Africana Studies Program

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/20222

Browse

Browsing Africana Studies Program by Author "Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Faculty perceptions of multicultural teaching in a large urban university
    (2012-06) Bigatti, Silvia M.; Gibau, Gina Sanchez; Boys, Stephanie; Grove, Kathy; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie; Khaja, Khadija; Springer, Jennifer Thorington
    As college graduates face an increasingly globalized world, it is imperative to consider issues of multicultural instruction in higher education. This study presents qualitative and quantitative findings from a survey of faculty at a large, urban, midwestern university regarding perceptions of multicultural teaching. Faculty were asked how they define multicultural teaching, how they engage in multicultural teaching, what they perceive to be the benefits of multicultural teaching, and what barriers to implementing multicultural teaching they experience. Results indicate faculty members most frequently define multicultural teaching as using diverse teaching pedagogies and materials. In line with their definitions, faculty also report engaging in multicultural teaching through use of inclusive course materials. Faculty identified positive learning outcomes for all students as a primary benefit to engaging in multicultural teaching. The primary barrier reported by faculty is an anticipated resistance from students. Variations in responses based on academic discipline and rank of faculty member are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    MULTCICULTURAL TEACHING PRACTICES: STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MULTICULTURAL TEACHING PRACTICES
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Taylor, Alexis; Redden, Janalee; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie
    As the world makes strides toward globalization, the demand for improved methods of multicultural teaching (MT) at the university level has dramatically increased. With growing diversity on campus, the demand for more multicultural teaching is at an all time high. Although the demands for MT practices are high, a recent survey at IUPUI revealed that many faculties continue to refrain from multicultural teaching due to a fear of backlash from both the students and other faculty members (Khaja, Springer, Bigatti, Gibau, Whiteland, & Grove, 2011). In an effort to evaluate IUPUI’s goal to incorporate more diversity, a survey on the university’s MT practices was distributed online to students that attend various schools on campus (N=4000, primarily juniors and seniors). The 466 respondents that took the survey were asked to respond to open-ended questions about their perception of multicultural teaching practices on campus. They were also provided with an opportunity to offer ideas on how the university could advance in the area of teaching diversity. The open-ended questions were quantified by creating coding categories which were pulled from common themes from the responses. Preliminary analyses suggest that the overall reactions to partaking in multicultural teaching practices are being viewed as being beneficial to student’s future endeavors. The analyses could alleviate some of the current concerns of the faculty and increase the percent of faculty that choose to participate in Multicultural Teaching.