An Old Vitae (2009)

Li-chin (Crystal) Huang
Chippewa Valley Technical College
620 W. Clairemont Ave.Eau Claire, WI 54701
Email: Lhuang@cvtc.edu
WebSite: http://ci8395.blogspot.com/

Teaching: Sociology, Psychology, American Government
Contemporary American Society, Social Problems, and
Race, Ethnicity and Diversity studies.

Areas of Interests
Innovation in Online Education Programs
K-16 Online Teacher Professional Development
TPACK Integration of Emergent Technologies
Equity and Quality of Diverse Learning in the Digital Age
Learning Technologies in the 2-year Technical College

Education

Ph.D.
Candidate, Learning Technologies (previous Instructional System and Technology), Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 2004-

M.S.ED.
Art Education, Wayne State College, Nebraska, and toward 2nd bachelor degree in the B.F.A. Studio Art program. Research Project: Integrating Multimedia Technology into Art Curriculum with Classroom Implementation 1997

M.S.
Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison (due to job relocation, leaving Madison to Nebraska)
Major: Social Psychology focusing on Social Movements.
Minors: Journalism and Women's Studies Thesis Title: Multilevel Analysis of A Social Movement-1947, 228 Social Uprising in Taiwan, 1993

M.A.
Socio-political Science (Graduate Institute of National Development), National Taiwan University.
Thesis: Social Ideology and Gender Roles-Women's Issues in Contemporary society,
1986

Military Program
Major: Military Education, Political Warfare Academy, Army of Taiwan
(due to a national crisis, I joined Army Academy).

B.A.
Sociology, National Taiwan University
Taipei Municipal First Girls' High School.

Teaching Experience

Faculty
In the 7th year of teaching at the Chippewa Valley Technical College, WI Teaching Intro Sociology, Psychology, Contemporary American Society and Diversity Studies 2003-

Lecturer
Sociology, Social Science Department and academic advisor of Undecided Student Program of UW-Stout 2000-2003

TA
Wayne State College, NE 1.Taught “Introduction to Visual Arts” sections. 2. Assisted Painting and Design Studios 3.Conducted workshop for Information Literacy and Library Automated System classes. 1995-1997

Language Teacher
1.English teacher at English Spontaneous Institute
2.Japanese teacher at Chung Swu Vocational School 1986-1988

Military Educator
Military educator for seven years in Taipei, retired at the rank of Captain in 1985. Taught at Chung Shan Girls’ High School, National Chung Hsing University and National Taipei Technology College 1978-1985

Professional Positions

Delegate' Representing CVTCEA to WEAC 2009

Program Coordinator , Undecided Student Advisement Office, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Stout. 1999-2000

PC Layout /Columnist , Computer Layout in the Composing Department and Lifestyle Columnist in the Editorial Department of the Dunn County News, Menomonie, Wisconsin. 1997-1999

Civil Servant , Congressional Staff at the Legislative Yuan (Congress of Taiwan), Taipei China-Taiwan Policy Researcher at the Executive Yuan (Central Government), Taipei 1995-1997

News Reporter , News Reporter at the Ta Hwa Evening News, Taipei 1986-1988

Social Worker , Intern. Social Worker at low income district of An Kan Community, Taipei

Certificates:
- WebCT/BlackBoard/E360 (LMS) Teaching Certificates from UW-Stout and CVTC
- Hybrid and Web-conference training Certificates from CVTC
- Quality Matters Certified Peer-Reviewer
- Web Design and ITV Certificates from UW-Stout
- General (1985) and Special Higher Civil Service Certificates (1986) from Taiwan

- 1886: National English Tour Guide Certificate


Profile and Skills:

· Enthusiastic and helpful with strong work ethics.
· Multiple language ability: Taiwanese, Mandarin, English, and Japanese.
· Have taken Computer Science as a minor. Knowledgeable of C++, JAVA, Assembly language,  
  COBOLand Web Design General Software application: Multi-aid, QuarkXpress, Pagemaker,  
  Photoshop/Photodeluxe, Premiere, Illustrator, Microsoft Office 2000 (esp. FrontPage, PowerPoint, Excel,
  MS Publisher), Hyperstudio, Inspiration, BlackBoard, WebCT, E360,
  Macromedia (DreamWeaver, and Flash)
  PC and Mac proficiency. Statistic software: Spss, MaxQDA2, and Minitab.
· Calligraphy
· Visual-art making (2-D: drawing, traditional ink/painting and mixed media;
   3-D: mainly, ceramics and  other mixed media.)

Academic Activities

Co-Presenter , The 16th Midwest Quality Research Conference
Topic: The Lived Experience of Relocated Teachers in Korea, 2008

Poster Presentation , The 1st C & I Research Day at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Topic: The Wonder of the Tao-Six Meditation on Science, Spirit, and the Future of Economics, 2008

Poster Presentation , The 1st Grad Research Conference at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Poster 1 Topic: Beauty vs. Artistic Beauty
Poster 2-Topic: Freedom Fighters. 2008

Co-presenter , A Brief Introduction of CMS and An Introduction to Media Enhancers at UW-Stout, 2008

Collaborative Research Project , Joined the Rural Family Speak– a multistate, longitudinal and multidisciplinary research project, focusing on low-income women’s using information technology.
 2007-2008

Published , A TPaCMK Model as a Framework for Hybrid Teaching at Local Editorial, 2006

Grants , develop and deliver Race, Ethnicity and Diversity studies, and American Government 2 online courses for Chippewa Valley Technical College 2005

Presenter , UW-System Women's Study Consortium.Topic A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of Childless Issues in Contemporary American Society, 2004

Keynote Speaker , Annual Spring Awards and Recognition of Multicultural Student ServicesA Cultural Sojourner's "Courage to teach" in Intro-Sociology (Word), 2003

Poster Presentation , Student and Faculty Research Day at UW-StoutAn Action Research Report on a Spontaneous Thematic Pedagogy in Intro-Sociology:PowerPoint; Word:

PanelistTalkInternational Forum , AAUW Midwest Regional Conference Rapid City, South Dakota. Presentation: The Trajectory of Women's Development in Taiwan(PowerPoint)-Empowering Women through Education - 3 Women's Stories (Word)" Poster Session, 2002

Poster Presentations , Teaching Day at UW-Stout Sociological Pedagogy-Blending Teaching Strategy to Empower Student ActiveLearning"Professional Development Day at UW-Stout Enhancing Active Teaching/Learning Via Electronic Application”, 2001

Training and Workshop:

- Fall 2002, Oct.11. Feminist Pedagogy Workshop at UW-Eau Claire.
- Summer 2001(Aug. 20-23), Advanced Webcamp Blackboard Workshop
- Summer 2001(July 23-26), Brick and Glass-Clinic Distant Learning Workshop
- Summer 2000, Webcamp Workshop
- Spring 2001-Interdepartmental Racial Understanding Reading Group
- Spring 2001, participated Datatel Training program for enhancing advisement
- Fall 2000-assisted as the Mandarin/English interpreter “the ChineseVisiting Tech Scholars”
   at Stout.- Mini workshop for sociology students (PowerPoint, FrontPage.etc)

Governance involvement at UW-Stout:
- A member of the International Advisory Committee.
- A member of the Professional Development Planning Committee
- Continued as a member of Academic Staff Personnel Committee
- Spring, 2002, a member of Curriculum and Instruction global studies subcommittee
- A member of Academic Staff Professional Development Global/Traveling Opportunities subcommittee

Awards:
- 2006: Teacher of the Year, Menomonie, WI
- 2001: nominated and received the Outstanding Contribution to UW-System and Woman of Color award.
- 1996-97: Elected as the Graduate Representative to the Graduate, Council of Wayne State College.
- 1995-96: Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.
- 1994-95: Special Abilities Scholarship at Wayne State College, NE
- 1996: Treasurer of National Art Education Association (NAEA,) Wayne State College, NE
- 1995-97: often invited as a speaker on multicultural related issues at Wayne State College.
- 1994-95: Secretary and newsletter editor of International Club at Wayne State College.

In Taiwan:
- 1988: Elected as the Supervisor of the National Congressional Assistant Association, Taipei
- 1987-88: Delegate of Taiwan, invited by both Congresses of Taiwan and the U.S. to observe the Primaries
   and Causes in New Hampshire and Iowa as well as followed the Presidential campaign trails.
- 1984-85: "Self-Strengthen for Nation," Summer and Winter Camp Speaker
- Twice “Dr. Sue-woei Huang For Congress” Campaign Coordinator and Speaker, and later, the Speech
   Writer of Congressman Huang.- Executive Secretary and member of Taipei Women Rescue Foundation
- 1983-84: Vice Chairperson of the Graduate Association of National Taiwan University.
- 1978-1985: due to a National Crisis, I joined the Army Academic.A retired Captain since 1985.
- 1976-78: four semesters top 3% students of Sociology Department, National Taiwan University.
- 1974-76: Selected, members of softball and volleyball varsity teams, National Taiwan University.

Affiliation :
· AECT
· ISTE
· NEA
· WEAC
· Wisconsin Vocational Education Association
· American Sociological Association.
· Member of American Association of University Women (AAUW)

Publications/Writing:
· Calligrapher and illustrator of The Wonder of the Tao-Six Meditation on Science, Spirit, and the Future of
   Economics by Jim Eggert. A Human Trade Group Publisher, FL., 2004.
·  Karma Ode, Burning Snow-Poetry, 2002, (in process)
· "Introductory Miao (Hmong) History and Culture by Tinqgui Li": Translation,
   (collaborated with Steve Vang.) Wisconsin, UW-Stout. 2001
·  A Comprehensive History of the Chinese Miao (Hmong) by Xingfue Vue. Translation,
   (collaborated with Steve Vang.), Wisconsin, UW-Stout, 2001
· 10 articles related to cultural phenomena for the Dunn County News, 1998-1999
1. A thought to the Humane Society
2. Homeopathy- a look from a tradition medical perspective
3. The sociocultural perspective to Mulan
4. Gua Sha-the traditional home remedy
5. Halloween in the U.S. vs. Ghost Festival in Asia
6. Organic products and its co-op practice
7. Bosnia first hand report-Military sisters
8. A cultural-sojourner's multicultural perspective
9. Mini international house-visit the "Sharon the ambassador"
10.The legends behind Chinese New Year in Taiwan.

· “Women and Social Order,” The Research and Assessment Monthly, Taipei, Taiwan, 1990
· “The Interpellation to the Central Government” - a compilation of 3 volumes (300 articles) related to
    social welfare and political system reformation drafted by me when working at Congress,1986-88.
    Some articles related to Women's issues are:
    1. A proposal for "Equal Right, Equal Pay and Equal Opportunity of Employment for both genders."
        - September 29th,1987, the 80th session Legislative Yuan.
    2. A proposal to Establish the "'Ministry of Women's Affairs' to implement the Social Welfare
        for Women." January 6th, 1988, the 80th, session, Legislative Yuan.
    3. An interpellation on the issue of the Dilemma of Single Parent and Divorced Women. January 19th,
        1988.the 80th session, Legislative Yuan.
    4. An interpellation on the issue of "the Myth of Marriage and Increasingly Dysfunctional Families in
        contemporary society." January 18th, 1987, the 80th session, Legislative Yuan.
·  Personal Quantitative Research Project:
    "Gender and Political Tolerance-The Study of Dane County, Wisconsin."  UW-Madison, 1992.

Hobbies:
Enjoy reading, writing, poetry, music, cooking, visual art-making, nature and pet-caring.
Like to play basketball, ping pong, volleyball, tennis, softball, swimming, and hiking.
Love to watch football games.

Phantom and Reality

An Amorphous Word

A Mid-Summer Pulse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_jOc6zu1Kc&feature=related

28th Distance Teaching and Learning conference Aug 8-10, 2012, Madison

The first 3 pages (of 7) of my Introduction to Sociology syllabus. Does not look boring!!!!

Having been spending more time on teaching/facilitating race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, disability as well as their intersectionality, this coming fall semester, I decided to go back to my Sociology teaching along with  intro to Psychology and other diversity courses.  My sociology syllabus is designed much more interesting than that of my psychology - just my personal preference.

Verstehen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkQQU_U48WU

Aug 19, 2012 Quest

TPCMK Model (An Abridged version published in the Dunn County News Editorial Op-ed pages)

Running head: A TPCMK MODEL AS A FRAMEWORK FOR HYBRID TEACHING


A TPCMK Model as a Framework for Hybrid Teaching  (Spring, 2008)

Li-chin (Crystal) Huang

University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Abstract

This paper discusses the emerging trend of a course delivery format- the hybrid or blended/mixed model of teaching and learning. Based on the positive effects of this model which combine the best part of the pure online delivery and the traditional face-to-face practices, the paper takes a further step to explore a possible TPCMK framework (integration of pedagogical, content, technological and moral/ethical knowledge in the educational context) as a more comprehensive curricular and instructional guideline to enhance the designing and delivering of hybrid courses.


A TPCMK Model as a Framework for Hybrid Teaching

In his MegaTrends, Naisbitt (1982) points out a phenomenon regarding an inherent tension between “high touch” and “high tech.” As an instructor/online facilitator having a passion in engaging several types of delivery formats, Naisbitt’s remark provided a venue for me to reflect on my daily juggling between human contact and technological mediation in the educational setting.

Since its inception, information technology (IT) has been perceived as a double-edged sword. It provides a cost-effective and individualizing education that may save education from the unaffordable, ineffective and inefficient delivery and uncertain outcomes. On the other hand, IT is also perceived as a digital monster, dehumanizing and impersonalizing the educational and learning experience (Green, 2004). The conflicting views of high tech vs. high touch as well as searching for the solutions challenge many scholars, practitioners, policy makers and people at stake.

According to Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s recent survey (2005) based on responses from over 1,000 colleges and universities found that over 1.9 million students were studying online in the fall of 2003, which grew to 2.6 million by the fall of 2004. Clearly the demand for the e-learning is on the rise. There are several socio-economic factors pushing a tide of adults coming back to college campuses for courses, certificates and degrees. These include the new demand of knowledge and skills to meet the changing society’s needs, the public policy making in regards to the cost-effectiveness of allocating budgets and resources, the demands on flexible, and efficient ways of learning in the fast paced post-modern life style, which make the life long learning is a necessity to thrive in the IT world. Such high demand of distance education is also witnessed by the exploding number of for-profit cultural enterprises targeting on potential consumers in the educational markets.

The benefits of e-learning to students are many, and the essential one is that it allows the flexibility to schedule around students’ already busy lives. This is particularly true in the non-traditional student population. Learners with fully loaded daily schedule – jobs/careers, children, family and social activities, or due to geographical barriers, online learning can be an ideal alternative to solve the problems. However, most online facilitators and administrators are aware that online (pure) courses are NOT for everybody or for all academic disciplines. Online facilitators reiterate that online courses work best for learners who are self-motivated and disciplined. They need to be focused and have good computer skills.

Thus, the desirable characteristics need to be weighed against a list of shortcomings including less authentically virtual information delivered in visual and verbal formats, missing of the dynamic atmosphere of classroom ecology, lack of the face-to-face socio-psychological proximity, and loosening up of self-discipline in effective leaning management that have been expressed via many online surveys from less satisfied or less successful online learners. The results as Hinterberger et al. (2004) point out, are that no matter how ingenious, interactive or innovative the virtual electronic learning environments can be, online alone cannot acquire the effective knowledge transference. Pure online learning is facing many challenges in providing the quality assurance of teaching and learning.

Green (2004) interprets Naisbitt’s high tech vs. high touch in this way, “Whenever new technology is introduced into society, there must be a counterbalancing human response that is, high touch ­or the technology is rejected” (Section 1). However, instead of the “either-or” option, a recurrent phenomenon shows that the education community is continuously searching for an efficient and effective teaching and learning instructional design and pedagogy that can absorb the best part of the above two worlds. Graham Spanier (2003), President of Penn State University, claims that hybrid instruction is the single greatest unrecognized trend in higher education today.

In this paper, the author reviewed a part of the current research on the effects of the hybrid model, and found a majority of supportive yet disparate results regarding hybrid teaching. Hence, a further step was taken to explore an integral TPCMK model to support the fledging hybrid teaching and learning method. In this model, T represents technology; P for pedagogy, C for contents, M for moral or ethical concerns, and K is as knowledge base. The model integrates the four knowledge bases into a holistic conceptual framework to guide the hybrid teaching and learning, which currently the author is involved with at her workplace.

The following sections examine the emerging hybrid trend and the relating research results. The origin of PCK and TPCK is introduced. Then, the author explains the possibility to integrate morality/ethics into the TPCK as a TPCMK model which can be a framework to scaffold her current hybrid course developing. Finally, three stages of integration and conclusion are discussed.

Examination of the Hybrid Model – The Best Part of the Two Worlds

What exactly is a hybrid course? How is it operated and delivered? What is the theoretical framework to support such a delivery format? How does it work in terms of assessing the teaching quality and learning outcomes? In a recent review of research on teaching online courses by Tallent-Runnels et al. (2006), they found little consistency of terminology used in electronic learning environment. Furthermore, few universities have written policies, guidelines, or technical support for faculty or students under such circumstances. As Spanier points out that the hybrid is an important yet unrecognized educational trend, Tallent-Runnels et al.’s abovementioned remarks about the amorphous conditions in the e-learning does depict the current hybrid teaching’s situations.

Being an emerging delivery format, one may find no consensus in the definition of a hybrid or blended/mixed course. But, an understanding from hybrid practices generates a generally acceptable definition by referring a hybrid course as “in which a significant portion of the learning activities have been moved online,” a combination of traditional classroom and Internet instruction (Garnham & Ketela, 2002).

In the literature review, researchers (Hugenberg & Moyer, 1997; Bolding, 1999; Leh, 2002; Schrum and Hong, 2002; Young, 2002; Matthews, 2003; Twigg, 2004) compared various delivery formats and found that most research supported the effectiveness and efficiency in hybrid model. Another body of research reveals that hybrid courses replace classroom time with online learning and offer instructors both big advantages and big risks (Garanham et al., 2003). Rare conclusions drawn from comparative research found the negative effects of hybrid teaching and learning. In Reasons et al.’s (2005) research results demonstrate that the internet-based format could possibly lead to better student outcomes compared to face-to-face and hybrid formats. They also point out that the hybrid format seems likely to be used in most courses.
Currently, only two educational institutions, University of Central Florida and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have conducted comprehensive investigations of hybrid course effectiveness (Gould et al., 2003). Both in-depth case studies confirmed the hybrid students performed better in writing, projects and engaging in meaningful discussion than those of the traditional classroom students (Garnham & Kaleta, 2002; Gould et al., 2003. p. 57). In addition, both studies recognized the powerful effects of the model’s flexibility and pedagogical effectiveness. The instructors stated that the hybrid experience would change their approach to all of their future teaching, whether in a traditional, hybrid or distance education class., as one of the instructors put it, "Hybrid gives me the best of both worlds" (Garnham & Ketela, 2002).

As an instructor/facilitator, the daily experiences with both positive and undesirable aspects of pure online and traditional face-to-face delivery demand a search for a more effective method in teaching. As a fledging delivery method, the hybrid model is of great research interest to many scholars, practitioners, educational institutions, and policy makers. Currently, four hybrid courses from my Department will be available for the coming fall semester. Having been part of the developer team, the author has great concerns in designing the hybrid model. The various issues will be discussed in the following section which leads to the searching for a more comprehensive framework as the developing guidance.

A large body of literatures focuses on the pragmatic concerns as part of the justification of the model’s existence, such as solving the complex budgetary and enrollment growth issues (Hinterberger et al., 2003, p. 58). However, if hybrid is to be viewed as an alternative mode to maximize resources and student learning, it needs a holistic framework that can harvest from the existing educational theories and practices. These established knowledge, such as (1) PCK (Schulman, 1987) model - an integrated knowledge base of pedagogy and contents, and (2) its extended model of TPCK (Keating et al., 2001) – an integrated knowledge base of technology, pedagogy, and contents, as well as an increased concern for moral or ethical issues both in the cyber and traditional learning environment that calls for many stakeholders’ attention. To equip hybrid as important instructional delivery and curricular design, the author investigates a possibility of integrating the aforementioned knowledge bases into the TPCMK - the integral knowledge of pedagogy, content, technology, morality/ethics as a framework for the hybrid teaching and learning.

Many researchers point out the flexibility, pedagogical effectiveness, student learning enhancement and so on positive effects of hybrid teaching. But the fragmented outcomes of specific protocols, or objectives within certain experimenting projects lack of a holistic guideline. There is no integral or common ground as a conceptual framework to support hybrid teaching and learning. Thus, the author constructs a larger scaffold-TPCKM model, which was originated from Schulman’s knowledge bases for educators– the PCK model. The other part of this frame was inspired by the moral or ethical vocabulary of Sockett and LePage’s research (2002). The last component is based on the author’s understanding of learning technology.

The TPCMK model As Hybrid Teaching and Learning Framework

The TPCMK model – integrated knowledge of technology, pedagogy, and content, can be an appropriate conceptual framework for many other delivery formats. But the author recognizes it as an ideal model matching many demands of a hybrid course: face-to-face plus computer-based teaching and learning.

Schulman points out seven categories of the knowledge base that underlie the teacher understanding needed to promote comprehension among students (1987, p. 8). Sockett and LePage reiterate the importance of moral education to encourage teachers to envision classrooms as moral rather than technical arenas (2002, p, 14). They urge teachers to use moral vocabulary in the daily teaching and learning activities.

The original TPCK model was proposed by range of scholars who have argued that that knowledge about technology cannot be treated as context-free, and that good teaching requires an understanding of how technology relates to the pedagogy and content. These include Hughes, Keating & Evans, Lundeberg, Bergland, Klyczek & Hoffman, Neiss, Margerum-Leys & Marx, and Zhao (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

The moral or ethical issues extend the abovementioned concerns due to the inundated information and technology in both face to face and online environments. At the individual level, cyber legalities in terms of freedom, in particular, relating to the 1st Amendment, cyber proper conducts and criminality (such as plagiarism, intellectual property rights/copy rights, Internet Security, fair and open usage; FERPA etc.) compose a vast amount of moral and ethical knowledge and practices that need to be addressed in both in face-to-face and online classes. At the societal level, information technology widens the social inequality. The omnipresence of the digital divide (Carvin, 2000) - the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies and to their use of the internet for a wide variety of activities is a contributor to inequality. This phenomenon makes the concepts of justice and equity a moral imperative in the midst of teaching and learning no matter in the face to face or online environments. Thus it is an important aspect to address and integrate the moral/ethical components into the TPCK as TPCMK.

The term “integration”, Hughes (2004) refers to the capacity of educators who understand, consider, and choose to use different knowledge bases only when they uniquely enhance the curriculum, instruction, and students’ learning. The integration can happen in the basic format, such as replacing an old technique, content, or pedagogy with a new one both in face-to- face and online environment. The next step is to magnify or enhance the functions of the original techniques, contents, or pedagogies. The last stage is transformation which generates a holistically integral of teaching and learning outcomes. The following section presents the three stages of integration.

Stage I – Specific knowledge base

At this stage, each base is a discrete unit of knowledge:
General institutionalized process knowledge- the materials (e.g., curricular, textbooks, finance) and the contextual settings of the school, community, and related organizations (Schulman, 1987, p. 9).
Pedagogical knowledge- the wisdom of carrying out the instructional objectives. It is the special province of teachers. It is the special form of professional understanding tied to broad principles and strategies in both online and on-ground teaching that transcends subject matters.
Content knowledge-the scholarship in content disciplines, such as content syntactic structure, and substantive structures (Grossman, 1990, p.5).
Technological knowledge-this knowledge is about standard technologies such as books and chalk and blackboard, as well as digitally or electronically based technologies relating to computer and Internet. This would involve with knowledge and skills associated with hardware and software required to operate particular technologies (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
Moral/ethical knowledge- formally or informally attentive to the teaching and learning activities related to the issues of justice, equality, fairness, honesty, integrity, and Constitutionality in both online and face-to-face setting. Lickona (1991) identified the following facets of character education (for K-12) programs to assist teaching of character values within the school curricula:

1) a high expectation for responsible behavior
2) a process for implementing positive values when making decisions
3) visual reinforcement of character values to keep students focused on the words,
concepts and behaviors
4) a school culture that fosters positive peer recognition and empowers all members of the school community to exemplify behaviors consistent with respect and responsibility
5) parent, student and community involved in decision making of the character education programs.

Research suggests that teachers with high levels of moral professionalism have a deep sense of obligation to help students learn and to demonstrate their moral professionalism. However, some researches show that the value of compulsory ethics education as an intervention to improve the moral reasoning could be questionable (Netherlands, 2004).

Stage II-integrating more than two knowledge bases
At this level of integration, two or more knowledge bases are synergized to enhance the curriculum, instruction, and students’ learning. The term synergy refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete knowledge bases acting together create an effect greater than the predicted outcomes.

1. Pedagogical content integration (PCK)- conceptions of purposes for teaching subject
matter including knowledge of students’ understanding, curricular knowledge, and
knowledge of instructional strategies. Schulman (1987) points out that PCK represents
the amalgamation of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular
topics, problems, or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse
interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction (p. 8).
Pedagogical content technological integration (TPCK) – this is the capability of negotiating relationships among pedagogy, content, and technology that represents a form of expertise different from and greater than, the knowledge of a disciplinary expert, a technology expert, and a pedagogical expert. Effective technology integration for pedagogy around specific subject matter requires developing sensitivity to the dynamic, transactional relationship between all three components (Hughes, 2004).

Stage III – comprehensive knowledge based integration
At this stage, the pedagogical, content, technological, and moral/ethical knowledge
(TPCKM) would be integrated with the general educational or contextual knowledge. The genuine transformation of technology, pedagogy, content, and moral/ethical element happens at this stage. To provide integrated PCTKM to students could be perceived as the optimal goal of educators.

Conclusion and Discussion
In contemporary fast-paced societies, diverse learners throughout the world are demanding educational opportunities and quality assurance in an “anytime and anywhere” formats. Both public and private institutions are responding with ingenuity and devotion to meet such needs. Through last decades’ practice, both the traditional face-to-face and pure online learning have demonstrated their merits and weakness. In searching for the best features of these two main approaches, the hybrid model emerges as an alternative method. Via thoughtful curricular and instructional design the hybrid model addresses to a variety of learning styles in a wide range of formats. The ultimate goal of hybrid courses is to combine the best quality of face-to-face teaching with the best practices of online learning to promote active, ethical, and independent learning.

As an emerging trend, it is time to search for and construct a conceptual framework to support the future development. This PCTMK integration is such an attempt. Being at the starting point, the author recognizes the tremendous challenges and difficulties involved in each stage of implementation. At current stage, the framework at least can serve as a moral guideline in pursuing the optimal goals of teaching and learning. To materialize such framework requires great endeavors to reify each component’s condition, process, and procedure regarding when, how, who, what and where to make the integrations happening and functioning in the educational setting.


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Pedagogy of the Oppressed vs. Oppressors and Taiwan - A Reflective Paper as a Grad Student at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 2008

Title: Pedagogy of the Oppressed vs. Oppressors and Taiwan - A Reflective Paper as a Grad Student

Introduction

This paper is based on my understanding of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed as well as the common perceptions of pedagogy of the  oppressor to examine a two-stages colonial state that occurred  in Taiwan’s history, in particular, during 1985 to 1945, and subsequently during 1945-1989.

The main point motivating my approach to this topic is due to a small episode happening in our classroom.  I heard peers mentioning that Freire’s ideas were vague and seemingly foreign to their experiences.  This is understandable for several reasons.  There are different languages signifying unique experiences between post-modern societies such as America, and societies where people struggle for the basic human needs on daily basis in the developing and underdeveloped countries.  I believe Max Weber’s concept of Verstehen, which can mean either a kind of empathic or participatory understanding of social phenomena. With well-disposed and deep awareness, people can comprehend the situations which they might not have the chance to experience first hand. Furthermore, C. Wright Mills provides his “sociological imagination” or the cognitive transferring to capture the reality which could be alien to the observers or thinkers. Nevertheless, my real life narrative is tied to a vivid history which is ongoing and is timingly value-added to the Verstehen of Freire’s case.  In short, the main purpose of this paper is trying to reexamine my understanding from Freire’s perspectives which make more sense to me when I recall things happening in Taiwan in the past and present.   And I hope such understanding can be more objective to me, and, probably more sharable with my peers.

The following is a brief socio-cultural contexts to outline such concerns.

                               A brief Geo-historical contexts  of Taiwan

           Geo-politically speaking, Taiwan, also known as Formosa,[1] has been noted as a "trouble spot in Asian waters."  Historically, Formosa inherits most of its cultural traditions from Mainland China. The Chinese migration to Formosa began in the 16th century. For the most part, settlers came from neighboring mainland provinces of Fukien and Canton. During a four century long isolation from Mainland China under foreign colonizations (e.g., Dutch 1620-64, Spain 1624-42 and Japan 1895-1945), Formosa developed a distinct sociopolitical-cultural identity of her own.

During World War II, two important events influenced the future of Formosa.  First, in 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and intended to use Formosa as a base for a push southward into Indochina. Second, in 1943, the Cairo Declaration by the Allies pledged the restoration of Formosa to China, which would end Japan's half century occupation of Taiwan.

Yet, the Chinese civil war (1945-1949) posed a dilemma in terms of rival claims of the governments of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung. These governments split China into two parts--the conflicting claims of the Kuomitang (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Since the early 1960s, Taiwan has progressed impressively in terms of economic growth. One significant factor contributing to its success is the last four decades of "political stability." From 1947, when Martial Law was proclaimed, until 1989, a diverse range of social movements and dynamics were totally prohibited. Behind her remarkable economic achievement, a leviathan of control hung over Taiwan's socio-edu-political life.  

In the coming section, I borrow Freire’s instruments of oppression of the oppressor correlating to Taiwan’s experiences to illuminate his theories and practices.

           A Reflection on Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the Oppressor

Under above socio-cultural contexts, I interwove  Freire’s ideas and concepts: conquest, divide and rule, manipulation, and cultural invasion into two stages of events happening in my parents’ generation and my first hand experience (Japan’s occupation transiting to the Nationalist Party’s (KMT) practices on the  local Taiwanese people).

Stage one-  Japan’s colonization

            Freire pointed out that “the conqueror imposed his objectives on the vanquished, and make of them his possession. He imposes his own contours on the vanquished, who internalized this shape and become ambiguous beings: ‘housing’ another. From the first, the act of conquest, which reduces persons to the status of things, is necrophilia” (p.138). These concepts of conquest, ambiguous beings, and necrophilia phenomena can be illustrated by one of the most significant events happening in Taiwan’s history tied to Japan’s developing imperialism:

In reviewing part of the mid 19^th century history of Japan, the conspicuous transition was the Boshin War of 1867–1868 which led to the resignation of the shogunate. Hereafter, the Meiji Restoration established a government centered on the emperor and adopted Western political, judicial and military institution that transformed the Empire of Japan into an industries world power. A consequence of an embarking on a number of military conflicts to increase access to natural resources and human capital was to change the outlook of several Asian countries. Among them was Taiwan.

                After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japanese militants seized more power and gained momentum. This conquest asserted the superior of power of Japan over the senile, immobile and deteriorating China’s last dynasty-Ching empire. Taiwan was annexed to Japan under 1895’s Shimonoseki treaty. As a ceded territory, local Taiwanese were reduced into a military-production base for Japan’s further southward actions. Being an oppressed state, the oppression is not only military, or economic, but cultural as Freire mentioned.  I vividly remember that my parents gave me a cognitive dissonance when I was a student: I perceived my parents’ favoring Japanese governmental policies which was totally opposite to what I was taught at schools based on the Nationalist KMT’s political ideology (in particular, high school, and university that I attended). Not until as a grown adult later, had I understood my parents’ generation when cultural invasion, hegemony, and manipulation were beyond their comprehension.

In cultural invasion, Freire quoted from Fromm’s  analysis that the objective conditions which generate whether in home, such as parent-child relations in a climate of indifference and oppression or of love and freedom, or in a sociocultural context…And the atmosphere of the home is prolonged in the school, and on of the precepts is “not to think” (p.155.)  To investigate such statements from my experience, I would admit my generation that this analysis has some validity, but in speaking for my parents’ generation, the issue was not just “not to think”, but with no such “a capacity to think”. I will have more details in the following section.

            To be able to think, one of the premises was to expose the learning opportunities. Without learning, knowledge won’t be shared, challenged and disseminated within and between socio-cultural contexts.  In real life case was that not only my parents’ generation were not allowed to learn their own language and cultural practices, but also bought into glorified and internalized values, words, belief from the invaders.  My father was allowed to have  4 years’ Japanese elementary education and was much assimilated into a Japanese than a Chinese-Taiwanese, and my eldest sisters and brother who were born during Japanese occupation era have Japanese names (Teroko 照子, Akiko 秋子, and Takeo 武雄) instead of like mine Li-chin (麗琴), a typical Han’s name.

There are enormous examples to allude to those situations. Due to space limits, I use some mundane cases. One of them was that my younger sister was born with a pretty face. My parents would feel a sense of strange pride when friends praised her as cute as a “Japanese doll.”  Seemingly, Japanese food was more expensive than that of Taiwanese or well-known Chinese cuisines; kimono was more elegant than our own clothing (even though we know its style was borrowed from China’s Tang Dynasty in the 10^th century); Japanese kids were well-educated, well-behaved, smarter, and cleaner than my own folks (even subconsciously we are aware that Chinese are much outsmart to Japanese).  Such an internalized mixed inferior-superior complex was fostered via visible and invisible cultural domination through the colonial state.

In the rule and divide section, Freire provided his insight in the following statement, “As the oppressor minority subordinate and dominates the majority, it must divide and keep it divided in order to remain in power. The minority cannot permit itself the luxury of tolerating the unification of the people, which would undoubtedly signify a serious threat to their own hegemony” (p.141, 2000). In relating to the divide and rule to ensure the invader’s continuous domination, the local Taiwanese were selected by the royalty or submission to the Japanese magistracy.  Certain “valuable” Taiwanese families were allowed a small quota to enter into Japanese high school and to emulate Japanese ways of life. Their Japanese diplomas would grant them better life chances to obtain office jobs, for example, being police officers (a hot job) who in terms guarded against their own people. The rest of Taiwanese people with good healthy conditions were sent into basic Japanese elementary schools, in particular boys, who, in the long run were the main productive force for Japan’s southward and source of military drafts.  Women like my mother, who were in the low SES status never got a chance to go to elementary school, except a small group of daughters from the elite Taiwanese families.  95% of Women were encouraged to reproduce more offspring, in particular, boys, which reinforced the gender ideology that males were more valuable who could serve the grand destiny for the Japanese Emperor. The rice/food ration was given according to the children being reproduced.  My parents ended up having 10 children without specific life skill, education, training or other life chances to survive.

But an even more perplex condition was yet to come which happened right after 50 years’ Japanese colonization.  Ironically, the most horrendous blood shedding did not occur under the alien’s oppression but in the hands of her folks.  Such cultural dissonance and tragedy is another variation of the post-colonial state where the colonial masters’ retreat created power vacuum or cultural dissonance between the newly dominant group and the old world practice.

Stage Two – The Tragedy of Taiwan

After Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II, meanwhile, Mao’s political power overshadowed Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government. The Chinese’ civil war created another a peculiar stage of domination and hegemony on Taiwan under a complicate socio-political contexts.

After 50 years’ hegemonic enculturation from Japan, Taiwanese lived under a double consciousness- on the one hand, Japan presented herself as a well-organized powerful regime, which deserved some credits in constructing Taiwan’s early stage of industrialization.  On the other hand, and she was a foreign invader depleting both natural and human resources from Taiwan. No one could forget that sporadic uprising and minor rebellions was ruthlessly oppressed by Japanese government in early stage of subjugation on Taiwanese people.

              The Nationalist Chinese governments retreated to Taiwan to take over Japanese’s leftovers gave local people a complex hope that the “mother country” would take care of this “Asia’s orphan,” heal those unspeakable wounds, and live a better life in the future. However, what happened as quite opposite and unexpected. The defeated Chinese government by Mao’s communist party led more than one million ill-equipped, weary soldiers and various rank and files living under Chiang’s promise – bring them back to China with future prosperity. Taiwan again, became another spring board for a promise that returning to China was the hope for those followers of Chiang.

                50 years of Japan’s domination and culture invasion might not be successfully altering Taiwanese’s mind, but the legacies and influence did happen on local people. For instance, the early Nationalist government realized that Mandarin/Chinese would not be more communicable than Japanese, thus most government news, documents had to be promulgated in Japanese or bilingually.   The Taiwanese acted and behaved more like the disliked and hated Japanese from the Nationalist Chinese’s point of view. Unavoidably, the suspicion and miscommunications derived from language barriers, mixed norms and values between China-mainlanders and local Taiwanese culminated in the February 28^th 1947 massacre maneuvered  by the Nationalist government on local 20,000 Taiwanese elites and dissents who demanded more cultural understanding and  political autonomy.

After the atrocity, the art of “white terror” was enforced on the Island. The Martial law was enacted.  And the most powerful social institution was proved to be the most effective hegemonic instrument which was education, played the outstanding role in confining intellectual activities under the name of national security and confronting the Communist China.   The pronged approaches were exercised. One of the prongs was that all the Japanese and Taiwanese languages and cultural events were not allowed to speak or practiced in public. Many storied had been told that Taiwanese kids were severely punished and publicly humiliated by school teachers and administrators (mainly were China mainlanders) for their treasons or unpatriotic behaviors by speaking Japanese and Taiwanese or acting like ones.  The other prong was about the super banking curriculum designed to reclaim China and to indoctrinate the detestation toward Communism China and Japan. The curriculum and instruction was fully condensed and aligned with the Nationalist Party’s ideology. Taiwanese students were taught to fight and scarify for the great cause of “the recovery the lost land of China”, and one of such effects was my joining the military right after my graduation from National Taiwan University – a quality education opportunity did not mean to employability (plus I was an inexperienced young woman) under the rampant favoritism and nepotism practice at that time, except the door opened up to being the war zone machine Thus responding to the calling of patriotism (Taiwan’s membership in the United Nation was replaced by China during the Nixon to the Carter presidencies) enthused by Nationalist government’s policy to ensure my parents who could have health care and  medication accessibility became my one way ticket. Beyond my own small world, in the larger society, the intellectual activities, newspaper agencies, social organizations were under scrutinized in the name of Marital Law which was sanctioned right after the February 28^th local uprising, 1947.

     Under such a banking system, my generation learned the most detailed information about China (music, art, history, geography, philosophy, literature, politics and economics…etc) but meagerly know about what the Taiwan was, is, and will be.  The China mainlander were portrayed as social elites due to majority of them under Chiang’s promise granted the prominent social-economic positions that used to belong to Japanese’s rank and files in Taiwan. These social elite statuses mainly clustered in the educational systems, government officialdom, military, and state owned industries.  Thus the top 4 social institutions were under the Nationalist’s control: education, government, military, and economy.

         In the previous section, I mentioned a perplex of mine - why my parents paradoxically preferred Japanese government’s treatment to the Nationalist’s, even though they were fully understanding it was a repressive foreign regime. Here is one episode to provide some explanation to the choice of the less evil, even thought it sounded like an impossible joke!  In the Japanese occupation era, the more children were produced, the more food ration was given- what a “great” policy! Under Nationalist regime, due to the heavy military build-ups to fight against Communist China, the overloaded taxes were imposed on local Taiwanese farmers, workers and businessmen. One of such taxes was on the headcounts in a household- the more people in a room, the heavier tax the household head had to pay. I vividly remember how my father was constantly intimidated by the Mainland China policemen and had to escape from the arrests, and then they just came into our shanty house lived with three generations, searching any meager things left at home. Nobody questioned that there was no food on the table, no education, skills, and  jobs available to have an income for the 10 children, grandparents and some young uncles and aunts. My parents just had no energy to feed so many stomachs, not to mention to pay all kinds of taxes! It was a déjà vu of the peasants in the medieval feudaldom, or workers in the newly industrialized England.

Freire’s remarks on the oppressor who cannot permit or tolerate the solidarity the subjugated people because it  signified a serious threat to their own hegemony reminds my school days.  I vividly recall if some students wanted to organize study groups, they had to report the security agencies for approval and under necessary surveillance. Many rumors and speculations about several professors and social dissents who dared to criticize the government were mysteriously disappeared from our campus – the major mental power plant of this country – National Taiwan University.  Under the white terror, most civilians were aware that there were “professional/secret agents” similar to America’s CIAs and FBIs or KGBs residing in major universities and research institutes. The mission of the culture of silence was completed.  And this is what I meant the high human cost in order to reach “stability”/status quo in exchange the economic growth as the totalitarian policy proclaimed.

            Today I still can exactly remember my mother’s anxiety (grew up from the culture of fear) with tears in her eyes when I was heading for the U.S.  to study sociology (in particular, “social movements” as part of my social psychology discipline in 1990).  She wanted me to promise her never to get involved with any politics and never say anything “inappropriately” – just “not to think” for the safety’s sake (as I mentioned she was never allowed to have a day of formal education. She could neither read nor write but love).  As Freire’s remarks “Manipulation, like the conquest whose objectives it serves, at attempts to anesthetize the people so they will not think” (p.149, 2000).

                                                            Conclusion

                  Due to space limit, this narrative presents a small part of my lived experience and observations scaffolded by Freire’s concepts depicted in the book- Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is also subject to my personal biased even under my own careful self scrutiny.  My resonance to his thoughts, obviously, is quite strong. The Taiwanese people endured two significant stages of dehumanized processes echoing Freire’s argument: “Within an objective situation of oppression, antidiological is necessary to the oppressor as a means of further oppression – not only economic, but cultural: the vanquished are dispossessed of their oppression has been limited, anti-dialogue becomes indispensable to its preservation” (p.139, 2000).

  I would like to partially adopt Marx’s famous “religion” quote in this conclusion: “’Hope’ is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”   Such a strong hope finally was reified after the Martial Law was lifted in 1987. The dynamic democratic movements took on the next stage of the dialogical pedagogy in Taiwan that has been fostering the resilience for Taiwanese people to achieve socio-economic development in the international community during last two decades.

              Thinking of  my mother  (passed away two and a half year ago) who was never  allowed to enter school a day, but with strong  “hope” that one day her daughter will become a “female” doctor or professor to preside “social justice” yet with the contradictory notion of  wanting  the daughter “not to think” too much!!

Finally, I mentioned at the onset of this paper that the main purpose of this paper was to reexamine my understanding from Freire’s perspectives via my recollections of events happening in the past which still have impacts on today’s practice in Taiwan, and hoping such understanding can make more sense to myself, and, could be sharable with peers.

                                                                     

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[1] Portuguese sailors, passing Taiwan in 1544, first jotted in a ship's log the name of the island "Ilha Formosa", meaning Beautiful Island. In 1582 the survivors of a Portuguese shipwreck spent ten weeks battling malaria  and Aborigines before returning to Macau  on a raft (Mateo 2002: 2-9) .

Aug 18 (Sa), 2012 Reflection - one of my homeworks as a grad student at University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, 2008

                      Introduction
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."  -- Ben Franklin

            This paper is a reflection on what I have learned from the various types of critical theory and applications studied and discussed in our class.  Such a reflective process enhances my pedagogical  consciousness and conscience in my daily practice as an instructor/educator. In addition to my reflection, I also  used this writing opportunity to inspect my own dilemmas addressed in one of early one-page writings regarding Kliebard’s “The Struggle for the American curriculum, 1893-1958”.  The question was “How have you seen the four major forces Kliebard identified playing out in your personal and professional lives?”  My answers were “Thus far, my 10 years’ teaching experience in the U.S. has been a mental struggle between a die-hard social meliorist and social efficientist… Honestly speaking, having been teaching in a 2-year “technical” college for 5 years, my tons of dilemmas between being a culprit of capitalist instructor and conscientious facilitator for the typical low-income students challenges my mental soundness on daily basis.”  Thus, this paper presented two levels of investigations: at the individual level, it harvested what stimulated and inspired me to move on, and the other one looked into a contextual level to examine the “unknowability” (Kumashiro, 2002) or uncertainties of what students learn as well as the pedagogy under specific type of educational settings.

                                                   
                                                         Two Tales of This Paper

At the individual level – my reflection of what I have learned thus far
           Alluding to critical pedagogy as an enhancer, I brought together approaches discussed in our classroom to help decode the  pedagogical enigma- the juggling between a repressive capitalist-culprit instructor and an anti-oppressive educator. 

           Scholars, researchers or activists who have inclination toward critical pedagogy tend to seek more basic change in society.  Radicals penetrate into the basic flaws in society that are responsible for various types of oppression and malfunctions of society.  For example, for the Marxists, the basic flaw is the capitalist economic system that creates social classes and various types of artificial social hierarchies and oppression as addressed in Freire’s (1993) Pedagogy of the Oppressed; for the radical feminists as discussed in Davies’ the Shards of Glass (1993) - the conventionally oppressing “spoken-to-existence” of gendered dichotomy and repressive social institutions such as family/marriage “can be speaking and  ‘be slaughtered’ out of existence, played with, disrupted, or used to manufacture new revolutionary potentials (p.198); and Kumashiro’s (2002) tangible knowledge that examines multiple ways of reading activism and its pedagogical role to engage in social change.   To me, radical/critical ideals and practices, in their symbolism like revolution, transformation, challenging status quo, anti-oppression, and social change…etc. are energizing, stimulating, and inspiring that fill me with optimism to wade through the educational battlefields.
Having sociology as one of my academic disciplines, it is hard not to declare that the transformative ends of education need to be attained by the forcible overthrow of all existing safe / repetitive normalcy and oppressive practices. However, the rational approach also comes into play because social change does not come easily. For the solutions to transform society entails radical changes of our society’s everlasting institutions.  Having said that does not mean it will discredit the desirability of the transformative dynamics. Some insist that it begins with economy, and others, education, but which one comes first, or simultaneously?  I will detail this point in the later section.

           In the educational realm, the conscientious one desperately decries- let the educational oppressive classes tremble at Freire’s Pedagogy of the oppressed and launch toward the dialogical revolution!  On the other hand, we might be pondering a critical issue: do we really have nothing to lose but the institutionally repressive chains??  Do educators or knowledge workers unite, and there is a world to win or one has to work it out like the educational Rambo- Erin Gruwell’s hard-earned heroic victory?
           Dan Lortie (1975) maintains that the easy entry of recruitment in addition to the individualistic socialization process supports the conservative sentiments permeating in the K-12  (and 13-14 too. Detailed later) educational settings. He argues “…to see recruitment into teaching as leading to reaffirmation than as leading to challenge to the past…in teaching it tips toward continuity rather than change to sustain stability” (p.54).  Though such investigations observed by Lortie more than three decades ago, they still portrait current practices vividly.   In my episodic observations from the small group discussions, I heard off both the revelations from the tough and the enlightened:  “I never know all these radical theories and practices all my life as a teacher until now, but that doesn’t mean that I am not a good teacher”; “ After this class, I started feeling upset and hating those oppressive people and their practices…”;   “Those curriculum approaches (refer to Freire, Kumashiro, McCarthy and Dimitriadis in particular) are very unconventional, how can you practice them in your class?”  “Why everything is binary? There are much more important things (inferring the taking care of the majority of students than spending time on focusing on minority issues)  teach and discuss than that…The author’s writing style is really cursive /incomprehensible!” (refer to Browyn Davies’); “ O.K…. I am from the dominant group, I also feel oppressed too; and I am trying very hard to understand Other’s experiences, but there always is a gap hanging there!” and so on so forth. Yes, there are much more questions and skepticism than answers and doability.  

              Though the doors lead to change is narrow, critical activists, researchers, and practitioners devote great deals to such a cause that inspires me to keep on going.  In practicality, Davies (1993) proposes a workable definition of agency with a combination of the ability to recognize the constitutive power of discourse; the ability to catch discourse/structure/practice in the pact of shaping desire, perception, knowledge; and engagement  in a  collective possess of re-naming, re-writing, re-positioning oneself in relation to coercive structures (p.199).  Freire (1993) suggested the dialogical actions of cooperation, unity of liberation, organization, and cultural synthesis to generate positive conditions for freedom to resuscitate the awareness of human creative possibilities and scaffold people’s freedom of expression, effective participation in power.  He also reminded us of the confronting ideology of domination and alienation with class struggle to fight against the false consciousness. Kumashiro (2002) maintains that education is critical of privileging and othering.  He suggests that educators and students need to examine not only how some groups and identities are Othered in society, but also how some groups are privileging, as well as how this dual processes legitimized and maintained by social structure and competing ideologies (p.44).  With the above individual’s venturing perspectives in mind and in actions, change can be done as the saying goes, “The thousand miles’ journey starts right from every individual’s first foot step”.   In addition to the individual level’s endeavors, the next section will examine the overarching forces permeating in the educational system from my personal observations.

The Contextual Level of Investigation

            In Freedom Writers, the viewers could identify the extraordinary individual endeavors to overcome obstacles beyond ordinary people’s control. During the group discussion, I raised a question “In Erin Grewell’s case, why does a system impose the toughest tasks to a young student teacher under one of most formidable conditions (contrast to the senior teachers who have the privilege to teach the “good /honor or “easy” students)? Is it a testimonial to prove Social Darwinism- the strongest the fittest- like Rambo, Erin, or it goes with the cliché “for those who can, do; those who cannot, teach?” 

          With the understanding of the contextual issues that play significant role in teaching and learning, now I am returning to my predicaments mentioned in the introduction. The conundrum confounding the individuals’ efforts, in my case (and many instructors/educators having the similar conditions to mine) is situated in the specific educational conditions, which have to call upon system approach as well to confront such a challenge.

            Having been serving as a social science instructor/educator in the non-liberal art type of educational settings, my daily struggle between a die-hard social meliorist and social efficientist schizophrenically challenges my mental state. It takes a deeper look into a larger picture to see through. To understand part of my pedagogical quandaries, a brief educational context is delineated as follows.
           Very different from my first teaching experience as a TA in the Art Department of a 4-year liberal art school (Wayne State College), the last two educational settings, a 4-year college, University of Wisconsin-Stout, and the current one, a 2-year technical college in Chippewa Valley, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, challenge me constantly as a social science instructor/educator.  One of the challenges comes from the nature of both schools’ historical developments, which lead to the utilitarian mission imperative.  UW-Stout, founded in 1891 as a Manual Training School, was based on the pragmatism of “social utility”. Such philosophy[1] and strategy echoed the industrialization, new immigrants, structural expansion due to G. I. Bills, changing constituencies, diversity needs that evolved into today’s professional career-oriented mission as a priori. Thus, from its inception, the utilitarianism laid out the foundation of its educational practices.  Liberal art education, such as Social Science which I belonged to, does not have its own degree program, but functioning as a supporting learning to the main protagonists – the vocational (or career) degree programs. A couple of proposals to establish Social Science degree program were killed in the college wide contesting. Focusing on social utility functions as mission statement, yes, one could euphemize it by tying to Dewey’s “learning by doing” educational philosophy, if it is genuinely progressive in practicing experiential pedagogy.

             As to Chippewa Valley Technical College, it is one of the 16 tech schools in the Wisconsin Technical College System. Wisconsin was the first state to establish a system of state support for vocational, technical and adult education (Chapter 616, Laws of 1911).  In the past 2 decades, the system has increased its focus on lifelong learning; education for economic development; and services for groups that formerly had less access to education, including people in rural areas, women and minorities. Special emphasis has been given to assisting the unemployed, displaced homemakers and those with literacy problems.
             Serving the regional needs, in particular, training the desirable job skills, working ethics, good citizens to feed the workforce demands is the major mission statement of the both schools that I served/have been teaching.  Inside the system, the visible as invisible discord between hands-on (vocational programs) vs. minds-on (liberal art or general education programs) is a constant undercurrent that school seeks to reconcile by advocating the integration of the two.  But once in a while, you hear off that liberal art/general education is parasitical on the vocational programs, or the degree program creating working robots without critical thinking skills…etc.

            The demographics of students attending the technical college are quite different from those of the typical liberal art university.  Generally speaking, they are low-income, high school dropouts, first generation attending a 2-year college, displaced workers due to the corporate downsizing and outsourcing, learners from malfunctioning families or communities and so on.  This is the student populations that I am working for and with on daily basis. The climate is very different from that of National Taiwan University, UW-Madison, University of Minnesota, the Ivy League Schools, and the like.

            Due to space limit, I used a couple of small episodes from my sociology classes to examine the critical thinking capacity. The consciousness raising tends to be more successful in responding to the awareness of, such as, the endangered species or the polluted environments in the U.S. But in terms of global stratification/inequality regarding race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexuality and other socially constructed categories were less successful. (I remembered in discussing racial issues in the U.S. in one of my classes, a student argued that we did not have racial problems here - Wisconsin. And her ancestors were not slave owners, thus affirmative action was truly against the White and privileged the minority – this episode was from UW-Stout when I taught there).  One of the reasons as Davies’ points out (1993)  that we are always vulnerable to the discourses through which is spoken and speaks itself into existence (p.21). The unexamined baggage students carry into classrooms reflecting the “the normalcy of individuality”- a tendency to blame the poor and the victims/failure instead of social stratification and corporate hegemony due to the mass bought  the spoken-into existence of the dominant ideologies.  Same as in debating and discussing “Homestead Strike” and “Roger and Me”, one striking comment from half of the students was that workers should have looked for other jobs- because this is a land of “Freedom” to “choose”; no one tied you up at Homestead or Flint!  Students can see the needle in the haystack (blaming individuals), but ignore the elephant in the room (ideologically constructed social structures)!!

           Thus it might be easier to call for a green action to save endangered species and conservation than foster critical reflection on individuals’ participating in their own oppressive processes. Having said that one still have to encounter other disciplines or degree programs’ mission statements, which support or are sponsored by capitalistic ideology.  For example the refrain consumption would against, say, the Marketing, International Business, or Business Management programs’ advocacy.  In an occasion, I picked up a handout of a business class in which the contents was pro-“globalization processes” and applauded the logics of growth.  And for the over-consumption as students interpreted it: a way to express patriotism. Nevertheless, the above anecdotes might reflect my selective attention, thus are subject to my personal bias.
            I have a little bit envy of Kumashiro’s endeavors that he seems able to arouse students’ sense of  “crisis”  (it did happen in our class too, but I am curious of the demographic characteristics of his students!) when they are confronting the discomfort ideas or practice that are not part of their learning experiences. In my classes, such  precious “crisis” moments do not surface very often.  Like many other instructors/educators, the classroom managements would overshadow the managing of generating critical ideas (Schulman, 1987) in the technical college settings.  Hopefully you won’t consider the following common scenes are excuses for not being an Erin type of educator: Absenteeism, illness (in particular, single parent student’s children), family affairs (lots of family problems in low-income households spilling over into other spheres of students’ lives), transpiration problems, finance stress, jail time and all kinds of adult problems come into play in the daily classroom dramas.

            When economic stress, such as being unemployed, being laid off, dealing with nickel-and-dimed temp job, or living on welfare is haunting majority of students, the notions of liberation of gender, emancipation of race/ethnicity, and restructuring the  social class, tolerating/accepting the different sexual identities and so on are not easy to get into students’ mindsets.

            This semester, I expanded a mini-carnivalesque approach in my Psychology of Human Relations class - all male, blue collar, “emotionally reserved” students mainly major in heavy duty hands-on vocational programs.  Lots of music, exotic foods, snacks, multimedia presentations (you tube, movies, documentary, ppt), story telling, students’ role-playing as my teachers…etc. is the only pedagogy that I can think of to engage with this type of class genre that I have never taught before.  Kumashiro mentions the notion of unknowability referring to teachers who are not sure what students really learn, or act.  Hopefully, such activities could lead to Britzman’s argument that learning involves in unlearning of what they believed as norms in their gender/family and community relationship, their notion of patriotism, the religiosity, and the invisible oppressive capitalism that they  (and I too, when I showed my iron fist to command the authoritarianism on their punctuality, obedience, politeness, learning to be employable workers and marriageable men/fathers, and good law-abiding citizens…etc.  See how much I contribute to the capitalist education! ) participate in and contribute to.

                                                                       Conclusion

            I am wondering how many educators/practitioners expect or feel satisfied to teach so-called “no-problem, good, honor students” in the K-14 setting?  For me, I got the chances to teach two high schools and two colleges in Taipei a while ago.  Three of them were academic successful schools with “good, obedient, polite” students. But so far, my best memory and my most self-aggrandized pride came not from the good schools but the one that people recommended me not to go.  It was that very “dreadful” high school privileged me how to be a good educator!

         At my current workplace, in a typical face to face Sociology class, usually 10 to 15 percent of students in an average class size of 25 can/will engage in the critically reflective processes:  discomfort, crisis/paralysis, upsetting, and then work through the crisis before being able to act.  This small group of students having and enjoying the  “luxury” as well as “privilege” to decode the enigma of “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are" tend to be from healthier family background or at a more mature mental state that make the critical pedagogy shine! School contexts matter, so as social class!  In a nut shell, my belief to work against both visible and invisible oppression takes dual levels of endeavors. One is focusing on system (such as Bronfonbrenner’s) approach to engage in organizational/institutional criticism on the structural and ideological hegemony.  The other one is relying on individuals’ endeavors to take on the role of change agents/activists as well as guard against one’s own contributions to the oppressive processes.

          Being a multiple-conscious instructor/educator, I realized that I am much more privileged than unprivileged.  So, this is my confession as a social science instructor (hopefully, someday, I can self-promote into an activist educator) who struggles between a die-hard social meliorist and social efficientist; a teacher and learner who is able to reflect the privileges she possesses in serving as a culprit of a capitalist educational system without losing the conscience of being an anti-oppressive “pedagogue” to engage with the less fortunate students one “class” at a time.

         Finally, and most importantly is that I truly appreciated the onsite pedagogical modeling, such as the design of the course readings, the energy, engagements, and the multiple dimensional encouragements, the diverse pedagogy (some examples such as, unknowabilities of pleasantly pressured surprises- e.g., tackling the impossible tasks, brainstorming the onsite spontaneous writing and sharing, debating, big/small discussing, mutual paper critiquing, and group project collaborating to name a few).  I experienced the pedagogy of humanist, social melorist (mostly), social efficiency, and some developmentalist approaches integrated well in such a short period of time!

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[1] Such philosophy contesting the traditional liberal art education could be traced back to the Yale report in the 19^th century. The disciplinary theory of liberal educations supported the following ideals:

(1)Keep away occupational studies from curriculum: occupations could best be learned through practice in the counting room, the workshop, and on the farm. To preserve room for literary and scientific studies as students might never have time or opportunity again to pursue in the course of a busy practical life; (2)The college might not offer training peculiar to specific occupations, it would provide the broad theoretical foundation logically prior for them all; (3) Liberal education emphasized to cultivate the whole man, the all-around man.-symmetrical and complete.

(4) Specialization would produce only a fraction of a man.  To avoid narrowness liberal was to attend to  round men out physically, morally and intellectually; (5) Finally, liberal arts cultivate imagination, length perspective, sober judgment, and refine taste at the  same time it gave life direction and purpose; while supporting the utilitarianism was much the themes of Stout’s development:

(1) The tradition of liberal education inherited from abroad was aristocratic; (2)  In the latter part of 19th century, undergraduates  reacted much more readily where they could see the  instrumental values of their studies; (3) Utilitarian studies could releases student energies more spontaneous; and 

(4) The Land Grant Morrill Act of 1862 played an important role in stimulate the growth of technological education (agricultural and mechanical  fields). E.g., Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and “Wisconsin idea” of being public- service institution 

(Notes from Dr. D. Lewis’ course readnigns).