Feb 28 2024 - Initial Thoughts by Ricardo Martinez

2024-02-28 17:50:13 UTC

teacher education for what? for whom? with whom?

2024-02-28 17:50:17 UTC

I don't feel this reflects some of the critical issues we've been discussing in our college- I feel like even- "teaching for social justice" would get us a bit closer to that ... but even still- what exactly are we teaching?

2024-02-28 17:51:47 UTC

Does out whole dept not do teacher education?

School, culture and society?

2024-02-28 17:52:04 UTC

Bland

2024-02-28 17:52:11 UTC

The program description is bland. I see now why this really isn't going to communicate the critical issues we wrestle with in our program and courses.

apatterson159 — 2024-02-28 17:52:15 UTC

The ambiguity of the working definition of the word "we" makes it a bit difficult to think about how to comment on the titles; though we can do so individually, it's tough to think about us as a collective because we haven't quite established that

2024-02-28 17:52:25 UTC

I think this is a very vague title. It reads like a 'catch all' for whatever couldn't be in the others

We are concerned that the "in public life" is going to be confusing to possible audience. Education and Society?

2024-02-28 17:52:30 UTC

This sounds very similar to teacher education

2024-02-28 17:52:46 UTC

How does this differ from Learning and teaching?

2024-02-28 17:53:07 UTC

Struggling to distinguish between area one and two

2024-02-28 17:53:09 UTC

apatterson159 — 2024-02-28 17:53:23 UTC

We like the "teaching and learning" part and feel as if that is a collective investment

Dewey

2024-02-28 17:53:26 UTC

It reads as very Deweyian - the "in public life" part.

How about Teaching and Learning Across Disciplines? We worry that people looking for disciplinary study won't see themselves.

2024-02-28 17:54:17 UTC

Different

2024-02-28 17:54:36 UTC

I think it is different because it isn't just about teacher education. But how do we do a better job communicating and distinguishing that?

We like this one.

2024-02-28 17:54:44 UTC

apatterson159 — 2024-02-28 17:54:58 UTC

we universally do this and care about this, though we have varying commitments to this as far as research interests go; all of our 'day jobs' are teacher ed, though this isn't all of our research focus

2024-02-28 17:55:17 UTC

Yeah, we had that title in the mix for a while. Why did we drop it? Is it because there are people who want to be in this group who aren't part of a "discipline"?

If this is a catch-all title, what may be an alternative?

2024-02-28 17:55:51 UTC

Curriculum studies and Culture

2024-02-28 17:56:16 UTC

apatterson159 — 2024-02-28 17:56:20 UTC

Looking for a metaphor to frame the relationship between the three emphasis areas as that is still unclear

Adding the word "studies" certainly signals a recognizable field.

2024-02-28 17:56:45 UTC

2024-02-28 17:56:57 UTC

if we don't offer classes in the disciplines, they shouldn't be specializations or tracks.

Are we offering enough classes to align with these titles?

2024-02-28 17:57:04 UTC

Conflicts

2024-02-28 17:57:13 UTC

We want a description/title that draws people in but doesn't constrain us in the future as language changes. Simple is better?

2024-02-28 17:58:22 UTC

I don't see that as my research focus.

2024-02-28 17:58:39 UTC

can we just have one program and let people make their own emphasis?

Living, Struggling, Being and Striving to be in Community

2024-02-28 17:58:46 UTC

These feel missing to me

apatterson159 — 2024-02-28 17:58:57 UTC

is the emphasis here on learners?

leaning more and more toward not having the emphasis areas--there's so much overlap across them

cjl6060 — 2024-02-28 18:01:17 UTC

Research methods are missing here. We know that they are in the bins, but there is nothing to foreground our strength in research.

2024-02-28 18:01:45 UTC

Teaching for Healthy and Just Communities

2024-02-28 18:02:02 UTC

Grad Student Community

2024-02-28 18:02:52 UTC

Considering the keyword of community, it seems like our focus might be more on faculty community, but what about grad student community. Specifically, would these titles and descriptions communicate a culture that grad students would want to join?

There is so much overlap among the three emphasis areas...

2024-02-28 18:03:15 UTC

Focus on learners

2024-02-28 18:03:17 UTC

I think we might consider "benchmarking" what are the other graduate schools of education who are doing work we admire and discourse do they use in their programs? Here are two who have interesting ways of presenting criticality and social justice in their program areas.

2024-02-28 18:03:28 UTC

https://ed.stanford.edu/academics/doctoral

2024-02-28 18:03:58 UTC

This is the one I'd probably relate to the most

2024-02-28 18:04:04 UTC

This is valid and something I'm concerned about. I think our disciplinary specialties need to be communicated but it is hard to justify as a "track".

If we put culture and society in the overall title, we can make this just Curriculum Studies.

2024-02-28 18:04:05 UTC

apatterson159 — 2024-02-28 18:04:14 UTC

still not sure what to do with/make of the 'in public life' part...

One reason I don't like within the disciplines is that it ignores the recent progress toward a more heterogenous understanding of knowledge, and who's knowledge counts as "disciplinary" -- this is related to epistemic diversity and who holds power "in the disciplines"

2024-02-28 18:04:22 UTC

Don't understand this area and how it is different from teacher education. I'm not saying it is not different - I just don't see it in the titles.

2024-02-28 18:04:38 UTC

2024-02-28 18:04:42 UTC

An idea is to have a tagline that emphasizes who we currently are. So simple titles with a powerful tag line and rich descriptions. Tag lines and descriptions are easy to change. Titles are not.

The AI titles sound like tag lines.

2024-02-28 18:04:48 UTC

It does seem like it would be good to create subgroups of similar size, if possible (when it comes to # of faculty, # of courses offered, # of courses responsible for staffing, etc.) Not sure if this is realistic or not.

Alignment with Culture of Professional Societies

2024-02-28 18:04:48 UTC

Are there ways we are/should be considering the culture of professional organizations in how we organize our own graduate department (for example, looking at the language of relevant AERA Divisions and SIGS... like Division G and Division K, for example).

2024-02-28 18:04:48 UTC

Emphasis areas sound like three department names

Argh

2024-02-28 18:05:39 UTC

This argh is just thinking about how this would cause the curriculum process to collapse (not the valid points). Emphasis areas help us manage all the scheduling and curriculum issues.... (but maybe we can come up with new organizational systems).

2024-02-28 18:15:00 UTC

Focus on human learning, thinking, and being; as well as the role of learning environments (both designed and spontaneous) for what is learned. There are clear implications for teaching and schooling-- so completely avoiding those is challenging. Maybe "Learning and Learning Environments" is a candidate alternative but I don't love it because people may think schooling doesn't matter in this area (AVF)

2024-02-28 18:22:13 UTC

Critical Inquiry

Can we be the Department of Teaching and Learning (not C&I)?

2024-02-28 18:37:03 UTC

that opens up the space that so many of these names, emphases, etc are trying to build--- "curriculum and instruction" sounds school focused and container-modeled.