Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item From turning away to listening in: instruction to facilitate civic dialogue through regional literature(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Hall, Nicole JoAnna; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how trauma-reducing student-centered instruction (TR-SCI) offers a solution to the cycle of traumatizing and retraumatizing student experiences within classroom environments. TR-SCI is a way to center the student experience and focuses on reducing trauma inducing practices in the classroom. I discuss what the classroom experience might entail then I explore why TR-SCI might allow for environments of trust and reciprocity which is needed to create civic dialogue. Civic dialogue consists of conversations built upon reciprocity and respect, while listening across conflict toward understanding differences. Civic dialogue provides opportunity for students to step outside echo chambers and has the potential to widen students' view of the experiences of others. Critically exploring regionally relevant literature is a way to begin civic dialogue and has potential for students to find connections and disconnections that are situated within the context of their regional experiences. I interject my own experiences as a mother, educator, student, community member, and researcher to explore why I think we need trauma-reducing classrooms that engage in civic dialogue by exemplifying, through writing and discussion, an attempt to connect personal and regional experience with author Ivan Doig's text and archives. I have written a series of letters to Ivan called 'Dear Ivan' that exemplify my work to build connection with the author and archives. My hope is that discussions on TR-SCI, civic dialogue through regional literature, and my explorations with connecting to Ivan help to facilitate further conversations in these fields. I see the connections with these concepts and methods as potential for teacher education workshops and further qualitative research studies in classroom environments. It is not my purpose here to propose a solution but simply to begin dialogue toward relatable ways to build equity and inclusion within the classroom.Item The place-based classroom in transition(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2012) Munro-Schuster, Maria Danelle; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert PetroneIn this exploration of place, place-based pedagogy and transition, the author confronts the meaning of place in education, questioning her own use and understanding of the places in which she teaches and the way in which traditional place-based pedagogy has been regarded. Calling attention to the lack of place-based pedagogy in the college classroom, using Robert Brooke's Guiding Principles of a Place Conscious Education (2003) as framework, she walks the reader through the design of such a course for a basic writing classroom. Taking a step back from the traditional usage of place, which places an emphasis on both naturalness and permanence, the author focuses the course on the unnatural and temporary environment of the University. Writings collected from the course allows the author to further contemplate her students' understanding of the University as a place, and who they perceive themselves to be in the place of the University. The author likens the experience of college to that of travel, suggesting college is a temporary place that provides a time of neutrality in which new identities can be explored, as Tourist Studies' White and White (2004) put forth of travel. This thinking lends her analysis of student writings collected during the course to a theoretical framework used in the analysis of place narratives in tourist studies, as well as William Bridges' work on life transitions (2004). She finds that students initially indicate they are located in an imaginary University in which they are working through the process of grieving. She also finds that the University becomes the backdrop for student performances which assist in the process of identity (re)construction. These analyses indicate the complex multi-functionality the place of the University serves for students and how it can be in opposition to how it is perceived and utilized by instructors. With self at the center of initial understandings of a new place, this research advises that students can be facilitated through grieving, with the assistance of writing, to a state of neutrality where awareness of new educational concepts and identity formation can transpire.