Scaffolded autoethnography: a method for examining practice-to-research

Teachers often perceive educational research as confusing and can be disenfranchised by the research process. We propose scaffolded authethnography as a method to support principled examination of authentic practice. The approach is appealing because it is motivated by the teacher’s own day-to-day practice in a research context. Our demonstration of this method uses an analytical autoethnographic approach coupled with a data capture tool that documents the pedagogic content knowledge of a practicing teacher. We include a short case-study description where the method was used in the context of research in the area of threshold concept identification

The North Texas Species of Hymenocallis (Amaryllidaceae)

The only recent descriptive account of the United States species of Hymenocallis is that by Small in his Manual of the Southeastern Flora (1933: several corrections of nomenclature are given by Morton, 1935). None of the 11 species there given is credited to Texas

Two New Texas Species of Physostegia (Labiatae)

Perennis arrhizomatosa caule glabro 25-55 cm. alto, foliis anguste oblongis vel oblongo-oblanceolatis glabris acutis acute serratis ca. 2.5-7 cm. longis 0.5-1.2 cm. latis; inflorescentiae parte superiore cum bracteis calycibusque dense pubes-· cente parce glandulosa; corolla 2.2-3 cm. longa; nuculis glabris 4 mm. longis

Francois Crepin on Botanizing

Late in the 19th Century the younger Hooker was led to exclaim to some of the botanical students of the day, You young men do not know your plants! What would he think of the modern graduate in botany? Now one gets a Ph.D. in the science without knowing most of the plants he encounters every day. Chromosomes, statistics, fancied phylogenies, current fads in morphology and physiology--about such things, like the modern major general, he is teeming with a lot of news, at least until oral exams are over. If he goes on to teach, it will be to relay the same things, occasionally refurbished, to hordes of freshmen. The general student, though he have no intention or desire to become a professional botanist, must nevertheless master the technicalities of the whole professional field. A simple, direct, spontaneous interest in plants will not do; that is not Science. But to preserve him from extreme specialization, he may be compelled to take integrated courses, progressive education courses (to what?), or general education courses. He must not take up any modest, specific pursuit that he can go ahead with on his own, and that will remain actively a part of his life; such things are old-fashioned