This study examines belonging pedagogy as an effective, culturally respectful intervention in art education. Art education faculty members at three institutions collaborated and organized virtual workshops to broaden the scope of diversity and promote online community building. Culturally sensitive and inclusive education and pedagogy of belonging…

Learning environments that support a sense of belonging have been shown to help students fully and meaningfully participate in their learning. Less is known, however, about the social organization of online learning environments that support a sense of belonging, particularly in postsecondary contexts. With an explicit attention to issues of…

This paper presents data collected over a two-month period in summer 2021 from the Johns Organization (JO), a U.S.-based virtual exchange (VE) program that partners with South-West Asian and North African (SWANA) schools. The seven focus groups interviewed included VE scholars, JO staff, external VE evaluators, and SWANA-based JO staff. The…

This article invites scholars of teaching and learning in higher education to consider the ways in which instructors can use practices of inviting inclusion to create an environment in which students can feel -- and be -- included in online classrooms, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the analogy of a "block…

The purpose of this paper is to consider new possibilities for higher education, where the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provide a framework for creating digital and physical environments that honor every learner's unique lived experiences and support the expectations of learners for their individual life goals. Each learner…

This dissertation in practice created a new form of educator development called the Virtual Educator Network (VEN) and examined its impact on educators' attitudes towards inclusion, feelings of support, and incorporation of new strategies to solve problems of practice they find important. The VEN is a form of professional development that pulls…

This Dissertation in Practice (DIP) was a group dissertation as required by the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program and created a new form of educator development called the Virtual Educator Network (VEN). This DIP examined the VENs' impact on educators' attitudes towards inclusion, feelings of support, and incorporation of new strategies…

Research conducted on online learning during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly showed that a sense of community plays an integral part in creating a conducive learning environment. This has consequently influenced current perspectives on teaching practice and learning climate. From an African perspective, this is noteworthy as it…

Drawing on transformative, critical, and culturally responsive and sustaining traditions of pedagogy and instructional design, we present a technology-focused framework for decentering normative forces along the lines of race, ethnicity, class, language, religion, ability, sex, and gender in online higher education learning spaces that honors each…

Psychological threats to people's social identity and sense of belonging can undermine motivation and performance in in-person learning environments. I argue that these social psychological processes can also apply in technology-mediated environments and limit the potential of online environments to provide more affordable, personalized, and…

As colleges and universities increase their online course offerings, student social experiences in online learning environments require further examination, specifically for nonresidential students who may already be less integrated into college social networks. A social capital framework was used to guide this qualitative study of 17…