It is official!
I have officially decided to pursue a MEd
thesis instead of a major research paper. As a full time graduate student I
have the privilege to complete research of my choice as part of my program exit
requirements. I had the opportunity to decide during my first semester the
topic and scope of my research interests by taking various master’s courses and
speaking with members of the department. The master’s courses that I took in
the first semester are as follows; (1) Teaching, learning, & development of
education, (2) Introduction to Research Methodologies, (3) Innovative Practices
in Curriculum/Assessment (K-16), & (4) Developmental and Educational Issues
in Children and Adolescents. This semester I am taking (1) Qualitative research
methodology, & (2) Theories of Literacy.
I had begun this program this past September knowing that
the driving force behind the rationale for taking my Masters now was that I was
passionately curious about the power and potential that dramatic playbuilding
can have on Qualitative research literature available to researchers. I wanted
to seize this opportunity to be academically encouraged and challenged to
expand and explore areas of educational research that need some attention and
TLC to bring it into 21st century relevance for our students.
In order to frame the posts that will likely be occurring over
the next two years about my research I would like to include a condensed
version of my official research thesis plan!
Research Proposal: Monica Taylor
About the Study: Research
Interests/Rationale
In collaboration with a local school board,
a qualitative research study will be conducted to explore the elements of
environmental literacy that currently exist in school communities. The study
itself will be between 8-10 sessions in length, whereby secondary students
workshop, rehearse, and create a play about the environment and students
attitudes towards it (e.g., how do they feel about global warming,
sustainability, eco-responsibility), as well as how the environment is
perceived or talked about in schooled environments. Once ready, this play will be presented to
junior division students (e.g., grades 4-6) in order to gain access to a more
comprehensive scan of students’ ideals around environmental issues.
Participating in DART 3F93 Social Issues
Theatre for Community Engagement with Dr. Joe Norris allowed me to see the
potential level of engagement and meaning-making of playbuilding and applied
theatre techniques for participants and audiences alike. Using playbuilding as
qualitative research method will provide student participants creative freedom
to explore environmental literacy from a individualized, arts-based
perspective.
With a boom in inquiry-based projects in the
21st century, collective responsibilities to engage in a more
environmentally active society are necessary.
This is particularly the case with notions of sustainability and
environmental consciousness. My undergraduate degree in dramatic arts and
geography lends itself to a curiosity about the effectiveness of literacy
initiatives that can enhance students understanding themselves as active 21st
century agents of change for the environment. Additionally, discussions
regarding literacy and effective literacy engagement initiatives have led me to
a desire to research with students to actively explore current school
environmental literacy initiatives.
Proposed Research Methodology
The study
methodology that will be used for this study is Playbuilding (Norris, 2009;
Tarlington & Michaels, 1995) with case illustrations/vignettes. I chose
this qualitative approach because: a) I have a background in theatre and
studied this discipline in my undergraduate degrees (e.g., DART 3F93 Social
Issues for Community Engagement); b) playbuilding allows me to work with two
diverse groups of students and collect data on both; and c) an arts-based
approach invites all voices and perspectives to be included.
As mentioned above, I will work with
secondary students in the Niagara region to develop and produce a 45-minute
play that will be performed to a younger audience (i.e., junior grades). Data
will be collected on both sets of study participants to get a wider
understanding of environmental literacy in schooled settings. Data sources will
include: a) interviews, b) surveys, c) focus groups, d) video of the devising
and the play itself, e) photography, f) student blogs, and g) student work
samples. Data will then be coded and categorized into relevant themes. Vignettes
will be selected—those that highlight these significant thematic patterns in
order to triangulate the data.
If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments about the proposal I would be overjoyed to hear from you!
