Spring 061

Running head: Spring 06 Reflection

Reflection of Spring 06 Courses

Carri A Schneider
University of Cincinnati

Spring 061

Second Year: Spring 2006 Courses

During my last quarter of UEL coursework, I took the final courses in the UEL Internship with Dr. Brown and Action Research with Dr. Brydon-Miller, the Special Topics in UEL Seminar Course with President Zimpher and her husband Dr. Howey, and Educational Policy Analysis with Dr. Koschoreck.

18EDFN931: Internship III

The final quarter of our Internship Course was not without drama and tension. After the plan to do online work in place of time-wasting class meetings on campus went terribly off-course, the majority of our cohort formed a group and decided to take action about our disappointments with the course. Fortunately, Dr. Brown recognized our frustrations and last minute changes were made to the course to facilitate a smooth conclusion to our three quarters together. Overall, the disappointment most of us felt with the course was overshadowed by the success of our individual internship experiences. Personally, I find the UEL Internship to be one of the most valuable aspects of the program. My job with KnowledgeWorks definitely created opportunities for me that would not have existed otherwise.

Beyond professional opportunity, I experienced a great deal of personal growth as the result of my internship. I learned how to adapt to a totally new environment with a corporate culture much different from the educational arenas where I previously felt at home. I also learned more about myself as an employee and had a chance to experiment with possible career directions in educational policy, advocacy, philanthropy, and non-profit organizations that had never crossed my mind in the past. Overall, the universe once again revealed to me that my future options are limitless and that I can truly achieve anything I set out to achieve.

18EDFN852: Action Research III

The final quarter of our Action Research Sequence was extremely fruitful. It was as if all of our lessons from the past two quarters and all of our experiences all synthesized into one living, breathing whole that was much greater than the sum of its individual parts. Once again, we collaborated as a class to set the goals for the quarter. As goals were accomplished, we added new ones. And as other objectives seemed no longer necessary, we collectively decided to drop them from our agenda.

As I reflect upon these experiences, I realize that the spontaneous nature of this course is usually the kind of thing that drives a person like me - who needs a certain degree of organization and control – absolutely crazy! But, somehow Mary was able to lead us through a course without rigid structure or organization that never seemed disorganized. Perhaps it was due to the fact that everyone’s needs were always being met that allowed us to stretch ourselves a bit as students. Or maybe it was the fact that we had come to trust the Action Research process enough to confidently follow Mary through any new door she opened. Regardless, it is clear that our Action Research cohort accomplished many exciting things this quarter including conference presentations, several publishable articles, beautiful artwork, and individual research projects. I think our views of successful pedagogy were also expanded as we put theory into practice every time we walked into our classroom. Overall, I’m extremely thankful to Mary and to each member of our very diverse AR cohort for the contribution each individual made to my own personal journey. I’m also very grateful that I decided to trust my intuition and take the Action Research sequence. I know my experience in UEL wouldn’t have been nearly as powerful without it!

18UEL876: Special Topics UEL

Last year when I introduced President Nancy Zimpher as a guest speaker in our UEL class with Dr. Seidel, my perceptions about university presidents were instantly shattered! Therefore, when I found out that she and her husband Ken Howey would be teaching a seminar course in our college, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn more. My decision paid off for a couple of different reasons.

First of all, taking this course gave me an opportunity to revisit teaching and learning. While I started UEL as a classroom teacher, I was beginning to feel a bit distant from that role before taking this course. Since most of this course revolved around teaching and teacher preparation, I was able to revisit these issues with a much deeper understanding of the complexities of education than I had as an undergraduate or Master’s student. I quickly found that simple questions now had much more complicated answers and really enjoyed the philosophical debates encouraged by the class and in the assignments.

In fact, this course actually helped me to hone in on my dissertation topic. Since this class was geared toward issues in urban education, I began to recognize a substantial difference between how urban teachers and leaders are prepared compared to all other teachers and leaders. I became very interested in what constitutes “urban” education and what topics are primarily viewed as the responsibility of “urban” educators. After completing my comprehensive exams, I hope to have an even better idea of how I might further explore these issues in my dissertation.

18EDLD816: Educational Policy Analysis

I took Educational Policy Analysis with Dr. Koschoreck for two reasons. First, I couldn’t imagine a quarter without Dr. Koschoreck after seeing him each week in Statistics during the fall and winter of this year. Second, my internship in educational policy and advocacy at KnowledgeWorks (KWF) made taking a course like this a necessity! Although I probably should’ve taken this course before my policy internship at KWF, I had no way of knowing at the time that my internship would take that direction. Even with that being the case, I still gained a lot from taking the policy course. It added a much greater depth to my understanding of what I was doing everyday in my role as a public policy intern at KWF. Reflecting back, I now realize that what this course provided was a theoretical component and the much-needed historical/ political contexts of my educational policy work. Each week I was able to directly apply the readings and class discussion to my work at KWF and vice versa. It made for a very exciting and engaging experience. I am also very proud of my final paper for this course since I feel that I successfully captured the importance of the relationship between the course and my internship by analyzing Governor Taft’s most recent educational policy proposal – Ohio Core. Conducting that policy analysis helped me to get a true sense of what a career in educational policy would be like. And while I currently have my doubts that educational policy is the best career path for me, I am so grateful for the opportunity to “test the waters.” Doing so would not have been possible without Dr. Koschoreck’s policy course to supplement my experience at KWF.

As I reflect back on the spring quarter of my second and final year of UEL coursework, I am absolutely amazed at how far I have come. I have grown in so many ways – academically, emotionally, socially, personally, professionally, and even spiritually in nearly every facet of my identity. After these two years, I not only a better student, educator, and leader; I am also a stronger person and better friend, wife, daughter, sister, neighbor, employee, volunteer, acquaintance and stranger. I began this quarter in the spring of 2006 thinking that June 2006 would mark an important ending. Now that the end of my coursework in actually here, I realize that June is much more a beginning. As I embark now upon the next leg of my journey, I’m given my first opportunity through my comprehensive exams to prove that I am worthy of the doctoral credentials that accompany this program. Realizing this, I am honored, anxious, and humbled to be given the opportunity.

Spring 061