LATROBE, PA – Dr. Jessica Harvey, Associate Professor of Communication; Dr. Tracy McNelly, Associate Professor of Education; and Dr. Jennifer Buxton, Assistant Professor of Special Education all in the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Saint Vincent College, recently released an article that appeared on the Media Education Research Journal (MERJ)website.

The article, titled “Toward a Media Literate World: Exploring Secondary Educators’ Challenges Incorporating Media Literacy Education,” discussed the difficulties of teaching media literacy skills to students under the current circumstances that teachers face. They address the three groups of challenges that educators typically face: “training challenges, internal challenges, and external challenges.”

With their research and samples, they explain how “external challenges…can significantly limit [the inclusion of media literacy education (MLE)] in secondary classrooms,” and additional aids for educators would greatly increase the integration of MLE in courses. In uncovering the challenges now, they claim, schools can create strategies to better incorporate MLE for future generations.

The article was published in December of 2022 on the MERJ website and can be found at https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/merj/. The article was a part of the November issue of the MERJ journal, which is a twice-yearly, peer-reviewed academic journal that has been published since 2010. The journal “aims to facilitate dialogue… between media educators from different countries” in order to “facilitate the exchange of… research,” all to better incorporate media education in classrooms.

Dr. Harvey, Dr. McNelly and Dr. Buxton have all published other articles in addition to their piece for the MERJ journal, although this is Dr. Buxton’s first publication with both Dr. Harvey and Dr. McNelly. Together, Dr. Harvey and Dr. McNelly have also published an article in the book “Intergenerational Bonds” titled “Digital Game Apps and Electronic Books: Fostering Relationships Between Young Children and Older Adults” in 2022. The article discusses how technology allows children and adults to engage with one another in “mutually beneficial” activities, where children get a chance to play and adults get to learn the functions of new technology. To read the article, visit https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-81965-1_16.

Separately, Dr. Buxton has presented at a number of national and state presentations within the education field. Her most recent publication, however, titled “An investigation of the relationships among high school students’ reading comprehension strategy instruction, strategy use, attitudes, and achievement,” was her dissertation for her Ph.D. from George Mason University published in 2017. The study explored “the effects of the…variables on reading comprehension achievement,” among other key results regarding the constructs of various controls and differences with the reading comprehension of high school students. To read her dissertation, visit https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED583407.

Dr. Harvey graduated from the University of Washington with her Ph.D., from Arizona State University with her M.A. and from Purdue University with her B.A.

Dr. McNelly completed her post-doctoral studies and received her Superintendent’s Letter of Eligibility from the University of Pittsburgh. She also received her M.Ed. from the University of Pittsburgh, her D.Ed. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and her B.S in Secondary English Education from Duquesne.

Dr. Buxton received her Ph.D. from George Mason University, her M.S. Ed. in elementary education from Duquesne University and her B.A. from Duquesne University.

To learn more about Dr. Harvey’s, Dr. McNelly’s and Dr. Buxton’s publication, contact them at jessica.harvey@stvincent.edu, tracy.mcnelly@stvincent.edu and jennifer.buxton@stvincent.edu respectively.

-Madison Kozera, English major, of Abingdon, MD