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| Autor/in | Rawls, Erik |
|---|---|
| Titel | Researcher Identity Development of Black and Latina/o Scholars within a Service-Learning Research Context |
| Quelle | (2023), (177 Seiten)
PDF als Volltext Ph.D. Dissertation, The Florida State University |
| Zusatzinformation | Weitere Informationen |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Dokumenttyp | gedruckt; online; Monographie |
| ISBN | 979-8-3797-3741-2 |
| Schlagwörter | Hochschulschrift; Dissertation; Service Learning; Researchers; Self Concept; Hispanic Americans; African Americans; Graduate Study; Student Recruitment; Minority Groups; Fellowships |
| Abstract | A number of groups have historically been underrepresented in the education sciences in the United States, notably students of color, students who have experienced economic hardships, first generation college students, students with disabilities, and armed service veterans. The context of this study is a program to increase the recruitment and retention of underrepresented and underserved scholars into graduate school and research careers. It is important to understand how students experience supports related to doctoral preparation at early stages in their academic careers. Individual students who have been marginalized or minoritized within an oppressive sociocultural context may possess embodied experiences or knowledge that may inform their program of research and inform their analytic lens as researchers. I explored scholar agency within a unique research training program for undergraduate upperclassmen and beginning master's students in education related fields of study that is designed to build research efficacy and sustain commitment to social justice by embedding research experiences in a service-learning context. This study explored researcher identity development within a research training program, known as Partners United for Research Pathways Oriented to Social Justice in Education (PURPOSE), that had the distal goal of increasing the diversity of the doctorate in education sciences and promoting equity-driven research. During the yearlong training program, fellows worked with the one-on-one support of a faculty mentor to design and implement a research project during a summer service-learning research practicum. Fellows applied their developing research methods knowledge and skills in a community setting. The PURPOSE program partnered with the local Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools program, a summer literacy and social action camp, which provided a site for research fellows to engage in service and to conduct research. The central phenomenon of this study was fellows' researcher identity development in the context of the Freedom Schools service-learning research practicum. The primary research question corresponding to this central phenomenon was: How do Black and Latina/o students conceptualize their researcher identity development after participating in a service-learning research practicum at the CDF Freedom Schools? The sub-questions were: A. How did students experience balancing the implementation of research and service in the in Freedom Schools? B. How did a service-learning research practicum at the Freedom Schools support students' researcher identity development? C. What meaning did students assign to the Freedom Schools service-learning research practicum for their story as a researcher? I used a phenomenological design to investigate the central phenomenon. Phenomenological designs allow researchers to understand the essence of a phenomenon through the lens of participants' experiences. In the years corresponding to fellow eligibility for participation in this study, PURPOSE fellows identified as Black (75%) and/or Latina/o (12.5%). I recruited nine former PURPOSE fellows from the first two program cohorts. The data sources in this study included archival and new data from former fellows several (3-4) years after completing the fellowship. The archival data source used in this study was an interview conducted at the end of the PURPOSE fellowship experience. The new data sources included two one-hour interviews with participants. One interview focused on beliefs about research identity and background research and service experiences and stimulated recall around excerpts from the archival data sources. The second interview focused on experiences conducting research and serving in the Freedom Schools context. I present findings in the form of individual case stories for each participant that illustrate their researcher identity development before, during and after PURPOSE. Themes derived from axial coding are aligned with the three research questions. The first research question explored how participants experienced the PURPOSE program requirements of conducting research and serving stakeholders in the Freedom Schools context. Participants in this study described subtle balance between research and service in Freedom Schools, characterized by an integration of service with research. All participants emphasized the importance of building relationships with stakeholders in order to successfully complete research. Building relationships also supported service in the Freedom Schools context. The second research question explored how the service-learning research practicum in the Freedom Schools supported (or not) participants' researcher identity development. First, most fellows identified as insiders within the Freedom Schools context, supporting their ability to navigate the context to serve and do research. For some fellows, identifying as an insider felt natural because of their racial identity or ties to the surrounding community. Two themes occurred across participants' expressed beliefs about what it means to be a researcher. The themes were researcher responsibility and researchers solving problems in community or moving society forward. The third research question explored what meaning the Freedom Schools held for participants' stories of their own researcher development. Two major related themes emerged. The first theme, Freedom Schools Foundational to Researcher Stories, represents an entry-focused shared meaning of the Freedom Schools as foundational to their researcher stories, with several fellows using the metaphor of laying a structural foundation. The second theme, Becoming a Social Science Researcher in Freedom Schools and PURPOSE, represents an exit-focused meaning of what participants left the context with, in terms of identity development. Taken together, these themes interact to explain how participants conceptualized their researcher identity development after participating in a service-learning research practicum at the CDF Freedom Schools. Participants in this study all made the decision to set their PURPOSE research projects in the context of the Freedom Schools summer camp. All of the participants in this study were highly successful at conducting the research studies they had designed only one semester earlier as well as balancing their research with service to Freedom Schools stakeholders. "Showing Up" was a central theme representing day to day experiences in the Freedom Schools context because without a consistent presence in the context, it is plausible that fellows would not have felt like insiders or been able to develop meaningful relationships. In summary, I found that early career (i.e., undergraduate, n = 1, and graduate, n = 8) researchers leaned into the transformative context of the Freedom Schools to grow in their practice as responsible researchers, build relationships with stakeholders, and build efficacy for centering stakeholder needs in the research process. Most of the participants in this study came to the PURPOSE program and the Freedom Schools context with social capital in the form of rich service identities and prior service experiences. Participants' positionality as experienced "service-oriented people" may have allowed them to experience the Freedom Schools context as one without clear boundaries between research and service. At the same time, their service identities were connected to their expressed feelings of responsibility as researchers, especially given the opportunity to explore research problems in the Freedom Schools that most fellows perceived as the same or similar as their community given the salience of their racial identities. The Freedom Schools context provided a space for the integration of research and service identities as fellows grew in their practice as responsible researchers. Fellows also conceptualized their research as service by approaching research problems in the Freedom Schools that felt like doing research for their community, especially for fellows who identified as Black. For these fellows, doing social science research in Freedom Schools was a step for them towards their goals of using their own scientific practice to solve problems that will transform society, particularly for members of society who look like them. At the same time, for fellows who came to identify as insiders in the Freedom Schools context through research and service and held values about the potential of research to change society, the Freedom Schools was similar to a counterspace that affirmed their identities and supported the work they did with the Freedom Schools stakeholders. I discuss implications for these findings, limitations of the study, and next directions in research on the experiences of early-career scholars building their programs of research in the Freedom Schools and beyond. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] (As Provided). |
| Anmerkungen | ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml |
| Erfasst von | ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC |
| Update | 2024/1/01 |
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