Running head TRSL 2 PERSONAL RESEARCH AGENDA

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Amy M Hewett-Olatunde
TRSL 2 Educational Platform, Part 6
Personal Research Agenda: Research Identity Memo
GED 8507 Frameworks for Inquiry
Spring 2013
Hamline University

















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Amy M Hewett-Olatunde
TRSL 2 Educational Platform, Part 6
Personal Research Agenda: Research Identity Memo
1.What prior connections (social and intellectual) do you have to the topics, people,
or settings you plan to study? How do you feel about these topics, people, or
settings? What assumptions are you making, consciously or unconsciously, about
these? What do you want to accomplish or learn by doing this study? What beliefs
and assumptions about your topic or setting have resulted from these experiences?
What goals have emerged from these, or have otherwise become important for your
research? How have these experiences, assumptions, and goals shaped your decision
to choose this topic, and the way you are approaching this project?
How does a community-building platform in the classroom build self-confidence and
create tools for self-advocacy among high school English Language Learners?
The prior and current social connections I have to this topic are that I have employed
community- building techniques in my classes for the past 14 years at LEAP High
School, teaching adult English as a Second Language (ESL) at the HUBB Center and
Marsden Company, undergraduate classes at Hamline University, Concordia University,
Inver Hills Community College, and graduate classes at the University of St. Thomas and
Hamline University. I have been able to collaborate with amazing colleagues who believe
in the same efforts as myself. I have also been able to work with some different theater
and art groups (Pangea Theater, Central High Schools Black Box Theater, Park Square
Theater, Walker Art Center, and Minnesota Center for the Books Arts) and their artists
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who have helped me gain invaluable perspective into community building in the
classroom for building student self-confidence and advocacy.
The prior intellectual connections I have to this topic are varied. My experience in
teaching graduate courses in Second Language Acquisition and Advocacy for ELLs has
helped me understand the theories for how students learn language, how language affects
their everyday struggles, what impedes them, what propels them, and how they view
themselves in their new environments. To teach community building to students is great,
but to understand how to implement it in a way that best helps the students stems from
the intellectual awareness of how community building will make evident gains from the
students perspectives.
Throughout my coursework at Hamline, there have been a number of texts, which
have validated my belief in engaged pedagogy and leadership in the classroom. When I
read Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, the practice of this form of transformational
teaching touched my heart. Then, this past semester we have the privilege of reading
Kellermans Bad Leadership, which helped solidify how leadership is a crucial
component of transforming peoples lives. When you work with impressionable youth,
you should have a heightened awareness of the type of leadership you are exhibiting and
what type of leadership qualities you can bring out of your students.
I feel deeply passionate about the subject of community building, increasing self-
confidence, and tools for advocacy for my high school ELLs because I work with these
teenagers and young adults every day, and I love them. Because I want their transition to
the United States to be as painless as possible, I feel it is my responsibility to make their
education intellectually and emotionally moving. The atmosphere I create in my
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classroom needs to be one that is nurturing, explorative, challenging, and engaging. If I
can help them see the potential I see in each of them individually, it may help support
them in ways past the walls of my classroom.
The assumptions I have made are that these students need teachers to help them build
self-advocacy tools. I base these assumptions on what I have seen first-hand in my
classes over the past fifteen years. There have been too many times where students dont
understand their rights, their voices have been suppressed, they are trying to figure out
where they fit in in America, and more so as a teenager in a new country.
What I want to learn and accomplish from this study are to get a better idea of the
students perspectives and assumptions of how their teachers have implemented
community building and self-advocacy techniques in their classrooms. More specifically,
I want to know pre and post semester what students have seen as a transformation in
themselves based on the activities they have performed in class. Can they see or feel
changes in their self-confidence or the way they view themselves? How has their self-
awareness altered?
My decision to choose this topic is based on that I keep returning to it. I have changed
my topic from poetry to leadership to advocacy, but I keep coming back to student self-
advocacy. When I began teaching ESL 6612: Advocacy for ELLs at Hamline University
two years ago, I had a turning point. I have always advocated for my students in and out
of school, but this course so specifically targets the concepts of advocating for ELLs,
teaching ELLs to advocate for themselves, and how advocacy changes the face of a city,
a state, and a nation. Advocacy in the classroom to me means: community building with
students as a whole group, creating opportunities for students to form relationships with
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each other, dialoging with them individually through a Writers Workshop approach, and
incorporating the arts (visual, dramatic, and musical).

1.What potential advantages do you think the goals, beliefs, and experiences that
you described have for your study? What potential disadvantages do you think
these may create for you, and how might you deal with these?
Sorting out and assessing the different personal, practical, and intellectual goals
(Maxwell, p. 32) is a difficult task. However, the potential advantages of the goals,
beliefs, and experiences I described above are that I am invested in the topic, the students,
and the outcomes. I am so invested in the topic I am considering writing a dissertation
about it and spending a substantial amount of money on this. I want to research a topic I
feel impacts my life, my students lives, teachers lives, and the field of ESL. I think that
when someone chooses a topic they are employing in their daily life, it enriches the
research. If I am able to choose a select group of teachers who I believe have the same
passion for this in their classroom, it will help me to look at the qualitative outcomes in a
more impactful way. Beyond the research, I would like to be able to present this topic at
national conferences, work with individual teachers and bodies of staff to create change
in our schools nationwide. The demographics of our schools will only continue to change
and in some cases, the minority and non-native percentage will outweigh the majority,
native numbers in the school. My goal for the teachers who are selected and agree to
participate in my research is to be excited to make their way through a semester using
different community building techniques with their students.
The potential disadvantages of the goals, beliefs, and experiences I described are that
I am too invested in the topic and the students. I know I have strong feelings for what
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works in a classroom and what doesnt work. I need to be willing to open myself up to
new forms of community building that I havent tried before. It might be difficult to
choose teachers who have a diverse group of students, are passionate about their students
and the curriculum they are presenting to them, because of district-wide initiatives that
may impede their creativity in the classroom. I am convinced that with the network of
educators I know, I will be able to find some noteworthy teachers who would be willing
to be part of this journey.
Other possible disadvantages that I see occurring would be starting with an original
group of ELL students and not ending up with that original group by the end of the
semester due to transfer, changing English levels, or dropping out. The ESL population is
more transient than most due to a number of factors such as: job transfers for family
members, changing residence, having to acquire a job to support family, pregnancy and
taking care of a baby, mental health issues, helping their family/extended
family/community members with going to appointments, or being at home to help. I
would hope I could find a couple of groups that would stay stable from beginning to end,
but I cannot guarantee that.
This study carries both a personal and professional investment: the investment I have
made and the investment I have yet to make. I need to choose a topic that I feel there is a
need for in my field, and I need to choose a topic I can implement in my daily practices
as an educator. Learning how to open up, expose ourselves, and be vulnerable shows
courage. Through this courage we find ways to advocate for what is right, and hopefully,
advocacy becomes a daily part of our lives.


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Bibliography
Lagemann, E.C. (2000). Elusive Science: The troubling history of education research.
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3
rd
ed.).
Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: evidence-based
inquiry (7
th
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.































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TRSL D: Rubric for Platform (No. 6)

Part 1: From 6 Traits of Writing
5 - Strong shows control and skill; many strengths present
4 - Maturing strengths outweigh weakness; small amount of revision needed
3 - Developing strengths and weaknesses are about equal; first-draft stage
2 - Emerging isolated moments begin to show what writer intends; need for revision outweighs
strengths
1 - Not Yet getting started, but the result is unclear, struggling, tentative; writer is searching
and exploring


Part 2: Scholarly Characteristics
Criteria Scoring
Guide
Comments
The platform bridges or connects
your understanding and experience
of leadership and the course
materials and content.
5 4 3 2 1


The platform includes insight(s)
about yourself as a leader, based on
brief but concrete examples and
descriptions from the present, and
your hopes or intentions or both.
5 4 3 2 1








Criterion Scoring
Guide
Comments
Ideas and Content:
-Writer grounds espoused
theory(ies) about leadership by
citing specific authors/ theorists
and includes details (paraphrased
or verbatim) from their works or
ideas.
-Writer provides brief concrete
examples and details from current
practice or what hopes to do or
both.

5 4 3 2 1




5 4 3 2 1


Organization: Writer composes a
platform that is well organized so
that the readers may move through
text easily.
5 4 3 2 1


Voice: Writer is engaged, imparts
personal tone, individuality
5 4 3 2 1


Conventions: Writer demonstrates
standard spelling, punctuation,
grammar and attribution of sources,
if necessary.
5 4 3 2 1


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