School of Education, Health, and Society
Educational Leadership
Evans wins national dissertation award
1/1/10
The American Educational Research Association (AERA), Family, School, Community Partnerships Special Interest Group has named a first-year faculty member as winner of its Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2010.
Michael Evans, an assistant professor, holds appointments in three departments—family studies and social work, educational leadership and teacher education.
While most parental involvement in schools involves such traditional activities as volunteering to be a tutor or attending parent-teacher conferences, there has been a trend in recent years for families to take a more activist role and work toward school change.
Evans’ research explores via an ethnographic multi-case study approach the experiences of families who have mobilized to address school wide issues through the utilization of community organizing strategies.
His scholarship, which looks at how schools, communities and families interact, is exactly what the School of Education, Health and Society (EHS) is encouraging, said Dean Carine Feyten.
“The issues society faces are interrelated. It’s important that our students understand this complexity and approach problem solving by looking for solutions that use all available resources,” she said.
His award-winning dissertation explores what motivates families to participate in education organizing, how participants learn to organize, what skills they develop as individuals and as a group, and what impact participation has on their lives.
Evans, who studied community-based organizations in both affluent and low-income neighborhoods, discovered such groups have the potential to not only improve schools, but to change the lives of the participants.
For example, he found improvements in confidence among parents and community members who became involved. Participants also reported that while their initial motivation was typically spurred by concern for their own child, their experiences often led to an interest in broader social concerns.
Evans earned his Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Boston College in 2009. His dissertation was titled “Inside Education Organizing: Learning to Work for Educational Change.”
The AERA award is particularly prestigious, Feyten said, explaining that the organization is considered the most prominent in its field. Its 25,000 members include educators, administrators, directors of research, behavioral scientists, and professionals working with testing or evaluation at the federal, state and local level.