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Name: Carl Chung
Rank: Assistant Professor
Briefly describe your job: As an assistant professor of humanities in the General College , my job revolves primarily around teaching and research. As a teacher I am most involved with the "Functions and Problems of Logic" course, which is essentially a math class without numbers or equations. Over the years the course has evolved to fill an important niche: providing students with a rigorous yet positive experience in a math-type course. As a researcher, I am most interested in the state of theory in developmental education and in articulating an approach to generating theory that privileges the tacit expertise of front-line practitioners (teachers, counselors, advisors, and support staff). In addition, I have published on the teaching of logic, encouraging students to get help, and on integrating basic skills development along with regular course content.
Biography: I grew up as an Army brat. My family moved every three years and I lived on military bases in California , Utah , New Jersey , Washington State , Germany , and England . After finishing high school in Tacoma , Washington , I was lucky enough to get a need-based scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles . One of the first courses I took there was in Chinese philosophy and I immediately fell in love with philosophy as a discipline and the strange way it pursued both wonder and rigorous analysis. After completing my degree I worked in publishing and eventually took a job as a sales representative, with the hope that I would hate sales so much that I would be motivated to study for the GRE and apply to graduate school. The strategy worked! Two years later I found myself at the University of Minnesota . The first time I got up in front of a class of undergraduates to teach I knew that this is where I belonged.
Family: My wife, Janice, is a librarian at the University of Minnesota . We have two sons, Aaron (9) and Joshua (4). Our cat, Buster, naturally thinks he's in charge of the household.
Most interesting place you've lived: Sussex , England , because of the trains and because of the winding lanes and walkways of the older part of the city.
What do you enjoy most about your job? Working with, teaching, and learning from my students.
How long have you worked in GC? About 10 years. I began as a graduate teaching assistant, then became a teaching specialist, and then joined the faculty as a tenure-track professor. They can't seem to get rid of me.
What are your top three personal publications?
Chung, C. J. (2005). Theory, practice, and the future of developmental education: Toward a pedagogy of caring.
Journal of Developmental Education , 28 (3), 2-4, 6, 8, 10, 32, 33.
Chung, C. J. (forthcoming). Integrating and enabling skill development for at-risk students in a symbolic logic class. In J. L. Higbee, D. Arendale, & D. B. Lundell (Eds.),
Integrating Intellectual Growth and Student Development: The General College Model
. Minneapolis , MN : Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, General College , University of Minnesota
.
Chung, C. J., & Hsu, L. (forthcoming). Encouraging students to seek help: Supplementing office hours with a course center.
College Teaching .
Could you describe, or what would you recommend as your foremost future direction for research in developmental education and urban literacy?
I'm going to have to go with two ideas here:
(1) Figuring out how to enhance the sense of community and professional identity among developmental educators and learning assistance professionals. This will be critical to our long-term survival and to our receiving the recognition and respect we deserve.
(2) Radically rethinking the educational experience of high school and the transition from high school to college, especially for underserved, at-risk students. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that our interventions as developmental educators need to begin much earlier and that we need to forge working partnerships with high school teachers. Waiting until students arrive on campus is simply not going to work for enough of our students.
Projects, performances, community services activities working on outside of work : I volunteer two hours per week in my son's third-grade classroom in south Minneapolis as a teacher's aide. Whenever I'm feeling as if my job is hard, volunteering puts it all in the proper perspective.
One person you look up to: Ursula K. LeGuin, author and essayist, because her writing is so simple and yet gets to the heart of a matter.
Favorite book: Is this a fair question to ask an academic? Sorry, but the best I can do is a brief list:
A Wizard of Earthsea , by Ursula K. LeGuin; Red Spider, White Web
, by Misha; The Persistence of Vision , by John Varley; Philosophical Investigations, by
Ludwig Wittgenstein ; On the Origin of Species , by Charles Darwin. How's that for eclectic?
Restaurant recommendation: A La Salsa on Eat Street
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