K.

Fuhrmeister

AHE 588: Synthesis

Statements

Spring 2017: Capstone Course

K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 2

1.) Diversity and Social Justice

I sought out and enrolled in the AHE program with the goal of improving
my teaching skills. At the time, I did not understand the important role that
broadening my understanding of social justice concepts would play in making
this a reality. Now in the final stages of the program, I not only have an
appreciation for how interconnected diversity and social justice issues are within
the education system, but I feel I am much better equipped to be a conscious
leader for positive change in future.

Projects:

As this transformation and increased awareness took hold, my class

projects began to shift away from general education related ventures towards
projects that would contribute to more meaningful social change. I have since
worked to create program evaluations to support a non-profit that works with
families of children who are Deaf or hearing impaired; this was then followed by
a partnership with Whatcom Community College to assist with strategic planning
for their Passport to College program a program that helps to support
homeless youth on their path to succeeding in higher education. Later on in my
journey, I designed a continuing professional development course for physical
educators that was meant to increase the quality of services that they provide for
students with disabilities. After which, I created a multi-lingual and mobile phone
compatible physical education website for my PE program in order to increase
our connections to our diverse family population. Finally most recently, a team of
class members and I provided strategic planning services to an organization
called Girl.Strong., which seeks to empower young girls through sport. Through
these projects, I have learned how good it feels to believe in a cause and to work
towards a shared common goal. Ive learned to be critical of new policies, their
underlying motives, and their unanticipated outcomes; and perhaps most
importantly, Ive learned how much I still have to learn!

Continuing on this learning journey, I am now four weeks into the AHE 555:
Foundations of Higher Education and Diversity course. Thus far, I have already
begun the process of expanding my understanding of social justice concepts in a
multitude of ways. For our first reflection paper in this course, I choose to read
an article where faculty in higher education shared strategies that theyve found
to be useful when facilitating difficult conversations around diversity issues in
class settings (Gayles, Kelly, Grays, Zhang, & Porter, 2015). Through this paper, I
K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 3

was able to reflect back on a time when I poorly executed a response to a

microaggression as an undergraduate university instructor. This process of
growth and reflection helped me to learn from my mistakes and has equipped
me with tools to do better in the future.

Another personal undertaking for our AHE 588: Capstone Seminar course is
reading Bonilla-Silvas book: Racists Without Racism where I seek to get a better
sense of the history of racism in the United States, to further explore and
acknowledge my own privilege, and to learn how to recognize and gain tools to
remedy the ever prevalent color-blind racism (2010).

Final Thoughts:

I have come a long way in just six and a half quarters, but know that I
have room for further development as well. Despite all of the progress to come, I
can still say with confidence that for myself personally, the diversity and social
justice pillar has seen the most growth of all five learning outcomes in the AHE
program. For which, I am eternally grateful.

References:
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists: color-blind racism and the

persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham: Rowman &

Littlefield .

Gayles, J. G., Kelly, B. T., Grays, S., Zhang, J. J., & Porter, K. P. (2015). Faculty

teaching diversity through difficult dialogues: Stories of challenges and

success. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice,52(3), 300-312.

K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 4

2.) Teaching and Facilitation

Having studied various teaching strategies throughout my undergraduate

degree, I entered this program hoping to learn more about indirect teaching
methods and to get an update on newly available instructional technologies. Now
reflecting back on my experiences, I can see that I not only made gains
throughout these areas but also expanded knowledge in ways that I hadnt
initially even thought to consider.

Technology:

In terms of my technology use goal, I was able to explore new to me

programs like Prezi, Canva, and Powtoons as methods to enrich my instruction.
In IT 546: Instructional Technologies, I even created a multi-lingual and mobile
compatible website for my physical education program with the goal of reaching
our diverse parent community. In addition, I learned how to create videos, record
screencasts and became very experienced at video conferencing.

Curriculum Design and Instruction:

The first teaching and curriculum design-focused course that I took was
AHE 518, Continuing Professional Development (CPD). In this course I designed a
CPD training that was geared towards helping physical educators develop
specialized plans for assisting students with disabilities in their classes. A big
take-away from this assignment was that I do not need to be a content expert on
a topic in order to design a meaningful training around it. This was not only
empowering but it opened up a door to a variety program design careers that I
didnt even know I was qualified for! Through this course, I also learned about
the downfalls of utilizing the update model approach and the importance of
making the learning interactive and collaborative wherever possible. I think the
latter finding was already intuitive to me, however, most trainings I have
attended have been very lecture-based so it was a good reminder to avoid
emulating poor tactics despite their being highly prevalent.

Throughout the period of another course, AHE 586: Teaching in E-

Learning and Blended Environments, I developed a 21-day course on meditation
and mindfulness; both subjects that I found interesting but knew very little
about. I came away from this blended learning course not only with an increased
knowledge of how online teaching differs from face-to-face instruction, but with
a deeper understanding of how to incorporate cultural considerations across the
K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 5

spectrum of classroom formats. Along this same vein, I found it especially

interesting to learn about how different the concept of quality instruction can
be between eastern and western cultures. A final takeaway from this course was
a host of new strategies for incorporating universal design into online learning
and a deeper understanding of how globalization is impacting online instruction.

AHE 580: Teaching and Instructional Design rounded out my experience

nicely by introducing me to a variety of indirect teaching methods. I learned a
great deal from Brookfields The Skillful Teacher (2015) on how to facilitate
group discussions (an area that I was formerly lacking) in addition to gaining
new and fresh ideas for formative assessments. I think that the one-minute
paper will forever be one of my favorite closing activities.

This program has done wonders for my teaching and curriculum design
abilities. I know it will be up to me to put everything that I have learned to use
and to challenge myself to continue to grow my instructional methods into the
future.

Reference:

Brookfield, S. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and

responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 6

3.) Leadership

Through the course of AHE program, I was not only able to explore new
leadership theories and concepts, but I was able to reflect back on experiences
that Ive had in the past in order to further shape my ability to lead. As I can in
no way shrink everything I have learned on this topic into so few words, I will
simply focus on a few areas of growth that I have found to be most impactful.

Empowerment:

One such area revolves around the concept of empowerment. Coming

into this program I had been struggling with how to engage para-educators in
my physical education classes. They were supposed to be helping students but
would regularly stand on the sidelines and chat with one another. I initially
wanted to learn how to enable them to stay engaged and work with their
assigned students. What I learned in AHE 576: Leadership and Management of
Educational Programs, was that I actually had an incorrect definition of
empowerment! Instead of simply inspiring others to do what I wanted them to
do, empowerment means providing freedom for people to successfully do what
they want to do (Whetten and Cameron, 2016). With this new definition in mind, I
was able to keep para-educator perspective at the forefront in order to design
and implement an action research project that investigated their needs and
experiences supporting classroom teachers. What I learned from this research
was that in order to feel useful, the para-educators needed to have more two-way
communication with teachers. Now, instead of leaving my support staff to feel
out classroom roles for themselves, I have learned to develop a collaborative
partnership with plenty of dialogue about both partys needs and expectations.

Leadership and the Impacts of Self-Care:

Another major area of growth was coming to understand the importance

of self-care which was spurred from reading Drehers (1996) text and can be
directly observed by viewing online conversations throughout the AHE 576
discussion boards. I had been sacrificing self-care in order to put more effort
into being successful at work and in school. The course readings and
conversations served as a wake up call that I needed in order to realize that by
pushing myself so hard, I was actually doing a disservice to myself and others
because I was regularly grumpy and over-stressed. Functioning in this state of
being was significantly reducing my ability to deviate from plans or to handle
difficult situations. I have since gotten very involved in a yoga practice which has
K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 7

done loads to counteract my stress levels and thus enhanced my ability to

effectively lead.

Change Maker Roles:

Lastly, I have learned to appreciate conflict as a part of growth and

change process. Through self-reflection, I have come to terms with the fact that
even despite these benefits, I am still rather conflict avoidant. To elaborate, I
have learned that I have historically had fairly poor tolerance for discord on
chronic scale. Due to this characteristic, I have sometimes felt useless when
facing bigger political or interpersonal issues because I eventually use up all my
energy stores and then shy away from the conflict in order to preserve my
emotional well-being. This in turn has led me to feel ashamed for not doing
more to champion various causes in the past. During AHE 585: Organizational
Change, we took a quiz from The Story of Stuff Project (2016), which helped
bring about the understanding that there are important alternatives to being a
resistor all of which still lead to positive change but on a more sustainable
level for my introverted self. The concept of varied change-maker roles is
something that I would like to pursue more in the future in addition to working
on ways to create an emotional buffer in times of long-term crisis.

These were just three of numerous personal and professional insights on

leadership that I have gained from this program. Moving forward, I plan continue
to invest time in a reflective practice in order to continue my growth with the
ultimate goal of contributing towards a greater tomorrow.

References:

Dreher, D., (1996). The Tao of personal leadership. New York: HarperBusiness.

The Story of Stuff Project. (2016). Changemaker personality quiz. Retrieved

March 5, 2017, from http://storyofstuff.org/changemaker/

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills. (9th ed.).

Boston: Pearson
K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 8

4.) Research and Evaluation

Coming into the AHE program, I found research to be fairly intimating on

all levels (analyzing, conducting, even locating it)! The idea of differentiating
between research and evaluation was also completely over my head. Now in my
final few quarters of the program, I am very grateful to have increased my level
of comfort in these areas and hope to continue to grow my knowledge of best
research and evaluation practices after graduation. The following is a brief
overview of my learning encompassing these areas to date.

Foundational Knowledge Building:

In AHE 501: Understanding Educational Research, I developed a basic

understanding of the various styles of research under the qualitative and
quantitative umbrellas and later designed my first hypothetical study. It was
meant to be a quantitative investigation into Washington State physical
educators views and uses of newly updated physical education teaching
standards. Throughout this project, I learned about various components of
survey research including appropriate sample sizes and desirable response rates.
The two critiques of qualitative and quantitative research papers were also very
useful tools for me to gain further comprehension of research theories and to
learn how to distinguish between proper and poor quality research design.

The next quarter in AHE 571: Research and Evaluation Methods, I was
really able to delve deeper into research methodology. I partnered with Christine
Griffin to develop a mixed-methods program evaluation for her organization,
Guide By Your Side (GBYS); an organization that works to support families of
children with hearing loss. Through this project, we learned how to develop
testing instruments that utilized the Likert Scale and also how to create an
informed consent document. As a team, we explored methods for designing
surveys without biases and learned to investigate the individual questions
themselves to be sure they were clear and not leading the respondent to answer
a certain way. In the final stages of AHE 571, I learned how to decipher which
results would be useful for stakeholders to see and learned to pair down
information that was redundant. For example, I was able to shrink our data
tables from this:
 K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 9

Figure: 5 Response Findings to Question 7:

How well do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Strongly Strongly
Ratings Standard Response
Disagree 2 3 4 5 Agree N/A
Average Deviation Count
1 6
I have better knowledge
0.0 0.0 33. 22. 33.
of information and 0.0% 11.1%
% % 3% 2% 3% 4.66 .816 9
resources that will (0) (1)
(0) (0) (3) (2) (3)
support my family.

To this:

Figure: 5 Response Findings to Question 7:

How well do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
*Based on a 6-point scale (1= strongly disagree - 6= strongly agree)
Standard
Ratings Response
Deviatio
Average Count
n
I have better knowledge of
information and resources that will 4.66 .816 9
support my family.

Overall, the GBYS program evaluation project served as a practical

opportunity to gain experience collecting and analyzing both qualitative and
quantitative data.

Next Steps:

I am grateful that I choose to enroll in the two research and evaluation

courses during my first several quarters, as this sequence really laid a solid
foundation for the research projects that came later on in the program. For
example, in AHE 576: Leadership and Management of Educational Programs, I
teamed up with Luke Sabatini to create and implement a project based on the
participatory action research (PAR) model which sought to examine para-
educators needs and experiences working in a local middle school where I
taught. This had been my first attempt at PAR and in some ways we missed the
mark on a true PAR design. As a result, I am very much looking forward to
further exploring this methodology for my final research proposal.
K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 10

5.) Adult Learning Theories

Throughout my undergraduate studies, I was exposed to many learning

theories but on a fairly superficial level. I had fleeting moments of
comprehension but nothing really stuck with me in the long term. My AHE
coursework finally gave me reason and time to dive into the finer details of
learning theories so that I could bring my knowledge in these areas to the top of
Blooms Taxonomy (evaluate and create).

Establishing Foundation:

The course AHE 577: Learning in Adulthood was an especially helpful

contributor in developing my ability to utilize established learning theories.
Before this class, it had never occurred to me to really consider how adult
learning was different than learning in childhood and adolescence. I honestly
thought that pedagogy was the only term used to describe the science or art of
teaching and was quite surprised to learn about the concept of andragogy.
Furthermore, the personal learning journey report in this course was an
especially helpful activity that enabled me to reflect and apply theory to my lived
experiences. By engaging in a reflective practice, I was able to think critically
about how my learning preferences had changed over time and observed how
sometimes even seemingly insignificant events could have large impacts on who
I am and how I view education today. Throughout the paralleling case study
project, I was able to explore the learning journey of someone much different
than myself this proved to be a helpful method to compare and contrast both
of our experiences and motivations as adults and certainly enriched my
understanding of educational theory.

Another useful contribution of the AHE program as a whole was its ability
to change the way my brain works. To the core, I feel that I am a much more
critical thinker now than I ever was before. As Brookfield (2015) states: a
person who can think critically is much better placed to take informed actions;
actions that are well grounded in evidence that are more likely to achieve the
results intended. Before I started the AHE program I was routinely selective
about which topics I wanted to explore in a critical nature, which allowed me to
avoid topics that were controversial (i.e.: politics, privilege, etc.) because they
made me feel uncomfortable. I am thankful for the transformation in both
confidence and cognitive ability that I have had and feel that the act of honing
my critical thinking skills has made me a better person. While admittedly, this
K. Fuhrmeister Synthesis Statements 11

change has caused some run-ins with certain individuals at work; I have since
learned to be selective about how and when I choose to play devils advocate!

Applying Skills and Moving Forward:

Building off a new strong foundation in andragogy, critical thinking, and

learning theory, I was able to continue to grow my skills in curriculum design
projects throughout this program including: a blended learning meditation
course for the general public, and several continuing professional development
courses for physical educators. Overall, I am still working on being a better
discussion facilitator; but I have certainly come a long way thanks to the AHE
program.
Looking ahead, I eagerly anticipate the next steps in my learning journey
as I hopefully continue on my quest to becoming a better educator and person.

References:

Brookfield, S. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and

responsiveness in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.