One Book One Department

Debra Hope
By Debra Hope, Professor of Psychology, Clinical Program

Several discussions in the department highlighted the need to increase our sophistication around multicultural issues in our graduate and undergraduate instruction. We wanted to be sure that our graduate students were prepared to address multicultural content and reach students of all backgrounds, both when they taught as graduate students at UNL and in future careers that might involve teaching. Also, we became aware that some members of the faculty were interested in enhancing their sophistication around multicultural issues in the classroom but were unsure how to proceed. When the College of Arts and Sciences offered an Instructional Enhancement Grant, Deb Hope, Rick Bevins, and Scott Stoltenberg developed an application to meet these needs. This grant also was one of the cornerstones of the Department’s overall commitment to diversity as expressed in our self-study report as part of the Academic Program Review process that occurred this past year.

Over a two year period, we have engaged in a number of activities to increase our own comfort and sophistication with multicultural topics and infuse that material into our teaching. First, in One Book One Department many of us read Make Your Home Among Strangers by UNL English professor Jennine Capó Crucet. Graduate students, faculty, staff, and advanced trainees were all invited to participate in book circles. The protagonist of Make Your Home is a first generation college student and many of us who shared that background found familiar experiences. At the same time, her struggles as a Latina negotiating graduate education offered insight into how differing backgrounds and experiences can smooth (or not) the path to success. For our second activity in the grant, we invited Mary Kite of Ball State University to spend two days on campus in December, 2017. Professor Kite is a national expert on teaching psychology. In addition to her excellent colloquium on infusing multiculturalism into teaching psychology, she offered many practical suggestions, identifying what we are doing well and how we can improve. Finally, we are engaging in teaching circles, a revival of a past tradition in the department in which small groups of faculty and graduate students gather to discussion changes their wish to make in their courses or mentoring. This last step will help us implement what we have learned into our classrooms and labs.

The grant has participation incentives built in to fund a graduate student and faculty member to attend a national conference on collegiate teaching. There is also an evaluation component to assess if the multicultural content increases in syllabi for summer courses. Kyly Baxter, one of our psychology majors, has served as a paid research assistant on the grant and has been very helpful with many of the logistics.

Even as our research portfolio has grown, this department has always prided itself on excellence in teaching. This instructional enhancement grant has allowed us to attend once more to improving our teaching in an area of particular importance given the activities and discussion happening on college campuses right now.

Book cover of Make Your Home Among Strangers
Book cover of Make Your Home Among Strangers