My Thesis

During my undergraduate work in Arizona, I became aware of (and opposed to) Proposition 300 that – amongst other things – forced public universities and community colleges to charge undocumented students out-of-state tuition. My experiences teaching, tutoring and generally interacting socially with undocumented students encouraged me to utilize my privileged status as an aspiring academic (a position of authority) to share the stories of these students and demonstrate that Proposition 300 was poorly crafted public policy which shattered the dreams of many bright young people and their families. Since that time, I have kept in touch with many of these students and know the actions they (and the university administration) are taking to resist or circumvent the law.

An exhaustive literature review on the academic success rates of undocumented students and college access for undocumented students has unearthed very little. Unfortunately, because of their immigration status and the obvious jeopardy they place themselves (and their families) in when revealing said status, there is a dearth of scholarship or even a mention of their existence. I have located a handful of recent dissertations (completed within the last 3 years) and a few articles.

Given the context of this project, an ethnographic study would be most appropriate but considering the short time span and daunting IRB clearance necessary to properly conduct such data collection methods, I believe a conceptual paper is in order. With that said, I would like to deconstruct Proposition 300 through a critical theoretical lens, demonstrating the illogical premises this policy is based on and the juxtaposition of the state keeping undocumented students at arms-length for the purposes of reduced tuition but welcoming such young people with open arms when encouraging them to join the military. This is but one component of an argument in which I hope will properly unpack Proposition 300 (micro) and help tease out more national/international (macro) issues dealing with youth, the postmodern western state and globalization.

Thesis Projects

Alright Gentlemen,

I'm sure the two of you are working on your thesis projects, so I thought I would share with you the outline of my own. I am currently in the process of writing my thesis proposal, which in my program counts as my comprehensive exam (comps).

As part of SPF 301 Culture and Schooling, I require my students to keep a journal over the course of the semester. The prompt for each week is simply, "How does what we are discussing in class connect to what you are seeing in your placement sites?" The journals have approximately 14 entries each and there are approximately 30 students who completed journals and agreed to let me use them.

I want to analyze the journals using critical discourse analysis as a method to uncover the hidden and underlying meanings within the text. I wish to focus specifically on race. I will share with you that already several themes are emerging from the journals including race as something to be overcome and race as an excuse. I then want to place these finding side by side with my own pedagogy and practice in the class. These journals are representative of a particular place and time and I am the intended audience, meaning I am an inextricable part of these texts. Using the method of practitioner inquiry, I wish to explore my own aims and goals as the intructor for this course, as well as the stated aims of the course from the syllabus to determine whether or not the students, while engaged in the practice of critically interrogating their own pedagogy, also critically examined their own held notions of race.

That's what I'm working on day and night these days. What are the two of you working on?

A different take on the increasing youth vote

You don’t have to watch CNN for hours on end to know the election is two weeks away, even though that is not an uncommon occurrence for me. For those of us who spend the vast majority of our time on a college campus, it is apparent that the youth vote is more enthusiastic than ever. A few weeks ago, it seemed like I couldn’t walk for five minutes in any direction on campus without being asked if I was registered to vote. Now that registration is closed, the focus has shifted to chalking sidewalks and trying to increase exposure to this candidate or that issue and so on. As annoyed as I would sometimes be by these constant interruptions to my day, it was overshadowed by my excitement over the buzz of youth activism.

Early voting polls were setup on campus last week and the lines were around the corner. Great. The youth are finally going to the polls.

Let me complicate the situation with a story about my experience waiting in line to vote. Several of the local candidates were standing outside of the entrance to the polling place handing out literature and making last minute connections. The young man standing in front of me was looking through his stack of campaign literature in line and turned to me to ask if I knew anything about any of the candidates. I started to explain who they were and he interrupted me to say something along the lines of, “well, I’ll just vote democrat for all of these things, but it’s the big election that I haven’t decided on yet.”

Whoa, this guy was heading in to vote in less than five minutes and hadn’t decided between Obama and McCain? He proceeded to tell me that his Father was an Obama supporter and his Mother supported McCain, so they just weren’t going to vote. “I have an idea,” he said, as he pulled a coin from his pocket. If a flip of the coin showed heads, it would mean a vote for Obama and thus tails meant McCain. I crossed my theoretical fingers and watched with bated breath until I saw Lincoln’s beautiful head. If it had been his memorial that had been visible instead, I would have attempted the most rapid political intervention/lesson in history. The last thing that he said to me as he entered the poll was that he would vote for all democrats except for the county treasurer, you know, in order to keep a balance.

The scary thing is that this story is completely true. There has been such a push for an increase in youth voters that the educational aspect of it has fallen to the wayside. There are people all over campus asking if students are registered to vote. Once they have registered, they ask them if they have voted or are planning on it. No one is asking why they are voting or if they have thought critically about who and what they are voting for.

I am not sure who is to blame for this phenomenon. Is it parental influence? Many of the students of this millennial generation rely so heavily their parents for answers that it is not hard to believe that they would just cast a vote for a candidate because their mother or father supports them. Is it the fault of the educational system for not sufficiently educating the youth about the electoral system? Functionalists argue that the goal of the educational system is to teach students to be good citizens, and what is more valued as an American citizen than the right to vote? It could very well be the television media, whose pundits spin every issue around so much that you need to be a political scientist to decipher what they are really saying. If increasing voter registration and turnout is a goal that we want to invest in as a nation, there needs to be a system in place to assist those voters in educating themselves about the real issues.

I am not sure that the blame can be pointed in one particular direction. Is it better to have a large turnout of youth voters or a smaller contingency of informed voters? It’s a coin toss.

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Right Wing Media

I want to laugh, its just that I know millions of people watch FOX NOISE and treat it like it is the only true news out there. Why isn't Chris Matthews or Anderson Cooper showing these clips?

Welcome!

As an addendum to Zac's post, I would like to welcome everyone to this nascent endeavor. I am interested about possibilities that this blog opens for the three of us to keep in touch and share our diverse personal & professional pursuits. The next year of my life (and likely the others) will rather fascinating as I write my thesis, apply to doctoral programs and make a decision about where I will be studying/living for the next 3 - 5 years of my life...sort of a big deal. This will probably make for some interesting readings.

With that said, I am excited for what is next to come and looking forward to getting the privledge to explore the fields of education, history and politics with all of you.

The First Post

I don't have a ton of time to devote to this posting, but here is our blog.  My idea for it at this moment is that it can serve as a place where the "Progressive Triumvirate," can share our lives with each other and with anyone else who shows an interest.  

What I think is interesting about the three of us is that we are very similar in many ways, yet going about our own human projects in different ways.  All three of us are in graduate programs studying education, and yet we each have a different take on academia, the political, and the personal.  I'm looking forward to this blog as being a site where we can exchange ideas, opinions, and anything else.

Remembering that virtually everything is educative, and that each of us is studying education, there are really no limitations to the breadth of this blog.  

Cheers,

ZAC