Educational Advances (Asynchronous Session)
The iBelieve Initiative: A Success Program for African American Men at a Power Five American University View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alishia Ferguson, Jl Jennings
Power 5 refers to 64 North American Universities that belong to five prominent athletic conferences and offer strong academic and research programs, but also have a significant stake in athletics; e.g. American Football and Basketball. Power 5 Universities show low enrollment of African-American men (2.4%). However, these men make up at least 55% of the football and basketball teams in their schools (Harper, 2018). Additionally, the six-year graduation rates for African-American men are much lower (55.2%) than graduation rates over all (76.3%) (Harper, 2018). While graduation rates for African American male student athletes are on par with African American students, rates are much lower than student athletes (68%) in other ethnic or racial groups (Harper, 2018). At the University of Arkansas where iBelieve was developed, African American males make up only 2% of the student body, however, represent at least 50% of the athletes. The overall 6-year graduation rate for African American male students was 30% in 2010 when the rate of graduation overall was 62%. The iBelieve Initiative was designed to improve retention and success of African American male students. iBelieve encourages participants to develop an identity as a scholar, an owner mindset and resiliency skills. Although iBelieve was developed and funded through athletics, this program focuses on African American male students – athletes and non-athletes. This case study describes development of this innovative program including curriculum, social connections and preparation for career. The authors also discuss evaluation efforts and plans for the future of the program.
Second-language Learners from Collectivistic Societies: Performance and Career Success
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Carlos Parra, Nanci Geriguis Mina
Learning takes place, and is reaffirmed, through social events when referring to Second Language Acquisition (SLA), and from the perspective of the Sociocultural Theory (SCT) (Cook, 2008). From an SCT perspective, SLA is altered by the complexities of the Second-language Learner’s (SLL) environment (Vygotski, 1978). In addition, Bandura’s (1977) social persuasion theory asserts that having a knowledgeable and ethical mentor can significantly influence the person’s self-efficacy by providing mastery experiences. Bandura (1982) emphasizes that self-efficacy influences their functioning cognitively, motivationally, emotionally, and in their decision making process. In addition, self-efficacy is perceived to accelerate the process of adapting to a new environment while learners adopt new cultures and consent to norms and expectations. In our exploration, SLLs from collectivistic societies advance academically—learning English as a second language included—within the frame of SCT, since they are motivated by their culturally-induced sense of obligation to honor their parents and other group members. These SLLs are positively influenced by their prior experiences with the group’s perceptions and expectations of their capability to learn an additional language (Bandura & Schunk, 1981; Schunk, 1991). In this study, we explore whether or not this outcome is enhanced by the self-efficacy and self-reliance generated by prior successes in challenging tasks that may have been mandated by the SLL’s elders. Additionally, we explore whether SLLs succeed in accomplishing more challenging goals when they observe their families’ values and traditions even when they are in societies that enforce individualistic values.
Now More Than Ever: Diversity and the Need to Cultivate Cross-cultural Leadership and Collaboration
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kenneth Roth, Zack Ritter
This paper revisits a 2014 book chapter (Diversity and the Need for Cross-Cultural Leadership and Collaboration) in which the authors argued cross-cultural leadership.and collaboration no longer is an option but an obligation, in all corporate and educational settings. The earlier work examined ongoing areas of insensitivity and focused on practices and policies individuals and organizations needed to develop in order to accommodate diversity, and maintain it. Despite this clear roadmap and continued calls for diversity in all sectors of US society, we argue now organizations have paid a great deal of lip service to diversity but haven't followed through with the reorganization and practices necessary to accommodate diversity. In fact, we argue diversity has suffered in the Trump era, and even greater effort is needed now as a result. Certainly, international student interest in studying in the US has waned, and since interaction across culture both requires and invigorates diverse learning and working environments, the decline in international student enrollment may be a precursor to darker days ahead, since international students not only diversify the intellectual climate of college campuses and work places, they also contribute about $45 billion annually to the US economy – almost three times as much as the National Football League. Business and Education leaders must make diversity actionable in their organizations, and that requires both the admission and action that the organization is not optimally diverse.
Afro-aesthetics and Hair: Bringing Diversity to our Curriculum with Theme-based Courses View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ana Zapata Calle
This paper explores the experience of teaching an interdisciplinary and transnational course with a common theme, in this case, Afro-aesthetics and hair. At the University of West Georgia, this class can be used to meet Core Area C-1 for Fine Arts, Core Area C-2 for Humanities, or as one of the requirements for the recently created Bachelor in Interdisciplinary Studies. My course on Afro-Aesthetics and Hair is just an example of how diversity and interdisciplinary studies can be included in our curriculum. Through the semester, we discuss the History of the African American people while reviewing the hair industry, aesthetics, and practices. In our weekly work, besides reading and discussing History, we bring artistic artifacts from different countries that have hair and aesthetics as a common theme. This helps us to identify some of the cross-culture similarities in the Diaspora of the Afro-descendant communities. I divide my discussion into three parts. First, I explain how this course brings diversity to our curriculum in multiple ways. Secondly, I mention some of the challenges and difficulties that I encountered. And finally, I discuss the accomplishments that are possible to achieve.
The Wins and the Pitfalls : What Happened When Law Lecturers at a UK University Were Asked to Decolonise Their Curricula and Implement Changes to Make the Classroom a More Inclusive Environment? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tina McKee, Rachel Nir
There has been a move by UK universities to begin decolonising their degree curricula and to consider ways of making the classroom environment more inclusive. Journal articles and conference papers have emerged on possible methods and approaches, but little has been said about the response of academic staff to implementing these changes. In reality, unless teaching staff on the ground embrace this process, any changes made are at risk of patchy implementation and of only limited effect. At worst, they may be little more than tokenistic. Tina McKee and Rachel Nir designed, were charged with the implementation of a decolonised curriculum for Year 1 of the Law degree at the University of Central Lancashire. But how did staff respond? As part of the review process, interviews were conducted with a number of year 1 staff. How confident were lecturers in making changes to their syllabuses and in implementing measures to improve inclusion in the classroom? The results were both interesting and surprising.
Teacher Leadership Practiced in Chinese Vocational Schools View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Xiaoying Wang, Ming Yi
Teacher leadership plays a very important role in increasing of education reform initiatives around the world. The current teaching profession in Chinese education is very challenging, and teachers must be prepared to deal with it. The role of teacher leadership in Chinese education reform continues to receive attention. The purpose of this study is to explore teachers’ perception of teacher leadership practice and the influence of gender, age, teacher education level, teaching experience, and other variables on teacher leadership practice in vocational schools. The Teacher Leadership School Survey (TLSS) was administered to 157 teachers in the vocational schools in Shenyang City, located in Liaoning Province in North China. The results of descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance show that in the sample vocational schools, the frequency of teacher leadership practice is often. In addition, data analysis shows that teachers' perceptions of teacher leadership practice vary significantly with age and teaching experience. The gender and education level of teachers were not significant factors. Finally, the data analysis concludes the strengths and weaknesses of teacher leadership in the specific practical activities of vocational schools. The implication of these results help to better align leadership training with the needs of particular teachers and support school improvement.
