Category Archives: Student Blogs

Student Blogs

Where I am with my Thesis

So, I will admit that I’ve jumped the gun on this process quite a bit. I honestly never thought that I’d be excited about research, so this is a very weird time for me lol.

So, where am I at? Well, Dr. Libbey and I spoke the other day, and we will be meeting in-person on Monday before our next Thesis class. Right now, I have my faculty letter (project description) completed, and I also have a more detailed project overview document completed (which explains everything about my proposed thesis plan). While I have not conducted any research yet, I am very familiar with the Charlotte Danielson evaluation model. The research I will be conducting will be based on four areas:

Charlotte Danielson Framework

  • The research/theory behind the Danielson Framework
  • Why the domains/components were selected
  • How Danielson defines effective/highly effective teaching
  • Research on the framework’s validity and reliability
  • Criticisms and limitations of Danielson
  • Research on whether highly structured evaluation rubrics accurately capture effective teaching

Kean University’s Evaluation Model

  • Obtain and study the actual evaluation instrument
  • Understand each criterion and how performance is assessed
  • Determine the intended purpose of the model
  • Research the theoretical/research basis for its criteria, if one exists
  • Determine how much evaluator judgment/discretion the model allows
  • Compare its level of specificity with Danielson

Teacher Evaluation & Classroom Observation

  • Research on classroom observations as measures of teaching effectiveness
  • Observer subjectivity/bias
  • Inter-rater reliability
  • Whether a limited number of observations can accurately represent teaching
  • Evaluation for accountability vs. evaluation for professional growth

K–12 vs. Higher Education

  • How K–12 teachers are typically evaluated
  • How college professors/instructors are typically evaluated
  • Differences in expectations between secondary and college instructors
  • Similarities in what each setting considers “effective teaching”
  • Whether practices from higher education can reasonably transfer to secondary classrooms

Methodology for My Own Study

  • Qualitative classroom observation
  • Comparative case-study methodology
  • Practitioner inquiry/research
  • Reflective practice
  • Researcher positionality—especially because you’re already trained in Danielson
  • Limitations of using four observations
  • How to avoid claiming that four professors represent all higher-education instructors

My Original Research

  • Conduct four faculty observations
  • Score/analyze each observation using Danielson
  • Analyze the same observation using Kean’s model
  • Record evidence supporting each judgment
  • Compare what each framework notices, rewards, penalizes, or overlooks
  • Identify patterns across all four observations
  • Reflect on whether one framework’s additional specificity actually provides additional useful information
  • Consider what aspects of college-level instruction could inform secondary teaching/evaluation

I know that this is a lot to be sharing right now, but honestly, there is a lot that I need to research before beginning Thesis 2. Much of the information above are genuine concerns. For example, my observations could be questioned because of my biases, or because it’s only one person conducting the observation. In addition, when observers are present, students act differently. This is also something that needs to be supported by research, and not just word-of-mouth, when I discuss it in Thesis 2, because these are all factors that can affect/influence the validity of my findings.

Overall, I think I’m in a good spot. My outline for the next few weeks is:

  1. Begin the IRB process (preferably ASAP)
  2. Get approval from professors so that I can observe them.
  3. Begin observing professors.
  4. Slowly conduct my research.
  5. Finish my literature review before December, so that I have enough time to begin refinements.

The only thing I am totally clueless about is how to start the IRB process. LOL. See you all next week!

Student Blogs

i gotta lock in so bad

Thankfully I haven’t changed the direction I was planning on going in Spring so I don’t have to edit much within my proposal. I spent this week reading some of Orwell’s essays, since I have Orwellian ideas in mind for the criticism I’m trying to make. The first work I read was called ‘Facism and Democracy.’ It required a lot of searches since I’m not familiar with British history like I am with American. There are comparisons to be drawn with England in 1944 and the U.S in modern day, but I’m specifically focusing on the literary, so I’m not sure that this piece is what I’m looking for.

My second reading was Politics Vs. Literature: An examination of Gulliver’s Travels. An important novel, one that I didn’t enjoy reading because the groups being satirized went over my head. I think that this article focusing so specifically on one piece of fiction makes it less than helpful to me, since I’m looking for something that pairs with Orwell’s 1984. I think I’d also like to focus on history that was more recent, reflecting Orwell’s observations in the 40’s and how that mirrors what we’re viewing in 2026.

The third essay I read was Politics and the English Language, and wouldn’t you know it, third time really is the charm. So much of what he says about how language is shaped and how authors express meaning ties into the contemporary slop that I’ve been reading. He takes issue with English prose by claiming,”[The author] is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not.” This is important to my work because the authors of these popular novels do not realize how their works contribute to degradation of race, gender, and literacy in a political climate where education on those topics is actively being suppressed.

Student Blogs

Thesis Taking Shape

This week, I focused on clearly structuring my thesis by breaking my work into five central themes. Each theme is supported by a primary text that I will close read and a set of secondary sources that will guide and deepen my analysis. This organization is helping me move from broad ideas into a more focused and intentional argument about care as both labor and intimacy.

The first theme is care as survival and forced labor, which I will explore through Kindred. In this section, I will analyze how caregiving is not a choice but a condition of survival, shaped by power and coercion. To support this, I will use Rewriting Slavery through Time, Tithi Bhattacharya’s work on social reproduction theory, and Who Cares? by Nancy Folbre, which will help frame care as labor that sustains life while existing within exploitative systems.

The second theme is absence, displacement, and emotional replacement, which I will examine through Atlanta Season 3 Episode 7, “Trini to de Bone.” This section will focus on how caregivers take on emotional roles that parents cannot fulfill, often becoming invisible until they are gone. Supporting this analysis, I will use Raising Brooklyn by Tamara Mose Brown and Mary Romero’s Nanny Diaries and Other Stories, both of which explore immigrant caregiving, community, and the hidden labor that sustains families.

The third theme is racialized care and historical labor, which I will explore through The Help. In this section, I will look at how caregiving exists within systems of racial inequality, where emotional bonds are real but shaped by structural oppression. To ground this historically, I will use To ’Joy My Freedom by Tera Hunter and Seven Days a Week by David Katzman, along with Mothercoin, to connect past and present representations of Black women’s labor and care.

The fourth theme is modern caregiving, surveillance, and performance, which I will analyze through Such a Fun Age. This section will focus on how caregiving today is shaped by race, visibility, and the performance of both care and identity. To support this, I will use And Nanny Makes Three by Jessika Auerbach and Niall Hanlon’s work on emotional labor, which will help me examine how care is both expected and managed within professional and social contexts.

The fifth theme is emotional intimacy, motherhood, and resistance, which I will explore through Lucy. In this section, I will focus on how Lucy’s strained relationship with her mother shapes her understanding of care, intimacy, and independence. To support this, I will use Of Woman Born by Adrienne Rich, The Reproduction of Mothering by Nancy Chodorow, and a feminist-postcolonial reading of Lucy, all of which examine motherhood, identity, and the emotional complexities of caregiving relationships.

Across all five sections, I will use Joan Tronto’s theories of care as a unifying framework to connect these themes. This structure allows each text to contribute something specific while still building toward my larger argument about the politics of care.

Student Blogs

Breaking the Texts, Building the Argument

This week, I began narrowing down my primary texts and organizing how I will approach each one through specific themes. Instead of trying to make each text do everything, I decided that each will focus on one key aspect of caregiving that connects to my larger thesis. At this point, my primary texts are Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, Kindred (series adaptation of Octavia Butler’s novel), Atlanta “Trini 2 De Bone,” The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.

From the feedback from my presentation last week, I have broken these texts into themes that allow me to explore different dimensions of care. With Lucy, I am focusing on emotional intimacy versus resentment, looking at how caregiving can exist alongside resistance and unresolved identity. With Kindred, I decided to use the series version so I can do a deeper visual and narrative analysis, focusing on care as survival and forced labor, especially within systems of power. I still have two more episodes to watch before fully selecting my scenes. For Atlanta, I will focus on absence and emotional displacement, particularly how the caregiver shapes the child in ways the parents cannot. In The Help, I will explore racialized care and conditional love, paying attention to how genuine emotional bonds exist within unequal systems. For Such a Fun Age, I plan to focus on surveillance, performance, and the tensions of modern caregiving, though I still need to select specific quotes and scenes. I am also still working on identifying the most effective passages in Lucy to close read.

Moving forward, my main task for this upcoming week is to begin connecting these primary texts to my supplemental readings on the politics of care, labor, and intimacy. The goal is to make sure that each close reading is grounded in theory and contributes to my overall argument rather than standing alone. As I continue watching, rereading, and selecting specific excerpts, I am working toward building a cohesive structure where each text supports a different part of my thesis.

Student Blogs

This is Just the Beginning

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you all, safe to say that life can be a little overwhelming at times; it is still important to show up. This week was focused on preparing for my thesis-in-progress presentation and taking a more intentional look at how my project has taken shape. I spent time organizing my central inquiry and refining my thesis statement so that it clearly reflects my focus on caregiving as both labor and intimacy, particularly within the experiences of Afro-Caribbean and immigrant women. I also worked on structuring my literature review into three distinct sections: primary texts, theories of care, and existing scholarship on domestic labor. Breaking it down this way helped me better understand what each group of sources is doing and where my work fits within those conversations. I revisited key texts like Atlanta, Mothercoin, and Raising Brooklyn through close reading, while also identifying how theorists like Tronto and Hanlon, and scholars like Hunter, Katzman, Auerbach, and Macdonald, contribute to my understanding of the politics of care.

In addition to my literature review, I began to more clearly define my methodology. I am now working with a combination of close reading and comparative analysis, alongside creative and autoethnographic writing. Thinking through these as connected approaches rather than separate ideas helped me see how my project can move between analysis and creation. I also began thinking more seriously about how my creative pieces, such as fictional retellings from the perspectives of caregivers or their families, will function as part of my argument rather than something separate from it.

At this point, I feel somewhat on track. There are still gaps in my research that I need to continue filling, and I am realizing that this stage requires ongoing reading and discovery. At the same time, I now have a clearer structure and direction than I did before preparing for this presentation. Moving forward, the next few weeks will be focused on constructing my research proposal. I plan to approach this week by week, dedicating time to strengthening each section, including expanding my literature review, refining my methodology, and continuing to develop my central argument. As we move into the final weeks of the thesis process, my goal is to stay consistent, deepen my analysis, and begin shaping all of these pieces into a cohesive and purposeful final project.

Student Blogs

Building my Lit Review

This week I focused on reading more intentionally for my thesis and paying attention to which sources actually support the argument I am trying to build. I am working toward framing the politics of care, especially the tension between care as labor and care as intimacy, and I am starting to see that not every strong source is the right source for this specific project.

One of the first readings, The Politics of Care by  Woodly, Brown, Marin, Threadcraft, Harris, Syedullah, Ticktin (2021), felt promising at first because it discussed care in broad, political terms. It spoke about the importance of centering care in society and rethinking how we value caregiving. While those ideas align with my interests, the source remained too general for the direction my thesis is taking. I am not only arguing that care matters. I am examining how care becomes complicated when it is paid for, outsourced, racialized, and embedded in systems of capital. I need sources that move beyond celebration and into structure. I need language that helps me analyze power, contracts, emotional labor, and the unequal recognition of intimacy.

In contrast, Professional caring in affective services: the ambivalence of emotional nurture in practice by Niall Hanlon directly support the framework I am building. Hanlon examines how emotional care is central to caregiving but often marginalized within professional systems that prioritize efficiency, measurement, and instrumental tasks. This distinction between instrumental care and relational care speaks directly to my project. It helps me articulate how caregiving can be treated as a service while still functioning as an intimate emotional relationship. That tension is at the heart of immigrant nannying and outsourced motherhood.

Hanlon’s discussion of emotional labor and the difference between care and love is especially useful. Care can be commodified; love cannot. Yet in many caregiving relationships, particularly with children, the boundaries blur. A nanny may be paid, but the child’s attachment is not transactional. This is where the politics of care becomes visible. The contract may end, but the emotional imprint does not. That distinction gives me analytical language to examine how care operates both as labor within capitalism and as intimacy within lived experience.

This week clarified something important for me, and something we spoke about collectively last week. Securing sources for this thesis is not about gathering as many readings as possible. It is about identifying scholarship that can hold the complexity of what I am studying. For my project, that means sources that address:

  • The feminization and racialization of care labor
  • The global and economic structures that produce outsourced caregiving
  • Emotional labor and professional boundaries
  • The tension between contractual obligation and emotional attachment

As I continue building my literature review, I am becoming more selective. I am looking for sources that allow me to examine care not just as a moral good, but as a political, economic, and emotional structure. The more I refine what I need, the clearer my thesis direction becomes.