Browsing by Subject "self-study"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Disrupting Authority: The Phenomenality of Antioppressive Education in the Arts
    (2017-05) Babulski, Timothy
    The effort to engage in critical pedagogy is often stymied by several factors: institutional or systemic authority acting in opposition to anti-oppressive teaching, a lack of opportunities for students to develop and use personal agency, and the structures within disciplinary discourses and curricula that limit the possibility of social change. Drawing from post-intentional phenomenology (Vagle, 2014) and narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), this study attempts to reconcile structural and agentic approaches. By placing the poststructural philosophy of Deleuze & Guattari (1987) in dialog with critical (Freire, 1970/2000; Kumashiro, 2015) and post-critical pedagogies (Lather, 1995), I have been able to explore my lived-experience of authority as that which defers or denies student authorship. I have further explored a Deweyan approach to expression as I endeavored to live out the promise of using disruptiveness as a pedagogical tool for instigating student authorship. The resultant text is an assemblage that explores the complex, partial, shifting, multiple, tentative, and sometimes contradictory manifestations of authority and authorship. Through the selective use of voice, typeface, color, and illustration, this layered multivocality creates a palimpsest (Dillon, 2007) that progressively narrows, not to certainty, but to the present moment. Results of this study do not support causality or claim to raise test scores and close achievement gaps. Instead, this work underscores the importance of teachers’ critical reflections on their practice and the long-term benefits for students and society that such reflexivity allows. Teachers and teacher candidates who are able to examine their own education and to understand the relationship between student authorship and the manner in which authority is taken up will be primed to create pedagogical spaces in which students are not merely the recipients of knowledge but the authors of their own phenomenality. In this way, teachers who allow their authority to be disruptive and disrupted acknowledge students as the complex fully-realized beings they are and erase the false distinction between being-schooled and being-in-the-world.
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    Institutional Report
    (University of Minnesota, 2005-10) University of Minnesota: College of Education and Human Development
    National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Minnesota Board of Teaching Unit approval and accreditation visit October 15-19, 2005
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    Opportunities for Language Learning in Bilingual Conversation: A Study in Language Exchange Partnership
    (2019-11-30) Clumpner, Ellisa
    Language exchange programs such as Tandem Plus aim to create opportunities for language learners to practice and improve their second languages by pairing fluent speakers with learners; but what opportunities for learning are actually presented and taken up by participants? Through my participation in Tandem Plus, I formed a strong friendship with my language exchange partner; our conversations often delved into emotional topics as well as switched frequently between our two strongest languages, English and Mandarin Chinese. In this self-study, I analyzed an excerpt of a recorded conversation between my Tandem partner and myself in order to answer the following questions: (1) In bilingual conversation, including deep personal exchanges, between my language partner and myself, were there opportunities for me to learn Chinese? (2) When there were opportunities, did I take up and use the new Chinese? In each case, why/why not? Findings show that opportunities for learning did exist, but were not always taken up, and that I seemed less likely to take up new language the more emotionally invested I was in the topic. Although this is a very limited study, there are implications for educators and learners seeking to improve language through partner conversations.
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    Self-evaluation or self-reporting? – a self-study in Russia‟s higher education accreditation.
    (2011-04) Maximova, Anastasia Victorovna
    Quality assurance is at the forefront of higher education policy in Russia. This thesis examines the role of self-study in the state accreditation process. The question driving this research is whether self- study is a critical self-evaluation tool aimed at the improvement of the education process, or a formal self-reporting practice to account for the education process to the external agency. Document content analysis was utilized to explore the policy level of the quality assurance system. The relationship between policy and other macro-level agendas and institutional practices was investigated using a case study analysis approach. Keywords: self-study, accreditation, Russian higher education system, force-field analysis
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    USDA-CSREES Review: Self-assessment Study and Appendix
    (2008-11-17) Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
    Since our last review [in 1992], our areas of research, education and outreach have shifted from traditional discipline-based programs to a more holistic, interdisciplinary approach to solving the issues facing society of food, feed, fuel and environmental protection. Many faculty across numerous disciplines within the Department are actively engaged in research, education and outreach on multifunctional agriculture and are providing leadership across the University focusing on the joint production of agricultural products and ecological services. These faculty have expanded their activities to more broadly focus on key issues of strategic agricultural diversification and perennialization of cropping systems and agroecosystems. Faculty continue to focus on crop breeding, molecular genetics, and genomics for the development for the development for food, feedstocks, pharmaceuticals and bioenergy generated from diversified cropping systems while simultaneously protecting water quality and conserving ecological resources. There will be considerable breakthroughs in genomics and molecular genetics that will continue to compliment our strong plant breeding programs. Challenges and opportunities continue to face the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. The need for plant breeding, genetics, and agronomic research and expertise in the dynamic and diverse economy of Minnesota is as vital as ever to meet the issues related to agriculture and a growing world population. Our major strengths include biotechnology and physiology; crop production and ecology including cropping systems diversity, sustainable agriculture, and human and plant health; plant breeding and genetics including crop variety development and value-added traits; and weed science. We feel we are strongly positioned to take on the challenges facing agriculture now and in the future.