NEW YORK
The research taking place in Africa on educational equity most often benefits the scholars who publish studies and has little direct impact on the lives of those being studied, a researcher said during a presentation Monday at the 52nd Annual Conference of the Comparative & International Education Society.
Does current research on Africa forward the goal of educational equity? Four scholars sought to answer that question at a session at this year’s conference titled, “Gaining Educational Equity Around the Word,” taking place this week at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York.
Dr. Frances Vavrus, a faculty member in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, raised the issue of researchers’ responsibilities to work toward equity. She’s come to the conclusion that most research has little direct impact on the lives of those being studied. It is the researchers who benefit by having their studies published, she said.
Vavrus has been studying Tanzanian youth. When she began her research in 2000 and went to interview various families about education, parents readily answered questions and accepted the idea that the findings of the study would eventually have an impact on their children. When she returned to Tanzania in 2006, there was a sense of frustration on the part of the parents. She recalled on Monday how they asked how the study would help them, and some said the money spent for the research team would better be used to pay for schooling.
Vavrus suggested researchers take something akin to the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take, making them responsible for the well being of their patients. She has tried to find ways to engage in the lives of the people she’s researching and not just collect data. Some of her suggestions include streamlining the cost of research and giving the communities money to buy building materials and pay contractors to improve the physical conditions of schools. Vavrus has even talked her friends into making small contributions to a fund that can immediately impact the schools she is studying.
She said researchers should begin to set goals of educational equity beyond their own research. To make this viable, there needs to be academic incentives.
