(H.A.C.K.ing)

Through this approach, I capture the wide range of material in a women's studies or African American studies class and provide students with points of entry to the multitude of information present in the course text.

Students know that regardless of the topic, which range from African enslavement to women's health debates, they have a paradigm to frame the issue.

They will employ historical and contemporary lenses, bring in their own chosen major for scholarly perspective, read the text through their cultural identity and that of the authors, and form their own questions about the material.

This synthesis of approaches is vital for my two instructional areas which are both interdisciplinary and quite vast. Organizing the information--HACKing a topic--enables students to take the material in small bites and investigate minute details without losing sight of the big picture.

The social location framework I use is from Gwen Kirk & Margo Okazawa-Rey's Women's Lifes: A Multicultural Perspectives (2006): Micro, Meso, Macro, Global

Mircro: Individual

Meso: Family, local residence

Macro: National

Global: International

Unlike Urie Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1993) four levels in the Human Ecological System Theory, Kirk and Okazawa-Rey include the global perspective in their analysis.

Other theories of use as "Keys and Tools" are Joyce West Stevens' (2002) "Person-Process-Context" model which outlines how similar people in similar circumstances may react differently because of how people's processes vary. Additionally, Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (1983, 1994) provides for a broader understanding than the limited "IQ" and "g" or general intelligence of the Bell Curve theorists. Gardner's seven intelligences are:

Linguistic (sensitivity to spoken and written language, learning, and using language to reach goals)

Logical Mathematical (analyze, carry out, and investigate scientific and mathematical problems)

Musical (performance, composition, or appreciation of musical patterns)

Body-kinesthetic (physical and technical orientations)

Spatial (recognize and manipulate patterns)

Interpersonal (understands intentions, motivation, and desires--communicates well with others)

Intrapersonal (the capacity to understand oneself)

Naturalist (the ability to categorize and draw upon certain features of the environment)