Binary gender norms in the U.S. contribute to the systemic marginalization of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals. These norms shape beliefs and assumptions about TGD young adults; inform the policies that govern their rights, the settings they occupy, and research conducted about them. Experiences based on binary conceptions of…

Mentoring of some sort is always part of the socialization process as new faculty members join the life and mission of a university. One type of mentoring is informal in nature. Newer members of a community pick up on the ways of an institution through "water cooler" conversations, casual interactions with colleagues, and even the…

Founded on the principles of place-based education, land-based learning collaboratively engages learners and community members in a four-step process of identification, understanding, intervention, and evaluation to enhance the sustainability of community-based agricultural systems. While scholars have provided the philosophical foundation for…

Across higher education there is a misalignment between the policies and practices of evaluation and the core values for which universities profess to stand. Values of inclusion, transdisciplinarity, and publicly engaged scholarship are routinely undervalued in university practices of evaluation. Shifting attention toward high-impact ends of…

This paper explores enabling conditions for scaling high-quality project-based learning (PBL) to understand factors that influence how PBL spreads, whether and how it can be sustained and the extent to which it informs meaningful change in schools. We report on a year-long collaboration across three research projects. Each project team analyzed…

Librarians from two research institutions developed a qualitative and quantitative survey to bring faculty voices into the discussion of incorporating the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" into instruction. The survey aimed to (1) gauge the level of faculty support for information literacy; (2) solicit rankings of…

In this article the authors share their experience of Teacher Lab, a job-embedded form of professional learning that has been a critical addition to professional learning practice for nearly a decade in the Avondale School District in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Using a full-day released time format, Teacher Lab combines preobservation dialogue and…

Teacher preparation programs commonly use observational instruments to assess the progress and the exit performances of teacher candidates. However, while these instruments have been described and several have been studied for effectiveness, the field lacks a close examination of how they position participants: teacher candidates, K-12 pupils, and…

The event administration industry exploded as an academic discipline in the 1990s, and data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows a 33 percent faster growth rate, in comparison to all other occupations, for event-planning jobs from 2012 to 2022. With these changes, the need for qualified college graduates entering the recreation and…

Objective: Women assertively resisting sexual aggression have the best chances of avoiding completed rape. Especially with acquaintances, there are significant social and psychological barriers to resistance. Novel vignettes depicting acquaintance rape were designed to enhance self-efficacy, reduce unrealistic optimism, and empower assertive…

This article explores using spoken word poetry and song analysis in the classroom to inspire students to analyze their identities and strive for social justice in their research efforts. Poetry is empowering. It can show students how people express themselves, push them to consider their own identities, and inspire them to seek social change.…

We report on an effectiveness evaluation of the Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) program. YES applies empowerment theory to an after-school program for middle school students. YES is an active learning curriculum designed to help youth gain confidence in themselves, think critically about their community, and work with adults to create positive…

How can youth be educated and empowered to become responsible food citizens? Evidence from a university-community partnership with youth in Michigan is presented to illuminate participatory approaches to youth engagement in food systems. We found that youth have valuable knowledge to enhance our understanding of food environments. At the same…

Could new types of pedagogy that involve more classroom projects and peer instruction encourage school districts to replace outdated furniture and redesign classrooms? Or could new classroom designs using modular furniture have an impact on how teachers engage their students? These are just a few of the questions that educators, instructional…

In response to a request from a campus student organization, faculty from three fields came together to develop and teach an integrated interdisciplinary course on water issues and social activism. This course, "Water as Life, Death, and Power", brought together topics from the fields of anthropology, biology and chemistry to explore…