Weighing the Options: Student Services within Diverse Communities
Format
Workshop
First Presenter's Institution
Gordon State College
First Presenter’s Email Address
jtraylor1@gordonstate.edu
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Jessica Traylor has worked as a School Psychologist since 2003. She is the co-author of Real Girls: Shifting Perceptions on Identity, Relationships, and the Media, a group counseling guide. Dr. Traylor has presented at National and International conferences covering topics such as collaboration, service-learning, rural education, self-regulated learning, self-efficacy, experiential learning, mentoring, trauma & resilience, and youth mental health. Dr. Traylor has been a professor since 2014. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology and the Coordinator of Service-Learning at Gordon State College. She also serves as a Lead Affiliate Faculty for Ohio Christian University. Her research interests include adverse childhood experiences, resilience, service-learning, and civic engagement. She enjoys teaching courses in Psychology of Adjustment, Human Growth & Development, and Trauma & Resilience. In addition to her formal degrees, Dr. Traylor is also a certified yoga instructor, holistic nutrition coach, therapeutic drumming instructor, and Hellenistic astrologer.
Location
Session Seven Breakouts
Strand #1
Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership
Strand #2
Heart: Social & Emotional Skills
Relevance
This presentation of research demonstrates a unique way to discuss student success, specifically focused on the perspective of current college students from diverse backgrounds. Student researchers will give their insights into how high school counselors, teachers/professors, and other community supports can provide needed resources in a way that they can be received by diverse youth.
In addition to supporting academic success, this presentation will also include a variety of strategies for supporting student social and emotional development. Student researchers will share their process of learning to locate and accept help for social and emotional needs.
Brief Program Description
Why don't students take advantage of the supports we offer? Gordon State College students explored this question. The presenters will explain the deliberative dialogue process, share current research on why the process works, and engage participants in a brief dialogue about student success. Participants will learn both the process of deliberative dialogue and the specific strategies that resulted from research with college students.
Summary
Deliberative dialogue is a specific form of discussion that focuses on finding solutions to difficult problems. In a deliberative dialogue, participants discuss the benefits and tradeoffs associated with various options. Dialogue moderators remain neutral, seek to elicit shared values, and encourage the group to reflect on common ground for action.
The African American Male Initiative at Gordon State College has used the deliberative dialogue process to explore what we should do to encourage student success. We gathered qualitative feedback from current college students by asking two questions: 1. What should we do to help students be more successful? 2. What are the drawbacks of doing each of those actions? After the data were collected, we coded the responses into themes, resulting in four thematic categories.
During this workshop, participants will learn about the deliberative dialogue process and the results of the current qualitative research. Participants will leave the workshop with knowledge of the benefits of deliberative dialogue, how to conduct their own deliberative dialogue, and where to find more information about deliberative dialogue.
In addition to the deliberative dialogue process, participants will also learn about how current college students understand student success supports. We will offer a variety of options for supporting student success along with their potential tradeoffs or drawbacks. Participants will be invited to engage in a dialogue about these four categories of options: emphasize personal responsibility, provide more support, embed student support, and leverage community resources.
We hope that we can encourage a robust dialogue by sharing our perspective on the deliberative dialogue process and the variety of options for supporting student success.
Evidence
Students who engage in learning experiences structured around deliberative pedagogy gain experience with overcoming false certainty and realize that others share many of their values (Carcasson, 2017). These skills are especially useful for college students from diverse communities. Gaining a realistic perspective and increased sense of belonging support them becoming part of the larger college community.
Discussing student success through a deliberative dialogue serves as an inoculation against some of the obstacles that college students often face. When their perspectives and experiences are valued, students learn to see challenges as a natural part of growth (Peterson, 2017). Continuing the deliberative conversation in the larger community allows students to expand their perspectives while offering useful strategies to those who provide support services to students.
Carcasson, M. (2017). Deliberative Pedagogy as Critical Connective: Building Democratic Mind-Sets and Skill Sets for Addressing Wicked Problems. In T. Shaffer, N. Longo, I. Manosevitch, & M. Thomas (Eds.), Deliberative pedagogy: Teaching and learning for democratic engagement (pp. 3-20). East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University Press.
Peterson, M. (2017). Practical Applications: A National Issues Forum at a Historically Black College. In T. Shaffer, N. Longo, I. Manosevitch, & M. Thomas (Eds.), Deliberative pedagogy: Teaching and learning for democratic engagement (pp. 143-152). East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University Press.
Learning Objective 1
describe the benefits of the deliberative dialogue process
Learning Objective 2
deliberate the benefits and tradeoffs of various options to support student success
Learning Objective 3
locate resources to plan and host their own deliberative dialogue
Keyword Descriptors
student success, diverse perspectives, undergraduate research, access institution, college students, first-generation college students, deliberative dialogue, community engagement
Presentation Year
2022
Start Date
3-8-2022 2:45 PM
End Date
3-8-2022 4:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Traylor, Jessica; Traylor, Ryran; Clemons, Elijah; Cordero, Edwin; and El-Amin, Zykiyy, "Weighing the Options: Student Services within Diverse Communities" (2022). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 67.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2022/2022/67
Weighing the Options: Student Services within Diverse Communities
Session Seven Breakouts
Why don't students take advantage of the supports we offer? Gordon State College students explored this question. The presenters will explain the deliberative dialogue process, share current research on why the process works, and engage participants in a brief dialogue about student success. Participants will learn both the process of deliberative dialogue and the specific strategies that resulted from research with college students.