What Do You Get a Doctoral Student for Christmas?

I will be updating my blog with details from the UNO presidential search later tonight. However, in the meantime, here’s a Christmas post.

I assume that, like me, most doctoral students keep a wish list of books. Well, here’s mine. If only all academic books were available for Kindle…

Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx by Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala

Rethinking admissions for a new millennium: moving past the SAT for social diversity and academic excellence (2011– Forthcoming). Soares, J.A.

Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality by John Marsh

Changing Inequality by Rebecca M. Blank

Police in the Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High School by Kathleen Nolan

House Signs and Collegiate Fun: Sex, Race, and Faith in a College Town by Chaise LaDousa

White Middle-Class Identities and Urban Schooling by Diane Reay, Gill Crozier, and David James

American Plastic: Boob Jobs, Credit Cards, and Our Quest for Perfection by Laurie Essig

Gender and the Construction of Dominant, Hegemonic, and Oppositional Femininities by Justin Charlebois

The Plantation by Edgar Tristram Thompson, edited by Sidney Mintz and George Baca

Democracy and the Intersection of Religion: The Reading of John Dewey’s Understanding of Democracy and Education by Rosa Bruno-Jofre

Education as Dialogue: Its Prerequisites and Its Enemies by Tasos Kazepides

Cultural Studies in the Future Tense by Lawrence Grossberg

First Nations Education Policy in Canada: Progress or Gridlock? by Jerry Paquette

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

The Demographics of Empire: The Colonial Order and the Creation of Knowledge edited by Karl Ittmann, Dennis D. Cordell, and Gregory H. Maddox

Thatcher and After: Margaret Thatcher and Her Afterlife inContemporary Culture edited by Louisa Hadley and Elizabeth Ho

Sustainable Diplomacies edited by Costas M. Constantinou and James Der Derian

Nine Choices: Johnny Cash and American Culture by Jonathan Silverman

 

Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady by Maurine H. Beasley

Public Engagement for Public Education: Joining Forces to Revitalize Democracy and Equalize Schools edited by Marion Orr and John Rogers

Gender, Politics, and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Interpretation edited by Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay

Old Assumptions, New Realities: Ensuring Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century edited by Robert D. Plotnick

The Still Divided Academy: How Competing Visions of Power, Politics, and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education, with co-authors Stanley Rothman and Matthew Woessner

Everyone’s a Winner: Life in Our Congratulatory Culture by Joel Best

The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millennium by Michele Elam

The Impact of the Postcolonial Theories of Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha on Western Thought: The Third-World Intellectual in the First-World Academy by Sumit Chakrabarti

Taxing the Poor: Doing Damage to the Truly Disadvantaged by Katherine S. Newman and Rourke L. O’Brien

Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory by Clare Hemmings

More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Imani Perry

Neighborhood and Life Chances: How Place Matters in Modern America edited by Harriet B. Newburger, Eugenie L. Birch, and Susan M. Wachter

The Three Stigmata of Friedrich Nietzsche: Political Physiology in the Age of Nihilism by Nandita Biswas Mellamphy

Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton

From Bourgeois to Boojie: Black Middle Class Performances edited by Vershawn Ashanti Young and Bridget Harris Tsemo

School Choice and School Improvement edited by Mark Berends, Marisa Cannata, and Ellen B. Goldring

Education Reform in New York City: Ambitious Change in the Nation’s Most Complex School System edited by Jennifer A. O’Day, Catherine S. Bitter, and Louis M. Gomez

Collaborative Governance: Private Roles for Public Goals in Turbulent Times by John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser

Restoring Democracy to America: How to Free Markets and Politics From the Corporate Culture of Business and Government by John F.M. McDermott

Kids Don’t Want to Fail: Oppositional Culture and the Black-White Achievement Gap by Angel L. Harris

The Legacy of Pierre Bourdieu: Critical Essays edited by Simon Susen and Bryan S. Turner

Feminism: Transmissions and Retransmissions by Marta Lamas, translated by John Pluecker

The Fabric of Subcultures: Networks, Ethnic Force Fields, and Peoples Without Power by Mustapha Marrouchi

A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food by Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt

UNO Presidential Candidates: Public Interviews Next Week

Below is the schedule of public interviews for the candidates for the University of New Orleans’ President. Candidate resumes/c.v.’s can also be viewed online at: http://www.ulsystem.edu//index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&pid=285

The following information is from UNO’s website.

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The public interviews will take place in the Homer Hitt Alumni and Visitor Center Ballroom on UNO’s campus.  They are scheduled as follows:

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

•         2:30 p.m. – COLIN G. SCANES (D.Sc. – Hull University; Ph.D. – University of Wales), Professor of Biological Science and former Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

•         1:30 p.m. – STEVEN R. GOODMAN (Ph.D. – Saint Louis University Medical School), Vice President for Research and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Professor of Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at State University of New York Upstate Medical University

Thursday, December 1, 2011

•         10:15 a.m. – PETER J. FOS (Ph.D. – Tulane University; D.D.S. – Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center), Professor and Program Director of Health Policy and Systems Management at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, and former Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Tyler

•         1:30 p.m. – MICHAEL A. WARTELL (Ph.D. – Yale University), Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

Ed Policy Wonkette Post: Why the Nation Should Watch Louisiana

Governor Jindal has said that education policy and reform will be the center piece of his administration this term. BESE (Board of Elementary & Secondary Education) run-offs concluded yesterday, and Jindal will have enough allies on the BESE board to carry the reform agenda and advance it throughout the state. One of the highest profile BESE races concluded yesterday with Kira Orange Jones unseating incumbent Louella Givens. See the Times-Picayune’s coverage here.

So what does this mean for Louisiana? Well, 8 votes on BESE is the “super majority” needed for the governor to push his agenda through, and it looks like he will easily have that. Here’s what is likely to happen:

• John White, current superintendent of the RSD, will become the State superintendent
• Charter schools will likely expand to more parishes outside of Orleans
• Teacher accountability will be front and center; rewarding performance and being able to remove substandard performers

Now, some of the above is speculative, but I think it is important to pay attention to what will be happening here in Louisiana. A few months ago, I made this post about the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count data. Louisiana is ranked 49th of 50 states on most indicators related to child well-being, including educational measures. Significant changes need to be made in Louisiana, and it looks like one set of solutions related to education is about to be advanced.

However, in order for the reforms to be successful, context needs to be considered. I don’t think we can simply scale-up the New Orleans reforms state-wide. While there are high need populations throughout this state, context matters. Rural schools and districts will have to be considered as state education policy evolves. School choice as a prevailing policy may work in urban areas, but it would be much harder to have school choice in rural districts where there is only one school serving the area.

All of this is to say that I think it is an exciting time to be living in Louisiana as a student of education. A lot will be happening in education once the new BESE members take their seats in January. It’s exciting to me that Louisiana may be a leader in educational reform.

Governor Jindal has a lot riding on this too. I still believe that he has ambitions greater than just Louisiana, and if I am right about that and if the educational policies of the Jindal administration are seen as successful, we (educators and educationists) may need to have a serious conversation about what scaling these reforms up even more might look like.

If you are interested in education, you need to watch Louisiana.

Ed Policy Wonkette Post: Event Alert BESE District 2

There is a candidate forum this Wednesday for the District 2 BESE run off.  Details below were found on the Cowen Institute website. http://www.coweninstitute.com/resources/calendar-of-meetings-and-events/

BESE Candidate Forum
November 16, 6pm
Professional Schools and Science Building, Dillard University
Incumbent Louella Givens, a local attorney is facing a runoff with Kira Orange Jones, the executive director of Teach for America’s local headquarters for the District 2 seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The event is sponsored by the African American Women of Purpose and Power and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. Votes for the District 2 seat will be cast on November 19.

Oh, Penn State

I feel I would be remiss if I did not address the recent revelations at Penn State. In case you haven’t been following it, I would suggest looking at Inside Higher Ed’s coverage. To summarize, the president and head football coach have been fired by the university’s board due to a cover-up involving an assistant coach’s sexual abuse of several young boys.

For me, this is less about the football and athletics context of the scandal, and more about ethical and moral leadership. The assistant coach’s actions are absolutely indefensible and morally reprehensible, but so too are those of the head coach for inaction. I am a bit unclear on when the university president became aware of the abuse, but for me the current case of Penn State demonstrates the dangers of leaders acting in a way that does not place ethics at the center.

How many victims could have been spared from abuse if the truth had come out sooner and the assistant coach had been removed? I don’t want to hear another word about the “winningest” coach- the true victims, these children and their families, should be the focus of our concern.

Breaking My Own Blogging Rules

So, I have been breaking my own blogging rules. I really try to post at least once a week. I even recently did a workshop at a regional conference about blogging and using social media as an education researcher and I made the point to those in attendance that it is imperative that you make a commitment to writing regularly. There is nothing more annoying than a dead-end blog. In an effort to stop breaking my own rules I am posting today.

I didn’t post last week because I was out of New Orleans. I was at the Mid-South Education Research Association (MSERA) conference at Ole Miss and then at the College For Every Student (CFES) national conference in Burlington, VT.

I want to spend a moment talking a little more about MSERA. This was a wonderful regional conference and I found the climate to be very supportive of graduate students. If you are in AR, LA, MS, AL, TN, or KY I highly suggest adding this conference to your schedule for next year. MSERA 2012 will be held in Lexington, KY. I had a great time at the conference with my colleagues from the University of New Orleans. Many thanks to fellow doctoral student Shannon Chaisson for getting me involved and congratulations to Shannon for being elected as Graduate Student Representative to the MSERA board.

In case you’re interested in what I was up to at those conferences, here are the links to my conference Prezis. I promise a more substantive post soon. If you’re in Louisiana don’t forget to keep an eye on the BESE district run-offs!

MSERA:

Understanding Performance Incentives in Postsecondary Policy: The Case of Louisiana 

To Blog or Not To Blog? Branding Yourself With Social Media

CFES:

College Success: Strategies to Ensure Our Scholars Cross the Finish Line 

Prezi: How Am I Just Learning About This Now?

So last night in my Advanced Theories in Educational Leadership class, we were discussing how to do a presentation that reflects a postmodern paradigm, and someone said use “Prezi.”

Long story short Prezi is awesome and is my new favorite online tool. How did I not know about this before? I took an existing PowerPoint I was planning on using in the UNIV 1001 (freshman seminar) course that I teach tomorrow, and quickly turned it into a Prezi. I can’t wait to see what I can do with this when I get more familiar with it.

Link is below:

http://prezi.com/kmu4xgiqqcdz/personal-wellness/

Update: Ok this is ridiculous. It’s midnight and I am still up. Why? Because I just made another Prezi.http://prezi.com/jeziamben42u/college-success/

It’s for a conference next weekend this time though. So it was productive, but I am obsessed with Prezi now.