Power & imagination FRINQ
Portland State University's general education program, University Studies, requires all first-year students to take a Freshman Inquiry Course (FRINQ) of their choosing. "UNST begins with Freshman Inquiry, a year-long course introducing students to different modes of inquiry and providing them with the tools to succeed in advanced studies and their majors. At the sophomore level, students choose three different Sophomore Inquiry courses, each of which leads into a thematically linked, interdisciplinary cluster of courses at the upper-division level. In addition to an upper-division themed cluster, all students complete a Capstone course which consists of teams of students from different majors working together to complete a project addressing a real problem in the Portland metropolitan community." This is a look inside one of those courses:
Power & Imagination from the perspective of an undergraduate Academic Coach. |
University studies
"Imagine a unique university program with students at the heart; imagine learning communities where teachers are connected not only with their field of study but also with the city in which we live; imagine general education within a public university where students gain skills for both academic and life success. This is University Studies." www.pdx.edu/university-studies/ |
"University Studies (UNST) is unlike any general education program at other public universities. University Studies is Portland State University’s innovative and nationally recognized general education program, but that is just the beginning of the story. UNST brings relevancy and meaning to your general education experience. Most university general education programs ask students to take a variety of courses from various disciplines in the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and the arts. UNST provides you with this broad intellectual exposure through interesting interdisciplinary courses organized in themes. The courses in University Studies include peer mentoring relationships for caring support in your first and second years of college, electronic portfolios that you can build for your academic or career identity, and community-based learning that gets you out of the classroom and into the dynamic environment that is Portland. UNST does all of this in a teaching style that respects you and asks you to take ownership of your education." www.pdx.edu/university-studies/about-unst |
what is the "power & imagination" frinq?
From the course syllabus: "In this course, we will investigate power--what it is; the forms it can take; where and how and when it is operating in any given context; who has access to it, how they use it, and what happens as a result; and how to identify and develop individual and collective agency within systems marked by power relations. As we seek to understand the fact and the force of power on personal, interpersonal, community, societal, political, and global levels, we will simultaneously explore imagination as a catalyst for exposing power relations, considering resistance to dominant power structures, and redistributing power. In Fall term, we’ll start where we (all) are: meeting remotely in our real learning community , where we will actively examine, question, and remake traditional power relations among "students" and "teachers." In Winter and Spring terms, we will collaboratively design our course content and the learning processes we will use to engage with that content." |
the teaching team
This course consists of two sections of P&I that have been merged together – therefore, there are two instructors (PSU faculty members), one for each section, and approximately 70 students. Additionally, as with all Freshman Inquiry courses, there is one University Studies mentor per section. In order to make our learning environment as robust as possible and to ensure that students had ample opportunity to connect with a member of the teaching team, there are also two Academic Coaches (myself included) who serve in ways similar to the UNST mentors. Lastly, there is one Participant Observer from the Office of Academic Innovation who works in tandem with the rest of us. This leaves us with a teaching team of seven which allows us to smoothly and effectively interact and support each and every student.
Responsibility to yourself means that you don't fall for shallow and easy solutions-- predigested books and ideas, weekend encounters guaranteed to change your life, taking "gut" courses instead of ones you know will challenge you, bluffing at school and life instead of doing solid work."
-Adrienne Rich, Claiming an Education
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a bit more about the course itself
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To me, one of the most impactful and inspiring elements of this course is its insistence upon upending traditional power structures, particularly within the institution of higher education. Students are empowered to lead their own experience, by choosing their own independent-immersion project, by participating in brainstorming sessions surrounding the structure of the upcoming term, by meeting as equals one-on-one as well as in small groups with various members of the teaching team, and most radically by taking responsibility for naming their own grade at the end of each term. It's fascinating and illuminating to witness students realize that the way high school, and indeed much of their experience, prepared them for college is much different than what is required of them in a class like Power & Imagination. Most of us, certainly myself included, have become adept at predicting what those in positions of authority expect from us – we learn what to do or say in the classroom or on an assignment that will appease the instructor but will not necessarily benefit our own learning. This course, in many ways but none more so than the self-grading element, provides students, perhaps for the first time, with the push that is necessary to approach their education with integrity, to really analyze and discover what it is that they hope to get from education, and how it is that they can best achieve that.
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University studies goals
"Communication
Students will enhance their capacity to communicate in various ways—writing, graphics, numeracy, and other visual and oral means—to collaborate effectively with others in group work, and to be competent in appropriate communication technologies. Inquiry & Critical Thinking Students will learn various modes of inquiry through interdisciplinary curricula—problem-posing, investigating, conceptualizing—in order to become active, self-motivated, and empowered learners. Diversity, Equity, & Social Justice Students will explore and analyze identity, power relationships, and social justice in historical contexts and contemporary settings from multiple perspectives. Ethics, Agency, & Community Students will examine values, theories, and practices that inform their actions and reflect on how personal choices and group decisions impact local and global communities." www.pdx.edu/university-studies/program-learning-goals Ethics of care is a feminist approach to ethics. It challenges traditional moral theories as male centric and problematic to the extent they omit or downplay values and virtues usually culturally associated with women or with roles that are often cast as ‘feminine’." |
I cannot imagine how useless my presence would be as an Academic Coach without effective communication. One of the goals of Power & Imagination is to connect with students, to make them feel welcome, included, and empowered even in the midst of a pandemic that has left us all contained in little rectangles on our computer screens and battling with Wi-Fi to get to "class" on time.
Students in Power & Imagination are invited to engage in an "independent immersion" project, a project for which they will pick their own subject, any subject at all, and delve into that topic for the length of the term. They are granted permission to harness the power they inherently hold to steer their education based on their interests and personal goals. And for me, this means being as innovative in problem-solving as I can in order to best support students in they ways that will be meaningful to them. It is a prerequisite for Academic Coaches in this course to be well-versed in matters of social justice and the like, Power & Imagination can be described as a feminist and queer course and as such it is imperative that members of the teaching team are equipped to address intersectional forms of oppression. |