[AAACE-NLA] Meeting of the Minds Symposium II

[Debbie Yoho]

 Bonnie's helpful perspective on the issue of research raised by Tom is so
welcome.  Yes, I am sure I sound defensive.  Tom's question was in the
context of the accountability pressures of the last 5-10 years, and many
practitioners, including me, have been very much on the defensive,
especially since the current national administration insists on the term
"scientific research", as if no other legitimate inquiry exists.  How nice
of Bonnie to refer to the "community of scholars".  Not many administrators
or teachers at almost any level of education have been free the past few
years to interact with colleagues in the spirit of a community of scholars,
at least not here.  It is all about money, testing, standards, guidelines,
benchmarks, data, and reporting, with little time for consultation, dialog,
communication, or even feedback.  Certainly the university systems should
be the bedrock for collegial interaction, but even my friends in our higher
ed systems are telling me that the bean counting is now driving their
professional lives.  I'm just waiting for the pendulum to swing a little
bit in the other direction, and when I get the chance to encourage this, I
grab it.  I know very well that in this forum I am, to use a local phrase,
"preaching to the choir".    Debbie Yoho


> [Original Message]
> From: Bonnie Odiorne <bonniesophia at adelphia.net>
> To: <yohogclc at earthlink.net>; National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored
by AAACE <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Date: 12/20/2006 7:11:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Meeting of the Minds Symposium II
>
> Debbie, and all,
> I sympathize with your stance, and wonder why it needs such a defensived
> cast. I come from a field, in my formal academic life, critical theory,
> where it is precisely the community of scholars that set the terms of the
> exchange. I recognize that education is a different field and in many
> respects requires some kind of quantification for its legitimacy and
> replication of best practices. However, if one is talking about education,
> one is also, inevitably, talking about communication, which is far from an
> exact science. And why should not the communication of the practicing
> community have any more or less value than research-oriented work.
Indeed, I
> would suspect that the research could not be done without the speculation,
> the asking of questions, that intangible recognition of something of value
> that needs to be clarified, that every community of scholars, sometimes
> fractiously, sometimes collegially, attempts to create. Perhaps I'm
missing
> a crucial term of the debate here, and, if so, I'm sure someone will
> enlighten me. Especially in education, research cannot take place in a
> vacuum, and the most advanced physics (and which science is now our
> "scientific model?) now has to take into consideration the presence of the
> observer in the experiment, and the results are by no means as verifiable
or
> as objectively quantifiable as they used to be before our current paradigm
> shift. '
> Yours respectfully,
> Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D., Post University
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
> [mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Debbie Yoho
> Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 1:56 PM
> To: aaace-nla
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Meeting of the Minds Symposium II
>
> Tom Sticht's pertinent inquiry and George Demetrion's reply provide me
with
> a cue to chime in.  I am not a researcher, but I predict that Tom's search
> for evidence that research efforts of the last decade have resulted in
> improved learner persistence or acquisition of literacy skills will be
> fruitless.  Partially I believe this is due to the factors George
outlines.
> I would only add the opinion, again, that the teaching/learning process is
> as much art as science, and rises to maximum effectiveness only when it is
> a collegial process.  Practitioners like me always have, and always will,
> turn to each other to inform practice before we turn to research.  Some
> might call this the blind leading the blind.  The inspired, committed and
> effective artists among us know better, and we recognize each other when
> given a chance to confer.   Best, Debbie Yoho
>
>
>
>
>
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