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CRITICAL
RESEARCH
HANDBOOK
UCLA/IDEA
CRITICAL
RESEARCH
Teachers and students interested in seeing critical research from additional perspectives will
want to look to IDEAs online journal, www.
TeachingToChangeLA.org. Here you can
find examples of critical research projects at
every grade level, including student-generated
surveys, observation forms, and other critical
research tools. We encourage you to contribute your own critical research projects to www.
TeachingToChangeLA.org. For more information, please contact tcla.gseis.ucla.edu.
John Rogers,
Associate Director, UCLA/IDEA
Introduction:
Students Critical
Research and the Role
of the Critical Teacher
Critical research teaches students to notice and
understand how power and inequality shape conditions that affect their communities. It also helps
them identify or construct strategies that can challenge the status quo. There can be no escaping
that teaching critical research requires critical
teachingteachers with the knowledge and dispositions to ask questions such as, How do
apparently fair social practices belie deep inequities? Who benets from particular social and
economic policies? How do traditional practices in economic, educational, legal and other social
institutions stand in the way of social justice?
Rather than instructing students to study a set
of procedures gleaned from others experiences,
the teacher of critical research guides students
through their own sense-making and discoveries. The critical teacher encourages students to
identify problems that matter to them. Students
acquire a toolbox of research techniques, and they
practice matching appropriate tools to the questions at hand. Teachers help students reect on
their research process to address one of the main
problems that confronts all serious researchers of
social issues: how to keep focused while remaining exible as they venture into the real world of
their data.
Rigorous data collection is of little value if it
never sees the light of day. Critical research is
not only about the personal enrichment that comes
with learning certain facts and skills, but with
contributing to ones community of neighbors
and scholars. The teacher helps students explore
questions such as, Who will nd our data useful? Who should be exposed to this data?
What will be the obstacles to having our data
nd an appropriate forum? and so on.
The teacher can help students match their reporting media (formal reports, videos, Power Point
presentations, graphs) to their audiences, and
help students shape their presentations to such
audiences. Importantly, not all good teaching is
critical teaching, but all critical teaching must
be good teaching. The standard for student-centered, inquiry based, and caring teaching is simply
higher for critical teaching. Without this in mind,
critical teaching risks becoming as doctrinaire and
oppressive as uncritical teaching.
I. Identifying the Problem and Research
Question
Critical research is reexive; that is, it brings
personal experiences together with broader issues
outside ones own sphere. For example, a critical study may begin with an everyday experience that seems to have little connection outside
ones immediate surroundingsthe conditions
in ones neighborhood, disrespect for ones preferred music, lack of a textbook for a math class,
for example. But soon students discover that their
local concerns are at least partly the effects and
expressions of national policies and prejudices,
state laws, and macroeconomics.
A critical study also can respond to lawsuits,
policy initiatives, or organizing campaigns that
emerge far from the students home community.
Critical questions can reveal the immediacy that
these seemingly remote actions have with students daily lives. The benchmark for a good
critical topic is whether the researcher/student
feels that the topic matters to them. They must
also have a passion for nding the truth, the complete picture, and the hidden assumptions about
the topic.
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In Summer 2002, one student research group examined the social and physical conditions in
urban schools. They began their work by generating the following questions:
PHYSICAL ECOLOGY
SOCIAL ECOLOGY
Buildings
School climate
Positioning of school in
community
What role does the physical positioning of the
school in the community play in the physical
ecology of the school?
All critical learning is shaped by the prior experiences and knowledge of the participantsincluding the teacher. Research begins with free-ranging conversations to access that knowledgeasking, what concerns us, what do we know, why are
we angry, what are our experiences, what are our
theories, what is our evidence, and so on. But
these conversations, by themselves, can soon dry
up into complaints, negativity, and a sense of
hopelessness. Its the teachers job to make the
talk generative; that is, to use curiosity, concern, and outrage as a springboard to scholarship,
and scholarship as a lever for social change.
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Scaffolding Critical Readings
We have used this chart as a teaching tool for making sense of Jean Anyons analysis of how schools
provide different understandings of knowledge to students from different class backgrounds.
Working-Class Schools
Middle-Class Schools
Afuent Professional
Schools
What Students
Say About
Knowledge?
To know stuff?
Doing pages in our books and
things.
Worksheets.
You answer questions.
To remember things?
To remember.
You learn facts and history.
Its smartness.
Knowledge is something you
learn.
Where does
knowledge
come from?
Teachers.
Books.
The Board of Ed.
Scientists.
Teachers.
From old books.
From scientists.
Knowledge comes from
everywhere.
You hear other people talk with
the big words.
Could you
make
knowledge, and
if so, how?
No: 15
Yes: 1
Dont Know: 4
One girl said, No, because the
Board of Ed makes knowledge.
No: 9
Yes: 11
Id look it up.
You can make knowledge
listening and doing what youre
told.
Id go to the library.
By doing extra credit.
No: 4
Yes: 16
You can make knowledge if you
invent something.
Id think of something to
discover, then Id make it.
You can go explore for new
things.
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Accesing Existing Information. Students
can learn about school conditions from a number
of public sources. Newspapers, for example,
can be searched for recent articles about problems facing local schools. Government websites
feature data, reports, and legislation. To meet
federal guidelines, the State and local districts must
create annual reports on their programs and student performance. Students can access much of
this information online, through general searches
and by browsing the web pages of the California
Department of Education and their local district.
It is often helpful to use these data sources to
compare conditions at schools serving affluent
and low-income communities.
Of course, public reports are not the products
of critical research. They often lack vital information about educational opportunity and they
frequently downplay or disguise inequalities.
Students should always ask: Does this data make
sense from my own lived experience? What is
Online Educational
Data Sources
California Department of Education CBEDS
database les
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ope/research/
Download any California Basic Education Data Systems information that is available through DataQuest are available for
download here, though are generally to large to download to
Excel. Data available by ethnicity, gender, English language
learners, and poverty.
California Postsecondary Education
Commission
http://www.cpec.ca.gov/OnLineData/FindRpt.asp
Query or download College Going Counts, First Time Freshmen, Transfer Students, Higher Education Enrollments,
Degrees, High School Graduates, Private High School Grads,
Student Profiles, and Student Levels. Information is available
by ethnicity, and gender.
DataQuest
http://data1.cde.ca.gov/DataQuest/
Query user-created reports that include information on
the API, Course Enrollments, Dropouts, English learners,
Enrollments, Expulsions, Graduates, High School Exit Exam,
High School (SAT, ACT, AP0 scores, Physical fitness results,
Projected Teacher Hires, Special Education, Staffing, Stanford
9 Results). Information available by ethnicity, gender, SES,
and grade level.
Ed Week
http://www.edweek.org/sreports
The special reports section reports data and graphs by
state for teacher quality and technology. Free registration is required to retrieve this information.
Ed-Data
http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/
Query educational portraits at the state, county, district,
and school level. Included are school types, enrollments,
charter schools, class size, technology, student characteristics including ethnicity, language, free/reduced
lunch, and staff characteristics including ethnicity,
credential type, and assignment. User-created queries
can be made to compare districts and schools. Also,
statewide and national comparison of schools is available. Pre-made graphs are available for a snapshot of
Californias education system.
National Center for Educational
Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/
Query this site created by the primary federal entity that
collects and analyzes education-related data from the
United States and other nations. This site features data
from school and district locator tools; numerous education statistics; publications; and a searchable database
of NCES tables and figures.
6
Creating Interview Questions
One group of student researchers in Summer 2002 examined access to technology and textbooks
across several schools.
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DE: California is below the national average in per pupil spending but we are the most expensive state in the union to live. We
have to raise per pupil spending. We have the largest class size in
America above the third grade. We have to lower class sizes and
that means building more classrooms and hiring more teachers.
All this means more resources. The RAND Corporation did a
study and it showed that if you look at the factors that contribute
to the most successful students in the most successful states,
they spend more money per child. That is one out of five things
they do. They also have lower class sizes in elementary education; they have public preschool available for all kids, not just rich
kids; teachers report a lower turnover; and teachers report that
they have enough resources. All that stems back to the first factor,
which is higher per pupil spending, higher resources per child.
Lizbeth Antonio: How would you describe your role in
education?
DE: The role of the State Superintendent is several fold. First,
you are not the dictator or the empress and you dont tell people
what to do. In fact, a lawsuit that my predecessor lost says that the
State Board sets policy and certainly the governor and the legislature play a big role in setting policy and the budget. The state superintendent can in fact be used as a bully pulpit to be an advocate
for children and education. I advocated for class-size reduction for
K-3 and got ridiculed by the governor at the time, Pete Wilson, and
by some member legislators. Eventually, we got class-size reduction. I supported standards for all kids and all schools, and now we
have standards. At one point when Governor Wilson had illegally
taken $2.3 Billion out of schools, I was part of the lawsuit against
him to make him put that money back. We, in fact, got the money
back and that is where we actually got the money to do class-size
reduction. There isnt as much power and authority as one might
think, but there is a lot more moral persuasion and you do have
a bully pulpit. You can get in to see an editorial board and any of
the many interest groups that affect public policy. You can testify
before the legislature, and you can generally be a voice to fight for
what is right for kids.
LA: What type of changes would you like to see in the
California public school curriculum?
DE: I would like to see every child learning at least two languages. I would like to see the arts strengthened in the California public
school system. We are dead last in the number of music teachers.
I would also like to see every school have a garden in its school,
so that kids could really learn not only where food comes from but
also what the basis of a healthy diet is. I would certainly like to see
every California school have a complete and full public library with
a librarian. Id like to see us with more nurses and more counselors, as well as smaller class sizes in K-3.
AH: What are the current educational resources that students and teachers are entitled to?
DE: The State Constitution says that you are entitled to a free
and appropriate education, but it doesnt really define that in
specific terms. Every school isnt the same. Resources available to
a student at a small school like Whale Gulch in Mendocino County,
that doesnt even have electricity, arent many. I wish that I could
say that every district uses all of its money wisely and gives every
child a credentialed teacher and a textbook. Not every district
does an excellent job providing for that. We try to cajole them and
sometimes we sue them to try to force them to give kids what they
should be getting. We have a ways to go in California before we
give every child a free and appropriate education in my view.
AH: In yo ur opinion, why is it important that students have
access to educational resources?
DE: It is more important than it has ever been. In a democracy
where people respect one another, people have to be well educated. Even the founders of our country understood that. Now we
live in the information age where not only do we need to respect
your neighbors and one another, but we have to make sure that
you learn at a very high level because there are no good jobs left
in America for unskilled workersnone. If you really want a good
job in America, it is very important that you have a good education
because this is the information age. They use a lot of robots now
in a lot of what used to be considered unskilled labor. Now they
would have a few semi-skilled laborers. I had a high school student
tell me once that she was going to drop out of high school, join the
army, and drive a tank. I said if you cant read at the 13th grade
level and dont have high levels of skill in math, you cant drive a
tank.
When I was a child, you opened up the hood of the cars in the
1950s and it was a very simple matter (although I still couldnt fix
it). However, at the time you didnt need the level of education that
you need today to be a car mechanic.
AH: How evenly are educational resources appropriated
among California schools?
DE: The good news is that they are more equal than they once
were. The bad news is that not all of the money follows the child
into the classroom. Some districts are inefficient and a very few are
corrupt. Not every childs needs are the same. Even if you gave an
identical amount of money to two schools, if one school had lots of
children who didnt have books and opportunities to learn at home,
those children might need additional support. They would need
more than a child from a very affluent community, whose parents
have books in every room, has tutors, and lots of other support.
Again, I think that our goal should be not just absolute equality,
dollar per dollar, but in fact, additional support for children that
have learning challenges.
AH: What type of legislation would you support that would
establish equality in the amount of educational resources in
all California schools?
DE: I would raise teachers salaries even higher among some of
the poorest schools because that would be an attraction for more
senior teachers to work in some of the schools where the kids
really need extra help. Right now, lots of these schools have the
newest teachers and face the challenge that a lot of the teachers
are not fully credentialed. The kids with the biggest needs have
the least equipped teachers. I would reverse that and say that we
are actually going to give a bonus where we are going to pay more
and spend more for the poorest children. I would make sure the
schools were clean, well-lighted, safe, up to date with technology
as well as fully equipped libraries and enough nurses, counselors,
and of course good teachers. I would make sure that they would
have great sport programs, but also make sure that they would
have great art programs.
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Focus groups. Focus groups is the term
that researchers use for group interviews. There
are many ways to run a focus group such as small
breakout groups or large group discussions; and
there are a variety of ways to elicit the discussions
such as direct questions to individuals, turn-taking answers, or more of a free owing discussion
that is guided, but not strongly controlled by the
researcher. The group leader can supply a variety
of prompts such as data that the group might not
be familiar with, charts or videos, or simply questions.
Focus groups are not just a more efcient way
to get information from several people at one
time. Focus groups add a group dynamic that
inuences the responses people give. Whether
that inuence is helpful and whether it adds to
or hides the expressions and genuineness of individual responses depends on how the group is
managed. Focus groups allow the researcher
to see how people come to a consensus, how they
go through a change in their thinking when new
ideas or vocabulary are introduced, and how they
disagree. Focus groups can be followed up with
individual interviews.
Surveys. A survey asks a set of common questions to a large number of individuals. Some surveys seek responses from students in a classroom
or school. Other surveys seek responses from
youth in public places like parks or malls.
Surveys can range from a few questions to a great
many questions, however, shorter surveys tend
to draw a more focused response. It is important
that students design surveys that maintain the
same measurement for responses. In other words,
students might design their survey to measure
responses on a scale of 1-5, with a 1 representing a response of never and 5 representing a
response of always. Likewise, students might
decide to simplify a surveys response options by
only offering informants yes or no response
options. All surveys must be eld tested. That
is, the survey should be administered to a few
trial survey-takers in similar circumstances that
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Field notes. Field notes are the researchers
diary or journal of data collection activities. Field
notes are an important part of the research process
because they record what student researchers see
and what they are thinking. Field notes are typically kept in a notebook with each entry recording the date, time and location. When rst taken,
notes are typically brief, fragmented, and may be
illegible. A crucial step can be to write-up the
notescompleting partial thoughts, adding unrecorded circumstances, and so on. This write-up
step needs structured and perhaps supervised time
to complete. The objective of the eld note is to
record what the researcher sees and hears. No
detail should be considered unimportant; no incident too small to record.
July 17, 2002 Field Note
While in South High School, an overwhelming feeling overcame me, a feeling that I was in a school whose students
were in the climactic stages of social reproduction. Talking
to the counselor reaffirmed my conviction: nine hundred
students enter as freshmen; four hundred make it to their
senior year, only two hundred graduate. What happened to
the other seven hundred? It is my belief that they gave up
on the educational system, prompted by years of inequality
and subtle discouragement from achieving great things in
life.
Therefore, conducting a focus group interview was not an
easy task. I noticed right away that the Black and Latino
students separated themselves in the classroom, which is
probably how the school is divided during normal operating
time. Most of the students in the interview were listening,
but it seemed like they did not care enough to give thoughtful and meaningful responses. It seemed as if they thought
they were lab rats, guinea pigs whose responses would be
heard but not valuedalmost as if theyve been in the situation before and been disappointed. I was very happy with
the thoughtful responses of the students that did speak.
They really helped our research, and made me personally
more attuned to their struggles and needs at their high
school.
The schools physical ecology perpetuated incarceration,
in my opinion. Vending machines had thick, metal bars
around them, as well as the windows, and those machines
that were not enclosed were immediately locked up after
the bell rang. I also noticed that there were many places to
sort of hide out, and get into more trouble. Bungalows
were in the far corner of the school, and one girl even commented that she did not even know the school had them. To
me, the cafeteria area was too small to provide sufficient
space for the 2400 students that attend the school, and the
area that most students were made the students look like a
colony of mice whose hiding place had just been exposed.
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IV. Findings and Policy Implications
In this stage, students draw on their data analysis to develop a set of preliminary ndings that
respond to the original research problem. The
teacher and students should discuss what they
have learned that will be of interest to youth,
educators, community members, elected ofcials,
and other researchers. They will also want to talk
about the implications of their ndings for their
own further investigation: Do they need more
data? Do they need to revisit or refocus their
methods or assumptions? Only then can they be
on their way to informing others thinking about
the practices and policies they are investigating.
This stage of the research is particularly transformative for young people. By combining scholarship and experience, they construct knowledge
that helps to make sense out of their daily lives
and that lays out avenues for continued empowerment. Their work gives the students the authority
to demand attention, and it gives prospective audiences a reason to listen.
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