LAIDLAW SUMMER 1 - REFLECTION
Introduction
This summer, I conducted research investigating the impact of different education systems on social mobility. My goal was to see what cultural and political factors are most significant in enabling citizens of Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom to move through different socioeconomic classes and gain upward mobility. I intended to use a mixed-methods approach, where I would conduct a quantitative analysis by creating a novel dataset that accounted for variables relating to education and social mobility (including student-teacher ratios, drop-out and fail rates, government funding, tuition, student debt rates, private and public funding, and educator pay rates), and qualitative analysis of newspapers, political speeches, and enacted legislation to gauge public sentiment and key themes. This combination of qualitative and quantitative data would enable me to gain a clearer understanding of this relationship on a global scale, and the political context surrounding cross-national attitudes towards education.
Challenges
As this was my first time conducting independent research, I learned a lot throughout my research process. In addition to solidifying and applying my skills with software programs I was unfamiliar with like NVivo and R, I developed my abilities in database management, organization, and communication. However, I also encountered multiple challenges. One of the things I struggled with was my literature review, which took more time than I had originally anticipated. I struggled to find reliable and appropriate sources as there were many studies that provided conflicting information. This was due to general sentiment regarding social mobility and education fluctuating a lot over time. These issues also translated into the quantitative portion of my study. Of the newspapers I analyzed, several sources had articles that seemed very one-sided and biased, which I had to consider carefully in my analysis.
I also encountered some issues in conducting my quantitative analysis. As many data points were scattered and unavailable through the years of analysis, particularly after some countries stopped recording many statistics after the COVID-19 pandemic, my regression models showed mostly inconclusive findings and ungeneralizable to greater populations. As a result, I had to make adjustments to my initial plan, and rather than using only OLS regressions in my study, I included several graphs to better visualize relationships between variables. Although this was disappointing, I learned a lot about quantitative analysis through this process, and hope to conduct further analysis in the future with a larger and more comprehensive dataset.
Something else that I struggled with throughout my research period was feeling as though my project lacked creativity, and as a result, my work would feel dull at times. This was a result of my project being largely made up of aggregate data. For instance, I spent several consecutive days scouring the internet for statistics and articles through databases, only for many of these sources to not be helpful in answering my research question or be missing some data. Other times, my research topic felt too complex and was overwhelming to think about, leading to me reconsidering which variables I wanted to include. As I discussed this with my research advisor, I learned that this was a natural part of the research processes that everyone encounters, as topics become more and more complex as you learn about more factors that affect your variables. As I had chosen many different variables to investigate initially, it seemed as if there were constantly new factors that I had to incorporate and investigate on a deeper level, and I found myself often going down different “research rabbit holes” that were related, but not completely relevant to my original question. This made it difficult to maintain my focus on my central research topic, and I had to take time to reassess my work and make many edits so that only relevant information remained in my paper.
Takeaways
As a result of these challenges, a large part of what I learned in conducting research this summer was staying patient and making sure that I stayed on track. This involved doing a lot of independent reflection to remind myself of my goals and intentions in investigating my topic, and staying organized with my writing. Additionally, attending deep dive sessions and meeting with my reflection group greatly helped with boosting my motivation, and I found immense value in hearing my group members’ ideas and suggestions, and understanding that everyone had encountered their own struggles in their research. It was great to have the opportunity to listen to driven and self-motivated students from all over the world who were studying a wide range of disciplines share their academic interests. Moreover, the Laidlaw community was very supportive and encouraging, and I was provided with various pointers and tips to help with the challenges I faced throughout the research period.
Ultimately, my experience this summer was valuable in enabling me to gain exposure to a multitude of research processes and skills. By using both quantitative and qualitative analysis in my study, I gained a lot of hands-on experience and therefore improved my tangible research skills. However, more importantly, I encountered challenges and had to work through them with patience, resilience, and creativity. Overcoming the setbacks I faced ultimately made the completion of my project feel more rewarding had I not struggled, and I am proud to have a final report that I am excited to present.