Journalists and academics as public educators

Michelle Stack, EDST professor, writes about journalism and academe in an article for “Academic Matters” magazine. In the article, “Journalists and academics as public educators,” Dr. Stack argues that journalism and academe have much in common, both being networks of knowledge that facilitate the noisy, messy process of democratic conversation.

The full text of the article is available online.

Academic Matters is Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associates’ (OCUFA) journal of higher education, published two times a year in print and on the web.

AERA Awards

Dr. Anish Sayani, sessional instructor at EDST, was selected for two awards at the American Education Research Association (AERA) Conference 2011. The awards committee selected his dissertation for the Robert Kottkamp Outstanding Dissertation Award for his "narrative-ethnographic study of the lived experiences of marginalized high school students" which they called a "ground breaking" and "significant" study. The award was announced at AERA on April 8th.

Dr. Sayani was also selected for the Divison A AERA Outstanding Dissertation Award for his dissertation, Pathologies and complicities: High school and the identities of disaffected South Asian "Brown boys." This award was announced at AERA on April 10th.

Dr. Blye Frank presents research at EDST

The recently appointed Dean of the Faculty of Education, Dr. Blye Frank, visited the Department of Educational Studies on April 19, 2011 to present his recent research into models of masculinity, and to meet EDST faculty and staff. Many EDST members listened to the talk, which focused on masculinity and health, then shared refreshments and conversations with Dr. Frank.

Dr. Blye Frank has been appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Education at UBC for a five-year term, effective April 1, 2011. Dr. Frank is an experienced educator and administrator who brings a strong commitment to excellence in research, teaching and academic leadership. He has an active research career and is currently conducting research in the areas of men, masculinities, and health. Dr. Frank served as principal investigator in the Exemplary Schools Project, a federally funded study on successful schools in Canada. He has held major research grants from the Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada for research in the area of masculinity and schooling. He has been involved in several international projects in Tanzania, Turkey, Pakistan and currently with a World Bank funded project in medical education reform in Kazakhstan. Frequently invited to present papers and keynote addresses to academic and professional conferences at the local, provincial, national and international level, Dr. Frank has appeared as an expert witness on human rights issues and has served on a number of local and national boards.

American Education Research Assocation conference

Dear EDSTers,

The 2011 American Education Research Association (AERA) Conference was held between Friday, April 8 and Tuesday, April 12 in New Orleans. The theme of the Annual Meeting was largely, although not exclusively, about reconsidering education as the public good in the era of neoliberalization, privatization, and marketization, thus stimulating a new dialogue about the contributions that education research can make to the public sphere. EDST presenters included Dr. Mark Aquash, Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald, Dr. Jo-Anne Dillabough, Dr. Amy Metcalfe, Dr. Taylor Webb, Dr. Kalervo Gulson and myself, Ee-Seul Yoon.

With the two invited professors from Australia and Sweden, Dr. Dillabough, Dr. Webb, Dr. Gulson & I participated in the symposium focused on Education Markets in Morocco, Canada, Australia, and Sweden: Youth, Identity, and Globalization. This symposium provided much-needed understanding of both locally specific and globally shared experiences and challenges that school choice has faced, and is facing, in an era of neoliberal globalization and new imperialism. It showcased ethnographic accounts of the relationship between education marketization and young people’s identities in urban areas of Australia, Canada, Morocco and Sweden. Furthermore, it identified emerging trends in these four countries: new school choice discourses and varying school types, such as identity schools, mini schools and free schools. Each scholar presented their novel, interdisciplinary conceptual tools which both guided their ethnography of youth and markets and helped interrogate illusive concepts, such as ‘choice,’ ‘community,’ ‘best school,’ ‘self-care’ and ‘freedom,’ in the cacophony of market discourses. The following list includes the titles of the papers presented:

• “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Freedom of Choice and Young People in Swedish Multicultural Neighborhoods (Nihad Bunar, Stockholm University)
• Education Marketization in a Global City: New Challenges to Young People’s ‘Community’ Belonging (Ee-Seul Yoon, The University of British Columbia)
• Global Tourism and the New Imperialism: Illusions of Choice and Young Working Lives in Morocco (Jo-Anne Margaret Dillabough, The University of British Columbia)
• The “Best School” or the “Right School”? Framings of School Value in Australia (Joel Austin Windle, Monash University)
• Afrocentric Schooling, Globalized Policy and the “Care of the Self”: Reimagining Marketization and Student Identity (Kalervo N. Gulson, University of New South Wales, Australia, & Taylor Webb, The University of British Columbia)

Chair: Ee-Seul Yoon & Jo-Anne Margaret Dillabough (The University of British Columbia)

Following the symposium, we had the opportunity to eat and talk. If you want to know more about this symposium or any paper, feel free to email me at eeseul@interchange.ubc.ca.

Faculty of Education Congress Members

EDST professors Mona Gleason and Daniel Vokey will participate as members of the newly formed Faculty of Education Congress. The Faculty announced all the members of the Congress this week. The Congress is a new deliberative body that brings a wide range of perspectives to issues of Faculty-wide significance. The Faculty acknowledges the commitment these colleagues have made to serving the Faculty and wishes them success in this new endeavor. The Congress will have its first meeting in April.

Explorations & Education

A UBC Faculty of Education Conference, “Explorations & Education” will be held on Friday, April 1 2011, 9:00 am–5:00 pm.

The keynote speaker, Maria LeRose is an MA student in ECPS and an Adjunct Professor at the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Maria is a documentary producer and interviewer with an extensive interest and experience in education. Her address will focus on education in our daily lives.

The conference is hosted by graduate students from the Graduate Student Council of the Faculty of Education, the Department of Educational Studies and the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy. See the event poster [pdf] for details and schedule.

EDST Professor is a team recipient of CIHR Grant

EDST congratulates Jennifer Chan, Associate Professor, who is one of seven international co-investigators on a research team which was awarded a four-year grant from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for $406,716. This operating grant is in support of the team’s research project, Living in “transnational spaces”: Gendered vulnerability to HIV of Chinese immigrants in Canada and the implications for future interventions.

The study’s objective is to understand the contrast between Chinese immigrants’ risky sexual behaviours, and silence surrounding sex and HIV. The study findings will help develop education programs, services and policies on global health governance.