"Child-centred research shows a respect for children and promotes their entitlements to be considered as persons of value and persons with rights" so say the authors. Doing research, bearing the above in mind, focuses on using drawings as data in child-centred psychological research. The use of drawings eliminated the need for children having literacy skills, verbal skill or both. The 151 Street Children of Kolkata (Calcutta) India were the primary sources for the study. Pictures, unlike interviews, would give a truer approach to what the researchers were looking for.
The authors state that there are "two distinct ways of approaching the analysis of children's drawings: one which is broadly projective and another which focuses on content not on interpretation". The authors chose the latter. Both qualitative and quantitative elements can be seen in their work. They used children's career aspirations to see what children wanted to become as adults in one part of the study. Questionnaires had often been used but many skills both in literacy and verbal provided difficulties using this method. An alternative to the shortcomings of that method would be to use drawings. By using the Street Children of Kolkata in providing their views through drawing, the researchers found that drawings "allowed participants to express ideals about personal attributes, broad contributions to society or, indeed, anything else they deem valuable in the sort of person they want to be when they grow up". Children drew 22 different occupations--the most common being teachers (31.8%) and doctors (19.2%).
Drawings as a survey method required little instruction, avoided the necessity of translation and allowed children on limited literary skills to participate. Drawings were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively to provide both descriptive and statistical data. As well, the children enjoyed the experience.
Drawings were also deemed to be suitable for cross-cultural research as well as child-centred research. The authors concluded: "A creative, pragmatic approach like drawing can be used to review old questions and to explore new questions, the only limits being the creativity and the imagination of the researcher".
It seems to be that this type of research does free those being "researched" from having to be articulate or literate. It was a great way to discover what those children revealed through their drawings. However, it doesn't provide the researcher form having the benefit of knowing more about the drawing than what is visible...what the child has omitted from the drawing perhaps.
Possibly the analysis methods of this study might rely on the interpretation of what the researcher may see in the drawing without the benefit of the child's word to describe the drawing (even though content was what mattered). It might be more difficult to categorize drawings than if interviews were available. the analysis might be skewed depending of the researcher's point-of-view, attitude or filters. But I found it a thought-provoking article about how dependent we often for verbal skills in research methods related to children..
Saturday, 10 March 2018
Tuesday, 6 March 2018
Histories of forgetting, geographies of remembering: Exploring processes of witnessing and performing in senior secondary humanities classrooms.
March 3, 2018.
In this thesis, Jacythia England explores "roles that oral histories can play in questioning and transforming dominant cultural narratives in senior secondary humanities education".
She focussed on 2 classes (Social Studies 11), First Nations 12) in a secondary school in Langley, B.C. in collaboration with the regular classroom teacher who had been a mentor to her during her practise teaching days. england designed 2 eight-week study units; one for each course that would provide a different method of how history and geography are taught. She included oral testimonies from marginalized communities, segregated communities in Vancouver, residential schooling of First Nations students and the interment of Japanese-Canadians. I initially read the introduction to page 42.
Equally important to me as the information she presented was the way in which the thesis was presented to the readers. Many papers are page after page of academic material. The mind sometimes wanders and refuses to comprehend what is being presented. England obviously had encountered the same over her course of studies because her paper provided rests and stops and time for reflection within her writing. In her introduction she set out personalized italicized comments prior to the academic quote. This was done a number of times.
I was "stopped" by the quote of James Baldwin. "THE PURPOSE OF ART IS TO LAY BARE THE QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN HIDDEN BY THE ANSWER.".
Throughout her paper she used different fonts, italics, bold print, single-spacing for quotations, double-spacing for discussion of the quote, and bold capitalized print for curriculum mandates. She also "boxed" the quotes of living people, for example Ray Culos, an Italian-Canadian who characterized himself and others as a member of a segregated East Side Vancouver community.
***Here is my diversion from the paper. Ray was correct. Ray went to Strathcona Elementary School and then to Britannia High School where he was school president when he was in Grade 12 and I was 2 years behind him in the same school. I lived farther east than Ray and our neighbourhoods although mainly white were a mixture of many different ethnic groups as well as those folk whose ancestors had been in Canada a long time, but it was mainly a working-class neighbourhood. Ray's neighbourhood was largely Italian with Chinatown nearby. Britannia was a mixture of kids from Caucasian and Chinese backgrounds who seemed to me to get along quite well as s student body.***
***England's writing mother and I were on the bus going passed Hastings Park at the corner of Renfrew and Hastings Streets. Many people were standing behind a barbed-wire fence. I asked my mother why they were there. She said that the people in power who ran the government decided that these people were a danger to Canada because we were at war with Japan. She said the government was wrong because these people were as much Canadians as she and I were and were being unjustly treated. She certainly hated the Japanese government for their entry into World War II but these Canadians were not responsible for their ancestral country's behaviour. I can still see their despairing faces!***
England's work reminded me of how we need to listen and hear what the "hard"stories are and give students the opportunities to grow in the knowledge of how history evolves through the stories told and the people who tell them as well as the events that take place. Her passion and commitment to her work is obvious throughout the paper.
What surprised me was:
Throughout her paper she used different fonts, itlaics, bold print, single spacing for quotations, double spacing for the discusiion
In this thesis, Jacythia England explores "roles that oral histories can play in questioning and transforming dominant cultural narratives in senior secondary humanities education".
She focussed on 2 classes (Social Studies 11), First Nations 12) in a secondary school in Langley, B.C. in collaboration with the regular classroom teacher who had been a mentor to her during her practise teaching days. england designed 2 eight-week study units; one for each course that would provide a different method of how history and geography are taught. She included oral testimonies from marginalized communities, segregated communities in Vancouver, residential schooling of First Nations students and the interment of Japanese-Canadians. I initially read the introduction to page 42.
Equally important to me as the information she presented was the way in which the thesis was presented to the readers. Many papers are page after page of academic material. The mind sometimes wanders and refuses to comprehend what is being presented. England obviously had encountered the same over her course of studies because her paper provided rests and stops and time for reflection within her writing. In her introduction she set out personalized italicized comments prior to the academic quote. This was done a number of times.
I was "stopped" by the quote of James Baldwin. "THE PURPOSE OF ART IS TO LAY BARE THE QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN HIDDEN BY THE ANSWER.".
Throughout her paper she used different fonts, italics, bold print, single-spacing for quotations, double-spacing for discussion of the quote, and bold capitalized print for curriculum mandates. She also "boxed" the quotes of living people, for example Ray Culos, an Italian-Canadian who characterized himself and others as a member of a segregated East Side Vancouver community.
***Here is my diversion from the paper. Ray was correct. Ray went to Strathcona Elementary School and then to Britannia High School where he was school president when he was in Grade 12 and I was 2 years behind him in the same school. I lived farther east than Ray and our neighbourhoods although mainly white were a mixture of many different ethnic groups as well as those folk whose ancestors had been in Canada a long time, but it was mainly a working-class neighbourhood. Ray's neighbourhood was largely Italian with Chinatown nearby. Britannia was a mixture of kids from Caucasian and Chinese backgrounds who seemed to me to get along quite well as s student body.***
***England's writing mother and I were on the bus going passed Hastings Park at the corner of Renfrew and Hastings Streets. Many people were standing behind a barbed-wire fence. I asked my mother why they were there. She said that the people in power who ran the government decided that these people were a danger to Canada because we were at war with Japan. She said the government was wrong because these people were as much Canadians as she and I were and were being unjustly treated. She certainly hated the Japanese government for their entry into World War II but these Canadians were not responsible for their ancestral country's behaviour. I can still see their despairing faces!***
England's work reminded me of how we need to listen and hear what the "hard"stories are and give students the opportunities to grow in the knowledge of how history evolves through the stories told and the people who tell them as well as the events that take place. Her passion and commitment to her work is obvious throughout the paper.
What surprised me was:
- how jargon-free the paper was
- how much passion was radiated throughout the paper
Three ideas I have taken away:
- Clarity of purpose should be paramount
- personal narrative is acceptable
- Physical layout of the paper is important for readership
Draft research / Inquiry question
I am studying how 20 Grade Three students, my writing group and my book group respond to the reading of specific books by children's author Tomie de Paola. I want to find out if there are similarities to the kind of responses that occur intergenerationally in order to better understand why books written originally for children have significance for adults as well, so that we may appreciate the impact that stories have on our lives regardless of our ages.
The article I chose is: Learning from children reading books: transactional theory and the teaching of literature. Galda, Lee, Journal of Children's Literature, 39 (2), pp. 5-13, 2013.
LINK: UBC Library, Search Collections/UBC library search, General inquiry, Transactional Theory, Article # 5.
Reader- response theory and transactional theory are closely aligned. Lee Galda is a distinguished scholar in her field and it is her article that interests me most. This paper reflects on Galda's 45 years of teaching and research and "argues that practice based on transactional theory is essential for the effective teaching of literature".
The models for her work were Gordon Pradl and John Mayer in literature and response, Bee Cullinan in children's literature and James Britton (Language and Learning, 1970) and Louse Rosenblatt (1978,1995). They decided her course as a continuing teacher, professor and researcher.
Rosenblatt focused on how readers responded to literature somewhere on the continuum of efferent and aesthetic stances. There is a transaction with another's words (story/text) that provides the reader with meaning. There is no right or wrong fixed answer--it is through individual experiences and knowledge that the language of the text is understood. Rosenblatt calls that transaction the "poem".
Galda used that terms as well.
In the last paragraph of her paper Galda states, "If we support readers as they read aesthetically, evoking their own poems, and allow them time to think, write and talk about their experiences, reading a powerful book can become an event that just might change the world, one reader at a time".
Galda was a visiting professor at UBC the summer of 1989 and she was my professor for my first course in my master's degree. I learned first-hand the impact reader-response/transactional theory could have on my teaching practice. My teaching life was never the same!
The article I chose is: Learning from children reading books: transactional theory and the teaching of literature. Galda, Lee, Journal of Children's Literature, 39 (2), pp. 5-13, 2013.
LINK: UBC Library, Search Collections/UBC library search, General inquiry, Transactional Theory, Article # 5.
Reader- response theory and transactional theory are closely aligned. Lee Galda is a distinguished scholar in her field and it is her article that interests me most. This paper reflects on Galda's 45 years of teaching and research and "argues that practice based on transactional theory is essential for the effective teaching of literature".
The models for her work were Gordon Pradl and John Mayer in literature and response, Bee Cullinan in children's literature and James Britton (Language and Learning, 1970) and Louse Rosenblatt (1978,1995). They decided her course as a continuing teacher, professor and researcher.
Rosenblatt focused on how readers responded to literature somewhere on the continuum of efferent and aesthetic stances. There is a transaction with another's words (story/text) that provides the reader with meaning. There is no right or wrong fixed answer--it is through individual experiences and knowledge that the language of the text is understood. Rosenblatt calls that transaction the "poem".
Galda used that terms as well.
In the last paragraph of her paper Galda states, "If we support readers as they read aesthetically, evoking their own poems, and allow them time to think, write and talk about their experiences, reading a powerful book can become an event that just might change the world, one reader at a time".
Galda was a visiting professor at UBC the summer of 1989 and she was my professor for my first course in my master's degree. I learned first-hand the impact reader-response/transactional theory could have on my teaching practice. My teaching life was never the same!
Monday, 5 March 2018
Week 3 Blog: LISTENING TO THE SHAPES OF COLLABORATIVE ARTMAKING
Sunday, January 21, 2018.
LISTENING TO THE SHAPES OF COLLABORATIVE ARTMAKING by Rita L. Irwin.
"For the last 4 years, five women artist-teachers and I have been examining gender issues in art education through an action research project." It is a succinct statement what prepares us for all that follows.
We generally think of art as a visual and individual process but this group used "listening" to get the shapes and design of their collaborative work. These women created an installation quilt for a group exhibition. The work was created to include social concern for gender issues, connective aesthetics and feminist pedagogy: the work within the triangular collaborative quilt-making process.
Irwin states that the triangle asserts the trinity for each of the women and includes the past, present and future--mind, body and soul--personal, professional and political lives--that is incorporated into their quilt. Connective aesthetics--that work among artists where new forms of art are centering on social creativity and feminist pedagogy--the work that draws attention to the processes through which knowledge is produces are the underlying forces of collaborative artmaking stated emphatically by Irwin.
The making of a quilt as an installation piece was an inspiring one, I thought. Quilt-making has both traditionally been "women"s work" and more often a collaborative community event. One can appreciate the insight these women used to express thier feminist view of artmaking in producing a quilt in a non-traditional shape but in a traditional community spirit.
Thirty-six triangles are held within the larger triangle--six being designed by each woman. Thinking of Irwin's trinity concept, I envisioned each triangle to be an equilateral one, rather than the obtuse isosceles triangles that were used. However, artistic design may have been the overriding decision on triangle choice.
Were I to sit down with Irwan at the round table covered with the triangular quilt, I would ask her these questions: How did you decide who would participate in the project? Were they friends, colleagues, members of an association or a chosen group from women who had submitted a resume? Were the initial discussions about each other's viewpoints or had that already been decided before the project began?
I am often more interested in the way in which research projects, interview or surveys get started and how, rather than the results themselves.
LISTENING TO THE SHAPES OF COLLABORATIVE ARTMAKING by Rita L. Irwin.
"For the last 4 years, five women artist-teachers and I have been examining gender issues in art education through an action research project." It is a succinct statement what prepares us for all that follows.
We generally think of art as a visual and individual process but this group used "listening" to get the shapes and design of their collaborative work. These women created an installation quilt for a group exhibition. The work was created to include social concern for gender issues, connective aesthetics and feminist pedagogy: the work within the triangular collaborative quilt-making process.
Irwin states that the triangle asserts the trinity for each of the women and includes the past, present and future--mind, body and soul--personal, professional and political lives--that is incorporated into their quilt. Connective aesthetics--that work among artists where new forms of art are centering on social creativity and feminist pedagogy--the work that draws attention to the processes through which knowledge is produces are the underlying forces of collaborative artmaking stated emphatically by Irwin.
The making of a quilt as an installation piece was an inspiring one, I thought. Quilt-making has both traditionally been "women"s work" and more often a collaborative community event. One can appreciate the insight these women used to express thier feminist view of artmaking in producing a quilt in a non-traditional shape but in a traditional community spirit.
Thirty-six triangles are held within the larger triangle--six being designed by each woman. Thinking of Irwin's trinity concept, I envisioned each triangle to be an equilateral one, rather than the obtuse isosceles triangles that were used. However, artistic design may have been the overriding decision on triangle choice.
Were I to sit down with Irwan at the round table covered with the triangular quilt, I would ask her these questions: How did you decide who would participate in the project? Were they friends, colleagues, members of an association or a chosen group from women who had submitted a resume? Were the initial discussions about each other's viewpoints or had that already been decided before the project began?
I am often more interested in the way in which research projects, interview or surveys get started and how, rather than the results themselves.
Week 2 Reflection: On Aoki
Monday, January 15, 2018.
Dr. Aoki's paper from 1986 continues to address the dilemma that most teachers face each year. What are the bureaucratic curriculum directives as opposed to what will be the best learning for classroom students.
Dwelling in the Zone of Between not only applies to the educational realm, in my view, but also in many other situations in which citizens may find themselves. When governmental agencies or indeed governments themselves impose rules or regulations that compromise our ethical standards, our response should not necessarily be to accept that imposition without comment or civil resistance. In the same way that digital corporations, for example, tell us what the latest technology is that we must have, we live in that Zone that dictates to us "what we must have /do/ say" and what we know to be a better outcome for our lives by resisting that which is designed to entice us without our really knowing that it is happening.
The 30-year ago world of Dr. Aoki is much different in many ways, but the "tensionality" that he describes from the "in-dwelling" zone in the classroom continues to be an interesting 2-step for teachers.
So what has all of that to do with educational research? How will we know what is best for students unless we ask the significant questions. For example: How do we find out what provides the best classroom climate for learning? What are the specific methods of teaching a mathematical concept? Can students learn equally well from each other as from a direct teaching method?
Many quasi-forms of research are done in many classrooms regularly, I believe. Teachers may not recognize what they do as research, however. The survey, the questionnaire, the interview may provide a teacher over time, with valuable anecdotal evidence for providing better learning outcomes for their students.
The Concise Oxford defines research as "an endeavour to discover new or collate old facts, etc. by scientific study or by a curse of critical investigation".
In asking the classroom teacher the question "How can I best incorporate 'mindfulness' into our daily routines?" to "What strategies can I employ to ensure my students reach the levels of reading competency that the Ministry of Education articulates?" we may find out what Dwelling in the Zone of Between means to educational research.
Dr. Aoki's paper from 1986 continues to address the dilemma that most teachers face each year. What are the bureaucratic curriculum directives as opposed to what will be the best learning for classroom students.
Dwelling in the Zone of Between not only applies to the educational realm, in my view, but also in many other situations in which citizens may find themselves. When governmental agencies or indeed governments themselves impose rules or regulations that compromise our ethical standards, our response should not necessarily be to accept that imposition without comment or civil resistance. In the same way that digital corporations, for example, tell us what the latest technology is that we must have, we live in that Zone that dictates to us "what we must have /do/ say" and what we know to be a better outcome for our lives by resisting that which is designed to entice us without our really knowing that it is happening.
The 30-year ago world of Dr. Aoki is much different in many ways, but the "tensionality" that he describes from the "in-dwelling" zone in the classroom continues to be an interesting 2-step for teachers.
So what has all of that to do with educational research? How will we know what is best for students unless we ask the significant questions. For example: How do we find out what provides the best classroom climate for learning? What are the specific methods of teaching a mathematical concept? Can students learn equally well from each other as from a direct teaching method?
Many quasi-forms of research are done in many classrooms regularly, I believe. Teachers may not recognize what they do as research, however. The survey, the questionnaire, the interview may provide a teacher over time, with valuable anecdotal evidence for providing better learning outcomes for their students.
The Concise Oxford defines research as "an endeavour to discover new or collate old facts, etc. by scientific study or by a curse of critical investigation".
In asking the classroom teacher the question "How can I best incorporate 'mindfulness' into our daily routines?" to "What strategies can I employ to ensure my students reach the levels of reading competency that the Ministry of Education articulates?" we may find out what Dwelling in the Zone of Between means to educational research.
Saturday, 3 March 2018
Questions from last week's presentations
March 3, 2018.
For Kwesi:
1. Knowing that children have mathematical capabilities before entering school, how would you go about trying to change the culture of the mathematics classroom to incorporate that knowledge?
2. Do you think most mathematics teachers would respond well to being informed that their students have prior entrepreneurial knowledge of mathematics?
For Diana:
1. I was unsure of how the children presumed to be in the gardens were chosen or were the "factionalized: beings?
2. How do you listen for what the gardens have to say?
For Kwesi:
1. Knowing that children have mathematical capabilities before entering school, how would you go about trying to change the culture of the mathematics classroom to incorporate that knowledge?
2. Do you think most mathematics teachers would respond well to being informed that their students have prior entrepreneurial knowledge of mathematics?
For Diana:
1. I was unsure of how the children presumed to be in the gardens were chosen or were the "factionalized: beings?
2. How do you listen for what the gardens have to say?
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