scholarly journals Graduate Students’ Exploration of Opportunities in a Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Andrew Thomas ◽  
Alora Paulsen-Mulvey ◽  
Dana Cramer ◽  
Amanda Zanco
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Future Research

The following white paper details the University of Calgary’s 2021 graduate student conference titled, ‘Opportunities in a Crisis.’ This white paper works to describe how graduate students explore the terms ‘opportunities’ and ‘crisis’ within their research interests. These research interests were interdisciplinary to various fields such as telecommunications policy, algorithmic studies, critical race theory, and video game studies to list a few. Through this conference, we observed an acute awareness of the ways in which the COVID-19 crisis has impacted research in media activism, feminist media studies, internet infrastructure, and teaching and learning, to mention a handful. This white paper is divided by panel sections, thereby allowing readers to connect with this graduate student conference and help inform future research on topics in communication and media studies, as they are framed in working through these crisis moments in our global history. Our white paper set out to achieve two goals: first, document the presentations and emerging scholarly work of graduate students; and second, reflect on how research can, and very well does, pivot in times of crises, specifically using our current global COVID-19 pandemic as an ongoing, lived experience. This white paper achieves these goals which we believe helps in the preservation of this unique moment in time to be a graduate student.

scholarly journals The Story of Drama Club: A Contemporary Counternarrative of a Transformative Culture of Teaching and Learning for Disenfranchised Black Youth in the School-to-Prison Pipeline

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 242
Author(s):  
Debra Mayes Pane
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy ◽  
Black Youth ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Culture Of Teaching

<p>This study explored a contemporary counternarrative of Drama Club, a transformative culture of teaching and learning for disenfranchised Black youth who had been systematically funneled out of classrooms and into the school-to-prison pipeline.  Auto/biographical and auto/ethnographical data were collected and assembled as a metaphor of the teachers’ and students’ experiences in Drama Club and their understanding of the teaching and learning process and of themselves within it.  The collective story of Drama Club was analyzed through the lens of culturally responsive pedagogy theory and critical race theory in education.  Implications for future research and teacher education that set out to impact disenfranchised students are included.</p>

scholarly journals Social capital in video game studies: A scoping review

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110547
Author(s):  
Henry Korkeila
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
Video Game Studies ◽  
Sphere Of Influence

This study explored how social capital has been utilized in video-game studies by conducting a scoping review. In total, 74 peer-reviewed publications were analysed from three different databases. The following aspects pertaining to social capital were analysed: definition, methodology, game or genre as stimulus, its utilization inside or outside the stimulus, whether it was the sole concept or variable, how it was utilized, whether social capital was used to predict variables or whether variables were used to predict it, and what where the predicted or predicting variables. The results of the analysis show that Putnam’s research, the quantitative method and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games were most commonly combined. Social capital was predominantly utilized in binary form. It was utilized almost equally inside and outside the video games’ sphere of influence. The study then presents the main findings and discusses future research avenues.

scholarly journals Speaking in Tongues: Can International Graduate Students Read International Graduate Admissions Materials?

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary W. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
International Graduate Students ◽  
Reading Levels ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
International Graduate ◽  
International Graduate Student

A recent Educational Testing Services report (2016) found that international graduate students with a TOEFL score of 80—the minimum average TOEFL score for graduate admission in the United States—usually possess reading subscores of 20, equating to a 12th-grade reading comprehension level. However, one public flagship university’s international graduate student admissions instructions are written at a 17th-grade reading comprehension level, or, a 27-30 band on the reading section of the TOEFL. This study seeks to answer the question, “Do U.S. graduate programs compose admissions materials at unreadable levels compared to these programs’ minimum reading comprehension levels for international graduate student admission?” Findings reveal average public flagship international graduate student admissions materials are written above 15th-grade reading comprehension levels, with select flagships composing these materials at 19th grade reading levels. Implications for practitioners and policymakers, as well as areas of future research, are addressed.

scholarly journals 29. Two Models for Introducing Graduate Students to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 177
Author(s):  
Natasha Patrito Hannon ◽  
Svitlana Taraban-Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Development ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching

Graduate students aspiring to become faculty members should be provided with meaningful opportunities to explore the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and to formulate questions about student learning and effective teaching. To this end, teaching and learning centres should incorporate SoTL-oriented components within the framework of educational development programs to prepare our future faculty. This article briefly reviews the emerging literature on graduate student engagement with SoTL and highlights two possible approaches for incorporating SoTL into educational development programs for graduate students.

Exploring professors’ experiences supporting graduate student well-being in Ontario faculties of education

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-411
Author(s):  
Vera Woloshyn ◽  
Michael J. Savage ◽  
Snezana Ratkovic ◽  
Catherine Hands ◽  
Dragana Martinovic
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inclusive Learning ◽  
Ontario Education ◽  
Faculties Of Education ◽  
Diverse Groups

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore Ontario education professors’ perceptions of well-being, document ways in which they support graduate students’ well-being and discuss perceived challenges in doing so.Design/methodology/approachA basic interpretative design was used, with participants consisting of seven (four females, three males) tenured professors from five faculties of education in Ontario, Canada. Participants completed one to two semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed for member checking and read holistically to identify emergent themes across participants.FindingsParticipants provided multifaceted representations of well-being and reported that supporting graduate students’ psycho-socio-emotional well-being was a critical aspect of their role. They discussed the intentional use of specific strategies including creating inclusive learning environments, nurturing caring relationships, providing academic accommodations and promoting relevant on-campus supports and services. Finally, participants identified factors that challenged their abilities to support graduate students’ wellness including institutional norms and expectations, shifting student demographics and uncertainties with respect to professional capacities.Practical implicationsGraduate student mentorship should be included in the faculty reward system. The provision of private, specialized services offered by trained personnel is also recommended. Future research is needed to explore faculty experiences supporting and mentoring diverse groups of graduate students.Originality/valueWhile limited in participant numbers and educational jurisdiction, this research extends current mentoring models by adding a mental health and well-being component, thus bridging gaps between well-being and graduate mentorship in higher education.

scholarly journals Teaching And Learning In A Time Of Corona: A Social Work Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni Berger
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Work Family

Abstract Preliminary results of a qualitative study of the lived experience of teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic are presented. An instructor, a program director and five doctoral students in different stages of their coursework and dissertation proposal development, wrote a reflective journal. Participants varied in their levels of familiarity with technology-assisted education, personal backgrounds and circumstances including work, family and caring for sick relatives responsibilities. Participants’ journals documenting their reactions, struggles and coping since the abrupt move of the university from face to face to online classes were content analyzed. The analysis was co-conducted by all participants to identify themes and generate understanding of the experience. Two main themes emerged from the analysis: A developmental process of participants’ reactions, perceptions and meaning making of the experience and factors that shaped it. Lessons learned are discussed and recommendations for professional education and directions for future research are suggested.

scholarly journals Investigation of the Association between Video Game Usage, Personality, Psychological Needs, and Wellbeing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Florian Flueggen
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Basic Psychological Needs ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Real Life Situation ◽  
Key Aspects

<p>Playing computer games has often been theorised to be linked to the wellbeing of users. However, the variables involved and the relationships and interactions between them have not been established. The purpose of the present study was to investigate, whether there are core aspects of game usage that are related to increased or decreased wellbeing, and the extent to which these depend on players’ real-life situations. The project comprised three studies and used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. In the first study, the ways in which players use games were investigated. To identify the key aspects of game usage for distinguishing and describing how players use games, in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 players of different games. This data and two subsequent quantitative tests, the first with 314 participants and the second with 770 participants, were used to develop a game-usage questionnaire and a framework with eight factors. The relationship between game usage and wellbeing was investigated in a longitudinal study conducted over nine months with 531 participants. Personality – as proxy for internal characteristics – and basic psychological needs – as proxy for participants’ situations in life – were taken into account as potential moderators of that relationship. Results showed that the overall correlations between game usage and wellbeing are weak and subsumed by players’ needs and personality. However, there were interactions between game usage and needs: Some game usage factors seem to directly reflect real-life situations and wellbeing; others seem to be common responses to real-life situations with no impact on wellbeing; and others again appear to impact wellbeing depending on the real-life situation. Social game usage seems to be a key factor with relevance for wellbeing. The contribution of this thesis is twofold. It provides a general framework of game usage that can be used in the field of game studies to interpret and compare findings more meaningfully, and it was shown that it is important to consider a person’s game usage in context of their real-life situations. In addition, main game usage factors for future research on wellbeing and digital games are suggested.</p>

Press C→ to Play the Ocarina

2012 ◽  
pp. 368-390
Author(s):  
Dan W. Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Operating Systems ◽  
Video Game ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Human Emotion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Digital Media Studies ◽  
The Individual

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the intersection where digital media studies meet rhetoric and rhetoric is re-introduced to musicology. In the recent academic excitement surrounding game studies, the music of games has been overshadowed. The author would like to call attention to the significance of game music and to consider a rhetorical method to approaching it that calls upon a rekindling of the history of coupling rhetoric with music. The author builds on this history by suggesting the foundation of a rhetorical framework for understanding the argumentative power of video game songs. He then moves to offer an approach for evaluating the ethos of game music that consists of assessing worlds and how they are carried through, and by, music. While 17th century baroque composers thought music to be fundamentally an issue of affections—and especially played off of emotional binaries such as joy/sadness as a rhetorical approach—the author hope to here revive this lost art of applying rhetoric to music through broadening the discussion beyond the matter of human emotion. This rhetorical approach allows the individual a framework with which to evaluate the ethos of game music as it now appears through numerous mobile operating systems, online environments, and as remediated forms manifesting in/as cultural artifacts. As games become ubiquitous, so do their songs.

The Flip Side of the Attrition Coin: Faculty Perceptions of Factors Supporting Graduate Student Success

10.28945/3618 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 419-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna A Gilmore ◽  
Annie M Wofford ◽  
Michelle A Maher
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Comparison Method ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Graduate Faculty ◽  
Faculty Advisors ◽  
Graduate Student Success

Doctoral attrition consistently hovers around 50% with relevant literature identifying several mediating factors, including departmental culture, student demographics, and funding. To advance this literature, we interviewed 38 graduate faculty advisors in science, engineering, or mathematics disciplines at a research-extensive university to capture their perceptions of factors supporting graduate student success. Using a constant-comparison method, we found that faculty perceptions aligned within three major categories, termed: motivated student behaviors, formative student learning experiences, and essential student knowledge and skills. Student motivation was most prominently represented in findings. This aligns with prior studies showing that faculty tend to identify the cause of graduate student failure as lying within the students themselves and rarely discuss their role or the department’s contribution to attrition. Thus findings offer an opportunity to reflect and improve upon practice. The study also highlights actions graduate students can take to increase success, such as developing collegial relationships and early involvement in research and scholarly writing. We encourage graduate faculty advisors and others to identify ways to help graduate students overcome common obstacles to enduring and succeeding within graduate programs. Faculty perceptions are also examined by discipline and faculty rank, and directions for future research are offered.

My wellness is

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Robert Jason Lynch ◽  
Bettie Perry ◽  
Cheleah Googe ◽  
Jessica Krachenfels ◽  
Kristina McCloud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type

Purpose As online education proliferates, little attention has been given to understanding non-cognitive success factors, such as wellness, in online graduate student success. To begin to address this gap in understanding, this paper aims to explore the experiences of doctoral student wellness within the context of online distance education. Doctoral students, and their instructor, in an advanced qualitative research course sought to use collective autoethnography to address the following questions: How do the authors perceive the wellness as doctoral students engaged in distance education, and how do the authors understand the influence of the doctoral program cultures on the perceptions of the own wellness? Design/methodology/approach This paper emerged from a 12 week advanced qualitative research course where students opted to engage in a poetic arts-based collective autoethnography to reflect on and analyze their experience of wellness as doctoral students taking online courses. Data collection included the use of reflective journaling, creation of “My Wellness Is” poetry, and weekly group debriefing. Journals and poems were analyzed individually, then collectively. First and second cycle coding techniques were used, with the first cycle including process and descriptive coding and second round coding involving pattern coding. Findings Through first and second round coding, three primary themes emerged: positionality as an element of wellness, the role of community in maintaining wellness and awareness and action regarding wellness. Research limitations/implications Due to the inherent nature of qualitative research, and specifically autoethnographic methods, the findings of this study may be difficult to generalize to the broader online graduate student population. Future research on this topic may use the experiences explored in this study as a basis for the development of future quantitative studies to measure the extent of these findings in the broader population. Practical implications This paper includes implications for the development of interventions that may support wellness in graduate students in online environments including support interventions from faculty advisors, leveraging academic curriculum to promote wellness, and suggestions for building community among online graduate students. Social implications As technology advances, online education is quickly becoming a leading mechanism for obtaining a graduate education. Scholarship in this discipline has primarily focused on academic outcomes of online students and has largely focused on undergraduate populations. This paper broadens the conversation about online education by illustrating a non-cognitive dimension of the student experience, i.e. wellness, through the perspective of graduate students. Originality/value This paper addresses a gap in the current understanding of online graduate student experiences and outcomes using methods that provide vivid illustrations of the nuanced experience of online doctoral students.

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