The University of British Columbia
Department of Educational Studies

EDST 601A-First-Year Doctoral (PhD) Seminar
Winter Session, Terms 1 & 2, 2001-02
Wednesdays (see schedule), 9:00 am-12:00 noon
Ponderosa Annex H 115

Seminar Coordinators:

Dr. Leslie G. Roman
Room 22, Ponderosa G
Tel: (604) 822-9186
Fax: (604) 822-4244
E-mail: leslie.roman@ubc.ca

Dr. Tom Sork
Room 17, Ponderosa G
Tel: (604) 822-5702
Fax: (604) 822-4244
E-mail: tom.sork@ubc.ca

Purposes of the Seminar

This seminar is a required course for all first-year PhD students in the Department of Educational Studies. The seminar is designed to:

• engage students in the process of critical reflection and analysis that is an expected part of advanced academic study;
• explore recent developments and current debates in scholarship in educational studies;
• facilitate progress toward the identification of a feasible PhD research project;
• clarify expectations and processes related to doctoral-level research in the department and university, and
• provide an opportunity for first-year doctoral students to become acquainted with each other's scholarly interests and to develop a collective identity as emerging scholars.

Theme of the Seminar

We believe it is important that incoming PhD students have an opportunity to engage with important ideas that are influencing the trajectory of scholarship in many areas of education. This year the seminar will focus on the theme of "identity" and will be exploring its theoretical and conceptual grounding, the various arenas of education in which it is being discussed and debated and its relevance and implications for work done in EDST and for students embarking on a PhD program. Our goal is to provide readings that are theoretically challenging, provocative, and relevant to the broad range of interests and experiences that are represented in the department.

We will be exploring this theme throughout the seminar, but will also be discussing pragmatic issues like important milestones in the PhD program, departmental and university policies governing doctoral study, forming and nurturing research supervisory committees, resources useful in doctoral study, and other matters that are often of concern to new doctoral students.

The seminar coordinators will also be exposing themselves (intellectually) during the seminar to show how their work is informed and influenced by current theoretical and methodological debates and the niche they each occupy in their areas of specialization.

Organization of the Seminar

Seminar sessions will involve discussions of selected readings, discussions of contentious issues related to educational research, and student presentations on their own areas of interest and the issues related to conducting research within those areas. A tentative schedule is attached for Term 1 of the seminar. This schedule is open to modification as more is learned about the interests and concerns of students.

Please note that the seminar will meet every Wednesday during September and every second Wednesday thereafter for the remainder of the Winter Session (see the attached schedule for specific dates). We have found that meeting every week in September is important to get to know one another and to engage in some collective planning for the year. The seminar will meet from 9:00am-12:00 noon in Ponderosa H 115.

The tentative schedule identifies readings for Term 1 and the dates when each reading will likely be discussed. We may modify this schedule somewhat as the seminar progresses and we learn more about one another's interests and concerns.

We also intend to have some fun!

Assignments/Expectations

This is a pass/fail course so there will be no conventional "grades" assigned. However, we do have some expectations of students and have tried to fashion some assignments that we believe are both consistent with the purposes of the seminar and will provide you with an opportunity to receive feedback on your critical, analytical and writing skills. Each student in the seminar will be expected to:

• Actively participate in all seminar sessions and attend the meetings of the Departmental Colloquium

• Lead a substantive discussion on one or more of the assigned readings,

• Make occasional short presentations on your own research interests and the likely direction that your thesis research will take,

• Prepare a 15 page (approximate) paper at the end of each term:

A Word on Seminar Climate

We want the seminar to be a place where students feel comfortable expressing and discussing their personal views, debating important educational issues, and criticizing the work of others. We want to be able to critique ideas and offer advice while still respecting the diverse views, experiences and styles of seminar members. The "seminar climate" will be discussed early in the first term and at other points during the year if anyone in the group feels that the climate is not as inviting, open and safe as they would like. We consider it the responsibility of everyone in the seminar to be sensitive to the dynamics of the seminar and to the sensibilities of those present.

There is a delicate balance that must be struck between being critical of ideas and being inviting and supportive of seminar members who come to doctoral study with varied academic, cultural, personal and work histories and styles. Developing the skill of self-criticism is an important aspect of academic scholarship but developing this skill sometimes involves receiving negative feedback from others. Providing this feedback in a supportive and respectful way is one of the aims of the seminar. The seminar coordinators will serve as facilitators of this process and will provide what we hope is constructive, critical feedback to each seminar member.

Practical Matters

Text
We will be using the following book throughout the seminar. Copies can be purchased from the UBC Bookstore:

Moya, Paula M. L. & Hames-Garcia, Michael R. (Eds.). (2000). Reclaiming identity: Realist theory and the predicament of postmodernism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22349-7

Seminar Materials Fee
Additional readings for the seminar will be distributed by the seminar coordinators. Once the costs of reproducing these materials are known, you will be asked to pay a materials fee to cover the direct costs of reproduction plus copyright fees.

Availability of Seminar Coordinators
Both of us are happy to meet with students at any mutually convenient time to discuss any aspect of the seminar. We are also happy to receive suggestions for improving the seminar. The best ways to contact us outside of the seminar sessions is via phone or e-mail. Our numbers and e-mail addresses are listed above.

E-mail Accounts
If you have not already done so, please arrange for your personal e-mail account. The Department of Educational Studies uses e-mail to distribute a great deal of information to students. E-mail has also become an important means of communication between and among faculty and students, so if you do not have an e-mail account, you will be "out of touch" with people and information.

Tentative EDST 601 Schedule
Winter Session 2001-02
Term 1
(Version 1)

• Introduction to the seminar
• Who's here and why
• Introduction to the PhD in EDST
• Introduction to seminar theme: "Why Identity? Contested Spaces/Places and Voices of Learning, Schooling and Education: Non-formal and Formal Educational Contexts, Practices and Outcomes Planning for Departmental Colloquia

• Reclaiming Identity: Critical Realism and the Predicament of Postmodernism

1. Reclaiming Identity, Introduction, pp. 1-28. Paula Moya, "Introduction."
2. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 1, pp. 29-68. Satya Mohanty, "The Epistemic Status of Cultural Identity."
3. Sue Middleton. (2001). "Making Room: The Place of Academic Study," Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, April 10-14, 2001, 28 pp.
4. Thomas J. Sork. (2000). "Planning Educational Programs." In Arthur L. Wilson & Elisabeth R. Hayes (Eds.), Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (pp. 171-190). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• Professional, Personal, Social, Familial and Intellectual Locations of Doctoral Study

• Postmodernism and Critical Realism: Staking Out the 'Posts'

1. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 2, pp. 67-101. Paula Moya, "'Realism' and the Politics of Identity: Cherrie' Moraga and Chicana Feminism."
2. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 3, pp. 102-132. Michael R. Hames-Garcia', "Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism: Challenges for a Theory of Social Identity."
3. Dick Hebdige. (1996) "Postmodernism and the 'Other Side'." In David Morely & Kuan-Hsing Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies. (Ch. 8, pp. 174-201). New York/London: Routledge.

• Contested Terminology in Scholarly Debates and the Challenge of Conceptual/Intellectual Histories

• Postpositivist Objectivity: A Postmodern Oxymoron or a Critical Realist Approach to Error, Values and Identity?

1. Leslie Roman. (1993). "White is a Color! White Defensiveness, Postmodernism and Antiracist Pedagogy." In Cameron McCarthy & Warren Crichlow (Eds.), Race, Identity and Representation in Education (pp. 71-88). New York: Routledge.
2. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 4, pp. 133-170. Caroline S. Hau, "On Representing Others: Intellectuals, Pedagogy and the Uses of Error."
3. Leslie G. Roman. (1993). "'On the Ground' with Antiracist Pedagogy and Raymond Williams's Unfinished Project to Articulate a Socially Transformative Critical Realism." In Dennis Dworkin & Leslie G. Roman (Eds.), Views Beyond the Border Country: Raymond Williams and Cultural Politics (pp. 158-216). New York: Routledge.
4. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 5, pp. 171-204. Mihn T. Nguyen, "It Matters to Get the Facts Straight: Joy Kagawa, Realism, and the Objectivity of Values."
5. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 6, pp. 205-225. Amie A. Mac Donald, "Racial Authenticity and White Separaratism: The Future of Racial Program Housing on College Campuses."

• The Risks Of and Reasons For Essentializing Identities

• Realist and Postmodernist Conceptions of Agency, Experience and Identity

1. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 7, pp. 229-250. Brent Henz, "Who Says Who Says? The Epistemological Grounds for Agency in Liberatory Political Projects."
2. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 8, pp. 251-278. William Wilkerson, "Is there Something You Need to Tell Me? Coming Out and the Ambiguity of Experience."

• Identifications with Others versus Essentialized Identities in Educational Research and Practice

• Identity and Epistemic Privilege: Whose Afraid of 'Identity Politics'?

1. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 9, pp. 279-311. John H. Zammito, "Reading Experience: The Debate in Intellectual History Among Scott, Toews, and LaCapra."
2. Reclaiming Identity, Ch. 10, pp. 312-344. Linda Alcoff, "Whose Afraid of Identity Politics?"

• The Importance of Primary Sources to Evaluating Secondary Sources/Critiques

• Autobiography, Social Narratives and Research: Producing, Consuming and Legitimating Knowledge

1. Valerie Lee Chapman & Thomas J. Sork. (2001). "Confessing Regulation or Telling Secrets? Opening Up the Conversation on Graduate Supervision." Adult Education Quarterly, 51(2), [Page numbers].
2. Patricia Burdell & Beth Blue Swadener. (1999). "Critical Personal Narrative and Autoethnography in Education: Reflections on a Genre," Educational Researcher, pp. 21-26.
3. Renata Salecl. (2000). "Disbelief in the Big Other in the University and Beyond," Anglistica, Special Issue, "Transitions," 4(1), pp. 49-67.
4. Lisa Lowe. (2000). "Toward a Critical Modernity," Anglistica, Special Issue, "Transitions," 4(1), pp. 69-89.

• The Problematics of Researching Ourselves

• Theses, Writing Selves, Places, and Relations: Methods and Identities

1. Brent Kilbourn. (1999). "Fictional Theses." Educational Researcher, 28(9), 27-32
2. Leslie G. Roman. (1996). "Double Exposure: The Politics of Feminist Materialist Ethnography." Educational Theory, 43(3), 279-308.
3. Lesley Johnson, Alison Lee & Bill Green. (2000). "The PhD and the Autonomous Self: Gender, Rationality and Postgraduate Pedagogy." Studies in Higher Education, 25(2), 135-147.

• Social Locations of Researchers in Relation to the 'Subjects' of Their Research
• Research Ethics and the Tri-Council Policy Statement
• Plans for Term 2
• Term 1 paper due

Tentative EDST 601 Schedule, Term 2

Term 2 paper due

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