Grab Bag (due by the end of the semester)
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).
Well, I'm going to break the rules a little and just write a plug for a book: "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood....and the Rest of Y'all Too" By Christopher Emdin.
ReplyDeleteI am reading this book for another class that I am taking, and it is completely shaking my worldview (seems to be the theme of this semester...).
I am recalling Pring's comment: Any theory is always open to revision in the light of further experience and criticism. We can never be certain that our beliefs and theories are correct. But we can feel confident in them if they have been subjected to the most rigorous testing (p. 137).
I REALLY REALLY thought that after my first five years of teaching "in the hood" that my beliefs and theories about teaching "in the hood" were correct (I won't get into all of the beliefs now, but would love to have discussions around this if anyone is interested). I had subjected my beliefs and theories to five years of rigorous testing, though they certainly underwent some drastic changes from year 1 to year 5. Fast forward 4 more years, I left "the hood" to teach in a more affluent area, then returned to "the hood" this school year.
I started this book and can't put it down. Christopher Emdin did not give me any "hard numbers" or trend lines or correlations; he still gave me data. My reality is only my reality because of the way I have experienced it. The reality within the four walls of my classroom was never experienced the same by my students as it was for me. In some sense I always knew that, but after reading this book I can absolutely never forget it. And I'm shaken because of it.
This experience reminds me that it's not always about data and "classy writing" (thank you, Becker!). A well written story of the experience of one person can easily be the most powerful thing someone can read, making "qualitative" or "anectodal" data just as important as the hard stuff.
-Chelsea
I am intrigued. I am ordering the book now.
DeleteRecently, I began reading the novel Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. A close friend if mine manages a bookshop in Texas, and she sent me a few novels to help get through the increased indoor time.
ReplyDeleteTokarczuk (or the narrative, who stands in for the partially biographical elements on the novel) reflects on her training as a psychologist by writing:
"Here we were taught that the world could be described, and even explained, by means of simple answers to intelligent questions. That in its essence the world was inert and dead, governed by fairly simply laws that needed to be explained and made public--is possible with the aid of diagrams. We were required to do experiments. To formulate hypotheses. To verify. We were inducted into the mysteries of statistics, taught to believe that equipped with such a tool we would be able to perfectly describe all the workings of the world--that ninety percent is more significant than five.
But if there's one thing I know, it's that anyone looking for order ought to steer clear of psychology altogether. Go for physiology or theology instead, where at least you'll have solid backing--either in matter or in spirit--instead of psychology's slippery terrain. The psyche is quite a tenuous object of study."
Obviously this is a pretty blunt reflection on the nature of knowing -- of how disciplines construct knowledge. Trained in Communist Poland, Tokarczuk would have been taught a fairly materialist approach to the social sciences. But it reminds me of our recurring discussions of how we see what we are trained to see -- that research is a process of the endogenous and the exogenous. It also makes me reflect on conversations from early on in the semester about the ultimate knowability of certain mental processes -- "the psyche is quite a tenuous object of study."
Further, I'm intrigued (though have nothing to offer) about the relationship between knowledge and voice that lead Tokarczuk from psychology to literature. Flights is a fragmentary novel, with various vignettes interwoven to tell a larger store about the human body and movement. I haven't finished it yet, but I'll be interested to see where it goes.
Jonathan
Let's talk about theory and the balance between theory and data. QAnon
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon
For those unfamiliar, I don't even think it's worth reading the Wikipedia page. Essentially, a mostly-anonymous post on an internet forum became the basis for a conspiracy theory that details how the "Deep State" is trying to sabotage and undermine President Trump.
The urtext is a sprawling form post with references to political events and predictions of the future. JFK Jr. is involved, a lot of stuff about Hillary's Emails, MS-13 gets brought up, the Rothschilds catch a stray in there, it's just a lot. It involves a lot of parsing tweets from the President, numerology, biblical allusions, and general A Beautiful Mind style connections.
THIS is what I thought of when Anyon was talking about an over-reliance on theory. Through the QAnon theory, EVERYTHING can be tied into this central conspiracy because it's the only filter for which to view the world. If a post says "A storm is coming" and STORM has 5 letters, and the president holds up a number 5? Theory confirmed.
Not everything can be explained by a unifying theory of the world and human event. Being a True Believer to a theory makes you a useful discipline but a less useful scholar.
Perusing and trying to find something that spoke to me to add to the grab-bag assignment, when I came across a brief clip of Dr. David Stovall at a conference on Reframing the Gap: Educational Debt, and he opens by saying, “I am glad I am here. I am usually uninvited because this work is usually not very popular.” What he says next is why the brief clip resonated with my discipline journey and reflection (listening to it is better than reading it here because you cannot hear his passion). Dr. Stovall states: “...researchers actually making a conscious decision to say what is my contribution to the justice effort involved with my particular area. So what is my contribution to the justice condition, right? What is my contribution to the human condition, not as some egomaniac, right? Not as somebody who has the solution for everything but for somebody who comes for a space where they were supported and through that support they were given a challenge a challenge to actually say okay, find the folks like yourself, bring them into the fold and then hold them accountable to the extent that you hold yourself accountable right now.” He spoke to my journey in this class, and it also aligns nicely with the blog about humble educational research. What am I going to do as a researcher to move the work to improve the human condition? Who are “my people” (as Kurt always speaks of), and in what spaces should we hold each other accountable and move the work?
ReplyDeleteWatch the clip to hear more:
Dr. Stovall is a professor of African-American Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His scholarship investigates three areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) the relationship between housing and education, and 3) the intersection of race, place, and school. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he works with community organizations and schools to address issues of equity, justice, and abolishing the school/prison nexus.
Here is the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOMcj7naxdg
DeletePerusing and trying to find something that spoke to me to add to the grab-bag assignment, when I came across a brief clip of Dr. David Stovall at a conference on Reframing the Gap: Educational Debt, and he opens by saying, “I am glad I am here. I am usually uninvited because this work is usually not very popular.” What he says next is why the brief clip resonated with my discipline journey and reflection (listening to it is better than reading it here because you cannot hear his passion). Dr. Stovall states: “...researchers actually making a conscious decision to say what is my contribution to the justice effort involved with my particular area. So what is my contribution to the justice condition, right? What is my contribution to the human condition, not as some egomaniac, right? Not as somebody who has the solution for everything but for somebody who comes for a space where they were supported and through that support they were given a challenge a challenge to actually say okay, find the folks like yourself, bring them into the fold and then hold them accountable to the extent that you hold yourself accountable right now.” He spoke to my journey in this class, and it also aligns nicely with the blog about humble educational research. What am I going to do as a researcher to move the work to improve the human condition? Who are “my people” (as Kurt always speaks of), and in what spaces should we hold each other accountable and move the work?
DeleteWatch the clip to hear more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOMcj7naxdg
Dr. Stovall is a professor of African-American Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His scholarship investigates three areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) the relationship between housing and education, and 3) the intersection of race, place, and school. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he works with community organizations and schools to address issues of equity, justice, and abolishing the school/prison nexus.
(FOURTH TIME IS THE CHARM - V. Hurd)
ReplyDeletePerusing and trying to find something that spoke to me to add to the grab-bag assignment, when I came across a brief clip of Dr. David Stovall at a conference on Reframing the Gap: Educational Debt, and he opens by saying, “I am glad I am here. I am usually uninvited because this work is usually not very popular.” What he says next is why the brief clip resonated with my discipline journey and reflection (listening to it is better than reading it here because you cannot hear his passion). Dr. Stovall states: “...researchers actually making a conscious decision to say what is my contribution to the justice effort involved with my particular area. So what is my contribution to the justice condition, right? What is my contribution to the human condition, not as some egomaniac, right? Not as somebody who has the solution for everything but for somebody who comes for a space where they were supported and through that support they were given a challenge a challenge to actually say okay, find the folks like yourself, bring them into the fold and then hold them accountable to the extent that you hold yourself accountable right now.” He spoke to my journey in this class, and it also aligns nicely with the blog about humble educational research. What am I going to do as a researcher to move the work to improve the human condition? Who are “my people” (as Kurt always speaks of), and in what spaces should we hold each other accountable and move the work?
Watch the clip to hear more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOMcj7naxdg
Dr. Stovall is a professor of African-American Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His scholarship investigates three areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) the relationship between housing and education, and 3) the intersection of race, place, and school. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he works with community organizations and schools to address issues of equity, justice, and abolishing the school/prison nexus.
There is a LOT of academic content and reflection happening right now as the future of our profession has been thrown to the wolves of COVID-19...so it wasn't hard to find a discussion about disciplinarity or the academy that felt relevant through this course's lens.
ReplyDeleteThe following reflection is one professor/blogger's response to a "colleague's" message to current Ph.D. students seeking jobs in the near future. While many of these targeted responses turn into ad-hominem attacks, this one remained highly attuned to the person's messaging, and while some of that is grounded in the original author's privilege, it felt more authentically critical than attacking.
http://theprofessorisin.com/2020/05/01/tenured-faculty-member-says-quiet-part-out-loud/?fbclid=IwAR1bgl3eErx46J3sMSyWtA7J23ZlTJmfwu4jzw6Rq10reIVDowc-db9jEnU
The TL:DR version is that the OP shares a perspective about the potential impacts of this current crisis on the academic job market that appears to be falsely aligned with the 2008 economic recession, and assumes a LOT about the "privileges" of graduate study. The response highlights that the author is making assumptions based on a market that has 1) never fully recovered from the 2008 crisis, and 2) is in a completely different set of circumstances than a purely economic crisis. The response also tears apart the discussion of "privilege" inherent in graduate work, calling the attention to a moderate graduate stipend and the pressure for graduate students to *change their research topics to focus on the COVID-19 recovery*. I was introduced to the concept of "tenure-splaining" which didn't seem a far leap from other situations in which those with the most privilege and power take up the most space. "The Professor Is In" also calls out a section explicitly addressed to "working class students" and identified the gaslighting nature of the commentary that tells Ph.D. students they are lucky to be engaged in academic work at a time when everything is so uncertain.
Beth! I actually wrote about COVID-109 too! I wrote more so about the writing and tenure process. I like the perspective you share as well about the job market and PhD students.
Delete-Aliza
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/21/early-journal-submission-data-suggest-covid-19-tanking-womens-research-productivity
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Becker, and because of the current climate, this article stood out to me as a must read. I keep going back to the chapter when we read about “getting it out the door”. I have mentioned in a lot of the readings the needed adjustment for context. When we think of “getting it out the door” in this very moment, thinking about females in academia is critical. Numbers in submissions have changed to journals from female authors. A common conversation I have with female professors is the demand of becoming tenured while going through child birth and child raising. What we are seeing with COVID-19 is that inequalities that have always existed, are becoming even more apparent. This can be the opportunity to consider the tenure and writing process. How can female faculty find support during this time while juggling childcare. It is important to note that this article really emphasizes females as mothers and the center of the household. It makes heterosexual assumptions about family and genders responsibilities. This also reveals the even greater inequity that exists. Maybe we can take a new approach and think about how to make a more universally accessible pathway to tenure, including writing and other scholarship. May this be the time to overthrow the ivory tower?
-Aliza
Posted on the wrong grab bag!
ReplyDeleteMeagan here:
This may be cheating, but honestly, what I thought of most this semester was related to conversations I had with others about writing and feedback. It was like the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, or in that realm...suddenly, any time people talked about their reaction to feedback on their writing, it seemed amplified after reading the beginning of Becker's book and when reflecting on some of our conversations in class.
While I've felt it myself, it's surprising to hear how viscerally people can react to feedback on their writing. A close friend of mine talked at some length about how upset he was over feedback from a professor on a paper for re-submission; in part, because the feedback did not seem to address the actual reviewer comments, but also, just how much the way it was written mattered to my friend. He's not overly sensitive, but he took it so personally, and he stressed just how intentional his writing was, and the painstaking detail with which he crafted this submission. In the end, it wasn't even a reaction to the reviewer comments, but to someone he knew personally.
More recently, we got a desk reject on a paper to a high-tier journal. It was an interesting study that I feel had impact, but there were any number of things that made it likely we got rejected, not the least of which was that the journal did an issue on our topic the month before. Still, our lead author was shocked, and he talked about how well-written it was. I've seen him react to reviewers--not well--and I wondered how he might have reacted to feedback. In his field, it's actually common to get an acceptance without any editing.
These things just made me think more about how personal writing can be for us, how intimate. I feel like I tune in more when people talk about their feelings on feedback, on writing. There's this kind of stubbornness, or pride, that when we write, it's perfect. It's a piece of us. And it's so easy to take it personally when we get back comments, or revisions, or red marks, and thing, "Wait, that's mine--that's me!" and it almost feels like a betrayal, even when it's strangers. It's like we're being judged, and I know that's not everyone's reaction, but it is interesting to hear it, and see it, the way I do now.
I think it's taught me to let go even more. It feels very human, but I also think it makes me want to hear what other people think, because it's not personal. Whether or not I'm actually able to do that is another story!
I imagine a lot of us have heard stories about the impact of Covid on students, teachers and instruction, and research. I found this report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research to be pretty mind blowing for its data on student parents, but even more so for single mom parents - another example of Covid shining more light on preexisting issues.
ReplyDeletehttps://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID19-Student-Parents-Fact-Sheet.pdf
For example, this piece was pretty shocking.
"Over two thirds (68 percent) of student
parents live in or near poverty, as do
nearly 9 in 10 single mother students."
- Peyton B