Texas Tech University

Grant Jackson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Associate Chair, Higher Education Doctoral Program Coordinator
Educational Psychology, Leadership, & Counseling

Email: grant.jackson@ttu.edu

Office: Education 331

At the heart of Dr. Jackson's work is his investment in (a) how individuals receive, internalize, and reconcile the wide range of ideas, claims, and experiences they accumulate in adulthood and (b) how that informs how they talk and engage with others on the difficult and complex issues of our time. He is motivated by the role that higher education can play in teaching and developing people along these lines, preparing them for life in an increasingly complex society.

His research focuses primarily on how students experience and are influenced by intergroup dialogue (IGD), a pedagogy that brings together different groups of students to engage in deep and personal conversations related to complex issues. Recent and current studies include the influence of IGD on college students’ spiritual and religious identification, commitment, engagement, struggle, and skepticism; their worldview development; and their attitudes towards/relationships with others who are different from themselves. He has also studied the role of participant trust and developmental readiness in the IGD experience, as well as the opportunities and limitations of facilitating IGD online. In addition, he is working with other IGD scholars on a 15-year follow-up study of the long-term effects of IGD, the first of its kind. He also studies how IGD principles and practices can be enacted through leadership, leadership education, and teaching.

Prior to becoming a faculty member, Dr. Jackson worked in other higher education capacities as an Intergroup Dialogue Facilitator, Instructional Consultant, and Academic Advisor, as well as the Learning Director at a CPA firm in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dr. Grant Jackson, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D., Higher Education – University of Michigan
    • Specialization: Academic Affairs and Student Development
  • M.A., Higher Education – University of Michigan
    • Specialization: Institutional Research
  • M.A., Education – Stanford University
    • Specialization: Higher Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership
  • B.A., German – Brigham Young University
    • Minor: Psychology

Research Areas

  • Intergroup Dialogue Theory and Practice
  • College Student Development
  • College Teaching and Learning
  • Leadership Theory and Practice

Courses Taught

  • Higher Education Doctoral Seminar
  • Higher Education Master’s Seminar
  • College Student Development
  • Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Change
  • College Teaching
  • Dissertation Proposal Seminar
  • Advising and Student Support

Recent Publications

Brown, C., McNaughtan, J., McNaughtan, E. D. & Jackson, G. R. (2026). Understanding the experience of partner hiring: A relationship perspective. Journal of Education Human Resources. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.3138/jehr-2024-00

Jackson, G. R., Hallam, P., Brown, S., Schiffecker, S. (In Press). "Only noticed when it becomes scarce or polluted": The presence, absence, and role of trust in intergroup dialogue theory, research, and practice. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Jackson, G. R., Darger, E. J. (2025). Tell me how you really feel: Utilizing intergroup dialogue principles and practices to develop authentic leaders and organizations. In D. Rosch, S. Allen, & D. Jenkins (Eds.) Moving the needle: What we know (and don't know) about developing leaders, pp. 159-172. https://bookstore.emerald.com/moving-the-needle-hb-9781837085422.html 

Jackson, G., Schiffecker, S. & Poquet, O.(2025) “We’re all squares on a screen”: Interpersonal and intrapersonal opportunities and limitations of online intergroup dialogue. Online Learning, 29(2), pp.118–139. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v29i2.4444

Jackson, G.R., Schiffecker, S., Poquet, S. (2024). “An intense level of self-regulation”: Technological opportunities and limitations of online intergroup dialogue. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 24(4), 138-161. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v24i4.36086

Orcutt, M., Jackson, G. R., & Jones, S. J. (2024). “It helped push me through the class”: Community college student perceptions of the role of instructor immediacy behaviors in completing an online course. Online Learning, 28(3), 348-371. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v28i3.4080

McNaughtan, E. McNaughtan, J., Brown, C. & Jackson, G. R.(2024). Rethinking the two-body problem: Using grounded theory to understand experiences of partner hires. The Qualitative Report, 29(4), 1233-1251. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.6422

Jackson, G. R., Stevens, T. (2023). Mentoring in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to extend faculty teaching beyond the content. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2023(175), 51-59. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20558

Bahr, P. R., McNaughtan, J., Jackson, G. R. (2023). Reducing the loss of community college students who demonstrate potential in STEM. Research in Higher Education, 64(5), 675-704. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09713-8

Jackson, G. R. (2022). Using student development theory to inform intergroup dialogue research, theory, and practice. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 15(2), 194-206. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000241

McNaughtan, J., Garcia, H., Schiffecker, S., Norris, K., Jackson, G. R., Eicke, D., Herridge, A., & Li, X. (2022).  Surfing for Answers: Understanding How Universities in the United States Utilized Websites in Response to COVID-19. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 14(3B), 113-129.

Jackson, G. R., Gottlieb, J. J., McNaughtan, J., & Eicke, D. (2022). The role of outcome expectations and subjective task value in STEM major selection among women and men: Implications for practice and defining STEM. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 28(6), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.2022038762

Jackson, G. R. (2021). Find, organize, analyze, critique: Frameworks for teaching students how to “review the literature.” In A. S. Zimmerman (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Developing Students’ Scholarly Dispositions in Higher Education (pp. 232-250). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7267-2.ch012

Jackson, G. R. (2021). Intergroup dialogue pedagogy, processes, and  outcomes: The moderating role of students’ openness to multiple perspectives. Teachers College Record, 123(6), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146812112300607

McCarron, G., Jackson, G. R., McNaughtan, J., Olesova, L., Schmidt, G., & Taylor, T. (2020). Twenty-first century pedagogy for leadership development: Centering dialogic and digital approaches in leadership education. Journal of Leadership Studies, 14(3), 72-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jls.21716

Burdman, P., Booth, K., Thorn, C., Bahr, P. R., McNaughtan, J., & Jackson, G. (2018). Multiple paths forward: Diversifying mathematics as a strategy for college success. WestEd & Just Equations.

Bahr, P. R., Jackson, G., McNaughtan, J., Oster, M., & Gross, J. (2017). Unrealized potential: Community college pathways to STEM baccalaureate degrees. Journal of Higher Education, 88(3), 430-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2016.1257313

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