Hilary E . Hughes | The University of Georgia (original) (raw)

Papers by Hilary E . Hughes

English Teaching-practice and Critique, Sep 1, 2011

American consumerism has historically taught women and girls -and now men and boys -how to live i... more American consumerism has historically taught women and girls -and now men and boys -how to live in what I refer to here as bodily-notenoughness: the idea of not being enough of something in one's body (not thin-enough, pretty-enough, feminine/masculine-enough, white-enough, middle-class-enough, straight-enough, and so on.). The bodily practices we learn in American popular and education culture teach us to keep our bodies under strict surveillance so we can locate these imperfections -both physically and lived -and improve them; they also teach us to read bodies as normal or deficient visual texts, as enough or not enough. In order to unlearn how we read each others' bodies in education and teaching, I suggest here that we first have to acknowledge bodies in education and teaching so we can then have the conversations that will help us read each other's bodies differently.

Qualitative Inquiry, Aug 1, 2018

This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed ... more This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed phenomenological research: writing and reading and thinking that began in graduate school and has not let up since. This is the writing that takes me places I never imagined I could go. In this article, I explore how the enraptured, creative experiences I have when writing the idea, and all I let go of or put on hold to keep attempting to write it eventually became a relation of cruel optimism. The article serves as a reminder that writing to fulfill the demands of the entrepreneurial institution gets us something very different than the writing that emerges from a constant desire to engage with words. It gestures toward opportunities to share our work, our ideas, our thinking in ways that move beyond the published, legitimized neoliberal page.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2018

During doctoral programs, many scholars have experiences with texts that disrupt, that interrupt,... more During doctoral programs, many scholars have experiences with texts that disrupt, that interrupt, that somehow open up unforeseen ways of being, thinking, feeling, and knowing. In this article, we provide short contributions from a wide swath of scholars who explore the many ways reading can change everything, electrifying us with possibilities of what might be thinkable now, and terrifying us because ideas and knowledge that we’d held dear all of a sudden feel tenuous and fragile. In short, reading rocks our worlds and, as a result, shapes the kind of inquiry we do.

Middle School Journal, 2022

Abstract In spring 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic collided with a national reckoning on racial injust... more Abstract In spring 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic collided with a national reckoning on racial injustice and ruptured our country’s core. The effects of this collision necessitated something other than business as usual in school leadership: it called for the kind of courageous leadership rooted in equity and justice we describe in this paper. In this qualitative case study, we draw on nine months of data collected at a Title I middle school in the southeast to describe how the administration leaned into vulnerability and courageous leadership by naming and acknowledging uncomfortable realities and inviting collaborative engagement with the school community about these realities.

In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical qualitative research abou... more In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical qualitative research about young people’s social media use. We frame the overall study with an understanding that social media sites contribute to the production of neoliberal subjects, and we draw on Foucauldian discourse theories and the understanding that how researchers explain topics and concepts produces particular ways of thinking about the world while excluding others. Findings include that: 1) there is an absence of attention to the structure and function of social media platforms; 2) adolescents are positioned in problematic, developmental ways; and 3) the over-representation of girls and young women in these studies contributes to the feminization of problems on social media. We conclude by calling for future research that can serve as a robust resource for exploring adolescents’ social media use in more productive,

In this article we explore some of the challenges, constraints, and what we refer to as glimmers ... more In this article we explore some of the challenges, constraints, and what we refer to as glimmers of revelation that occurred during an experiential, community-based teacher education course that we designed and co-taught in spring 2015. Trying to take seriously Kumashiro’s (2009) notions that justiceoriented teacher education happens “only when we ourselves are still struggling with questions about the ‘what else,’ ‘how else,’ and ‘where else’ that are involved” in this kind of teaching [emphasis added] (p. xxv), we explore moments where we grappled with the paradox, partiality, uncertainty, and discomfort (Kumashiro, 2009) that often accompany our commitments as middle grades teacher educators attempting to enact anti-oppressive teaching practices.

Middle School Journal, 2018

In middle grades teacher education, the literature regarding issues of diversity, equity, and soc... more In middle grades teacher education, the literature regarding issues of diversity, equity, and social justice practices is exceptionally sparse. In keeping with recent arguments about the state of middle grades education, we contend that middle grades teacher education programs, including ours, are not where they need to be in preparing teachers to meet the needs of every young adolescent learner. In this paper, we explore our ongoing adventures reconceptualizing a middle grades teacher education program at a comprehensive, research-intensive public university in the southeast. We describe how our commitment to critical pedagogies, one of the signature commitments of our middle grades program, appeared within our teacher candidates' first course in the program. More specifically, the course we highlight introduces justice-oriented ways of knowing and being that we continue to reinforce throughout the two-year initial certification program. We conclude the article by describing our plans to strengthen the program's focus on the role of middle grades educators as change agents prepared and willing to push back against oppressive systems and practices to support social justice and equity for every young adolescent in their homes, schools, and communities.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2017

In this article, we introduce the special issue on work/think/play in qualitative and postqualita... more In this article, we introduce the special issue on work/think/play in qualitative and postqualitative inquiry. Our aim for the issue is to open up conversations about what does happen, what can happen, and/or what should happen in the name of qualitative and postqualitative inquiry. We hope that the issue raises methodological questions in qualitative and postqualitative inquiry about ways of being in the world as researchers—and most specifically, the need to keep raising questions rather than finding answers as we make and remake the field.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2018

This article is the introduction to the special issue, “Work/Think/Play in Doctoral Education.” S... more This article is the introduction to the special issue, “Work/Think/Play in Doctoral Education.” Similar to its companion issue titled, “Work/Think/Play in Qualitative and Postqualitative Inquiry,” the goal of this issue is not to define, categorize, stabilize, or normalize the processes and practices of inquiry that remain behind-the-scenes of research reports and dissertations. Nor is it to make visible what researchers do when we say we are doing (and learning to do) qualitative and postqualitative research. Instead, we hope the articles in this volume open up conversations about scholars’ work/think/play that goes beyond the scope of the dissertation study and contribute to the continuous re-creation of teaching, learning, and qualitative and post qualitative research.

Journal of Teacher Education, 2011

The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a societ... more The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a society where obsession over a constructed “obesity” epidemic runs alongside obsession over thinness; a society where advertisers manipulate digital images of bodies to present two-dimensional versions of ideal male and female physiques, and plastic surgeons cut, suck, tuck, and fill three-dimensional fleshed versions of those digital images. In this article, the authors articulate a theory of a critical body pedagogy that can contribute to a larger justice-oriented project. This project is one of shaping young women and men who are more comfortable in their bodies, who will engage in critical readings of body-related texts, and—perhaps—can one day help future early childhood and elementary students construct healthier relationships with their bodies and the larger world through a justice-oriented pedagogy.

Field Methods, 2009

In this article, we argue that being our own best critics is a process by which we commit to inte... more In this article, we argue that being our own best critics is a process by which we commit to interrogating what we know (or think we know) as we design a study. We situate the idea of bridling within the philosophical and methodological conversation of a more traditional notion in phenomenological research, bracketing, and then within Macbeth’s three expressions of reflexivity in qualitative research. Based on our analysis of some of our methodological decisions, we articulate four pivotal issues we faced. We close by making specific suggestions for faculty and graduate students individually and as research teams to consider as they strive to be their own best critics in their research.

The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a societ... more The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a society where obsession over a constructed "obesity" epidemic runs alongside obsession over thinness; a society where advertisers manipulate digital images of bodies to present two-dimensional versions of ideal male and female physiques, and plastic surgeons cut, suck, tuck, and fill three-dimensional fleshed versions of those digital images. In this article, the authors articulate a theory of a critical body pedagogy that can contribute to a larger justice-oriented project. This project is one of shaping young women and men who are more comfortable in their bodies, who will engage in critical readings of body-related texts, and-perhaps-can one day help future early childhood and elementary students construct healthier relationships with their bodies and the larger world through a justice-oriented pedagogy.

In response to evident limitations in university students’ use of online information for learning... more In response to evident limitations in university students’ use of online information for learning this paper proposes a reflective, holistic approach - with potential for higher education and wider lifelong learning contexts - based on a model that combines principles of reflective practice, action research and Bruce’s Seven faces of information literacy.

American consumerism has historically taught women and girls - and now men and boys - how to live... more American consumerism has historically taught women and girls - and now men and boys - how to live in what I refer to here as bodily-not- enoughness: the idea of not being enough of something in one's body (not thin-enough, pretty-enough, feminine/masculine-enough, white-enough, middle-class-enough, straight-enough, and so on.). The bodily practices we learn in American popular and education culture teach us to keep our bodies under strict surveillance so we can locate these imperfections - both physically and lived - and improve them; they also teach us to read bodies as normal or deficient visual texts, as enough or not enough. In order to unlearn how we read each others' bodies in education and teaching, I suggest here that we first have to acknowledge bodies in education and teaching so we can then have the conversations that will help us read each other's bodies differently.

Qualitative Inquiry

This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed ... more This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed phenomenological research: writing and reading and thinking that began in graduate school and has not let up since. This is the writing that takes me places I never imagined I could go. In this article, I explore how the enraptured, creative experiences I have when writing the idea, and all I let go of or put on hold to keep attempting to write it eventually became a relation of cruel optimism. The article serves as a reminder that writing to fulfill the demands of the entrepreneurial institution gets us something very different than the writing that emerges from a constant desire to engage with words. It gestures toward opportunities to share our work, our ideas, our thinking in ways that move beyond the published, legitimized neoliberal page.

English Journal, Jul 1, 2004

Harvard Educational Review, 2016

In this article, Stephanie Jones and Hilary E. Hughes suggest that particular discursive lessons ... more In this article, Stephanie Jones and Hilary E. Hughes suggest that particular discursive lessons are readily available in justice-oriented teacher education which might influence a pedagogy that crowds out responsiveness, the experience of the student, and the role of gender and feminism in teacher education. They contend that changing the place of teacher education to include unpredictable community settings requires pedagogical responses that defy predictable storylines and ready-made discursive lessons common in teacher education. The lessons learned contribute to justice-oriented teacher education and an emerging trend for including community-based experiences in teacher education, and highlight the importance of feminist storylines for the incommensurability of misogyny and racism for teacher education.

Public Relations Review, 2015

English Teaching-practice and Critique, Sep 1, 2011

American consumerism has historically taught women and girls -and now men and boys -how to live i... more American consumerism has historically taught women and girls -and now men and boys -how to live in what I refer to here as bodily-notenoughness: the idea of not being enough of something in one's body (not thin-enough, pretty-enough, feminine/masculine-enough, white-enough, middle-class-enough, straight-enough, and so on.). The bodily practices we learn in American popular and education culture teach us to keep our bodies under strict surveillance so we can locate these imperfections -both physically and lived -and improve them; they also teach us to read bodies as normal or deficient visual texts, as enough or not enough. In order to unlearn how we read each others' bodies in education and teaching, I suggest here that we first have to acknowledge bodies in education and teaching so we can then have the conversations that will help us read each other's bodies differently.

Qualitative Inquiry, Aug 1, 2018

This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed ... more This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed phenomenological research: writing and reading and thinking that began in graduate school and has not let up since. This is the writing that takes me places I never imagined I could go. In this article, I explore how the enraptured, creative experiences I have when writing the idea, and all I let go of or put on hold to keep attempting to write it eventually became a relation of cruel optimism. The article serves as a reminder that writing to fulfill the demands of the entrepreneurial institution gets us something very different than the writing that emerges from a constant desire to engage with words. It gestures toward opportunities to share our work, our ideas, our thinking in ways that move beyond the published, legitimized neoliberal page.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2018

During doctoral programs, many scholars have experiences with texts that disrupt, that interrupt,... more During doctoral programs, many scholars have experiences with texts that disrupt, that interrupt, that somehow open up unforeseen ways of being, thinking, feeling, and knowing. In this article, we provide short contributions from a wide swath of scholars who explore the many ways reading can change everything, electrifying us with possibilities of what might be thinkable now, and terrifying us because ideas and knowledge that we’d held dear all of a sudden feel tenuous and fragile. In short, reading rocks our worlds and, as a result, shapes the kind of inquiry we do.

Middle School Journal, 2022

Abstract In spring 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic collided with a national reckoning on racial injust... more Abstract In spring 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic collided with a national reckoning on racial injustice and ruptured our country’s core. The effects of this collision necessitated something other than business as usual in school leadership: it called for the kind of courageous leadership rooted in equity and justice we describe in this paper. In this qualitative case study, we draw on nine months of data collected at a Title I middle school in the southeast to describe how the administration leaned into vulnerability and courageous leadership by naming and acknowledging uncomfortable realities and inviting collaborative engagement with the school community about these realities.

In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical qualitative research abou... more In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical qualitative research about young people’s social media use. We frame the overall study with an understanding that social media sites contribute to the production of neoliberal subjects, and we draw on Foucauldian discourse theories and the understanding that how researchers explain topics and concepts produces particular ways of thinking about the world while excluding others. Findings include that: 1) there is an absence of attention to the structure and function of social media platforms; 2) adolescents are positioned in problematic, developmental ways; and 3) the over-representation of girls and young women in these studies contributes to the feminization of problems on social media. We conclude by calling for future research that can serve as a robust resource for exploring adolescents’ social media use in more productive,

In this article we explore some of the challenges, constraints, and what we refer to as glimmers ... more In this article we explore some of the challenges, constraints, and what we refer to as glimmers of revelation that occurred during an experiential, community-based teacher education course that we designed and co-taught in spring 2015. Trying to take seriously Kumashiro’s (2009) notions that justiceoriented teacher education happens “only when we ourselves are still struggling with questions about the ‘what else,’ ‘how else,’ and ‘where else’ that are involved” in this kind of teaching [emphasis added] (p. xxv), we explore moments where we grappled with the paradox, partiality, uncertainty, and discomfort (Kumashiro, 2009) that often accompany our commitments as middle grades teacher educators attempting to enact anti-oppressive teaching practices.

Middle School Journal, 2018

In middle grades teacher education, the literature regarding issues of diversity, equity, and soc... more In middle grades teacher education, the literature regarding issues of diversity, equity, and social justice practices is exceptionally sparse. In keeping with recent arguments about the state of middle grades education, we contend that middle grades teacher education programs, including ours, are not where they need to be in preparing teachers to meet the needs of every young adolescent learner. In this paper, we explore our ongoing adventures reconceptualizing a middle grades teacher education program at a comprehensive, research-intensive public university in the southeast. We describe how our commitment to critical pedagogies, one of the signature commitments of our middle grades program, appeared within our teacher candidates' first course in the program. More specifically, the course we highlight introduces justice-oriented ways of knowing and being that we continue to reinforce throughout the two-year initial certification program. We conclude the article by describing our plans to strengthen the program's focus on the role of middle grades educators as change agents prepared and willing to push back against oppressive systems and practices to support social justice and equity for every young adolescent in their homes, schools, and communities.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2017

In this article, we introduce the special issue on work/think/play in qualitative and postqualita... more In this article, we introduce the special issue on work/think/play in qualitative and postqualitative inquiry. Our aim for the issue is to open up conversations about what does happen, what can happen, and/or what should happen in the name of qualitative and postqualitative inquiry. We hope that the issue raises methodological questions in qualitative and postqualitative inquiry about ways of being in the world as researchers—and most specifically, the need to keep raising questions rather than finding answers as we make and remake the field.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2018

This article is the introduction to the special issue, “Work/Think/Play in Doctoral Education.” S... more This article is the introduction to the special issue, “Work/Think/Play in Doctoral Education.” Similar to its companion issue titled, “Work/Think/Play in Qualitative and Postqualitative Inquiry,” the goal of this issue is not to define, categorize, stabilize, or normalize the processes and practices of inquiry that remain behind-the-scenes of research reports and dissertations. Nor is it to make visible what researchers do when we say we are doing (and learning to do) qualitative and postqualitative research. Instead, we hope the articles in this volume open up conversations about scholars’ work/think/play that goes beyond the scope of the dissertation study and contribute to the continuous re-creation of teaching, learning, and qualitative and post qualitative research.

Journal of Teacher Education, 2011

The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a societ... more The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a society where obsession over a constructed “obesity” epidemic runs alongside obsession over thinness; a society where advertisers manipulate digital images of bodies to present two-dimensional versions of ideal male and female physiques, and plastic surgeons cut, suck, tuck, and fill three-dimensional fleshed versions of those digital images. In this article, the authors articulate a theory of a critical body pedagogy that can contribute to a larger justice-oriented project. This project is one of shaping young women and men who are more comfortable in their bodies, who will engage in critical readings of body-related texts, and—perhaps—can one day help future early childhood and elementary students construct healthier relationships with their bodies and the larger world through a justice-oriented pedagogy.

Field Methods, 2009

In this article, we argue that being our own best critics is a process by which we commit to inte... more In this article, we argue that being our own best critics is a process by which we commit to interrogating what we know (or think we know) as we design a study. We situate the idea of bridling within the philosophical and methodological conversation of a more traditional notion in phenomenological research, bracketing, and then within Macbeth’s three expressions of reflexivity in qualitative research. Based on our analysis of some of our methodological decisions, we articulate four pivotal issues we faced. We close by making specific suggestions for faculty and graduate students individually and as research teams to consider as they strive to be their own best critics in their research.

The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a societ... more The United States is a society that is simultaneously consumed and repulsed by the body; a society where obsession over a constructed "obesity" epidemic runs alongside obsession over thinness; a society where advertisers manipulate digital images of bodies to present two-dimensional versions of ideal male and female physiques, and plastic surgeons cut, suck, tuck, and fill three-dimensional fleshed versions of those digital images. In this article, the authors articulate a theory of a critical body pedagogy that can contribute to a larger justice-oriented project. This project is one of shaping young women and men who are more comfortable in their bodies, who will engage in critical readings of body-related texts, and-perhaps-can one day help future early childhood and elementary students construct healthier relationships with their bodies and the larger world through a justice-oriented pedagogy.

In response to evident limitations in university students’ use of online information for learning... more In response to evident limitations in university students’ use of online information for learning this paper proposes a reflective, holistic approach - with potential for higher education and wider lifelong learning contexts - based on a model that combines principles of reflective practice, action research and Bruce’s Seven faces of information literacy.

American consumerism has historically taught women and girls - and now men and boys - how to live... more American consumerism has historically taught women and girls - and now men and boys - how to live in what I refer to here as bodily-not- enoughness: the idea of not being enough of something in one's body (not thin-enough, pretty-enough, feminine/masculine-enough, white-enough, middle-class-enough, straight-enough, and so on.). The bodily practices we learn in American popular and education culture teach us to keep our bodies under strict surveillance so we can locate these imperfections - both physically and lived - and improve them; they also teach us to read bodies as normal or deficient visual texts, as enough or not enough. In order to unlearn how we read each others' bodies in education and teaching, I suggest here that we first have to acknowledge bodies in education and teaching so we can then have the conversations that will help us read each other's bodies differently.

Qualitative Inquiry

This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed ... more This article is about the euphoria I experience each time I write about philosophically informed phenomenological research: writing and reading and thinking that began in graduate school and has not let up since. This is the writing that takes me places I never imagined I could go. In this article, I explore how the enraptured, creative experiences I have when writing the idea, and all I let go of or put on hold to keep attempting to write it eventually became a relation of cruel optimism. The article serves as a reminder that writing to fulfill the demands of the entrepreneurial institution gets us something very different than the writing that emerges from a constant desire to engage with words. It gestures toward opportunities to share our work, our ideas, our thinking in ways that move beyond the published, legitimized neoliberal page.

English Journal, Jul 1, 2004

Harvard Educational Review, 2016

In this article, Stephanie Jones and Hilary E. Hughes suggest that particular discursive lessons ... more In this article, Stephanie Jones and Hilary E. Hughes suggest that particular discursive lessons are readily available in justice-oriented teacher education which might influence a pedagogy that crowds out responsiveness, the experience of the student, and the role of gender and feminism in teacher education. They contend that changing the place of teacher education to include unpredictable community settings requires pedagogical responses that defy predictable storylines and ready-made discursive lessons common in teacher education. The lessons learned contribute to justice-oriented teacher education and an emerging trend for including community-based experiences in teacher education, and highlight the importance of feminist storylines for the incommensurability of misogyny and racism for teacher education.

Public Relations Review, 2015

by Christian Ehret, Christine Mallozzi, Hilary E . Hughes, Kerryn Dixon, Jaye Johnson Thiel, Anne Crampton, Mia Perry, Amanda Claudia Wager, Jacqui Dornbrack, Elisabeth Johnson, Rachel Oppenheim, Karen Wohlwend, Stephanie Jones, Marjorie Siegel, Stavroula Kontovourki, and Grace Enriquez

The essays, research studies, and pedagogical examples in this book provide a window into the emb... more The essays, research studies, and pedagogical examples in this book provide a window into the embodied dimensions of literacy and a toolbox for interpreting, building on, and inquiring into the range of ways people communicate and express themselves as literate beings. The contributors investigate and reflect on the complexities of embodied literacies, honoring literacy learners and teachers as they holistically engage with texts in complex sociopolitical, historical, and cultural contexts. Considering these issues within a multiplicity of education spaces and literacy events inside and outside of institutional contexts, the book offers a fresh lens and rhetoric with which to address literacy education policies, giving readers a discursive repertoire necessary to develop and defend responsive curricula within an increasingly high-stakes, standardized schooling climate.

Essays describing how to incorporate feminist and LGBTQ materials, strategies, and discussions in... more Essays describing how to incorporate feminist and LGBTQ materials, strategies, and discussions into K-University classrooms to work toward a more socially just education and create safe and inclusive spaces for all children and their families.