“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt
The topic I chose to research is how poverty affects children and their learning. I chose this topic for two reasons: 1. The schools that I have taught in and currently teach in have high populations of children coming from homes that are considered falling within poverty guidelines. 2. I have and continue to see the affects that poverty has on children in school from my 16 years of experience in the field of education.
The three subtopics that I came up with to help break down my research topic are:
1. Ways schools can assist families in breaking the cycle of poverty.
2. How identifying low income children in schools increases access of programs for schools.
3. Methods educators can use to ensure high quality learning to all children in classrooms.
Based on my experiences and observations of children coming from poverty homes, I do notice struggles that children have when their basic needs are not being met on a daily basis. I want to further research the topic of poverty and its effects so that I can begin to develop strategies to assist families and their children to break the cycle and ensure children are happy and successful throughout their education.
The research process was intimidating to me at first but as I go through the steps presented to us weekly, I am finding that my confidence is building. I was excited this week to find the Institute for Research on Poverty while researching credible websites! This website has a wealth of resources and strategies to better understand poverty in our country and how we can become leaders in eliminating poverty.
I am hoping that I can continue to dive into the research and continue taking "baby steps" to discovering and executing a great research project while also fueling my passion to learn to eliminate poverty.
References
Institute for Research on Poverty (2013). Retrieved from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/index.htm
Roosevelt, F.(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/poverty
I agree with you that the research process can be very scary at first, but after doing the course reading this week I have found that their are steps to make it easier that I never knew about.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you are looking into poverty. Like you, I work in a low income school where my students are more worried about their next meal instead of their education. I hope that you find some great resources that I can also use to help my students.
Lauren,
DeleteThank you for your feedback!
When I started teaching 20 years ago, there were certain areas in towns and cities where poverty existed. Now as I have traveled between two states and going from a big city to a rural area, I notice that poverty seems to be prevalent everywhere, which I kind of knew in the back of my head. But when you're right there teaching in it, sometimes the only thing you see is that one place you are in.
I look forward to sharing my findings with you as part of my research is to share information gained with educators to help those students that may not have the resources they need just to get going in the morning.
Nicolette
Hi Nicolette,
ReplyDeletePoverty is one of the biggest disruption to children's development. You will find a slew of literature to support your research. Might consider the concept of triangulation. I will keep you in mind when researching and reading articles and pass them along to you. Thank you for your contribution to the field.
Annie P.
Annie,
DeleteThank you for the suggestion of triangulation as that was one of the terms along with deductive and inductive research methods that I decided to put on my chart of terms I didn't know before starting research. I have already been successful finding literature and narrowing down my study and I am very excited! I am even pondering the possibility of implementing my findings as my professional goal for the next school year.
Thanks for your continued support!
Nicolette