Back to the Future: Looking at Nostalgic Practices to Conceptualize a More Inclusive Literacy Future (Part 1)

In the first of two articles, the authors, two girls that “Just Want to Have Fun,” reminisce about educational literacy practices of the past, specifically one nostalgic writing practice, dialogue journaling. Using the analogy of a familiar toy from the 1980s, the View Master, they aim to revitalize an antiquated practice using modern theoretical frameworks (reels) that make current classroom practices more inclusive for today’s students. Looking to “reels” of academic (using current state standards), culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), social emotional learning (Mussey, 2019), and humanizing instruction (Freire, 1968), we support current teachers in analyzing their practices to foster inclusivity. Readers can walk away having both revisited the 1980s with us and also reviewed a nostalgic writing practice turned best practice that still holds merit and promotes inclusion today. The next article will feature an additional literacy practice, readers theatre. We will close out this series with steps to use these reels in your own classroom lesson planning

Helping First Year Residential Students Transition to the Collegiate Environment

The purpose of this project is to address the barriers faced by first-year residential students while making their transition from high school to college. Transitioning to a new environment can be overwhelming, so making sure first-year students feel prepared is an important part of the acclimation process. To make the acclimation period easier, first-year students should make sure they are aware of campus resources, and make sure they have a strong support network. The intervention for this problem is a first-year experience program set at Grand Valley State University called the Becoming a Laker Program. This program is designed to help first-year students get familiar with the physical campus environment, learn about the resources made available through the university, and emphasize the importance of getting involved outside of academics during their college experience. Helping first-year students through their transition from high school to college will increase university retention and help set them up for overall success

The Soft Stuff Doesn’t Have to Be Hard: Foundation Investments in Grantee Workers Are Necessary, Valuable, and Measurable – With 2024 Prologue

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2022, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates. There is an urgent need for funder investments in the ability of grantee nonprofit organizations to support their staff. Such investments, when done well, can yield significant value for individuals, organizations, and fields of work or movements. Furthermore, the value of these investments can be evaluated and communicated. This article explores the reasons for and implications of the inadequate response by funders, offers a path forward for designing investments in grantee staff, and documents how funders can capture and communicate the value of these “talent investments.” Powerful myths serve as barriers to widespread funder investment in grantee staff, and the resulting environment is significantly harmful to wellness, morale, productivity, and equity for organizations and professionals in the social sector. One of these myths that has gone unchallenged is the assumption that it is impossible to assess how investments in grantee staff lead to greater social impact

Decent Work-Life-Flow and its Assessment

This paper presents the underlying theoretical framework, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research activities, as well as preliminary findings on influencing factors for a healthy and sustainable Work-Life-Flow (WLF) in diverse countries. The research is conducted within the scope of the cross-cultural Erasmus+-project, Excellence based profiling to identify and apply tools and training for a better and sustainable Work-Life-Flow (2020-1-ES01-KA203-083282). Within this framework, we promote the re-conceptualization of the concept of work-life balance towards a more dynamic and inclusive resource-demands based concept of WLF. The project develops assessment and training tools to foster WLF for individual and organizations alike. To justify this two-fold assessment and training approach, we link WLF to the established occupational psychology concepts of personal agency and Decent Work. We hypothesize that resources and demands can be assessed at both the individual and organizational level, and that resources relate positively and demands negatively to individual and organizational health indicators. Comparing correlational, cross-sectional evidence of our first samples from Spain (N = 1313) and Portugal (N = 494), we confirm our hypotheses. We discuss practical implications for the WLF-project including interdisciplinary assessment alignments with established quality management tools, such as EFQM. As our survey research is currently ongoing, we provide survey invitation links for workers from Germany, Ireland, and Kosovo

Stimming as a Form of Autistic Aesthetic Experience, Neuroqueering Landscape

Sam Metz is an artist based in Hull who creates work that engages with the concept of ‘neuroqueering’. They create sculptural installations that incorporate both film and animation while exploring body-based responses to ecology. As a neurodivergent artist and curator with sensory processing differences, Sam creates work in non-verbal ways that begin and end in movement and embodied interactions without recourse to traditionally privileged verbal and written forms of communication. Recently they created a series of work called ‘Porosity’ which looked at embodied sensory relationships to the Humber Estuary, with a focus on stimming and ecological perception. Sam, through their work with professionals aims to create a shift in perception away from negativity around stimming and neurodivergence. For instance, working with trainee medical students to encourage creative activities that support stimming. Yorkshire Sculpture Network 2022 Drawing as Stimming, Necessity supported research, 2021-23 British Art Network Emerging Curator 21/22 Nominated recipient of Henry Moore Foundation Award 202

Beauty in the Gothic: Forms of Autistic Aesthetics

This article will explore how Divergent forms of autistic communication and expression, within an artistic context, convey an aesthetic that awakens otherworldly realms existing between the physical world and portals of invention. These otherworldly creations are often made manifest through modes of stimming. For autistic artists who use stimming (repetitive motions and actions) in their artwork and texts, intuition plays a key role, and many, particularly female and non-binary, recognize the role Gothic also plays in their work. This article will use Serres philosophy on intuition and definitions of the Gothic to show how autistic artists may use both in their artwork to respond to wilderness as a space for authentic, unfiltered, embodied expression. I will be using examples from my own written and recorded work through case studies of my own, while also drawing reference to other lived experiences of stimming as a means of navigating an often inaccessible society. It is thus important that autistic voices and experiences have been central to this research

No Longer On Fire

Capturing the poetic, lyrical essence of the ethereal universe, the pencil portal births whispers of the self in these Sourcedoodle collections, beginning as intuitive drawings and revealing their deeper essence through digital wizardry, healing art comes through for remembering the soul\u27s purpose. A journey to gently collect the fragmented parts of a broken self. Like little souls dancing, each image has a story, a capturing of energy, an anchoring of light intensity, a glorious weaving of fluidity and a playful curiosity. A permission to be whole & a celebration of source discovering embodiment underpins this spiritual quest for discovering existence beyond the unique perceptions of the mind, to bring wholeness and belonging to those isolated from a world of ‘normal’. - Bibi Ay

Making Study Abroad Accessible for First Generation College Students

This project examines the barriers first-generation college students face when studying abroad and what support services can be provided to mitigate those barriers. An intensive review of the literature revealed that many barriers hinder FGCS from studying abroad. A few that will be covered include financial constraints, familial support, and knowledge about studying abroad. The intentions of this project are to create a first-generation-centered study abroad presentation that will be a culmination of explaining different opportunities FGCS have when studying abroad, the resources there to support FGCS in their endeavors, and how studying abroad can positively impact FGCS. I also held a student panel with other FGCS and was able to speak about their experience studying abroad. When FGCS can study abroad, they develop many positive attributes and skills that will benefit them and their careers, along with increased engagement, success, and retention

The Shocker

Literary publication collecting writings and art from the Thomas Jefferson College Make-It program and via student submission

Equipping Adult Educators for Successful Adult Training

Career and technical education or skilled trades training is a sought-after path to a new career or career advancement for the non-traditional student/adult learner (Bellare et al., 2023). However, studies have shown that adult students do not feel that their institutions understand their needs as adult learners and feel a lack of support (e.g., van Rhijn et al., 2023). Many adult learners have commitments that are more pressing than their education, therefore, adult learners may choose to go to trade school to gain a skill fast and earn a sustainable wage (Bellare et al., 2023). Further, although most teachers of adults in skilled trades are typically educated or certified in their field of study and have a passion to share this knowledge with those they teach (Burns et al., 2005), skilled trade instructors do not have a foundational understanding of how adults learn and adult students’ unique needs (Williams et al., 2018). This project examines adult learners’ needs and profiles adult skilled trade instructors. Utilizing adult learning theories such as, andragogy and VARK learning theory, this project creates short and quick learning modules for adult skilled trade instructors who teach in post-secondary institutions specifically in skilled trades. Adult educators would benefit by engaging with these modules as formal supports to help them be more effective teachers of adults in their skilled trades classrooms (Blake et al., 2023)