Dr. Robert Runté:
Research Interests

Current Projects: Evaluation: I have been asked to write a new textbook on classroom assessment for Five River Publishing, based on the ongoing traffic to my "How to Write Tests" website. I am also currently Chairing the Faculty of Education Quality Assurance Process (i.e., undergraduate program review) so have a presentation on that scheduled for WestCast, Feb 23-25, 2012; I am also on the Faculty of Management's Assurance of Learning Committee as an external evaluation expert which gave rise to my Keynote Address, "The Assurance of Learning", at the International Business and Economics Research Conference (Los Angeles, June 5, 2010.) What has intrigued me here is how the literature on the scholarship of teaching has ignored or explicitly rejected program evaluation as a key aspect of teaching success. May well be my next big research project. Cyberculture I am fascinated by the ethical and methodological implications of using data from blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media.[E.g., "Blogs", Chapter 26 in J. Gary Knowles and Ardra L. Cole (editors) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, And Issues, Sage Publications, 2007]. For example, what image of the school emerges from blog/Facebook commentaries on schooling? How much often do classes turn up as topics of discussion? More or less often than we might have assumed? And if less often, does that mean that school is less important in adolescent lives/self-image etc than we might have assumed? Similarly, the phenomenon of cyberbaiting teachers holds a kind of horrible fascination. Is this something teacher preparation programs need to address?

Sociology: I have several sociological research projects on the go in collaboration with my wife, Dr. Mary Runté (Management Faculty) including one on retasking as an alternative management strategy to deskilling, which, when combined with the long hours culture, leads to the potential for the significant exploitation of knowledge workers. ("Re-Tasking Professional-Level Labour, International Business and Economics Research Conference", Los Angeles, June 2-5, 2010) We are also interested in issues of work/family conflict and the colonization of the family sphere by corporate 'family-friendly' programs and 'culture of fun' management practices. More recently we have begun looking at the colonization of the family sphere by the school. Sociology of Education: My wife and I are looking at public perceptions of the appropriateness of taking students out of school for family activities, such as a family vacation. ("Education Vacation: An Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action", Hawaii International Conference on Education, January 4-7, 2009: Preliminary findings suggest significant polarization on this issue, which we believe reflects attitudinal differences between social classes.) I am also analyzing changes in Alberta education policy over the last 75 years to suggest that underlying trends can only be understood within the context of the competiting models of the purpose of education held by various political parties and elites. ("Models, Elites, and Trends in Higher Education in Alberta, 1935-2010" Canadian History of Education Association/l'Association canadienne d'historie de l'education, Toronto, Oct. 21-24, 2010)

Last updated January, 2012.