(Dis)Integrated Identities: Experiences of Tenure- Track Engineering Faculty Who Identify as Sexual Minorities

This study was conducted to explore how full-time, tenure-track engineering faculty members who self-identify as sexual minorities have experienced working in Doctoral Universities. Literature reviewed for this study included the history of higher education and engineering education in the United States; a review of the differences between engineering and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields; and an overview of the history of discrimination against sexual minorities. Using a mixed-methods explanatory sequential methodology, the study included an anonymous web-based survey followed by semi-structured interviews of the participants who agreed to be contacted. During the interviews, participants shared photographs of their workspaces and described how items displayed in those spaces were congruent or incongruent with their multiple dimensions of identity. The simultaneous presence of both stigmatized and privileged identities led to complex relational interactions with colleagues and students that required individuals to dis-integrate, by denying some of their identities to successfully navigate in certain professional settings. Themes that emerged from the data included sexism, heterosexism, and hegemonic masculinity within the engineering academic environment; the value and importance of good mentoring; the professional pressures these faculty members faced and how their identities interacted to magnify those pressures; and that geographic and social location mattered. Participants also noted the importance of the Out in STEM student organization in breaking down the isolation they felt as sexual minorities in engineering. Study results demonstrated that a sexual minority identity was one of a long list of identities that have not been welcomed or valued in the engineering profession. This study’s findings were significant because they shone a spotlight on an issue that has been surrounded by silence in the engineering community. The primary implication of this study was the need for a more welcoming culture within engineering academia that would allow all engineering faculty members to feel more comfortable sharing the full spectrum of their identities. Potential areas for future research included expansion of the study to non-tenure-track sexual minority engineering faculty members, engineering faculty members of any sexual identity, and re-evaluation of the underlying assumptions of the stigma and social identity theories used in this study. Keywords: engineering faculty, mixed methods, sexual minority, social identity, stigm

Vision, Mission, and Values: Design and Communication

Leaders in Jesuit institutions have an opportunity to live and express the university vision, mission and values in a variety of ways through forms of communication that embody the many ways the Jesuit tradition respects the whole person. It is easy to overlook these opportunities when our current institutional thinking is often consumed with academic assessment, measurement and accountability. The authors argue that leaders can bridge this gap by starting with Ignatian pedagogy and exploring the field of elegant design

Removing Barriers for Contemporary Student Success

This paper examines the contemporary student in higher education and how to position this student for success. Through analysis of Leviticus chapter nineteen verse fourteen (19:14), which states “You shall not curse the deaf, and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind”, the authors examine how to remove barriers often placed in front of the contemporary post-secondary student. Utilizing the analogy of the contemporary student and the institution of higher education being “blind” and/or “deaf” as in the Biblical verse, the authors propose institutional responses and institutional repercussions that can remove barriers and thereby allow the contemporary student to succeed in the complex arena of higher education

Jewish Midrash in Jesuit Classrooms

Storytelling is of paramount importance in the Jewish tradition. The retelling of ancient stories by rabbinical sages is known is as Midrash. This article examines Midrash on multiple levels. Topics include an analysis of how Midrash can serve as a case study for cultural change within higher education; how Midrash can assist with the process of creating a vision and mission statement for an institution; how stories from Midrash exemplify that components of the Jewish tradition of Midrash can serve as a fundamental component of the Jesuit classroom; and how to apply them in a Jesuit classroom setting

Planning and licensing for marine aquaculture

Marine aquaculture has the potential to increase its contribution to the global food system and provide valuable ecosystem services, but appropriate planning, licensing and regulation systems must be in place to enable sustainable development. At present, approaches vary considerably throughout the world, and several national and regional investigations have highlighted the need for reforms if marine aquaculture is to fulfil its potential. This article aims to map and evaluate the challenges of planning and licensing for growth of sustainable marine aquaculture. Despite the range of species, production systems and circumstances, this study found a number of common themes in the literature; complicated and fragmented approaches to planning and licensing, property rights and the licence to operate, competition for space and marine spatial planning, emerging species and diversifying marine aquaculture production (seaweed production, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture [IMTA], nutrient and carbon offsetting with aquaculture, offshore aquaculture and co-location and multiuse platforms), and the need to address knowledge gaps and use of decision-support tools. Planning and licensing can be highly complicated, so the UK is used as a case study to show more detailed examples that highlight the range of challenges and uncertainty that industry, regulators and policymakers face across interacting jurisdictions. There are many complexities, but this study shows that many countries have undergone, or are undergoing, similar challenges, suggesting that lessons can be learned by sharing knowledge and experiences, even across different species and production systems, rather than having a more insular focus.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Investigating variation in replicability

Although replication is a central tenet of science, direct replications are rare in psychology. This research tested variation in the replicability of 13 classic and contemporary effects across 36 independent samples totaling 6,344 participants. In the aggregate, 10 effects replicated consistently. One effect – imagined contact reducing prejudice – showed weak support for replicability. And two effects – flag priming influencing conservatism and currency priming influencing system justification – did not replicate. We compared whether the conditions such as lab versus online or US versus international sample predicted effect magnitudes. By and large they did not. The results of this small sample of effects suggest that replicability is more dependent on the effect itself than on the sample and setting used to investigate the effect

Seven features of safety in maternity units: a framework based on multisite ethnography and stakeholder consultation

Background: Reducing avoidable harm in maternity services is a priority globally. As well as learning from mistakes, it is important to produce rigorous descriptions of ‘what good looks like’. Objective: We aimed to characterise features of safety in maternity units and to generate a plain language framework that could be used to guide learning and improvement. Methods: We conducted a multisite ethnography involving 401 hours of non-participant observations 33 semistructured interviews with staff across six maternity units, and a stakeholder consultation involving 65 semistructured telephone interviews and one focus group. Results: We identified seven features of safety in maternity units and summarised them into a framework, named For Us (For Unit Safety). The features include: (1) commitment to safety and improvement at all levels, with everyone involved; (2) technical competence, supported by formal training and informal learning; (3) teamwork, cooperation and positive working relationships; (4) constant reinforcing of safe, ethical and respectful behaviours; (5) multiple problem-sensing systems, used as basis of action; (6) systems and processes designed for safety, and regularly reviewed and optimised; (7) effective coordination and ability to mobilise quickly. These features appear to have a synergistic character, such that each feature is necessary but not sufficient on its own: the features operate in concert through multiple forms of feedback and amplification. Conclusions: This large qualitative study has enabled the generation of a new plain language framework—For Us—that identifies the behaviours and practices that appear to be features of safe care in hospital-based maternity units