Writing,Research &Technology

*Collaboratively Written*
        Our group has had a dialogic approach to collaboration for the interview and the project. Each class, we discussed possible questions, topics, and research approaches. In regards to the interview itself, we all came up with ten questions on our own via blogging, and compiled the questions together for the interview. We discussed which order to put the questions, which ones we wanted to keep, the ones that we didn’t feel we needed, and chose how to combine several questions into one.
        We conducted our interview with the general manager of Sodexo, Scott Smith. Sodexo is a worldwide food servicing company that works with thousands of hospitals, schools, nursing homes, military bases, etc. Mr. Smith has worked with this company for three years and is currently in charge of the servicing at Manor Care in Washington Township, which is a rehabilitation center. Sodexo is also contracted with Rowan University to provide food for everyone on campus. 
        Our research question asks, “Is it possible for Rowan University residents to eat organically?” We considered interviewing someone in charge of Sodexo here at Rowan, but we didn’t want them to be biased or sugarcoat any truths. Kelly’s sister and mom work at ManorCare, and her sister is employed by Sodexo there, so we thought it would be useful to interview her boss. Since Rowan and ManorCare are only a few miles from each other, we knew that there would be tons of similarities without the biased attitude of a Sodexo representative from Rowan.
        The interview with Scott Smith went even better than we expected. He answered our questions fully and provided a lot of useful insight that will help us with our research project. We were surprised to find that he goes out of his way when possible to find and purchase organic products. Unfortunately, Rowan has thousands of people to feed which makes buying organic much more difficult. Furthermore, Mr. Smith explained how he was frustrated with the rising food prices, but stagnant and tight budget. Money prominently controls food choices with Sodexo, which makes it unrealistic to purchase organically. After the interview, we feel more prepared to continue conducting further research.

        Before reading this article, I honestly had no ideas what the Slow Food Movement was. I now understand that this term mean the better way to grow food without the use of hormones, pesticides, etc. By taking the time to grow the foods we would be properly and safely growing the foods that we eat every day. The Slow Food Movement was established in Italy by a man named Carlo Petrini. In my understanding, Petrini began this movement because of an opening of a McDonald’s in Rome. I believe that I would have had the same reaction as Petrini because he grew and ate all “natural” food, but McDonald’s does not grow/raise their food the same way. In 1989 the Slow Food Movement became international. National Food Chapters began developing in the United States, and a lot of “big” names were linked to the organization. However, the Slow Food Movement only had 80,000 members, which really isn’t that many when you think about the world’s population, but in order to make a difference you need to start somewhere. For my Collaborative Research Project my group and I are focusing on college students and their possibility to eat healthy. This relates very much with Petrini and the other discussions within this article. 
         “Petrini argues that food “is far more than a simple product to be consumed: it is happiness, identity, culture, pleasure, conviviality, nutrition, local economy, survival” (Slow Food Nation 166, emphasis in original)” (Schneider 388). I believe this statement to be very true. When college students eat right I believe that they would be happier and would be able to produce better grades even. Nutrition is a huge part of growing and energy, and college students need nutritional foods in order to succeed, I believe. However, the students at Rowan University do not have the accommodations to really do so. The school itself does not have a lot of organic/natural food on campus, and locally there really aren’t any places that a student could get organic groceries. 
         “In his most recent book, Petrini clearly articulates these principles in three words: good, clean, and fair (Slow Food Nation 93)” (Schneider 390).  The principles that Petrini has set are described in the three words above, and I agree that these three words are principles that are necessary for college students and for everyone else in the world. My group is focusing on college students’ health and their access to nutritional/organic/healthy foods. In order for students to eat healthy all of the foods that are ingested should definitely be good, clean, and fair. I would agree one hundred percent with Petrini. 
         “In urging people to slow down,” Petrini says, “we are asking them to look around with greater interest, to be receptive to the details and flavors of the world (Slow Food Nation 183)” (Schneider 398). Many college students do no stop to think about what they are eating, but if they took that moment to think about it they would probably try harder to eat healthier. At the college age, it is important for students to have healthy eating habits, but unfortunately campuses are making it hard for students to do so. If more college students were aware of the foods that they were eating, they could make a difference.

My group and I have decided not to collaborate for this blog post in order to think of more questions.

Five research questions:

1.Is it financially possible for college students to eat organically?
2.Does the University itself make it possible for college students to eat organically?
3.Does the University make it possible for their students to eat healthy at all?
4.Where does University food come from?
5.Are college students aware of what they are eating?

Ten interview questions:

1.How long have you been working for Sodexho?
2.What made you want to work for this company?
3.How often do you eat the food from this company?
4.Does your food service offer an organic menu?
5.How is your food prepared?
6.Where does your meat come from?
7.Would you say that the food you provide is healthy?
8.How many companies do you service?
9. What kind of companies do you provide food for?
10.Do you know the nutritional value that is in your food?

The research questions and interview questions all have things in common. Both sets of question involve the food that students ingest every day on campus. These questions will help us get to the bottom of what students are actually eating and whether or not it is possible for a Rowan student to eat healthy. My group and I hope to interview a cook from Sodexho, the food company that Rowan gets their food from. Our main question is, Does Rowan University make it possible for their students to eat organically or at least healthy?

        Collaboration is the “coming together” of one or more individuals to form one whole. There are many aspects of collaboration that I never really noticed before. The examples at the beginning of the article opened my eyes, and I was actually able to connect with these examples. When collaborating you have to be open to new ideas and be able to make new meanings of things. Collaboration won’t work if you are closed-minded. One form of collaboration, which I think happens the most, is dividing and then collaborating. In this case, the students would split the work load and then come together at the end to put everything together. I believe this happens the most because everyone wants to feel like the work is divided easily. Also, it is very hard to establish a time period where everyone in the group can meet at once. In the article they referred to this as “cooperative” not “collaborative”. 
         I have done a lot of collaboration in school. Almost every class that I have taken has involved working in a group with at least one or more other classmates. Every single education class, that I have taken, has involved working in partners or groups. Right now, I am taking Curriculum and Assessment, and I have a partner that I go to my observations with. This partner and I are currently creating a lesson plan together. It’s not very easy, though. I like to get things done a head of time, while he likes to wait to the last minute. Somehow we make it work though. We have to change our routines in order to succeed. In this class, we are currently involved with collaboration. So far, my group has decided on a topic that we will research. We didn’t all agree on a topic, at first, but after talking and hearing different ideas we agreed on it. When we meet as a group next, hopefully we will decide who will do what for this project.

        Before reading this article, I assumed that reflection and reflexivity were similar to another due to the mere fact that their spelling and pronunciations are similar. However, as I read through, I became aware that reflective and reflexive are pretty much opposites when it comes to meaning. Reflection occurs within your own head. It uses the knowledge and beliefs that you have already consumed. Reflection is a unidirectional thought process, but your thoughts are limited to the ideas that you have already formed previously. Reflection occurs when you comprehend what you have learned, and this comprehension is limited, as I said, to the knowledge that has already been placed in your head. As a human, we will only comprehend what we already know and won’t want to learn any more than that. 
         Reflexivity is not limited to the knowledge that you have already gained. Reflexive thinking does not happen solely within your head; it happens when you engage with other people and other information. You still can use the previous knowledge that you have attained, but reflexive thinking allow you to become open to new ideas and new perspectives. Reflexivity does not limit you thinking. It allows you to become open. However, in order to become reflexive, we must first realize that we are not reflexive. We have to “unlearn” the knowledge that we’ve gained in order to be completely open to new ideas and perspectives. Reflexivity is bidirectional. Reflexivity involves a commitment to both attending to what we believe and examining how we came to bold those beliefs while we are engaged in trying to make sense of another (Qualley 5).
         In order to be a successful researcher, I truly believe that you need to be reflexive. I believe this because if you are not, you will be limiting your research. If you are a reflective thinker, your research will only go in one direction, and your research could, in some way, be fixed. If you are a reflexive researcher, you will let your research take you in different directions and I think that this would have a more successful result. The result would be more accurate, I believe. When my group and I conduct our research I want to be reflexive. I truly believe that a reflexive researcher is a true researcher, and I don’t want to limit my results.

        Qualitative research seems to be very personal. I believe it would allow the researcher to get even more involved with what they are studying because you have a lot of direct interaction throughout the researching process. With qualitative research you deal directly with people, in which you may interview, and many others who want to share their experiences. It seems to be very hands on. Out of the four research designs, I believe I would be using the case study in order to gather information for my collaborative research project. In the article, it states that a case study allows the most depth than any other design. This will be helpful because we will be working directly with people, and we want to be able to get to the bottom of the question that we base our research off of. For this research project, we are required to do, at least, one interview. Our interview will be semi-structured because we will want the interview to go in a certain direction, but we will be open to move in another direction if needed. Interviews take a lot of time to prepare, but this is what qualitative research is all about, being personal. When we conduct our interview, I would like to record the interview. It will make the person we are interviewing feel more comfortable, and it will allow us to truly analyze the information. Finally, I would think that our collaborative research project will need some type of observation, and this will give us another element of qualitative research. 
        Narrative inquiry and qualitative research seem to go hand in hand with one another. Narrative inquiry is also personal, but I think it becomes very personal for the researchers as well as the narrative(s), observation, etc. that are being interpreted.  I believe that this will apply to our collaborative research project because when the group is trying to interpret/answer the focus question we will start to connect to the question and read into what is being observed around us. In the article, they talk about interpreting all form of narratives: stories, observations, interviews, etc. In our case, we will be using narrative inquiry when we interview. After the interview is over we will continue to use narrative inquiry as we go back and listen to the interview repeatedly. Overall, qualitative research and narrative inquiry will both be of huge importance in our collaborative research project.

        Before reading Berry’s article I never really considered myself a part of agriculture, but after reading it became clearer to me that every person actually does play a big part in the agriculture that takes place today. Just by eating the food I am playing a part. Therefore, in some sense, I am encouraging the “negative” farming ways that have been inhabited over many years. I became very curious about where my fruits, vegetables, and meats were coming from. I have absolutely no idea, except for the fact that I know they come from the food store. After reading this article and especially after watching Food Inc. I really want to start knowing where my food is coming from, and at least know that the foods I’m eating are healthy. Maybe I’ll start buying fruit from local suppliers. 
         Pollan discusses a lot of different things within the piece that I read. Before reading this, I never really thought of our country having an “eating disorder”, but our dieting habits have definitely changed and continue to get worse. When Pollan discussed the day that he spent on the farm, it really made me start thinking about the crops that are planted, grown, and sold. Pollan discusses the chemicals that are used to make the corn grow faster, but what I was thinking about was the diesel in the tractor. I’m sure the diesel fumes add even more chemicals to the crops, and I really don’t like the idea that all of those fumes are on the land. There are just so many chemicals in today’s crops, and like I said before, I really might consider changing what I eat.

If animals should have certain rights, do you think those rights should also apply to animal we raise for food, like chickens or pigs? Are there any rights that these farm animals should have? If so, what are they?

            I strongly believe that all animals should have certain rights, even if they are only being raised for food. I think that every animal should be given a clean and open area to live in while they age. I also believe that they should be fed proper meals. For example, cows should be allowed to eat grass, not given corn and other types of “food”. If we are going to eat these animals, I want them to be healthy and happy. I believe that happier animals probably have better and healthier tasting meat, and if they are healthy they will also have better meat.

Do you think healthy eating should be a right, responsibility, or a privilege?

            Eating health should be a right, but once it is made a right it should be a responsibility. I believe that all healthy foods should be accessible to everyone, low or high income. Unhealthy foods are a lot less expensive than the healthy foods, and I believe that this isn’t necessarily right. Everyone should be given the opportunity to buy healthy foods. However, once the healthy foods are made accessible it will be up to the people to take responsibility for their own health and buy the healthy food over the junk food.

What do you think about Oprah being sued for saying she wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue eating hamburgers, as described in the film? What do you think about a law that prevents you from saying something negative about a particular food item?

            When I heard about Oprah being sued I thought it was ridiculous. She is one woman and she is allowed to have her own opinion. America is a free country, and citizens should be allowed to state an opinion that they have. Yes, she was on national television but who cares, she stated this on her own show, and she shouldn’t have had a problem with that. When I heard about the law preventing people from saying negative things I thought that was even more ridiculous. Every person has a favorite brand or a brand that they don’t like. Why shouldn’t they be able to talk about it? Every person is allowed to have their own opinions, and to be penalized for an opinion is just crazy.