Category: Research Portfolio

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Research Portfolio, Jackie

For this assignment, we were asked to compile a grouping of sources that we have found depicting and further expansion on inclusion and organizational culture.  We were asked to pick a topic, and immerse ourselves into the conversation, and report what we found. I chose to focus my assignment on disability inclusion, and diving into design in the workplace. My first few thoughts on the topic were broad, surrounding disability services in childhood and adolescents. My original plan was going to explain this aspect by focusing on healthcare for those with disabilities. 

However as I used Syracuse Summons and Google Scholar advanced searches to find resources, I found that healthcare was an addition to a topic that has always been important for me: universal design. Universal design focuses on the inclusion of all abilities and disabilities when designing a space for individuals to gather. This topic is important to myself as I have consistently worked with those with disabilities and have seen them struggle thriving in institutions that were not designed for them. In my research, I have found that while there are barriers to giving accommodations to those in the workplace, it is not impossible to do.

The most intriguing aspect of this topic to me is the first hand accounts of those who struggle. For myself, I do not suffer from a physical ailment, so finding clothes that fit me and being able to walk is something that became monotonous. However, as I have realized before, many people do not have that same luxury as myself. Each testimony of those in the disability community is different than the other, and how they struggle in different ways to create a sort of norm for themselves.

Moving forward with this project, I am hopeful to find more resources about universal design, and the logistics of implementing such a design. I am looking to find sources that are able to identify the barriers to designing such a way, or why thinking in such a way has become rare. I believe these resources would add a layer of depth to my argument, and allow me to create a well rounded report on universal design in the workplace.

Annotated Bibliography 1

Annotated Bibliography 2

Annotated Bibliography 3

Annotated Bibliography 4

Annotated Bibliography 5

Annotated Bibliography 6

Focusing Flowchart

Research Plan

Complicating Your Research Activity

Rounding Out The Conversation Activity

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Research Portfolio-Mikayla Fils-Aime

Unit 2 Reflection

For this assignment we were asked to create a portfolio depicting the occurrence of organization culture in everyday life and how with a variety of sources and conversations we would be able to boil down and rationalize any argument. In order to test this method I decided to approach the issue of discrimination against minorities within prejudiced systems which can vary anywhere from school, work or even in everyday situations. With the use of various primary and secondary accounts I was able to get a glimpse of the discrimination minorities face and the way that it not only affects them but the way they are perceived by others. In order to further develop my research I focused on the accounts of those who were failed by each system and who face constant discrimination because of them.

With the use of the various assignments and worksheets I was able to clearly lay out in my assessment what I wanted to convey to the audience. In order to help spread the voice of these minorities and show the readers just how many individuals clearly experienced this hate I drew up a research plan the would help explain my stance. For this assignment I wanted to show the audience just how many lives were jeopardized by the unfair stereotypes put in place and the systematic oppression experienced by these individuals. I not only wished to provide first hand accounts of these occurrences but I wanted to provide methods in which change could be made by each community. We have conducted so much research on inequality and cultural insensitivity yet we have failed to truly unpack where this discrimination comes from and why so may students are continuously facing the same issues.

In the beginning I wished to solely focus on the way these individuals bounce back from oppression and are able to defy their circumstances however, I’ve realized that that isn’t always the case. So many lives are ruined and futures disregarded because of a lack of true change being made within each community. In my research I am able to point out some of the programs and opportunities being created for minorities that allow them to keep reaching their highest potential. I wish to further my knowledge on the public education systems screening methods and make it so that no child will have to face further hardship in life because of a system that failed them in the beginning. I would also love to hear accounts from those who were able to defy the odds despite being placed in a system that wasn’t built for them to succeed.

Annotation 1

Annotation 2

Annotation 3

Annotation 4

Annotation 5

Annotation 6

WRT 205 Research Plan

WRT 205 Focusing flowchart

WRT 205 Rounding out the conversation worksheet

WRT 205 Complicating Research Assignment

 

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Mike – Research Portfolio

As we began Unit 2, and started down the path of this research project, J.K. Rowling’s Twitter feed was in the news again. As I thought about what she tweeted and the subsequent response, an idea began to form. I wanted to explore “cancel culture”. At least, I thought I did. However, after our first assignment, it became clear that wasn’t quite right for our purposes.

Then it dawned on me. What is “cancel culture” really, but a form of consumer activism? It is the market voicing their collective displeasure directly to the source. That type of protest has taken many forms over the years, and I was certain I’d be able to find good resources to help in forming my arguments.

My first bit of research involved Google. Doing a search on “consumer activism” I quickly found my first solid source, Caroline Heldman’s Protest Politics in the Marketplace. Our second note-taking exercise spurred a number of questions in my mind:

  • What is it about the past 40/50 years that has brought about the shift toward widespread adoption of consumer activism?
  • Is consumer activism actually more powerful/effective than voting/being involved politically?
  • How has cause-marketing has influenced me?

Google also helped me find R. Henry Weaver’s paper, “Is Consumer Activism Economic Democracy?”, but it wasn’t until the “Complicating Research” assignment, that things really started to take shape.  The first tool that caught my eye was “Web of Knowledge”. I found that it and SAGE were both relatively simple to navigate. I loved the option to copy citations to my clipboard, although the citation from SAGE did not include the URL, so I added it manually. My experiments with Backlink Checker were not quite as successful. I tried the URL from the citation for “Political Consumerism as a Neoliberal Response to Youth Political Disengagement” by Georgios Kyroglou and Matt Henn, but that provided me with 2,174,123 total backlinks from 13,328 domains. As a control, I tried backlinking a random article from the Guardian’s website and ended up with similar results! I was somewhat overwhelmed as I navigated through SAGE and Web of Knowledge. The sheer number of options and directions I could take my research was staggering and got me thinking about all sorts of possibilities.

It was the “Rounding Out the Conversation” exercise that helped nail down my sources. After I finished, I realized that I had only cited five, so I went back through everything I had downloaded and found my sixth, which I just added today.

I appreciate how the tools introduced in each assignment have been building on the previous week’s work. At the same time, they’ve gotten me to think differently about the sources I’ve collected and the work I’m trying produce. What started out as a reaction to a news story has developed into a intellectually stimulating exercise. I doubt that I could have predicted that I’d land on the subject of consumer activism, but being able to tie in both the personal and the global is something I’ve really enjoyed, and look forward to completing.

Protest Politics in the Marketplace

Shopping for Change

Packaged Facts

Political Consumerism

Corporate Environmentalism

Economic Democracy

Focusing Flowchart – Mike K

Complicating Research – Mike K

Rounding Out The Conversation – Mike K

Research Plan Blog Post

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Michaela Reis-Research Portfolio

Unit 2 Research Reflection

The first step I took when approaching my research portfolio was narrowing down my focus. The focusing flowchart was helpful with that because the prompts were so clear it helped me pick key terms that I had learned from Unit 1 and form a topic that I was interested in. Reflecting on each week of readings and discussions helped me pinpoint what I engaged in with classmates and what I was drawn to. Diversity training has been a large focus of this class and each time it was discussed I found the question of how do we implement it in a way that increases diversity and inclusion coming up. What I ended up realizing was that empathy and perspective were two topics that could help solve the question.

My second step was searching for sources that within the guidelines set would help support and challenge my claim. The sources I found were very beneficial to my research and I found that most supported the claim that empathy and perspective were key to understanding diverse individuals and creating more open attitudes, therefore we would benefit through adding them into diversity training strategies. Even the opposing sources that I found through complication my research helped me shape a better argument and figure out how to respond to oppositions surrounding my claim. I often found that many sources believe that it takes more than empathy to change people’s biases due to things such as cognitive dissonance, leading me to want to extend my resources and locate sources that also discuss that topic. The research plan helped me organize my thoughts along with rounding out the conversation, which helped me recognize the specific benefit of each source I found. I appreciated the structure of completing a few pieces of the research portfolio each week, keeping me on track and allowing me to not leave things till the last minute. Finally, the annotation helped me assess each source in-depth and analyze them in a discussion that helped to fully develop my project.

Annotation #1

Annotation #2

Annotation #3

Annotation #4

Annotation #5

Annotation #6

Focusing Flowchart

Complicating Research

Rouding out the conversation

Research Plan

 

 

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Research plan (Dan)

In the unit 1 “Expanding the canon assignment” I was intrigued by the work of one of my classmates. The topic that he chose was language diversity. This peaked my interest as when I think about diversity, language diversity and foreign accents are not the first to come to mind.

This has led me to the question that has driven my unit two research assignment. How are people with nonnative accents treated in the workplace and how can we mitigate the unconscious bias that leads them to suffering?

This topic is close to my heart as I have a few dear friends of mine at work that are not from the United States. One of my friends is from Bosnia, another is from the Dominican Republic, and the last is from a place north of India called Bhutan. I have seen them work very hard and not seem to get the recognition that I know they deserve. Although, I believe in our situation it may not be due entirely to their accents, I do believe that the accents they have may have an affect as to why certain managers haven’t developed a stronger relationship with them.

I’m positive that this problem occurs in all industries in all parts of the world. One would think that a problem this big would have a plethora of information and research into it. However, I have found that this seems to be a topic that is often overlooked. Though the articles that I am finding have been helpful in expanding my knowledge of unconscious accent bias and its effects. I have found this information through databases such as Syracuse Summons, Google search, and Ted Talks on Youtube. I look forward to sharing my findings with the class.

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Aaron, Research Portfolio

My research focuses on ethnic and racial diversity in education. The question I am concerned with is: what effect does implicit bias have on academic performance of students? I was lucky enough to find a very interesting topic in the very first source that I looked at while conducting this research. I stumbled upon a chapter of a book (the chapter was titled “Diversity”) and in this piece of writing I was introduced to implicit theories of intelligence. This essentially is where someone has biases towards people and treat them differently depending on what their ethnic background is: for instance a teacher may treat white kids better because they assume they will be “smarter” and do well with classwork, while a group of indigenous kids get overlooked. The indigenous kids may not fare as well on exams, but may have a whole different sphere of knowledge and intelligence, one that the white kids may not have.

Looking for sources (mostly through Syracuse Libraries Summon site, and JSTOR, but also Google Scholar) I found a lot of different chapters, articles and studies about diversity in education. From there I specifically looked for biases within academia and found quite a bit- sources that had to do with university administration and their attempts at installing diversity coalitions at school (and ultimately failing for the most part), professors picking out students to advise (based on their ethnic background), groups of college students and how their grades were while looking at what their classroom environment consisted of racially, and rural school districts dealing with what is known as “white flight” and how their districts are coping with rapidly changing demographics.

What I would like to find more of are peer reviewed studies that are not skewed a certain way: The best study that I found (and am using) makes a really convincing argument that racial diversity has little to no impact whatsoever on how people perform academically. This would be a good piece to use if I was playing devil’s advocate- but when I reread the study, I picked up on the statistics being skewed and not really impartial at all. Most other studies that I have looked through seem to be in the same vein.

The more I look into implicit theories of intelligence and biases that people have, it’s certainly opened my eyes. It’s scary because this almost seems to be an inherently natural behavior that people have and commit subconsciously, and me being someone who plans to go into education and am a white male, I don’t want to fall into this sort of behavior, it seems like systemically there is a disservice being done to women, people of color, disabled people, and people who are part of the LGBTQ community. I plan on digging as deep as I can to find more about this phenomenon.

 

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Annotation_2

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Annotation_5

Annotation_6

Rounding out the Conversation

Focus Flowchart

Research Plan, Aaron

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Dominique Van Gilst Research Portfolio

When I began my research for my portfolio, I knew immediately that I wanted my topic to be about inclusion in schools. This is because my major at Syracuse University is inclusive elementary and special education. In most of the classes that I have taken in college so far, I have learned about inclusion, and what teachers should do to make classrooms welcoming for each and every student. The research that I have been doing for this class has definitely expanded my knowledge of inclusive education, and I am excited to use this new information for my future career.

The main purpose of my research was to find out what it truly means to be inclusive in schools. Sometimes it can be tough to really understand a complex term like inclusion when you do not have background knowledge on it, so I think that the sources I found could be extremely helpful when it comes to defining this word. In order to find my sources, I mostly used Syracuse Library Summons. This website is very helpful because it has many options to specify a search in the advanced search section.  I was able to select the type of source I wanted by using only a few words as well. I think that one of the most important things to think about when researching is what you want your sources to convey. This will help in the process because you will only need two to three words typed in the search bar to find what you are looking for. The assignments that I have done have also helped with my research. For example, the annotations and the rounding out the conversation assignment allowed me to think about the value of my sources, and why they are important to my topic. Overall, the exercises and assignments that I have done have helped me to specify my research, and find value in my sources. 

Overall, I think that my research covers a lot of what I wanted it to cover, but it may have some holes. During my research, I tried to find sources that are told in the perspective of someone who has a disability. However, it was very hard to find articles like this. Most of the articles were in the viewpoint of an expert in the field of education.  I did find studies that included the perspectives of children though, which I think is important.  In addition, I was able to find sources that talked about the same topic in different ways. For example, one of the articles is about inclusive relationships in physical education, and how gym class can promote these friendships. Another source I found is about inclusion in two completely different countries. All of these sources help me to define inclusion because they come together to create a big picture of inclusion. 

Supporting Materials:

WRT 205 focusing flowchart Assignment

WRT 205 Research Plan

WRT 205_ Complicating Research Assignment

WRT 205 rounding out the conversation worksheet – Dominique PDF

Annotations:

WRT 205 Research Portfolio Annotations – Dominique

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Instructions for creating a blog post with embedded links and files

For the research portfolio, you will be submitting multiple documents all in a single post. Please follow these instructions to get everything in there so that it’s easy to read.

Your Unit 2 research reflection (answering the prompt on the assignment sheet) will be the body of the post–just create a post as you usually would on the blog.

  • Title your post with your name and “Research Portfolio”
  • Categorize it as “Research Portfolios”
  • Tag it with [your name], “unit 2,”  and “portfolio”

Add these PDF file attachments within the same post:

6 different annotations (please post them individually, so I can easily see what’s there)

Your supporting materials: focusing flowchart, complicating your research, and Rounding out the conversation exercises (the same things you submitted on Bb, but saved as  PDFs and attached here)

Here’s how to do this:

  • make sure your documents are saved as PDFs (this makes them easier to read because they will just open without a download)–you can do this in Word or Pages or Google Docs in the “Save As” options
  • make sure you’re using the regular text editor window on Expressions–what you see when you click +New -> Post (so that you have full functionality)
  • when you’re ready to insert your files, click on the “Add Media” button
  • you’ll have 2 options–“Drag files anywhere to upload” or “Select Files.” Choose “Select Files”
  • Choose the first file that you’re uploading–then you’ll see the Attachment Details menu on the right side of your screen.
  • Name the file using the Title box in that Attachment Details menu–choose something usable and easy to understand like “Annotation 1.”
  • Click the blue “Insert into post” button on the bottom right–this will take you back to the regular text editor window, where you’ll see your file as an embedded link, listed by the title that you gave it

Repeat this process for each of the file attachments (there should be at least 9 attachments–6 annotations and then 1 for your focusing flowchart, 1 for complicating your research, and 1 for Rounding out the conversation)

Add this embedded link: 

link to your Research Plan post (updated if need be to reflect current direction of your project)

Here’s how to do this:

  • Locate your Research Plan post on the blog (this was due back on 7/5). If it doesn’t reflect the direction you’re currently heading with your research, please add a comment to the original post that explains what you’re doing now. Go to this post (not just to the list of posts), and copy its url. You’ll need that for the next steps.
  • Working within the same text editor window as the above process, click “Add Media” again–you’ll see the same screen you were just on
  • Click on “Insert from url” in the left menu–a box with “http://” will appear on the screen
  • Paste your url into that box (note that you might end up with two “http://”; delete one if that happens)
  • Enter a usable name into the “Link Text” box–something easy to understand like “Research plan”
  • Click blue button “insert into post” on the bottom right

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

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Rounding out the conversation

I’m looking forward to seeing how your conversations are starting to take shape. Let’s take a few minutes to run through this conversation analogy and how this particular assignment is helping you move toward your next project.

First the analogy: we’ve touched on this metaphor a bit recently, and it’s front and center this week as we’re looking at linked sources (that are effectively ‘talking’ to each other). This conversation analogy was introduced by writing scholar Kenneth Burke in 1974. Burke argued that research writing is akin to a conversation at a party. The conversation you’re interested in is already underway when you show up at the party, and as you drift into that room where folks are talking, you take some time to listen to what other folks have to say before joining in to offer your perspective. When you speak up, it’s not really your mission to offer the definitive word on the subject, but rather to move/shape the discussion in some way. You say your piece, building upon the ideas that are already in circulation, and then you move on. That conversation continues once you’re done with it, but your contribution has changed it in some way.

Now, just like at a party, “conversations” in researched writing are more interesting –textured, nuanced, insightful–when there are a lot of perspectives represented, not just a bunch of folks sitting around and agreeing with one another. The conversation is more likely to move into new and fascinating territory when people who have valuable first-hand perspectives or data-driven insights are involved, when they’ve got good stories to share. And you’re more likely to have something valuable to contribute when you’ve spent some time taking in what others have to say.

You’re at the listening phase of that conversation now–taking in what others have to say and assessing who’s ‘present’ to make sure that you’ve got an interesting range of perspectives. That’s what you’re representing on the Rounding out the Conversation worksheet due this Sunday (7/12)–who’s in the ‘room’ and what roles they might be playing in the discussion. This will help you to identify gaps in your roster, so that you can keep looking for new and interesting people to engage in the discussion.

Your research portfolio (due next Wednesday, 7/15) will represent the conversation that you’ve orchestrated, pulling together at least 6 sources that represent different perspectives and knowledges and that chart a course for your ongoing research and writing work in our final unit. Be sure to review the unit 2 assignment sheet for specific instructions.