A Crucible Moment and the Current State of Engagement: A Conversation with Caryn McTighe Musil

This article discusses A Crucible Moment, a “National Call to Action” by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement commissioned by the Department of Education. The report describes a national crisis in civic engagement and calls on higher education to make civic learning and democratic engagement an expected part of every student’s college education. The article includes an interview with the report’s lead author, Caryn McTighe Musil, who offers her view on the current state of engagement in American universities, describes the process through which A Crucible Moment was produced, and discusses the concepts of collective civic problem solving and generative partnerships. I reflect on key themes from the interview and A Crucible Moment and explore how readers can work to improve regional engagement efforts on their campuses in response to this call

Thinking Globally, Writing Locally: Re-Visioning Critical And Service Learning Pedagogies With Globalization Theory

Based on a theoretically informed qualitative study, my dissertation looks at critical and service learning pedagogies, focusing on the numerous critiques that have arisen within contemporary composition scholarship. Critical pedagogy has recently come under scrutiny on the grounds that it opposes students\u27 pragmatic views and career concerns, effects student resistance in the classroom, devalues students\u27 personal experiences, and stigmatizes white students (particularly white males). Within service learning, scholars point to numerous problems as well: It can create a false hierarchy between students and community partners by evoking an ideology of service and an us/them mentality; it may not be truly transformative for students; it often lacks genuine collaboration between students and partners; and many courses focus more on action than reflection. For my project, I used ethnographic and teacher-research methods to conduct an HIC (Human Investigation Committee) approved three-semester research study investigating whether integrating globalization theory into a combined critical, service learning pedagogical approach works to begin addressing the problems posed by critiques of these pedagogies. Based on data analysis, I argue that the course I designed offers a revised pedagogical approach for several key reasons: It allows students\u27 personal experiences to enter into discussion in useful ways; many students find the material meaningful and relevant to their daily lives and economic situations; the hands-on work in the community creates a deeper level of engagement with political and social issues; and that work allows for the multiple types of literacy skills that students and community partners possess to be used and developed both within the classroom and local community

“Partnering to Understand Undergraduate Research and Writing Longitudinally”

In her longitudinal case study of a single undergraduate, College Writing and Beyond (2007), Anne Beaufort investigates several knowledge domains contributing to students’ development as writers. As a team of librarians and writing faculty in research and teaching partnership, we hope to build on Beaufort’s work by examining and elaborating the role of research with respect to writing development by sharing findings from our own longitudinal study of undergraduates’ development as writer-researchers. Specifically, we are interested in the ways in which undergraduates’ research interfaces with their writing practices as they advance through their general education coursework and various disciplines. How do students perceive and articulate their understanding of writing and research, respectively and/or in interaction with one another? Have students’ understandings of writing and research changed since their first year? How so? To what do students attribute their shaping influences? To what extent, for example, are students’ understanding of writing and research influenced by the faculty with whom they study? In this panel, we present findings associated with a set of student case studies based on collaboratively coded and analyzed student interviews, triangulated with student process and literacy narratives as well as faculty interviews. Findings to date concern the unexpected role of students’ work with primary data (e.g., interviews) as well as differences among students’ reading practices, understandings of source authority, and dispositions. These findings have implications for students’ research and writing as well as for how faculty and librarians might teach research, including in response to certain challenges posed by information literacy in the digital age

Cholinergic receptor pathways involved in apoptosis, cell proliferation and neuronal differentiation

Acetylcholine (ACh) has been shown to modulate neuronal differentiation during early development. Both muscarinic and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) regulate a wide variety of physiological responses, including apoptosis, cellular proliferation and neuronal differentiation. However, the intracellular mechanisms underlying these effects of AChR signaling are not fully understood. It is known that activation of AChRs increase cellular proliferation and neurogenesis and that regulation of intracellular calcium through AChRs may underlie the many functions of ACh. Intriguingly, activation of diverse signaling molecules such as Ras-mitogen-activated protein kinase, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-Akt, protein kinase C and c-Src is modulated by AChRs. Here we discuss the roles of ACh in neuronal differentiation, cell proliferation and apoptosis. We also discuss the pathways involved in these processes, as well as the effects of novel endogenous AChRs agonists and strategies to enhance neuronal-differentiation of stem and neural progenitor cells. Further understanding of the intracellular mechanisms underlying AChR signaling may provide insights for novel therapeutic strategies, as abnormal AChR activity is present in many diseases

Researching Students\u27 Conceptions of Information Literacy

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“Partnering to Understand Undergraduate Research and Writing Longitudinally”

In her longitudinal case study of a single undergraduate, College Writing and Beyond (2007), Anne Beaufort investigates several knowledge domains contributing to students’ development as writers. As a team of librarians and writing faculty in research and teaching partnership, we hope to build on Beaufort’s work by examining and elaborating the role of research with respect to writing development by sharing findings from our own longitudinal study of undergraduates’ development as writer-researchers. Specifically, we are interested in the ways in which undergraduates’ research interfaces with their writing practices as they advance through their general education coursework and various disciplines. How do students perceive and articulate their understanding of writing and research, respectively and/or in interaction with one another? Have students’ understandings of writing and research changed since their first year? How so? To what do students attribute their shaping influences? To what extent, for example, are students’ understanding of writing and research influenced by the faculty with whom they study? In this panel, we present findings associated with a set of student case studies based on collaboratively coded and analyzed student interviews, triangulated with student process and literacy narratives as well as faculty interviews. Findings to date concern the unexpected role of students’ work with primary data (e.g., interviews) as well as differences among students’ reading practices, understandings of source authority, and dispositions. These findings have implications for students’ research and writing as well as for how faculty and librarians might teach research, including in response to certain challenges posed by information literacy in the digital age

Mindset and Service Learning: Community and Classroom Interventions

The presenters examine growth mindset interventions as a means to teach and position community engagement as a key aspect of students’ academic and personal development. These interventions include assignments that value process over product; surveys (including Dweck’s Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale); and reflection activities that promote students’ understanding of how mindset impacts their service work, classroom education, and life. The interventions were implemented in service learning courses taught by English faculty. Through growth mindset activities, shared reflections, and a service learning program assessment survey, we measured the effectiveness of growth mindset interventions on student learning in service learning courses

Dual Regulation of Actin Rearrangement through Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor in Neuroblast Cell Lines: Actin Depolymerization by Ca(2+)-α-Actinin and Polymerization by Rho

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a potent lipid mediator with actions on many cell types. Morphological changes involving actin polymerization are mediated by at least two cognate G protein-coupled receptors, LPA(1)/EDG-2 or LPA(2)/EDG-4. Herein, we show that LPA can also induce actin depolymerization preceding actin polymerization within single TR mouse immortalized neuroblasts. Actin depolymerization resulted in immediate loss of membrane ruffling, whereas actin polymerization resulted in process retraction. Each pathway was found to be independent: depolymerization mediated by intracellular calcium mobilization, and α-actinin activity and polymerization mediated by the activation of the small Rho GTPase. α-Actinin–mediated depolymerization seems to be involved in growth cone collapse of primary neurons, indicating a physiological significance of LPA-induced actin depolymerization. Further evidence for dual regulation of actin rearrangement was found by heterologous retroviral transduction of either lpa(1) or lpa(2) in B103 cells that neither express LPA receptors nor respond to LPA, to confer both forms of LPA-induced actin rearrangements. These results suggest that diverging intracellular signals from a single type of LPA receptor could regulate actin depolymerization, as well as polymerization, within a single cell. This dual actin rearrangement may play a novel, important role in regulation of the neuronal morphology and motility during brain development