Recently in Student news Category

At the recent annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Sarah Hansen received the 1st Place Proposal Award at the Division D (Measurement and Research Methodology) In-Progress Research Gala. Sarah's award-winning proposal featured ethnographic research that illuminated the Discourse models informing Indian immigrant parents' school engagement experiences. As a recipient of the award, she will give an invited paper at the 2011 AERA Annual Meeting. Sarah is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Culture and Teaching track (Bic Ngo and Thom Swiss, co-advisors).

Congratulations, Sarah!

Hk Christie is a doctoral student in the program of Curriculum and Instruction majoring in Culture and Teaching with a minor in political psychology. Christie has a M.A. from the University of St. Thomas in Public Policy and Leadership and a dual B.A. degree in Philosophy and Theology from St. Catherine University. Her work focuses on political literacy and the pedagogical practices which support participatory democratic student learning outcomes.

Her research has been featured in the Journal of Critical Educational Policy Studies and The Gift of Education: Public Education and Venture Philanthropy by Kenneth J. Saltman where she conducted the data collection and analysis of the Gates and Broad foundations' tax forms. She has been a speaker at the American Educational Studies Association (AESA), most recently "Dare We Transform AESA: A Call to Activism" at the 2009 national conference.

Annie Mogush Mason is collaborating with Head Start teachers on the White Earth reservation and U of M colleagues Mia Dubosarsky, Gillian Roehrig, and Stephan Carlson to contribute a chapter to an edited volume entitled, "Voices of Native American Indian Educators." The chapter, based on an ongoing professional development project, will tell their story of harnessing collective wisdom to achieve cultural relevance in pre-K classrooms.

Looking back, I realize now that issues of culture and teaching have always been salient in my life. I earned my undergraduate degree from The College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia), where I studied anthropology and education. After college, my first teaching job was in the Peace Corps, where I taught English to elementary, middle, and high school students in Corlateni, Moldova. My Peace Corps experience deepened my interests in culture and teaching.

After spending two years in Moldova, I moved to Minnesota and earned my master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction, with a focus on children's literature. Lee Galda was my advisor in the program and continues to be an important professional and personal mentor for me. She encouraged me gain experience teaching in the United States. I moved back to the east coast to teach third grade just outside of Boston. My first year of teaching "state side" was a shocking wake up call to the reality of how politics operate in schools. It was also one of most satisfying professional experiences.

But I missed the Twin Cities! So, after a year, I headed west again, this time settling into a teaching job at a Minneapolis charter school serving Somali immigrant students and families. I was home. This experience, in which culture and pedagogy intertwined in powerful and sometimes uncomfortable ways, compelled me to enroll as a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, where I now focus on the educational experiences of immigrant students and families in U.S. schools. In the Culture and Teaching track, I work closely with my current advisor, Bic Ngo. Bic has been instrumental in helping me develop as a scholar. And so have my colleagues. Culture and Teaching students are teachers, as well as learners. Their support has been invaluable.

My current research interests center on the experiences of Indian immigrant youth and their families. As a third year graduate student, I am conducting a pilot study with Indian immigrant parents at a community-based organization. This work sustains me--and continually reinforces for me that I am in the right place.

Bic Ngo and Jill Leet-Otley presented at the 6th International Conference on Teacher Education & Social Justice. The conference took place at the University of Illinois-Chicago, on December 5th and 6th, 2009. Their presentation was entitled, Is There a Hmong Gender "Norm"?: Perspectives of Hmong American Policymakers on Gender, Early Marriage and Education.

After a few years of being lost in the years after my undergraduate education, I moved myself to Australia where I enrolled in a two-year teaching degree. In the course of this degree and the single year of teaching first grade in a public school, I was exposed to the philosophy of Paulo Freire, the democratic approaches of preschools in Reggio Emilia (and interned and worked in schools focusing on this inspiration), reflective practice/action research, multi-age classrooms, and intercultural populations of students. My experiences pulled me back to the United States where I felt I could do the most important work, and where it was most important for me to be, personally and politically.

Big influences and sites of learning for me are in hip-hop (and other youth cultures), various conceptual and street artists, Feminist scholars of color, and the earlier years of Sesame Street. I am interested in how culture, meaning, and language are negotiated and constructed across difference of varying degrees.

Part of my experience as a teacher that led me to pursue a Ph.D. was a recognition of how, even within seemingly progressive and democratic educational environments, certain traditional modes of silencing and dividing students, teachers, and parents are perpetuated, limiting the possible sites of negotiation and cultural formation. As a means to this end, I am currently curious as to how certain methodologies (pedagogical and research) allow us to realize the researching potential of teaching and the teaching potential of research.

As a Ph.D. student I have experimented with organizing learning circles and meal groups, been engaged in an Action Research project with teachers, taught in a month long residential course based on the democratic approaches of Myles Horton and the Danish Folk School movement, teaching in an undergraduate class, as well as working in a collaborative, intercultural, intergenerational and multi-linqual research project. I have also been encouraged to find classes in and form relationships with other departments across the University.

I have found the Culture and Teaching program (faculty, students, classes, research) a strong base of support as well as a healthy, constructive space of challenge to my own assumptions and interests. I am extremely thankful for the diverse group of similarly concerned and equally passionate people who make up the Culture and Teaching program and in some sense help me maintain sanity and strength as I pursue a Ph.D.

Luke Lecheler (Learning Technologies) and I will be presenting a paper at the 2010 AERA Annual Meeting.

It's called "Design and Development of a Web Application for English and Composition Classes" and was placed into the session for "Designing Environments, Experiences, and Tools for Teaching and Learning."

We're very excited about presenting Confetti (the application we designed and developed and are continuing to design and develop) at AERA. It's not quite hooked up to a database for general use is, but it should be relatively soon and we'll start testing it further then.

I volunteer at Adam Abdulle Academy, a Somali charter school in Rochester, and I am an active member of the Diversity Council in Rochester. As a member I am involved in community work addressing racism and white privilege. That's about it...no papers published yet although I am currently working on an article with Bic in which we are using CDA to analyze some interviews with Hmong community leaders dealing with early marriage.

I am currently helping my advisor, Bic Ngo, with her research on the experiences of Central African Republic refugees in southern Chad. I've had the opportunity to transcribe interviews and to conduct background research.

I supervise University of Minnesota intro block practicum students in a local urban school--and issues of race and culture come up often. It's literally a forum for culture and teaching in action!

Last summer, I served as a volunteer writing tutor at the International Institute of Minnesota.
Last year, as part of an assistantship, I collaborated with U of Mn Libraries staff members to create online information literacy tutorials through the U's Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation grant.

I'm currently organizing the 2nd annual Minnesota Web Conference (MinneWebCon) here at the University.
MinneWebCon delivers a practical blend of technical and creative information from industry practitioners and educators. It focuses on best practices and the most effective ways to leverage the tools at your disposal, offering insight into what’s ahead and what we can improve on right now.

In 2008 I led a 90 min. professional development workshop for teachers at the Minnesota Statewide Conference for Teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing. The topic of the session was "Increasing the use of technology in instruction" and I made an accompanying blog for that session that is located here: http://lisadembouski.wordpress.com

In April, 2009 I'll present again at the same conference. The topic is still under discussion but I believe it will be about one of my pet projects (including the probable participants of my dissertation study): deaf/hard of hearing students with multiple needs.

I'll be presenting at the Collaboration Conference (Professional Development Conference, at the Sheraton Bloomington, this Friday. This Fall's theme is "Culture Matters: Designing Learning Environments to Foster Cultural Awareness and Intercultural Competence."

I recently signed on as an RA working with Professor Gillian Roehrig to provide support for Ah neen dush: A Science and Mathematics Enrichment Program for the White Earth Reservation Head Start Program. My responsibilities include assisting in curriculum modifications and development of culturally relevant science and mathematics modules for Anishinabe pre-K students. Also, I will continue supervising practicum students at Marcy Open Elementary school this spring.

Presentations and Workshops:
"Journaling to Reflection"?
Association of Teacher Educators
August 2-6, 2008, Washington D.C.

"Winning Grammar: Hands-on Lessons for Real Classrooms"
Wisconsin State Reading Association Convention
February 7-9, 2008, Milwaukee, WI

"Writing in the Elementary Classroom"
Workshop for Elementary Teachers
June 18-June 22, 2007, River Falls, WI

Leadership Opportunities:
Phi Delta Kappa Executive Board position: Foundational Representative for local UW-River Falls Chapter (2008-09)
Phi Delta Kappa Executative Board Member for the State of Wisconsin Chapter 1611 (November 1, 2008- present)
St. Croix Valley Reading Council Representative for University of Wisconsin - River Falls (January 2008-present)