Re: so i'm a pessimist

From: Peter Smagorinsky (psmagorinsky@home.com)
Date: Tue Jun 05 2001 - 03:14:05 PDT


At 08:50 PM 6/4/01 -0700, you wrote:
>I hope to hear from others on this issue

A report from the American Deep South: I teach in the University of
Georgia's College of Education. I don't know the whole COE's demographics
(we have about 240 faculty), but my own department includes 4 men and 10
women. If research methods can be viewed as gendered (or at least tend
that way), I think that this gender balance creates a favorable environment
for doing qualitative research. Our college includes a qualitative
research faculty (Jude Preissle of LeCompte and Preissle, and others) and
sponsors an annual QUIG (Qualitative Interest Group) qualitative research
conference in January. We do have some distinguished quant folks (e.g.
Carl Huberty, Don Rubin) but on the whole the COE's rep is based on the
qualitative emphasis. Since at UGA tenure decisions are rarely overturned
once they leave the faculty member's home unit, it's a good place to do
this kind of work. I'm wondering if the gender makeup of tenure committees
has any implications for the kinds of work that gets valued (recognizing
that gender by itself does not determine anything).

One other thing: UGA is a land-grant and sea-grant university, and a
Research I university. It therefore has multiple missions that often don't
coexist easily: to serve the good people of Georgia and meet the
undergraduate mission, and to gain national/international status in
research, get grants that buy out teaching responsibilities, dedicate time
to doctoral students, etc. I think that a Research I university without the
land/sea grant missions might discriminate against "applied" research
because it's less concerned with serving people. Universities that must
respond to their constituents have to have an application of their work or
the people and legislature will provide them with less money to work with,
call for their ouster, etc. So, as someone grounded in cultural
psychology, I think it's important to understand where we work and the
kinds of cultures that our institutions are situated within to understand
the kinds of work that are supported; i.e., what is the motive of the
setting and what kinds of mediating tools are available and supported in
working toward cultural goals?

Peter



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