News

Designing for—and with—People with Disabilities

A college design course that critically evaluates the field of “making” and partners students with people with disabilities can promote accessibility in computing, according to new research by Marcelo Worsley and David Bar-El (PhD21).  

The Inclusive Making course is a preliminary blueprint for scholars who want to adapt it for their own accessible design classes, Worsley and Bar -El wrote in the journal Computer Science Education.  

“Making” is a form of computing that connects digital and physical technologies. Students in the course—meant for upper -level undergraduate and graduate students studying engineering, education, or both—are challenged to design a tool or activity that solves an accessibility problem.  

“By including critical discussions of the field and authentically collaborating with the community, we can develop better designs and change perceptions about what a valuable computing experience is,” says Worsley, assistant professor of computer science and learning sciences.  

Use These Guides to Help Fight Misinformation  

Professor David Rapp and graduate student Michael Spikes have lent their expertise to efforts to build critical -thinking skills around COVID -19 and media literacy issues.  

Rapp, professor of psychology and learning sciences, was among more than two dozen scientists from around the world who contributed to the COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook. The user -friendly resource, which links to a wiki, demystifies COVID -19 vaccines and offers advice on how to accurately challenge misinformation. Spikes served as a national adviser for the American Library Association’s Media Literacy in the Library, a guide that helps library staffers respond to misinformation and other media literacy issues.

Keeping Leaders in the Classroom  

When lawyers are promoted to partners, they don’t stop practicing law. So why should teachers have to leave the classroom to rise through the ranks?  

SESP’s new Teacher Leadership Program offers educators a different way upward. Leading to a master of science in education in teacher leadership or a certificate of advanced study, the program’s combination of workshops, conferences, and short courses allows talented teachers to grow as scholars and leaders while they continue to work with students.  

Teachers in the program learn how to navigate today’s most pressing social and cultural issues by drawing on SESP’s expertise in the learning sciences, human development, and social policy. “We want leaders who can foster equitable and social justice–based learning environments, engage with communities, and enrich learning and development,” says program director Tim Dohrer.  

Learn more about the Teacher Leadership Program at sesp.northwestern.edu/teacherleadership.

The Double Bind of Multiple Identities  

Tabitha Bonilla received a Daniel I. Linzer Grant for Innovation in Diversity and Equity to develop a new undergraduate course framed around the idea that overlapping identities—or intersectionality—can contribute to discrimination or disadvantage.  

In a TED Talk shown on the first day of class, pioneer of critical race theory Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw defines intersectionality and discusses the double bind facing victims of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.  

Black women, for example, experience both racism and sexism that are expressed differently than either the racism experienced by Black men or the sexism experienced by white women.  

Researchers are grappling with the meaning of intersectionality and its impact on everything from environmental and reproductive policy to COVID -19, says Bonilla, assistant professor of human development and social policy. “Mounting research underscores how important it is to think about identity more comprehensively and completely,” she adds.  

From the Mouths of Babes  

Early -childhood care and education policies could be improved by paying attention to how very young children perceive the world, according to new research by Terri J. Sabol, assistant professor of human development and social policy at SESP, and Andrea Kinghorn Busby (PhD21), assistant professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University.  

Their study “A Critical Gap in Early Childhood Policies: Children’s Meaning Making” argues that major advances in psychological science and technology can enable researchers to measure the perceptions of children as young as four years old.  

In the past, researchers rarely consulted children between the ages of four and eight, partly because children that young were deemed unreliable narrators. But Sabol, Busby, and their team devised an interactive, tablet -based app for measuring children’s perceptions and used it to gauge kindergarteners’ notions of a college savings account.  

Their findings showed that the children could grasp what college is or what they might do in college, a “first step toward assessing young children’s meaning -making at scale using technology -assisted measurement tools,” they wrote.  

Helping Build the Credibility Revolution  

The pathbreaking work of faculty members Larry Hedges, Kirabo Jackson, and Diane Schanzenbach was cited multiple times in the scientific background document justifying this year’s recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics.  

Laureates David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens showed that many of society’s big questions can be answered by using so -called natural experiments— real -life situations that resemble randomized controlled trials.  

The empirical evidence used in natural experiments comes from work by Hedges, Jackson, Schanzenbach, and countless others—including graduate students. One of Jackson’s studies, cited in the Nobel background document, was coauthored with Claudia Persico (PhD16), who was then Jackson’s student.  

Program Receives Prestigious Accreditation  

SESP’s Executive Learning and Organizational Change program has been accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training, the top certifying body in the continuing education field.  

Launched in early 2019, ELOC attracts leaders with at least 15 years’ work experience and builds on the learning and organizational change master’s degree curriculum that SESP pioneered. Professionals from the business, education, design, nonprofit, and other sectors hone their capacities to lead impactful change at both the individual and organizational levels.  

Course topics include coaching, leadership development, change management, and organizational design. ELOC classes in both in -person and online formats offer flexible learning opportunities to help participants quickly and efficiently build new skills.  

Learn more at eloc.northwestern.edu.  

Practicum Passion: Zumwalt Acres  

Julia Borland (second from left), a fourth -year social policy major with a deep interest in the environment, won a $10,000 Projects for Peace award to incorporate food -justice issues into a sustainable farming project.  

As part of her SESP practicum, Borland cofounded the Zumwalt Acres apprenticeship program (zumwaltacres.org), which selects 10 young adults to live and work on a farm in Sheldon, Illinois, for three months. Apprentices write grant applications, get their hands dirty in organic garden beds, research sustainable soil management, and more.  

“Material from my social policy and economics courses translates well to the work,” Borland says. “But being on the farm feels so real—like we’re really making an impact.”  

Borland’s plans include offering a yearlong apprenticeship (starting in fall 2022) and adding resources and opportunities that address political, social, and cultural issues in farming. Apprentices will attend workshops such as Soul Fire Farm’s Uprooting Racism in the Food System and gain exposure to other leading forces in environmental justice in US agriculture.  

In Brief