By Molly McGouran How do you conduct research on a university without talking to students? It is a question that caught me off guard during my fieldwork and, at first, felt incredibly limiting. I had started with what I thought was a clear, straightforward plan: observe, interact, and interview students at the University of Toronto. … Continue reading
By Molly McGouran While conducting research into the University of Toronto Tutor Training Program (UT3), I found myself caught in a web of questions and answers that seemed to lead me in circles. The more fieldwork I did, the more it felt like trying to solve a puzzle where every piece connected to another in … Continue reading
By Molly McGouran t UofT, being the ideal professionalized student-tutor is about more than just excelling in your studies or helping others with theirs. The University of Toronto Tutor Training Program (UT3) has a clear vision of what an ideal student-tutor should be: vigilant, honest, ethical, and, above all, well-informed. But what does that actually … Continue reading
By Maia de Caro My project concentrates on assessment as an overarching topic and is honing in on the Signature Program Assessments (SPAs), a unit-level assessment mechanism grounded in objectives set out by the Strategic Plan that promotes student success and development. One key insight from my research was the emphasis made by my interlocutors … Continue reading
By Maia de Caro My project is rooted in trying to understand assessment practices in the division of Student Life. To give me a more specific focus, I looked into the Signature Program Assessments (SPAs), a unit-level assessment tool connected to actionable goals outlined in the Strategic Plan. Since there were no SPAs running at … Continue reading
By Maia de Caro The Assessment Cycle is composed of five stages: 1) Assessment Plan Development, 2) Implementation, 3) Analysis & Summary, 4) Storytelling, and 5) Action Planning & Next Steps. This blog post focuses on Storytelling. My project began by trying to understand assessment within the division of Student Life and evolved into a … Continue reading
A Final Report by Lukey Lu Imagine you are an undergraduate student now approaching the end of the semester in the University of Toronto. You just finished some term tests and survived through some assignments. You thought you are doing fine — everything is under the control. However, the reality soon slaps your face: you … Continue reading
By Lukey Lu “What is a university?” This may seem like a simple question, but I believe everyone has their own answer — these answers may be diverse and different among individuals. However, if we deeply reflect on this word, we may realize the difficulty in defining it. The ‘university’ can connote many things: the … Continue reading
By Lukey Lu “You belong to English. English belongs to you. There’s nothing wrong with you. You don’t need to apologize for your English. Right? Like so we talked about kind of big picture principles (to the students). But yeah, absolutely, in practice, how do you implement?” This is a quotation from my interviewee Frank … Continue reading
By Lukey Lu Speaking of contemporary social science and humanities, Michel Foucault is definitely a figure that is impossible to ignore. Foucauldian thinking towards discourse and power greatly influences contemporary anthropologists. In her work, Foucault Foments Fieldwork at the University, Prof. Li introduces the advantages of incorporating a Foucauldian way of thinking about the ‘university’: … Continue reading
Ethnography Lab 