Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons^™

Conversations Before The Conversation: Readying Dissidence Through Norm-Setting, Ashley N. Watson

Feminist Pedagogy

How can educators speak truth to power in ways that decenter whiteness while supporting student learning across different levels of awareness? What does the right balance of challenge and support look like in today’s unpredictable college environment? These questions are drawn from my experience as a Black predoctoral fellow teaching “Intercultural Dialogue” at a traditionally white public liberal arts university in rural Minnesota. This paper—both a reflection and recommendations for practice—outlines my approach to co-constructing and scaffolding a conducive learning environment rooted in emancipatory pedagogy.

Ethical Ai Use And Classroom Integration Training Modules, Daniel Boudon

Open Educational Resources

This project focuses on developing comprehensive training modules to equip students and faculty with the knowledge and skills necessary to ethically and effectively use AI tools in academic settings. The training consists of interconnected modules that cover a wide range of topics, including the ethical use of AI, evaluating AI-generated content, integrating AI tools into curriculum design, and creating AI-enhanced classroom activities. Additional modules emphasize fostering digital literacy, staying updated with AI advancements, and collaborating on best practices for AI in education.

Designed for flexibility, the modules cater to diverse academic disciplines, making them suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses, …

Dei From The Perspective Of Racially And Sexually Minority Social Work Students, Ilse Ivonne Trejo, Miguel Gabino Lopez, Annette Clarke Jones, Octavio Ramirez

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

This explanatory sequential mixed-method research study examined the experiences and perspectives of racially and sexually minority social work students enrolled at Fort Hays State University. By integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the study aimed to uncover the unique challenges these students face, such as feelings of belonging, microaggressions, and a lack of culturally competent mentorship. It also highlighted resilience strategies and institutional supports that contribute to their academic and personal success. The findings offer valuable insights for social work educators and administrators seeking to foster more inclusive and supportive environments for minority and sexual students in rural PWIs.

Is There A Relationship Between Drug Addiction And Incarceration?, Lindsey M. Lopez

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The connection between drug addiction and incarceration has been widely debated. Many individuals who struggle with substance abuse will end up in the criminal justice system, mainly due to drug-related crimes or offenses committed under the influence like DUI’s. This study examines whether incarceration is effective in solving substance abuse issues or if alternative approaches such as rehabilitation, offer better results. The analysis explores the balance between punishment and treatment programs to determine what the most effective strategy is in reducing recidivism and addressing why drug addiction is high in the justice system.

Forensic Evidence And Its Effect On The Criminal Legal System, Kelsie L. Winter, April Terry

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The use of forensic evidence is a relatively new initiative, gaining momentum and popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, for its role in addressing wrongful convictions. Yet, with advancements still being achieved, mistakes have been uncovered. In the criminal legal system, inaccurate evidence and/or information can be a barrier for seeking justice. Collectively, estimates suggest forensic errors occur in anywhere between 46-100% of forensic cases, with varying errors occurring based on the type of evidence (e.g., forensic pathology vs. seized drug analysis). As such, this literature review outlines the unreliable aspects of forensic evidence, the misinterpretation of such findings, and …

Accessibility Disclosure Statements: Best Practices For Documenting Inclusive And Accessible Web-Based Research Design, Alicia Mason, Elizabeth Spencer, Pan Liu, Kristen Livingston, Sakshi Bhati, Angela Ashmore, Tristan A. Spencer, Lauren Shepard

Faculty Submissions

Accessibility disclosure is a core principle of the Project IRIS Best Practice Framework. This instructional resource-- Accessibility Disclosure Statements: Best Practices for Documenting Inclusive Web-Based Research Design-introduces options for reporting accessible web-based research design efforts in scholarly and professional publications. The three forms of accessibility disclosure statements are introduced: summary statements, reports of analysis--both general and specific-, and detailed process descriptions. Each of these strategies including terms, conceptual definitions, and examples are provided. The instructional resource may be of interest to undergraduate and graduate course instructors teaching research methods courses in a variety of social science disciplines.

Queering ‘Common Sense’: Using Critical Discourse Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Book Bans In Florida Public Schools To Unmask Heteronormativity, Talia Zito, Nicole E. Morse

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Historically, censorship of LGBTQ+ content in education has been rooted in socio-political efforts to marginalize non-heteronormative identities. However, even those who oppose censorship tend to frame their arguments around concepts like “age-appropriateness” and “protecting children.” Our Critical Discourse Analysis examines formal challenges to And Tango Makes Three in one Florida school district in 2022 to show how these concepts are deployed on both sides of the debate. The book, depicting a same-sex penguin couple raising a chick, faced objections under Florida’s HB 1557, a law designed to restrict discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. Ultimately, the picture …

In Memoriam - Nora Sabelli: Master Orchestrator Of Grant Programs And Mentor For Advancing The Interdisciplinary Learning Sciences Field, Eric Hamilton, Jeremy Roschelle, Roy Pea, Barbara Means, Louis Gomez, Kim Gomez, Nancy Butler Songer

Education Division Scholarship

On Friday, September 6, 2024, the learning sciences field lost a giant in Dr. Nora Sabelli, 87 years old, a personal mentor to many researchers and an inspiration to so many learning scientists and STEM leaders. Nora’s first professional career was as a computational chemist, and later she became a passionate leader in research for improving STEM education. Nora’s time as a senior program officer at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Education and Human Resources (EHR) directorate was legendary; she was a force of nature who reshaped funding priorities for stronger science and a stronger connection of science to education …

Navigating The Academic Terrain: Examining The Challenges And Success Factors Of Student Veterans In Higher Education Institutions, Katherine Reyes, Corey Idleburg

Education Division Scholarship

This study investigates the academic experiences of student veterans, addressing specific challenges they face in higher education. Using Schlossberg’s adult transition theory, it explores the effects of invisible barriers, enrollment trends, and institutional factors on veteran student success, leveraging the VA’s GI Bill Comparison tool to examine public versus private school support. Findings underscore the need for targeted resources, faculty training, and institutional awareness to foster a supportive and inclusive environment that enhances veteran students' academic success and sense of belonging.

Exploring Belongingness, Loneliness, And Distinctiveness On A College Of Agriculture Campus, Sophia Jaramillo-Vasconez

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

The purpose of this study was to explore how sense of belonging, loneliness, and distinctiveness affect students in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (M-G CAFE). By examining the intersection of student demographics and their experiences, this research aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics that shape students’ agricultural experiences at the postsecondary level. This study investigates the relationship between student characteristics and their reported levels of belonging and loneliness, and how these factors influence perceptions of their representation and distinctiveness within the M-G CAFE program. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was employed, beginning with …

Addressing Economic Instability And Workforce Turnover In Early Childhood Education: The Role Of Stipends, Wage Supplements, And Professional Development, Lucinda J. Leffler

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

Child care workers are vital to early childhood education, yet they face persistent economic instability, low wages, and high turnover rates. To address these challenges, states and policymakers have implemented stipends, wage supplements, and professional development programs aimed at improving financial security, job satisfaction, and workforce retention. This literature review examines the effectiveness of these initiatives across the United States, drawing on theoretical frameworks such as Vroom’s Expectancy Theory and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory to contextualize their impact. Research indicates that financial incentives significantly reduce turnover, while professional development fosters job satisfaction and career advancement. However, sustainability concerns remain, particularly with …

Wondrous Uncertainty: Transforming Student Educational Experiences Using Restorative Practices, Zachary C. Schafer

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

One of the primary purposes of education is to help students make sense of their lived experiences. In the process of becoming, students navigate multiple relationships (school, peers, adults, and with self). These relationships often cause conditions of uncertainty which can be managed and transformed using restorative practices in tandem with the academic disciplines taught in school. Over the last decade this has been my inquiry puzzle, “As educators, how can we embrace uncertainty with students as a way of helping to empower them through their dignity, with the academic disciplines as a lens through which relational learning occurs in …

Volume 11, Issue 3, Critical Currents And Pedagogical Shifts In Popular Culture And Pedagogy, Journal Dialogue

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Volume 11, Issue 3 of Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: On Confronting Identity and Global Challenges through Popular Culture and Pedagogy.

Escaping The Pedagogical Cabin In The Woods, Tony Kemerly, Davis Ritenour

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The American educational system, because of its seemingly innocuous yet ubiquitous nature, has become, to borrow a term from Roland Barthes, naturalized. By being naturalized, it has become a system that has somehow slipped beneath the radar of the American populace and operates on an autopilot of sorts that allows it to employ practices that don’t necessarily have the best interests of its constituents at heart. Murray Rothbard (1979) argued that compulsory schooling is not guided by altruism, but rather a desire to coerce the population into a mold that is desired by those possessing power in society. This need …

Building Transferable Skills In An Interdisciplinary Science And Science Fiction Capstone Course, John D. Carrell, Robert G. Weiner, Alexandria Prather

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

College graduates are entering an ever-competitive workforce. Interdisciplinary course experiences are critical for developing analytical abilities and learning and these courses can provide valuable skills that will aid students beyond the classroom. These transferable skills include communication, teamwork, analytical and critical thinking, and creativity. To provide a unique learning experience and, through it, the development of transferable skills, the Honors College at Texas Tech University created an upper-level Capstone course titled “Superheroes, Super Villains, AI, Time Travel, and Film in Science and Popular Culture.” The class is an interdisciplinary look at science and science fiction taught by an engineering faculty …

Leaps And Bounds In Popular Culture And Pedagogy Dialogue: A Note From The Editor In Chief And Associate Editor, Anna Cohenmiller, Karina Vado

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Should We Clear The Cobwebs In Our Minds Or Dismantle Racial Structures? Reflections On The Lack Of Critical Thinking Of Higher Education Staff In The Uk, Chrissie Da Costa

Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

Higher education in the UK constantly emphasises  critical thinking for students. However, analysis of comments made about *Black students and staff indicate that some academic staff fail to critically analyse their thoughts, words, and deeds. This paper sets out to analyse these utterances of HE staff and to investigate whether they actively reproduce and are intended to reproduce racist practices in HE, which could affect the experience, performance, and confidence of some of these students and staff who identify as Black and Global Majorities.  Applying critical race theory and socio-ideological analysis of language (Bakhtin 1981 and Voloshinov 1973) to analyse …

A Thanksgiving Without Family: A Covid-19 Employer Dilemma Case, Michael Dobbs

Journal of the North American Management Society

Based on an actual organization in the Midwest, this case describes the Director of an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center located in the Midwest and her adoption of policies to address the threat of Covid-19 to employees, clients, and the community. Names have been changed, but the facts of the case are based on employee descriptions of the organization, its director, and its new policies. The case presents students with an opportunity to wrestle with real-world situations that they themselves have faced and with which they are familiar. In this paper, I present the case itself, the worksheet assignment for …

Social Capital, Post-Industrial Society, And Faulty Industry Experience: Higher Education’S Engagement Opportunity In Applied Disciplines, Asa B. Wilson, Steven A. Stovall, Edward Crowley

Journal of the North American Management Society

Higher education faces two currents - declining social capital support and the post-industrial transition. Both impact the academy and its students. The associated challenges are discussed as engagement opportunities for the academy in applied disciplines. Also, the instructional value of faculty industry experience (IE) is defined as an attribute of social capital. It fosters student engagement while building an experiential learning bridge from the classroom to the workplace. A composite case based on faculty social capital backgrounds illustrates how faculty IE augments program development, academic rigor, student readiness, research creativity, industry linkages, and community impact. Follow-up research opportunities are identified.

Journal Management, Administration, And Promotion: The Power And Impact Of The Jnams Relaunch, Michael Dobbs, Heather S. Mcmillan

Journal of the North American Management Society

No abstract provided.

Pedagogies Of The Home And Terquedad In Transgender Parenting And Teaching, Jackson M. Matos

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This counter-narrative utilizes pedagogies of the home (Garcia & Delgado Bernal, 2021; Delgado Bernal, 2001) and terquedad, or intentional resistance against dominant group norms (Salas-Santa Cruz, 2020) to illustrate how I transmit home-based lessons regarding oppression and liberation to my children and to my college-aged students. It demonstrates the importance of vulnerability (Caraves, 2020) in sharing counter-narratives with both groups, and illustrates how resistance and terquedad can be utilized to actualize social justice. I describe how I, as a Puerto transgender parent and educator, use my body and lived experiences as text (Helton, 2020) for curriculum in my home and …

Classics And Contemporary Popular Culture [Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal Of Popular Culture And Pedagogy, Volume 1, Issue 1 (Spring 2014)], Lynnea Chapman King, Anna S. Cohenmiller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Classics and Contemporary Popular Culture [Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, Volume 1, Issue 1 (Spring 2014)] (Online only)

Editorial

Moving Popular Culture Studies Scholarship into the Future, Lynnea Chapman King and Anna S. CohenMiller

Guest Editorial

“καλὸν ἀνθρωπίνου βίου κάτοπτρον”: Popular Culture as a Pedagogical Lens on Greco-Roman Antiquity, Kirsten Day and Benjamin Haller

Part I: Epic Reconsiderations

Wounds that Will Not Heal: Heroism and Innocence in Shane and the Iliad, Carl A. Rubino

O Homer, Where Art Thou?: Teaching the Iliad and the Odyssey through Popular Culture, Mallory Young

The Odyssey and its Odyssey …

Video Game Review — Final Fantasy Xiv: Level Up Forever, Brian Cowlishaw

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Review of the video game Final Fantasy XIV: Level Up Forever.

Graphic Novel Review — The Adventures Of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’Ll Ever Need, Robert G. Weiner

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Review of Daniel H. Pink and Rob Ten Pas's book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, New York: Penguin, 2008.

Experiments In Love: Longus’ Daphnis & Chloe And Henry De Vere Stacpoole’S The Blue Lagoon, L. Kirsten Day

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Despite a chronological gulf of nearly two thousand years, the second century C. E. Greek romance writer Longus and the early twentieth century Irish novelist Henry de Vere Stacpoole were prompted to produce their best works by a similar motive: an urge to explore the world, and particularly the phenomenon of love and desire, from a standpoint of complete innocence. Although the resulting novels, Daphnis & Chloe and The Blue Lagoon respectively, have no evident direct connection, they exhibit surprising similarities not only in plot, setting, and characterization, but also in the values, perspectives, and worldviews they advance. The striking …

Ovid And Mel Gibson: Power, Vulnerability, And What Women Want, Geoff Bakewell

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Knowledge of Ovid is invaluable for analyzing Nancy Meyers’s film What Women Want (2000). Advertising executive Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a sexist, chauvinistic ladies’ man who acquires the ability to hear what women are thinking. He is in effect a second Tiresias, and this article examines him in light of the gender-bending seer from the Metamorphoses. Meyers links Nick’s miraculous transformation to his attempt to listen to women while simultaneously cross-dressing. He subsequently becomes an intermediary between the genders, especially on sexual matters. The article further examines the Nick/Tiresias parallel in light of Ovid’s treatment of other Theban …

The Labyrinth Of Memory: Iphigeneia, Simonides, And Classical Models Of Architecture As Mind In Chris Nolan’S Inception (2010), Benjamin Haller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Chris Nolan’s 2010 film Inception uses architecture as a language whereby to comment upon the relationship of the protagonist, Dom Cobb, with his deceased wife, Mal. This paper argues that three classical models – Homer’s tomb of Myrhine described in the Iliad, Iphigeneia’s dream of the collapse of the house of Agamemnon in Euripides’s Iphigeneia Among the Taurians, and Simonides’ Memory Palace mnemonic technique – manifest parallel uses of architecture as a metaphor for mind.

The film identifies each of its main characters – Dom, Mal, and Ariadne – with different architectures and with different modes of cognition. The …

300 And Fellini-Satyricon: Film Theory In The Tertiary Classroom, Leanne Glass

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Pedagogical practices in Reception-based courses on ancient Greece and Rome in film often focus on an individual film’s connections to its historical themes and meta-narrative. In contrast, courses based on Film Studies often focus pedagogical discourses on filmic techniques or the filmmaking process per se. Regularly, the two approaches remain discrete and discipline-based.

In view of this disjuncture in teaching approaches and foci, the intention of this paper is to explore the benefits of film theory, including its consideration of film technique, within Classical Reception courses. Therefore, the suggestion offered herein is that more emphasis on the pedagogies of Film …

Theseus Loses His Way: Viktor Pelevin’S Helmet Of Horror And The Old Labyrinth For The New World, Alison Traweek

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article explores the relationship between the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and Viktor Pelevin’s 2006 adaptation of it, The Helmet of Horror, particularly how it can serve as a case study for the nature and significance of adaptation. It examines the idea of memory, a central theme of the novel, and considers how three aspects of the original myth – the Minotaur, Ariadne’s thread, and the labyrinth itself – shape and inform Pelevin’s retelling. Each of these is unique to this myth in antiquity, and together, they structure the story. Each is also fundamentally connected to the …

The Odyssey And Its Odyssey In Contemporary Texts: Re-Visions In Star Trek, The Time Traveler’S Wife, And The Penelopiad, Mary Economou Bailey Green

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Homer’s The Odyssey is the archetypal quest story. The dialogue began with Homer, and contemporary texts and popular culture media have continued the tradition of deconstructing and recreating stories, addressing issues related to the human psyche. As Hardwick and Stray note, the relationship between ancient and modern is “not merely inherited but constantly made and remade,” one that we see in the following varied genres and versions that retell the Odyssean myth, relating re-visions of characters, relationships, structures, and themes. The original Star Trek episode “Who Mourns for Adonais” is an allegory of the Odyssean quest for human knowledge, while …