STL shines at History Education Society meeting
Posted Dec. 14, 2009
The college’s School of Teaching & Learning was well represented at the History of Education Society’s recent annual meeting in Philadelphia, with eight current students, recent graduates and faculty presenting research reports.
Jessica Clawson, a second-year doctoral student in Curriculum & Instruction, and Patrick Ryan, a 2008 graduate of the English Education doctoral program, participated in a session chaired by STL faculty member Sevan Terzian about race and gender in schooling in the postwar-era United States.
— Clawson’s paper, “Administrative Recalcitrance and Government Intervention: Desegregation at the University of Florida, 1962-1972,” focused on the pivotal role of university presidents in an era of institutional change.
— Ryan’s paper, “Popular Media Representations of Teachers in the Postwar United States: Race and Gender,” analyzed fictional depictions of educators on radio and television that informed and reflected public consciousness.
A session on the history of science education in the United States addressed key developments in mid-20th century curriculum and pedagogy.
— A paper by Christopher Brkich, a third-year doctoral student in Social Studies Education, examined teachers’ political justifications for science education during the Great Depression, World War II, and Cold War eras in “Crises and Methods: Educator Discourse on the Civic Dimensions of Math and Science Education, 1930-1960.”
— Leigh Shapiro, a senior undergraduate student at UF, developed her research paper from the University Scholars Program in discussing the role of industrial sponsorship of American education in “A New Lesson Plan for Science Education: Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s Message to the Public, 1942-1958.”
— Terzian also delivered a research paper about the selection criteria used in science competitions for youth in “A highly selected strain of guinea pigs’: Profiling the Winners of the Science Talent Search, 1942-1958.”
Donald Boyd and Andrew Grunzke, 2009 and 2007 graduates, respectively, of the Social Foundations of Education doctoral program, collaborated on a session about youth, media and education.
— Boyd’s paper, “Dark Knight and a Cold War: Perceptions of Youth Anxieties and Fears in Post-War Batman Comics, 1957-1986,” enlisted an underutilized source of political education for American youth.
— Grunzke’s paper, “Survival Training: Summer Camp as Educational Institution in Slasher Films of the 1980s,” builds on his body of research on popular literature and film in depicting popular conceptions of childhood.
Robert Dahlgren, a 2008 graduate of the Social Studies Education doctoral program, participated in a session on academic freedom in the United States with his paper, “Fatal Accommodations: The Record of Teachers’ Unions in the McCarthy Era.”
