Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ARMSTRONG
Statement of Research Interests
Research can take many forms, and it is just one type of practice that I find important as a
faculty member. I share the above quote by a student who participated in one of my first
doctoral-level research projects, because it reflects aspects of why I value research: it is
subjective, personal, continuous, adaptable, and limitless. In this statement, I share my research
interests, methodological approaches, and future research agenda.
Research Interests
My research interests can be summarized into two broad areas: college student development and
teaching and learning. My interest in teaching and learning evolved from an accumulation of my
experiences as a first-generation college student as well as my progression through William &
Mary’s College Teaching Certificate (CTC) program. In completing this coursework and co-
teaching several graduate-level courses, I developed specific interests in how instructors
approach their pedagogy and assessment. As a result, I seek opportunities to learn about and
implement innovative assessment strategies and inclusive designs such as specifications grading
(Nilson, 2014) and peer review (Landry, Jacobs, & Newton, 2014), which foreground learners’
knowledge, desires, needs, abilities, and self-regulation.
Dissertation Topic
Through my dissertation, I am examining the complexities involved when undergraduate
students of various worldviews are exposed to, recognize, reflect upon, and address social
inequities between people of different worldview identities and beliefs. For some scholars, such
skills have been conceptualized as critical consciousness (Freire, 1973; Landreman, King, &
Rasmussen, & Jiang, 2007; Taylor, 2017). In using a post-intentional phenomenological
methodology (Vagle, 2014) and theoretical borderlands approach (Abes, 2009), my dissertation
findings will further inform how critical consciousness takes shape for undergraduate students
encountering social inequities along worldview lines, while considering the interdependent roles
of students’ developmental domains and their social identities as intersectional (Collins, 2015;
Crenshaw, 1989; McCall, 2005), systemically contextualized constructions (Jones & Abes, 2013).
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique
of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago
Legal Forum, 139–167.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Continuum.
Jones, S., & Abes, E. S. (2013). Intersectionality. In S. Jones, & E. S. Abes (Eds.), Identity
development of college students (pp. 135–165). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Landreman, L. M., King, P. M., Rasmussen, C. J., & Jiang, C. X. (2007). A phenomenological
study of the development of university educators’ critical consciousness. Journal of College
Student Development, 43(3), 275–296. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2007.0027
Landry, A., Jacobs, S., & Newton, G. (2014). Effective use of peer assessment in a graduate level
writing assignment: A case study. International Journal of Higher Education, 4(1), 38–51.
https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v4n1p38
McCall, L. (2005). The complexity of intersectionality. Journal of Women in Culture and Society,
30(3), 1771–1800.
Pew Research Center. (2015, May 12). America’s changing religious landscape. Washington, DC:
Author. Retrieved from www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-
landscape/
Taylor, K. (2017). Contextualizing how undergraduate students develop toward critical consciousness
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Vagle, M. D. (2014). Crafting phenomenological research. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.