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CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH

Project Title

Disturbing the Power Equilibrium: How Notions of Private and Public Construct the Lesbian Educator in the American School System


Researcher

Lillian Petrovich Brandt, Ph.D. candidate in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, Loyola University, Chicago


Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Noah Sobe, Loyola University


Introduction

     You are being asked to take part in a research study being conducted by Lillian Petrovich Brandt for a dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Noah Sobe in the Department of Cultural and Educational Studies, School of Education at Loyola University of Chicago. You are being asked to participate because you self-identify as a lesbian, gay woman, or queer woman, who is an educator (a classroom teacher, an administrator, a support service person such as school librarian or counselor, etc.).

     Please read this form carefully and email me with any questions you may have before deciding whether to participate in this study. Please read this entire consent form. At the bottom of the page, you will be prompted to click on a link to take you to another page for more information. CLICKING BELOW INDICATES THAT I HAVE READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AND I AGREE TO PARTICIPATE.   


Purpose of the study

     This dissertation will research the following: How do lesbian educators reinforce or resist the dominant ideology of the American school as they negotiate their private lives and their public lives? How does the school institution influence lesbian educators’ lives in this negotiation?

     Educational institutions are places permeated with the dominant social ideology and are sites or social reproduction; that is, the form of the public school socially reproduces the white, male, heternormative forms of the American public life. However, what is rendered invisible, private and marginalized inside the school (such as being a lesbian educator) in reality is visible, public and inundated with meaning outside the school. There is not much research that exists in the public school setting in which a “don’t ask, don’t tell” mentality prevails. By framing our personal lives as something that should not be shared in the public school setting with children, a public/private binary is formed in which oppression continues to operate even if overt discrimination is not present. My dissertation will focus on this dichotomy and attempt to shed light on this inequality.

     My study will examine your own articulations/interpretations of your experiences as lesbian educators and be placed within the larger social institution of the American school. The social construction of “educator” and “lesbian” will be analyzed while the American public school will be deconstructed vis-a-vis societal norms. The social construction of the lesbian educator will be studied in terms of the interplay of public versus private identity. Research will be conducted on how your private lives affect the way you work and navigate within the public school institution. In addition, rather than just focusing on the lesbian educator as “the other,” normativity will also be the object of my educational analysis.


Procedures

If you agree to be in the study, you will be asked to participate in one or both of the following:

  1. -Approximately 100 lesbian educators will be asked to take an online survey. Questions will be asked about identification as a lesbian, how that identity affects your career and vice versa, and whether you are “out” or “closeted” at work The survey will consist of approximately 40-50 questions.

  2. -Approximately 5 to 10 lesbian educators will then be asked to participate in an online focus group. Just like a traditional focus group, these participants will be able to collectively answer questions or respond to each others’ comments about topics.


Confidentiality

     There are minimal risks involved in participating in this research project beyond those experienced in your everyday life at work or online as a Facebook user. As the online administrator of the Facebook Group, I have the ability to control some of this group’s privacy settings. Only the participants in the online focus group will be given permission to view the posts. However, anyone who agrees to participate should make sure their own privacy settings on Facebook are set according to their own privacy preferences. For more information on Facebook privacy guidelines, click here. In this regard, I am limited in protecting confidentiality. The risks to confidentiality in participating should be considered similar to the everyday risks associated with using Facebook groups. The survey and online focus group will be open to participants nationwide, but no participant or school information will be identified. Only I will have access to the primary data. Responses will be kept confidential. In my dissertation and any subsequent publications, pseudonyms will be used for personal names and I will not ask for specific school names. Geographic locales will be generic, such as “a large city in the Midwest” or “a rural area in the Southwest.”All participants will know my research study questions. Any original research will be kept on a flash drive which will be under lock-and-key in my safe deposit box. Upon completion of my dissertation, this flash drive will be destroyed.


Benefits

Exposing any injustices in educational school systems benefits all members of society. The goal of this research is to create new discourses and new spaces where private and public do not need to fiercely collide. Truly transformative education seeks to change values rather than just promote assimilation into the dominant institutions. Hence, this research is important because i counters the tactics that many schools take, such as implementing “tolerance” policies and “multicultural curricula” as a solution to dealing with societal differences. For education to be empowering, teachers and learners should strive toward understanding differences and use these new understandings to create new ways of being in the world -- a change in belief systems. This moves us beyond the public recognition of an “other” identity and into engagement with alternative life narratives as a viable way of living in our society. Mutual understandings of one another will benefit all citizens rather than just the narrowly defined group within any particular identity. The issues are no longer only a matter of recognizing or honoring differences; rather, the issues should evolve into learning how to live with that fact and actively engage in these differences. It goes beyond recognition of “the other” and develops further into making sense of another individual.


Voluntary Participation

     Participation in this study is voluntary. If you decide you do not want to be in this study, you do not have to participate. Even if you decide to participate, you are free not to answer any questions or to withdraw from participation at any time without penalty.


Contacts and Questions

     If you have any questions about this research study, please feel free to contact Lillian Petrovich Brandt or my faculty sponsor, Dr. Noah Sobe. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact the Loyola University Office of Research Services at 773.508.2689.


CLICKING BELOW INDICATES THAT I HAVE READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AND I AGREE TO PARTICIPATE.


    I have read the description of the study and I agree to participate.