Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research
(CIQR -- "seeker")*

Oct. 19, 2000

PRESENTATION: BY Drs. ORLANDO VILLELLA and RHONDA HARRISON, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

TITLE: ALTERNATE VIEWS OF SUCCESS: TWO VIEWS FROM EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

ABSTRACT: The concept of success has become increasingly high stakes in the field of education. Teachers and students, along with entire school districts, are driven to produce higher standardized test scores in order to compete for state and national resources. Dr. Harrison has examined differing forms of success in conjunction with early childhood education. She used personal memoir, historical case studies, and field interviews as her data sources. Dr. Villella conducted a series of 10 interviews with a former superintendent, extracting from those interviews a series of "fables" of past and present successes, using the Italian novelist Italo Calvino as his guiding model. Taken together, these studies show the promise of qualitative research within education for bringing new and alternative ways of looking at important issues and topics.

Minutes

The meeting began with a brief business meeting, including reports from our four sub-committees (coordinating, information and promotion, events, grants and research). Paul Richer, Gary Shank, and Jennifer Glassbrenner of the Information and Promotion Committee, reported on their progress in constructing a CIQR brochure and website. Drs. ORLANDO VILLELLA and RHONDA HARRISON, School of Education, collaborated in a presentation entitled "ALTERNATE VIEWS OF SUCCESS: TWO VIEWS FROM EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH." As in the last meeting, the room was packed (about 30 scholars) and both the presentation and following discussion were interesting and enthusiastic.