Abstract
As the laboratory model is becoming increasingly popular in Political Science, what are the best models of adapting this opportunity to an undergraduate teaching institution? Undergraduate research experiences are a high-impact learning practice, but access to these opportunities is often limited. These challenges are exacerbated for faculty at teaching institutions, where funding, research time, and student-led research mentoring opportunities are often more limited. How can faculty at teaching institutions create broader and deeper access to undergraduate research opportunities? This chapter documents the successes and limitations of a student-faculty collaborative research initiative on immigration politics in Nebraska started in August 2019 at Nebraska Wesleyan University, through which students wrote and presented one paper, co-designed a second project, and are co-authoring a blog post on immigration politics pedagogy. This chapter documents how the lab model fits within my research, teaching, and mentoring interests; discusses student learning outcomes; and shares scalability challenges and opportunities. It concludes by offering suggestions to assist other faculty interested in most efficiently and effectively expanding this research opportunity to benefit both students and faculty.
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Notes
- 1.
Human subjects research was approved by the Nebraska Wesleyan University Institutional Review Board, NWU-IRB#202,001,251-S.
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Bauer, K. (2023). Increasing Access to Undergraduate Research Opportunities at Small Teaching Institutions. In: Butcher, C., Bhasin, T., Gordon, E., Hallward, M.C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Teaching and Research in Political Science. Political Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42887-6_13
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