Erin Pearson, assistant professor of English, noticed a pattern she hadn鈥檛 expected while teaching a literature survey course that caused her to ask: How should a professor pivot their pedagogy practices when they start to see a disciplinary course fill with non-majors to keep them engaged and interested in the topic?

During her early years teaching at 黑料不打烊, Pearson had expected to teach mostly students who were majoring in literature and had designed traditional assignments that asked students to write literary analysis essays. However, she quickly discovered that her courses filled with non-major students, seeing only five students out of 30 within the major.

“It just didn鈥檛 seem to work right,” Pearson said about her initially prepared assignments. “I felt like the students weren鈥檛 interested in it. They weren鈥檛 producing things that felt particularly engaged or exciting. And I thought, 鈥業 need something different because this is a group of students who aren鈥檛 necessarily coming to the table passionate about studying literature,'” Pearson said. “So, how do I figure out an assignment that gets them engaged and interested聽but also gets them thinking about why we do literary studies in general?鈥�

Getting students engaged and interested can be a challenge in any course, but perhaps particularly challenging when the amount of engagement on an assignment differs between major and non-major students. Pearson began searching for ways to alter her assignment to better fit the needs of the students in her class. She worked through the initial idea generation of her new assignment through several consultations with a CATL team member, which ended with an assignment asking students to pitch a literary work to Netflix. Excited about the prospects of this new assignment lining up with students鈥� interest, Pearson notes that the first try did not go as planned:

鈥淭he first iteration of the assignment in my project that I did was, frankly, a hot mess because I realized 鈥� only after I taught it 鈥� that I assigned it as a Netflix pitch, but I had all of these requirements in the assignment that were essentially 鈥榪uote literary texts directly and then analyze the quotation鈥�, which were all requirements that were basically still traditional literary analysis stuff.

I got these Frankenstein assignments, the poor students, where they were like 鈥榙o you want us to be pitching to Netflix or do you want us to be doing a literary analysis?鈥�. That was my fault 鈥� I was having trouble letting go of those expected disciplinary genres.听

However, there were a couple of students who, through their own talent, got around my confusion about what I wanted and wrote these incredibly innovative essays鈥nd I鈥檓 so grateful to those students. The handful of essays that managed to be something that felt new and different, not like a typical literary analysis but nonetheless were able to get to really smart insight about literary text, they are the ones that helped me see I needed to jettison all of the trappings of traditional literary analysis and embrace this more creative approach 鈥� like a letter to Netflix.鈥�

Once she implemented the revised assignment in her class, she was surprised to learn that this non-traditional assignment not only allowed students to articulate the value of literary studies, but it also helped them develop skills that they could apply to a later more traditional literary analysis essay. She thought these findings would be helpful to other faculty and decided to pursue a SOTL project about the experience, which was recently published in the SoTL article: 鈥溾�� (2021).

Throughout Pearson鈥檚 project design process, she worked with several 黑料不打烊 colleagues. Early on, the Center for Writing Excellence and their Summer Writing Institute program helped her think about scaffolding an assignment. Then, a CATL team member was 鈥渋nstrumental in providing examples of other literary scholars who do work in SoTL and who talk about adapting the methodologies that we use in literary scholarship and applying them to SoTL鈥�.

Pearson consulted with a CATL team member to further develop her SoTL project design and submitted a successful protocol to 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Institutional Review Board (IRB) to be able to collect data. This was followed by participating in CATL鈥檚 summer Writing Residency, which Pearson credits as providing her access to 鈥渄ifferent sets of eyes, particularly outside of my field鈥� to review her initial drafts, allowing her to figure out if she was 鈥渙rienting or pitching [her assignment] in a way that was going to make sense to a broader audience鈥�.

Based on her experience, Pearson offers four pieces of advice for colleagues considering or starting a SoTL project to keep in mind:

1. Don鈥檛 be scared to try SoTL. I had some preconceived ideas that the methodology would be close to social science work, so as a humanities person, I thought I might not have the methodological background needed for SoTL work. I had to expand my sense of what a SoTL project looked like and the way it could pull from my own expertise 鈥� it was really powerful.
2. Then, actually try it! SoTL wasn鈥檛 something that I knew existed before I came to 黑料不打烊 鈥� it just had not been on my radar at all, but, 黑料不打烊 is a place that values evidence-based teaching 鈥� so again, try it!
3. Faculty at 黑料不打烊 have access to the resources needed to become better and more thoughtful teachers 鈥� take advantage of that. Even though SoTL is totally outside of all the other scholarship that I’ve done in my existing scholarly expertise, I was able to get the support I needed. And, there are a lot of really generous smart people who are willing to help you build and conceive of the project here at 黑料不打烊.
4. If you have a problem or issue in your class, it is likely other people are having it too, and you may need to expand what a SoTL project can look like 鈥� that problem/issue can be a powerful initial research question to figure out how to investigate this further.

If you are interested in reading Pearson鈥檚 full article, please follow the link below. If you are interested in learning more about the Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning鈥檚 programs or would like to talk with a CATL faculty member about designing, implementing, or deepening a SoTL project, you can visit their site online at /u/academics/catl/ or email them at catl@elon.edu with questions.

Recently published work by Erin Pearson cited in this article:

Have you ever wondered how teachers know how to, or decide to, teach their classes or where did this assignment come from? Have you ever tried teaching someone something and considered, 鈥渨ho thought of doing this, this particular way鈥� or 鈥淚 wish this could be done differently鈥�? At higher education institutions, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) work is used to reflect and research teaching practices in order to relate, identify, or discover best practices.

Many SoTL projects don鈥檛 begin as identified SoTL work, but rather evolve from disciplinary research that intertwines with student learning outcomes. Such is the case when looking at the work over the last few years of Mussa Idris, an associate professor of anthropology and one of seven 黑料不打烊 faculty co-authors who recently published SoTL work in the article “.”

Idris is a cultural and applied anthropologist. He鈥檚 taught undergraduate classes in anthropology, sociology and African studies for more than a decade now. When talking to Idris about his time at 黑料不打烊 and the variety of programs that help to morph his research work into published SoTL work, there seemed to be a common thread among all his stories of 鈥渃uriosity鈥�.

While Idris can often be seen on campus teaching courses such as Culture & Business, Qualitative Research Methods, and Anthropological Theory, his research allows him to be involved beyond the classroom in local and global communities. His ongoing research project works with immigrants in Greensboro in partnership with a refugee resettlement agency to better understand the adjustment processes that refugees go through when first arriving in North Carolina. The refugee populations Idris works with come from over 20 different countries.

Idris describes his research work as having an 鈥渆thnographic focus鈥�, where ethnography is the study of a group of people in their own environment through activities such as observation and interviews, and he uses ethnographic methods to better understand the challenges and opportunities of both the refugees and the resettlement agency workers.

鈥淚 am interested in the question of integration of refugees and immigrants who are new to the area,” Idris says when talking specifically about his experiences in Greensboro. “So, in my qualitative research methods class, I introduce the students to my research practice. At least one of them became more curious about observing my work.鈥�

Idris says 鈥渁t least one,鈥� but there have been many students he has mentored or co-mentored outside of the normal classroom experience after they鈥檝e taken one of his courses. Two of these students offer early examples of students with curiosities in his ethnographic methodology practice after taking his qualitative research methods class (Leena Dahal 鈥�17听补苍诲 Josephine Gardner 鈥�17). Work with these students started with them observing Idris at the resettlement agency and blossomed into collaborative research where the students and their ideas directly impacted Idris鈥� work and research.

鈥淸Leena] expanded my curiosities from my initial interest in East and Central Africa to include South Asia,” Idris says. “I always engage students in the design process of the research and community engagement in such a way that they can learn from a real-world experience. The students get to learn how to design a research question, they have ethical research training, get training on cultural orientation, learn how to engage with people who work at the resettlement agency, and even just meet people who are coming from an international setting to Greensboro. For example, we started to invite refugee families to campus activities like college coffee and have students visit with families. The practice is for them to observe then, from those experiences, develop their own research 鈥� it鈥檚 a scaffolded introduction that can allow students to later participate in the development of their country.鈥�

(Learn more about or Josephine鈥檚 research (pgs. 23-37))

It is clear that Idris鈥� mentoring experiences have shaped some of his pedagogy practices and his anthropology mindset directs his focus on bettering student interactions in an applicable way. One pedagogy change he mentioned was simply changing some of the examples he gives in class so that they were more applicable to 黑料不打烊 students and warranted more active engagement in class. He wants his examples to be relatable and allow students to understand how something like ethnographic methods can be applicable to their lives.

Reflecting on his early teaching days, Idris says that he expected to train students in traditional ethnographic methods and that鈥檚 how he started. However, after coming to 黑料不打烊 and thinking about 鈥渢he 黑料不打烊 context,鈥� he credits the 鈥�黑料不打烊 Teacher-Scholar Statement鈥� as the guide to the culture at 黑料不打烊, one where the classroom is engaged and faculty are dedicated to modeling and sharing their knowledge through activities like high-quality undergraduate research mentoring. For him, the ability to mentor students at a high-quality level 鈥渃ame later on as a result of learning experiences.鈥�

Idris鈥� learning experiences at 黑料不打烊 and through his research are extensive and he didn鈥檛 seem to leave anything uncredited. In addition to groups already mentioned, Idris included many other programs and groups: the Honors Thesis Committee (member), Spring Undergraduate Research Forums (SURF), Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE), the Lumen Prize Program, the , Multi-Faith Scholar program (mentor), Provost Scholar (mentor), South Asia Research Group at 黑料不打烊 (SARGE), 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies (PERCS), the Center for Advancement of Teaching & Learning (CATL) Grant (awardee), 黑料不打烊 College 鈥� the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS), and the Center for Leadership.

In thinking about the different influences Idris鈥� had, he credits his collaboration with the Center for Research on Global Engage (CRGE) and joining a CRGE Community of Practice (CoP) on undergraduate research mentoring practices as the turning point in his research that added the layer of SoTL to his disciplinary work.

鈥淲hat the CoP allowed was for me to focus on mentoring practices鈥eflection in collaboration with colleagues who are also doing the same work鈥llowing us to develop our own mentoring models and just get published this year in 2022,鈥� Idris says.

SoTL work is important and benefits current and future faculty alike. Hopefully, Idris鈥� story is a reflection of that and surely something to celebrate. If your own curiosities are peaked and you鈥檇 like to learn more about some of the mentoring practices that came out the CoP that Mussa Idris was a part of, please use the link below to read the full article. If you are interested in learning more about the CRGE, their current CoPs, or other programs they facilitate, please visit their website at: /u/academics/crge/.

Recently published work co-authored by Mussa Idris and cited in this article:

With a myriad of technologies, methodologies, pedagogies and other Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) resources available, 黑料不打烊 faculty often seek and incorporate real-life examples into their classroom to engage their students while also giving them practice with knowledge and skills applicable to employment opportunities students may encounter after graduating.

The practice of using real-life examples in the classroom has been around for decades, so why do we continue to see students who perceive content and materials as not relevant for their lives? This is the type of question Assistant Professor of Economics Brooks Depro, sought to answer through a SoTL project during the last few years focused on an Introductory Economics course that resulted in his recently published article titled, 鈥溾��.

When he started teaching full time at 黑料不打烊 in 2017, Depro brought more than 20 years of professional experience consulting in the environmental economics industry including research on the economics of environmental justice. He wanted to merge his extensive background and knowledge of real-world experiences in environmental economics with what he was teaching, learning and researching in the classroom.

“As part of my research goals, I wanted to have traditional research like what I was doing in the consulting industry, but I also wanted research related to how I was learning in the classroom and sharing ideas with other people and how to do that formally,” Depro says.

Depro was able to provide many real-world applications of environmental economics in his courses through different assignments but wanted to find out how students perceived these examples and if they understood their applicability. He started this inquiry process by reaching out to the Center of Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) and taking advantage of their Mid-Semester Focus Groups (MSFGs):

鈥淚鈥檝e used CATL鈥檚 Mid-Semester Focus Groups, and many times, I鈥檒l get feedback related to the entire class and these specific assignments,” Depro says. “So, I pay attention to those things. And, now that I鈥檝e done those MSFGs a couple of times, I now do my own kind of mid-semester feedback questions鈥nowing what the benefits are and the suggestions that come from asking the question 鈥� like tweaking the course at mid-semester if need be. This is something I always do now, I make small adjustments after receiving feedback from students, and they appreciate that, and it鈥檚 helped with course design.”

This program isn鈥檛 the only influence Depro attributes to effectively designing relatable assignments and engaging students. He notes a variety of experiences that contributed to his teaching over the past several years, including: being able to participate in a pilot clicker program as an adjunct using the Think/Share/Pair model through CATL and Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT); working with the Center for Writing Excellence as a Disciplinary Writing Consultant; being on a team that was award a CATL Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grant (DIG); and work with his department, the Department of Economics in the Martha & Spencer Love School of Business.

鈥淚 tried a new specification grading guideline this semester and got some good suggestions that helped me develop this pilot that I鈥檓 doing,” Depro says, giving a special shout-out to consultations with the CATL team. “So that鈥檚 great 鈥搚ou can send an email, and the team is very responsive, providing a lot of good ideas that I can read and independently decide what I need to do.鈥�

After several iterations of researching, testing and adjustments based on student feedback, Depro developed an assignment that worked well in his economics course and could work well for not only other economics professors but professors in other disciplines as well. This is when Depro decided to participate in CATL鈥檚 summer Writing Residency, which allowed him to take what he had done in the class and put it on paper to formally talk about his three-module assignment design:

鈥�I would never have thought that I would get a journal article idea out of these three ideas that I鈥檝e been working on,” Depro says. “But, getting the ideas written down on paper helps. The journal article and some of my other SoTL work that I鈥檓 doing with Katy Rouse were motivated by the summer writing residency program with CATL. It emphasized getting writing done and working in teams and in writing groups鈥ith the key benefit of the program being the encouragement to get into a writing group, having reviewers and that process that includes other people outside the economics department, and getting feedback on the paper before submitting it.鈥�

Depro鈥檚 SoTL article, 鈥溾�� contains many great ideas on how to develop assignments. In the first of three modules described in this article, Depro provides 鈥渃ontext-rich problem design鈥� that aims to help students make a personal connection to the material. The second and third modules described help students engage with the material and consider the ethics behind different real-world decisions. He concludes the article with supplementary materials and tips for instructors wishing to use one or more of the modules in their class.

When asked what advice Depro would give to other faculty who might want to try to do SoTL work, work on their assignments, or perhaps try to get their work published.

鈥�It takes your own initiative. CATL [and other faculty development supports on campus] broadcast many great opportunities,” Depro says. “Still, it is very easy to let the semester flow prevent you from taking advantage of opportunities. What I usually do at the beginning of each semester is take a look at the list of ideas and force myself to at least pick one idea to either participate in or think about during the year for my annual review, which has been a pretty good commitment device鈥hat and getting it written down on paper. The published paper and one currently under review were developed over multiple years 鈥� it鈥檚 not like they magically appeared. Rather, they were built over time and gave me time to reflect on what worked and what didn鈥檛 for each module. It takes a long process of tweaking and getting feedback to get them to work well in the classroom.鈥�

SoTL benefits current and future faculty within and across disciples alike. If you are interested in learning more about the Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning鈥檚 programs or to talk with a CATL faculty member about designing, implementing, or deepening a SoTL project, you can visit their site online at /u/academics/catl/ or email them at catl@elon.edu with questions.

Recently published work by Brooks Depro cited in this article:

A second article developed during the CATL鈥檚 summer Writing Residency is currently under review.

Since 2011, this grant program has supported small faculty teams in developing projects focused on inclusive pedagogies, assignments, content and strategies to foster learning about human diversity. Previously awarded Diversity & Inclusion Grants and final reports and recommendations can be found on the CATL website.

This year鈥檚 diversity and inclusion grant winners were selected from a highly competitive application pool and include the following teams for various educational departments:

Economics

Steve DeLoach, Brooks Depro and Casey DiRienzo from the Department of Economics will be working on a project called, “Developing Repository of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Materials for Principles of Economics Courses.”

Using the guidance from a recent analysis encouraging economics instructors to focus on “Relevance, Belonging and Growth Mindsets,” the team will develop a repository of economics-specific DEI materials that can easily be used across the multi-section course Principles of Economics (ECO 1000). They will assess their project by incorporating relevant questions in their existing assurance of learning program and their results will be shared with the economics department.

Education and Wellness

Faculty members within the Department of Education, including Lisa Buchanan, Allison Bryan, Mark Enfield, Katie Baker, and Nermin Vehabovic, will use the grant to work on a DEI project titled, “Critical Love and Elementary Teacher Candidates: Aligning Methods Courses and Field Experience Towards Clear DEI Outcomes.”

Their project aims to align the four elementary methods courses and co-requisite field experiences to build on teacher candidates’ continuum of development as intercultural, anti-racist, culturally responsive teachers who understand how to design and implement equity-based practices; integrate and expand upon candidates’ experiences in the ILCP through Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s Critical Love framework as they (re)design the four methods courses and field experiences; and partner with the School of Education’s Curriculum Resources Center to implement programming around Critical Love and curate resources for teacher candidates and faculty towards these aims.

English and Belk Library

An interdisciplinary team of faculty and librarians will work together for this DIG project, including Lina Kuhn, lecturer in English, Patrick Rudd, coordinator of Library Instruction, Shannon Tennant, coordinator of Library Collections, Heather Lindenman, assistant professor of English, Michael Smith, adjunct instructor in English, and Ayla Samli, adjunct assistant professor of English.

Their project, “Investigating Information Systems: Access, Creation, Misinformation and Privilege,” aims to investigate existing systems of information collection and dissemination, including how such systems can often be inequitable and potentially harmful.

They will focus on four distinct aspects of information systems within the context of ENG 1100 courses: how data algorithms play into information distribution, the publication and prevalence of misinformation, missing and marginalized perspectives in published research and privilege in access to information. After researching these distinct areas, they aim to create a repository of materials (lesson plans, activities, writing assignments), which will then be shared with the wider community through workshops, conferences, and special events.

World Languages and Cultures: Classical Studies

Department of World Languages and Cultures faculty Kristina Meinking and Tedd Wimperis will focus on their research “Diversifying Antiquity: Diversity and Inclusion in a Classical Mythology Course.”

The team notes that classical studies occupy a particular position as a discipline historically implicated in Eurocentrism and colonialist ideologies. This project seeks to disrupt those narratives by highlighting antiquity鈥檚 truly multicultural character and its value to inclusive social discourse today. Their work will center on the development and integration of DEI-focused content, assignments and assessments to capture student learning across sections of CLA 1100: Classical Mythology. The team will situate their work in best practices from both the discipline and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to create, test and assess the impact of content-based interventions in this course.

Music

Department of Music faculty Cora Palfy, Gerald Knight, Fred Johnson and Stephen Futrell are collaborating on a project titled, “Music Department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Student Perceptions Survey.”

Their project connects to current DEI efforts in the field of music, as national organizations have realized that to enhance the impact on those served (e.g. students, performers, audiences, etc.), they need to consider social issues. Their project will build on such efforts across subdisciplines, such as the College Music Society鈥檚 鈥淭ransforming Music Study from its Foundations鈥� publication, the National Association of Schools of Music Handbook for Accreditation (which includes updated standards for diversity of backgrounds and expertise represented within faculty members) and the National Association for Music Education鈥檚 DEI standards into the National Core Arts Standards.

Through this project, the team plans to determine if, or where, 黑料不打烊 music students are engaging with DEI issues and implement changes in music curriculum based on their findings to help students better understand DEI issues in music.

These new CATL Scholars join 50 other CATL scholars including current scholars Margaret Chapman (English), Andrew Greenland (economics), Kevin Bourque (English) and Brandon Sheridan (economics).

罢丑别听CATL Scholar program聽fosters innovative and scholarly teaching and learning. Echoing the 黑料不打烊 Teacher-Scholar statement, the CATL Scholars program is designed so that participants engage deeply with the shared goals of our academic community and develop highly innovative projects.

Chris Richardson, Associate Professor of Astrophysics, will work on 鈥淎ctive Learning Resources for Large-Scale Phenomena in Upper-Level Astronomy Courses鈥� for his CATL Scholar project. His project seeks to help reduce gaps seen in upper university level astronomy courses by developing lecture-tutorial worksheets and big-data driven notebooks (evolved from the Project).

Throughout this project Richardson aims to transform astronomy curriculum by addressing two specific gaps: the lack of resources dedicated to intermediate- through advanced-level astronomy courses and the shortage of material covering phenomena on the scale of galaxies or larger.

Richardson will start by developing lecture-tutorials (LT) that focus on topic fundamentals found in well-rounded astronomy curricula such as active black holes, galaxy evolution and cosmology. Developing LTs will play a crucial role in identifying misconceptions that inhibit student learning. Concurrently, the project will involve developing pedagogy for the use of computational notebooks enabling students to seamlessly analyze and manipulate data for large-scale phenomena and other student-driven astronomy topics of interest.

Richardson鈥檚 proposed project has implications both for 黑料不打烊 students and beyond. Students will benefit from an astronomy classroom environment that further promotes data competency, and Richardson plans to present findings at conferences and publish tools and pedagogical materials on public platforms available to the whole of the astrophysics community.

Co-scholars Ketevan Kupatadze, senior lecturer in Spanish, and聽Elena Schoonmaker-Gates, associate professor of Spanish, both work in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. Their CATL Scholar project, 鈥淥nline Language Tools: From Taboo to Opportunity,鈥� will delve into how online language translation tools can be used to advance, rather than hinder second, language (L2) teaching and learning.

Their project will investigate student motivations and perspectives and involve student partners by: working with two student collaborators who will be involved throughout the project, trying to identify when and why students resort to online language tools through student surveys and by developing and troubleshooting new language curriculum through student feedback, classroom assignments and measurements of student success.

Through this project, Kupatadze and Schoonmaker-Gates hope to ensure L2 pedagogy is best aligned with students鈥� goals so that students can focus on the process of language acquisition, are rewarded for the progress they make and don鈥檛 feel compelled to (mis)use machine translation. Additionally, they aim to transform the available online language tools from being taboo to becoming pedagogical opportunities that help cultivate a classroom culture where it is OK to make mistakes, focusing on the process and progress rather than grades.

Co-scholars Katie Baker and Dani Lane, both assistant professors of education, will focus on a CATL Scholar project titled, 鈥淓xploring Co-Teaching in Higher Education.” Their project will tap into Baker and Lane鈥檚 prior experiences as co-teachers and professors of PreK-12 education to delve deeper into how research-based models of co-teaching might be integrated into courses at an university level to benefit students.

Students studying as prospective teachers in 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Teacher Education Program encounter co-teaching as a commonly used practice in PreK-12 classrooms, but do not often experience co-teaching in their university coursework. Baker and Lane plan to investigate the co-teaching practices used in school districts where student teachers will do their practicum or be employed in the future. Armed with this information, they will design, implement and adapt co-teaching practice models that can be integrated into university level coursework, with feedback from students and partners.

From this project, Lane and Baker plan to affirm the need and value of co-teaching in their department and co-taught courses, integrate what they learn into other co-taught courses across the university and collaborate with PreK-12 districts to provide joint professional development around co-teaching models and benefits.

A call for applications for聽CATL Scholars聽is announced early each fall. All full-time faculty are encouraged to apply. CATL Scholars are selected by a faculty committee comprised of other scholars and CATL faculty advisory committee members. For more information,聽visit the CATL website聽or email聽catl@elon.edu.

Since 2011, this grant program has supported small faculty teams in developing projects focused on inclusive pedagogies, assignments, content and strategies to foster learning about human diversity. (You can explore previously awarded Diversity & Inclusion Grants and final reports and recommendations on the CATL website.)

Strategic Communications

Vanessa Bravo and Lee Bush

Department of Strategic Communications faculty Vanessa Bravo and Lee Bush, are developing modules that can be used by any Strategic Communications faculty member to introduce new content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The modules will reflect the new DEI expectations of the communication program鈥檚 accrediting body, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC), and the Department of Strategic Communication鈥檚 associated student learning outcomes update. Their Diversity and Inclusion Grant will include 1) developing the materials for the modules, 2) testing the use of the modules in three target courses, and 3) refining and revising materials based on pilot testing results.

Psychology

Anne-Marie Iselin and Buffie Longmire-Avital

Department of Psychology faculty Anne-Marie Iselin and Buffie Longmire-Avital are working on a project titled Racial Equity for Students in Psychology: Emending our Curriculum and Teaching (RESPECT) – 鈥淣othing about us without us.鈥� The goal of the RESPECT project is to include students鈥� voices in departmental Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity (DIRE) task force working group activities. Three students will work with faculty leads on the RESPECT project by: gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data; offering feedback on action plans; holding those applicable accountable for responding to their evaluations; and disseminating the project鈥檚 work with audiences outside of the psychology department. Ultimately, the RESPECT project will leverage students鈥� voices to create sustainable curricular and pedagogical changes that create enduring racial equity for our most vulnerable students.

Performing Arts and Music Theatre

Julio Agustin Matos Jr., Deborah Leamy and Brian Kremer

Department of Performing Arts and Music Theatre Program faculty Julio Agustin Matos Jr., Deborah Leamy and Brian Kremer are collaborating on curricular revisions across several courses in the Voice and Dance sequence of the Music Theatre degree program. These revisions will aim to create a well-rounded curriculum essential to preparing the next generation of musical theatre artists, which embraces diversity through the exploration vocal and dance styles from a range of cultures. Specifically, each member will research the history, institutional practices and relevant usage of various diverse genres of Music Theatre performance and offer contributions, such as, for example, Bhangra and Bollywood dance styles, or the exploration and integration of skills related to riffing. Additionally, faculty will identify and provide significant resources that support the area鈥檚 mission to train students to transform the field of Musical Theatre. Careful consideration will be given to holistic approaches to revising the course descriptions and student learning outcomes. These concentrated efforts will aid in continuing outreach to students of the global majority as well as in raising the profile of 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Music Theatre program to the international standard of training the next generation of Music Theatre practitioners.

Poverty and Social Justice Program

Toddie Peters, Jessica Carew, Vanessa Drew-Branch, Ketevan Kupatadze, and Rob Perdue

An interdisciplinary team of faculty will work together for this DIG project including Toddie Peters (Religious Studies), Jessica Carew (Political Science), Vanessa Drew-Branch (Human Service Studies), Ketevan Kupatadze (World Languages & Cultures), and Rob Perdue (Sociology). The team will redesign a syllabus and create new teaching modules for the Poverty and Social Justice Program (PSJ) that are in line with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty updated and re-designed learning goals. The project will support the development of a new set of PSJ faculty and the redesign of the PSJ110 course. Some of the goals of the project will be to ensure: 1) there is consistency to the basic learning goals, course content, and student experience in this foundational course for all students across sections in this interdisciplinary minor, and 2) that faculty who are recruited to teach future iterations of the class will be able to continue to benefit from the outcomes of this grant.

School of Health Sciences

C. Kim Stokes, Lak茅 Laosebikan-Buggs, Paula DiBiasio, Nita Skillman, and Tiffany Morris

School of Health Sciences faculty C. Kim Stokes (Physician Assistant Studies), Paula DiBiasio (Physical Therapy), Nita Skillman, Tiffany Morris (Nursing), along with Lak茅 Laosebikan-Buggs (Director of Inclusive Excellence for Graduate and Professional Education) are working on an engaged learning project that focuses on improving health equity through collaboration and cultural humility. This project will explore the literature guiding best practices of curricular diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within healthcare provider academic programs to generate interprofessional learning experiences for physician assistant, physical therapy, and nursing students enrolled in the 黑料不打烊 SHS program. They plan to establish an evidence-based activity that initiates a school-wide curricular commitment to infusing DEI in each program with the goal of graduating healthcare professionals who have the skills to bridge health and healthcare disparities.

Political Science and Policy Studies

Liza Taylor, Damion Blake, Kaye Usry, Joel Shelton, and Jessica Carew

Department of Political Science and Policy Studies faculty Liza Taylor, Damion Blake, Kaye Usry, Joel Shelton and Jessica Carew will focus on teaching about systems of power and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in Political Science. For their project, they will survey the courses they teach in relation to these priorities and objectives and familiarize themselves with existing research on the best practices for teaching DEI in the social sciences. At a departmental level, the group plans to generate a list of concrete, formalized recommendations for teaching DEI in Political Science and Policy Studies, such as: ground rules for in-class discussion; methods for avoiding tokenizing marginalized students; and lesson plans and activities that can be tailored to a diverse student body and faculty member鈥檚 particular expertise, experiences, and identities. Lastly, the group will explore ideas for course and curriculum design to ensure that marginalized and underprivileged perspectives and methodologies are adequately represented in every course and across the major.

Exercise Science

Lauren Walker, Eric Hall, Aaron Piepmeier, Matthew Wittstein, Takudzwa Madzima

Department of Exercise Science faculty, Lauren Walker, Eric Hall, Aaron Piepmeier, Matthew Wittstein, and Takudzwa Madzima, have been awarded a second stage Diversity and Inclusion Grant to expand on a project first initiated in 2020. Their initial Stage I project focused largely on overall departmental climate regarding DEI, including assessing and co-creating curriculum changes with exercise science students and outside consultants with DEI expertise in Sport & Exercise Psychology (SEP). Building on the assessment and creation of curricular change during the first stage of this DIG grant, their Stage 2 project will: 1)鈥痠mplement and evaluate the changes to SEP curriculum in courses taught in 2021-22; 2) engage in the co-creation, with students, of curriculum alterations to classes that fall within the Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics/Motor domains; 3)鈥痠mplement and evaluate the curricular changes in Spring 2022; and 4) co-create opportunities beyond the Exercise Science classroom (e.g., UR mentorship, living learning communities, student clubs), which is a desire expressed by students in the climate assessment.

For questions about the Diversity and Inclusion Grant, or the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, email catl@elon.edu or visit our website.