I have been included in a conversation at my university concerning what counts as scholarship to our Faculty Status Committee, thus to our entire university. Dr. Sean O’Rourke, chair of Communication Studies, has drafted the argument below and has been making this case to expand what counts without our university:

when i think the words ph.d., professor, academic, and scholar

then i see older, white, middle-upper middle class, dressed in a blazer or sweater sets in my mind, my imagination.

Over time I have become curious about how some graduate students, who are exposed to various approaches to research, gravitate to critical educational research. At this stage in my teaching I believe that I can guess what students will be most comfortable with quantitative, qualitative, or critical research [It is important we hold on to our illusions].