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Paradigm Shift in Academic Professionalism

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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: April 17, 2001
Latest update: April 17, 2001
 E-Mailjeannecurran@habermas.org

Grounded Theory: The Early Stages

Teaching Essay by Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, and Individual Contributors, April 2001.
"Fair Use" encouraged.
  • Introduction
  • Transforming Discourse the UWP Way
  • Transforming Discourse the CSUDH Way
  • Learning to Respect New Ways
  • Analyzing the Grounded Data
  • Developing the Process Text

    Introduction

    This essay is based on our collective research on academic discourse during the Spring of 2001. Bourdieu complained in Academic Discourse that university students were not included meaningfully in the dialog of the university. Exercises in writing and reviewing do not provide the learning experience necessary to join into meaningful discourse on major issues of concern to the disciplines. (Add citation.)

    This research tackled that issue. We didn't choose that as our research problem in a neat academic way. Our students complained that they weren't getting the skills training they needed for oral argument. And so we began the Stanley Mosk Undergraduate Moot Court Competition to overcome that deficiency and provide a learning forum for professional discussion.

    The group of faculty/researchers/students at WSSA 2001 represents the 15th year of the Stanley Mosk Moot Court Program. Over the last two years we have transformed our Spring Performance into panel presentations at the Western Social Science Association and various other professional societies across the country. We have learned that a major highlight of our program is bringing together participating students from Wisconsin and California.

    And in the process we have removed the word "competition" from our title, and learned to establish a cooperative working forum in which all can join. We present this 2001 panel, with a special emphasis on how such cooperative work with faculty, staff, and students, across even distant campuses, provides a model for a paradigm shift towards inclusion, even in the academy. Fellman, Rambo and the Dalai Lama.

    There are two concerns in our study of the paradigm shift towards inclusion: Faculty in teaching institutions and undergraduate students. We found that, as faculty with heavy teaching loads in a primarily teaching institution, there was little support and discretionary energy for major research. Yes, small intensive projects are possible, but they reach few students, usually only the very gifted and determined. The mission of the working class institution to educate effectively all students diverts energy and requires new and alternative paths to professional development and participation.

    For students, also, we find that actual participation in academic discussions is essential to their education. It is in such intense discussions that their hunger for learning is nourished, and paths opened to lifetime learning. But usually only certain loquacious students participate in classroom discussions. If our goal is an educated citizenry, capable of making decisions on major social issues, then we must have inclusion in well-argued discussions, practice in avoiding merely persuasive rhetoric, and a willingness to abandon dominant discourse denial to explore problem issues in good faith.

    An example of what we're talking about: Anita Johnson wrote on Wednesday, April 18:

    "hi jeanne this is Anita Johnson how are you? hope you are doing ok. i'm writing to talk about heurmenutics i remember my church used to offer a class in heurmenutics and i always wanted to learn about it however, when i read the article i got a different interpretaion of the meaning of heurmenutics i thought it only related to biblical interpretations the article taught me different there is another part in the article that made me wonder and it was the statement that the tibetan philosophers did not read or speak how were they able to write the literature that was translated into English and other languages there is a lot more i want to talk about and it is to long to write i want to talk to you in class."

    Anita doesn't have the training or the time to write an article on hermeneutics, but she and others of our undergraduates clearly want to discuss and understand the hermeneutic tradition in sociology. Dear Habermas affords such an opportunity within a traditional university setting, within a single class option, so that all can benefit from it without the excessive demands of time and energy often required by "Honors" programs.

    In our title we refer to transforming discourse. The discourse of which we speak is the dominant discourse of the academy in which hierarchy matters. Status matters. And where academic rewards are based on traditional scholarship, research matters. This constrains the imaginary, especially in working class universities where students and faculty are trying to manage work and family and education, often all at once. When dominant discourse portrays students as learning and teachers as teaching, exhausted and conflicted students and faculty tend to accept that dominant portrayal.

    One way to transform the dominant discourse is to alter the perceptions of the respective normative roles. We have attempted to do so by providing a broad introduction to many readings and concepts of social justice: theory, criminology, peacemaking, sociology of law, immigration, assimilation, globalization, and so on. Ready resources at hand on the site, permit students to inform themselves well enough to join in many social justice debates. And this procedure is merely a refinement of our 15-year Moot Court program. First, we involve them in discussions; we provide resources at their fingertips on many sides of the issues under discussion, and then we let them defend their positions in open forum. One student recently confessed that she had spent most of her Spring Break on theory instead of on school tasks she should have worked on. This says a great deal about the priorities we set in the university.

    The panel in 2001 will examine the kind of trust that was needed to build this self-motivated learning, the kinds of hierarchical patterns that had to be changed, and the different nature of the product that evolved: a product that Susan and I called the "process text." Inclusion is not just a matter of letting outsiders in. It is also a matter of discovering what their strengths are and using those strengths in the evolution of a reasonable product with high standards. In our case we wanted dialog that could be kept up to date on the site, and could help other students acquire the concepts and theories of social justice in a meaningful way that would result in practical application.

    In What Way Is This Child Intelligent? SEAS site. this article on self esteem addresses K-12. But identity is a lifelong process. It may be even more important for adults pursuing an education, especially in terms of the affect they develop towards learning.

    Transforming Discourse the UWP Way

    There was extensive exchange between Gale and Susan and Mac, at the Univeristy of Wisconsin, Parkside (UWP), on preparing their papers for the Western Social Science Association's meetings in Reno, Nevada, this April. Their more recent scramble to prepare and print final copies of their presentations has started to go up on site, though that file never got around to the section of their e-mail dialog that fit the title. That will have to wait till after Reno to go up.

    Wisconsin focussed on actual papers, writing, editing, and polishing them. This is particularly useful if you're considering going on to graduate education. It was very impressive watching them piece their papers together. They had a wonderful time doing it, though I'm not sure I could have managed the 40 or so e-mail a day that were flying back and forth between them.

    We hope this year that our cross-country exchange will allow both universities to see to what extent they accomplished similar goals with very different strategies. We'll put the Wisconsin papers up on site after Reno.

    Transforming Discourse the CSUDH Way

    We approached the panels differently. We had intensive discussions in our office, and they included many more than just those who were able to go to Reno. We'll also be presenting at ASA this August, and so our discussions ranged far and wide.

    But often we strayed far from the planned panels to the issues that had captured our discussions on social justice. This led to exciting exchanges, but left the challenge to the last minute that the Wisconsin team had faced from the beginning. I was indeed appalled as I saw their papers taking shape, but found us strewn across the landscape, exploring painting as expression of the imaginary and wondering whether Mac wasn't right about alterity - just a stage along the way to embracing differAnce.

    Now, as we face the final moments of preparation, I have forgiven myself for what I could not manage, and come to see the fruitfulness of this exchange. Without intending it, we have constructed to very different products of our academic discourse. One, the formal paper, a beginning to the actual and traditional paper product. The "Other," and I suspect it truly is an "Other," the lived experience of trying out new imaginaries.

    And now we will have the chance together to explore how to merge our findings to transform future discourse. Will add an explanation of grounded theory, but not till after Reno.

    For the benefit of all who will be sharing in Reno, here are the the main concerns of each of our participating CSUDH team mebers:

    jeanne:

    jeanne wants to change the academic hierarchy to permit greater agency to undergraduate students, to faculty and staff, that they might all contribute meaningfully to dialog on social justice issues. She also wants to open the academic hierarchy to the community, with more thorough understanding of the relative strengths and contributions of each.

    Marlene Boykin:

    Marlene has returned to school, and is thinking of pursuing a doctorate. Her primary interest is in gerontology, and her need to change the world leads her towards studying the homeless and other excluded groups. Marlene's relationship to Dear Habermas has provided her with the opportunity to apply the social welfare theory she has been studying in a real world situation. jeanne's questions on trust:
  • What elements of trust were superficially available through Dear Habermas?
  • What elements of personal trust counted?
  • Did grades have any effect on trust?

    Got to go to school now. More tomorrow. jeanne