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Faculty Perspectives on Equity, Diversity, Access, and Belonging in STEM Disciplines
No full textDespite the proliferation of initiatives on Equity, Diversity, Access, and Belonging (EDAB), STEM disciplines experience several inequities. Disparities continue to be evident in the underrepresentation of certain groups- Black, Indigenous, Latina, and women from historically marginalized and minoritized backgrounds in STEM fields. Additionally, low retention of students in STEM degree programs, especially for these minoritized students, is a national concern.
Notably, only a limited number of institutions of higher learning are addressing this concern by implementing initiatives that promote equity, diversity, access, and belonging (EDAB). This effort is evident in the professional developmental programs that these institutions design to equip faculty with strategies to foster inclusive classrooms. However, faculty perceptions and beliefs facilitate or hinder the implementation of these inclusive practices taught in these programs. Considering the critical position of faculty in shaping classroom climate and student experiences, it is safe to assume that faculty plays a vital role in contributing to students\u27 success in STEM. Thus, faculty perceptions may be a factor that could influence retention rates in STEM fields. Despite this, research exploring faculty perspectives remains limited, potentially leading to disengagement and undermining longterm goals to foster equity, inclusion, and representation in STEM disciplines.
This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews to investigate the perceptions of STEM faculty at a large Midwestern public institution. We seek to address three key research questions: (1) Does the current STEM climate at the institution align with the goals to foster equity, inclusion, and representation in STEM disciplines? (2) How effective do they perceive current STEM initiatives geared toward equity, inclusion, and representation in STEM disciplines at the institution? (3) What strategies do they employ to provide inclusive classroom instruction? This study has the potential to address these gaps and provide insight to institutional leaders, stakeholders, policymakers, and educators. The findings will be vital in formulating evidence-based strategies to enhance persistence in STEM, promote inclusion, and achieve representation within STEM disciplines
Evaluating Applied Theatre Interventions: A Case Study of the Asuboa Project
No full textThe efficacy of applied theatre remains a subject of debate, with some arguing that it fails to bring about meaningful change, while others, drawing on Augusto Boal’s philosophies, view it as a powerful tool for transformation. A key issue fueling this debate is the challenge of evaluating impact, as no universal method exists to measure outcomes. My research highlights the necessity of context-specific metrics to assess applied theatre’s effectiveness. I developed an evaluation framework for the Asuboa Project, one of my earliest applied theatre experiences in Africa that measures short- and long-term impacts at both community and individual levels. Using the Asuboa Project as a case study, my research traces the development, practice, and influence of applied theatre and argues that meaningful assessment requires evaluation tools tailored to specific contexts
Deaf/Hard of Hearing Early Childhood Education Movement and Math Study
No full textLanguage acquisition is directly related to number learning because of the strong correlation of vocabulary to number word learning. Deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) students who receive delayed exposure to language tend to fall behind their hearing peers in mathematics even though DHH individuals have the same foundational, non-symbolic cognitive systems that lay the foundation for mathematical development and a similar ability to learn from perceptual experience (Shusterman & Peretz- Lange, 2022). Through this research study, the team of researchers will be examining the impact of various math activities incorporating movement on Deaf preschool students’ counting, subitizing (quickly and fluently recognizing sets without counting individually), and problem-solving. Participants’ problem-solving, subitizing, and counting will be measured across conditions such as fine motor vs. gross motor activities; nonacademic movement prior vs not; and balance/coordination vs. reaction time activities. There is a strong link between body and mind in learning, so by increasing movement in the classroom, children are more actively engaged, and their brains are better prepared to learn (Kosmas et al., 2019).
The research team, which will be working closely with preschool DHH teachers, comprises faculty across various disciplines, including early childhood math, math education, physical education, and education of the deaf and hard of hearing, as well as two teacher candidates in the DHH program. The team will meet two times a week for one and a half hours with rotating conditions to see whether movement affects math acquisition in young DHH students. The students will be broken up into three groups, each group receiving a different treatment, and they will rotate treatments monthly. The groups will be broken up into fine motor math, gross motor math, and gross motor with no math. The alternating treatment design will allow researchers to evaluate and compare the conditions. Through this study, we are looking at three specific questions: 1) What is the impact of regular math activities incorporating movement on problem-solving, counting, and subitizing in preschool DHH students? 2) What do teacher candidates who are involved on an interdisciplinary team delivering math activities incorporating movement to DHH preschoolers see as benefits and obstacles to their teacher training? 3) How does engagement in this project impact selfefficacy to teach math to DHH students for DHH preschool teachers and teacher education candidates? Individual students will be analyzed to discover the possible effects of movement and to inform future math instruction for those students
Affect Frequency and Intensity as Determinants of Academic Major Satisfaction
No full textUsing two-wave data, this study clarifies the role of situational affect in determining college students’ satisfaction with their choice of major by measuring both emotion frequency and intensity. Positive emotion frequency and negative emotion intensity were significant predictors, suggesting that situational affect’s role in major satisfaction is nuanced
Where are the Criminologists?: The Persistent Absence of the Field in Genocide Research
No full textThe rallying cry of “Never Again” was heard worldwide after the Nazis’ annihilation of Jews and other victims were discovered after WWII. The global community promised that the crime of genocide would be prevented and signatory parties of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (December 9, 1948) would do everything in their power to prevent another Holocaust from occurring. Unfortunately, the “crime of all crimes” remains an almost permanent fixture in international news while signatory parties remain reluctant to call the ongoing conditions genocide. The field of genocide studies is built upon an interdisciplinary field of scholars but notably absent from the vast majority of that scholarship are criminologists, who are uniquely trained to reduce and prevent crimes of all types. This study aims to explore seven peer-reviewed genocide journals to determine the extent to which criminology and/or criminologists are present. Our findings demonstrate a continued lack of theoretical contributions and applications from the field of criminology/criminal justice to the study of genocide
AsiaConnect newsletter, February 22, 2025
Get PDFhttps://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/asiaconnect/1002/thumbnail.jp
AsiaConnect newsletter, April 30, 2025
Get PDFhttps://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/asiaconnect/1004/thumbnail.jp
Immigration Identity and Policy Choices: Exploring How Immigration Status Shapes Public Attitudes Toward Immigration Policy
Get PDFThis study explores how immigration background influences public attitudes toward immigration policy. The study employs social identity theory and assimilation theory, which elucidate how group affiliation and generational proximity influence political attitudes. Drawing on these theories, the study hypothesizes that individuals with closer ancestor migration ties are more likely to show higher levels of support for favorable policies for immigrants compared to those who have more distant ancestor migration ties. Utilizing the 2020 Cooperative Election Study (CES) data, the analysis incorporates key demographic and ideological variables as control variables, such as education, gender, age, and family income. The study found that, with demographic controls, relative to fourth- and higher-generation U.S. residents, favorable policy support for immigrants was slightly higher among first-generation non-naturalized immigrants, second-generation immigrants, and third-generation immigrants. However, when adding controls for political ideology and partisanship, fourth- and higher-generation U.S. residents only differed from first-generation non-naturalized immigrants in their more favorable policy support for immigrants. This conceptual foundation provides the critical lens for analyzing how immigrant generational status shapes public attitudes towards immigration policy preferences
Painting Pipelines: Kinship, Solidarity, and Ethnic Mobility Entrapment in Chicagoland\u27s Paint and Coatings Industry
No full textPaint and coatings are mostly considered as they relate to artistic expression, however, little has been said about how we primarily encounter these materials, in their functional form. Far less reflection has been given to the Latine workforce responsible for these materials’ ubiquity. Drawing primarily from autoethnographic insights and semi-formal interviews with a network of workers in Chicagoland’s commercial-industrial paint and coatings industry, this thesis addresses the questions1)How do paint and coatings shape our daily lives and its industry?; 2) How do Latine kinship structures shape labor in the paint and coatings industry?; and 3) How do workers in Chicagoland’s paint and coatings ethnic labor niche navigate between labor subjectivity and ethnic solidarity? By documenting how newcomers and undocumented workers are present commercial spheres via subcontracting, the upward mobility achieved through Latine kinship networks, and considering how technological advancements in this sphere necessitate specialization, I argue that the decentering of labor itself in studies about work has resulted in disjointed representations of how workers are connected to one another and propose “Labor niche entrapment” to consider upward mobility as a facet of entrapment. Ultimately, this thesis provides a historical account of paint and coatings, highlights the role of these materials in our daily lives, makes visible this specialized Latine labor force, and underscore how their kinship networks and industry demands are inextricably intertwined, and point out how attempts for solidarity, whether ethnic or occupational, reinforces labor niche entrapment and structures of power