Justice violations in school policy

[c nicole]

Hello,

My name is Courtney Wright and I am a graduate of Peabody College of Vanderbilt with secondary certification (7-12) in English. Currently, I am a graduate student at Northwestern University working under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Roloff in the Department of Communication Studies with a concentration in Interaction and Social Influence. For my 2nd year project, Professor Michael E. Roloff and I are conducting a research study entitled, Classroom justice, principled dissent, and tenure status: Instructor reactions to perceived unfairness (IRB Project # 0423-055). The purpose of this research study is to explore instructor perceptions of, and reactions to, justice violations within school policies and procedures.

I am in need of a population to sample and thus I am asking you, my fellow educators, if you would be willing to volunteer for my study and complete a questionnaire (the link is provided below). I am very interested in having your viewpoints included in this study and would greatly appreciate your being willing to spare a little bit of your time to help a fellow educator and hardworking graduate student. The Northwestern University Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved this research study and your participation will be completely confidential.

Please be gracious enough to complete and return the questionnaire [link provided below] via email. Directions to guide you through this technological process are included below. Because this is a “snowball” survey, we (Professor Roloff and myself) would appreciate it if you would forward this email to at least two fellow educators, one with tenure status and one without. We will appreciate any, and all input we receive regarding instructor perceptions of justice violations in school policies and procedures. Thank you in advance for your support!

Feel free to email me at c-wright@northwestern.edu if you have any further questions/concerns.

Sincerely,
Courtney N. Wright, Co-Investigator
c-wright@northwestern.edu
(847) 332-7022

Dr. Michael E. Roloff, Faculty Investigator
m-roloff@northwestern.edu
(847) 491-5834

Please click on the link below to access the survey for the research study conducted by Courtney Wright under the direction of Dr. Michael Roloff entitled, Classroom Justice, Principled Dissent, and Tenure Status: Instructor reactions to perceived unfairness. Once you have accessed the website follow the below instructions:

* Read the enclosed informational letter and consent form

* Click FILE ---> EDIT WITH MICROSOFT WORD to begin completing the survey

* Make the appropriate changes to reflect your responses to the questions (i.e. type open-ended responses, place appropriate number in space provided, etc.)

* Click FILE ---> SAVE AS and save your completed survey to your computer

* Send the saved version of the questionnaire as an email attachment to c-wright@northwestern.edu

Justice Violations in School Policy Questionnaire (http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~cnw276/Justice%20Violations%20in%20School%20Policy%20Ques tionnaire.htm)

[Lisa's Hotscakes]

I am in need of a population to sample and thus I am asking you, my fellow educators, if you would be willing to volunteer for my study and complete a questionnaire (the link is provided below).

How do you know that those who complete the study are real teachers?

[AngeNZ]

That is a good point. You could try faxing certain schools with information about your research, however teachers are often very busy so you might not get as many responses as your research may need.

[c nicole]

How do you know that those who complete the study are real teachers?
You have no way of knowing for sure during a confidential research study. I must trust the demographic information that is recorded at the end of the survey (type of school, grade level, subject, tenure status, etc.) as well as the responses provided by participants. I have targeted websites/chatboards that mostly attract educators, past, present, and/or future in the hopes of eliminating questions of participant authenticity. Fortunately, many people have been honest about their "qualifying" potential for my study. But like most research you have to put a certain amount of trust in your volunteers--that they will truthfully identify themselves and give honest responses.

[c nicole]

That is a good point. You could try faxing certain schools with information about your research, however teachers are often very busy so you might not get as many responses as your research may need.

Unfortunately, I've found that there's a lot of red-tape involved when it comes to targeting specific schools and their students, teachers, and/or administration for research purposes. Plus, by choosing the schools myself there would be a lot of bias in the makeup of the population sample. It's a tough choice to make--six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. Thanks for the suggestion!

I hate that many teachers are so busy and overwhelmed with the education of our youth that they are unable to take the time to sound off on the important issues relevant to their profession that are examined in many research studies. That is why I am eternally grateful to the educators who have been gracious enough to take the time to complete my questionnaire. And I will honor their sacrifices in my analysis of the results, representation of their comments, and presentation of our findings. Thanks again and take care!