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A dissertation examining a middle-school curriculum that challenged students to identify and solve problems in their community earned UMES English professor Courtney Harned her doctorate a year ago – and national recognition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Educational Research Association early this month honored Harned with its (Special Interest Group’s) \u201cRural Dissertation of the Year\u201d award at a conference in Canada that attracted educators from around the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harned, who joined the UMES faculty in 2007, also presented a brief summary of her work to conference attendees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her dissertation focused on \u201cUnderstanding Critically Informed, Place-Conscious Literacy Instruction in a Rural Context.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harned identified a local school system and worked with an eighth-grade English teacher to craft a curriculum that met state learning objectives for standardized testing. The goal was to infuse \u201celements of place to create greater relevance for students and to promote agency in examining critical issues in the community,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most important thing that came out of the study,\u201d Harned said, \u201cwas increased agency on the part of students when the de-contextualized curriculum was enhanced with learning activities that reflected the community and their positions within the community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany rural researchers believe that (a) decontextualized curriculum is not meeting the needs of rural students,\u201d she said, adding \u201cthis study shows it is possible to weave (unique) elements of a student’s community into curricula and still meet state learning objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The middle school followed in Harned’s study has embraced some of her findings to fine-tune – or more accurately – customize instruction with the aim of engaging students in instruction that will support their development as citizens who can shape and re-imagine their communities when they graduate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harned was in the first group of graduate students at Salisbury University to earn a doctorate in education where the emphasis was on critical literacy in shaping curriculum and instruction. Judith K. Franzak, her dissertation adviser, suggested she apply for the award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHer research was thoughtful and important to our understanding of how literacy curriculum can help students in rural communities, an area often ‘under examined’ in education research,\u201d said Maida Finch of Salisbury University’s Department of Doctoral Studies in Literacy. \u201cShe demonstrated a commitment to using research as a tool for improving teaching and learning in her community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One committee member praised Harned’s description of a middle-school teacher that \u201ccaptured the struggle against state mandated testing requirements provides an interesting juxtaposition to what she believes are best teaching practices.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile this isn’t unique to a rural setting, (the teacher’s) desire to return to rural, place-based curriculum creates an interesting picture of the rural context,\u201d wrote Catharine Biddle, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Maine. \u201cReading about the students’ discussion of current social justice issues through a rural lens was also particularly powerful.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harned is hopeful the recognition she received from peers might draw attention to tweaking one-size-fits-all standardized course curriculums so they can produce positive results in rural settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She received a $300 stipend along with the award, which she in turn used to defray the cost of travel to Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Study addressed ways to make rural school curricula work Tuesday, April 23, 2019 A dissertation examining a middle-school curriculum that challenged students to identify and solve problems in their community earned UMES English professor Courtney Harned her doctorate a year ago – and national recognition. The American Educational Research Association early this month honored Harned…Read more UMES professor\u2019s dissertation garners national acclaim<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4254"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}