May 30 (blog prompt #1)...Can we have values and not be biased?
Scroll back through your posts to your May 28 blog posts…look for examples of values entering the arena of ed. research. Are these
examples problematic? Are the expressions of values biased? Any other thoughts?
I see perspectives involving preconceived ideas and values about the purpose of education leaking int the arena of ed. research. The concept described in a few posts from last week are not related to ideas held by the post writers, but instead about how researchers in general develop their ideal of what the purpose of education is and how it takes place through their academic and professional careers. These ideas come across as non-value neutral research questions and conclusions, which produce partially developed or rushed ideas for research projects and eventual policies. I think this is a true danger in ed. research, as it allows for politicization of research through the production of unsound research thought, and in the end produces inequitable and ineffective policy for the service of students in education.
ReplyDeleteThe other side of this perspective is the expressed need for some researchers to 'argue' their point in order to change education. I think this can be a contentious premise, since the point of research is to find the "truth" of effective education, I think, and the result of needing to "argue" the truth is, again, incredibly polarized ideologies related to what should be taught, how, etc. I think my own personal biases come across here, such that there should be some form of basic, common sense ideology of biasing education towards the students and not the wants and needs of ideological groupings.
Reading back through the blog posts from 5/28, I saw a few similar themes emerging. Several posts reflected R & R’s point about interests shaping the direction of ed. research. I believe an individual’s interests are influenced by values and/or experiences, so in that way, research questions begin as value-laden. I also got the sense from reading some of the blog posts that our interests are fluid and impacted as we travel through our doc programs. We are being exposed to what VCU’s school of ed, our professors, and our advisors value, which even with the best of intentions still represents bias. I’m not certain that I see this as problematic, so much as inevitable and worthy of consideration.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kristina. Our experiences shape our understanding which may be bias. I don't think being bias is problematic, if it is not harmful towards others. For example, people may have a bias about foods and the types of people they find attractive enough to date. In classes I took during my master's program, the professor assigned us to become aware of out bias and face them. It was kind of like exposure therapy. The point was to recognize we have a bias and that's ok as long as we can accept it and face it or know when to ask for help with it.
ReplyDeleteWell, sure. One of the things I find frustrating about ed research is that I feel like values are often underlying research and policy but are not articulated. For instance, as an art educator, I would have to say that art is not considered a value on its own merit but a tool in the service of a very different set of values. I think there is a space between "values" and "morals" and I am comfortable with one and more reluctant to see the other incorporated into policy. "Value" leaves room for nuance and discussion - think of beauty or justice or self-determination - whereas morality implies a kind of progressive yet restricted journey through schooling. I think our discussions over the past however many months have been rooted in finding and articulating our values for the sake of transparency and to assist us in forming our research questions, and I don't see value as equivalent to bias. CM
ReplyDeleteAs I scrolled through the May 28th blog posts, I saw many statements where values shined through. When some of my classmates spoke about making an argument about a position, they drew on examples from personal experience and beliefs with regard to being supportive to new teachers and students with challenges, the need for policy changes additional support in the area of special education, pushing for equity amongst specific marginalized groups, as well as issues pertaining to vaccinations, autism, and corporal punishment. Researchers tend to focus on what they value, whether they are attempting to shed light on an issue that they believe warrants improvement, is causing harm, or simply needs more attention. For the most part, I do not believe this is problematic since readers of literature are responsible for what they get out of their readings. People tend to read research articles in which they take interest. A responsible reader, likely, will take the time to consider the results of more than one empirical study. Those who only care about viewing results that align with their own personal views would probably disregard opposing results anyway.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that expressions of values have the potential to show bias. As implied, it is natural for one to spend time inquiring about things that they relate to or take issue with. Specific views may be forced at times. However, again, it is up to the reader to be a responsible consumer of research with the understanding that one study does not prove all cases. Without this understanding, it can become dangerous. There is a strong possibility that incorrect perceptions in the “wrong hands” of power can cause serious harm in any field.
I believe that it is inevitable for people to have interests and values that flow into their research, discussions, teachings, etc. I do not necessarily see this as problematic. In fact, I see this is a good opportunity to have beneficial conversations where individuals can stretch their understanding and offer counter arguments to one another. For this to work, everyone needs to be open to hearing new ideas and open to the idea of changing their own perspective. Overall, education is an ever-changing system that many people have thoughts about. The best way to avoid being biased is to be open to differing ideas and being challenged by others.
ReplyDeleteI agree Elisa, wasn't that kind of the definition of an argument that was presented in the book, that we would hear others perspectives and gain an understanding different from our own. Ultimately that might mean there may already be biases included but we do have to be open-minded and embrace new understandings and ideas. To me our values are going to be consciously or unconsciously included in our research. That is really how we ended up choosing our research interests based on topics that we are passionate about and opportunities for growth. AKT
DeleteI agree very strongly with my classmates' points- values and bias are the ever present elephant in the room that very few people want to address (unless under favorable conditions). Social science research is often inherently affective which opens the door for values and bias to seep in because people are affective beings. I can't think of anything a human might do that is not governed by his/her/their respective social lenses. People are constantly being challenged to consider the various lens through which they see the world; as long as people acknowledge that they bring certain biases and values to projects, I don't think it's problematic *BUT* I think people should be more critical about what projects they undertake based on their values (i.e. an extremely conservative person working on an extremely liberal project may not be a suitable fit).
ReplyDeleteWe all have biases, implicit and explicit, as evidenced by the responses in the May 28 blog. Our biases are influenced by how we were raised, what we were taught, and how we have directly and indirectly experienced situations. Values are created the same way. Therefore, I think that it is naive to think that your values do not form some biases and that your biases do not impact your values. The question is not whether we have can have values and not be biased. The question is are we able to recognize and acknowledge how we, as researchers, are impacted by these things. It is important that we give consideration as to how are biases and values impact our choices of what we will study. Not doing so can have huge implications for the study participants and the study itself.
ReplyDeleteIn order to conduct impactful research, you need to have a strong argument as to why you believe that this research needed to be conducted. I don't think any educational researcher conducts research to prove a point that they don't believe in or in something that is against their values. There will always be a bias in some form or another when looking into research of the social sciences. When we say the word "bias", its very easy and understandable to get defensive because almost always the term "bias" has prejudicial tone to it. But, the term "bias" can refer to just being partial to a group of people. Based on my experiences as a study in the public education and as a special education teacher, I know my work will always have a bias towards students with severe disabilities or a certain type of etiology because of the values that I have developed over the years. I hope that through the doc program, I can be more eloquent when talking about the biases I have through my research - that is my goal.
ReplyDeleteI know I cannot speak for everyone, but I feel that we are in this program because of our values and experiences that we have had is some environment that involves education (whether it be a teacher, administration, social work, etc.). I think that a person’s interest is impacted and shaped by the experiences that have happened to them personally or that they have seen. In turn, I think that our values are impacted through this. I think that it is natural that this flows into our research and opinions in classes. While this does not seem problematic to me, I think that an individual has to be open to knowing that other individuals have their own interests and values and that it is okay to disagree/agree through conversations. If we were all the same, with the same opinions, then it would be a perfect world with no problems. As far as the term “bias”, I think that it has received a bad connotation that is negative. However, when talking about certain topics and such, I relate more to my field because it is what I know, feel comfortable with, and have the most experience with. Therefore, I can agree that I am more bias towards special education. I think that a part of this program is to guide doc students how to face biases as a researcher and how to have it not impact our studies.
ReplyDeleteIt was so interesting to read through our comments from last week and look for examples of values. Although the question from last week asked us to discuss "arguments" in writing research, many of us wrote about the "why" that leads us to make the argument. The places we see a need for change in our education system often come from our own experiences. These experiences lead us to have certain biases that many of us acknowledged in our answers to how we then use research to create an argument. Although the argument is a guiding post for the research, it inherently takes on value because it pushes for one way of thinking about a problem/solution. Part of writing a good argument according to the chapters we read is to acknowledge the other side. I think this is where the bias can best be checked. However, as Elise wrote last week, "Education is always a discipline of passion." This passion often translated in our comments last week to places were our own personal values were visible. We are each bringing our own set of values (who we are interested in studying, why type of schools "deserve" our focus, how our research should influence policy, etc) that we need to keep in check since we can't totally rid ourselves of this value-laden work we are in.
ReplyDeleteIn this field, many are motivated to research because of their values. I think without values, a lot of this research would be boring and would lack innovation. Education is an interesting field because you are researching the impact of actions/interventions onto others with a more holistic approach to evaluation versus others fields where effects can be measured with more concrete scientific metrics (weight loss, size of a tumor has been reduced, blood pressure or cholesterol are lower, etc.). I do not think it will be possible to get from either of these in the field of education.
ReplyDeleteI really like Ira's point in this thread that bias does not necessarily have to be towards a topic/solution but can also refer to a particular group. I have personal biases for intellectual disabilities and healthcare professionals, I do not think I will ever get away from that. It's a passion of mine now and it motivates my work.
*kayla
Values and experiences lead to the 'why' and often sets us up for an argument that validates our role as a student and interest in the future of our practice. I would say that many of the comments stated WHY people were doctoral students and how their lived experiences led them to VCU. I also noticed lots of details about individual value statements that support their decisions to engage in this work. I do think bias can be a part of this and I am also not sure how to have values or express said argument without any bias at all. In this case is bias bad? I don't think so but I think it warrants some conversation among students. It is important to understand perspective in order to understand the arguments on the table. I think re-reading the posts was helpful in learning more about the class and how they are approaching this work. It is helpful context!
ReplyDeleteI only feel comfortable reporting on the bias evident in my own blog post but there’s no shortage of them! I’m not sure how you separate bias and passion- how can you be passionate and committed and dedicated and take the “personal” out of it? I’m not sure that I can think of a scenario where this is possible.
ReplyDeleteFurther, I recently had an experience were my values and bias were highly respected. I was just at a conference where the talk was planning for the development of a measure of parental involvement in schools. The team wanted to create a questionnaire that could provide an overall indicator of a parent’s involvement in their child’s school as combine these scores to create an overall score at the school or district-level. The team presented their method for determining items on the measure which included focus groups made up of stakeholders, teachers, administrators, you get the idea. They also looked at previous measures to determine what was great about them and what fell short. I was impressed with the amount of consideration they put into so many factors related to single parent households and families of low SES. My question to the team was about whether they had considered students with disabilities and their families in this development and their pilot study- which seemed to shock the crowd a bit. Inherent in the special education process are mandates that require parental participation to some degree- opportunities for parents to get more through and regular communication from school about their child’s academic progress (or lack thereof). The team had considered this to some extent, but I get the feeling that the audience may have not since this sparked several follow up questions. I felt like it was my duty in some sense, to let my bias regarding the careful consideration and inclusion of special education students and their families be known in an effort to solve a problem.
Nicole Peterson
DeleteI’m not sure if we can have values and not be biased. I do believe our values and biases are inextricable linked to everything we do. And I also believe, in an effort to keep biases from unduly impacting our actions and beliefs (especially to the detriment of other perspectives and positions) we must remain vigilantly reflective and intentionally seek out exposure to the experiences and positions of others. Considering that research is unavoidably impacted by human values and experiences, it is even more important to approach research and argument construction as more of a conversation or dialogue, as R&R compel and many of my classmates mentioned in the May 28th blog. In this way, our ideas and arguments (informed by values and biases) come into contact with the ideas and arguments (and values and biases) of others. In the field of education, it is always a hope that these exchanges might potentially lead to productive and progressive change in people, ideas, research agendas, and their impact on students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy. I think that there is no way to enter the arena of education research without our values also entering. I think it becomes a matter of recognizing what our values are and how we apply them when doing research. There's always potential for our values to be problematic and/or reflect biases. In reviewing the posts, I see a variety of values, understandings, and biases. I think that in seeing this variation it is important for us as researchers to state our positionality going forward with our research. For example, I see my classmates grappling with the idea of an argument (from Rallis & Rossman's explanation) in different ways. Some see it as an important tool; some see it as a tricky concept. I think it is important for us to see how different people are approaching the same ideas as we all try to think about our approaches to education research.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through the comments on the last post it seems to me like we all have different bias. We all came back into education for reasons and for many of us it's because we are frustrated about ____ thing in education. We feel passionate about making change. I don't think there is a way to put aside our experiences and passion to form unbiased research. I think the best thing researchers can do is reflect on their bias and supposed "knowledge" of how things work and why. In order to be a reflective researcher, you should question your bias but that doesn't mean you can get rid of it.
ReplyDelete