Education Commons^™

In Our Own Words: Institutional Betrayals, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

When Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English at Linfield College, asked a large group of underrepresented faculty members why they left their higher education institutions, they told her the real reasons for their departures — those that climate surveys don't capture.

This essay originally appeared as part of Conditionally Accepted, a career advice blog for Inside Higher Ed providing news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

In The Name Of Merit: Racial Violence In The Academy, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

Racial violence in the academy is enacted upon faculty of color, particularly women, in multiple disciplines. This essay attempts to both expose and suggest that everyday systemic racism has become a pervasive and normalizing feature within disciplines that continue to privilege white and Eurocentric forms of knowledge-making while devaluing others. Furthermore, attempts to challenge such supremacies are immediately countered by calls and charges of incivility. This is an essay about the costs of unmasking norms of civility as it bears upon constructions of both whiteness and meritocracy.

Qualitative Assessment Of The Pax Good Behavior Game Implementation, Xin Wei Ong, Patricia Roberts, Samantha Kinney, Jennifer Ruh Linder

PSYC Student Papers

This paper reports on a program evaluation of the PAX Good Behavior Game (GBG), an evidence-based practice intervention designed to create a nurturing environment conducive to learning in elementary schools. To evaluate and improve the PAX Good Behavior Game, a focus group was conducted at the end of the 2016-17 academic year. A total of ten teachers and school administrators from schools who implemented the PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX professionals) participated in a focus group session and provided feedback about the program. Focus group questions assessed four program objectives: (1) environmental change, (2) personal well-being and stress levels, (3) …

Challenging Calls For Civility, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In conjunction with her article "When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives: What We Value and What We Do Not," Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt writes about civility codes and free speech for Academe Blog.

Are You Supporting White Supremacy?, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English at Linfield College, provides an opinion piece in the form of a checklist of 15 “troubles” she has identified to help others in academe recognize (un)conscious contributions to white supremacy.

This essay originally appeared as part of Conditionally Accepted, a career advice blog for Inside Higher Ed providing news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives: What We Value And What We Do Not, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In this essay, I argue that the debate on free speech as pushed by the conservative right is a strategic apparatus to undermine the various diversity initiatives on college and university campuses. While supporters of the right wing extremists around the globe have pushed for various modes of exclusions (social, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and sexual), here in the United States, such exclusions are most evident in the collapse of academic freedom and the rise of civility codes as students and educators use the platform of free speech to promote various forms of injustices and exclusions. Our neoliberal college and …

From Big Ag To Campus Cafeterias: Intersections Of Food-Supply Networks As Technical Communication Pedagogy, Jessie Lynn Richards, Joshua Lenart, David Sumner, Douglas Christensen

Faculty Publications

This article presents a pedagogical approach to teaching technical and professional writing with an eye toward cultivating awareness and generating informed research among undergraduate students about food production and its various, intricate networks between Big Ag and campus cafeterias. Our pedagogy, influenced by interdisciplinary content, is designed to teach students to differentiate between food processes—such as production versus distribution and consumption—by viewing these networks as communicative practices rather than as inevitable chains or simple functions of one another. Our approach encourages students to locate and analyze differences between interdependent, but seemingly disparate pathways and to make visible communicative intersections that …

Incivility In The Workplace: The Experiences Of Female Sport Management Faculty In Higher Education, Elizabeth A. Taylor, Robin Hardin, Natalie Welch, Allison B. Smith

Faculty Publications

Access to higher education for women has dramatically increased in the United States during the past 50 years. Female college graduates have reversed the figures and gone from being outnumbered by their male counterparts 3 to 2 in the 1970s, to now outnumbering male college graduates 3 to 2. Women also graduate from masters and doctoral programs at a higher rate than men.

However, increases in the number of women obtaining college and advanced degrees has not translated to comparable representation in faculty positions or leadership roles in higher education. This lack of women in leadership positions, as well as …

Incorporating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender (Lgbt) Health Concepts Into Nursing Curricula: What Nursing Faculty Should Know, Paul Smith, Julie Fitzwater

Faculty Presentations

The objective of this presentation is to help faculty learn how to effectively teach students about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health, health promotion, and health care disparities. Learning outcomes for this session include how to utilize specific tools, strategies, and resources for incorporating essential LGBT content into undergraduate and graduate nursing programs.

• LEARNING OUTCOME 1: Describe ways to incorporate LGBT content into nursing curricula and discuss the importance of this inclusion;
• LEARNING OUTCOME 2: Identify resources appropriate for nursing students that may be integrated into nursing curricula;
• LEARNING OUTCOME 3: Identify specific health disparities that are applicable to …

Meeting Your Class At The Crossroads: Using Slo/Frame Grids To Tailor Information Literacy Instruction, Patrick Wohlmut

Faculty & Staff Presentations

One of the practical challenges presented by ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education is how to use it to design and assess instruction. By its nature, the framework is less prescriptive and more descriptive; it is more focused on understandings, habits, and general behaviors than on specific skills and practices, which makes it harder to pin down for purposes of instructional design. This workshop introduced a tool for teaching librarians that arose out of the Linfield College Libraries’ efforts to update the student learning outcomes for its information literacy program: The SLO-Frame Grid. Though the tool was still …

Exploring Diversity, Citizenship, And Gender Through Jazz: A Narrative Criticism Of I Am Jazz, Mary Beth Jones

Northwest Communication Association Conference Papers & Presentations

In this study, a narrative analysis of a children’s picture book was conducted to uncover how young audiences are taught about diversity and inclusion through books. The setting, characters, narrator, and target audiences of the 2014 book I am Jazz were evaluated to decipher how readers are educated about transgenderism and diversity in greater context. Specific rhetorical qualities in the visual and written elements emphasize the importance of diversity, uniqueness, individuality, and acceptance. This particular book has created a range of support and protest since its publication, and it is an important example of the emotional and political power of …

Cultural Competence Of Nurse Practitioners: Providing Care For Gay And Lesbian Clients, Paul S. Smith

Faculty Presentations

This plenary presentation given by Dr. Paul Smith was part of a panel on LGBTQ health in nursing. Smith identifies and explains the relationship between self-reported beliefs and behaviors of nurse practitioners toward gay and lesbian clients and reported nursing education related to cultural competence. He also identifies strategies to incorporate LGBT health into nursing curricula.

"Is This Something We Can Do?": Exploring The Possibilities Of Faculty/Librarian Collaboration, Patrick Wohlmut, Kena Avila

Faculty & Staff Presentations

The Jereld R. Nicholson Library’s teaching focus follows a strong introductory model, being well integrated in the first-year seminar classes and introductions to the major, though not necessarily across the upper division classes. This presentation tells the story of a collaboration during the course of an upper division education class at Linfield College in the fall of 2016. In addition to presenting some of the research on departmental faculty/librarian collaboration, Patrick Wohlmut and Kena Avila discussed the unique factors that made this collaboration one that was fulfilling, useful, and educational for both the teachers and the students. Though the class …

Service Learning Enhances Conceptual Learning In A Rn To Bsn Program, Henny Breen, Melissa Robinson

Faculty Publications

A qualitative study using transcript analysis was conducted to examine the effectiveness of service learning in enhancing conceptual learning in RN to BSN students. As part of their capstone course in an online program, students engaged in 64 hours of service learning in their local community. The transcripts of asynchronous discussions and journal entries formed the data for analysis. The findings illustrated that the student’s conceptual understanding was enhanced from the service learning experience. Further, the students demonstrated higher-level thinking by linking concepts that could be applied to nursing practice. Service learning reinforced the community-based philosophy of the School of …

Improving Primo Usability And Teachability With Help From The Users, Barbara Valentine, Beth West

Faculty & Staff Publications

In the aftermath of a consortium migration to a shared cloud-based resource management and discovery system, a small college library implemented a web usability test to uncover the kinds of difficulties students had with the new interface. Lessons learned from this study led to targeted changes, which simplified aspects of searching, but also enhanced the librarians’ ability to teach more effectively. The authors discuss the testing methods, results, and teaching opportunities, both realized and potential, which arose from implementing changes.

Fostering Rn-To-Bsn Students’ Confidence In Searching Online For Scholarly Information On Evidence-Based Practice, Carol Mcculley, Melissa Jones

Faculty & Staff Publications

Graduates of bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) programs are increasingly expected to take an active role in assessing and improving nursing practice, and nurse educators are expected to prepare BSN students for this expanding role. Information literacy, the ability to search for, find, get, and use scholarly information to inform nursing practice, should be a critical component of nursing education. This article focuses on five strategies for teaching information literacy to registered nurse (RN)-to-BSN students in an online continuing education environment. These strategies include the addition of an embedded librarian to the online courses, collaboration between the librarian and …

Teaching With Social Media, Susan Currie Sivek

Faculty Presentations

This presentation addresses the benefits and challenges of teaching with social media. Examples of student work, assignments, and class projects are included from Linfield College classes and from other institutions, including disciplines other than mass communication.

Deep Engagement With Student Learning: Librarians As Instructors-Of-Record For Writing-Intensive Undergraduate Courses, Jean Caspers, Susan Barnes Whyte

Faculty & Staff Presentations

How can librarians gain authentic knowledge about how students apply the skills and concepts we teach? In order to address this question, Susan Barnes Whyte and Jean Caspers share the knowledge they have gained by teaching two writing intensive courses: Information Gathering, a required 4-credit course for Mass Communication majors, and Information Ethics: the Individual as Creator and Consumer, a required 4-credit first year inquiry seminar course. Caspers and Whyte both continue to teach multiple information literacy (IL) sessions for other professors’ courses. Their for-credit teaching experiences have helped them understand the difficulty other teaching faculty have finding …

Mixing And Matching: Assessing Information Literacy, Carol Mcculley

Faculty & Staff Publications

Authentic assessment of student learning outcomes is much in demand. This paper reviews a variety of assessment methods that measure cognitive, behavioral, and affective levels of learning that can be used to design library class instruction and assessments to improve student learning and teaching of information literacy concepts. The intentional use of these methods to assess undergraduate student learning in many disciplines through working collaboratively with faculty and integrating the assessments in a learner-centered environment is discussed.

What Do Freshmen Really Know About Research? Assess Before You Teach, Jean Caspers, Steven Mark Bernhisel

Faculty & Staff Publications

The article describes an effort to assess the information literacy skills of entering first-year college students. An instrument was developed and information was gathered on students' experience and comfort in conducting library research as well as their perceived competence with specific information literacy skills. In addition, students completed a skills test to assess specific knowledge and skills relating to information literacy. Entering first-year students generally self-reported their skills to be less than "excellent." This finding was supported by the results of the skills test. Strengths and weaknesses in information literacy skills are reported, as well as implications for librarians who …