ERIC ED398549: "The Changer and the Changed": Student-Initiated Research on Literacy Motivation and Schooling. Reading Research Report No. 61. PDF
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 398 549 CS 012 567 AUTHOR Oldfather, Penny; Thomas, Sally TITLE "The Changer and the Changed": Student-Initiated Research on Literacy Motivation and Schooling. Reading Research Report No. 61. INSTITUTION National Reading Research Center, Athens, GA.; National Reading Research Center, College Park, MD. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 96 CONTRACT 117A20007 NOTE 38p. PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Educational Change; Higher Education; High Schools; *Longitudinal Studies; *Research Design; *Research Methodology; Student Motivation; *Student Participation; *Student Research IDENTIFIERS California (South) ABSTRACT Through a Bakhtinian lens highlighting the "interanimation of voices," this paper describes the research roles of a group of high school students in Southern California who participated as co-researchers and then as members of a participatory research team in a longitudinal study. Students' developing roles as question posers, methodologists, interviewers and data analyzers, presenters and writers, theory builders, and change agents are documented as they collaborated in inquiry in their high schools with teachers and with two university researchers. As these students examined their own motivations for literacy learning, they claimed personal learning agendas, gained increased voice in their schooling, and contributed to scholarly knowledge. Underlying the processes of the research have been realignment of relationships and epistemological shifts that have the potential for transforming schooling. (Contains 28 references. An appendix lists presentations by student co-researchers. Exhibits present a research status report, an e-mail sample, a sample interview, a newspaper article, and a co-researcher's note on a research team meeting agenda.) (Author/RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** "The Changer and the Changed": Student-Initiated Research on Literacy Motivation and Schooling Penny Oldfather University of Georgia Sally Thomas The Claremont Graduate School U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Peffhis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. National Reading Research Center READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 61 2 Summer 1996 BEST COPY AVAILABLE NRRC National Reading Research Center "The Changer and the Changed": Student-Initiated Research on Literacy Motivation and Schooling Penny Oldfather University of Georgia Sally Thomas The Claremont Graduate School READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 61 Summer 1996 The work reported herein is a National Reading Research Project of the University of Georgia It was supported under the Educational Research and and University of Maryland. Development Centers Program (PR/AWARD NO. 117A20007) as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the National Reading Research Center, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, or the U.S. Department of Education. 3 NRRC National Reading Research Center Executive Committee National Advisory Board Donna E. Alvermann, Co-Director Phyllis W. Aldrich University of Georgia Saratoga Warren Board of Cooperative Educational John T. Guthrie, Co-Director Services, Saratoga Springs, New York University of Maryland College Park Arthur N. Applebee James F. Baumann, Associate Director State University of New York, Albany University of Georgia Ronald S. Brandt Patricia S. Koskinen, Associate Director Association for Supervision and Curriculum University of Maryland College Park Development Jamie Lynn Metsala, Interim Associate Director Marsha T. DeLain University of Maryland College Park Delaware Department of Public Instruction Nancy B. Mizelle, Assistant Director Carl A. Grant University of Georgia University of Wisconsin-Madison Penny Oldfather Walter Kintsch University of Georgia John F. O'Flahavan University of Colorado at Boulder University of Maryland College Park Robert L. Linn James V. Hoffman University of Colorado at Boulder University of Texas at Austin Luis C. Moll Cynthia R. Hynd University of Arizona University of Georgia Carol M. Santa Robert Serpell School District No. 5 University of Maryland Baltimore County Kalispell, Montana Betty Shockley Anne P. Sweet Clarke County School District, Athens, Georgia Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Linda DeGroff U.S. Department of Education University of Georgia Louise Cherry Wilkinson Rutgers University Publications Editors Research Reports and Perspectives Production Editor Linda DeGroff, Editor Katherine P. Hutchison University of Georgia University of Georgia James V. Hoffman, Associate Editor University of Texas at Austin Dissemination Coordinator Mariam Jean Dreher, Associate Editor Jordana E. Rich University of Maryland College Park University of Georgia Instructional Resources Lee Galda, University of Georgia Text Formatter Research Highlights Angela R. Wilson William G. Holliday University of Georgia University of Maryland College Park Policy Briefs NRRC - University of Georgia James V. Hoffman 318 Aderhold University of Texas at Austin University of Georgia Videos Athens, Georgia 30602-7125 Shawn M. Glynn, University of Georgia (706) 542-3674 Fax: (706) 542-3678 NRRC Staff INTERNET: [email protected] Barbara F. Howard, Office Manager Kathy B. Davis, Senior Secretary NRRC - University of Maryland College Park University of Georgia 3216 J. M. Patterson Building University of Maryland Barbara A. Neitzey, Administrative Assistant College Park, Maryland 20742 Valerie Tyra, Accountant (301) 405-8035 Fax: (301) 314-9625 University of Maryland College Park INTERNET: [email protected] About the National Reading Research Center Dissemination is an important feature of NRRC The National Reading Research Center (NRRC) is activities. Information on NRRC research appears in funded by the Office of Educational Research and several formats. Research Reports communicate the Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education to conduct research on reading and reading instruction. results of original research or synthesize the findings of several lines of inquiry. They are written primarily for The NRRC is operated by a consortium of the Univer- researchers studying various areas of reading and sity of Georgia and the University of Maryland College reading instruction. The Perspective Series presents a Park in collaboration with researchers at several institu- wide range of publications, from calls for research and tions nationwide. commentary on research and practice to first-person The NRRC's mission is to discover and document accounts of experiences those conditions in homes, schools, and communities Instructional schools. in Resources include curriculum materials, instructional that encourage children to become skilled, enthusiastic, lifelong readers. NRRC researchers are committed to guides, and materials for professional growth, designed advancing the development of instructional programs primarily for teachers. sensitive to the cognitive, sociocultural, and motiva- For more information about the NRRC's research projects and other activities, or to have your name tional factors that affect children's success in reading. added to the mailing list, please contact: NRRC researchers from a variety of disciplines conduct studies with teachers and students from widely diverse Donna E. Alvermann, Co-Director cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in pre-kinder- garten through grade 12 classrooms. Research projects National Reading Research Center deal with the influence of family and family-school 318 Aderhold Hall interactions on the development of literacy; the interac- University of Georgia tion of sociocultural factors and motivation to read; the Athens, GA 30602-7125 impact of literature-based reading programs on reading (706) 542-3674 achievement; the effects of reading strategies instruction on comprehension and critical thinking in literature, John T. Guthrie, Co-Director science, and history; the influence of innovative group National Reading Research Center participation structures on motivation and learning; the 3216 J. M. Patterson Building potential of computer technology to enhance literacy; University of Maryland and the development of methods and standards for College Park, MD 20742 alternative literacy assessments. (301) 405-8035 The NRRC is further committed to the participation of teachers as full partners in its research. A better understanding of how teachers view the development of literacy, how they use knowledge from research, and how they approach change in the classroom is crucial to improving instruction. To further this understanding, the NRRC conducts school-based research in which teachers explore their own philosophical and pedagogi- cal orientations and trace their professional growth. NRRC Editorial Review Board Peter Afflerbach Mary Graham Suzanne Clewell Montgomery County Public Schools University of Maryland College Park McLean, Virginia Rockville, Maryland Rachel Grant Jane Agee Joan Coley University of Maryland College Park University of Georgia Western Maryland College Barbara Guzzetti JoBeth Allen Michelle Commeyras Arizona State University University of Georgia University of Georgia Frances Hancock Janice F. Almasi Linda Cooper Concordia College of Saint Paul, University of Buffalo-SUIVY Shaker Heights City Schools Minnesota Shaker Heights, Ohio Patty Anders Kathleen Heubach University of Arizona Karen Costello University of Georgia Connecticut Department of Education Harriette Arrington Hartford, Connecticut Sally Hudson-Ross University of Kentucky University of Georgia Jim Cunningham Marlia Banning Gibsonville, North Carolina Cynthia Hynd University of Utah University of Georgia Karin Dahl Jill Bartoli Ohio State University Gay Ivey Elizabethtown College University of Georgia Marcia Delany Eurydice Bauer David Jardine Wilkes County Public Schools Washington, Georgia University of Georgia University of Calgary Janet Benton Lynne Diaz-Rico Robert Jimenez Bowling Green, Kentucky California State University-San University of Oregon Bernardino Irene Blum Michelle Kelly Mark Dressman Pine Springs Elementary School University of Utah Falls Church, Virginia New Mexico State University James King David Bloome Ann Duffy University of South Florida Amherst College University of Georgia Kate Kirby John Borkowski Ann Egan-Robertson Gwinnett County Public Schools Notre Dame University Amherst College Lawrenceville, Georgia Fenice Boyd Jim Flood Linda Labbo University of Georgia San Diego State University University of Georgia Karen Bromley Dana Fox Michael Law Binghamton University University of Arizona University of Georgia Martha Carr Linda Gambrell Donald T. Leu University of Georgia University of Maryland College Park Syracuse University Bernard Spodek Barbara M. Palmer Susan Lytle University of Illinois Mount Saint Mary's College University of Pennsylvania Bettie St. Pierre Stephen Phelps Bert Mangino University of Georgia Buffalo State College Las Vegas, Nevada Steve Stahl Mike Pickle Susan Mazzoni University of Georgia Georgia Southern University Baltimore, Maryland Amber T. Prince Ann Dacey McCann Roger Stewart Berry College University of Maryland College Park University of Wyoming Gaoyin Qian Sarah McCarthey Anne P. Sweet University of Texas at Austin Lehman College-CUNY Office of Educational Research and Improvement Veda McClain Tom Reeves University of Georgia University of Georgia Louise Tomlinson University of Georgia Lisa McFalls Lenore Ringler University of Georgia New York University Bruce VanSledright University of Maryland College Park Randy McGinnis Mary Roe University of Maryland University of Delaware Barbara Walker Eastern Montana University-Billings Mike McKenna Nadeen T. Ruiz Georgia Southern University California State University- Louise Waynant Sacramento Prince George's County Schools Barbara Michalove Upper Marlboro, Maryland Fowler Drive Elementary School Olivia Saracho Athens, Georgia University of Maryland College Park Dera Weaver Athens Academy Elizabeth B. Moje Paula Schwanenflugel Athens, Georgia University of Utah University of Georgia Jane West Lesley Morrow Robert Serpell Agnes Scott College Rutgers University University of Maryland Baltimore County Bruce Murray Renee Weisburg Elkins Park, Pennsylvania University of Georgia Betty Shockley Fowler Drive Elementary School Susan Neuman Allan Wigfield Athens, Georgia Temple University University of Maryland College Park Wayne H. Slater John O'Flahavan Shelley Wong University of Maryland College Park University of Maryland College Park University of Maryland College Park Margaret Smith Marilyn Ohlhausen-McKinney Josephine Peyton Young Las Vegas, Nevada University of Nevada University of Georgia Susan Sonnenschein Penny Oldfather Hallic Yopp University of Maryland Baltimore University of Georgia California State University County About the Authors Penny Oldfather is Assistant Professor in the Sally Thomas is Director of Teacher Education at Department of Elementary Education at the The Claremont Graduate School. She has almost 30 University of Georgia. She has sixteen years of years of teaching experience in a variety of educa- public school experience in teaching and adminis- tional contexts, mostly in public schools. She tration. She received a B.A. from Oberlin College, received a B.A. from Pomona College, an M.S. an M.A. from the University of South Dakota, and from the University of Southern Mississippi, and her Ph.D. from The Claremont Graduate School, her Ph.D. from The Claremont Graduate School, where she received the Phi Delta Kappan Peter where she received the Phi Delta Kappan Peter Lincoln Spencer Dissertation Award in 1991. She Lincoln Spencer Award in 1994. She shares a a principal investigator with the National is number of research interest with Oldfather. Addi- Reading Research Center. Her research focuses on tionally, her research focuses on assessment as it student motivation and social constructionism in affects the learning and achievement of students teaching and learning, with particular interest in and teachers inside classrooms and the development qualitative research processes that explore students' of schools as learning communities. Dr. Thomas perspectives. She has published in such journals as has published in such journals as The Learning Journal of Reading Educational Researcher, Disabilities Quarterly and The Reading Teacher. Behavior, Research in MiddleLevel Education, and Language Arts. She currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Literacy Research. National Reading Research Center Universities of Georgia and Maryland Reading Research Report No. 61 Summer 1996 "The Changer and the Changed": Student-Initiated Research on Literacy Motivation and Schooling Penny Oldfather University of Georgia Sally Thomas The Claremont Graduate School How can I explain who I am without seeing Abstract. Through a Bakhtinian lens highlighting your face? the "interanimation of voices," this paper describes How will you understand without seeing mine? the research roles of a group of high school students How can I express how I feel without in Southern California who have participated as co- knowing your heart? researchers and then as members of a participatory How will you understand without knowing mine? research team in a longitudinal study. Through inquiry focused on understanding their reasons and Florencia Garcia, eleventh grade purposes forlearning across multiple school contexts student-researcher over a 6-year period, they have grappled with issues of literacy learning and motivation. The findings of The questions posed in Florencia Garcia's that research, however, are not the central focus of this paper. Rather, we document the students' poem represent qualities that have been central to the findings and relationships surrounding developing roles as question posers, methodologists, interviewers and data analyzers, presenters and our research on students' intrinsic motivations writers, theory builders, and change agents as they for literacy learning. Her poem embodies her have collaborated in inquiry in their high schools sense of the intertwining of voices and selves with teachers and with two university researchers. that have occurred within relationships that the As these students have examined their own motiva- students found in motivating classrooms. These tions for literacy learning over the course of this intertwinings and revelations of selves have study, they have claimed personal learning agendas, also been at the core of experiences that we gained increased voice in their schooling, and have have shared as a research team. Florencia contributed to scholarly knowledge. Underlying the wrote her poem by way of self-introduction processes of this research have been realignment of for an article that she and two other student- relationships and epistemological shifts that we researchers wrote with Thomas (Garcia, believe have potential for transforming schooling. 1 2 Oldfather & Thomas Kilgore, Rodriguez, & Thomas, 1995). The explicitly to learners' social construction of writing of that article was one of many meaning, the continuing impulse to learn is activities in which the students have partici- defined as: pated over the almost 6 years of this lon- gitudinal research (Oldfather, 1993, 1995; An on-going engagement in learning that is propelled and focused by thought and Oldfather & McLaughlin, 1993). feeling emerging from the learners' The purpose of this report is to describe processes of constructing meaning. The outcomes of the students' involvement in a more continuing impulse to learn is character- active phase of the study in which they have ized by intense involvement, curiosity, conducted their own research in their high and a search for understanding as learn- school. They have grappled with ongoing issues ers experience learning as a deeply per- of literacy learning and motivation, although sonal and continuing agenda. (Oldfather, these are not the focus here. Rather the paper 1992, p. 8) addresses concerns of voice, power, justice, and trust as the students enact roles as researchers There are several premises about motivation that are generally denied them. They have underlying this research: become question posers, interviewers, method- ologists, theory-builders, presenters, writers, and Rather than directing efforts in motivation 1. change agents. Penny Oldfather, Sally Thomas, toward trying to get students to do and learn and eight teachers collaborate with these student- what others advocate, such efforts should be researchers on the research team. Each one focused on developing classrooms in which involved has become, in the words of Chris students find their passions, discover what they "Changer and the Williamson's song, the care about, create their own learning agendas, Changed." and most importantly, connect who they are to what they do in school (Oldfather, 1992). Project History and Methods When students experience meaningful 2. Chapter I connections between school and self, they will likely become lifelong learners and construct The story of our research has three the knowledge and acquire the skills that teach- chapters, all of which unfolded in a subur- ers and parents hope to foster. ban community in Southern California. Initiated by Oldfather, Chapter 1 was set in In order to begin to understand the roots 3. Sally Thomas' fifth- and sixth-grade class- of students' intrinsic motivation within school- room of 31 students during the 1989-90 ing, we need to access their emic (or insider) school year. The purpose of the initial research perspectives, and if possible, through in-depth was to understand conditions that support inquiry over substantial periods of time across students' continuing impulse to learn. Linked multiple school settings. NATIONAL READING RESEARCH CENTER, READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 61 10
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