Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Conversations on Hope in a Hostile (Educational) Climate and Tools for Empowerment through Appalachian Studies: Part 1
Session Abstract or Summary
The ASA Young Appalachian Leaders and Learners (Y’ALL) Committee and the Education Committee are co-sponsoring a panel devoted to tools for educators. We will facilitate a welcoming discussion regarding classroom tactics and experiential learning opportunities to encourage civic engagement and promote social and environmental justice with students possessing a variety of ideologies. As educators and learners in the region, we are deeply invested in the sustained growth of the Appalachian Studies movement as a liberating and educating force. However, we realize many of our pedagogical and scholarly practices may repeat the violences of the systems we hope to move beyond. We ask conference attendees to join us in the task of confronting the neoliberalization of higher education institutions, as well as the “global economy,” while allowing space for true dialogue and discussion from different viewpoints. We hope those who attend this panel will leave with tools for maintaining hope through the hostile neoliberal institutionalization of “the knowledge project.” Additionally, we want to explore teaching approaches that do not alienate any student but instead create safe spaces for honest, respectful dialogue for our region and the greater world.
In Part 1, pedagogical approaches and the lived experiences within Appalachian Studies classrooms are exchanged through conversations about specific courses from both the instructor and student perspective. We continue the conversation in Part 2, where we explore Appalachian Studies as a tool for empowerment within the neoliberal era by closely examining methods and outcomes utilized in place-based pedagogy.
Presentation #1 Title
Creating Safe Space in a Multidisciplinary Classroom
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In today’s political environment, making our classes a safe space for everyone, while at the same time allowing for all voices to be heard, can sometimes be a challenge. This paper will examine the benefits and challenges of creating such a classroom around a course that uses place-based pedagogy, along with feminist pedagogy and community engagement. While at first these three perspectives might seem counter to one another, or take up too much space singularly to allow proper exploration of each perspective within the confines of a sixteen week course, my recent experience teaching a cross-listed course called “Appalachian Women: Activists for Change,” shows that the connections between place, gender, community, and activism are deepened when explored in an inter-disciplinary course where discussion meets action as service. I found that utilizing an intersectional approach within the Appalachian Studies classroom allows students who do not identify themselves as Appalachian, but might identify with other intersectional issues such as race, gender, and class, to see a space for themselves within the discipline. Moreover, the additional service component of the course widened students’ ideas about activism and assisted them in deeply connecting with the community beyond the confines of the physical classroom space.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Kim Reigle is an Associate Professor of English at Mars Hill University, where she teaches courses in early British literature, composition, women’s studies, and regional studies. She is also the current faculty chair of the Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies at MHU. Her research interests include early modern British literature, women’s studies, fairy tales, and folktales.
Presentation #2 Title
An International Comparative Perspective
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Employed in schools and classrooms, place-based pedagogy is an approach that can connect students to their own context, then invite them to read their locality and the wider world through a series of critical lenses. Using an international comparative perspective, teachers and students can conduct inquiry into their current (or historical) situation, and compare similar occurrences in other parts of the world (or to other historical periods). Such investigation makes plain for students how values (for the natural environment, for denizens of the cultural community/ -ies) are held and expressed in various settings, including their own.
Utilizing tools of inquiry will carry lessons outside the classroom walls. As Gruenewald and Smith (2008) outline in the Introduction to their edited text, place-based pedagogy has great potential for translating theory into action. Through inquiry, students come to recognize a co-dependence of personal health and well-being on the health and well-being of the individuals and systems that comprise the Commons (xxi). Viewing the world through comparative lenses also illuminates ways that cultural issues such as gender, class, and race play out and affect personal well- being (xxi).
Gruenewald, D., A. & Smith, G., A. (Eds.). (2008). Place-based education in the global age: local diversity. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Tim Thomas is an associate professor in the College of Education at James Madison University. He works with pre-service teachers in and outside of classrooms, particularly in secondary content areas. His writing and research are focused on teaching and learning, sustainability, and environmental topics, all with a focus on place-based education.
Presentation #3 Title
Opportunities for First-Gen Students in an Appalachian-themed First-Year Seminar
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
In Fall 2017, I participated in the development and facilitation of “Our Appalachian Community,” a first-year seminar for first-generation college students. This classroom brought together one of the most diverse student populations at ASU. Although this cohort primarily hails from non-Appalachian sections of NC, we applied the lenses of personal and civic identity to grapple with the social and cultural worlds of the Appalachian region and of first-generation college students.
We engaged with multiple modes of communication and learning to make sense of divergent experiences of community, place, and belonging in relation to the idea of Appalachia. In addition to regular classes, students participated in “Appalachian Community Hour,” a weekly opportunity for active, student-led creative learning in which students attempted flatfoot dance and participatory theater and designed their own collaborative public art project.
I believe power lies in reckoning with the complexities of Appalachian community, place, and belonging, especially for first-generation college students for whom Appalachia represents a short-term home. By offering and accepting gifts of creative expression, students in “Our Appalachian Community” joined the region’s extended family and forged personal connections that will guide their civic and scholarly missions at ASU and beyond.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Zach is a second-year Appalachian Studies Master’s student at Appalachian State University (ASU). His research explores local history, newspapers, and community development in Rutherford County, NC, a peripheral Appalachian county largely defined by the 20th century textile industry. In addition to his work specifically in Appalachian Studies, Zach is pursuing a certificate in Nonprofit Management and a minor in Public History. He was born in Marietta and traces his family to Chattanooga and northern Pennsylvania.
Presentation #4 Title
Critical Literacies and Digital Citizenship: Participatory Knowledge Production and Social Change in Appalachia
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
We live in a "digital age" where "digital divides" exist in terms of access, especially in rural Appalachian communities; however, technology is often invoked as a panacea for the Appalachian economy as well as the future of education. Despite access-related issues, processes of digital consumption and production are increasingly blurred with “prod-users” who are no longer discreet or rare but networked and numerous. More information presumably means more transparency regarding processes of power, but individuals and communities are also ever more dependent on (and vulnerable to) digital technologies and communication that go beyond personal control because of their scale. Therefore, the proliferation of digital devices and media requires a much broader range of critical literacies that include but go beyond the reading of texts or “texts.” Drawing from Freire’s notion of literacy as fundamental to liberation for marginalized peoples, I will explore pedagogical implications and practices for accessing, critically reading, and actively creating different forms of media and knowledge. I will begin by summarizing some basic digital domains that people inhabit and levels of access within the Appalachian region and Appalachian Studies. Then I will discuss multiple critical literacies related to digital technologies and content and share some examples of alternative pedagogical frameworks in the Appalachian region that might serve as models for community engagement and curriculum development. Finally, I will share some guiding principles and practical considerations for incorporating “digital citizenship” pedagogies that can both empower and protect individuals and communities in an increasingly online Appalachia and world.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Tammy Clemons is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky. Her dissertation research focuses on the cultural productions of young visual media makers in Central Appalachia and how they envision, construct, and act upon possibilities for young people in the region. She is also a media artist/teacher with a critical interest in digital humanities and archives.
Conference Subthemes
Education
Creating Safe Space in a Multidisciplinary Classroom
In today’s political environment, making our classes a safe space for everyone, while at the same time allowing for all voices to be heard, can sometimes be a challenge. This paper will examine the benefits and challenges of creating such a classroom around a course that uses place-based pedagogy, along with feminist pedagogy and community engagement. While at first these three perspectives might seem counter to one another, or take up too much space singularly to allow proper exploration of each perspective within the confines of a sixteen week course, my recent experience teaching a cross-listed course called “Appalachian Women: Activists for Change,” shows that the connections between place, gender, community, and activism are deepened when explored in an inter-disciplinary course where discussion meets action as service. I found that utilizing an intersectional approach within the Appalachian Studies classroom allows students who do not identify themselves as Appalachian, but might identify with other intersectional issues such as race, gender, and class, to see a space for themselves within the discipline. Moreover, the additional service component of the course widened students’ ideas about activism and assisted them in deeply connecting with the community beyond the confines of the physical classroom space.
