I recruited three schools for my observation. In my Fulbright blog series number 9, I have written about the recruitment process of one school, the FSU preschool. I am continuing with the other two schools I recruited for my study.
School two – Trinity United Methodist Preschool (TUMP)
With the help of Prof Carla Wood, I got in touch with Dr Elizabeth Madden, who is working at the School of Communication Science and Disorders at FSU. Carla is the Director of the institute and I will write about my meeting with her in an exclusive post. Elizabeth goes to the TUMP to drop her daughter off daily and thus, she helped me get in touch with the Director of the school, Ms Stacy Dugger. Elizabeth’s son studied in the same school and she had a good rapport with the Director of the school. Elizabeth connected me to the Director and as usual, with emails promptly replied to and phone calls professionally answered, I made an appointment to visit the school. The school is on one of the city’s major roads, close to the city bus stand and the public library. The main gate will be locked, and only one person can enter the school with permission. The schools are guarded by all sides. When I pressed the bell, the school manager, Ms Mary, came smiling to receive me and lead me to Stacy. As she knew my purpose for the visit, we worked on the possible days and times. I suited their convenience and the school was very open to my comfort. Stacy introduced me to all her teachers and took me around the school to orient me to where I would be spending a couple of months from then on. She also briefed the school that the preschool comes under a faith-based exemption and is accredited by the United Methodist Association of Preschools. There are six other organizations in Florida for preschools.
As the school comes under the independent association, though controlled by Federal regulations, the school can choose to do unique activities. What guides the Director of the school is to prepare a framework to know the whole child. They consider the multiple dimensions of an individual child while planning curriculum and specific activities under the curricular theme.
The school is using as many local resources as possible in Tallahassee. This is due to the location and the link with old students and parents who can help conduct tours of the local areas. The public library is right in front of the school and the school take children to the library to explore the children’s section. Children are encouraged to attend the programmes the library conducts for children during weekends but under the care of parents, as the teachers do not take responsibility for children during the weekends. The school is near the Florida capital complex, the government building where the Governor stays. The children had the opportunity to spend time with the governor once, as one of the parents was the governor’s chief of office. The school is attached to a Church that is 200 years old.
Stacy expressed her concern for the Mental health issues of the people of the city. She said that they educate children right from the preschool stage on negotiation and honest communication skills to resolve their differences with each other.
After recruiting two schools, I was keen on getting one more school where children from socio-economically deprived families could attend. I got a reference from Sarah to five preschools through the FCRR preschool research group. I looked through their websites, sent mail to one, and registered for an appointment for the other through their portal.
School three – Bright Future Christian Academy Preschool
I got a reply from my third school with the date and time of meeting. Based on the address on their website, I reached the St Augustine Road branch of the school. After getting there, I realized I had to go to their other branch at Tharpe Street. The Director, Mr Terry Price, gave me directions as he realized that I had reached the school by bus. He asked if I could wait for his driver to take me to the Tharpe Street school. Given my circumstances, I couldn’t say no, as I had no reason to say so. He asked me to sit in one of the classrooms; I got to observe the children there. The driver arrived and I left for the second centre. As I reached out, the director, Mrs Madria Price, permitted instantly. She asked to start that day after the children woke up after their nap.
Terry and Madria were so generous and kind; without even asking for details, they let me enter their school, treated me with respect, and let me do my work freely. The next day, the office staff asked for my identity card to keep a copy. Along with that, I gave my background screening and IRB approval certificate.
Help came from unknown corners, unseen people to recruit all three schools that fit my study perfectly. I was planning to have three kinds of schools, and by divine grace, I could recruit three schools within my data collection time. I had almost given up on the third school. As a last straw, I met Sarah and she immediately connected me to the FCRR preschool research group. Though I had not met the group personally, they gave me the contact information of. It fitted into my plan so cosily that I could efficiently complete my school visits for data collecton.
Whom shall I thank, and where shall I start? It just fell into place with Yaacov letting me know about the mandatory human subject research online course requirement, IRB approval, Greg connecting me to Sarah, guidance on the application, the IRB journey and the approval coming from them on time. John and Srimani gave feedback on my filled-in IRB protocol, informed consent forms, and letters, which was the perfect time to suit my submission. Hugh’s connecting me to Carla Wood initially opened up a chance to connect to several schools. Elizabeth Madden, Mollie Romano and Morgan Evers (None of them I know personally; it is only through Carla and Sarah) were in constant touch with me through email in getting connected to schools. With all their help, I could recruit TUMC preschool, FSU preschool, and FBCA preschool, and the observation intaction with teachers and the directors went smoothly. I can’t thank them enough for their constant touch with me till I got to the school. In my anxiety to get to school, I was mailing them frequently, but they used to respond immediately despite all of their fully packed routine. This taught me to be responsive to people in need, no matter how busy I may be in my routine. I still have time and must extend the possible support to needy people. I prayed silently, “God allow me to see genuine people seeking help and let me rise to their expectations to reach out to people I know and I don’t know” .
As it unfolded, each event in that year taught me one beautiful lesson. I allowed myself to embrace this new land, learn each celebration’s cultural relevance, and feel grateful for slowly becoming a pluralinguistic person. I also realized that coming to Bhubaneswar from Mysore was a preparation for this research work that I was undertaking and all that I have worked on from my days as a research scholar in Mysore was slowly falling into place as if parts of a jigsaw puzzle. Life is that journey where we are slowly collecting pieces of that big puzzle, and today, I am telling all the people who are reading the parts of my experiencde to observe and write about each of the incidents of their own lives. That not only is a workout for our research, but it is also the making of a small piece in that big jigsaw puzzle that will be our life.