Developing a Research Question 2- What would I study if I had no boundaries...

I want to know why today 50 plus years after Brown v Board decision we as a people- with all our various identities, ways of living and being, and all the ways of our work- still don’t live out the separate is not equal reality that was slapped in our face that day.  I’d love to know why we didn’t do it before then.  So yeah, let’s go back to that.  Where did it all start?  Why do we categorize, label, isolate, and create tricky multi variable formulas that require us to segregate- whether it is physically, emotionally, psychologically, linguistically- people to fit into categories with labels.  Labels and categories that then inevitably amount to hierarchies of power and full community membership and social capital. 

Why?  Why do we still do it?  It’s 2011.  It’s not even 2010 anymore and we still live out this reality day after day. 

Call it ableism. Call it racism.  Call it sexism.  We have so many isms yet still teachers, and leaders, and policy makers, professionals, consultants, parents, and children… continue to perpetuate this boxing and othering. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why can’t we get past it? There has got to be another way to organize social spaces.

Maybe if we can get at the why we can get the how, because I’m a firm believer that if you can get the why you can work toward the how, but if you don’t have the why the how becomes difficult and it doesn’t have transformative power.

That’s what I want to study.  I don’t how to do that?  I have no idea how to do that. I don’t even know where to begin to go to look, or who to talk to even begin to think about how to do that. But I want to know why people, humans, children, adults, little boys, little girls, big boys, big girls, people in general still feel, live and experience segregation, hateful or naïve, separation and barriers preventing them, or making it more difficult for them to be able to, live the life they deem valuable to live. Why do we keep doing that?  Why is it ok?  Why do people think it’s ok? 

Why do many people think it’s totally and completely okay that if you live in some places you’re just screwed. Too bad for you if you don’t have enough money and don’t live in a community without the necessary infrastructure for the development of you as a community member: transportation, jobs, quality education, or even healthy air…. That’s just to bad “they can move”, many say.  Why is it that this thinking and the behaviors and policies that follow are acceptable?

I also want to study what the field of education's (and many other fields for that matter) obsession with the norm is. I blame it on Darwin.  I blame it on the Vienna circle. I blame it on a lot of people and really can’t argue why.  I’m sure I have to take some ownership.  Of course I do. We all have to take ownership of it. Why are we obsessed with the bell curve, the norm and putting everyone into it?  And then if you deviate from the norm you need an intervention, a label, or a special service.  Why? It just doesn’t make any, any, sense to me. We are variable.  We are all different.  We aren’t supposed to be the same.  I don’t understand.  Where did that come from? Does it make it easier (make what easier?).  Is it just human nature that we automatically organize because that’s the way the human brain works, or have we as people of a certain society been socialized into thinking that way?  Would the social-relational model of understanding people and difference help push society to rethink the role of “norming”?

Is it like this everywhere?  Are there other places and cultures that it’s not like this (categorizing, labeling and servicing all who don’t fit the societal definition of normal behavior)?  Is it capitalism? Is it democracy?  I would think in theory socialism does it too- perhaps even more so.  I don’t know enough and I need to know more.  I want to know how to know more.  I want to study how I need to know more about what I need to know.  It’s overwhelming.  It’s sad. It causes pause and is even somewhat paralyzing. So what now?

I don’t think I actually answered the question of what I want to study specifically, but I certainly unearthed where the questions that propel me forward lie. Now I need to think long and hard about my “so what now”? and probably need a critical friend or two to help me along this process.

Developing my Research Question 1- Stuck in the Moment

Ok.  I have to say it, "I need help."  Why needing help is such a big deal for me to admit is beyond me, but I am in that place and I am saying it.

HELP!

I cannot conceptualize a research question to save my life.  I have been sitting here, literally sitting, for 3 hours digging through notes, thoughts, books, websites, articles and my sub-conscious (to the best of my ability anyway).  Sad to say I am no further along than I was back in the summer of 2009 before I began my doctoral program.

I had a meeting today to discuss my upcoming pilot study.  The meeting ended with one goal- determine a research question.  OK then.  Now what?

I have gotten good, no excellent, advice on how to begin thinking of my own research agenda.  I am guided to ask myself the following questions:

1. What are you interested in knowing?  
2. What bothers you the most?  
3. What intrigues you? 
4. And my favorite (truly, it is my favorite.  I am not being cynical): What keeps you awake at night?

So I sit here and openly think through these questions with you...
1) I am interested in knowing who it is that is excluded/marginalized and why on earth anyone would allow that to happen?  Following that I have to ask myself if anyone really allows marginalization to happen, or if bigger "forces" in society are at work. And if so, what are those abstract "bigger forces"? Which leads me to #2.

2)  I am most bothered by the fact that the same groups of people tend to be excluded from opportunities and have narrowed life choices decade after decade in multiple countries.  This really bothers me and I see this playing out in schools everyday.  That bothers me even more.  I see schools as one of the many democratic spaces in society, and am truly bothered to my core that many people do not have the freedoms to choose the life they may choose to live because of experiences they are segregated from.  That bothers me.

3) So what intrigues me?  Today I am intrigued by the observation that many places and faces work tirelessly to "combat" exclusionary cultures in schools, yet system-wide/nation-wide hierarchies of people and groups of people persist. It's like inertia.

Now onto #4...

4)  What keeps me awake at night?

Man this is a good one.

A lot of things keep me awake at night.

• I lay in bed thinking about the kind of schooling my children will be a part of and what that will socialize them into thinking and doing.  
• I worry about living in a community where children with various labels attached to them are not a part of the day to day classes and experiences that my children will are.  Most importantly, I worry  what this "teaches" my children.  
• I worry about my kids having to compete along the same lines as everyone else to make their place known in the world and to be able to progress through the same curriculum as every other child.  
• I worry about their creativity and what will happen to it.  
• I worry about how they will learn to view themselves in a world of diverse people when they grow up alongside only those (because of how the society we live in is geographically and demographically organized) that seem on the surface to be just like them in a lot of economic, cultural and racial ways. 
• I worry that I won't get the opportunity to meet some amazing people and that my children won't have the opportunity to develop critical friendships with important people because our society is segregated along artificial lines of human difference.  
• I worry what is happening to our world and why we are so obsessed with the bell curve and where each individual falls from that norm (or varies from a mean performance). 

 I worry about a lot.

And so now I travel back to my task... finding a research question.  I am no more closer to this than I was 3 hours ago.  To borrow Bono's words I've "got myself stuck in a moment and I can't get out of it". (U2, "Stuck in a Moment")

I don't have the skill set today to craft questions that address the worries which keep me up at night.  I am not trained in critical research and I have very limited experience reading sociological pieces.  That is why I go back to the books I have, and why I continue to search for others.

Am I awaiting the illuminous moment that a question comes to me like a spark of light?

That just doesn't make much sense.  If I want to be a researcher I need to figure out how to do research.  That means I need to do research, because I learn best by doing.  Therefore, I need to come up with a researchable question.

HELP!

Edweek 1.14 Blog on Special Education Funding

On January 14th Christina Samuels posted a blog inviting commentary and discussion on special education funding.  You can see the entire blog below.   

She brings up the timely issue of special education funding during our American economic crisis to an audience of education minded folk trying to stimulate a conversation.  The commentary thus far has been good and I encourage those of you interested to go to edweek.com and read for yourself.   What I find interesting, and why I share it here with you all, is that often issues that pertain to the general public are constrained to audiences of a select type.  I often complain in class that we  need to stop talking to each other and get outside of our own circles.  That is what I am trying to do here.  I am getting out of the "education"/"special education" circles and asking you, my faithful public, what do you think about Christina Samuel's question?  Can money be saved in special education?

Samuel's question to her readers and my question to you all:

"What inefficiency in the practice of special education would you fix that would not harm the legal right of children with disabilities to receive a free and appropriate public education?" 

______________________________________________________________________

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2011/01/can_money_be_saved_in_special.html

Can Money Be Saved in Special Education?

By Christina Samuels on January 14, 2011 5:10 PM | 5 Comments | Recommend

A confession: releasing an article out into the world can sometimes be a little nerve-wracking. That's especially true when the topic is special education funding, which I wrote about for this year's edition of Quality Counts,Education Week's fine analysis of education nationwide. (The full table of contents can be found here, and I encourage everyone to read these articles.)

Special education funding is a particularly touchy subject. Advocates have argued for a long time that special education is underfunded by the federal government, and that their children are taking the blame for straining school budgets.

That's not such a crazy fear to have. Last year the outgoing superintendent of Los Angeles schools, Ramon C. Cortines, said in a Los Angeles Times article that "When you fund some of the special ed things, you're taking from regular kids." Some parents responded with predictable dismay, and Cortines clarified his remarks in aletter to the editor. (see bottom of web page.)

But our Quality Counts publication presents in detail that the budget crunch is real. I predict that special education will find itself a part of a conversation about getting the most out of every education dollar. So let's start having this conversation here, because I know I have smart readers who are well-versed in the issues. What inefficiency in the practice of special education would you fix that would not harm the legal right of children with disabilities to receive a free and appropriate public education?

Categories:

• Funding

Doctoral Writing Strategy 1: Just keep writing

I have been told by many people during my studies that the first goal of writing is to actually write.  That is one of the goals I have for myself this semester and this blog is one avenue I've created to help me get that done.  Many wise friends, colleagues and mentors have shared with me the secret wisdom of writing and all have said, in one form or another, "it doesn't matter what you write.  In the beginning you just need to write."  Therefore, I plan to write almost everyday and I plan to use this forum to do so.

.

Today I will write about my current work- A qualitative research project studying the implementation, impact and needs of a school wide shift from segregated to inclusive education.

Historically this school educated students with different labels such as autism, down syndrome, learning disabilities (or one of the other 13 diagnostic categories in American special education) in special education classrooms apart from children without labels. The practice of educating students with disability labels in separate classrooms apart from students without disabilities is called segregated education.

inclusionkids.jpg

 2 students working together in aninclusive classroom

tash.org

Over the past year and a half the school has changed how they do business.  The school is now inclusive.  This means that ALL children are educated together in the SAME class.  I have emphasized the words ALL and SAME because in this model all children being educated together in the same class regardless of label or need (real or perceived) is one of the defining features of inclusion.  Therefore, significant changes have occurred in the last year and I am interested in why such a shift occurred, how it has occurred, the impact it has had, and what else is needed.

What I am most interested in is the administration of and change to the educational system & way of work at the school level that occurred (or needs to occur) to accommodate and embed such a change into the culture of the school.  Of course, along with this, I cannot separate from the system the impact this shift has had on teachers, administrators, students and families.  Therefore I am equally interested in those variables.  One can only imagine the difference in teacher's roles, administrative support, resource allocation, classroom pedagogy and curriculum that exists.  Interesting and critical to this particular case study is the broader political context of the district that this school is situated in.  As far as I can tell this school is the only school in the district to attempt such a shift.  All others seem to maintain segregated education for students receiving special education.  Interesting, don't you think?!

Now to be fair, it is probably important for you to know that I am a strong believer and advocate for inclusive education, and have been for more than a decade.  It is actually a defining feature of who I am.  My reasons are many, some of which I will share with you from time to time, but all in all I stand firmly behind my belief (until I find evidence to the contrary) that the most effective and just education is education that is inclusive of all children.

More about this later.  Consider this your introduction to my world!

(The images in this blog entry ARE NOT from the school I am discussing. They are images from the web.  I have cited where I got the images from.  Also, to maintain confidentiality I will not be sharing any identifying information on the school.)

Invited Commentary 1: Nussbaum & Sen's Capability Theory

If we can train ourselves to

focus on the freedom people have to be and do the things

they have reason to value,as a means and end of education,

then individual difference can truly become something to

celebrate rather than to correct (Florian, 2005).

Invited commentary: 

(periodically I will share quotes that catch me with the hope that you will share how they moved you.  This is the first of those quotes. I will call them "invited commentary x")

Old notes to self

I just stumbled upon the following notes to myself. I often am slapped in the face with the reality that I have no systematic thought process. No wonder my writing could use some help- the thoughts that drive it need structure themselves (see previous post on writing). What I find most interesting here, which serves as evidence for my lack of a systematic thought process, is my last dash "-set meeting with ____".

I mean, really!? Where on earth did that come from? If you read the list, I go on and on about getting involved in advocacy, local projects, a need for this and that, and then I remind myself to set up a meeting. I'd have to bet that the said meeting never happened!

-look up and contact local advocacy agencies

-look and contact community leadership projects- get involved

-they have to be here somewhere!!!!!!

-DON'T BE condescending, be equal or lower....it's not your community and you are not the expert!

-but be honest with what's going on in society and what that means

-we need new theories (maybe just mini theories at S&E say) but the public and the academic community in education want answers, numbers and test scores first, but isn't this backward. Won' this just perpetuate the norm, which many would argue is hegemony for the white male????????

-Would in fact thinking of new theories to drive different analysis perhaps be more effective?????

-How do you get buy in for support for this type of work????

-think of def'n of science from Dr. _____ reading this week... look it up and think about that!

-can't we have different

-set meeting with _____

Writing- The inevitable reality of my profression

1.11.10

Writing keeps coming up: in class, in meetings, in texts, and in professor commentary on my work. It seems I am at a critical juncture in my “career” that writing, as a set of skills, is an inevitable reality of my day-to-day work. This reality isn’t a shock, but is something I have been strategizing, creatively I must add, to avoid.

First, I turned in four papers last semester and two of them I’ve gotten specific feedback on regarding the need to improve my writing skills (and this is not the first semester said phenomenon has occurred). One came to me second hand through another professor (ANNOYING) and the other was well crafted, and might I add quite helpful, advice.

First, the clarity and logic of getting my point across needs some work. Specifically, I jump around a lot and don’t do a very good job making meaning for my reader. Thus, leaving a lot of space for individual interpretation (which in and of itself I don't see as a horrible thing, but when the paragraphs and sections “lack flow” work needs to be done). I can work on that. Thank you sir professor!

SECOND, THIRD... I can't remember right now, but I know he made three points (thank goodness I took notes). I'll add more to this later. (The all caps typing of the words SECOND, THIRD was an explicit suggestion from above mentioned professor about keeping the flow in my writing. The suggestion is to help me when I need to add more, but just don't have the words yet. By writing in all caps I cue myself in to come back later and fill in details, but allows me to keep on writing so that I don't loose any current thoughts I may have. Of course this is assuming I have more current thoughts- YIKES. But it is an overall really good idea. So here I try it. We'll see if I actually come back to this post and add. Faithful readers, do call me out if you see the all caps. That means I haven't followed the strategy through.)

Interestingly, I don’t find myself reacting to these suggestions in my typical defensive manner. Perhaps it is because I’ve matured over the years (doubtful). Perhaps it’s because I see value in the skill of writing beyond the classroom. Therefore, as a busy PhD student mom I see a direct connection to working on my writing and my future work- whatever that may be. And, perhaps it is because I know it to be a truth that I’ve been silently begging for someone to give me some guidance with. Whatever the actual reason may be for my positive reaction to the feedback I’m going with it.

I get it cosmos, this is the time for me to hone in on my writing skills.

I’ve got some new tools in hand. Two books (Liberating Scholarly Writing by Nash & The Elements of Style by Strunk and White) and a few solid suggestions, but I beg of you, my faithful readers, if you've got tools, suggestions or resources don't hold back on me now... do share.

Qualitative Class 1

1.10.10

I really enjoyed class last night. Although, on my drive home I was reflecting on the class conversations and realized I came off quite a bit more negative then I probably needed to. I'm sorry for that. I really am making a commitment to my studies and myself this semester to not get "lost in relativism" and negativity, which I think is what happened last night. I do see a lot of purpose in research- thank goodness!

I keep thinking about statements from the professor regarding the value-laden nature of what questions are worth addressing or not, and the importance of following "my gut". It is so interesting to me, bc it seems to me that what each of us think important to address in research is based a lot on our own selves and our own values/morals/ideals/experiences/histories/etc... Further, it doesn't seem right that one's values are more "true" and worthy of studying than another's, however history (and the present day) is filled with horrifying examples of marginalizing/hateful "values" that harm people.

So how then do I, as a researcher committed to social justice, move forward...? These are the types of thoughts that plague me lately.............. THOUGHTS?????