Community-Based Multicultural Immersion Programming: An Adult Learning Context

This study gives voice to the learning experiences of 21 adult learners who participated in a community-based multicultural immersion program in an urban Midwestern city plagued by racial tension. Key perspectives of their learning experiences were drawn from the factors that promoted multicultural immersion learning, its uses and its value

Managing Virtual Internships During the Covid-19 Pandemic Era: Implications for Academic Instructors and Business Leaders

During the beginning phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic in late March of 2020 in the United States, two academic instructors at a mid-sized, public university in the Midwest were involved in converting a traditional human resource development internship course into a virtual internship course that they would be teaching in May of 2020. This paper shares the lessons learned by the two instructors along with a summary of a relevant theoretical leadership framework that provides useful insights for academic instructors and business leaders who are or will be managing virtual academic internships in the future. This paper concludes by offering insights and recommendations for academic instructors, business leaders, and students interested in virtual internships

Advancing Traditional Leadership Theories by Incorporating Multicultural and Workforce Diversity Leadership Traits, Behaviors, and Supporting Practices: Implications for Organizational Leaders

Well-known and respected traditional leadership theories such as Transformational Leadership Theory (Bass 1985, 1989, Authentic Leadership Theory (Luthans & Avolio 2003), and Distributed Leadership Theory (Lumby, 2013) offer insight into the ways that leadership can be applied and practiced in various organizational contexts. These traditional leadership theories are known for underscoring the kinds of traits and behaviors that prospective and current leaders should possess to enhance their leadership abilities and overall effectiveness. However, one area that is absent from traditional leadership theories is a focus on the kinds of multicultural and workforce diversity leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities that organizational leaders should possess to manage human diversity effectively in a variety organizational setting. The aim of this paper is to: 1) summarize the role of three well-known traditional leadership theories; 2) share examples of existing multicultural and workforce diversity frameworks that offer insights for advancing traditional leadership theories; and 3) highlight the benefits of incorporating multicultural and workforce diversity leadership traits, behaviors and supporting diversity practices into traditional leadership theories

A Call to Action: Introducing the Initiative for Eradicating Racism

In June of 2020, several faculty and staff members in the School of Education and Human Services at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan began developing plans to launch a new project entitled The Initiative for Eradicating Racism. This article begins by defining key terms used throughout the article, followed by underscoring the purpose and need for this type of academic initiative. Next, the frameworks used to guide the development of this initiative are highlighted, along with a brief introduction of the current diversity, inclusion, and social justice efforts in progress in the School of Education and Human Services. Lastly, we share our plans to move from our current initiative status to a self-sustaining center in the near future

The professional mentor program plus: An academic success and retention tool for adult learners

ABSTRACT To promote the academic success of and to retain adult students of color, the Academic Services Unit at the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM), an urban Catholic university, in Detroit Michigan, has designed and implemented the Professional Mentor Program Plus, funded by the State of Michigan's King-Chavez-Parks (KCP) higher education initiative, that fuses academic support programming, and mentoring, designed exclusively for adult students, into a proactive academic success and retention model. The program's rationale, history, and findings from the 2003-04 year-end evaluation are presented, followed by the program's future development plan