Final Thoughts ... For Now

What follows is a brief glimpse of my Week 5 reflection assignment. The assignment really made me thing about what I had learned, how I can use this new information, and how I may apply it in the future.

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Prior to the start of this course, I thought of research as something that other people did. Those other people would be university faculty, theorists, or possible district administrators. But never did I think that I would be the researcher.

The readily accepted idea of research is that of a faculty member of a university faculty that is “considered alien to the everyday happenings in schools” (Dana, 2009, p. 4). Dana continues that, in this type of university based research, principals are expected to navigate educational situations based on what outside experts (e.g. university researchers) suggest they do (2009, p. 4). If we, as administrators (or to-be-administrators, in my case), rely on outsiders to do our research, the research won’t match up. Therefore, the benefit of administrative inquiry over traditional research is that it removes the “middle man” from the situation and puts the power in the hands of a person (an administrator or teacher) with first hand experience with the situation.

This idea of performing my own research seemed foreign to me, and stayed that way through the end of Week 1. But by the end of the week, I truly began to understand the reasons why I should conduct my own research. Put into a classroom context, it would be the same as if a fellow grade level teacher came to me with test scores and I designed an intervention program for her students without ever meeting them or learning of their specific needs. The grade level teacher needs to be the one to design the intervention program because she has specific knowledge about each child that will help her to design a proper program. As an outsider (similar to a faculty member of a university), I don’t have firsthand knowledge of her students, and my intervention program will most likely not deliver the results needed or desired.

Once I understood my role as researcher, I began to look deeper at the students of my campus, the results we have been achieving, and the goals that we have set. There are so many possible research topics that came to mind, and it was difficult to narrow my choices down to a single wondering on which to focus my research project.
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And with that, I will leave you with my official EDLD 5301 wondering. I will be performing research on this topic throughout the fall semester, and I hope to present my results to district personnel before Christmas 2010.

Would a year-round educational plan be received positively by the staff, parents, and students of my campus, and might it be successful in comparison to other schools with similar demographics that are already in a year-round system?