2018 Collaborative Grant Program

The Center for the Study of Diversity (CSD) announced a new collaboration with the Delaware Center for Teacher Education (DCTE) to support research that promotes equity in teacher education. The purpose of this program is to promote research and scholarly activities by Faculty and Instructional Staff that will support education stakeholders' understandings of, or promotions of, equity in education. Stakeholders are defined as preservice teachers, pupils, families, school community members, teacher preparation faculty, and teacher preparation instructional staff.

CSD and DCTE:

The mission of the Center for the Study of Diversity (CSD) is to promote academic research and scholarship that facilitate dialogues about and understanding of the social and academic impact of diversity. The Center brings a broadly interdisciplinary focus to its activities, projects, programs, and publications on research and analysis, training, public scholarship, community projects, and information dissemination. The goals of these activities are to:

1. generate and transmit scholarship about specific diversity-related issues both at UD and beyond;
2. fund faculty and graduate student research and projects related to diversity;
3. bring outstanding researchers and scholars of diversity to campus to share their expertise;
4. communicate the results of the Center's research and scholarship;
5. apply scholarship of Center faculty to community issues; and
6. assist the Vice Provost for Diversity in identifying diversity objectives and information needs for the University of Delaware.

The Delaware Center for Teacher Education (DCTE) is housed within the College of Education and Human Development provides support services for students and faculty in 28 educator preparation programs at the University of Delaware. These undergraduate and graduate programs are located in six of the seven colleges across campus. DCTE is the home of the Education Resource Center, Office of Certification and Accreditation, Office of Clinical Studies, and Alternative Routes to Certification.

The CSD/DCTE Collaborative Grant Program

CSD and DCTE have developed an exciting collaboration to help support the work of teacher preparation faculty, or instructional staff, interested in exploring a line of inquiry, climate-related issue, or curriculum innovation focused on promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion for education stakeholders.

This year's call has been completed and details on awards are listed below.

Collaborative projects focus on equity, inclusion in education

A research project highlighting residents’ stories from the historical exhibit “Wilmington, 1968” and a study examining the emotional and cultural intelligence of prospective teachers have been awarded University of Delaware grants.

The awards from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Center for the Study of Diversity and the College of Education and Human Development’s Delaware Center for Teacher Education were made under the centers’ 2018 Collaborative Grant Program.

The collaboration was developed to help support the work of teacher preparation faculty or instructional staff interested in exploring a line of inquiry, climate-related issue or curriculum innovation focused on promoting equity, diversity and inclusion for education stakeholders.

The 2018 grant recipients are:

• Deborah Bieler, associate professor of English, Melva Ware, adjunct faculty member in the School of Public Policy and Administration, and Angela Winand, affiliated assistant professor of history, for the project "Delaware Historical Society and UD English Education Freedom Schools Partnership." English education students, in collaboration with the Mitchell Center for African American Heritage, will develop and implement a curriculum for Freedom School Scholars to conduct an oral history project. Teams of middle and high school students will research “Wilmington 1968” and focus on the stories of residents.

• Tia N. Barnes and Bridgette Johnson, both assistant professors of human development and family sciences, for "Examining the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, and Teacher Candidates’ Self-Efficacy in Delivering Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices." They will study Early Childhood Education (ECE) teacher candidates’ emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence and self-efficacy in using culturally responsive practices in teaching social emotional competencies. They will collect online surveys from current juniors and seniors in the ECE program this spring semester.

The collaborative grants program aims to facilitate a wider understanding of the social and academic impacts of diversity and to inform and support equitable practices within the teacher preparation community.

Applicants for the grants were encouraged to make connections between their proposals and specific aspects of campus climate mentioned in the "Inclusive Excellence: Action Plan for Diversity at UD" and/or President Dennis Assanis' strategic principle of "Building an Environment of Inclusive Excellence."

Article by College of Arts and Sciences Communications Staff January 19, 2018