Workshops

Blurring the Lines between Research, Teaching, and Action
with Elsa Auerbach

Rapporteur: Tamara Levine

We started by looking at a photograph of Laotian immigrant children standing beside a chain-link fence in California with a warning sign about cancer-causing chemicals in the area. We were asked to look at the photograph as a teacher, as a researcher, and in any other role. How would each interact with the photograph?

A teacher could

• discuss the photograph with literacy learners without reference to the words
• pick out the word "Warning" and unpack it
• lead a discussion about what the photo is saying, especially about systems that put immigrant children into danger
• give the group a camera to take back to one's community, consider taking photos, writing letters to the mayor etc. as part of a political action strategy

 A researcher could

• translate the sign into Laotian
• explore why the children are in danger 
• look at the history of the housing project, why these families live there, what chemicals are involved, what action is needed
• look at any other impacts

As a whole group, we talked about these different roles. We concluded that teachers want to transform, researchers have questions but not an obvious audience for their answers. Both want to help make change. The link between research and practice is most valuable when it contributes to changing the lives of participants. Here are some of the highlights of the discussion:

• We need to ask: who is the research for? What will it accomplish?
• Approaching something as a teacher, researcher or activist leads to a different place on the same circle
• We need to look at how literacy links to so many other aspects of learners' lives (e.g. poverty and violence). These can be barriers to learning, but they also provide a wealth of material for curriculum content in a social justice model of education. 

 Learners can play the role of researchers if we are willing to "hand over the tools of production".