Browsing by Subject "critical theory"
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Item A Case Study of the Applied Learning Academy: Reconceptualized Quantum Design of Applied Learning(2010-07-14) Gordon, DeniseThe purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the Applied Learning Academy (ALA) and allow the lessons learned from this public school to emerge from the narrative stories of past students, parents, teachers, administrators, and local business associates who have been directly involved and influenced by the applied learning teaching method. Accountability is critical for all public and charter schools. Districts have been trying to raise the standards with new programs and strategies in an effort to make learning experiences relevant to students? daily lives. Revisiting John Dewey?s philosophy from the progressive movement, project-based, service learning, community partnerships, and portfolio assessment helped to create the applied learning method. In the present study, a qualitative case study approach was utilized to identify successful factors, benefits, and drawbacks of applied learning in order to describe the transition of portfolio assessment, project-based learning, and community-based partnerships within the classroom and to understand the impact and misconceptions of applied learning as experienced through the Recognized Campus, ALA, a 6-8th public middle school within a large urban school district. Participant interviews, field observations, and historical records were collected which indicated that student centered project-based curriculum, small school size creating family relationships, community involvement with partnerships, service learning projects, and metacognitive development from portfolio assessments were the major factors that supported academic rigor and relevance because of the real educational applications in this applied learning middle school. Briefly defined, applied learning is when a problem is seen within the surrounding community, and the solution is generated by the students. This progressive 15-year impact of applied learning ultimately leads to the development of four applied learning schools despite the misconception that applied learning was a remedial or gifted program. Redefining applied learning for a better understanding developed a reconceptualized diagram borrowed from the quantum mechanics model. Reconceptualization expands the interpretation by increasing the intellectual flexibility. As the student becomes energized from the acquired knowledge of learning applicable skills through service learning, project-based curriculum, and portfolio assessment, the student?s academic growth should increase to a higher, educational ?energy level? supported by the critical, situated-learning, and feminist theories.Item Critical reflection in a digital media artwork - Playas: homeland mirage(2009-06-02) Stenner, Jack EricThe introduction of digital media into the working practice of artists has produced challenges previously unknown to the field of art. This inquiry follows an atypical model of artist-driven research derived from disciplines such as social science and education. Here, an artwork functions as a model that is self-reflective, integrating methodologies in a form that benefits art and science. Using Naturalistic Inquiry, including semi-structured interviews of fifteen participants, the work illustrates a process of creation, analysis and evaluation that places the values of the artist on equal footing with the needs of science. Recently, artists have begun using video game engines as a tool to produce 3D navigable spaces. Using the hybrid video game/installation Playas: Homeland Mirage as a case study, this research examines the impact of technology on the artwork and identifies a number of key issues related to the function of critical reflection in this environment. Rules-of-play were a fundamental pre-requisite to the stimulation of critically reflective experience. The human interface with software and hardware was also a primary factor in reflective experience. Based on participant evaluation and observation, the interface was altered in response to its effect on critical reflection, illustrating how choices in this area impact aesthetic experience. Those with experience in visual art were more likely to engage the work in a critically reflective manner than seasoned video game players who tended to be more interested in scoring and winning. These findings and others inform our understanding of the stimulation of critical reflection in immersive environments and show how we can sensitively integrate technology with meaningful evaluative methods. By repurposing a video game in this manner, we learn about the nature of the video game and the nature of art. This research enables artists to gain a better understanding of the medium to more fully integrate technology within a meaningful practice. Conversely, other fields will benefit from a better understanding of the stimulation of meaning in immersive spaces and gain a comprehensive view of a work that strives to contribute to our culture on a deeper level than as simple entertainment. Ultimately, more fully understanding critical reflection in virtual environments will enable us to create enriched experiences that transcend space to create ?real? or ?virtual? place.Item Fitting In: Extreme Corporate Wellness and Organizational Communication(2014-07-31) James, Eric PrestonIn this dissertation I examine the intersection of organizational communication and what I name extreme corporate wellness. I define extreme corporate wellness as the push towards more radical fitness and workplace health promotion via the exercise program known as CrossFit. I argue that a discourse of extreme corporate wellness furthers a social-Darwinian viewpoint of ?survival of the fittest? not only in the workplace, but also in an employee?s personal and home life. This study combined participant-observation with 28 semi-structured interviews in a large, corporate organization that had recently shifted to CrossFit practices. By drawing on a critical-interpretive lens I am able to not only examine an organization?s movement toward a more fitness-minded organizational culture, but to also interrogate the implications of such a move. The findings in this dissertation contribute to three areas of organizational communication and wellness: (1) organizational culture, (2) power and resistance, and (3) corporeal ethics. First, organizational culture, including espoused values and shared levels of assumptions, took on certain changes because of an emphasis on extreme fitness. Employee participation in CrossFit led to strict notions of strength and masculinity not just in the organization?s gym, but also throughout the corporate offices and even into home life. The extreme corporate wellness discourse also contributed to employees? understanding of not just fitness, but health, nutrition and lifestyle. Second, I use the concept of extreme corporate wellness to further illuminate important links between organizational culture, identity and branding and how those interact in the complicated play between power and resistance. My reading of the organizational fitness artifacts (e.g. organizational posters, marketing slogans, tangible objects) brings into question not only the assumptions of a fitness culture, but also demonstrates how the CrossFit [regime/discourse] perpetuates certain moral imperatives about health and fitness. Even though the organization originally attempted to create a more ?authentically fit? workplace through a mandate or vertically communicated message, the CrossFit program functioned much more obtrusively by means of concertive control. This powerful fitness initiative was then resisted by certain employees, resulting in upended notions of organizational time. While there were certainly benefits to the program, my study weighs those benefits against the consequences of extreme wellness and its attendant discourse. Finally, I theorize how the body serves as a political site between employer, government, and public in a way that forces researchers to think differently about corporeal ethics. Specifically, I demonstrate that body politics are perpetuated by an emphasis on the extreme, hegemonic, masculine world of CrossFit and that the implications of this fitness regime extend beyond the organizational walls.Item Peering Through the Fog: A Proposal for Veteran Critical Theory(2014-08-14) Phillips, Glenn AllenAs veterans return from Post 9/11 conflict and service, many will choose to enter institutions of higher education. The current scholarship on student veterans is predominately descriptive or assessing particular policies or procedures. As student veteran scholarship grows, researchers need to explore the experiences of student veterans in an additional dimension?a critical dimension. Moreover, scholars need a unified language with which to speak. This project examines the tenets of five critical theories (feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, disability theory, and border theory) and evaluates how they interact with the current literature on student veterans if repositioned for this unique population. What comes of this interaction is veteran critical theory?eleven suggested tenets of a new critical theory that recognizes and works to emancipate marginalized or otherwise oppressed men and women who have served in the United States military. Though the theory is housed within the context of higher education, the tenets are not restricted to this environment. The implications of this work include an extension of critical scholarship that includes veterans and potential applications of veteran critical theory outside of higher education?in workplaces, families, and communities.