Brief Report on Service Learning and Diversity Acceptance

Studies have indicated that facilitating student’s interactions with people outside of their in-group is an effective way of increasing awareness of identity complexity and encouraging diversity acceptance. This article explores the efficacy of a service-learning course, focusing on community psychology, in increasing students’ awareness of identity complexity and diversity acceptance via 110 written responses. These responses were qualitatively analyzed to track students’ social identity complexity development and diversity acceptance between the first and final week of a service-learning course. Results indicate that service-learning experiences aid in the development of diversity acceptance such that there was a significant increase in the amount of students who demonstrated diversity acceptance in the final week of the course when compared to the first week. This study further supports the use of service-learning as a way to promote diversity acceptance. Furthermore, results indicate the need for continued research on the mechanisms by which service learning affects the development of students’ perception of diversity and identity development

Critical and Discursive Teaching in Psychology

American youth are more adept at multi-tasking and multi-processing the fast-paced media and technology information than prior generations (Glasl, 1999; Prensky, 2001). During this new wave of “post-modernism,” youth can interact globally with a far more culturally diverse yet interdependent society. Questioning, risk-taking, conflict resolution, and continuous innovation are the systems-level skills required to live and prosper. These skills should be integrated with more “modernist” skills, such as learning the truths of one’s field as the teachers of that field present them. This paper presents an example of how teaching about conflict can be used to help students critically examine the massive amount of information available to them, and understand the socially, historically, and politically situated nature of truth. Implications of standardization, critical discourse, and discursive teaching that bring real life problems and conflicts into the education process are discussed

Building Resilient Higher Education Communities: Lessons Learned from Pandemic Teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many educators grappling with uncertainties about the future of higher education while feeling exhausted from the stress and pressure to deliver quality education in unprecedented ways. While learning to incorporate new technology into remote, hybrid, and flipped classrooms, educators also find themselves responding to the psychosocial needs of students more than ever before. Yet the lack of established promising practices coupled with limited training and support on how to support students’ emotional well-being creates confusion and self-doubt. This conceptual article explores teacher experiences of teaching during a pandemic, missed opportunities, and highlights the need to develop resilience in educators as the next phase of teaching unfolds. Recognizing the shortfalls of traditional definitions of resilience when applied to higher education, the best path forward for building resilient communities in higher education. Resilient communities include an emphasis on well-being at all levels, normalizing stress responses, creating spaces for members to co-create discourse, planning input into future teaching strategies, while providing resources around developing pedagogy and support to build confidence in the face of disruption. The next phase of teaching requires that we move beyond a focus on being content experts and develop collaborative learning environments for the betterment of society

Teaching the Diversity Course in Conservative Times

This paper describes how conservative shifts in American political thinking can obstruct discussions about race, ethnicity and culture in so-called “diversity” and multicultural courses in academic psychology. The authors, both teachers of psychology, examine the serious implications that a shifting political landscape presents for courses on race, ethnicity, gender and culture. Classroom techniques that may counter the reality of conservative action in the Academy are discussed, including some methods for continuing to deepen the meaning that psychology students take from the examination of multicultural topics. For the present authors, diversity and multi-cultural courses, particularly in psychology, must continue to include cultural sensitivity, belief in the essential importance of community research which includes the perspectives of “the other”, and constant, painstaking self-examination on the part of the teacher (Ridley, 2005). However, the very ground on which this assumption has rested for the last thirty or so years is moving and shifting under our very feet. It is hoped that the experiences of the authors teaching “the diversity course” can support others who seek to keep teaching similar courses even as the shadow of conservatism lengthens

Maintaining the Mental Model: An Exploratory Study of Dialogic Processes on Good Teaching Practice

This paper presents some outcomes of an exploratory, mixed-method study that examined mental models of teaching and understanding of learning processes in 26 educators from a small suburb in the Northeastern United States. Participants, in semi-structured written interviews, were asked to rate variables contributing to their mental model of effective teaching. They were then presented with a specific educational problem and asked to provide pedagogic solutions. One finding of this exploration was that some educators did not adhere to their own described mental model of best teaching practices when faced with an educational problem. However, those who responded to the problem in concert with stated mental constructions for teaching were more likely to have engaged in daily dialogue about pedagogic practices with their colleagues. The role of self-reflection, through daily dialogue as a mediator of teacher development is discussed, along with implications for policy and practice in elementary and secondary education

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Der Einfluss der Hautfarbe der Forschenden in qualitativen Interviews

In qualitative interviews, moments when the researcher departs from the research script can highlight how researcher-participant race interactions may differentially affect results. In the present study, 40 qualitative interviews between Black- and White-identified researchers and participants were analyzed to assess the influence of researcher race in deviations from the interview script. Excerpts from these mono-racial and cross-racial research dyads are presented to highlight the function and value of researcher interjecting in multicultural research. Suggestions and implications for future qualitative research on issues of race, ethnicity, and culture are delineated. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1102134En las entrevistas cualitativas, en los momentos que el investigador se aleja del guion, pueden realzar cómo las interacciones de las razas del investigador y del participante pueden afectar de forma diferente los resultados. En el presente estudio, 40 entrevistas cualitativas entre investigadores y participantes identificados como negros y blancos fueron analizadas para evaluar la influencia de la raza del investigador en las desviaciones del guión de la entrevista. Se presentan extractos de estas diadas de investigación mono-racial e inter-racial para destacar la función y el valor de la interferencia del investigador en la investigación multicultural. Se delinean sugerencias e implicaciones para futuros análisis cualitativos en temas de raza, etnicidad y cultura. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1102134In qualitativen Interviews können Situationen, in denen die Forschenden von ihrem üblichen "Skript" abweichen, Hinweise auf Interaktionen liefern, die durch die Hautfarbe der am Gespräch Beteiligten und damit einhergehende Erfahrungen konstituiert sind. In der hier vorgestellten Studie wurden 40 Interviews zwischen Forschenden/Beforschten durchgeführt, die sich selbst als "schwarz" oder "weiß" identifizierten. Im Folgenden werden Auszüge aus diesen Interviews präsentiert, die zeigen, in welcher Weise die (gleiche oder unterschiedliche) Hautfarbe thematisch und wirksam wird. Implikationen und Vorschläge für künftige Forschungen in diesem Feld und für Studien zu Ethnizität und Kultur werden abgeleitet. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs110213

Researcher interjecting in qualitative race research

In qualitativen Interviews können Situationen, in denen die Forschenden von ihrem üblichen "Skript" abweichen, Hinweise auf Interaktionen liefern, die durch die Hautfarbe der am Gespräch Beteiligten und damit einhergehende Erfahrungen konstituiert sind. In der hier vorgestellten Studie wurden 40 Interviews zwischen Forschenden/Beforschten durchgeführt, die sich selbst als "schwarz" oder "weiß" identifizierten. Im Folgenden werden Auszüge aus diesen Interviews präsentiert, die zeigen, in welcher Weise die (gleiche oder unterschiedliche) Hautfarbe thematisch und wirksam wird. Implikationen und Vorschläge für künftige Forschungen in diesem Feld und für Studien zu Ethnizität und Kultur werden abgeleitet.In qualitative interviews, moments when the researcher departs from the research script can highlight how researcher-participant race interactions may differentially affect results. In the present study, 40 qualitative interviews between Black- and White-identified researchers and participants were analyzed to assess the influence of researcher race in deviations from the interview script. Excerpts from these mono-racial and cross-racial research dyads are presented to highlight the function and value of researcher interjecting in multicultural research. Suggestions and implications for future qualitative research on issues of race, ethnicity, and culture are delineated