Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 29, 2002
Latest Update: July 29, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Site Module E1: Access to and Dissemination of
Essential Information for the Public

Teaching Essay Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individaul Authors, July 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This teaching module is based on Site Module E 01: Access to and Dissemination of
Information Essential to the Public.

• Preparatory readings for module.

  • Access to and Dissemination of
    Information Essential to the Public
• Notes on and analysis of readings.

  • Note that although the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition emphasizes as one of its objectives the need for education on nutrition, the entire project revolves around members of the Schools of Medicine and Public Health. This would traditionally be recognized as seeking experts or specialists in the disciiplines that study both health and nutrition. What's missing? Any apparent cognizance of the interdiscipliinary role that must be provided throughout all levels of education. Experts alone do not provide the broad dissemination needed.
  • Note that when you seek to find documentary evidence on the UCLA CORE site, permission to access the documents is denied.
• Discussion questions.

  1. What role do you see for traditional departments of psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, history to play an interdependent role in the current nutrition crisis in the US? Consider notes on the preparatory readings, and also consider the curriculum preparation material: Integrating knowledge dissemination into the curriculum. Not up yet, but soon. jeanne
  2. Is there a message communicated by the inability to access the site's documents? What's the message? Conceptually relate this to the concepts of:
     • class and exclusion
     • criteria for inclusion
     • reliance on expertise and what this suggests for governance of major public issues
     • exclusion of "other" professionals, like teachers, social workers, clergy, etc.
  3. Is there some way to broaden the input to these issues of public nutrition that would permit "the public" to take part? Consider concept mapping.
• Experiential activities related to module.

  • Contact sites for documentation. In what percentages of the case is such documentation made readily available to you? Prepare a simple table indicating response rates and specifying the correspondence. You may limit your study to those sites we have discussed together to make it doable within the space and time we have.
  • Compare government sites on health and nutrition. Is the attitude towards documentation any different? Why do you suppose that it? Do you think that will have any effect on the outcome of health and nutrition in the US?
  • Small world technique: If you were seeking scholastic information on the current issues of nutrition, how many people would you have to go find documentation that was useful? Focus on a single question. Example, "I'm looking for information on the relative importance of meat and grains in the diet, based on current research."
    • Form a group, so you won't have to do all the work alone.
    • Identify informed respondents, that is, people who have reason to know, that each of you could contact. You should identify four or five people for each of you. If there is overlap, you should agree on only one of you asking that person.
    • Compare your results. How many leads can you actually follow through? Are some "informed respondents" more informative than others? Which ones? Can you explain the difference in their ability to guide you?
    • Share your results on the site and face to face in class.
• Self-test questions related to module.
• Conceptual linking we had in mind as we prepared the module.
  • Status characteristic theory - the standing of the expert and our reliance on experts tends to llimit significant input to solutions to those who exhibit the status of expert. Also consider the means by which the status is recognizable. At UCLA's core study the ones who seem to be included are those with professional titles.
  • concept mapping - Concept mapping is a procedural means for brainstorming as a group, without according the hierarchical status of professional titles.

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