Practicing reflection: Representing and critiquing the “real world” in the professional classroom

1. Practicing reflection: Representing and critiquing the “real world” in the professional classroom David FisherEnglish DepartmentIowa State UniversityMarch 18, 2005

2. Expansion of occupational and professional programs “Practical arts” core replacing old liberal arts and sciences core at Doc-granting and Comprehensive Universities (Brint) Question: Do simulations like ours un-problematically reproduce dominant social practices in the classroom? Alternatively, do classroom simulations afford opportunities for reflection and critique?

3. Example: Unproblematic representation To be successful, treat this class as a job. My role is to assign work, to provide instruction and guidance, and to evaluate finished products. Your duty is to come to work on time and do your tasks cheerfully and on schedule.

4. Radical / critical critique of the “real” • Resistance (Giroux) “. . . mechanisms of social and cultural reproduction are never complete and are always faced with partially realized elements of opposition .” • Tyranny of the “real” (Herndl) “If we recognize and explore the challenge presented by the relationship between discourse, teaching, and social reproduction, we may be able to discover ways to intervene and initiate cultural critique within our research and pedagogical practice. This would, of course, require that we expand our research goals and significantly alter our teaching .”

5. Representing “reality” in the classroom • Student-centered learning environments (Jonassen) “. . . simulate activity structure, the sociocultural context, and the mediation systems that are prominent in those activity systems.” • Attribution (Pardoe) “If the tutor or students attribute an activity or experience to the wider profession, they will see it as significant insight and learning.” • Appreciative systems (Gee) “. . . form the sorts of goals, desires, feelings, and values that ‘insiders’ in that domain . . . typically have.”

6. Space and time: (Changing) Social practices “Human social activities, like some self-reproducing items in nature, are recursive. That is to say, they are not brought into being by social actors but continually recreated by them via the very means by which they express themselves as actors.” (Giddens, 1984)

7. Providing Spaces for action:Co-constructing the “real” • Hypertextual organizational representation • Dynamic environment • Document cycling

8. Providing spaces for reflection and critique • Representation of time—e.g., given what happened what would you change? • Critical seeds—e.g, anti-GMO emails, open-ended assignments • Speech acts (performative utterances)—e.g., non-compete contract, public polls • Weekly prompts (one other document) • Shadow assignment sequence

9. Reflection types • Learning—e.g., What would I do differently the next time? • Instrumental—e.g., How might I make things more efficient (in the environment)? • Critical—e.g., How would I work to change the institution or resist practices with which I don’t agree?

10. Learning Reflection I don't think we placed enough emphasis on framework as we were trying to get the right answer. A framework eases communication, and efficiently captures many of the ideas that we were struggling with, and we just didn't focus enough on our SWOT analysis. For me, this is one of the things I take from the course.

11. Instrumental reflection If I were to send out a message to Omega employees, I would probably use email. I think most people are like me in that I check my email multiple times daily. I am also more apt to read an email rather than a letter or other paper that I can easily set down and get covered up. With email, I see it every time I open my inbox until I read it and then get rid of it. I feel that email is very effective as long as the message is keptshort and to the point.

12. Critical reflection I think Omega as a company should establish, and writedown, its policy and beliefs about the ethics of GMOs. The statement would require scientific facts of thesafety of GMOs. This statement should be posted on theWebsite and referenced when an outside group or personis questioning whether Omega's practices are ethical. All employees should be instructed to be familiar withthe policy and to refer anyone questioning Omega'sstance to the Website.

13. Ethics Statement Genetic Modification (Engineering)Sales and Marketing of ProductsResearch and TestingAccounting and Financial ReportingCommunication

14. Ethics Statement Genetic Modification (Engineering) Any product that is created should be studied across multiple generations to ensure a safe release to the public. The country which has used native types of species has specific rights to the organism that is taken from that country. Genetic Modification (Engineering)Sales and Marketing of ProductsResearch and TestingAccounting and Financial ReportingCommunication

15. Final Thought Classroom representations of the “real world” can afford spaces for both instrumental and critical action and reflection. The way in which the relationship between work and school is mediated helps determine what shapes these spaces take and how students fill them.