I completed two pieces of research during my time in the MEdT program at the University of Hawai’i. For one, I worked with Dr. Patricia Halagao on a critical ethnography examining the partnership between my students and a group of students at a neighboring high school. We explored the impact of the partnership using a Filipino-American focused curriculum based on equity pedagogy built by Dr. Halagao, titled iJeepney. We presented at the 2010 national American Educational Research Association (AERA). The experience was great and I learned an immense amount about performing research from Dr. Halagao. For the other study, I conducted a two-phase qualitative case study to understand the MEdT cohort’s opinions of the MEdT program and made recommendations for changes to the program.
Why am I talking about past research in a post that is meant to focus on my plans for my KIPP? I’ve realized in the past week that my previous research experience is heavily influencing my perspective on the type of work I want to produce for the Futures program.
- Perspective: I want to create actionable research for practitioners. I value audience size and impact over more academic considerations. (Note: I realize these don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but another perspective I hold is that don’t have capacity (in all senses of the word) to create the type of work from someone such as Harvard’s Prithwiraj Choudhury.)
- Perspective: I want to build on my strengths (writing, distilling big ideas down to actionable steps) rather than bolster my areas of weakness (in-depth quantitative research).
- Perspective: I’m at the stage of life where I know where I want my career to take me and that journey likely doesn’t include academic research.
Now, this could be read as that I don’t value research- this is not true. I just hold a belief that at the age of thirty eight I’m not going to suddenly become a talented university researcher without having a deep drive to do so. This is also not a “woe is me” sentiment: I find great solace as I age in knowing what ships have already sailed for me and which ships I’d still like to board; it’s one of the nice pieces of being in a program when closer to forty years old than twenty.
So, where does all of this reflection lead when considering research design? First, my research into the EFI resources contained within the KIPP Learn page have been nice and humbling- the bucket of “information I don’t even know that I don’t know” is giant. With that said, I have to start somewhere: I’m likely utilize a mixed methods design and to perform primary and secondary data analysis. I’m interested in speculative methods. I need to dive more deeply into the Learn resources and the EFI intranet to reduce the size of my ignorance bucket and I plan to dive back into all of my course readings, with an eye this time for research design, rather than results and outcomes.
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30 October 2023 — 13:10
Greetings Kristen! Your clarity on what you wish (and don’t wish) to explore is so inspiring and feels like a great foundation to build on, especially because of your self-awareness and how this feeds what you are curious about engaging, and what you have released from your scope of interest at this point in your life. What are some of the practical experiences within spaces of learning that you have really enjoyed, and which of these elements are you hoping to explore and action more/differently with this project? Blended methods create a lot of space for the speculative merging of worlds, and I am sure the merging of past experiences with future imaginations will yield really impactful and personally meaningful results!
Tom Webster
1 November 2023 — 18:43
“the bucket of “information I don’t even know that I don’t know” is giant.” I hear you!! I thin there’s definitely something in speculative methods and wider participation in research – particularly next actions. There may be something in here: https://discovered.ed.ac.uk/permalink/44UOE_INST/7g3mt6/alma9924175939202466
Clarisse Gomez
12 November 2023 — 16:23
Hello! Here is my comment for our blog task.
Summary of your blogs so far:
Preliminary ideas: At this point in the program, you’re already exploring several ideas: workplace sustainability for teachers and/or public sector employees, human capital management training for school leaders, choice architecture for increasing college completion rates, fact checking social media content about education. You also mentioned emancipatory catastrophism, an idea that captured your imagination, that you might explore further.
Goals and outcomes: You also shared several perspectives that you intend to take for the KIPP. Relating to the purpose/function/form of the output, your plan is to create “actionable research for practitioners” that is of high impact (social good). Personal goals surrounding the process of developing the KIPP are building on your strengths in writing and shaping ideas for action, and developing skills in areas you would still like to improve, such as in-depth quantitative research. Another perspective you articulated was that you don’t see academic research in your future, considering where you are in your personal and professional journey.
Regarding research methods, you’re considering using a mixed methods design for primary and secondary data analysis but are also exploring other methods that you might learn about from the EFI resources.
Question/s:
Are there ideas you’re gravitating more towards at this stage? And do you already have some ideas about what form your actionable research would take?
(I hope I captured your blogs correctly!)