Student-Authored Scientist Spotlights: Investigating the Impacts of Engaging Undergraduates as Developers of Inclusive Curriculum through a Service-Learning Course

The impact of student-authored Scientist Spotlights was investigated within the context of a service-learning course engaging students in STEM curricular reform efforts. Student-authored Scientists Spotlights significantly shifted peers’ perceptions of scientists across all demographic groups, as well as student authors’ own relatability to and stereotypes about scientists.

Curricular Reform and a Culture of Listening: Lessons from the Rosedale Freedom Project

I was formally introduced to antiracist pedagogy in the spring of 2016, several months before I traveled for the first time to the Rosedale Freedom Project (RFP) in Rosedale, Mississippi, to teach a course on music and politics to high school students. Oft romanticized as the place where blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, Rosedale is a small town in the Delta region. The majority of its population is Black, and consistently, more than half of this population has lived below the poverty line. The RFP seeks to help send its students, the majority of whom are Black and profoundly underserved by the state of Mississippi, to and through college. In preparation for the summer (and at the request of the director of the RFP), I read a number of foundational texts on antiracism and critical pedagogy including Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968), bell hooks's Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994), and Beverly Daniel Tatum's “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: And Other Conversations About Race (1997). As a white woman with no prior experience in Mississippi, I also read Nan Elizabeth Woodruff's history of the Delta region, American Congo: The African American Struggle in the Delta (2003) and Jesmyn Ward's novel Where the Line Bleeds (2008), among other texts, and reflected on how to design a course that would further the RFP's mission of “supporting the Mississippi Delta's young leaders in the development of critical consciousness and the practice of justice.”

Searching for Amistad in Two School Districts: A Case Study of Black History Curriculum Implementation in New Jersey

Background: Over the past 30 years, much debate has been produced about improving the quality and caliber of curriculum taught to public school students. Less prominent in these discussions has been the content of Black history and culturally relevant curriculum. Many states and districts assume they are adequately including these experiences through theme months (i.e., Black History Month) or single school days dedicated to workshops on diversity and equity. Unlike most states, the State of New Jersey has legislated the inclusion of Black history education through the enactment of the Amistad Legislation. In doing so it stands out among its peers, but has this legislation actually enacted curricular change? Research Design: We engage a decoloniality framework in this exploratory case study of two districts, describing how each is interpreting Amistad, the processes they subsequently implement, the curricular results, and if/how these attempts address dominant Eurocentric frames essential to the project of coloniality. Findings: We find that simply following the legislation itself does not result in a great deal of reform. The districts we profile, rather than follow the vague dictum of Amistad, opt to follow the “spirit” of the law. The result is clear curricular reform and district-level changes. Our cases present interesting points of discussion as they are at two distinct points on the spectrum of implementation—one having already established a well-regarded curriculum, the other in the early stages of reform. Despite this, administrators in each express the value of Amistad for their students, faculty, and communities.

Multi-dimensional Peace Education Initiative for Cultural Homogenisation and Nurturing Multiculturalism in Post-conflict Nepal

In a multicultural society, education can both foster the value of ‘celebrating diversity’ and thereby the social harmony but it can also foster social tensions and fuel conflicts by promoting cultural homogenisation. Using content analysis of education policies, curriculum and textbooks this study examined the way Nepal’s historical education system shifted from monocultural education towards a multicultural peace education approach. This study revealed that, by including the contents that promote multicultural values, the critical peace education initiative contributes to redressing the socio-political tensions that the monocultural education system fuelled historically. However, the local ownership, longer term commitment of the stakeholders, and regular consultations with the representatives of different cultural groups in curricular reform are essential for a successful peace education initiative.

Judicial Challenges Facing the Islamic Finance Industry of Nigeria

A fundamental requirement of Islamic financial practice, Shariah-compliance covers all aspects of the transaction from contractual agreements to execution to dispute resolution. Thus a sound judicial system with in-built Shariah-compliance mechanisms is indispensable to facilitate the execution of such contracts and to ensure the sustainability of the practice. In Nigeria, this system is still under development with the judiciary the most readily available option for dispute resolution. However, comprised merely of civil courts with jurisdiction to hear Islamic finance cases, these mechanisms subject the industry to possible legal and Shariah-compliance risks. Having conducted a series of interviews with experts, this study recommends: constitutional and legislative reform to grant jurisdiction to existing civil courts; the Financial Regulations Advisory Committee of Experts (FRACE) should be statutorily entitled to offer binding advice to courts; the practice itself should be enshrined in appropriate legislation; and there should be curricular reform to ensure judges and lawyers are adequately trained/educated in the particulars of Islamic finance.