4Humanities@UCSB Meeting 3

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07 Dec 4Humanities@UCSB Meeting 3

Posted at 23:37h in Research Focus Groups by

Framing/Strategies for Action

(Monday, Dec 12, 1-3 pm)

Moderator: Linda Adler-Kassner (Professor and Director, Writing Program)

Our next meeting will involve us in thinking about our core values, the frames that surround those, and how we might develop action plans from those values and frames to speak to particular audiences. This will give us a good foundation on which to proceed in future to production work (including contributing to the 4Humanities initiative called “Humanities, Plain & Simple” to begin with).
Please prepare for our meeting 3 in three ways:

1. Review the notes of our discussion at the previous Meeting 2 (online as a PDF at https://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Meeting-2-Core-Issues-in-the-Humanities-and-Public-Advocacy-2011-11-14.pdf). Bring to Meeting 3 the core words/ideas from the meeting that you feel are of use to reframing the humanities.

2. As we agreed, please contribute to (or at least read) our new collective blog post on “ideas for framing the humanities.” Rather than have everyone bombard our listserv with contributions and comments (the original plan), we have set up a collective blog post for this purpose within our group’s section of the 4Humanities web site. The post is titled “Ideas for Framing the Humanities – New Ways to Name, Describe, and Position the Humanities for Public Impact.” (To edit this post, login to the 4Humanities site as the 4Humanities@UCSB collective user. The password will be sent to you on our private 4Humanities@UCSB listserv.)

3. Read some of the below optional readings. The most important ones are flagged with asterisks. Note that while the list seems long, most documents below are between 3-6 pages.

Readings:
Readings are available in our group’s Private Library at https://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/4humanitiesucsb-private-library/
(For the password, please contact the 4Humanities@UCSB research assistant: Lindsay Thomas.)

As you read, think about the following questions in preparation for discussion:

  • What are our core values – the ones that are absolutely core to our enterprise?
  • What words and/or ideas are connected to those – and what words/ideas aren’t?
  • Who are possible audiences/stakeholders we might want to connect with/affect?
  • What are their interests?
  • What are the intersections between their interests and our values?
  • How might we make those connections?

We’ll work with these discussions in small groups for part of our next meeting.

(I) Theoretical/Practical readings (all optional) — These readings contain some of the theory and practice that will underscore this 4Humanities meeting. If you skim only one thing, Linda recommends “Changing Conversations about Writing and Writers.”

  • ***Adler-Kassner, Linda. “Changing Conversations about Writing and Writers.” The Activist WPA, 85-127. Logan: USUP, 2008.
  • ***—. “Taking Action to Change Stories.” The Activist WPA, 128-163. Logan: USUP, 2008.
    ***Adler-Kassner, Linda and Peggy O’Neill. “Framing (and) American Education.” Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning, 13-39. Logan, Utah State UP, 2010.
  • ***Resources from The Frameworks Institute Education Reform Toolkit 
    • “Education Toolkit: Talking Points.” The FrameWorks Institute, 2010.
    • “Education Reform Toolkit: Frequently Asked Questions.” The FrameWorks Institute, 2010.
    • “You Say/They Think: Handling competing frames.” The FrameWorks Institute, 2010.
  • ***”Communication Strategies.” National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), 2011.
  • ***”Strategic Communication Planning.” The SPIN Project, 2005.

Optional additional resources for reframing:

(III) Documents intended to reframe educational issues (all optional) – These are position papers, research reports, policy statements, and other materials that have been developed as a result of reframing initiatives in composition/writing and English Language Arts. Many are focused on K-12 learning.

(IV) The Dominant Frame – These are documents (and links to additional materials) that illustrate the dominant frame surrounding discussions about education. While they are primarily focused on K-12, the frame here also surrounds and extends to postsecondary education/discussions about the humanities.

  • Case for Action. Achieve, Inc., 2011.
  • “What is College and Career Ready?” Achieve, Inc., 2011.

If you’d like to see the current manifestation of this agenda (optional):