ERIC Number: ED654110
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 284
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-3825-8429-4
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EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"Making Room": Faculty Perspectives on a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy for Online Graduate Theological Education
Susan L. Nacy
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Trinity International University
Rapidly increasing demand for online graduate education in our globalized, post-pandemic, "flat" (Freidman 2007), digital age has coalesced globally dispersed and culturally diverse learners into virtual classrooms, amplifying a multiplicity of voices. Social learning theory (Bandura 1977) emphasizes that knowledge is constructed between reciprocal interactions between students and teachers within their culturally embedded contexts. In this ever-emerging online context, it is critical that faculty incorporate culturally responsive pedagogies to make room for the difference among a diverse demographic of online adult learners. This qualitative study invited twenty-six faculty participants from eleven North American-based graduate theological institutions to share about their formation, pedagogy, and the online environment where they facilitate culturally inclusive education. From these semi-structured interviews, analyzed following a constant comparative analysis approach five major themes emerged. Major findings revealed that cultural inclusivity is formed in educators through an ongoing process of exposure to diverse perspectives, inclusive models, and experiences of exclusion. Findings also indicated that culturally inclusive faculty co-create knowledge through centering diverse voices, model cultural humility, adapt curricular design based on culturally based preferences of diverse learners, and invite multidirectional engagement between the hybrid communities to which learners belong. The implications of this study revealed that inclusive pedagogy is more than a method, but flows from personhood, suggesting that teaching online requires culturally inclusive faculty who have been formed through diverse lived experiences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Teacher Attitudes, Culturally Relevant Education, Online Courses, Graduate Study, Theological Education, Electronic Learning, Inclusion, Curriculum Design
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
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Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
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