Saturday, October 10, 2009

TIPRR 6, Jeff Hill

The most attractive aspects of Action Research to me are the socially progressive (I mean that like it helps those involved progress socially, not that previous research was offensive) ideas of working together. The “subjects” are now participants or even researchers in their own right. This is important because the intention of doing this research is to solve a problem or to improve some aspect of the subject or process relating to the subject. I can see why this is a particularly popular form of research in the education field.

Significant and sustained progress can only be made if other educators, administrators, and students are heavily involved. We are part of an evolving field where these forms of research (action research and case studies) are very appropriate and conducive to a classroom setting.

Using the reading for this week, we were to refine this question:

What shifts occur in BYU students’ awareness of community before, during, and after participating in service learning in local schools?

Community has become such a difficult word for me lately.

Where are you from? Does that ever change? I went to high school in Texas, but I have lived in Utah for over 5 years. If I was on vacation, I think I would say Utah. Some people say that you are from wherever your parents are, but that doesn’t make sense. Is that your community? Do feel like you are more a part of the people who live, work, and worship around your parents than those who do the same geographically closer to you? You must be homesick. “Where are you from?” probably isn’t the best question because maybe people are just saying where they were born, although I rarely claim Biloxi, Mississippi.

Do BYU students’ have a relationship with Provo or just BYU? I can see how BYU students may be learning about “community” and their understanding of communities may change as they interact with this service-learning project, but does this community ever become theirs? That is what is difficult about this question. Are we talking about “community” as an abstract or Provo?

Action based research is supposed to help a group interactively improve a situation. So, for this research, the BYU students’ awareness or association with this community must be affecting the project negatively or positively. Are the BYU students that don’t see Provo School District students as part of their community not as effective teachers as those that do? Would discovering their awareness and feelings concerning community help improve Hands On A Camera?

My question:

What correlations can be found (if any) between the BYU student’s awareness of the Provo School District students and knowledge of the community the students belong to, and the effectiveness of those BYU students’ teaching in the classrooms of those students?

What is your community?

3 comments:

Erika Hill said...

I'm so glad you included Abed here.

I think it's okay to have a fluid definition of community, and it is possible to belong to multiple communities; so, you might be "from" Utah, but that doesn't really say everything about you that it needs to. I think that one way to overcome this challenge in terms of a research question is to ask the BYU students at the beginning to define community, and then to rate their sense of community engagement based on that definition.

JASON HAGEY said...

I believe that Jeff and Erika have very valid points: Jeff, for his point about defining community in the question of terminology, and Erika in her handling the question. But, I believe that Jeff's question comes to an interesting head for me, at least, and that is: Why are we concerned with the student's interaction with community and not the student's interaction with teaching or the relationships with the students that are benefiting from their assistance? I guess what I'm asking is, "Are we asking the right question for a useful ethnographic study?" This is not to say that rating their sense of community engagement isn't a worthwhile study, but is it the strongest inquiry?

Amberly said...

I think Jason's got an interesting point about the question is right for an ethnographic study but I think there's a difference between analyzing why the project is being done in the first place and analyzing what the BYU students are getting out of it, including improved teaching skills or a greater sense of community. I mean that I think you can research the effects of the project without that being the primary reason why you're doing the project in the first place. Does that make sense?