Division D Equity and Inclusion Committee Invited Session: Rebuilding Community Through Rigorous and Inclusive Educational Research

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

After unprecedented disturbances to high-quality instructional opportunities, the use of evidence-based practices to support positive student outcomes has never been more important. Educators need help accessing assessments that provide meaningful and trustworthy data designed to identify students’ learning needs as well as evidence-based instructional practices that support those needs. The evidence underlying these assertions must be robust and insightful regarding when, for whom, and under what circumstances these assessment and instructional practices are appropriate. However, we are at a crossroads in which discriminatory research and policies have led some to push back against participating in educational research. This environment presents the perfect storm with members of the educational research and assessment communities needing to conduct inclusive research while participants are refusing to engage in exclusionary research methods, such as randomized controlled trials. In response to this fraught environment, some researchers are engaging in co-design and participatory research to engage with historically disenfranchised communities to build evidence that is relevant and representative of their needs, while simultaneously rigorous and inclusive.

This session addresses the central question of “what counts as rigorous research that is inclusive and responsive to the needs of historically disenfranchised communities?” The session has three parts.
• Part 1: The speaker will provide an overview of how the educational research community defines rigorous research, and historical trends in exclusionary and exploitative practices.
• Part 2: Five panelists will discuss co-design and participatory research as mechanisms for reaching the goals of conducting rigorous and inclusive research. Exemplary projects will be shared.
• Part 3: A representative from the NSF-funded Advances in Informal STEM Learning Equity Resource Center will describe efforts to equip community-based organizations with resources to build research and practice capacity.

Sub Unit

• Division D - Measurement and Research Methodology

Chair

• Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller, Southern Methodist University

Presenters

• Ezekiel J. Dixon-Roman, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Zachary Alstad, TERC Inc.

• Jessica Fields, University of Toronto - Scarborough

• Emi Iwatani, Digital Promise

• Maria Elena Oliveri, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Lisette Esmeralda Torres-Gerald, TERC