What makes me a researcher?

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I’m attending the Ontario Education Research Symposium. It’s an enlightening experience since I don’t ‘clothe’ myself as a researcher. As I talked to others who are here, they each have a ‘researcher’ title or role attached to their persona. I’m here as an educator and have never considered myself a researcher. Now that I am about to enter into this field of endeavour, I’m paying attention to what a researcher looks like.

The one group that spoke today was a group of grade eight girls from a Catholic school in Ottawa. They did a research project about girls in STEM – taking a look at questions of gender equity and perceptions. Since they are all self- identified as interested in science and math, this was of interest to the. I met with another group of students from east of Sault Ste Marie who researched the student use of e-learning at the high school level. Both groups spoke with knowledge and passion about their research projects. Data was shared and discussed. Next steps were identified.

While this research IS research, it’s not at the same level of complexity as the project being undertaken by TDSB (from my morning session) around equity of outcomes for immigrant and marginalized populations, particularly black men, and specifically for post-secondary attendance. This three part session highlighted several research questions that required complex data collection and analysis. The intersectionality data was particularly interesting since I was viewing it from the perspective of having just read the Functional Art by Alberto Cairo. The sharing and showcasing of data for an audience was not particular strength of any of the presenters so the message was left flat. So, showing and sharing data, research, analysis and conclusions with media in mind will certainly be part of my considerations.

In the end, only one day so far and one more to go, I’ve connected more strongly with an individual from the Orion table more than any of the researchers in the building. We had a great conversation at lunch about our common threads that weave through the work we do. But I’ll keep reaching out, talking to people and maybe I’ll find the threads from which I can weave my researcher’s cloak.