ALL ABOUT

MENTORINGA PUBLICATION OF SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE Issue 46 • Winter 2015 ALL ABOUT MENTORING Issue 46 • Winter 2015

1 Union Ave. Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4309 518-587-2100 www.esc.edu

ISSN 2331-5431 Printed by SUNY Empire State College Print Shop ALL ABOUT Submissions to All About Mentoring

f you have a scholarly paper-in-progress or a talk that you have presented, All About Mentoring would MENTORING welcome it. If you developed materials for your students that may be of good use to others, or have a comment on any part of this issue, or on topics/concerns relevant to our mentoring community, pleaseI send them along. issue 46 If you have a short story, poem, drawings or photographs, or have reports on your reassignments and winter 2015 sabbaticals, All About Mentoring would like to include them in an upcoming issue.

Alan Mandell Email submissions to [email protected]. College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring Submissions to All About Mentoring can be of varied length and take many forms. (Typically, materials Editor are no longer than 7,500 words.) It is easiest if materials are sent via email to Mandell as Microsoft Word attachments. In terms of references and style, All About Mentoring uses APA rules (please see the Karen LaBarge Senior Staff Assistant for Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. [Washington, DC: APA, 2010] or Faculty Development http://image.mail.bfwpub.com/lib/feed1c737d6c03/m/1/BSM_APA_update_2010.pdf). Associate Editor “No need is more fundamentally human than All About Mentoring is published twice a year. Our next issue, #47, will be available in the summer of Lorraine Klembczyk our need to understand the meaning of our Graphic Designer 2015. Please submit all materials by April 15, 2015. experience. Free, full participation in photography critical and reflective discourse may Photos courtesy of Stock Studios, and faculty and staff of be interpreted as a basic human right.” SUNY Empire State College, unless otherwise noted. – Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) Cover photo by Anna Barsan, “Cyclus” “How Critical Reflection Triggers Transformative Learning” p r o d u c t i o n Kirk Starczewski In Jack Mezirow and Associates, Director of Publications Ron Kosiba Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: Print Shop Supervisor A Guide to Transformative and Janet Jones Keyboard Specialist Emancipatory Learning College Print Shop San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990, p. 11 Send comments, articles or news to: All About Mentoring c/o Alan Mandell SUNY Empire State College 325 Hudson St., 5th Floor New York, NY 10013-1005 646-230-1255 [email protected] The quotes in this issue of All About Mentoring are taken from the

Special thanks to: work of the influential and generous adult educator, Jack Mezirow Kirk Starczewski and Ron Kosiba for (1923-2014), whose many years of explorations of “transformative many years of care for and attention to All About Mentoring, and to learning” offered all of a rich lens from which to view our own work Dennis Greenleaf and Jim Cooley for helping to bring all of and the lives and the learning of our students. these words to print. 1

Table of Contents

Editorial – Let a Thousand Honors Programs Bloom or How to Cultivate “Cultural Openness” Among Adult Learners: A Boyer College for All ...... 2 Practical Examples From the Buffalo Project ...... 49 Alan Mandell Rhianna C. Rogers and Aimee M. Woznick, Niagara Frontier Center

Mentoring and the Identity Development of Adult Learners . . . . 4 Because They Cared ...... 55 Julia Penn Shaw, Center for Distance Learning; George Scott, Center for Distance Learning Margaret Clark-Plaskie, Genesee Valley Center Capitalism, Exterminism and Moral Economy: A Business Model for the 21st Century? ...... 8 E . P . Thompson Today ...... 58 Tanweer Ali, Center for International Programs Michael Merrill, The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies Essays Before a Syrtos, Part II ...... 10 . Eric L. Ball, Center for Distance Learning An Exploration Into New Worlds: A Faculty Member’s Foray Into Virtual Reality ...... 63 Historical Lessons: From Smallpox to Ebola ...... 16 Eileen O’Connor, School for Graduate Studies Ann M. Becker, Long Island Center Initiation and Development of Internships at the Staten Island Unit: Professional Development Update: The Value of Experiential Learning ...... 66 The Genesee Valley Center Festival of Ideas ...... 18 Gina C. Torino and Amanda G. Sisselman, Metropolitan Center Lynne Wiley, Genesee Valley Center Remaking the University: Family Chorus ...... 20 A Conversation With James W . Hall, Part I ...... 69 Robert Congemi, Northeast Center Ed Warzala, School for Graduate Studies

Mentor-Student Parallels: A Reflection ...... 23 Preventing Student Plagiarism ...... 77 Sue Epstein, Center for Distance Learning Elizabeth Bradley, School for Graduate Studies

On Mentoring: Coaching Academic Self-Confidence What Is Student-Centered Learning? Among Adult Students ...... 25 A Review of: Jessica Kindred, The College of New Rochelle, A Learner Centered Approach to Online Education School of New Resources By Lisa Harrell ...... 81. . Kathleen Stone, Center for Distance Learning From Children to Adults: Applying Developmentally Appropriate Practice to an Adult Online Learning Environment ...... 28 Sustaining Adult Learners Through Relationship Tracy Galuski, Center for Distance Learning A Review of: Developing and Sustaining Adult Learners Finding My Way: One Mentor’s Journey ...... 31 . Edited by Carrie J . Boden-McGill and Kathleen P . King . . . . . 83 Ruth I. Losack, Metropolitan Center Amanda G. Sisselman, Metropolitan Center MOOC Talk: A Connectivist Dialogue Remembering Lorraine Peeler ...... 87 About Our Metaliteracy MOOC Experience ...... 34 Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College Tom Mackey, Michele Forte and Nicola Allain, Center for Distance Learning; Trudi Jacobson and Jenna Pitera, University at Albany Remembering Nancy Bunch ...... 90 Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College History, Memory and Power ...... 41 Anna Barsan, Metropolitan Center Core Values of Empire State College ...... 95

From the Wilds of Sabbatical: A Reflection on Transformation . . 45 Kim Hewitt, Metropolitan Center

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opportunities to learn and to earn the degrees its “specialized advising.” Another mentions they want and they deserve (surely, right at our “challenging students to think outside the box.” core) – if we are going to make it as Empire Others offer “interdisciplinary seminars.” And State College, we have our work cut out for us. still another university proudly announces: It don’t come easy. “We encourage our students to create their own ideal education.” There are many entry points to the debates that are raging right now. I want to zoom How familiar all of this is! in on one because, for me, it’s crucial to so ESC is making a number of radical claims: much about our future. (Sorry if you’ve heard We are a public college that serves learners this before.) Let a who deserve a higher education that is The notion of a “Boyer College” is often responsive to their professional, academic Thousand floated around. (As you’ll see in Ed Warzala’s and personal needs. And that’s what we offer fascinating discussion with Jim Hall in this them. No two ways about it: We’re a living Honors issue, for the moment, we’re skirting around contradiction. We’re an open learning-honors what Boyer may have actually envisioned.) For college for all that seeks to provide thick some, the phrase has been the touch point for advising/mentoring, a model of learning Programs a critique of ESC. “Come on,” these colleagues contracts that can break the hold of the have argued, “just create a ‘Boyer College’ for disciplines, and the amazing opportunity Bloom or those special students, those extraordinary for students to be encouraged to talk about ones, who want it and are capable of doing and have someone take seriously their vision A Boyer something different. Don’t assume that every (whatever form it takes, however rambunctious student craves it; don’t assume that every or conventional it might be) of “their own ideal student can pull it off.” education.” We, as mentors, surely don’t know College for All all the answers (our expertise might be better For others, a “Boyer College-for-all” has been understood as being more humble questioners at the heart of ESC since its opening. “Let and careful listeners whose knowing gets everyone participate in the creation of his or “‘Much as we’ve done this, you’d think it might disrupted all the time) and, wow, for myriad her own education,” these colleagues insist. get a tad bit easier,’ Darnell said, ‘but that’s not reasons (of money, time, priorities, fears “To greater or lesser extents, we know they the way of it.’” of academic chaos and our current dug-in can do it.” – Ron Rash institutional ways), we’re often disappointed “Three A.M. and the Stars Were Out” Not surprisingly, I’m in the second camp. by the gap between this big ideal and the day-to-day realities of our work-lives and in Something Rich and Strange (2014) A great deal is at stake here, but here is one of our students’ learning. But there’s a deep thing that stands out for me. democratic ideal animating all of what we There are literally thousands of honors colleges are trying to do that we shouldn’t toss away o say the least, this is a tough but and honors programs in universities across the so quickly. really important time at SUNY country; and, based on the little research I have Why only honor the few? Empire State College. I think it’s done, the numbers continue to grow. Why Ttough because we have been pushed to ask do they exist? What do they offer? I’d guess A final thought: Our personal and institutional ourselves what we most believe in, what we they exist and continue to grow in order to championing of the blooming of a thousand stand for, what’s worth keeping. I think it’s attract high flying 18-year-olds to institutions (and counting) honors programs resonates well important for exactly the same reasons. If for which they might otherwise not apply. beyond our not-so-small college. This is part we are going to remain viable (we cannot be It’s all about marketing to the very few. Such of the beauty and the difficulty of the naïve about this); if we are to going to keep programs present themselves as offering challenge we face, and another one of those experimenting (yes, for sure, this is a place of alternatives to the current higher education radical claims: Flickers of a student’s active change for ourselves and for our students); trifecta: big lectures, student anonymity and participation in his or her learning and if we are going to provide students with fixed curricula. One such program promotes (and think of the many, many ways this

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can manifest itself!) means that yet another person is gaining valuable practice having a voice, contributing to important decisions and learning that being part of an institution (whatever that institution is, whether family, job, community or religious group) is not about bystanding, nor about becoming more adept at dodging the moves of others, but about being recognized as an authority, with all the limitations that any claims to authority always imply.

“Fostering discourse, with a determined effort to free participation from distortions by power and influence, is a long-established priority of adult educators. The generally accepted model of adult education involves a transfer of authority from the educator to the learners; the successful educator works herself out of her job as educator and becomes a collaborative learner.”

– Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) In Edward W. Taylor, Patricia Cranton and Associates The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012, p. 81

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Mentoring and the Identity Development of Adult Learners

Julia Penn Shaw, Center for Distance Learning; Margaret Clark-Plaskie, Genesee Valley Center

A Shared Perspective on Identity Development Through Mentoring

ur mentoring at SUNY Empire State College binds our college community together and also distinguishesO us from other academic institutions within SUNY and beyond. This work is far more than “branding,” although it certainly contributes to our shared identity within Empire State College. Throughout all regions of New York state and across the United States, and even internationally, and spanning all levels of responsibilities, is our ever-present desire to meet the mentoring needs of our adult learners. From a developmental perspective, mentoring

is meaningful both theoretically and GUPTA-CARLSON CREDIT: JIM PHOTO experientially. Do theories such as Erik Julia Penn Shaw Margaret Clark-Plaskie Erikson’s stages of psychosocial identity development help mentors engage students in reaching their academic, personal and impact of mentoring relationships across one demonstrated different learner approaches professional goals? When theories of adult different settings and modes of working at to the learner-mentor relationship and to development are part of adult learners’ studies, the college. engagement in the learning process. Given do they contribute to learners’ insights into the interdependent nature of mentoring, each Qualitative research methods suited our their own educational, professional and learner-mentor relationship also uniquely project. In a sense, we interviewed ourselves personal journeys? engaged us as mentors in our efforts to guide and each other about mentoring, based on each learner to reach his or her goals. Focusing The attraction to consider the interplay our cumulative 27 years as mentor faculty at on stories about students enabled us to bridge between theory and practice in adult SUNY Empire State College. Stories about our different physical settings and methods development, particularly adult identity student experiences grounded our investigation. of interacting with students, discussing both development, became the basis of our scholarly Sometimes examples helped us explore ideas effective and perplexing mentoring experiences exploration of mentoring and the identity about how mentoring worked well, and from different vantage points. In some ways, development of adult learners at SUNY sometimes examples helped us to pose critical the process of sharing these student stories Empire State College. This topic was broad unanswered questions about the challenges helped us to elucidate how the mentoring enough to include most paths of interest to of some students that concerned or even experience can influence adult identity, and us, but narrow enough to keep us connected baffled us. also to visualize and articulate what we mean to a central theme. It provided bounds for This led to the development of our February by the “impact of mentoring on identity our population (within the college), the focus 2014 publication in the open access online development of adult learners.” The process (impact of mentoring) and a theoretical basis international journal, Educational Research, of education changes lives, and life-changing (identity development). Since one of us works titled “Beyond Stages: Mentoring as experiences change identities. fully online with students through the Center Transitional Identity Space for Adult Learners” for Distance Learning (CDL), and the other The theoretical foundations of identity (Clark-Plaskie & Shaw, 2014). We provided works primarily with individual students development provided a starting point for our observations and mentoring experiences face-to-face at the Corning/Elmira Unit, our understanding the impact of mentoring with five students who illustrated learner- exploration provided an opportunity to gain on identity development of adult learners. mentor relationships and experiences from a broader and deeper understanding of the Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development different vantage points (though some details describes continued growth across the lifespan, were modified to maintain anonymity). Each

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with identity development proposed as the others were hierarchical, based on distinct a foundation, but also incorporated elements hallmark of the adolescent stage. As adults stages and measurable changes. That is, from from Donald Winnicott’s (1953) holding and mentors of adults, we know that identities these perspectives, developmental changes environment, Martin Buber’s (1958) concept of can definitely develop and change throughout were seen to happen in a sequence, and each the “I-Thou” relationship, and dynamic systems our lives. In fact, we recognized that many new stage was viewed as progress from the theory (Fischer, 1980; Fischer & Bidell, 2006). of our students, even while leading full and earlier stage. Describing the adult mentoring process, effective adult lives, were in the midst of A small but significant paradigm shift emerged as we experienced it, required this more identity work that others had completed (or, in our descriptions of mentoring, moving us versatile and granular model. How could we according to Erikson’s theory, were proposed beyond this traditional identity framework. describe our students who had fidelity to their to have completed) in adolescence. They may Our shift was from using the psychosocial commitments as parents or as professionals, or may not have been consciously aware of linear model to using a process-oriented but had not completed their academic goals, their identity struggles; they may or may not spatial one. This emerging framework, which or the complex shifts in their paths have been seeking “growth” in this personal we identified as a “transitional identity interlocking their personal, academic and life domain. Some of our adult learners have, space,” better captured adult learners’ identity professional goals? nonetheless, experienced changes in their development within the educational mentoring “sense of self ” within the mentoring context. The work of Erikson and other context and seemed to bring identity theory developmentalists was useful, but too limited According to Erikson, identity development into the 21st century. This updated model still for our mentoring experiences with adult is framed around an abstract “sense of self ” had traditional adult identity development as learners. Traditional identity theory provides (Erikson, 1959). This is characterized by milestones for changes with child, adolescent fidelity to one or more commitments to and adult populations over longer periods of that self, such as a commitment to an ethic, As mentoring shows us, time, and its sustained application in both a professional path, a gender status, a therapeutic and educational settings is a sign religious affiliation or a set of relationships many students who take on of its continued usefulness in those settings (a family). This commitment, or these the challenges of formal adult (Kroger, 2000; Cramer, 2004). Erikson’s commitments, are built upon childhood traditional psychosocial theory also has been experiences, but are likely to first be made learning do so to complete a found to be useful when singling out specific as conscious decisions during adolescence. commitment to the self that aspects of identity within a whole person. They become more complex in adulthood, The mentoring experience, however, was too as they are reinforced by adult choices and could not be completed at an complex to be captured in a hierarchical model, challenged by expanding responsibilities, earlier time; to respond to and although linear models were helpful in opportunities and cognitive processes. external pressure; to explore a number of ways, they did not describe our As mentoring shows us, many students who experiences sufficiently. take on the challenges of formal adult learning further options for their lives; We confirmed that identity theory needed do so to complete a commitment to the self and/or to gain fidelity to a to be updated, and our experiences with that could not be completed at an earlier time; mentoring were a logical path in doing so. to respond to external pressure; to explore new “sense of self.” Sometimes A view upon students was not effective in further options for their lives; and/or to gain they can articulate these goals describing our experience with them – or fidelity to a new “sense of self.” Sometimes their experiences with us. We wanted to they can articulate these goals clearly when clearly when they become convey identity development as a process – a they become students, but frequently they students, but frequently they dynamic process within a complex system of cannot – perhaps because there are many interactions. We needed a framework with aspects intertwined into the one goal of cannot – perhaps because more flexibility for capturing nuanced and “getting the degree”; perhaps because the there are many aspects subtle hours of interactions with adult learners goals are only loosely articulated; and perhaps across a number of years. because the goal is to explore the bounds of a intertwined into the one new “sense of self.” goal of “getting the degree”; The direction that evolved was a logical one – from linear to spatial, and from stage- Our Paradigm Shift perhaps because the goals are developmental assessment to dialogic planning. Both the student and the mentor engage in a Erikson’s foundational work served as only loosely articulated; and discussion of small increments to secure “next an overview tool for evaluating lifelong perhaps because the goal is to steps,” whether determining a degree program, psychosocial development of identity. The responding to questions from an assessment traditional linear models, particularly of explore the bounds of a new committee or planning and completing a Erikson (1959), but also of Marcia (1966, “sense of self.” term of study. Stages are too large and too 1987), Kroger (2000, 2003, 2007, 2010) and linear to capture that experience. With finer

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granularity comes the appreciation of process • It incorporates measurements about Although stages are useful for assessment and the flows of multiple progressions and qualities, such as improved focus; critical over time, they cannot capture micro-changes, sometimes regressions. Not only is there thinking; connected and meaningful which result not only in learning but also in room to notice when small shifts are made, learning; humor and patience, as well as confidence, in commitment to new goals and but also perhaps more importantly how those measurements about whether the end goal in fidelity to a stronger identity. Both stage and shifts are accomplished. Which successful of the degree is met. spatial metaphors capture movements toward actions by the learner or mentor – or both goals, but the spatial metaphor opens up more – within the interaction made a positive The Seeking Self pathways for movement, allowing for more difference and why? The process perspective variations and smaller increments of change. We found that it also was helpful to have a is based on realities enacted in real time, Movement within a learning space may lead process-oriented frame for our students as not abstractions so encompassing that they to more than one stage-developmental type seeking selves who create and then traverse engulf – and sometimes even obscure – smaller of change. A path may take unexpected paths in their own “transitional identity space” but immensely meaningful exchanges and turns or incorporate new aspects of the self, with their mentor and other helpful guides. personal changes. A process orientation leads which are important to note, but which do Learners who are “seeking selves” have some to a celebration of micro-achievements, both not directly lead to the “next stage.” Stage of the following qualities that support their those along the path toward definable larger development may measure the points where academic success: goals and those that suggest potentially deep the transitions in status are most evident, changes within the “self.” • The student has prior success in but these may not always be the points most meeting a commitment, frequently to a meaningful for students. Transitional Identity Space relationship, such as that with her or his Stages do not capture the progressive children, or a profession. The student Labels for new concepts are helpful, and we integration of dissonant aspects of the self. has already shown the capacity to sustain found two labels that seemed appropriate Learners may recognize first that they can fidelity to a commitment. for our work: “Transitional Identity Space” be both parent and student (and be a role (TIS) and “The Seeking Self.” The first • The student has the ability to trust model for their children), but only later gain concept for the spatial view of mentoring, in the relationship with their mentor, confidence that they are prepared for that the TIS, immediately shifted thinking from based on prior success with at least one promotion they seek. These are different points a line or ladder to an open and at least trusting relationship: The student has the of meaningful integration. The relationships three-dimensional space, incorporating many potential to engage with the mentor in an are unique for each learner-mentor pair –and aspects of the learner, not just their academic “I-Thou” relationship. the terrain may be different for different roles. When we focused on the transitional academic subjects. • The student describes at least one success learning space of the learner, we relied less on a in overcoming obstacles through personal definition of effective mentoring and more on Our Next Steps resiliency or perseverance. the process of mentoring. When we talk about adult transformation Offering a “transitional identity space” to a The TIS differs from stages in many ways: (in adult education theories or in our “seeking self ” seems to describe some of the own college mission statement), is it not • It is from the perspective of the learner: potential in the mentoring experience. adult identity transformation that is being Each space is somewhat unique. Why the Paradigm Shift? addressed? It seems in many ways as if • It is process-oriented, not identity transformation is at the root of definition-oriented. Freire (1970) asked us to “walk the path our college values, and in part, the desired with the learner.” In so doing, many of our result of the particular roles of educational • It more readily incorporates “relationships” mentoring experiences become “I-Thou” planning and primary mentoring. These as both learner and mentor traverse the relationships (Buber, 1958), well beyond the college commitments to our students foster the learning space. “I-It” relationships that can be associated learner-mentor relationship and the identity • The path/paths within a TIS are visible with “taking courses.” An I-Thou experience development that may ensue. parts of a learner’s resiliency, flexibility is one that engages two unique individuals in Having thoughtfully started to travel a path and learning – even if these qualities a mutual exchange – a dialogic exchange and to learn more about identity development in are not visible parts of movement a dialectical experience. We work with our our adult learners, we want to continue in across stages. mentees. They may expect us to be experts this direction. Knowledge about the impact of in the college, in mentoring and frequently • How a learner learns becomes the focus mentoring on the whole lives of our students in a subject area, but we know that they – much more important for developing is particularly important now as the direction are experts in what gives them meaning, in habits of lifelong learning – rather than of the college with respect to mentoring is what feels compelling to learn about, and in just what a learner learns. being evaluated. Next steps necessarily involve what goals they want to pursue. The learner- learning from our alumni whether their mentor relationship develops from these two experiences with mentoring (as varied as they complementary sources of energy.

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may be) were significantly valuable to them, Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life and if so, in what specific ways. We want to cycle. New York, NY: W. W. Norton survey cohorts of alumni on their views of & Company. the values of mentoring. We will be focusing Fischer, K. W. (1980, November). A theory particularly on their perception of the impact of cognitive development: The control of mentoring on their educational experiences, and construction of hierarchies of skills. on the achievement of their expressed goals, Psychological Review, 87(6), 477-531. on tools to enhance lifelong learning, and on a concomitant confidence and on integration in Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). their sense of self. Dynamic development of action, thought, and emotion. In R. M. Lerner We are looking forward to refining the idea (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. of a spatial, process-oriented framework for Volume 1: Theoretical models of human mentoring, which we believe allows for an development (6th ed.) (pp. 313–399). organic view of adult learner experiences. New York, NY: Wiley. Action research on the learner, the learning process, and the relationship between the Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. learner and the mentor is key to our work New York, NY: Continuum. at the college, and allows us an opportunity Kroger, J, (2000, June). Ego identity status to reflect about, and with, our students in a research in the new millennium. deeper way. International Journal of Behavioral Our progress over the last year, including our Development, 24(2),145-148. Educational Research article (Clark-Plaskie Kroger, J. (2003). What transits in an identity & Shaw, 2014), was in large part due to the status transition? Identity: International focus and professional time provided by Journal of Theory and Research, 3(3), the Institute on Mentoring, Teaching and 197-220. Learning (IMTL) for 2013-2014 offered by the Center for Mentoring and Learning. Kroger, J. (2007). Why is identity achievement Without the support and the deadlines for so elusive? Identity: International Journal closure, we would not have reached this of Theory and Research, 7, 331-348. milestone. Fortunately, we are working within Kroger, J. (2010, October). Identity status the support of the IMTL again in the 2014- change during adolescence and young 2015 year, moving forward with qualitative and adulthood: A meta-analysis. Journal of quantitative research with our graduates. Adolescence, 33(5), 683-698. Retrieved References from http://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/pii/S014019710900147X Buber, M. (2000). I and thou (R.G. Smith, Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and Trans.). New York, NY: Scribner. validation of ego identity status. (Original work published 1958) Journal of Personality and Social Clark-Plaskie, M., & Shaw, J. P. (2014, Psychology, 3(5), 551-558. February). Beyond stages: Mentoring Marcia, J. E. (1987). The identity status as transitional identity space for adult approach to the study of ego identity learners. Educational Research, 5(2), development. In T. Honess, & K. Yardley 58-70. Retrieved from http:/dx.doi. (Eds.), Self and identity: Perspectives org/10.14303/er.2014.017 across the lifespan (pp. 87-92). New York, Cramer, P. (2004, June). Identity change in NY: Routledge. adulthood: The contribution of defense Winnicott, D. W. (1953). Transitional objects mechanisms and life experiences. and transitional phenomena – A study of Journal of Research in Personality, 38(3), the first not-me possession. International 280-316. Retrieved from http://www. Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 34, 89-97. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0092656603000709

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A Business Model for the 21st Century?

Tanweer Ali, Center for International Programs

ojtěch Sedláček is not a typical courtyard on Johannes Kepler’s achievements businessman. For a start, he shows as an astronomer, with students serving as not the slightest interest in making live props, one representing the sun, another Vmoney – but we will come to that in a the earth and a third the moon. We also saw while. He has had a wide and varied career, a poster production firm that Sedláček runs, a career that appears to be in full swing; at which he founded just after the flood of 2002 67, he does not strike one as a man on the devastated large parts of Prague. verge of retirement. After completing his The social enterprise course was designed military service in 1969, he started working to blend theory with practice. We combined as a computer programmer. His career in the lectures and readings with field trips, guest IT sector was set back in the 1970s as he speakers and case studies. Students were came to the attention of the communist-era required to analyze what they saw in the Czechoslovak secret police. In 1977, he became context of theoretical principles in written one of the first wave of signatories of Charter 1 assignments, a team presentation and a final 77, along with the late Czech President Václav examination. While students visited real Havel and 240 other people. Performing a social businesses in Prague, the case studies number of different odd jobs in the years that were global in reach, and examined a range followed, Sedláček first started voluteering of issues such as microcredit (making small as a teacher for disabled children in 1981, loans available to the poor), job creation, social Tanweer Ali an activity that he kept up for several years. inclusion and urban planning. After the fall of the communist regime in November 1989, the former political dissident One of the aims of the course was to present business. Indeed, advocates of social enterprise played an active role in the newly formed Civic business education in a new light (the majority see business as an integral part of the solution Forum, becoming mayor of his hometown, of students in the class were concentrating to social and environmental problems. Roztoky, just outside Prague, and working for in business, with a minority from our Another key goal of the course was to generate the Czechoslovak federal government. But international relations and communication awareness of potential career opportunities. Sedláček’s political career was short-lived and concentrations). The dominant ideology Social enterprise offers business graduates he soon began life as an entrepreneur. in business education revolves around the a chance to apply their skills and energy supremacy of market forces and self-interest. Sedláček now runs a family of around a dozen to achieve a number of goals at the same The world that is presented is generally one small businesses, which were all founded with time. To gain a deeper personal exposure to of profit maximizing firms and individuals the specific purpose of employing people the sector, students, working in pairs, were contributing to the greater good by competing with disabilities. These businesses are all required to locate and interview someone in a free market. While in recent years, greater social enterprises – run for a social goal, not working in a social enterprise. And there was emphasis has been placed on business ethics for maximizing the wealth of their owners. a team assignment: preparing a business plan and corporate social responsibility, shareholder Sedláček only looks for one quality in potential outline for a new social enterprise. Teams had value – the notion that the financial interests employees: the willingness to communicate. to identify a specific social or environmental of equity owners should be the paramount All profits go toward furthering the social goal problem and develop an entrepreneurial goal of managers – remains the dominant of providing a livelihood for disabled people. solution. Each team presented its idea at ideological precept. Sedláček’s businesses are all successful, and he the end of the term. Ideally, one day we is passionate about all of them. This June, I Business and the broader social good are most will be able to develop a course, perhaps at took a group of my Prague Program2 students often viewed as belonging to separate world the graduate level, which allows students to in my summer course, Creating a Social views, often barely compatible. So the idea of dedicate time and resources to prepare fully Business, to visit a selection of his businesses in a commerical enterprise, financially sustainable viable business plans. A funding partner might Prague. We started at the Kepler Museum, the and competitive, managed for the purpose be able to help some of these ideas turn into smallest of his firms (and the smallest museum of furthering a social goal is something of real-life enterprises. Harvard and Stanford in Prague), with one employee. The visit began a departure from this traditional view of have developed social innovation labs that have with an open air impromtu lecture in the enabled numerous student-led initiatives to

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come to fruition, and hopefully this concept make perfect gifts. In addition to individual the political process. Yet, government plays will spread around the world. On a more customers, Borecká has two large corporate a key role, not only in social policymaking immediate level, I very much hope that clients. Her guest lecture to the class was but also in creating a receptive environment some of the students who took this course followed by a lively question and answer for social entreprise. In the United Kingdom, will take part in the social enterprise session, and at the end of the study, a number seen as a leader in the field, legislation has competitions for young people that already of students told me that hers was the most been developed to make it relatively easy to exist and that provide coaching and resources interesting story. Perhaps this was because start and run a social enterprise. The public to new start-ups. Borecká, a recent Ph.D. graduate, is closest to procurement process also favors firms that our students in age and experience. have a demonstrable social purpose. Social While Vojtěch Sedláček is undoubtedly enterprises, which often have a better ground- an inspiring figure, the formative political Besides Sedláček, Vítek and Borecká, we met level understanding of social problems than experience of his life makes him an implausible two other social entrepreneurs. Filip Kavka central government agencies, are encouraged to role model for the current 20-something Smiggels is a Dutchman who has lived in function as partners to the public sector. This generation; that is, for our International Prague for just over 10 years and considers model of partnership surely has considerable Program students in Prague. In addition, the city his true home. In 2010, he opened potential in a world where there is little faith business academics have not been able to his vegetarian restaurant, “Mlsna Kavka” ( or in state socialism, and yet where the market identify any specific personality traits common “picky jackdaw”) a joint venture between him fundamentalism of neoliberal ideology also to social entrepreneurs, or for that matter, to and Green Doors, a local nonprofit that works has come to the seen as a failure. Hazel any type of entrepreneur. It appears that any with people suffering from mental illness. The Blears, a member of the British parliament’s type of person, with any type of background goal is to provide employment opportunities to committee on social enterprise and a former can become a social entrepreneur. So we visited the clients of Green Doors, opportunities that cabinet minister in the administrations of Tony a number of social enterprises. would not normally be open to them in the Blair and Gordon Brown, told a recent social regular labor market. The result is a success: Petr Vítek is in his early 30s, speaks near enterprise conference in the Czech Republic: The staff at the restaurant have strong support perfect English, worked until recently in the “In politics you can have a good idea but if the and are efficient, polite and friendly. The food, Prague office of a “Big Four” audit firm and time is wrong, then you will fail. If the time is as the students who stayed beyond the visit for counts a number of our recent alumni among right but if you don’t have any ideas, then you lunch would testify, also is excellent. When I his personal friends. Vítek is a co-founder of will also fail; you succeed with the right idea, first arrived in Prague in the early 1990s, the the Hub, a co-working space and resource at the right time.” Perhaps social enterprise city contained just one salad bar; now Kavka’s center for entrepreneurs of all kinds. Self- is an idea whose time has come. If so, I hope restaurant is part of a thriving vegetarian scene, employed professionals and small firms may some of our students will play an active role in a sign of how much has changed in the past use the office space in return for a small developing this sector. two decades. membership fee. Moreover, the Hub offers regular training courses, seminars, conferences Our last visit was to Bajkazyl (or “bike Notes and networking events. Though the Hub asylum”), a cafe that doubles up as a bicycle 1 Charter 77 was a document calling for serves all types of businesses, social enterprise repair workshop. The concept was the the government to respect human rights is clearly Vítek’s passion, and during our visit brainchild of Martin Kontra, a passionate and was composed in 1977. Further to the Hub’s expansive and light-filled space cyclist, who has struggled to make Prague signatories added their names in later in a former printing press, Vítek explained a more bike-friendly place for much of his years, a courageous and often dangerous his vision of a future world, saying that in adult life. Kontra has kept up his day job as move under communist rule. 20 years’ time, the majority of start-up firms a journalist throughout the life of Bajkazyl will be social enterprises. Needless to say, and also was supported for three years by the 2 For more information about the Prague, the Hub itself, a franchise born in London, US-based Ashoka Foundation. The visit so Czech Republic Program, please visit is a social enterprise. enthused one student that he bought a second- http://www.esc.edu/international- hand bike on the spot: the photo appeared on programs/prague-czech-republic/. Markéta Borecká spends most of her working Facebook minutes after the class! day in the Hub. She currently divides her time between a regular job with a small For all the difference that social enterprise human resources consultancy and a social has made in the world, it is important to enterprise that she runs with one assistant: see its limitations as a vehicle for social both entities are based in the Hub. Borecká change. A particularly relevant case in point organizes collections of old clothes, some of is microcredit, once seen by many as a silver which are distributed to local charities. The bullet in poverty reduction, but now the subject remainder, which are not in sufficiently good of fierce controversy. Of particular significance condition to be worn, are recycled into covers is the role of government as a change-maker. for diaries and mobile phones and into small Many social entrepreneurs are instinctively bags. The resulting products are beautiful and dismissive of government and suspicious of

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Essays Before a Syrtos,1 Part II

Eric L. Ball, Center for Distance Learning

In what follows here, I continue my writing that taken to designate something diachronically began in the last issue, dealing with my ongoing Greek – at once pre-modern (usually implying learning objective. In Part I, I described this deep, direct connections to ancient Greek or objective as follows: to become a competent Minoan civilizations), but also continuing to musical artist engaged primarily with Cretan evolve in the present with a modern twist, tradition, maybe even a competent artist of the provided that the diachronic Greek (or Cretan) Cretan lyra. I tried to begin unpacking my use essence of the tradition remains intact. of the word competent in this description. Now, One reason for continuing attention to folk in Part II, I will turn my attention to two of its tradition in a nation-state like Greece, both other key terms: tradition and artist. in the academy and among the public at large, Tradition is an ongoing sense of many people that even if capitalist modernity rescues humanity from “Everyone should have the opportunity of not certain injustices that had been pervasive under being over-influenced.” traditional historical arrangements, capitalist modernity also alienates and takes away from – Charles Ives, Essays Before a Sonata (1920) humanity much of what was good about radition, in many modern nation- pre-modern, pre-capitalist social formations states, including Greece, is a concept and civilizations. Another reason for ongoing that has been deeply influenced by attention is that during the historical process Eric Ball collaborating on a song with Tmodern romantic nationalist discourse and of nation-building, intellectuals often insisted his niece. its descendants – including the discourse of that the essence of the nation can be found in wrote: “Instead, we [folklorists] must folklore and the academic field of folklore its purest form within folk traditions. (This understand tradition as a symbolic process studies, or, as it is known in Greece, of was certainly the case during the formation that both presupposes past symbolisms and laografia (literally: writing the people). At and consolidation of the modern Greek creatively reinterprets them. In other words, least since the 1980s, critical interrogation state, as Herzfeld, mentioned earlier, has tradition is not a bounded entity made up into the relationship of folkloric work and demonstrated.) Yet another reason is to provide of bounded constituent parts, but a process romantic nationalism, and into associated an institutional and discursive mechanism of interpretation, attributing meaning in ideas of “authenticity,” has been an important for resisting the inroads of more powerful the present though making reference to the topic in academic folklore studies as well as nation-states at the expense of the indigenous. past” (p. 287). Once scholars realized that, cultural anthropology. Michael Herzfeld did (This is true in contemporary Greece, where, “[t]he varying definitions of authenticity seminal work in the 1980s on the emergence for example, state funding for the study 2 that have resulted from this pursuit reveal of laografia in Greece, and many others and dissemination of Greek folk musical that ‘traditional’ is not an objective attribute have continued with this line of work, traditions can serve as an important strategy 3 of cultural practices, but a designation that myself included. for defending a plethora of Greek musical is always assigned in the present,” they practices against the massive influence of the Lay concepts of tradition, in many cases found it sensible to shift their focus away American and Western European popular adopted or adapted from earlier professional from participation in debates about what is music industries that have so much private and academic ways of conceptualizing authentically traditional and instead focus on capital behind them.) tradition, tend to take tradition as an objective articulating the criteria (and the implications given – as those things and practices that When academics dealing with folk tradition of such criteria) that get invoked in discussions a group of people hand down, pass on, scrutinized their own projects and various and debates about authenticity (p. 282). continue and develop over time. Questions other public folklore projects further, they This was an important move, and it has and arguments abound regarding what is and noticed just how political and sometimes made academic considerations of tradition what isn’t traditional, who is and who isn’t unclear and contradictory some of their much more slippery and nuanced than they an authentic tradition-bearer. So-called “folk fundamental assumptions about tradition 4 used to be, but it strikes me as nevertheless tradition” is frequently taken to designate, seemed to be. Handler and Linnekin lacking in at least one important respect: however simplistically, something pre-modern demonstrated succinctly the shift that Sure, something’s value as traditional does not or close to it. Or, in modern Greece, it can be occurred with this recognition when they

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necessarily depend on an objective relation of such a positive concept – armed only with and extensive history of commercial recording to the past. And, yes, we can ask who values the “outdated” organic definition of tradition of Cretan music dating back at least to the 78 something as tradition, and inquire as to what and the critiques that have subsequently rpm recordings of 1917 (at last made publicly end and with what consequences they value complicated it – I remain convinced that accessible on YouTube, but nowhere else that it, and how they define authenticity. But we tradition remains, for now anyway, a useful way I am aware of ). So, on the one hand, there is can still nonetheless also examine if and how to interpret certain cultural practices, and that endless talk and writing about professional that value does depend – for those who value it is still worthwhile for academics to debate musicians and professional recordings that is it – on empirically supportable relations to and negotiate the provisional delineation of reminiscent of what gets said in the context the past. And, we can further ask what the boundaries of particular traditions, including of many other musical genres in modern purposes and consequences of the extent of when it comes to music, and to Cretan music recording history, including artists themselves that dependence (or lack thereof ) are. Not in particular. talking about specific records that influenced because we take it for granted – as did some their own development. On the other hand, For instance, because of my own concerns of our academic predecessors – that there is, or especially when the music is being invoked as regarding both the successes and drawbacks should be, a correlation between the existence folk-traditional, recording technologies receive of capitalist modernity, I would not advocate of such objective relations and the value little mention; and even in instances when the conceptualizing of Cretan music as ascribed to the tradition in question (e.g., as “field” recording is occurring – at a wedding merely another genre or category of the world’s the survival of the essential spirit of a people in banquet, say, or during a gathering of family music to choose from as a performer or as spite of foreign influence or domination), but and friends at someone’s house – it tends to be a consumer. I do believe there is value in because the tradition might remain important treated as a matter of passively recording what viewing it as a tradition, and that there is value to us. So, to the extent that “tradition” can is happening. in the fact that most people who deal with do potentially useful work (e.g., in defending Cretan music do view it and talk about it as Upon closer inspection, however, one sees a against whatever is egregious about capitalist a tradition. I continue to believe this, in spite lot more going on. For example, even in “the modernity, such as when victimized groups of my simultaneous worries that in the Greek field” where one encounters the music in its use nationalism to protect themselves from context, tradition often connotes something “most traditional” forms, tightly interwoven further harm or to establish for themselves a more along the lines of folk music, even though with the mix of scripted and improvisatory better footing vis-à-vis various imperialisms Cretan music is extensively developed in many social rituals and interaction, one can observe and colonizers), it makes sense for some of the most modern of ways one can imagine, instances where certain aspects of collective academics who study the past to participate from being taught in music schools to being improvisation have been influenced by in figuring out how the past is, or might be, produced by numerous record companies and professional recording. For instance, since the drawn on as a resource in the present (in the having its own star system. Indeed, in some lyrics of most Cretan music are comprised of context of talking about tradition) without respects, Cretan music is only about as folk- rhyming couplets (mantinades), the choice of resorting to the invocation of false historical traditional as is alternative rock, post-bop facts or to ideological assumptions that can be jazz or the music of Mikis Theodorakis. I persuasively argued to be unfounded and or continue to believe there is value in viewing at least as unjust as what they purport to be I continue to believe there Cretan music as a tradition in spite of the defending themselves against. And, of course, ways that some extremist populists and all-out is value in viewing Cretan without resorting to old notions that tradition fascists co-opt ideas about national or regional is the handing down of various essences music as a tradition in traditions to justify their most pernicious independent of any interpretation of them activities. Yes, even with these and other spite of the ways that some as such. caveats, I still believe there is provisional value extremist populists and Doing so, however, requires a positive way of in viewing Cretan music as a tradition and as conceptualizing tradition that improves on the paradosiaki mousiki (folk-traditional music). And all-out fascists co-opt ideas essentializing, organic metaphor that has been this is why, in articulating my own learning about national or regional so frequently critiqued, and it requires more objectives, I am referring to Cretan music than the weak, albeit important, claim that tradition using these words. (I could have traditions to justify their it is interpretation of the past in the present. chosen to write, simply, “Cretan music,” which most pernicious activities. I don’t think that I’ve encountered such a you can find on display at a Greek record store positive concept of tradition, one that does near you, filed between nisiotika [Greek island not come into direct conflict with the many music] and dimotika [Greek folk music].) critiques of tradition as a social construct. (I lyrics to go with a particular melody being One of the many interesting issues involved in have seen some academics experimenting with played is largely open to a performer’s choice. thinking about what this tradition “is” involves scholarly genres in ways that, in my reading, At one extreme – which I know from my matters of recording technology. There is a indicate gestures in such a direction.5) Nor own experience playing the mandolin in kind of schizophrenia about the way recording have I myself come up with such a positive the 1990s – playing the same tune at one technologies come into (or do not come into) concept of tradition. But, even in the absence gathering after another might find the same discussions of Cretan music. There is a long

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person improvising a different set of lyrics a musical tradition that is conceptualized in ago, I played Cretan mandolin at the family over that same melody each and every night, terms of a specific geographical location – for gathering of a friend while visiting his paternal lyrics that “match” whatever the concerns of all intents and purposes it exists and happens village? (Then again, does my predilection for the moment happen to be. This “matching” has only there, except when and where someone performing Cretan music in small everyday long been the hallmark of defining competence originally from there, or descended from there, life gatherings overflowing with collective in mantinada improvisation in Crete. Yet, as brings it somewhere else – be it Athens, improvisation mean that, in the end, I would certain melodies get associated with certain Greece or Astoria, New York. I would argue regret it if the former were to happen?) lyrics on professional recordings, one notices that the two limit cases of this conception that in many gatherings – perhaps increasingly that have wide currency today are as follows: Artist many – there is a tendency for many people First, the early 78s of Harilaos Piperakis, a “Everybody should be able to make some music. to hear a melody, recognize it from a well- Cretan who emigrated to the U.S., and who Why, it’s life!” known recording, and to sing the lyrics from made a significant number of important early that particular recording. Do they “match” recordings of Cretan (and other Greek) music – Maude, in the film, Harold and Maude the context of performance? Maybe. Maybe in the U.S. Second, Ross Daly, a musician (1971) not. Or perhaps the “match” is occurring in a of Irish descent who grew up in England, Much as there has been extensive academic new manner, as a way to emphasize through the U.S. and elsewhere, but then moved to interrogation of the construction and invention shared recognition (of “the song,” which is to Crete as a young adult in the 1970s (he’s still of particular (folk and non-folk) traditions, say: of a now fixed pairing of particular dance there today) to learn to play the Cretan lyra. and of tradition as an abstract concept, so has melodies with particular mantinada texts) the Although he, himself, claims that he was never there been a great deal of good work done importance of a shared sentiment (as opposed interested in becoming an artist of Cretan interrogating the modern invention of the to someone “asserting,” possibly agonistically, music, but in becoming a lyra player. Using very categories of art and literature.7 This is an individual sentiment by improvising the Cretan lyra and Cretan music as his base, I interesting to me not only on its own terms, something), or of sharing nostalgia for a think it is fair to say that at least the part of his but also because the invention process often particular notion of Cretan identity, thereby work that is most directly influenced by Cretan involves distinguishing art from folk art (and “matching” the spirit of or justification for music (e.g., his studio recordings of various craft), and literature from folk literature (and an everyday traditional-style gathering in a Cretan tunes) is considered by many Cretan folk expression and oral literature). (Such modern context. musicians and aficionados as “within” and part distinctions did not exist, for example, in the of Cretan music tradition, and not merely as In the opposite direction, after decades of the ancient Greek concept of techne.) The very imitation. Daly is seen as an artist who has recording industry (in Germany, in New York, invention of the artist in modernity usually been making his own important contributions in Athens and in Crete) cutting Cretan records involves a contrast with the very traditions to the continuation and developments of with clean tracks and modern production with which something like Cretan music is this tradition. (Hnaraki’s book is evidence techniques, the invention of YouTube closely associated. And it goes to show, yet of this, as are several Greek public television and miniature, portable digital recording 6 again, just how complex these matters get documentaries over the last 10 years. ) So we technologies (cameras, phones) has meant that once we start interrogating them: On the one have two very important figures, one of whom legions of Cretans are out recording Cretan hand, Cretan music is considered traditional did not live in Crete but who did come from music “in the field” every day, and (unlike and is closely associated with folk music, there, and another who wasn’t local or even when this was happening with cassettes which is art’s “other,” but on the other hand, Greek for that matter, but who became “local.” pre-YouTube) they are putting them up for successful, innovative, professional Cretan aficionados to watch, listen to and comment It remains to be seen if or how technologies music musicians are, like other musical artists, on. For an island of less than a million people, facilitate any further negotiation – for better called kallitechnes. the sheer numbers of new videos (old and or worse – of the extent and ways in which What does it mean to be an artist in the new) of Cretan music that are uploaded every Cretan music is tied to geography. And, of context of Cretan music today? Well, between day is astounding. This development is at the course, all of this has relevance to my own my ongoing discussions with professional very least in tension with the almost century- purposes, because as a non-Cretan who is artists of Cretan music and my lurking or long significance and influence of professional neither from nor living in Crete now, it isn’t participation in various online Greek forums studio recording. (This argument also can immediately evident how anything I play or and YouTube, I’m convinced that insider views be extended to the several regularly-aired do in the near future could ever remotely be on the matter more or less run the gamut of television shows of Cretan music performances considered a part of Cretan music tradition. the philosophy of art/music. One encounters that have been prominent in recent decades.) On the other hand, is it possible that someday explanations that focus on personal emotional I could play something on YouTube that Internet recording technologies may have expression, to those that emphasize reflecting somehow exudes something so “Cretan” that potential bearing on what the Cretan music the time in which the artist lives – everything Cretan music aficionados, even the ones who tradition “is,” especially for me, given that from an emphasis on innovation to mastery of don’t already know me, accept it as such? I’m located an ocean away, and that I’m not a canon, from the importance of challenging Or must I resign myself to the occasional (or I’m no longer) Cretan in any usual sense an audience to the conservative expression of instances of being there, as when, three years of the word. After all, we are talking about an autonomous aesthetic (like Cretanness) …

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even versions of a universal “harmony of the Craftsman.9 He defined craftsmanship as Of all the definitions of meraklis that I have spheres.” (I don’t think I’ve yet encountered “the desire to do a job well for its own sake” seen, this one strikes me as the closest to my any strictly formalist views, however, say, in the (p. 9), but I don’t take this definition, per se, experiential understanding of it, having lived spirit of an Eduard Hanslick.8) And although as the positive concept I’m after, but rather in Crete and being in frequent contact with I cannot dismiss entirely any of these views, as a first approximation of a more complex Cretans and Cretan culture ever since. One the fact that I have encountered persuasive concept that is pointed to by his entire inquiry. thing in particular that I find noteworthy academic critiques of all such ways of defining An additional important aspect of Sennett’s here is the emphasis on passion, as opposed artistry once and for all, I also have my inquiry involves critiquing the alienating ways to Sennett’s mere desire. Also, although I am reservations about them. that “the work of the mind” and “the work woefully ignorant of classics, I am aware (at of the hand” can get separated. Also, near only the most rudimentary level) that the Besides, as someone who believes that the the end of the book – and suggesting to me ancient Greeks had one or more concepts of distinction between art and craft, between that the concept he is getting at is ultimately arete, which, although frequently translated artist and artisan has been overstated – more just than articulations of artistry that as virtue, also has connotations of aiming for sometimes to good effect, sometimes have held sway in much modern aesthetic or achieving excellence or one’s full potential. marginalizing those who ought not to be – discourse, lay and academic – he also expands Although the word arete persists in modern I actually have no real preference for the word to say the following: “Three basic abilities Greek, I haven’t heard it used in everyday life artist (or kallitechnis) over artisan. I would be are the foundation of craftsmanship. These very often, as I have meraklis, so I wonder if just as glad to be an artisan as an artist, except are the ability to localize, to question, and to there is a sense that meraklis is a retooling I can’t help but worry over the implications open up. The first involves making a matter of what it means to be a person of arete – that somehow this would be taken by others as concrete, the second reflecting on its qualities, although, as the quote indicates, perhaps more an indication that the Cretan music tradition the third expanding its sense” (p. 277). (I’ve in the context of certain everyday life activities is musically lesser, and hence populated by also found it helpful that some of his examples than in the broader sense that it apparently artisans instead of real artists. in this book come from the world of music, came to suggest to the ancients. In other ways, I actually prefer the term and that in one of his other books, Respect, Then again, who knows? If some of the artisan to artist, for much of the Cretan music he incorporated into his analysis reflections ancient Greeks believed that training in music tradition remains thoroughly interwoven with on his own experiences with the world of 10 was important for the cultivation of virtue, other non-musical rituals of everyday life. Western classical music as a cellist. ) I some contemporary Greeks seem to view The number of videos on YouTube showing continue thinking through Sennett’s inquiry musical artistry as inseparable from virtue contemporary Cretan music musicians sitting into craftsmanship and quality, and I do so in in a broader sense. In reading ethnographic at the dinner table playing so others can dialogue with students, who read this book in 12 interviews with Cretan musicians, I was sing along or improvise lyrics, or get up and my Introduction to Ethics course and connect struck by a pattern, indicated in the following dance around the room, is remarkable. And it to their own experiences, goals and interests, excerpts from three different interviews with even when Cretan music is performed on a which are usually not music- or arts-related. musicians from the east end of the island: stage, it still tends to happen more frequently In a lay context, and in Greek, the closest thing at weddings and baptisms and other village to such a concept that I have encountered is Example 1 celebrations than at formal concerts or Cretan that of meraklis, one of many everyday Greek music nightclubs. Q: What are the characteristics of a good words (a loanword from Turkish) that is musical artist? What should an artist have In fact, as with tradition, what I yearn for difficult to translate into English with just a in order for you to say that he’s a good is a positive way of conceptualizing artist or word. Interestingly, in a recent Cretan music lyra player? artisan that could somehow get beyond old CD, the large booklet accompanying the CD meanings and connotations (bogged down by includes an English translation of all the A: I think … Should I say the main thing? dichotomous, marginalizing assumptions) and original materials (various essays, song lyrics, That he’s an anthropos [literally “human,” at the same time say something in particular credits). Knowing that meraklis does not readily but when used like this in Greece about artistry that enables meaningful translate into English with a single word, meaning something like, “a real human discussions of quality and competence that are the translators include a footnote explaining being with faults but on the whole a not plagued by the ideological alienations of so it as follows: decent person”]. If he’s an anthropos, he’s many modern discourses on quality in music, also a good artist and whatever. He’ll Meraklis is a man passionate about be they highbrow or capitalist-commercial. reach high without even knowing it. something he does and who always aims Thankfully, I have encountered concepts for perfection in, for example, playing and expressions of ideas that strike me as music, cooking, work, partying or making potentially close to what I’m looking for handicraft. Meraki is this particular kind in this regard. of passion.11 In an academic context, and in English, the closest thing to such a concept that I have encountered is Richard Sennett’s book The

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Example 2 aspects, and cognizant that perhaps it is little audible the new world that will gradually more than a convenient way to say, and to become visible, that will impose itself and Q: Who do you think is a “good” musician? think, something more complex. regulate the order of things. [ … ] For What are the characteristics of a good this reason musicians, even when officially musician in your view? What must he I don’t expect to answer the question of what recognized, are dangerous, disturbing, and offer, technique, sensitivity in playing? it means to be an artist, but only to continue subversive; for this reason it is impossible Or repertory? to address it. For now, as a part of this process, to separate their history from that of I have become interested in certain aspects of A: In my view, for you to be a good musician, repression and surveillance. (p. 11) both Sennett’s inquiry into craftsmanship and you must play. Since you play violin, you the Cretan take on meraklis. And, I continue In addition: must be a good person, to have good to believe that the process of trying to become instincts, and have good character. That is, Music makes mutations audible. It a competent artist engaged in the tradition to not offend the other, to have the other obliges us to invent categories and new of Cretan music entails ongoing inquiry into feel like you’re his person. That’s when dynamics to regenerate social theory, what the very concept of artist might usefully you have success. Because no matter how which today has become crystallized, come to mean. well you play, how advanced you are, even entrapped, moribund. if you are at the peak … Encore (I’m worried now … ) [ … ] Q: No matter how many tunes you know? I would like to point out something about Music is more than an object of study: it A: Yes, whatever you might know, as many all these concepts (competence, tradition, is a way of perceiving the world. A tool tunes and as well as you play them, when artist): It could be that really good, easy-to- of understanding. Today, no theorizing you’re not a right person in society, you handle positive concepts will not emerge, or accomplished through language or lose everything. You lose it all. at least not make sense or stick, unless or until mathematics can suffice any longer; it there have been certain fundamental positive is incapable of accounting for what is Example 3 changes to the socioeconomic infrastructure essential in time – the qualitative and the in which we live. After all, while ideas can fluid, threats and violence. In the face Q: Who did people think was a good and do make a difference, this does not mean of the growing ambiguity of the signs violinist, musical artist, what are the that every possible good idea can be conceived being used and exchanged, the most characteristics of a good musical artist? of, or made sense of, from within any socio- well-established concepts are crumbling A: Well there’s something else. There historical context. and every theory is wavering. The are many big musical artists on many available representations of the economy, Or, it might be that such concepts become instruments, but above all what wins out trapped within frameworks erected in the superfluous or irrelevant after such a is the word “anthropos” [“a real human seventeenth century or, at latest, toward positive change. being with faults but on the whole a 1850, can neither predict, describe, nor decent person”]. And then musical artist. I also would like to mention the work of even express what awaits us. You’re an anthropos, you’re a musical artist, Jacques Attali.13 Attali’s work argues the [ … ] and you have all those things. provocative thesis that developments in musical forms and practices tend to herald Today, music heralds – regardless of what For now, my starting point for thinking – to prophesize – broader changes in the the property mode of capital will be – the about what it means to be an artist (or socioeconomic structure in ways that other establishment of a society of repetition in artisan), in any undertaking, is the idea of areas of culture and analysis do not. “Mozart which nothing will happen anymore. But passionate devotion to doing a good job for its and Bach reflect the bourgeoisie’s dream of at the same time, it heralds the emergence own sake. Of course, the phrase for its own harmony better than and prior to the whole of a formidable subversion, one leading sake is where it gets really interesting. For, of nineteenth-century political theory. There to a radically new organization never yet given the mediatedness of all knowing and is in the operas of Cherubini a revolutionary theorized, of which self-management is the interconnectedness, as well as internal zeal rarely attained in political debate. Janis but a distant echo. (pp. 4-5) contradictions of contexts, and just about Joplin, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix say more everything else that an American neo- Eugene Holland has drawn on Attali and about the liberatory dream of the 1960s than pragmatist or a French poststructuralist would noted how, for example, something like any theory of crisis” (pp. 5-6). This happens, he be quick point out, any idea of for its own sake free jazz was a development in jazz – form explained, because “change is inscribed in noise is problematic to say the least. And yet, given and process – rooted in musical collective faster than it transforms society” (p. 4): the repression-oppression of modernity and improvisation that might have heralded a post- the various alienations of advancing capitalism, Music is prophecy. Its styles and economic capitalist free market society characterized there is still something incredibly valuable, organization are ahead of the rest of by socioeconomic collective improvisation I think, in this idea – provided we handle it society because it explores, much faster (something that so far has not come to pass), with care, remaining mindful of its problematic than material reality can, the entire range but that historical free jazz didn’t stick (as of possibilities in a given code. It makes a musical practice), and probably couldn’t

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 46 • winter 2015 shackles on your feet. And who's the judge? Is it some old guy, 74 years old, with black shackles on your feet. And who's the robes?judge? ItIsshackles might it some be onold the your guy,young feet. 74 judging years And who'sold, the with old the or blackjudge? the poor Is it judging some old the guy, rich. 74 But years no matterold, with black shackles on your feet. And who's the judge?robes? Is Itit mightsome oldbe theguy, young 74 years judging old, whatthewith old mistakesblack orrobes? the poorwe It might ever judging made be the the ... young rich.still gotBut judging a no last matter versethe old that or theholds poor out judging some hope. the rich. [...] But no matter what mistakes we ever made ... still got a last verse that holds out some hope. [...] robes? It might be the young judging the old or the poor judging the rich. But no matterwhat mistakes we ever made ... still got a last15 verse that holds out some hope. [...] what mistakes we ever made ... still got a last verse that holds out some hope.... [...] I'm worried now ... but I won't be worried long! 15 ... I'm worried now ... but I won' t be worried long... I'm! worried now ... but I won't be worried long!15 ... I'm worried now ... but I won' t be worried long!15 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Thanks toAcknowledgements Alice Lai, Frank Vander Valk, Alan Mandell, Babis Parayioudakis, Yiorgos Acknowledgements Thanks to Alice Lai, Frank Vander Valk,Anagnostou, AlanThanks Mandell, Pericles to Alice Babis Kondos Lai, Parayioudakis, Frank and Alexander Vander Yiorgos Valk, Jusdanis Alan for Mandell, indulging Babis me Parayioudakis,in lots of discussion Yiorgos Thanks to Alice Lai, Frank Vander Valk,Anagnostou, Alan Mandell, Pericles Babis Kondos Parayioudakis, and Alexanderabout Yiorgos various Anagnostou,Jusdanis ideas for here. indulgingPericles Kondos me in lots and of Alexander discussion Jusdanis for indulging me in lots of discussion Anagnostou, Pericles Kondos and Alexanderabout Jusdanisvarious ideas for indulging here. me in lots of discussionabout various ideas here. Notes about various ideas here. 1 Notes (Cretan)Notes syrtos: a dance and the associated musical form. 1 2 Notes (Cretan) syrtos: a dance and the associatedSee1 Herzfeld, musical(Cretan) Michael.form. syrtos :( 1986a dance). Ours and theOnce associated More: Folklore, musical Ideology,form. and the Making of 1 2 See Herzfeld, Michael. (1986). Ours ModernOnce2 More: Greece Folklore,. New York:Ideology, Pella. and the Making of (Cretan) syrtos: a dance and the associated musical form. 3 See Herzfeld, Michael. (1986). Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the Making of 2 See Herzfeld, Michael. (1986). Ours OnceModern More: Greece Folklore,. New Ideology, York: Pella. and theEspecially MakingModern of when Greeceit comes. New to Cretan York: rhyming Pella. lyrics: Ball, Eric L. (2002). "Where are the 3 Modern Greece. New York: Pella. Especially when it comes to Cretan rhymingFolk?3 The lyrics:Especially Cretan Ball, Mantinada when Eric L.it comes(2002 as Placed) to. " WhereCretan Literature." arerhyming the Journal lyrics: ofBall, Folklore Eric L. Research (2002). ," Where39(2- are the 3 Especially when it comes to Cretan rhymingFolk? lyrics: The Cretan Ball, EricMantinada L. (2002 as) .Placed "Where3): Literature." 147 are- 172.thFolk?e Ball, JournalThe Eric Cretan ofL. Folklore (Mantinada2006). "Guarding Research as Placed, the39 Literature."(2 Wild:- Place, Journal Tradition, of Folklore Literature, Research and , 39(2- Folk? The Cretan Mantinada as Placed Literature."3): 147-172. Journal Ball, Eric of FolkloreL. (2006 )Research. "Guardingthe Environment, 39 the(23):- Wild:147-172. in Place, the Ball, Work Tradition, Eric of L. a (Cretan 2006Literature,). Folk"Guarding andPoet." theJournal Wild: of Place, American Tradition, Folklore Literature,, and 3): 147-172. Ball, Eric L. (2006). "Guardingthe Environment the Wild: Place, in the Tradition, Work of Literature,a Cretan119(473): Folk andthe Poet." 275 Environment-300. Journal Also of regardingin American the Work so -Folkloreofcalled a Cretan ethnographic, Folk Poet." novels Journal and ofshort American stories Folklore, the Environment in the Work of a Cretan119 Folk(473): Poet." 275 Journal-300. Also of Americanregarding Folkloreso(ithografia-called, ethnographic119) (473):by Cretan 275 novels-authors:300. Also and Ball, shortregarding Eric stories L. so2005. -called "Toward ethnographic a Greek novels Ecocriticism: and short Place stories 119(473): 275-300. Also regarding so-called(ithografia ethnographic) by Cretan novels authors: and shortBall, storiesEricAwareness L. 2005.(ithografia and "Toward Cultural) by a Cretan IdentityGreek authors:Ecocriticism: in Pandelis Ball, Prevelakis's EricPlace L. 2005. Oi "Toward dhromoi a tis Greek dhimiourghia Ecocriticism:s." Place (ithografia) by Cretan authors: Ball, EricAwareness L. 2005. "Toward and Cultural a Greek Identity Ecocriticism: in PandelisJournal Place Prevelakis's Awarenessof Modern GreekandOi dhromoi Cultural Studies tisIdentity, 23: dhimiourghia 1-37. in PandelisAnd sin." terms Prevelakis's of food: Oi Ball, dhromoi Eric L. tis ( 2003dhimiourghia). s." Awareness and Cultural Identity in PandelisJournal Prevelakis's of Modern Oi Greek dhromoi Studies tis dhimiourghia, 23:"Greek 1-37. AndFoodJournals." in After terms of ModernMousaka of food: Greek: Ball,Cookbooks, StudiesEric L., 'Local'(23:2003 1-)37. .Culture, And in and terms the Cretanof food: Diet." Ball, JournalEric L. ( 2003). "Greek Food After Mousaka: Cookbooks,of Modern 'Local' Greek Culture, Studies and, the21: Cretan 1-36. Diet." Journal Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 23: 1-37. And in terms of food: Ball,4 Eric L. (2003"Greek). Food After Mousaka: Cookbooks, 'Local' Culture, and the Cretan Diet." Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 21: 1 -36. See Handler, Richard and Jocelyn Linnekin. (1984). "Tradition, Genuine or Spurious." "Greek Food After Mousaka: Cookbooks, 'Local' Culture, and the Cretan Diet." Journalof Modern Greek Studies, 21:15 1-36. 4 See Handler, Richard and Jocelyn Linnekin.Journal4 (of1984 American). "Tradition, Folklore Genuine, 93(385): or Spurious." 273-290. of Modern Greek Studies, 21: 1-36. 5 See Handler, Richard and Jocelyn Linnekin. (1984). "Tradition, Genuine or Spurious." 4 See Handler, Richard and Jocelyn Linnekin.Journal (1984 of )American. "Tradition, Folklore Genuine, 93 (385):or Spurious."One 273 example-290.Journal of thisof American might be Folkloremy colleague, 93(385): Maria 273 Hnaraki's-290. book (2007), Cretan Music: 5 Journal of American Folklore, 93 (385):One 273 -example290. of this might be my colleagueUnraveling5 MariaOne Ariadne's example Hnaraki's Threadof book this might.(2007), Athens: be Cretan myKerkyra colleague Music: Publications. Maria Hnaraki's book (2007), Cretan Music: 6 8 stick, because a corresponding5 Onechange example to of this Notesmight be my colleagueUnraveling Maria Hnaraki's Ariadne's book Thread (2007),. Athens: CretanSeeFor Kerkyra anHanslick, Music: opposingUnraveling Publications. Eduard. view, Ariadne's perhaps(1986 [1854]). Thread starting .On Athens: to see a Kerkyradecline, Publications.see the examples of Cretan 6 For an opposing view, perhaps startingreceptions6 to see a ofdecline, Ross Daly'ssee the music examples in Dawe, of Cretan Kevin. (1999). "Minotaurs or Musonauts? the socioeconomic infrastructureUnraveling remained Ariadne's 1Thread. Athens: Kerkyra Publications. the MusicallyFor an Beautiful: opposing A viContributionew, perhaps starting to see a decline, see the examples of Cretan 14 6 (Cretan) syrtos:receptions a dance and of Rossthe associated Daly's music in Dawe,'World Kevin. Music' (1999 and )Cretan. "Minotaurs Music." or PopularMusonauts? Music , 18(2): 209-225. largely elusive. For an opposing view, perhaps starting to see a decline, see the examples7 of TowardsCretan receptionsthe Revision of ofRoss the AestheticsDaly's music of in Dawe, Kevin. (1999). "Minotaurs or Musonauts? receptions of Ross Daly's musicalmusic in form. Dawe,'World Kevin. Music' (1999 and). "Minotaurs Cretan Music." or Musonauts? PopularFor example, Music 'World, see:18 Music'(2): Jusdanis, 209 and-225. Cretan Gregory. Music." (1991 Popular). Belated Music Modernity, 18(2): and 209 Aesthetic-225. Culture: 7 Music.Inventing7 New National York: Hackett. Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. So, perhaps one of the fringe benefits'World Music'of and Cretan2 Music." PopularFor Musicexample,, 18 (2):see: 209Jusdanis,-225. Gregory. (1991 ). ForBelated example, Modernity see: Jusdanis, and Aesthetic Gregory. Culture: (1991 ). Belated Modernity and Aesthetic Culture: 7 See Herzfeld, Michael. (1986). Ours Once 9 doing Cretan music instead of Formerely example, or see: Jusdanis, Gregory. (1991Inventing). Belated National Modernity Literature and Aesthetic. Minneapolis: SeeLambropoulos, Culture: Sennett, UniversityInventing Richard. Vassilis. Nationalof Minnesota (2008). (1988 Literature The). Press.Literature . Minneapolis: as National University Institution: of Minnesota The Politics Press. of More: Folklore, Ideology, and the Making of Modern Greek Criticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Shiner, Larry. (2001). primarily continuing to analyzeInventing it in terms National Literature. Minneapolis:Lambropoulos, University Vassilis.of Minnesota (1988 Press.). Literature Craftsman. asLambropoulos, National New Haven: Institution: Vassilis.Yale The (1988 Politics). Literature of as National Institution: The Politics of Modern Greece.Modern New York: Greek Pella. Criticism. Princeton: PrincetonThe InventionModern Universit of GreekArt:y Press.A CriticismCultural Shiner, History. Princeton: Larry.. Chicago:(2001 Princeton). University Universit of yChicago Press. Shiner, Press. Larry. (2001). of contemporary “scientific” discussionsLambropoulos, in Vassilis. (1988). Literature as National Institution: The8 PoliticsUniversity of Press. Modern Greek Criticism. Princeton: PrincetonThe Invention Universit of yArt: Press. A Cultural Shiner, Larry.HistorySee (2001. Hanslick,Chicago:The). Invention Eduard.University of(1986 Art:of Chicago [1854] A Cultural) .Press. On Historythe Musically. Chicago: Beautiful: University A Contribution of Chicago Press. 3 8 the humanities and social sciences, is the Especially whenSee it Hanslick, comes to Eduard.Cretan (1986 [1854]10 ).Towards 8On the Musically the Revision Beautiful: of the Aesthetics A Contribution of Music . New York: Hackett. The Invention of Art: A Cultural History. Chicago: University of Chicago9 Press. See Sennett,See Hanslick,Richard. (2003).Eduard. Respect (1986 in[1854] a ). On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution possibility, however remote,8 of becoming privy rhyming lyrics:Towards Ball, Eric the L. Revision (2002). of the Aesthetics See of Sennett, Music. New Richard. York: (2008 Hackett.). The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press. See Hanslick, Eduard. (1986 [1854]). On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution10 World of TowardsInequality. the New Revision York: ofNorton. the Aesthetics of Music. New York: Hackett. to certain about-to-emerge experiences, ideas, 9 See Sennett, Richard. (2008). The CraftsmanSee9 Sennett,. New Richard. Haven: (Yale2003 University). Respect inPress. a World of Inequality. New York: Norton. Towards the Revision of the“Where Aesthetics are the of Folk? Music The. New Cretan York: Hackett.11 See Sennett, Richard. (2008). The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press. 9 10 11 Λαϊνάκης10 , Στέλιος & Χαρά. (2012). Ταµπαχανιώτικα: Αστικά τραγούδια της δυτικής structures of feeling, practices orSee ways Sennett, humans Richard. (2008Mantinada). The Craftsman as SeePlaced Sennett,. New Literature.” Haven: Richard. JournalYale (2003 University ). Respect Press.. in a WorldSee Sennett,of Inequality Richard.. New (2003 York:). RespectNorton. in a World of Inequality. New York: Norton. 10 11 Λαϊνάκης, Στέλιος & Χαρά. (2012). ΤαΚρήτης11µπαχανιώτικα. Greece: :Rotunda Αστικά τραγούδια Music. On της p. δυτικής87 of the CD booklet. can organize ourselves and ourSee activities. Sennett, The Richard. (2003of Folklore). Respect Research, in a World 39(2-3): of Inequality 147-172.. New York:12 Norton. Λαϊνάκης, Στέλιος & Χαρά. (2012). Ταµπαχανιώτικα: Αστικά τραγούδια της δυτικής 11 Λαϊνάκης, Στέλιος & Χαρά. (2012). ΤαµΚρήτηςπαχανιώτικα. Greece:: Αστικά Rotunda τραγούδια Music. τηςOn δυτικήςThep. 87 raw of Κρήτηςthetranscribed CD. booklet.Greece: interviews Rotunda are Music. available On throughp. 87 of athe large CD online booklet. archive, Musical fact that Cretan music tradition, and Cretan Ball, Eric12 L. (2006). “Guarding the Wild: Greece: Rotunda Music. Κρήτης. Greece: Rotunda Music. On p. 87The of raw the transcribedCD booklet. interviews are availableRoutes12 , throughfromThe raw the a Institutetranscribed large online for interviewsMediterranean archive, Musical are available Studies: through a large online archive, Musical culture in general, has frequently12 emphasized On p. 87 of the CD booklet. The raw transcribed interviewsPlace, areTradition, availableRoutes Literature, through, from theaand large Institute the online for archive, Mediterranean Musicalhttp://digitalcrete.ims.forth.gr/MusicalRoutes/ Studies:Routes, from the Institute for Mediterranean. Studies: the importance of collective improvisation Environment in the Work of a Cretan 12 Routes, from the Institute for Mediterraneanhttp://digitalcrete.ims.forth.gr/MusicalRoutes/ Studies: The rawhttp://digitalcrete.ims.forth.gr/MusicalRoutes/ .transcribed interviews are . – not to mention insurrection against the Folk Poet.” Journal of American Folklore, http://digitalcrete.ims.forth.gr/MusicalRoutes/. available through a large online archive, imposition of unjust shackles, and the social 119(473): 275-300. Also regarding Musical Routes, from the Institute for activity of critical reflection about quality – so-called ethnographic novels and short Mediterranean Studies: http://digitalcrete. makes me think that it’s one potentially good stories (ithografia) by Cretan authors: ims.forth.gr/MusicalRoutes/. place to hang out. Ball, Eric L. 2005. “Toward a Greek 13 Ecocriticism: Place Awareness and The book is Attali, Jacques. (1985 [ … ] This song is a whole human race. Cultural Identity in Pandelis Prevelakis’s [1977]). Noise: The Political Economy I crossed that river, I fell fast to sleep, I Oi dhromoi tis dhimiourghias.” Journal of of Music. Minneapolis: University of woke up with shackles on my feet. That’s Modern Greek Studies, 23: 1-37. And in Minnesota Press. everybody’s history. Across the ocean we terms of food: Ball, Eric L. (2003). “Greek 14 thought we solved all of our problems. See Holland, Eugene. (2008). “Jazz Food After Mousaka: Cookbooks, ‘Local’ You have that revolution. You get that Improvisation: Music of the People- Culture, and the Cretan Diet.” Journal of home. You get that job. You think you to-Come” in Simon O’Sullivan and Modern Greek Studies, 21: 1-36. solved all your problems. You crossed that Stephen Zepke (Eds.), Deleuze, river and found you got shackles on your 4 See Handler, Richard and Jocelyn Guattari and the Production of feet. And who’s the judge? Is it some old Linnekin. (1984). “Tradition, Genuine or the New. London: Contiuum.

guy, 74 years old, with black robes? It Spurious.” Journal of American Folklore, 15 This is Pete Seeger on ABC television might be the young judging the old or the 93(385): 273-290. with Johnny Cash in 1970, which poor judging the rich. But no matter what 5 One example of this might be my I viewed on YouTube January 1, mistakes we ever made … still got a last colleague Maria Hnaraki’s book (2007), 2014. (https://www.youtube.com/ verse that holds out some hope. [ … ] Cretan Music: Unraveling Ariadne’s Thread. watch?v=NHbTWJ9tjnw). For a … I’m worried now … but I won’t be Athens: Kerkyra Publications. slightly different wording, see Rosenthal, worried long!15 Bob & Sam Rosenthal (Eds.). (2012). 6 For an opposing view, perhaps starting to Pete Seeger In His Own Words. Boulder: see a decline, see the examples of Cretan Acknowledgements Paradigm. p. 245. receptions of Ross Daly’s music in Dawe, Thanks to Alice Lai, Frank Vander Valk, Kevin. (1999). “Minotaurs or Musonauts? Alan Mandell, Babis Parayioudakis, Yiorgos ‘World Music’ and Cretan Music.” Anagnostou, Pericles Kondos and Alexander Popular Music, 18(2): 209-225. Jusdanis for indulging me in lots of discussion 7 For example, see: Jusdanis, Gregory. about various ideas here. (1991). Belated Modernity and Aesthetic Culture: Inventing National Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Lambropoulos, Vassilis. (1988). Literature as National Institution: The Politics of Modern Greek Criticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Shiner, Larry. (2001). The Invention of Art: A Cultural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 46 • winter 2015 16

Historical Lessons: From Smallpox to Ebola

Ann M. Becker, Long Island Center

overnment notification. Isolation. disease progressed. If the patient survived, Quarantine. Travel bans. Strict unsightly, permanent scarring became evident medical protocols. All of these in many cases. While the symptoms of Ebola Gapproaches are being currently used or do not match the distinct and grotesque nature proposed to stop the current spread of Ebola of smallpox, its 70 percent mortality rate is in the United States and around the world. higher, and the impact on the body certainly as Designed to prevent the spread of contagious horrific. Smallpox was communicated between disease, all of these restrictions have proven individuals, but, unlike Ebola, also could be ineffective in the face of a virulent, epidemic contracted from inanimate objects used by outbreak, as is evidenced by the worsening those suffering from the illness. Clothing and situation in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, bedding used by smallpox victims could shed and the cases that have appeared here at deadly, virus-bearing particles and spread the home. As an academic who has studied infection for days or even weeks. Still, the and published on the devastating effects of similarities between the outbreak of smallpox smallpox epidemics in colonial America, the and the current Ebola crisis are striking. current Ebola crisis has led me to reflect on In America, the appearance of smallpox the similarities inherent in the attempts to within a community engendered great fear, prevent the spread of these deadly contagions. comparable to the concern over Ebola present I am astounded by the similarities between today. To prevent its ravages, 17th and 18th Ann M. Becker the generally ineffective methods used to try century colonists tried every means available to control its spread during the 17th century to forestall outbreaks of this contagious and and our modern attempts to contain the Inoculation, which provided protection against deadly disease. Prior to the introduction of current outbreak of Ebola. I wonder if the smallpox by introducing a mild case that preventive inoculation and the development controversial method ultimately used to control resulted in subsequent lifelong immunity, of the safer procedure of vaccination in 1798, smallpox – inoculation – might be a tool to was not used frequently in most colonies long-standing colonial policies of government combat this new epidemic until vaccinations until after the Revolution; however its enforced notification, quarantine and isolation under development are ready for public use. effectiveness at containing epidemics has managed, with some success, to control its been clearly proven. By “the introduction In describing the 18th century American spread; still, smallpox continued to strike of an antigenic substance or vaccine into colonies, medical historian James G. Mumford fear in the hearts of colonists not immune the body to produce immunity to a specific (1903) noted, “at the beginning of that era, to the disease. disease” (Dictionary.com, n.d.), this historical of all the foes our ancestors faced, – hardship, Strict laws and attempts to control smallpox method for the prevention of smallpox did famine, pestilence, Indian and foreign wars, notwithstanding, Boston suffered a severe induce immunity and successfully protected – the most dreaded was smallpox” (p. 42). epidemic in 1721, when New England minister against infection. While a frightening and Diarists such as Samuel Sewall reflected the Cotton Mather reported “ … the Small Pox risky prospect, use of inoculation was the only terror the disease inspired in their writings, as broke in upon the City of Boston, where it effective way to prevent the spread of a deadly, well as the futility of attempting to control its very much appeared with the Terrors of Death fearsome malady. spread. Smallpox was easily identified in the to the Inhabitants” (as cited in Warner & 18th century by the distinctive characteristics In around 1720, reputable physicians in Tighe, 2001, p. 31). This epidemic affected of its symptoms. These included headache, England had become acquainted with nearly 6,000 residents of a population of chills, backache, high fever, vomiting and inoculation, first introduced in America by 10,500. Nearly one in seven died of smallpox. anxiety, followed by a rash on the face, chest, Dr. Zabdiel Boylston and Mather during The danger of smallpox and the terror it arms, back and legs and sores in the mouth, the 1721 Boston epidemic. Mather became inspired resulted in widespread flight from throat and nasal passages, and finally, the aware of the benefits of inoculation when outbreak areas as only avoiding contact with surface of the skin. Smallpox victims often he read a medical paper published in the contaminated places and people afflicted with developed a telltale pungent, sweetish odor 1 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in the disease could prevent infection. as a result of the cracking and running of the 1714. The paper substantiated the claims of sores, and victims suffered in agony as the Mather’s slave, Onesimus, who had described

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 46 • winter 2015 17

undergoing this preventive procedure while References in Africa. Inoculation was a widely practiced inoculation. (n.d.). The American Heritage® folk custom in China, India, Africa, Asiatic Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Retrieved countries and the Middle East beginning in from Dictionary.com website: the first century. Anecdotal evidence indicated http://dictionary.reference.com/ that the practice had long been used in Africa browse/inoculation when epidemics threatened, and inoculation virtually eliminated fatalities from the disease Mumford, J. G. (1903). A narrative of and conferred lifelong immunity. medicine in America. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott Co. While certainly not a panacea, the procedure, while a successful preventive measure, was Nettleton, T. (1722). Part of a letter from counterintuitive; convincing colonists to Dr. Nettleton, physician at Halifax, induce illness to prevent illness proved to Dr. Jurin, R.S. Secr concerning the difficult. Although its use entailed risks, inoculation of the small pox, and the inoculation provided benefits to individuals mortality of that distemper in the and communities, including a significantly natural way. Philosophical Transactions lower fatality rate. Medical knowledge and of the Royal Society of London (1722- experience of the time asserted that inoculated 1723), 32, 209-212. Retrieved from smallpox was “… much more mild and http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/ favourable, and far less mortal, than the natural content/32/370-380/209.full.pdf+html sort” (Nettleton, 1722, p. 209). These statistics Santayana, G. (1905). The life of reason (Vol. 1). eventually helped convince a skeptical populace New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. of the value of inoculation, yet the decision to infect oneself with a potentially fatal, often Warner, J. H., & Tighe, J. A. (Eds.). (2001). disfiguring and highly contagious disease was Major problems in the history of American not made lightly. medicine and public health. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. As we face increased fear and the threat of a significant expansion of the problem in Africa, perhaps medical professionals may want to consider extraordinary means to combat an extraordinary public health crisis, in the same way American colonists confronted and lessened the epidemic spread of smallpox. As historian George Santayana wrote in 1905: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (p. 284).

Note

1 For a comprehensive discussion of the 1721 Boston epidemic and ensuing controversy over inoculation, see A. B. Tourtellot’s, Benjamin Franklin: The Shaping of Genius: The Boston Years (1977).

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Professional Development Update: The Genesee Valley Center Festival of Ideas

Lynne Wiley, Genesee Valley Center

he Genesee Valley Center’s “Festival basis.” Although we’ve not been able to involve of Ideas” event originated in June students in the festival to the extent we would 2000 as an activity of the GVC like, it has proven to be a source of intellectual TProfessional Development Committee, whose renewal, engaging conversation, charming members then included, among others, GVC’s insight into colleagues, introductions to a wide former dean, Bob Milton; Wayne Willis, range of topics, and a good deal of humor and retiring in the fall of 2014 after 37 years good will. with the college; and Mary Klinger, current Members of the GVC community submit faculty chair. Conceived as an opportunity to ideas for presentations to a coordinating encourage “intellectual and professional growth committee that reviews the proposals and among faculty in all fields of study and share determines how much time to allocate for and celebrate some of the results with one the festival. Reflecting the multiplicity of another and with our students” (according to a members’ interests, topics have ranged from draft memo from the committee), the festival Scholars Across the College presentations has evolved into an annual tradition that and related teaching and scholarly work, to affords all members of the GVC community cooking demonstrations, descriptions of diving an opportunity to make presentations about expeditions and travelogues. scholarly, teaching, personal or professional interests in an event that takes place over one The June 2014 festival was an especially Lynne Wiley to two days each summer. rich experience. GVC was fortunate to have two Scholars Across the College from our Not having viewed the historical record until center this year, a faculty member returning presentation focused on whether the lens of recently, I was struck by the extent to which from a reassignment, a retiring faculty member, historical knowledge alters the manner in the committee’s goals in 2000 accorded with and other faculty and staff members who which viewers experience a painting and, the desire expressed in recent years to continue offered fascinating perspectives on their if so, how. to find ways to reinvigorate and re-energize areas of interest. the intellectual foundations of our community Following lunch, Susan Hollis offered her – a desire fulfilled not only by continuing the The festival began with a presentation Scholars Across the College presentation, “The festival, but by setting aside time during regular by mentor Gayle Stever on the “Basics of Journey Continues: The Origins and Early meetings of the center for short discussions on Social Media: Using Facebook and Twitter.” Roles of Five Ancient Egyptian Goddesses.” intellectual topics of general interest, holding Gayle studies fan groups and is a leading Susan’s continuing interest in the history regular academic retreats, and encouraging proponent of the idea that the attraction of of ancient Egypt and the goddesses Neith, faculty and staff to undertake stimulating and fans to celebrities is not abnormal, as has Hathor, Nut, Isis and Nephthys informed creative approaches to studies and the delivery previously been suggested, but a form of her discussion of the manner in which the of services to students. “parasocial” attachment that has its origins goddesses developed and the roles they played in basic attachment theory. Gayle uses social in the early history of Egypt (late predynastic As the 2000 Professional Development media to gather data for her research, and her through the end of the Old Kingdom [circa Committee draft also noted, “we all know presentation focused on the techniques one 2150 BCE]). [that] our work with students and our college employs to successfully navigate Twitter service activities have a powerful tendency The festival continued with a discussion by and Facebook. to use up almost all (it sometimes seems like mentor Lue Turner about the results of a more than all) of our time and energy. We hope Longtime arts mentor Marc Cirigliano then recent reassignment she received to study that the festival can act as a small counterforce discussed “Will the Real Madame Récamier the distinctive way in which a group of Iowa that causes us to give public recognition to Please Stand Up?” Based on a collegewide art women responded to a major flood. “Stitching the importance of our wider professional history study group that he has offered for the Through Disaster: Quiltmakers’ Perspectives” development, that enables us to better know past several terms, Marc invited the audience described, through moving personal accounts, each other’s ideas and interests, and that to engage in an analysis of two versions of the manner in which the quilts produced by allows our students to see us in a somewhat a portrait of Madame Récamier, a French members of a local quilting guild became a different light than they do on an everyday society leader of the early 19th century. The

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form of healing not only for families War heroes, frontiersmen, pioneers, Indian for the college’s distinctive mission, his affected by the flood, but for the quilt tribes, Civil War generals, abolitionists and experience of being involved in a career in makers themselves. fictional characters who populate that real and which he was continually learning and his imaginary landscape. conviction that mentoring is a deeply student- I then discussed “History, Literature, centered enterprise. Landscape, and Imagination: Travels on Route The 2014 festival concluded with a memoir 20,” a personal, interdisciplinary reflection by mentor Wayne Willis titled “A Swimmer One final thought: The Festival of Ideas was about the way in which history comes alive in the Ocean of Learning.” Wayne offered an originally intended as an activity to which when traveling the Great Western Turnpike. intimate glimpse into the early days of the faculty, staff and guests from around the Drawing from works of literature, historical college, including the steps that led him to college would be invited – so, come join us records, family genealogy and personal become a member of the Empire State College during the last week of June 2015! Contact me experience, I described the Revolutionary faculty, his interpretation of and appreciation at [email protected] for more information.

“We learn in order to add to, extend, or change the structure of our expectations, that is, our meaning perspectives and schemes; learning to change these structures of meaning is fundamentally transformative.”

– Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991, p. 62

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Family Chorus

Robert Congemi, Northeast Center

arlier today, I had occasion to walk the domestic, lived to the Rockefeller Plaza, choosing above a retail shoe this year to take some part in the store. She had dealt EJuly 4th Independence Day activities and with more than her fireworks, and when I did so, I luckily chanced share – her husband upon a ceremony at one end of the Plaza had disappeared on where dozens of people were being sworn her, two sons fought in as United States citizens. I needed all my on Iwo Jima and sophistication not to be quite emotional as Bataan, the other men and women from places like Nigeria, flew bombing raids Indonesia, Ukraine, Tobago and the Balkans over Germany. Also, made their way to a podium to a white-haired there was Poland, her judge, whose own mother had come from homeland, ravished Belfast 80 years ago, and received their official by Germany on one notice of American citizenship. And seeing side and Russia on this, especially when a lady from Albania the other. RUSSELL CREDIT: MIRIAM PHOTO received her notice, made me think of my own “I don’t think my Robert Congemi grandmother from Poland and write the little family could still story that follows. Thus, once again, I seek have our farm,” she to ransack my past, to find those nearly-lost And we would follow my grandmother’s confessed to me one day, “or even if any of moments and muse upon them until – great wishes with all the energy and enthusiasm them are still alive.” surprise and delight – they blossom with all we could muster, almost losing control of the meaning inherent in them or I, rather So to cheer grandmother up, my mother ourselves in our desire to entertain our beloved, sadly, imbue them with meaning. and my father, who had not been drafted little matriarch. because he had three children and worked in Among the memories of my grandmother “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas a weapons-producing factory, walked us a mile that often come to mind are those that involve Just like the ones I used to knowwww,” or so every Sunday from Cobble Hill to Bed- what I call our “family chorus.” I must tell you Stuy to visit grandmother, to help her out as we crooned whether near Christmas time that the years that gave birth and fruition to she needed, enjoy her Sunday dinner, and have or far from it, say, during the hottest days of the family chorus were those of World War II. me and my brother and sister sing songs for mid-August. My sister was 6 at the time and Sadly, this was a very hard time for my family. her. It was one of her great delights in life. Her my brother 4. At 10, I was the eldest, but even Poor then, the family’s years of grandchildren grandchildren would line up before her, she I hadn’t dreamt of a white Christmas like becoming doctors and entrepreneurs and sitting in her rocking chair looking up at us, the ones I used to know. Of course, it didn’t academics were still in the future. One of my mother and father at the little kitchen table matter. My grandmother, a hitherto-tenacious my grandfathers was a carpenter when he to one side of her, my older aunt Irena at the Polish woman, was immeasurably pleased. could find work, while the other was an odd other, and we would sing a medley of popular Our singing took her mind off everything: as job man who scarcely ever found work. One songs for her. They always brought great I said, the fate of her much-loved homeland, of my grandmothers had a dozen children happiness and tears to her eyes. the abandonment by her husband, her sons and lived in a Brooklyn tenement; the other fighting for America in island jungles and grandmother worked as a domestic, and she “Sing the Nat King Cole song for me,” European forests thousands of miles away. is the person that this memory is principally she might say, an assiduous fan of the about. Before they were drafted, her young pop music of the time. Once in a while, I went by myself with my sons were clerks and errand boys. Her daughter father to visit grandmother, and during the Or: “Bing Crosby. You know I love was a secretary. hard early years of the war, she would talk Bing Crosby.” openly to him, for after all, he was her With the war, Uncle Aldo and Uncle Dariusz “That’s it,” my aunt Irena, the secretary, eldest son. were sent to the South Pacific, and my Uncle who lived in the Bronx, would second. Frankie to Europe. My grandmother, Mary,

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“Oh, my poor people,” she might begin, very But, of course, it wasn’t okay, and when the we thought of it earlier? – to have her knowledgeable on the subject. “Can you War Department told her by letter that her son grandchildren … sing to her! Sing with all imagine? What a month? First, the Germans Francis had been killed in a bombing raid over the conviction and energy in their young from the west, days later the Russians from Berlin, the little old woman, who had always bodies. So the Sunday morning following the the east, and then total destruction a few days endured this hard life of poverty in Poland and arrival of this plan, my family and I walked after that!” then in America, fell into a great and sudden to her house for Sunday dinner as usual, my despair. It was terrible. She lay in her bed or sat aunt preceding us there to help with the My father was never quite sure what he could in her rocking chair for hours and hours and preparation for our concert. The neighborhood say regarding such a debacle. thought: What would be next? Which of her that day was sleepy and quiet even for “And the Jews, the poor Jews,” she went on. sons would be killed next? Or what more could Brooklyn, the war temporarily a dreadfulness “Are there words for their terrible fate? I am possibly happen to her homeland of Poland? far away, and after dinner, we cleaned up proud that Polish Christians tried so much the dishes, rearranged a few chairs and the No one was quite sure what to do about this – to help these poor people.” She held out her performance began. Grandmother had been not my father, not my mother, nor my aunt. hands in frustration. “What else is to be done even more disconnected than ever. Suddenly, but to risk one’s life for one’s neighbors of a “I have never seen her like this,” my aunt told my father gave the sign and my siblings and lifetime? Of generations.” us. “She is always so strong.” I took turns in the bathroom located down the hallway outside my grandmother’s flat, “Yes, Momma,” my father said. “Everyone has a breaking point,” my mother changed into the fanciest clothes we owned pointed out. “And finally, the burning of Warsaw. Why? and burst back into her flat, ready to perform. As a young girl, I visited there for two weeks. Of course, grandmother tried at times to My brother and I had our little suits on and What a beautiful city, so historic!” pretend that everything was all right; that outrageous matching ties and handkerchiefs. she wasn’t done in by life. She agreed to My sister wore her cute little white dress, all Tears came to her eyes, and I thought, conversation or even hummed a song when poufy, with pink bows everywhere. Seeing us, indeed, how tiny and vulnerable a woman she thought people might be especially grandmother’s mouth did indeed drop open she actually was. watching her. a bit, and my father explained that we would But the times she spoke regarding her sons sing for her and try as we could to entertain “I like The Andrews Sisters, too,” she might overseas were just as upsetting. On another her back into life. Afterward, I learned that my say, apropos of nothing. occasion, I was left alone with her for a few father, mother and aunt had carefully avoided hours by my father who needed to run some But, of course, such behavior was not very real. having us sing songs of love related to the war, errands for her. For years, grandmother had In my family, even small emotions were hard of which there were many at the time. been a semi-cripple, having to drag one leg to conceal. So who could conceal catastrophes? “No, ‘Darling, Please Wait for Me,’” my mother behind her and hold onto a wall or piece We noticed my grandmother became quite judiciously observed. of furniture in order to walk anywhere, her negligent – sometimes she left all undone her condition, the legacy of an accident she was household chores, or she slept for days in her “No, ‘Don’t sit under the apple tree with too poor to get attended to. So I eagerly helped clothing, or she stopped combing her long, anyone else but me, ‘til I come marching her wash dishes in the sink and sweep the floor lovely hair and then braiding it as was her home,’” my aunt added. of the large, cold-water, one-room flat that was daily habit since childhood. She ceased to read That being the case, our concert started with her home. the newspapers, and didn’t bother to turn on my 6-year-old sister singing a snappy little the radio. “I don’t know where they are, Paul,” she ditty enormously popular at the time titled confessed to me. “In the Pacific somewhere is “For her to hear the latest war report?” my “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” Now, it hardly the most I know about two of them. Will we father explained to me. “And feel more pain? needs to be pointed out that my sister had win there? Are my boys safe there?” Why bother?” never been to Texas; indeed, I don’t think she even had been to New Jersey. But there she “I’m sure they are not in big battles,” I was old When it got to the point where we were all was, in her poufy white dress and pink ribbons, enough to tell her. very alarmed, that this great and hitherto almost overwhelmed in clothing material, her resolute woman did not seem able to rid “And Germany? Your Uncle Frankie flies in blond ringlets bouncing with abandon as she herself of what she was feeling toward life, the airplanes over Germany. Again and again. How sang, my sister even tap dancing a little to the family talked about what we might do. After many times does he have to do this? Until he lyrics of the song in her shiny black patent all, she was the backbone and center of our gets killed? Enough is enough. Shouldn’t I leather shoes. With great conviction, she sang family, the mainstay of our lives. We owed it to think this way?” her heart out about how she was deep in the her, and we had to redeem her! heart of Texas, knowing that sage was in bloom “Yes, yes, you should. But it will be It wasn’t clear who thought of it first, but smelling like perfume and reminding her of OK, Grandma.” somehow it came to the family that what the one she loved. Yes, she was in Texas where might have a chance of helping grandmother, cowboys cried ki-yippi-pie-yi, rabbits rushed and really all of us, would be – why hadn’t around the brush and coyotes wailed along the

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trail. Sneaking a look at her, I could see my snow.” Need I point out that we didn’t know grandmother staring at my sister in what could that many Christmases, there were scarcely any only be described as a rather baffled manner. trees in Brooklyn, and I’m not certain if any of us really knew what sleigh bells were? My sister’s Texas aria was followed by a song from me, my turn being recognized as the But it didn’t matter. By this time, everyone in older grandson. There I was, this 10-year-old the room was smiling or grinning or scratching boy, still playing board games by myself, trying their head or starting to giggle, a giggling that to avoid homework above all in life, but for just simply couldn’t be controlled, and then the moment, apparently wandering around my father started to laugh out loud. It was all until I finally found somebody named “You,” crazy, simply crazy. Nobody in the family had the eponymous individual in the song “It Had quite realized what our concert would look to Be You.” With great energy, I crooned out like when performed for anyone reasonably that in finding this person “You,” I had found sane. But, once again, it didn’t matter, because someone who would make me be true, feel when we stared at my grandmother, who was blue and even be glad just to be sad thinking amazed beyond words, we intuited somehow of “You.” I went on, adding that others I’d seen that everything would be all right – or at might never be mean or cross or try to be boss, least as “all right” as we could ever hope for. but inexplicably they wouldn’t do, because Grandmother was grinning and shaking her despite all of the faults of “You,” nobody head now in total disbelief, too. Somehow, such else gave me a thrill, which made me love a spectacle would sustain us, our family would “You” still. For me, it simply had to be “You.” survive and our grandmother would be a little Looking once again at my grandmother, I now OK once again with the world. could see that she was transfixed with disbelief. Finally, not to be outdone, my 4-year-old brother topped both his older siblings. With untoward strength of sound for such a young tyke, he sang the song titled “That Old Black Magic.” According to this song, my brother, who seemed scarcely out of his crib, only recently eating real food, and finally getting pretty good at walking, was possessed of … that old black magic that had him in its spell, that old black magic that was weaved so well! Its icy fingers ran up and down his spine – the same old witchcraft when his lover’s eyes met “mine.” It was a tingle that he felt inside, like an elevator that starts to ride. Moreover, he was a leaf that was caught in the tide – whatever that meant – and it got worse. My brother, according to the song’s lyrics, went down and down, round and round, in a spin, loving the spin he was in, under that old black magic called love. Of course, he should stay away, but what could he do? He heard her name and he was aflame, aflame with such a burning desire that only a kiss could put out the fire! I will spare you, gentle reader, the climax to all this passionate but incongruous singing, except to inform you that we finished our family concert by my sister and brother and I singing en masse that we were once again “dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones we used to know, where the tree tops glistened and children listened to hear sleigh bells in the

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Mentor-Student Parallels: A Reflection

Sue Epstein, Center for Distance Learning

ast June, I was accepted into the creating new networks? And do they wonder 15 member 2013-2014 cohort of if those networks will provide entry into new the Work and Family Researchers career and life possibilities? Network’s Early Career Scholars (ECS) L Along with the sense of urgency, I also had Program. The goal of the program is to a personal-professional (i.e., work-family) support recent doctoral graduates and junior complication. I already had a long-standing faculty researching work-family issues to family commitment for that same weekend. advance in their academic careers. A key If I were accepted to the ECS program, I element of the ECS program is participation would not be able to honor that commitment; in a series of specially designed workshops my desire to participate in the ECS program at the 2014 Work and Family Researchers would impact my family. I discussed this Network (WFRN) Conference. As I reflected with my husband and our three children. My on my experiences with the ECS program’s husband and I have tried to impress upon our application process and conference, I noticed children that while we greatly value our family the similarities between these experiences and time, we also each greatly value our careers. those of our adult students, and the ways in Our children have their own interests and which my participation in this program was are accustomed to discussions of the trade- helpful to my work-family research, as well as offs, compromises and sacrifices that each my mentoring. of us must make in order for our family to Sue Epstein First, there was the application process itself. function well as a unit, as well as for each of This program is open to researchers who us as individuals. In that context, I was able to they tell peers, family and/or friends that they completed their doctoral degrees within the explain the importance of the program to me are in school for their undergraduate degrees? past four years. My defense was in September professionally and that, if accepted, I would What impact do those comments have on our 2010. Thus, this was my last opportunity to attend the conference. Luckily, my message students and, perhaps, their motivation for and participate in a program that had been on my was received with support from all family assessment of success while at ESC? professional “things-to-do” list. Throughout members! Our students often have professional the application process I wondered, much like and personal responsibilities that they must One of the most valuable sessions was a my concern with the window of time closing negotiate and trade-offs they must make discussion with a panel of well-established, for my participating in the ECS program, if as they pursue their ESC degrees. Students senior career work-family researchers. These our students feel that their educational window likely have family members whose needs must scholars were asked for ideas on how early is closing. Might completing a SUNY Empire be taken into consideration along with the career scholars should chart successful State College degree be viewed as a last students’ educational goals. careers. Their advice centered on early career opportunity for completing a goal? scholars crafting individual paths that fit I was accepted into the program, and once with individual goals, life circumstances and My dissertation focused on what factors might at the conference, I was looking forward to opportunities. Certainly the senior scholars predict whether a supervisor displays work-life interacting with other members in my cohort. shared their triumphs, obstacles, mistakes and supportive behaviors to his or her subordinates. I noticed a woman wearing a badge with wisdom from hindsight. However, the exact This topic combined my interest in work-life our ECS program identifier and proactively recommended path for early career scholars issues with my content area of leadership. I approached her. As a conversation opener, to pursue was something that couldn’t be usually attend conferences for management I noted that we were heading to the same definitively charted at the conference. Similarly, faculty where there are often many leadership meeting room. Her response: “Oh no, we can’t as a mentor I can share with my mentees my sessions but fewer work-life sessions. Many of be heading to the same place. I am going to path, opinions and thoughts but, ultimately, the the work-life researchers are based in sociology the Early Career Scholars Program and you are mentee must craft his or her path. departments and our paths do not cross. I obviously not in the early stages of your career.” knew that the ECS program would facilitate I know I have several gray hairs and that I I left the conference with a sense of satisfaction my developing a work-life research network do not look fresh out of a doctoral program, that I had been chosen for and participated in across disciplines. So I thought: Do our but I was still startled by her comment. For the ECS program. My lists of research ideas students see their studies at ESC as a way of our students, what reactions do they get when and strategies for completing my research

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projects were longer than when I arrived. Most importantly, my optimism about my path, even with the unknowns, was high. Once again, there is a link to my mentoring. My mentees often express satisfaction, relief and optimism after completing their rationale essays and degree plans. And now, just a few months post-conference, I find myself wanting to hold on to the momentum started at the conference. How can I maintain the trajectory of optimism and productivity? And for my mentees, how can I help them maintain their optimism and energy after a concurred degree – to ensure they reach their goal of graduation? I don’t have the answers yet, but it is one of the areas I expect to continue to explore!

“Transformative learning may be defined as learning that transforms problematic frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, reflective, open and emotionally able to change.”

– Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) In Jack Mezirow, Edward W. Taylor and Associates (Eds.) Transformative Learning in Practice: Insights from Community, Workplace and Higher Education San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009, p. 22

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On Mentoring: Coaching Academic Self- Confidence Among Adult Students

Jessica Kindred, The College of New Rochelle, School of New Resources

s a sixth grader, I objected when an opportunity for stereotype lift in terms of standardized tests asked for my sex, academic performance. To this day, despite or as we call it now, “gender.” I had awareness of the effects of so-called “identity Arecently become aware that being female was priming” on academic performance, the testing not equal to being male, especially to my services persist in reproducing categorical male teacher at the time, who said that my inequalities in test performance by requiring objections made me a “women’s libber.” He demographic information at the beginning assured me that the sex question was not being of standardized tests rather than at the end. graded, even as I protested that it distracted In doing so, they prime students at all levels me from the questions that were being graded. about the categories of race and gender that Decades later, the research has been done to they inhabit and thereby falsely depress or lift demonstrate the phenomenon of “stereotype their test performance accordingly (Danaher & threat.” Since 1995, Claude Steele and his Crandall, 2008). colleagues have published research explaining As an advisor and teacher at the College of that the fear of confirming a stereotype about New Rochelle, School of New Resources a social identity group can undermine test in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood performance due to the unconscious drain of Brooklyn where most of my students are

on cognitive resources of focus and attention ROCHELLE THE COLLEGE OF NEW CREDIT: ROB MORGAN, PHOTO African-American women, I educate students (Steele & Aronson, 1995; Steele, 2010). This and colleagues as much as possible about Jessica Kindred fear, further, can be primed or triggered simply the phenomenon of stereotype threat. Our by being asked questions about one’s race and students face this potential threat on many gender identity before testing. confidence among the students with whom I fronts, most of all through their racial identity work. Low academic self-confidence, coupled Here is an illustration of stereotype threat in in a culture that stereotypes and even provides with and exacerbated by stereotype threat, action: A young Asian-American girl who extensive research to support the idea that makes them vulnerable as students (Aronson is asked for her gender before a math test is African-American students perform less well & Inzlicht, 2004; Tough, 2014). likely to do worse on the test than if she were than Caucasian-American students (Gabriel, asked for her ethnicity, due to the respective 2010), with racial categories often standing in A few examples of this lack of confidence and stereotypes associated with each of these for socioeconomic status. Our students also its threat to student academic performance groups in terms of math intelligence (Ambady, face the stereotype threat associated with being may help to illustrate this point. In one Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky, 2001). Ironically, her adults in college, many having internalized the instance, I crossed paths with a student in fear of failing to confirm the Asian stereotype “old dogs can’t learn new tricks” adage. Many the hallway and inquired about how his class of being good at math ultimately exceeds her adult students express the thought that they was going. He said that he was skipping class fear of confirming the female stereotype of not should have gone to college right after high because students were taking an exam and he being good at math, resulting in the opposite school, despite their awareness of the many hadn’t studied and knew he would fail. I asked effect on test performance in adolescence factors that prevented them from doing so, about his attendance and whether he had kept (Cheryan & Bodenhausen, 2000). The including having had negative experiences of up with the work. He said his attendance had underlying point is that identity cues interfere school, experiencing life interruptions such as been good and that he had done all of the with test performance based on the cultural teenage pregnancy or facing the socioeconomic assignments. I told him to go and take the test, pressures and stereotypes associated with those disadvantages of having to go from high school suggesting that it’s better to fail with 50 than social identity categories. straight to work. Many adult students enter zero. I also reminded him that class attendance college with uneven academic skills, but as and assignments are a form of studying, so This example demonstrates the complex effects anyone who works with adult students will in fact he had studied. I added, “Remember of identity relations on academic performance, attest, they have motivation in abundance. this: We always know more than we think we including the partner phenomenon of In contrast to the findings of overconfidence know.” This is a refrain I teach students in stereotype threat described as “stereotype among college-age students in their late teens confidence-building workshops that I conduct lift.” For American students of non-Asian and early 20s (Twenge, 2007), one consequence minority groups, the stereotypes invoked by of their uneven skills is a lack of academic self- questions of race and ethnicity rarely provide

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several times each semester. The student came the way through school, but that girls start to have a wonderful relationship and I will back a week later to report that he had passed believe that they are not good at math around open myself to understanding you.’” Students the exam. the teenage years and most opt out of math laugh when I suggest this, but many write classes as soon as they are given a choice, the letter and go on to complete the In another instance, a student said that he usually in the transition from high school to graduation math requirements. thought he was passing his class and he did college (Hill, Corbett, & St. Rose, 2010). not want to do the required oral presentation The love letter to math operates as a that accounts for 12.5 percent of the final Then I introduce them to my “conspiracy therapeutic device, enabling students to engage grade, so he planned to skip class that day. theory” about math. It is a strong form of the their histories while rewriting their futures. He said presenting in front of people made stereotype threat idea. I tell them that they I also see it as capitalizing on the placebo him uncomfortable. I suggested that he have been taught to hate math so that they effect, a powerful and often underused human practice feeling comfortable about feeling will choose not to pursue math so that they potential. The placebo effect is the ability of uncomfortable, which surprised him. And I (women and minorities) will be financially an inert action or substance to exhibit effects coached him to tell the class he was nervous disempowered and dependent. I explain that on the mind and body due to the power of about presenting and that would help him be there is a very reliable correlation between belief itself. Students’ beliefs that what they more comfortable while eliciting the support how much math you take and how much are doing will help them is supported by such of class members. He came back the next money you make; just look at the salaries assignments as the love letter to math. In a day saying he had done just what I said, had associated with business and engineering similar vein, Aronson, Fried and Good (2002) actually presented, and hoped he did well; compared to teaching and social work ( James, have shown that belief in a flexible rather than and by his professor’s account, he did. Both of 2013; Rose & Betts, 2001). I try to engage fixed model of intelligence supports students these examples attest to the stereotype threat them to consider that math, like everything, in facing conditions of stereotype threat. This conditions of these students as men in a school is just learning: No one is born knowing research suggests that learning about neural of 90 percent women, adults facing college math. I tell them that in a so-called “free plasticity can have a powerful influence on after years without school experience, and country” such as the United States, people are the sense of one’s self as a learner. Students African-Americans in the context of higher controlled and contained through the shaping who learn or believe that their brains are education today. of fear. I ask them to consider how cultural changing as they learn tend to learn better stereotypes, marketed through cultural media, and earn better grades than those who believe Many of our female students express a deep have governed their choices to avoid math, that intelligence is a fixed characteristic. Such fear and even a hatred of math. Almost even while they experience those fears and lessons are important in promoting students’ more than any other issue, I coach students choices as deeply personal and individual. senses of ability and confidence as they face about their math anxiety. In this area, I have After all this, I describe a small assignment college against the odds. In confidence- developed a strong perspective, a strategy for them to address these issues and prepare building workshops, I teach students about the and almost a script. Most students needing brain’s plasticity and also its responses to stress; support about math anxiety are those who are I coach students in breathing deeply and well being advised to take the requisite math class in order to communicate to their brains that after several semesters of resistance. They say, they are OK, that the test is just paper and “But I hate math!” For some, tears arise just They say, “But I hate math!” pen rather than a bear to run from. I suggest from the word “math.” I ask them if they have For some, tears arise just to students that they write three sentences in any evidence that they are not good at math, the backs of their notebooks every day so that and most do not. I suggest that their feelings from the word “math.” when they encounter the test situation, these are probably not about math, but about an I ask them if they have sentences will be there for them, as a matter experience or event in a math class. Many of habit. The sentences are: “I have learned recount traumatic moments, often early in any evidence that they are everything I need to know”; “I know more high school, when they learned that math was not good at math, and than I think I know”; and “My brain is my not for them; often these instances involved very best friend.” the introduction of variables in which letters most do not. were introduced to substitute for numbers Note and confusion ensued. I try to engage them in considering that the grief they experience There is a great deal written on the topic of themselves to take and pass the math class is really about math being taken away from “stereotype threat.” The materials referenced ahead. “Write your love letter to math,” I tell them, rather than about math itself. I ask them in the essay provide a glimpse into research them. “It goes like this: ‘Dear Math, I think to remember back to the age of 8 or 9. Most in this important area. Also, a full review we were once very close, but something came of these women remember liking math then of the issues of stereotype threat and a between us.’ Then write about any memories and doing well in it, too. I often inform them bibliography of sources can be found at that relate to fears and feelings about math. about the American Association of University www.ReducingStereotypeThreat.org. Conclude by saying, ‘I can’t wait to get to Women (1991) research that showed that girls know and love you again. I think we can do as well and better at math than boys all

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References James, J. (2013, November 1). The surprising impact of high school math on job market Ambady, N., Shih, M., Kim, A., & Pittinsky, outcomes. Retrieved from http:// T. L. (2001, September). Stereotype www.clevelandfed.org/research/ susceptibility in children: Effects of commentary/2013/2013-14.cfm identity activation on quantitative performance. Psychological Science, 12(5), Rose, H., & Betts, J. R. (2001). Math matters: 385-390. Retrieved from http://www.wjh. The links between high school curriculum, harvard.edu/~na/Children.pdf college graduation, and earnings. Retrieved from http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/ American Association of University Women, report/R_701JBR.pdf & Greenberg-Lake: The Analysis Group. (1991). Shortchanging girls, Steele, C. M. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: How shortchanging America: A nationwide poll stereotypes affect us and what we can do. to assess self-esteem, educational experiences, New York, NY: W. W. Norton. interest in math and science, and career Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). aspirations of girls and boys ages 9-15. Stereotype threat and the intellectual Washington, DC: American Association test performance of African Americans. of University Women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Aronson, J., Fried, C. B., & Good, C. (2002). 69(5), 797-811. Retrieved from http:// Reducing the effects of stereotype threat mrnas.pbworks.com/f/claude+steele+stere on African American college students by otype+threat+1995.pdf shaping theories of intelligence. Journal Tough, P. (2014, May 15). Who gets to of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 113- graduate? The New York Times Magazine. 125. Retrieved from http://www.foothill. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes. edu/attach/1474/views_of_intelligence.pdf com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to- Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2004, December). graduate.html?_r=0 The ups and downs of attributional Twenge, J. M. (2007). Generation me: Why ambiguity: Stereotype vulnerability and today’s young Americans are more confident, the academic self-knowledge of African assertive, entitled – and more miserable than American college students. Psychological ever before. New York, NY: Atria Books. Science, 15(12), 829–836. Cheryan, S., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2000, September). When positive stereotypes threaten intellectual performance: The psychological hazards of “model minority” status. Psychological Science, 11(5), 399-402. Danaher, K., & Crandall, C. S. (2008, June). Stereotype threat in applied settings re-examined. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(6), 1639-1655. Gabriel, T. (2010, November 9). Proficiency of black students is found to be far lower than expected. The New York Times. Retrieved from http:// www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/ education/09gap.html?_r=0 Hill, C., Corbett, C., & St. Rose, A. (2010). Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Retrieved from http://www.aauw.org/ files/2013/02/Why-So-Few-Women-in- Science-Technology-Engineering-and- Mathematics.pdf

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From Children to Adults: Applying Developmentally Appropriate Practice to an Adult Online Learning Environment

Tracy Galuski, Center for Distance Learning

As she enters the classroom for the first time, little us that knowledge must inform decision- Ginny feels shy and lonely. Although she attended making, goals must be challenging and preschool last year, this classroom is much larger. achievable, and teaching must be intentional She looks around the room nervously as another to be effective. More specifically, teachers child approaches and asks her about the teddy bear should begin with adequate knowledge that is clutched in her hands. “I like your bear,” about where the student currently stands in he says with a smile. She holds it out for him to their developmental trajectory. While this admire. He pats it on the head and says, “We have information rarely comes to us before a young a bed in the house area. Let’s put him in it.” She child enters the classroom, it can be collected smiles and runs off to the housekeeping area with through an interview with a family member/ her new friend, dragging the bear behind her. guardian or accessed through observation with formal and informal assessment instruments. ur work in early childhood is deeply From there, we set the goals for the individual rooted in the pedagogy that we child as well as the classroom as a whole. Once call “developmentally appropriate goals are set, we move on to the curriculum practice.” This pedagogy is grounded in O through intentional teaching. Teachers develop research and helps the field define how young activities around themes, which are frequently children develop and learn from birth to age 8. child-initiated. Intentional teaching, although It provides the framework for our work with a new adaptation in the field, asks us to be young children and families, and therefore Tracy Galuski selective and intentional with the learning it is deeply embedded in early childhood activities we choose. Rather than setting up teacher education programs. This paper defines activities because they are convenient or fun in one area or move through several activities developmentally appropriate practice (as (or provided by a publisher website), teachers over the course of the morning, always at their developed by the National Association for the make purposeful selections based on broad own pace. Education of Young Children [NAEYC]) and learning objectives. explores how it relates to the social aspects of Adopting a framework for developmentally the teaching and learning of adults in an online In a preschool classroom, the teacher might appropriate practice leads to high-quality environment through the eyes of an early develop a theme based on spring planting. He experiences for children through the decisions childhood teacher and mentor. or she would develop the theme and bring it made by their teachers. Such teaching is into all the learning centers so that children described in the Developmentally Appropriate Defining Developmentally are immersed in the topic. They might grow Practice position statement in the form of Appropriate Practice plants from seeds or measure how tall an Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate amaryllis grows in the science area; they Practice across five key aspects of the teacher’s Every day, teachers in early childhood might use garden gloves and tools in the sand role: “creating a caring community of programs make numerous decisions about and water table; they might paint using real learners,” “teaching to enhance development teaching and learning in their classrooms. They flowers, read stories about planting and sort and learning,” “planning curriculum to prepare the classroom environment by setting seeds. Within the activities, the teacher would achieve important goals,” “assessing children’s up learning centers, design and implement the integrate opportunities for children to meet development and learning,” and “establishing curriculum, provide resources and materials individual goals such as using a pair of scissors, reciprocal relationships with families” for the children, and support children as developing prewriting skills, or practicing (NAEYC, 2009, pp. 16-23). they participate in the classroom activities. early math skills, social skills or language arts. As these decisions are made, effective early These practices can be analyzed further by While the teacher lays the groundwork for childhood educators continually evaluate the considering three questions from NAEYC teaching and learning through the classroom desired outcomes for children’s learning and (2009): “What is known about child environment, the children self-select their development. Developmentally appropriate development and learning?” “What is known activities. The children may spend all morning practice (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009) teaches about each child as an individual?” “What is

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known about the social and cultural contexts as a mentor online were challenging. Trading and maintaining the community through in which children live?” (pp. 9-10). These in my cart of manipulatives and cooperative productive collaboration remain similar for questions require us to review our knowledge activities for a keyboard felt awkward. My children and adults. of child development on a regular basis, and courses were too structured or perhaps take time to learn more about the individual too linear for my taste. Offering feedback Begin With Social Presence needs and interests of each child with great (especially when the work was substandard) This refers to the degree to which participants attention to their cultural contexts. was very difficult, and I knew that it was hard feel socially and emotionally connected for my students, as well. Instead of handing While not designed for an adult learner, these with others in the community (Swan et al., back a paper with a smile and a pat on the practices and guiding questions continue to 2008) and is observed in students’ emotional back, I was emailing them feedback knowing inform my work as a mentor as I attempt to expression, open communication and group that they might open the email at work or facilitate learning and success in an online cohesiveness (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, late in the evening with no opportunity to environment. As an early childhood educator 1999). In additional to a warm, personal ask immediate questions. It is much easier to by trade, applying developmentally appropriate introduction to the course, the instructor posts hear feedback from someone you know and practice to my work in a traditional college regular announcements and messages for the respect than to read an email from a stranger. classroom was intuitive. Laying the groundwork class. Active engagement in a discussion offers My goal was to adapt my teaching style so for a semester by creating a caring community an important opportunity to offer guidance that I could maintain my strengths by defining of learners was especially important. For though open-ended questions that promote what was developmentally appropriate for my young children, it happens naturally as they learning. This can be facilitated through an adult learners, primarily in terms of building form small groups in learning centers such active social presence similar to those found relationships through a caring community of as in a dramatic play area, around a water in early childhood programs, where teachers learners. Over time, I began to see how the table or in a block center. They make friends move around the room to offer guidance and developmentally appropriate practice for young over a lump of clay and as they mold pretend support as the children build skills. The teacher children applied to adults. meals of pizza and spaghetti at the sensory checks in regularly to encourage conversation, table. When we focus on the goals of social The basic tenets of developmentally language and problem solving skills that might development, relationships are formed appropriate practice (Copple & Bredekamp, not happen without the support of an adult. naturally. In a traditional college classroom, 2009) still apply: Knowledge must inform this could be achieved by encouraging students decision-making, goals must be challenging Develop a Sense of Community to share their experiences through warm- and achievable, and teaching must be According to Developmentally Appropriate up exercises, cooperative learning activities, intentional to be effective. Knowledge informs Practice (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009), small group projects, simulations, case studies decision-making in a number of ways, when we develop a sense of community, all or collaborative activities. It’s clear that from knowledge of adult learning theory to participants can contribute to each other’s students in early childhood programs enjoy knowledge of course content, to knowledge well-being and learning as well as value and the same type of open-ended group activities of the broad curriculum and how the courses respect each other’s abilities and talents. that we expect them to provide for young connect for students. Goals, typically in the Students, whether children or adults, need an children. Transferring these skills to an online form of learning objectives, are measurable but opportunity to share background information environment was a little more challenging for flexible so that they can meet the individual and learn about their peers. Learners form this mentor. needs of our diverse learners. Just as we spend common bonds with their classmates and a lot of time analyzing As Channell logs into her online classroom for the what to teach young first time, she is excited and very nervous. One children, our online by one she pages through the course documents, courses are designed and the anxiety begins to build. “Will I ever be with care, so that the able to do this?” Finally, she makes her way to the balance of teaching first written assignment. She reads, “Remember and learning shifts an experience from your early childhood. In two- to meet the mature three pages, tell us about the experience and how it needs of adult applies to the readings. You will revisit this essay learners. While the at the end of the course.” She thinks, “I can do this.” language and style With a confident smile, she begins to type. shift, techniques From Children to Adults such as setting the groundwork through How does a mentor transfer the knowledge a social presence, of developmentally appropriate practices for developing the young children into their work as an instructor sense of community, in an online environment? My first few terms

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begin to establish relationships. For young for the first time, the need to connect in a children, this community is developed around meaningful way sets the groundwork for a a lunch table or in a small group where one successful learning experience. child talks about their new puppy. In an online class, this might happen in an open References forum where students apply the course Coaplen, C., Hollis, E., & Bailey, R. (2013). content to personal experiences. Discussions Going beyond the content: Building are a great opportunity to develop a sense of community through collaboration community, which is further facilitated by an in online teaching. Researcher: An active instructor. Of additional importance, Interdisciplinary Journal, 26(3), 1-19. Layne, Lee, O’Connor, Horn and McFarlin (2010) cited “interaction with faculty” and a Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (Eds.). (2009). “shared sense of community” as among the Developmentally appropriate practice in most important qualities related to student early childhood programs serving children retention (p. 142-143). When there is a sense from birth through age 8 (3rd ed.). of community, students feel valued. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Maintain Community Through Garrison, R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. Productive Collaboration (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based Students continue to build a sense of environment: Computer conferencing in community with each other through higher education. The Internet and Higher opportunities for collaboration such as Education, 2, 87–105. group projects, role play scenarios or Layne, C. S., Lee, R. E., O’Connor, D. P., debates. Structured peer-review also offers Horn, C. L., & McFarlin, B. K. (2010). an opportunity to develop a community. Using digital communities to enhance Coaplen, Hollis and Bailey (2013) offered student persistence and retention. In specific suggestions for assignments that would D. Russell (Ed.), Cases in collaborative provide opportunities for encouragement and learning in virtual learning environments commentary such as Web pages, narratives, (pp. 140-53). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. auto ethnographies and researched essays. For young children, this might look a little National Association for the Education of different, but effective early childhood teachers Young Children (NAEYC). (2009). know that teaching young children to work Guidelines for developmentally together and encourage each other is an appropriate practice. In Position statement: important social skill. Productive collaboration Developmentally appropriate practice in offers opportunities for young children as well early childhood programs serving children as adult learners to further develop skills as from birth through age 8. Retrieved from they give and receive feedback in a supportive http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/ group of peers. positions/PSDAP.pdf For this mentor, developmentally appropriate Swan, K. P., Richardson, J. C., Ice, P., Garrison, practice and work with young children was D. R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Arbaugh, just the beginning. With time, best practices J. B. (2008). Validating a measurement for teaching in early childhood programs have tool of presence in online communities of come to be understood as relevant to adult inquiry. e-mentor, 2 (24), 1–12. learners in an online learning environment, especially in terms of the desire to create a caring community where students are comfortable with their peers. With some adjustment, the knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice does inform our work with adults in an online learning environment. Whether you are a young child entering a preschool classroom for the first time or an adult learner logging onto an online course

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Finding My Way: One Mentor’s Journey

Ruth I. Losack, Metropolitan Center

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, Beginning the ESC Journey but it is the journey that matters in the end.” As an undergraduate at ESC, I was recruited – Ursula K. Le Guin (1969, p. 209) by my mentor to engage in a practicum as a peer writing tutor. The experiential learning Introduction of that year was transformative. In addition to my writing skills, I discovered I had a Preferring to choose where my spirit and curiosity wealth of patience and that much joy could be beckoned, I have rarely followed a road map to derived from sharing knowledge with others. guide my academic pursuits. One might say I Reflecting back on my experience, I identified was fortunate not to have to choose a path until several features my struggling students had I was ready. Others could argue that this is not in common. As expected, many students had the most efficient way to reach a destination. insufficient knowledge of standard academic Tracing my academic journey and reflecting on grammar. However, poor time management my accomplishments while putting together my skills and life’s demands, which often led to third self-report as a part-time mentor, has given rushed, unedited work, frequently factored me the opportunity to re-examine each treasured into the equation. Many also were unaware turn along the way. Perhaps my journey can of the role good diction and logic play in

provide some insight into this role we undertake CREDIT: TROY JONES PHOTO clear writing. as mentors. Ruth I. Losack I soon found that clarity played a big role s a student (’99), tutor and mentor, on both sides of the desk. At times it was I have been affiliated with SUNY necessary to ask instructors to explain practicum, required the completion of eight Empire State College for almost assignments that students were having classes in such studies as language acquisition, 20 years, and I am still learning. I took a A difficulty deciphering. The significance of the sound system of North American circuitous route to ESC, where I, like many of clarity has continued to guide me now that English, teaching writing, methodology in our students, was finally able to put together I am on the other side of the desk. Today, the classroom, needs assessment and English my transcript studies and experiential learning I try my best to develop clear assignments, grammar. In the grammar study, we analyzed to complete a bachelor’s degree in cultural but there are always times, e.g., after several each part of speech in depth, noting exceptions studies with a concentration in modern students have gone astray, that I, too, have to to the rules and formulating concept questions literature. An avid reader since early childhood, revise my instructions. After all, if I expect and creative exercises to help students grasp I had always enjoyed literature – especially the clarity from my students, the least I can do the governing complexities. My certificate sci-fi fantasy of Ursula Le Guin, so much so is model it myself. was awarded in January 2001, but by February that I believed my strengths were in math and 2000, I had already started teaching English science. This, along with Thor Heyerdahl’s English Language Learners (ELLs) presented to the parents – mostly Mexican immigrants Kon-Tiki expedition, inspired me to choose additional issues to address. Although I had – of children enrolled in a Staten Island Head oceanography as my first of several majors. strong native language instincts and a fairly Start program, and soon after had secured a Although literature has always played a key good awareness of grammar rules, I often position in the continuing education program role in my life – opening doors to new worlds found it difficult to explain the concept behind at CUNY Brooklyn College, where I taught and encouraging empathy for my fellow the rule to these students. This concern led to grammar, writing and pronunciation in a full- human travelers – the enjoyment derived from the next step in my journey. time English as a Second Language program reading had to build and simmer for some that mainly catered to adult I-20 students time before I could appreciate the intricacies ELL Experience from around the world. This program gave me of textual analysis and the satisfaction that one After obtaining my ESC bachelor’s degree, the opportunity to apply knowledge gained can derive from a well-crafted sentence. I enrolled in The New School’s Teaching from my New School studies. I challenged English to Speakers of Other Languages myself to present the material in creative ways certificate program. This rigorous program, that would allow students to use the language which culminates in a semester-long teaching authentically and developed exercises that

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tapped into the funds of knowledge that my the context of the former exploration was merits of separate grammar instruction in adult learners, many of whom held advanced limited to L2 learners, much of what I found writing studies, students, both ELLs and native degrees from their own countries, brought to holds true for native speakers, as well. Lev speakers, continue to demand it. Although I the classroom. Vygotsky’s argument that language develops realize that students see it as the panacea it and can improve from supportive social is not, I think separate grammar instruction While on staff, I also received training in two interaction, especially his belief in potential can be beneficial if it is taught in conjunction popular, yet very different, methods of language learning (the zone of proximal development) with student writing issues. However, mastery teaching: Caleb Gattegno’s “Silent Way” and over what can be immediately apprehended of these rules is a slow process, especially the “Rassias Method,” developed by John without interaction, supports my own belief in for those students who start with a huge A. Rassias. The opportunity to sharpen my students’ innate potential. Whenever possible, deficit. These students need encouragement teaching skills and knowledge of the English I capitalize on this process by grouping and to continue with what for them can be a very language was clearly beneficial; however, it pairing students to interact on a particular frustrating experience. One way to scaffold was the students themselves who provided task. Viewing my role as facilitator, rather than their development is to allow students to begin added enrichment. Suddenly, I had the world lecturer, also was supported by my WAC study, the writing process with rhetorical strategies in my classroom. Not only did I become more which confirmed much of what I had already that enable them to draw on the funds of aware of cultural differences and how America discovered as a tutor and teacher. knowledge they already possess. I, therefore, and Americans were perceived in different start by having them write a personal narrative parts of the world, but as expectations, Writing is a process that is best approached and a process analysis essay – which draws on common experiences and struggles were when students are given myriad opportunities their experiential learning – before moving on shared, my awareness of the human experience to write, explore and revise their work. To this to more advanced strategies that have students deepened. The empathy nurtured during end, I have designed my ESC writing studies synthesize their ideas with the written work my undergraduate literature studies at ESC to give students the opportunity to revise of others, such as comparison/contrast blossomed anew in my ELL classroom. their work throughout the term. Through and argumentation. peer-responding sessions and discussions Return to ESC: of exemplars, which focus on such issues as Process is one component, but students Writing Tutor and Mentor purpose, audience, strategy, logic, credibility, also need emotional support. In the article, diction and tone, students come to better “Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking,” which While still teaching at Brooklyn College and understand the elements of writing and the appeared in College English, Peter Elbow before completing my Master of Arts degree in decisions good writers make to appeal to their (1993), a major proponent of WAC, posited English with a concentration in rhetoric and audience. Many first-time college students the following: “good writing teachers like student linguistics, I returned to ESC as a part-time often arrive with simplistic views of the world. writing (and like [emphasis mine] students)” tutor at the Metropolitan Center’s Writing Being able to see the underlying complexities (p. 200). If we cannot believe in a student’s Better Center. Eventually I was tapped to be of an issue is crucial to intellectual growth; potential, how can we expect that student to a part-time mentor at the Staten Island unit, therefore, I also prompt students to discuss the believe? Encouragement is a positive tool. first as a generalist for the educational planning relevance of an author’s ideas. process and later when the unit expanded, as TESOL Studies a mentor in cultural studies with a focus on My approach to student writing is gentle at writing studies. Over the years my education, first, but I do not neglect the skills students As a new mentor, I quickly learned that study positions held, and various scholarly pursuits need to write meaningful, coherent, cleanly offerings were driven by student interests and – the bends along my path – have enabled me edited essays. The key is to guide them step needs, something I had experienced myself to expand my teaching repertoire beyond the by step through the writing process. In order as an ESC student. It wasn’t long before my realm of writing. As I proceed, I will be noting to encourage more thoughtful revisions, background teaching ELLs became known each of these links and connecting them to current pedagogy recommends that first and I received requests to develop a study in the ESC studies they influenced. However, draft comments be limited usually to those TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers since writing put me on this path, I feel it is pertaining to the substantive issues of content, of Other Languages) pedagogy, which has appropriate to start with a brief exploration of clarity, focus and development. I, therefore, been popular primarily with our Staten my growth as a writing instructor. delay calling students’ attention to most Island bilingual paraprofessionals. This study grammar and mechanical issues until the introduces students to theories of language My graduate studies in Writing Across the second draft, where the rules are then brought acquisition and provides them with current Curriculum (WAC) and second language to the students’ attention in the context of their pedagogy and methods. Through my continued acquisition prompted me to probe how own writing. In graduate school, I submitted membership in the TESOL international students respond to teacher commentary a paper in which I researched studies that association, including several online Listservs during the revision process in second language attempted to answer whether separate in areas such as applied linguistics, bilingual (L2) writing classes and Vygotskian theory as grammar instruction had an effect on student education and adult TESOL education, I it has been applied to L2 learners – a subject writing. I set out to find a magic formula, but have stayed current with pedagogical methods, I explored independently as one of the three instead found much disagreement over this available resources and the political issues topics on my final master’s exam. Although issue. While scholars continue to debate the that affect these students. For example, it

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is important for those teaching ELLs to be road. Two of my own graduate classes: Creative West African writers and scholars, including aware of the significant role played by language Writing and Autobiographical Writing, the Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor, who was ownership, identity and motivation. One of served to re-energize my creative passions. so sadly killed in the December 2013 mall my mentees, a bilingual paraprofessional, For several years, I have offered studies in shooting in Kenya. I also was given quite was so moved by this component that she Memoir Writing, Creative Writing, and in a few books from Dr. Thompson’s African designed her bachelor’s degree program with a the hope of fostering student appreciation for collection. Reading through this collection concentration that she called “youth services in the natural world around us, Creative Nature and searching for other material to balance the the bilingual community.” To accommodate her Writing. Feedback from this study has been study broadened my academic scope and gave needs and those of another student, I designed encouraging: In their final reflective papers, me a greater appreciation for literature from an additional study in Issues in Bilingual students comment on their increased attention non-Western traditions. Education. This study has been particularly to detail and their newfound awareness and At present, I am working as co-editor with Dr. appealing to bilingual educational studies enjoyment of their natural environment. Thompson’s daughter, who wishes to publish students. It wasn’t long after that when I was Creative writing studies provide students with a book of her father’s essays, poems, short inspired to offer students a holistic view of the additional skills, as well. The more students stories and numerous book reviews dating field of linguistics. write, the better their writing becomes. When from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. The students learn to think like writers, they book reviews, originally published in various Studies in Linguistics become better readers. scholarly journals and magazines including The Linguistics is particularly appealing to me Studies in Literature Kenyon Review, Partisan Review, Harper’s, The because it undergirds TESOL and rhetoric. New York Review of Books, and Commentary, While applied linguistics, as noted previously, Although I chose not to concentrate in have been particularly edifying, especially in appeals to my desire for social justice, I also literature in graduate school, my passion relation to mid-20th century American culture am attracted to structural linguistics. For this, I for it has not diminished. In addition to and literary criticism. Dr. Thompson began his credit my early proclivity for the patterns and studies in rhetoric and linguistics, I was studies in the late 1930s as an undergraduate logic found in mathematics. The first tutorial able to include several classes that focused at Kenyon College under the tutelage of John I designed to incorporate my knowledge on Faulkner, Shakespeare, and classical and Crowe Ransom, a leading scholar, whose book in these fields was The English Language, biblical foundations. The studies I have The New Criticism (1941) gave name to a once which combines the genealogy of the English developed in literature have provided me popular approach to literary criticism. As a language with modern English grammar. with yet another treasured twist in the road. result of my readings for this project, I have This study fits well in literature, writing, and The first literature study I designed, The gained an appreciation for the book review as English concentrations by providing a means Modern Short Story, drew from my love of a window to literary theory and intellectual for students to meet the historical perspective this genre and a study group I took as an culture. There may be a study in all this and knowledge cultural studies guideline. undergraduate at ESC. Since then I have somewhere; however, I have not yet taken the added several other studies in literature, such time to develop one. As my readings of works by linguistic scholars as World Literature: The Short Story, New such as Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, Peter York in Literature and Issues in Literature. Conclusion Trudgill, David Crystal and others progressed, I especially enjoy the student discussions that I decided that students could benefit from a Here my journey rests for now. The destination these studies engender. As an emissary of complete study in linguistics that would expose has been clarified, but since the journey is the humanities, it is deeply satisfying when them to the myriad components of human still in progress, there will be new pathways I witness students’ understanding broaden language, not just the English language. This to explore. I welcome these opportunities for and their compassion grow. study laid the foundation for subsequent continued intellectual growth, for they are studies in sociolinguistics, designed originally Inspired in part by my belief in the power of what truly matter. As an alumna of ESC, to meet the needs of two students, one with a literature to engage readers and augment their I have been fortunate indeed to have received degree concentration in language studies and knowledge of history and society, I developed a the inspiration and confidence to forge my the other with a concentration in intercultural study in West African Literature and Culture way forward, and as a mentor, I have been studies; and phonetics and phonology, which to meet the Other World Civilizations general grateful for the opportunity to do the same I tailored to meet the needs of our growing education requirement. This study was inspired for my students. population of students interested in pursuing in part by my affiliation with the late John speech pathology in graduate school. Thompson, professor of English emeritus References (Stony Brook University), whom I served as Elbow, P. (1993, February). Ranking, Creative Writing an amanuensis from my student days until his evaluating, and liking: Sorting out passing in 2002, at which time I continued Fortunately my cultural studies area of three forms of judgment. College to work with his wife, a professor of library study encompasses a variety of disciplines. English, 55(2), 187-206. science, and later, his daughter. This seamless Creative writing studies have provided me the connection has given me continued access Le Guin, U. K. (1969). The left hand of opportunity to follow another curve in the to Dr. Thompson’s correspondence with darkness. New York, NY: Ace Books.

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MOOC Talk: A Connectivist Dialogue About Our Metaliteracy MOOC Experience

Tom Mackey, Michele Forte and Nicola Allain, Center for Distance Learning; Trudi Jacobson and Jenna Pitera, University at Albany

Introduction Technology (CIT) 2014 at Cornell University Information Literacy Competency Standards titled “Metaliteracy in Practice: Strengthening for Higher Education task force to take a fresh In the fall of 2013, SUNY Empire State Learning Through a Connectivist MOOC” (slides look at the standards originally published in College and the University at Albany offered a from this presentation may be accessed at http:// 2000, which needed significant revision or collaborative massive open online course (MOOC) www.slideshare.net/tmackey/cit2014-2). Each reinvention. Since metaliteracy was identified about metaliteracy (see http://metaliteracy. author takes a lead in one section of the essay as an influence on this process from the start, cdlprojects.com). This project emerged from based on the presentation areas developed for Trudi’s leadership on the task force generated the work of Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson the discussion at CIT 2014. This connectivist additional interest in the MOOC from library to develop a metaliteracy model that promotes presentation is intended as a give and take of ideas professionals in the field. collaboration and participation in today’s – a sharing of reflections and insights about this interactive, mobile and social media environments. Our connectivist MOOC became a hub for exploration of metaliteracy in a MOOC format. After considering other platforms for the MOOC activity that welcomed a total of 554 registered This writing team invites you to continue the such as Coursera and Canvas Network, this participants from around the world. By the conversation at Metaliteracy.org, our primary site particular open environment was developed using end of the MOOC, 454 of the registrants for all things metaliteracy. the original connectivist format inspired by the received newsletters that were generated by the early innovators of this movement including Dave About the MOOC gRSShopper programming. The newsletters Cormier, George Siemens and Stephen Downes. included links to all of the contributions from etaliteracy MOOC was developed “Metaliteracy MOOC” was the third connectivist in the summer of 2013, while Tom MOOC offered by Empire State College and Mackey and Trudi Jacobson (2014) the first made available at the University at finished the manuscript of their co-authored Albany. At the start of this project, Tom and M book Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Trudi assembled a team from both institutions Literacy to Empower Learners. The MOOC to develop and facilitate the MOOC, including reflected the theory and practice examined in faculty, administrators, librarians, an information the manuscript and was envisioned as a way to technologist, an instructional designer and a connect learners from both institutions while programmer. Center for Distance Learning reaching a broader audience of participants. Mentor Betty Hurley had developed the first two This open space was designed to unite students MOOCs, both connectivist, in the SUNY system, at Empire State College and the University at “Creativity and Multicultural Communication” Albany with lifelong learners from any location (see http://www.cdlprojects.com/cmc11blog/) in the world and professionals in higher and “VizMath” (see http://www.cdlprojects.com/ education, particularly in the field of library math/). Metaliteracy MOOC followed a similar and information science (LIS). Several related open design, promoting interactivity among projects were underway, as well, including participants based on key themes related to the an evolving Metaliteracy.org blog, which metaliteracy framework. It featured synchronous featured the expanded metaliteracy learning webinars by national and international scholars, objectives and a competency-based digital such as Sue Thomas, Char Booth, R. Brian Stone, badging system (more information is available Paul Prinsloo and Bryan Alexander (the complete at http://metaliteracy.learningtimes.net). The list of presenters and topics can be viewed at blog, learning objectives and badging system http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects.com/outline.htm). all emerged from the work of the metaliteracy The connectivist nature of this MOOC will be learning collaborative that was formed as part (top) Jenna Pitera, and (bottom) Trudi explored in more depth later in this piece. Jacobson, Tor Loney and Nicola Allain of the SUNY-wide Innovative Instruction participating in the first MOOC Talk at This collaborative essay is a connectivist dialogue Technology Grant (IITG) we received in 2013. the University at Albany. among several key facilitators of Metaliteracy During the same summer, Trudi Jacobson MOOC. It is based on a presentation developed began serving as co-chair of the Association for SUNY’s Conference on Instruction & of College & Research Libraries’ (ACRL)

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the learners who engaged in the MOOC Metaliteracy is an evolving open model Several related projects have explored activities. This included 118 registered blogs that defines information in multiple forms, metaliteracy in practice by using collaborative and a total of 72 blog posts. In terms of including visual, textual, aural and virtual, resources for internal team-based student participation, we primarily reached while understanding the multiple modalities communications among members of the students from two Information Literacy of mobile, digital, multimedia, social media metaliteracy learning collaborative, and in courses at the University at Albany and one and social networking. Further, metaliteracy is developing new environments for learners, graduate student at Empire State College. an empowering learning theory that promotes such as the digital badging system. This Our original goal to connect students from metacognitive reflection in these dynamic, MOOC explored metaliteracy in both theory both institutions was not fully realized, since collaborative and open spaces. and practice. This open space was much more we did not have any undergraduates from than a platform to present the ideas since it While grounded in the critical thinking Empire State College register for the MOOC, was an interactive environment that invited perspective that is core to information literacy, and ultimately, many of the UAlbany students participation from others in a collaborative the metaliteracy concept charts a new direction dropped the course. The meta-analysis social network. by strongly emphasizing the importance of produced by the one graduate student from metacognitive reflection in the production and The inspiration for designing a connectivist the MALET (Master of Arts in Learning distribution of information in participatory MOOC was provided by the pioneers of this and Emerging Technologies) program at the environments. Information literacy has focused movement, including Siemens, Cormier and School for Graduate Studies at Empire State extensively on how to search and evaluate Downes. According to Siemens, connectivism College provided an excellent opportunity to information, but the metaliteracy model is about learning in networked environments analyze the MOOC on a deeper level through expands the emphasis to creating and sharing that are decentered, collaborative and social. the lens of a graduate student research project. both individual and collaboratively produced This is a shift from what the individual can Tom Mackey documents in networked environments. Of learn and know independently, to ways of course, search and retrieval in these spaces knowing through connections that are made also is important, but metaliteracy builds on with others in networked spaces. This learning What is metaliteracy and how does this idea these competencies while supporting broader theory is ideal for social media environments relate to connectivism? knowledge acquisition and participation, and and ultimately inspired the development Metaliteracy challenges traditional notions not just discrete skills development. This of connectivist MOOCs, which leverage and assumptions about information literacy approach also links relevant competencies from a wide range of social media resources, within the collaborative and social contexts related literacies such as visual literacy, media connecting learners from multiple locations of new media environments. The confluence literacy and digital literacy in an inclusive for collaborative and participatory learning. of emerging social technologies and related construct, rather than inventing a new literacy In contrast, “xMOOCs” such as Coursera, literacy formats, from digital, to mobile, to type every time a new technology emerges. edX and Canvas Network push content media literacy, requires a radical redefinition Thus, metaliteracy allows for the exploration out to users through a common platform, of what it means to be information-literate of associated literacy characteristics within similar to a structured learning management in the 21st century. In Metaliteracy, Trudi a common model, avoiding the disconnect system (LMS). The xMOOCs feature open and I (2014) argued that, “Metaliteracy between competing or unrelated models that content, including well-produced videos that expands the scope of traditional information fail to address the needs of the whole person in are organized in pre-defined modules. The skills (determine, access, locate, understand, today’s interactive social spaces. connectivist MOOC or cMOOCs, however produce, and use information) to include invite participation from all users, beyond Since metaliteracy promotes metacognitive the collaborative production and sharing threaded online discussions, in a decentered reflection and participation, learners empower of information in participatory digital social space that aggregates contributions themselves, prepared to actively engage environments (collaborate, participate, produce, from blog postings, Twitter feeds and social and think critically in collaborative social and share)” (p. 1). This is a fundamental bookmarking sites. In a cMOOC, the learner spaces. Such an approach requires teaching shift from simply accessing and navigating is truly at the center, making decisions about and learning strategies, including learning information, to creating and distributing it what to access and read, which resources objectives that support the development of in various portable, virtual and multimedia to explore, and most importantly, how to active and reflective practice. The experience forms as critically-engaged digital citizens. The contribute to the dialogue through text, image, of participants in social media and online idea of a meta-literacy also has implications audio and/or multimedia. communities does not automatically create for literacy itself because it unifies related metaliterate learners. Rather, educators need The connectivist MOOC design aligned literacy characteristics within a comprehensive to develop ways to facilitate and cultivate nicely with the goals of metaliteracy to engage framework. For instance, metaliteracy this approach. This requires us to rethink in social interaction through the original promotes critical thinking, reading, writing and how we teach with technology and how production and sharing of user-generated research, while also considering the learning we prepare learners to engage with ever- information. The Metaliteracy MOOC team that takes place while producing, sharing, evolving open learning, mobile and social was especially interested in a collaborative collaborating and participating in online media environments. space that allowed for multiple conversations communities and social media environments. from many participants, while being connected

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through the common location of the MOOC elements were the important role of participating in Metaliteracy MOOC. The itself. Similar to the two previous MOOCs affectivity in becoming information literate, MOOC attracted a large number of librarians offered by Empire State College, we created a and the need for an expanded conception of who sought to better understand this new front-end website that is hosted on Bluehost, information literacy due to dramatic shifts framing of information literacy. Not only did and used the back-end programming of in the information ecosystem, a conception they actively participate in the MOOC Talk gRSShopper developed by Downes to combine encompassed by metaliteracy. chat sessions, but some also blogged about resources and allow for interactivity among what they were learning, and they took their The ACRL Framework for Information users. gRSShopper is essentially an RSS reflections to online venues beyond their own Literacy for Higher Education includes a new aggregator that allows participants to engage blogs, such as to Twitter. definition of information literacy that reflects with several different social media resources, metaliteracy’s concern with both metacognition The new framework is radically different in such as Twitter and WordPress blogs, and then and the role of learners as information intent, form and approach from the standards, aggregates or combines these communications producers, often in conjunction with others, which has caused a wide range of reactions-- in a daily newsletter that features the most in an interactive information environment. everything from excitement to open curiosity recent postings. Rather than push out content The definition is: to anxiety. The MOOC served, and continues to users, the participants created much of to serve through its enduring online presence, the content themselves and shared their Information literacy is the set of as a rich source of information about one observations and insights in a collaborative integrated abilities encompassing the important component of the document. dialogue. The user-generated information was reflective discovery of information, the developed in response to content we created understanding of how information is I also was asked to address how our MOOC or linked to via the MOOC, or through the produced and valued, and the use of was used in two undergraduate information interactive MOOC Talks that took place via information in creating new knowledge literacy courses at the University at Albany. Blackboard Collaborate. and participating ethically in communities Another instructor and I incorporated it into of learning. (ACRL, 2015, Introduction our courses in different ways. My colleague Although we met many of our goals for this section, para. 5) used the MOOC as an element in his quarter- project, and we were continuously inspired long, 1-credit course without radically altering by the experience itself, there also were The new framework uses threshold concepts the course itself. He taught on Wednesdays many surprises along the way, and some (Meyer & Land, 2003) to outline those areas during a two-hour time block, which fully disappointments in how we ultimately engaged most important for learners to understand encompassed the MOOC Talk time slot. He and connected our learners from the University about information literacy. Using the work of had the students watch those MOOC Talks at Albany and Empire State College. Townsend, Brunetti and Hofer (2011), both that occurred during his course right in the as published and from an ongoing Delphi classroom. They were able to interact with the Trudi Jacobson study, as a starting point, the task force shaped speakers in real time. six threshold concepts that learners need How is metaliteracy informing the national to understand in order to be information I tried something totally different. I built a dialogue about information literacy and how literate: Scholarship as Conversation; Research blended course around the MOOC. Rather did Metaliteracy MOOC “flip” the classroom as Inquiry; Authority is Constructed and than lasting just a quarter, it became a 2-credit, at UAlbany? How do you think our intent Contextual; Information Creation as a semester-long course. The MOOC became for the MOOC aligned with the reality Process; Searching as Strategic Exploration; the course, though I planned three in-person of the experience? and Information Has Value (ACRL, 2015, meetings to introduce students to the structure Introduction section, para. 2). and content of this unusual course, and to Let me start with the role of metaliteracy in provide time and support for students to work the revision of the Association of College Each threshold concept is found within a on one team project that existed beyond the & Research Libraries’ Information Literacy “frame,” which includes the definition of MOOC. It is important to keep in mind that Competency Standards for Higher Education. the concept, sample knowledge practices or all the students were taking the course to First, the new document does not take the abilities that learners developing their abilities satisfy a General Education requirement. form of standards. Rather, the task force would have, and dispositions that would be responsible for the work felt that a framework, present in successful learners. Elements of Due to the connectivist nature of the MOOC, which offers important elements to be taken metaliteracy can be found throughout all students were expected to create their own into account, but not the rigidity implied by six frames. experience. I required them to start blogs and standards, would allow institutions to best post on them regularly, in connection with the Those who followed the transparent creation address their own specific needs. MOOC content. There were several required process engaged in by the task force are aware readings from the MOOC reading options The work of the task force has been informed, that metaliteracy has been included from to ground them, but they were instructed to in part, by a previous task force (of which the beginning. This has caused a number select all others, in order to shape the learning I also was a member), which identified of colleagues in the field to feel the need to that would be most meaningful to them. They key ideas that should be considered when learn more about the concept of metaliteracy, also were assigned to pose questions of those the revision process started. Two of these both by reading our work, but also by

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giving the MOOC Talks, which presupposed 2005, p. 64-66). Adults are responsive to comfortable to them. We did not want to that they would prepare, to some extent, before some external motivators, but the most potent prescribe one set of assignments or learning each talk. motivators are internal pressures. goals because of the breadth of students participating in Metaliteracy MOOC. Our To be blunt, the undergraduate students had I have two observations about the struggles students subscribed to RSS feeds, met in a a very difficult time with the cMOOC. They undergraduate students expressed in “finding variety of social media outlets such as Twitter were not used to the extraordinary amount their learning pathway” through the cMOOC. and Facebook using pre-assigned hashtags of self-direction allowed, indeed demanded, The first is that the connectivist MOOC and keywords, collaborated both during our by the course. When I was first introduced model seems particularly well suited to MOOC Talks and as they blogged about to the idea that readings were to be selected adult learners, and that many cMOOC them, did assignments in their home campus based on individual interest, I was nonplussed. participants thus far seem to possess the credit-bearing courses, or interacted with the The students, on the whole, took this to mean learner characteristics associated with adults concepts presented within them in other ways that they didn’t need to do any readings. They and the andragogical model. By contrast, the they found interesting. found ways to ask questions of presenters that xMOOC instructivist model (that replicates didn’t require much preparation. Their blog the large on-ground lecture hall in an online We decided on the term “MOOC Talk” to posts were mostly brief and superficial. And environment) provides a learning modality describe our weekly course meetings. We approximately half of the students ended up that is perhaps more familiar to the traditional did not want to use the phrase “lecture” to dropping the course because of the disconnect, classroom-based undergraduate student, pronounce how we were presenting material for them, between this course and what they and thus easier for them to experience both because we did not want to create a division expect of a college course. When queried at cognitively and in terms of learning modality. between teacher and learner in our MOOC. the beginning of the course, none had taken My second observation is that preliminary In our environment, speakers would be blended or online courses. In retrospect, the research in the field indicates that MOOCs are presenting ideas that students would reflect in-class preparation insufficiently acclimated primarily serving learners with college degrees. on, research, learn about and interact with, them to the environment, but the problems For example, Coursera data shows that 76.2 hopefully becoming teachers themselves to exceeded this one issue. percent of Coursera MOOC takers already other participants. We wanted our gatherings have college degrees (Koller, 2014). to be discussions: two-way communications Nicola Allain where students could interact with speakers, Jenna Pitera generate their own ideas, and present their Are there important links we should consider thoughts and questions to the weekly speaker between the experiences of adult learners Why was it important for us to develop this in real time. We established a meeting time and cMOOCs? environment as a connectivist MOOC? of 12 p.m. EST, a schedule that seemed to How did the MOOC Talk format contribute best suit a global audience. While attendance As an educator working primarily with to this design? for each synchronous session varied, it was adult learners in online modalities, I find it always respectable, and sometime higher than fascinating to see the differences in student As we evaluate our Metaliteracy MOOC others. All of the MOOC Talks featured an experiences and expectations depending on experience, these are both important questions interviewer, a speaker, and a forum and social their learner characteristics. Malcolm Knowles’ to consider. Our group explored a number media moderator so that we could manage Andragogical Model proposes six assumptions of different platforms before we came to questions and allow everyone’s voice to be about adult learners that frame the way we the connectivist format. We looked into the heard. Each MOOC Talk generated a lot of work with these learners: 1. the need to know. Canvas Network MOOC platform, Coursera energy around the week’s lesson, and having Adults need to know why they need to learn and other, more traditional, xMOOC students participate in real time gave us, something before undertaking to learn it. providers. Our goals in creating a MOOC and MOOC facilitators, great feedback on 2. The learner’s self-concept. Adults have a on metaliteracy were to really embody the what interested students and how well they self-concept of being responsible for their own principals of this model while teaching understood the concepts, which generated new decisions, for their own lives (and need to be about its practice. This required us to have a ideas and perspectives. treated as being capable of self-direction). collaborative, discussion-based format, where 3. The role of the learners’ experiences. Adults the participants of the MOOC could learn Michele Forte come into an education activity with both from each other and reflect on each week’s a greater volume and a different quality of themes. We didn’t want to present a video How did the conversations in these experience from that of youths. 4. Readiness lecture absent of metacognition. We wanted spaces disrupt the expectations and to learn. Adults become ready to learn those speakers, rather than lecturers, who would flow of the experience? things they need to know and be able to do present a concept that students would reflect in order to cope effectively with their real-life on, elaborate on and process throughout each The question sends my thoughts in a few situations. 5. Orientation to learning. Adults week. This led us to the connectivist format. different directions. I am thinking about a are life-centered (or task-centered or problem- Participants in a connectivist MOOC establish number of other MOOC-centric presentations centered) in their orientation to learning. their own learning goals. They interact at CIT. From these presentations, I concluded 6. Motivation (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, with the material on a level and frequency that the “disruptive strategies” identified

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by Nicola are welcomed by our MOOC metaphors in cyberspace. Metaliteracy MOOC my own anxiety rising as I rather quickly, and participants. Our colleagues at CIT focused was the first venue in the United States somewhat inelegantly, tried to fill in when she on strategic use of video, while we used the that coincided with the launch of her new dropped out of the conversation. “talks” to challenge the asynchronous nature book, Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace While the session led by McBride did not of this cMOOC, an approach mirrored in (Thomas, 2013). suffer the same failure of technology, the “World in Conversation,” a project hosted by So that I could be in the same physical seamlessness of the interface ironically Penn State, focused on encouraging artful, location as two of my co-authors here, Trudi contributed to a different kind of disruption deep facilitation within potentially chaotic and Jenna, I chose to drive to the University – and a little bit of chaos. Because all systems environments or around topics likely to incite at Albany to join them. While I appreciate were concurrently running, I was aware of the and invite emotional response. It finds its the flexibility of the Internet, and the degree simultaneity of the chat box and the ongoing origins in student unrest and racial and ethnic to which that translates into access for many presentation, student questions, our team divides on campus in 2002, and has grown of the learners in this cMOOC, I decided questions and the new learning and topics to deliver badges based on the competencies that being in the same room as my colleagues created by all of these interactions. Here, then, associated with, among others, “building would be beneficial. It was a prescient decision: form and content were aligned: Through connection.” Even when the conversations As I worked with the speaker in the live remixing, refreshing, reusing, revising and are virtual, proponents of the site note, as session, I heavily relied upon Trudi and Jenna’s redistributing, the concurrent conversations we did, that well-facilitated conversations skills as moderators and co-facilitators. They evolved into new, yet connected threads. are location-agnostic. helped to monitor the chat area, vet questions The many concurrent dialogues were taking When we review distinct characteristics coming in from students via email and helped place with or without me, and I was quite of each MOOC format, cMOOCs are me monitor the time that inevitably flew by. aware that I could not control these sessions characterized by opportunities for synchronous This description makes the sessions sound – and of the most important distinction connection. One such opportunity came in the orderly – tidy, even. What I did not anticipate between managing and controlling, Trudi form of synchronous talks led by researchers, was how unwieldy the talks actually felt, and and Jenna were talking to me, to each other, writers and teachers on themes appended to how much focus and flexibility the sessions and to the students from the University at the larger topic of metaliteracy. While these actually demanded. Albany participating in the MOOC. I also talks froze the asynchronous nature of the While the synchronous disruption of the knew that the audience was diverse: both larger course, they not only created stepped otherwise asynchronous cMOOC temporarily faculty colleagues and traditional students moments in time for these deep connections to froze one aspect of this modality, it nonetheless were participants, and with them, they brought organically evolve, but they also enhanced the did not thwart the creation of constellations implications of race, class, gender and varying inherent opportunities of a cMOOC. of meaning within and subsequent to that learning styles, abilities and challenges. Our intention was to engender dynamic, synchronous session. In effect, the synchronous, Therefore, I could neither rely on the “teacher participatory sessions; the talks were generally cMOOC Talk sessions at once provided voice” nor could I default to academic jargon led by the featured speaker of the week. As and, like the MOOC format itself, further and be confident that all learners were either facilitator for two of the sessions, I collaborated disrupted this sense of coherence. accommodated or interested. Lastly, I neither with speakers to help frame and chunk knew all of the participants, nor could I see Of the two, the Thomas session was a bit questions in advance of the session. During them. I couldn’t rely on what I hope are fairly more scripted. If the question and answer each session, which lasted one hour, I worked well-honed abilities to negotiate a room portion of the talk got off to a slower start, to highlight the organic connections between and determine how group dynamics affect she sent questions that I could use to prompt questions and comments in the chat box and individual participation. Reflecting now about discussion. In retrospect, I realize that I asked those being sent into my colleagues via email, the strengths of learner contributions in a for these questions to disrupt my own anxiety tweets and so forth. The art of facilitating cMOOC, I suppose the real question is why I over potential radio silence, as it were: I trusted a discussion in which all participants feel felt responsible for this accommodation at all. neither my own facilitative abilities, nor was connected is often not intuitive, however, I confident that participants would, as it and I struggled at various points with how to Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson were, participate. accomplish this charge. As it goes, I was not prepared for a relative From the perspective of the course The topic for the first synchronous session that failure of technology and how that failure facilitators, how did you think about the I facilitated was “Openness and Metaliteracy,” disrupted the disruption of the session. More MOOC Talk format? led by Mark McBride, then of Buffalo State, than once, Thomas’ entire screen froze, and now of Monroe Community College (both The interactive sessions were designed for she was dropped from the session – mid- SUNY institutions). I also co-facilitated an international audience of participants in sentence, and at most inopportune moments. the session featuring Sue Thomas titled: real time and featured experts in the field. We eventually determined that her webcam “Tech: Nature Literacy: Technobiophilia.” All of the speakers were paired to create a was causing the blip, but until that point, and Thomas’ talk was framed by investigations of dialogue or “talk” that went beyond the one- after the first two interruptions, I could feel representations of nature and nature-derived way presentation of materials. All of the talks

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also included a brief introduction to situate the first three categories, with students is expected to apply the knowledge the discussion within the overall context demonstrating a strong interest in conducting acquired to demonstrate a graduate level of the course. We planned for a seamless original research in the field (Allain & Gal, metacognitive analysis of the Metaliteracy experience during the synchronous sessions, 2014). MOOC while conducting an evaluation but this did not always take place. As Michele of the efficacy of the learning modality, The Metaliteracy MOOC project afforded us noted, a few talks included several glitches. analysis of approaches to assessment, and the opportunity to engage graduate student Interestingly, our perception of the live sessions apply this to the research project of his research within a credit-bearing study. In was that Michele always handled the situation choice. In evaluating these, the instructor addition, I participated as a co-facilitator of masterfully, even though she thought it did not looks for evidence - in reflective blog the MOOC, which gave me a high level of go as well as expected. posts, social media sharing, MOOC engagement with the material, process, analysis participation, assessment activity, Metaliteracy MOOC was primarily an and learning experience. evaluation framework, and final project asynchronous experience, but the MOOC The MALET graduate student from the work - that the student is applying the Talks allowed for a synchronous component first cohort who elected to enroll in the course theories, ideas and knowledge that felt like we were broadcasting live. As metacognitive analysis of the MOOC has a acquisition to the learning activities. much as we planned for these real time strong interest in efficacy and assessment in The student must apply a progressive events, the live “on the air” dimension of the learning environments. It therefore seemed gathering of readings, research, reflection, talks included a few additional technology particularly fitting for the student to undertake and MOOC resources to support the challenges. For example, the team sessions a metacognitive analysis of his own learning metacognitive framework of this study. at the University at Albany were at times within this connectivist environment. He was The successful research project will fit problematic because of issues with wireless interested in examining the efficacy of the the scope of this study, and incorporate access, and early on we learned that Prezi MOOC, and whether or not it would promote theory, research, applications and analysis presentations and links to video were too self-efficacy in learning for students. As he at the graduate level. (Allain, 2013, much for Blackboard Collaborate to handle. put it: “Is the MOOC doing an effective job Methods and Criteria for Evaluation We responded to all of these challenges on of teaching me about the various literacies section, para. 1) the fly, while each session was being recorded, and giving me an idea of what metaliteracy thus documenting every glitch, but overall it In addition to this delineation of methods is?” In order to analyze the MOOC within worked, and the bumps along the road became and criteria, I used a comprehensive rubric to a metacognitive framework, the student was a part of the experience itself. In many ways, evaluate the metacognitive reflections. expected to meet the following learning our use of both synchronous and asynchronous outcomes: The student’s analysis pointed to two issues technologies and our ability to adapt along the with the MOOC learning expectations in way demonstrated the very kind of metaliterate In addition to enrolling in the relation to self-efficacy. They both relate to the learning we have been promoting. The ability MOOC and completing assigned methods and criteria for evaluation. Discussion to adjust to evolving technologies is a key educational activities, you will conduct participation was encouraged, but not aspect of metaliteracy, and requires ongoing a metacognitive analysis of the MOOC, actively a part of the credit-bearing learning reflection, collaborative problem-solving and with the following foci: (1) evaluation of assessment. Contributions to the conversation individual willingness to try new things. the efficacy of the learning environment; were assessed in both the undergraduate and (2) analysis of approaches to assessment, graduate credit-bearing modalities. However, Nicola Allain both actual and potential; (3) a responses to other contributors were not metacognitive analysis of your learning explicitly stated as grade-bearing requirements. Can you describe the MOOC metacognitive in the MOOC. You will also complete The student reflected that this was a analysis provided by your graduate student in a related research project and literature disincentive for self-regulating learners, who the MALET program? review of your choice. (Allain, 2013, would focus, rather, on the learning activities Learning Outcomes section, para. 1) Metaliteracy MOOC presented the perfect that would affect their course grade. He also opportunity to begin a research program in the The student was also asked to read several concluded that this was a strong detriment to emerging field of massive open online courses scholarly articles on metacognition, the development of robust, active discussion as our inaugural cohort of graduate students metacognitive theories and metacognitive forums throughout MOOCs active lifespan. in the MALET program approached the development, in addition to the required and In addition, he felt that the fact that he was critical stage of selecting its final thesis project recommended readings for the MOOC. graded on his contributions to tweets and blog research focus. At this stage of the program, posts, and not on his review and responses to The methods and criteria for evaluation were students are indicating a strong interest in other posters, meant that he focused more on as follows: open and online learning, learning analytics creating his contributions than connecting and assessment, exploring new environments Each of the learning activities requires to others engaged in the MOOC (Brown, for learning and creative approaches for adult the application of graduate level research, 2013). I think this is a failing of the learning learning and workforce training. MALET metacognitive reflection, writing, analysis, contracts created for the enrolled students, and MOOC research is currently falling within and evaluation. Specifically, the student not Metaliteracy MOOC in itself. For future

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variations on this type of study, I recommend interested in the same topic. In addition, we Allain, N. (2013). MOOC metacognitive allocating a percentage of the grade to bridged distances through interactive MOOC analysis – Learning contract. Retrieved substantive discussion and social media Talks that connected us both synchronously from http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects.com/ responses to other learners’ work in the way and asynchronously with scholars in the U.K., upload_docs/MOOC_Metacognitive_ that we generally do for Center for Distance South Africa and throughout the United Analysis_LC1.pdf Learning and MALET online courses. States. The cMOOC format provided a Allain, N. M., & Gal, D. (2014, April 29). networked environment for us to reflect and I would like to conclude with the student’s MALET: New opportunities and future integrate the key elements of metaliteracy: thoughts summing up his experience: possibilities for online learning research. empowerment, metacognition and emerging Presentation at the CDL Conference, Through the processes of creating this live technologies, as well as participation, SUNY Empire State College, Saratoga blog and gaining presence in social media, production and sharing in open learning Springs, NY. I am effectively displaying the efficacy environments. of the MOOC. When I first received Brown, D. A. (2013). The efficacy of the At the same time, the cMOOC made it information the on the class, I was told that #Metaliteracy MOOC [Web log post]. difficult for some students accustomed to I would learn about the various literacies Retrieved from http://davesmeta. a traditional campus-based setting to fully associated with the overall understanding of blogspot.com/2013/12/the-efficacy-of- engage in this decentered and somewhat Metaliteracy. This MOOC offers a plethora metaliteracy-mooc.html?view=sidebar fluid experience. In addition, the primary of resources that introduce a number of curricular focus on the theoretical dimension of Knowles, M. S., Elwood F. H., & Swanson, R. different literacies. While not every piece of metaliteracy may have resulted in a cMOOC A. (2005). The adult learner: The definitive information is new, the different viewpoints that was less approachable to some participants classic in adult education and human resource allow for a reintroduction of many previous than a competency-based resource, such as our development. Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier. held notions. This MOOC shows a related and evolving digital badging system. consistency, in terms of content presentation, Koller, D. (2014, May 29). The online In moving forward, future research will need activity offerings and student participation revolution: Learning without limits. to examine some of the challenges related that is hard to match in other MOOCs I Keynote speech presented at CIT to the interactive cMOOC experience. By have seen. I am proud that I have been able (Conference on Instruction & doing so, we will improve learner success in to take this MOOC and can easily say it Technology) 2014, Cornell University, these environments as measured by active has been comparable to traditional classes Ithaca, NY. engagement, retention and evidence of in a variety of ways. Metaliteracy is a new metaliterate learning. Our next project will Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2014). take on the way we learn and utilize the build on this first cMOOC by developing a Metaliteracy: Reinventing information information that is around us and provides Coursera MOOC that fully integrates with literacy to empower learners. Chicago, IL: valuable 21st century skills and knowledge. our competency-based metaliteracy digital Neal-Schuman/ALA Editions. badging system. As that project progresses, Conclusion Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2003, May). Threshold it will be worthwhile to observe how our concepts and troublesome knowledge: The development and implementation of experience with the cMOOC described in Linkages to ways of thinking and practicing Metaliteracy MOOC was an inspiring this essay, and all of our collective insights, within the disciplines. ETL Project collaborative experience for our entire team. will inform how we develop a MOOC using Occasional Report 4. Retrieved from This project united two institutions within the Coursera platform, to further advance http://www.colorado.edu/ftep/documents/ the SUNY system, Empire State College and metaliterate learning. ETLreport4-1.pdf the University at Albany, to create an original online space that was independent of any References Thomas, S. (2013). Technobiophilia: Nature particular platform or learning environment. and cyberspace. New York, NY: ACRL (Association of College & Research We built on the initial success of our colleague Bloomsbury Academic. Libraries). (2000). Information literacy Betty Hurley, who paved the way with the competency standards for higher education. Townsend, L., Brunetti, K., & Hofer, A. R. first two MOOCs in SUNY, to develop Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/ (2011, July). Threshold concepts and an open and integrated site using George mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf information literacy. portal: Libraries Siemens’ gRSShopper open programming. and the Academy, 11(3), 853-869. This “homemade” project embodied the spirit ACRL (Association of College & Research of openness by allowing for collaborative Libraries). (2015, January 16). Final teaching and learning on many levels. This document: Framework for information cMOOC enabled an exchange of ideas literacy for higher education. Retrieved from among administrators, faculty, librarians, http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/wp-content/ instructional designers and learners. It also uploads/2015/01/Framework-MW15- prepared us to cross boundaries between Board-Docs.pdf academic professionals and lifelong learners

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 46 • winter 2015 History, Memory and Power

Anna Barsan, Metropolitan Center

Anna Barsan is a New York City-based artist and media to actively participate in reassembling these narratives with educator working in film, installation and live video a greater awareness of their impact on the individual and on performance. She is the co-creator of SIGNIFIED, a the collective conscience. documentary series and digital archive of LGBTQ testimony; founding member of Elektric Breakfast, a women’s visual As a media educator, Barsan travels nationally and arts collaborative working in video performance and internationally to facilitate media literacy and advocacy multimedia installation; and a board member for the workshops for journalists, educators and political actors. She activist organization Queerocracy. holds an M.A. in film and new media studies from The New Barsan’s work explores concepts of identity, social control School and a B.A. in international relations and social justice and art as activism. Rooted in a documentary practice, Barsan from the University of Michigan. She works with students in deconstructs personal histories, collective memory and power film and media studies at SUNY Empire State College and is structures to identify the distinct elements that form them. currently collaborating with mentor Ruth Goldberg on the By doing so, Barsan’s artistic intervention invites her audience Arthur Imperatore Community Forum Fellowship. SIGNIFIED

SIGNIFIED is a documentary series featuring over 20 interviews in as well as document radical forms of that highlights the work of queer Argentina, Colombia and Cuba. The artistic creation, collective education, identified artists and activists who are series is available in both English and and the transformation of mechanisms fostering, enriching and sustaining Spanish and has been viewed over that police queer bodies and vibrant and diverse communities. The 40,000 times in more than 60 countries. communities. The series is co-directed first season of interviews premiered by Anna Barsan and Jessie Levandov, SIGNIFIED was borne out of a desire to with The Guggenheim Lab in fall 2011 and is available at: provide a common space and language and has since expanded internationally, www.thisissignified.com. to examine existing power structures, Soundtrack ’63

Soundtrack ’63 is a add additional visual effects multimedia, live music using Modul8 software and a performance that engages MIDI controller. Live-control of viewers in a cultural and the videos allowed the images artistic retrospective of the and music to work together Civil Rights Movement. The to immerse the audience show features spirituals, in an interactive audio and protest songs and popular visual experience. The visuals music throughout the 20th and multimedia installation century performed live by an were created in collaboration 18-piece orchestra. The music with Mitra Bonshahi and Erin is accompanied by a three- Culton. The performance channel video installation was originally produced by consisting of archival footage 651Arts with Creative Director and animation. Chen Lo. A highlight reel of the performance can During the performance, be viewed at: Barsan’s role as the VJ was www.soundtrack63.com. to control the videos live and

Billboard Drone

Billboard Drone is a publicly projected curated “The Invisible View,” which split screen video featuring aerial examined technological processes of footage of drone strikes, animation of “seeing” (i.e., infrared imaging, facial the MQ-1 predator drone, and images recognition technology, race and uploaded to Flickr from recorded gender profiling, social media activism, longitude and latitude locations of U.S. drone surveillance) and their influence drone strikes. on representation, identity and social control. More information about The first public projection of the the project can be found at: piece took place at ReFest: Art and www.annabarsan.com. Technology Festival where Barsan Cyclus

Cyclus is a work in progress. It global context of growing militarism, and restlessness under growing state is a multi-channel experimental consumerism and ecological collapse. violence. Picturesque landscapes speak documentary consisting of archival, Destruction by means of violence to an idealized past, memories of what verité, essay and narrative elements. and warfare is explored through we have lost, as well as hope for what The film is split into three parts that archival footage while abandoned might be restored if we act quickly in the explore cycles of destruction and landscapes, factories and homes of face of the destruction and violence that renewal through a personal, societal Detroit are used to depict a not-so- surrounds us. and environmental lens. distant post-apocalyptic future. Verité Additional examples of Barsan’s footage captures a number of recent The story follows a young woman work may be viewed at: marches and protests in New York that navigating the personal loss of www.annabarsan.com communicate a rising sense of urgency a relationship set within a larger 45

From the Wilds of Sabbatical: A Reflection on Transformation

Kim Hewitt, Metropolitan Center

fter I was awarded continuing struggle to balance their jobs, families, religious appointment, I was thrilled to receive lives and roles as mothers, fathers, caretakers, a full-year sabbatical for 2014-2015. artists, community activists, etc., etc., with AUnfortunately, this is a rare occurrence at their studies, and calming and encouraging SUNY Empire State College, largely because students who often face anxieties and fears the college funds an extremely limited number about the educational process. In spite of the of half-year sabbaticals each year and because challenge of this work that goes beyond the few professors, who tend to have moderate intellectual tasks of teaching, here at Empire paychecks at public universities, are able or State College we don’t have the breaks of a willing to bear the financial stress of a full year traditional college, so it is a 12-month job at half pay. Regardless of the lifestyle sacrifices without spring break or summers off, or even I made, I reveled in being awarded a space of major time off for winter break. I had known time to devote to my intellectual development, a sabbatical would be crucial in finally offering and I am grateful to Empire State College for time to develop my scholarship and also to funding my sabbatical. One of my professor stem the smoldering burnout I felt from friends and I remind each other often of the working with students without a meaningful good life we lead as professors. When we find break for eight years. I had no idea just how

ourselves complaining about how hard we important a sabbatical would be to redefining PARMER CREDIT: JASON PHOTO work, or about a particularly galling dilemma my relationship with my work. Kim Hewitt in front of a redwood. at work, we are fond of reminding each other I knew work was stressful and occupied most “It ain’t coal mining.” No black lung, no of my waking hours, but I had no idea how crawling on our hands and knees in small, world expanded tremendously as I voraciously stressful until I was finally able to shed the dark spaces, no danger of the mine blowing consumed works that had been on my reading habit of checking work email, fretting over up. Compared to many lives, ours is downright list for years. what studies students were or weren’t taking, luxurious. We don’t keep early hours unless we meetings, changes in policies and procedures It felt wonderful. For the first three months, I want to, and our schedules are fairly flexible. and a hundred other bureaucratic details and was happy to once again exercise my mind in We get to think, write, read and (hopefully) effluvia that plague my days at work. I finally serious and creative intellectual work. Then, contribute to society by educating students in weaned myself away and was able to focus on another shift occurred. Relieved of the stress many different ways, and most importantly, we not just the details of my scholarly research, of my job, I remembered that life can be fun care about our jobs. but the larger meanings and importance of and can offer endless possibilities for growth. However, unlike traditional colleges, the ESC my scholarly work. I felt my mind and body I felt alive in ways I hadn’t in years. Even more model embraces mentoring, which is rigorous, relax. I spent hours every day reading, learning, astoundingly, after about three months, I felt exhausting work both intellectually and writing and putting my research in a broader a major transformation in my view of higher emotionally, and most mentors put in far more (and much needed) perspective that I hadn’t education, and a major shift in how I define than 40 hours most weeks. We are constantly been able to see in the fragmented and tiny success at my job. racing to meet term deadlines, pressured to time slots available while working. I hadn’t I was able to step back and really consider the fulfill ever-ballooning roles in service to the had the time and energy available for this kind ways in which work had been undermining college, and striving to improve the quality of of work since I had been in graduate school. my work. What do I mean by that? Caught our teaching and interactions with students, I felt my mind open into a kind of creative up in the grind – the details of registration, while trying to find time for scholarship. thinking space I hadn’t experienced in nearly the retention rate, the clerical processes of Simultaneously, as mentors at a nontraditional 10 years. I was able to read and digest ideas checking degree programs, and graduation institution that puts mentoring at the core of and grasp a deep understanding and original checks – I had forgotten the human piece of its attempt to recruit students, we are expected synthesis of ideas. I played with ideas and education. Pressed into the assembly line-like to recognize and respect our students and their made connections and wrote in ways that calendar of registration, grading, preparation life experiences in their many roles as people were productive and enjoyable. My intellectual and meetings, I had lost sight of the deep with full lives. Mentoring often involves the possibilities of education for students who emotional work of supporting students as they on the one hand had rich life experiences

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to bring to their work with me, and on the of a capitalist, consumer-driven, profit-driven Sitting on the beach, I had a minor revelation other also were caught up in jobs, financial society that values data-driven outcomes more and transformational experience. I realized that pressures, family responsibilities and deadlines. than processes. However, in an effort to earn the main thing keeping me from seeing the Often they were too caught up to stop and the reward of tenure, I had focused more on beauty in each student and feeling that delight ask themselves what they really want from measures of performance that skirted difficult every day at my job, is my own busyness and their education or in their lives. I understand questions for students and me. how caught up I get in the frantic factory-pace that many students at Empire State College of my job, which is always demanding more of At ESC, we kick around the term aren’t looking for anything more than a piece my time. How ironic! I hadn’t even touched my “transformational education.” Transformation of paper that shows a degree. They aren’t reading list on transformation yet and I had and the question of what changes a person necessarily seeking a new world view, or to found part of my answer experientially. Space has been an interest of mine for many years. become better people, or to contribute to and time to relax and reflect had allowed me to Part of my sabbatical was aimed at tackling society in a way they have dug deep inside experience a heartfelt response to my students. a reading list I had constructed to explore themselves to figure out. They may not even Instead of intellectually consuming the ideas the research on transformational experiences be looking for happiness or fulfillment. Some of what it means to be “student-centered,” particularly relevant to learning. I am an are resigned to trying to succeed in a society I gained an intuitive knowledge of what it academic, so books are my friends, research is that requires credentials, regardless of one’s means to respond to students from my center, my skeleton, intellectual dialogue is my blood, life experiences or depth of learning, values on a real and deep level. Unfortunately, that ideas are my breath, and I wanted to study or wisdom. had often been missing in my daily life at ESC everything that had ever been written about because I had been so damned busy trying to I also had relegated myself to this mechanistic transformational education and experiences. perform up to the measures of success for so view of higher education and society. Driven But I found my insights on the beach many years. It was a real aha moment. by a student-as-customer model in which my in California. job is to be knowledgeable, efficient, pleasant What transforms people? A vast amount and agreeable, I had allowed students to As I sat on the sandy coast in Humboldt of research supports the idea that treat me like a faceless source of information. County, California, softly enclosed by a chilly transformational learning arises from Indeed, I had resigned myself to that role. I fog, I wasn’t pondering intellectual ideas or the experiences that engage more than just a had become a tool in a grinding process of research about transformation. I was enjoying person’s mind. Research shows (specifically) making pieces fit. The assembly line system of a rare moment of hanging out in nature, that emotional engagement enhances learning. measuring success by production and profit (or caressed by the sound of the ocean, embraced It seems obvious, doesn’t it? If it matters, you that is, enrollment numbers, SALE [Student by the gray ambiance. I felt content and whole learn about it. The topics of education (math, Assessment of Learning Experiences] results and part of the world. I was well-rested and reading, history, literature, science, etc.) can and graduation rates), no matter how hollow, relaxed. In my mind, I had images of the matter in many different ways and engage had captured my attention in my pursuit majestic redwood trees I had seen on my hikes, many different parts of a person. When of tenure, and I had achieved that goal. At each one uniquely gorgeous. As I marveled at students see that a topic is relevant to their traditional institutions of higher education, them in awe I had thought, “If only I could lives, they learn that it isn’t just the information faculty like to think their task is to put all see each one of my students this way: each one that matters; it is what they do with it that their years honing their intellect to work in unique and beautiful in her own way.” As I matters. Isn’t that one of the ideas we strive to their area of expertise. At ESC, our ideals pass on to students? go beyond that to strive to facilitate lifelong If you care about something, you are engaged learning using innovative methods for students with your heart, your body, your whole being. who are often the least acclimated to higher If you care about something, If it touches you, it has the power to transform education. Instead of forcing students into you. That’s the power that many works of a standardized box, we seek to adapt our you are engaged with your art hold, and that is the power of education methods to the needs of the student (hopefully heart, your body, your whole that engages students on more than a mental without sacrificing academic rigor). Not all level, or of a mentor who can be fully present students want a transformational experience, being. If it touches you, it has and centered, rather than a cog in a machine but we give lip service to that prospect at ESC, the power to transform you. spewing out guidelines. and in my ideal world, education broadens and stretches a person’s world view in ways I’ll suggest that an aspect of being centered that aren’t always convenient or comfortable. is being able to engage with many parts of Education should change people. As an enjoyed a serene moment on the beach, I felt a one’s self and being grounded within one’s ideological stance, I find this idea that we help sudden surge of warmth for my students, and whole self, as I felt on that beach. Being students become who they want to become, looked forward to my future work with them grounded surely means different things to in ways that suit them (rather than in ways with contentment and even delight. different people, but for me it means having that suit the social pressures they live with), a balanced and relaxed acknowledgment and a satisfying and radical critique of the values respect for all parts of myself: heart, body,

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spirit as well as mind, and the ways all these teaching?! It leaves Faculty Reading Period, might develop for transformative experiences dimensions are entwined. In that moment on during which I am grading final papers, filing that engage students on many levels besides the beach, I understood the idea of teaching grades and preparing for the next term!) the mental? the whole student with my whole self, because Note that I say all this as a faculty member What would be the quality of my interactions I felt whole. It’s not that I hadn’t understood with well-developed time management and with students and colleagues if I was deeply that idea in my head – of course I had! But priority-setting skills. I was always proud of grounded and thriving – intellectually, now I really got it, not just in my mind, but my ability to circumscribe limits with students, emotionally, physically, even (do I dare say it?) in my body, in my heart. If I am relating to to organize my time with students carefully, spiritually – and able to share that in my ability my students on a mind-level only, then I am and of my high student evaluations, and I was to be attentive as a centered human being? literally committing an act of violence against proud of my college service. Although not my students and myself, by denying parts of I realize we face budgetary challenges at a visible “mover and shaker” at the college, I them and parts of myself that are important ESC. All of us in the college community are frequently left work cheerfully saying to the for existence as full human beings, and constantly being asked to do more with less. evening receptionist: “I certainly earned my important for growth and transformation. But if we’re serious about transformational paycheck today!” Once in a while, I even felt education at ESC, then a major shift has to I don’t have any answers yet for what this that I had created a space of rapport with occur. We can’t continue to be a machine that realization means for my daily teaching and students and facilitated a meaningful learning expects faculty and staff to be cogs that self- mentoring life, or my college service, let alone experience, whether it was a concept about the oil and perform according to the charts and what it might mean for others. What I do importance of historical context, or witnessing numbers, regardless of the human toll. In order know is that I can’t go back to the exhausting a student’s self-awareness that arose from a to treat students as humans on the path to work week of student appointments, endless conversation about degree planning. Those transformation (if that is our goal), instead of meetings, cramming in study preparation, moments of satisfaction sustained me, but were enrollment numbers and graduation statistics, hurried review of student folders, and nights often washed away by a vast sea of clerical then we need to role model that possibility and weekends filled with catching up on email work, administrative policy and procedure of transformation and be able to envision and DP and document reviews, and trying to work, and low-level tasks performed on a it – perhaps even manifest it – when we keep up in my field, while in between I try to daily basis. work with them. For that to happen, we need maintain a social life, nurture my relationships, Being able to escape the incessant pace of work time to catch our breath, for our families and exercise and stay healthy, maintain a household at ESC during my sabbatical allowed me to communities, to take care of our own physical and pursue my own personal spiritual and envision a different kind of life for myself, and and mental health, to sit on the beach, and do intellectual goals, with never enough time to a very different approach to my work at ESC. all the things that make us human – in short, do all of it. It’s an act of violence against me and Instead of a 40- to 60-hour work week in have fulfilling, rich lives as well as read, write, my students. Not only do I lose sight of the which I am always rushing to catch my breath learn … and be whole and centered ourselves, larger meaning and purpose of my scholarly and struggling to be a thoughtful, present so that instead of merely surviving, we are research and my teaching, but I lose sight of mentor, colleague and citizen of ESC (while, thriving. We need a system that will value the my students as complex human beings, each unfortunately often choking back frustration quality of mentoring as a measure of success uniquely miraculous in his or her own way. I and anger at my lack of time), what would rather than numbers, and we need a system also lose a crucial sense of enjoyment of life. happen if I was truly able to be centered and that will allot the resources faculty need to For the eight years I have been at ESC, I have wholly present? After all, I am not only an build trust and rapport with each student, so repeated the mantra “I just need to get through academic mentor or a history and cultural this week / this month / this term …” only studies teacher. I have a doctorate, but I also to have the next week, next month and next have emotional, physical, spiritual dimensions term be just as busy as the last. Before my What if I were able to and my own life experiences. What if I were sabbatical, I knew my job was relentless and able to be wholly myself when I interact with be wholly myself when I stressful, but until sabbatical I didn’t realize students? How would I envision an interaction just how stressful and relentless. It had actually interact with students? that values the balance of give-and-take been diminishing the quality of my life and between mentor and student both coming to How would I envision causing a rift in my being as I tried to knit the relationship as rich, multi-dimensional all the many fragments of my work and life an interaction that values beings? Wow. Imagine that for a moment. together into a competent performance. It What would it look like? How would that play the balance of give-and- caused me to be relentless as I pursued tenure, out when a student sits down with a mentor giving myself no quarter to leave an email take between mentor and and says “I am trying to decide what to take unread, or a student question unaddressed, or next term?” or “I want to talk about planning student both coming to the go on vacation during the teaching term. (But my degree?” How would that manifest in a when does that leave time for vacation at a relationship as rich, multi- study group when I teach students about the college that doesn’t have a spring break, has Great Depression or World War II or the dimensional beings? few lengthy holidays, and requires summer Armenian Genocide? What possibilities

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that we can be fully supportive of student’s needs, while not curtailing our own growth as individuals who are more than tools in the impersonal box of an institution. It’s difficult to create a quality learning experience for each student without paper for the copy machine or an evening receptionist, but it is nearly impossible with a workload that precludes being able to maintain a balance of work and personal life. Mentoring and learning requires time to be thoughtful and develop ideas. The process of transformation, for students and faculty, requires the time and space to digest what nurtures us. In the almost 10 years I’ve been at ESC, I’ve heard endless complaints about workload, but I’ve seen little change. Eventually, mentors find ways to cut corners and ways to abbreviate their work and truncate their own selves to tackle the workload. They have to in order to survive. I think students suffer when this happens. I think the institution suffers and I think each one of us suffers, too, as well as society as a larger entity which is robbed of the presence of creative, fully-realized humans who can go forth to transform society. I am tired of the tension between our ideals and our practice. If we want to consider the value of transformational education and the value of mentoring seriously, then it’s time for our work habits, and expectations placed on faculty and staff to evolve. I am lucky enough to have tenure. From here on out, my relentlessness will not be geared toward achieving the checklist that will be rewarded with job security. My pursuit will be a balanced, centered life in which I am able to bring my whole self to my students and colleagues, so that we may all benefit. I heartily wish that reorganization of the college will guarantee each and every one of my colleagues a sabbatical every seven years, and every summer off, so that they may stave off burnout, live rich lives and work with students in a holistic manner. Otherwise, I don’t know how it is humanly possible to maintain any illusion of working with students in a way that maintains – and sustains – the integrity of both mentors and students.

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How to Cultivate “Cultural Openness” Among Adult Learners: Practical Examples From the Buffalo Project

Rhianna C. Rogers and Aimee M. Woznick, Niagara Frontier Center

Introduction Empire State College’s Niagara Frontier Center (hereafter referred to as NFC) students or the past several decades, scholars and perceived the college as a “culturally open” university administrators nationwide place, how being culturally aware fit into their have contemplated how to make own levels of cultural understanding, and higher education a more open, accessible and F what steps we could take to foster an inclusive inclusive place, particularly for those who have environment where students could learn to been historically excluded from the college skillfully negotiate diversity in their academic, environment. In recent years, the push to

professional and personal lives. CREDIT: DARLENE HAPKA PHOTO graduate a more diverse population of students has taken on new urgency, as the United States Toward this end, Rhianna Rogers launched Rhianna C. Rogers and Aimee M. Woznick is experiencing a dramatic shift in cultural the “Buffalo Project” in 2012 as a full-scale demographics and needs to double the number ethnographic study of adult and nontraditional determined by willingness to interact with of college graduates over the next two decades student perceptions of culture at NFC. The people from other cultures and experience in order to remain competitive in the global data collected from the project’s survey some of their artifacts” (p. 149). Many of the economy (Lederman, 2009). In fact, President was used to inform the development of current terms used in educational research Obama (2010) has vowed that America will co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities (such as “multiculturalism,” “cultural sensitivity” once again have the highest proportion of at NFC that were meant to enhance student and “cultural awareness”) imply tolerance of college graduates by the year 2020. This project engagement and cultural understanding. In “others” but not experience with or adoption cannot be realized without opening the doors 2013, Aimee Woznick joined the project in an of different peoples’ cultural norms, beliefs to higher education to a broader segment of effort to expand upon its initial success and to and attitudes. The use of the term “culturally the nation’s population. use the research to enhance NFC’s academic open” for this project implies our desire to be and student support services. This paper will Yet barriers to a college degree still exist for inclusive of all representative student cultures detail our approach to garnering student many, and one of the most significant barriers at NFC, as well as to encourage the creation perspectives, describe lessons learned and is the lack of cultural awareness that diverse of programs that extend beyond the concept of document practical strategies for implementing students encounter upon entering the (physical mere tolerance and truly bridge cultures. student-centered programming projects, such or virtual) classroom. Decades of educational as this one, in other learning environments. research have demonstrated the link between How Does Cultural Openness It is our perspective that when students are student engagement and persistence to Apply to Adult Learning? provided with opportunities to interact with graduation, but students cannot effectively Examples From the their diverse peers, they are able to build cross- engage with their peers if they do not feel Buffalo Project cultural competencies, thus enhancing their comfortable interacting with individuals from overall learning experience. In order to understand the application of different backgrounds. At the same time, cross- the theory of cultural openness to the adult cultural competence has become a fundamental Defining “Culturally Open” learning environment, this paper will explore job requirement in the world marketplace. how our research on the Buffalo Project led to As a result, openness to other cultures is not In order to contextualize this project and tangible results for our students. This research just important for student success, but a key its goals, it is important to first define the project initially grew out of an academic year outcome of a college education. phrase “culturally open.” Scholars across (AY) 2010-2011 pilot study presented at the disciplines have discussed the role of Though questions of diversity in higher the 2011 Empire State College All College cultural openness, usually deeming it a form education have been explored at length with Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York. of intercultural competency (Bennett, 1993; regard to traditional-aged populations, less As an invited participant in the plenary session Byram, 1997; Chen & An, 2009; Deardorff, attention has been directed toward the role titled “Empire State College as an Open 2006, 2008, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Spitzberg of cultural understanding in the academic University: Open to Whom?” co-principal & Changnon, 2009). Shankarmahesh (2006) lives of adult/nontraditional students. In this investigator, Rhianna Rogers, presented expanded upon the ideas of Sharma, Shimp study, we wanted to know whether SUNY a talk titled “Is ESC’s Niagara Frontier and Shin in this way: “Cultural openness is

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Center (NFC) a Culturally ‘Open’ Center How can ESC/NFC become a more (AY 2010-2014), attendance at events has risen for Learning?” in which she discussed her “culturally open” regional center? and students, staff and faculty have regularly informal observations of student perceptions of provided positive feedback on new activities. Based on this question, we developed the culture at NFC. Finding the research helpful following research objectives. Our hope is to: for developing student-centered courses and Lessons Learned: assignments, Rogers, with the help of student 1. understand and/or construct a localized Interpreting Our Results research assistants Maria Tripi (AY 2010- cultural history for ESC/NFC students Throughout this study, research strategies have 2013) and Vincent Caito (AY 2010-2011), and faculty in the context of the been used to discuss the “cultural openness” of expanded this into a formalized Institutional surrounding Western New York NFC. This following section provides a few Review Board research study of NFC student cultural populations highlights of what we found in AY 2013-2014. perceptions of cultural openness. In its second 2. comment on the role of culture in each A full report of the entire two-year project is year (AY 2012-2014), the Buffalo Project representative demographic group at still pending. expanded to include Aimee Woznick as co-PI ESC/NFC and the greater Buffalo region (AY 2013-2014), and has been successfully As would be expected, the vast majority of impacted cultural understanding and the 3. determine what elements of “cultural survey participants were full-time (n= 27) development of student-centered programming openness” have been identified in or and part-time (n= 26) attendees of NFC; no at NFC since its inception. around ESC/NFC that may have positive nonmatriculated students responded. This or negative impacts on the learning could indicate a lack of involvement among The premise of this research project is twofold. processes for diverse populations. these students within everyday activities of First, the project builds upon the mission of 1 this center. In addition, most of the students SUNY Empire State College (n.d.), which The results of the student survey were who participated in this survey were from states that ESC aims to provide “rigorous disseminated in presentations and NFC’s Cheektowaga location (n= 37); however programs that connect individuals’ unique administrative meetings, and feedback there was some representation from other and diverse lives to their personal learning was solicited from students, faculty and unit locations, including Lockport (n=7), goals” (College Mission section, para. 1). It administrators throughout the course of the Jamestown (n=3), and Center for Distance also advances the college’s commitments to research project. This dialogic process enabled Learning students based at NFC (n=2). “promot[e] social justice and a sustainable the Buffalo Project to make a direct impact on Students in the Olean and Fredonia units world through responsiveness to human the culture of NFC. Faculty and administrators did not participate in this survey, which may and social circumstances” and to “ensur[e] alike have been able to use the project data as a indicate a lack of effective communication a healthy democracy that recognizes and way to gauge student interests and implement between the main location in Cheektowaga, respects diversity in all its forms” (Our activities that reflect students’ needs and desires the survey coordinators and NFC units; Commitments section, para. 1). It does in the college environment. By using this data unfamiliarity with the PIs; or a lack of so first by assessing the current state of and continuing to administer student surveys involvement among students in their unit’s cultural openness among students at NFC in the future, NFC aims to increase student student life. Using this information, we through a student survey, and then by using participation in onsite activities and empower were able to develop avenues for increasing that data to inform the development of students in their college experience. communications across locations by taking programming directed at fostering cross- To cite just one example, NFC’s committee the following steps: 1) disseminating student cultural understanding. Secondly, this project responsible for planning events, the Program feedback boxes across all NFC locations, 2) builds upon recent sociocultural research into Committee, had long lamented the poor developing an online student confidential student engagement and retention in collegiate attendance at, and seeming lack of interest feedback form called “Comments for settings. Decades of research stemming from 1 in, some center-based student events. CARES,” managed by the NFC student club, Vincent Tinto’s seminal work on the causes When the Buffalo Project survey revealed 3) engaging in regular conversations with unit of student attrition have suggested a positive that students were eager to have a stronger coordinators and NFC administration about link between student engagement and degree voice in the planning of student events, the student survey results. completion (Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, & committee added both a student and an alum Gonyea ,2008; Tinto, 1990, 2006-2007). A closer examination of the sampled representative to better articulate diverse Toward this end, the researchers sought to survey questions yielded a few expected student interests. These representatives have discover and develop student activities that and unexpected results. As we found in the not only brought fresh perspectives, positive would afford opportunities for co-curricular previous survey, the vast majority of students energy, and new ideas to this committee, but and extracurricular engagement, while perceived NFC as a “culturally open” regional they also have gained valuable leadership simultaneously providing students with center. However, it should be noted that a experience themselves through their active experiences that would enhance cultural tentative analysis of all questions suggests involvement in the planning and execution understanding. Utilizing the aforementioned that students held differing perceptions of events. And the change has not gone information, the following research question about what it means to be culturally open. unnoticed. Since the initial pilot study of this was developed for this project: For example, while 88.53 percent (54:61) project through to the formal research survey of students either agreed or strongly agreed

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that cultural understanding is important to Strategies for Developing Cultural them (staff, student and faculty project the college learning environment, only 54.1 Openness in Adult Learning investigators) made survey participants percent (33:61) agreed or strongly agreed that feel safe. As this project illustrates, the collection of other peoples’ languages are important to that student surveys can be used to enhance student 4. Empower constituents to get involved environment. Further, a full 24.59 percent engagement and increase cultural competence through data contributions and (15:61) of students either disagreed or strongly by enabling students to better interact with disseminate results: Once you develop disagreed that other peoples’ languages are their diverse peers.2 But how might you go a safe environment and collect data, important to the college learning environment. about doing this on your own? Here are a few you need to make sure that you are This data suggests that the connection strategies we would suggest: using the information you are learning between language and culture may not be clear to address the points raised by your to a number of students. And while students 1. Create a pilot study to determine constituents. One of the hallmarks of were quick to cite the importance of cultural constituent interests: It is important an unsuccessful project is when data is understanding, a notable percentage either to recognize that your personal research collected, yet no substantive results come disagreed that they themselves were culturally interests may not be the same as the from it. Remember, projects that involve sensitive (3.33 percent [2:60]) or responded populations you are working with or even people also involve their emotions. If you that they were unsure (16.67 percent [10:60]) – what they need, especially when dealing contribute something, wouldn’t you like numbers that may in fact be artificially low, but with a topic such as cultural openness. to know that it matters? One of the best illustrate a desire to be perceived as culturally Conducting a pilot survey can allow you ways to empower participants is to make sensitive and/or tolerant even if that may not to collect data from your survey group and it clear that their thoughts are heard and reflect students’ actual views. develop student-centered goals for your will be incorporated into the initiative and formal project. Additionally, while students generally programming phase of a project. For this expressed a willingness to learn about other 2. Get “buy in” from your various project, the initiative and programming cultures, survey data indicates that many are constituents: Even before the formal creation phase is, in fact, the most not completely comfortable with approaching project began, it was important to explain meaningful component. Implementing individuals from different cultural backgrounds. to all involved parties the reasons for student ideas and giving participants a In the survey, 26.66 percent (16:60) of students completing a project like this one (i.e., voice is a form of validation that students either strongly agreed or agreed with the developing a student voice, increasing otherwise rarely have the opportunity to statement, “I am unsure about how to approach retention and improving student life experience directly. others about their cultural backgrounds,” and onsite). Speaking and presenting to 5. Allow for creativity and growth: This 18.33 percent (11:60) responded that they as many people as possible about your suggestion ties back to the first point: were unsure about this statement and how project will ensure that all parties though you may have goals and objectives they interpreted its meaning. A number of understand what you are doing and why. in mind, many projects that involve factors may be influencing these results. First, The more opportunities for involvement human subjects have a tendency to the overwhelming majority (84.21 percent) of and feedback during all stages of change organically over time. Different respondents have lived in the Western New the project, the better. Make sure to participants, new perspectives, and York region for 25 years (n= 48) or more and, disseminate results to students, faculty different strengths and weaknesses all as a result, these students may not have had and staff so that everyone has a reason contribute to this evolution. A perfect firsthand interactions with cultures that they to “buy in” and promote the success of example of this comes from the creation perceive as foreign or unfamiliar. Second, to this project. of the NFC student club “CARES further reinforce this insularity, the Buffalo 3. Develop a safe environment for (College Achievement Requires Engaged region has historically been one of the most constituents to exchange/develop ideas: Students).” Though it was a goal of segregated communities in the nation, so cross- When speaking to faculty, staff, students the founding PI to ultimately develop cultural contact even within the region may and administration alike, we made sure to student groups, the research assistants be limited (Yin, 2009). Finally, and perhaps explain our personal reasons for joining were very interested in starting a club most importantly, there is currently no formal this project, shared our own vulnerabilities immediately. Maria Tripi took the lead diversity requirement in the general education and experiences with culture, and on this subproject and, for two years, curriculum, so while students are eager to learn explained what we have learned from we recruited students and eventually about other cultures, there is no compulsory this project. We also made sure to co-developed bylaws and nominated means of doing so. As a result, the curricular mention to all participants the role of the student officers and an executive board. and co-curricular activities associated with the anonymity in these surveys and protection As time progressed, the club took on a life project, described in the following section, are of their comments. Showing our own of its own. Students developed a website a critical way to fill that gap. vulnerabilities, providing multiple options and Facebook page, organized events and for turning in their surveys and having dinners, created volunteering experiences, several people available to speak with wrote a newsletter and traveled to conferences together.3 Additionally, many

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events originally associated with this 2002). These findings suggest that student Another reason that projects like this are so study – including food events, engagement with diversity not only benefits critical is that the vast majority of current multicultural plenaries, movie nights, the bottom line of retention and persistence, educational research with regard to questions field trips, a student club and community but also improves academic outcomes. of cultural awareness has so far concentrated volunteering experiences – now exist as on the experience of traditional college One of the key barriers to cultural openness in standing NFC activities and initiatives, students, aged 18-24. Adults often come to higher education has long been the discrepancy and many are planned and managed by college with broader life experiences than 4 in equity and access experienced by students the students themselves. students fresh out of high school, but their who have been historically underrepresented beliefs, values and attitudes toward other As another benefit of this project, many newly in higher education. Several scholars across cultures also may be more fixed. Learning created NFC initiatives and committees are the disciplines have examined the negative about other cultures and how to negotiate taking into account student perspectives, impact that demographic divides have on diversity is just as important for this particularly from students who have been student academic performance, retention population, but true openness may be more associated with this project, in order to develop and persistence (Bridgeman & Wendler, of a challenge to achieve. More research activities and learning experiences at NFC that 1991; Brown & Cross, 1997; Daugherty & needs to be done about how to effectively support diverse student experiences. Thus, as Lane, 1999; Galicki & McEwen, 1989; Lu, reach out to this specific population of the project has organically evolved over time – 1994; Porter, 1990; Schram, 1996). For these students in order to foster greater intellectual by working from the students up, rather than reasons, scholars have pointed to the necessity openness to difference. the administration down – the Buffalo Project of “mapping diversity efforts” (Halulani, has developed structures that will allow its Haiker, & Lancaster, 2010) – that is, of the Final Thoughts and outcomes to be sustainable long after this study need for institutions of higher education to Concluding Remarks is completed. engage in self-inquiry around the issues of diversity and inclusion. At the same time, It is our view that this work has much to offer Culturally Open Projects: current research has acknowledged that the broader anthropological, ethnographic and What Can They Accomplish? diversity efforts are too often evaluated from student service communities of this region, as Why Are They Necessary? an institutional point of view, and thus has well as those researchers who are specifically increasingly attempted to assess the student interested in the application of cultural Research indicates that engaging students perspective. Some institutions, for example, research to broader educational concepts of through inclusive programming has the have asked undergraduates to complete surveys cultural sensitivity, student retention, academic potential to increase their appreciation for or interviews in which they define diversity, performance and multiculturalism. As diversity in all its forms as well as enhance evaluate their attitudes toward diversity and previously indicated, a successful project should their overall college experiences. The benefits express how willing and/or motivated they take the following into consideration: of a culturally-sensitive, connected student are to learn about diversity issues (Cuba et al., community should be immediately evident to • understand the need and theoretical 2011; Littleford, 2013). college faculty and administrators. Classroom underpinnings of the project discussions and other college experiences Projects like ours make a conscious effort • review similar projects that exist and find are naturally more robust when students feel to capture the student voice, and to use that out what does and does not work comfortable communicating with their diverse survey feedback to inform our institutional peers. It should be no surprise, then, that and program planning. In fact, student • develop assessment tools for measuring recent studies have suggested that engagement research assistants helped develop the survey the success of the project with diversity is a boon to academic itself, assisting in developing and formulating • solicit feedback from participants achievement, as well. In a study conducted the questions, which gave us great insight before, during and after the project to at the University of Michigan, Laird (2005) into what issues mattered most to them. measure effectiveness found that “students with more experiences Furthermore, having student data makes it with diversity, particularly enrollment in easier to reflect on our own practices related • create a safe environment for learning diversity courses and positive interactions to diversity and inclusion, and to understand and growth with diverse peers, are more likely to score clearly what is working and not working, rather • utilize participant data to develop higher on academic self-confidence, social than relying on the observations and “anecdata” participant-centered initiatives agency, and critical thinking disposition” of college employees alone. At Empire State and programming (p. 365). Others have found that interactions College, for example, there is an annual climate with diverse peers, in both formal and survey that assesses perceptions about diversity • disseminate results. informal settings, are associated with and cultural sensitivity as they relate to the We believe studies like this one have the positive learning and democracy outcomes, work of faculty and administrators, but there potential to improve student retention, as well largely due to the way that unexpected is currently no analogous collegewide survey as to increase awareness of cultural diversity experiences cause students to question for the student body; this project is one step in and interests in college settings. In addition, established beliefs (Bowman & Brandenberger, that direction. we also believe projects like this one have 2011; Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin,

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the potential to allow instructors, in both Education for the intercultural Deardorff, D. K. (Ed.). (2009a). The SAGE local and regional capacities, the ability to experience (pp. 21-71). Yarmouth, handbook of intercultural competence. better tailor their studies to students’ diverse ME: Intercultural Press. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. cultural interests, which ultimately will allow Bowman, N. A., & Brandenberger, J. W. Deardorff, D. K. (2009b). Implementing for the enhanced learning opportunities and (2011). Experiencing the unexpected: intercultural competence assessment. increased retention. Moving forward, our goal Toward a model of college diversity In D. K. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE is to disseminate the results of this project to experiences and attitude change. handbook of intercultural competence (pp. the broader academic community in order to The Review of Higher Education, 477-491). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. encourage the establishment of similar 35(2), 179-205. projects across SUNY Empire State College Deardorff, D. K. (2010). A comparative and beyond. Bridgeman, B., & Wendler, C. (1991, June). analysis and global perspective of regional Gender differences in predictors of college studies on intercultural competence. Paris, Notes mathematics performance and in college FR: UNESCO. mathematics grades. Journal of Educational 1 Link to “Comments for CARES” Galicki, S. J., & McEwen, M. K. (1989, Psychology, 83(2), 275-284. feedback form: http://sunyesccares. September). The relationship of residence wordpress.com/comments-for-cares/. Brown, N. W., & Cross, E. J. (1997, June). to retention of black and white students

2 Coping resources and family environment and a predominantly white university. For survey instrument and specific for female engineering students. College Journal of College Student Development, data from this project, please review Student Journal, 31(2), 282-288. 30(5), 389-394. the Buffalo Project Reports for AY 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 on the Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing Gurin, P., Dey, E. L., Hurtado, S., & Buffalo Project website: http://commons. intercultural communicative competence. Gurin, G. (2002, Fall). Diversity and esc.edu/rhiannarogers/the-buffalo- Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd. higher education: Theory and impact project-an-ethnographic-study-of- on educational outcomes. Harvard Chen, G., & An, R. (2009). A Chinese model western-new-york/. Educational Review, 72(3), 330-366. of intercultural leadership competence. 3 The SUNY ESC NFC CARES (spring In D. K. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE Halulani, R. T., Haiker, H., & Lancaster, C. 2012-present) club website is http:// Handbook of Intercultural Competence (pp. (2010, April). Mapping diversity efforts as sunyesccares.wordpress.com/; the club 196-208). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. inquiry. Journal of Higher Education Policy Facebook page is https://www.facebook. and Management, 32(2), 127-136. Cuba, L., Jennings, N., Lovett, S., Swingle, com/SUNYESCCARES?fref=ts. J., Lindkvist, H., & Howard, A. (2011). Kuh, G. D., Cruce, T. M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, 4 Here is a brief sampling of activities Diversity from the student’s point of view. J., & Gonyea, R. M. (2008, September/ and initiatives that grew organically out Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, October). Unmasking the effects of of the survey results and activities: 1) 43(4), 32-38. student engagement on first-year college establishment of a semiannual Cultural grades and persistence. The Journal of Daugherty, T. K., & Lane, E. J. (1999, January). Diversity Luncheon/Global Food Fest Higher Education, 79(5), 540-563. A longitudinal study of academic and for NFC faculty, staff and students social predictors of college attrition. Social Laird, T. F. N. (2005, June). College students’ (fall 2010, spring 2013, fall 2013); 2) Behavior and Personality, 27(4), 355-362. experiences with diversity and their establishment of a semiannual Buffalo effects on academic self-confidence, Project Academic Plenary Series focusing Deardorff, D. K. (2006, Fall). The social agency, and disposition toward on topics related to diverse cultures and identification and assessment of critical thinking. Research in Higher groups (fall 2010-present); 3) community intercultural competence as a student Education, 46(4), 365-387. presentations about the Buffalo Project outcome of internationalization at (fall 2013-present); 4) development of institutions of higher education in Lederman, D. (2009, February 25). College a culturally sensitive NFC student club, the United States. Journal of Studies in for all. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved SUNY ESC NFC CARES (spring International Education, 10(3), 241-266. from https://www.insidehighered.com/ 2012-present). More detail is available on news/2009/02/25/obama Deardorff, D. K. (2008). Intercultural the Buffalo Project website. competence: A definition, model and Littleford, L. N. (2013). Diversity in the References implications for education abroad. In V. undergraduate curriculum: Perspectives Savicki (Ed.), Developing intercultural held by undergraduate students at a Bennett, M. (1993). Toward ethnorelativism: competence and transformation: Theory, predominantly European American A developmental model of intercultural research, and application in international university. Teaching of Psychology, sensitivity.” In R. M. Paige (Ed.), education (pp. 32-52). Sterling, VA: Stylus. 40(2), 111-117.

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Lu, L. (1994, February). University transition: Major and minor stressors, personality characteristics and mental health. Psychological Medicine, 24(1), 81-87. Obama, B. (2010, August 9). Remarks by the president on higher education and the economy at the University of Texas at Austin. Address at the University of Texas, Austin, TX. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press- office/2010/08/09/remarks-president- higher-education-and-economy- university-texas-austin Porter, O. F. (1990). Undergraduate completion and persistence at four-year colleges and universities: Detailed findings. Washington, DC: National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities. Schram, C. M. (1996, Spring). A meta-analysis of gender differences in applied statistics achievement. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 21(1), 55-70. Shankarmahesh, M. N. (2006). Consumer ethnocentrism: An integrative review of its antecedents and consequences. International Marketing Review, 23(2), 146-172. Spitzberg, B., & Changnon G. (2009). Conceptualizing intercultural competence. In D. K. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 2-52). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. SUNY Empire State College. (n.d.). College mission. Retrieved from http://www.esc. edu/about-esc/college-mission/ Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Tinto, V. (2006-2007). Research and practice of student retention: What’s next? Journal of College Student Retention, 8(1), 1-19. Yin, L. (2009, December). The dynamics of residential segregation in Buffalo: An agent-based simulation Urban Studies, 46(13), 2749-2770.

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Because They Cared

George Scott, Center for Distance Learning

t was 8 p.m. Saturday in Rochester. FORUM West program. I earned my MBA The phone rang. A Pasco County, degree from ESC in 2010. In 2011, I taught Florida deputy sheriff was calling to my first ESC BME undergraduate course. explain how he and another deputy had I What follows are descriptions of, and discovered my father-in-law in a daze sitting rationales for, many elements of my approach in his screened-in sunporch. My mother-in- to helping adult learners learn. All of law had been rushed to the hospital a few days the elements appear in my online course earlier. That explained the lack of returned announcements and corresponding emails at phone calls. However, prior to the sheriff ’s the beginning of each term. call, my wife and I knew nothing of their actual situational dynamics. Pre-Emptive Communication We were on a plane, with wheels up, at 8 a.m. Distance learning has many advantages for all the next morning. Little did we know that the involved parties. One small downside is the next two weeks would be spent in Zephyrhills lack of in-person student-instructor exposure. and Dade City Florida, with most of the time The interaction issue is easier to manage with spent in the Zephyrhills hospital. the use of connectivity media: cell phones, Five days prior to the phone call, a new term iPads (and similar products), computers, the had started for me as a student in SUNY Internet and, overall, wireless communications. George Scott Empire State College’s MBA program, as well These communication channels allow for as for my wife who was earning her Doctor what I have identified as “Pre-Emptive of Education degree at the University of colleagues would shudder at the thought of Communication” that provides the opportunity Rochester’s Warner School of Education. By providing that many accessibility channels. for efficient instructor-student communications the time of our return to Rochester, the term However, I assure you that this approach has and substantial stress reduction for all involved was three weeks old, and we were each two never become intrusive. parties, especially the students. Adult learners weeks behind. The multiple stresses created experience counterproductive stress from many by life events, work demands and course The 30-Minute Rule aspects of life. Not clearly understanding an requirements were intense. assignment can add to that stress. Providing Often, a successful student will grind through We needed some breathing room … clarification pre-emptively can help reduce a difficult assignment, taking far longer than from somewhere. a student’s stress in addition to helping the necessary due to the student’s determination student prevent wasting time. to succeed without help. Minutes can turn As we each reached out to our respective into hours. Hours can turn into days. For professors, my wife and I each experienced Instructors can benefit from this approach, as example, when the student pauses on Friday humbling amounts of empathy. The manner well. Personally, I would rather have a student to look at the progress he or she has made on in which my ESC MBA mentors (Alan take a few minutes of my time on one day an assignment, the realization sets in that less Belasen, Nazik Roufaiel and Rosalyn Rufer) than spend a disproportionate amount of time than one page of writing has been added since individually and collectively handled my on other days reviewing a poorly written or Monday – and, this was the only assignment situation tremendously influenced how, off-target assignment. Simply put, it is the worked on throughout the entire week. today, as an instructor, I interact with my practical application of the adage “An ounce of own students. Also because my professors prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This realization can lead to frustration and cared, many of my students with extenuating self-loathing for the lack of substantive Correspondingly, I provide students with circumstances have benefited. progress and increased tension, given the fast- my home telephone number, my cell phone approaching assignment submission deadline. To provide some perspective, my educational number for calls and texts, my ESC email The increased tension can lead to a mental background includes a B.S. degree from ESC’s address and my personal email address. Over block, which can lead to additional tension, Business, Management and Economics/ the last three years, some students have used a which can … well, you get the idea. In effect, combination of available channels effectively, as student frustration increases, so does the and respectfully. Undoubtedly, some of my downward spiral of student productivity.

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Only a break in the cycle can prevent, Subsequently, I assure the student that I In one student’s case, I removed all deadlines eliminate or substantially reduce the view the situation as a “quick fix” – that is, if “for the short term.” Starting with the next counterproductive tension. For my students, the student has the right attitude about the assignment and throughout the remainder of what I have called the “30-Minute Rule” can learning opportunity and intends to remedy the term, that particular student was the first provide that break. Essentially, if the student the situation. Nearly all students who have to submit course work ahead of the assignment recognizes that he or she has made no progress experienced the “Flat Tire Syndrome” and submission deadlines. after 30 minutes of continuous effort, the have had the right attitude, ultimately earned a In another instance, I suggested that the student is to reach out to me. If I cannot grade of “A.” student (who had major surgery) set aside her immediately take the call or respond to the studies (for this course) for at least a couple email or text message, the student is to set Single Ray of Sunshine weeks or until she felt up to completing the aside that assignment until the student and I Extraordinarily extenuating circumstances most recent assignment, whichever occurred have communicated, normally within 24 hours. can be a distraction for the strongest of first. She ended up needing three weeks. If, for some reason, I am delayed beyond the students. Past examples include situations Subsequently, she finished all remaining 24 hours, and the delay will cause the student like Hurricanes Irene and Sandy as well as assignments with lightning speed and to submit a written assignment after the one student who experienced three deaths of submitted her term paper in the buffer period assignment deadline, there is no grade penalty. three close family members within a six-week between the end of the term and the course Students’ reaction to this approach has period. (The palpable anguish in that student’s outcome/grade submission date. The student been, and continues to be, highly favorable. email eliminated all doubts I might have had earned an “A.” Additionally, I am glad to be able to help regarding its truth.) Other extreme challenges students not experience the wasted time and have included long-term relationships ending Third Second Chance energy caused by a stubborn determination to and major surgeries. In these instances, I While the “Single Ray of Sunshine” focuses “do it on my own” – which is what I often did believe the students not only need some on nonacademic factors that affect student as a student. breathing room, they deserve it. progress, a “Third Second Chance” focuses Flat Tire Syndrome When a mind is fogged with myriad and on course-relevant factors such as student mixed emotions, concentration on anything is Gaining a working knowledge of American difficult. When a student’s existence contains Psychological Association (APA) Style real and metaphorical clouds, critical thinking standards and their proper integration and concentration are even more difficult. When a student’s existence into scholarly writing is a challenge for With all the stressors brought about by the contains real and undergraduates, on a good day. Often, it extenuating circumstances, I attempt to provide appears that some students try to create their the student with a “Single Ray of Sunshine” metaphorical clouds, critical own style of scholarly writing. Naturally, regarding the completion of an assignment or thinking and concentration and often, unintentional plagiarism is the of the entire course. result. In such a situation, the student are even more difficult. First, I indicate that, in order to make receives an assignment grade of “0” as well meaningful decisions regarding their situation, as the opportunity to revise and resubmit I need to have a sufficient understanding the assignment. of their situation. Next, I assure the student responses to assignment questions and an It is at this point that conscientious students that any specifics shared with me will remain inability to provide proper academic writing have a tendency to panic (understandably). strictly confidential. Then, I listen, not only content. When writing challenges arise, and Some envision a plummeting course grade to what the student says, but also to what the the student is putting forth his or her best or an end to their academic pursuits. My student doesn’t say. I believe that this active effort, the student is given the opportunity to explanatory email and/or telephone call usually listening approach is crucial to making the revise and resubmit the written assignment. ensues. The initial tension in the student’s best possible decisions regarding the student’s voice is quite intense. It is at this point successful completion of the course. Depending on the severity of improper content that I remind the student of my “Flat Tire or format, the student may be required to 1) Syndrome” perspective. Productive Empathy submit all future written assignments to ESC’s Smarthinking service prior to submitting I ask a student to picture the ideal vehicle of Next, I attempt to incorporate what I call the work to me for grading; and 2) have the his or her choice, equipped with all desired “Productive Empathy” by tailoring the “Single Smarthinking report accompany the revision in options running perfectly, and having a full Ray of Sunshine” to the student’s situation. order to have the revision reviewed and graded. tank of gas … and a flat tire. Next, I ask if the With “Productive Empathy,” I attempt to be entire vehicle needs to be junked, due to its understanding of a student’s situation, as well If the revision is still off target, the student is current inability to move forward. Always, each as provide keep-moving-forward guidance, directed to the Office of Academic Support student has given the obvious response. which may require adaptability and flexibility, for additional one-on-one guidance. The at times. personalized student help from the wonderful

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OAS staff members have frequently helped students get back on track regarding their academic writing challenges. In essence, the “Third Second Chance” is my way of still believing in a student even when the student may have stopped believing in him or herself.

Positive Learning Experience

One of my objectives as an instructor for a CDL course is to provide each student the opportunity to have a positive learning experience throughout the entire course. While all of the above strategies are applied throughout the course, the “Third Second Chance” is particularly applied in the first two modules. I feel that being harsh and steadfast with grading during the first and second modules will cause the student to experience a “climbing out of the hole” situation with their grades. I acknowledge each mentor or tutor’s academic freedom and corresponding decisions during each term. I am certain longtime instructors have applied these kinds of strategies as well as others they have devised. I share these particular strategies with you as a direct result of my undergraduate and graduate program professors’ actions – because they cared.

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Capitalism, Exterminism and Moral Economy: E. P. Thompson Today

Michael Merrill, The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies

The following is a version of a talk given by Michael Merrill in October 2014 at the First International E. P. Thompson Symposium at the Federal University of Uberlândia in Brazil.

om noite. Good evening. It is an honor and a pleasure for me to be with you this evening and to Bparticipate in this historic First International E. P. Thompson Symposium at the Federal University of Uberlândia. Of all the countries of the world, Brazil is the one that most exemplifies, for me, the Thompsonian spirit, the spirit of the New Left, across a range of institutions and practices. In an imposing number of arenas, including education, politics, land and civic life, from DWORKIN CREDIT: DENNIS PHOTO Paolo Freire and the Partido dos Trabalhadores Michael Merrill (center, white shirt) with a group of residents and activists at Gloria, a Landless (PT), to the landless (and roofless!) workers Worker Movement settlement project on the outskirts of Uberlândia, Brazil. The conference visited the site in solidarity, and Merrill brought the group greetings and support from the and the Bolsa Familia, Brazilians and Brazilian faculty, staff and students of the Van Arsdale Center. movements have been showing the world how to work together to build a better life. My second theme, a continuation of the first, is (1) the effects of Thompson’s political activism Thank you for all that you have done and are a reminder of the extent to which Thompson, and Marxism, which defined him; doing. I bring you fraternal greetings from the throughout his life, was concerned about faculty, staff and students at The Harry Van (2) his approach to theory and to politics, countering the intellectual rigidities of every Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies at SUNY which were of a piece with his approach to variety of orthodox Marxism. Empire State College in New York City, who history, and which proceeded, as his history are working, as you are, to build “from below” a His spirited polemic against Louis Althusser, did, from below rather than from above; and, just and sustainable way of life for all. “The Poverty of Theory; or, An Orrery of (3) his concept of exterminism, which he Errors,” a sustained piece of philosophizing, I propose to talk briefly about Edward feared might be the end of us, as well as his may have been “a rarity” among his published Thompson as a political activist, historian notion of a “moral economy,” which may be works, as his spouse and intellectual partner, and critic of contemporary society. I have our best, if not our only, way forward. the fellow historian Dorothy Thompson, three principal themes. described it (D. Thompson, 1995, p. ix), but Let me begin on a personal note. I first First, I wish to underscore the extent to which a concern for clear and responsible thinking, met Edward Thompson nearly 40 years Thompson was never simply an historian who without humbug, marked all his writing. ago, in the spring of 1976. He was in happened to be interested in the culture of New York City and accepted an invitation Third and lastly, I also wish to insist on class and the history of class formation. to speak at one of the Mid-Atlantic the continuing contemporary relevance Radical Historians’ Organization’s biweekly He was first and foremost a political activist. of both Thompson’s notion of an 18th forums, which I then helped to coordinate, His commitments and desires drove his century “moral economy” and his latter-day and agreed to be interviewed for the new scholarship, which was nonetheless exemplary. concept of “exterminism,” which was 1 Radical History Review. That it was intended to help make the world a developed in the course of his peace and better place did not detract from its discipline. anti-nuclear campaigning. I have vivid memories of both the forum and the interview. These, then, are the matters about which I propose to speak:

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At the first, he read for nearly 90 minutes to Thompson wanted “to give that silence a voice” As late as his “Open Letter to Leszek an overflow audience of some 400 historians (MARHO, 1983, p. 21), and The Making of the Kolakowski,” which appeared in 1974, and others from the pages of what would years English Working Class was part of his effort to Thompson was willing to proclaim Marxism later become the title essay in The Poverty of do so.2 a diverse, but nonetheless still unitary, Theory and Other Essays (Thompson, 1978). I tradition. By 1978, however, in the wake of his Throughout his life, therefore, he consistently also would watch him dazzle another forum a confrontation with the Althusserians and other and sharply criticized historians and activists few years later, where he spoke about his good scholastic Marxists, Thompson had changed who imposed their own categories of class friend, Tom McGrath, the American poet. his mind, as Palmer has also noted. and social process on the lived experience of Few speakers could hold a crowd the way the people with, and for whom, they worked, He now acknowledged differences among E. P. Thompson could. But he could be quite without attending closely to the categories of the Marxisms with which he had grown up, charming in smaller, more domestic settings, those people themselves. and the unbridgeable split in the tradition as well. exemplified by the events of 1956. In “Poverty,” Some preliminary categorization, some Thompson (1978) therefore drew a sharp I interviewed him on the Upper East Side of framework, was of course necessary. One must distinction between “Marxism” and “the New York at the apartment where Thompson begin somewhere. But having begun, it was Marxist tradition.” “It is possible,” he wrote, “to was staying. It was cluttered with books and essential to listen closely to what one’s sources practice as a Marxist but to regard Marxisms to papers and he apologized immediately for his had to say. From this dialogue would emerge be obscurantisms – as, manifestly, in a dozen “busman’s holiday.” He also settled easily and the shared experiences and stories that are the forms, they have become” (p. 168). patiently into two-plus hours of conversation basis of every common life. with the earnest graduate student who had Thompson then went on in “The Poverty Thompson urged this method not only as an come to interview him. of Theory” to tax Marx severely for the very historian, but also as an activist. He encouraged sins that Marx had earlier, in The Poverty We talked, of course, about The Making of his colleagues and readers to find the best of Philosophy, taxed Proudhon – namely, for the English Working Class (1963), as well as next society in the local values, traditions offering “a serial relation of categories” rather about other books and chapters of his life. and practices that already existed among than “an integrative historical analysis,” Thompson particularly stressed how he did the people themselves. a “logical formula” rather than a history not want the book thought to be only the Here lies the core of Thompson’s work, (Thompson, 1978, p. 121). product of conventional academic intentions, and it is a theme that preoccupied him important as they might be. Instead, he wanted By being excessively theoretical and as much in his political and philosophical it understood as a political challenge. insufficiently historical, Thompson argued, writing as in his histories. Marx had not actually provided an alternative He was keen that his story of an emergent Throughout his career, as I have noted, to “political economy,” understood as a class consciousness among English wage- Thompson worked to offer an alternative to lifeless system of abstract categories. He earners and small producers in the early 19th the lifeless formalisms of orthodox Marxism, had simply put a different lifeless system century encourage his Marxist comrades, and and especially its more anti-empirical strains. in its place (p. 60). other activists, to think in new ways about The Poverty of Theory may well have been their efforts to nurture an emergent social or In contrast, Thompson sought both to learn “unplanned,” as Bryan Palmer (1994, p. 107). socialist consciousness in the late 20th century. from Marx and to go beyond him, by rooting But it was not an aberration. Even the first his critique of capital and capitalism in the He had come to agree that the characteristic edition of Thompson’s William Morris, continuing efforts of real historical individuals intellectuality of the Marxist revolutionary published in 1955, was centrally concerned struggling to understand what was happening tradition was so set against empirical controls with defending a more passionate, more to them, and to do something about it. The and dissenting views, that it led directly to empirically grounded, version of the Making of the English Working Class was, from Stalinism, the dictatorship of the proletariat in Marxism than was then to be found among this perspective, Thompson’s own “critique the form of a proletarian dictator. the apparatchiks. of political economy” – or, more exactly, his He reported being “transfixed” after 1956 description of the English working class’s Moreover, the biting, sarcastic tone of the by the “degeneration of … mainstream critique of political economy as it had emerged most astringent sections of Poverty is matched 3 orthodox Marxism,” the “impoverishment of by the 1830s. in a great many of Thompson’s polemical its sensibility” and the consequent “primacy of essays. Who can forget his denunciation of the It seems to me that Thompson’s Making categories that denied the effective existence “hectoring prophets, heterodox or orthodox, of succeeds where Marx’s Capital, or Althusser’s (in history or the present) of the moral Diabolical and Hysterical Mysterialism” in the Reading Capital, fails. Making provides more consciousness.” Where one might expect to 1960(a) essay in New Left Review, “Revolution than just a different political economy – find such a moral consciousness, there was “a Again! Or Shut Your Ears and Run” (Winslow, more than just the “positing” of abstract silence,” filled with “unarticulated assumptions 2014, p. xxx)? relationships, like “commodity” or “capital,” and and unrealized mediations.” a set of “laws” that govern their “actions,” like “supply-and-demand” or “competition.”

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It is a history, the account of a “real historical If humanity is ever to come to grips with the But there also is another form of exterminism process,” in which people struggle to improve current death march on which it has embarked, we must care about – that which inevitably and maintain their conditions of life, as where its insatiable desire for growth presses follows the assumption that unlimited growth members of specific communities and cultures, against the limits of the planet’s biosphere, it is both possible and desirable. in the midst of changes they can affect but must find its way back to some version of the not control. pre-modern, more or less steady-state economy, which held sway before the capitalist era. Unfortunately, by the time Thompson published The Making of the English Working Of course, the post-modern steady state that Of course, the post-modern Class the New Left movements he had we can hope lies ahead must be very different steady state that we can hoped it would inspire had collapsed, from the pre-modern steady state we left at least in England. behind. No one wants to live in constant hope lies ahead must be fear of a visit from the Four Horsemen In the 1960(b) collection of essays, Out of very different from the pre- of the Apocalypse! Apathy, which Thompson and his New Left modern steady state we left colleagues had produced as a call to action, But we do need to build an economy that it was still possible to take heart from the not only provides everyone with what they behind. No one wants to live growing number of local “new left clubs,” the need to live a decent, respected life, but also is in constant fear of a visit broad appeal of the Campaign for Nuclear organized and conducted in a sustainable way. Disarmament (CND) and the stirrings of from the Four Horsemen of We cannot live beyond our means, or, more a new political formation determined to precisely, beyond the planet’s means, forever. the Apocalypse! challenge Labor Party dominance on the electoral left. It is here that I think another of the categories from Thompson’s late work can be of use. But by 1963, the bubble had burst. The clubs In particular, we need to consider the I am thinking in particular of “exterminism.” had evaporated, CND had been deflected and possibility that our current crisis may Let me explain. demobilized, and the few New Left candidates be rooted in a deeper logic than just who challenged the Labor establishment had Thompson (1980b) offered “exterminism” capitalist competition, with its incessant been defeated at the polls. in the 1980s as a way of thinking about the capital accumulation. “internal dynamic and reciprocal logic” (p. In this context, during a period of comparative The social psychology of competitive 4) that governed the continuing Cold War political isolation and despair, Thompson accumulation, whether capitalist or socialist, confrontation and escalating arms race between decamped from Yorkshire to Worcester and is in fact very similar to the social psychology NATO (i.e., the USA) and the Warsaw Pact buried himself in the 18th century research of a competitive arms race. (i.e., the USSR). that was to be the primary focus of his Even a thoroughly democratic or socialist historical research for the rest of his career. Exterminism was not, he insisted, a fully political economy dominated by those who fledged “mode of production,” like capitalism An American reviewer has described this wish to ensure that everyone interested and or socialism. It was more an expressed turn as a loss. Reviewing Customs in Common able to work has a good job at a living wage, tendency or direction within both, like (Mandler, 1993), the finally published therefore, will express a tendency, to some imperialism, that could take either capitalist collection of Thompson’s 18th century essays, degree, to overstep the limits to growth. or socialist forms. he likened their author to an antiquarian In the modern world, in the absence of Victorian-era folklorist. He also suggested that, With it he proposed to capture “the affective moral ties, we have little choice compared to the powerful incandescent glow of characteristics of a society [capitalist or but to fall back on self-protective, Making, which illuminated whole areas of our socialist] – [which were] expressed, in differing competitive accumulation. present as well as our past, Customs cast only degrees, within its economy, its polity and its the glow of a candle on our present concerns. ideology – [and] which thrust it in a direction There isn’t time to explore this theme in whose outcome must be the extermination depth, but I do wish to trace the connection “Is there really any connection,” he wondered, of multitudes” (p. 20). between it and Thompson’s work on the “between agricultural labourers defending their moral economy. rights to common land and the Greenham Of course, the exterminism he had in Common women’s protest against the siting of mind was the acute form of imminent self- The connection itself is straightforward: Cruise missiles in Berkshire” (p. 259)? destruction associated with the nuclear arms In his 1993 introduction to Customs in race and the constant confrontation between Common, Thompson referred to the “industrial The correct answer, it seems to me, as it two military superpowers. revolution and the accompanying demographic obviously seemed to Thompson, would revolution” of the 18th century as the necessary be, “Yes.” background to what he called the “greatest transformation” in human history (p. 14).

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The transformation he had in mind was In this new consciousness, this culture, we It also has always been expressed in gifts the emergence of modernity, with its might once again enjoy a situation in which between loved ones; in the cooperation of “revolutionizing [of ] ‘needs’” and the “successive generations stand in appreciative associates; and in the reciprocity of mutually “destroying [of ] the authority of relation to each other, in which material respected moral individuals, however distant customary expectations.” satisfactions remain stable (if more equally their ties. distributed) and only cultural satisfactions “[T]his transformation, this remodelling These forms and ways of Being are every bit enlarge.” Expectations can then “level out of ‘need’ and this raising of the threshold as common and valued, now, as the Being of into a customary steady state” (Thompson, of material expectations (along with the estranged competitive enrichment, which is 1993, p. 15). devaluation of traditional cultural satisfactions), characteristic of commerce and capitalism. We continues … today,” Thompson wrote, Thompson’s account of the 18th century moral do not need to abandon what we know. We “accelerated everywhere by universally economy thus helps not only to illuminate our need only learn from what we do. available means of communication. options but also to bring them within reach. For this purpose we can take Thompson, “ Pressures once felt by only a few million I want to close on as optimistic and among others, as a guide. He urged us Europeans “are now felt among one billion constructive a note as possible. forward to “a time when both capitalist and Chinese, as well as countless millions in state communist needs and expectations may The 18th century commons and moral Asian and African villages.” decompose, and human nature may be made economy are not as foreign to us as they might over” (Thompson, 1993, p. 15). As an historian of labor, Thompson said he seem; nor are the gaudy, shallow, desperate was well aware that “self-interest and … economies of capitalism and commerce as It is enough, it seems to me, that we bend class-based apologetics” could “always find pervasive as they sometimes feel. the arc of our common endeavors away from reasons why the poor should stay poor” (p. 14), the tightly calibrated, intense but ultimately True, money is in the saddle and it rides though he did not think they should. fragile imperatives of competitive commercial humankind. But human beings themselves systems (“capitalism”), and toward the more He did worry, however, that with “[g]lobal are, everywhere they gather, associating in flexible, more forgiving, but ultimately more expectations … rising like Noah’s flood,” ways that challenge their estrangement from robust imperatives of generosity, reciprocity the result might well be a disaster. The each other; and they create, as they do so, a and cooperation. readiness of the human species “to throw all commons that they can and do share in many the globe’s resources onto the market,” he different ways. Such a bending will be transformation enough, warned, threatens “the species itself (from and a moral economy, indeed. Whatever the market economy touches, South and North) with ecological catastrophe” 4 wherever there is capitalism and commerce, Que vocês estejam bem e prosperem! (Be well (Thompson, 1993, p. 15). there also is, in every household, worksite and prosper!) Thompson offered his studies of pre-capitalist and neighborhood, a more cooperative “moral Muito obridgado! (Thank you very much!) custom and culture, including the moral economy” – what Thompson’s intellectual and economy of the 18th century crowd, as a political hero, William Morris, called “the Notes potential port in this storm. “The engineer system of neighborly common sense” – which of our catastrophe,” he suggested, if it finally is distinct from and opposed to the market 1 The full interview is in MARHO (1983), comes, “will be economic man, whether in (Thompson, 1994, p. 67). 3-25. Thompson (1973) defends “the classically avaricious capitalist form or in the Marxist tradition” in “An Open Letter to As citizens of our associated states, we can, form of [the] rebellious economic man of the Leszek Kolakowski,” 1-101, while raising do and should press for our governments orthodox Marxist tradition.” pointed questions about it, and about and administrative systems, at all levels, local, Marx’s own practice, in the “The Poverty “As capitalism (or ‘the market’) made over provincial and national, to empower and of Theory; or, An Orrery of Errors,” human nature and human need,” he went on, sustain these common efforts. which first appeared in The Poverty of “so political economy and its revolutionary It is vital that we understand what this means. Theory and Other Essays (1978), 1-210. antagonist came to suppose that this economic It does not mean giving up the market. Nor man was for all time.” 2 See his long postscript to the revised does it mean trying to change human nature. edition of William Morris: Romantic At the end of the 20th century, Thompson Adam Smith’s (1976) “natural propensity to to Revolutionary, reissued in 1977, on believed, “this must now be called in doubt.” truck, barter and exchange” (p. 17) has long “Necessity and Desire,” which represents And he expressed the hope that a reminder of been expressed by the barter common to another landmark intervention, as does the “alternative needs, expectations and codes” strangers or the commerce found among the defense of the law in the conclusion of pre-capitalist cultures might “inspire the the estranged. to Whigs and Hunters (1975). See also the rediscovery, in new forms, of a new kind of sharp criticisms in Writing by Candlelight ‘customary consciousness.’” (1980a) of the security measures taken in Britain during the 1970s in response

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to popular resistance to the austerity Thompson, E. P. (1973). An open letter to measures of the Labor government led by Leszek Kolakowski. Socialist Register James Callaghan. 1973. London, UK: Merlin Press, 1-101.

3 (Reprinted in Thompson, 1978). This argument is developed more fully in Merrill (2013). Thompson, E. P. (1975). Whigs and hunters:

4 The origins of the Black Act. London, Actually, Thompson wrote “may threaten” UK: Alan Lane. – a softer blow, which I have hardened here to underscore the fact that the Thompson, E. P. (1977). William Morris: danger is now more imminent and his Romantic to revolutionary. London, mood, in any case, was rather more UK: Merlin Press. (Original work imperative than conditional. published 1955)

References Thompson, E. P. (1978). The poverty of theory and other essays. New York, NY: Monthly Mandler, P. (1993, Spring). Written by Review Press. candlelight [Review of the book, Customs Thompson, E. P. (1980a). Writing by in common, by E. P. Thompson]. Dissent, candlelight. London, UK: Merlin Press. 40(2), 257-259. Thompson, E. P. (1980b, May-June). Notes on MARHO. (Ed.). (1983). Visions of history: exterminism, the last stage of civilization. Interviews with E. P. Thompson, et al. New Left Review, I(121), 3-33. New York, NY: Pantheon. Thompson, E. P. (1993). Customs in common: Merrill, M. (1976, Fall). An interview Studies in traditional popular culture. New with E. P. Thompson. Radical History York, NY: The New Press. Review, 1976(12), 4-25. (Reprinted in MARHO, 1983) Thompson, E. P. (1994). Making history: Writings on history and culture (D. Merrill, M. (2013, Spring). E. P. Thompson’s Thompson, Ed.). New York, NY: Capital: Political economy in The Making. The New Press. Labour/Le Travail, 71, 151-155. Winslow, C. (Ed.). (2014). E. P. Thompson Palmer, B. D. (1994). E. P. Thompson: Objections and the making of the New Left: Essays and oppositions. New York: NY: Verso. & polemics. New York, NY: Monthly Smith, A. (1976). An inquiry into the nature and Review Press. causes of the wealth of nations (E. Cannan, Ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1776) Thompson, D. (1995). Introduction. In E. P. Thompson, The poverty of theory and other essays (pp. ix-xi). London, UK: Merlin Press. Thompson, E. P. (1960a). Revolution again! Or shut your ears and run. New Left Review. Retrieved from http://newleftreview.org/static/ assets/archive/pdf/NLR00604.pdf (Reprinted in Winslow, 2014) Thompson, E. P. (1960b). Out of apathy. London, UK: New Left Books. Thompson, E. P. (1963). The making of the English working class. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

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An Exploration Into New Worlds: A Faculty Member’s Foray Into Virtual Reality

Eileen O’Connor, School for Graduate Studies

aving worked in the fields of science Donna Mahar, for example); veteran K-12 and of technology before entering teachers; ESC administrators; and even an education, I was eager to bring expert on assistive technologies from the state best-practiceH teaching to my SUNY Empire of Indiana (Daniel McNulty). I was beginning State College students, pre-service teachers to see the benefits lauded by the creator of in the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Second Life, Linden Lab (2007), where virtual program. Too often I had seen disconnected reality could serve as a true meeting and teaching, disengaged students, and poor results interaction space and even a place to create in classrooms and on tests. At the same time, learning environments (to see what the space many middle school and high school students looks like, see Figure 1). were deeply involved in computers and games But I wanted to do more. Virtual spaces – how could I integrate the two worlds to could offer students time to interact with improve science learning for youth? In the each other and develop those social bonds late 1990s, while serving as a director of a that could help them congeal as a community teacher-education outreach effort at Rensselaer (McArdle, Monahan, & Bertolotto, 2007). Polytechnic Institute, I was planning to I developed an interactive, looping approach approach the gaming companies to incorporate in the virtual assignments – starting with an educational perspectives; the process of opening question related to science teaching negotiation was too complex. However, later and learning, requiring students’ interaction Eileen O’Connor after joining ESC as a faculty member, I was with peers in the virtual setting, then reporting delighted to discover that Second Life, a user- back the discussion consensus via a PowerPoint created virtual reality platform, was available virtual meetings, providing plentiful anecdotal presentation in the online course, and a for my work. Thus began a very interesting evidence in the discussion boards that they concluding discussion based on the PowerPoint journey in my teaching and my research. enjoyed the personal connections. review. When we had these biweekly meetings, Teacher Education and I arranged teams, deliberately creating different My efforts expanded. Over the next few Community Building – teams so that students would meet all of their years, I integrated virtual technologies into Through Immersive, course mates. The PowerPoint development the courses to create a more interactive Distance Environments was given to a “documenter” who kept the virtual environment. During some sessions, team’s notes and report; the documenter also students watched and discussed videos of With the serendipitous opportunity for access took a snapshot of the attendees, which served K-12 classroom situations, together in the to Second Life, I began incorporating virtual as another way to document participation. same virtual setting. We held a virtual poster platforms in my online, science education Delightfully, students engaged in productive session about their science projects, inviting courses. These students were soon to become online discussions both before and after the other faculty and students who were not in teachers in challenging, high-needs areas and a professional support network would be important for their survival (Peers, Deizmann, & Watters, 2003). I decided to begin that network during their pedagogy courses when these soon-to-be teachers worked together to develop effective curriculums. A virtual platform, although not the end goal of the course (any more than a webinar is the end goal of a meeting or class), became a way to develop community and rich discussion among my students (O’Connor, 2009). Within these environments, I was able to support guest speakers: faculty members (our colleague, Figure 1. A class meeting in a virtual lab; virtual physics activities.

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(left) Figure 2. Poster session (with later voting) on student presentations.

(right) Figure 3. Events during the work with middle school students on their own “turf.”

this course to come and review the posters (see presentation in virtual space, sharing their assessment), it was integrated easily and Figure 2; also see https://www.youtube.com/ work with middle school students from around effectively into the new course environment watch?v=pvgXca-xf00). The visitors later voted the northeastern United States and with pre- (O’Connor & McQuigge, 2013-2014). on the presentations through a survey based on service teachers in my courses. The pre-service Most recently, while conducting the Practicum: the criteria for the assignment. teachers listened and judged the presentations. Virtual Worlds course, I was able to bring Although we did not reach the stature of the In a science course designed around forward the concept of virtual learning River City project from Harvard (which has collaborative project development, students environments and have students explore these been critically reviewed and acclaimed (e.g., see even created some rudimentary virtual posting areas either in ways that might suit their Jacobson & Reimann [2010]; project available of their own. Coupled with co-developed own interests or in concert with my research. today at http://rivercity.activeworlds.com/), websites that the teams developed, they shared Happily, my research interest was now all learned and all were pleased. The results of the outcomes of their science projects with encompassing a larger audience with the help the study were presented at an international other teachers, inviting them to join in their of my students. To expand the opportunities conference and published with the conference efforts in the real world of science (O’Connor, even more, over the last several years, the proceedings (O’Connor, 2011). 2012). Having a virtual space while these source code for developing virtual platforms collaborating students spent four weeks Clearly there was merit to developing learning was opened to programmers by Linden Lab. together developing their science projects environments in virtual locations and working Thus more options, albeit with more work for proved to create more effective projects than with teachers there, too, but maintaining a the users, are now available, thereby reducing seen in earlier years, and hopefully provided private island became too costly to continue the cost of virtual islands and making them for professional relationships that could be without funding. Luckily, other options more available for customization. maintained after the course ended. opened up. Within the practicum course, all students Working With the K-12 Population MALET and Open Source chose their own pathway. They combined purchased virtual artifacts and artifacts of But my passion still remained with creating The serendipity continued. With the advent their own development with a virtual learning virtual platforms for K-12 students. Nothing of the Master of Arts in Learning and or performance environment of their own would be simple in that venture. Getting Emerging Technologies (MALET) program, design. The results were rich, multilayered, the private islands that I needed for Second I was able to integrate the virtual study constructivist and original. As each student Life was costly. I applied for a grant from the itself into the coursework with students. reported at the end of the course, they will National Science Foundation in 2009 and Within a foundational course in MALET, continue and extend their work, seeking 2010, but did not get the funding. However, naturally we continued to meet in virtual support and funding to pursue these some startup funding from ESC allowed me spaces, using the various models that I had initial efforts. to conduct a pilot with a small sample of K-12 developed for the science education courses. In When looking at the creativity and originality students and the results were encouraging. The addition, throughout this course in emerging of these students’ work, consider these middle school students developed innovative technologies, students peer-reviewed each snapshots of their work that came from the projects on science aspects of the Rocky other’s work anonymously and at the end of “Virtual Show & Tell” at course end (see Mountains of their choosing. And, I learned the term during their collaborative, virtual Figure 4). about the challenges of working with “digital final presentations awarded badges for the natives” (a term by natural technology user, most engaging aspects of the presentations. Needless to say, by the end of the term Prensky [2001]) in their own, very active Although the badging process itself was an when these snapshots were taken, there environments (see Figure 3). However, using instructional device to immerse students in were many examples of both learning and research and literacy skills that were embedded both the theory and the practice of badging fun. And, real strides were made toward in the assignment, these young students (an emerging area within educational ultimately brought forth a worthy academic

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(left and middle) Figure 4. Learning environments developed by ESC students. Figure 5. A virtual reproduction of 28 Union Ave. creating simulated and role-playing virtual References 38(2), 213-234. Retrieved from http:// environments, a new and expanding area in edtc6325cooperativeproject.pbworks. Jacobson, M. J., & Reimann, P. (Eds.). (2010). learning and training environments. com/f/use+of+SL+for+teaching.pdf Designs for learning environments of the Next Steps future: International perspectives from the O’Connor, E. A., & McQuigge, A. (2013- learning sciences. New York, NY: Springer. 2014). Exploring badging for peer The ability to bring students who are at a review, extended learning and evaluation, Linden Lab. (2011). Second Life education: distance together for meetings, collaborations and reflective/critical feedback within The virtual learning advantage. Retrieved and communications has allowed my online an online graduate course. Journal from http://lecs-static-secondlife-com. students to have the relationships and of Educational Technology Systems, s3.amazonaws.com/work/SL-Edu- experiences that formerly were only possible in 42(2), 87-105. Brochure-010411.pdf a physical setting. Now students themselves are Peers, C. E., & Diezmann, C. M., & Watters, beginning to bring virtual environments into McArdle, G., Monahan, T. & Bertolotto, M. J. J. (2003). Supports and concerns for their workplaces, some of which are within (2007). Using virtual reality to learn and teacher professional growth during the the SUNY system itself. And, my sabbatical socialise online. In C. Montgomerie, implementation of a science curriculum research, which will start in 2015, will provide & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World innovation. Research in Science Education, me with time to explore virtual reality for the Conference on Educational Multimedia, 33, 89-110. K-12 learning more deeply, an area to which Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2007 I have long waited to return. The possibilities (pp. 4225-4234). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital are virtually endless. immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. O’Connor, E. (2011). Migrating towards K12 Retrieved from New communities of learning and caring in virtual spaces: Second Life lessons http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/ are emerging. Using virtual environments learned as higher education meets middle Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20 opens many opportunities that I hope to school students. In Proceedings of Society Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf share with other faculty. Although not for Information Technology & Teacher addressed here, a wide range of scholarship Education International Conference 2011 and research supports the use of community (pp. 2192-2198). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. spaces, experiential and constructivist learning, O’Connor, E. (2012). Developing effective community of practice, visual and multiple online collaborative science projects by intelligence approaches, and scaffolded using course scaffolding, a virtual world, learning. I invite all to investigate and find and web 2.0 technologies. In Proceeding what can work best for students or for of Society for Information Technology & functions and meetings at ESC. Teacher Education International ESC has owned virtual islands for almost 10 Conference 2012 (pp. 728-735). years. Try them yourselves. Download the Chesapeake, VA: AACE. viewer from www.secondlife.com and then O’Connor, E. A. (2009). Instructional and search for the ESC islands. Or, once you design elements that support effective have the viewer on your computer, simply use of virtual worlds: What graduate click http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ student work reveals about Second Life. Empire%20State%20College/138/57/28. See Journal of Educational Technology Systems, if you can find 28 Union (Figure 5) – I’ll meet you there.

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Initiation and Development of Internships at the Staten Island Unit: The Value of Experiential Learning

Gina C. Torino and Amanda G. Sisselman, Metropolitan Center

Introduction experience with professional interactions in an environment different than one is accustomed ince we joined SUNY Empire State to, if making a career shift, also is essential. College as faculty mentors, we have Thus, pre-graduation internships can be had the opportunity to work with a particularly important to first-generation wide variety of students primarily in the areas S college students or adult learners. Given the of Community and Human Services, Human great benefit to students, we decided to pursue Development and Educational Studies. All some funding to aid in the development of of the aforementioned areas of study possess internship programs in our areas of study since heavily “applied” dimensions where students no formal internships have been established eventually work one-on-one or with groups specifically in Staten Island. of children and/or adults in organizations such as schools, mental health facilities and/or In this paper, we will discuss more in-depth community centers. the value of experiential learning and the utility of internship programs, our experience Over the past several years, ESC has noticed with the Institute on Mentoring, Teaching demographic shifts in our student body. and Learning, current stages of the internship Gina C. Torino and Amanda G. Sisselman Students are steadily coming to us either program and future plans. straight from high school or shortly thereafter. in order to use the new ideas gained from the Moreover, economic conditions have made Experiential Learning and Utility experience (as cited in Merriam, Caffarella, & it necessary for many adult learners to either of Internships for Our Students retool their skill sets or change careers Baumgartner, 2007). Thus, the internship as altogether. Students also are finding that Experiential learning is the process of making guided by a mentor through independent study they need to acquire practical training in meaning from direct experience, i.e., “learning can provide the student with adequate space their fields in order to be competitive in the from experience” (Itin, 1999). Experiential for reflection and meaning-making. workforce. We have seen these trends emerge learning can exist without a teacher (or can be Re-imagining what has been thought of as pronouncedly at the Staten Island Unit. accompanied by a teacher) and relates solely to experiential learning at ESC is an exciting Hence, as the years have progressed, we the meaning-making process of the individual’s prospect. Experiential learning at ESC has noticed that an increasing number of students direct experience. However, though the gaining commonly been assessed through prior expressed interest in participating in internship of knowledge is a process that occurs naturally, learning assessment (PLA). This type of programs to aid them in gaining valuable in order for a genuine learning experience assessment evaluates a student’s (often) employment experience. to occur, there must exist certain elements prior employment experience as it translates (Itin, 1999). According to David A. Kolb, an At present, shifts in the United States to college-level learning. However, as the American educational theorist, knowledge is economy have made it more challenging for demographics continue to shift and as students continuously gained through both personal new college graduates to find employment. come to us with less prior learning or prior and environmental experiences (as cited in Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics findings learning related to fields different than their Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007). suggest that approximately 28 percent of recent current careers and educational goals, the Kolb posits that in order to gain genuine college graduates are unable to secure positions necessity for the college to change and expand knowledge from an experience, certain abilities commensurate to their level of education its practices becomes increasingly important. are required. For example, the learner must (Spreen, 2013). Research contends that one of Therefore, the undergraduate internship be willing to be actively involved in the the most effective pathways to employment experience can be a way for students to engage experience; he or she must be able to reflect is internship programs (Maertz, Stoeberl, in experiential learning. This experience can on the experience; he or she must possess & Marks, 2014). Furthermore, internships be unique, as it combines real-world/hands-on and use analytical skills to conceptualize provide students with experiential learning experience with academic learning. the experience; and the learner must possess opportunities to apply theoretical concepts decision-making and problem-solving skills and theories to real world cases. Gaining

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The internship experience can be useful to ongoing career stability. Finally, evidence Outcome and Current Stages to ESC students in myriad ways. First, suggests that overall self-esteem can be of Development undergraduate-level internships have been greatly enhanced through participation and During the spring term 2014, we received found to increase the employability of students completion of undergraduate internship $5,000 in grant funding from an anonymous through prior on-the-job training (Shoenfelt, programs (Gushue, Clarke, Pantzer, & donor who was interested in helping us begin Stone, & Kottke, 2013). Reasons for increased Scanlan, 2006). Increasing self-esteem through our program. With the assistance of the employability have been attributed to more successful completion of an internship may be IMTL, all of our efforts “paid off.” We felt very highly developed interpersonal skills, job- what some students need to grow beyond what fortunate to receive this funding. related competencies and willingness to they thought would be possible. comply with organizational demands (Hogan, Now our initial implementation process Chamorro-Premuzic, & Kaiser, 2013). The Institute on Mentoring, has begun. To date, we have successfully Given the demographic shifts in our student Teaching and Learning established three potential sites, which have population, this point becomes particularly much to offer our students. One site is a day As we continued to reflect upon the ongoing important. Second, service learning internship program that works with children and adults need for internships for students at the Staten programs that immerse students in real-world who experience developmental delays. Another Island Unit, we decided to participate in settings have been found to develop students’ site is a local YMCA that offers opportunities the summer 2013 Institute on Mentoring, critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, for students to work with children, families Teaching and Learning (IMTL) to aid us which are not cultivated in academic settings and older adults. The third site is a local in our process. During the IMTL, we had (Matthews & Zimmerman, 1999). Within a Jewish Community Center that also would the opportunity to ask questions and explore group study or an independent study, students offer students the opportunity to work with various avenues to assist us in our development may not have the opportunity to develop children, families and older adults. Potential process. We were able to talk to colleagues, aforementioned abilities through discussion experiential learning activities can include early share ideas and hear from individuals with the mentor and /or theoretical case childhood learning, tutoring, art classes and throughout the college who helped us in studies. Critical thinking and problem-solving assisting older adults. formulating our plans. abilities may be best cultivated via direct To make this internship program official, interaction with clients and/or students in As time progressed, we decided it may behoove we are currently in the process of setting organizational settings. Third, undergraduate us to try to acquire some funding to kick-start up meetings with the directors of the internships have been found to aid in student the internship program. In this way, we could aforementioned programs and completing career development and decision-making cull resources that would give us impetus to necessary paperwork in order to make the processes (Shoenfelt, Stone, & Kottke, 2013). do the “groundwork” for implementation. relationships official. We want to get a better Since more and more students are coming to Some of the funding would be used to initiate sense of what our students will be doing at us directly from high school, they may not have contacts at local agencies and organizations. In each site and ensure that their experiences can had many occasions to explore various career addition, resources also could be used to fund be tied in to academic learning. Our goal was options. The internship can be the place for a “kick-off ” event for students participating to get one or two students initially placed at the student to gain an intimate understanding in the internship program. Moreover, we also the sites during the fall term 2014. This initial of the nature of the work. Further, students discussed the possibility of inviting local guest piloting of the internship program will aid us may come to college wishing to change speakers to talk to our students about career in future development. careers and may need practical experience for trajectories and opportunities. Hence we graduate school admission or to obtain a job. also utilized our time at IMTL to do online Future Development and Fourth, undergraduate internships have been research into various foundations and funding Implications for Empire found to increase students’ levels of career sources and also drafted an initial “Letter of State College self-efficacy particularly for first-generation Intent,” which would eventually go to potential college students and/or students of color grant funders. We would like to continue to establish (Gushue, Clarke, Pantzer, & Scanlan, 2006). connections with approximately five After the IMTL experience, we continued to Career self-efficacy is one of the most widely additional sites in the areas of Community create a list of possible donors, as well as refine studied constructs in the career development and Human Services, Human Development our “Letter of Intent.” It was extremely helpful literature. This construct is based upon Social and Educational Studies. As we continue to have the IMTL “check-in” calls throughout Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, growing, we will reach out to organizations the academic year to help keep us on track and Brown, & Hackett, 2000), which posits that a such as nursing homes, early childhood to provide further support to colleagues and range of individual and distal contextual factors centers, hospitals and mental health facilities. their endeavors. contribute to a person’s learning experiences Moreover, we will continue to do research and serve as a foundation for developing into established pedagogy that works with self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Thus, internship programs. This summer, we are opportunities for students to develop the self- completing an article based on a recent efficacy to “succeed” in a professional career presentation at the American Educational setting can be immeasurability important Research Association conference, which is a

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case study of the initial experiential learning who interact with the intern to complete a Itin, C. M. (1999, Fall). Reasserting the activities that led to the development of this survey, with Likert-type items regarding the philosophy of experiential education as internship program. degree of professionalism, skill growth and a vehicle for change in the 21st century. effectiveness of the intern. Scores on the The Journal of Experiential Education, We also are currently in the process of working items will be examined across site personnel 22(2), 91-98. with the Metropolitan Center’s faculty in order to obtain inter-rater reliability and instructional technologist, developing materials Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. to triangulate the data. Information will be and content for websites that will allow us (2000). Contextual supports and barriers collected in individual interviews with site staff to easily interact with students and potential to career choice: A social cognitive and the task supervisor to further triangulate internship sites. It is our hope that these analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, the data. websites also will allow for seamless connection 47(1), 36-49. between us, the internship site and the To be able to engage in a thorough evaluation Maertz, C. P., Stoeberl, P. A., & Marks, J. students, providing all parties with necessary of the internship program, we plan on seeking (2014). Building successful internships: information, from point of initial contact more funding. For this part of the program, we Lessons from the research for interns, through the end of the internship experience. anticipate project assistance as well as technical schools, and employers. Career resources to further evaluate the effectiveness. In addition, we are planning to do research Development International, 19(1), 123-142. As we learn more about how students are into the effectiveness of the internship learning through their internship experiences, Matthews, C., & Zimmerman, B. B. (2009). programs with our students. Because there is we will make adjustments. Integrating service learning and technical a lack of literature in the area of adult learners communication: Benefits and challenges. and internships, we feel that our work will add We believe there also are secondary benefits Technical Communication Quarterly, to the literature, while allowing us to develop and implications aside from what we have 8(4), 63-68. pedagogy in this important area. already mentioned in this piece to establishing internships in Staten Island. By implementing Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Our eventual goal is to evaluate the internship the internships, we are establishing connections Baumgartner, L. M. (2007). Learning program by using a mixed methods design with the surrounding community. Individuals in adulthood: A comprehensive guide to assess student and organization outcomes, may not have heard about ESC, and this is one (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: John using a combination of qualitative interviews avenue for outreach. Thus, other workers at the Wiley & Sons, Inc. and focus groups with validated survey items sites may take an interest in pursuing a degree to best understand the effectiveness of the Shoenfelt, E. L., Stone, N. J., & Kottke, J. at ESC. piloted program from multiple perspectives, L. (2013). Internships: An established as well as to learn about areas that need We are very grateful to Kathy Jelly, the mechanism for increasing employability. strengthening. However, we will start with a director of the Center for Mentoring and Industrial & Organizational Psychology, small case study analysis of the first two to Learning (CML) as well as the IMTL 6(1), 24-27. three students to engage in our internship planning committee. We also wish to Spreen, T. L. (2013, February). Recent college program. This will allow us to identify any thank Alan Mandell and Karen LaBarge graduates in the U.S. labor force: Data additional evaluation factors and to examine for their ongoing support and assistance. from the current population survey. both our pedagogy and methodology, and to Without the generous support of CML Monthly Labor Review, 3-13. Retrieved make any needed adjustments. and the Institute on Mentoring, Teaching from U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of and Learning, our students may not have Evaluation methods will consist of a Labor Statistics website: http://www.bls. the chance to engage in such meaningful quasi-experimental design, with two data gov/opub/mlr/2013/02/art1full.pdf experiential learning opportunities. collection points, before and after the internship program, to determine whether References there is any change in competency-based, interpersonal, problem-solving and critical Gushue, G. V., Clarke, C. P., Pantzer, K. M., thinking skills. Practical outcomes such as & Scanlan, K. R. L. (2006). Self-efficacy, resume and job portfolio development will be perceptions of barriers, vocational identity, considered. Student outcomes of self-efficacy, and the career exploration behavior of self-esteem and career decision-making will Latino/a high school students. The Career be assessed quantitatively using validated Development Quarterly, 45(4), 307-317. measurement tools. Hogan, R., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Kaiser, Students in the early stages of the internship R. B. (2013). Employability and career program will be interviewed individually to get success: Bridging the gap between theory a fuller picture about the internship experience. and reality. Industrial & Organizational Outcomes at the internship site will be Psychology. 6(1), 3-17. measured by asking task supervisors and others

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Remaking the University: A Conversation With James W. Hall, Part I

Ed Warzala, School for Graduate Studies

James Hall is the founding president of SUNY E .W .: Would you agree that at the heart of Empire State College. He served in that position these educational ideas is what we came to call for almost three decades, after which he became “student-centeredness”? chancellor of Antioch University. His writings J .H :. If the student is truly at the center (for example, his 1991 In Opposition to of ESC’s approach to learning, there are a Core Curriculum: Alternative Models for variety of valid ways to serve that student. By Undergraduate Education) and pioneering offering only a single path or mode to serve efforts on behalf of adult learners have been the student, it is possible to impose a kind acknowledged through honorary degrees from of tyranny. The only way to avoid that bind Granite State College: University System of is to offer a variety of learning options for New Hampshire, DePaul University (Chicago), students, working closely with an experienced Thomas Edison State College and SUNY Empire faculty mentor. For Empire State, the only State College. This conversation took place in Jim excluded option was the traditional classroom Hall’s study in Saratoga Springs, New York, on experience. All of the other SUNY campuses 28 August 2013. What follows is part I of a two- offer that single mode. This never meant, part interview (part II will appear in our next however, that ESC couldn’t have people in a issue). Thanks to Jim Hall and Ed Warzala for room together. What was important was that, the conversation and for their careful work on since students came to ESC largely because this text. they required flexibility of time and place of James W. Hall Ed Warzala: There are many persons still at study, we not force students into a singular the college who were appointed while you were schedule and venue. It is the faculty mentor department). For many years the Regents, president, and many more who have come who helps to mediate all of the options, traditionally representing the private sector to know you through Richard Bonnabeau’s responding to a student’s interests and abilities. in New York, kept a strong lid on SUNY’s history of Empire State College, The Promise If these options are not available, the student development, even though it was created in Continues (1996). I think they will be is limited. From all of the research, we know 1948 under Governor Dewey. I think the interested to hear your thoughts on the college, that students learn in very different ways. From budget move was intentional; it was condoned higher education and the relationship of the very beginning, from the very first kernel by the governor and his Division of the Empire State College with the SUNY system. of the idea, ESC was designed to change the Budget. Maybe some thought they would have Chancellor Zimpher’s “systemness” initiatives whole equation, enabling the student to set stricter control over SUNY, or perhaps more led me to ask you to think about your time goals, chart a path and engage in ways that political influence, but who knows? Governor at SUNY System Administration and the were most conducive to her capabilities. I think Rockefeller was forward-thinking. He invested founding of the college, and how the system that is sometimes missed in the tensions that heavily in SUNY, favoring quantum growth under Chancellor Ernest Boyer’s leadership subsequently occurred. ESC became Boyer’s to meet rapidly growing demand. (At the established the unique college you led for instrument to achieve important changes in time, CUNY was free and SUNY was $400.) nearly three decades. how students might learn. Sam Gould took SUNY, which at the time Jim Hall: The Promise Continues talks about E .W .: How was the creation of Empire State was sometimes thought to be a “ragtag bunch” Empire State as one college with a common College connected to other changes in SUNY of 72 institutions (including New York City mission. And Chancellor Boyer and I certainly at the time? community colleges), and created a new, thought about it in that way. From the very unified vision of the university. He had been J .H :. The appointment of Samuel B. Gould, first mention of this college, shortly after president of the University of California, a seminal figure, as chancellor, shortly after Boyer became chancellor, and as he noted in Santa Barbara. Interestingly enough, he also SUNY had gained budgetary independence his Foreword to The Promise Continues, he had had been president of Antioch College, a from the State Education Department and thought long and hard about these educational highly innovative institution, and had headed the Board of Regents, was fortuitous. (Until issues. But aside from several programs he WNET in NYC, stoking his interest in the early 1960s, the teacher’s colleges and initiated elsewhere early in his career, I don’t educational television and technology as an agricultural and technical colleges were headed think he had found the instrument to fully test educational tool. State budgets were robust and by CEOs who reported to a supervisor in the his ideas. Governor Nelson Rockefeller was strongly in

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favor of strengthening the state university to put funds together to make it work. It was the years, as each campus faced budget problems, serve the rapidly growing demand for higher first such program of the kind anywhere in the the program was not a campus priority and education. SUNY changed the equation with country, preceding even what later became the would be eliminated. the Education Department in the years before National Council on the Arts (which adopted E .W .: Did your planning group consider Gould came, and the governor and legislature similar programs nationally). These innovative that California form as a model for Empire were ready to support the new chancellor. system-driven innovations were central to State College? Chancellor Gould’s vision and for the SUNY E W. .: How many would you say were environment at the time. We had freedom to J .H .: Yes, and a number of SUNY presidents employed by SUNY at this time? Was the create and implement. It was in this context who bought into the idea wanted to have a SUNY bureaucracy as large and unwieldy that the first thinking about what would piece of it on their campuses, but Boyer and as it is now? become Empire State College emerged. the committee moved in a different direction. J .H .: SUNY System Administration and A SUNY team visited the British Open E .W .: So, in part, you were given a campus staffing grew rapidly during these University [BOU] in the fall of 1970. They planning role. plush budget times, and actually is somewhat returned with great enthusiasm, but recognized smaller today than in those early years. J .H :. I worked within Boyer’s executive staff that BOU was not a practical model for Between 1965 and 1968, SUNY hired 2,000 as assistant vice chancellor for policy and SUNY, given BOU’s enormous upfront costs. new professionals each year! Gould’s vision planning. My direct report was to Merton BOU had the services of the BBC [the British was implemented by an administrator who Ertell, deputy vice chancellor and a former Broadcasting Corporation] that were critical at was imaginative and practical enough to make chair of the university faculty senate. In a time when ETV seemed the most available it happen: Ernest L. Boyer. Gould brought October 1970, Boyer convened a two-day technology; they had the advantage of several Boyer to SUNY for the explicit purpose of retreat of his staff to explore options for the years of planning and development; and they helping him to create a new vision of the further development of the State University created courses that were breakthroughs in university. As vice chancellor for universitywide of New York. A time when all things seemed validating continuing education for adults and programs, Boyer quickly became the primus possible, it was at this first retreat that we in instructional design. These yearlong courses inter pares among vice chancellors. He considered the possibility of a totally new, were brilliant, and without doubt intellectually devised programs, with Gould’s approval, alternative college. At the retreat, we talked stimulating. Keep in mind that the British that would bring the university campuses through a lot of ideas. Everything was on the system typically enrolled students to “read” in a together functionally. Among them were table and I went home and wrote a one page discipline for three years and then take a single the Universitywide Program in the Arts, the concept paper, which is in the ESC archives, exam. BOU dramatically changed that model University Scholars Program, the faculty outlining a scheme for a new SUNY college. and became incredibly successful. Today it is senate, and associations for various special The term “mentor” appeared there for the the largest university in Britain and has a larger groups throughout the university. first time. budget grant from the University Awards Council than Oxford and Cambridge. E W. .: What was your official role when Boyer E .W .: Was that your term? took the helm as chancellor? E .W .: I just showed you a chart of the various J .H :. Yes, but it wasn’t unique; it just hadn’t initiatives currently underway in SUNY, and J .H .: I was teaching at this time in the history been applied in higher education save for the there are many: Open SUNY, the “Seamless department at SUNY Albany and held a sponsor of a doctoral student. Education Pipeline,” the Shared Services dual appointment at system administration E .W .: Was the goal to create an entirely initiative and others. Back in 1970, planning to participate in a universitywide program new college? Empire State was a big deal. At that time, were designed to spur faculty recruitment, to bring there other major initiatives going on at the outstanding faculty to the state university. We J .H :. I was appointed to a planning committee, system level? I’m trying to get a comparative traveled a great deal and set up interviews at and became directly engaged with Boyer. The sense of SUNY then and now. professional disciplinary meetings, helping institution’s name did not emerge right from department chairs to identify and interview the beginning, but, yes, we wanted to design J .H .: Ernest Boyer had a number of projects. scholars we wanted to attract to SUNY. a new college and we had a number of ideas He proposed the notion of a three year Subsequently, Boyer asked me to lead the about how to do it. We consulted with some degree. Unlike such ideas today, he did not growing Universitywide Program in the Arts, of the university senators, but did not, as want to simply consolidate four years into which brought distinguished performing artists California did, turn the project design over three. Rather, he wanted to reconceptualize to the campuses as “university professors” at to the university senate. California did give toward a more streamlined model, akin to very little cost to the campuses. The artists its project to its senate, which designed an the European three year baccalaureate. A few could move throughout the campuses, holding elephant with lots of pieces scattered around SUNY campuses tried out the idea, but it did visiting appointments. These faculty were the campuses, which became their “ESC.” not gain traction. We also tried to establish a a distinguished group, and we promoted It was called the “1,000-Mile Campus.” But college for prisoners and guards, but the guards programs in theater, choral work and arts unfortunately, because it was on every campus, defeated it politically; that idea went down festivals all around SUNY. Working with the in ensuing years, it ultimately failed. Over the in flames, but Empire State College did not. New York State Council on the Arts, SUNY SUNY’s trustees were solidly behind the effort,

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and Boyer persuaded the governor to support well. To be a faculty mentor, you need to see J .H .: You notice later that Boyer, after he us with a modest initial state appropriation, the student as a whole person. There is a left SUNY to become U.S. commissioner as well. To the surprise of many, Empire State small minority of teachers who can do that of education, wrote books about building College attracted wide attention and soon effectively, and Empire has a full share of them. community. He had no problem with our basic began to thrive. Every college has some of each – scholars and approach of individual planning for a student teachers – and as students ourselves, we all and increased responsiveness. But I think in E W. .: It seems as if SUNY had robust knew and appreciated who they were. so many ways that he was always a moderate, budgets, strong governmental and university looking for balances that would yield sanity, leadership and an intellectual environment in E .W .: Was Empire State College a product success, realism, but not idealism to the which all things were possible. of the cultural shifts of the 1960s? Was the exclusion of other points of view or practices. inherent disruption of the 1960s embedded in J .H .: The budgets were strong, there’s no the DNA of this institution? E .W .: I do think mentoring can become questioning that. SUNY’s salary scale went faculty-centric and sometimes more up, and one of the things we did to enhance J .H :. An early division occurred in point of meaningful for the mentor than we might like faculty recruitment was to exempt SUNY view during our faculty interviews. We were to admit. Boyer’s concern with this sheds new faculty from the civil service salary and pension seeing three kinds of candidates. Some came light on some interpretations of how we think system. There was a general professionalization out of a counseling background and they about and practice mentoring. of the system under Gould’s leadership. were enormously successful with students. Others were creative, but not very disciplined J .H .: That’s certainly true. I heard him say E W. .: Was there a sense at the time that or organized, you might say. And a few came that once so I don’t want to overemphasize it SUNY was somehow inadequate? Was it with a purpose other than education. I believed because I think, above all, once we got started, aspiring to be like another state university that we needed those unusual individuals he didn’t want to control any of it. He was an system? What motivated the upgrading and who combined many of these competencies. unusual leader, you could say, because while I professionalization of the SUNY system? Keep in mind that higher education became kept him informed, he did not interfere in our J .H .: SUNY was a mixture of institutions highly politicized before and during the period complex development, even as we experienced that did certain things very well; the colleges of ESC’s inception. Barriers were falling. a challenging hiring freeze in August just prepared teachers with strong academic Old practices were questioned. Education before ESC was to open its doors to students. knowledge, and they had moved beyond itself – the curriculum, its institutions – was I set up the search for the first president of teacher education to embrace a broad liberal falling apart. It didn’t last, but for a while it arts and sciences curriculum. For example, was like that. Many of those who came to Albany State College was distinguished for ESC experienced these changes in graduate training excellent secondary teachers; it was school. From the very beginning, ESC was a From the very beginning, subject-oriented. But as SUNY Albany, they demonstration of those wonderful new things ESC was a demonstration experienced increasing institutional conflict, that were going on at many campuses, but as adding scholars and researchers on top of those a new model, a new kind of structure, a new of those wonderful new veterans whose primary commitment was kind of organization, that was positive. It was things that were going on teaching students. In a sense, the California not about tearing down the system, but rather system had to be in Gould’s mind, but finding new ways to remake the university. at many campuses, but as California had three separate public systems, It’s hard to fault any of that. Important things a new model, a new kind whereas SUNY combined all three into a were happening, but for us, we needed a clear single system, now the largest by student vision and a sense that we could be broad, but of structure, a new kind enrollment in the nation. focused. Boyer held some very strong views of organization, that was that he subsequently expressed in different E W. .: You are suggesting an interesting and ways in different times in his later books. I positive. It was not about really ongoing tension between teaching and would say he did not believe strongly in the scholarship in higher education. Some have tearing down the system, but highly individualized learning approach. He commented on this tension at Empire State believed, I think, that such an approach could rather finding new ways to College, pointing to a shift in recent years become somewhat narcissistic and isolating. to hire more faculty on a more traditional remake the university. academic path and noting that mentoring as a E .W .: Now that’s particularly interesting and focus has somewhat receded. timely. I’ve not heard Boyer’s view expressed quite like that before. As you might imagine, J .H .: It is not a surprising development. But ESC while still on Boyer’s staff. I officially this is a current debate among the faculty here. I would argue that it has always been the was named as acting director of this operation, Some, I would say, believe individualization is case that a faculty member needs to do both. starting in April of 1971, and my first task was the core of the core. Empire State College always needed people to find a president. I had a small committee, who could combine both functions. Frankly, and I brought candidates from the airport to there aren’t many people who can do that meet with Boyer and a couple other people,

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taking them to lunch and back to the airport; held my first post with SUNY in the area of E .W .: Do you think that was intended to in those days, searches were rather informal faculty recruitment, I think I understood a lot create something like a team of rivals, as also is compared to the present. We had a series about what the needs of the university faculty attributed to Lincoln’s Cabinet? of highly credible candidates. At one point, would be. I wanted to be sure from the outset J .H .: I don’t know how consciously he did Boyer suggested we invite Arthur Chickering, that the faculty of ESC were equally treated this. I don’t find it a terrible idea and probably who had impressed us with his comments and respected as part of the faculty of the did it myself, though not very strategically. in an earlier external advisory meeting, State University of New York. An immediate Sometimes you can’t achieve what you want to be a candidate. decision was necessary. So we just couldn’t through a single individual; you need to have reach an agreement in this matter and I said, E W. .: Even at that time, Chickering had a creative tension, and in human nature, there “Chick, we both need to go talk to Ernie already been involved in other higher is a tendency to compete. I mean we’re all a Boyer.” We sat in front of Ernie’s desk and we education experiments. bit political in a way. In any organization, it’s both laid out our cases, and Boyer said, “I think just extraordinary the way that people line up, J .H .: Yes. I had a lot to learn and Chickering you’d better have tenure.” take sides and create unnecessary divisions. knew a lot. He was 10 years deeper into all this E .W .: Still, as I understand this, no president So organizationally, how do you keep your and had done a lot of relevant research, and had yet been appointed. eye on the ball and keep moving it forward? coming out of that interview, I enthusiastically For example, at Empire State College, one recommended that he be named president. J .H :. Well, we continued to chew on other issue that you describe – the division between I was in awe of Chickering; he was very details of organization and policy and finally, so-called mentored and online learning – down-to-earth and could respond to in late August of 1971, I called Ernie one seems to me to be an unnecessary polarization educational questions with wisdom and morning and I said, “I think it’s time for you to of complementary matters. However, I have ease. He had just come off an important move ahead with the Chickering appointment. been away from ESC for nearly 18 years, so foundation-funded project, leading to a It is not fair to this important project for us maybe it’s a much more critical matter now significant book [Education and Identity, 1969]. to be moving in two directions. I’m ready to than I experienced. You just have to keep the Boyer thought about it and he called me up return full time to my planning position at student and the flexibility of choices in mind. and said we should ask him if he would be SUNY.” That is what I had expected to do At the same time, flexibility can’t mean a academic vice president. As the responsible subsequently in any case. But Boyer’s response lack of intellectual rigor. When you put those staff person, I asked Chickering if he would was: “But you can’t do that because I’m going together, you have a powerful model that accept. He did. And I had the sense that to recommend your name as president to works brilliantly for a lot of people, but if you he had discussed with Boyer the possibility the board of trustees.” And it was just one of lose any one of those pieces, I believe that it that he might be further considered for the those difficult situations. I had looked to the starts to lose its power. At the time, I came to presidency at some later point. probability that Chickering would be named believe that we needed several individuals with president, and had therefore operated on the I worked together with Chickering [“Chick”] different strengths in leadership positions. premise that my job as acting director was to from April onward. Our skeletal staff help him learn about and adjust to the needs E .W .: I’d like to return to the issue of worked successfully through many issues, of SUNY, essentially supporting the ideas that mentored and online learning. It may be that establishing temporary policies and practices. he was attempting to institutionalize. And the my sense of the threat is exaggerated, but Chick understood very well the necessity for toughest task of all was that I had to convey the new SUNY and the current legislative intellectual rigor, but in some issues our actions this decision to Chickering. Boyer would not environment seem to be qualitatively different were not clear in that direction. For one thing, have done that – I had to tell him. That was than in the past. I also think that many at he had a bias, not wholly unwarranted, against difficult for both of us. SUNY and elsewhere see Empire State traditional higher education. He was wary College as “SUNY’s online college.” I hear of the SUNY system, and he was skeptical E .W .: Can you say more about the kind of this all too often said by people who should of the bureaucracy that he feared could working environment that Boyer created know better. defeat the new institution. And Boyer, who among his cabinet peers and on the Empire had worked with him on the small colleges planning group? I’m curious about Boyer’s J .H .: I know, I read pieces in All About project [Project on Student Development administrative leadership style. You’ve said Mentoring that sometimes evince a strong in Small Colleges], must have known that. once the college was started that he was not bias in that direction, but that’s not wrong So we had several major decision problems always directly hands-on. at all. I mean, it’s marvelous, and if online during the summer, including defining our learning is diminishing flexibility, then that’s a J .H :. One of the things that people sometimes overall student expectations for a degree and problem, too. However, when I’ve made casual criticized him for was that he would have publishing an appropriate first college catalog. inquiries, I learn that the newest capabilities in more than one person working on a problem, One of the most critical issues was a pending interactive learning are being explored, and the each often not knowing that someone else and necessary decision as to whether ESC student still benefits from someone, a mentor, was working on the same thing. I thought would have a tenured faculty. And Chick was, who oversees the whole package. it workable, but one could understand, for very good reasons, strongly against that. I thinking organizationally, that it would did not disagree with his reasons. But having cause some problems.

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E W. .: My concern is less with pressures I experienced the same issues, having to be Johnstone decided to just do it, and internal to ESC. Rather, I see the external the arbiter of resource distribution among six I became SUNY vice chancellor for environment closing in. SUNY and pressures unequal campuses. educational technology. from government and from new for-profit All the SUNY presidents met together three E .W .: That was mid-’90s, wasn’t it? competition are driving change across all of times a year, usually at the Otesaga Hotel in higher education. I may be wrong – I hope I J .H .: Yes, from 1993 to 1995. Cooperstown. At ESC, I attempted to conduct am – but I have this sense of an impending similar retreats with our faculty and staff E .W .: And that was when the distance revolution that will drive unforeseen changes. where we could spend quality time together, learning program was actually established J .H .: I, too, hope that you are wrong, and working, dining and relaxing informally. We at ESC? yes, SUNY is always a complex factor. Here’s held meetings at Lake Mohonk, the Rensselaer J .H .: Yes. I asked Paul Shiffman and Carol an example. You were asking about various Institute, and later at places like Hidden Valley Twigg of the Empire staff to help, using chancellors. Clifton R. Wharton succeeded and Grossingers. double titles, to show the strong linkage Boyer as chancellor. At my first meeting with The SUNY presidents could bring their between “system” and Empire developments him, he asked me a few questions, but planted spouses to those meetings and the trustees in this area. Recall that back in 1971, SUNY me on the far side of his desk behind high were often present with their spouses. These budgets were slammed just as Empire was piles of papers and books. For most of the occasions created a tremendous sense of leaving the station. To help the new college interview he looked out the window, and I collective responsibility for the State University. staff up without significant personnel, came away totally uncertain whether he would Chancellor Gould started the practice, Boyer Chancellor Boyer had given me the have the slightest interest in anything ESC was and Wharton continued it. You worked and opportunity to select as many of the positions doing. But this impression proved to be exactly interacted professionally in working sessions, about to be retrenched from the system’s wrong. He had written a book on continuing but the informal social interactions were Continuing Education and University of the adult students while president of Michigan invaluable. I had to establish and maintain Air offices. These systemwide programs had State University – hardly small potatoes – and personal credibility with the presidents and never managed to achieve the enrollments he turned out to be wonderfully interactive trustees. I recognized that a considerable that had been expected from televised courses. and fun, serious, strategic, and an excellent number of people at SUNY did not So many years later, Chancellor Johnstone chancellor and a champion for the college. understand ESC, and secondly, those who did agreed with that similar vision that we would Those years were thrilling for ESC and for understand always wondered whether it was create a support system for SUNY and operate SUNY; as the college became fully developed, any good. That was just a fact of life you had what would be called The SUNY Learning our aims fulfilled in many ways. Wharton to live with, and the credibility eventually came Network. Unfortunately, Bruce became kept ESC in the forefront of discussions along. I valued those connections throughout desperately ill and resigned as chancellor. His and actions. my presidency. I was able to negotiate various deputy, Joe Burke, who’d been president of E W. .: Once Boyer left the SUNY system, arrangements with the presidents of the other Plattsburgh, stepped in. He was bright, a very and the college was fairly well established and campuses, and they welcomed it. capable and experienced man. There was little part of the SUNY system, you were, according his senior staff would put on the table that he E .W .: I looked at the list of chancellors, and to Bill Ferrero [former vice president for wouldn’t work over. It was not just me; it was in your tenure as president, you certainly saw administration], on the stateside budget and all the vice chancellors. It became challenging many. In fact, I think probably more than most thus less dependent on outside grants that had for me to move our joint venture forward. other SUNY presidents. allowed the college to be established. How Then came the big political changeover: then did the relationship of the college with J .H :. During these years, SUNY had a number Mario Cuomo, who may have expected an easy SUNY change or remain the same by the mid- of chancellors in rapid succession. Bruce re-election, had alienated a number of allies to late-1970s? Johnstone followed Wharton, and then Joseph and others. He had been a competent governor, Burke served as interim during Johnstone’s but he lost the election. J .H .: Gould and Boyer had initiated and illness. Tom Bartlett and John Ryan followed Wharton continued the strong sense of E .W .: So we faced a Pataki administration. and were all helpful to ESC. But my work collegiality among the campuses; there was with Bruce Johnstone was most pertinent to J .H .: Yes, Pataki was elected unexpectedly, not an unusual sense of competition in the the college. Bruce and I were colleagues when but had no educational strategy in place for way that may exist today. The campuses had he was president of Buff State [SUNY College SUNY. Cuomo, negligently, had left half the a lot of autonomy, but they had to be highly at Buffalo]. We conceived for the first time SUNY board of trustees seats open. Pataki responsive to budgets, which were centrally something akin to the Open SUNY idea; we appointed eight trustees, including a chair, controlled. You had the big players, the medical talked about my coming into SUNY System from recommendations by a very limited part centers, the U. Buffalos and so on. And there Administration and playing dual roles, but it of the winning party. A once cohesive and was no question that a portion of the four-year didn’t work out at that time because there was solidly supportive SUNY board disintegrated. campus revenues was being re-appropriated objection from key officers who were probably Some members even attempted to resurrect to support the university centers. Interestingly, doubtful about an Open SUNY-like concept some of the old issues that existed when the when I was chancellor of Antioch University, at a time of stringent budgets. Two years later, Board of Regents was in control. This created

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a challenging period for SUNY with major chancellors; they were experienced people, would have modest expectations for capital. staff changes and revolving chancellors. As having run major institutions. But they were Joe was able to change this presumption with I described earlier, there followed a period responsible to a highly politicized board. positive results. of rapid succession of interim and acting E .W .: Just like to clarify – we’re talking about E .W .: From what I understand, on paper, the chancellors. In the midst of this, I decided the Pataki board? so-called “negative mission adjustment” has maybe it was time to start the succession gone away, but I believe it’s more of a shell process at Empire State College. J .H :. Yes. They had been nominated by a game and that we still draw the short straw narrow slice of the New York Republican Party I was approached by a headhunter for the when it comes to budget allocations. And to do certain things. I need to interject here Antioch University chancellorship, and I said, weren’t there also plenty of “positive mission that I was enormously proud to be part of the “No way.” So much for that. It happened adjustments” and deals made around the State University of New York. I experienced anyway: I went. That initiated rather abruptly system, as well? almost no bad stuff in terms of political the changeover at ESC. The first action interference, corruption or incompetence. As J .H .: Some things are hard to change, and a by the new trustee board was to reject the presidents, we occasionally received routine pecking order is one of them. The university recommendations for my successor. Obviously, calls of support for a particular candidate once centers have always benefited; they were I was not part of that process. The committee a position was publically posted. All of us growing rapidly, they paid higher salaries, and recommended former ESC Dean Victor received calls when searches were announced. got the lion’s share of construction funds. As Montana and a couple of others. But the result As publically appointed officers, we are open you pointed out earlier, the SUNY structure was that Jane Altes, former vice president for to suggestions from anyone. But during my had changed to a more laissez-faire style. The academic affairs, came out of retirement to tenure, no one ever, ever pressured me, or told most aggressive presidents were very skillful become acting president. She actually served me who we could hire. The one exception in going directly to the political structure of two and a half years, and, in my opinion, was when a member of the Board of Regents, the state. SUNY had more or less buffered should have been named president because sad to say, started to call weekly to advance this temptation in the past, wisely and with she did a lot of good things in a very difficult a candidate. It got more insistent as it went great skill. That nuanced role was lost during political environment. on, and I had to say, “We have a process for the Pataki administration and under the new E W. .: I have hypothesized that the instability this; it is a professional process. I’ve passed SUNY board. of SUNY leadership over the years and the the individual’s application and qualifications E .W .: Were there any chancellors who were succession of acting and interim chancellors on to the search committee, and they will particularly suspicious of Empire State College had weakened SUNY as an organization. As evaluate and make a recommendation to or were especially punitive toward ESC in I see it, the shifting leadership created a kind the appropriate officer.” But my sense from budget allocations or program approval? of power vacuum at System Administration colleagues is that in this new era, external that resulted in relatively more autonomy for pressures became more insistent, and J .H .: Not really. Even the university center the campuses, but that, now, under Chancellor sometimes nasty. presidents were hospitable to ESC’s presence Zimpher, a very activist chancellor, the system on their campuses. And to my knowledge, E .W .: Do you think SUNY treated you and is much stronger and much more assertive. none attempted to discourage their faculty ESC evenly and fairly, compared to the other There are still people around who knew members from accepting tutoring assignments campuses, or was it more of a struggle to get a the system as a benign one that could be for ESC students, an important expectation fair share of the budget? disregarded; they’re finding now that the game in the original planning for ESC. But shortly with SUNY has changed. What do you think J .H :. It was a struggle, but I don’t think it after I completed my assignment to develop of this perspective? was a biased struggle. Since the primary the SUNY Learning Network [SLN], Peter movers on the budget side were certainly Salins became university provost. He had little J .H .: I think your description is generally true, supportive of ESC, they believed that they sense of the way Empire State had tried to but there is more texture to it. I have already were being evenhanded in applying budget build a capacity that would serve the SUNY mentioned the rapid changes that occurred formulas, which was a mission-adjustment system, and saw the SLN program as an with the appointment of a politicized board formula. They recognized that we did not essential aspect of his office. of trustees. One of its early proposals was that have a residential campus and all that this only private institutions in the state should E .W .: You’re referring to the time when Jane implies. From an objective point of view, that offer graduate degrees. They felt it was not Altes’ served her lengthy interim presidency? was fair, but in practice, we were seriously appropriate for the public institutions to do underfunded in both the academic support J .H .: Jane Altes was president for two and a that. ESC had moved into graduate education and the administrative areas. After Joe Moore half years. Fortunately, Jane was well known only a few years earlier. Now this is pretty became president, things were better and he in SUNY and in the political structure. Her radical stuff and it was only one of the major was able to achieve considerable improvement husband, Wally, was head of the Albany policy issues these short-term chancellors in a better economic climate. SUNY received Chamber of Commerce. He knew everybody had to contend with. None of them were bad significant bonding for construction. When and was seen widely as bipartisan, and that ESC started, it was with the understanding helped a lot, I think. She was perhaps more that we would be a campus without walls and controversial inside the college than outside.

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E W. .: For a time, you held two posts: one as right these days to get done the things you broadcast taped courses via television. Salins president of ESC and one as vice chancellor set in motion. And President Davis proposed described this to the SUNY board, using the of SUNY. some very important things, as well, but his taping of a Stony Brook professor’s lecture, early departure limited the ability to follow for example, for use at other the campuses. J .H .: I insisted on a vice chancellor-level through on his important and far-reaching Interestingly, he saw the possibility of online appointment, not wishing to be dependent Open SUNY proposal. delivery of the course, anticipating what we upon the SUNY provost. I believed that if now call MOOCs [massive open online SUNY wanted to make a strong statement E .W .: The program Alan Davis initiated courses]. This, he suggested, would save about online education, I had to be in a has now been adopted by the system, but we instructional duplication at the other campuses. position to make the big push for it. Had can’t be sure where the plan will end up, or Now that had nothing to do with what Bruce Johnstone been able to continue his what role, if any, Empire State will have as it Empire was trying to do. ESC and SUNY term, we would have been able to do some emerges from the SUNY system. As others specifically rejected this model at the founding important things. have pointed out, the development of online of Empire, (then called the SUNY University learning at ESC could not have occurred E W. .: Can you imagine a campus president of the Air), turning its resources over to ESC. when it did without the influence and force being asked to play a split role today? As a mono-modal approach with significant of the larger SUNY system. Were you the limitations and enormous costs to create the J .H .: Well, it was a 14-hour-a-day one who merged the efforts of the system courses, it just wasn’t sensible. But years later, commitment, but I knew the system well and with the college? the necessary telecommunications technologies that made it intriguing and possible. Joseph J .H :. Well, the answer is yes, but it’s caught up with transformational possibilities. Burke stepped into the chancellor role and was complicated. From the first days of the college, The personal computer made it all possible able to accomplish a number of things, among Empire State tried to find ways to deliver at scale, as costs came down. So the time was them, improvements in teacher education content, to have first rate content for the right for us to enhance the interactive aspects, and nursing. But he did not sustain the effort students to use as a part of their studies. But which could keep it individualized, interactive to initiate online learning as a top priority. as noted before, we did not have available the and content-rich. Without strong support from SUNY, nothing essential technology to deliver resources until can move through the required state hoops E .W .: So certainly the language and value many years later. Our faculty mentors basically essential for approval. Moreover, any campus system of the college maintained the lexicon had to carry the entire load, which might have seeking to offer a new academic program was of mentoring and the model of individualized been sustainable with a tiny student/faculty required by the Regents to send a letter of learning, but the establishment of the online ratio, but over-the-top demanding with the intent to all the institutions in the state to ask program departed from the traditional model public workload we needed to carry. Thus, we if objections existed. Paul Shiffman, my former of one-to-one guided independent study. attempted in many ways to develop a strong ESC associate, who handled this process at resource base that the student and mentor J .H .: It is not the traditional model of Excelsior College, claims that today there is no could employ. That goal was always high on Empire State! such request that fails to elicit many objections. my agenda, but the necessary technology E .W .: It is not? E W. .: In another interview for All About trailed behind. Frustrated with ESC’s fiscal Mentoring [#43 and #44], Joe Moore describes limitations, even as the necessary technology J .H .: It was a matter of happenstance that gave his strategy as more specifically political. became available, I looked to SUNY as a rise to that description. I would say the heart He seemed to have had much less concern partner, which eventually led to my double and soul of that notion was in the Rochester about SUNY, perhaps as a function of the appointment. As I mentioned earlier, we Center, with which you are most familiar. weak nature of SUNY leadership during did manage to initiate the SUNY Learning We hired four faculty, I think, and appointed his tenure, though he did say that he always Network. Its operations were expected to be Dean John Jacobson, a highly trained and an communicated his legislative efforts to moved to ESC where we would run it as a intellectually rigorous classicist who could system offices. service for the system, recognizing that Empire enliven or break the tension at any meeting by State College would be a key player. But with quoting Cicero or other philosophers. After J .H .: He may have had a little more room to my departure, Peter Salins decided that the he hired the first few faculty mentors and run, though I never felt anyone was looking operations should remain in the office of the admitted a number of students, the college over my shoulder. SUNY provost. That was not an irrational faced a hiring freeze. What you call the E W. .: Joe thought he was fortunate to have choice, but it reversed the financially-strategic traditional model did appear as a necessity, robust enrollments and healthy budgets idea that ESC could serve the entire system. with the small faculty being able to work with during his time as president. He recognized Perhaps it was a status matter. two or three students each. This arrangement that this gave him opportunities to advance continued for almost a year. It worked Unfortunately, Dr. Salins lacked a his initiatives. beautifully; it was wonderful. One of the first contemporary vision of what that program research studies on the first group of graduates J .H .: Yes, President Moore took the college might be able to do. In discussions, he written by Ernie Palola, Tim Lehman and Paul forward in a number of important areas. He described something akin to the1960s New Bradley recounted the student experiences and had seven years, and that is probably about York University “Sunrise Semester” that seemed to institutionalize the idea. They were

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indeed great students working with a skilled J .H :. My thought would be that the mentoring but at the heart, at least in regional centers and and committed faculty. We shared this study should continue to be universal in all of the units, this has come to mean and depend upon widely to document what ESC was doing and college’s operations, but not in the single one-to-one guided independent study as the how the model could work. But this model form that I think you are referring to as the traditional model. reflected only one aspect of the college plan. traditional one, where the mentor is providing J .H .: Yes, Arthur Chickering and Tom Clark all or most of the instruction. It’s just not E W. .: That’s incredibly interesting – an [the former dean of what was then the Albany practical and ultimately in many cases, it’s just accident of a particular historical circumstance. Learning Center, who became director of not intellectually honest. It seems that for many, perhaps the majority ESC’s Center for Individualized Education] of the faculty in the regional centers and units, E .W .: Wow, that’s a new understanding supported the development of this strong and one-to-one guided study is assumed to embody for me. essential collegewide ethos. But I am talking the great tradition of ESC. So, how would you about a different matter. Given our widely define, then, what is the traditional model of diverse student body in educational needs ESC? Or is there indeed a traditional model? and methods, mentoring should be a broad and inclusive model, able to work flexibly J .H .: All of ESC’s early planning documents All of ESC’s early planning with students with widely diverse needs, describe a learning structure that is responsive documents describe a learning interests, learning styles and abilities. A more to each student. But I did not see that as a limited approach, focusing for example only single model, except for the importance of structure that is responsive on totally individualized independent study, placing each student at the center of our to each student. But I did is challenging to carry off. I think you cannot educational program. The aim was to provide have a singular model like that on any large a broad and flexible set of opportunities. The not see that as a single model, scale. And that was part of our early debate. faculty mentors are the key players in making except for the importance Was this going to be a hothouse institution for that work. They were to be the prime movers independent study – a brilliant and appealing in helping students discover what their goals of placing each student strategy, serving selected students who could would be and to help them know how to at the center of our manage that approach – or would it, as an make those goals a reality, in terms of specific alternative public institution, encourage a studies. They were to identify the resources educational program. wider flexibility to respond to a much wider that would be used and to oversee the tutors clientele? I did not believe that the more and ensure that they got first-level support and limited approach, despite its brilliance and evaluations. That is why some have referred to appeal, could have succeeded in the longer run. our “model” as a mentoring model. J .H :. You just can’t be all things and be long-term credible. But you can be the guide, To be continued in issue #47. But that process was to be enhanced by the inspiration, the critical moderator if you’re anything we could attach to it, including well trained and experienced in responding classes that could be taken at other campuses, to the student. And, of course, the mentor where that would be appropriate, but at the can guide in independent studies in those same time recognizing that many of our areas where one has special knowledge or students would not be able to take residential expertise. This is the reason, of course, that courses. That was one resource, and we SED [State Education Department] required experimented with others. But until the us to define areas of study and to demonstrate personal computer became available generally, that we had a full-time mentor in each area the full panoply of resources did not become at each college center. truly available. Today, resource access provides a phenomenal capability. Now it has become: E .W .: I have an idea about the college that How do our faculty mentors help the students I call “Empire Exceptionalism.” It’s part of the find and use the appropriate resources to ethos, the ideology of the college that has come accomplish their goals? For ESC faculty, this is from a socialization process, some of which not a counseling job; I want to underscore that. was communicated by the Mentoring Institute, It is a powerful combination of responsibilities. which is now called the Center for Mentoring I always thought of the role as that of an and Learning. That sense of exceptionalism has intellectual coach. come to inform the culture of ESC. It’s found in the language and meaning we use and it is E W. .: Do you think the quality of mentoring found in CDL [Center for Distance Learning] can be maintained at a distance, and with up to as much as in regional centers. It amounts to a 20 or more students in an online course? deeply held system of values and beliefs about mentoring and the centrality of the mentor,

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Preventing Student Plagiarism

Elizabeth Bradley, School for Graduate Studies

any of our courses and learning student who, like the original plagiarism case I contracts at SUNY Empire State had encountered, copied and pasted his entire College include information about final project from an online source. When theM college’s academic honesty policy (http:// I looked back at his work over the term, I www.esc.edu/policies/?search=cid%3D37970) discovered that every single course assignment and details about correctly citing sources. and nearly every discussion post was directly Yet, how can we be sure that students actually copied and pasted from an online source, as read this information, understand it and follow well. This student had utilized websites, journal correct procedures? I gave little thought to articles, blogs, research briefs, news articles and this topic until the end of the spring 2014 more. After discussing this case with his other term, when I discovered that a number of course instructor during the spring term, she my graduate students were plagiarizing to realized the student had done the same in her varying degrees. class, though the quality of “his writing” in that course was not as strong because he had been It all began when one student’s final project submitting mainly undergraduate students’ submission didn’t match the assignment work that he found online. guidelines, and I Googled a portion of his Elizabeth Bradley assignment to see if I would find the content The process of documenting plagiarism for online. Indeed, I discovered that the entire each of these ARC cases was laborious. For assignment had been copied and pasted from the most egregious case, I downloaded all of custom papers written on demand (Taleb, portions of a journal article online. I issued a the student’s discussion posts into a Word 2004). The top reasons that students report no credit outcome for the course and referred document, highlighting the plagiarized content for engaging in plagiarism include wanting to the student to the dean, who referred him to and indicating the source in my comments. earn high grades, procrastination and being too the School for Graduate Studies Academic I spent a few days finding the original busy to complete an assignment ( Jones, 2011). Review Committee (ARC) for further action. sources/authors of the work and wrote up Some students may not know the appropriate This began my practice of checking students’ a detailed account for the ARC. It was an citation procedures, as some research has work in Google. exhausting process, and I began to feel more discovered that they cannot always distinguish like a CSI agent than a mentor! As the between the proper and improper citing of Once I began scanning all student work documenting came to a close, I turned my texts (Chao, Wilhelm, & Neureuther, 2009). for plagiarized content, I discovered that focus to prevention. How could I ensure that three more students had plagiarized all or Many students ignore the distinction between this did not happen with my students again, part of their final project for the course. For their own writing and information they cut both for their sake and my own? I looked to one student, the infraction was minor, as and pasted from the Internet because it is the literature and research on the topic for she had merely failed to cite a paragraph of so easy to do the latter (Howard & Davies, more information. information, but had submitted her own work 2009). Some students have become more and followed correct citation procedures for When and Why Students tech-savvy with their cheating, and rather the rest of the assignment. Another student Plagiarize than simply cutting and pasting information, used material that was directly copied from the they utilize multiple sources and piece Internet for the majority of her final project, More than half of undergraduate college them together in a manner that is not easily with some of her own writing interspersed. students admit to plagiarizing (Bolkan, 2006) detected. Informational videos on how to get She did include a reference for the source of and roughly 40 percent of college students away with plagiarism abound on the Internet the information, although she did not indicate report plagiarizing course papers by cutting ( Jones, 2011). Indeed, in my most egregious that she had quoted it directly. I looked back and pasting content found online (McCabe, plagiarism case this past spring, the student at the student’s work over the term, and on Trevino, & Butterfield, 2002). In addition pieced together text that was copied and pasted two other assignments she had directly taken to taking content from wikis, blogs, online from multiple online sources – I even found content from various online sources, sometimes journals, newspaper articles, etc., roughly 100 paragraph-long discussion posts that were including a citation, and other times not online essay sites (such as schoolsucks.com) copied verbatim. The actual cheating must including a citation or reference. However, exist where students can purchase papers, the most egregious case of plagiarism was a and many of them provide papers for free or

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have been time consuming, and seemingly it closely, they may misunderstand and think that An additional consideration in plagiarism would have been much easier for the student the student has plagiarized a large percentage detection is the significant amount of time that to just write the brief paragraph himself. of his or her revision from others’ work. it can take faculty to investigate plagiarism cases and the effect that this can have on the During ARC proceedings, the student Turnitin uses both search engine technology course culture. Evering and Moorman (2012) reported that he had no idea that his behavior and a database registry, and this two-pronged argued that “asking students who strive to would be considered plagiarism. At the time, approach is noted as effective even by critics; abide by honor and academic integrity codes I thought this was a tall tale; however, I have however, some claim that Turnitin violates to submit a paper to an online detection learned that students who are part of the copyright laws by incorporating past student service is a presumption of guilt” (p. 38) and millennial generation (those born in the 1980s submissions into its database, and thus Parry (2011) likened scanning every paper and 1990s) may have a unique perspective uses student work for commercial purposes for plagiarism as “poisoning the classroom when it comes to what constitutes plagiarism. without student consent. The company atmosphere” (para. 4) and turning professors Since content on the Internet is largely free, does not distribute student work and some into police officers. One professor teaching they may view information that they find universities have students sign consent an undergraduate course reported that after there as publicly owned or as public commons forms acknowledging that they understand a semester of using Turnitin, more than (Evering & Moorman, 2012). Indeed, many that their assignments will be submitted 20 percent of his students had admitted to high school students report the belief that to Turnitin to protect them from possible plagiarism, students were anxious and often information found on the Internet is public copyright infringement (Bolkan, 2006). argumentative during course discussions, knowledge and thus does not need to be cited, Some professors allow students to scan their and the professor spent countless hours even if it is quoted verbatim (McCabe, Trevino, work in Turnitin before submitting their investigating student plagiarism. After the & Butterfield, 2002). Digital technology, and assignments, and iParadigms, the company semester had come to a close, he received his social media in particular, has changed the that publishes Turnitin, offers the program course evaluations, and they were much lower ways in which knowledge is acquired and WriteCheck, which is geared toward students than usual. He concluded that he would not disseminated, and students’ digital literacy as a plagiarism checker. However, some worry use Turnitin again (Parry, 2011). Although experiences are generally not academic in that students will abuse the software, finding I don’t believe that these are reasons to stop nature; thus, they must be explicitly taught the problematic spots in the papers that rate scanning student work for plagiarism, the how to ethically access and utilize information high for plagiarism and simply scrambling the emphasis should be placed on prevention of they find online (Evering & Moorman, 2012). words so that their papers will not be flagged academic dishonesty rather than on plagiarism by the time their course instructors review detection (Evering & Moorman, 2012). Detecting Plagiarism them (Parry, 2011). Including students in the discussion of the Through access to electronic files including For detection of plagiarism, experts issue of plagiarism, and approaching it as a other students’ work, blog posts, news recommend the two-pronged approach. shared problem that we can solve together, articles, research briefs, journal articles, etc., Googling student work is probably the easiest will help them learn more and take some it is surprisingly easy for students to submit and most effective way to find content taken ownership of the issue. plagiarized work and go undetected. However, from online sources. However, it doesn’t a number of tools exist for scanning student catch work that students purchase online, Best Practices in work for plagiarism. Some are free and can as those papers’ content does not show up Plagiarism Prevention involve simply Googling sections of student until you have logged into the site and paid. Faculty can help prevent plagiarism by work, whereas others require institutional This is why having an institutional license explicitly teaching about what constitutes memberships and can be costly, such as to commercial plagiarism detection software plagiarism and how to avoid it, including how Turnitin.com. The college holds a subscription such as Turnitin is useful, as these programs to conduct Internet searches and cite sources to Turnitin and faculty can gain access at are more likely to have purchased papers in correctly (Evering & Moorman, 2012). In http://www.esc.edu/integrated-technologies/ their databases (Bolkan, 2006). Despite the addition, having students submit rough drafts services-support/turnitin/. However, I have potential issues with Turnitin, Buckley and or components of assignments, including found that the software can pose some Cowap (2013) concluded that Turnitin is a copies of sources, can help prevent plagiarism difficulties. For faculty who ask students useful tool for plagiarism detection, and should and also help with early identification (Evering to submit all of their course assignments be utilized along with formative student & Moorman, 2012; Harris, 2001). Requiring to Turnitin, it seems more straightforward. learning tools. Turnitin can save time, rather at least one recent source may make plagiarism However, for those looking for an occasional than faculty having to search for Internet more difficult for students, as papers found report on suspicious papers, it is more difficult matches to student work submissions by hand on the Internet often include old references to understand how the tool works. In addition, (Sutherland-Smith & Carr, 2005). However, and citations. Turnitin compares student work to all work in if Turnitin is implemented, faculty should be the system. So, if a student submits a revision trained in the specifics of how the program Another prevention strategy is the creation to an assignment, the Turnitin report will show works (Buckley & Cowap, 2013). of course assignments that are applied, a high percentage of matching text found personalized/unique to each student, and elsewhere and, if course instructors do not look that address broad audiences (Davis, 2011).

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Evering and Moorman (2012) noted that with their peers to become the first to publish References student writing often takes place in isolation, their work. Players encounter opportunities Bolkan, J. V. (2006). Avoid the plague: Tips as the only reader of their work will be their for plagiarism and data fabrication, and must and tricks for preventing and detecting professor. This lack of authenticity in the answer quiz questions about plagiarism and plagiarism. Learning and Leading with purpose of their written task can lead students evaluate complex ethical scenarios along the Technology, 33(6), 10-13. to feel that their writing is not purposeful or way (Leonard et al., 2010). “real,” leading to an increased likelihood that Broussard, M., & Oberlin, J. U. (2014). For those who would rather have an interactive they will take someone else’s work and try to Plagiarism game: Goblin Threat. Retrieved quiz over a game or simulation, the University pass it off as their own. Therefore, encouraging from Lycoming College, Snowden Library Libraries at the University of Southern students to write about their own interests may website: http://www.lycoming.edu/library/ Mississippi created a Plagiarism Tutorial where help prevent student plagiarism. Designing instruction/tutorials/plagiarismGame.aspx students can test their knowledge of plagiarism assignments so students can share their work (University of Southern Mississippi, 2014). Buckley, E., & Cowap, L. (2013, July). An with a wider audience through digital media, Students take a pre-test, and then receive evaluation of the use of Turnitin for such as videos, wikis and blogs, also is a way a tutorial on what constitutes plagiarism, electronic submission and marking and to make writing more applied and to decrease proper citation procedures, and paraphrasing as a formative feedback tool from an the isolation many students experience in their and summarizing. Students take two quizzes, educator’s perspective. British Journal of studies (Evering & Moorman, 2012). through which they are asked to label pieces Educational Technology, 44(4), 562-570. Many instructors have students complete an of writing as containing the acceptable use of Chao, C., Wilhelm, W. J., & Neureuther, B. assignment on plagiarism at the start of the citations or containing plagiarism. Students D. (2009, Winter). A study of electronic term. Karon (2012) gives students a written also take a post-test and they have the option detection and pedagogical approaches for assignment where they are asked to find a free of having their quiz answers emailed to their reducing plagiarism. The Delta Pi Epsilon paper available online, analyze the strengths course instructor (University of Southern Journal, 51(1), 31-42. and weaknesses of the paper, and then discuss Mississippi, 2014). how they could improve upon the work. He Davis, L. (2011, June). Arresting student does this to show students that he is aware Next Steps plagiarism: Are we investigators or of free paper sites and student plagiarism, educators? Business Communication It can be a challenge to effectively implement but also to help students realize that they can Quarterly, 74(2), 160-163. plagiarism prevention and detection strategies produce better work than what they can find in courses without sacrificing too much Evering, L. C., & Moorman, G. (2012). or buy online. Davis (2011) recommended time and attention on the topic of academic Rethinking plagiarism in the digital age. having students write a short paper about dishonesty. However, in addition to being Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, plagiarism, and then have them scan their tied to specific courses, plagiarism quizzes or 56(1), 35-44. work in Turnitin or some other plagiarism simulations can be required by the institution detection program, and require that they Harris, R. A. (2001). The plagiarism handbook: as part of student orientations. Having revise and correct their work if they have Strategies for preventing, detecting, and students attend a webinar that demands more than 15 percent of plagiarized content dealing with plagiarism. Los Angeles, CA: active participation on the topic of correct before submission. Pyrcazk Publishing. citation procedures is another option, and Jones (2011) recommended including an it’s something that can be expected of all Howard, R. M., & Davies, L. J. (2009, March). interactive game or simulation to teach students before course registration. A focus Plagiarism in the internet age. Educational students in an active and engaging way on plagiarism prevention is important, as Leadership, 66(6), 64-67. about plagiarism prevention. A number prevention is much more effective and Jones, D. L. R. (2011). Academic dishonesty: of open source games and simulations are less time consuming than developmental Are more students cheating? Business available from colleges and universities, and remediation and/or charging students with Communication Quarterly, 74(2), 141-150. these activities can be embedded in program violations of academic integrity. orientations or course assignments. Goblin Karon, J. (2012, September 18). A positive Threat, created by Lycoming College, is a Note solution for plagiarism. The Chronicle game that requires students to find hidden of Higher Education. Retrieved from To learn more about the college’s policy on goblins on their campus and answer quiz http://chronicle.com/article/A-Positive- academic integrity, and to access ESC’s quiz questions on the topic of academic honesty. Solution-for/134498/ and additional plagiarism prevention resources Once all of the goblins have been eliminated, for students and faculty, please visit: http:// Leonard, M. F., Oliverio, J., Buhler, A., students receive a congratulatory certificate www.esc.edu/academic-integrity/plagiarism/. Johnson, M., DeVane, B., & Levey, of accomplishment, which they can print and D. (2010). Gaming against plagiarism. hand in or email to their professors for proof of Retrieved from University of Florida, completion (Broussard & Oberlin, 2011). The George A. Smathers Libraries website: University of Florida created Gaming Against http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/games/gap Plagiarism (GAP), in which students race

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McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L. K., & Butterfield, K. D. (2002, June). Honor codes and other contextual influences on academic integrity: A replication and extension to modified honor code settings. Research in Higher Education, 43(3), 357-378. Parry, M. (2011, November 6). Software catches (and also helps) young plagiarists. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/ article/Escalation-in-Digital/129652/ Sutherland-Smith, W., & Carr, R. (2005). Turnitin.com: Teachers’ perspectives of anti-plagiarism software in raising issues of educational integrity. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 2(3), 94–101. Talab, R. (2004). A student online plagiarism guide: Detection and prevention resources (and copyright implications!). TechTrends, 48(6), 15-18. University of Southern Mississippi. (2014). Welcome to the plagiarism tutorial. Retrieved from The University of Southern Mississippi, University Libraries website: http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/ plag/plagiarismtutorial.php#ti

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What Is Student-Centered Learning?

Kathleen Stone, Center for Distance Learning

A Review of: Chapter 2 - “Resources and Support for the content expertise, an instructional designer, A Learner Centered Approach Online Student and Educator” and Chapter 6 who has online instructional design expertise to Online Education - “Online Course Interaction,” Harrell provides and an instructional technologist, who has the By Lisa Harrell lists of websites and information on specific technical expertise. All three in collaboration resources/tools – some of which should not be can develop a learner-centered course that Learner Centered Approach to Online used in the online environment because they utilizes content, design and technology, based Education by Lisa Harrell (2013), is a are not accessible. Given that 11 percent of on research and best practices in each of those short, seven-chapter book that covers students in undergraduate courses self-identify areas, to meet the needs of the students. the basics of online education. The purpose A as having a disability (U.S. Department of of the book is to act as a guide for designing I will discuss further two foundational topics Education, 2013), it is not acceptable for a and teaching online in a way that is learner- for instructional design of online education beginner’s guide to online education to ignore focused. It is marketed for those new to online covered by Harrell in Chapter 4 - “Domains this topic. One small paragraph mentions education, wanting to learn more about online of Learning” and Chapter 5 - “Learning that students with disabilities may need education, and/or undergraduate and graduate Outcomes/Instructional Objectives.” Often, extra support, but the issue goes beyond that. students. I approached my review by asking the domains of learning in an online course Courses need to designed and taught with two main questions: Does the book provide the can be overshadowed by the draw of new accessibility in mind from the start, and books essentials for the beginning online educator? technologies. Having solid foundational and training materials for educators need Does the book provide a “learner-centered knowledge of learning domains is critical to be infused with appropriate approaches approach” to online education? for designing learning activities that target for all students. what you want your students to understand. Harrell begins with an introduction to online Another significant problem in the book is What kind of knowledge do you want them education and then walks the reader through the absence of a discussion of the instructional to gain? Is it factual, procedural, conceptual, the needed resources and support for faculty designer role in online education. More often metacognitive? At what level should they and students, defines who the online learner than not, institutions of higher education learn it? Do we want them to remember, is, discusses domains of learning, explains recognize the importance of instructional understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create? how to write outcomes and objectives, design and have professional staff available These are all questions that relate to the discusses techniques for creating online course to serve in this role. Instructional designers cognitive domain of learning. Harrell briefly interaction and explores methods for assessing are not technologists. They are experts in the mentions the psychomotor domain of learning, online learning. I would recommend this book field of education and designing instruction which involves the physical act of doing for the new online educator, if it were not for for the online environment. They typically something as part of the learning process, one major problem: the lack of information have masters’ and/or doctoral degrees in and the affective domain, which focuses on about online accessibility. For example, in curriculum and instructional design. They can students’ attitudes, feelings, values and beliefs. help content experts design courses that have The affective domain can be challenging to effective learning outcomes and assessments assess, but is critical for designing effective that align with learning activities and overall instruction. Satisfaction, retention, engagement program and institutional goals. Harrell misses and motivation are tied to the affective domain this important resource for online educators. and all are critical for student success (Stenzel, She also leaves out another valuable resource 2006). Harrell does not spend enough time on we have here at SUNY Empire State College: this topic. instructional and educational technologists. Chapter 5 addresses outcomes and objectives. The role of these positions is to help educators Goals, outcomes and objectives are terms – whether they are teaching online, in hybrid often used interchangeably in literature on courses or in a traditional classroom – utilize designing instruction. Harrell uses the terms technology for teaching and learning. The “outcomes” and “objectives.” However, there ideal combination for creating learner-centered is no agreement in the field over what each courses in the online environment is to have term means. Depending on what you read, you an instructor, who has the subject matter

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will find varied definitions. Goals are broad “My learning outcome was x, y, z?” Would the be important for the retention and success statements at the college, program or course student use the language of learning objectives of adult students (Lehman & Conceicao, level that describe the ultimate purpose of the or learning outcomes? Which would more fully 2014). Having clear, aligned, student-centered instruction. Learning goals are not typically capture the student’s understanding of what he learning goals and outcomes are beneficial written to be measurable, but provide the or she achieved? This student-centered focus for students and for the instructional design framework for designing learning experiences. provides a direct connection to assessment. process. They also are important as responses However, institutional goals can be measurable. to external mandates and pressures that online The importance of all this is in making sure For example, the Empire State College (2010) higher education is required to address. that we define how we use the terms for Vision 2015 – Strategic Plan document lists ourselves and all of our stakeholders, with measurable goals for the college. References the students being the most important. As described by Harrell (2013), “Instructional Clarity, consistency and well-communicated Empire State College. (2010, May). Vision objectives should reflect specifically and goals and outcomes benefit everyone. As a 2015 – Strategic plan for 2010-2015. objectively what the learner should be able to curriculum and instructional designer, I see Retrieved from http://www.esc.edu/ do as a result of the instruction” (p. 58). Suskie the “what” more than the label as key to media/president/president-office/2010- (2009) explained further that “Objectives can ensuring that we are providing our students 15-Vision-5-24-10.pdf describe detailed aspects of goals” (p. 117). with the tools to be successful, in whatever Empire State College. (2012, March 1). Objectives are what we want our students way they define success. Broad statements Learning contract study and to be able to accomplish; they describe the are needed to provide a general map of what undergraduate students policy. instructional process and are therefore more the student can expect from us. Detailed Retrieved from http://www.esc.edu/ teacher-centered. measurable statements provide specific policies/?search=cid%3D35754 information that tells the student exactly what The difference between objectives and they can gain from a course and help map the Harrell, L. (2013). A learner centered approach outcomes is the frame of reference. Outcomes instructional methods and assessments. To to online education. Charlotte, NC: are what students actually accomplished. do this, a learner-centered approach to online Information Age Publishing. However, the term is often misunderstood: education – as the book is titled – should Sometimes it represents broad statements and Lehman, R. M., & Conceicao, S.C.O. (2014). always focus on what the student will achieve at other times it refers to measurable, detailed, Motivating and retaining online students: from the learning experience. specific statements. According to Harrell Research based strategies that work. San (2013), “Learning outcomes are broadly stated I return to our own learning contracts with Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. and focus on the program or course as a whole” goals and outcomes. Goals at Empire State Stenzel, E. J. (2006). A rubric for assessing (p. 58). In this case, she is describing what College are therefore broad statements, and in the affective domain for retention is often thought of as a goal. Suskie (2009) outcomes are specific measurable statements purposes. Assessment Update, 18(3), 9-11. used the term a little differently, but still in that describe for students what they will a broad sense: “Learning outcomes are the gain from any particular study. Outcomes Suskie, L. (2009). Assessing student learning: knowledge, skills, attitudes, and habits of mind are the direct result of the instruction. By A common sense guide (2nd ed.). San that students take with them from a learning using outcomes, we are demonstrating our Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. experience” (p. 117). Suskie uses “learning commitment to being student-centered. U.S. Department of Education, National outcomes” interchangeably with the term Outcomes are then translated into assessments; Center for Education Statistics. (2013). “learning goals.” However, outcomes should be that is, evidence of the learning and learning Digest of Education Statistics, 2012 (2014- measurable and specific. They are in essence activities can be created to meet those 015). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/ a learning objective that is student-centered. outcomes. Harrell fails to adequately address programs/digest/d12/ch_3.asp At Empire State College, we use the term the importance of alignment in instructional “outcomes” in our learning contracts. Learning design. In fact, throughout the book, there Wittmann-Price, R.A., & Fasolka, B.J. (2010, contracts include a “statement of learning is an absence of any instructional design July-August). Objectives and outcomes: goals and learning outcomes that specify the models being applied to design the instruction. The fundamental difference. Nursing knowledge, skills and/or competencies that Assessment is left for the end, when it should Education Perspectives, 31(4), 233-236. the student can expect to attain as a result be discussed much earlier. of engaging in the learning activities of the While Harrell covers some of the basics of contract” (Empire State College, 2012). This taking a learner-centered approach to online statement implies that at the course level, goals education, there are some major omissions are broad and outcomes are more specific. that do not align with today’s online education Indeed, outcomes are the result of learning landscape. Accessibility must be at the from the student perspective (Wittmann- forefront of online education, if we are truly Price & Fasolka, 2010). Imagine you are the learner-centered. Good instructional design student. Would you look back and say, “My and instructional technology are known to learning objective was x, y, z?” Or would you say,

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Sustaining Adult Learners Through Relationship

Amanda G. Sisselman, Metropolitan Center

A Review of: best provide what they need within the mentor- importance in sustaining adult learners, making Developing and Sustaining Adult Learners student relationship. I thus have chosen to review these essays good ones to place up front in Edited by Carrie J . Boden-McGill and the pieces in this book as a reflection and in this volume. As educators and academics, Kathleen P . King connection with my own work as a mentor and relationships and development of rapport are instructor, examining how the writings can apply often afterthoughts, with assignments and Introduction to that work and help make sense of it. course content at the forefront. The truth, though, as discussed by each of these authors, As a social worker, mentoring students has become Relationship: A Foundation to is that content is more likely to be absorbed partially second nature to me, in that, over the Sustaining Adult Learners in and applied by learners if they feel comfortable years, I have learned to use my interpersonal skills Different Contexts and safe in the learning environment. Learning to connect and develop a relationship with any takes place through relationship, and Scott “client.” Other aspects of our work, such as teaching he first three sections of the believes this happens in stages, first allowing the student and advising the student within the book examine best practices and the learner to develop individually, and then mentoring relationship, are not skills with which programming, as well as issues in sustaining the learner by supporting the work I have had as much practice. For this reason, I transformative learning. A salient theme T through the learning community. Risley and have started my own journey into the scholarship in all of these readings is the importance Petroff contend that without a trusting and of teaching and learning. As part of this journey, of relationship. My formal educational safe environment in which to raise issues I took on the project of reviewing the works in background and training is in social work, not and concerns, the student may not stretch to the edited volume, Developing and Sustaining education. As I began my career at Empire hear different perspectives or put as much Adult Learners (Boden-McGill & King, 2013). State College, I quickly came to realize that effort into the work. The relationship has the although scholarship in my own field would As I read and reviewed this book, which is based potential to deepen the learning. be important, becoming a scholar in matters on presentations at the 2012 conference on adult relating to adult education and learning would “Building Collaborative Partnerships Through learning in higher education sponsored annually be equally essential. Over the past three years, Personal Relationships” by Martinez Witte by the Adult Higher Education Alliance (AHEA, I’ve dabbled in reading seminal pieces, and and McCormack examines the importance The Alliance), and co-sponsored that year by the with colleagues started writing about my work of different types of partnerships, in this American Association of Adult and Continuing as an educator, recognizing that my work case, between educational institutions and Education (AAACE), I thought a lot about the is indeed in education, as much as it is in the surrounding community. This chapter, intersections between learning and relationship. social work. When I first took on this review numbered 15, is situated later in the book, but The topic threading together all of the essays was project, I selfishly thought that it would be I chose to review it here, rather than with the that sustainment – sustaining adult learners, a good opportunity for me to sink my teeth other chapters in that section, as it seemed which is of particular interest given my work into some new literature in adult education, most relevant to the importance of relationship. with students and my quest to understand how to improving my knowledge-base. I wondered I found this piece to be particularly relevant to what I might bring to the table, and whether my own work, as I partner with organizations I had enough experience in this area to do an in the community to assist with the evaluation effective review. Suddenly, I realized that what of their programs, as well as to supervise I was feeling and experiencing might, in fact, and provide field learning opportunities for be similar to what my students experience as students. It is a perfect example of another they return to the academic environment and way in which relationship is important to wonder what they can bring to the table. learning. The college-community partnership and personal relationships within these The first two pieces in the book – the first, organizations allow students to support written by Risley and Petroff, and the second, projects important to the organization, while written by Scott – examine best practices learning and receiving real life experience with adult students by looking at trust and and training. My own relationships with engagement, respectively. The development individuals in various organizations have of trust and the use of engagement skills provided valuable experiences for students with students seem of first and foremost

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and the organizations alike. The authors busy life and work schedule did not fit with generation of learners. Millennials are very discuss college collaborations with government most groups that I looked into. It was a tech-savvy, with high expectations of faculty organizations, policy research and analysis pleasure to read and interact with an author and administration. Their expectations and groups, as well as with those focused on who, like Pinder, was interested in examining high standards, in combination with the community development. As the authors issues related to sustaining adult learning responsibilities that most adult learners face argue, it is very important for faculty to engage outside of the traditional academic or higher outside the classroom, create an even greater in the community in these ways, leveraging education context. sense of urgency in some cases. Millennials relationships and resources for all involved. also are looking for community and ways to Findsen also discusses adult learning outside Their use of a fiction to begin the piece and connect with other students and faculty. Recent of the traditional academic environment show the ways that partnerships can form was practices at the Metropolitan Center, including in his piece titled, “Learning in Later Life: a bit abstract and difficult to follow in certain “welcome dinners” at the beginning of each Issues and Educational Responses.” This piece places; it might have been more useful to use term and invitations to create and join student addresses continuing education for a group of a real case example to illustrate the application clubs, are initiatives that may effectively engage nontraditional students often overlooked – of the concepts. these millennial learners. older adults – and although a bit dense “Tuesdays With Trisha,” by Pinder highlights in some parts, makes the case that elderly Green, Coke and Ballard make note of the importance of relationship using a case learners are often marginalized by society the importance of real-life examples and example of a student-tutor relationship in with fewer available options, particularly for application of material in engaging millennial a literacy-tutoring program, learning that elderly individuals in lower socioeconomic learners. Zarestky’s work, “Reflective Writing occurred outside of the traditional higher classes. Findsen grounds his perspective in in Unexpected Places,” also picks up on this education context. Because the author was Freire’s theory, which addresses oppression same perspective, making mention of the open to “Trisha” and learning about her as and power struggles. As a social worker, this use of reflective writing as a way to process an individual, not just in the context of the piece resonated, as I find my work as a faculty experiences and solve problems. It is important program, student and tutor were able to mentor at SUNY Empire State College for millennials and others seeking higher accomplish more. This required flexibility on particularly meaningful. I am not only an education to be able to master correct writing the part of the tutor/author. The author did academic and scholar, but also a mentor. I am skills, but this kind of work also should be a nice job of processing the difficulties and keenly aware that the college provides access made relevant to real world contexts. Reflective successes associated with this type of flexibility, to higher education for many individuals who writing is very common in human services providing examples of the issues encountered. might otherwise miss the opportunity, whether and social work education. Students are asked It might have been helpful, however, to have a it is due to socioeconomic circumstances, to reflect on experiences they have in the summary of recommendations and strategies family responsibilities or other life hardships. field or in an internship and to process these gleaned from the experience for others to use Providing access to education for elderly adults experiences while applying theory and skills- in their work. is particularly important, as Findsen mentions, based material. in the context of the current economy when Lane’s piece, “A Mutual Understanding: Music many adults are unable to retire at an early age, Faculty as Adult Learners: Learning and Adult Education,” resonated and must remain competitive in the workforce. Another Context with me as it reminded me of an experience The author also discusses a study that he I had as an adult learner. True, I played the The fourth section of the book focuses on conducted which found that while remaining viola as a younger student in high school and faculty as learners, examining professional relevant in the economy was a motivating in college, but did not play for about 10 years development in a number of different ways. force for seeking higher education later in life, when I decided to pick it up again. I sought Still, the importance of relationship and there were other older adults who were mainly out lessons and my instructor was younger connection among individuals is embedded interested in furthering their knowledgebase than I was, but definitely had more experience in these writings. McWhorter, Roberts for self-development purposes. in music and was a very experienced string and Mancuso discuss the use of online instrument player. As an experienced adult Elderly individuals are not the only new conferences for professional development. in so many other areas, I found it difficult to “nontraditional” group to expect in classrooms This is a cost-effective and timesaving way recognize my need for further development as of institutions serving adults. Green, Coke and for more professionals to be able to engage a musician with this younger instructor. Still, Ballard write about the so-called “millennial in development activities, as well as to build his ability to engage with me and develop generation” of students, younger than those collaborations and partnerships with those rapport made it possible for me to relax and we would expect in classrooms serving “adults” whom they may not have the opportunity to learn more easily, less self-consciously. or “nontraditional” students. Having had otherwise interact. Such online conferences recent experiences working with this group, as provide an opportunity for adults to stay Lane makes several additional good points, the demographics at the Staten Island Unit current in their field without the hassle including a discussion about access to musical shift, I found this chapter to be of particular of leaving their busy lives and jobs to life for adults with already full lives. I would interest. The authors review recent literature travel to meetings and other professional have loved to become part of a quartet or on this topic and highlight important factors development activities. The authors connect other group that regularly played, but my relevant to advising and engaging with this the use of online conferences to constructivist

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theory, demonstrating that adults can build comprised of diverse groups of learners evidenced-based decisions in programming their knowledge and “restructure their with different levels of interest and ability and curriculum development for adult learners. understanding through their experiences” via should be a central component of all faculty Both the chapters by Saal and Beckers, and the online conference (p. 275). Through social development programs. Johnson, Collins and Millburn, present case learning, the authors show that it is important studies of program assessment procedures and In their chapter, Peno and Silva Mangiante for learners to connect with one another, stress the importance of using the information conducted a study to look at issues involved in reflecting on each other’s perspectives, thereby obtained from the assessment to formulate learning to teach. This is not always a skill that building knowledge through these reflections next steps in programming and curriculum comes easily. The authors rightly discuss the and connections. design. Saal and Beckers did a comprehensive many factors involved in successful teaching, review of the many different types of Staying within the theme of relationship including the ability to be flexible to changing assessment, then described the types of and collaboration, Lockhart writes about the contexts and student populations. The authors assessment that they used throughout different importance of collaboration and partnership in did a case study focusing on retired teachers phases of the adult literacy program evaluation. faculty development programs. I thought this in order to learn more about their career They took many things into consideration piece was an excellent addition to this edited trajectories and how they learned to teach as they decided how to proceed with the volume, as it is easy to lose sight of our own over time and in different circumstances. evaluation, including their student population. need to continue learning and developing as They found that trust in their skills and The section at the end of their piece on the faculty, when our primary function is to see judgments from administrators and colleagues challenges of using assessment was particularly to it that our students are learning effectively. was a factor in supporting positive growth, good, as it urges readers to carefully consider The truth, is, however, that our students will while climates that were more isolating with finding the right individuals to carry out the not learn as much from us as faculty if we do a lack of professional development assessment procedures and suggests different not remain current in our fields. Institutions opportunities stymied abilities to grow. campus departments, including psychology of higher education, according to the author, Working in collegial and collaborative departments and disabilities offices that might must include the input of administration in environments that fostered trust was a very have expertise in assessment. addition to that of faculty when developing important factor. To corroborate Leslie programs for faculty development. Working and Fishback’s conclusions, Peno and Silva Johnson, Collins and Millburn discuss their in partnership with one another and finding process in great detail, providing examples collaborations is an important piece in of changes that were made as a result of developing skills and building knowledge as the evaluation/assessment process. This is a faculty. We do not work within a vacuum, We do not work within a great reminder of one of the main reasons and mustn’t operate as if we do. As faculty, we assessment is so important – decision-making. must be open to working with and learning vacuum, and mustn’t operate Finally, Bryant and Nanton focus on the from each other, whether in relationship to our as if we do. As faculty, we larger field of pharmacy professionals, rather pedagogical theories or our teaching methods. than on a specific program, but still make In our scholarship, too, we must develop our must be open to working recommendations for the field based on their own areas of expertise, while recognizing the with and learning from each needs assessment. Their hope is that programs value of multiple minds at work. other, whether in relationship and larger institutional bodies will make Leslie and Fishback continue the discussion decisions for future educational practices about faculty development, acknowledging the to our pedagogical theories or and curricula based on evidenced-based issue of self-efficacy in their piece, “Faculty our teaching methods. needs assessment. Self-Efficacy Beliefs.” Their central focus is on whether or not faculty find themselves Discussion and Conclusion to be effective in the implementation of I am grateful for the opportunity to review interactive teaching strategies. The authors Mangiante found that self-efficacy was an Developing and Sustaining Adult Learners. look at literature demonstrating that interactive important factor for individual teachers, as they The review provided me with an opportunity teaching methods are most effective for adult sought strength to navigate various challenges to reflect not only upon my practices as an learners, noting the importance of developing throughout their careers. This contributed to academic and a teacher in the context of critical thinking skills. They remind us that their ability to seek support and effectively higher education, but also as an adult learner self-efficacy and one’s belief in one’s own manage difficult environments. in academia. I often find myself separating capabilities impact all areas of performance these two roles as academic educator of adults and motivation in life, including teaching Effective Program Assessment and as adult learner. However, after reviewing and pedagogy. Perhaps, in keeping the these pieces and doing quite a bit of reflection, Lockhart piece in mind here, it is essential to The fifth and final section of the book focuses I am hesitant to view these roles as separate consider this as a topic for faculty professional on the assessment of various adult learning from one another. In order to be an effective development. Assisting faculty in finding programs. This section, although last in the educator, I must stay active in learning how the confidence to manage classrooms book, is important, as it speaks to making

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to refresh my skills in teaching, as well as in be important and instrumental to being an Reference engagement with students and fellow faculty effective academic, I think development Boden-McGill, C. J., & King, K. P. (Eds.). around current issues in academia and working of teaching strategies and professional (2013). Developing and sustaining adult with diverse student populations. development practices in the areas of teaching learners (A volume in Adult education and mentoring can often get lost. So, I urge As a faculty member at Empire State College, special topics: Theory, research and practice all of us, as academics and teachers, to I value the emphasis placed on continued in lifelong learning). Charlotte, NC: remember our own roles as adult learners as development around teaching practices for Information Age Publishing. we continue to educate and exist in a changing faculty, rather than only development in academic environment. our own disciplines. While I find both to

“To more freely and fully participate in discourse, participants must have the following: • More accurate and complete information • Freedom from coercion and distorting self-deception • Openness to alternative points of view: empathy and concern about how others think and feel • The ability to weigh evidence and assess arguments objectively • Greater awareness of the context of ideas and, more critically, reflectiveness of assumptions, including their own • An equal opportunity to participate in the various roles of discourse • Willingness to seek understanding and agreement and to accept a resulting best judgment as a test of validity until new perspectives, evidence, or arguments are encountered and validated through discourse as yielding a better judgment.”

– Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) In Jack Mezirow and Associates, Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000, pp. 13-14

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Remembering Lorraine Peeler

Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College

Lorraine Peeler was a graduate of SUNY Beverly Smirni, mentor emerita, Empire State College (1988), the Niagara Metropolitan Center Frontier Center’s assistant dean for assessment Although I have many fond memories of and, since 1998, a mentor in Community and many breakfasts and lunches at All College Human Services. A colleague of great passion Conferences with Lorraine throughout the and commitment, Lorraine gave so much to her years, my most vivid memory goes back to students and, as a pastor and community activist, the fall of 1991. As the coordinator of the to those in the Buffalo region. It was only fitting college’s first ever cultural diversity conference that she received the Altes Prize for Exemplary for students, faculty and professional staff Community Serve from the college. Lorraine’s life held in Albany, New York, I invited Lorraine of work, both in and outside of the college, touched to moderate a panel exploring cultural, racial, many, who miss her presence and her loyalty. ethnic and other barriers that students face in earning a degree at Empire State College. Tom Rocco, former dean, Lorraine’s panel was scheduled for Saturday, Niagara Frontier Center late morning before lunch. As 12:30 passed, earching for an assistant dean for the door to Lorraine’s workshop was still assessment at SUNY Empire State closed. Mindful that the hotel staff was College is usually no easy matter. waiting to serve lunch, I opened the door and LorraineS Peeler made it a rather easy choice announced to the group that lunch was being Lorraine Peeler when I was dean at the Niagara Frontier served. Lorraine was surrounded by students Center and Anne Bertholf was associate from almost every center at the college Students benefitted from the rich mix of dean. We knew we needed someone who wanting to discuss the issues that had emerged diverse elements that was Lorraine. I had the not only had the academic credentials and from the workshop. Lorraine and the students pleasure of teaming with her to offer a study experience for the job, but who had an intuitive continued their conversation over lunch. This group designed to support critical thinking understanding of the demands put on adult memory reflected Lorraine Peeler as a warm, and writing skills. She was encouraging and learners, real sensitivity to the changes they loving, giving and sharing member of this supportive with our students; direct and were about to experience and a very positive college community. I shall miss her spirit explicit in her critical review. Our group outlook on life – a can-do person who was still and light. meetings were lively, thoughtful and funny. realistic about the difficulties and obstacles in She was generous with her time and energy, the way, especially of our new students. The Anne R . Bertholf, former associate dean enjoying deep rapport and friendship with assistant dean also needs to have a mentor’s and dean, Niagara Frontier Center those study group students, and with most of perspective and must be able to work with Statuesque and dignified, confident in both the students lucky enough to work with her. faculty members from every area of study. speech and bearing, Lorraine Peeler created a And she has to be an efficient administrator. Colleagues knew her as a woman of energy, vivid first impression. I am sure that some of Lorraine was all of that and more. She brought perseverance and commitment to the goals her students, probably some of her colleagues a new spirit to the center, a passionate devotion of the college, and there were many other as well, initially viewed her as a formidable to student-centered higher education, and constituencies benefiting from Lorraine’s presence. While that early impression was she helped greatly to fulfill one of our major boundless energy, as well. She was deeply entirely accurate – she was a formidable recruitment efforts: She was firmly centered devoted to her family and to her religious and presence – she could also present a much in the community of Buffalo and was a model secular communities, cherishing memories different persona. Colleagues and students learner for many of our students. of a home, a church and a neighborhood came to understand that she possessed a that nurtured her as she grew up. “Dr. Lo” Lorraine Peeler was a very good colleague and terrific sense of humor and an ability to shift loved Buffalo, though hers was often “tough a very nice person, whom I appreciated as a gears quickly to soften her posture as a serious love”! She cherished memories of tight-knit professional and admired as a person. orator, instantly able to become a mischievous neighborhoods and nurturing schools and merrymaker or to revert to authoritative mode envisioned contemporary versions of that as the situation required. model for all of Greater Buffalo. With her

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customary clarity and confidence, she spoke what Lorraine was. She spoke frankly about shared. As we adjusted to her absence from out when she thought such goals were being everything, had her eyes wide open and our lives at NFC, the task of sorting Lorraine’s thwarted, and she cheered when she saw that called everything by their real names. papers and other teaching materials became progress was being made. I never understood if this was an aspect my job. of her personality or part of her calling Since moving away from Buffalo seven Lorraine may hold the record for the longest or work as a pastor. years ago, I’ve had only two brief visits with list of learning contracts in the NFC library, Lorraine. Once, events related to her church Lorraine was highly respected among including numerous studies in psychology, and her family brought her to Austin, Texas, colleagues inside and outside Empire State counseling, human services, multiculturalism, where I now live, and she joined us for Sunday College. We typically go in a circle at our diversity and pastoral counseling. What I could dinner. As always, we shared lots and lots of center meetings at the Niagara Frontier Center, not have appreciated fully about Lorraine as a opinions, we laughed a lot and we spent a debating the same issues over and over; but mentor until I began to sort her materials was long time at the dinner table. Two years ago, every time Lorraine spoke, she always would the attention she gave to preparing all those I saw her when I was in Buffalo. By then have the last word. At our Community and studies. Learning contracts give an overview I knew of her illness, but when we met for Human Services area of study meetings, we of what a mentor has in store for students. lunch, she looked well and seemed strong and would always consult with each other, but if But, in Lorraine’s office, I found files and files confident of recovery. The recent news that her Lorraine Peeler wasn’t at the meeting and of handouts of material she developed for her health was again failing startled me, and I was before any decision was made, you would students, conveyed in her words and sharing completely unprepared to learn of her death. often hear members asking: “Have you talked sometimes the words and ideas of those who It is difficult to comprehend that her rich and to Lorraine?” inspired her. Lorraine’s study materials reveal a generous life has ended. deep understanding of what students need to Lorraine Peeler was a very reliable colleague do be successful, not only for her studies, but There are many personal memories that who, whenever needed, stepped in to cover for learning and for living. provide comfort. Two are especially important colleagues in their absence at program for me. Deeply admired by my children, assessment committee meetings or at other Lorraine often required students to keep a she graciously consented to officiate at our academic-related activities. She was always journal for her studies, and she gave them daughter’s wedding. She infused that event above workload target, but whenever asked handouts about journal writing. Her learning with her ever-present sense of community and to teach a new study, she stepped in without journal handout instructed students to family, for which our gathering of close friends questions. Even throughout her sickness in reflect on what they were learning – to share and family was grateful. Prior to that day, I had a hospital bed, she held onto her students. If their thoughts about new and sometimes heard her preach just once before, when she that’s not being brave, I don’t know what is. challenging ideas. That Lorraine’s students invited me to attend the church where she was would be expected to reflect on their learning She was a trustworthy colleague and a team pastor. I slipped in quietly just as the service is consistent with her work as a teacher and player with whom I collaborated on a number was beginning, and immediately became the scholar. In the many conversations I had of grant writing proposals focusing on issues object of scrutiny – a stranger and the only with Lorraine, we covered wide-ranging relevant to the minority communities around white person in that tight-knit congregation. topics, and it was always clear that she was a Buffalo, including youth violence, community Aware of the curiosity of her audience, reflective practitioner in teaching, scholarship reintegration, women’s health issues, HIV Lorraine announced simply at the end of and in how she led her life. For her students, screening, homeless veterans and refugee the service: “Our guest today is my friend, most especially, studying with Lorraine was families. Lorraine was always on the move – Anne Bertholf.” an opportunity to experience her reflective compassionate about her work, and always on approach to living a life. I am privileged to have known Lorraine. She the forefront of creating new ideas. was a woman of many talents, a wonderful Lorraine easily moved from family, to Words will never adequately express the loss of friend and a unique personality who embraced community, to students, colleagues and Dr. Peeler. The love for her job, students and her strength and her power whole-heartedly. church in what appeared to me as a seamless, colleagues will always be remembered. Her integrated whole. In her work with students sense of humor and her laughter will always be Dan Nyaronga, mentor, – all the learning contracts and supporting cherished and will stay in our memories. Niagara Frontier Center course materials and handouts – Lorraine brought together her commitments and Lorraine Peeler was a kind, generous, Nan M . DiBello, dean, ideas about community, social justice and respected, reliable, trustworthy and brave Niagara Frontier Center her spiritual life. As I think about Lorraine mentor. She also was a wonderful colleague Receiving the sad news of Lorraine’s untimely –teacher/scholar/activist/spiritual leader – it and a great friend. She was kind and generous death was a deep blow to me and all of her is her reflective approach that comes most to to the core. She shared freely her knowledge, colleagues at the Niagara Frontier Center. I mind, and students were fortunate to have such experiences and all her teaching materials and knew that she was not doing very well, but I a model. I feel equally fortunate to have known research relating to Human Development, continued to share the hope for recovery that her as a colleague and a friend. and Community and Human Services. Being her family always expressed in the updates they brave, honest and authentic is underestimating

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Sandra Johnson, mentor/coordinator, In re-reading Lorraine’s words shortly after Niagara Frontier Center she passed, I, in turn, began to think very deeply about Lorraine, and it seemed clear Lorraine was a shining star of peace, love, to me why she was asked by these people to comfort and caring. She built a human service speak about empowerment. Lorraine was, is, a agency called Bright Options in which she personification of empowerment: for nothing took care of children and desperate families. stood in her way. Her size wasn’t in her way. She was a pastor who nurtured the souls of Her color wasn’t in her way. Her gender wasn’t her flock. She came to me during a valley in her way. Cancer wasn’t in her way. Death in my life and lifted me up to a mountain wasn’t in her way. top where I could prosper. We had endless conversations about spirituality and service to Let me clarify the last two items. Cancer our communities. We talked about engaging wasn’t in her way: I remember sitting in her learners and about writing community and office at the college chatting just after one of human service grants. Just being around her her extended treatments. She looked good, and made you feel more confident, fearless and I told her so. “You look absolutely fantastic,” inspired to care for others. In other words, she I told her. Her eyes became open wide and did not just talk about ideals, she lived them. round as could be. “I feel absolutely fantastic,” she declared, “and, she emphatically added, Catherine Collins, mentor, “I’m tired of the doctors at the hospital tellin’ Niagara Frontier Center me I’m supposed to be home in bed actin’ like I’m sick!!!” Her eyes stayed wide and round and My friend, my colleague, my confidant and fixed on mine for seconds, which really seemed my spiritual conversationalist: I miss you. I like a minute, after she spoke. Cancer was not can still remember our last meeting and you in her way. walking down the college’s hallway struggling with a bag of books you were taking home – And neither was death. Not long before to, yes, work on a student’s assignment. This her passing she said to me in a telephone was Lorraine, who even while ill, had wanted conversation, “I’m so excited to find out what to contribute a chapter on adolescent girls and God has planned for me. But for now,” she spirituality to my latest edited book. She was added, “some good food would be good.” one of our communities’ spiritual leaders and Death was not in her way. She would enjoy loved the Lord with whom she resides. herself now and she would enjoy herself later. After revisiting Lorraine’s written work and Carole Southwood, mentor, reflecting an all she said and did, I had a better Niagara Frontier Center understanding of her love, as a student and as In 1998, Lorraine Peeler published her book, a mentor, for our college. At our ESC core, Your Empowerment Zones, in which, in the we pride ourselves on our ability to enable Preface, she spoke of her work in the Republic students to be empowered as individuals, no of South Africa. She said that the Black South matter how many obstacles they may face. And African Christians kept asking her to talk we can be doubly proud that Lorraine Peeler about “empowerment.” She said that when she was, and remains in every way, our own. went to the Sebokeng College of Education to address future teachers, they asked her to talk about “empowerment.” Lorraine said she began to think very deeply about these people, wondering why this request was being made by “a group of people who were four years out of the terribly oppressive systems of apartheid, a people who knew firsthand what it meant to be disenfranchised, discriminated against and made to feel insignificant and unimportant.” She asked herself, “Why did they want me or even think that I could speak to them about empowerment?”

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Remembering Nancy Bunch

Colleagues from SUNY Empire State College

Nancy Bunch came to SUNY Empire State College Most people in Nancy’s position would have, in 1974 as a mentor in Community and Human in myriad ways, drawn attention to themselves. Services at what was then the Lower Hudson Most would have wanted us to recognize Unit (now the Hudson Valley Center). Arriving their hours (oh my god did she put in the at the Metropolitan Center in 1977, Nancy hours), their years, their accomplishments. served as associate dean and then as dean until her Nancy never drew attention to herself. In her retirement in 2002. In whatever she did (and the incredibly smart, quiet, doggedly persistent breadth of her accomplishments at this college was way, with just the right touch of humor, Nancy immense), Nancy was a passionate and devoted has just done her thing in her own way steeped teacher to all. Many will remember her inimitable in the humane values that she just takes for style, intelligence and spirit. granted. No big fanfare. Nothing flashy. I don’t think she cares much about what people Alan Mandell, college professor of say; she’s not one to shift her ideas because Nancy Bunch adult learning and mentoring, that would be the practical thing to do in the Metropolitan Center moment. She has done what she thinks is ethical, what is right. And so many of us This is a very hard time in our country; (A version of these words was presented by Alan have benefitted. too many people are hurting badly and the Mandell on the occasion of Nancy Bunch receiving inequalities are stunning. And this is a complex the 2012 Heritage Award of SUNY Empire State It would be impossible to offer this little time in our college with changes at every turn College on 03 February 2012.) glimpse of what Nancy Bunch has given and people trying so hard to just make it work to all of us without mentioning another of t is rather stunning to me that it has in the best way we can. We miss Nancy Bunch her splendid qualities. I believe that Nancy been about a decade since Nancy Bunch right now. She has always been a really smart Bunch is just about the fairest human being retired. It is a surprise because in my head person-centered critical educator/mentor, a I have ever met in my life. As the dean of and in my heart, Nancy Bunch is always the quietly adept community builder, a caring I a crazy bunch of faculty and staff – urban dean, always a presence, always an inspiration – healer, a dear and trusted colleague – a great hotshots, heavy duty kvetches, who thought always a woman who for so many of us reflects friend, mom and grandma. It is terrific that that those ESC upstate people had no clue the core values, the ideals, the deepest spirit on this occasion we can do our little bit to about much of anything, and they, only they, of this institution. How incredibly lucky all of show her how much we care for and love her. knew what was right and what was best for us have been to have worked with her. How Tonight, we offer Nancy Bunch great thanks the center and for the college – even in the lucky all of us – friends, fellow workers, family for everything that she has done and, I am most difficult of situations, Nancy always members – have been to know Nancy for all of sure, will continue to do. stayed cool: no underhanded administrative these years. slick tricks; no hurtful side comments; no Meg Benke, mentor, In all of her work, in every job she had, was efforts to play favorites. That has never been School for Graduate Studies Nancy’s commitment, her devotion to people, Nancy’s way. Wild thoughts could have been especially to those who had been denied a ripping through her head (perhaps the desire I had the pleasure to serve as a colleague fair shot, who needed support, who looked to to strangle one of us or to run shrieking from dean with Nancy Bunch. She was a respected, institutions to do what public institutions were the room). What exactly was she thinking? long-term dean when I was a new dean. I created to do. She offered everything she had No one ever, really, truly knew. Nancy listened appreciated her quiet leadership and guidance, to these institutions and especially to those and listened and nodded and listened again, and particularly her capability to represent – who worked in them and those who depended and perhaps said “absolutely,” and then always – the student-centered perspective. She on whatever services they could provide. And continued to nod and listen. And, in this rather also led the deans and the college in many she always knew it was not enough. inscrutable mode (perhaps this was its special initiatives, but most notably the development magic), she always found a way, her inimitable of the first clear perspectives on affirmative But it is not only Nancy Bunch’s work and way, to hold it and, amazingly, to hold us action and promoting cultural diversity. With her crafting of an amazing professional life all together. the deans, we also appreciated the class and of commitment to those she could help that demeanor she brought to our meetings; she stands out. It is the way she worked, the led by example with a professional and always person that she is.

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courteous style. But, I must say, I was most Regardless of our solidarity and commitment State College. One of Nancy’s ongoing touched when attending her memorial to to Nancy, we were assigned another person as contributions to the college was establishing a learn more about Nancy as a person from the our dean, and for many reasons, that situation student scholarship and long-term support of perspectives of her family, many friends and did not work out so well; that dean and the the ESC Foundation. In this way and others, many close colleagues from the Metropolitan faculty never really bonded. So when his Dean Nancy Bunch remains a meaningful Center. Words cannot describe the impact term was up, the faculty once again pressed presence at our college. Nancy had on so many communities while so the administration to make Nancy the dean, capably leading such a large center and, at the and this time, they did. The difference in the Shirley Ariker, mentor emerita, same time, contributing collegewide. atmosphere at the center was palpable and Metropolitan Center working at the Metropolitan Center once Nancy was a most benevolent and accepting Tom Grunfeld, mentor, again became a pleasant experience. dean. She saw what was best in our teaching Metropolitan Center There were as many other instances of faculty and in us and focused on those qualities. Nancy had arrived at the Metropolitan Center support for her as there were instances of Inevitably, things were not always simple nor in October 1977, weeks before my own arrival her support for the faculty. We lamented her did all of us always agree, but the Metropolitan in January 1978. She was then an associate retirement and those of us who worked with Center was a more humane and happier place dean, having served since June 1974 as a her think back fondly of those years together. for having Nancy as our associate dean and faculty member in the Hudson Valley Center. then dean for so many years. She negotiated Nancy would be my “boss,” both associate dean Evelyn Wells, European regional all the ups and downs with grace and her and dean, for the next 24 years. coordinator and academic program unfailing kindness. We were colleagues for director, academic coordinator, many years, and we were sometimes dinner To the faculty, Nancy was enormously Center for International Programs; companions, but my most cherished memories supportive, always available and always mentor emerita, Long Island Center of Nancy are of the last years I knew her. trying to find a way to accommodate faculty needs. I don’t recall anyone expressing any Nancy was instrumental in helping to open For the past six years after we had both retired, serious negative sentiments (as opposed to up dialogue on affirmative action and cultural Nancy and I met regularly for lunch. We disagreements) about her in all those years. diversity at Empire State College. She came took turns eating in her neighborhood on the Nor do I recall any occasions when the faculty to the college in the early 1970s when we had “lower” Upper West Side, and mine on the felt they had to hide something from her. We no policies or procedures for considering the “upper” Upper West Side. Part of the fun was trusted her and she trusted us. inclusiveness of staff and faculty from all walks the food and neighborhood adventure, but of life. Working with her and a few other what was best was having a real friendship In fact, there were times when the faculty dedicated faculty, the college’s first Affirmative with no work expectations: no undercurrent could demonstrate their unwavering support Action Committee was formed. of work tensions, merit increases or anything for her. else other than the pleasure of seeing each Collaborating with her during those early days In about 1979, the dean of the Metropolitan other. We talked about family, politics, current was a joy, as she could see the promise the Center was asked to leave and the Metro events, past and present experiences, joys and college held and helped us to move toward faculty demanded a say in who would be his frustrations. Our visits had the special quality the reality we see today: a college reflective of replacement. Well, the senior faculty did; the of two aging people looking back at our a strong representation of women, people of junior faculty kept their heads down. After personal and work lives, contemplating the color, sexual orientations, physical disabilities, much deliberation, we voted unanimously for changes age has wrought, and considering the religious preferences and other differences; a Nancy’s promotion. pleasures and pains of the present and future. college that mirrors its student body and is The administration in Saratoga Springs, seen as a supportive, engaging place for all, I knew she was ailing. She called to invite however, had other ideas, and for some reason encouraging inclusiveness and openness. me to what would be her last birthday party, had come to believe that a handful of senior primarily a family event, which took place Nancy’s contribution can be seen at so many faculty had coerced the junior faculty into shortly before she died. That was the last time levels: her work with the many committees on voting for Nancy at a center meeting. So a I saw Nancy. which she served, her excellence in teaching, vice president was dispatched to Manhattan her administrative and other leadership roles Nancy was a self-contained person. At the end to meet with each faculty member in private and her overall commitment to scholarship. of the party, when I said goodbye, I told her I to discern our “real” feelings about Nancy We all know her as a woman of strength loved her. “And I love you,” she replied. Those hoping, unbeknownst to us at the time, for and dedication, a scholar and compassionate were our last words to each other. She was very some negative votes, as the administration mentor who cared about her students. I will dear to me, and I so miss her. had no intention of appointing Nancy as always remember my trips to the Metropolitan dean. Much to his surprise, and perhaps Center and her office where papers and consternation, all of the faculty members books overflowed her desk and the shelves expressed the same feelings toward her in surrounding her. She kept us focused on the private as they had publicly. richness of teaching and learning at Empire

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Tom Rocco, former dean, Lear Matthews, mentor, had many close friends, both women and men, Niagara Frontier Center Metropolitan Center but that was Nancy: she made you feel that you were special. Nancy Bunch was one of the first people I Nancy Bunch: dean, humanitarian, a model of met when I came to Empire State College excellence and consummate mentor. She was I will now touch on three brief stories to and she was my colleague as dean throughout in charge of the Metropolitan Center when I show you several sides of Nancy that I came my 15-year tenure. I admired Nancy for her began my mentoring journey at Empire State to know: steady guidance of what was often thought to College in 1998. The thing I remember most Nancy shared many stories with me and her be a very difficult center to manage, for her vividly during my initial interview was her other friends about growing up in Montrose, determination to keep the college’s focus on its calm yet imposing demeanor emanating from a and one sticks out for what it says about mission to provide a real alternative in higher less than imposing stature. her. When she was 5 years old and ready education, for her passion for mentoring Not only was she committed to facilitating for kindergarten, her mother put her on the and her fondness for her mentors, for her the formal education to students of diverse school bus that was supposed to take her to equanimity in the face of challenges, for her backgrounds, but she had a strong sense of the kindergarten entrance of the school. On complete lack of pretension and her open civic responsibility. Her contributions and the bus, Nancy tried to tell the school bus and friendly demeanor, for being such a good achievements were impactful in many ways, driver where she needed to be let off. She was person. She was an excellent dean. particularly as a result of her humanistic style ignored and was dropped off at the entrance to There were times when we had to work even of management. the first grade class. For whatever reason, the more closely than usual: for a while, when teacher welcomed her into the class and Nancy I owe my career at Empire State College the president was on another assignment for began first grade instead of kindergarten. As to Nancy. SUNY, the college was effectively managed the only African-American child in that first by “the executive council,” and we deans grade class or any class for that matter, she Beverly Smirni, mentor emerita, spent more than a little time together in was subjected to racial taunts and threats of Metropolitan Center Saratoga Springs with the vice presidents. It harm. So the teacher advised her to stay in the was an interesting time and we got to know (A version of these words was presented by Beverly classroom and have her lunch there instead each other a bit better. Nancy proved to Smirni at the memorial for Nancy Bunch on 26 of eating lunch and then going outside to be a spokesperson for calm passions in the April 2014.) play until the afternoon bell rang. I would center of “forthright” discussion, deliberation have cringed and maybe even confronted the I first met Nancy Bunch 37 years ago. She was and decision-making. No one doubted her children. Nancy decided that she was going already an associate dean at the Metropolitan objectivity and fairness, great virtues in the to get through first grade – this was the Center and I had just been hired as a mentor course of negotiation and rule making. Later, important goal – and, at the same time, avoid at another center of the college. We found during a period of “re-engineering,” some of us harm, which she did. When I later thought that we shared a common background: We were dubbed “senior deans” and I spent more about this story, it gave me an inkling that were passionate about civil rights, righting time in New York City than I had before, Nancy, even at the tender age of 5, was quietly the wrongs of social inequality, and we both overseeing a couple of programs and projects. resolute about reaching her destination. She had been involved in directing anti-poverty I would, of course, see Nancy while I was was determined. She knew exactly what she programs, she in Albany and I in Manhattan. there, and I always appreciated her thoughtful wanted and figured out ways of getting there; We bonded over our membership on the input into my considerations of being a “dean she transcended and worked around barriers. I college’s Affirmative Action Committee and at a distance.” believe that this determination stayed with her we were part of the area of study group in throughout her life. I did not know much about Nancy’s private Community and Human Services. life until I attended the memorial service for The second story about Nancy that I found Later, when Nancy was dean of the her in Manhattan earlier this year. While exceedingly difficult to capture was her Metropolitan Center, and I was a mentor there, I felt keenly the sadness of her family analytical and organic grasp of social situations. there, we shared many an after work drink of and friends for their loss but also their pride In our many dinners and talks, we would wine and dinner and a hasty cab ride to Grand in her accomplishments and even more their become engrossed in dissecting race and Central so that she could catch her train to her deep affection for their mother, grandmother, gender issues that emerged from televised home in Montrose. However, I really feel that their friend. Nancy Bunch was a delightful, trials. In discussing the Trayvon Martin trial it was only when Nancy retired that I got to memorable woman, who also was an effective, last year, I remember us discussing for hours know her. successful academic dean. I remember her well Martin’s friend (the young woman who was and fondly. Nancy did not delight in bringing others the last person to speak with him on the phone down; rather, she lifted you up by really before he was killed). During the trial, both the listening to you – not by half-listening, but prosecuting and the defense attorneys treated by really listening. She made you feel that her attempts to answer their questions with she understood you and had faith in you. contempt. I found myself sputtering with anger When I call her my friend, I know that she about the demeaning way in which she was

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treated and the lack of support she received. and action. More comfortable with the that issue, but that was not Nancy’s style. Nancy was as equally outraged. However, her immediate “let’s fix this” attitude of the Of course, I said “yes,” and I enjoyed and assessment of the young woman’s behavior and center, I stumbled a bit as I tried to find my benefitted immensely from that experience. testimony showed me that she had assembled voice within the council. Early on, I viewed No doubt Nancy’s center colleagues have a much more multilayered view of this person Nancy Bunch as a role model. Nancy was hundreds of stories that demonstrate her and of the case. Just listening to Nancy present comfortable being silent if she had nothing devotion to the college and its students, and her analysis of two separate worlds that the significant to contribute, and she was a her ability to cut through reams of rhetoric attorneys and the young woman inhabited confident voice when she spoke, providing to get to the relevant kernels. Like many who opened up so many windows of understanding a “real center, real student” framework. As a worked with her, I admired her deeply and for me. Nancy sized up the courtroom beginner, I found her comments helpful and considered myself lucky to have known her. situation, delved deeply into the whys and admired her immediately. wherefores of the situation, and made a Somewhere in the middle ‘80s, the college Judy Gerardi, mentor emerita, reasoned yet passionate presentation of the began sponsoring women’s studies residencies, Metropolitan Center; case. Listening to her speak enlarged my views and the Metropolitan Center hosted one of mentor, Center for International Programs of the case. Her calm manner in discussing this the earliest of those events. Buffalo faculty important case gave me some breathing space Dean Nancy Bunch perfected a leadership style members were interested in a Western New for my anger. that valued the strengths of each individual. York residency, so I went to the weekend in In practice, her faculty mentors were free to The third story goes back to Nancy as a child New York City to learn from observation. The develop a range of interests and to determine traveling to South Carolina every summer with residency was a huge success: Women from the best way to work with each student. her parents to visit her grandfather and her all locations of the college engaged in intense She embodied Carl Rogers’ “unconditional other relatives. In relating to me her memories conversations and exciting presentations on a positive regard” in her attitude toward faculty, of walks that she took with her grandfather, wide range of topics, learning from each other students, family and friends. Consistently I could tell that it was important to her that and from knowledgeable faculty. When the warm and sensitive, she also was a problem- they were walking on his acres of land. I got final session was over, we walked the students solver, working with faculty, staff or students a strong sense of Nancy’s connection to and to the street where there were busses to take in committees or as individuals, depending pride in her ancestors and to the land that they them to the airport, waved them goodbye, then upon whatever the situation warranted. owned. Her stories about her family’s history, hurried back into the center to begin tidying Nancy was both in charge and egalitarian her great-aunts and especially her beloved up. I had some time before my flight back to in all that she did. grandfather, showed me that Nancy had an Buffalo, so I joined the clean-up efforts, tossing enduring pride about her parents’ struggles, dirty coffee cups, tidying the meeting rooms We all benefitted from Nancy’s good spirit, her grandparents’ struggles and the struggles of and disposing of trash. When it was time focus and flexibility. She generated trust, and their parents. to leave, I sought Nancy to say goodbye and it was a pleasure to work with and for her at to thank her for Metro’s hospitality. I finally the Metropolitan Center. Among Nancy’s So I close with the image of Nancy holding found her in the janitor’s closet, dumping a loveliest personal characteristics were grace onto her grandfather’s hand walking the land bucket of dirty mop water and refilling it to and approachability. Her physical presence and together and of her legacy to all of us – her continue her cleaning chores! I said, “Oh, you smile set a welcoming tone to all interactions. countless gifts of kindness and understanding, must be the dean.” Her response – immediate her quiet and fierce pride in her family and Dealing with a virulent illness, Nancy and with robust laughter – was wonderful. her ancestral history, and her wicked sense continued to show grace and seemed to ignore “You must be the dean” became a stock “hello” of humor. the seriousness or discomforts associated with for Nancy and me. her condition. I marveled at this. We can be Anne R . Bertholf, former associate dean Another vivid memory returns frequently. As thankful for having known her and been cared and dean, Niagara Frontier Center chair of the Affirmative Action Committee, for by her. Nancy asked me if I would join the committee In the early days of my tenure as associate in the upcoming academic year. Committee Silvia Chelala, mentor, dean of the Niagara Frontier Center, I found members, she said, had requested that she Center for International Programs the President’s Council an intimidating forum. recruit me. Flattered and surprised, I was Having begun my relationship with the college My first memory of Nancy Bunch is her nonetheless hesitant: a Louisiana native, I was as a part-time mentor, I understood center talking to me during my first trip to Saratoga. keenly aware that my southern accent was still operations and felt comfortable with my In her kind and warm voice, she told me that with me, that my “twang” remained a clear responsibilities there, but President’s Council she had heard I was doing very well in my indicator of my roots. I told her that I feared was a different matter. new job as associate dean at the Long Island my “southern-ness” would be off-putting, and Center. I was pleased and grateful. Later, when At President’s Council meetings, we engaged she replied immediately: “The committee we shared rooms at various college gatherings, in lengthy discussion of each item of business, wants you because you’re a Southerner!” We we were always together, as we were smokers. and it was not unusual for us to discuss matters might have spent lots of time dancing around She was always positive and helped me learn and then table them for future conversation

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about the college. When I was asked to chair a group devising the first official statement on cultural diversity for ESC, Nancy was there to guide me, and others, on the scope of that first attempt. We had a long road ahead of us. Thanks to her and other members of the committee, we were able to craft a statement that voiced our best thinking about race and ethnicity at the time. Nancy was a kind and helpful colleague. She will always be a role model of a committed educator – articulate and kind.

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Core Values of Empire State College (2005)

he core values of SUNY Empire State We value learning-mentoring processes that: • recognizes that learning occurs in College reflect the commitments multiple communities, environments • emphasize dialogue and collaborative of a dynamic, participatory and and relationships as well as in formal approaches to study; experimenting institution accessible and academic settings; T • support critical exploration of dedicated to the needs of a richly diverse • attracts, respects and is enriched by a adult student body. These values are woven knowledge and experience; wide range of people, ideas, perspectives into the decisions we make about what we • provide opportunities for active, reflective and experiences. choose to do, how we carry out our work in and creative academic engagement. all parts of the institution, and how we judge We value a learning-mentoring organization the outcome of our individual and collective We value learning-mentoring modes that: and culture that: efforts. More than a claim about what we have • respond to a wide array of student styles, • invites collaboration in the multiple already attained, the core values support our levels, interests and circumstances; contexts of our work; continuing inquiry about what learning means and how it occurs. • foster self-direction, independence • fosters innovation and experimentation; and reflective inquiry; We value learning-mentoring goals that: • develops structures and policies that • provide opportunities for ongoing encourage active participation of all • respond to the academic, professional questioning and revising; constituents in decision-making processes; and personal needs of each student; • reflect innovation and research. • advocates for the interests of adult • identify and build upon students’ learners in a variety of academic and existing knowledge and skills; We value a learning-mentoring community that: civic forums. • sustain lifelong curiosity and • defines each member as a learner, critical inquiry; encouraging and appreciating • provide students with skills, insights his/her distinctive contributions; and competencies that support successful college study.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 46 • winter 2015 ALL ABOUT Submissions to All About Mentoring

f you have a scholarly paper-in-progress or a talk that you have presented, All About Mentoring would MENTORING welcome it. If you developed materials for your students that may be of good use to others, or have a comment on any part of this issue, or on topics/concerns relevant to our mentoring community, pleaseI send them along. issue 46 If you have a short story, poem, drawings or photographs, or have reports on your reassignments and winter 2015 sabbaticals, All About Mentoring would like to include them in an upcoming issue.

Alan Mandell Email submissions to [email protected]. College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring Submissions to All About Mentoring can be of varied length and take many forms. (Typically, materials Editor are no longer than 7,500 words.) It is easiest if materials are sent via email to Mandell as Microsoft Word attachments. In terms of references and style, All About Mentoring uses APA rules (please see the Karen LaBarge Senior Staff Assistant for Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. [Washington, DC: APA, 2010] or Faculty Development http://image.mail.bfwpub.com/lib/feed1c737d6c03/m/1/BSM_APA_update_2010.pdf). Associate Editor “No need is more fundamentally human than All About Mentoring is published twice a year. Our next issue, #47, will be available in the summer of Lorraine Klembczyk our need to understand the meaning of our Graphic Designer 2015. Please submit all materials by April 15, 2015. experience. Free, full participation in photography critical and reflective discourse may Photos courtesy of Stock Studios, and faculty and staff of be interpreted as a basic human right.” SUNY Empire State College, unless otherwise noted. – Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) Cover photo by Anna Barsan, “Cyclus” “How Critical Reflection Triggers Transformative Learning” p r o d u c t i o n Kirk Starczewski In Jack Mezirow and Associates, Director of Publications Ron Kosiba Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: Print Shop Supervisor A Guide to Transformative and Janet Jones Keyboard Specialist Emancipatory Learning College Print Shop San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990, p. 11 Send comments, articles or news to: All About Mentoring c/o Alan Mandell SUNY Empire State College 325 Hudson St., 5th Floor New York, NY 10013-1005 646-230-1255 [email protected] The quotes in this issue of All About Mentoring are taken from the

Special thanks to: work of the influential and generous adult educator, Jack Mezirow Kirk Starczewski and Ron Kosiba for (1923-2014), whose many years of explorations of “transformative many years of care for and attention to All About Mentoring, and to learning” offered all of a rich lens from which to view our own work Dennis Greenleaf and Jim Cooley for helping to bring all of and the lives and the learning of our students. these words to print. ALL ABOUT

MENTORINGA PUBLICATION OF SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE Issue 46 • Winter 2015 ALL ABOUT MENTORING Issue 46 • Winter 2015

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