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Originally conceptualized by Chester Pierce (1970), microaggressions have taken on increasing utility in recent years as a tool to teach undergraduate students about everyday forms of oppressive behavior. As the concept gains increased currency in educational contexts, however, it is important to consider the ways in which individuals understand the nature and meanings associated with the term. This multi-case study draws on data from two departments of residence life at American universities where microaggressions were a central tool used to educate students in on-campus housing. The study was guided by three questions: (1) how do Resident Assistants who received training on microaggressions understand the concept, (2) how do these individuals describe the perceived utility and application to their work related to diversity and inclusion, and (3) what are the consequences of these understandings on the broader project for racial and social justice? The results of the study highlight two primary understandings of microaggressions: (1) language that could offend someone, somewhere, under particular conditions and (2) assumed, predictable forms of ignorance on the part of others. The primary utility of microaggressions, then, is as a tool to correct language and external presentations in the presence of others. We discuss the ways in which such understandings reduce microaggressions to forms of interpersonal communication divorced from larger structural and historical analysis. In doing so, individuals minimize the personal responsibility of the microaggressor and severely underestimate the severity of racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression.

Drawing on the experience of one university seeking to improve its faculty mentoring efforts, this chapter provides a model for how organizations can facilitate the broad adoption of new mentoring practices that contextualize individual behavior in institutional norms so what results is more than a "rationalized myth."

Inherent in the call for this special issue is the idea that Community-University Partnerships (CUPs) matter. In the phrase "community-university partnership," it is just two entities who are forefronted and assumed to be the primary agents and beneficiaries. Conspicuously absent, however, is recognition of the essential contributions and accompanying career implications for professors who engage Community-University Partnerships (CUPs) as a substantive aspect of their scholarly activities. For many scholars in higher education, their role as consultants bridging the academy and the community is wholly undervalued, and not by the community but by the academy. In this paper, we critically review existing literature about the university professor whose work of envisioning, initiating, developing, and maintaining Community-University Partnerships (CUPs) makes them possible. In particular, we focus on faculty members at traditional research institutions whose merit within the university is determined almost exclusively by their traditional scholarly productivity (i.e., journal publications) and can be diminished by their very engagement in the community. We offer insights into how and why community circumstances and institutional expectations are consequential.

Consistent with their treatment of individual participants, educational researchers regularly use pseudonyms to reference their study sites. The rationales, strategies, and implications of masking places may differ from those for masking people. However, both practices are so pervasive as to have become unexamined defaults, and they are assumed as methodological and ethical steps taken because little good can be imagined from actually naming our study sites or participants. Drawing on ethnographic work I conducted in Garden City, Kansas, I consider how unmasking the specific place I researched rather than referring to a place like this place mattered through my fieldwork, writing, and dissemination processes.

Diversity is an increasingly important value for institutions of higher education. Yet, few measures exist to assess whether college and university faculty share in this objective and how their beliefs relate to specific aspects of their work. In this study, we gathered data from a sample of faculty at one American research university to develop a valid and reliable instrument useful for exploring how commitments to diversity are reflected in teaching, research and service. The resulting instrument, ACES, assesses four factors: (a) Attitude towards diversity, (b) Career activities and professional norms, (c) Environment conducive to diversity, and (d) Social interactions with diverse groups. Evidence for the validity and reliability of the scores produced by ACES is presented. How this psychometrically-sound instrument might benefit higher education research and practice in the assessment of diversity related goals is also considered.

Abstract Introduction The controlled expression of many genes, including G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), is important for delineating gene functions in complex model systems. Binary systems for inducible regulation of transgene expression are widely used in mice. One system is the tTA/TRE expression system, composed of a tetracycline-dependent DNA binding factor and a separate tetracycline operon. However, the requirement for two separate transgenes (one for each tTA or TRE component) makes this system less amenable to models requiring directed cell targeting, increases the risk of multiple transgene integration sites, and requires extensive screening for appropriately-functioning clones. Methods We developed a single, polycistronic tetracycline-inducible expression platform to control the expression of multiple cistrons in mammalian cells. This platform has three basic constructs: regulator, responder, and destination vectors. The modular platform is compatible with both the TetOff (tTA) and TetOn (rtTA) systems. The modular Gateway recombineering-compatible components facilitate rapidly generating vectors to genetically modify mammalian cells. We apply this system to use the elongation factor 1α (EF1α) promoter to drive doxycycline-regulated expression of both the fluorescent marker mCherry and an engineered Gs-coupled GPCR "Rs1" separated by a 2A ribosomal skip site. Results We show that our combined expression construct drives expression of both the mCherry and Rs1 transgenes in a doxycycline-dependent manner. We successfully target the expression construct into the Rosa26 locus of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. Rs1 expression in mouse ES cells increases cAMP accumulation via both basal and ligand-induced Gs mechanisms and is associated with increased embryoid body size. Heterozygous mice carrying the Rs1 expression construct showed normal growth and weight, and developed small increases in bone formation that could be observed in the calvaria. Conclusions Our results demonstrate the feasibility of a single-vector strategy that combines both the tTA and TRE tetracycline-regulated components for use in cells and mouse models. Although the EF1α promoter is useful for driving expression in pluripotent cells, a single copy of the EF1α promoter did not drive high levels of mCherry and Rs1 expression in the differentiated tissues of adult mice. These findings indicate that promoter selection is an important factor when developing transgene expression models.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) signal through a limited number of G-protein pathways and play crucial roles in many biological processes. Studies of their in vivo functions have been hampered by the molecular and functional diversity of GPCRs and the paucity of ligands with specific signaling effects. To better compare the effects of activating different G-protein signaling pathways through ligand-induced or constitutive signaling, we developed a new series of RASSLs (receptors activated solely by synthetic ligands) that activate different G-protein signaling pathways. These RASSLs are based on the human 5-HT(4b) receptor, a GPCR with high constitutive G(s) signaling and strong ligand-induced G-protein activation of the G(s) and G(s/q) pathways. The first receptor in this series, 5-HT(4)-D(100)A or Rs1 (RASSL serotonin 1), is not activated by its endogenous agonist, serotonin, but is selectively activated by the small synthetic molecules GR113808, GR125487, and RO110-0235. All agonists potently induced G(s) signaling, but only a few (e.g., zacopride) also induced signaling via the G(q) pathway. Zacopride-induced G(q) signaling was enhanced by replacing the C-terminus of Rs1 with the C-terminus of the human 5-HT(2C) receptor. Additional point mutations (D(66)A and D(66)N) blocked constitutive G(s) signaling and lowered ligand-induced G(q) signaling. Replacing the third intracellular loop of Rs1 with that of human 5-HT(1A) conferred ligand-mediated G(i) signaling. This G(i)-coupled RASSL, Rs1.3, exhibited no measurable signaling to the G(s) or G(q) pathway. These findings show that the signaling repertoire of Rs1 can be expanded and controlled by receptor engineering and drug selection.

Qualitative research about poverty has the unique potential to inform educational practitioners who work with poor youth and their families. According to Van Maanen's (2011) classification of different audiences that engage with ethnography, however, most educators are "general readers" unfamiliar with such inquiry. To consider the significance of this distinction, we explore how educators determined the credibility of ideas they encountered in the particular professional development training of Ruby Payne. Payne's work on poverty has prompted both substantive and methodological criticism from academics, but her influence as perhaps the most visible contemporary authority on the topic has persisted amongst practitioners in the United States and expanded abroad. Through our study, we find that educators deem Payne's ideas as credible because they (1) defer to the judgment of others, (2) identify with her perspective as fellow practitioners, and (3) accept storytelling as just a different type of research. The implications of these results are especially relevant for qualitative researchers seeking to affect educational practice because Payne characterizes the foundation for her controversial ideas in explicitly ethnographic terms.

Background/Context: In recent decades, federal policymakers have pushed for education to be a more "scientific" endeavor. While scholars have considered the implications of this orientation for educational researchers, less attention has been given to its impact on educational practitioners. Purpose/Focus of the Study: By focusing on the local interpretation and implementation of a multitiered system of support (MTSS) model in one Midwestern school district, this study documents the translation of a comprehensive reform initiative meant to make educational practice more data driven and scientific. With particular attention to interactions between district and building administrators, classroom teachers, and a group of outside consultants, we also consider the consequential effects of principal-agent relations in determining how learners (should) learn and teachers (should) teach. Research Design: Using ethnographic methods over a period of five months, this study emerged from a larger project examining the work of educators in a rural district that includes 18 schools and serves approximately 7,600 students from racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse backgrounds. With MTSS as the unifying agenda across multiple interactions that involved a cross-section of the district's staff, administrative leaders, and outside consultants, we analyzed fieldnotes generated from participant observation during MTSS-specific meetings and semi-structured, individual interviews conducted with key implementation principals and agents. Other fieldnotes and interviews provided confirmation of our primary analysis, as well as supplementary perspectives from building and classroom contexts. Findings: Through our analysis, we found that implementation leaders presumed the infallibility of the MTSS model; relied exclusively on certain forms of quantitative data; standardized the individual needs of learners, processes of learning, and roles of teachers; and insisted on fidelity of intervention as an end in itself. Conclusions/Recommendations: Implementation leaders invoking research to inform practice can sometimes silence practitioners rather than foster their substantive involvement and understanding. This marginalizes certain types of knowledge that can contribute to understanding students' needs, and it forces practitioners to be data-deferent rather than data-driven. The concept of implementation fidelity also needs to be reconsidered--not as an absolute good but with the necessary flexibility afforded to practitioners who are (1) educated in the essential components of available interventions, (2) able to become fluent through practice, and (3) allowed to exercise their professional expertise and judgment as appropriate.

This study is based on a 2-year evaluation of the Pathways Partnership, a precollege preparation program involving one school district, multiple colleges and universities, and several major businesses in a Midwestern metropolitan area. The week-long summer program cultivates youth leadership and the exploration of higher education through various student activities. The program also involves parents in an orientation at the beginning of the week and a graduation ceremony at its culmination, and it sponsors workshops on college choice and access for teachers in the district throughout the academic year. Through quantitative and qualitative methods we conclude that a program like Pathways has a positive effect on the academic self-efficacy and college aspirations of urban youth. Factors useful in predicting the likelihood with which urban middle school students hold postsecondary aspirations include peer norms, parental involvement, and academic self-efficacy. Our study contributes to the need for systematically derived research on precollege preparation programs and their effectiveness, and it also provides data and insights to promote the development of such partnerships in other interested communities.

Background: It is generally accepted that surgical training is associated with increased surgical duration. The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude of this increase for common surgical [...]