Interview with Bettina Love: Creating Spaces That Matter

This is an interview with Dr. Bettina Love on her work with the Kindezi Schools, a small, high-performing charter group in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Love’s thought provoking responses provide insight into the dynamics that make Kindezi Schools successful at reaching their students. Additionally, she shares concerns about the dilemma of Opportunity School Districts (OSD) and the schism OSD’s create in minority communities. Lastly, she shares how Kindezi became an opportunity school for Atlanta youth. This interview will be beneficial for parents, principals, teachers, and stakeholders who are interested in understanding how and why creating spaces to nurture student learning matters

Research to Practice: Undergraduate Research Initiative

Georgia Southern University (GSU) Undergraduate seniors participated in a year long student teaching field placement, conducted a collaborative action research project and presented their research at national and state conferences. The design, implementation and findings on the efficacy of this model will be shared in this presentation

Undergraduate Research in Georgia Classrooms

Despite considerable research describing the positive outcomes of including undergraduate students in research inquiry and investigations (Desai, Gatson, Stiles, Stewart, Laine, & Quick, 2008; Narayanan, 1999; Russell, Hancock, & McCullough, 2007), very little action is taken to include education majors in research endeavors. While universities are seeking to find ways to include students earlier and more often in research projects, students’ perspectives on conducting their own research is overwhelmingly overlooked. The purpose of this symposium is to introduce undergraduate research in education to GERA and to expose these students to conference presentations. In recent years, the College of Education at Georgia Southern University has increased the number of students participating in research as well as provided them with solid initial classroom preparation and professional support to produce “highly efficacious” teachers. It is compelling to listen as they present their findings and discuss their experiences while completing their research investigations. By exploring their experiences, we could find trends to better assist in organizing possibilities and recreating opportunities for our future undergraduate students to explore their passions through research. Additionally, opportunities such as these may increase retention towards graduation and further graduate research experiences

I Just Want To Be Me, Authentically : Identity Shifting Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Young Adults

Identity shifting represents a common but complex social, behavioral, and cognitive phenomenon. However, some forms of identity shifting originate in response to structural, institutional, and interpersonal marginalization enacted on lower status groups, such as people of color in the United States. The current study investigated ways young adults from diverse ethnic/racial groups discussed shifting to fit in with White Americans (a dominant group) in the United States and their own ethnic/racial group (a minoritized group) and elucidated self-reported motivations for shifting. Participants consisted of 764 young adults (ages = 18–23) recruited from two large public universities in the Southeast and Southwest regions of the United States. The majority of participants identified as Black/African American (41%), Asian/Asian American (27%), or Hispanic/Latinx (22%). Analysis of participants’ qualitative responses identified six types of shifts and two motivations for shifting. The shifts included: behavioral, linguistic, cognitive, physical, food, and affect. Motivations for shifting focused on avoiding risks and obtaining rewards. The discussion offers interpretation of the results and recommendations for future research on identity shifting