Lori is an early childhood educator at a child care centre in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The centre director where she works was approached by researchers to participate in a study about the effects of professional learning on educator practice that would occur over six months. The researchers attended a staff meeting to describe the research study, provide consent forms and check in with staff throughout the study. Each time Lori attended a workshop, she completed a questionnaire provided by the researchers. At the end of the study, the researchers returned to the centre to present their results in a PowerPoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this scenario, the researchers completed their study on time and educators participated in professional development. The experience was collegial and each learned something new. The study results were also published in a research journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now consider another perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lori is an early childhood educator at a child care centre in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The centre is connected to several community organizations and the residents of the community. The community leaders won a grant to provide funds to the child care staff for professional learning opportunities. They wanted to find out whether providing this funding improved staff practice with children and families. They approached a research team about a potential research study. After some discussion, they agreed a study about the effects of professional learning on educator practice should be conducted at the child care centre over the next twelve months. Over the first month of the study the researchers, community, community leaders, director, staff and board of directors collaborated to learn about each other, their priorities and determine the details of the study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lori regularly participated in traditional teachings with an Elder from her home community as part of her own self-care practices. While collaborating with the researchers, she asked about the definition of professional learning, wondering if these teachings would be considered under this definition. The researchers considered this view and brought the idea to the group. During this discussion, there were differences in worldviews. Some educators, community members, and researchers believed this should count as professional learning, while others did not. After listening and considering all perspectives, together they agreed traditional teachings would be included in the definition of professional learning and, along with the participants, determined an appropriate way to record this data with Lori and her Elder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this scenario, the community identified the need for research and the group planned for additional time to build a relationship with one another. The debate about the definition of professional learning caused some friction and delayed the study. However, the process of engaging in this debate resulted in a higher quality study and unexpected, more meaningful, results. At the end of the study, the group celebrated with a feast where the researchers and centre staff shared the results of the study with the larger community that were later published in several research journals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lori is an early childhood educator at a child care centre in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The centre director where she works was approached by researchers to participate in a study about the effects of professional learning on educator practice that would occur over six months. The researchers attended a staff meeting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4812","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4812"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5502,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4812\/revisions\/5502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}