At some point this semester, please post a link to an article, video, website, etc. that made you think about something we’ve done in class. Also, please provide a brief discussion about whatever you submitted. This has no due date, but my hope is that you will check it periodically and read what your classmates are posting (feel free to comment, too).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.06.001 This article is titled "How Teachers and Researchers Read Academic Articles". In class we have often discussed the need to write in ways that are easily understood by teachers, if that is who our intended audience is, and do not use unnecessary jargon or "fancy" writing that confuses the discussion. This article examines the expectations and evaluations by teachers and researchers for two types of articles, teacher oriented and researcher oriented. Bartels found that teachers and researchers had different ways of validating information in journal articles and use the information in different ways. Teachers preferred articles written in a clear, succinct, and personal style.
ReplyDeleteAmy Jefferson: I had to respond to the post about the article, How Teachers and Researchers Read Academic Articles since it talks about how classroom teachers don’t chose to read theory, which was similar to the topic of my blog post. The article talks about the language used in academic articles being different than what a classroom teacher would find as user friendly. This so resonated with me, but the obstacle is not the lack of teacher acumen to understand technical language used in research articles the obstacle is time. Good read! Thanks for sharing.
DeleteI think the obstacle of time not being mentioned is a limitation of this research. It does not into account the context outside of reading the article. Plus if the researcher had input from the teachers, they would think to ask those questions. It underlines the critical importance of having someone with knowledge of that culture (in this case being a teacher) to understand what questions to ask and what else may be important.
DeleteTosha Yingling:
ReplyDelete-grab bag blog-
We talked briefly about intersectionality as a feminist method of post-modern research last class, and since this was one of the only times I felt like I knew something in grad school, I thought I'd leave some more info about it here.
We tend to associate the origin of the term to the early 1990s as part of the "third wave" of feminism
where post-modernism and post-structuralism are pushing feminists to consider race, class, ability, and the ever-present "etc." when determining what womanhood looks like. While the concept has existed for centuries, we credit Kimberle Crenshaw (a Critical Race theorist, which, Critical Race theory
corresponds to a specific late 80s/early 90s legal movement in which lawyers and intellectuals like Richard Delgado, Mari Matsuda, and Derrick Bell are theorizing about racism in our legal systems and community accountability) with first coining the term in the article below.
Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins” (if my links work)
BUT, intersectionality is specifically a paradigm of Black feminism, which is a school of thought and not just simply feminist who happen to be Black (and different still from womanism, which has evolved into more of a theological study). Intersectionality then is specifically the study of the social positions of Black women as Crenshaw states despite how we articulate it in academia today as the empiric "race PLUS class PLUS gender" equation. Of course, the idea of intersectionality being a colorblind theory gains a comfortable traction but removing Black women from the theory is harmful in a number of ways,
beyond whitewashing Black intellectuals and reinstating naturalized (and invisible) presumptive whiteness. Feminism is largely a study of social power, epistemology, and the dualistic bifurcating
rhetoric we find in social structures that is integral to studying who is disenfranchised and who is privileged by systems; in this sense, if the white male is the ideal citizen, then the false opposite of that reflection is the Black woman. Bifurcating race and gender establishes a false logic in which Black women are articulated as the ultimate non-human. This is integral to understanding intersectionality despite the ways we try to whitewash the theory to fit without controversy in academia. This also does not mean that intersectionality does not apply to non-Black people of color, white people, or men and trans folks; instead, it reminds us of the ways we rank and hierarchize oppression.
Like we discussed in class, some argue intersectionality is more divisive than constructive, and have began writing about a new, similar way to theorize called "assemblage," a school of thought
characterized in Jasbir Puar's article below:
Puar, “I Would Rather Be a Cyborg Than a Goddess”
Assemblage functions much of the same way as intersectionality, though its followers argue that the
theory is less easily coopted by whitewashing. In reality, the theory is very much the same, conveniently removes Black women its focus (opposed to centralizing neutrality/invisible whiteness) making the theory more susceptible to racism, and the foundations of the theory are tied to white men like Deleuze and Guattari instead of the Black women like Crenshaw and Sojourner Truth at the foundations of intersectionality.
Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman” (safe reminder that the transcript and performances of this speech lend
themselves to a certain gazed voyeurism).
One of my favorite intersectional pieces that addresses the divisive nature of feminist academia
rendering intersectionality is titled below and can be found in the digital VCU library archives. Its a hard read, but I force it on my students, who love it. It is a beautiful companion piece the film "Moonlight," another stunning example of intersectional art.
Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, “Black Atlantic, Queer Atlantic: Queer Imaginings of the Middle Passage”
Amy Jefferson: I found the link below helpful while on my journey to understand why theory is important. The video is short and even talks about rhizome theory! The additional links throughout the site were also informative refreshers…
ReplyDeletehttps://sites.google.com/site/technologytoolboxforeducators/about-learning/learning
I remember learning bits and pieces of theories from Piaget, Skinner and Vygotsky throughout teacher preparation courses, but I never really understood the purpose for using theory. It was a bit overwhelming to dive into deep discussions about Dewey and other theorists that I had never heard of like Locke and Descartes. Honestly, I started bringing my computer to class so I could Google theorists that were mentioned so I had a frame of reference during discussions. A switch flipped as I completed research for my discipline paper on arts integration. I knew I needed to include theory and I knew that if I was writing about arts integration that I needed to include Dewey’s work, Art as Experience (1934), but I had no clue how.
I read Art as Experience (1934), multiple times, determined to pull out some sort of meaning that I could relate to my paper. Finally, I decided to design my entire paper without it first. When I went back and reread, yet again, I got goose bumps. The words made sense to me, and for me, and I found their purpose. “Mountain peaks do not float unsupported; they do not even just rest upon the earth. They are the earth in one of its manifest operations” (Dewey, 1934, p.3). Everything is connected and has deeper layers, what you know, what you learn and how you intertwine the two.
Jen Weiss (2009) comments in her Personal Reflection: Finding Theory within the book Theory and Educational Research, “I first came to theory as a close reader of poetry. Poetry contains for me a world of speculation and hypothesis, a world that seeks to tell the truth about a given situation” (p.76). Theory is what you make of it, how you interpret it, and sometimes what you need it to be. I am certainly not an expert when it comes to theory, but I understand it more than before and I am not quite so intimidated by the T word.
Elizabeth Severson-Irby: This one is a bit of a journey, and by that I mean a series of four articles all centering around a discussion of whiteness. In class, this topic has come up a lot and these articles discuss how it presents itself in the field of adult education. The first article brings up the topic of why white instructors should explore their white identity. The next two articles are written in response to the first, with the last article a response from the initial author. All of the articles really made me think about my position in a field where a majority of the students are not white and how to explore this.
ReplyDeleteArticle 1: https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Research/ALE%20Journal/ALE_ResearchJournal-v001_02-2019-52_Brookfield.pdf
Article 2: https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Research/ALE%20Journal/ALE_ResearchJournal-v001_02-2019-57_Gnanadass.pdf
Article 3: https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Research/ALE%20Journal/ALE_ResearchJournal-v001_02-2019-61_Clemans.pdf
Article 4: https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Research/ALE%20Journal/ALE_ResearchJournal-v001_02-2019-66_Brookfield.pdf
Throughout this class my biggest critique of pragmatism and John Dewey has been the exclusion of race issues in educational research. I have struggled to understand how a prolific democratic philosopher could negate one of the biggest issues in education. This critique prompted me to research John Dewey and race relations. While I still am disconcerted about the dismissal of race issues in John Dewey’s notorious pragmatist writings, this article allowed me to understand his stance a little better. It gave me some insight into some of the actions he took against racial injustice.
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1145&context=eandc
The term microaggression sticks with me. This article https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/02/microaggression especially is important because it highlights a major challenge in humanity. Specifically, when confronted with the possibility that their behaviors have harmed someone the natural inclination for many is to negate or invalidate the person, deny the factual circumstances or minimize the action. The "micro" in microaggression is not small at all when evaluating the cumulative impact. We are comfortable discussing police brutality, metal detectors and the like in schools because, for the most part we can distance ourselves from those egregious but improbable acts. The greatest discomfort for people, is reckoning with the daily thoughts and actions that give more insight into people's social conditioning.
ReplyDeleteThis awareness is critical for growth and development. In the article, Kenneth Sole, Ph.d mentions the term microaggression is negative because it would restrict candid interaction. However, many minorities, racial, ethnic and otherwise, have rarely enjoyed the "candid" interaction Sole speakaof. Instead they often police themselves incessantly as to not disrupt shaky social standing. This is important in education research because as the Anyon book reveals, this policing, minimizing, negating actions taken by school personnel during student's formative years may have lasting impact on student self perception. I'm willing to sacrifice candor for thoughtful engagement.
Catina
Jonathan Staylor: The focus on educational research can have a profound impact on marginalized groups. This article: https://talkpoverty.org/2017/12/18/private-schools-promised-opportunity-instead-got-classism/ discusses the role that private schools have on classism as indicated by the experiences of a person of color. Instead of opportunity, this student experienced classism from both the students and the teacher. I transferred to a private school when I was in 8th grade and I experienced classism while there. This manifested in the form of bullying that eventually led me to misbehave in class and come close to being kicked out of the school. I had to find a way to fit in with the student body so I started to be a "class clown" and this allowed me to have a small circle of friends that would help me get through high school. I was always trying to fit in with this "middle upper class" and it eventually affected my grades and behavior. Overall, it important to consider all variables when conducting educational research.
ReplyDeleteMitchell Waters: "The evolving research tradition in counselor education and supervision": http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6978.2003.tb01832.x. This article discusses the historical methods of research that have contributed to the discipline of counselor education. Kline discusses qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Kline also touches on the tension of using qualitative measures to investigate more uniquely human aspects of the human experience and how this has been met with some criticism because it is seen by some as a step further away from "harder" scientific research some CES scholars want the discipline to be known for. This tension reminded me of our class discussion on Labaree. The CES discipline wants harder, more generalizable research findings, but to do that, human aspects of human nature have to be intentionally left out. We then find ourselves asking what we are even studying in counselor education if not the human experience.
ReplyDeleteKristian Robinson - "Can Communities and Academia Work Together
ReplyDeleteon Public Health Research? Evaluation Results
From a Community-Based Participatory
Research Partnershipin Detroit" /https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.3.495
This class has made me think a lot about the my struggle in straddling community/university work and academia as I move forward. I don't know that I want to be a full time counselor doing community work, but I also don't know if seeking tenure is in the cards for me either. It seems like to take on either I have to make a sacrifice of part of my professional identity and I don't know that I could straddle both well enough to fulfill my personal needs. Because of this dilemma, I've been reading up on different research strategies that help to engage the communities the study in meaningful ways to better impact change, community based participatory research being at the center of this research. Especially as my research interest area is addressing mental health as a public health issue on college campuses, this article seemed particularly relevant in laying out the framework of that this community based approach actually entails. Luckily for me, they are offering a community based participation research class next semester that I will be taking as a research elective. how neat? research on this form of research paired with reading anyon and how theory can be used to lift up voices of marginalized individuals has really made my optimistic for my future in research.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1022&context=hjsr
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/05/talented-women-of-colour-are-blocked-why-are-there-so-few-black-female-professors
I have attached two articles that have echoed some of the classroom discussion that we engaged in during the semester. Some of our conversation during the semester discussed the lack of work, articles and things published from women of color, specifically black women. This wasn’t discussion from the books or articles that were read but more from our own inquiry. The two articles I have attached go into detail about some of the concerns associated with why there is a lack of black women in academia. The articles speak on stereotypes, comparing credentials and even hostile environments as reasons why there is a lack of black women in academia. Being a black woman and doctoral student seeing articles like this encourage me to do the work and continue to pursue my goals. This has been a particularly difficult semester for me. I have wrestled with not completing the doctoral program or taking a break. But this has really provided me some encouragement to continue. Seeing all the obstacles in front of me and having the courage to face them.