The task? To condense a lot of information in a tight space - a brochure. I actually expanded this and allowed for a one-page (Kelly Gallagher style), if it is front/back.
Kelly's approach? In a Writing for Publication course (one of the most valuable courses I took in my program), we were tasked to review a research journal and to conduct a genre analysis of what they publish - a brochure to guide other graduate students who might like to work with such a publication outlet.
Note: I used the brochure approach in other courses as independent book projects. So much information gets condensed into informative nuggets that are marvelous. The brochure requires this.
For this semester? I have in-service and pre-service teachers taking an action research course and their fear/confidence level with research is on a very wide spectrum. The task was to do what Kelly once asked of me: choose a journal, figure out what it's for, explore its parts, name the styles of what gets published, and then advertise the journal in a "snapshot" for others. It's a wonderful task.
My students? They offered the following words to describe the experience: fun, hell, challenging, frustrating, overwhelming, useful, informative, logical, academic, playful, visual, helpful, and comfortable. (I had 3 absences in class, but these words are helpful to me and my instruction).
I made the case that researchers, including teacher researchers, have to take weeks, months, years of data collection and condense it in a way that is useful for others to read - some journals more practitioner-friendly than others. Those who hated doing this because there was way too much information to condense into such a tight space learned the lesson that this is the quandary of research. How does one report phenomenon in a way that resonates with others as reliable truth?
I then shared the NCTEAR presentation from this weekend, and highlighted the teacher researcher, Allison Fallon, and her findings as a practitioner in her classroom on using #UNLOAD: Guns in the Hands of Artists to push argumentative writing with her students. She has revisited and adapted her curriculum as a result (and even continued this after presenting in Alabama).
Yes, the world is complicated, but informative writing allows us to name truths we should be able to trust. This is what research does for us - it helps us to name effective practices and close proximities to knowledge as best as we can. The brochure (or one-pager/well, two-both sides) is a great metaphor for the larger work of academic research.
No one knows everything. Some like to claim they do. The research lens lends itself to an angle of truth, whether or not is is viewed as reliable by the vast majority of the world who aren't parent of such discourses. It is, however, the best way we have to name educational practices that work.
Scholarship matters. So does communicating it so that others can make sense of it.
The brochure.
That's it.
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