Welcome to the 2022 Division J Blog

Hey, y’all!

I’m Alex C. Lange (they/them). I am the new Editor for the AERA Division J blog. I am grateful to Dr. Jenny Lee for extending this opportunity to me, and I am jazzed for the chance to shape some generative scholarly dialogue through this blog. I am also delighted to have Martha Sesteaga (she/her/ella) join me as a Managing Editor for the blog.

A bit about me: I am an assistant professor of higher education at Colorado State University-Ft. Collins, which resides on the lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations and peoples. I teach students in our Higher Education Leadership Ph.D. program. My research interests include student learning and development, college teaching, and LGBTQ+ studies in higher education. I often write about these topics, especially teaching and learning, through my blog on Medium (Medium link).

What do I hope to do with this blog? So glad you asked! The blog will focus on commentaries and reflections from scholars. I hope to curate relevant commentaries and reflections to help Division J members think about theory, research, and praxis in ways that push and challenge current ways of studying and imagining postsecondary education.

And most importantly, I want to model what it looks like to engage with others’ ideas in generous and generative ways. I notice that I listen to other people’s ideas but only engage those ideas on my terms. How does this relate to my research interest? Did they look at this thing that I am interested in? Those questions are important, and they primarily benefit my thinking. What I hope to create is a system of call and response, where someone posts an original commentary or reflection, and then another scholar responds to it. This second writer would reflect on what resonated, offer potential further ways of thinking about the topic, suggest complementary ideas or approaches, and discuss how their work and interests may (or may not) be tied to this kind of thinking.

I am committed to trying this idea out for my first year as Editor. This idea could be excellent or not so excellent. Regardless, we will reassess the experiment’s idea a year from now. Posts will be 800 – 1200 words, not including references. If you are interested in this idea or have a commentary/reflection in mind, please reach out at a.c.lange@colostate.edu.

Also, refer to the submission guidelines for more details (Guidelines Link).

Thanks for reading!

Black Thriving and Flourishing in Higher Education: The Imperative for a New Research Agenda

By Agyemang Amofa Prempeh & Dr. Sydney Freeman, Jr. Black people continue to face significant challenges in higher education. The Underrepresentation of Black students in colleges and universities and a lack of Black faculty and administrators highlight the pressing need for targeted initiatives to foster Black thriving and flourishing on campuses. While valuable research has been conducted on concepts such as Black joy and a sense of belonging, a comprehensive research agenda on Black thriving and flourishing in higher education is still lacking. A research agenda on Black thriving and flourishing will provide a comprehensive approach to correct the existing disparities faced by Black students, faculty, staff, and administrators at predominately White institutions (PWIs). Such a research agenda may also lead to developing strategies that, when implemented, facilitate higher education campuses where Black people can reach their fullest potential academically and professio

Looking: Using Proximity-Based Dating Apps like Grindr and Scruff for Participant Recruitment in Education and the Social Sciences

Nick Havey Looking (for research participants)? Consider “the Apps” If you’re familiar with the HBO series Looking, which explores very white queer life in San Francisco, or have used a dating app in the last 10 years, you might know “looking” as a one-word interrogative that says a lot. It mostly is meant as a lazy (or efficient) way of asking another user if they’re interested in casual sex, but you might be “looking” for research participants! Having a baseline understanding of how dating apps work is prerequisite for using them for research purposes, as understanding terms like “looking” and app-based norms can help researchers navigate confusing virtual spaces and build trust and rapport with potential participants. I have used proximity-based dating apps as recruitment sites for two different research projects. One considers the state of queer sexual education and how queer collegians are responding to sex educations that were not inclusive of their experiences or desires, comp

Preparing for the (Non-Academia) Higher Education Job Market

I entered graduate school knowing that my higher-education doctoral degree would be the catalyst for changing my career path. My original path through student affairs had been fulfilling but not sustainable. The long hours of evening events strained my relationships, and the pay and opportunities for advancement were few. Over time, my values shifted, and I was no longer willing or able to make the tradeoffs in my work-life balance and mental health often required in student affairs positions. I had a vague understanding that I would need further education to embark on a career in research in higher education, but what even was a research career? I entered my graduate program knowing that a faculty role is the most commonly sought post-graduation career path. Additionally, I felt fortunate that my institution offered a Certificate in Institutional Research and some guidance for students who wanted to follow that path. Beyond those two options, I was unsure what else existed for me.

Feeling Toward a Pedagogy of Grief

Z Nicolazzo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona Throughout the past two years, I have found myself periodically returning to a piece Alexander Chee (2020) wrote for The New York Times . In it, Chee discusses the parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the AIDS epidemic. When the piece was first published, I remember taking a long walk with a friend and talking about it. We both had vivid memories and personal connections to AIDS and were both trying to make sense of what was happening globally as COVID-19 ripped through communities. In one especially heart-rending moment in the column, Chee recounts a conversation with a friend who, in response to the rising death toll, shared, “‘I’m acknowledging them [the deaths], but I’m not feeling them, just like the old days. …That comes later’” (para. 8). That conversation between Chee and his friend was two months into the pandemic. We’re now over two years in, which woul

What Does It Mean to Use “GaoKao” Scores to Admit Chinese International Undergraduate Students in U.S. Universities?

Jia Zheng , PhD Student of the Higher Education, Student Affairs and International Education Policy Program, University of Maryland The Open Doors Report marked a fourth consecutive year of decline in international student enrollment since 2016 , with the number of international undergraduate students dropping by 2.4% during the 2018-2019 academic year (Institute of International Education [IIE], 2020). China remained the top leading country of origin for international students, constituting 35% of the total number of international students in U.S. universities (IIE , 2020). To attract more prospective Chinese international undergraduate students , an increasing number of private institutions in the U.S. are accepting the Chinese National College Entrance Exam scores (Gaokao scores) in lieu of SAT or ACT scores (Bennett, 2019). Although Gaokao, SAT, and ACT are all high-stake standardized tests, they differ in several areas. Gaokao is a 2-day college entrance exam administered by

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