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“Culture of Community: Empowering Communities through Strategic Organizing” by Eunique Avery
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This exploratory research project aims to add to existing literature on community organizing in education. In summer 2024, School Board School (SBS) will kick off its 7-month learning program, where participants will engage in experiential learning exercises that equip them with the skills and resources needed to organize and drive change in the community. In this exploratory case study analysis, I seek to gain a comprehensive understanding of School Board Schools organizational structure, engagement practices, and overall effectiveness in community organizing.
This research study will be guided by four questions: How do members perceive the impact of participating in the SBS leadership program; What organizing strategies are used amongst SBS staff to increase community participation among its members and the general public; What are the challenges associated with engaging SBS members and the general public; and How does School Board School measure their success? This study will use qualitative (observations, interviews, document analysis) methods to collect data throughout the research process.
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“Summer Melt and College-Going: A grounded theory exploration with high school counselors” by Amy Awtrey
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This project investigates summer melt (summer attrition from the educational pipeline) and college-going for recent high school graduates who have been marginalized in their schooling experience. Using grounded theory analysis of interviews with high school counselors, I am exploring counselor observations of patterns and themes in their experiences of helping hundreds of students in the college application and enrollment process each year. Findings aim to contribute to knowledge about summer melt and college-going, as well as to the improvement of college-going supports for students who have been marginalized in their schooling experiences, particularly low-socioeconomic status, first-generation, and racially minoritized students, who are underrepresented in higher education.
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“Learning from the Land: Community-based land justice and future land pedagogy” By Rae Baker
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Thinking beyond classroom and formal learning environments, this article will address a gap in the application of pedagogy as a tool that informs the built environment, and the social, political, and ecological relations that shape the lives of its inhabitants. There are pedagogical practices in classrooms, and there are pedagogies practiced beyond the walls of formal institutions of learning. Cultivating a connecting between social and environmental realms is resurgence missions of indigenous and decolonial ways of knowing, being, and building the world. Nishnaabeg scholar, Leanna Betasamosake Simpson writes about the 'rebellious transformation potential' of reclaiming land and land relations as a pedagogy for building knowledge, skills, and values that reflect a challenge to colonial claims of power and nationhood that are reliant on the denial of indigenous existence across North America (Betasmamosake Simpson, 2014). The project of reclaiming land as pedagogy holds the possibility then, as Betasamosake Simpson describes, of leading to a form of multi-nationhood that supports indigenous intimacy with ecosystems and autonomy through self-governance. The research will examine how land pedagogies can co-construct generative relational contexts for learning, from and alongside Lands in the indigenous (Anishinabee) sense of the practice. This research will uphold values of sharing spaces and knowledge and fostering relations, through economic and political terms, of non-violence and liberation between indigenous and settler communities.
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“Empowering International Students Through Tutoring and Mentorship” by Tiffany Berman
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The number of international students from Uzbekistan and Russia in schools within the U.S. is rapidly increasing. This increase creates a challenge for local school districts unprepared to work with this student population and for universities concerned with ensuring the adjustment and retention of international students. However, these challenges provide an opportunity for a partnership, connecting international university students with elementary students who speak limited English through a university tutoring project. The researchers aim to determine the benefits of utilizing international university students to tutor immigrant children from their home countries in a local school district. Research has shown the positive outcomes of tutoring programs for tutors and tutees. Similarly, there is evidence that developing connections within local communities can aid international student retention and confidence. This project would provide vital information to understand the use of such programs, enabling techniques to be shared with those who wish to develop similar programs.
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“Exploring the Experiences of Higher Education Professionals in Their Quest to Support and Retain Black Collegiate Men” by Jarrod Druery
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Among the most important and complex challenges facing higher education is the retention, success, and graduation rates of Black men on college campuses (Cuyjet, 2006; Harper, 2012; Strayhorn, 2019). Many scholars have challenged institutions, especially historically white institutions (HWIs), to create initiatives and programs tailored specifically to Black men in college (Cuyjet, 2006; Barker & Avery, 2012; Brooks et al., 2013; Harper & Kuykendall, 2012; Zell, 2011). Subsequently, institutions have created programs that provide Black collegiate men with the tools needed to persist, excel academically and socially, and graduate at higher rates (Barker & Avery, 2012; Brooks et al., 2013; Druery & Brooms, 2019; Ellis, 2009; McElderry et al., 2018). These programs are commonly known as Black male initiatives (BMIs) or men of color programs. Much of the literature that focuses on BMIs has been largely centered around the experiences and perceptions of students engaged in these programs (see Barker & Avery, 2012; Brooks et al., 2013; Brooms et al., 2021; Druery & Brooms, 2019; Druery, 2018; Zell, 2011). To this end, scholars have called for research that explores the experiences and narratives of staff and faculty who operate BMIs (Briscoe et al., 2020; Jones et al., 2023). Thus, the proposed study will explore the experiences of and challenges encountered by BMI leaders in their quest to support, retain, and help graduate Black collegiate men at historically white institutions (HWIs).
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“Exploring Retention Programming, Black Places, and Affirming Spaces at a PWI” by Gabrielle Golden
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While scholars recognize that engagement in Black and other affirming campus places strengthen Black college student retention efforts (Miller, 2017; Patton, 2006; Solórzano et al., 2000; Volpe & Jones, 2021), less is known about how these areas become important to Black students. In this instrumental case study, I will utilize a case to deepen understandings around Black student retention programming experiences. Through a series of in-depth interviews with recent graduates who participated in Black retention programming throughout the duration of their undergraduate experience, I will explore their perception of involvement in campus-based retention programs. Using a Black placemaking theoretical approach, I pay special attention to the spatial context through which retention programming may be involved in the creation and maintenance of Black and other affirming campus spaces for Black college students at a Predominantly White institution (PWI). I am requesting $1,500 to facilitate the research project. Findings have the potential to deepen understandings around how students may come to perceive the significance of Black and other affirming places in their retention experience, if at all. Moreover, findings will broaden the conversation concerning the capacity for community and joy in Black college student retention experiences.
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“National Deaf History Month (NDHM) Projects” by Katie Foran-Mulcahy, Juanita Hall, Rachel Hoople, and Elizabeth Jean- Baptiste
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National Deaf History Month (NDHM), celebrated annually in April, commemorates significant events in d/Deaf history, while also calling for reflection, learning and activism. In observance of NDHM, the CECH American Sign Language and Deaf Studies (ASLDS) department and the CECH Library will be collaborating on several projects in spring 2024 united under these themes, including a d/Deaf in Media exhibit in Langsam Library, an ASL story time with the Arlitt Center, and a student collection development and exhibit project in the CECH Library highlighting d/Deaf representation in children’s literature. This proposal specifically relates to the CECH Library collection/exhibit project.
In the spring term, an ASL class will meet with a librarian and complete an in-class activity to develop a framework for the selection of children’s books with representation of d/Deaf identities. After creating this framework, students will apply it directly by making book recommendations for the CECH Library’s collection.
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“Examining the Representations of Asian Americans on the Covers of Award-Winning Children’s and Young Adult Literature” by Stephanie Reid
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This qualitative multimodal content analysis study seeks to examine the representations of Asian characters (fiction), people (nonfiction), and cultures on the covers of award-winning children’s and young adult books published between 2016 and 2023. As this content analysis study is multimodal in nature, the research team will explore both the linguistic and visual aspects of the cover. Covers are print media worthy of critical exploration because they are marketing devices designed for imagined consumers and are often a reader’s first means of transacting with books and the stories authors and illustrators tell. This research will contribute to conversations about the ongoing need for diverse and authentic literature for young people. The analytical tools developed for this study could also be useful to other scholars or educators who wish to critically read the texts readers encounter in schools, libraries, and daily life.
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