Welcome!

Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to investigate interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of communicating across difference as they relate to the teaching of language and composition. If this is your first time visiting the Annotation Station, you can orient yourself more quickly by knowing I view issues of language, identity, and literacy as ideological issues (rather than neutral), multiple (rather than singular) and fluid and dynamic (rather than fixed and static). I am therefore very interested in translingual, transmodal, transcultural, and transnational communication practices with a critical eye to how power discrepancies shape these issues. Feel free to use this blog as a resource if it meets with your own research and teaching interests, and definitely use the comments feature to suggest any connections and insights of your own.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Statistical Literacy - Shawn Loewen et al



Loewen, Shawn, et al. “Statistical Literacy Among Applied Linguists and Second Language Acquisition Researchers.” TESOL Quarterly 48.2 (2014): 360-388.

The purpose of this study was to investigate statistical knowledge and attitudes through self-reported surveys (rather than a performance-based measure).  Participants were largely from the fields of SLA, applied linguistics, and TESOL although psychology and education also received attention.

According to their own classification scheme, they considered three general levels of statistical knowledge (372).
  • basic descriptive statistics knowledge: mean, median, standard deviation
  • common inferential statistics: ANOVA, t-test, p-value, post-hoc test, chi-square loading
  • advanced statistical knowledge: Rasch analysis, discriminate function analysis, structural equation modeling
In general, for attitudes, they found that participants considered statisics important, but often felt their training was inadequate with more phd students feeling underprepared than professors despite similar amounts of training.  The top three outside resources people used to interact with statistics were the internet, colleagues/friends, and textbooks.  Orientations to quantitative research had a positive correlation with perceptions of the value of statistics, but qualitative research orientations did not.

The authors never define what they mean by statistical literacy, but move quickly from introducing this term to discussing knowledge, which may be seen as a representation of knowledge as literacy.  They later talk about "conducting and reporting" as statistical practices (363).




Saturday, December 24, 2016

Adopting a Constructivist Approach - Jane Mills et al


Mills, Jane, Ann Bonner & Karen Francis. “Adopting a Constructivist Approach to Grounded Theory: Implications for Research Design”. International Journal of Nursing Practice 12 (2009): 8-13.

Identifying Glaser & Strauss as the founders of (the post positivistic) grounded theory, they acknowledge important contributions from Charmaz and Mitchell in redefining the subject position of the role of objective researcher and repositioning study participants as partners in research.

On pg. 9, the writers put forth criteria for a constructivist approach to research using grounded theory, which are listed below:
  1. The creation of a sense of reciprocity between participants and the researcher in the coconstruction of meaning and, ultimately, a theory that is grounded in the participants’ and researcher's experiences.
  2. The establishment of relationships with participants that explicate power imbalances and attempts to modify these imbalances.
  3. Clarification of the position the author takes in the text, the relevance of biography and how one renders participants’ stories into theory through writing
These can be summarized as key principles of relationship, reciprocity, and relevant positioning.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Critical-Rhetorical Ethnography - Aaron Hess


Hess, Aaron. “Critical-Rhetorical Ethnography: Rethinking the Place and Process of Rhetoric.” Communication Studies 62.2 (2011): 127-152.

Hess outlines the research methodology of critical-rhetorical ethnography, pointing to the role of researcher as advocate.  He draws on Geertz and Conquergood to posit that ethnography is "the capacity to persuade readers that what they are reading is an authentic account by someone personally acquainted with how life proceeds in some place, at some time, among some group" (133) and Brummet to define rhetoric as "in the deepest and most fundamental sense the advocacy of realities" (135).  Hess proposes looking at rhetoric as process (in an interactional sense), rather than product (in a textual sense), focusing on vernacular and outlaw rhetorics with the researcher advocating alongside community members.  He draws special attention to issues of invention, kairos, and phronesis in order to help the researcher more successfully advocate as a participant observer.  He uses the specific example of his involvement in the organization DanceSafe in engaging Rave culture on changing from mainstream War on Drugs abstinence messages to "pro-choice" informed decision-making discourses.