Abstracts of recent articles published in Teaching of Psychology

Social justice pedagogy in psychology requires keen attention to diversity, equity and inclusion in the content and process of teaching and learning. The contributions to this special issue address both ‘what we teach’ and ‘how we teach’ psychology through recommendations for instructor preparation and practices, an expansion of concepts and methods, practical projects and activities, and curricular modifications. Importantly, the contributions raise our consciousness about the harms of oppression and marginalization in the field of psychology and offer us a path toward liberatory pedagogy.

Keywords

Psychology, social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion

Introduction: People with disabilities are under-represented among psychology faculty and graduate students and are more likely than their non-disabled peers to attrite from psychology graduate programs. They face numerous barriers in graduate training. Statement of the Problem: Teaching experience is a core experience for psychology graduate students, especially those pursuing faculty positions. Disabled graduate students face many barriers that may make it difficult for them to obtain high-quality graduate student teaching experience. This contributes to the continuing under-representation of disabled faculty in psychology programs. Literature Review: I review key empirical and conceptual articles on the experiences of disabled psychology trainees and how to best support them. Teaching Implications: I provide evidence-based suggestions and strategies for supporting graduate students with disabilities as they obtain teaching experience. Conclusion: By actively supporting graduate students with disabilities in their teaching endeavors, psychology faculty can help stem the leaky pipeline and increase the numbers of psychology faculty with disabilities.

Keywords

Graduate student teachers, disability, psychology, psychologists with disabilities, psychology graduate school

Background: Students with marginalized identities can experience identity threats in higher education. Instructors can help improve student outcomes by using identity safety cues (ISCs), which signal to marginalized groups that their identities are valued. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether including ISCs in course syllabi could improve students’ belonging-related outcomes and whether these outcomes differ based on instructor gender. Method: Using an experimental design, undergraduate students viewed a syllabus that included or excluded ISCs from either a White male or female professor. Participants reported their anticipated belonging and instructor impressions. Results: Participants reported greater expected engagement and field belonging and had more positive impressions of the instructor when the syllabus included ISCs compared to the control syllabus. Instructor gender had a minimal impact on participants’ outcomes and impressions. Conclusion: This work demonstrates including ISCs in course syllabi can positively impact students when course instructors are White men or women. Teaching Implications: ISCs improved participants’ anticipated engagement and field belonging regardless of instructor gender. This work suggests instructors can improve students’ first impressions and intentions by including ISCs in their course syllabi.

Keywords

Identity safety cues, syllabus, inclusion, belonging, impressions

Introduction: This paper merges two neglected components within the psychological sciences broadly and research methods courses specifically: Critical whiteness and qualitative methodologies. Statement of the Problem: In psychology programs, regardless of discipline, research courses remain one area where issues of race and racism, such as critical whiteness, are deemphasized. Similarly, methods courses rarely integrate qualitative inquiry and critical theory. Literature Review: First, I briefly review the relevant literature on the state of qualitative research in psychology. I then discuss critical whiteness, contextualizing the idea of whiteness, before moving into a review of the current research on whiteness in psychology. Teaching Implications: I present three experiential learning activities that further students’ skill development in qualitative methods while learning about three specific aspects of whiteness. Practicing observations, photovoice, and qualitative coding, students can reflect on the pervasiveness of white culture, colorblind racism, and racial microaggressions. Conclusion: The activities described in this article provide instructors one avenue to engage various aspects of whiteness and qualitative methods, phenomena routinely overlooked in graduate training.

Keywords

Critical whiteness, qualitative research, colorblind racism, racialized microaggressions

Introduction: Activities that illuminate the psychological underpinnings of privilege and oppression are an important part of social justice pedagogy. Statement of Problem: There are numerous issues with current simulations of privilege and oppression that leave social justice educators limited in the choice of activity. Literature Review: Published research shows the positive impact of the use of simulation activities and the complexity of privilege and oppression activities. Literature also critiques current published activities and approaches to teaching these difficult topics. Teaching Implications: Using the provided structural oppression activity circumvents many of the current issues and incorporates suggestions from previous literature. Feedback from students indicates that the activity is impactful, instructive, and engaging. Conclusion: Careful consideration should be made when selecting simulation activities for social justice courses and diversity trainings, but using hands-on, experiential educational activities may be one way to effectively teach difficult topics in a way that inspires individuals to be more intrinsically motivated to confront and reduce oppression in their own lives and communities.

Keywords

Oppression, privilege, social justice pedagogy

Introduction: The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) should promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice for the next generation of psychologists. Statement of the Problem: I worry that the SoTL propagates an exclusionary field that becomes increasingly irrelevant in our diverse society given that graduate curricula largely exclude scholarship on structural inequality. Literature Review: I detail the process of graduate curricular changes in my current department, with a focus on my new required graduate course, Diversity, Systems, and Inequality. I utilize scholarship from law, sociology, philosophy, women and gender studies, education, and psychology. Teaching Implications: I provide the structure and content of the course—including syllabi and lecture slides—as well as modes of assessment that promote inclusivity and critical thinking. I detail how current faculty can learn to incorporate the content of this work into their own teaching and scholarship through weekly journal clubs. Conclusion: SoTL outlets can publish transdisciplinary, inclusive course materials regarding structural inequality, thus mainstreaming and amplifying such work for the benefit of the field and our world.

Keywords

Structural inequality, diversity, psychology graduate curriculum, social justice pedagogy, transdisciplinary scholarship

Introduction: This paper explores what praxis is and its importance for catalyzing social justice. Statement of the Problem: At times, psychologists have articulated the importance of bridging the researcher-activist divide via praxis, but progress in creating these bridges has been slow. Literature Review: We examine how praxis can be rooted in decolonial pedagogical approaches and a tool that can bridge scholarship and activism. Building on previous work by teachers of psychology, we review small, medium, and large-scale praxis assignments that have been used in university courses. Teaching Implications: We discuss our own versions of praxis assignments used in four different psychology courses (three of which took place during the pandemic). We reflect on the ways we see students motivated by an assignment with relevance to the real world and potential for creating social change, the ways that students are able to integrate course material more deeply through action, and some of the challenges with these assignments. Conclusion: We conclude by providing recommendations for educators interested in assigning praxis projects in their psychology courses.

Keywords

Praxis, social justice, decoloniality

Background: Little research has focused on teaching graduate-level diversity courses, particularly from the faculty standpoint. Such pedagogy calls for unique skills and contains many challenges. Objective: The purpose of the study was to better understand what works and what is needed to support instructors of graduate-level diversity courses, as well as common challenges that these instructors face. Method: Using Charmaz’ Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, data from 20 qualitative interviews were analyzed for emergent themes. Results: Four over-arching themes emerged: (a) Challenges in Teaching the Course, (b) Impact on the Instructor, (c) Coping with Course Challenges, and (d) Feelings about Teaching Multicultural Courses. Conclusion: Findings suggest the unique nature of graduate-level diversity courses, and the need for resources and support for instructors of such courses. Teaching Implications: Teaching diversity courses can take a personal and professional toll on the instructor. University systems should be aware of this and support structures and resources for such teaching.

Keywords

Multicultural pedagogy, graduate education, qualitative, diversity instructors

Introduction: Since the 1990’s, psychology has demonstrated a strong commitment to the full spectrum of human diversity (Vera & Speight, 2003). Statement of the Problem: However, psychologists from underrepresented backgrounds and diversity science (DS) remain marginalized in psychology (Syed & Kathawalla, 2020), which affects the ease with which instructors can integrate diversity into psychology curricula and student learning. Literature Review: Accordingly, this paper provides instructors with a potential solution for increasing the representation of marginalized psychologists (MP) and DS in psychology courses through the Interview with a Psychologist project. This project was informed by the interdisciplinary psychological literature highlighting the importance of representing marginalized communities and their experiences in the classroom. Teaching Implications: The Interview with a Psychologist project is adaptable across academic settings. When implementing the project, instructors should be mindful of the minority tax on psychologists, avoid tokenism, and self-educate on diversity-related issues. Conclusions: As psychology departments pursue institutional efforts to diversify the field of psychology, the Interview with a Psychologist project ensures MP and DS are well-represented in psychology courses.

Keywords

Representation, curriculum, diversity science, marginalization, psychology courses

Introduction: Although the development of graduate psychology trainees’ multicultural competence is established to be a necessity, current training implicitly and explicitly centers White clinicians. Statement of the Problem: This orientation leads to inadequate opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) trainees to access mentoring, learning, and support. Literature Review: We review the focus in graduate psychology training centered on White clinicians and the need to develop actively anti-racist training specifically suited to BIPOC clinicians. We discuss the principles of decolonization and collective liberation that can underlie such training. Teaching implications: A course called In the Center (ITC) was exclusively offered to BIPOC students to prioritize their needs and strengths. Based on ITC, we recommend instructors consider institutional context, ground teaching practices in values, utilize co-teaching, target multiple competencies, and address classroom racial dynamics to build greater community and solidarity among BIPOC students. Conclusion: This article discusses considerations for equitable, anti-racist training for BIPOC graduate psychology students built upon principles of decolonization and collective liberation.

Keywords

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, ethnic minority, graduate psychology training, decolonizing pedagogy, collective liberation, anti-racism, social justice

Background: This paper describes findings from research conducted on students who participated in a service-learning course in South Africa. Objective: The study aimed to understand how participants constructed their experiences of service-learning and to interrogate their emotional investments in these constructions. Method: Data were collected and analyzed using a psychosocial methodology, consisting of discursive and psychoanalytic readings of interview transcripts, reflective journal entries, and researcher field notes. Results: The discursive findings focus on how participants employed liberal traditional learning discourses to construct service-learning as linear resulting in subject positions that reinforced prejudices and the power structures supporting these. A psychoanalytic reading of the data suggests that participants invested in these constructions to defend against their own anxiety related to uncertainty and guilt about privilege in an unfamiliar context. Conclusion: Students invest in liberal traditional discourses of service-learning for defensive reasons, which can be understood as arising from the intersubjective and social context in which the service-learning takes place. Teaching Implications: Recognizing prejudice as emanating from anxiety generated by the affective work required for service-learning means thinking creatively about how to both contain and allow this affective work to take place in service-learning activities.

Keywords

Service-learning, psychosocial studies, prejudice, social justice, anxiety in learning

Background: Previous research shows that Multicultural Psychology courses can produce significant improvements in students’ cultural competence-related attitudes in in-person and online courses. Objective: We evaluated the impact of adding a skills-focused group assignment (i.e., Difficult Dialogues) to an online asynchronous Multicultural Psychology course. Method: Undergraduate students filled out a battery of self-report measures at the beginning and end of the course. Of the 192 total students, 107 were in course sections which completed a Difficult Dialogue (DD) group project, and 85 were in the teaching as usual (TAU) section. Results: Students in DD groups had significantly greater pre-to post-increases on social justice behavioral intentions and perceived behavioral control compared to TAU. There were no statistical differences between-groups on measures of other cultural competence constructs, though there were statistically significant within-group improvements on all outcome measures. Conclusion: Results suggest that the DD project had a particular impact on improving social justice behavioral intentions and perceived behavioral control. Teaching Implications: These shifts underscore the importance of including opportunities for students to learn and practice specific skills in Multicultural Psychology courses, and that online courses can effectively provide these opportunities.

Keywords

Difficult dialogue, multicultural psychology, cultural competence, social justice, intergroup dialogue

Introduction: APA’s 2017 Multicultural Guidelines ask teachers to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across the psychology curriculum. Statement of the Problem: However, there are few resources outlining best practices for DEI instruction outside of diversity/multicultural courses. Moreover, instructors for skill-based courses such as Psychological Research Methods may view DEI as beyond their scope. Literature Review: Building on the agentive pedagogical theories of Freire, Kegan and Stetsenko, I aim to outline the importance of integrating DEI into research methods courses and identify seven accessible ways in which to do so. Teaching Implications: Teachers will find a comprehensive review of the theory and research related to seven DEI teaching practices: (1) Diverse Representation/Visibility, (2) Modeling Inclusive Language/Practices, (3) Addressing Social Issues and Inequities, (4) Broadening the Applied Topical Scope, (5) Meaning-Making, (6) Teaching from a Strengths-Based Perspective, and (7) Promoting Students’ Agency. Conclusion: Diversity, equity, and inclusion research methods courses can provide students with a clear model of inclusive practices, opportunities to develop sociorelational skills, and the tools to agentively contribute to social justice research.

Keywords

Diversity, equity, and inclusion, liberation education, social justice education, psychological research methods

Introduction: We propose a visionary working model to normalize the pursuit of social justice praxis in educational psychology courses. Using our undergraduate course as an example, we discuss our roles as instructors, curriculum, and pedagogical strategies for forward progress. Statement of the Problem: Despite stated commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion as integral to psychology research and practice (e.g., American Psychological Association statements), most educational psychology courses are highly theoretical and do not prepare learners to counter social injustices in praxis that are meaningful for the global majority. Literature Review: We make the case for why educational psychology courses are ideal for training students for social justice praxis, and outline how diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies in the literature can be used as levers. Teaching Implications: We provide assignment resources to illustrate how instructors can begin to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout a course to co-construct more just futures. Conclusion: Actualizing this visionary model of normalizing social justice praxis in educational psychology courses requires multi-level supports at global and local levels. Using case studies to address complex social injustices within an engaged teaching and learning environment has significant potential to empower and prepare learners to forward social justice.

Keywords

Active learning, critical pedagogy, curriculum, diversity, instructional methods

Introduction: As an organization with a 75-year history of supporting the teaching of psychology, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP), which also operates as Division 2 of the American Psychological Association, has a significant influence on psychology learning and teaching. Statement of the Problem: In this article, four former STP Vice Presidents for Diversity and International Relations explore STP’s history through the lenses of diversity, equity/social justice, inclusion, and international relations. Literature Review: The paper explores the relevant history of STP and incorporates scholarship of teaching and learning literature through an international and social justice lens. Teaching Implications: The authors discussed ways to support BIPOC and underrepresented instructors of psychology. Conclusion: STP and teachers of psychology play a pivotal role in changing the cultural, structural, and institutional processes representing ongoing barriers to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and social justice within the organization and the teaching of psychology. Instructors of psychology are well positioned to promote systemic and structural changes and advocate for social justice for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and other underrepresented teachers of psychology.

Keywords

Teaching psychology, diversity, social justice, equity, inclusion, internationalization