About a month into my internship at the Education Research Alliance, I have learned far more than I expected about the education reform landscape in New Orleans. It is fascinating how much you can learn through a different lens – though I have spent most of my undergraduate career involved in education reform in some manner, the civil rights perspective that I have utilized for the purposes of my paper has reshaped my understanding of the benefits and consequences of education reform. I attended a conference put on by the Education Research Alliance (which I will detail in another post!) two weeks ago that directly exposed me to the complexities of reform in a city like New Orleans, where racial and socioeconomic narratives have shaped much of public education’s development and history. Before beginning this research, I understood that there were varying viewpoints on the effectiveness of school reforms in New Orleans, but investigating how the civil right to a free, fair education had been violated for several populations has made me more critical of those who claim that education reform here has been unconditionally successful.
Another learning goal of mine was to understand the process of writing self-directed case review. Though I do have a supervisor for this paper, I have been given significant freedom in deciding which cases to cover, whom to interview, and how to structure the paper itself. College students are certainly granted some degree of freedom in their academic papers, however there is almost always some sort of direction involved. When I first started this paper, I found myself constantly seeking to check in with my supervisor to ensure that my work aligned with Era’s needs. She eventually pointed out that this is my paper, and I am allowed to structure the case reviews however I see fit. While this level of freedom has been challenging for me, it has also been empowering. This process has taught me how to seek feedback in an effective manner, one that allows me to explore my own ideas while occasionally checking in with my supervisor.
I also hoped to improve my interviewing skills this summer, specifically in the context of conducting interviews for this paper. I have conducted interviews for academic papers before, but most of those have been with professors and other Tulane-associated staff or students rather than with community members. Interviewing community members for this paper has taught me quite a bit about framing and approach, given the controversy involved in the civil rights cases. Many local parents and education activists feel as though they have been excluded from the entire reform movement, and that they no longer have a place to bring their concerns after the elimination of a centralized school district. Therefore, it is important to represent their opinions and experiences correctly and also objectively, as to acknowledge that there are many parties involved in these cases. I have made some progress on this goal simply through conducting a few interviews, but I could certainly use some improvement. Last week I interviewed a prominent local activist and was so nervous I nearly called her by the wrong name! (I caught myself just in time, but there was definitely an awkward pause.) In short, I hope that as I continue to conduct the last few interviews for these papers that I continue to improve my community engagement skills, which are essential to the advocacy I hope to pursue later on.
I am most proud of how my confidence in my own research abilities has developed since I started this paper. Though I have been writing research papers since freshman year, it is a bit different to write a paper for a research organization. As mentioned previously, I have learned quite a bit about the differences between writing for a class and writing for an audience of researchers; while this has been intimidating at points, ultimately I believe that it has helped me develop essential skills both for potential future research and also for effective community engagement from an academic standpoint.
Okay, I think that is all the reflecting I can bombard you with for now! I am excited to start actually writing the case reviews and hopefully having the chance to interact with more parents, students, and community members involved in education along the way.