The atmosphere at many colleges and universities in the United States presents unique challenges for Black faculty including racism. It is well established that Black faculty, especially those at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), work in potentially hostile, unfriendly, and negative environments. Other concerns for Black faculty at PWIs include lack of mentors and tenure politics. Examples of tenure politics include a lack of guidance regarding the tenure and promotion process, a sense of isolation and lack of collegiality, and the inability to speak out on unfair treatment for fear of retribution during the tenure and promotion process. Black faculty often choose self-isolation, conformity, and silence as coping strategies. However, these strategies rarely address the associated psychological and social stress. Faculty learning communities (FLCs) have been touted as a better alternative. FLCs bind faculty together thereby providing a much-needed support for Black faculty struggling to survive in a predominantly White environment. This article is premised on the experiences of six Black FLC participants at one PWI. We recommend that PWIs should actively support the attempt(s) by Black faculty to create safe spaces such as an FLC, which can foster a sense of belonging and build their confidence. An additional recommendation is that PWIs should employ the services of a chief diversity officer to help create and maintain programs that enhance Black faculty experiences and make them more successful.
In this study, self-reported survey results from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 2017 and 2018 are examined to understand the extent to which students who were academically at-risk and academically prepared engaged in active learning versus traditional learning methods across bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree-granting institutions. The NSSE Report Builder Public (2018) was utilized to create a data set from first year student responses selecting for teaching methodologies, Carnegie Institutional Categories, and student academic level as determined by course grades. Researchers used chi-square analyses to establish associations between the variables; all chi-square results were statistically significant except for one; there was no association found between students who were academically at-risk and coursework that emphasized evaluative learning activities. Next, researchers analyzed the frequencies of types of learning activities reported by students. Students who were were academically at-risk reported lower frequencies of using active learning techniques and tended to engage in study for fewer hours across all institution types. From this analysis, suggestions for improving the instruction for students who are academically at-risk include increased use of active learning teaching strategies for the various types of degree-granting institutions.
Institutions of higher education are challenged to get students engaged, especially adult or non-traditional online learners. In this study, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) 2017 & 2018 data on High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are examined to understand the extent to which adult online learners are engaged in HIPs. This analysis finds that engagement levels for adult learners are lower than those of traditional learners (under the age of 24) for all HIPs surveyed by the NSSE. Moreover, the levels of engagement of the subset of adult learners who took only online courses was even lower than the levels of the broader adult population, and part-time adult online learners had the lowest engagement of all student populations examined. Based on these findings, suggestions for improving the engagement of adult and online learners in HIPs are discussed. Institutions should focus on incorporating opportunities that allow more learners to experience HIPs, as research findings suggest that HIPS increase engagement and could result in significant improvements in student success measures, such as program completion and graduate school attendance (Stoloff, Good, Smith, & Brewster, 2015).
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