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"Mitchell, Richard C"
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Sustaining change on a Canadian campus
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to prepare for a campus sustainability audit at the main campus of Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Design/methodology/approach: An inductive, qualitative approach was undertaken with data comprised of analyses of key stakeholder interviews, a review of literature, and a systematic collation of campus-based sustainability initiatives taking place in 2008-2009. Findings: The study offers qualitatively analyzed evidence that even smaller and mid-size Canadian campuses with limited budgets can successfully move forward with sustainability initiatives in multi-systemic, synergistic partnerships that cross-professional and disciplinary boundaries. Furthermore, inductive methodologies should not be overlooked in this process. While most of the sample of interviewees in this exploratory study agreed to be involved in current and future sustainability initiatives, interestingly, there were also concerns that discovery of any negative findings could cast a shadow on \"green\" efforts already underway. The findings also indicate a number of leading edge initiatives taking place at Brock University including a co-generation power plant, and \"green\" construction of new buildings as well as those in the planning stages. Without a formal governance structure or a common theoretical framework in place, a broad spectrum of definitions on \"sustainability\" from key stakeholders was found ranging from an environmental focus to those based solely upon economics, and a combination of the two were prevalent. The absence of any systemic, coordinated and comprehensive approach on the university's main campus was the main negative finding--one that previously hampered growth of synergistic partnerships. Originality/value: Owing to its geographical location in the Canada's Niagara Escarpment as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Biospheres and its recent emergence as a comprehensive university, it is apparent that Brock University is well placed with potential for a leadership role in promoting ethical and green consumption practices on its campuses and within the region. This qualitative study provides a contemporary, interdisciplinary conceptual framework for understanding how important synergies may be brought to bear in this new policy arena within and beyond academia.
Journal Article
Planetary praxis & pedagogy : transdisciplinary approaches to environmental sustainability
\"Good books make important points because their authors have something worthwhile to say. This book is more than a good book because its authors not only make important points but they do so in ways that exemplify the transdisciplinarity the authors write about. In eight interesting and insightful chapters the book connects pedagogy, marketing, development, immanence, race, resilience, technology, and the commons in ways that show the necessity and importance of transdisciplinary thinking. This is a book for those who seek deeper and more creative connections to a sustainable way of life, a way of life that opens up imaginative acts of hope.\"--John Novak, Professor in the Department of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies in Education at Brock University; his research interests include: Philosophy of education, Invitational theory and practice, Educational leadership, and Social-cultural contexts of education.
Book
The Power of Civility: A Transdisciplinary Examination of Adolescent Social Power and Bullying
Adolescents are keenly aware of the importance of social power, leading some to bully others in order to acquire and/or maintain that socialpower. Traditional efforts to understand and prevent adolescent bullying have largely proven to be limited or ineffective. In response to this, researchers have called for a transdisciplinary approach to bullying. Unfortunately, a transdisciplinary approach is challenging to implement, partly because it depends on, and is sometimes constrained by, the successful implementation of civility. We suggest that civility may not only be required for research but may also serve as a key for transdisciplinary efforts to understand and guide adolescents’ use of social power.
Journal Article
Canadian Health Care and Child Rights – What Are the Links?
When the Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified in 1991, Canada undertook Article 24.1 obligations to provide both the highest attainable standard of health and Article 42 commitments to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known to adults and children alike. Mitchell argues that Canada's population health and comparative social theory must consider the voices of children and young people in health care reform discussions.
Journal Article
Grounded Theory and Autopoietic Social Systems: Are They Methodologically Compatible?
The paper offers a secondary analysis from a grounded theory doctoral study that reconsiders its “grounded systemic design” (Mitchell, 2005, 2007). While theorists across multiple disciplines fiercely debate the ontological implications of Niklas Luhmann’s autopoietic systems theory (Deflem 1998; Graber and Teubner 1998; King and Thornhill 2003; Mingers 2002; Neves 2001; O’Byrne 2003; Verschraegen 2002, for example), few investigators have yet to adopt his core constructs empirically (see Gregory, Gibson and Robinson 2005 for an exception). Glaser’s (1992, 2005) repeated concerns for grounded theorists to elucidate a “theoretical code” has provided an additional entry point into this project of integrating grounded theory with Luhmann’s abstract conceptual thinking about how global society operates. The author argues that this integration of methodology and systems thinking provides an evolution of grounded theory – rather than its ongoing “erosion” as Greckhamer and Koro-Ljungberg (2005) have feared – and a transportable set of methodological and analytical constructs is presented as a basis for further grounded study.
Journal Article
Sustaining change on a Canadian campus
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to prepare for a campus sustainability audit at the main campus of Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada.Design methodology approach - An inductive, qualitative approach was undertaken with data comprised of analyses of key stakeholder interviews, a review of literature, and a systematic collation of campus-based sustainability initiatives taking place in 2008-2009.Findings - The study offers qualitatively analyzed evidence that even smaller and mid-size Canadian campuses with limited budgets can successfully move forward with sustainability initiatives in multi-systemic, synergistic partnerships that cross-professional and disciplinary boundaries. Furthermore, inductive methodologies should not be overlooked in this process. While most of the sample of interviewees in this exploratory study agreed to be involved in current and future sustainability initiatives, interestingly, there were also concerns that discovery of any negative findings could cast a shadow on \"green\" efforts already underway. The findings also indicate a number of leading edge initiatives taking place at Brock University including a co-generation power plant, and \"green\" construction of new buildings as well as those in the planning stages. Without a formal governance structure or a common theoretical framework in place, a broad spectrum of definitions on \"sustainability\" from key stakeholders was found ranging from an environmental focus to those based solely upon economics, and a combination of the two were prevalent. The absence of any systemic, coordinated and comprehensive approach on the university's main campus was the main negative finding - one that previously hampered growth of synergistic partnerships.Originality value - Owing to its geographical location in the Canada's Niagara Escarpment as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Biospheres and its recent emergence as a comprehensive university, it is apparent that Brock University is well placed with potential for a leadership role in promoting ethical and green consumption practices on its campuses and within the region. This qualitative study provides a contemporary, interdisciplinary conceptual framework for understanding how important synergies may be brought to bear in this new policy arena within and beyond academia.
Journal Article
Narrowing the Gap between Concepts and Algorithms in Freshman Chemistry
Research has shown that students consistently achieve algorithmic understanding of chemical concepts more readily than the conceptual understanding we wish that they would also acquire. Concomitant with this research, chemical educators have increasingly called for reform in the way in which undergraduate chemistry is taught. The National Science Foundation has supported major initiatives to experiment with ways to change both the curriculum and the manner in which instruction is delivered. This paper reports results from one such study, Project REMODEL.In REMODEL, we set out to narrow the gap between conceptual and algorithmic understanding in freshman chemistry. We implemented and evaluated innovations in lecture, laboratory, and assessment for students in the introductory sequence for majors, in order to provide the chemical education community with data on effective innovations and data on the barriers to successful reform. This paper reports on lecture and assessment innovations in the second semester course. In lecture students engaged in interactive group work in special lecture sessions, and assessment in the course moved from a heavy emphasis on mathematical problem solving to a mix of conceptual questions and more traditional problem solving questions involving the use of algorithms.
Journal Article