CEHD Research In Press: 2024 September

NEWS 

Dr. Matt Knutson received a Fulbright Specialist award from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning. His project will take him to Germany to conduct research about a local league in the 1980s on the Atari 2600. Dr. Knutson also published “Accessible Sport and ‘Wheelchair Romance’: 1980s Pinball and Arcade Tournaments for People with Disabilities” in ROMchip, a journal of games history. The article demonstrates that calls for inclusion in games culture are more than 40 years old, and players with disabilities have been finding accessible forms of sport in competitive gaming events for at least as long. He subsequently published a piece in The Conversation about this work.

Dr. Donna Pearson led a team of CEHD faculty to propose and receive a Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) grant, which included Chris Clark, Tony Perry, Hyonsuk Cho, Logan Rutten, & Tao Wang. Working with the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the grant will fund UND hosting a group of international scholars in Fall 2025.

Dr. Laura Link received a grant from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. The Aspiring Principals’ Pipeline grant prepares 10 district employees to become school leaders. The grant was recognized in articles in UND Today and the Grand Forks Herald.

Two NSFs grants were selected for inclusion in a Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE) spotlight of DRK-12 projects that are assessing aspects of teaching practice in STEM education. The faculty authored the spotlights (see below) and were proud to have their research and contributions to teacher professional learning shared widely through this outlet.

•  Drs. Ryan Summers, Julie Robinson, and Min Jung Lee, along with graduate assistant Maria Zaman, and collaborators outside of the UND community, on July 31 welcomed 95 new elementary teachers to the program. On August 7, 184 new and returning STEM STRONG teachers attended online professional learning that focused on explanations and sense-making in science. These teachers will continue to meet online, collaborate, and participate in professional learning and research activities throughout the 2024-2025 academic year. They are excited to announce that they received continued NSF funding (part of a $2.9 M award) for STEM STRONG and their research investigating the impacts of intense professional learning and modest supports on elementary teachers’ science and engineering practice.
• Project CuRRENT, Culturally Relevant River Education for Nature-based Teaching (NSF award #2201196), met for its second time this summer, welcoming elementary teachers from Rock Creek Grant School, Circle of Nations, and Thompson to UND to engage in teaching and learning activities focused on place-based and culturally relevant watershed education. Drs. Julie Robinson, Joshua Hunter, Kathy Smart, Bonni Gourneau, Jared Schlenker, and Frank Bowman and graduate assistant Sydney Raboin from UND, Dr. Danny Luecke from Turtle Mountain Community College, and specialists Asher Kingery and Taylor Lemieux from the International Water Institute designed and facilitated the two-day workshop that extended previous project work. Teachers engaged as learners with “wondering walks”, hands-on science and engineering activities, Anishinaabe stories, art integration at the UND Art Museum, and their own culturally relevant watershed lesson planning. During the 2024-25 school year, participating teachers will implement their lessons, designed as part of the workshop and on-going professional learning, in their own classrooms with project team members visiting to celebrate the culmination of this work. In addition, this summer, project members also have had two conference presentations accepted, sharing the approach and products from Project CuRRENT with a wider audience.

Randy Perkins, an EFR PhD student, was recently awarded a Nyswander-Blanchard Pre-Dissertation Fellowship for the 2024-2025 academic year. Nyswander–Blanchard Pre-Dissertation Fellowships support tribal college and university (TCU) faculty who are in the pre-dissertation stage of a doctoral program and help to cover program fees, research expenses, software, periodicals, and travel. Randy is currently a faculty member at White Earth Tribal and Community College in northwest Minnesota who is interested in the intersection of artificial intelligence, epiphany, and individual and social empowerment. Other interests include online education, open educational resources (OER), and Z-degrees.

Dr. Diana D’Amico Pawleicz published an article on May 16 for The Conversation with colleagues from American University and elsewhere, “How Black teachers lost when civil rights won in Brown v. Board”. The article was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express News, the Richmond (Va.) Dispatch and KSTP-TV in St. Paul, plus dozens of other online media outlets including Yahoo News New Zealand.

Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell was quoted in Real Simple, the home and lifestyle magazine, about her meta-analysis publication “Does listening to audiobooks count as reading?” comparing reading and listening comprehension.

Dr. Hyonsuk Cho and three TESOL students published an article in the Dakota TESOL Newsletter. The article is based on Hyonsuk’s attending UND TTaDa’s 4-day workshop ‘Teaching Information Literacy and Critical Thinking in the Age of AI’ in May 2023 and publishing ‘SIOP lesson plan analysis’ (the project she created during the workshop) in the AI Assignment Library of UND in September 2023.

Dr. Emily Midkiff was mentioned in an Edutopia article entitled, “16 Sci-Fi Books That Help Kids Make Sense of the Modern World”

Dr. Renuka de Silva was invited to attend the 18th International Human Rights Summit as a panelist at the UN Headquarters in New York City from July 18-20. The panelist spoke regarding human rights in education and the importance of educating on human rights.

Several CEHD faculty received UND Connect grants, “provide UND faculty and students with the opportunity to engage in community-based research, development, and outreach projects. UND CONNECT sponsors research and experiential learning teams comprised of faculty, students, and community partners proposing a project that affects some aspect of quality of life in the state.” CEHD faculty receiving grants included:

• Partnering with the Grand Forks chapter of PFLAG, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, Dr. Ethan Dahl and colleagues will create evidence-based resource toolkits and trainings for business owners focused on creating inclusive and welcoming environments for sexual and gender minorities in North Dakota communities.
• Drs. Harry Liu and Tanis Walch plan to host “Inclusive Moves,” an adaptive pickleball-based intervention program for enhancing motor skills, physical activity and social interactions among 8-to-12-year-old children with physical and developmental disabilities.
• In partnership with the Blue Zones Project, the City of Grand Forks and its Town Square Farmers Market, Dr. Joshua Hunter seeks to develop educational programming specific to youth on local food production, awareness of healthy eating and local food pathways/resources.

CEHD faculty held a Research Writing Retreat from August 5-9, from 8 am to 4:30 pm, in room 112 Education.The sessions were a group of 5-7 faculty getting together for several days during a summer week at a regular time to write in the same space for a few hours a day, reflect on their writing processes, discuss resources they use and/or problems they’re having, etc. The time included goal-setting on the first day, morning & afternoon silent writing blocks, scheduled breaks for coffee / stretching legs / lunch, end-of-day shares, sprinkled here and there with a few words from famous authors/academics about their processes. Faculty who attended found the time very helpful in forwarding their research and plans to hold more retreats are in the works.

SPOTLIGHT

Dr. Shelbie Witte joined UND this summer as Dean of the College of Education and Human Development. Dean Witte also sustains an active research agenda in the areas of teacher education, teacher/librarian partnerships, and adolescent literacy in digital spaces. Dr. Witte most recently served as Watson Endowed Chair and Senior Director of Teacher Education and School Head of the School of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Sciences at Oklahoma State University. She also served as a middle school and high school English Language Arts Educator for twelve years before joining Florida State University in 2008.

Dr. Witte founded the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age (formerly the Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research) in 2013, and has served as the director since its inception. Providing workshops and support for classroom educators working with learners at the intersection of literacy and digital spaces, the Initiative established the Divergent Awards in 2016 to recognize scholarship which diverges from traditional pedagogies and research approaches. Approaching the ten year anniversary of the Divergent Awards, the list of former honorees is a who’s who of scholars, practitioners, and advocates dedicated to following a road less traveled and dedicating their careers to the theoretical and practical study of 21st Century Literacies (NCTE, 2008) and Literacy in a Digital Age (NCTE, 2019). The Divergent Research Team, comprised of former Divergent Award honorees, has continued to influence the field of digital literacies through scholarship investigating artificial intelligence, anti-racist approaches to digital literacies, and a documentary regarding the future of literacy in a digital age.

The Divergent Research Team, pictured at ElevatED 2023 in Nashville, TN. Pictured (L to R) are Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall, Fairfield University; Dr. Ian O’Byrne, College of Charleston; Dr. Shelbie Witte, University of North Dakota; Dr. Jennifer Dail, Kennesaw State University; and Dr. Christian Z. Goering, University of Arkansas. Not pictured are Dr. Detra Price-Dennis, The Ohio State University, and Dr. Raúl Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.

Dr. Witte’s most recent externally-funded grants centered on the investigation of the Tulsa Race Massacre with Oklahoma adolescents. Supported by John Legend’s Show Me Campaign and the National Writing Project, the grants funded efforts to connect youth to larger digital learning networks, collaborative mentors and digital forums where they shared their critical inquiry work and amplified their messages in understanding the implications of historical events on current events. Middle and high school students from across Oklahoma engaged in a year-long inquiry project centered on the events of the massacre and the subsequent historical impacts on Oklahoma Communities.

Witte, S. & Dail, J.S. (2018).  Critical literacy: Guiding youth as they read, compose and participate in the world.  Young adult literature and the digital world: Textual engagement through visual literacy.  Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield. Eds. Jennifer Dail, Shelbie Witte, Steven Bickmore.

Witte, S., Nowell, S., Neumann, K., & Dickens, D.  (2019). Writing the Past, Changing the Future: A Century of Learning the Tulsa Race Massacre. LRNG Show Me Campaign Grant, John Legend, the National Writing Project and the MacArthur Foundation.

Witte, S. (Executive Producer) (2021) What’s next? The future of literacy in a digital age. Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age. Intellego Media.

Witte, S. & Nowell, S. (2022). Youth-driven inquiry and the Tulsa Race Massacre. English Journal, 112(2), 94-98.

Witte, S., Gross, M., Latham, D., & Nowell, S. (2024). Using peritext to teach the Tulsa Race Massacre and Blackbirds in the Sky. In Greathouse, P.. Young Adult Literature to Teach Historical Events. Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield.

LATEST SCHOLARSHIP

CEHD faculty are in bold, and CEHD students are underlined. 

Grants

Cho, H., Clark, C. H., Pearson, D. K., Perry, A., Rutten, L., & Wang, T. (2024). Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Host University Program. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. (Authors alphabetically ordered by last name.) $259,853.

Link, L. J. (Principal Investigator). (2024-2025). Aspiring principals’ pipeline. [Grant]. North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. Principals’ Registered Apprenticeship Playbook. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NDDPI/bulletins/3a3bf1e

Publications

Salahuddin, M., & LeMire, S. D. (2024). Examining the K-5 Teachers’ Perceptions towards Teaching: Traditional and Constructive Approaches. CenRaPS Journal of Social Sciences, 6(1), 34–44. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12595185

Cho, H., Phenow, S., Buchanan, A., & Ljevaja, I. (2024). Using ChatGPT to create a lesson plan for multilingual students. Dakota TESOL Newsletter, 14(1), 18–21. Retrieved from https://dakotatesol.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Dakota-TESOL-Newsletter-2024.pdf

Chapagain, S., Zhao, Y., Rohleen, T. K., Hamdi, S. M., Boubrahimi, S. F., Flinn, R. E., Lund, E. M., Klooster, D., Scheer, J. R., & Cascalheira, C. J. (2024). Predictive insights into lgbtq+ minority stress: A transductive exploration of social media discourse. IEEE 11th International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA). IEEE, 2024, October. (In Press).

Otremba, J. R., Heesch, A. J., Morgan, R. M., Poolman, M. A., Schindler, G. D., Fitzgerald, J. S. (In press). Bioelectrical Impedance Spectroscopy Measures of Whole and Segmental Skeletal Muscle Quantity Associated with Strength and Power in Collegiate Ice Hockey Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Brin HN, Sigmund BG, Dicks ND, DeShaw, KJ, Walch TJ, Carper MJ, Barry AM (2024).  The effects of high-intensity functional training (HIFT) on the perceptions of exercise in middle-aged females: A pilot study. International Journal Exercise Science (Accepted)

Labuhn M, Walch TJ, Wagner C, Bergeron R, Kim S (2024). In Vaccines We Trust: Examining the Role of Knowledge and Trust on Vaccine Confidence in North Dakota. BMC Public Health 24, 1539 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19056-x

Hunter, C. (2024) Provocative Pedagogy: What Interpretive Methods Offer in Traditional Education Spaces. National Association of Interpretation, Legacy 35(4)

Knutson, M. (2024). Accessible Sport and “Wheelchair Romance”: 1980s Pinball and Arcade Tournaments for People with Disabilities. ROMchip, 6(1). https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal/article/view/202

Presentations

Salahuddin, M., Herbert, M. J., & Stupnisky, R. H. (2024, November). Faculty Technological and Research Proficiencies as Predictors of Research Success. Paper accepted for presentation at the Association for Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Conference, November 20-23, Minneapolis, MN.

Islam, M. J., & Hung, W. (2024, accepted). Utilizing immersive virtual reality (IVR) in legal education: Voice from Bangladesh. Poster to be presented at AECT 2024 International Convention, October 19-23, 2024, Kansas City, MO.

Clark, S., Chao, D., Cartwright, J., Jones-Manson, S., & Flinn, R.E. (2024, August). Ready or not? The leap from grad school to a career in psychological science. Invited presentation, American Psychological Association Graduate Students Science Committee, 2024 American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA.

Kase, C.A., Manosalvas, K., Holzapfel, J., Ahn, L.H., Brodt, M., Cheng, J., Flinn, R.E., Matsuno, E., Rappaport, B., Sepulveda, J. (2024, August). Relationships matter: Engaging in relational pedagogy as an early career counseling psychologist. Critical conversation in the Liberation Lounge at the 2024 American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, Division 17.

Estevez, R. (Co-Chair), Flinn, R.E. (Co-Chair), Boot-Haury, J., Terepka, A., Budge, S., Trotta, K., Patterson, C., Abreu, R.L., Skerven, K., & Barr, S. (2024, August). Until everyone is free: Centering personal and collective well-being in transgender and gender-diverse advocacy. Critical conversation presented in the Division 44 Meeting Room at the 2024 American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, Division 44

Anderson, S. & Flinn, R.E. (2024, August). Rural and sexual gender minority youth: A research agenda. Poster presented at the 2024 American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, Division 44.

Labuhn M, Wagner C, Bergeron R, Kim S, Walch TJ. Implementation of a campus-wide vaccine intervention program: Application of the RE-AIM framework. American Public Health Association Conference, October 30, 2024, Minneapolis, MN. Oral Presentation.

Suazo-Flores, E., Kastberg, S., Neihaus, A., Kaschner, S., Bitto, L., & Nolan, K. (February, 2025). Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Intimate Scholarship. Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Annual Conference, Reno, Nevada.

Suazo-Flores, E., & Sherva, D. (August, 2024). Tasks to unleash elementary students’ mathematics. University of North Dakota STEM Conference, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Suazo-Flores, E., (July, 2024). A mathematics teacher educator’s interactions with a mathematics teacher: Researching ways of knowing. 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education, Sydney, Australia.

Haiduc, A. M., Suazo-Flores, E., Kastberg, E., & Kenney, R. (July, 2024). Mathematics teacher’s questioning: Cognitive and affective domains to nurture students’ mathematical identity formation. 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education, Sydney, Australia.

Max, B., Kastberg, S., & Suazo-Flores, E., (July, 2024). Problem-posing and geometry standards: Building from preservice elementary teachers’ initial efforts in mathematics content courses. 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education, Sydney, Australia.

Suazo-Flores, E., & Sherva, D. (June, 2024). Teaching children mathematics using a problem-solving approach. North Dakota Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2024 Summer Conference, Mayville, North Dakota.

Robinson, J. & Gourneau, B. (2024). Project CuRRENT: Using a Place-Based Approach to Indigenize STEM Education. Session presented at the 2024 North Dakota Indian Education Summit, Bismarck, ND.

Raboin, S. (2024). Increasing Indigeneity in STEM Learning Experiences by Integrating Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Place-Based Watershed Curriculum. Poster to be presented at the Association for Science Teaching (ASTE) conference; Sept. 27-28; University of Northern Iowa.

Votava, K. & Johnson, C. 325L early childhood collaboration: Resilient early intervention leadership. Office of Special Education Programs Leadership and Project Director’s Conference, presentation, Washington, DC, August 6, 2024.

Johnson, C., Votava, K. & Romanick, R. Improving reflection and practice: EI competencies. Office of Special Education Programs Leadership and Project Director’s Conference, presentation, Washington, DC, August 6, 2024.

Votava, K. Connections: Adverse childhood experiences. North Dakota National Guard Professional Development. Bismarck, ND. Invited. July 11, 2024.

Teriba, A. (2024, August 9). Motivating human flourishing: An ethnoracial appraisal-based intervention on growth mindset [Critical conversation]. American Psychological Association 2024 Convention, Seattle, Washington.

Teriba, A. (2024, July 17). The impact of identity salience and representation on Black Americans’ growth mindset [Paper session]. Association of Black Psychologists 55th Annual International Convention, Phoenix, Arizona.

Ismail, S., Lynch, J., & Alghazo, R. (2024, November). Enhancing STEM education with ChatGPT: A case study on developing practice assessments for C programming. In Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE 13th International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEED), Kanazawa, Japan.

Wang, T. (2024, July 2). Meanings and construction: Integrative design of curriculum integration [Keynote address]. The Third Forum on Integrative Education, The Experimental School Affiliated to Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.

Public Media

Flinn, R.E. & Viera, A. (2024, June). Pride in recovery. ATTC Messenger.

Criswell, W. (2024, August 6). Preparing the principals of tomorrow. UND Today.

Irvine, J. (2024, July 3). UND apprenticeship program to make school teachers into principals. The Grand Forks Herald.

Knutson, M. (2024, August 5). How people with disabilities got game − the surprisingly long history of access to arcade and video sports. The Conversation.