Why Where? Because Who: Arts Venues, Spaces and Tradition

This report explores art programming in unusual spaces for new audiences in an effort to understand the impetus behind the work and what lessons can be learned from leading examples of it. It builds on other recent efforts that discuss participation and location by placing the trend in its historical context, and it challenges the assertion that the trend is a recent one. Unusual locations are as much a part of the history of art as are the venues that are today considered more usual. Likewise, the venue that is unusual to some is often quite usual to many others including, importantly, new audiences that the arts seek to reach. A typology of this activity follows the historical survey, with some suggestions as to the vocabulary that might be used to describe what is happening. A series of case studies are then presented, indicating the range of outcomes possible when arts programming is pursued in unusual places. Lessons from these case studies, as well as from the broader survey, lead to some conclusions about the future of the work and its significance. The hope is that this report is inspiring to practitioners who have begun experimenting with work in unusual places as well as those who are eager to join in

Partnerships in Service Learning and Civic Engagement

Developing campus-community partnerships is a core element of well-designed and effective civic engagement, including service learning and participatory action research. A structural model, SOFAR, is presented that differentiates campus into administrators, faculty, and students, and that differentiates community into organizational staff and residents (or clients, consumers, advocates). Partnerships are presented as being a subset of relationships between persons. The quality of these dyadic relationships is analyzed in terms of the degree to which the interactions possess closeness, equity, and integrity, and the degree to which the outcomes of those interactions are exploitive, transactional, or transformational. Implications are then offered for how this analysis can improve practice and research

Promising Practices for Creating More Diverse, Equitable, Inclusive, and Racially Just Summertime Programs and Camps

LGBTQ+, racial/ethnic minorities, youth from low-income contexts, and youth with cognitive and/or physical disabilities often face constraints to access and participation based on social and structural inequality. Understanding access and inclusion in summertime recreation program and camp settings for LGBTQ+, racial/ethnic minorities, individuals from low-income contexts, and individuals with disabilities begins with examining promising practices and policies already applied in some of these settings. The purpose of this study is to compile current promising practices implemented by youth-serving summertime recreation programs and camps recognized for their work in diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice (DEIRJ). Representatives from both national organizations and more localized summertime programs and camps were interviewed to compile current promising practices implemented in programs recognized for their work with DEIRJ. The results include general recommendations as well as recommendations aimed at populations of interest

Street Literature in Five North Carolina Public Library Systems

There has been a renewed interest in street literature (also referred to as urban fiction) in public libraries across the country. This research examines how street literature is treated in five North Carolina urban public library systems, specifically in terms of collection development, displays, and programming. The study shows that all of the counties use different methods for marketing the genre to their patrons, and that there are varying levels of acceptance of street lit titles throughout the counties. All five counties report high levels of use of the street lit collection despite differences in the treatment of the genre throughout the counties

Empirical modelling as a new paradigm for educational technology

Educational technology has yet to deliver the benefits or successes that were expected in educational practice, especially in relation to issues other than the communication and delivery of teaching materials. Evidence suggests that these difficulties stem from the mismatch between formalised virtual learning environments and everyday sensemaking and between the rich potential for enhanced learning afforded by new technology and the constraints of old-style educational practice. In addressing this mismatch, some commentators suggest that the primary need is for a new culture of educational practice-and even that such a culture is already emerging, and others identify the need for a new paradigm for educational technology. The aim of this thesis is to explore the potential for a new paradigm for educational technology based on the principles and tools of Empirical Modelling (see http://dcs.warwick.ac.uk/modelling). The thesis builds upon previous research on Empirical Modelling as a constructionist approach to learning, and in particular Roe's doctoral thesis 'Computers for learning: an Empirical Modelling perspective'. Roe's treatment of Empirical Modelling can be viewed as generalising the use of spreadsheets for learning through applying 'programming by dependency' within the framework of existing educational practice. In contrast, this thesis is concerned at a more fundamental level with the contribution that Empirical Modelling can make to technology enhanced learning that may lead to new educational practices. In particular, it identifies eight significant characteristics of learning that are well-matched to Empirical Modelling activity, and associates these with experimental, flexible and meaningful strands in learning. The credentials of Empirical Modelling as a potential new foundation for educational technology are enhanced by demonstrating that Empirical Modelling is radically different from traditional software development and use. It provides a methodology for modelling with dependency that is more closely related to the use of spreadsheets for learning. The thesis elaborates on the relationship between Empirical Modelling and learning in a variety of different contexts, ways and applications. Three examples drawn from computer science higher education are explored to emphasise the experimental, flexible and meaningful characteristics of Empirical Modelling. This discussion of Empirical Modelling in a specific educational context is complemented by an investigation of its relevance to learning in a wider context, with reference to a broad range of subjects, to specific issues in language learning, and to the topics of lifelong learning and collaborative learning. Although the application of Empirical Modelling for learning is as yet too immature for large scale empirical studies, its potential is evaluated using informal empirical evidence arising from Empirical Modelling practice at Warwick. The sources for this evaluation are well-established teaching activities relating to Empirical Modelling in Computer Science at the University of 'Warwick, comprising an introductory module and a number of final year undergraduate projects. The thesis concludes by considering the extent to which Empirical Modelling can go beyond the support for constructionism envisaged by Roe, to address the broader agenda of supporting constructivist learning using computers. To this end, a close relationship between Empirical Modelling and a vision of constructivism recently set out by Bruno Latour in his paper 'The Promises of Constructivism' is demonstrated

Casting the runes and parsing them: Unpacking software mediation, interactions, and computational literacy in non-conventional programming configurations

Abstract This dissertation is an investigation of computational literacy and how it is shaped by software use and mediation. Early visionaries such as Perlis and Naur recognized the need for everyone to learn computing, but these ideals are yet to be fully realized. Arguably, a narrow focus on computational thinking is the more popular approach in contemporary computing education research and policymaking. Another branch of researchers, in particular Kay and diSessa, have argued for the need for providing the right media for computing. In line with them, I argue that a more materially grounded literacy is a necessary step. By extension, this means providing a better understanding of how these material conditions (e.g., software) influence the development of computational literacy. Through eight studies, I have employed a mix of qualitative methods and constructive design research. The qualitative methods fall under ethnography, technography, and retrospective autoethnography. The empirically grounded research draws from interviews with five humanities students, interviews and observations of four biomolecular scientists, interviews with 12 experienced programmers, and a workshop and observations of 12 experienced knitters. These interviews focused on their experiences with programming, their ability to use and appropriate unfamiliar software, and their feelings of mastery and disempowerment. This is supplemented with technographic investigations of computational media, literate computing environments, and programming interfaces that focuses on the mediating qualities of software for programming such as interaction, semiotics, ethics, and transformation. My work has shown the importance of the material foundations of computational literacy in these contexts. More specifically, the material conditions affect this literacy in multiple ways such as the dissonance between software visions, people’s expectations, and the practical implementations. People experience disempowerment and crises and resolve those through various means such as enrolling a more capable peer or incorporating supporting artifacts. The dissertation further presents computational media as a promising, yet fragile software paradigm and shows how this paradigm blends use and development, inscribes particular user roles, and balances between evoking trust and alienation in its users. Finally, by emphasizing a theoretical lens of self-concept in the context of computational literacy, the dissertation provides a view of literacy as a product of continuous experiences and confirmations from people’s social and material lifeworlds. These findings should resonate with scholars of new media, human-computer interaction, and computing education, as the dissertation explores the complex mutual relationships between people’s cultural, social, and material environments as well as their ongoing and sometimes contradictory ways of seeing themselves. Computational literacy can be emancipatory for everyone, not just for computer scientists, yet the development of literacy demands adequate conditions. This dissertation is an argument for the importance of those conditions. Dansk resumé At riste og råde runerne: En udlægning af mediering, interaktion og datalogiske kompetencer i ukonventionelle programmeringskonfigurationer Denne afhandling er skrevet på engelsk. Jeg benytter engelske begreber, som desværre er vanskelige at oversætte uden at miste noget af deres betydning. Eksempelvis er der på engelsk en forskel mellem literacy og kompetencer, som ikke findes på samme måde på dansk. Computational har jeg nogle steder i det følgende oversat til datalogisk, selvom der er en mindre begrebsmæssig forskel. Ligeledes har jeg oversat computing til datalære, hvor det er hensigtsmæssigt. Afhandlingen er en undersøgelse af datalogiske kompetencer (en. computational literacy), og hvordan de formes af softwarebrug og -mediering. Tidlige visionærer som Perlis og Naur indså behovet for, at alle skulle lære datalære, men disse idealer er endnu ikke opfyldt. Et snævert fokus på datalogisk tænkning (en. computational thinking) er tilsyneladende en mere populær tilgang i aktuel uddannelsesforskning og på den politiske dagsorden. En forskningsgren, anført af blandt andre Kay og diSessa, har argumenteret for behovet for de rigtige medier i datalære (en. computing). I tråd med disse argumenter italesætter jeg også det nødvendige i mere materielt funderede kompetencer. Det betyder altså i denne sammenhæng, at der er behov for en bedre forståelse af, hvordan de materielle betingelser (fx software) påvirker udviklingen af datalogiske kompetencer. Gennem otte studier har jeg anvendt en kombination af kvalitative metoder og konstruktiv designforskning. De kvalitative metoder er mere specifikt etnografi, teknografi og retrospektiv autoetnografi. Min empirisk funderede forskning trækker på interviews med fem humanistiske studerende, interviews og observationer med fire biomolekylære forskere, interviews med tolv erfarne programmører og en workshop og observationer med tolv erfarne strikkere. Fokus i interviews og observationer var deltagernes erfaringer med programmering, deres evne til at bruge og tilegne sig ukendt software samt deres følelse af mestring og umyndiggørelse. Dette blev suppleret med teknografiske undersøgelser af computational medier, literate computing-miljøer og programmeringsinterfaces med fokus på de medierende kvaliteter i programmeringssoftware, eksempelvis interaktion, semiotik, etik og transformation. Mit arbejde har demonstreret betydningen af det materielle fundament for datalogiske kompetencer i disse kontekster. Mere specifikt påvirker de materielle betingelser kompetencerne på flere måder, eksempelvis i form af dissonans mellem softwarevisioner, forventninger og praktiske implementeringer. Deltagerne oplever umyndiggørelse og kriser, som de løser på forskellige måder, blandt andet ved indrullering af mere kompetente ligesindede eller inkorporering af andre artefakter. Afhandlingen præsenterer derudover computational medier som et lovende, men skrøbeligt softwareparadigme og viser, hvordan paradigmet blander brug og udvikling, indskriver bestemte brugerroller og balancerer mellem tillid og fremmedgørelse for de mennesker, som har med det at gøre. Slutteligt bidrager afhandlingen med et perspektiv på kompetencer, der bygger på selvbegreb som et teoretisk indgangsvinkel. I dette perspektiv er kompetence et produkt af folks løbende erfaringer og bekræftelser fra deres sociale og materielle livsverdener. Mine resultater skulle gerne give genlyd blandt forskere med interesse i nye medier, menneske-maskin-interaktion og informatikundervisning. Dette skyldes især, at afhandlingen udforsker de komplekse og gensidige forhold mellem folks kulturelle, sociale og materielle omverden samt de løbende og ofte selvmodsigende måder, de ser sig selv. Datalogiske kompetencer kan være frigørende og dannende for alle, ikke bare for dataloger og programmører, men udviklingen af disse kompetencer forudsætter altså tilstrækkelige betingelser. Denne afhandling er et argument for vigtigheden af disse betingelser

Community Participation in Community Day Secondary Schooling for Orphaned and Vulnerable Students in Malawi in an Era of Shrinking Community

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. September 2017. Major: Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. Advisor: Frances Vavrus. 1 computer file (PDF); xi, 294 pages.ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to interrogate the meanings of “community” “participation,” and “community participation” concepts that are central to international development and national policy discourses in Malawi concerning Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS) and the support for orphaned and vulnerable students’ (OVSs) schooling. The dissertation examines how community participation in OVS’s schooling is understood by various stakeholders, and how it is understood in relation to CDSSs in particular. It also explores, from various stakeholders’ views, whether and how community participation should play a role in supporting the schooling of OVSs, and how various interpretations of community participation may or may not enable OVSs to access and persist in secondary school. The study also contrasts and compares various international development frameworks for understanding the meaning of and debates about community participation and its impact on marginalized children. This research utilizes critical and interpretivist theoretical frameworks and qualitative methods of inquiry to understand how community participation is experienced across communities and organizational scale (community, school, district, national, and international). The study is designed as a multi-sited comparative case study, in which I ground my interrogation of existing perceptions and meanings of the concepts and institutionalized relations of power related to community participation in the secondary education of OVSs in two CDSSs in the northern and southern regions of Malawi. This allowed me to critically examine international and national discourses of community participation and how they engage (or fail to engage) with diverse stakeholders’ lived experiences and practices at the school and community level

Empirical modelling as a new paradigm for educational technology

Educational technology has yet to deliver the benefits or successes that were expected in educational practice, especially in relation to issues other than the communication and delivery of teaching materials. Evidence suggests that these difficulties stem from the mismatch between formalised virtual learning environments and everyday sensemaking and between the rich potential for enhanced learning afforded by new technology and the constraints of old-style educational practice. In addressing this mismatch, some commentators suggest that the primary need is for a new culture of educational practice-and even that such a culture is already emerging, and others identify the need for a new paradigm for educational technology. The aim of this thesis is to explore the potential for a new paradigm for educational technology based on the principles and tools of Empirical Modelling (see http://dcs.warwick.ac.uk/modelling). The thesis builds upon previous research on Empirical Modelling as a constructionist approach to learning, and in particular Roe's doctoral thesis 'Computers for learning: an Empirical Modelling perspective'. Roe's treatment of Empirical Modelling can be viewed as generalising the use of spreadsheets for learning through applying 'programming by dependency' within the framework of existing educational practice. In contrast, this thesis is concerned at a more fundamental level with the contribution that Empirical Modelling can make to technology enhanced learning that may lead to new educational practices. In particular, it identifies eight significant characteristics of learning that are well-matched to Empirical Modelling activity, and associates these with experimental, flexible and meaningful strands in learning. The credentials of Empirical Modelling as a potential new foundation for educational technology are enhanced by demonstrating that Empirical Modelling is radically different from traditional software development and use. It provides a methodology for modelling with dependency that is more closely related to the use of spreadsheets for learning. The thesis elaborates on the relationship between Empirical Modelling and learning in a variety of different contexts, ways and applications. Three examples drawn from computer science higher education are explored to emphasise the experimental, flexible and meaningful characteristics of Empirical Modelling. This discussion of Empirical Modelling in a specific educational context is complemented by an investigation of its relevance to learning in a wider context, with reference to a broad range of subjects, to specific issues in language learning, and to the topics of lifelong learning and collaborative learning. Although the application of Empirical Modelling for learning is as yet too immature for large scale empirical studies, its potential is evaluated using informal empirical evidence arising from Empirical Modelling practice at Warwick. The sources for this evaluation are well-established teaching activities relating to Empirical Modelling in Computer Science at the University of 'Warwick, comprising an introductory module and a number of final year undergraduate projects. The thesis concludes by considering the extent to which Empirical Modelling can go beyond the support for constructionism envisaged by Roe, to address the broader agenda of supporting constructivist learning using computers. To this end, a close relationship between Empirical Modelling and a vision of constructivism recently set out by Bruno Latour in his paper 'The Promises of Constructivism' is demonstrated.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Graduate International Students' Social Experiences Examined Through Their Transient Lives: A Phenomenological Study at a Private Research University in the United States

Thesis advisor: Philip G. AltbachThis is a phenomenological study of ten graduate international students at Chardin University (pseudonym). Through 30 in-depth interviews, multiple social contacts, and group and member checking sessions, stories emerged that highlight the social experiences of these graduate international students through their transient lives. Theoretical frameworks used to interpret the findings were transnationalism, adult transitional theory, and the graduate socialization model. This study provides a forum for participants to narrate their stories instead of being invisible and silent as they pass through our institutional corridors. What emerged from these narratives is that graduate international students cannot be grouped as one monolithic entity because they all lead variant and divergent lives. This research enumerates the intricacies, shades, and textures of their lives as they persist, succeed, and develop identities. In the past, graduate international students' social experiences have been portrayed in an oversimplified fashion, when in fact such students lead extremely complex lives as they negotiate a world that comprises both home and host country. Strongly lacking in the realm of social experiences have been meaningful relationships with American peers (looking beyond superficial ones), the university, and the local community. Operating within transnational social fields, regular prolonged conversations with family and friends from home tend to prevent participants from seeking out new connections in the United States. Most participants find comfort within their own ethnic enclaves, leading to cross-cultural isolation, which is still prevalent after decades of research conducted on this population. This study challenges universities to forge new pathways to engage with this vital and vibrant student body in meaningful, innovative, and creative ways. It is the responsibility of institutions of higher learning to understand the intricacies of their lives, as well as differences in religion, language, and socialization patterns. Universities need to find new ways to stay relevant in the lives of graduate international students during their tenure in the United States.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education