Janine Bixler, Mount Saint Mary College professor of Education, will kick off this semester’s Investigating Research on Campus (iROC) series with “What’s All the Buzz about the Newburgh Armory? Practice/Service Makes Possible” on Thursday, January 30 at 12:45 p.m.
The talk will take place in the Kaplan Family Library and Learning Center in the Dominican Center at the Mount, 330 Powell Ave., Newburgh. It is free and open to the public.
Dozens of classrooms buzz with children reading their original stories to classmates and parents. Educators are imparting the joys of the written word to youths of all ages, and teachers in training from area colleges are working one-on-one with them to unlock their full academic potential. It sounds like a dream school, but it’s happening every Saturday morning at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center in the City of Newburgh, N.Y. On these mornings, Mount Saint Mary College Education faculty and teacher candidates join young Newburgh learners, their families, and other community partners to enjoy a world of literary experiences at the Armory.
In this talk, Bixler will share research on how teaching should reflect cultural and community practices. She will examine the evolution of the well-established Mount-Armory literacy programs, with an emphasis on how all stakeholders have benefited and how these programs continue to shape future teaching and learning possibilities.
Bixler’s presentation is based onher sabbatical work and a longitudinal study with Rebecca Norman, Mount associate professor of Education, on how practice in the community provides exciting possibilities for young learners, teacher candidates, and the community to co-construct meaning as engaged language users.
As part of the college’s Collaborative for Equity in Literacy Learning (CELL), Mount students help young Armory students to explore books that reflect various cultural backgrounds and interests of the Newburgh community, says Bixler, director of CELL. CELL recognizes that teacher preparation extends beyond in-school fieldwork experiences to prepare the most highly effective teachers. Teacher candidates benefit from out-of-school community learning experiences to develop knowledge, skills, and experiences that nurture the whole child with the community.
The Armory, Bixler notes, is the ideal teaching/learning space for out-of-school tutoring and enrichment programs, where grass roots, innovative and research-based practices occur within a diverse and united community. The Armory includes a learning community of cross-grade children, parents, community volunteers, teacher experts, coaches, high-school students, college faculty, Nursing students, and teacher candidates who, together, are redefining a cultural model in Newburgh.
The goal of the college’s iROC is to “provide a forum for Mount faculty, staff, and students to showcase their research endeavors with both Mount Saint Mary College and the local community in a manner easily understood by attendees,” explained series coordinator Evan Merkhofer, assistant professor of Biology. Presentations include research proposals, initial data collection, and completed research projects.