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This paper aims to explore the experiences of a high school senior, a doctoral student, a university professor and an online academic coach with a rapid, unplanned shift to online learning in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the challenges and distinct skills they identify as essential for success in a 100% virtual learning environment.

Through scholarly personal narratives (SPNs), the researchers shared details and authentic knowledge regarding their experiences and perceptions of successful teaching and learning in a 100% online learning environment.

The main goal was to identify necessary skills for success in a 100% virtual learning environment resulting from an unplanned shift. The findings show a need for learner and teacher self-directedness in developing a variety of nontraditional, critical literacies.

In light of the imposed and unplanned educational shifts in teaching and learning, this study has strong practical implications for human resource development offered through an analysis of multiple perspectives. This research may lead to a better understanding of how, in a period of rapid, unexpected shifts, individuals need to use self-directedness to leverage personal and professional development opportunities to adapt and succeed in the new environment. Additionally, the authors use an innovative critical theoretical framework to outline the skills the participants report as useful for success in an online classroom during a period of rapid, unexpected shifting.

For many foster alumni, challenges arise as they age out and transition into adulthood and higher education. One area that has been overlooked is how intersecting identity impacts transition among foster youth, especially Black women. Using Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) as a methodology, I used myself as the subject to share my lived experiences as a Black woman in foster care through my transition from foster care to adulthood, college, and my career as a Student Affairs professional. Utilizing transition theory and intersectionality as frameworks, I aim to highlight the complex and nuanced challenges of foster youth as they experience major transitions as well as how identity can show up in their professional lives, especially if they are in a field that is tasked with supporting individuals that have a similar lived experience.

This chapter provides discursive space for story-telling to provide narrative reflection on the experiences associated with struggles and advantages attributed to advancing non-traditional perspectives into practice. I utilize an auto-ethnography (L. Anderson (2006). Analytical autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 373–395; C. Ellis & A. P. Bochner (2000). Auto-ethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 733–768). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; L. Richardson (2000). Writing. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923–948). London: Sage) to detail my lived experiences as a scholar who has encountered the outsider-within status in academe (Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.). I detail my dual role as a social agent and as an African-American female scholar and the complexities of teaching social justice while promoting the need for activism of social justice and equity in our U.S. schools. Therefore, this study amplifies silenced voices regarding challenges for African-American female scholars engaged in transformative pedagogy in academe. I will utilize a Critical Race Theory lens to examine the racialized experiences that persist for African-American faculty seeking to advance transformational perspectives in academe, and thus through teaching, helping students to realize inequities in K-12 classroom settings (Grant, C. (2012). Advancing our legacy: A Black feminist perspective on the significance of mentoring for African-American women in educational leadership. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(1), 101–117.).

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences with me-search among scholars in the field of education, defined as the conduct of research about one’s own identity or in one’s own setting.

Centered around the tensions inherent in the training received around objectivity and subjectivity, these individuals discuss how they came to conduct me-search and the challenges inherent in it, with a particular focus on the teaching and advising of students conducting this kind of qualitative work.

Applying Richardson and St. Pierre’s (2005) concepts of writing stories, the following reflections provide a grounding of the “me” in methodology, with an eye toward using this methodology to create social change.

While this is a common research approach, relatively little guidance exists on the practice of “me-search”, particularly for young scholars.

Through scholarly personal narrative (Nash, 2004), this chapter outlines a multifaceted approach to creating safer brave spaces for queer and trans students within a predominantly Hispanic-serving, public research university with a mainly commuter student population in South Florida. All spaces require courageous acts of authenticity on the part of its occupants. Thus, the creation of safer brave spaces is acknowledged as a practice since safety is an ideal to be worked toward especially for those with less power and privilege, such as queer and trans people as opposed to straight and cisgender people. Experiences of heterosexism and cisgenderism are positively associated with psychological distress among queer and trans college students (Goldberg, Kuvalanka, & Black, 2019; Sue, 2010; Woodford, Kulick, Sinco, & Hong, 2014). Research suggests empowerment and the acquisition of power is a positive coping mechanism for resisting and overcoming experiences of heterosexism and cisgenderism (Mizock, 2017; Nadal, Davidoff, Davis, & Wong, 2014; Todoroff, 1995). Administrators are called upon to mindfully create spaces that empower queer and trans students. Quick tips throughout the chapter highlight that queer and trans students should be given opportunities to determine their own risks, choose their own mentors, create their own spaces, have their own voices centered, realize their own solutions, fail and learn from setbacks, and deconstruct systems of power. At the University level, administrators should work to educate and change policies that further support students' opportunities to courageously exist and persist authentically in spaces across the university as a whole and not just in designated centers.

Various authors have identified specific types of dark leadership. These types focus largely on the behaviors and impact of the dark leaders. In contrast, we introduce the notion of heretical leadership. The construct relies on the interpreted meanings of the wounded as opposed to actual leader actions. Heretical leadership violates the canon of educational organizations, which is to serve and uplift students. We share two stories of our own wounding in a dialogic fashion, drawing lessons from the intersection of the literature and our own stories. We identify and define scarring as stage distinct from wounding. Findings include suggestions for using story as a vehicle for healing and working to raise awareness of and embrace new perspectives, especially in regards to the nature of organizational systems.

Autoethnography is ethnographical and autobiographical at the same time. Here I intentionally place ‘ethnographical’ before ‘autobiographical’ to highlight the ethnographical character of this inquiry method. This character connotes that autoethnography utilizes the ethnographic research methods and is concerned about the cultural connection between self and others representing the society. This ethnographic aspect distinguishes autoethnography from other narrative-oriented writings such as autobiography, memoir, or journal.

In this chapter on “Teaching About Religious and Spiritual Difference in a Global Society,” Robert J. Nash and Vanessa Santos Eugenio present a broad religio-spiritual overview of the world, complete with current statistics of religious affiliation across all countries, ethnicities, cultures, and races. The authors’ claim is that a well-developed religio-spiritual literacy in each person is necessary in order to be a productive, pluralistic member of an interdependent global community. In order to become increasingly pluralistic in our worldviews, we must look at how educators at all levels of schooling facilitate conversations about religion. We must learn how to become “cosmopolites” – citizens of the world who are not only genuine sociocultural pluralists, but who are also literate, and understanding, regarding the core religio-spiritual differences that often divide, rather than unite, people. In their concluding section, the authors summarize their personal educational beliefs through two letters written to teachers. These letters provide a number of practical tips and tools for teaching about religion and spirituality in classrooms at all levels of education.