[SSC] 'Quality and peer review' discussion paper

Fri Oct 21 21:45:21 UTC 2011

Hello all,

Please find attached, with apologies for the late distribution, a discussion paper exploring how we might engage questions of 'quality' within the project. It was written together by Sara Motta and me. In the same spirit as the paper from Joyce, Jonathan, Laurence and David that was written as a prompt for discussion, and mindful of the questions that Richard raises about the politics of prescription, we'd like to offer this up as a conversation starter (and should say how much we have already enjoyed discussing it). Perhaps one of the interesting questions that is already emerging from this discussion around the working groups is how much we may be able or unable to do prior to working with others with whom we also hope to negotiate practices, and how to understand this as an ongoing process?

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

All best,
Sarah
________________________________________
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] on behalf of ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org]
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 4:24 PM
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Subject: SSC Digest, Vol 10, Issue 13

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Today's Topics:

   1. Saturdays 22/10/2011 (roland pascoe)
   2. Re: Discussion Document (SSC Curriculum Group) (Richard Hall)
   3. Re: Values (Michael Neary)

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:41:17 +0100
From: roland pascoe <rpascoe at phonecoop.coop>
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: [SSC] Saturdays 22/10/2011
Message-ID: <4EA1686D.20909 at phonecoop.coop>
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Hello there,

Apologies once again for missing the meeting tomorrow. Time constraints
etc. Although it's a reading week at IOE I also have a thousand and one
things to do on the domestic front.

Best Wishes

Roland Pascoe
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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:15:45 +0100
From: "Richard Hall" <RHall1 at dmu.ac.uk>
To: "Laurence Davis" <ldavis at oceanfree.net>,    <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
Subject: Re: [SSC] Discussion Document (SSC Curriculum Group)
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        <290C0FAF9352E54EB483CBA4ED12133C026B21A0 at artemis.LEC-ADMIN.dmu.ac.uk>
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Thanks for this work, folks. It is appreciated.

I want to drag us back to our statement on the website:

"The co-operative principles on which the management of the Centre is based extend to the ways in which courses are taught. All classes will be participative and collaborative, so as to include the experience and knowledge of the student as an intrinsic part of the course. Students will have the chance to design courses with the professors and lecturers, as well as deliver some of the teaching themselves with support from other students and the teaching staff. Students will be able to work with academics on research projects as well as publish their own writings. A core principle of the Centre is that teachers and students have much to learn from each other."

A few hasty notes/questions.

1. How prescriptive do we wish to be? e.g. coherence with Bologna, the choice by teachers of mode of study, setting assessment types?

2. I think that we might need to be more radical than framing a curriculum *for* students or scholars. Much of this will need to be undertaken through negotiation, rather than prescription. Unless I missed something at the last meeting. If I did, then I think we need to consider removing the paragraph I note above from the website.

3. Suggestion #1, I know that there is a balance here, but where you note "We think it has merits. It simply works with the grain of what our ?teachers? wish to, or are prepared to, offer", how does this stand with our (student-as-producer?) ethos? It seems like HE but just in a co-operative setting.

4. Shouldn't we start with the individual learner/scholar?

5. I like suggestion #2, and I like that students might be able to negotiate their own work. But I would like to de-emphasize the role and therefore power of the SSC teachers. Again, shouldn't "assessment", whatever that is, be negotiated, and depend upon what the scholars-as-producers want to produce? I think we need to mind our language too - "different requirements (e.g. essay lengths) can be set for the different students." Essays, *set for*?

6. In the dicussion piece #1, a curriculum that challenges neo-liberalism: if we use this term, we can't then (as we have previously) state that our politics are contained in and by our constitution. This is a thesis nailed to a door/website/whatever.

7. Discussion point 3 seems very important and vital to the framing of a curriculum that can then be defined by individual scholars once they have arrived and once they have found themselves in the SSC.

8. Does any form of prescription beyond a framework/ethos/range of topics offered, mean that we are just aping formal HE? How tied to formal HE practices do we wish to be?

I'll miss you all tomorrow.

In solidarity.

Richard.

-----Original Message-----
From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org on behalf of Laurence Davis
Sent: Fri 21/10/2011 11:44
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: [SSC] Discussion Document (SSC Curriculum Group)

Dear all,
On behalf of the SSC Curriculum Group (Joyce Canaan, Jonathan Coope, David Young, and myself), I am circulating a preliminary report we have drafted collectively with the aim of encouraging open, imaginative, and constructive discussion about SSC curriculum possibilities at Saturday's meeting.
As this is a discussion piece, we kindly request that you take a few minutes to read the report *in advance of* the meeting. It should make especially good reading on the train!
We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Best wishes,
Laurence

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Message: 3
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:24:11 +0000
From: Michael Neary <nearymichael at hotmail.com>
To: <joss at josswinn.org>
Cc: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: Re: [SSC] Values
Message-ID: <COL101-W221E104B194066338963D4C9E80 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Please add SSC Values to the agenda as a separate item. We need to discuss John A's paper.

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
Mike

From: nearymichael at hotmail.com
To: joss at josswinn.org
CC: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: RE: [SSC] Meeting on Saturday
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:16:15 +0000

Dear All,
Mint Lane is booked until 12.30. So my suggestion is that we start the meeting at 12.30 and work until 5. What do others think?
Please see draft agenda below, comments welcome:

Draft Agenda

Apologies

Notes from Previous meeting

Review of working groups:

?
Recruiting Scholars

?
Recruiting Students

?
Curricula

?
Quality/Review

Marketing and Communications

Researching the Centre
AOB

I intend to bring my daughters Alice and Francesca, both aged 8, for most of the afternoon. I am happy to sit out of one or two agenda items to act to play with children.
Best wishes,
Mike

Subject: Re: [SSC] Meeting on Saturday
From: joss at josswinn.org
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:55:55 +0100
CC: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
To: nearymichael at hotmail.com

Could we include an agenda item on publicity and design? It would be useful to have flyers/cards/posters and appropriate logo for the SSC.
ThanksJoss

On 18 Oct 2011, at 07:19, Michael Neary wrote:Dear All,

I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Lincoln for our planning meeting on Saturday.
Suggested agenda to follow shortly.
Is there anything that you anyone wants to include?
We did say that we would provide a space for children to meet and play.
Best wishes,
Mike
From: nearymichael at hotmail.com
To: joycecanaan at blueyonder.co.uk; s.s.amsler at aston.ac.uk; ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 14:57:11 +0000
Subject: [SSC] Open Democracy: Our Kingdom

Dear All,
Article on Social Science Centre now published at Open Democracy: Our Kingdom website - http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/mike-neary/social-science-centre-radical-new-model-for-higher-education
Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks.
Best wishes,
Mike

> Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:21:20 +0100
> From: joycecanaan at blueyonder.co.uk
> To: S.S.AMSLER at aston.ac.uk; ssc at lists.aktivix.org
> Subject: Re: [SSC] SSC Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14
>
> Thanks for opening up this discussion Richard and for adding to it Sarah.
> I really appreciate this opening up as it helps us think through more
> aspects of what it is that we are doing.
>
> Like Sarah, I think it is of utmost importance that we discuss if/how we
> research our developing practice. My intention in offering this suggestion
> initially
> was, as I noted in my first email, to begin to capture some of the
> excitement of this collaborative venture for our greater understanding of
> what it is that we are creating and for us to utilise to understand what
> is missing from the hellish state of university life that so many of us
> are working in. I think that the energy and possibility that the SSC is
> already providing is of considerable significance, as it offers us the
> possibility to build an alternative higher educaiton system--and as we
> modify it how to negotiate challenges as they arise (like this one of
> potentially standing in the camp of researchers of practices w are engaged
> in)--and to develop strategies for beginning to offer alternatives to the
> system that exists. How often is it that those of us who are against the
> system in its current form are accused of not having an alternative.
> Like Sarah I think that the suggestion of discussing it through articles
> from the Autnomous Geographies website is a great idea. However, for the
> next few weeks I won't be able to do so, preparing for the beginning of
> term and for a presentation.
>
> I just wanted, at this point, to thank you for your intervention as it is
> one we can think further with. I think that researching our practice and
> the feelings that are emergent from it is significant so if we can do this
> in a way that deals with the very thorny issues that the Autonomous
> Geographies' articles raise, that would be really helpful.
>
> I look forward to contributing to our discussion when things get easier
> here!
>
> Joyce
>
>
> On 21/09/2011 13:30, "Amsler, Sarah" <S.S.AMSLER at aston.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> >Hello all,
> >
> >Thanks, Joyce and Richard. I think this is an important discussion that
> >we could perhaps take up when we next meet, or arrange to otherwise do
> >so. It raises real qusetions about the relationships that we each might
> >have to the Social Science Centre and to universities, and the
> >relationship or not between these institutions (and ways of life). On the
> >one hand, I find it difficult to imagine how I might personally separate
> >them neatly, and wouldn't want to; it raises questions about the values
> >of participatory research from within the academy (as there are still
> >some strong and I think defensible traditions of this), co-research,
> >militant research, popular eduation, border crossings, complex
> >subjectivities, and etc. On the other hand there are pressing concerns
> >about the possibility of simply conflating these spaces/roles/projects
> >into the dominant form, which is also often the most comfortable one.
> >
> >The writing that came out of the Autonomous Geographies project would be
> >an absolutely excellent place to start to discuss this, in my view -- it
> >deals with precisely these questions, deeply, and might give us something
> >to talk around that is at enough distance to allow for dialogue and play.
> >
> >Best,
> >Sarah
> >________________________________________
> >From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] on
> >behalf of ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org]
> >Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 1:00 PM
> >To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
> >Subject: SSC Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14
> >
> >Send SSC mailing list submissions to
> > ssc at lists.aktivix.org
> >
> >To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> > https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc
> >or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> > ssc-request at lists.aktivix.org
> >
> >You can reach the person managing the list at
> > ssc-owner at lists.aktivix.org
> >
> >When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> >than "Re: Contents of SSC digest..."
> >
> >
> >Today's Topics:
> >
> > 1. Re: some thoughts (Richard Hall)
> > 2. really Open University - The Space Project (Andre Pusey)
> >
> >
> >----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Message: 1
> >Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:08:27 +0100
> >From: "Richard Hall" <RHall1 at dmu.ac.uk>
> >To: <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
> >Subject: Re: [SSC] some thoughts
> >Message-ID:
> >
> ><290C0FAF9352E54EB483CBA4ED12133C05A10439 at artemis.LEC-ADMIN.dmu.ac.uk>
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> >I've been thinking long and hard about this one, Joyce.
> >
> >
> >
> >I am happy for my contributions to add to a process that aids others and
> >helps us celebrate/develop our position - in that it is for us/those who
> >associate with us, and in that it is against the enclosed University.
> >
> >
> >
> >However, I would be more concerned if this was used by anyone as part of
> >their formal, funded role, for their own research agenda within the
> >academy. I read this tension being recognised and discussed in some of
> >the work of the Autonomous Geographies project:
> >http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-000-23-0957/read
> >
> >
> >
> >I am not saying that this is what you want, Joyce. I do not read your
> >context below in that way. I just wish to be up-front about this issue.
> >
> >
> >
> >In solidarity.
> >
> >
> >
> >R.
> >
> >
> >
> >From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org
> >[mailto:ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] On Behalf Of Joss Winn
> >Sent: 14 September 2011 14:56
> >To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
> >Subject: Re: [SSC] some thoughts
> >
> >
> >
> >One possibility for the 'reflexive journals' is that people use the SSC
> >website blog for that purpose. It's available if you wish to publish
> >from it.
> >
> >
> >
> >If you wish to be added as an author, please let me know
> >(joss at josswinn.org)
> >
> >
> >
> >Joss
> >
> >
> >
> >On 14 Sep 2011, at 14:18, Joyce Canaan wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Hi all,
> >
> >I am hoping to add to the document we so constructively discussed last
> >Saturday within the next few days. One minor point from the email that
> >Joss sent: can we start at 11am until 4pm as some people can't get
> >there until 11?
> >
> >
> >
> >I have some additional thoughts I wanted us to discuss.I mentioned at
> >the meeting on Saturday that I would love to start researching the
> >process by which we are working (and would be keen to do so with
> >others). To this end, can I suggest that we discuss the possibility of
> >voice recording our meetings so that it might be possible to analyse the
> >processes by which we are working together-and dealing with challenges
> >as and when they arrive--so that we can develop these processes more
> >effectively in future and share our insights with others trying to set
> >up similar projects? This would of course need consent from all. Second,
> >whether or not people feel comfortable with voice recordings, might
> >some of us begin to create reflexive journals on the process itself and
> >its impact on other aspects of our lives? I ask this because I am
> >beginning to see that the thinking that we are doing together is helping
> >me realise how limiting the current HE system is and how my contribution
> >to the SSC stems from the strategies that I have been developing to cope
> >with and seek to transform this system. My pleasure with our work comes
> >partly from recognising that we are engaged in a process of creating
> >powerful alternative ontologies and epistemologies of and for all
> >aspects of the university as a process. Thus our re-imagining and
> >reconstructing (or as Mike said elsewhere), 'reinventing' the social
> >sciences through thinking collectively, collaboratively, respectfully,
> >and learning from and with others who are at least in some ways
> >likeminded, fills me with pleasure, delight and energy. I think it
> >would be interesting to explore what we are bringing to and getting from
> >this process as these factors are crucial to understanding what we are
> >engaged in creating.
> >
> >
> >
> >Joyce
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >SSC mailing list
> >SSC at lists.aktivix.org
> >https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc
> >
> >
> >
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> >------------------------------
> >
> >Message: 2
> >Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:23:51 +0100
> >From: Andre Pusey <gyap at leeds.ac.uk>
> >To: "ssc at lists.aktivix.org" <ssc at lists.aktivix.org>
> >Subject: [SSC] really Open University - The Space Project
> >Message-ID:
> >
> ><03FEE575BFE70B4AA3BB5014DC59648B01888B80DB94 at HERMES8.ds.leeds.ac.uk>
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> >
> >Dear all,
> >
> >Was sorry not to be able to make the SSC meeting in Lincoln, a few of us
> >in Leeds involved with the ROU had hoped to come down.
> >
> >Below are details of a new Really Open University initiative we are
> >working on. It aims to find some space between social centres and
> >projects such as the Social Science Centre.
> >
> >Hope to make it to the next SSC meeting.
> >
> >Best,
> >Andre
> >
> >http://reallyopenuniversity.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/the-space-project/
> >
> >The Space Project
> >
> >We would like to invite you to an open meeting to help us shape a new
> >vibrant venue for discussions, film showings, seminars, talks, workshops,
> >reading groups, archives, enquiries and other creative projects.
> >
> >The space will be close to Leeds City Centre hosting events that explore
> >social change (broadly defined) in an engaged and participatory way.
> >Facilitated by the Really Open University, we're seeking other groups and
> >individuals who would like to contribute to the life of the space by
> >hosting events and contributing to building a non-commercial,
> >self-managed space in Leeds.
> >
> >Do you have something you think you would like to do? Come along to our
> >open meeting or please get in touch with us at
> >wearethespaceproject at gmail.com<mailto:wearethespaceproject at gmail.com>
> >
> >Where: The Space Project, 37-38 Mabgate green, Leeds
> >When: Tuesday October 4th 7:30pm
> >Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123462997754485
> >
> >The 'space project' will be run as a not-for-profit venture, with no paid
> >staff and events being free or donations-only.
> >
> >
> >
> >Andre Pusey
> >School of Geography
> >University of Leeds
> >(0113) 343 6757
> >gyap at leeds.ac.uk
> >
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> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >SSC mailing list
> >SSC at lists.aktivix.org
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> >
> >
> >End of SSC Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14
> >**********************************
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >SSC mailing list
> >SSC at lists.aktivix.org
> >https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssc
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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