It all started as a grad project...

It all started as a grad project...

Well, it is still a grad project.  But it is a hope that this Blog and the associated website could become a useful place for future and current teachers.  

But for right now, I am just a grad student doing a project in order to apply CPAR (critical participatory action research) to a problem facing our local school communities.  The first step was to figure out what exactly CPAR is and how to apply it.  

CPAR is a direct and non-institutional way to collect research about an issue.  So much of the process is invested in deep identification of who has interest in the project.  This is who is affected and who is involved.  But that is just the start.  Next careful thought is given to who should be included, who needs to be amplified and who needs to purposefully not be included.  A big part of CPAR is working to correct systems of injustice and so when deciding who is going to be included and not included in the research, justice, injustice, marginalization, racism, bias, and privilege are all things that need to be accounted for and made obvious.  The researchers in fact do a self accounting of their identity and bias in order to identify it as playing a part in the research.  This setting up process can be messy, emotional, challenging, deep, fun-- it can be all the things that people are because it is all about the people.

Then the research happens!  Much unlike what we think of as research with Phd.s, white coats, labs and security clearances- CPAR research is done by the people who are within the community being researched.  It is a way to collect the meaningful data that is necessary to better identify the nature of a problem as well as how best to solve it.  The research can be surveys, interviews or anything that allows the stakeholders to gain insight into the problem.  

Last and certainly not least would be the ACTION!  Unlike the research most research, CPAR is meant to discover the meaningful action that would right the wrongs of injustice.  The problem is that the marginalized and oppressed are not the typically subjects of that other research.  So if people who are most affected had no means by which to study a problem and then find a fix, it seems that it just might never get any attention at all.  Is it fair?  No, but CPAR is a legitimate and valid way to disrupt these flows of priority and redirect community attention to the things that matter most.  And just like we don't need to wait on those white coat labs to identify our problems, we sure don't need to wait on them, or anyone to offer the solution.  

It's inspiring, isn't it?

Well, to try it out we chose to work on teacher shortages in our local schools.  We read (a lot) about what people have already learned about why we are having teacher shortages.  This gave a national perspective.  Some of it touched on Vermont, and most of it touched on things we know are true here in Vermont.  

In order to get a gauge on how teachers in our community are feeling I created this survey below.  This was a really important next step after we did our background research about teacher shortages in order to see how our research tracked with what the teachers in our communities have to say.  We'll have more on that when the survey is finished.  

teacher survey