Elements of Education
Asynchronous - Online Only
The Difference between Having an Education and Being Educated: Inclusive Excellence in Teaching
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Charlene Lane
In an epoch where individuals are constantly seeking knowledge and aspiring to attain a higher level of education, it is important to pause and critically analyze the salient differences between having an education and being educated. Teaching at a homogeneous, predominantly Christian institution for many years has elucidated the key differences in attaining an education and becoming educated. It is important to note, without a doubt, pedagogy impacts learning outcomes; with that being said. This institution of higher learning, in its attempt to create space for inclusivity in the class room. This is being done by establishing an Inclusive Excellence Academy (of which I am the co-leader). The main purpose of the academy being to take a deeper dive into the nuance of educating faculty members about meeting the needs of learners form a plethora of backgrounds, abilities, cultures etc. evidenced by the reconstructing of curriculum design.
Assessment Models and Strategies for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEM Programs View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jessica Gonzalez
The civil engineering department of the College of Engineering at California State University Long Beach is committed to the standards and ethics of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and recognizes that performative actions are not satisfactory to ensure a truly diverse and inclusive college. Rather, the intent and aspiration is to break down systemic barriers of racial, gender, and other inequalities made to suppress the diverse contributions of underrepresented communities. Through methodologically observing faculty and student demographics, as well as seeking student input and distributing a survey, focus is directed toward areas of outreach, curriculum and teaching, research, mentoring, graduation and advancement, staffing, and departmental climate in order to reveal opportunities for improvement within the department. As a result, the department will become more diverse, intentionally practicing equity policies, and inclusive of all students, faculty, and staff regardless of their background or identity.
Oppression in Social Work Education - How Do Personal Experiences of Oppression and Privilege Impact Higher Educators’ Pedagogy?: A Qualitative Study Using Constructivism to Explore Oppression and Its Impact
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephanie Rudd
Social work has deep roots in and a commitment to social justice and eliminating and addressing the oppression of people of diverse backgrounds. This commitment is based on the National Association of Social Work 2021 Code of Ethics. In order for social workers to learn how to ethically challenge social injustice with cultural humility, they need to develop a high level of self-awareness, or critical consciousness (Freire, 2003) and commitment to marginalized groups. This makes the role of a social work educator a critical one. Social work educators have their own biases and experiences of oppression and privilege. In order to support and prepare social work students with the skills of self-awareness and cultural humility, the educator must analyze their pedagogy, such as the inclusion of Black, Indigenous, and People of color (BIPOC) authors, the use of open dialogue, and engagement in creating and supporting brave spaces, while accurately describing social work history. Specifically, social work educators need to be aware of their social positioning in which oppression and/or privilege shape their realities, since this impacts their sense of self and teaching practices. This study applies qualitative research methods to investigate whether social work educators' social positioning and the associated privilege or oppressive experiences are important to understand their pedagogical and instructional practices/strategies relative to anti-oppression.
One Does Not Fit All: Applying Anti-bias Trainings in Academia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Linda Steuer Dankert, Julia Berg-Postweiler, Carmen Leicht-Scholten
Anti-bias trainings are increasingly demanded and practiced in academia and industry to increase employees’ sensitivity to discrimination, racism, and diversity. Under the heading of "Diversity Management", anti-bias trainings are mainly offered as one-off workshops intending to raise awareness of unconscious biases, create a diversity-affirming corporate culture, awake awareness of the potential of diversity, and ultimately enable the reflection of diversity in development processes. However, coming from childhood education, research and scientific articles on the sustainable effectiveness of anti-bias in adulthood, especially in academia, are very scarce. In order to fill this research gap, the paper explores how sustainable the effects of individual anti-bias trainings on the behavior of participants are. In order to investigate this, participant observation in a qualitative pre-post setting was conducted, analyzing anti-bias trainings in an academic context. Two observers actively participated in the training sessions and documented the activities and reflection processes of the participants. Overall, the results question the effectiveness of single anti-bias trainings and show that a target-group adaptive approach is mandatory due to the background of the approach in early childhood education. Therefore, it can be concluded that anti-bias work needs to be adapted to the target group's needs and reality of life. Furthermore, the study reveals that single anti-bias trainings must be embedded in a holistic diversity management approach to stimulate sustainable reflection processes among the target group. This paper is one of the first to scientifically evaluate anti-bias training effectiveness, especially in engineering sciences and the university context.
The Missing Books in Australian Children’s Literature: An Australian-Filipino Author’s Journey to Representation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kristyn Maslog Levis
This paper discusses my own experience as an Australian-Filipino children’s and young adult (CYA) author trying to get traditionally published in Australia. After self-publishing two picture books and traditionally publishing three bestselling YA books with a Philippine publisher, I raise the question as to why the Australian publishing industry has not traditionally published a CYA book from the community in two decades, especially since the Aus-Fil community is the third largest Asian community in Australia. The paper covers my journey as an author — how I started, why I started, the steps I took to get traditionally published via a Philippine publisher, how I landed an Australian agent and the struggles of getting a publisher in Australia as well as getting recognised as an author. It contributes to the understanding of the struggles of writers of colour in Australia and discusses the realities of Aus-Fil writers.
Mapping the Destructive Mind of COVID-19 on Instruction and Learning View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session James P. Takona
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly and unprecedentedly impacted many areas of life, work, family, and teaching and learning at all levels. The global pandemic outbreak shocked the world and brought it to an unprecedented standstill; that included education! This change caused widespread, devastating disruption in all aspects of human life, creating unexpected turbulence in society and the economy. Beyond the health and economic sectors, the education system was most affected, dramatically shifting the approaches of those charged to teach and expected to learn. To ensure the safety of faculty, staff, and students and to comply with the requirement of social distancing, thousands of P-12 schools, colleges, and universities had to cancel all face-to-face classes, including labs and other learning experiences and mandated that courses be moved online to maintain instruction. The onset of the pandemic outbreak caused a shift in fundamental learning experiences. At its height, students across the globe were obliged to take all their classes remotely. In addition to teaching and learning, institutions at levels moved various other critical academic activities online. In this study, we consider how, given the challenges of online instruction, combined with the time and support it takes for faculty, both higher education and P-12 classroom, to become proficient in teaching online, fundamental learning experiences instructors provided to their students were not optimally implemented.
Educating for Global, Diverse Audiences: Learning to Share Ideas, Listen, Self-reflect, and Learn View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anita Ogurlu
Individuals, organizations, and communities across the globe have been working to respond to the impact of migration and movement of peoples across cultures, borders and countries. This movement has led to rich cross cultural learnings and exchanges, but also challenges when individuals and communities have not had opportunity to take stock of their own perceptions, biases, and assumptions. The aim of this study is to describe the work, lessons, and implications from an innovative community education project aimed at responding to these challenges. The project uses an online platform with diverse performing, dialogue, and presentation styles that are aligned with the rich multicultural, intercultural teaching and learning styles of new arrivals, diasporic, and host community members. Using qualitative research methods to evaluate the project, the organizers conclude that the diversity of creative presentations, presenters, storytellers, and performers in an online platform format offers lessons to educators and community practitioners to develop opportunities for learners to listen to diverse voices, stop and reflect on the relevance to their own life experiences, and participate in transformational learning journeys. In addition, the project organizers recognized the importance of systematically integrating a strong media and communications strategy into all work in order ensure impact beyond the networks that are already familiar to them.
Culturally Inclusive Classroom: Best Practices in California
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zeneida Parente Alves Neta
Educators in California have been recognizing the need of promoting equity in education in order to close the achievement gap in a diverse community. Teachers and school administrators can promote equity by recognizing, respecting, and attending to the distinct strengths and challenges facing the students they serve. High-quality schools differentiate curriculum, services, and resource distribution to meet the unique needs of their learners. This paperl highlights the difficulties, possibilities, and resources available in California classrooms. It presents a conversation on how educators may establish a culturally inclusive classroom, one that embraces diversity and inclusion in the classroom while encouraging students to disseminate the values of inclusion and cultural respect in their daily lives. Best practices feature ideas, recommendations, and tactics for reaching out to culturally diverse students
