21st Century Scholar

Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is one of my favorite plays. At the beginning of the story, Faustus, surrounded by countless dusty tomes, declares that he has read everything about everything. I’m not sure what it says about me (especially given Faustus’ fate), but I frequently think about that scene. I read a lot. I eagerly [...]

Kurt Vonnegut once said to a group of eager writing students, “Probably all of you are good enough to make it as writers. But it’s likely that only one of you has what it takes to endure the constant rejection.” I’m not sure I would reduce academic life to such a straightforward statement, but he’s [...]

**Over the course of the next two weeks, we share 13 scholars’ diverse perspectives and opinions on the 2013 AERA annual conference theme “Education and Poverty: Theory, Research, Policy and Praxis.” We encourage you to share your own thoughts on their posts.  The title, taken from Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform, alludes to my [...]

In one of my previous posts titled Not “Profiting from People’s Pain”: Remembering the Transformational Role of Education Researchers, I discuss the importance of engaging in work that helps others rather than that which only exists to benefit our own careers. While the upcoming annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association presents a great [...]

There is a classic Abbott and Costello skit called “Who’s on first?” where Costello gets befuddled by the names of his friend’s team. We are close to getting into that situation without half as much humor in academe in terms of academic offerings. Not so long ago if someone wanted a bachelor’s degree we would [...]

On the first day of school, two students started fighting. One student tried to escape. The two ran from the first to third floor. A crowd followed them. Just before the fight stopped, a security guard’s head slammed through a window in my classroom’s door. She never returned to school. A few days later, someone [...]

My children attend a no-tech school. It’s no-tech not because of an articulated philosophy shunning all things digital, but rather because it’s a charter school and they don’t have the funds to provide computers in the classrooms. I actually love the “old-school” student-centered, constructivist approach they have been exposed to. The teachers are so creative [...]

I’ve been thinking about writing (and reading) in the 21st century and the emphasis higher education has begun to place on pre-K–20 college preparation. But I’ve also been thinking about online writing (and reading), and the public policy dialogue that propagates the separation of paper-based and online literacy education. Perhaps if we—as researchers—begin to put [...]

In my last post, I discussed the use of Evernote as a tool to store and organize fieldnotes. For this blog, I transition to the writing process. I am fortunate to have mounds of digital data from my dissertation. I also have a list of papers that I am either planning or authoring. Although I [...]

I remember a time in my life when I was interesting. I used to read, go the symphony, subscribe to the repertory theater, and even see an occasional film before it was released on DVD or downloaded on a personal device for a plane ride distraction. Then I had children. I am happy to report [...]