Student Participation in the Research Process
with Norah Randall

Rapporteur: Elsa Auerbach

Nora works at the Reading and Writing Center in Duncan, BC. It is a storefront centre, and most of the students are First Nations. Nora wanted to do inquiry with students, but didn't know how. She had an idea she liked, but the students were not interested. This made her ask, How would I start from the students' interests? She realized that the answers she got would depend on the questions she asked.

Nora invited participants to describe how they have done research with students. Here are comments from participants:

• In Alberta: groups of students talked about what they wanted to change within the centre. Their priority was the computers. Part of why this research worked was that the group was already in place. The students were used to working together and discussing things.
• Funding came first, then teacher interest, then student involvement. Getting learners to see themselves as people who can find out something they want to know takes weeks to develop.
• In one project, what worked was doing a photo project with learners. They were asked to take community analysis photos that addressed the question, "What do you see in this community that serves you, that doesn't serve you." This project raised the question, what other cultural spaces exist where people can address community issues?
• In one successful project, teachers introduced and structured the research and it was successful.
• One group was dealing with the issue of not having enough money to buy food. The members of the group all ran out of money mid-month. As a group they decided to contribute at the beginning of the month and buy food collectively.
• In one group, students were asked to research something about the environment (land, air quality, water quality). Then they made recommendations for the town council.
• Another group did a history project. Learners researched different things that had happened in the community and published their findings.

The group discussed what conditions allow inquiry to grow, and came up with the following:

• a safe environment
• a sense of community, ongoing relationships and group
• key people
• doing something concrete
• standing back and letting the learners to it
• finding the question that intrigues

Another option could be to involve students in inquiry about how they view progress.

The workshop ended with a discussion of the differences between action research and participatory action research. Action research focuses on researching teaching practice, and students could be involved in this. Participatory action research would mean that students participate in developing the research process from the beginning, including determining the research questions; its goal is action beyond the classroom.