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The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) Series featured Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Derek Houston, PhD, associate professor in educational leadership, in a recent webinar on Monday, Feb. 13.

Houston's current scholarship is centered at the intersection of quantification and criticalism which includes thinking deeply about the training of future scholars. In the webinar, he discussed the pedagogical considerations and possibilities of critical quantification and offered insights into the complexities of the sustainability of critical quantification.

“The hope for those who watched the webinar is that they will begin to think deeply and critically about how and where they teach quantitative methods,” said Houston. “I also hope that current and future quantitative methods instructors will think about how they engage with students, particularly with students that may not be or have not been as represented as other students in their classes.”

According to Thatcher et al. (2016), critical quantification is an “intellectual charge of efforts to re-appropriate and refashion mathematical, statistical and computational practices using theoretical insights stemming from a serious engagement with the methodological, ontological and political commitments of [critical] social and cultural theory,” with an orientation that seeks to address and dismantle systems and structures of power.

"I am constantly reflecting on how I bring my full self to each class, how I try to dismantle power structures inherent in the student/teacher relationship, and how I operate through a critical framework during class,” Houston added. “Everything I do as an instructor is informed by the current scope of my research.”

The SREE collaborated with the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), the American Educational Research Association – Division L, the Council on Public Policy in Higher Education (CPPHE), and a Council of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).

To view this webinar and others in the Critical Perspectives in Quantitative Methods Series, please visit sree-cpqm.conventus.live/login. No login is necessary, insert the information asked to access the webinar series.

Photo: Derek Houston, PhD, associate professor in educational leadership.