Methodology

            There is a difference between traditional research, and PAR.  The two both get the researcher what they are looking for just in different ways.  With Traditional it is done by outside “experts: researchers.  Their goal often to gain knowledge for its own sake, that they are researching.  They use methods like focusing on the background studies, data gathering and analysis.  This way is one that a great deal of people has used for many years, until PAR came around, which in my opinion in much more interesting.

            The insider of research does PAR, which is their way to turn research into action.  They use some methods that are similar to traditional but mostly they collect data through observation in the field.  PAR is comparable to activist people, because for instance they could be going through something, and they can go and do PAR research to protest what they don’t like about the issue.  This something that I am glad that we did in our humanities class, because it was not like we had traditional research like going to library, and researching in books and etc.  At the sites that we were placed at were ones that pertained to out topic, which in my section was education.

            Boston Teachers Residency is where I was placed for my CBO internship.  Boston Plan runs this program for Excellence.  This was a program that was a 12-month program that people, who want to become teachers in Boston Public System, could take awhile in school.  Once they finish and graduate from the program they are then placed at Boston Public Schools where they are supposed to stay for at least 4-years. Boston Teacher’s Residency’s mission statement is a “one-year urban teacher preparation and certification program developed as part of Boston aggressive commitment to improving instruction in every classroom” B.T.R.  This was something that was very interesting to me, because I was able to see how teachers, become teachers.

            On the site I collected a great deal of data.  I was exposed to the program itself as well as conferences about the program and was able to view a class of a couple of the program’s graduates. This was something that helped me answer the questions that I had about the program. When I first stated the internship at the site I thought that there was nothing that I wanted to know, because I do not know anything about it.  Questions like what is the purpose of this program came to mind, and what does it have to do with education, and once I was greeted by the employees of the company, and as time prevailed I begin to learn a great deal about the program, which made me feel as though I could talk to anyone on the streets about the program.  This is something that I am glad that I had the opportunity to do, and be exposed to as well.

            While doing this project I had to use Geographic Information System in order to gather some of my information as a tool.  Geographic Information System is the tool that human geographers use to represent social issues, and certain connections to geography. Once I received all my information I decided that I want to do a map of all the urban schools and of all of the suburban schools there are, because this could help view how many schools are in certain areas, and how many students attend these schools, and then I am able to compare and contrast.  Then I noticed that the urban area has more schools then suburban schools, and then I noticed that urban areas have more schools but they are receiving fewer resources then the schools in the suburbs, which have fewer schools.  This is something that everyone should think about.