Bioethics is an important aspect of understanding the relationship between science and society, but studies have not yet examined undergraduate student experiences and comfort in bioethics courses. In this study, we investigated undergraduate bioethics students' support of and comfort when learning three controversial bioethics topics: gene…

Especially since 2010, conservative interests' dominance at advancing their preferred policies across U.S. states has been clear, with large and escalating impacts in education. Although adversaries on the political left remain in catch-up mode, there have been auspicious developments. This study focuses on one of these, seeking to understand a…

Drawing on 16 years of nationally representative survey data from 2007-2022, I demonstrate that partisan gaps--the average differences in public opinion between Democrats and Republicans--have widened on many education issues. The growth of the partisan gaps consistently exceeds what would be expected due to the changing demographic compositions…

The diversity among undergraduate students in the United States has peaked recently. This quantitative study aims to investigate medical students' perceptions regarding the factors (gender/age/religious beliefs/disabilities, immigration status/political affiliation/sexual orientation) directing their overall campus satisfaction with diversity and…

This instrumental case study of Generation Z preservice teachers enrolled in elementary teaching methods courses in social studies and literacy explores the impact of polarization on their political engagement and teaching. Using the 2020 presidential election as a teachable moment, participants developed and taught literacy-infused civics units…

The college years represent a prime opportunity for students to develop prosocial skills through friendships that cross social boundaries (i.e., in which the two friends differ on at least one aspect of sociocultural identity such as race, political affiliation, or religion). By cultivating empathy and reducing social stratification, these…

This qualitative single-site case study explores how students identifying as conservative position themselves within the discursive field of their campus, how they understand their rhetorical and discursive development in relation to their more liberal peers, and what increasing political polarization means for college campuses. I find that the…

Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand public views on the importance of a four-year college degree. The study also explores key trends in the economic outcomes of young adults among those who have and have not completed a four-year college degree. The analysis in this report is based on three data sources. The labor force,…

The recent fervor over Critical Race Theory (CRT) in American public schools is the result of a confluence of contributing factors including: an eroded news media apparatus operating within a capitalist framework where an increasing portion of the American populace consume news through hyper-partisan cable news networks and social media that…

The United States has one of the lowest election turnout rates in the developed world. Consequently, social scientists are perpetually seeking to expand upon their knowledge of what factors are associated with voting, or the lack thereof. Commonly identified factors including age, income, race, and educational attainment have been studied…

Many on the contemporary Left assume that the Right has irrevocably taken control of cyberspace. Many believe that the terrain of online memetic discourse, from 4chan to Russian interference in the 2016 election via social media, is now the domain of trolls, fascists, and neo-Nazis. In this article, Gabriel Keehn argues against that assumption,…

Public opinion toward teachers and other public sector workers is an important factor in Ontario provincial politics. This article uses public opinion data to measure, and identify the correlates of, resentment and admiration of these groups, and to identify the relationship between these attitudes and support for political parties in Ontario.…

"Affective polarization" refers to the amount of negativity that people feel for those who belong to a political party other than their own. This self-study reports on our particular use of a narrative cycle model and documents its validity as a tool for doing the emotional work of exploring contradictions in one's practice without the…

This paper identifies some of the methodological considerations involved in narrative research with conservative faith groups, while addressing the things left unsaid through an exploration of silence in the author's own life narrative of faith and sexuality. The challenges posed by silence -- temporal silence and concealment -- require greater…

The integration of diverse perspectives propels scientific innovation (Hofstra et al., 2020; Van der Vegt & Janssen, 2003), enhances scientific capacity to address particularly-challenging problems (Sulik et al., 2021), and better prepares scientists to grapple with the meaning of their work (Harding, 2015; Rolin, 2019); however, present…