The Daily Bulletin Archive

Kimberly Kline, associate professor of higher education administration, will share her research, "Facilitating Student Learning and Developmental Outcomes Assessment: Exploring Grass Roots Research Efforts and Collaborative Dialogue through a Social Justice Lens," on Friday, November 8, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210.

Kline's talk uses socially constructed dialogues around issues of student learning and developmental outcomes within higher education environments. For her Fulbright grant, she worked with the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy to examine participatory approaches to building assessment plans that are learner centered and informative to faculty and staff on college campuses. She also served as a co-lecturer in two courses: Ethics in Journalism and a Research Methods course. Students enrolled in these courses had to balance their roles as budding professionals in the journalism field with their roles as student protesters and advocates for change in the higher education system.

It is important to examine ethical and moral considerations of graduate students in a country that is known for its corruption during a time of education reform. Ethical discussions are too often centered on normative standards and best practices (Plaissance, 2010). Real-life professional practice ethics can hardly be limited to normative concepts and imperatives. Ethical reasoning is closely connected with experience, learning (Coleman & Wilkins, 2009), and moral growth (Kohlberg, 1981). It is also an internal process of making individual choices that may or may not correspond with established rules.

Kline will explain similarities and differences between student activism in the United States and student activism in a post-Soviet country. She will also describe modern-day education reform and the role that we may be able to play in helping Ukraine achieve educational freedom and autonomy, particularly in postsecondary settings.