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The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of how critical reflection can be used to update and revise teaching practices in response to evolving student needs and challenges in higher education. The authors identify the types of challenges that faculty and graduate students face in the current educational environment. Generational differences between faculty and students, the impact of increased student stress levels, and advances in technology will continue to shape how we instruct graduate students. We identified a number of evidence-based practices which were reported to be useful in reducing stress and anxiety in students while still maintaining academic rigor. We found critical reflection to be beneficial in shifting instructional paradigms. Critical reflections are crucial at the individual level, but there is merit in performing them at the departmental and organizational level as well to promote systemic change.

Faculty teaching students in communication sciences and disorders to engage in evidence-based practice (EBP) must consciously work to overcome the lack of considerations for cultural and linguistic differences. Much of the literature on evidence-based treatment approaches fails to address contextual aspects of cultural-linguistic diversity or actively excludes non-white speakers of languages and dialects that are not White Mainstream American English from studies and analyses to maintain homogeneity. Cultural adaptation frameworks developed in the fields of education and psychology can provide guidance for integrating culturally responsive frameworks, tools, and strategies with EBP pedagogy. This paper provides the reader with an overview of relevant research on how cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions is defined and how it can lead to culturally responsive, relevant, and sustaining teaching of EBP processes and procedures.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of faculty of color (FOC) in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) with a specific emphasis on mentoring or being mentored during doctoral training and as faculty. FOC experience a number of unique obstacles to achieve success in higher education, often as a result of engaging in predominantly white spaces at the university or broader professional levels. Mentoring is a commonly recommended strategy for the recruitment and retention of FOC; however, little is known about the mentoring experiences of FOC in CSD. Method: Sixteen FOC, primarily women in tenure-track positions, provided 46- to 60-min semistructured interviews related to their experiences in academia. Interviews were transcribed, and for the purposes of this study, comments related to mentoring were identified and coded. A narrative thematic analysis was used to generate themes and subthemes evident in the interviews. Results: Six themes emerged from the data analysis: types of mentoring, cultural dynamics of mentoring, institutional support, motivation, ineffective mentoring, and effective mentoring. While participants chose to emphasize different aspects of their experiences as FOC, the importance of mentoring was notable and there were marked similarities in their experiences with mentoring. Conclusions: The data in this study indicated that mentoring plays an important role in shaping one's career success and trajectory in the discipline and the academy. A number of conclusions and recommendations were drawn from the experiences shared by the FOC. Recommendations include creating an environment to talk about mentoring, formally developing mentoring programs, and providing support and structure to guide mentoring relationships.