Digital Commons Network^™

Developing An Observation Protocol For Online Stem Courses, Brian Horvitz, Whitney Decamp, Regina L. Garza Mitchell, Megan Grunert Kowalske, Cherrelle Singleton

Instruments for Measuring Online Teaching Practices

The use of online instruction for undergraduate STEM courses is growing rapidly. While researchers and practitioners have access to validated instruments for studying the practice of teaching in face-to-face classrooms, analogous tools do not yet exist for online instruction. These tools are needed for quality design and control purposes. To meet this need, this project developed an observational protocol that can be used to collect non-evaluative data for the description, study, and improvement of online, undergraduate STEM courses. The development of this instrument used a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach to the research, design, pilot-testing, refinement and implementation of the …

The Role Of Hope In The Lives Of Sexual And Gender Minority Youth: The Relationship Between Bullying And Life Satisfaction, Jedediah E. Bragg, Daniel Howell, Shane R. Brady

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Among sexual and gender minority students, 70% are bullied at school every year in the United States (2019). This study utilized a random 6% sample (n = 400) from the 2018 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey (n = 32,271), to assess the relationships between sexuality, bullying and life satisfaction, and then how hope moderates this established relationship. Results of this study illustrate the negative effects of bullying on life satisfaction for all students, while highlighting differences across sexuality. Additionally, this study illustrates that interventions to address the impacts of bullying might be best served by including the positive construct of …

Getting To Disability Justice: A Critical Conceptual Review Of Disability Models In U.S. Social Work, Kathryn M. Wright

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In 1983, scholar Mike Oliver coined the term the “social model of disability.” While the medical model presents disability as an inherent, immutable, and pathological defect, the social model suggests that disability emerges from external and social barriers (Oliver, 1983). Little research within social work has engaged with sociocultural paradigms of disability and how they might impact social work practice. American social workers generally approach disability as a biological category and an obvious deficit. This paper draws attention to the need to analyze the category of disability through social and cultural lenses in social work research and practice. Via a …

Global Deaf And Disability-Led Partnerships For Accessible Emergency Response And Humanitarian Action, Alina A. Engelman, Joe Booze, Alexia Izquierdo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Disability-serving non-profit, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a critical role in fostering care networks and supporting humanitarian action for disabled people before and during emergencies, particularly in the absence of targeted philanthropic and governmental support. However, relatively few NGOs serving disabled people are led or operated by people with disabilities, especially by disabled women. This analysis, based on survey and interview data with leadership, explores the impact of two disability-led operations. Findings have profound implications for how social work practice can center disability justice both in preparing for and responding to emergencies. This paper assesses the needs and impact of two …

Geological And Environmental Sciences - 2024, Dept. Of Geological And Environmental Sciences

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

• Greetings from the Department Chair
• Thank You to our Donors
• Faculty Updates
• Emeritus Faculty Updates
• MGRRE Updates
• MGS Updates
• Geosciences Advisory Council
• Student Clubs
• Awards and Honors, 2024
• Department Graduates
• Publications 2023–24

Anti-Ableist And Disability Justice Pedagogies In Social Work Education, Rose C. B. Singh, Laura Yakas, Laura J. Wernick, Shanna K. Kattari, Elspeth Slayter, Sarah Taylor

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Our personal and collective experiences of ableism and disability brought us together to envision anti-ableist and disability justice pedagogies in social work education. We begin by describing, defining, and reviewing key terminology and concepts, including disability, ableism, and saneism, by drawing on social work and interdisciplinary literature and situating disabled students’ and educators’ experiences in social work education. We provide definitions of anti-ableism and disability justice (e.g., Sins Invalid, 2016, 2019) and a brief overview of how anti-ableism and disability justice have been articulated in social work and related literature. We highlight the broader pedagogical approaches that have inspired our …

Engaging Impasse: Nurturing A Culture Of Dialogic Engagement On A University Campus, Patricia Ann Hawk

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Universities have historically fostered spaces where students, faculty, staff, and administration can fruitfully engage in discussion around contentious issues. Current political divisions have had a chilling effect on these discussions inside and outside the classroom. To nurture a campus culture of dialogic engagement, the communication studies department in collaboration with the DEI office began a campus dialogue project that invited faculty, staff, students, and administration to participate in monthly dialogues focused on cultural impasse topics. This 5-year project has demonstrated that university communication studies departments can be instrumental in helping community members cross organizational boundaries to engage in challenging dialogues …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session January 25, 2024, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

• Acceptance of the Agenda
• Approval of the Minutes
  • November 30, 2023 – BOT Meeting
  • December 14, 2024 – BOT Special Meeting
• Remarks by the Chair
• Remarks by the President
• Updates by the Faculty Senate President
• Updates by the Western Student Association President
• Western Michigan University Employee Graduates
• Haenicke Institute for Global Education Presentation: Journey from Graduate Student to Assistant Professor
• Public Comments Regarding Action Items

Action Items

2024 Western Michigan University Board of Trustee Officer Election

Delegated Authority to Confer Degrees

Consent Items

Curriculum Proposals

Personnel Report

• General Public Comments

Supplemental

The Sammons Center For Innovation And Research In Occupation-Based Technology

OJOT Sponsor Profiles

No abstract provided.

“Just Holding That Space”: Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy To Create Counterspaces For Black College Students In Aanapisi/Hsi Classrooms, Nicholas B. Lacy, Yea-Wen Chen, Damariyé L. Smith

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Black college students continue to face the specter of anti-Blackness which creates additional barriers to success and flourishing in higher education. This study investigates how instructors in higher education can provide racial equity to Black students in AANAPISI/HSI classrooms through counterspaces. We use culturally relevant pedagogy to investigate the experiences of 21 Black college students at an AANAPISI/HSI to understand better how higher education instructors can utilize counterspaces, places where Black college students can challenge dominant discourses and create a collegial learning environment. We identified three counterspace themes: (1) Mitigate Eurocentric Pedagogy, (2) Employ Black and Critical Scholarship, and (3) …

Using A Career Research Project In The Introductory Communication Course To Develop Agency, Self-Efficacy, Self-Determination, And Adaptability In Career Exploration, Stephen A. Klien, John Elmer, Patrick J. Rottinghaus

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Helping students make connections between the disciplinary study of communication and the development of student agency in career exploration can be an important part of the mission of the introductory course in communication. This study incorporates social cognitive career theory to examine the effects of a semester-long communication career awareness research project as an intervention in an introductory communication course at a large public university in the Midwest. Survey data from 83 undergraduate students were analyzed to measure perceptions of self-efficacy, perceived competence, autonomy support, and adaptability for career exploration. The results of paired samples t-tests found significant gains on …

Intergenerational Connections: Us College Students’ Attitudes And Expectations Toward Older Adults And Aging In An Online Critical Community Engagement Project, Sandra L. Faulkner, Madison Pollino, Jaclyn Shetterly, Wendy K. Watson

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

We present a critically focused, semester-long community engagement project entitled Intergenerational Connections as a form of critical interpersonal and family communication pedagogy (CIFCP). The project utilized Zoom to connect small groups of undergraduate students in the US enrolled in a course on relational communication with older adults in a long-term care facility to dialogue about close relationships. We were interested in how dialogue across generations maintained or altered students’ attitudes and expectations about communicating with older adults and analyzed student reflections before, during, and after the dialogues using a turning point analysis. The study was framed using Social Identity Theory …

Post-Truth's Effect On The Brain And The Future Self: A Critical Communication Pedagogy Response, David H. Kahl Jr.

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The university was created for the critical examination of ideas to seek truth. However, the proliferation of post-truth messages has made this goal more difficult to reach, creating an important communication pedagogy problem. Hegemonic forces create post-truth messages to mislead people and play to their existing beliefs in order to maintain and advance power. Post-truth messages are particularly effective because they cause cognitive overload and temporal discounting. Critical communication pedagogy (CCP) is a means by which instructors and students can evaluate post-truth messages. CCP allows for dialogue to reduce the cognitive issues that post-truth messages cause and allow for the …

#Politicalcommunicationsowhite: A Call For Considering Race In The Undergraduate Political Communication Course, Ant Woodall, Lindsey Meeks

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The field of communication has been working to reconcile its historic omission of race from research and pedagogy. The subfield of political communication has begun this process in its research but has yet to consider the implications of race missing from pedagogy. This essay offers an argument for including race in the political communication course, in the form of more focus on race in course content and more work by scholars of color. We offer reasons for these inclusions, ways for instructors to begin this incorporation, and what considerations instructors must be mindful of throughout the process.

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume, 2024

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

59th International Congress On Medieval Studies, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University

International Congress on Medieval Studies Archive

The printed program of the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 9–11, 2024), together with the Corrigenda.

Wellbeing And Indigenous Aymara Orphans In Perú: An Empirical Study At Hogar De Niñas Virgen De Fatima De Chejoña, Puno, Lee Fergusson, Javier Ortiz Cabrejos, Anna Bonshek

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a wide spectrum of well-documented adverse mental health outcomes for children and adults, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self-harm, suicide, and other detrimental impacts to the well-being of young people. These impacts have extended to Perú where 216,000 people in a population of 33 million died from the disease, despite that country being the first to fully lockdown in Latin America. It is predicted that about 200,000 children will become orphans or lose their guardians as a consequence of this unprecedented surge in mortality. Compelling and sustained international research since the 1970s …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 50, Issue 4 (2023)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

The Potential Of Humor To Joyously Dismantle Ableism+: Considerations For Social Workers, Mia Ocean

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social workers are often well-positioned but not adequately equipped to disrupt, unsettle, or counteract ableism. Humor is one approach to disability justice work that can move the social work profession forward in a novel way. Within this practice brief, I use first-person narrative to illustrate the potential and limitations of humor to dismantle ableism+ in everyday interactions between social workers, clinical social work practice, and policy transformation. First, I share an example of how to use humor as a direct, call-in strategy to confront social worker-initiated ableist interactions. Second, I describe how a mixed disabled/abled couple can laugh together at …

“Everyone Else Gets To Have The American Dream:” How Social Security Disability Policy Shapes Disability Identity, Katie Savin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the United States welfare state, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is the primary institution that shapes the disability experience through its disability benefit programs. This study used qualitative methods to explore 33 disabled adult beneficiaries’ experience with SSI/SSDI policy administration and the impact on their sense of worth, self-concept, and identity. Critical Disability Studies and a constructivist grounded theory approach drove data analysis. What emerged from the data was a negative disability identity experience referred to as the Social Security model of disability. Capitalist ideals that assign morality to formal work meant that disabled participants faced exclusion and stigma …

Historical Trauma And The Disability Community, Susan Neely-Barnes, Melissa Hirschi, Laura Taylor

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The theory of historical trauma has emerged as an important perspective for understanding historically oppressed communities, especially communities racialized as black or brown. The theory has been given relatively little attention in disability studies and in practice with people with disabilities. People with disabilities have experienced historical marginalization, oppression, and genocide and continue to experience oppression today. This paper explores the elements of historical trauma and how they apply to the disability experience. Future research in disability studies and social work should consider the historical trauma perspective. An understanding of historical trauma would tie social work practice more closely with …

Towards Addressing Poverty And Inequality In Nigeria: Rethinking Social Protection Strategies, Olanrewaju O. Ogunnubi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Poverty and inequality are major issues that fuel agitations and violent conflicts in Nigeria today. Although the Nigerian government continues to implement various social protection strategies, these have not been able to bridge the vast poverty and inequality gap in the country. This study examines social protection programs in Nigeria. It draws out observable challenges in the implementation of these programs and provides recommendations for improving social protection schemes in the country. The study adopts a qualitative historical analysis approach with data obtained from secondary sources. The study reveals that social protection schemes have largely failed to bridge the widening …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 51, Issue 3 (2024)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Teaching About Black Adolescents’ Exposure To Trauma: A Mixed Methods Study, Bridget E. Weller, Winifred Wilson, Jaimie E. Sullivan, Brittney E. Ivy, Bakari A. Wallace

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Black adolescents are exposed to race-based forms of historical, structural, cultural, and interpersonal dimensions of trauma. However, social work educators have little evidence-based guidance on how to teach this content in a way that improves graduate students’ sense of self-efficacy (i.e., belief in their ability) to work with Black adolescents who experience trauma. The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine and understand possible reasons for changes in students’ self-efficacy after completing a graduate-level, elective course in social work that aimed to prepare students to professionally work with Black adolescents who experienced trauma. Quantitative findings from a …

Women’S Friendship In Medieval Literature, Skye Oliver

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Female Authorship, Patronage, And Translation In Late Medieval France: From Christine De Pizan To Louise Labé, Alani Hicks-Bartlett

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Reading The Books Of Margery Kempe And Alice Pyett: Attachment And Feminist Restoration In Michelle Paver's "Wakenhyrst", Laura Varnam

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This article examines reading, attachment, and the restoration of female voices in Michelle Paver's Wakenhyrst, a 2019 novel inspired by the fifteenth-century mystic and author, Margery Kempe. The article foregrounds and analyses the author’s own response to the novel and to Paver's comments about Kempe from the perspective of Rita Felski's work on art and attachment (2020) and in the context of Carolyn Dinshaw's reading of Hope Emily Allen's championing of Margery Kempe (2012). Underpinned by a framework that draws on medievalism studies (particularly Katherine Brown's concept of 'restoration'), the article explores the ways in which Paver's two readers …

Apostate Nuns In The Later Middle Ages, Morgan Mcminn

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Hazards And Perceptions Of Cigarette And E-Cigarette Waste, Jossalyn Rogalski

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Is The Fair Use Doctrine A Viable Argument For Generative Ai?, Olivia Bainbridge

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research paper is to examine whether or not the fair use doctrine, a pivotal piece of copyright law, is a viable argument on behalf of generative artificial intelligence companies that are currently being sued on the basis of accused infringement of copyrighted images that their programs are trained on. By examining whether or not fair use is viable, generative artificial intelligence companies will be able to better gauge the validity of their arguments as well as adjust their practices accordingly if needed. This research is necessary because this research is examining a new field of law …