Humanities FPLC Brown 2007-8
From CTLpedia
Reflections on my Experience in the Humanities Faculty and Professional Learning Community, Marie Brown, Library, Mesa Community College, Contact me (mcbrown@mail.mc.maricopa.edu)
Summary: My project summary.
Contents |
Humanities FPLC Background
The Mesa Community College hosted a Regional Conversation, "Education in the 21st Century," sponsored by the National Science Foundation in the summer 2005. During the 2005-2006 academic year, a cross-disciplinary team composed of members of the science faculty piloted a Faculty Learning Community, the Nature of Science," in which they pondered what is science or the scientific mind and how to best convey the scientific way of thinking to students. And, recently Governor Janet Napolitano called for greater investment in education targeting science and technology. If our enrollment numbers are representative, the study of the humanities is facing declining interest by students, unless the courses carry multiple "tags" that allow students to check off courses on their way to graduation, the cafeteria approach to education.
Our community was formed to rethink the study of the humanities, given the current demographics of the student population and current emphasis on the sciences and workforce preparation. We have spent our first year attempting to identify the issues related to humanities studies, define terms and identify outcomes. Our work with the FPLC has been challenging, insightful and meaningful. Because we have not finished our work, we plan to stay together as a team for at least one more year -- 2007-2008.
My Initial Views on Humanities FPLC
I felt that our first year as a FPLC was one of definition not only of the term "humanities" but of our group.
This semester, the group moved from definition to creation as we evaluated the SOC tool and created a tool that was used as an in class exercise for two classes.
Humanities FPLC Activities Experienced
We attended the First Annual MCC Conference on Teaching and Learning which was held at MCC on August 17, 2007. We provided material for the poster session.
Our learning committee had the following scheduled meetings:
Friday, Aug. 17 9:00-3:00
Wednesday, Sept 12 2:30-4:30
Friday, Sept. 28 2:30-4:30
Wednesday, Oct. 10 2:00-4:00
Friday, Oct. 26 2:30-4:30
Wednesday, Nov. 14 2:00-4:00
Chapter Presentation with Lutfi Hussein. Handout included below.
Monday, Dec 10 1:00 -3:00
In addition, the group met on November 30 from 1:30 to 3:30 to prepare for our "in class" Assessment Project.
Meetings - Assessment Project application in HUM 250 and ENH 110
Monday, Dec 3 8:30 - 10 am
Wednesday, Dec 5 8:30 - 10 am
Friday, November 30 10-11 am Meeting with Brad Kincaid to discuss my involvement in the FPLC.
Presented Discussion of chapter 2 in The Future Without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society by John Paul Russo (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2005).
Discussants: Marie Brown & Lutfi Hussein 11/14/2007
"The Great Forgetting: Library, Media Center, and Las Vegas"
1.Two American traditions:
Emersonian tradition (Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson etc.)--Focus on immediacy (and present and future): The "great forgetting": "the previously imagined, humanized, and used-up world" (44)
Movement opposed to this forgetting: Humanism, Third Humanism, endowments, national trusts, traditionalism
The "past" has had "an enriching, or steadying, or consoling influence" on "Western culture" "from time immemorial" (45): Greek colonists in Italy English Benedictine monks during Norman Conquest
The Renaissance problematized "history." The Victorians found refuge in it. "The past is disappearing without a struggle." (45)
Europe-leaning (Pound, Eliot--Longfellow, Henry Adams, Henry James, etc.): Focus on immediacy (opposed to mediation--technological, bureaucratic, legal, cultural)
2. Signs of the Times Decline in degrees and enrollments in Humanities (e.g. Latin, Greek) Decline in learning foreign languages Decline in memorization (Ecclesiastes vs. video games) Decline in "high-cultural literacy" (vs. electronic media) Decline in emphasis on the written word (vs. visual representation--book vs. film) Decline in historical value of the past
3."Countless thinkers have urged a simple truth: human consciousness is such that if one does not know the past, one cannot understand the present or think rationally about the future" (53).
4.Many current academics, "trained modernistically and not humanistically," "have no great stake in the past [...] Their readings of the past testify to the fact that they never had a deep spiritual encounter with history, even with the history of an Other [….]" (54).
5.The Jews were the first to conceive of human freedom, the Greeks formulated the rules for it, and the Roman established civic institutions to achieve it (58).
6.The "self" is fragmented and un-stable.
From the Library to the Media Center
The "American library" "is an institution under siege" (61). The library is "as old as history itself" (61): Sumer, Egypt … monasteries in Europe. Digitization of libraries "is presentism with vengeance" (63). The library is "one of the last bastions of the humanities" (63).
What is happening to the library today? Books are shipped off-site. Digital libraries do no allow "browsing." The "library" is now a "media center."
Disfiguring the Past
A study of 20th c. art and architecture (by Mark C. Taylor)--3 epochs: Modernism Modernist postmodernism Postmodernism
Anti-Las Vegas
The British aristocrats and bourgeoisie took the Grand Tour in the 17th & 18th centuries. Las Vegas has become an important architectural, cultural, and semiotic artifact. Las Vegas distorts, mis-represents, and fabricates the humanistic image of human history.
Handout Author: Lutfi Hussein
Reflection on my Experience in Humanities FPLC
My participation in this learning community has been rewarding. I have enjoyed the feeling of community as I have worked with colleagues from across the curriculum. Intellectually, our conversations have been spirited and challenging. This semester it has been exciting to go from discussion to development as we have created an assessment tool that we were able to utilize in two courses at the end of the semester. In addition to meeting formally, I have had the good fortune of "stumbling" across members (former and current) across campus where conversations about meetings, readings, events etc have continued. I believe that I have established connections with colleagues that will be not only educating but enriching (and well, with the singing, entertaining!)
Final Reflection on Humanities in Teaching and Learning
A good part of the group discussion in the past year has been about the teaching of the humanities. What are students gaining from a three credit class? As teachers, what do we want students to "get" from these courses? Do the students value the content of a humanities class? We have had lengthy, often heated, discussions about "the canon", reading the great books. I realized a few weeks ago how important the humanities classes were for me when I was in college over twenty years ago. Perhaps I have taken it for granted that I recognized a piece of Jazz because I grew up around music, or I appreciate a piece of artwork because I lived with a parent who was a painter. Could it be perhaps that History of Jazz class I took freshman year influenced me or the Chaucer class I struggled through as a junior framed my opinion?
While I have enjoyed the collegial, "spirited" conversations with fellow members during the past year, the highlight of this semester occurred on Monday, December 3, 2007.
During the fall semester, we evaluated the Spring 2007 results from the tool used for the Arts and Humanities section of the SOC assessment. This was the first time I had examined the assessment tool. It was frustrating and challenging to see how students responded to the assessment. Most of my colleagues were familiar with it, and it was interesting to see hear the other members' opinions and suggestions.
As a result of these discussions, we created a Humanities exercise which was implemented in as an "in class" exercise in two classes this past week. I had an opportunity to "proctor" one of the sessions on Dec 3. The personalized reactions from each of the three students to the pieces of work (poetry, painting and music) were illuminating and insightful. It was rewarding to see students responding to the pieces of work and to each other. I was struck how a piece of music could affect one student and remind him of his passion for music and how a poem written in 1917 reminded another student of her buddies in Iraq. I was encouraged when they told me they enjoyed the exercise.
I am eager to hear about the other proctor's experiences, and I look forward to the discussion of the project's outcomes during next semester. I am excited by the exercise that we have created and excited to see if this is something we can utilize in the future.
Resources and References on Humanities
Elsner, Paul. "Maintaining the Technology Edge: The Price and The Challenge." Liberal Education. 84.3 (Summer 1998):44 [1]
Howard, Jennifer. "Harvard Humanities Students Discover the 17th Century Online." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 54.9 (26 Oct 2007): 3. [2]
Johnson, Dirk. "Small Campus, Big Books." The New York Times. 4 Nov 2007, ss20. [3]
Russo, John Paul. The Future Without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2005.
Categories: FPLC | Humanities | 2007-8
