Making Explicit Connections between Experiential Learning and Justice: New Approaches to Teaching and Learning through an Imagination for Justice

Excerpt Beyond simply being a form of active learning, experiential learning, in its many iterations, has been promoted as a philosophy, a community development model, a theory, a professional skill training opportunity, a global education and civic development approach, and a pedagogical strategy that leads to deep, high impact learning. Indeed, experiential learning has become increasingly specialized in the last several decades with the evolution of numerous sub-fields, such as study abroad and global immersion programs, outdoor education programs, community-based learning (both domestic and global service-learning), internship and work-integrated learning, undergraduate research experiences, and a myriad of other high-impact learning programs. The field of experiential education is vast and deep due to this variety of sub-fields. Upon exploring experiential learning and teaching in the context of higher education, several common themes emerge, but one relatively underdeveloped theme has bubbled up to the surface repeatedly in the past two decades: the theme of justice

Considering Power in Community-Based Research: Shifting Toward New Pedagogical Approaches with a 'Public Work for Public Things' Framework

One of the fundamental questions of power in the pedagogy of community-based research (CBR) is who gets to decide what is research worthy and what is the focus of CBR questions? The reality of the power imbalance in community-based research and learning is often reflective of a systemic disengagement with the broader community. Even when instructors and administrators are intentional in how they solicit feedback or think through the impact of their work, they may not know the neighbourhood. Prioritising the voice of community partners does not provide a simple solution, as the individuals we work with to organise community-based learning opportunities may not be residents of the neighbourhood. This article adopts a theory-building approach to this crucial question. Building on the work of Boyte (2014) and Honig (2017), community-based research is reoriented as ‘public work for public things’ (Haarman 2020). After establishing the ‘public work for public things’ framework, the article explores how this new framework impacts collaborative research by addressing the power differential and creating new lines of inquiry – specifically the practice of ‘elicitation of concerns’. Through the lens of critical service-learning pedagogy (Mitchell 2008) and a practitioner-scholar framework (Lytle 2008; Ravitch 2013; Salipante & Aram 2003), we then interrogate two community-based research courses we have recently taught, examining how a ‘public work for public things’ approach would have altered the course and its methods

An Inquiry into Hope and Imagination in Jesuit Education: Ignatian Design Thinking as a Lens for Exploration

Hope and imagination are foundational to a Jesuit education, and as central tenets, inform teaching and learning through Ignatian pedagogy. The authors explore hope and imagination in the Jesuit context through the lens of scholar-practitioner inquiry, drawing from the local context and practice of an Ignatian design thinking course as a source of knowledge. This inquiry approach is rooted in practice-based research, and situates scholarly exploration through lines of inquiry and problems of practice, specifically exploring how design thinking fosters curiosity and creates space for teaching imagination and hope. The authors draw on their teaching experiences, course design, and professional experience as educators at Loyola University Chicago, providing practical pedagogical strategies offered in the Ignatian design thinking course. As they explore how hope and imagination intersect with design thinking, they scaffold hope and imagination as essential pedagogical strategies for teaching and learning in the Jesuit tradition, providing a foundation for numerous praxis and scholarship articles that comprise this special issue. Through this inquiry, the authors propose a framework linking curiosity, imagination, and hope, which all play a distinct role in Jesuit education, leading to a call to action for further research and exploration around this topic

On the "Causality Argument" in Bouncing Cosmologies

We exhibit a situation in which cosmological perturbations of astrophysical relevance propagating through a bounce are affected in a scale-dependent way. Involving only the evolution of a scalar field in a closed universe described by general relativity, the model is consistent with causality. Such a specific counter-example leads to the conclusion that imposing causality is not sufficient to determine the spectrum of perturbations after a bounce provided it is known before. We discuss consequences of this result for string motivated scenarios.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, ReVTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

The BTC40 Survey for Quasars at 4.8 < z < 6

The BTC40 Survey for high-redshift quasars is a multicolor search using images obtained with the Big Throughput Camera (BTC) on the CTIO 4-m telescope in V, I, and z filters to search for quasars at redshifts of 4.8 < z < 6. The survey covers 40 sq. deg. in B, V, & I and 36 sq. deg. in z. Limiting magnitudes (3 sigma) reach to V = 24.6, I = 22.9 and z = 22.9. We used the (V-I) vs. (I-z) two-color diagram to select high-redshift quasar candidates from the objects classified as point sources in the imaging data. Follow-up spectroscopy with the AAT and CTIO 4-m telescopes of candidates having I < 21.5 has yielded two quasars with redshifts of z = 4.6 and z = 4.8 as well as four emission line galaxies with z = 0.6. Fainter candidates have been identified down to I = 22 for future spectroscopy on 8-m class telescopes.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures; Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Hot Subdwarf Stars Among the Objects Rejected from the PG Catalog: a First Assessment Using GALEX Photometry

The hot subdwarf (sd) stars in the Palomar Green (PG) catalog of ultraviolet excess (UVX) objects play a key role in investigations of the frequency and types of binary companions and the distribution of orbital periods. These are important for establishing whether and by which channels the sd stars arise from interactions in close binary systems. It has been suggested that the list of PG sd stars is biased by the exclusion of many stars in binaries, whose spectra show the Ca II K line in absorption. A total of 1125 objects that were photometrically selected as candidates were ultimately rejected from the final PG catalog using this K-line criterion. We study 88 of these "PG-Rejects" (PGRs), to assess whether there are significant numbers of unrecognized sd stars in binaries among the PGR objects. The presence of a sd should cause a large UVX. We assemble GALEX, Johnson V, and 2MASS photometry and compare the colors of these PGR objects with those of known sd stars, cool single stars, and hot+cool binaries. Sixteen PGRs were detected in both the far- and near- ultraviolet GALEX passbands. Eleven of these, plus the 72 cases with only an upper limit in the far-ultraviolet band, are interpreted as single cool stars. Of the remaining five stars, three are consistent with being sd stars paired with a cool main sequence companion, while two may be single stars or composite systems of another type. We discuss the implications of these findings for the 1125 PGR objects as a whole. (slightly abridged)Comment: 32 pages with 3 figures and 4 tables. Uses AASTEX style files. To be published in The Astronomical Journal (August 2009 issue

Advocating for Experiential Learning Programs as Change Agents in Higher Education: Imagining a Justice Orientation that Centers Students and Partners while Enriching Practice

Excerpt The National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE) Fellows are academic professionals who engage in a community of practice and explore their practitioner-scholar identity through research and scholarly inquiry into experiential education. During some monthly meetings, the discussion focused on how to infuse equity, diversity, and inclusion in internship programs. The fellows ruminated on strategies to create quality internship programs and how to embed experiential learning opportunities into the curriculum so more students could access them. Collectively, these comments highlight what is not always stated but ever-present; that is, the fellows’ justice orientation. The monthly meeting of NSEE Fellows consistently explored our practices with experiential education programs, from internships and working with employers to teaching internship courses. During each meeting, the NSEE Fellows interrogated their practice, raised questions about experiential education programs, and inquired into the most promising approaches that fostered student success in the context of their higher education institutions. The core question that emerged during these meetings became: What are you advocating for in your experiential education program to foster student success