26.035 - Participatory Action Research for Institutional Change: Reconsidering Diversity Training, Access, and Retention of Historically Marginalized Populations

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel addresses the theme, Toward Justice, by responding to Tienda’s (2013) call for educators and leaders in higher education to respond to the question “Are postsecondary institutions harnessing the education benefits of diversity, or is social and cultural heterogeneity largely symbolic?” (p. 468). The presenters demonstrate how they each approached the challenge of increasing the access and retention of all students through participatory action research (PAR) projects intended to facilitate awareness of effective equity-oriented pedagogical designs. The chairs and discussants then open a conversation about PAR, tenure, and institutional change. Together, these studies speak to the power of harnessing campus wide perspectives through student initiated PAR in the service of systemic change.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 4: Social Context of Education Policy, Politics, and Praxis

Chairs

• Ronald David Glass, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Mark R. Warren, University of Massachusetts - Boston

Papers

• Finding Our "Scholar Cap": Harnessing Diversity and Working Toward Equity Through Inquiry - Rebecca G Kaplan, University of Colorado - Boulder; Elizabeth Mendoza, University of California - Santa Cruz; Carlos Porfirio Hipolito-Delgado, University of Colorado - Denver

• Participatory Action Research to Facilitate University Cross-Cultural Learning - Sarah Reed Hobson, SUNY - College at Cortland

• Artistically Speaking: Students Teaching Faculty About Diversity Through Participatory Action Research - Joy Howard, Heritage University

Discussants

• Jerusha Osberg Conner, Villanova University

• Paige M. Bray, University of Hartford