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Printer-Friendly ModeSVSU profs receive $37k grants for research
November 19, 2007 —
Eric Gardner and Gretchen Owocki, two SVSU professors, have each received grants worth up to $37,000 to pursue research in their areas of interest.
Owocki will be using her a portion of her funds to support the writing of a book to aid a recently opened reading clinic at SVSU, which caters to about 120 reading-challenged students each year. Owocki has been involved in research of this nature since 1994 and is continuing it now because she believes that the best assessment occurs as students are engaged in real acts of reading.
She believes that this project will benefit SVSU as a university and a community because it will make a difference in the lives of children, and it will aid the teachers in SVSU's graduate program.
Owocki addressed additional reasons as to why the project is needed.
"Over the past six years in the United States, student performance expectations and teacher accountability standards have risen to unprecedented levels. This rise was spurred by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which required each state to develop achievement standards in reading, monitor student progress on these standards, and impose interventions on schools not meeting those standards," she said. "This act has led to extensive professional development aimed at helping teachers learn to teach toward standards, and to assess students in ways that show progress toward those standards. A generation of teachers has now been prepared to engage in standards-based assessment."
Owocki said this program will support progressive teaching practices at the College of Education.
Gardner plans to use his grant money to bring to light nineteenth-century black authors that are as of yet not well-known. He will be staying away from the major Eastern cities and focusing on ones like St. Louis, San Francisco, and Detroit.
Gardner has devoted his entire scholarly career to the topic, a total of 20 years. His most recent accomplishment in this area is the book Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West. His other scholarly endeavors include several articles and presentations on nineteenth century black literature and culture.
He believes that the most exciting thing about his project is that he's not sure exactly how it will turn out. He plans on incorporating much of what he learns into his black literature classes and using the research to aid in the education of those pursuing the brand new Black Studies minor offered at SVSU. He thinks that what he unearths will be more valued as diversity becomes more and more important in the community.
The most important thing, Gardener said, is that even those who have been teaching for a long time are still learning.
"We're all doing the same thing - learning together - students and teachers both."