Making It Their Own: Helping Students Define and Internalize Their Discipline

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One of the primary goals of education is to give students the freedom to think for themselves, and to engage in the world of ideas through reading, writing, question-asking, discussion, and practice. This interactive presentation will discuss how students who are actively involved in defining the parameters of and the controversies within a discipline come to see themselves as part of the discipline. They become part of its dialogue and are therefore empowered in their ongoing learning and practice. Through exposure to the literature and theory of a discipline, and through discussion, they internalize it for future practice. Advances in technology and egalitarian pedagogies are leading us back to Western civilization's earliest education models, used by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

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Dr. Enger teaches doctoral students in the Occupational Adult Education Institutional Analysis program at North Dakota State University. She holds degrees from The College of St. Catherine, The University of Iowa, and The University of North Dakota. Her research examines the role of scholars in defining their disciplines; participation of minorities in higher education; and teaching diversity in the doctoral curriculum. She and her husband reside in Moorhead, Minnesota, where they are the parents of two children.

Lin Enger coordinates the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing at Minnesota State University, Moorhead (MSUM). He holds degrees from MSUM, The University of Minnesota, and The University of Iowa (Writer's Workshop). His primary interests include writing fiction, having published short stories in a variety of publications, and most recently, a novel from Little Brown, titled Undiscovered Country. Lin lives with his wife and two children in Moorhead, Minnesota.