And Next? - Marlina Davidson

I really enjoyed the readings for this week. Although all three articles were written over 15 years ago I believe the themes still resonate today. My questions focus on how we can continue to fight for the ideals that these authors describe in their articles.

Cronen’s (1995) suggests that we should depart from studies that that contribute to traditional
theory and move more toward the practice of “practical theory.” At the end of the article Cronen states “The use of a practical theory not only should lead to enhanced abilities for those we study or with whom we consult but should also enrich us as theorists and practitioners” (p. 237). What can we do as researchers and consumers of this research to make sure our studies as a discipline do this? How do we know when we’re not following the guidelines of practical theory?

Cronen’s article closely related to Redding’s (1985) article on rocking boats and blowing whistles. I really appreciated how this article related to us as teachers because I believe we should just be trying to rock the boat through our research but we should also be doing it in the classroom.

I believe being a graduate student teaching and eventually a tenured-track faculty member is a difficult position to be in when you’re trying to “rock the boat” in the classroom. What do you believe are ways that we can as non-tenured faculty to create this open environment for our students and be “role-models” as Redding describes it?

After reading Redding’s article I question whether I have the expertise to be a role-model for my students or to teach proper boat-rocking in the classroom. How do you believe we can ensure that as teachers we are not hurting our students later in their lives? Redding identifies other ways of expressing dissent and other nonconformist views in his article that we can be teaching as well as simply being consciousness-raisers. I’ve been told many times though that as non-tenured faculty you stay away from boat-rocking and wait until you’ve been tenured. How do you think we can teach our students this skill if we are being told not to rock the boat?