UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Department of Secondary Education

EDSE 610: Advanced Research Topics in Education

Winter Term, 2001 Wednesday 5-8p.m.

Instructor: Dr. Ingrid Johnston

Office: 445 Ed. South. Office hours: Tues. and Thurs. 2-4 and by appointment

Phone: Office 492-5639; Home 458-4806;  E-mail: ingrid.johnston@ualberta.ca

Course Description

This course is intended to serve the following objectives:

• To provide a community for doctoral students in the department
• To create a venue for considering current research trends in a variety of disciplines as they relate to the practice of educational research
• To cultivate a space for doctoral students to share their research at various stages of their program, from initial research development, to proposal development, to candidacy exam, to collecting and analyzing data, to dissertation writing and the final oral exam
• To consider matters relating to the induction of scholars into the academic community, including topics such as examining the life of a university professor, teaching at the university level, writing for publication and preparing a curriculum vitae
• To invite visiting scholars and current faculty members to share their expertise through invited presentations

Course Texts

There is no specific textbook for the course, but the following three texts are recommended:

Eisner, E.W., & Peshkin, A. (Eds.) (1990). Qualitative inquiry in education: The continuing debate. New York and London: Teachers College Press.

Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.) (1998). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Thousand Oaks, Cal.: Sage Publications.

Diamond, C.T., & Mullen, C.A. (Eds.) (1999). The postmodern educator: Arts-based inquiries and teacher development. New York: Peter Lang.

You will be receiving handouts of readings and are asked to pay $20 to cover photocopying expenses.

Evaluation

The course will run on a credit/non-credit basis. Credit for the course will be based on students’ active participation in the class and fulfillment of course expectations.

Inclusive Language: Faculty policy supports the use of language to create a classroom atmosphere in which students’ experiences and views are treated with equal respect and value in relation to their gender, racial background, sexual orientation and ethnic background.

Plagiarism: Respect for intellectual property is a value in a scholarly community. You are expected to keep track of your sources and acknowledge everything.

Student Responsibilities and Class Activities

1. Excavating your research landscape

This activity is intended to promote reflection on the personal, social and cultural experiences that have brought you to your current research. It is designed to highlight that research is always a reciprocal and intersubjective activity and that researchers have a responsibility to learn to be open to the questions of who they are themselves and how they are located in the world.

·        Collect five artifacts that you feel best represent the complex portrait of your identity, cultural location, beliefs and values. You will be creating a visual and oral narrative of who you are as a researcher, and a travelogue of how you came to your current research. These items can include anything that has personal significance for you and for your research, e.g. a particular text (theoretical, fictional, multi-media); an autobiographical piece of writing; family heirlooms; photographs; scrapbooks; teaching artifacts; articles of clothing; symbolic articles etc.

·        Be prepared to come to class with your artifacts and present your research landscape creatively to others. I will model this activity on day two of our course.

·        Before the end of term, develop this presentation into an autobiographical paper of about 6 to 8 pages discussing how your personal biography has affected such decisions as selecting a research topic, deciding on the practice of interpretation with respect to data, ethical considerations and so forth.

2. Leading a class discussion on two research articles

·        Select two articles from those made available in class (one will pertain to issues in educational research and the other to research strategies and methodologies).

·        For each article, either individually or in pairs, you are asked to:

a.      Prepare a two-page handout photocopied for each member of class outlining the main arguments of the article

b.      Prepare a 30-minute presentation in which you explore questions you have about the article and how the issue(s) discussed in the article relate to your own research. Be creative and interactive in your form of presentation

3. Introducing a research article of personal interest

·        Find an article or book chapter that is particularly important for your own research study and give me a copy in advance so that I can photocopy it for all class members the week before your presentation.

·        Prepare a 20-minute presentation on your research-in-progress, with particular  reference to the significance of your selected article.

4. Reflecting on a week in the life of an academic.  

This activity is designed to offer insight into the range of activities and responsibilities of being an academic. I will be keeping a detailed journal for one week of my activities to share with the class.

• You are asked to select an academic staff member you know (and who knows you) and request that they share their activities during one week of this term with you via e-mail. If they are unwilling to do this, please select someone else. We will all bring these weekly journals to class later in the term to discuss.

General class discussions

In addition to the specific activities listed above, we will spend time in class discussing all aspects of the research process and reflecting on guest presentations.

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