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Teacher requests district approval to conduct doctoral dissertation on family engagement
Summary
A seventh-grade teacher and doctoral candidate asked the board for permission to conduct a small qualitative study of family-school partnerships in the rural district, offering to present findings to the board and stating the study would be voluntary, confidential and low impact on staff.
Kara Leslie, a seventh-grade English/language-arts teacher and doctoral candidate at Point Park University, asked the Punxsutawney Area School District board for permission to carry out her dissertation research in the district.
Leslie said the study, titled "Engaging families, empowering students," would use an action-research design and work with 8 to 12 volunteer educators across grade levels. She described the approach as strengths-based ("appreciative inquiry") and said participation would include short reflections, interviews and at least one collaborative focus session. Leslie told the board the study would have no costs to the district, would be low impact on instruction, and she planned to begin work in January and finish around mid-March, pending university and district approvals.
Board members asked about the timeline and whether the district would receive a copy of the results; Leslie said she would provide an overview of findings to the board and hoped to return to present them. Trustees greeted the request positively and indicated full board support to allow the study to proceed through the district approval process.
