Walking the Line and the Passion to Improve the Field

• In Event: Roundtable Session 78
  In Roundtable Session: Photovoice and Going Above and Beyond Being Faculty: Caring, Advocacy, and Passion

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this segment of the gallery presentation is to represent the dialogue that developed as a result of the photovoice project between a senior faculty member who is the executive director of a national organization that promotes research, advocacy and collaboration across higher education institutions and a novice faculty member. The presentation will engage session attendees in a discussion of the tensions that surround following your passion into the realm of advocacy. Specifically, we will present and discuss how the senior faculty member followed her passion for quality schools for children into a realm where she attempts to engage faculty members across institutions in advocacy and discussions of practice improvement.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework that informs this presentation recognizes that people never occupy an innocent position. We are always within and constitute the forms of institutional domination even if we are actively opposing it (Lather 1991). That is, while we might be opposed to logics and practices include managerialism (Rhoades, 2000), accountability culture (Tuchman, 2010; Walker, 2009); and the resulting faculty pressures (Fairweather, 2002; Hattie & Marsh, 1996; Musselin, 2007; Wright et al., 2002) we still engage in practices as subjects that sometimes interrupt and sometimes replicate the power structure.
Modes of Inquiry
This study combines elements of visual ethnography (Pink, 2006; Goldman-Segall, 1998) and photovoice (Guillemin & Drew, 2010; Wang & Burris, 1997). We focus on the experiences of a senior faculty member who is the exevutive director of a national organization and professor at highly ranked institution. This faculty member was provided with instructions for taking approximately 24 digital photographs: “take pictures of what it is like to bring people in higher education together to try to effect the policy context” In two subsequent interviews, the junour faculty member asked the senour faculty to choose several photographs and to describe them. Interview transcripts were transcribed and content analysis (Gribich, 2007) helped us “define … what the data is about” (Charmaz, 2006, p. 44). Five photographs were chosen to display at the gallery presentation to be held at AERA. Finally, after the community gallery gathering at AERA, we asked the senior faculty to describe her experiences and how that might have changed the way she/he understood her photographs or might take different photographs.
Results
The dialogue will also surface the tensions that result from being at once within (and at times promoting) a neoliberal approach while at the same time “knowing” that it may ultimately undermine their general philosophy. This will engage multiple perspectives from session attendees on the tensions and personal toll this takes on a faculty member.
Significance
This presentation will be distinct from the others in that it provides insight into the realm of inter-institutional work that also leads to advocacy. Given the conference theme we feel this helps explicate how “knowing” does not really provide a map for acting.

Authors

• Curtis Anthony Brewer, Clemson University

• Michelle D. Young, University Council for Educational Administration