KA Systems and Public Policy 5/29/08

Just had a great meeting with my contact the community college. He is willing to help me with a survey of students who are struggling with math that we hope will be done in time for an AERA proposal submission by August 1, 2008. I am to draft of the proposal will for a survey with 20 questions, and I have agreed to give a five dollar incentive gift, probably a Starbucks gift card to each student who completes a survey. We will be using the community college's survey tool and he will be administering the survey so I'm not sure if we need to do an IRB.

here are some of the surveys to read As references:

http://research.fhda.edu/researchreports/file_library/Evaluating%20a%20Non-Randomized%20Trial%20Oct%2015.pdf

KA Systems and Public Policy 5/25/08

Gumport, P. J., Jennings, J. D., & Fong, B. C. (2007). Reforming Community Colleges: Efficiency, Effectiveness and the Knowledge Base. A Literature Review Submitted to the Hewlett Foundation: Hewlett Foundation.




Shulock, N., & Moore, C. (2007). Rules of the Game: How State Policy Creates Barriers to Degree Completion and Impedes Student Success in the California Community Colleges. Sacaramento: Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy, California State University, Sacramento.




Shulock, N., Moore, C., Offenstein, J., & Kirlin, M. (2008). It Could Happen: Unleashing the Potential of California’s Community Colleges to Help Students Succeed and California Thrive: California State University, Sacramento.

Second Life 5/23/08 - mindmaps

Kirylo, J. D. (2001). A historical overview of liberation theology: some implications for the Christian educator. [Feature Article]. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 10(1), 53-86.



Emge, D. R. (1988). Base Christian Communities: A Challenge to the Status Quo. Access ERIC: FullText. 1988-11-05.




Câmara, H. (1971). Spiral of violence. London: Sheed and Ward.

Second Life 5/23/08

The Tipping Point in Brazil: When understanding became action

June R. Klein
Fielding Graduate University

The Tipping Point in Brazil: When understanding became action

Brazil in the 70’s

Statistics today

Recife’s metropolitan region is composed of 14 municipalities and is the fourth largest metropolitan region in Brazil, with a total population of more than 3.3 million inhabitants. The city has an unemployment rate of 19%, one of the highest rates in Brazil. In the Northeast Region, including Recife, are 63% of all Brazilian poor while only sharing one third of Brazil’s total population according to the IPEA and World Bank. 41% of its population living under poverty line - US$40.00 per capita, which is the largest concentration of poverty in all of the metropolitan areas of Brazil. There are some extremely wealthy areas and some extremely poor areas, accentuated by the fact that a large % of the land is owned by a limited number of families. 40% of the population that qualifies as “poor” occupy roughly 13% of land in the city, making living conditions very crowded. In addition, the poor are relegated to flood areas and extremely hilly areas prone to landslides making the rainly season a terrible experience for them every year. Only 27% of the housing units had access to sanitation and nearly 60% of them disposed their waste water inadequately (Cordaid/IHS, 2004).

Demographics: Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write) - total population: 88.6%, Ethnicity - white 53.7%, mulatto (mixed white and black) 38.5%, black 6.2%, other (includes Japanese, Arab, Amerindian) 0.9%, unspecified 0.7% (2000 census) (CIA website)

Language: Portuguese

Religion (s): Roman Catholic (nominal) 73.6%, Protestant 15.4%, Spiritualist 1.3%, Bantu/voodoo 0.3%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.2%, none 7.4% (2000 census) (CIA website)

Form of government: Federal republic

Average income in a household: $9,700 (2007 est.) (CIA website)

Pictures of the Favelas (from Wikipedia)

Pictures of the people (from Wikipedia)

Pictures of Catholic Churches (from Wikipedia)

YouTubes about Brazil

Brazilian music (from Wikipedia)

SAMBA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulcXYjb4eBU

Map

Critical Pedagogy as it relates to education and social empowerment

What is Critical Pedagogy and Critical Consciousness

Critical pedagogy is a teaching approach where students are asked to question and challenge dominant ideas, beliefs and practices. The aim of this exercise is for students to achieve critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, or conscientizacao (Portuguese), was a theory put forth by Paulo Freire where one experiences various levels of consciousness with the goal of ultimately separating yourself from reality or your surroundings and becoming a free thinker.

The influence of Paulo Freire and Dom Helder Camera

Eloquence and simplicity combined with passion and action

Paulo Freire writes with a simplicity and eloquence that can be understood and translated to the masses. First as a scholar studying philosophy and law, and then as teacher at the Recife University, Freire practiced his understanding of how to teach the illiterate poor to read using what is now called Liberation Theology. Because of his controversial techniques, Freire was imprisoned by the military government for 70 days in 1964. After leaving Brazil, Paulo Freire wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed at the age of 47, a book that made him both famous and infamous. This book was widely read by many outside of Brazil and was considered “revolutionary”, banned in many totalitarian countries where punishment could include imprisonment and torture (Freire, 1993).

At the same time that Freire was developing his teaching methods, the Catholic Church was in the process of separating themselves from the traditional alliances with the military and the oligarchy. Starting with Pope Leo XIII, the church recognized the horrible living conditions in Europe and continuing on with Pope Pius XI with the Quadragesimo Anno in 1931, the Catholic Church lamented the inhuman condition of the poor as a responsibility of all good Christians to address as part of the church itself. That Jesus came to save people, not just souls, and that people needed to rise above their situations as part of being a member of the church was being preached in Latin America. This “preferential option for the poor” or the concern for both the physical as well as spiritual welfare of the poor was documented in Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez’s book “A Theology of Liberation” in 1971.

Bishop Helder Camera wrote the “Spiral of Violence” in 1971 when he was 62 years old and an influential member of the Latin-American Bishops organizations. Bishop Camera called upon the youth of Brazil to create their own Abrahamic Minorities by coming together to oppose oppression around the world and create new communities that reject the propaganda in the media and instead use social communication as a change agent. He called upon the developed countries to revise their international policies governing trade to be more supportive of poorer countries like Brazil and reject war as escalating violence against humanity. Finally, Bishop Camera asked that the rich, who support “internal colonialism”, recognize their class as a form of violence against the poor, and the technologists to close the growing digital divide (Câmara, 1971).

Social empowerment, religion and culture

Liberation Theology

Linking faith, politics and community life

Liberation theology has been successful in changing the structure of life in Brazil including the way the government works and who they listen to. Participatory Budgeting, unlike our legal process of representation, evolved not at a constitutional convention, but as an outgrowth of liberation theology and the critical thinking process. Where in the US one is required to read and write in order to naturalize and in some states to vote, in Recife, all citizens above 16 years of age can participate and be elected. Sector Councils (Conselhos) were established to serve as oversight for public policies (“social watchdogs”). In 2003 there were 55 conselhos with 1,217 councillors. 54% of the the councillors are from civil society organizations, 15% from labour unions and syndicates, 5% from employers’ associations and 26% from the government sector. While the government sector councillors have degrees in higher education (79%), the civil society organization councillors are relatively poor with 34% of them earning less than US$150/year (Cordaid/IHS, 2004).

Unusual bedfellows?

The Catholic Church’s position on Liberation Theology

Comunidades eclesiales de base (CEB) are grassroots Christian communities that grew out of the desire to communicate with the Brazilian masses about social needs that were documented and discussed at the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Since there were not enough priests to successfully spread the word, the church started to encourage lay leadership in the form of CEBs. Most CEB participants are from the lower class and are primarily within rural areas and on the outskirts of cities. The participants in these communities were encouraged to develop critical thinking skills: praxis and conscientization. It was these critical thinking skills that the church warned against as a threat to the unity of the church. Pope Paul VI supported CEBs in his Evangeli Nuntiandi in 1975, but warned that CEBs should not see themselves as the only authentic way of being, and emphasized the ecclesial nature of these base communities. (Emge, 1988).

In Brazil, the interweaving of religion, class and critical thinking have changed the economic and power structures within a short amount of time. Within twenty years after the Second Vatican council in 1965, it is estimated that there are over 100,000 CEBs in Brazil alone (Emge, 1988). This is an example of where the church’s authority combined with brilliant oratory on the part of some exceptional leaders, like Freire and Camera to name two, were able to start a movement where dialogue, not the printed word, was the driving force behind change. At our last class Dr. Carlos Torres, Director of the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA, talked about how Obama has captured the attention of our youth with a style similar to great preachers like Dr. Martin Luther King combined with high intellect. Dr. Torres also spoke about how dialogue builds on experience and is a student centered model. I believe this is a very old model that has played out in history. Brilliant orators who can touch our souls but make us think at the same time are timeless in their effect. Religious organizations have always relied on oration as their main way of reaching the populace. This tradition continues on, particularly in the underdeveloped countries like Brazil and in developed countries like the US.

References

Câmara, H. (1971). Spiral of violence. London: Sheed and Ward.

Cordaid/IHS, S. A. b. C. a. t. I. f. H. a. U. D. S.-. (2004). Process Mapping: Disclosing Actors and Citizen Participation in Recife. Rotterdam: Cordaid and the Institute for Hoursing and Urban Development Studies

Emge, D. R. (1988). Base Christian Communities: A Challenge to the Status Quo. Access ERIC: FullText. 1988-11-05.

Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (New rev. 20th-Anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum.

Second Life and Dissertation 5/12/08

I've been very busy with Second Life readings and writing assignments, but I am almost through with Madeleine Albright's new book "The Mighty and the Almighty". She mentions Dr. Eboo Patel's Interfaith Youth Core and also the National Clergy Council and Faith and Action and their work with the Government of Morocco.

http://www.nationalclergycouncil.org/021705MoroccoTrip.htm

"The larger weeklong Friendship Festival, of which the Christian Friendship Mission is a part, will involve a formal "dialogue" between American Evangelical leaders and Moroccan Islamic officials, the only-ever contemporary Christian music festival to be sponsored by an Islamic country, and informal "friendship encounters" between "Official Observers" and Moroccans."

Second Life and Dissertation, 5/6/08

I've been very busy with Second Life for 2 weeks. We read some very interesting readings and webpostings for learning communities and global citizenship. I've written the following paper for the first module.

I also am trying to catchy up on my mind maps. Here is the latest one for:

Ahuja, S., Smith, A., & Justice, N. C. f. C. a. (1999). Intergroup relations in the United States : Seven Promising Practices. New York: National Conference for Community and Justice.

Learning Community Critique

Who am I in the world?

J. Klein
Fielding Graduate University
Educational Leadership and Change

Who am I in the World?

The readings for this module are very relevant to my dissertation and thus very interesting to me. I have also just returned from the AERA (American Education Research Association) conference in March 2008 and the WASC (Western Area Schools Conference) in April 2008 where I focused on diversity, multi-cultural, intercultural, global citizenship and cosmopolitanism topics. I am delighted that this module allows me to reflect on where we can use these new technologies to furthering learning in these areas.

Developing the ability to recognize cultural differences and use them as a resource for learning

Victor Friedman and Ariane Anatal argue that cultural conflict can be a resource for learning to be culturally competent and that cultural competence is now a requirement for becoming an effective manager in the global business environment. (Friedman & Antal, 2005). Analysis of who we are in our own worlds is not something we often take time to reflect on, particularly as adolescents and young adults. How do we develop this competence? I will cover several avenues for developing experience where the opportunities for reflection and learning can occur.

Self Reflection

Your own personal characteristics are hard to notice when one is by yourself. However, when in a group these characteristics become magnified because one can now notice the different points of view. In order to understand another’s viewpoint of requires self-understanding and reflection. Questions like what is my culture and where am I coming from? Am I actually a multi-cultural person that makes me unique? Friedman and Antol defines culture the visible and non-visible norms that people create to answer the following questions:

Culture answers the following questions

1. What is the character of human nature

2. What is the relationship of humans to the environment

3. What is the temporal focus of life

4. What is the modality of human activity

5. What is the relationship of humans to other humans.

(Friedman & Antal, 2005). It is important to strive to understand one’s own culture and how you fit into that view, along with your individual communication style and how your gender and other attributes affect that communication style so that you can move to understanding others. There is research to suggest that this is the beginning of empathy – understanding yourself well enough to recognize when ones on views are getting in the way of understanding someone else.

Dialogue

The World Trust defines dialogue as: “an exchange of ideas and opinions”. It goes on to say that “Dialogue is a form of communication that teaches people how to listen deeply to themselves and others. It promotes a more authentic exchange of ideas, leading to true learning and change.” I believe that dialogue is the root cause of all substantial change and the beginning of solution building no matter the context.

In Friedman and Antal’s model, “advocacy with inquiry” is a requirement for developing an effective strategy for engaging intercultural interactions and generating richer action strategies (Friedman & Antal, 2005). Advocacy with inquiry is defined as suspending judgement, experiencing doubt, and the willingness to accept uncertainty. Their model links dialogue with action strategies and specifically how to engage people in dialogue to further learning and change.

Opportunities to develop skills – Learning communities, Service Learning and the Wisdom of Crowds

On the website Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate education, they had an occasional paper titled Approaching Diversity through Learning Communities, by Lardner, E. D. (Lardner, 2003). In this article, Lardner elaborates on how learning communities can be used to invite students from under-represented groups to participate in its interdisciplinary focus on issues that matter in the world, including multiple world views and histories. Their three central elements for approaching diversity are:

1) Designing learning communities for particular groups of students;

2) Using learning communities as sites for curriculum transformation;

3) Developing pedagogical practices that support diverse learners.

The article cites studies that show that retention is a function of several strategies including a) integrating social and academic activities, b) addressing academic preparedness, and engendering a sense of belonging to a community of campus. This article brings to mind a keynote speech at the WASC ARC conference in April 2008. Iris Prettypaint, Co-Director, Research Opportunities in Science for Native Americans (ROSNA), University of Montana, presented her dissertation work in creating The Family Education Model. Prettypaint found that the most dramatic and persistent changes to retention were achieved when the principles of empowerment, family support, and resilience were brought into the curriculum. Prettypaint found that the Native American students needed a place that would become their new “family”. Efforts to be welcoming and create learning communities used were similar to techniques used in the HeadStart program, where families were brought onto the campuses participate in the student’s education. In the Native American college student population over 80% of the students are first generation college students and many parents and grandparents had lived next to the college but had never been inside. The model was so successful that retention was increased in one year from the low 50 percentile to the mid 80 percentile and has been adopted by non-Native American student universities as well with great success.

On the Washington Center site ("Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education," 2008) I found several more articles that I have not read yet, but plan to. I also found a link to the DiversityWeb, a collaboration with the Association of American Colleges and Universities ("Diversity Web," 2008). The DiversityWeb is “designed to provide a comprehensive compendium of campus practices and resources for campus practitioners seeking to place diversity at the center of the academy's educational and societal mission”. On the DiversityWeb site, I found a book that looks really interesting called Making a Real Difference with Diversity: A Guide to Institutional Change by Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Sharon Parker, Daryl G. Smith, José F. Moreno,and Daniel Hiroyuki Teraguchi. I found the Washington Center a very good site for research and links to other valuable websites.

Young people today want more than mere lectures, more than what Paulo Freire defined as the “banking” method of teaching. They expect and often demand by their lack of attention an interactive learning environment with multiple choices for learning the same material at any time. At WASC ARC in April 2008, they had a session on Reaching and Understanding Millennial Students by Nina Bakisian, Adjunct Professor, University of San Francisco and Colin J. Marlaire, Assistant Professor, National University. These professors believe that the students entering this space possess skills and expectations that must be better understood and that we must identify new educational practices that exploit the benefits and overcome the weaknesses of new technologies. By creating a culture of evidence supported in a digital environment we can positively impact student learning. These students are growing up with images of war from “embedded” reporters, scenes of the 9/11 disaster broadcast over and over, YouTube, reality TV, facebook, and Wikipedia and Google. They also are very interested in social justice and global issues more than the previous generation because of their exposure. Given this environment, I believe that these students not only understand service learning and the wisdom of crowds, but will change the world because of their understanding and willingness to act. At least, that is my hope for the future.

The wisdom of crowds, or the ability for large numbers of people to come up with solutions that could not or would not have been created by a small group of people, is very evident if you watch TV or read the media: American Idol, the rise of Linux, Moodle and other open source software platforms, Wikipedia, Google vs. Yahoo and the potential takeover by Microsoft, Amazon books and their rating systems for vendors and products, etc. The list of examples is very long, and it did not take those lucky enough to be connected to the internet to quickly change to using these very useful references and services instead of paper based and land based services. Creating learning communities is an extension of the concept of the wisdom of crowds. If you combine a learning community with a vehicle like the internet, you have the potential to create powerful information gathering tools. Second Life and the influx of companies into that space to try to get market data from users is a good example of how a learning community can be useful to large institutions as well as the inhabitants.

Service Learning is becoming increasingly more popular at undergraduate institutions. Many universities have Service Learning Centers that offer to the professors willing to work into their curriculum the concepts of community service, global citizenship and social justice. Saint Anselm College and UCLA are two examples of schools that have embraced service learning and created successful centers with support staff on their campuses. Saint Anselm’s Meelia Center for community service has the mission to “cultivate and maintain a relationship of engagement between Saint Anselm College and the larger community. Led largely by students, the engagement will be sensitive and responsive to community needs, and contribute to the education of Saint Anselm students as they strive to lead creative, generous, and civically engaged lives.” Neither university makes service learning a requirement for graduation and both universities find difficult the assessment of whether their goals have been achieved because of the difficulty of tracking alumni, but their programs are growing in number of courses and professors interested in incorporating a service learning component and also the number of students participating. As these students leave the colleges to pursue their interests, it will be very interesting to see if they are drawn to learning communities and continue their commitment to community service.

Global Citizenship

Global citizenship is a very appealing concept to me. The recent war in Iraq combined with the growth of China as an economic power and how America has reacted to both so far have intrigued and frustrated me at the same time. I have discovered recently that I live in a bubble in California and specifically in Silicon Valley. What we have access to in terms of technology, material wealth, education, and services and most importantly, diversity and acceptance of rapid change, is not true for the rest of the country. The US is heavily populated along the coasts, and sparsely populated in the middle states. Our behavior in response to international issues in recent years have shown us to be very conservative and in many ways ignorant of the larger world around us. Unlike Europe, we have not had to deal with many countries invading our borders for thousands of years, so we have chosen to focus on Americans and hope that everyone else learns to speak English and deal with us on our terms.

The article Expanding democratic choices: Schooling for democracy: Toward a critical utopianism by Gustavo Fischman quotes Paulo Freire who describes democracy as a process that requires reflection and practice (Fischman, 2000). Schools like other social institutions have power structures that devalue those who are not in the majority. Pierre Bourdieu popularized the term cultural capital referring to ways of talking, acting, and socializing as well as language practices, values and styles of dress and behavior. In order to teach democracy to our students, our schools need to change to become more flexible and not devalue the perspectives of those not in the majority and their cultural capital. This utopic-heterotopic space requires a crucial role for the teacher and they believe teacher education can help to achieve democratic processes in the classroom. Recommendations include empowering teachers to reform their own classrooms and schools to include:

1. Supporting diversity so that teachers can move away from the Anglo-Saxon, middle-class, and heterosexual educational norms and incorporate the knowledges of women, minority groups and indigenous groups.

2. Cooperating with colleagues and the community to build open forums about race and gender

3. Build learning communities

4. Acquire the skills of researchers and teach them to the students

5. Support continuous learning

6. Improve assessment methods

No matter what political system you come from, if young people are educated in democratic institutions that encourage these principals of critical thinking, the job of educating our students around social justice, ethics and global citizenships becomes much easier. According to Oxfam, the global citizen must have knowledge, skills and the appropriate values and attitudes. Citizens will require substantial knowledge around topics like social justice and equity, diversity, globalization and interdependence. It also requires skills like critical thinking, communication skills, co-operation and conflict resolution skills, and a respectful demeanor. And last but not least, the appropriate values include the senses of identity and self-esteem, empathy, a commitment to social justice and equity, respect for diversity, concern for the environment and sustainability and a belief that people can make a difference. Teaching to this objective in our schools will require new ways of teaching that will create transformational learning. The World Trust defines transformational learning as education that involves deep, structural shifts in thought and feelings that will help people to live more meaningfully. Kitano presents a useful framework for thinking about teaching for transformative learning.

· Transformative content: Reconceptualizes the content through a shift in paradigm or standard; presents content through non-dominant perspective

· Transformative instructional strategies and Activities: Change in power structure so that students and instructor learn from each other; methods center on student experience and knowledge such as: analyzing concepts against personal experience; issues-oriented approaches; critical pedagogy

· Transformative assessment of student knowledge: Alternatives that focus on student growth: action oriented projects; self-assessment; reflection on the course

· Transformative classroom dynamics: Challenging of biased views and sharing of diverse perspectives while respecting rules established for group process; equity in participation

(Lardner, 2003). A student who is immersed in this type of learning for 4 years will be very likely to know more about who they are in the world, and to appreciate others and where they are in theirs. The more people in the world with this perspective, the more likely we can prevent conflicts because of misunderstandings in culture. Here’s to the hope that this idea takes off in all educational institutions.

References

Diversity Web. (2008). Diversity Web, An Interactive Resource Hub for Higher Education Retrieved 5/1/08, 2008, from http://www.diversityweb.org/

Fischman, G. E. (2000). Expanding democratic choices: Schooling for democracy: Toward a critical utopianism. [feature]. Contemporary Sociology, 29(1), 12.

Friedman, V. J., & Antal, A. B. (2005). Negotiating Reality: A Theory of Action Approach to Intercultural Competence. Management Learning, 36(1), 69.

Lardner, E. D. (2003). Approaching Diversity through Learning Communities (Occasional Paper): Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education.

Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education. (2008). Learning Communities National Resource Center Retrieved 5/1/08, 2008, from http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/project.asp?pid=73