|
Kathleen McKinney
I was born
in Park Forest,
Illinois
in 1954. I lived in Illinois
much of my life, living in
Wisconsin
while I attended the University
of
Wisconsin
and in Oklahoma
while working for Oklahoma
State
University. I enjoy teaching and research very much but have hobbies as well. I love
to read novels, to needlepoint, and to ride horses. I own a 7 year-old
Paint-Tennessee Walker cross gelding named Jenghis. I also enjoy walking
the family dog, Rescue. I do some volunteer work for an equine therapy
barn that uses horses to help children with disabilities. I am married to colleague, Robert Wazienski, and
we have a teenage daughter. I also have a stepson who recently graduated
from the University
of
Kansas with a major in Linguistics. My parents live in Florida; I have a brother in Atlanta
and a sister in Dallas.
I am the
Cross Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and a
Professor of Sociology at Illinois
State
University. I received my Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in 1982.
Though I have taught many courses over the years, currently, I most
often teach the
Sociology Senior Experience course. I hope to teach a
graduate seminar on teaching sociology in the near future. I am a strong
believer in shared governance and faculty involvement in the university
so I try to provide service to the university at various levels.
Currently, I am faculty co-advisor to the newly formed (August 2005)
ISU
Equestrian Club. I also represent ISU in some of our work with national
organizations such as the Carnegie Foundation and the American
Association of Higher Education.
I am a
social psychologist with interests in relationships, sexuality, sexual
harassment, higher education, and college teaching. I have a variety of scholarly
publications including several co-authored and edited books, and dozens of
refereed articles mostly in the areas of sexual harassment, pedagogy, and
close relationships. I served three years
as editor of Teaching Sociology, the refereed, national journal of the
American Sociological Association. I am also a member of the ASA
Department Resources Group, a group of about 50 sociologists who assist
their colleagues around the nation conducting teaching workshops and
program reviews, and writing teaching materials. It has been an honor to
be the recipient of several teaching awards including Illinois State's
College
of Arts
and Sciences Junior and Senior Distinguished Teacher, Illinois State
Outstanding University Teacher, and the ASA Hans Mauksch award for
contributions to undergraduate education. I have taught many courses from Introduction to
Sociology to Foundations of Inquiry to Research Methods to Senior
Experience, to name a few. From 1996 to 2002, I served in an
administrative role as Director of the Center for the Advancement of
Teaching where I supervised the Center staff as well as Opscan Evaluation
and the University Assessment Office.
Dr. K.
Patricia Cross, a well-know scholar in the field of higher education, has
generously endowed the Cross Chair in the SoTL, the position I now hold.
Dr. Cross and her sister are Illinois
State
alums, and their father is a former Illinois
State
University
professor. As far as we can ascertain, this is the first and only
university-wide, endowed chair in the SoTL in higher education in the
nation. The scholarship of teaching and learning is a key area in the
higher education national scene and Illinois
State
is making a name for itself in this area. More importantly, the SoTL is
valuable work. Its strength is that we will routinely use and apply what
we find in our SoTL work to pedagogical, curricular, and institutional
reform in our institution, and to share what we learn with others. SoTL
work is implicitly part of, and can help us implement, our strategic plan,
Educating Illinois. The heart of SoTL is its public and applied nature.
As the
Cross Chair, I engage in my own SoTL scholarship in Sociology and in
higher education, more generally. For example, in 2003, I completed a
questionnaire study of Sociology seniors about out-of-class learning
opportunities in Sociology. An article based on this study can be found in
Teaching Sociology (2004, 32: 43-60). In 2003-2004, as a Carnegie
Scholar, I designed and
conducted a series of
studies on how
sociology students learn sociology. See
a web
snapshot of this work. Several publications have come out of this work
including the following. Finally, I am working on a book for Anker
Publishing on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
McKinney, K. 2004. “How Sociology Majors Learn
Sociology: Successful Learners Tell Their Story.” Journal of
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 4: 15-24.
McKinney, K. 2005, Fall/Winter.
“Reflections on Learning Sociology: Analysis of Learning Log Entries.”
MountainRise 2. Retrieved February 1, 2005, from
http://facctr.wcu.edu/mountainrise/archive/vol2no1/html/reflections_on_learning.html.
McKinney, K. 2005. “Sociology Senior
Majors’ Perceptions on Learning Sociology: A Research Note.” Teaching
Sociology (in press for October).
McKinney, K. “The Student Voice:
Sociology Majors Tell us About Learning Sociology.” Teaching
Sociology (in review 2005).
McKinney, K. and Reed, L. “Profile of an Engaged Sociology Major.”
Teaching Sociology (in review 2005).
McKinney, K. “A
Questionnaire Study of Views and Correlates of Success in Sociology.”
(in review 2005).
Second, I
work with faculty, graduate students, and staff to assist them in doing
their own SoTL work. For example, I have funds to support several
SoTL small grants. I am facilitating SoTL Writing Circles and I administer a SoTL Institute for the summer for faculty members.
The
third role I have as Cross Chair is that of a social change agent, working
to promote, share, reward, and use SoTL work on campus. I serve on
relevant committees, advise department chairs and personnel
committees, assist faculty in documenting their SoTL work, and promote new
outlets for such work.
Finally, I
serve as a representative on the SoTL from Illinois
State
University to the higher education national scene working with my own disciplinary
society and with organizations such as the American Association of Higher
Education (AAHE) and the Carnegie Foundation. To begin, I will continue to
be active in the American Sociological Association (ASA). For example, I
recently finished serving on an ASA task force writing a report on best
practices for the major. I will also continue to serve as the Illinois State University
Coordinator of our involvement in the Carnegie
Academy
for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Program. In 2002,
ISU was selected to be one of 12 Cluster Leaders in a national program to
support SoTL. I wrote that application and lead our Cluster team. See
a web snap
shot of our Cluster work. I am also very involved with the
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IS-SoTL).
Finally, I receive and accept many invitations to present SoTL workshops
and keynotes at conferences and institutions.
|
