Extending Bakhtin's chronotopic theory to the interpretation of nonfictional texts, this article examines the role of narrative conventions in the epistemological development of a health care field. The authors argue that changes marking the emergence of occupational therapy as an autonomous profession illustrate how explanatory narrative frames emerge from and embody assumptions about the world. Taking up pivotal lectures by key figures in this field as material for analysis, the authors demonstrate how biomedical, psychosocial, and dialogic-intersubjective narrative genres frame the dynamics of the therapeutic situation for clinical practitioners and other members of the field. By using chronotopic analysis to understand the narrative-epistemic transformation of academic and professional fields, the authors provide new ways to think about the long-term dialogue between explanatory frameworks in knowledge-making communities.
Despite efforts of both administration and faculty, the intent and the execution of new curricular initiatives are not always in alignment. To understand how the declaration of a campus-wide general education initiative was being implemented, this article combines analyses of syllabi and courses from across disciplines. In an initial review, the goal was to understand how new elements of Core Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes were being incorporated into syllabi. After this general review, the authors sought to understand how core elements associated specifically with reading were being implemented in syllabi and in the classroom. This article finds that while critical analysis and reading are valued as cornerstones of the university, the details of who is responsible for teaching and assessing these important features remains less clear. “Reading” is variously prevalent across disciplinary courses: while present in the course structure and assessment mechanisms of syllabi across the university, there is little evidence that instructors are holding themselves responsible for teaching and assessing it as an intellectual practice. Amid a national scholarly conversation about reading and its role in critical thinking, this study contributes ideas for how institutions can more explicitly align stated values with curricular outcomes in practice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.