“Public Engagement and the Politics of Evidence in an Age of Neoliberalism and Audit Culture” July 23-25, 2015, University of Regina.

This symposium will examine accelerating trends in higher education: neoliberalism, the politics of evidence, and the audit culture. In an age in which value is often equated with accountancy, we will examine the place in the academy for public intellectualism, community-engagement, Indigenous epistemologies, and how the impact of our scholarship is, and ought to be, justly assessed.

Questions to be explored include: 

What counts as scholarship and why? 

How do we achieve accountability in an age of accountancy? 

How do we measure research impact, (i.e., journal impact factor vs community and policy impact)? 

Impact for whom? 

Who and how do we determine whose evidence and what research is legitimate? 

What can be done? How do we effect change to university practices?

Confirmed speakers include:

Dr. Marie Battiste, Dr. Nick Carleton, Dr. Norman Denzin, Dr. Michelle Fine, Dr. Chad Gaffield, Dr. Sandy Grande, Dr. Rosalind Gill, Dr. Budd Hall, Dr. Yvonna Lincoln, Dr. Matthew McKean, Dr. Marcia McKenzie, Dr. Peter McLaren, Dr. Christopher Meyers, Dr. Leigh Patel, Dr. Andrea Smith, Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Dr. Robina Thomas, Dr. Eve Tuck, and, Dr. Joel Westheimer;

Please visit the symposium website at:

www.politicsofevidence.ca

Funding Opportunity:

We are pleased to announce the 2014-15 Verna J. Kirkness (Ni-jing-jada) Award.  Awards totaling $2,100 have been endowed by friends, colleagues and the University of British Columbia in honour of Dr. Verna J. Kirkness (Ni-jing-jada), the founding director of the First Nations House of Learning and the Ts”Kel Graduate Studies Program. The awards are offered to students of Aboriginal ancestry in Education, preference will be given to Canadian Aboriginal graduate students.  Preference is also given to students involved in academic projects or research that will advance the cause of Canadian Aboriginal education.  The award is made on the recommendation of the Faculty of Education in consultation with the First Nations House of Learning, and in the case of graduate students, the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

For more information on this award as well as the Award Cover Sheet, please see the attachment, or the following web page:http://ogpr.educ.ubc.ca/grad/funding/opportunities/

The deadline for application packages to the OGPR: 4:00 pm on February 13, 2015.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

As part of Outweek (feb 6-13), The Pride Collective is organizing Queer U, an annual graduate level academic conference on sexualities and genders. The conference centers on bringing the research and work of graduate students and established scholars from across the west coast of north america and beyond to a broad audience in an attempt to foster understanding and discussion.

This year, the theme is “Sewing Seeds and Setting Roots”. We are focusing on being able to give everyone who participates something to take away at the end of they day, so that they can develop their own thoughts and build on it in ways that are relevant to their lives. Whether this is a list of useful resources or literal tools to use to start discussions, our aim is to give everyone the foundation to work off of the histories we often forego and forget, and the confidence to make the changes they want to see happen in the world. Please try to work this into your presentation, but any and all submissions will be considered.

This call for papers is open to graduate contributors and established scholars from any department or area of research that relates to sexuality and gender. Strong undergraduate submissions are also accepted. Workshop Proposals related to community are welcome as well. All topics are welcome; however Queer U is especially seeking submissions dealing with the following topics:
-Queer/Trans* Diasporas
-Temporalities of Queer/Trans* Spaces
-Innovative looks at the Relationship Between Community and Identity
-Relationships Between Community and Wellness
-Anti-racist, Indigenous, and/or intersectional feminist approaches are encouraged!
-Intersections of Queer/Trans* Communities with Systems of Power

if interested, send in a short (300 word or less) abstract outlining the paper, presentation, and/or workshop to prideubc@gmail.com no later than December 20th, 2014. Please Title email Queer U abstract.

The Queer U Conference is open to the general public. It will take place on Saturday, February 7th from 11am to 5pm and immediately be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

INDS502c-SOWK570k Course Historical Memory and Social Recounstruction flyer

Koerner Library Workshops: 

• Literature Reviews – Great Research Starts Here
• Thursday, November 20th, 2014 at 10:00AM – 12:00PM
• http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/5343
• Citation Management Using Mendeley
• Thursday, November 20th, 2014 at 1:30PM – 3:30PM
• http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/5186

Date:             Thursday, Oct 30^th 2014

Venue:          Scarfe Room 310

Time:             4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Title:              The Medicalized Paradigm of Contemporary Empirical Research and Its Effects on Education Policy & School Reform

Speaker:       Dr. Daniel Tröhler, University of Luxembourg

Abstract:

This paper argues that educational research today is subjected to a medicalized paradigm of social reality. It reconstructs, how the catchwords of this paradigm (evidence-based, monitoring, intervention studies) arouse and how they translated into the educational field, and it analyzes, how this paradigm deprives policy from professional experience, common sense, and political deliberation.

Dear UBC Education Faculty, Post-Docs, and Doctoral Students,

The University of Pittsburgh announces one new position as part of the University’s new Center for Motivation and Learning. This position is jointly held in the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) and the School of Education, which partner with the Motivation Center in seeking new faculty to be part of collaborative multidisciplinary communities in learning and emotions, motivation, affective neuroscience, cognitive and developmental psychology. Please see attached for more information.MotivationJobDescription_Final

The Office of Graduate Programs and Research is coordinating the Year of Research in Education and looking for two half-time Graduate Academic Assistants (GAAs).

The GAAs will work in close collaboration with Brigitte Gemme, project manager for the Year of Research in Education. Their duties will include writing stories for the Year of Research in Education web site and other publishing venues about Faculty of Education research, events, and initiatives; taking photographs; filming and editing video; monitoring and providing content for the @UBCEdResearch Twitter channel; and supporting other Year of Research in Education events and initiatives as necessary; and more. Being present on campus will be necessary for a lot of the tasks to be performed. Excellent writing skills, especially for a general audience, are required, along with curiosity, creativity, capacity for independent work, and sound judgement.

Each GAA will be working approximately 5 hours per week between November 1st, 2014and June 30^th, 2015. The hourly wage is $22.34 for Master’s level students and $23.21 for doctoral student.

Interested applicants should contact Brigitte Gemme by email before October 27^th at 9 a.m. Please include a short letter (in the body of the email) indicating why you are interested in the position and how you are a good fit for the Year of Research in Education. Please also include your CV or resume. If you have examples of prior writing, media or creative work that you feel is relevant to the position, please include some links.

Hermeneutic Phenomenological Research and Writing

EDCP 585 Winter 2015; Wed 4:30-7:30, Scarfe 1210

Norman Friesen, PhD (norman.friesen@ubc.ca)

What is the experience of an exhilarating moment in class? How does a child live through failure or abandonment (and what can we actually “know” about it)? The purpose of this course is to give a “hands-on” introduction to the methods involved in the research of the nature and meaning of these and other lived experiences. Based largely on the work of Max van Manen, but relying on texts by Heidegger, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty and others, it focuses on the practices of writing and analysis in hermeneutic phenomenological research. It is intended to provide students with an opportunity to learn about and apply of hermeneutic phenomenology as it relates to MEd or doctoral research projects. It will engage students in a number of hermeneutic phenomenological research practices, including descriptive writing (and re-writing), interviewing, conceptual clarification and the thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Students will also learn about phenomenological research as a way of formulating a research question, and of “dwelling with” that question as research progresses.

If your thesis will involve statistical analysis and you would like some FREE HELP, contact SCARL (Statistical Consulting and Research Lab) for advice!
http://www.stat.ubc.ca/SCARL/HowSCARLHelp/

EDCP 501 62A abstract

Are you a Ph.D. student with knowledge of Classroom Assessment theory and practice? Do you have classroom experience?  Would you like to add to your CV and earn some money?  Speaking French is also a great bonus—though not a requirement.  If some or all of these fit for you, there is a great opportunity for you to apply to become a GTA for EPSE 310 (Assessment and Learning in the Classroom).

This course is developed as a community of practice and is taught in a lecture/seminar format in January (5th -30th) and in a seminar format fromFebruary 16-March 20.  GTAs chosen to teach the seminars will be given a lot of support in designing and delivering the content of each class (a standard syllabus will be used).  You can apply to teach in one or both terms.

In the January term GTAs would come to observe the lecture and then instruct the Teacher Candidates (TCs) in the smaller seminar groups.  Here you would lead hands-on activities, discussions and projects as well as help with, and grade, the TC assignments.  Being a GTA in the January term would help prepare you for the February/March term where you would be the full instructor for the course (though the syllabus is common to all sections—so no worries about having to design this).  In both terms, you will be mentored in your teaching giving you a challenging, fun, and successful experience that builds on your passion as a teacher. The jobs are posted now on the ECPS website:

http://ecps.educ.ubc.ca/people/job-opportunities/, so please have a look or forward this to those who might be interested.

Department of Educational Studies (EDST)

DESCRIPTION: Seeking a graduate student at the master’s or doctoral level to work on a research project that will investigate the pedagogical values, professional careers, and personal life courses of Canada’s earliest special education teachers.

The two-year Hampton Grant funded project is directed by Dr. Jason Ellis, Assistant Professor, EDST, and is entitled “A Special Vocation: Teachers of Early Special Education Classes in Two Canadian City School Systems, 1910 to 1945.”

CONDITIONS: The Graduate student researchers will receive an hourly wage of $24.96 for a master’s student or $27.04 for a doctoral student with benefits.

POSITION: DATABASE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS/PROGRAMMING RESEARCHER.

The starting date for this position is approximately November 17, 2014 to February 6, 2015. The hours of work are 10 hours/week.

NATURE OF WORK:

• The database design and analysis/programming researcher will be responsible for: (1) designing a database; preparing data entry protocols and codebook; cleaning data entered by researchers; maintaining the database; managing version control and files on an FTP site; and, providing quality assurance on the database. (Database to consist of information on the demographic profiles and professional activities of teachers who taught special classes in Toronto and Vancouver);

• for, (2) extracting and performing statistical analysis of quantitative data from the database in order to answer research questions posed by the project director;

• and for, (3) programming in Python (or a similar language, such as R) to scrape or data mine the World Wide Web (WWW) for historical sources that have been digitized, such as school board directories, census records, newspapers, and other sources, in order to identify further information about special class teachers; collecting and archiving this data for inclusion in the database; some data entry.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:

• The applicant should be enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia.
• A background in History (e.g. BA, MA or other degree or diploma, major or minor concentration, in History); or Computer science (or closely related fields, e.g. Statistics) (e.g. BSc, MSc, other degree or diploma, major or minor) would be an asset, but is not a requirement.
• Applicants whose academic preparation (or academic preparation and knowledge and experience) combines History, humanities, or social sciences with programming or statistics are urged to apply (this combined background is not a requirement).

Knowledge and experience:

• (Required.) Experience or knowledge designing, maintaining and extracting and analysing information in databases.

• (Required.) Experience applying quantitative research methods and principles.

• (Required.) Statistical analysis of quantitative data experience.

• (Required.) Experience or knowledge programming in Python (or R).

• (Not required, but would be an asset.) Experience or knowledge programming for web-scraping or data mining the WWW for archival or library information (for e.g. using pymarc; automatic downloading with wget; downloading with query strings).

• (Not required, but would be an asset.) Some general familiarity with qualitative research methods and principles.

Skills:

• Intermediate to advanced computing skills in the areas described.

• Intermediate to advanced data science or statistical analysis skills (e.g. working with multidimensional data).

• Ability to work independently and creatively solve problems.

• Ability to follow timelines, instructions and meet deadlines.

• Attention to detail.

Please submit:

• a cover letter that is no more than one page in length and that speaks specifically to your qualifications for the position;

• an up-to-date current Curriculum Vitae;

• names, titles, and contact information for up to two academic or professional references.

Please submit all materials by email to Dr. Jason Ellis (j.ellis@ubc.ca) no later than 11:59 p.m. on  October 10, 2014.

Literature Reviews – Great Research Starts Here
October 10^th, 2014
Friday, October 10th, 2014 at 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Location: WALTER C. KOERNER LIBRARY RM 217
Description: This session is appropriate for students conducting literature reviews in any discipline.
Topics include 
… what is a literature review? 
… finding the right databases
… search strategies for databases 
… finding scholarly articles, theses and dissertations, books, and more 
… resources to help you keep track of your research. 
There will be plenty of hands-on time for searching, and assistance from the two presenting librarians. 
Facilitator(s): Sheryl Adam, Sally Taylor, Katherine Miller, Kevin Lindstrom, Susan Paterson, Brenda Peterson 
http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/5161