The Wallet Investigation
Before learning about basic qualitative and quantitative research methods, the students and teacher explored the idea of conducting research in ethical ways by completing a ‘Wallet Investigation’. Designed by Professors Susan Groundwater-Smith and Nicole Mockler, this activity involved taking everything out of the researcher’s wallet to see what they could find out about her. After recording ideas on post-it notes and generating themes, the students and teacher were asked to return everything to the wallet exactly as they had found it. Discussions of the impossibility of achieving this led to developing the project’s Code of Ethics (see pp. 3-4 of the co-authored report for more details).
For more information on the Wallet Investigation, see:
Groundwater-Smith, S., & Mockler, N. (2003). Learning to Listen: Listening to learn. Sydney, Australia: MLC School, Burwood and the Centre for Practitioner Research, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, pp. 2-3. Retrieved from https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/23700
Exploring Engagement
Before we could conduct research about improving engagement for everyone in the program, we had to explore our ideas about what engagement is, as well as its enablers and barriers. After brainstorming ideas that we arranged into themes, the students and teacher chose images that for them, represented substantive engagement in meaningful learning. Through this activity, we found that there is no one way to conceptualise engagement.
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For these students, engagement was conceptualised in active terms | ||
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These students believed that engagement is about potential | ||
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These two students focused on the idea of patience – working at a slow and steady pace towards eventual completion | ||
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The Indigenous student and the teacher focused on the idea of community and being part of a bigger picture | ||
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This student described engagement as a feeling that once you are really engaged it can go on forever | ||