Noriko Milman
Ph.D. Sociology, UCLA, expected 2009; M.A. Sociology, UCLA; B.A. Sociology and Women's Studies, UCLA
Fax: 310-206-9838
E-mail:
nmilman@ucla.edu
Subfield
Education, Childhood, Race and Ethnicity, Qualitative Research Methods
Research Interests
Dissertation
"'PAY ATTENTION!': How Teachers and Students Construct Attentiveness in First Grade Classrooms"
We now know that experiences in first grade help establish educational trajectories that eventually shape life chances. We also know that a child’s ability to stay attentive to the teacher’s lessons influences their likelihood of doing well in school. Joining these two strands of research, the goal of my project is to understand the social conditions that shape attentiveness in first grade classrooms of "at-risk" students.
Using participant observation, video footage, and interviews, I aim to show how first graders and their teachers collectively construct “attention” and “inattention” during everyday interactions at school. Specifically, I explore what behaviors teachers identify as “attentive” and “inattentive,” and what prompts moments of so-called concentration and distraction. I also investigate how school members attempt to manage attention, prevent distractions and then handle them, once they occur. Additionally, I reveal what distractions teachers deem "acceptable" and how expectations, judgments, circumstances, and student identities bear upon perceptions and enforcement of attentive behaviors. In this sense, I also reveal how teachers use the idea of "attentiveness" for classroom management and discipline. Finally, I argue that by recognizing on-/off-task behaviors, kids not only regulate their classmates, but also devise ways to remain under their teacher's radar. In this way, kids actively shape how behaviors get detected and identified as “(in)attentive.”
In all, I reveal that “(in)attention” in first grade classrooms can have SOCIAL underpinnings. By illustrating this, my research begins to shed new light on the popular and often medicalized concept of inattentiveness, especially as it applies to low-income, underrepresented children, whom both researchers and teachers deem the most “at-risk” for attentional difficulties and subsequent school failure.
M.A. Thesis
"Life 'On the Line': Exploring Social Control at an Elementary School"
Ethnographic study of how school lines are nuanced processes that contribute to the disciplining of both students and teachers.
Publications
Chin, Christina, Noriko Milman, Meera Deo, Jenny Lee, and Nancy Wang Yuen. 2007. "Without a Trace: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Prime Time Television," Chapter 24 in Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader, edited by Min Zhou and J.V. Gatewood. New York: New York University Press.
Deo, Meera, Christina Chin, Jenny Lee, Noriko Milman, and Nancy Wang Yuen. 2007. “Missing in Action: 'Framing' Race on Prime Time Television.” Social Justice 34:3.
Chin, Christina, Meera Deo, Jenny Lee, Noriko Milman, and Nancy Wang Yuen. 2006. “Asian Pacific Americans in Prime Time: Setting the Stage.” Washington D.C.: Asian American Justice Center.
Milman, Noriko and Jerome Rabow. 2006. "Identifying with the Role of 'Other': The Pink Triangle Experiment Revisited." Qualitative Sociology Review 2:2, 61-74.
Milman, Noriko and Jerome Rabow. 2006. “Transforming the Self through Experiencing the Role of Other: The Pink Triangle Experiment Revisited." Pp. 89-102 in Excellent Teaching in the Excellent University: The Struggle for Voice in the College Classroom, edited by J. Rabow. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Yuen, Nancy, Christina Chin, Meera Deo, Jenny Lee, and Noriko Milman. 2005. “Asian Pacific Americans in Prime Time: Lights, Camera, and Little Action.” Washington D.C.: National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.
Grants and Awards
American Educational Research Association Minority Fellowship (2007-08)
Research Grant, UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations (2005-06)
Research Grant, Asian American Justice Center (2005)
Research Grant, National Asian Pacific Legal Consortium (2004)
UCLA Summer Research Mentorship (2002)
UCLA Graduate Fellowship (2001)
California Teachers Association Scholarship For Members (2001)
Advisors
Meredith Phillips, Robert Emerson, Walter Allen, Stefan Timmermans, and Marjorie Orellana (Education)
Conference Presentations
"'Easily Distracted': Inattention in First Grade Classrooms," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 8/2008.
"'PAY ATTENTION!': The Social Production of Attentiveness in First Grade Classrooms," American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, 3/2008.
"'PAY ATTENTION!': Attentiveness in First Grade Classrooms," American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, 8/2007.
“Emergent Readers: Exploring Kids, Race, and Television,” Pacific Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Hollywood, CA, 4/2006.
“The Asian Pacific Islander American Prime Time Television Report: The Fall 2005 Season,” Association for Asian American Studies Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 3/2006.
“Asian Pacific Americans in Primetime: Lights, Camera, and Little Action,” Association for Asian American Studies Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, 4/2005.
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