Amy Ferrell, Remi Kalir, and Julia Mahfouz will share their research next Wednesday after the faculty retreat from 12:00-1:00! We will use the same zoom link as the retreat or you can email Courtney Donovan for the link.
Research Spotlight: Amy Ferrell
The Word, the Light, and the Spirit: Community as Liberation
Amy Ferrell’s research on literacy, power, and community reflects her soul’s journey toward liberation. She has found that power-as-control is the Great Illusion, while power-as-being is the Great Truth, with self-expression as the portal for healing, whether using a linguistic word (logos) or breathing word (ruach). Instead of a paradigm with separative binaries, impositions of righteousness, and delusions for comfort, she proposes that a paradigm with integrated wholeness, discernment from inner truth, collective deliberation, agentic movement, and the transmutation of pain creates a context in which liberation stories turn into origin stories, which then turn into the communal stories of supporting new life. Research Spotlight: Remi Kalir
Social Annotation and Student Learning
What value do students ascribe to social annotation when this activity is featured in their courses? And as students participate in social annotation, how do they construct knowledge together? With the SEHD helping to lead CU Denver’s Hypothesis pilot, it is pertinent to consider recent insight about social annotation and student learning. Remi’s presentation will share findings from two recent studies about student perceptions and knowledge construction, both of which suggest the value of incorporating social annotation activities in coursework.
Research Spotlight: Julia Mahfouz
Perceptions of School Administrators on Various Aspects of Schooling. In this study, ~100 students in a superintendent and principal licensure reflect through journaling on purpose of schooling, support systems (what current structures are set in place to encourage and support collaboration, and what other structures are needed), school culture, stressors, critical issues in education, rural education, developing principals through preparation programs (gaps, areas of improvement, and supports).
Exploring Social Justice: Case studies from the Middle East. Social justice is a complex culturally loaded construct that is subject to various interpretations (Jean-Marie et al., 2009) especially in multicultural communities with religious, political, and ethnic differences. The research study employs narrative case studies (Marshall and Rossman, 2012) of principals identified as leaders for social justice by their peers from various countries (Lebanon, Libia, Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait).
SEL-based Program’s Influence on Teachers and Principals. This study is part of three larger studies on SEL-based programs implementation on student, teacher, and principal levels. The participants were enrolled in an either 3-year SEL-based program or a 1-year mindfulness-based program.