Recently, MAWRD student Reina Ashley Nomura completed an Independent Study as part of their coursework in the Teaching Writing and Language Concentration. With knowledge gained in the study, Reina went on to present at DePaul’s 2024 Teaching and Learning Conference and is currently working on a research proposal they plan to submit to the university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) soon.
Reina’s work focuses on critical university studies, using rhetoric and writing pedagogy scholarship to understand the experiences of faculty and staff in higher education and how these impact teaching and learning.
We chatted with Reina about their experience and how it enhanced their educational experience in MAWRD. Read on to hear their responses and advice to students considering similar opportunities!
Why did you decide to pursue an Independent Study?
In my MAWRD application, I mentioned critical university studies as something I was interested in studying during my time in the program. I wanted to use rhetoric and composition as a lens to critically analyze education at the higher education level. When I took the special topics course WRD 550: Online Instructional Design and Pedagogy taught by Professor Sarah Brown, I was interested in the critical readings that were part of the coursework, and Dr. Erin Workman and I discussed the opportunity for me to continue studying these topics. The Independent Study was designed as a complement to the WRD 540: Teaching Writing course, both of which I took in Winter Quarter 2024.
I’m really interested in getting into a space of training teachers in higher education and graduate education and giving pedagogy in higher education the same attention that K-12 education gets in terms of scholarship and academic research. Ideally, this would take the form of facilitating trainings and developing material to improve how we do higher education. I recognize that I need teaching experience first to do this more effectively, so the next step for me will be to participate in the TAP Program and begin gaining that experience.
That’s so interesting! With that experience, did you go into the Independent Study with specific research projects you wanted to complete or other projects you wanted to work on?
I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do, and Dr. Workman helped me clarify this plan as we put together the Independent Study proposal. I had found a handful of online open resource books and articles that I wanted to read, so I started by working on my reading list. Dr. Workman shared that in another course she taught, one of the final projects involved putting together a research proposal. This is where I got the idea to incorporate a research element to my project. Then, I thought an interesting way to document my findings and reading would be through a blog, so I came up with the idea to create a blog, while also using the social annotation app Hypothesis, which allowed me to tag my readings with certain categories.
Once the weekly Independent Study sessions began, we used part of that time to clarify what my research project would really start to look like, as we discussed how I could apply the course readings to a research question that made sense for what I wanted to learn.
Could you tell us more about your research? What were the central questions, and how did you start the process?
Yes! Dr. Workman introduced me to the methodology of institutional ethnography which comes out of feminist sociology. I was fascinated with it, so I came up with the idea of interviewing DePaul faculty and staff members of various rank and status and title to hear about their expectations and preconceptions of what they were expecting with working at the university. I wanted to examine the university as a workplace, and how they thought it might differ from previous work experiences. Thinking about universities in this way, through the lens of critical university studies, helps us understand how people’s identities and scholarships are interacting with their daily work and teaching.
Additionally, I wanted to look at what kind of documents faculty and staff members use in their day to day lives, and the kinds of training, support, and resources they receive on a regular basis in order to “do the work of university.” From discussion with Dr. Workman and engaging with the scholarship, conversations came up regarding the challenges of working at a university while disabled, which there is lots of discourse around, as well as other identity-based conversations.
I am working on a proposal for the research now, which I hope to submit to the IRB (Institutional Review Board) soon. If it goes through, I will be able to work on recruiting participants in the fall, starting with interviews next spring to discuss these aspects of the university as a workplace.
That’s really exciting to hear. I know you presented some of your work at a conference recently as well—what was that like?
One of the assignments in my Independent Study proposal was to create a toolkit for professors with best practices for course document design, which I remixed as a presentation at the DePaul Teaching and Learning Conference on May 3. My session was “(Re)Writing Course Documents to Align with our Teaching and Pedagogical Philosophies.”
During the session, we worked on defining our personal pedagogical philosophies and then, referencing readings across both my Independent Study as well as WRD 540, I presented examples of how other scholars have rewritten or written course documents to be intentional about topics like disability inclusion, or other factors that allow them to align with their pedagogical philosophy.
I then prompted participants to consider how they might rewrite their own course documents based on some of these examples we discussed. Finally, using bell hooks’ work in Teaching to Transgress, I presented concepts on the importance of joy in learning, which is a conversation not often found in higher education. That was really interesting and important to me to include as well. I think that designing courses more intentionally not only can create more inclusion, but it can also make the course experience a more joyful one.
What was your favorite part of the conference?
After the session, one of my former co-workers mentioned that it was a really calming session, and that I presented very clearly. It was also interesting because most of the conference sessions were very verbal, or spoken discussion-based, but mine was more writing-based for participants. I put a link in the chat for people to type out a response to the question, and then I would read aloud the question and answer it in real time. It was really cool for me to facilitate something in that way, and I was able to get through a lot more questions because everyone was responding at the same time. There was also no fear of being attached to what you say in terms of asking questions that might seem “obvious” or anything like that, because the digital responses were anonymous.
Do you have any advice for a student who might be interested in pursuing their own projects like an Independent Study or a conference presentation?
I think the important thing about these types of projects is that you are able to craft them yourself and decide how they might be meaningful and fulfilling parts of your education. More than any knowledge I gained or learned, I have more questions to keep me looking into future scholarship and existing scholarship on topics that matter to me. I think that’s a really great outcome of an Independent Study, or any project where the goal isn’t to complete something but rather to come up with new directions of where to go—you are creating the runways for yourself to explore.
For the Independent Study specifically, if I were to give myself advice about it beforehand, I would say to not be too overly ambitious, both in terms of the reading list and the assignments. You don’t want to turn the independent setting into a class that you’re dragging your feet in or falling behind, when it’s supposed to be about your own learning journey.
Finally, it was so nice to be able to have these very authentic conversations with a professor who understands your interest in the topic and really values the importance of continued study on the particular topic. It was so validating to know that my interest in this topic was respected by a faculty member in the field in the department and it honestly made learning fun in a way that I didn’t expect it to be. These projects are a great opportunity for that enjoyable, personalized learning experience.
You can find more of Reina’s teaching and pedagogy work in their professional portfolio and stay up to date with WRD Student Spotlights on the WRD Blog.