Ashley Staples - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ashley Staples

Innovative Higher Education

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

Christian Higher Education, Nov 18, 2022

Journal of College and Character

Frontiers in Education

Background: Evangelical Christian college students simultaneously experience the privileges that ... more Background: Evangelical Christian college students simultaneously experience the privileges that accompany dominant religious identities and feel a need to conceal their identity and perspectives on college campuses. Consistently and empirically, the college campus has been studied for its potential to help students develop appreciative attitudes toward religious, secular, and spiritual worldviews. Yet, few studies have investigated evangelical Christian appreciation longitudinally over 4 years of college, and even fewer through the additional use of a mixed-methods design.Purpose: This inquiry examined if and how college students developed an appreciation of evangelical Christianity over 4 years of college.Methods: This paper used data gathered through the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a nationally-representative, mixed-methods study that included survey data collection from 9,470 students at 122 colleges and universities over 3 time p...

Religion, 2021

Religion undeniably impacts life in modern society in numerous ways. In the U.S., discussions abo... more Religion undeniably impacts life in modern society in numerous ways. In the U.S., discussions about religion in public life often start at the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution as fundamental to the separation of church and state. Public higher education does not necessarily share established associations with any religion, but is not free from religious influence. Although Christian influences are undeniably present on public campuses, educators hesitate to discuss religion and spirituality due in part to a pedestrian understanding of the establishment clause and epistemologies that artificially equate secularism with intellectualism. This paper examines case studies conducted at five public U.S. institutions. Focus groups and interviews highlight what different public campuses are doing to address religious diversity, and how they are succeeding or failing to accommodate the needs of students. Findings indicate that executive leaders’ attitudes towards religious diversity o...

Contexts, 2021

Hate crimes against Jews in America are on the rise, including on college campuses. In this artic... more Hate crimes against Jews in America are on the rise, including on college campuses. In this article, the authors share details about their recent study, The Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), which surveyed thousands of students at over 120 schools. The findings show that Jewish students are the least likely among their peers to view their campus environments as welcoming to people of diverse faiths.

Review of Religious Research, 2021

Evangelical Christian college students navigate campus buoyed by Christian privilege but may enco... more Evangelical Christian college students navigate campus buoyed by Christian privilege but may encounter silencing or othering tied to their religious beliefs, a feeling of incompatibility with their campus climate, and conflations of their religious and political beliefs that are inaccurate and discouraging. Unsupportive campus climates can discourage evangelical students from having productive exchanges across difference and deepening their own worldview commitments, which is concerning due to their general lack of interfaith participation that challenges stereotypes and unnuanced assumptions. This study explores how evangelical Christians perceive their campus climates and whether those perceptions are different based on other social identity intersections with gender, race, sexuality, and political affiliation. In addition to individual characteristics, how the campus environment and various curricular and co-curricular experiences moderate evangelical students’ perceptions of the worldview climate is examined. A sample of 1235 evangelical college students was examined via means, standard deviations, and ranges for six campus climate measures, one-way ANOVAs to examine whether those measures differed by different identity dimensions, and then multilevel modeling to better understand the role of campus experiences in evangelicals’ perceptions of their campus climate. Evangelical students’ campus climate perceptions were generally positive; more provocative encounters were reported by women than men and evangelical Asian students indicated more divisiveness, more insensitivity, and less space for support than their peers. Political affiliation also revealed several significant differences in perceived campus climate. Interfaith engagement through pre-college activities, formal and informal activities, and friendships were connected to perceptions of campus climate, with those reporting more engagement being more likely to have productive encounters across difference and to report insensitivity or divisiveness. Religious affiliation was the most significant institutional characteristic. This study illuminates how collegiate experiences and campus environments exacerbate or attenuate evangelical Christian students’ perceptions of the campus climate, and the results indicate that effective teaching practices where true interfaith experiences happen and that create inclusive space for evangelical students in the classroom are key to fostering development, especially in light of the social status ambiguity evangelical college students may be experiencing during their college years.

Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education, 2019

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare domestic and international students’ experi... more Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare domestic and international students’ experiences of the campus worldview climate. Background: Internationalization efforts have continued to increase and more institutions are codifying internationalization into their mission statements or strategic plans. However, most international students are coming to the United States from countries that do not share a Christian-based worldview and most campuses are already underprepared for their students to engage across worldviews. Methodology: To explore the experiences of international students with the campus worldview climate, we used data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) to examine differences between domestic and international students with regard to campus worldview climate perceptions, engagement in formal and informal interfaith opportunities, and changes in pluralism orientation during the first year of college. Contribution: ...

The Journal of Higher Education, 2018

The purpose of this study was to understand whether and the extent to which undergraduate student... more The purpose of this study was to understand whether and the extent to which undergraduate students' exposure to and participation in a set of innovation-specific curricular learning interventions promoted innovation capacities-a measurable set of self-perceptions and abilities students can develop to better engage in innovation. Through the use of a longitudinal design, we examined gains made by students enrolled in a "Leadership and Innovation" course, by students who participated in a theoretically designed, single-session innovation learning experience, and by students not exposed to any direct learning focused on innovation. The results of this study suggest that innovation capacity development was associated with exposure to theoretically designed innovation curricula. These results further emphasize the value of low-cost, short-duration efforts with respect to rapidly expanding curricula associated with developing students into innovators. We discuss these results and offer implications of our findings for future research and practice.