Rethinking and Reinventing Intercultural Education in Post-Secondary Institutions: A Critical, Anti-Colonial Approach

Critical and anti-colonial scholarship helps us imagine how intercultural education might begin to address the power imbalances inherent to issues of culture and epistemology. This paper reflexively dialogues anti-colonial theory with my own experiments of practically implementing these theories within the Intercultural Program (IP), an extracurricular program at a Canadian postsecondary institution, to demonstrate possibilities for shaping intercultural education towards ethical ends. Through curriculum, programming, and community-building that is cocreated with students, the IP aspires to shape intercultural education towards social justice and equity, opening spaces for engagement with nondominant epistemologies, and promoting the critical thinking necessary for evaluating the historical, economic, political, social, and ethical implications of students’ own and others’ positions. At the same time, the IP provides a helpful site for exploring the challenges of doing critical work in an internationalizing institution, and the need, perhaps, to move intercultural education away from internationalization within higher education.

Assemblages and Co-emergent Corpomaterialities in Postsecondary Education: Pedagogical Lessons from Somatic Psychology and Physical Cultures

Building on a new materialist ontology, this article explores the significance of viewing the postsecondary institution and learner as assemblages co-emerging in material relationality. Bodies of thought from social cognitive neuroscience, somatic psychotherapy, and physical cultural studies inform an analysis of the evaluation culture predominant in Western postsecondary education. These disciplines are used to interrogate representational performativity and point to new possibilities for material-inclusive learning. A new materialist pedagogy holds possibilities to reconfigure learning architectures to recognise and attend to the corpomaterialities of learners while allowing for new and creative lines of flight in education, as illustrated by physical cultural practices such as sport training, dance, and capoeira.

Development and Evaluation of Scales for Measuring Self-Efficacy and Teaching Beliefs of Students Facilitating Peer-Supported Pedagogies

Two scales measuring teaching self-efficacy and beliefs were developed from previous instruments for use with near-peer facilitators assisting with peer-supported pedagogies. Construct and face validity, measurement reliability, and factor structure were determined using a population of near-peer facilitators working in a peer-led team learning chemistry classroom at a large research-intensive postsecondary institution in the Southeast United States. Results suggest that the scales produce valid and reliable data. Teaching self-efficacy and beliefs were found to increase between pre and post administrations with small to medium effect sizes. The scales can provide a means to evaluate peer-supported pedagogies and as discussion points for faculty members training near-peer facilitators.

Designing an Indigenous Wellness University Course: A Reflective Case Narrative

Postsecondary institutions across Canada have implemented various Indigenization strategies. Critical reflection is needed about the development, implementation, and impact of these strategies to ensure they serve more than checked boxes, and that they strive towards institutional decolonization. The purpose of this article is to present the development of an undergraduate course on Indigenous wellness at a Canadian postsecondary institution. Applying a reflective case narrative scholarly approach, we self-situate to present contextual information about ourselves and the course, as well as our motivation for course development and the scope of curriculum design. We consider five indicators of course design success within Dimitrov and Haque’s (2016) intercultural curriculum design competencies, and we recommend changes to the course design process for Indigenization sake. Reflecting on and interpreting our approach, we propose a three-party relational model to Indigenous course development consisting of the course instructor, a keeper of traditional knowledges, and a teaching and learning expert. In doing so we attempt to inform and prompt the thinking of others with similar or related course design goals.

Inside the Black Box: A Difference-in-Difference Analysis of Shifts in Postsecondary Institution Spending Patterns in Response to "Promise" Financial Aid Programs

<p>Using a panel dataset from 2000-2014, this paper employs a difference-in-difference design to consider the impact of the introduction of a “promise program” on postsecondary institutions’ internal spending levels and patterns. We find that promise programs influence postsecondary institutional behavior in every area we tested: student-related and non-student-related expenditure levels and shares. We find decreases in student-related expenditure areas at 2-year institutions, but no significant change at 4-years. Non-student-related expenditures are mixed at 2-years with levels of expenditures increasing for auxiliary but decreasing in public service areas. By contrast public service expenditures increase at 4-years. Shares of expenses also shift with declining spending on student services but increased institutional support at 2-years. However, there are no changes to the share of expenses at 4-years. Overall, we find that 2- and 4-year institutions react differently to the introduction of a promise program, with the greatest impact at 2-years.<br></p>

Inside the Black Box: A Difference-in-Difference Analysis of Shifts in Postsecondary Institution Spending Patterns in Response to "Promise" Financial Aid Programs

<p>Using a panel dataset from 2000-2014, this paper employs a difference-in-difference design to consider the impact of the introduction of a “promise program” on postsecondary institutions’ internal spending levels and patterns. We find that promise programs influence postsecondary institutional behavior in every area we tested: student-related and non-student-related expenditure levels and shares. We find decreases in student-related expenditure areas at 2-year institutions, but no significant change at 4-years. Non-student-related expenditures are mixed at 2-years with levels of expenditures increasing for auxiliary but decreasing in public service areas. By contrast public service expenditures increase at 4-years. Shares of expenses also shift with declining spending on student services but increased institutional support at 2-years. However, there are no changes to the share of expenses at 4-years. Overall, we find that 2- and 4-year institutions react differently to the introduction of a promise program, with the greatest impact at 2-years.<br></p>

How Big is the Ballpark? Assessing Variation in Grant Aid Awards within Net Price Calculator Student Profiles

Net Price Calculators (NPCs) are online tools designed to increase transparency in college pricing by presenting students with individualized estimates of net prices to attend a given postsecondary institution. The federal template NPC predicts identical aid awards for similarly-profiled students attending the same institution. Using the 2012 National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, we use regression analysis to assess variation in actual financial aid awards among students predicted by the federal template NPC to receive identical awards. We find estimated aid, derived from the federal template NPC, accounts for 70 percent of the variation in actual grant aid received by students. We then consider modifications to the federal template NPC that include an additional upper income bracket option and indicators of both high school grade point average and Free Application for Federal Student Aid filing time. These modifications explain an additional 16 percentage points, or more than half, of the unexplained variation in actual grant aid awards across all institutional sectors. These findings are especially relevant as legislators consider policy efforts to bring greater transparency to college cost and pricing, including creating a universal NPC in which prospective students can enter information once to receive net price estimates at any institution.

Washington's College Bound Scholarship Program and its Effect on College Entry, Persistence, and Completion

Indiana, Oklahoma, and Washington have programs designed to address college enrollment and completion gaps by offering a promise of state-based college financial aid to lowincome middle school students in exchange for making a pledge to do well in high school, be a good citizen, not be convicted of a felony, and apply for financial aid to college. Using a tripledifference specification, we find that Washington's College Bound Scholarship shifted enrollment from out-of-state to in-state colleges at which the scholarship could be used. While we find suggestive evidence that the program increased the likelihood of attending a postsecondary institution and attaining a bachelor's degree within five years of high school, we discuss why the program might be more successful if it did not require students to sign a pledge.