Monday Online Presentation Session 2

Interdisciplinary Education

Session Chair: Webster Joseph

09:55-10:20

69877 | Participatory Allyship: Creating and Sustaining University-Community Partnerships to Benefit Highly Stressed Communities and Accomplish Social Justice Goals

Katherine Tyson McCrea, Loyola University Chicago, United States

Amzie Moore, Chicago State University, United States

Kevin Miller, Dominican University School of Social Work, United States

Heather Watson, Loyola University Chicago, United States

Racialized educational and economic inequalities have been insufficiently mitigated in the U.S. and there is increasing concern about inadequacies of evidence-based research findings to scale to effective community implementation. For universities to be on the front lines contributing remedies for educational and economic inequalities, University-community partnerships need to be stable and grounded in reflexive praxis, which is challenging given inequalities in privilege. This workshop offers praxis insights from a productive 17 year University-community partnership, the Empowering Counseling Program Participatory Science Initiative (ECP) of Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work (https://empowercounselprog.wixsite.com/ecp-luc), which implements participatory methods to co-design and co-evaluate, with urban youth of color experiencing low-income, free after school, summer, and counseling services. The workshop will provide materials co-authored with youth that include curricula, published studies, multimedia products, and intervention models. Topics addressed are: • Responding to community members' concerns about harm from universities whose research did not benefit communities, • Initiating a participatory partnership through a strengths-based needs assessment process • Engaging youth as positive change agents and co-researchers to advocate for their communities, • Trouble-shooting problems that can fracture partnerships, especially implicit biases, • Implementing participatory research processes that are faithful to communities' cultures while satisfying scientific aims, • Educating undergraduate and graduate students to be intellectual activists who can carry out participatory, human rights-based community partnerships, services, and research, including allyship, ensuring safety, preventing vicarious trauma, and developing cultural humility.

10:20-10:45

69985 | Supporting Equity in Education for Underrepresented Learners

Imani

Akin,

American College of Education, United States

Gail Claybrooks, American College of Education, United States

Educational institutions lead in the construction and dissemination of knowledge (Altback, 2003). The responsibility of supporting underrepresented learners in their pursuit of knowledge includes proactive and collaborative action. Higher education was once considered a tool for social mobility but now reinforces the social and economic divide (Miller (2019). Earning an education was a promise to level the playing field and help learners realize their potential and increase their opportunities for success. For some gaining an education is their measure of success in social advancement. For underrepresented learners, access to higher education is a challenge (NCES, 2019). For those who gain acceptance to educational institutions, there are challenges to navigating the environment to access resources and maximize their academic achievement. Cultural competence is a necessary skill for enhancing the educational experience of the underrepresented learner (Whitman & Jayakumar, 2023). Cultural competence as a requirement for higher education faculty and staff can reduce the effects of marginalizing learners. Marginality occurs as populations are pushed outside of the margins of support structures (Akin, 2013). Marginalized and underrepresented populations need support in learning to navigate through some educational systems. Collaborative strategies are needed to reimagine educational success for underrepresented learners striving for success in higher education. Greenberg (2022) recommends actions for educational institutions to support underrepresented learners that include incorporating equity priorities in the institutional culture. This paper will explore the barriers and challenges underrepresented learners may experience in higher learning. Strategies for overcoming the barriers and challenges include cultural competence for faculty and staff.

10:45-11:10

69942 | Home Electrical Problems Among Women in Iligan City: Basis for Training Program on Electrical Energy and Technology

Victor S. Rosales, Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines

Adelfa Silor, Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines

Antonio Merca, Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines

Electricity affected everyday life by providing essential resources and enhancing women's opportunities to perform their expected role as care workers more efficiently and in a qualitatively better way. This study used quantitative research to determine the home electrical problems encountered and experienced by the women of Iligan City and their skill level or lack thereof in dealing with the situation. Two hundred thirty (230) women from ten (10) barangays in Iligan City participated in this study and answered the survey. The findings revealed that most respondents are twenty-nine years old and above, married, and have a monthly income of 5000 pesos and below. It implies that most respondents fall into the poor income cluster or less than the official poverty threshold for a family size of five members. In addition, the women experienced and encountered various home electrical problems. Some of these home electrical problems are the cause and effect of another problem. A few of these problems technically violate the electrical code, which can compromise electrical safety at home. The findings further reveal that they consciously know they are unskilled in dealing with electrical home problems they encountered. Women are mindful that they cannot cope with problems with the essential electrical system in their homes. This does not, however, imply that women are less valuable than men. On the contrary, skills training is highly recommended to counter such problems and help women deal with home electrical problems.

11:10-11:35

68925 | The Effect of Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction on Reading Comprehension of Male Readers at the Primary School Level in Trinidad

Webster Joseph, Claxton Bay Senior Anglican Primary School, Trinidad and Tobago

Literacy research suggests that boys generally underperform academically when compared to their female counterparts (NAEP, 2010). Empirical data link the struggles boys encounter in literacy to disruptive classroom behaviour (Alloway et al., 2002). This sometimes contributes to school violence as boys become disengaged from learning activities that depend on reading proficiency. Explicit comprehension strategy instruction (ECSI) has shown to be effective in improving reading comprehension of students in other educational jurisdictions (Tiruneh, 2014). This presentation shares quantitative findings from a larger mixed-method study I conducted that sought to determine the effect of ECSI on reading comprehension of readers in the Trinidad context. One hundred and sixty-eight students from two schools in one Education District participated. Four classes were randomly assigned to experimental and controlled groups. Experimental groups were taught using ECSI while controlled groups were taught using Traditional Comprehension Instruction (TCI). An oral reading fluency (ORF) assessment was used to determine the reading proficiency of students. A pre-test and post-test design was used over six weeks. Repeated-measure ANOVA was used to determine significant factor interactions. Descriptive statistics were used to compare groups. Three significant factor interactions were observed. ECSI improved comprehension score means of developing readers (M=+0.32) while those with TCI (M= - 0.25) fell. More specifically, male developing readers were found to respond more favourably (M= +0.85) to ECSI than their female counterparts (M= -0.07). The implications of this study can inform classroom instructional practices to engage males in literacy learning and may reduce their disruptive behaviours in classrooms. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/iaforjapan |