When You Forget the Glow Sticks, Getting Lit Takes On Another Connotation in an Educational Research Class

The intention was to turn out the lights and give everyone a glow stick. We were going to have a mini-rave party like I used to do with my high school seniors...a fun, playful way to energize the research process.

My exhausted, fried, and dragging graduate students, however, interpreted the first slide of last night's presentation with the humor I would expect. They wished they were 'getting lit' to do their literature reviews.

Note: This is where I give props to Dr. Sari Biklen and Dr. Elizabeth Payne for their mentorship of qualitative research. I'd shout out to the quantitative researcher I studied with, too, but the class was so traumatic I've wiped the name from my mind. I did well in the class, but the teaching was abominable and I will forever be scarred from quantitative research as a result. I'm also thankful to my dissertation committee who had me revise and revise and revise again before I defended.

I'm still wiping sweat from my brown.

Fairfield University requires Educational Research in its program and I found myself teaching an Action Research course to fill the gap in our program. The course is interesting by design as the outcomes are rich: to understand educational research, to partake in a mini-action research project, and to experience some (1/1,000th) of what occurs in a dissertation.

It's all developmental. As we move to the literature review, I am finding that the graduate students go into complete anarchy mode: it's too much, I don't get it, I have nothing to contribute, I don't know how the review answers my question, I haven't even taught yet, etc. etc. etc.

I'm 100% sure they will all be successful, but the panic is severe and I'm feeling it all. They have to include 7 to 10 articles in their review. I thought that was doable and still do. I've paced the article expectations, too, throughout the semester. I'm using my NWP background to plan backwards and to be highly teacher-friendly. I'm hoping they will be proud of their results and have a better understanding of how educators consult research to inform their own practice.

Still, a lot of cuticle biting as we head to the literature review. "How am I supposed to summarize all these articles [read 7 to 10] into a 6 paragraph summary?" (How was I able to dilute over 600 articles into my own work?)

Well, that was what the class was about...How to take much information and to thematically put it into digestible chunks that cites what was reviewed.

It's developmental, it's developmental, it's developmental.

I'm loving this course and glad I am teaching it, but it is a huge undertaking and it's given me even more appreciation to those who have guided my path.

After last night, I can understand why glow sticks are a sad alternative to the modern connotation to the phrase. But, research matters. It is the poetry of the profession.