A Participatory Research Study

Daniella Cardia and Berry Stein
An Integrative Masters Project Bank Street College of Education
2015

Abstract

For more than ten years, the Seventh Grade Humanities Class at the Little Red School House has embarked on an ambitious, multi-layered research project pertaining to colonial America. Following a one-week trip to Colonial Williamsburg, students conduct personal research on a topic from the time period; write a paper based on their scholarship; and create a unique presentation as a part of the culminating exhibition, the Colonial Museum. The present study focuses on the exhibit component of this semester-long project. This study is a collaboration born from the faculty’s previous informal evaluations of the project and our own interest in the classroom museum as a powerful source of learning. We entered this project as participatory action researchers, seeking to evaluate the project’s strengths and areas of growth.

In evaluating the Colonial Museum project, we began our work as weekly student teachers in the classroom. Ongoing informal observations contributed to our findings. We worked with students from the preliminary research stages through the museum presentation. Leading up to the development of their exhibits, we led a workshop on museum exhibit design. Following the Colonial Museum, we distributed a class-wide survey to better understand students’ experience of the project. Along with the two classroom teachers, we then identified six students for case studies and conducted interviews with them.

After capturing and analyzing the collective data from observations, the survey, and interviews, we addressed four primary research questions: how can the project best meet the needs of all students?; how can the presentation promote an understanding of intercommunal relationships?; what kinds of understandings and skills are students acquiring through this process?; and how can the project best be archived?

We found this project to be a rich and fruitful project for students. To enhance their overall experience we pose eight recommendations for faculty to consider. These include methods of addressing the more mature and difficult content of Colonial history; providing an alternative option for students struggling with historical character re-enactment; the age appropriateness of visitors to the museum; and building a digital archive.