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<\/a><\/p>\nExploring the 2016-17 catalogs of MC\u2019s five fellow ACCK institutions, via the ACCK home page, I discovered that none offered a course specifically in African-American literature during that academic year. Kansas Wesleyan University and Sterling College both offered a 200-level topics course housed in their respective English departments, but the content is left open-ended; this may be a space where African-American literature can be, and perhaps has been, addressed. Tabor College offered a 300-level course titled \u201cEthnic\/Minority Literature\u201d during this academic year, and it is listed a counting for general education credit. Again, while African-American literature could be perhaps included in a course so titled, it does not necessarily have to be.<\/p>\n
As a next step, I then established MC student interest in African-American literature. To gather a sampling of MC students\u2019 thoughts regarding African-American literature and other potential literature course offerings, I constructed a cover letter and survey for which I received IRB approval.<\/p>\n
I distributed my survey, to students taking a general education literature course in the spring 2017 semester. In total, sixty-five surveys were distributed, and fifty-one were filled out and submitted, a return rate of 78.5 percent. The respondents reported the following demographic information: 45.1 percent male and 54.9 percent female; 64.7 percent Caucasian, 17.6 percent Hispanic, 13.7 percent African-American, 1 percent American Indian\/Alaska Native, and 1 percent Native Hawaiian\/Pacific Islander; 35.3 percent sophomores, 21.6 percent seniors, 17.6 percent juniors, 13.7 percent freshmen, and 1 percent other classification. The respondents together represented fifteen different majors (with one reporting \u201cundecided\u201d), but the majors most strongly represented were automotive restoration and business, each making up 19.6 percent of responses. Also of interest is that English majors, including those reporting a second major, made up 11.8 percent of responders.<\/p>\n
Following the demographic questions, I posed three questions specifically regarding student interest in and attitudes toward African-American literature courses. In response to the first of these items, \u201cI would enroll in an African-American literature course if one were offered by McPherson College,\u201d 70.6 percent of respondents marked \u201cSomewhat Agree\u201d or \u201cAgree.\u201d In response to the second of these items, \u201cI would like to see an African-American literature course offered by McPherson College,\u201d 98 percent of respondents marked \u201cSomewhat Agree\u201d or \u201cAgree.\u201d The final item in this series of questions, \u201cAll four-year colleges and universities should offer an African-American literature course,\u201d 98 percent or respondents marked \u201cSomewhat Agree\u201d or \u201cAgree.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the reinstitution of an African-American literature course at MC was the initial focus of my preliminary research efforts, I view that goal as a first step toward continuously increasing the diversity of MC\u2019s literature course offerings, particularly those counting for general education credit. I crafted the last item on my survey with that larger goal in mind. The last item asked students to rank four courses in the order in which they would like to see them offered with \u201c1\u201d denoting the course of most interest and \u201c4\u201d the course of least interest. Students also had the option of marking \u201cNo interest in seeing any of these courses offered.\u201d The four courses listed in the item were: women\u2019s literature, LGBTQ literature, African-American literature, and Hispanic-American literature. Three respondents, or 5.8 percent, did mark \u201cNo interest,\u201d but 35.3 percent marked African-American literature as their top choice; 33.3 percent marked women\u2019s literature as their top choice; 19.6 marked Hispanic-American literature as their top choice; and 5.8 percent marked LGBTQ literature as their top choice. In response to the insights provided by my catalog investigation and survey results, I designed a general education course in African-American literature, the syllabus for which appears as a PDF on this site. Having closely looked at which African-American authors are included in current literature syllabi at MC, I crafted my syllabus to include primarily twentieth and twenty-first century African-American authors as these voices proved absent from the syllabi I examined.<\/p>\n Though this preliminary research is institutionally situated, my future research will explore the impact of diversifying general education literature course offerings and contribute to the field of English in this way. My hope is that my research will support access to diverse and equitable literature course offerings at post-secondary institutions, showing such access to be not only valuable but essential to a diverse and equitable education.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At this early stage of my doctoral studies, my research interests are still coming into focus. My research will center around the impact of diversifying general education literature offerings. Toward this overarching goal, I have completed some initial ground work. As a preliminary approach to my intended dissertation research, I established a lack of diversity… <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n