Raising awareness of diversity and social (in)justice issues in undergraduate research writing: understanding students and their lives via connecting teaching and research

Inspired by my own experiences as an undergraduate writing student who did not see a connection between my life and the topics of the courses, this article details my first ventures into designing and teaching sections of a research writing class, entitled Researching Writing: Raising Awareness of Diversity and Social Justice Issues within and Beyond our Lives. The purpose of this course was to promote issues of diversity and social (in)justice in a required liberal studies course. Interview data from undergraduate women students who participated in this research writing course from 2009-2011 were explored in order to uncover their experiences in the class and understand what they found effective or ineffective. The findings indicated that most of the students appreciated being able to choose their own research topic, and also found chunking parts of the research project more effective for understanding the research process. Although engaging students in research and course activities related to controversial issues is difficult, there is a need for more liberal studies courses to incorporate topics related to diversity and social (in)justice.