Transformative Scholarship Research Articles

Book review: Organizational generativity: The appreciative inquiry summit and a scholarship of transformation

Book review: Organizational generativity: The appreciative inquiry summit and a scholarship of transformation

First Precepts for Democracy and Research Practices in Ethnic Studies

Recent discussions by leading scholars in interdisciplinary fields, notably cultural studies, suggest the limitations of critique for producing intelligent practices for social change and have called for thinking anew about the practices of intellectual labor. In this essay, I call attention to research methodology as a form of intellectual labor and examine the importance of explicit methodological and critical research practices in interdisciplinary fields such as ethnic studies. I suggest that method in ethnic studies, currently an admixture of conventions from disciplines adapted for interdisciplinary research, would be strengthened with a more holistic methodological framework. I explore the potential for a more holistic framework by drawing on the philosophical underpinnings, and not simply the technique, of participatory action research (PAR). I examine the pragmatist origins of PAR and explore the potential for drawing on three methodological precepts—iteration, collaboration, and reflections—which are highly resonant with ethnic studies scholars’ desired aims at transformative scholarship.

The Scholarship of Transformation: A Review of the Inaugural EuroSoTL Conference

The Scholarship of Transformation: A Review of the Inaugural EuroSoTL Conference

Materializing Culture - Culturizing Material. On the Status, Responsibilities and Function of Cultural Property Repositories within the Framework of a "Transformative Scholarship"

Certain theoretical streams in the cultural and social sciences that are occasionally subsumed under the term “New Materialism” 2 (see Witzgall), as well as recent social, political, cultural and media technology developments require a theoretical and research-political repositioning of academic object repositories. For it is obvious that under the influence of these multi-layered, partly interwoven processes, the status, responsibilities, as well as the function and spheres of activity of these object or cultural property repositories with research commitment (on the term see section 2 below) are currently undergoing long-lasting change. For the respective institutions, these changes not only result in complex challenges regarding contents and structure, but also present extraordinary opportunities for the fulfillment of their academic, social and political responsibilities. The appropriate handling of these challenges and opportunities can substantially contribute to the sharpening of the academic and social profile of these institutions and increase their visibility on both a national and international level.

Engaging in critically reflective teaching: from theory to practice in pursuit of transformative learning

This article presents the critically reflective teaching experience of three university professors at a private university in Bogotá, Colombia. It addresses two research questions: How to design a critically reflective process aimed at transformative teaching and learning? What do professors learn about their own practices and about their students’ learning when they jointly carry out critically reflective teaching? To answer the first question we drew on theories of reflective practice and transformative scholarship of teaching and learning to design a critical reflective teaching approach, which can be useful to other university faculty. We addressed the second question by presenting two experiences in which we enacted this approach to teaching. These experiences yielded three instructional principles for preparing self-directed, autonomous, and socially responsible students: (1) linking learning experiences promoted in class with students’ lives and contexts; (2) confronting both instructor’s and students’ frames of reference; and (3) recognizing the influence of broader curricular, disciplinary, institutional contexts in our instructional practices and students’ learning.

Making It Real Through Transformative Scholarship, Service-Learning, and a Community-Based Partnership for HIV Education in Alabama

HIV/AIDS is increasingly common in the U.S. South, especially among young people. This article describes a sociology course on HIV/AIDS for college students at the University of Alabama that sought to increase HIV knowledge through instruction, service-learning activities, and community- based research. In the first half of the course, the students partnered with an AIDS service organization (ASO) for HIV outreach. In the second half of the course, the students conducted surveys on HIV- related knowledge and attitudes in the community. Three main conclusions emerged from teaching the course: (1) service-learning with community-based research on HIV/AIDS is feasible, (2) service-learning modules require careful planning, and (3) student engagement for HIV prevention is beneficial for advancing the principles of public sociology.

Navajo Transformative Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century

On multiple levels, from within communities to the academy, indigenous peoples are reclaiming their intellectual traditions. Important critiques of existing scholarship have revealed Western scholarship to be simply another kind of imperialism that reinscribes existing structures of power. Responding to larger calls that our research be transformative, Dine scholars are reclaiming the right to raise questions about the ways in which our people have been represented, and in the process they are theorizing and researching in ways that revalue Dine philosophy. Significantly, they also assert that our intellectual work should uphold Dine sovereignty, as leaders like Manuelito had envisioned.

Response to Comments: Research on Learning and Teaching With Web 2.0: Bridging Conversations

In the past decade, significant shifts have occurred in the nature of the Internet and the conceptualization of classrooms. Such shifts have affected constructs of learning and instruction and paths for future research. In this article, the authors build on three ideas set forth in comments on their article “Web 2.0 and Classroom Research: What Path Should We Take Now?” The authors believe that these comments, which extend ideas from their initial article, make important contributions to the vision for transformative scholarship and practice they outlined. Specifically, the authors discuss the professional development of teachers, considerations for building research capacity and social scholarship, and the importance of bridging divides to advance a common research agenda on learning and teaching with Web 2.0.

Gender Matters

This introductory article is aimed at promoting transformative scholarship and research that emphasize the centrality of gender in studying social change associated with the process of globalization locally, nationally and regionally. Six major interrelated themes of this special issue are identified. These themes all emphasize globalization as a gendered phenomenon, studying how gender is embodied in the logic of globalization and embedded in its process and structure. The themes examine how globalization shapes gendered institutions; how it constructs gender differentially in women's and men's access to and control of resources, values, identities, choices, role behaviors, and gender power relations; and how it affects the societies and cultures in which women and men live. The themes also address the dialectics of globalization as results of conflicting interaction between global and local political economies and socio-cultural conditions, yielding mixed outcomes for women and men. Throughout, the emphasis is on the development of strategy for effective social change.

Reflections on a Teach-In Walk-Out

Karl Marx wrote that ‘the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways’, whereas ‘the point is to change it’. Are international legal scholars exposed to the same charge? Have they too placed theory before the demands of real-world emancipatory practice? The author explores these questions, and shows how Marx’s concerns about the philosophers indeed have resonance in the field of international law. At the same time, however, she observes that the problem is not with theory per se, if by theory is simply meant academic enquiry. Rather, it is with theory of a particular kind. Against this background, she discusses some of the ways in which academic enquiry can be itself a form of emancipatory practice, some of the features of what she refers to as transformative scholarship. In developing her account, she highlights the point that those who seek social transformation need not only to transcend the limitations for which Marx criticised certain kinds of philosophy (‘idealism’). They also need to avoid the antithetical pitfalls for which, much later, Frankfurt School theorist Adorno criticised certain modes of politics (‘actionism’).