Using Academic Social Networks to Enhance the Student Experience in Online Education

Online universities utilize academic social networks to build connections among students, faculty, and alumni through affinity groups. This study explored how students interact in academic social networks, who they collaborate with, why they use academic social networks, and how this influences their educational experience. This qualitative, interpretive, phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of six online higher education students reporting active participation in an academic social network. Three core themes emerged from data analysis: (a) acceptance and belonging; (b) self-validation; and (c) drawing from multiple perspectives describing how academic social networking communities are formed, why students are using them, and what this means to online higher education. The essence of academic social networking as it relates to self-actualization is discussed, with insights for educational leaders regarding the use of academic social networking and affinity groups in online higher education.

Three Buckets and Eight Strategies: Recruiting, Supporting, and Retaining a Racially Diverse Special Education Teacher Workforce

Cultivating a racially diverse special education teacher workforce is critical to the success of students with disabilities, particularly students of color with disabilities. We examine the literature and provide suggestions for recruiting, supporting, and retaining special education teacher candidates of color. Specifically, we present a vignette that highlights the decision-making process of a Black male on a journey to become a special education teacher. We propose recruitment strategies (e.g., anti-racist mission and vision statements), support strategies (e.g., racial affinity groups), and retention strategies (e.g., adopting anti-racist curriculum) that Institutions of Higher Education must consider to promote efforts to diversify the special education teacher workforce.

Creating Community Through Affinity Groups for Minority Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders

This viewpoint article describes an effective model for creating and sustaining an affinity group for undergraduate and graduate students from racial and ethnic backgrounds historically underrepresented in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association who are enrolled in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) programs at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). The Speech-Language Therapy & Audiology Minority Program (STAMP) at Nazareth College is an affinity group and mentorship program for undergraduate and graduate students, CSD program alumni, and area professionals who identify as minorities. Affinity groups have been shown to increase the sense of belonging of minority students at PWIs. At Nazareth College, we have observed this as students who participate in STAMP have reported that the program contributes to their feeling of belonging in the CSD department and at the institution and provides them with a safe place where they can share and discuss their experiences as minorities at a PWI. Additionally, our students have reported that participating in this affinity group supports their academic and clinical success and helps them manage their stress. By sharing our model for creating an affinity group for underrepresented CSD students at a PWI, we hope to encourage the establishment and support of groups like STAMP in CSD programs across the country. Considerations for departments considering starting their own affinity groups are discussed. STAMP, and other affinity groups, have the potential to grow by facilitating constructive discussion and collective action toward issues that significantly impact students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Military Veteran Employment

Companies that can hire and retain military veterans will have a strong competitive advantage over their competitors that lack this capability. This book will help business leaders obtain that advantage. The chapters in this book draw from the research and findings from Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology and Human Resources (HR) research to describe how to find, communicate with, recruit, develop, lead, and retain military veterans and their family members as civilian employees. Unlike other books on this topic that lack evidence-based content, this book draws upon science, research, and best practices to provide guidance organizations can implement to drive their success. Topics in this book include sourcing, communications, and recruiting military veterans and their spouses; reviewing résumés to extract cross-corporate competencies; branding your organization to successfully appeal to this population; understanding and challenging your misconceptions of the military and doing the same with veterans’ misperceptions of civilian employment; addressing culture mismatches between civilian and military cultures and improving cultural communication and understanding; improving person-job-organization fit for veterans and military family members to retain them in their jobs; providing culturally sensitive mentoring and leadership; understanding the training veterans receive and their personality traits and culture—and how these can benefit your organization; hiring and retaining wounded warriors and veterans with disabilities; creating and utilizing veteran mentoring programs and affinity groups; providing effective supervision for veteran employees; supporting National Guardsmen and Reservists working as civilian employees, and retaining these employees to gain a further competitive advantage for your organization.

Veteran Affinity Groups and Mentoring Programs

This chapter provides guidance and best practices on corporate veteran affinity groups and mentoring programs and how they can increase the retention, engagement, and satisfaction of veteran employees in civilian organizations. It begins by defining these programs and outlining their benefits in general. It then outlines specifically how such programs can address challenges veterans face in the workplace, thus benefitting both companies and veteran employees. Then specific issues and steps to take in creating such programs are discussed. The chapter concludes with overall recommendations and best practices companies can follow to leverage the power of these programs. Short case examples of different companies’ programs are provided to illustrate key points.

The Italian Anarchists' Network in São Paulo at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

This chapter discusses the transnational network built by Italian anarchists in South America at the beginning of the 20th century. The meeting of many activists allowed the formation of several affinity groups working together, an important improvement to the labor movement. Through biographical analyzes of the main anarchists based in São Paulo, Brazil, it is intended to show that the affinity relationships were mediated by the social identities of the partners. Its social aspects paint a picture more or less similar: all activists came from subaltern social classes with few or no material sources and they formed their political understanding in the prisons in contact with the masters of Italian anarchism. If in the youth they practiced the individualist actions typical of the poor classes, they started to occupy anarchist-communist positions in mature life, but always facing any kind of authority.

Living in “Turbulence”

This paper explores a Black music therapist’s experience within Turbulence, a therapeutic performance piece developed by Black and brown creative arts therapists and theatre artists in the Greater New York City area. The author shares her own personal experiences and reactions as a participant, process actor, musician, and music therapist within this group process. An examination of the integration of music within the performance will also be shared, particularly in terms of how certain music traditions can be used to elevate the expression of those with identities that have been historically marginalized. Additionally, this paper explores how social identity-based affinity groups supported by a creative process can decrease feelings of isolation and bolster a sense of empowerment amongst BPOC-identifying creative arts therapists.

Moving Beyond Implicit Bias Training: Policy Insights for Increasing Organizational Diversity

Many organizations are working to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Organizations frequently use implicit bias to explain disparities and marshal implicit bias training as a solution. Implicit bias is difficult to change and trainings do not yield more diversity in organizations, so organizations should move beyond implicit bias trainings in their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Organizations should (a) use trainings to educate members of their organizations about bias and about organizational efforts to address diversity, equity, and inclusion; (b) prepare for, rather than accommodate, defensive responses from dominant group members; and (c) implement structures that foster organizational responsibility for diversity, equity, and inclusion goals; opportunities for high-quality intergroup contact; affinity groups for underrepresented people; welcoming and inclusive messaging; and processes that bypass interpersonal bias. Although no simple, one-size-fits-all solutions address organizational diversity, organizational leaders have many tools they can use to design more effective diversity strategies.

Online collaboration and identity work in a brony fandom: Constructing a dialogic space in a fan translation project

Online collaboration has become a regular practice for many Internet users, reflecting the emergence of new participatory cultures in the virtual world. However, little is yet known about the processes and conditions for online collaboration in informally formed writing spaces and how these create opportunities for participants’ identity work. This ethnographic case study explores how four young adults, fans of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (bronies), negotiated a dialogic space for their online collaboration on a fan translation project and how this created opportunities for their identity work. After a year of participant observation, we collected interviews, ethnographic diaries and participants’ chats, which were analysed with qualitative content and discourse analysis methods. The findings showed how the Etherpad online writing platform used by the participants facilitated the construction of dialogic space through the visualization of a shared artefact and adjustable features. It was in this dialogic space where the participants negotiated their expert identities which furthered their discussions about writing, translating and technological innovations. The study advances present-day knowledge about online collaboration in affinity groups, engendering the construction of a dialogic space for collaborative writing and participants’ identity work.

I am more than just a box: Latinidades for a pluralistic vision of culturally sustaining education

This article explores what culturally sustaining education means for Latinx students. Drawing on the concept of Latinidades, the authors suggest that culturally sustaining education for Latinx students necessitates problematizing the boundaries of this term altogether and making visible the tensions and multiple axes of oppression around what it means to be Latinx. They take inspiration from Latinx students—including one of the authors of this article—who are challenging bounded notions of culture (such as "affinity groups") and instead foregrounding questions about equitable practices in the day-to-day context of schools.