Collaborative Research Projects Helping Advance WE CARE Strategic Plan

The College of Education and Health Professions' WE CARE strategic plan launched in the fall of 2022 and contains several funding opportunities for faculty and staff working to advance the college's WE CARE mission.

One of those opportunities, Team Up for Education and Health Funds, promotes collaboration and innovation between the college's many unique programs and disciplines, as well as with units outside the college.

Team Up projects support the WE CARE strategic plan's impactful research priority by funding interdisciplinary teams of faculty and staff who are working to develop innovative solutions and integrated approaches to persistent challenges in education and healthcare. By bringing together researchers with varied expertise, projects can ask better questions and be better designed to inform policy and practice.

"Our college community is collaborating in powerful ways to serve Arkansas," said Dean Kate Mamiseishvili. "I couldn't be more proud of the impact our faculty, staff and students are making through our WE CARE strategic plan."

In Arkansas, one in five students was absent for more than 10% of the school year in 2024. 

Researchers Jennifer Cowhy and Sarah McKenzie have partnered with Ananda Rosa in the School of Social Work to tackle this growing problem and examine the causes of chronic absenteeism within Arkansas schools. Cowhy brings experience in educational leadership and special education, while McKenzie's years of research on education in Arkansas, conducted in the Department of Education Reform's Office for Education Policy, bolster the project's data collection efforts.

The team developed a survey for students in grades 7-12 to assess school experiences, relationships and other factors that could affect attendance. They plan to use the survey's results to identify the factors most strongly associated with student absenteeism. Once factors have been identified, the team will use the study to develop more targeted solutions to absenteeism so that students across the state remain in the classroom.

Another interdisciplinary team, including Kara Lasater in educational leadership, Bonnie King in childhood education, Erin Hickey in exercise science and Jennifer Veilleux of the Department of Psychological Science, is using Team Up funds to examine the emotional responses people have to "undeserved outcomes." 

"In the last five years, I have observed increasing instances of relational conflicts in schools stemming from situations where someone did not receive an outcome (e.g., grade, playing time on a sports team) they believed they deserved, and when these situations occurred, they resulted in feelings of anger, hurt, disappointment and resentment," Lasater said. "It is my hope that this research can advance understanding of the psychology of 'undeservingness' and provide a roadmap to repairing or reducing personal and relational harm in the face of undeserved outcomes."

The four researchers hope that through surveys with athletes and students, they can advance understanding of undeservingness and provide a roadmap for teachers, coaches and educational leaders to learn how to reduce harm when faced with these situations.

Mapping the Dynamics of Physical Literacy is a project led by Anqi Deng that aims to identify the four components of physical literacy - motivation, confidence, physical competence and knowledge - and how they work together to influence physical activity.

Fellow researchers in exercise science, educational statistics and special education - Hickey, Jihong Zhang and Elizabeth Lorah - are teaming up to assist in analyzing physical activity data from over 100 elementary school students participating in after-school programs. They hope the study's results will help inform school administrators, physical education teachers and afterschool program staff on the best ways to use physical literacy concepts to promote physical activity among students.

Through Project IMPACT, researchers James Sinclair, Cowhy and Michael Hensley, each with varied backgrounds in education and leadership, are seeking to understand how high schools can better support students with disabilities.

The researchers are gathering survey data from schools across Arkansas to locate barriers that administrators and teachers face when designing and implementing interventions for students with disabilities.

"When you get into the middle and high school levels, we see less sustained interventions because schools are bigger and teachers are interfacing with students for less time every day," Sinclair said. "Our students with disabilities still need support, though, so this pilot study is an opportunity to explore the whys and why nots of intervention research."

Sinclair hopes this project serves as a jumping-off point for future research on the experiences of young adults with disabilities.

Team Up for Education and Health projects have been funded on an ongoing basis since the 2022-23 academic year. So far, 60 faculty members have had 39 Team Up projects funded through the WE CARE Strategic Plan.

About the College of Education and Health Professions: The College of Education and Health Professions prepares students for a wide range of careers in education and health. The college comprises approximately 360 faculty and staff members, serving more than 6,000 students and supporting six departments and over 25 research and service units. Driven by the WE CARE strategic plan, the college strives to advance impactful research, foster a caring culture, and expand service to Arkansas through transformative educational opportunities and meaningful partnerships. The college boasts an extensive research portfolio that is accompanied by multiple large-scale, prestigious grants secured by faculty and staff. Over the past five years, the college has received over $115 million in external funding.