Research as Whole Truth-Telling: Polyvocality and Collaboration as Necessary Disruptors in Educational Research

• In Event: Research as Whole Truth-Telling: Polyvocality and Collaboration as Necessary Disruptors in Educational Research

Abstract

This presentation will describe the importance of structures that allow for sustained, reciprocal, and meaningful collaboration between university, schools, and community organizations. The presenter is a program evaluator for a university-linked, after school network with programs housed in eight urban public schools. Prior to that, the presenter was a classroom teacher for 17 years in the district and the surrounding county. This presenter has also created large-scale arts and public learning collaborations across multiple school-community partnerships.
Due to issues of persistent underfunding resulting in a low standard wage for workers, out of school time programs are expected to develop strategic partnerships with the larger community for supplemental programming and labor. In the case of presenter’s affiliation, there is an expectation woven throughout the internal quality management system that programs will pursue and maintain supportive partnerships with feeder communities.
This existing infrastructure resulted that when faced with the Covid-19 school closures, the out of school time programs were much better positioned to support families in crisis. The presenter’s program was able to leverage these existing partnerships to provide supportive academic programming and links to food and healthcare assistance within days of the lockdown announcement, beating the public school’s support systems to student’s homes in some cases by over two weeks.
These experiences have given the presenter a unique understanding of the myriad opportunities made possible by cross level and cross setting collaboration in the target district. This perspective was useful to the present study, as similar issues of staffing and funding are regularly cited as obstacles to improving working conditions for school day teachers. The presenter’s role as an education professional, currently working in the target district, supported trust among study participants and stakeholders. Prior knowledge of the district further enhanced the presenter’s ability to support the research process, including effective study design and timely and comprehensive data collection.
The current study revealed a great desire among teachers for radically increased collaboration opportunities within the school building, among teachers and across roles within the school setting. Many teachers expressed concerns that upper administration was rarely present in the school buildings during operation hours, yet these administrators were making decisions about mandatory professional learning and other time intensive commitments for the teaching staff. Teachers in the study regularly described the feeling of work being “piled on” without additional compensation or even acknowledgement of their additional, uncompensated supportive efforts. This type of top-down and presumably uninformed administrative decision-making was most frequently cited as a primary reason for teachers considering leaving the district.
Additionally, teachers articulated an urgent need for deeper and more flexible collaboration opportunities between the school and the surrounding community, particularly with families and other trusted adults. Among the most frequently cited desires for increased collaboration was greater flexibility to include family members in student success planning to support development of appropriate targeted academic goals but most specially to improve humane and equitable behavior management systems.

Authors

• Anna C. Gersh, Eastern Michigan University
  Presenting Author

• Linette Lao, Invisible Engines
  Presenting Author