About my research, and how it has changed

Background
I believe that information exchange among peers can make them more professional in their fields. A large body of literature about [learning] communities of practices, social learning, and networking theory also believe that. This is especially true for those who teach about environment (e.g., community educators and school teachers) because this field is interdisciplinary, new approaches for teaching constantly emerge, and environmental/science educators do not often get support from their supervisors.

Research area
I started working on my project in May 2007. When I got to NYC I was looking for educators who teach about environment, and who participate in networking with colleagues. I wanted to learn why they network with each other; this would help to engage other educators in networking, which can facilitate their professional development. Gretchen Ferenz (my supervisor at Cornel University Cooperative Extension-NYC this summer) and some other people suggested a few networks. Soon I found that Environmental Education Advisory Council (EEAC) is the oldest, most representative and developed existing network of environmental educators in NYC, so I decided to interview EEAC’s members to answer my research question.

Getting started
In mid May I went to the EEAC monthly steering committee meeting, which took place on the Science Barge. At that meeting I learned something that I could learn from books. For example, I was amazed that although EEAC is voluntary organization (nobody is paid), it attracts different kinds of educators (e.g., from federal and state organizations, schools and independent consultants, non-profits and nature preserves). These people were very excited to spend some time with each other each month during after-work hours. I become even more willing to see what “networking” means for them. Besides that, we found that this kind of research would be very beneficial for EEAC because they want to attract more members in the future. That’s why members of EEAC were very happy to meet with me for interviews, and gave a really great input in this project.

Changes in interviewing
During the next several weeks I’ve been interviewing about 14 members of EEAC. Interestingly, a set of my interviews was changing after each interview. In the beginning I had a few questions about educators’ experience in networking and benefits from it. My interviewees pointed out that there are some factors, though, that may prevent new members to join EEAC. Some of them were concerned that during the last years there was not good representation of different social groups or neighborhoods in this network. For example, there are very few members from underrepresented communities, community educators, educators from community-based organizations, minority teachers, etc. Some of my interviews not only came up with additional questions I would need to ask about membership, but also suggested some solutions that EEAC might offer to be more attractive for different kinds of educators. Personally, I was very glad to hear this because I also felt like this organization could have a better impact on educational programs in communities with limited-resources. It resulted in adding some new questions into the following interviews. For example, I started asking how EEAC can be more inclusive or interesting for minority educators.

Next step
Initially I was planning to share the results of my research with EEAC via email, like sending them a PDF report. However, a few educators, members of EEAC, have asked me to come to NYC in the fall to do a presentation. They and I think that during this collaborative research process we will get some interesting results that would help EEAC to engage more educators in it, and have a greater impact on quality of environmental/science education programs in different communities in NYC. For example, we might find that some particular types of events (like workshops, social meetings, site visiting, or community events) are especially beneficial for EEAC members, and can be attractive for new members – then EEAC would try to organize more of such events. We decided that during the analysis of collected information I will stay in touch with EEAC via email (during the end of this summer), and in the fall I will try to find an opportunity to come to NYC to do a short presentation of results of this research during one of monthly meetings.