Community-Based Learning Commons^™

4‑H Efforts Toward Demographic Representation, 1980–2025: A State‑Of‑The‑Art Review (Part 1), Jeremy Elliott-Engel, Jeff Wayne Howard

Journal of Youth Development

This state-of-the-art review synthesizes 45 years of scholarship (1980–2025) to assess how effectively the 4-H program has worked to serve a demographically representative youth population. Drawing on academic and gray literature (n=99) sources, the review traces 4-H’s evolution from its segregated land grant origins to contemporary efforts focused on access, equity, inclusion, and belonging. It documents progress in culturally responsive programming and national diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) initiatives while highlighting persistent disparities in participation and benefit distribution. The review identifies effective strategies, enduring structural barriers, and areas where research and practice remain limited, offering a comprehensive foundation for understanding 4-H’s …

9th Gsep Research Symposium - 2025

GSEP Research Symposium

The Ninth Annual GSEP Research Symposium, themed "Building Bridges to Elevate Humanity: Innovations and Insights in Education and Psychology", was hosted by the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) on June 19–20, 2025, at the historic Château d’Hauteville in Switzerland and virtually via Zoom.

This hybrid symposium convened a vibrant global community of students, alumni, faculty, and scholars to share research that addresses real-world challenges, advances scholarly inquiry, and builds pathways for inclusive collaboration and leadership. Spanning a wide array of topics—from artificial intelligence and mental health to trauma-informed practices, educational equity, social justice, and cross-cultural leadership—the …

Peril And Promise: Student Experiences Of Virtual Reality And Implications For Inclusive Social Justice Pedagogy, Michelle Vannatta

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Virtual reality (VR) is a fast-evolving technology rapidly being integrated into education and training in multiple sectors of society. As the use of VR spreads, it is important to critically analyze both its role in effective pedagogies and how students experience it. Virtual reality has extraordinary promise for deeply engaging students, and it also poses particular challenges for equitable and effective teaching of diverse students. This paper discusses students’ responses to a VR exercise and examines some of the complexities VR presents around racial justice, gender equity, and economic fairness. Virtual reality technology may be less effective and less comfortable …

Exploring The Impact Of Community-Engaged Programs On Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability, Jennifer L. Jones, Kami L. Gallus, Amber Manning-Ouellette

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Positive outcomes for students have motivated educators to identify effective strategies for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in people with intellectual disability (ID), a minoritized population often excluded from DEI efforts. The current study investigated undergraduate student attitudes toward ID and compared changes in attitudes following participation in one of two community-engaged programs alongside adults with ID. Findings indicate both programs were effective in changing all three components of students’ attitudes: affect, cognition, and behaviors.

Determining Factors For Improved Uptake Of Harm Reduction Services In The United States: A Study Of Inclusive, Culturally Sensitive Messaging, Lauretta Ekanem Omale

Dissertations

Harm reduction refers to public health policies and programs aimed at decreasing the adverse consequences associated with drug use. While harm reduction services (e.g., syringe exchange programs) can mitigate health risks, marginalized groups face barriers to service access and utilization, partially due to ineffective messaging approaches that fail to align with cultural values and experiences. A one-size-fits-all approach to messaging can negatively impact service utilization, health outcomes, and health disparities. Ineffective communication can lead to poor adherence to treatment, poorer health outcomes, and increased adverse events.

Culturally insensitive communication contributes to stigma, mistrust, and lack of perceived relevance, discouraging service …

Calling All Students? Enrollment In Community-Engaged Learning Courses At A Marianist University, Molly Malany Sayre, Castel V. Sweet, Kelly Bohrer

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

‘Community’ is a pervasive concept at the University of Dayton, a Catholic, Marianist institution in Dayton, Ohio. As such, it was unknown how students who enrolled in community engaged learning (CEL) courses were different from their peers in demographic characteristics, previous experiential learning, and views of community engagement. Findings can inform CEL recruitment as well as evaluation of CEL outcomes, especially at institutions with a similar values orientation. This mixed-methods study indicates that among four semesters of students in three selected CEL courses, few differences were found with students in non-CEL control groups. One significant difference found was in racial …

Book Review: Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, Laura M. Stanton, Leo M. Taylor, Jenny M. Lobb, Pat Holmes, Steve Brady, Imani Scruggs

Journal of Youth Development

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race is a 2017 revised and updated edition to Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s original book written in 1997. The book explores decades of research on the psychology of racism, with an emphasis on the psychology of racial identity in Black, White, and other ethnic and cultural identities. The author helps readers gain a better understanding of historic and modern racism and the implications it has on individuals today. The book also contains important messages for people who work with diverse groups of adults and particularly …

Equity + Catalyst Framework Guide, Naomi M. Silas

Masters Projects

There has been a shift in society, in light of Covid-19 and the global pandemic, more people have begun to recognize the structural and institutional injustices that exist in this country. Social innovation allows collaboration between people from different sectors, disciplines, industries, and backgrounds; in order to create sustainable change to complex social issues. Design thinking is an iterative process used in business to create innovation and products; it’s also used for social impact.

The goal of the Equity + Catalyst Framework is to bridge concepts that include design thinking, and embodiment, as well as lived experiences and community care …

Best Of Friends, Barbara Ward

International Journal of Undergraduate Community Engagement

I wrote my story book based on diversity and to show empathy to people with differences. To teach kids that we are not all the same and yet each of us has our own value to this world. I wrote the book based on my family's dog and kitten and how they live with one another. The end result is that we just need to show love to each other in order to accept our differences.

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

Cultures, Madeline Martinson

International Journal of Undergraduate Community Engagement

This document is a poster I created after making and reading my book to the children on the Bells for Books book mobile. First I created a book about culture and diversity. Once I finished the book I went to the book mobile and read it to the children that were on the bus that day. After reading the book I reflected on culture and diversity and put my conclusions on this poster. The poster rejects on my process through my book Culture and reading it to the children and our class conception of diversity and ethics. I talk about …

Message From The President (Of Bsu), Ja'nai Harris

SURGE

Last night as a couple of my friends scrambled to find a classroom to do work in, they came across a poster that has been plastered all around campus for weeks now. This poster, however, was different. This poster was vandalized. The face of this year’s 10th Annual Derrick K. Gondwe Memorial Lecture, Opal Tometi, had been ripped off and the word “Black” was crossed out and replaced with the word “All.” This changed the quote from “Black Lives Matter” to “All Lives Matter.” [excerpt]

Diversity And Inclusion Faculty Fellowship, Jennifer Thomson

Bucknell: Occupied

Jennifer Thomson, assistant professor of History at Bucknell University, interviews Carmen Henne-Ochoa and Atiya Kai Stokes-Brown about their new roles as Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Fellows and their hopes for their roles. The discussion includes their experiences engaging the campus in discussions related to this topic and their efforts to influence the campus culture.

Racism Vs. Social Capital: A Case Study Of Two Majority Black Communities, Bruce W. Strouble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several researchers have identified social capital as a means to improve the social sustainability of communities. While there have been many studies investigating the benefits of social capital in homogeneous White communities, few have examined it in Black homogeneous communities. Also, there has been limited research on the influence of racism on social capital in African American communities. In this dissertation a comparative case study was used within a critical race theory framework. The purpose was to explore the role of racial oppression in shaping social capital in majority African American communities. Data were collected from 2 majority Black communities …

Fearless: Diversity Peer Educators, Center For Public Service

SURGE

The Diversity Peer Educators was started in the Fall of 2012 with the vision of starting conversations about and advocating for diversity issues and inclusion on this campus. Right off the bat, twelve students (of all different class years) were trained in how to facilitate those conversations and lead activities that make those conversations a little easier. Now, there are seventeen DPEs fearlessly making change at Gettysburg College. [excerpt]

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

A Call To Community: Some Thoughts For Student Affairs About Identity And Diversity, Jason A. Laker

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Who Owns Our Values? Back To School, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the sixth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Counting Quality, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the fifth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Transforming Experiences: The Benefits Of Intellectual Risk, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the fourth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.