Future of Learning: Students research inequality in schools

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By Javeria Salman

As the coronavirus crisis and racial justice protests intensified last year, a group of nine Rhode Island students deeply impacted by these events channeled their reaction to the turmoil in an unusual way — research.

The research projects, by high schoolers at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence, commonly known as the Met High School, or more simply as “the Met,” involved much more than a typical term paper. Drawing on their own experiences, the students developed a set of research questions that were both sophisticated and original: “What advantages and disadvantages do female students of color face in schools, and how does it affect their learning journeys?” “How can historically marginalized students pursue meaningful paths and healthy careers after high school?” “How can the Providence public schools improve education for high school ESL/ELL Latinx students?” “How do the racial and ethnic backgrounds of students and teachers affect student-teacher relationships within the classroom?” And, “How do public school teachers’ impressions of students impact their education and accessibility accommodations within the classroom?”

The students were members of the Youth Action Researchers at the Intersection (YARI) Project, a program aimed at mentoring youth researchers and amplifying their voices. All of the students have learning differences, such as ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, or executive function disorder. And all come from groups that are marginalized because of race, gender or low socio-economic status.

The student-led program is based on the Youth-led Participatory Action Research approach, in which students are “trained to conduct systematic research to improve their lives, their communities and the institutions intended to serve them.”

“We really wanted to base our project on something that connected us,” student Laila Ibrahim said of the first-steps taken by her all-female group. “So we sat down and we were like, all right, what do we have in common? And it was that we are all women of color that had been in white majority education at some point in our life and that had drastically impacted the way you were able to learn.”

So what happened when these students were given the space to examine and question the American education system from the perspective of their own learning experiences?

The students approached their research in four-parts: ask, look, discover and share. Once they received training on research methods and refined their questions after discussions with adult researchers, the students spent hours gathering data and sources published on their topics, then conducted a literature review of those resources. When the pandemic curtailed plans for in-person data collection, they conducted virtual focus groups and interviews with students and teachers, sending digital surveys to their peers and to educators at the Met High School; a few emailed students and teachers at other schools in the Providence area. Then they organized the gathered materials and analyzed data to find insights and patterns.

The YARI project is operated by KnowledgeWorks through the Students at the Center Hub with local partners from the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education (CYCLE), the Met High School, and the Youth Development Program at Rhode Island College (YDEV@RIC).

At the outset, the students met with mentors and support staff to map out their education journey and reflect on both the good and the trauma they experienced as a result of their disabilities, or their membership in a marginalized group, said Rolando Fernando, the project lead and director of impact and improvement at KnowledgeWorks.

“There’s a certain sense of restorative justice,” Fernando said of the discussions with students, which acknowledged and valued “what they have to say and what they bring into the conversation.”

The importance of “feeling reflected” was a running theme in almost all the students’ research presentations — brought up by the students the young researchers interviewed, and solidified by their own experiences within classrooms. In the conclusion of their presentation, Monroy and Ibrahim stressed that students shouldn’t be “othered” in education spaces. Rather, educators need to make sure students feel reflected, as when “reflected light bounces off an object in a way that turns another into itself when looked at from the right angle.”

Send story ideas and news tips to salman@hechingerreport.org. Tweet at @JaveriaSal. Read high-quality news about innovation and inequality in education at The Hechinger Report. And, here’s a list of the latest news and trends in the future of learning.

The Shortlist

1. Broad coalition requests expansion of E-Rate funding. A nationwide assembly of schools and library associations, including New America’s Wireless Futures Project, Open Technology Institute and Education Policy program, filed an emergency petition yesterday asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to authorize additional E-Rate funding needed to help close the remote learning gap due to connectivity issues that has only worsened as a result of the pandemic. The additional funding, the coalition argues, will “help schools connect students to the internet and enable remote learning for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The request goes before the FCC as acting chairwomen Jessica Rosenworcel, newly appointed by President Joe Biden, takes the helm. While a similar action went unanswered last year by the FCC, Rosenworcel’s knowledge of the issue — she coined the term “homework gap” — shows promise.

2. National awareness campaign to combat misinformation. The News Literacy Project (NLP) and the E.W. Scripps Company have teamed up to host the second annual National News Literacy Week. With so much news and misinformation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 elections, and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the focus this year is to educate the public on why news literacy is a life skill and provide tools for everyday people to be better informed. The NLP has released several services and tools for educators to use in their classrooms to teach students about news literacy and misinformation, such as a resource library filled with lessons plans and activities. Along with a webinar for educators, to be hosted later today, the NLP is also set to launch its NewsLit Nation educator network this week.

3. Providing mental health education in classrooms. As students and teachers across the country continue to face unprecedented challenges because of the pandemic, there is a growing need to address mental health concerns. Erika’s Lighthouse, a nonprofit that raises awareness about teen depression, is offering its depression education programming free for the 2020-21 school year. The program, available for remote learning and hybrid learning, aims to assist teachers with mental health education by providing resources and lessons. The lessons, which encourage the involvement of school mental health officers and parents, allow educators to address the stigma around mental health issues like depression and teach middle and high school students about good mental health.

Future of Learning: Students research inequality in schools

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