Bringing Knowledge Back In: Student Engagement in Writing Articles for a Web journal

1. Bringing Knowledge Back In: Student Engagement in Writing Articles for a Web journal Dr Carol Taylor and Juliun Ryan Realising our Potential Tuesday 22nd May 2012

2. Today’s presentation • A course and a module • Role of technology in supporting learning • Students as producers of knowledge • Student engagement • Taking this forward

3. The course: some background • BA (Hons) Education Studies and Sociology • A changing HE context • Changing institutional priorities • Lecturers – investment and values • Students – distinct group identity

4. The module:6892 Knowledge in the Postmodern World

5. Translating this into practice …Teaching and Learning

6. Why autoethnography? What is autoethnography? • ‘an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze personal experience in order to understand cultural experience’ (Ellis et al, 2011 ).   • Spry (2001, p710) autoethnography is ‘a self-narrative that critiques the situatedness of self and others in social context’ • Autoethnographic accounts of ourselves are ‘performative, pedagogical and political’ (Denzin, 2006, p422). Why autoethnography? • Into history • Out of history • Entanglement

7. Translating this into practice …Assessment Task (100%) (4000 words equivalent) (Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) 1. Write a first draft of an academic article which critically addresses an educational topic (2000 words). Participate in generating criteria for peer reviewing articles and participate in an anonymous class peer review process by reviewing two articles (250 words each). Evaluate peer feedback and redraft the article in response to feedback. Publish the final version of the article in a web journal (3000 – 4000 words).   2. Participate in one allocated task related to publication of the web journal.

8. How, where and why technology was used within the module • Mainly to facilitate aspects of assessment but also to try to make the module experience more 'authentic' • Emulate the processes and experience associated with an (online) journal • submission, peer review, online publication etc. • Initial chat with Carol to understand the module context and to discuss her ideas

9. How, where and why technology was used within the module • Something of a leap of faith on Carol's part! • became clear that a significant amount of staff and student support would be needed • Went away to identify • a) the various key stages leading ultimately to creation of an online journal • b) design the best application of technology to facilitate • Things to consider: • trepidation on the part of students • keeping it manageable from the tutor's perspective

10. How, where and why technology was used within the module • Click here to view the journey • See also the Bb site

11. Students as authors • Students’ autoethnographic texts • Type • Range • ‘Quality’ • Examples Ellie’s poem; Glenn’s narrative

12. Students using theory • Students’ analyses • An example: Ellie brought together her texts (poem, story, image) – identity theory – feminism and postmodernism

13. Peer Reviewing Process and the first draft • The Collaborative Peer Review Sheet • Bravo, Tango

14. Developing the Journal & submitting the final draft • http://studentsjournaldeci.wordpress.com/

15. Carol’s ‘place’ in the module • My poem: History of a Course in 8 ½ Chapters • An ‘ethic of answerability’ (Bakhtin) • Reflexive research on the module: in-depth biographical narrative interviews with 3 students

16. Issues and tensions • Very front-loaded • A shock at the start: very different to other modules • Some students were thrown by the ‘openness’ • Anxieties ran high at times • Resistance from some students • 3 detailed Assessment Briefs (I did a fair bit of reassuring) • Logistics: ‘Meshing’ of different aspects: e-learning support; time; journal; assessment • ‘Kindness’ of peer feedback • Brought to the fore the contextual, embodied and emotional dimension of knowledge production

17. What worked well? • Student presentations each week on selected readings • Peer reviewing: anonymized lists, collaborative criteria, supportive feedback • Consultation and discussion over processes • Sense of achievement at producing an article • Seeing the final web-journal • http://studentsjournaldeci.wordpress.com/ • All assessment done through Blackboard

18. Students-as-Researchers • Agency, context, particularity • ‘Real world’ research skills for students • Methods and methodology: participation, creativity • Ethics: collaboration • Web-journal: democratic production of knowledge • Contesting the NSS version of SE

19. Student Engagement Dissolving binaries and boundaries • Student engagement (Bryson and Hardy) • Knowledge as a way to contest the ‘monetized logic’ of market discourses (Ashwin) • What are universities for? (Collini) • CT and JR’s role as ‘academic choreographer’ – enabling ‘orchestration’ (Kemmis)

20. Speaking with ‘Arendt’s notions of freedom, the world, the public, the political and plurality all refer to the intersubjective, the shared and the in-between … a democratic politics [that involves …] speaking to and with rather than for one another’. (Amy Allen, 2007).

21. Will we do it again? YES! • From research-informed teaching to shaping the curriculum through research • Students’ critical thinking • Plans underway for ‘Educational Spaces’ module

22. Contact Details