Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching Note - Embedding The Human Library Experience Within Social Work Curriculum, Emily M. Paine

Social Work Faculty Works

The Human Library is a global initiative designed to challenge stereotypes and foster dialogue through storytelling and presents a unique opportunity for experiential learning within social work education. This teaching note explores how the Human Library framework can be integrated into social work curriculum in alignment with the 2022 Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, with particular emphasis on Competency 3: Engaging in Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practice. When embedded in coursework, the Human Library enables students to engage in brave and authentic conversations with storytellers who share aspects of their lived experiences, promoting mutuality, …

Community Engagement Newsletter, December 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. Office Of Community Engagement.

Community Engagement Newsletter

Contents:

--- MLK Day Kicks off Spring into Service: Cats Who Care
--- Holiday Volunteer Needs
--- Seed Coalitions’s Online Service-Learning Institute
--- UNI’s Day of Service - April 8, 2026
--- Submit Your Service Project
--- Free T-shirts & Funding
--- Get Ideas / Secure a Project for your Group
--- Planning Sessions & One on One Meetings
--- National Credential
--- Season’s Greetings

External Funding Bulletin July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025, Office Of Research And Creative Activity, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Sponsored Programs Bulletins

No abstract provided.

Student Perceptions Of The Impact Of Faculty Race And Gender On Their Sense Of Connectedness, Engagement, And Persistence, Sherrie Y. Fuller

Dissertations

This quantitative study examined how faculty demographic characteristics, specifically race and gender, influence undergraduate students’ perceptions of connectedness, engagement, and persistence at a public Midwestern university. Guided by Tinto’s Model of Student Integration (1975, 1993, 2012), the research explored whether perceived alignment between student and faculty identities contributes to students’ sense of belonging and motivation to persist toward degree completion. Data were collected from 100 undergraduate participants representing diverse racial, gender, and academic backgrounds. Participants completed a researcher-developed survey instrument utilizing a four-point Likert scale to measure connectedness, engagement, and persistence.

Book Review Of Douglass, J.A. (2021). Neo-Nationalism And Universities: Populists, Autocrats, And The Future Of Higher Education., Bhavika Sicka

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Conceptual Gerrymandering In Sffa And Some Thoughts On How It Enables The Case’S Weaponization, David Simson

Buffalo Law Review

This Article makes two main contributions at the intersection of Constitutional Law and critical analyses of race and racial (in)equality. First, and more narrowly, the Article provides an in-depth analysis and critique of the Supreme Court’s most recent affirmative action decision in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard (SFFA), specifically with respect to a crucial aspect of the case that has not been addressed in depth in other scholarship on the decision: how key opinions conceptualize “race” in their reasoning. The Article shows how the SFFA majority opinion and a concurring opinion by Justice Gorsuch incorporate multiple, and inconsistent, understandings …

Finding Utopia: An Examination Of Pedagogical Approaches To Teaching Utopianism In U.S. College Classrooms, Brittany Page Brake

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how, and if, utopianism is being taught in college classrooms across the United States. Long considered impractical, overly idealistic, and/or politically dangerous, utopianism has been largely marginalized in political science and American culture. However, this project finds that there are instructors teaching utopianism and they are using the concept to challenge students to think differently about governance, justice, and institutional design. Drawing from political theory literature, course syllabi submitted by faculty from different U.S. universities, interviews with instructors, and personal case studies of my own courses at Central State University and Manchester University, I explore how utopian …

Content And Consequences: Impact Of Representation In Stem Higher Education Instructional Content On Marginalized Students, Nichole Ventura

Doctorate in Education

This qualitative study examined representation of historically marginalized students in STEM instructional content at the higher education level and its impact on their learning experiences. Despite growing diversity initiatives in STEM enrollment, curricular materials often fail to reflect the identities of underrepresented students. Using critical theory and interpretivist approaches, this research investigated how representation—or its absence—shapes students' sense of belonging, academic identity formation, and persistence. Through semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students from historically marginalized backgrounds, and purposeful sampling, this study captured the lived experiences of students engaging with STEM instructional materials. Interview protocols explored how students perceive their representation in …

Amplifying Mother Leaders’ Voices: A Feminist Inquiry Into Gender Inequity In Higher Education Leadership, Katherine Bard

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Women now comprise more than half of mid- and upper-level administrators in higher education, yet they remain underrepresented in the most senior leadership roles. For mothers in leadership, this underrepresentation is compounded by gendered structures, expectations, and norms that shape their personal and professional lives in distinct ways. While scholarship has examined working motherhood broadly and gender inequity in higher education separately, little research has focused on how mother leaders experience and interpret gender inequity in higher education leadership. This study sought to address that gap by exploring the lived experiences of ten mother leaders working at research-intensive (R1) universities …

Branding The Divide: Political Ideology And The Strategic Challenges Of Higher Education Marketing, Oscar J. Early Mr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how first-year students experience and interpret institutional branding within the context of their personal and social identities, with particular attention to the role of political ideology. While previous research had examined general branding strategies and declining public trust in higher education, scholars have given little attention to the ways in which prospective students make meaning from institutional messaging during one of the most significant transitions of their lives.

I conducted interviews with 12 first-year students from four-year colleges and universities across South-Central Appalachia. The phenomenological analysis revealed that students’ interpretation of …

Light & Faith: December 2025, Taylor University

Light & Faith

No abstract provided.

Exploring Commuter Trio Students' Student Support Services At A Public University, Travis J. Batiste Edd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study explored the experiences and service needs of TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) commuter students at a public regional university in northern Louisiana. The literature review showed that while TRiO SSS programs have a demonstrated history of promoting academic success and retention for first-generation students, low-income students, and students with disabilities, little institutional research has been conducted to better understand how student residential status impacts learning outcomes and utilization of campus resources. Drawing on Astin’s theory of involvement, this study described the lived experiences of TRiO SSS commuter participants and the impact of commuting on their engagement, programmatic use, …

The Library Instructor As Learner: A Survey Of Reflective Teaching Practices In Us Academic Libraries, Alicia G. Vaandering, Amanda Crego-Emley

Communications in Information Literacy

Reflective practice provides library workers with a critical opportunity to examine professional experiences, question assumptions and approaches, explore new perspectives, and develop innovative solutions to existing problems. When applied to instruction as reflective teaching, this practice better situates library instructors to meet the evolving needs of twenty-first-century library users. This research study explores how library workers engage with reflective teaching in academic libraries across the United States. A survey was distributed to academic library communities, and a total of 153 responses were collected. While 92% of respondents reported participating in reflective teaching practice in a variety of instructional contexts, results …

Navigating The Ethical Landscape: A Field Reflection On The Dynamics Of Informed Consent In Qualitative Research, Khim Raj Subedi, Peshal Khanal

The Qualitative Report

Our paper analyses the practical dimensions of obtaining informed consent in qualitative research, drawing on the reflective insight from fieldwork conducted as part of a study on the professional identity of primary (elementary) teachers in community schools in Nepal. Our study builds on and extends the understanding of informed consent as a legal and ethical requirement (Kadam, 2017) while considering the complexities of fieldwork. Drawing on interactions with six teachers and using the first author's detailed fieldnotes and reflexive memos, our study explores the challenges researchers face in securing consent during qualitative interviews. We argue that the consent-seeking process should …

Sustaining Momentum While Dissertating: The Journey Of Two Women Scholars, Tasha Egalite, Kristin L. Kew

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

This paper is a narrative reflection on some reasons for earning a doctorate and writing a dissertation. We are two scholars interested in sustaining educational change and dedicated to better understanding and supporting the process and growth of students in doctoral programs. In our pláticas, we share and reflect on our own doctoral journeys, the critical issues we encountered, and the hoops we jumped through while completing our dissertations.

Experiences Of College Students With Visual Disabilities During The Covid-19, Bhuwan Shankar Bhatt, Kanchan K. Joshi, Purna B. Lamichhane

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This case study explores the experiences of Nepalese college students with visual disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, applying Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory as a theoretical framework. Through in-depth interviews with eight students with visual disabilities studying bachelor and master level at a public college, this research describes challenges and chances across five primary domains of the ecological perspective. The study showed the critical role of immediate support circles in academic and social contexts, the needed interactions between parents and educational institutions, observable gaps in institutional support and government policies, and the dual role of the pandemic as a challenge and …

The Third Goal Of Higher Education Internationalization: A Reflective Essay, Wei Liu, Gavin Palmer

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

The third goal of higher education internationalization is a global education goal of building a more equitable world, after the individual goal of preparing students’ intercultural competence for a global job market and the national goal of gaining a country’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. The third goal has not been prioritized in past internationalization practices. This reflective essay hopes to highlight the raw fact that if the third goal is not achieved, the first two goals will be at risk. A global education turn is forced upon us in higher education internationalization. It is imperative for universities to …

Assessing The International Students’ Engagement Associated With The Student Government Organizations: “Bridging” The Gap In Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, Laura Alzmeter, Rejubi Peter Enim, Zoltán Rónay

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

The growing interest of students in participating in higher education has contributed to several declarations claiming the importance of engagement in university life and university governance. Following this pattern, with more international students on higher education mobility, previous researchers have primarily relied on studying those patterns correlated together. At Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), the International Strategy Office has conducted quantitative research examining the significant problems that the international students identify at the host institution, focusing on the ways of improvements, and finding out how could international students bridge the gap in a representative body that includes them in the decision-making. …

Institutional Mobility Intentions And Job Satisfaction Of Model Minority University Faculties In The United States, Maki Kato

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

The purpose of this study is to quantitatively understand the institutional mobility intentions and job satisfaction of Asian Female Foreign Faculties (AFFFs) working in colleges and universities in the United States (U.S.) to supplement previous qualitative research focusing on their experiences and perceptions. This study uses 2012–2020 data from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education’s (COACHE) Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey. The results show that among both, AFFFs and other foreign faculties, the intention to move from one’s current university is uncertain. AFFFs’ job satisfaction, including their interactions with other faculties, is lower than that of white U.S. …

An Investigation Of International Students’ Satisfaction With Their University Experience Using An Expectation Confirmation Theory Lens, Mehraz Sarker, Jonathan Worae, Jason D. Edgerton

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This study examines how various challenges and support systems influence international students’ satisfaction, as reflected in their intention to recommend their university. Using the Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT), it examines whether students’ initial expectations moderate the relationships between challenges and satisfaction, and between institutional support and satisfaction. Analysis of survey data (N = 712) indicates that the majority of international students report satisfaction with their university experience. Ordinal logistic regression analyses reveal that perceived institutional support and higher initial expectations are associated with increased likelihood of recommending the university. Conversely, academic and discrimination challenges are associated with decreased likelihood of …

Cultivating A Sense Of Community: International Students Navigating Community Engaged Learning Opportunities In Line With Their Social Goals, Katherine Lyon, Nicole Malette

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

International students often envision their time studying abroad with particular academic, professional, social, linguistic, and identity-related goals in mind (Fong, 2011; Jones, 2013; Montgomery & McDowell, 2009; Page, 2019; Page & Chahboun, 2019). Post-secondary institutions can provide resources and opportunities to help this heterogeneous group of students bring their vision into fruition. One such opportunity is community engaged learning (CEL), which has been shown to help students expand their social and academic abilities as they make contributions to an organization (Arnold, 2019; Greenberg, London & McKay, 2020; Mayer et al., 2019). Through in-depth interviews with 25 new international students who …

A Research Note On The Impact Of Chicana Femtoring In Chicana And Chicano Studies, Elizabeth González Cárdenas

Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal

A Research Note on the Impact of Chicana Femtoring by Elizabeth González Cárdenas.

Teaching With Challenged Books: Connections With Marianist Values, Jeanne Holcomb

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

The focus of this reflective commentary is the use of banned and challenged books as the key reading assignment and pedagogical tool in teaching SOC 101, Principles of Sociology. Although it is estimated that the number of book challenges decreased between 2023 and 2024, there has been a significant increase since 2020, with many of the challenged books portraying issues central to the field of sociology. Starting in the fall 2024 semester, I have incorporated challenged books into my SOC 101 courses, with over 100 students being in those sections during the 2024-25 academic year. In this paper, I provide …

Educating Using The Discipleship Of Equals: Dialogue For Social Justice And Change, Leslie H. Picca, Leah Ward

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

This reflection explores the experiences teaching a course focused on social justice and change grounded in the Marianist principle of discipleship of equals. Students, faculty, and staff enroll in a semester-long credit-bearing course as equal participants, disrupting traditional hierarchical models of education. This essay explores the class structure, impact on participants, challenges, and recommendations.

A Qualitative Study Of College Student-Athletes Using The Job Demands-Resources Model: A Case For Understanding Student-Athletes As Employees, Michael Spooner, Asia Eaton, Anthony Weems, Tiffany Munro

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

This research conceptualizes the NCAA Division I student-athlete position as similar to a position of employment utilizing the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model developed by Bakker & Demerouti (2017) from the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. We utilize qualitative methods to conduct an exploratory study that assesses the characteristics of student-athletes through analysis of perceived role demands, role resources, and personal resources using a sample of using a sample of 30 student-athletes (15 men, 15 women) at mostly large Division I universities across the U.S. Data were analyzed utilizing thematic analysis and revealed the various demands that student-athletes faced, as well as …

From Isolation To Integration: The Influence Of Community Engagement With Special Olympics On Ncaa Athletes Experiencing Role Conflict, Grace Fetherstonhaugh, Kirsten Hextrum

Journal of Athlete Development and Experience

Role conflict is prevalent for college athletes across varying competitive levels, sport types, and identities. Recent reform to the collegiate athletic model, such as enabling college athletes (CAs) to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness, may create additional demands and conflicts for participants. Despite the plethora of research into college athletes’ experiences with role conflict, few studies examine possible solutions. This study offers a novel intervention to role conflict through a community engagement (CE) program. Short, immersive, contributions to one’s local environment can improve social connections, limit negative mental health effects, and generate a higher sense of purpose, all …

"We Blink With One Eye Open. They Sleep With One Eye Close": A Qualitative Analysis Of Conflict And Resolution From The Perspective Of Correctional Staff, Staci M. Richardson

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Staci M. Richardson on November 17, 2025.

Evaluating Student Proficiency In Quantitative Reasoning, Gabriel Chavez, Jennifer Clinkenbeard, Tolga Tezcan, Celine Pinet, Jennifer Duggan, George Beckham, Sumadhur Shakya, Christina Zhang

Numeracy

Quantitative Reasoning (QR) competencies are increasingly vital for academic and professional success across disciplines. This study examines the QR proficiency of over 400 undergraduates through a mixed-methods approach, integrating survey-based self-assessments (n = 469) with direct evaluations of final exams (n = 80). This study took place at a public, primarily undergraduate, four-year state university in Northern California with approximate enrollment of 7,500 students. Although students reported frequent engagement in foundational QR tasks— such as calculation and interpretation—rubric-based scoring revealed inconsistent levels of mastery, particularly on higher-order skills like evaluation and coherence. Regression analyses linked confidence to calculation …

Chatgpt In Campus Life: Exploring Adoption Through Theory Of Planned Behavior And Trust Dynamics", Mamta Brahmbhatt Prof. (Dr.), Ravi Rajai Dr.

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

ChatGPT, a sophisticated generative machine learning chatbot, has impressed users with its groundbreaking capabilities, showcasing improved conversational skills and exceptional professional knowledge and contextual awareness. A plethora of scholars is investigating ChatGPT via various technology adoption frameworks, including the theory of planned behavior. The current study seeks to augment existing knowledge by investigating the behavioral intention to use ChatGPT for academic purposes, utilizing the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in conjunction with an additional variable of trust, while reassessing the formerly established associations among the components thereof within the framework of early technology adopters. The participants were students from several …

Book Review Of: Univision, Telemundo, And The Rise Of Spanish-Language Television In The United States, Elizabeth Sotelo

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Craig Allen’s Univision, Telemundo, and the Rise of Spanish-Language Television in the United States (2020) meticulously encapsulates the business challenges and subsequent success of Spanish-language television networks in the United States. Grounded in hard data, archival research, reporting, and interviews, the author expands the study beyond the U.S. to trace the initiatives’ roots to Mexico. The book’s nine chapters weave a chronological narrative that covers the period from 1961 to 2012. Throughout the book, Allen explores the beginning of Univision in San Antonio in 1961, the birth of Telemundo in 1986, the pioneers and the investments involved, and the creation …