The UCEA Graduate Student Council sponsors a Webinar Series on various topics suggested by UCEA community members. Summaries of each webinar are posted below along with links to view the webinars on the UCEA YouTube channel. If you have a suggestion for a webinar topic, please email us!
Summary: Dr. Joanna Sanchez, Dr. Darrius Stanley, Dr. Benterah C. Morton, and current NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellow Gwendolyn Baxley lead a webinar titled “Finishing Strong: Navigating the Last Stage of Doctoral Work”. The webinar is on navigating the final stage of doctoral work and the transition to the professoriate, postdoctoral work, and/or a career outside of the academy. The final stage of your graduate career can be especially challenging as oftentimes, one is dissertating and navigating the job market simultaneously. The weightiness of the competing demands on graduate students during this final stage can also bring about anxiety and other emotional stressors, particularly in the last year. Because of such demands, it is necessary to obtain support for navigating both the technical aspects related to time management, prioritization of tasks, and strategic goal setting during this time, as well as support for the emotional and mental labor that comes along with the arduousness of this process.
Online here
UCEA GSC Webinar Series: Writing Critically in Academia
Lead Presenter: Dr. Michelle D. Young, Executive Director of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), led a web discussion to refine the way in which we write about scholarship critically: challenging normative power structures.
Summary: There is little training to write on topics in a critical nature, and far too often, graduate schools do not provide the (mentorship) support that encourages or guides such writing. The UCEA Graduate Student Council (GSC) provided a learning opportunity on writing rigorous scholarship while maintaining an impassioned commitment to social justice. Participants were able to ask questions and have a conversation with Dr. Young, a knowledgeable and experienced faculty committed to social justice scholarship.
Online here
UCEA GSC Webinar Series: Disrupting Traditional Qualitative Research Paradigms
Lead Presenter: Dr. Candace Kuby, Associate Professor in Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri, led a web discussion to unpack traditional (post-positivist) qualitative research paradigms and to validate ways of engaging qualitative inquiry that are marginalized by social scientific dogma
Summary: The webinar discussed the importance of disrupting taken-for-granted assumptions and practices in qualitative inquiry and how to begin embracing non-traditional research methodologies. Scholars and graduate students interested in disrupting traditional approaches to the study of education will found this webinar helpful.
Online here
UCEA GSC Webinar Series: Humanizing Accounts: Writing as Anti-Oppressive Praxis
Lead Presenter: Dr. David Omotoso Stovall, Professor of Educational Policy Studies and African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, led a web discussion to share his journey and insights as a public scholar committed to anti-oppressive research praxis.
Summary: This webinar is specifically focused on guiding the writing and research of emerging scholars. We raise the question: “What are some strategies for producing or refining anti-oppressive writing amid varying and oftentimes conflicting examples of ‘social justice scholarship in education?’” Graduate students who position themselves as anti-oppressive education researchers will find this webinar most useful.
Online here