#psugse

[portlandstateresearch]

Ben Anderson-Nathe, Child, youth and family studies, co-authored an article titled “In a world of “Us” and “Them”: the case against intervention-focused research” in the Journal of Child and Youth Services, November 2018.

If the recent global demographic movements, including refugee movements from Syria and North Africa to Europe, illegal immigrants from Central America to the United States, and fleeing Rohingya Muslims from Burma to Bangladesh, have taught us anything, it is that we are still very much entrenched in “us” and “them” narratives. In fact, these demographic movements have brought to the fore what was probably already there—a deep mistrust of “them,” filtered through racism, hate speech, and damage-based understandings of the other. This is our country, our community, our neighborhood, and they better acknowledge that by behaving our way, following our traditions, and becoming Us (pending our decision that these efforts have been sufficient). It is an ugly narrative, one that has often given rise to violence. Both historically and currently, political leadership has, in many cases, actively contributed to the mayhem; certainly the contemporary narrative feeds off well-embedded resentments and ideological positions in civil society. The much-taunted grassroots, which were associated with progressive and forward-looking ideas not so long ago, turned out to also exist as reactionary, small-minded, and often racist social groups.

[portlandstateresearch]

Dilafruz Williams, Education faculty, co-authored a chapter, “Eco-Aesthetics, Metaphor, Story, and Symbolism: An Indigenous Perspective,” in International Research Handbook on Childhood Nature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research, edited by A. Cutter-Mackenzie, K. Malone and E. Hacking. Published by Springer in March, 2018.

In this final section of the Handbook, we turn to ecological aesthetics in response to radical changes in both the nature of childhood and the nature of nature in the contemporary world. Artistic and aesthetic approaches have become increasingly relevant as children encounter a world typified by the acceleration of social, technological, and environmental change, and the mutually reinforcing conditions of planetary instability, inequality, and precarity. Anthropogenic climate change, the mass extinction of plant and animal life, and the chemical contamination of air, food, soil, and water resources are transforming not only what we might think of as “the environment”, but also the aesthetic qualities and environmental sensibilities that constitute the experience of being alive. For many scholars these changing conditions of Earthly life have taken on the name of ‘Anthropocene’, an epoch defined by the total imbrication of human life with more than human planetary systems and technologies. The authors in this section take up ecological aesthetics as a relational, experimental, and theoretically adventurous field which aims to grasp the experiential qualities of life under these changing conditions, and to imagine alternatives. With chapters focusing on the role of movement, nature-study, poetry, pattern, sense-awareness, and the creation of experimental works of art, this section highlights interdisciplinary research and pedagogy which attends to richly textured compositions of childhoodnature experience through a diverse range of material, social and conceptual practices. In drawing together a range of Indigenous, speculative, sensory, cultural, empirical, and artistic approaches, the range of chapters collected in this section attests to the diversity and emergent shaping of ecological aesthetics as a field that is still very much in the making.

[portlandstateresearch]

Maika J. Yeigh and Todd Cherner, Curriculum and Instruction faculty, co-authored “Text-to-Web: Adding Digital Connections into the Mix,” published in the Illinois Reading Council Journal, Vol. 46, No. 3, Summer 2018. The article introduces a different kind of connection that readers can make with a text as an extension to Rosenblatt’s seminal transaction theory of reading.

[portlandstateresearch]

Portland State University Graduate School of Education Dean Marvin Lynn has been appointed as a director of The Educator Advancement Council (EAC), a brand new advisory group representing Oregon educators and community leaders.

Following two years of efforts by the Governor’s Council on Educator Advancement, the EAC was created this year by Oregon Legislature to help the state reach the goal of high-quality, well-supported and culturally responsive educators in every classroom. The Council will establish a system of local educator networks to connect Oregon public educators with professional learning and support so that they can best serve students.

Lynn joined PSU as dean of the Graduate School of Education last fall. He is an internationally recognized expert on race and education and the lead editor of the Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education published simultaneously in the U.S. and the U.K. with Routledge Press. He serves as an editorial board member of several journals, and has published more than two-dozen research articles and book chapters in reputable outlets.

Lynn works closely with an outstanding and diverse faculty and staff to advance the national profile of high-quality academic programs while further building and strengthening relationships with local schools.

The new EAC has 20 education and philanthropic leaders from across Oregon including superintendents, K-12 teachers, foundation and government leaders. Four members of the council are PSU alumni.

[portlandstateresearch]

Graduate School of Education Assistant Professor Hollie Hix-Small has been named a Fulbright Scholar to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. She will reside in the Southeast Asian country for four months, from June to September 2019, and will work to support implementation of their 2017–2020 National Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Intervention. Hix-Small, who has expertise in early childhood intervention and is known nationally and internationally for her work, will help to develop the country’s first higher education curriculum for Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) services.

[portlandstateresearch]

Nicole Rigelman, Education faculty, and Donna Shrier, Curriculum and Instruction faculty, co-authored “Synergizing Math Instruction: A Partnership between an Elementary School and a University Transforms Professional Learning,” published in The Learning Professional, April.

[portlandstateresearch]

Will Parnell, Curriculum and Instruction faculty, co-authored an invited book chapter titled “Early Childhood Teacher Educator as Public Intellectual" in the book Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education and Care, Second Edition, April.

[portlandstateresearch]

Torrey Kulow, Education faculty, has been named a Mathematics Fellow by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. The Service, Teaching and Research (STaR) in Mathematics Education Fellowship is an induction program for early-career mathematics educators working at institutions of higher education.