Student Voices on the Use of International Telecollaboration and Sustainability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up many challenges to international cooperation, to the promotion of sustainable development, and indeed, to education. This chapter describes a telecollaborative project between university students in Japan and China. The students planned, wrote, recorded, and produced video podcasts on the theme of sustainable development, which were then exchanged via a password-protected, online, collaborative platform. On completion of the project, students wrote reflective essays, which are used here to gain insights into their impressions of topics such as sustainable development and telecollaboration. Results indicate that students improved their understanding of sustainability in addition to developing video editing and podcasting production skills. They also improved their pronunciation as well as other English skills. Overall, they were proud of their podcasts and enjoyed collaborating online with students from another country.

Make Space, Take Space

This chapter focuses on the impact of a culturally relevant course centering the experiences of Black women attending a Historically White Institution (HWI). This chapter will provide an overview of the course creation, implementation, and positive implications of a gender-specific course steeped in the African Diaspora. Using Black feminist thought, the authors examine how Black female students experience community, self-discovery, and academic success. The chapter highlights student voices and discusses the lasting impact of the case design on the students and collegiate community. In addition, the co-creators share the impact of the course on their own well-being and its larger impact on the collegiate campus.

Exploring Year 10 Samoan Students’ Experiences of Teaching and Learning in the Mainstream English Classroom

<p>This research examined the ways in which twelve Year 10 Samoan students experienced teaching and learning in the mainstream English classroom. The study was guided by two questions: What perceptions do a group of Samoan students have of the strengths and skills they bring to the English classroom? And: How do these students see themselves as navigating teaching and learning in the English classroom drawing on these strengths? The aim of the research was to further understand how skills Samoan students develop outside the English classroom are being used by the participants to create positive learning outcomes. As a way to prioritise Pacific student voices, the Pacific research methodology of talanoa was used to gather stories from the participants alongside observations of the English classroom. Three major themes emerged from the findings – describing the need for interdependence, self-organisation, and fa’atua (or the value or reciprocal and mutually respectful relationships). Karlo Mila-Schaaf’s (2010) concept of polycultural capital was used as a theoretical paradigm to interpret the findings. If educators can understand how a group is functioning well, and the conditions that allow this to happen, this knowledge can lead to benefits for other Pacific students. The study concludes with a consideration of what might happen if teachers consciously provide space for existing skills and strategies.</p>

Exploring Year 10 Samoan Students’ Experiences of Teaching and Learning in the Mainstream English Classroom

<p>This research examined the ways in which twelve Year 10 Samoan students experienced teaching and learning in the mainstream English classroom. The study was guided by two questions: What perceptions do a group of Samoan students have of the strengths and skills they bring to the English classroom? And: How do these students see themselves as navigating teaching and learning in the English classroom drawing on these strengths? The aim of the research was to further understand how skills Samoan students develop outside the English classroom are being used by the participants to create positive learning outcomes. As a way to prioritise Pacific student voices, the Pacific research methodology of talanoa was used to gather stories from the participants alongside observations of the English classroom. Three major themes emerged from the findings – describing the need for interdependence, self-organisation, and fa’atua (or the value or reciprocal and mutually respectful relationships). Karlo Mila-Schaaf’s (2010) concept of polycultural capital was used as a theoretical paradigm to interpret the findings. If educators can understand how a group is functioning well, and the conditions that allow this to happen, this knowledge can lead to benefits for other Pacific students. The study concludes with a consideration of what might happen if teachers consciously provide space for existing skills and strategies.</p>

Enabling Public Scholars through Faculty Development

To support faculty as they remained civically engaged during the pandemic, the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of South Dakota (CTL) launched a training series on public scholarship partnering with facilitators from Emory, Baylor, and Harvard. Core outcome of the series were for faculty to find a home for themselves in public engagement and to support students in their own public-facing work. The series introduced faculty to public scholarship as a dialogical partnership and offered workshops on facilitating public-facing student work and organizing virtual conferences, concluding each term with a panel featuring academics who promote the common good in different ways. This article explains the development of this series with the theoretical underpinnings that guided it and concludes by proposing a definition of public scholarship that includes student voices and repositions universities within the communities they inhabit.

“We’ve Always Been Engineers:” Indigenous Student Voices on Engineering and Leadership Identities

Background: How do Indigenous engineering students describe their engineering leadership development? The field of engineering has made only slow and modest progress at increasing the participation of Indigenous people; an identity-conscious focus on leadership in engineering may help connect the practice of engineering with Indigenous students’ motivations and values. Methods: This study utilized a grounded theory qualitative approach to understand how Indigenous engineering students at a U.S.-based university experience engineering leadership. We explored the experiences of four Indigenous engineering students through one interview and one focus group. Results: Students pointed out how Indigenous peoples had long engaged in engineering work before contact with European settlers, and they saw an opportunity for leadership in applying their engineering knowledge in ways that uplifted their home communities. Conclusion: In addition to ways that engineering programs can better support Indigenous students who aspire to become practicing engineers, our study pointed to new directions engineering programs could take to frame engineering work as providing a toolkit to improve one’s community to leverage a wider set of motivations for entering engineering among many different communities underrepresented in engineering, including Indigenous students.

Dyslexia in Higher Education

People can best help dyslexic students once they understand dyslexia's association with anxiety and effective coping strategies, both cognitively and emotionally. By highlighting the perspectives of dyslexic students, this book evidences the prevalence of anxiety in dyslexic communities. The shared experience from a range of dyslexic learners pinpoints best practice models and helps combat the isolation felt by many with learning difficulties. The author targets academic areas where students struggle, offering techniques to overcome these barriers. Such obstacles are not always due to cognitive factors but may be associated with negative experiences, leading to fear and uncertainty. Recounting these sticking points through student voices, rather than from a staff viewpoint, enables readers to find meaningful solutions to dyslexia-related problems. Through this dynamic methodology, the book shows researchers and practitioners how to understand dyslexic needs on an emotional level, while presenting dyslexic readers with practical coping methods.