Author: Contemporary Pedagogy – Sara Lamb Harrell

The featured image is of saucer magnolias blossoming in front of Burruss Hall. Like these blossoms that are finally coming into their season, we graduate students are future faculty and we are beginning to come into our own as well.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about what the role of a blog is to academia. In this graduate class, like many others across Tech’s campus, blogging is a requirement for the course. Professors point to the blog as a space for sharing ideas, for collaboration, for practicing writing, and for developing a digital presence–kind of like a next generation CV or resumé.  I can get on board for all of that.

I have found that implementing blogging in classroom pedagogy can be difficult without adequate support and reinforcement. For the classroom blogging culture to take off, the instructor has to facilitate the prompts and then make space during course time to talk about the responses. I’m glad I started blogging again when I began graduate school. It has forced me to practice my writing skills on a regular basis–which is priceless, really. Above all else, the blog is a tool.

In a recent article I found by Sara Kjellberg “I am a blogging researcher: motivations for blogging in a scholarly context” she writes about the transformation in academic writing to include non-traditional outlets (such as blogging) in a researcher’s body of work–and she asks the question “Why do people blog?” In her article, she cites different ways that researchers describe how their blogs function: disseminating content, expressing opinions, writing, interacting, and creating relationships. While many may balk at the idea of actually expressing an opinion, I find the concept refreshing and I wish that more academics would exercise their right to free speech. I question whether we can have rigorous discourse without confronting our own bias–we can’t very well bring something to the table to discuss if we are afraid to even speak at all. I liked Kjellberg’s abstract, so I’ll share it. And while it is a little dated now, I think it’s an interesting starting point in the debate over whether blogging should count.

The number of scholarly blogs on the Web is increasing. In this article, a group of researchers are asked to describe the functions that their blogs serve for them as researchers. The results show that their blogging is motivated by the possibility to share knowledge, that the blog aids creativity, and that it provides a feeling of being connected in their work as researchers. In particular, the blog serves as a creative catalyst in the work of the researchers, where writing forms a large part, which is not as prominent as a motivation in other professional blogs. In addition, the analysis brings out the blog’s combination of functions and the possibility it offers to reach multiple audiences as a motivating factor that makes the blog different from other kinds of communication in scholarly contexts. (S. Kjellberg, 2010)

Recently, there has been no shortage of discourse about what constitutes scholarly writing–or blogging for that matter. A quick VT library search for recent publications (published in the last 12 months) yielded a staggering number of results. For the search terms “academic writing” with scholarly & peer-review filters, 40,447 items were produced. 38,200 of these were journal articles. Using the same parameters, the search terms “publish” and “journal” together produced 30,246 results with 30,009 being journal articles.  “Blogging” with the same parameters (except no time limit) produced 119,304 results. With a 12 month cap, there were 9,832. “Blogging” + “scholarly” produced 2,192; restricting results to the last year yielded 134. Flying at 30,000 feet, these numbers are huge. Every discipline has their own way of talking about the place, use, and framework of blogs in the academy. How do we even make sense of it all?

In academe–at least for us up-and-coming scholars– we are under intense pressure to publish. All I hear all the time from every direction is “publish publish publish.” The buzz phrase is “publish or perish” and there is no shortage of writing about that, either! I know I should be doing more–or at least getting into it–but publication is a lengthy process and frankly, I’m new. I just haven’t cut my teeth yet.

Not too long ago, the Architecture program was hosting applicant interviews for a faculty vacancy, and some of the applicants (JR faculty) were boasting upwards of 30 or more publications. And all-stars in the field are claiming 150+ publications over a 25-30 year career! That figure is scary to a graduate student like myself or anyone in my cohort–because we worry that if our merit is distilled down to just one factor (publications) that might tip the scales in our favor, then we are all in trouble. I don’t believe this will be a problem for me forever, because with time and continued research (funding), I will be able to produce those coveted publications.

In spite of this, I know that I shouldn’t just rely on having publications in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals–and I certainly can’t just wait around as I rack these up over time. No, that doesn’t make sense for me. If that were the case, I could probably expect to produce 8-12 +/- papers during my time in graduate school. Maybe? For me this isn’t enough. I want to engage in another style of writing and communication. I want to produce something to show that I haven’t been sitting around with ideas locked in my head. I want to share; the solution that works for me is blogging.

I think blogs are great. They offer a means to share research and writing with the public (isn’t that part of a land-grant institutions’ mission?) Blogs are typically user-friendly and come with many features and tools that can help the author communicate their ideas in a rich format. No, they’re not peer-reviewed in the way that journals are peer-reviewed, but I invite anyone and everyone who finds there way to my blog to comment, challenge, and participate in the conversation.

While some authors may worry about perfecting each post, I am not. This is a flexible platform. If I make mistakes, I can fix them. If I change my mind or choose to take a different stance, I am able. This blog is my place to share ideas and reflections on topics related to science, landscape, and higher education–to name a few. It is a testament to evolving ideas, new concepts, and growth as a whole person. I like to think of this blog as proof that there is progression in academic writing and thinking; the blog is an opportunity to visit research ideas before full projects are conceived.

When the time comes for me to be weighed and measured, I hope that my blog is part of that collection of tangibles reviewed by search committees. It is important that they know and understand who they’re getting, for instance, and a blog is the perfect place to begin to tell that part of my story.

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This post’s featured image was taken by me this morning as I was walking into my building (Burruss–Northwest side facing Cowgill Hall). Isn’t Spring wonderful? Last year, freezing conditions took all these beautiful blossoms before the trees had time to put on their full show. Fingers are crossed that we are allowed to actually enjoy them this year!

I’m taking a course this semester called Diversity for Global Society. It is part of the Virginia Tech Graduate School’s Transformative Graduate Education Initiative and this course is designed to introduce students to concepts in diversity, inclusion, and equity and how they relate to higher education–both here at Virginia Tech and from a global perspective.

The environment in which a person grows up and the culture experienced therein results in many underlying assumptions, misconceptions, and biases that influence the way a person experiences the present. This background often influences a person’s experience of diversity, inclusion, race/racism, class, economy, and equity. In this class, we address these issues head-on in a way that helps us grow into better people who are equipped with the knowledge to be able to navigate the world as global citizens.

I’ll be frank. As I’m writing this entry, I keep thinking, “there’s no way that I can describe this course better or more concisely as it is described in the syllabus.” So here is an excerpt from the GRAD 5214 syllabus:

 

 

 

So this post is about a couple of things.

1. First, as I mentioned above, I am taking Diversity for Global Society this semester. It is being taught by Christian Matheis, the Director of Recruitment and Diversity Initatives at the Graduate School.
2. Second, I wanted to share my experience at the James Thomas lecture that was hosted by the sociology department last Friday.
3. And the third thing I wanted to share was a couple of articles I found relating to some civil rights incidents that Thomas discussed in his talk.

I know that my understanding of diversity and inclusion will likely change over the course of the semester as I learn more about topics, approaches, and the lived experiences of those who confront/are confronted with diversity issues in their day to day life. With that in mind, please remember that I am human. I am trying to grow as a person. I may make mistakes along this journey, but I am trying to learn the appropriate language, terminology, and frame of mind required to truly see diversity and inclusion in a way that I haven’t been able to before. Join me this semester for an exploration into what it means to be a global citizen and why diversity is so important for the success of a global community.

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I went to James Thomas’ (University of Mississippi) public lecture “Diversity Regimes in Higher Education” last Friday. It was forwarded along by the professor and I am really very glad that I went.  His lecture provided a more in-depth understanding of how diversity and inclusion initiatives and programs are playing out in higher ed (at least at the one particular university in his study, “Diversity University”).

He talked for an hour and a half, setting up his lecture with stories, quotes, and memorable moments from his experience. As an ethnographer, he stated that it was the best way he knew how to relate what he had observed and had come to understand.

I will (attempt to) share with you all the notes that I took from his lecture. More or less as I wrote them. I took pictures of lecture slides, too… and I pretty much captured all that he shared with the audience. I did this for two reasons: to share with my class and so that I would have a take-away to have on-hand for future reflection. I want to preface this with the understanding that I am attributing these ideas to Professor Thomas. I was only jotting down statements or points he was making as they struck a chord with me. I wanted to be able to share my experience with the class and so this is just rough note-taking and for the most part, lacks any synthesis from me. With that said, understand that some of what I include may be a direct quote but unless I know it is from an indicator in my notes, I will generally not be including ” ” here.

So without further ado, here are the take-away points and interesting highlights from Thomas’ lecture “Diversity Regimes in Higher Education” starting with photos I took during the talk of his slides. I cut half of one off close to the end–not sure how that happened!

 

 

 

 

 

Notes I jotted down during the lecture:

• History: 1962 Battle of Oxford, James Meredith; 2012 Obama’s reelection–both inspired riots
  • viral racist tweets
  • 40-50 students transformed into a crowd of hundreds
• University of Mississippi claiming strides for diversity & inclusion, but body/public behavior are in conflict
  • Acts don’t fit the culture
  • Cognitive dissonance between what is being said, done and understood
• Fatigue is an issue (with respect to whites being tired of talking about race.)
• Diversity’s articulation process–how it is communicated–matters
• Development of values can help ease the issue
• Education empowers us to rise–or so U.S. Americans believe
• Racially diverse campuses are better for white students than minorities. Diverse campuses teach white students about other cultures; minority students still face daily. microaggressions & isolation
• By the numbers, colleges are more diverse, but campuses are still experiencing racial hostility & it is everywhere.
• Minority faculty have similar experiences as students. (Microaggressions, isolation, etc.)
• His research focused on diversity’s processes; so it can address the underlying issues (looks at diversity workers vs diversity as it is experienced.)
• “Sociology that makes the familiar strange.”
• Studied those who were most involved in diversity initatives.
• Universities must demonstrate policy and efforts toward diversity to fulfill legal obligations without making any actual changes.
• “Race consciousness” as a concept/state of being/understanding.
• Diversity & inclusion has been defined, organized and deployed in higher education; there are concerns with engagement issues.
• Focus on material transformations that must take place to achieve equity, diversity, & inclusion.
• Question whether the work we are doing is doing what we hope it will–addressing the inequality in higher education (and actually making a difference.)
• Diversity regimes perpetuate exclusion because they don’t fundamentally change behavior or the institution.
• If diversity means so many different things, it ends up being so broad it is hard to act on it and/or change policy

Condensation

Decentralization

• Absence of oversight & the resultant frustrations.
• Departments, programs define their own meaning; some focus on diverse educational experiences, diverse geographic background, diverse in race, etc.
• Any number of criteria can count as diversity.

Staging of Difference

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New research he is working on: “Racial Diary Project” where students are asked to record racial incidents–positive or negative and include details on the event.

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Thomas brings up important questions that I think we all need to be asking ourselves when it comes to diversity & inclusion (and in general about everything…):

1. Is the diversity & inclusion work we are doing actually achieving its goals?
2. How is the result of this diversity experienced by the people who live(d) it?
3. What can we do to actually make a difference for diversity & inclusion in Higher Ed?

 

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Every time I learn something new, I try to apply that knowledge. On issues related to diversity & inclusion I am no different. I come from Mississippi, but I did not attend the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) nor can I say I am even fluent in all the civil rights history that happened in my home state. I know a few facts here and there, but it has been a long time since I have been an active learner of civil rights history.

(Upon reflection, I realize it’s time now for me to read a primer at least–and make effort to keep that knowledge alive inside me. How can I claim to want to do better if I don’t even understand the past?)

Since the Thomas lecture, I have been researching the events he mentioned that happened on Ole Miss’ campus. I will attempt to tell a little bit of the story about them here and will also offer a couple of interesting links to continue reading about the history of race relations in Oxford, Mississippi.

In 1962, there were riots over desegregation when James H. Meredith attempted to enroll at Ole Miss following a lengthy court battle which resulted in the college being forced to let him attend after it was determined that the only reason why he was denied admission was because he was black. Meredith, a 29 year-old U.S. Air Force serviceman, had to be escorted onto campus by U.S. Marshals, which sparked the riot. Two men were killed. The next day, Meredith was allowed to enroll in classes.

There is a brief synopsis by the History Channel on their This Day in History story from 2010: Riots over desegregation of Ole Miss.

Pressing a little further, I found the most interesting essay written as a reflection on history 50 years later: Legacies of the Battles of Ole Miss: The Meredith Crisis and the 1965 Southern Literary Festival. The author, anonymous, was a first year graduate student when Meredith enrolled and was at Ole Miss during the same time he was. The author describes his experiences as a graduate student and member of the Mississippi National Guard, who was called that day to perform riot control on campus.

An excerpt, the last paragraph:

I conclude with a postscript. This has been an essay about personal history, which, like all history, usually can be understood, if at all, only in retrospect. So I offer a retrospective impression. Flash forward to several years later. I am back on the Ole Miss campus to participate in the annual Faulkner conference. One late afternoon, needing some exercise, I go for a jog around the campus. Returning to the Alumni House on the eastern edge of campus, and now walking, I pass the Lyceum and cross the area which had been the scene of the 1962 riot. The stately columns of the Lyceum are now smooth and white, showing no trace of the bullet marks that were visible for months after the riot. The scene is calm and quiet and clean: no tear gas, no burning vehicles, no angry and screaming mob, no threatened reporters, no uniformed soldiers. A squirrel moves leisurely across the grass; a mockingbird sings her heart out in a nearby oak. Continuing on, I pass a picnic table at which are seated a young man and a young woman, students I presume, sharing a late afternoon snack. Both are African Americans, and they are obviously enjoying themselves: relaxed, laughing, happy in each other’s company—and completely indifferent to the white man walking past. I wonder if they know the bloody history of this spot of ground, if they’ve ever heard of James Meredith or Cleve McDowell or Cleveland Donald or the other blacks who paved the way for their attendance at this institution. Probably not, I suspect, but does that really matter? What matters is that they are here, and welcome, and safe, and unafraid, entirely at ease in this place, subject to no threat of harm or censure. Not fifty yards away stands the Confederate soldier high on his marble pedestal. He too is calm and peaceful in this new world, and I like to think that he now celebrates with us not the divisions and conflicts of the past but the brighter, nobler promises of the future we always yearn and strive for, and sometimes possess.

Thomas also talked about how in 2012 there were riots in response to President Obama’s reelection. On these riots, a Time article “Did University of Mississippi Students really ‘Riot’ over election results? From what I understand, there were both protesters and gawkers at this riot.

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I ask myself, what can I do to create a more inclusive environment among my peers and students? Although I geared this post towards topics in Higher Education, I still want to emphasize that diversity and inclusion are principles I value and am committed to supporting.

I strongly believe we are but one race: the human race.

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Image Credits

“Diversity in Higher Ed” Vector People

Since my arrival at Tech, I have experienced more learning and exposure to new ideas than perhaps I have in my entire education to date. I came here primarily for two reasons: the first, because I was interested the Landscape Architecture program because I could pursue an Architecture & Design Research PhD (1 of 5 offered in the U.S.) and second, because the Graduate School offered a Transformative Graduate Education Experience that was promised to  be unlike anything I had encountered before.  So far, I have not been disappointed.

Over the past semester, I have tried to absorb as much as I could from Contemporary Pedagogy–from the instructor, the GTAs, our assignments, and my peers. One of the things I like best about courses like this from the Graduate School is that I am enrolled alongside scholars from disciplines all over the university, which provides the course with rich diversity, methods, and experience. I am here because I am passionate about education and because I want to make a difference in the world. Over the years, there have been teachers in my life that have inspired me, challenged me, and helped me grow as a scholar and an individual–and I want to be like them. It has been my goal to enter higher education and participate in the system that saved me from squandering my own potential.  Equipped with new ideas and techniques for teaching and learning, I am well on my way to becoming the face of the future professoriate.

After my time in Contemporary Pedagogy, I have a few ideas I’d like to share. A takeaway message for anyone who might be curious about taking a leap into the Graduate School offerings.

First, understand that teaching ≠ lecture. 

Granted, there is a time and a place for lecture, but we can’t expect to really push our students to learn how to apply course content if we treat students in class as dumping receptacles for Power Point slides. As educators, we need to think about how we present content and what that means for student learning. If we know that students learn better by doing, then why do we wait until their internship-semester or post-graduation for them to get any practical experience?

I took a course this semester that consisted of a blend of lecturing and workshops. Prior to each class, the students were expected to read the material so they could come to class engaged, and then the professor proceeded to lecture from Power Point slides the entire time, save when he would pause to ask if anyone had questions. After we had gotten into the material a bit, we started having workshops at least once per week where we would be given a packet that detailed what the workshop was about and then we would break off in to groups to work on completing the assignment. These workshops involved working through the same problems that practitioners, planners, and policy makers have to in order to make their decisions. Homeworks in this class were usually only a few questions long, but involved several steps and often required us to apply what we learned in the workshop. At first, I was pretty disappointed with this class because I thought we were going to spend 1.5 hrs twice a week being read to off of Power Point, but in the end, we did learn skills that can be applied in the work force immediately.

Understand when Contemporary Methods are Appropriate

Sure, there has been great backlash against the traditional lecture model in recent years, but it still does have its place in academia. As educators, we should be thinking about alternative ways of instruction to help students get the most out of their learning experiences. Between the Face-to-Face vs Online or Hybrid Classroom Design, Flipped Classrooms, Think-Pair-Share, Networked Learning, Problem Based Learning, Case Studies, Jig-Saw, and Learning by Doing (to name a few) there are many ways to engage a classroom. I would encourage educators to try new methods and to not be discouraged if they don’t work at first.  Conversely, there may be times when it is not appropriate to utilize one of these methods; maybe there are cases where a traditional lecture fits the lesson best.

Spend time designing your Syllabus

Instead of letting it serve as general catchall for class policy and a calendar listing the course objectives throughout the semester, why not let it be a tool to help improve your teaching? If worded well, it can be used to set the tone of for your class and help your students understand what your expectations are. The syllabus also provides an opportunity to introduce your students to your philosophy and pedagogy.

It can serve as a framework for everything you do in your classroom throughout the semester–whether it is 2 pages or 12 pages long, as long as it is thoughtfully crafted, it has the potential to be very powerful.

Think about your role as the Teacher

Coming up, I thought teachers knew everything. Pursuing my own education has revealed that in fact, teachers don’t know everything, and good teachers acknowledge that they don’t, but they know how to ask questions and where to look for answers.  The best teachers are understanding, have empathy, are open to new possibilities, and have the ability to see where their students have shortcomings and adapt their teaching methods. They treat their students equitably and take care to tailor instruction or approach to meet the needs of each student.

In the class this semester, we have thought long and hard about what it means to be a teacher. We have been shown methods that help us to be more like a facilitator, coach, or guide, than the all-knowing fixture at the front of the classroom that most of us might identify as teacher. Recognizing that we are also learners in the classroom is a first step towards a new kind of teaching and learning experience. Being able to admit freely when you don’t know something is an indicator of strength; it shows students that there is no perfect knowledge, that we all have room to grow.

Innovation Might Require Discomfort

In the real world, we work on project teams composed of different personalities, experts, and people that might have different goals altogether. Learning how to work with others, to reach a compromise, to reach consensus, and to gracefully disagree and engage in discussion is the mark of a mature thinker. We know that learning is not always the most comfortable activity a person can engage in, but that discomfort helps us to see our weaknesses and where we could do better.

It’s true, there might be a truly remarkable thinker and scholar out there who can develop their own ideas without the help of others–but I find it hard to believe that this is the case the majority of the time.

I believe it is important to recognize that it is rare for a single person to strike gold on a perfect new idea all by themselves–that successful design comes through collaboration and exposure to others. The problems of today are sticky and complex; they require a multi-pronged approach that considers expert areas across several disciplines.

So it may not be easy to be an innovator, but it’s well worth the effort. We grow as human beings from moments of discomfort and we shouldn’t shy away from engaging in tough exercises of critical thinking.

 

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So what of the future?

If there was something I could share with my future students, it would be this: learning with me will provide an experience unlike any other you have ever had before. A class with me will be so much more than a semester full of lectures paired with the expectation that you take notes, a midterm, a final, a project, and BAM! You earn a grade. You’re done. A class with me will be a fuzzy blend of what you expect based on past experience and what you will be exposed to in an innovative, exciting learning environment.

A class with me wouldn’t be fulfilling its purpose if it wasn’t helping you learn how to think. What kind of information or data do you need to get your hands on to begin to address the the problem? Where do you find this information? Once you have it, how will you use it? These are all questions I will ask you to think about and answer for yourselves. And you will be required to think–which can be a little uncomfortable if you have not had much practice doing this in school.

I don’t want to put down your educational experience to date; on the contrary, I applaud your resilience and determination to continue your education. Your life experience has helped make you who you are and there is no doubt that you have had many many valuable learning experiences in both contemporary and traditional classrooms.

I recognize that I am not a fully formed person yet. I don’t know everything. But, I’m curious and as a lifelong learner, I am cognizant that there will always be things that I don’t know–and yet, much that I do! In my classroom, we are learning together. I rely on the fresh eyes of my students to help me continuously reevaluate whether my approaches and/or courses are providing skills that are useful.

Everyone has had a different background and experience, and thus, each individual in the classroom has a unique set of skills and qualities they bring with them. I’m here to hear your story, I’m here to help you achieve your goals.

I want my students to embrace learning with a positive attitude. I expect my students to try, to explore new ideas, and to never forget that failure does not mean that learning is over. Give yourself permission to walk your own path and you will be successful.

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Featured Image from Pixabay

My truth about multitasking is a story of dread and acceptance.  I experience dread because I often feel a resistance to sit down and work when I know that I am going to get distracted or pulled away from what I am working on. At the same time, I try and embrace radical acceptance because even though I think I would prefer an uninterrupted workflow, I know that’s just not going to happen, so I’d be better off just going with the flow.  There are parts of my day that I am able to handle without dividing my attention, and then there are others where I just can’t.  I’ve been exercising mindfulness so that I can gain a better understanding of how I am and how I let small distractions turn into big ones that sometimes rule my entire day. In the end, I believe that my life wouldn’t be the same without multitasking–I don’t think I could be a student right now without it! I realize that begins to sound like I am painting with a broad brush, so let me give you some examples of how I experience multitasking day in and day out.

 

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Morning Routine

I used to be able to get up, get ready, and get out the front door in 45 minutes. Now, it takes me no less than 90 minutes, usually 2 hours. From the time I get up til the time I get in the car to head to Blacksburg, my morning is about multitasking. Being a student with a baby, there is a lot that goes into getting both of us ready to go in the morning. With a busy baby, it’s even more challenging. Every step of the way, I am keeping some of my brainpower in reserve to watch her and to help me think about what we have to do next to be ready to go.

On most mornings, I wake up to the sound of my daughter, Lilah, calling me from her crib across the hall. Muscle memory allows me to fly out of bed in a flourish, and I propel myself into her room to greet her good morning and begin caring for her needs, which usually includes singing a song, changing a diaper, and grabbing the bottle(s) from last night to take downstairs to the sink.

Downstairs in the kitchen, I pour myself some coffee, feed Lilah some breakfast, and begin packing my lunch. Somewhere between buckling her into the high chair and combing cheese grits out of her hair, I’ve managed to drink half a cup of coffee, made a plain peanut butter sandwich, and put it and two pieces of fruit into my lunch box.

Then the two of us are back upstairs and I, still in my pajamas and house robe, begin helping her into an outfit and fixing her hair for the day. Getting her ready usually involves reading a book or engaging in some other activity like the Put-the-Clothes-Back-in-the-Drawer-Game which happens as a result of her helping me pick out something for to wear for that day. Sometimes, I don’t get her clothes picked up and put back until it’s bedtime and we are in her room at the end of the day looking for pajamas.

It seems like there are endless distractions as she wants to play and I am trying to stay on schedule. Like I said, I usually give in to the requests for engagement–because this time with her is precious and fleeting, and I’d rather live with a little more stress if it means that I made time to spend with her despite everything I felt like I had to do at the time. And somewhere in the middle of all of this, I am sending and receiving text messages from far away family of cheerful greetings, good mornings, and sharing pictures of the little one.

After I get her ready, then it’s my turn to get dressed and ready for school. I do my best to make myself presentable–all the while I’m keeping one eye on Lilah as she toddles around the room, a trail of toys and random objects in her wake. Sometimes before I can finish putting on makeup or braiding my hair, she communicates that she is sleep, and insists on being put down for a nap. So, I stop what I’m doing and take her to her room to rock, relax, and lay her down for a few precious minutes while I finish my getting ready routine. I’ve found that to be much faster (and more peaceful) than trying to navigate around a baby that wants your undivided attention.

If I’m lucky, she will nap in the morning. When she does, I’m in high-gear trying to get everything that she and I need for the day pulled together and put into the car. I try to make us so ready for the day that all I have to do is get her up and we are ready to go. From the time I leave my house, it takes about 45 minutes to get from home to daycare, to campus, and to my office. That time isn’t totally spent driving. At daycare, it takes time to get her checked in and I always anticipate a 10 minute walk for when I get to campus each morning. During the drive, I am scarfing down a fold-over, drinking coffee, and trying to catch a little bit of the news. During my walk, I am texting with family and checking on my project’s Twitter and Instagram. It never stops. But I try to stop and notice the scenery around me and take time to appreciate the world. Judging by how fast the last decade seemed to fly by, I anticipate the one I’m in now to go by just as fast if not faster. Is multitasking stealing my time and warping my memory?

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Time in the Lab

My time in the office is my most productive time of day. Here, I do everything in my power to stay on top of my classes, readings, and course work. But I find that my time in the lab is often dominated by social interaction, so even though it is my “quiet space” to work, if my office-mates are in, we sometimes work in silence, but usually there is some kind of discussion happening in our space. I am always being asked to proofread, asked questions about customs and manners here, and venting with my friends.

Others may feel differently about their lab time–they may say that they prefer it to be silent so that more work can be accomplished, but I tend to disagree. I think the social interaction is good for all of us and it is nice to have a chance to talk to your cohort. In my office, we are always talking about research, methods, upcoming assignments, and ideas. It’s great to have like-minded people to share your work space with. Without the “distractions” from my colleagues, I don’t know that I would have another opportunity quite like it to share and collaborate with other graduate students.

Besides, all of us bring headphones and we use them to help ourselves tune into our work. One girl also brings ear plugs so if she wants, she can completely tune out noisy distractions while she reads and writes. We all understand that our lab is a place where work happens, but it’s also a space for discussion as well.

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Blogging/Homework in General

I think I’ve said before that I enjoy blogging. The act of getting my thoughts out of my head and molded into a composition is extremely satisfying for me. But it’s not without it’s distractions and moments of multitasking–some are good, others are bad. An example of something that I would consider “good” multitasking is when I have to hold my daughter in my lap (away from the computer so she doesn’t slap the keyboard), and feed her pieces of shredded cheddar cheese and draw on scratch paper while I either listen to podcasts or read articles and posts. It comes in spurts–every couple of minutes I am pulled away from my task to tend to my daughter’s needs or some other activity that just won’t seem to wait. But I consider this “good” because I am getting some interaction with Lilah, she knows that I am busy working but not too busy to hold her and let her play (very) near me.

An example of a “bad” distraction would be me sitting here to read and write, yet I’ve somehow my attention has been sucked into my smart phone. Earlier, I was posting about Studio In-Progress updates for the class/project I am a research assistant for. Part of this means that after completing the post, I sign into Instagram and Twitter to share the news and to get our post “out there” so that others can potentially find it. I will be successful at getting the posts made… but then it seems like I blink and 20 more minutes have gone by and I am still browsing! Granted, I often defend this distracted time because I have gotten lost on Twitter looking at science news stories and stories about research– so at least I’m learning something… but I’m also burning up valuable time that should go to producing work for upcoming deadlines.

Writing this blog took me several more hours than it probably should have because of multitasking. I’ve been revising and adding to it for 4 hours now–not continuously, but in spurts because my parenting duties keep trumping the academic ones. In that time, I have done the bedtime routine with my little one, and have been back upstairs 4 times to feed her again and soothe her back to sleep. (I think she’s going through a growth spurt!) It’s hell, especially at this hour, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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I have mixed feelings about multi-tasking. There was a time in my life where I honestly felt like multitasking made me better at the things I was doing… but after the readings this week, I’m not so sure that is the case. Another thing I’ve been thinking about is a sentiment that I noticed in Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid” piece: I have had the growing feeling over the last handful of years that my brain doesn’t quite work like it used to and it’s hard to put my finger on what exactly that means. I don’t feel dumber, but I do feel like there are certain kinds of (“simple”) activities that I have to really work to stop and think about before I can be successful at them. Activities and tasks that could be similar to what the NPR Morning Edition crew discussed in their “Think You’re Multitasking? Think again” podcast.

I may not be the best about multitasking and managing distractions, but I’m doing my best. I’m in a stage of my life right now where multitasking is as “normal” a part of my day as any other part of the routine. I’ve had to adjust my whole way of being to make room for a growing family and I feel privileged that I get to live in this way. At the same time, I recognize that a lot of the things I choose to do while multitasking are not good or healthy. Because of this, I have been taking breaks from Facebook (completely deleting it off my phone and refusing to visit the webpage via computer browser) so that I can get back some of that time that I was wasting.

So while I stay plugged in much of the time, I am beginning to really come around to this idea of unplugging from everything. I want my working hours to be as meaningful as they can possibly be. I want my home life and time spent with my family to be as meaningful as it can possibly be. For me to accomplish this, I am incorporating new practices into my routine and weeding out the distractions that rob me of my productivity and meaningful engagement.

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These were all of the articles I read before composing this piece. They all rang true to me in different ways. Sometimes, I find myself being grateful for technology; other times I am stressed beyond belief and all I want to do is escape to the woods for a week of respite. I think the key to anything in this world is moderation–and when you find yourself multitasking to the point where it’s actually getting in the way of being productive, well, then maybe it’s time to consider making a change.

Bilton, N. (2013). “The Science Author Clive Thompson Does Not Think Tech Is Ruining Your Mind.” Bits: Business, Innovation, Technology, Society. The New York Times, online.

Carr, N. (2008). “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains.” The Atlantic, online.

Gorlick, A. “Media multitaskers pay mental price, Stanford study shows.”

NPR. (2008). “Think You’re Multitasking? Think Again.” Research News on Morning Edition, podcast online.

Taylor, J. (2011). “Technology: Myth of Multitasking. Is multitasking really more efficient?” Psychology Today, online.

 

This week, we learned a different approach for teaching and learning in the classroom. This blog entry is the story of that experience.

Two weeks ago at the end of class, each student was given a number which corresponded to a short reading assignment, and we were all told to return to class last week ready to go on our sections. With that, class was dismissed and we were all on our way.

As we trickled back into the classroom last week, we were greeted at the door by our Teaching Assistant (TA) team, Jyotsana, Greg, & Amy who directed us to tables in the classroom that were numbered like our readings were assigned the previous week.

Our seating assignment put students together who all had been given the same reading assignment. This created Expert Tables and we took the first 15 minutes or so of class to discuss with each other what we had read and to develop our list of high points and takeaways that came from our readings.

The TA’s then revealed a whiteboard that had us grouped in a new way, which separated us from expert tables into Jigsaw Tables where each of the 7 individuals in the new group was an expert on a different assigned reading.

 

During Jigsaw Tables, we were given 40 minutes to teach each other about our readings and to come up with a definition of Critical Pedagogy from what we had just learned (from each other).

And so here is what happened:

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The following lists each group member and the takeaway points from each of their assigned readings.

Jason

Joe L. Kinchloe, “Paulo Friere (1921-1997)” The Critical Pedagogy Primer (2004), Pp 69-75

• Paulo Freire: teaching philosophy is to take different perspectives
• Challenge institutionalized ways of teaching; critical consciousness, extra awareness of thinking
• Education should be available to people of all class, including marginalized populations

 

Grace

Joe L. Kinchloe “Moving to Critical Complexity” The Critical Pedagogy Primer (2004), Pp 108-110

• Current education system is simplified by “standardization”
• Students are unique in background and in ways of constructing meaning
• Students have experiences that could teach others, including the teacher
• Students have agency to find meaning on their own, rather than have information delivered to them
• In what ways can we negotiate a “reductionist” space to accommodate complexity?

 

Yang

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”

• Teaching is not knowledge transfer, but for teachers to guide students to construct meaning based on their personal identity and understanding
• Students should also learn from each other, build confidence in their own abilities
• Paulo Freire analysis the relationship between teacher and student at any level. He considers that education is suffering from narration sickness, in which the student is the depositories, and the teacher is the depositor. In the class, the teacher makes deposits and the students receive, memorize, and repeat. It is his Banking concept.

 

Sneha:

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom, “There is no Teaching without Learning, Methodological Rigor, Research, Respect for What Students Know”

• There is no teaching without learning: teachers and students learn from each other (reciprocity)
• Methodological rigor:
  • both teachers and learners are active subjects
  • students should not be treated in “bulk” as if they are identical
• Learning comes from curiosity: ask questions, think from different perspectives
• Create an environment to enable development of critical thinking/learning/consciousness
• The teaching process is more than knowledge transfer, encouraging the learners to create and recreate knowledge for themselves
• There is no teaching without research: teachers have to be updated
• Need to respect pre-existing knowledge students may come with and make use of it
• Connect what’s taught to practice

 

Julin

Bell Hooks. (2010). “Critical Thinking” Teaching Critical Thinking, Routledge.

• Conformity and obedience in school interrupted the kids’ nature as critical thinkers
• The role of the teacher is to free students from obedience and conformity, restore and polish their thinking skills, provide an interactive space for students to freely inquiry knowledge rooted in what they know
• Critical pedagogy or engaged pedagogy is meant to help restore the students’ will to think and self-actualization
• Critical thinking is interactive as it is the evolution of views through analysis, evaluation, self-direction, self-discipline, self-observation and self-correction
• Critical thinking is deep and requires discernment. It is work for knowledge
• Critical thinking is proactive and passionate
• Another role of the teacher is to serve as a role model of critical thinking and development of discernment
• Critical thinking is both unique for each individual and collaborative for a learning community.
• The center of “critical” is be able to decide what is important and what is trivial

 

Sara

Bell Hooks. (2010). “Democratic Education” Teaching Critical Thinking, Routledge.

• Democratic education: each successive generation needs to fight for democracy
• Connect theory to practice in teaching
• Equality vs. equity: standard ways of teaching does not address student uniqueness; we need equity in our way of responding to students

Greg

Bell Hooks. (2010). “Engaged Pedagogy” Teaching Critical Thinking, Routledge.

• Engaged pedagogy: teacher and student mutually exchange knowledge
• Sharing openness and honesty as an educator, to create an environment where students could feel like an equal

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How do we define Critical Pedagogy ?

1. There is mutual exchange of knowledge and experience between students and teachers
2. Students are individuals with unique experiences and there is no single right way to deliver the lesson/material/knowledge
3. There should be equity in the classroom
4. Connecting theory to practice (or, connecting to real-world) and providing context for the theory
5. Take what we learn and critically apply it to enact change and further society in a positive direction; to challenge social & political structure, to help the marginalized and fight injustice

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How do we apply Critical Pedagogy to our own fields and educational settings?

 

Jason (Sociology): embracing perspectives different from your own in a classroom setting

              As a sociologist, critical pedagogy fits the mold of so many aspects of the discipline.  Paulo Freire spoke of critical consciousness which we can incorporate into learning in the classroom to challenge the status quo and encourage students take the knowledge they obtain and put it to use.  This signifies that education isn’t just a “thing” that you earn after four years with a diploma but is defined with how you use it.  Paulo Freire uses the metaphor of a mind bank which under authoritarian teaching methods, the instructor uses his or her role to present information in deterministic fashion.  This conjures up a discussion I presented in an earlier blog which highlights the idea of being lectures AT rather than TO.  Under these circumstances, Freire accounts for students being able to demonstrate they absorbed themes important to the instructor without thinking for themselves whether this is true knowledge, or whether this “knowledge” is accurate and meaningful.  This promotes the idea that knowledge has an end-goal or a finite level of achievement.  To counter this notion of the authoritarian teacher, we should embrace as teachers, that we too are still learning.   

In the field of sociology, my areas of concentration are criminology and social inequality.  The courses in this program encourage students to critically evaluate intuitional systems in place.  As Freire noted, teaching is a political act.  Especially on the topics of social inequality in which gender, racial, and social discrimination are associated with various social institutions, politics will always come under scrutiny.  When topics of this nature are discussed, it’s really the job of the instructor to illuminate different perspectives that may be different from our own.  We have all been told on the road to knowledge, there is no wrong answer.  I challenge that notion, in light of discussing inequalities and injustice, that in the vein of critical pedagogy, the only real wrong answer is the one that perpetuates these inequalities.  College students by and large are a privileged group of individuals.  They are given the opportunity to benefit from an education that isn’t available to everyone.  We should be preparing them to make a positive impact on the social, cultural, economic, political, and philosophical facets of the world.  After all, this is at the heart of Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy: “the possibility for positive change.”  This is also the crux of the sociological discipline.

 

Grace & Sneha & Greg (Engineering): We’re too used to the traditional blackboard and chalk lectures, where we learn fundamentals and equations. But in addition to understanding the fundamentals is to understand the context in which these fundamentals were realized. What do they mean in a diverse setting with different people? Is there a way to enhance problem-based learning with greater consideration for environmental and social impacts? Can we learn more about human factors? Can we learn from other disciplines and different ways of thinking?

 

Grace:

Let’s talk about learning by thinking from different perspectives.

Engineering education could be quite monotonous. We cover content, the so called “fundamentals.” We go through equations like daily meals that we  may or may not talk about. We discuss professional ethics. We touch on social, environmental, and economic impacts. We write in one style. Very briefly we venture outside our building to be introduced to a non-engineering subject. Then we graduate,  because we are considered to have “depth and breadth” in knowledge.

The irony is that engineering is not monotonous. Problems come in all scope and size. There is diversity in partnership, audience, and stakeholder. Project impact could be intangible yet far reaching. Enough said.

Let’s strive for greater interdisciplinary learning. Let’s collaborate on open-ended problems with diverse student populations. Let’s step out of our comfort zones and tackle foreign subjects. Let’s balance technical skills with soft skills.

Let’s connect theory to practice.

Sneha:

The engineering world is advancing at a very fast pace-something that is novel today may be outdated tomorrow. However, the curriculum and syllabus in engineering education have remained the same for a very long time (or, at least that is how it has been in civil engineering education). The students today still learn the outdated techniques from many years ago. Even after four years of undergraduate engineering degree, a student may not be prepared enough to go out and work in the real world. It seems to me that there is a huge gap between the education that is being taught and what the real world demands. Hence, the curriculum that is being used in engineering should be updated often enough to reduce the “gap”. For this, the teachers, in first place, should update themselves and also create an environment that facilitates the learners to keep up with the advancements.
Furthermore, engineering has so much to do with problem solving. This is where innovation takes place. Students should be encouraged to think of a problem from different perspectives and to bring in ideas for solving the problem. Moreover, the theories that are taught in classes should provide meaning in terms of real world applications.

Greg:

The engineering classroom can be a place where emphasis is placed on a “just the facts/theory/formulas” mentality. An environment muted from current events to focus on the important fundamentals which, in some cases, are unchanged for decades if not centuries. I would argue this philosophy is flawed. To educate the future generations of engineers, we must provide context to the ideas of the past and the implications of our work.

Engaging students in conversations about the societal, political, ethical, and cultural significance of what they study pushes our students towards a better understanding of how to use the knowledge we create together. Isolating problems to a single subject, topic area, or siloed educational discipline does a disservice to our students. This is not how problems are solved in the “real world”. Instead we work together, across our traditional educational boundaries to tackle the truly challenging problems facing our world. Showing students the context of how these difficult problems have been solved in the past and modeling the importance of working together in the future will generate more thoughtful and mindful contributors to our society. Engineers who don’t just ask “How can I apply what has been done”, but those who challenge “What can we do and who should we involve to create the best and most thoughtful solution together?”

Julin (Building Construction):

I am focused on the information technology in building construction. I have TAed a software class. There could be 60 to 100 students in the classroom. The students are required to complete one project after another based on tutorials. It is very rare for students, and even for me, to complete a project without running into any problems. The procedures and specific settings instructed in the tutorials can be very delicate. Besides, as the software manufacturer (Autodesk) publishes newer versions of software every year, the user interfaces can change from what is shown in the tutorials. There should not be treated as flaws of the class but as the reality of the building industry. All kinds of IT problems will occur. The professionals in building construction have to troubleshoot them frequently. Therefore, the intention of a software class is not just to all the settings and steps right, submit the assignments on time, and get a good grade. More important than getting things right, is getting things wrong and fixing it mindfully.

My observation from TAing the class is that the students who approach the problems critically and interact with the instructors and the TAs curiously can get the most from the class. Here I am emphasizing a curious mind and an effective interaction. These students constantly reflect on what they are doing and what the problem is, troubleshoot on their own, and then ask specifically for where they need help. In a proactive thinking and reasoning mode, they can get interactive tutoring from the instructor or TAs that is tailored towards their interest and curiosity. Not every student is learning in this most beneficial way. Therefore, the teacher’s role in the context of software teaching is to stop holding the students’ hands, to encourage them to practice more independent thinking and troubleshooting, and to feed their curiosity with tailored interaction.

 

Yang (Creative Technology): instructors have to dig into every student’s projects and give guidances; peer critiques

Creative and Critical Thinking

As a student in art and design department, maybe be a teacher in the future, creative and critical thinking is the core in my life whatever the role I played. It is dangerous for art and design student without the critical and creative thinking ability.  I encourage myself and all students in my class to take an advantage and never afraid failed. I know it is tough. Even it is a big challenge for the students in China. Before we study at the university, we faced the high oppressed in primary, middle and high school. For example, we would not leave the class without the allow of the teacher. We need to hands up before we speak in the class. I remember in the math class in primary school. All the students keep the same posture in the 40 minutes. Otherwise, the students will face the punishment. I know in different area students have the different experience. But when I was a fine art student in China Academy of Art I feel freedom and comfort in the class. It is a challenge for the student not just listen and repeat what the teacher’s transfer in classes, but also to think about what I want to gain individually.

Critical thinking does not mean unrespected. Creative and analytical thinking method is an essential access to success. A great many of example of artist experience shows the importance of critical and creative thinking. Pablo Picasso is a talented artist as know as the pioneer of Cubist. Has anyone researched the artworks before he changes the style to cubist? Picasso’s early artworks are different than the method we familiar.  Thus, for the students in art and design area, not only to understand what the knowledge and information the teachers transfer and sharing in class but also needs to ask why frequently, and also know the plan in future. Education is not the single efforts. It means not only the teachers engaging the students learning deeply. The students work hard and know the what they positive to learn. The responsibility for educator in high education level is to create an academic space to encourage and guide the students to construct the personal knowledge structure. Education is a way to find the initial concept and idea in mind.   

 

Sara (Landscape Architecture): Typically, an instructor guides students on their projects, following the lead of the student and their individual interests. Instructors help students discover how to the research needed to answer the problem at hand and help by asking relevant questions that make the student think critically. We use problem-based learning to address real, site-specific issues in landscape design.

This semester, I get the privilege of being a Research Assistant to a cool and exciting project that is funded by the National Park Service. The Chattahoochee National Water Trail, located in Metro-Atlanta, Georgia, is a 48-mile reach that flows through the heart of one of the most densely populated regions in the United States. Using this site as a learning experience for our 5th year Landscape Architecture Students, we are guiding the teams so that they develop their own concepts and visions for the water trail in a way that reflects their ideas. At the same time, we are gently pushing them one way or another towards the research and information they need to talk about the problems they have identified as important for their project.

In this way, we are teaching our students how to think critically about their projects in a very individual way. Because each of the teams has settled on different conceptual drivers, the information that they need to plan and design varies from group to group. The teaching staff helps tease out the important questions from the students. They already know where they want to go with the project, but perhaps don’t fully understand how to get there yet. That’s where we come in: through individual desk critiques and pin-ups for the whole class, we are able to have discussions about the project that help the students continue to develop their ideas.

I’m going to go ahead and say the methodology of problem-based learning is used in landscape architecture programs everywhere. It is utilized in a way that we help our fledgling designers develop into critical thinkers who will go on to become leaders in the design disciplines.

 

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It was my intention to link everyone to their blog the first time they were mentioned in this post. But, since I couldn’t find each contributor’s blog on the course website, there are a few people who are not linked to their own blog. If you are one of my group members and you would like your blog linked, either comment with your address below OR email me at sklh@vt.edu and I will get your link added to this post.

Also, our group blog post was originally going to be sprinkled with .gifs, but it didn’t work out that they could be posted because of the way we created our joint Google-Docs file to work on the draft of this post. Sorry everyone.

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Image Credits:

Jigsaw Puzzle Featured Image 

When I was a girl, I would often retreat to my favorite thinking place: a fallen, yet still-growing tree on the highest hill on my family’s land and there I would spend time until either my brother found me or until my parents would call me inside for supper. I recall liking this activity because I was alone with my thoughts and it game me time to reflect on the things that had happened to me during the day and I could spend some time wondering. Much of that wonder translated into the subjects I would pick to read about on trips to the library with my mother and brother.

Reading Bell Hook’s Critical Thinking in Teaching Critical Thinking (2010), I resonated with so much of what was written, but the statement “the heartbeat of critical thinking is the longing to know–to understand how life works” gets to the root of what motivated me all those years ago to seek refuge in nature for time and space to think.

In my early schooling, critical thinking was both encouraged and discouraged–depending on who was teaching the class. I had the good fortune of being identified early on as a bright student and was placed into a gifted classroom for a couple of hours each week. In this alternative classroom, I had opportunities to engage in a wide range of critical thinking exercises and early research projects that gave me invaluable experience which I believe has helped me on my educational journey.

At the same time, though, I was in mainstream classes for most of the day, and the fact that I was separated from the group in this other setting was alienating for me. I was rejected by some of my peers and despite this, I tried my best to fit in. It was in these mainstream classes that the desire and will to think critically was nearly educated out of me. Or as Hooks puts it, students are taught “that all they will need to do is consume information and regurgitate it at appropriate moments.” The asking of difficult questions or any deviation from this model of memorize & regurgitate will get you disciplined–sometimes embarrassed in front of the group–or dismissed from the class entirely. (Which did happen to me on occasion as I spent a year locked in a battle of wits with my 9th grade Mississippi history teacher who preferred to discuss JR Varsity baseball over the course material. This was not a unique experience, I had several teachers like Coach who didn’t see me except as a source of dissent in their ranks.)

[I am apparently not the only one with this experience. Debjit Gupta discusses a similar experience in his post this week Whose Fault is it Anyway?]

I have mixed feelings when I reflect on these past experiences. On one hand, I count myself as lucky and fortunate to have been born into a society that values education and so I was actually able to attend a decent public school. At home, I had the comfort and security that comes from having two working parents, food in my belly, and a roof over my head. I can’t claim that I didn’t have it good.  On the other hand, I am sad that for the parts of my education and experience that contributed to the self-doubt, the extreme self-consciousness, and the anxiety that I developed and carry with me in adulthood. It is quite the opposite of the critical thinking outcome we would wish on our students.

I want to be the best teacher I can be. School should be exciting and fun because real learning is going on. I want to give my students a meaningful and empowering experience. It’s a disservice to my students (and to mankind) to not hold myself accountable and to not think through what kind of a person I am going to be in the classroom and what kind of impact will be felt years from now as a result of my pedagogical philosophies. While these are the ideas and questions I have at the beginning of my journey, Kathryn Culbertson shares some insight from her experience and comments on universal truths in her post this week #IAmACuriousBeing that are definitely worth reading.

So this week has been extremely powerful and has had a real impact on the way I think about education. When I read the final paragraph of the excerpt I cited from Hooks, my heart leaped and I thought “YES! This is what I will do, this is who I will be.”  And so that powerful paragraph goes like this:

“The most exciting aspect of critical thinking in the classroom is that it calls for initiative from everyone, actively inviting all students to think passionately and to share ideas in a passionate, open manner. When everyone in the classroom, teacher and students, recognizes that they are responsible for creating a learning community together, learning is at its most meaningful and useful. In such a community of learning there is no failure. Everyone is participating and sharing whatever resource is needed at a given moment in time to ensure that we leave the classroom knowing that critical thinking empowers us.”

This concept of a learning community is so inspiring to me. Students must understand that we are all learning–that there is no shame in speaking up and asking questions or participating in the conversation.

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The main part of my blog post this week was on Bell Hook’s writing, but I wanted to mention the other part of this week’s assignments. I never heard Paulo Freire speak before this week, but since I discovered this interview, I realize I have been missing out. I watched the Literacy.org interview with Paulo Friere over and over. He touches on so many interesting subjects–on ethics, critical thinking, education, literacy, language, and power.

Curiosity is a process that leads to learning. Learning is the active part of an education. To fight back against injustice, education is absolutely necessary–just as important as the language necessary to communicate. In a world that seems so divided, we must remember that there are core values that unify us all. Simply put, we all want to live the good life. So as Freire speaks on tolerance, another learning moment resonates within me:

“It is through the exercise of tolerance that I discover the rich possibility of doing things and learning different things with different people. Being tolerant is not a question of being naive. On the contrary, it is a duty to be tolerant–an ethical duty, an historical duty, a political duty but it does not demand that I lose my personality.” -Paulo Freire

“A duty to be tolerant–an ethical duty, [a] historical duty, a political duty but it does not demand that I lose my personality.”  This will be my argument against those who fear and fight against openness and diversity. You’d think we’d be well past these issues, but I agree with Bell Hook’s reference to John Dewey in “Democratic Education:” “‘democracy has to be born anew in each generation, and education is its midwife.'”

Amen to that, Freire, Hook, & Dewey! And that’s why we’re all here: to gain the tools necessary to go out into the world to educate (and be educated). We are life-long learners, we’re here to help birth a generation of thinkers. As future educators and thinkers in general, we are all working to propel society forward towards truth and understanding.

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Reference:

Hooks, B. (2010) “Critical Thinking.” Teaching Critical Thinking. Routledge.

Hooks, B. (2010) “Democratic Education.” Teaching Critical Thinking. Routledge.

Paulo Freire “An Incredible Conversation” (1996 interview with Literacy.org)

In this post, I wanted to make a brief comment on diversity in general, discuss diversity in higher education, and then I have a few thoughts on diversity in professional offices. I’ll conclude by talking about inclusive pedagogy. It goes hand-in-hand with creating a community environment and appreciating the opportunity for innovative thinking.

Image Credit: jlrsousa’s “Bonecas”

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I am a proponent of diversity. I believe it broadens our horizons and aids us in our personal development.

 

Katherine Phillips in “How Diversity Makes Us Smarter” makes some interesting and thought provoking statements on diversity and how it enriches our thinking environments and fosters creativity. Based on decades of social science research, Phillips distills the idea of diversity down into this concept: “The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions and perspectives.” 

Building on the idea of informational diversity, it makes sense to reason our best classrooms, labs, and studio environments will develop through having a diverse group of students in our academic programs. So why is it that some programs seem to struggle with diversity? It’s not that they aren’t diverse because they don’t want to be, but I believe for reasons relating to outreach, recruitment, access, and privilege. These reasons could be thought of as barriers to diversity and are born out of different contexts.

Outreach is the first barrier to diversity in higher education. One of the major tenants of land grant universities is to serve the people of the state/area that it calls home. We in higher education talk a big game about outreach and connecting with the community, and in most cases, this would be warranted because an impact is being made. But I bring outreach up as a barrier because I believe that we could be trying harder to connect with the communities we serve and sharing our knowledge with them. It’s hard because it takes effort, but we should be trying harder to integrate with area schools and not just feel satisfied if we have a “successful” program for just one or two years. We must be relentless in our outreach–especially to the youth–for they are the key to our future and we need to spark the imaginations of children so that they might grow up and respond to the complex problems our world is facing.

I participated in a water conservation conference (fair) targeted at primary school students when I was a little girl. There were probably hundreds of children there exploring the booths, learning about water, and getting a taste of what applied science looks like. I didn’t know then that this would be such a momentous occasion for me, but it always stuck with me. I’ve always cared about conserving natural resources and environmental issues and this educational event was just one of many that contributed to my research and philosophy today.  Had the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Mississippi State University Extension and other sponsors not put on the fair, I wonder if I would have developed my passion for protecting the environment?

Recruitment is a barrier to diversity for both the institution as well as potential students. If students out there don’t know that they could go on to higher education, they end up getting missed entirely. For universities to attract quality students, they need prospective students to be aware of the opportunities in front of them.  Waiting until students are in their final years of secondary school is almost too late to start. Sure, institutions of higher learning could get lucky and attract top students who are planning to go to college. Conversely, had they targeted younger students sooner, they could have sparked the curiosity of a young student and set them on a path they wouldn’t have otherwise discovered. It comes down to more than just outreach from the university–individual programs would benefit from spending time outside the silo–or inviting prospective students in–so that they can learn about what their options might be for programs of study.

Think about how you found your profession. Was your track slated for you? Did you discover your discipline early in life? Did you experience a crisis and fall into what you’re doing because a career counselor had experience interpreting Myers-Briggs Personality Tests** and Career Aptitude Tests for wayward students?

**this link leads to a version I found online and I can’t be sure of the accuracy of the instrument…but I’d be willing to guess that it’s accurate enough to be fun!

For some, like myself, I didn’t really know what a landscape architect (LA) did let alone what the entire discipline was about when I stepped foot in their courtyard at Mississippi State University so many years ago. In retrospect, the choice made sense, because my father is in construction and excavation and my mother is a Master Gardener, but I never thought of it as an option for myself because I didn’t really understand what LA’s actually did! From experience, I see where a gap in my learning early on (not understanding the profession) meant that it took me much longer to discover my calling because I didn’t have the vocabulary yet to describe what was missing for me. Could the LA Department have found me sooner? Would that have made a difference in my trajectory? It’s hard to say, but I do know that it was an opportunity nearly missed and I am grateful that I started down this path. Had I not asked “what if?” I would likely still be serving Jager-Bombs, draft pints, and pizza in Starkville, MS’s most beloved and iconic establishment Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern.

But I digress.

If I hadn’t been recruited into both my Master’s program at MSU and again for my attendance here at Virginia Tech, I imagine I would be living a very different life than I am right now. I count myself lucky to have been both in the right place at the right time AND to have been fortunate enough to get noticed!

Access is a barrier to diversity for obvious reasons. It is well accepted that there are certain groups in the population that have less fundamental access to education, let alone higher education. Perhaps the barriers manifest due to financial constraints, (error in) standardized testing, or just not having the support at home so that a student doesn’t feel like they can dream big and pursue interesting careers.

Privilege. Ok this one is a little bit difficult/uncomfortable for me to talk about and so I am going to address the topic gently. First, if you aren’t sure what privilege is, I have linked a short video below that is a good introduction on the topic.

Video Credit: Buzzfeed (Boldly) “What is Privilege?”

Merriam-Webster gives two definitions for privilege: “:a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor :prerogative; especially:such a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office.” 

Talking about privilege is uncomfortable for me because I do enjoy certain privileges–and for a long time, I really had no concept of this, and for that I am more than just a little embarrassed. I think of myself as a caring, empathetic person; yet, how can I be if I am/remain completely clueless about the issues and challenges facing my fellow humans? Don’t get me wrong. I follow world news and am aware of conflicts around the world and the unfortunate plight of man in different places where there might be one or more factors (climate, resource limitation, social network, governance, systemic racism, etc.) beyond a person’s control that work against the success of that person. Peggy McIntosh’s piece “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” identified several conditions of life that resonated with me–some that I did enjoy and others that I didn’t.

For me to be able to talk about and comment on privilege means I have to unpack my own so that I can bring a heightened level of awareness to the front of my attention. I can’t be thoughtful about the issue in general if I don’t spend a little time trying to identify, for myself, what privilege has meant in my own life. In a nod to Shankar Vedantam’s theories in his book & podcast “The Hidden Brain,” I have to take back control of my brain and suspend the autopilot function.  I day this because it has been extremely easy to not address my own implicit bias and think about how privilege manifests in my own life.

The difficulty I struggle with when talking about privilege is not unlike what Arao & Clemens describe in their (2013) article “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces” where people participating in this discussion feel uncomfortable as they are pushed to think through the issue and come to terms with their own privilege. I don’t feel unsafe, but what I do feel is a twinge of guilt for being ignorant in the past. I feel frustration for others who are dealing with obstacles in their lives every day. I understand the implicit imbalance in our society and that there are some people who are deeply wounded by their circumstance. I can’t apologize for being born into the life I am blessed to have, but I can honestly say that I am sorry that “the deck” (of life) was stacked for some and not others.

Privilege is an ugly and uncomfortable part of our (global) culture. By law and in the eyes of God, we are all equal; but by birth and circumstance, we are not. So what does that mean for learners, prospective students, and the university?

Well, if we accept that different people inherently expose us to new ideas, cultural norms, and ways of thinking that promote creativity, than it means that we need to be reaching out to those underrepresented students who do not enjoy the same level of privilege as those in the majority/power/white males. I’m not saying that white males should not be recruited or encouraged to attend college–what I’m saying is that we should try doubly hard to reach the Latino/a, African-American, Native American, female, working-class/poor/rural students who likely experience hardships with respect to access, outreach, and recruitment into higher education and would undoubtedly benefit from the environment and also bring their own diverse experiences to it. When people with less privilege have their needs met and a pathway to success, there can be no limit on their potential achievement.

Research says that students do better when they see people like them as their instructors and as practitioners in their profession. Claude Steele discusses these ideas **2 articles in the reference section** and concludes that students do better when they are 1) not worried about not doing well because of being stereotyped and 2) when in groups that contain people of similar background.

So between outreach, recruitment, access, and understanding privilege, the university (and academic programs in general) can work to increase the informational diversity of academia by inviting eligible students from diverse backgrounds to come study. I firmly believe that we need more underrepresented people–people of color, women, etc. in higher education and working as professionals in their discipline in the work force. Humanity is diverse and we should promote an environment of active inclusion and once we get the students through the door, show them that they matter through inclusive pedagogy in the classroom.

Inclusive pedagogy is the final and most important piece. We, as academics and rising educators, must be sensitive to the humanity present in our classrooms and that each individual has their own story, their own set of goals, and motivators–ideas that will define their individuality as well as their homogeneity with the rest of the group. We may be a diverse population, but first and foremost we are human beings. Successful instructors facilitate active learning through setting up an environment that allows every student to feel like they belong, like they are appreciated, and like they have something to contribute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C.L. Bohannon leads freshman in a sketching course outside Burruss Hall. In this critique, everyone’s work is reviewed and everyone participates in the discussion.

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References:

Arao, B. & Clemens, K. (2013). “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces.” The Art of Effective Facilitation.

McIntosh, P. (n.d.) “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”

Philips, K. (2014). “How Diversity Makes Us Smarter.” Scientific American.

Sands, T. (2017). “A special statement from President Tim Sands.” Virginia Tech News.

Steele, C. (2010). “Reducing Identity and Stereotype Threat: A New Hope.” Whistling Vivaldi.

Steele, C. (2010). “Mysterious Link Between Identity and Intellectual Performance.” Whistling Vivalidi.

Mindful learning. It’s such a powerful concept. As one of the last blog posts going up this week, I had the pleasure of reading the reflections of so many of my classmates before I composed this post. I have to say that was probably the best thing for me as I have been struggling with what mindful learning should/could look like for an educator in the design field. I enjoyed reading my classmate’s stories because I realized that we all have a shared experience of classrooms/learning environments that are not actually designed for student learning. Each story I read was different, some students shared stories of triumph over the obstacles that stood between them and accomplishment; others were sadder: reflections on surviving in an educational system that wasn’t designed to educate but to test.

In the end, I realized it’s not what you teach, but how you teach. Dissecting “how you teach” for me became another series of questions I’m asking myself: what will my lessons be like if I’m going to encourage mindful learning? How do I create a culture and environment in the classroom that can facilitate the learning outcomes I want for my students? What small changes can I begin to incorporate so that I can systematically overhaul my teaching style to reflect the kind of educator I want to be for my students? What can I do to make sure that every student leaves my class feeling like they gained something beneficial?

For any readers that are new to this concept, here is the link to the TED talk given by Sir Ken Robinson “How to Escape Education’s Death Valley.” It’s a 19 minutes well-spent.

So here’s the honest truth: there’s a learner in each of us. It’s human nature to be able to grow as learners. To suggest that some people are just incapable or don’t want to–well, to me, that’s just preposterous. To give up on a difficult student is a failure of the educator and the system that the student is in. Sir Robinson is right: “Teaching properly conceived is not a delivery system.”

Coming up, I could tell the difference from day 1 in the classroom whether or not the class was going to be fun, exciting, and something to look forward to or if it was going to be difficult in the sense that I was going to have to force myself to survive it until the term was over.  Even today, I can generally tell on the first day of class what my experience is probably going to be like over the upcoming semester. And despite there being all of these awesome resources out there-seminars, TED talks, workshops, and the like–we still seem to have a large population of our educators who either don’t know or just don’t get it. I’m a class right now that I find super-fascinating and I’m excited to be learning the topic–but the lectures—well, they’re fast, full of jargon, and truth be told, after the hour and a half is up, I find myself thinking “what in the hell just happened?” Because I don’t remember a bit of what he just said. Thankfully, I’ve learned to develop an independent reading list from the sources that get cited on the PowerPoint or else I would be completely lost. I’m determined to make it through the course, but it’s proving to be a rough ride. So then I think about it in the context of this course, and I wonder: why isn’t it fun for me? What can I do as the student to make this more fun? I don’t have an answer to those questions yet.

But learning IS fun and exciting (I wouldn’t have chosen to spend my life learning new things if it wasn’t!) And learning IS an adventure (Thank you Dr. Nelson!) So why, if these ideas about changing the way we approach teaching and learning are we still running into educators (and administrators) who don’t appreciate that there is a difference and there is room for they themselves to grow?

Again, I don’t have an answer to this question, but I’m working on a philosophy. In the meantime, I am working hard to change how I choose to think, act, and react in the classroom (and out of it). Bringing mindfulness to every aspect of my life has been a real challenge–I’m having to step outside of myself and learn to view the world with a new perspective. I’m fighting falling into the trap of automatic behavior, thinking, and responses. Just because we were trained in our formative years to be good little students doesn’t mean that we were actually being trained to be good learners and thinkers.

For me, the real challenge is learning how to see the difference and then changing my approach so that I can be a facilitator instead of a road-block in my own classroom and learning environments. I’m grateful for this experience in Contemporary Pedagogy–every week, there are new seeds planted and I am eager to support this personal growth.

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I’m late writing my blog this week because we had a family emergency over the weekend. I have a 9-month old who has been very ill the last few weeks. Friday night was pretty difficult. She spiked a fever, so we returned to the doctor Saturday morning and we ended up spending the night in the Pediatric wing at Carilion in Radford for her to undergo some testing and receive IV fluids. Lucky for all of us, she had a positive response to the new medication they placed her on and we were able to return home Sunday to continue her care. After a sleepless weekend I am finally starting to catch up with my academic life (as I put everything on the back burner for a couple of days), but I’m still feeling pretty scatter-brained from the mental and physical exhaustion. The lessons on mindfulness were extremely helpful in coping with the ups and downs of the last few days. Interesting how that works.

I have a past that I once considered dark. I was embarrassed to admit to any new friends I made that I had once been a hardcore gamer. For about 3 years during my undergraduate years (a decade ago), mostly summers and over holiday breaks when I wasn’t working, I spent my time plugged into World of Warcraft (WoW)… not casually playing–grinding for resources, completing quests, raiding, and participating in team PvP combat. It was never dull! I had multiple top-level characters-my favorites were a human warlock and a Draenai priest, that I played with friends in real life and with friends I had met online. I was embarrassed to talk about my gaming past because of the reactions I would get from people. If I wasn’t getting a blank, yet horrified stare, the person I was talking to might be laughing or snickering at me for my juvenile, time-wasting hobby.

But I never saw it as a waste of time. I learned a lot in those games about social interaction, team work, planning, communication, and problem solving that I don’t think I would have had an equivalent opportunity to experience in real life. Especially in an age where communication and learning is increasingly happening online and in the digital realm, I believe it is increasingly important that we all practice our skills so that we are ready to engage with other people/learners whom we might not be working with face-to-face.

Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown in “A New Culture of Learning” talk about how gaming is a highly social activity that can bring together and engage multiple generations while also allowing the players to direct themselves in the play. I think this is an insightful way to look at WoW and other games like it. It is a simulation of a fantasy world, sure–but that doesn’t make the learning outcomes any less real or valuable.

Jumping into a “traditional” classroom, we think of a teacher in front of a class full of students and what are they doing? Well, they might be doing something out-of-the-box that’s fun and engaging, but more than likely, they’re doing the same thing we teachers have always been doing–they’re lecturing their class to death and they’re wondering “what is it about the students these days?”

News flash: it’s not the students. It’s you. It’s me. It’s us. It’s educators who have been so focused on career development/their own learning/whatever, you name it–that they’ve forgotten what it was like to be a student having to struggle through another exhausting lecture-based class.

Just last week, I had to give a presentation to a class that I’m the Research Assistant for and since I was in a relative hurry and the information wasn’t exactly “interesting” per se, I created a basic PowerPoint to deliver the information and at first, was satisfied with my work/preparation. During the 20 minute presentation, though, I discovered quickly that I had made a mistake. I was the only one that talked. No one really asked any questions. I was trying hard not to read the slides, but found myself stumbling through the information.  I was probably 4 minutes into it when I noticed I “lost” my first student, and I was only half way through before one of the professors on record walked out because what I was doing/delivering was clearly a waste of his time. In retrospect, especially after the readings this week, I realize that I would have done them a better service to send the class an email with links to the websites where I pulled the information from and then spent that same 20 minutes discussing the case studies rather than boring everyone to death with policy discussion.

The big question I’ve been asking myself since then is: “How am I going to do it better next time?” and “What am I going to do differently?” From Jean Lacoste’s Teaching Innovation Statement, I pulled this quote because it really resonated with me: “I want to reach every single student in the class. I want each student to feel important, and I want each to know I
care about his or her education.”  And it’s true. I really do care about each and every one of my students. I want them to get the most out of our time together, yet when given the opportunity to really help them, I feel like I set myself up for failure by following the same model for classroom interactions every week. (But that’s why I’m in this course now–so that I can learn to be better. One of my personal mantras is “Know Better, Do Better” and pedagogy is no exception. I decided to go into education because I LOVE learning, yet I realize that I don’t know all that much about teaching, yet.

I am going to wrap this blog post with an excerpt from the Robert Talbert reading:

“Notice also that I do not count whether a lecture is inspiring or not. No doubt many lectures are inspiring, but being inspired and being taught are not the same thing, and just having one’s thoughts provoked doesn’t mean that one has interacted with the lecturer in any real way.”

Robert Talbert “Four things lecture is good for” (2012)

As I look to the future and imagine opportunities where I will be able to make a difference to my students, I will start by not “teaching” with the same stale lecture and exhausting PowerPoint that I have elected to use in the past. These methods are outdated by contemporary standards, and we owe it to our students to do a better job at meeting their educational, social, and creative needs. There are so many different innovative, exciting, and engaging examples of how educators are out there today, providing a completely new and inspiring educational experience.

So how will I be different in the future? Well, I’m going to start by slowing down a little bit. I’m going to slow down and start paying closer attention to the things that inspire me and capture my attention–and then I’m going to study those methods. I’m going to be mindful about my own learning experiences and see if there are things from my past that I can draw on in order to grow into a better version of myself (who is actually an amazing educator!) I will be thoughtful and thorough when it comes to my course material because I owe it to my students to provide them the best education that I possibly can–and that if they’re going to show up ready to be taught, then I am certainly going to meet them on their terms.

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Inspired by people and enabled by technology. I believe we’re looking at a revolution in academic information sharing.

A good research topic might be to trace the history of the Blog and describe its evolution as a platform for discourse. I had my first blog in 2002, when I was a high school student and the cool thing to do was create a space to talk about ourselves and life in general.

Fast forward 15 years and blogging is making waves as a cutting edge tool for learning and engagement in the classroom. This year alone, I have had blogging requirements in 3 courses I have taken and a class blog is being developed in the course I am a research assistant for. There are so many different applications for blogs: hobbyists, artists, and poets need a place to share as much as any academic driven by their research. Maybe blogging’s most important benefit is that it provides a space for people to be able to share, collaborate, and discuss the things in their lives that they are most passionate about, as Tim Hitchcock, academic humanist, writes in his article about new technologies like blogs and Twitter benefit the academia. Author and entrepreneur Seth Godin gives a compelling argument in under two minutes in this interview with Tom Peters: there is no better time to be writing than right now. We could all use the practice at communicating ourselves. With a little bit of time and effort, anyone can develop a rich and detailed website.

But it’s more than that, there are droves of experts who have made their life’s work communications and how to utilize them effectively in these modern times.

One of my biggest blogging challenges is myself. I get in my own way, second-guessing and attempting to perfect every piece of writing before publishing. I often spend so much time worrying over how I am trying to make a point, that I waste valuable working minutes (hours) staring at a computer screen and a pile of hand-written notes. I would be better off to just get the words and ideas out–no matter how rough they are–and then take time afterwards to refine. It’s easier to edit if you have something TO edit.

While reading Doug Belshaw’s Working openly on the web: a manifesto I was thinking about my own challenges to blogging and I was surprised because this manifesto was so simplistic. In 3 short points, Belshaw sets up a recipe for effective writing online: 1 control your own digital capital, 2 work openly, 3 create content that both humans and machines can read. Here I am worrying about style, and there are experts who are advising for writers to consider robots who mine the internet for content. And then this got me thinking: what does a robot look for, anyways?

The first day of class was an amazing experience. I am beginning to think of teaching in new ways and we haven’t even dug deep into the course content yet! I see the trend in academia emphasizing blogs more and more–as well as other technologies–instead of solely relying on peer-reviewed published works, I see academics using these platforms as a way to jump right to the point, sharing ideas as they happen in near-real time. There are new, innovative ways to share information and study that are hitting the market every day. Take for instance, Hypothes.is a tool designed to annotate the web! With this program, collaborators can take and share notes and ideas right on a webpage! This is the real beauty of Networked Learning, where technology allows students, faculty, and learners alike to all come together in the same sphere to read, comment, write, and share ideas-digitally.