. Findings from this study identify the internal fight Black men have pursuing an education as a means to achieve upward mobility. Lastly, this study provides insight to aid policymakers, higher education practitioners, and Black families to understand better how to address Black …

Higher Education Leaders’ Perceptions On The Angry Black Woman Syndrome, Latisha L. Marion, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

Capturing the voices of Black women on their experiences leading to senior-level leadership positions in higher education warranted research. University leaders must ensure that units implement fair and equitable hiring practices to promote diversity and leadership from all backgrounds. Therefore, this study intended to take an in-depth look into Black women's trajectory in higher education. For this study, the researcher proposed interviewing Black women who have acquired senior-level leadership positions in higher education. The senior-level leadership positions included deans of student affairs, vice presidents of enrollment management, vice presidents of student affairs, college or university presidents, and other senior leadership …

A Conceptual Exploration Of Anti-Fragility In The Context Of Confucian Heritage Culture Education, Alwyn Lau

Journal of Research Initiatives

It is a common but not unrealistic stereotype of Asian students that educational success is a matter of personal identity and status. As such, achieving distinctions in as many subjects as possible (the popular target of becoming a ‘straight A’ student) is usually a non-negotiable objective nurtured by both parents and educators. Such an obsessive pursuit of academic excellence produces both laudable outcomes (e.g. the tendency of Asian students to outperform their counterparts) as well as dangerous ones (e.g. worrying rates of mental health problems). This theoretical paper hopes to apply the concept of anti-fragility developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, …

A 5-Week Personalized Training Workshop To Assess And Evaluate Faculty Members Teaching Online, Felix O. Quayson, Christopher Zirkle

Journal of Research Initiatives

The authors developed the Skills of Inquiry (SoI) model accompanied by a logic model to assess and evaluate faculty members teaching online. The Skills of Inquiry is based on faculty members’ abilities to understand the online environments, skills development pertaining to online teaching, and acquisition of specific online skills. The Skills of Inquiry model was used to personalize a 5-week workshop training and development module specifically for faculty members teaching online. The training workshop is effective in training faculty members to acquire specific online teaching skills through customized and individualized professional development learning. The training is a self-paced asynchronous online …

The Effects Of Colorism On The Self-Esteem And Relationships Among College Students, Marrakesh Shiloh Spann, Pius Nyutu

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study was designed to examine the relationship between colorism and self-esteem and relationship satisfaction among college students. Additionally, the impact of other social-economic factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, and income level were evaluated. Data was collected via a questionnaire developed in google forms from 202 participants. The instruments included the Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), A Generic Measure of Relationship Satisfaction (Hendrick, 1988), The Colorism Scale (Harvey, Banks, & Tennial, 2014) and a general demographics questionnaire. The results indicated a very low correlation between colorism and self-esteem (r = .084) and between colorism and relationship satisfaction (r = …

Critical Civic Engagement: Creating Yards And Building Community At Predominately White Institutions, Heather Moore Roberson

Journal of Research Initiatives

This article details the journey of a Black Greek professor who created yards on a predominately white campus. This piece of scholarship challenges the historical narrative of the civic engagement movement and considers equity and inclusion with existing civic engagement literature. Specifically, this research contends that civic engagement scholarship must consider the historical legacy of historically Black Greek letter organizations, their commitment to service, and undergraduate education. The construction of “yards” is a civic engagement initiative that builds meaningful connections between college campuses and local communities.

Synthesis Of Literature On Effective Educator Practices In The Online Setting: Perspectives From A Caribbean Higher Education Context Through University Pedagogy, Donna Walker, Breneil Malcolm

Journal of Research Initiatives

Adult learners increasingly pursue higher education opportunities. As such, it is crucial for educators to ensure that they are competently equipped and are using the most effective strategies to facilitate the learning process. Through a review of extant literature, we develop a conceptual framework that is grounded in university pedagogy theory to emphasize a shared approach to the learning process. We conclude with implications for practice specific to international and nontraditional contexts.

Practical Leadership In Implementing Online Education Programs, Felix O. Quayson, Christopher Zirkle

Journal of Research Initiatives

The growing presence of online education can become a challenge for academic leaders and institutions to lead, manage, and explore in higher education. Online education can be complex when considering the social presence (Keast, 2022; Quayson, 2022), course development (Martin et al., 2019; Orlando, 2019), and economic outcomes (Burnett & Conley, 2013; Rubin, 2013; Seaman et al., 2019). However, unraveling the fundamentals of practical leadership can help educational leaders to facilitate, maintain, and implement online education programs. The study found published research studies that helped us to extricate the fundamentals of practical leadership in implementing online education programs in the …

The Leaderbuild Theory., Fabio Galli, Karl J. New

Journal of Research Initiatives

In the last two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many educational and academic activities have undergone numerous changes; the number of online educational activities, e-Learning, and blended learning have radically increased, and the need to train personnel quickly and with increasing specialist skills has increased. The inclusion of the ‘Leaderbuild’ and ‘Leaderfit’ concept thus becomes one of the factors useful to prepare professionals specialized in every field, ready to lead in every modern environment and need, with structured leadership.

Trauma-Informed Practices For Test-Taking Anxiety At The Elementary Grade Level, Kate Campbell, Shalini Mathew

Journal of Research Initiatives

Test -Taking Anxiety (TTA) is a challenging experience for children of all ages. Childhood exposure to trauma and adverse experience has been increasing. Fortunately, trauma-informed practices, such as mindfulness activities have become more widespread in schools throughout the last few years. Existing school counseling literature offers limited perspectives on how school counselors can support elementary students for TTA. This conceptual article explores the effects of trauma-informed practices on elementary-age students' test anxiety and overall academic success in schools and offers implications for practice.

Faculty Perspectives On Online Teaching In Higher Education: A Qualitative Approach To Understand Faculty Members’ Challenges And Experiences, Felix O. Quayson

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study explored faculty members' perspectives on online teaching in higher education and described, analyzed, and interpreted faculty members challenges and experiences of teaching online courses. Participants were twelve (12) faculty members who have taught online courses or currently teach online courses. Data was collected from 60-minutes semi-structured interview sessions, 78 open-ended questions, three research driving questions, background questionnaire, and personal artifacts from faculty members. Five major themes with subthemes, 15 code categories, and code co-occurrences emerged from the data collection, field notes, memos, and data analysis. However, not all of the code categories were replicated by all of the …

Finding Correlations Among Academic Performance, Demographic Influences And Clinical Competency Utilizing Predictive Variables In An Associate Degree Nursing Program, Rebecca Montz, Brett Welch, Neil Faulk, Clementine Msengi

Journal of Research Initiatives

A nonexperimental, quantitative, correlation study was utilized as the research design to explore the relationship between multiple academic and demographic variables on the final clinical assessment score and Health Education Systems, Inc., (HESI) Exit Exam (E²) score from a South Texas ADN program. The research was conducted to address the nursing workforce shortage and effective ways to predict academic and clinical achievements for associate degree nursing (ADN) programs. The academic variables for the research consisted of preadmission grade point average (GPA) and Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) I prerequisite GPA. Age and gender were used as the demographic variables …

Obstacles Women And Historically Marginalized Racial And Ethnic Groups (Hmreg) Face In The Computer Science Field, Simone Elias, Edward Cromarty, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

This article approaches the problem of underrepresentation of women and marginalized ethnic groups in the computer science fields from a developmental learning perspective. It proposes that systemic social barriers need to be addressed to overcome the bias toward women in the technological fields. The article surmises that even though stereotypes have changed in the past few decades, Gender Socialization which begins at birth and intensifies through adolescence contributes to inequalities of education, employment, and empowerment in adult life. It suggests that changing the educational paradigm beginning in early education, may result in more inclusive diverse perspectives, increase representation of women, …

Guide To The Ezekiel Ezra Smith (E. E. Smith) Collection, Velappan Velappan

FSU Leadership Collection

Ezekiel Ezra Smith (b. May 23, 1852 – d. December 6, 1933) was an educator, soldier, statesman, and businessman. He served as the principal and later president of the North Carolina State Colored Normal School of Fayetteville, later known as Fayetteville State University for over forty years. Currently, the available digital materials range from 1874-1907.

Biography and image of the history marker are courtesy of the State Library of North Carolina and NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Catalogs are courtesy of Shaw University Archives. Deeds are courtesy of Cumberland County Register of Deeds.

Black Women Leaders Professional And Social Experiences In Higher Education: A Review Of The Research Literature, Marian E. Truehill

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this review of the research literature was to offer a critical take on the current body of research focusing on the aspect of how Black women are affected by their experiences in higher education. Some of the themes discussed in this review include discrimination, social conditions, and lack of advancement in academic institutions. Implications for these issues is discussed and delineated.

Hbcu Administrators And The Covid-19: Dealing With The Pandemic Under The Pressure Of Funding And Self-Care, Jerry Crawford

Journal of Research Initiatives

Historically Black Colleges and University presidents and chancellors have been facing challenges similar to administrators at other institutions of higher learning. These demands center on accreditation, federal and state funding, and enrollment. COVID-19 has heightened each of these essential functions that administrators have as priorities.

There has been a lot of research on the roles and responsibilities of HBCU administrators and how there has been a seemingly revolving door at these institutions, and how many have found them to be more autocratic than inclusive in governance. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic has added to the pressure and expectations administrators must …

Leading Leaders In Rethinking Grading: A Case Study Of Implementation Of Standards-Based Grading In Educational Leadership, Erin E. Lehmann

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this paper is to share the process of how one university instructor worked toward a shift to standards-based grading (SBG) in a graduate Educational Leadership program. Educational leadership programs use standards to guide coursework and instruction in an accountability era, but grading practices remain as subjective as they were 50 years ago. Educators of future leaders must address this need. In addition, instructors need to effectively communicate essential learning to students to understand their learning progression clearly; standards-based grading is designed to do this. The author shares best practices in grading as well as the challenges of …

Listen To Your Doppelganger! Global Cultural Empathy For Educators: A Literature Review Based Conceptual Model, Papia Bawa Dr.

Journal of Research Initiatives

Our student populations' diversity now includes African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos, as classrooms represent various cultural backgrounds. This shift in student population dynamics brings fresh challenges to educator's unpreparedness to identify with the unique cultural identities of international students. The cultural dissonance that international students face compounds this challenge since the cultural unawareness and misconceptions may be generated from both educators and student groups. The Doppelganger Inspired Change Effect model or DICE discussed in this article is inspired by an extensive literature review. It elucidates a process of fostering global cultural empathy and preparedness of educators by linking such …

Doctoral Student Online Learning: Addressing Challenges Of The Virtual Experience, Dejuanna M. Parker, Kent Willis, Barbara D. Holmes

Journal of Research Initiatives

Abstract

This qualitative study sought to understand student beliefs and perceived levels of confidence in a primarily online professional doctoral degree in education. Before accessing course material and formal instruction, respondents assigned scores to a Likert-style survey and answered open-ended questions about their understanding of basic educational research methodology. The rise of distance education follows the rapid growth of technological advancement, yet, much is still unknown about pedagogical practices that contribute to improved learning outcomes for students in the virtual environment. Themes that emerged from this study suggest that (1) student expectations do not align with prior preparation, (2) student …

The Therapeutic Nature Of Qualitative Interviewing: Benefits Of Research Participation, April Perry, Mary Grace Bigelow

Journal of Research Initiatives

This research explored the notion that interview studies can be therapeutic for participants. It examines the common themes that participants report as beneficial from participating in a study about the transition from higher education to post-university life. The findings are presented as common themes and illuminated by participant excerpts. It is concluded that there are therapeutic characteristics to the qualitative interview process that mirror some of the benefits individuals can receive from the counseling process.

An Exploration Of The Perceptions Of Institutional Advancement Leaders On Their Role In The Survival Of Private Hbcus: A Qualitative Study, Evelyn Leathers, Comfort O. Okpala

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of institutional advancement leaders on their role in the survival of private HBCUs. The major goals of the study focused on how advancement leaders perceived their leadership roles in generating funds to sustain private historically Black colleges and universities in the southeastern region of United States. Purposive sampling technique was utilized to select seven experienced and successful advancement leaders for the study. Through in-depth phenomenological interview and analyses, four themes emerged. The findings from the study show that the participants strongly perceived that their leadership role in fundraising to …

Cross-Cultural Considerations: Raising Language Teachers Awareness About The Importance Of Multiculturalism, Abir El Shaban

Journal of Research Initiatives

Abstract

With the worldwide use of English as a second language (ESL) and globalization, teachers are expected to understand, acknowledge and interact with culturally and linguistically diverse students and integrate their linguistic and multicultural backgrounds in classroom settings. Teachers need to be multicultural to be able to successfully impact their students to be multicultural. This paper provides English language teachers with valuable recommendations based on cross-cultural studies and my experience, as an ESL teacher, on how to be responsive to students from different cultures to empower and enhance their language proficiency skills.

Black Male College Persistence: A Phenomenological Collective Of Familial And Social Motivators, Tyson Beale, Lavar Charleston, Adriel A. Hilton

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study examined familial differences between Black males not pre-categorized as high achieving or unprepared for college. The article highlights student persistence and examines the critical components in social and environmental arrangements. While there is evidence that some Black men never graduate college, this is not reflective of all Black men. Many do earn a baccalaureate degree, pursue graduate study, and diversify the workforce. This phenomenological study captures the voices of those who have persisted in higher education and concludes with implications for institutional practice and future research. Social capital, hyper-masculinity, and exchange theories guided this study.

Examining The Institutional Factors Promoting The Educational Attainment Of African American Males Social Science Majors, Dorrance Kennedy, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this study was to determine the institutional factors that African American male students identified as influencing their educational attainment in higher education. The following research question guided this study: What institutional factors do African American male students identify as influencing their educational attainment at their respective universities? Throughout the years, there have been numerous theories developed to understand the challenge of college student retention. Alexander Astin (1991) proposed one of the first models, the input-environment-outcome (I-E-O) model. In this model, there are three sets of elements considered: inputs, environment, and outcomes. Inputs are the family backgrounds, demographic …

Grice Cooperative Principles In Kabul Times, Sayedrahman Sial Sr.Sial

Journal of Research Initiatives

Abstract:

Since in the current day most of the data is transported through written communication and media play an important part in the transportation of hot issues of the day, news language has concerned the courtesy of both media experts and linguists for periods of times. This analytical- descriptive research planned to link the destruction and acceptance of Grice’s (1975) cooperative principles (CPs) in news reports which published in Kabul Times and classify which of these four CPs (quality, quantity, manner and relation) has been desecrated most and which of them has been desecrated less. For this purpose, 100 news …

Correlation Effects Of Gender And Entry Qualifications On The Performance Of Undergraduate Engineering Students In Universities, Taofeek Ayotunde Yusuf, C. A. Onifade

Journal of Research Initiatives

Enrollment into engineering disciplines in tertiary institutions has always been identified for gender bias, higher population favoring the masculine. However, reports on the standard ratio of this bias nor the issue of whether it has any significant impact on academic performance of engineering students (POES) scarcely exist. Meanwhile, Nigerian Universities still enjoy autonomy and their admission policies on entry requirements vary. Hence, this study examined the possible influence of gender and entry qualification (EQ) on POES. Data collected from 491 undergraduate engineering students from two universities were statistically analyzed. The study revealed female to male population ratio of 1:9. The …

Exploring The Opportunities Of Minority Senior Executive U.S. Federal Government Agency Leaders: A Qualitative Analysis, Crystal Gathers-Whatley, Tyrone Chase

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the opportunities and challenges minority senior executive U.S. federal government agency leaders (MSELs) faced on their path to leadership, and their strategies to manage and overcome these challenges. The phrase minority senior executive leaders refer to individuals who lead U.S. executive departments; individual federal agencies, departments, or commissions; and those that report under the direct leadership of majority or minority leaders. This study explored how MSELs gained entry into leadership positions typically held by majority leaders; how MSELs take advantage of the opportunities presented to them; and what had the most …