Call for Papers: June 2023

Reflecting on culturally responsive instructional strategies supporting Indigenous learners

Introduction

This call for proposals invites you to submit a manuscript for the June 2023 special edition of the Journal of Scholarly Engagement (JSE), with the focus of reflecting on culturally responsive instructional strategies supporting Indigenous learners.

Conflicting worldviews challenge Indigenous learners in postsecondary classrooms and professional development settings for employment. Alaska Natives and Native Americans (AN/NA) comprise approximately 2% of the total population of the United States and less than 1% of higher education enrollments (The Postsecondary National Policy Institute, 2020; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Unemployment rates for AN/NA are reported at 7.8 %, representing 4% higher than the national average (Allard & Brundage Jr., 2019). Graduation rates for AN/NA are half the rate of their White counterparts (The Postsecondary National Policy Institute, 2020). Fundamental epistemological, ontological, and axiological differences prevent recognizing pluralistic knowledge systems to support AN/NA people reach goals (Brayboy & Lomawaima, 2018). Brayboy and Lomawaima (2018) advocated the key to successful schooling, education, and innovated workforce comes from implementing culturally responsive instructional strategies.

Neri et al. (2019) targeted instructors' resistance to adopting culturally responsive instructional strategies as a complex problem. Instructor beliefs are challenged by the importance of changing established practices and confidence in implementing new approaches with institutional support (Neri et al., 2019). Developing cultural competence for instructors and learners increases critical thinking, global perspectives, and collaboration in the global classroom (Sandell et al., 2021). Adopting Weiterman Barton's (2013) standard model for Indigenous learning provides a framework for instructional design when supporting diverse learners using five threads: storytelling, interconnectedness, intergenerational, place, and experiences.

This special issue intends to provide faculty, academic support staff, professional development instructors, and businesses to share their efforts in supporting Indigenous learners in various settings. Manuscripts must describe how the author(s) applied their disciplinary knowledge to design culturally relevant instructional strategies through the lens of the standard model of Indigenous learning supporting Alaska Natives' and Native Americans' learning experiences (Weiterman Barton, 2013).

About the Journal

The Journal of Scholarly Engagement (JSE) was established in 2018 and expects a particular format that contrasts distinctly with a standard research journal. Manuscripts must align with the definition of the standard model of Indigenous learning above and the domain of scholarship within the scope of JSE:

•  The Scholarship of Integration. Integration is making connections across disciplines;
•  interpreting and bringing new insight on original research. The Scholarship of Application. Application is applying knowledge to problems by faculty, academic support staff, and other professionals using culturally responsive instructional strategies for the scholarly investigation of supporting Indigenous learners. It "emphasizes the use of disciplinary expertise to address consequential problems" (Greenberger & Mandernach, 2018).

Scholarly engagement in the application for this call should be documented using the Guide for Reflective Practice. You may also submit empirically-based and theoretical research articles. The Guide for Reflective Practice (GRP) documents examples of reflective practice, which is "the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice" (Finlay, 2008, p.1). Refer to the GRP Guidelines available on the JSE website https://scholarlyengagement.com/guides/reflective_practice_guidelines_32pdf. 

Target Audience

The editorial staff and the guest editor are especially interested in manuscripts that document examples of scholarly engagement in supporting Indigenous learners from an academic or professional development learning perspective undertaken through collaboration between faculty or other university personnel, K-12 teachers and staff, leaders from non-governmental, governmental, civic, or social organizations. However, manuscripts covering scholarly engagement that are not of a collaborative nature are welcome as well.

Submission Procedure

The editorial staff and the guest editor invite you to submit a manuscript by February 27, 2023, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines at https://scholarlyengagement.com/guides/reflective_practice_guidelines_32pdf prior to submission. All submitted manuscripts will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. You can submit a manuscript here: https://scholarlyengagement.com/home/submit 

Important Dates

February 27, 2023: Manuscript Submission Deadline

Contact

For questions related to this special issue of the JSE, contact the Guest Editor, Katie Archer Olson at o2kctechnologies@gmail.com or the JSE Editor-In-Chief, Tom Dyer, or Jenny Kuban, Managing Editor, at research@gcu.edu

References

Allard, M., & Brundage Jr., V.(2019). "American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. labor force," Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2019.24 

Brayboy, B. M. J., & Lomawaima, K. T. (2018). Why don't more Indians do better in school? The battle between U.S. schooling & American Indian/Alaska Native Education. Daedalus, 147(2), 82—94. https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00492 

Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on 'reflective practice. Retrieved from Practice-based Professional Learning Centre: The Open University: http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf 

Greenberger, S. W., & Mandernach, B. J. (2018). Documenting and disseminating unconventional scholarship. Journal of Scholarly Engagement, 1(1).

Neri, R. C., Lozano, M., & Gomez, L. M. (2019). (Re) framing resistance to culturally relevant education as a multilevel learning problem. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 197-226. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X188211  

Sandell, E. J., Olson, K. A., & Grigsby, M. L. (2021). Intercultural partnerships that foster cultural competence, in Carmo, M. (Ed). Education & New Developments 2021. Lisboa, Portugal: inScience Press. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/eec-fac-pubs/98/

The Postsecondary National Policy Institute. (2020). Native American students in higher education. https://pnpi.org/native-american-students/ U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2019." https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/tables/2010-2019/national/asrh/nc-est2019-sr11h.xlsx 

Weiterman Barton, S. D. (2013). Web walkers a phenomenological study of adult native American distance learning experiences: Toward a standard model of Indigenous learning (Publication No. 1551196861). [Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.  https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/web-walkers-phenomenological-study-adult-native/docview/1551196861/se-2?accountid=31683