Prelims

Half Title Page

Re-conceptualizing Safe Spaces

Title Page

Re-conceptualizing Safe Spaces: Supporting Inclusive Education

Edited by

Kate Winter

Kate Winter Evaluation, LLC, USA

And

Andrea Bramberger

University of Education Salzburg, Austria

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Editorial matter and selection © 2021 Kate Winter and Andrea Bramberger. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited

Individual chapters © 2021 the authors. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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ISBN: 978-1-83982-251-3 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-250-6 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83982-252-0 (Epub)

List of Figures

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About the Editors

Kate Winter, Kate Winter Evaluation, LLC, United States. Kate Winter (she/her) is an independent consultant on research design and evaluation in higher education. Her areas of expertise include diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), college student access and retention, professional development for faculty, and institutional cultural change. She is an inaugural member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities Inclusive Excellence Commission. Her publications include the co-edited volume Culturally Responsive Strategies for Reforming STEM Higher Education: Turning the TIDES on Inequity (Emerald), various chapters, and peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Negro Education, BMC Medical Education, NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of the Professoriate, and Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. She is a member of several national (US) and international professional associations of evaluators and education researchers.

Andrea Bramberger, University of Education Salzburg, Austria. Andrea Bramberger (she/her) is a Professor of Gender and Education at the University of Education Salzburg. Her areas of expertise include Educational Science, Gender and Education, and Aesthetics in Education. Her publications include several monographs about Poetry in Education, Child-Women, Mothers and Daughters, and Sibling Incest, as well as various chapters and peer-reviewed articles.

About the Contributors

Bettina Aptheker is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Feminist Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds the Peggy & Jack Baskin Foundation UC Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies, 2017–2021. She is the author of several books including Intimate Politics (2006), The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis (2nd edition, 1999), and Tapestries of Life: Women’s Work, Women’s Consciousness & the Meaning of Daily Experience (1989). For 30 years she taught Introduction to Feminisms, one of the most popular undergraduate courses at UCSC. Likewise, for many years she taught a graduate seminar, Feminist Pedagogies. She is currently writing a book, Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s–1990s, for Taylor & Francis under their Routledge imprint.

Sabrina Avila is the Director of Course Redesign for the HSI-STEM: Bridges Across Eastern Queens grant at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she guides faculty to critically reflect on their instructional practices and curriculum to increase student engagement in the STEM majors. Sabrina has brought her previous experience and research interests in the development of faculty learning communities in formal and informal science education spaces through her work with the Urban Advantage NYC Middle School Science Initiative, the American Museum of Natural History, New York Hall of Science, WCS Bronx Zoo and Queens Botanical Garden, and Teachers College Center of Professional Education of Teachers. Sabrina holds a Bachelor of Arts (1998) in Economics and Environmental Science from Barnard College and a Master of Education in Science (2017) from Teachers College and is a doctoral candidate in the Science Education program of Teachers College, Columbia University.

Allan Edmond is the Assistant Director of Learning Collectives for the HSI-STEM: Bridges Across Eastern Queens grant at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY). He assists in the coordination and support of project personnel at Queens College and the project's partner campus, Queensborough Community College. Within this capacity Allan works very closely with the Peer Mentors affiliated with the program and with the Learning Commons at Queens College to address student concerns and needs on a course-specific basis. As a former peer mentor, Allan utilizes his undergraduate STEM experiences to adapt the program to face new challenges, such as teaching, supporting, and recruiting students in an online environment. Allan also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Biology Department, where he continues to work with and mentor students directly. Allan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College (2017).

Eva Fernández (she/ella) is Interim Provost at Guttman Community College, City University of New York (CUNY); while this paper was written, she was Associate Provost for Innovation and Student Success at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she works to support innovation in teaching and learning, experiential education, and student success. Eva has an appointment as a Professor in the Linguistics and Communication Disorders Department at Queens College and has served as a doctoral faculty for three departments at the CUNY Graduate Center (Linguistics; Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures; Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences). Her research in psycholinguistics focuses on syntactic ambiguity and the contribution of prosody to syntactic disambiguation and on the impact of the second language on the bilingual's first language. Linked to her administrative work, she has expertise in how faculty development impacts student learning and on measures of student success. Eva has a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University (1991) and a Master of Arts degree (1995) and a PhD degree (2000) from the CUNY Graduate Center.

Edgar Forster, University of Fribourg, Department of Education, Switzerland. His current research focuses on knowledge production, globalization and decoloniality, and critical studies on men and masculinities. Latest publication (with F. Kuster, B. Rendtorff, and S. Speck): “Geschlecht-er denken. Theoretische Erkundungen” (2020).

Michelle Fraboni (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she teaches digital literacy to preservice teachers. Her research focuses on beginning teacher education students and how their sense of belonging and community in online and face-to-face learning environments shapes their identities as learners and future teachers. Michelle served as the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Queens College for five years, where she developed an interest in how faculty mindset and teaching practices influence students' sense of belonging and academic success. Michelle has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science degree in Education from Queens College, and a Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University Teachers College.

Erica Jayne Friedman (they/she/he) is currently the Associate Director for the Pride Center at Florida International University. Dr Friedman is a social psychologist from New York currently residing in South Florida. They spent several years studying the perpetuation and impact of heterosexism and cisgenderism as well as how these ideologies can be resisted. Dr Friedman disseminates and applies their research findings to programs, workshops, and events for faculty, staff, and students in an effort to increase opportunities for educational achievement and success among queer, trans, and other minoritized and marginalized groups within higher education. They are currently motivated to amplify the voices of the least often heard or valued in historically majority white, straight, cisgender, and male collegiate spaces. Dr Friedman aims to continue centering the needs of queer and trans students who fall at the intersection of Black, Latine, indigenous, and/or disabled identities and experiences in their current and future work.

Marita Kampshoff, University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. Doctorate: University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Habilitation: University of Paderborn, Germany. Since 2008, she serves as a Professor of Education Science with a focus on Empirical Teaching Research, University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd. Her research focuses on equal opportunities in education, school-related gender research, didactics and gender studies, and gender-sensitive MINT careers.

Marta García-Lastra (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Cantabria, where she is the Vice-rector of Students and Employment. Her main area of research focuses on the analysis of gender inequalities in society and how education, through coeducational practices, can contribute to their disappearance.

Kelly Mack is the Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Her holistic approach to STEM reform is grounded in a strategic vision that foregrounds inclusion as an immutable factor for excellence in undergraduate STEM education. She has led national reform efforts resulting in significant increases in the capacity of STEM faculty to implement culturally responsive pedagogies, major shifts in the delivery of leadership development for STEM faculty, and expansion of virtual convening platforms for knowledge generation, exchange, and dissemination. Recognized as a national thought leader in higher education, Dr Mack's work has been highlighted in Diverse Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. She is also a co-founder and chair of the board of the Society of STEM Women of Color, Inc. and has served as a member of numerous advisory board and national committees.

Tomás A. Mantecón Movellán (he/him) is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Cantabria. He has developed research in several fields dealing with gender in history, particularly attending at women uses of justice, and at the analysis of historical trends of violence against women in Western European societies.

Patrice McDermott is a Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she oversees a wide range of institutional change initiatives. Her research and professional interests focus on the use of powerful social institutions as effective sites for social change. She is the recipient of the National Women's Studies Association – University of Illinois Press Book Award and holds an appointment as a Senior Fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities where she works on projects related to recruiting, retaining, and advancing URM women faculty and historically underserved minority students in STEM. Dr McDermott is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of STEM Women of Color, the Association of American Colleges and Universities Institute Inclusive Excellence Commission, and the Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) Project and serves as a senior advisor to the National STEM Gender Equity Coalition.

Montserrat Cabré i Pairet (she/her) is a Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cantabria, where she has contributed to the establishment of gender studies programs. Her research interests include the history of women's knowledges, the history of gender and health as well as approaches to gender and science.

Claudia Rankins is a Consultant for PRISSEM Academic Services, LLC, where she conducts faculty development and research development activities. She recently retired from the National Science Foundation where she served as a Program Director for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program and the HBCU Excellence in Research program. Prior to this post, Dr Rankins served at Hampton University for 22 years in positions including endowed university professor, chair of the department of physics, assistant dean for research, and dean of the School of Science. Her formal education includes military training, a BS in Mathematics from Christopher Newport University, an MS in Statistics from Old Dominion University, an MS in Physics, and a PhD in Physics from Hampton University. Dr Rankins is an advocate for STEM education and research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She is the co-founder of the Society of STEM Women of Color, Inc.

Corinna Singleman (she/her) is the Director of Communications and Special Projects for the HSI-STEM: Bridges Across Eastern Queens grant at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She uses expertise and scientific training to bridge the ever-widening gap between the scientific community and the rest of the world by teaching, writing, and working on projects that directly impact her community. Corinna works closely with faculty and students to increase interest and accessibility in STEM to the next generation of scientists at CUNY by sharing the successes of this grant through scientific publications and presentations, the grant's website, social media platforms, and direct mailings. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor, teaching a variety of courses at Queens College. Corinna has a Bachelor of Arts from Macaulay Honors College (2008), a Master of Science from Chatham University (2009), and PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center (2017).

Orlando Taylor is a Senior Advisor to the President at Fielding Graduate University and a Distinguished Fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He is also an Executive Director and a Co-PI of the NSF-funded Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership. Dr Taylor has been a national leader for many years on issues pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. He has a rich publication record in journals, books, and monographs and has held many national leadership roles in higher education. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of STEM Women of Color. He earned his undergraduate degree from Hampton University and a PhD degree from the University of Michigan, which later awarded him a distinguished alumni award. He has been awarded seven honorary doctorate degrees from major research universities and colleges.

Elena Vacchelli (she/her) is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Greenwich (London, UK) specializing in migration, gender, and urban studies. Most of her recent work seeks to integrate participatory, art-based, and digital research approaches where possible. Elena is a co-curator of migART (https://migart.bard.berlin/) an online repository for research, teaching, and activist projects showcasing the work of people and communities working with migrants. Her recent monograph “Embodied research in migration studies: using creative and participatory approaches” (2018) was published by Policy Press, Bristol. The outputs from her research have been published in several leading peer-reviewed international journals and her track record includes research with European institutions, third sector organizations, and local authorities. For further details on her academic activities, please see Elena's university profile: https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/fach/elena-vacchelli.

Jennifer Valad is the Project Manager and the Director of Learning Collectives for the HSI-STEM: Bridges Across Eastern Queens grant at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She coordinates and supports project personnel at Queens College and the project's partner campus, Queensborough Community College. Jennifer also works closely with the faculty and students involved in the project. She has been teaching for the psychology department at Queens College since 2010, instructing students in an array of courses including experimental psychology, statistics, psychopharmacology, and developmental psychology. Jennifer uses her pedagogical expertise to advance the efficacy of her teaching methods, which helps to create effective learning spaces. Jennifer received her master's degree in General Psychology, with a concentration in Neuroscience, from Queens College (2007). She also completed her undergraduate studies at Queens College (2004), which makes her an invaluable resource to current undergraduates who she mentors and teaches.

Abstract

This collection showcases work supporting access to education of persistently marginalized populations, as well as efforts that help privileged groups understand their role in perpetuating the marginalization of others in educational spaces, by bringing into the popular discourse examples of the diverse and valuable work taking place. The edited volume features both scholarship and practice related to creating the kinds of spaces needed in education to support learning as it is entwined with gender, gendered biases, and power dynamics and structures. As such, this book combines foundational concepts with practical cases of creating safe spaces in venues of education for diverse identities as they intersect with gender. We intend for this work to support the efforts of a broad audience of educators across the United States, Europe, and beyond. “Safe space” is both a precondition, and one of the effects, of efforts of inclusiveness and egalitarian access to education. It supports and is supported by equitable learning opportunities through mutual appreciation, respect, and a coming to voice in schools and universities. By creating safe spaces for learning and unlearning, researchers and practitioners have been working to strengthen the purpose of schools and universities, where education and learning are intended for everyone, with the goal of increasing critical thinking and valuing difference. There is an ongoing tradition of discussing safe space in feminist studies. Drawing on this foundation in gender, we broaden and specify our focus to include gendered identities intersecting with class, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability within multiple aspects of education.

Keywords: Safe spaces; in/just learning spaces; egalitarian access to education; safe, brave spaces; inclusive education; gender and education; power structures in education; co-creation of learning spaces; performances of safe spaces; intersectionality