Chris Foss, professor of English, presented a paper entitled “The Aesthetics of Bharautism: The Articulation of Autistic Identity and Indianness in Raam, My Name Is Khan, and How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move?” at the 43rd annual national meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association on Wednesday, March 27. This year’s conference, which featured more than 3,000 program participants, was held at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.
Three UMW faculty participated in the recent Virginia Humanities Conference at Christopher Newport University on Friday, March 16. Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss presented a paper, “The Landscape Interventions of Any Goldsworthy,” while Associate Professor of English Danny Tweedy delivered a paper entitled, “Faith and Ecology: Spirituality versus Eco-collapse in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Mary Beth Mathews, associate professor of religion, served as UMW’s delegate to the VHC.
Margaret Ray, professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic Education, recently received a M.Ed. from UMW. Ray previously earned a Ph.D. (1988) in economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an M.A. (1985) in economics from Western Illinois University, and a B.S. (1984) in economics with a minor in agriculture from Oklahoma State University.
John P. Broome, assistant professor in curriculum & instruction and director of secondary education and preK-12 education programs in the College of Education, has co-authored a book chapter entitled, “Three States: A Comparison Across Diverse Policy Contexts” to be published in Research on the Status of Social Studies: Views from the Field by Information Age Publishing in Summer 2013.
Since 2008, Broome has served on a national research team studying the state of social studies education in the United States. The first study of its kind, this 50-state survey-based research sampled K-12 social studies educators in America. Research on the Status of Social Studies: Views from the Field focuses on the impact of high-stakes standards, use of instructional time, methods of instruction and assessment and application of technology in U.S. K-12 social studies classrooms. The book is divided into six parts: I. Foundations, II. Types of Schools; III. Curricular Emphases; IV. Teaching Strategies; V. Professional Issues, and; VI. What It All Means
Collaborating with Dr. Gayle Y. Thieman (Portland State University), Dr. Joseph E. O’Brien (University of Kansas), Dr. Thomas Barker (University of Kansas) and Dr. Patrice Preston-Grimes (University of Virginia), Broome co-authored a chapter comparing K-12 social studies practices of three states: Kansas, Oregon and Virginia.
An abstract of “Three States: A Comparison Across Diverse Policy Contexts” is included below.
Much of the recent data on the state of social studies teaching has focused on the impact of NCLB on the decline of instructional time in elementary classrooms, though little is known about what occurs during instruction. To address this concern the Survey on the Status of Social Studies (S4) asked K-12 teachers to report on the current status of their social studies curriculum and instructional practices. The survey investigated the impact of mandated testing, social studies curriculum goals and concepts, and teachers’ instructional strategies in the classroom. This chapter analyzed the findings from three states (Kansas, Oregon, and Virginia) and compared the results to data from the national survey. Our analysis addressed four questions: 1) How much instructional time is devoted to social studies in elementary and secondary classrooms and how has mandated testing influenced the time available? 2) How often and in what types of instructional activities are students engaged? 3) What are the major goals and key concepts of the social studies curriculum? 4) How do the three states compare to each other and to the national findings?
The co-principal investigator for the Virgina study, Broome continues to examine the status of social studies education in our state. This past year he conducted an explanatory mixed-method study by convening focus groups with K-5 Virginia social studies educators throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. As he develops manuscripts on this work, Broome’s research is being used to inform school-, district- and state-level policy and instructional decisions around the Commonwealth.
Eric Lorentzen, associate professor of English, gave an invited lecture at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday, March 20 entitled “‘The Catechizing Infection’: Subverting Dangerous Pedagogy in the Novels of Austen, Dickens, and Charlotte Brontë.“
