Newsgroups: bit.listserv.qualrs-l
Date:         Wed, 22 Jul 1992 23:18:00 CDT
              <QUALRS-L@UGA.BITNET>
From:         Gary Shank <P30GDS1@NIU.BITNET>
Subject:      MWERA warning

I'm madder than hell and I want to go public with what I feel is
a travesty of judging the value of research in education.  I teach
a workshop every semester in qualitative research, and I have my
students do a case study on a person who is an expert in some area
of than education or academia.
Last spring, one of my students chose her  father as her expert.
For sixteen years, until WWII, he was a left-fielder in the Negro
National Leagues.  She made six tapes with him, and transcribed
them for her report.  She realized that the topic related to her
own specialty area -- namely, adult education.  She is currently
working on usingf her father's, and others', experiences in the
Negro Leagues as the basis for creating a curriculum in multi-
cultural education.  The link to sports is especially cogent in
that many 'candidates' for increased understanding of multicultural
issues can be reached by the power of the sports connection.  It
seemed to me that the fusing of curriculum, qualitative research,
and sports into a multicultural frame was an exciting idea, and I
encouraged her to submit a progress report to MWERA (Midwest Ed
Research ASSN).  MWERA has traditonally been very friendly and
accepting of the work of graduate students, and I use it as a means
for many of them to gain valuable experience.
My student read her abstract to me over the phone, long distance, as
she prepared to send it in.  I made a few suggestions to strengthen
the links between the elements. and told her to send it in.
A few weeks ago, she brought me a copy of the rejection letter.  It
was signed by Rick Pugh, who is the Program Chair of the conference.
Rick said that he was rejecting her paper (due I am sure to the in-
put of the division program chairs and their readers) for two
reasons -- it really didnt belong in an education conference, but in
a magazine about baseball history and because the presentation,
while it claimed to be about 'multicultural issues' suffered from
a 'lack of gender diversity.'
My student was crestfallen.  she has decided to pursue the topic for
her dissertation, and there is some interest in supporting her work.
I am proud to be on her committee.  Meanwhile, her dad, who is 81,
has had a stroke and has lost much of his memory.  One by one, these
veterans are being lost to death and diability, and their stories
are being silenced.  I have reviewed much of the material that she
has collected, and I can think of few vehicles that bring the goals
and aims of a multicultural curriculum into a clearer or more con-
crete focus.
The good news is that my student has not given up, even though she
senses that the rejection of her paper was somewhat arbitrary.  In
particular, what kind of cretin reader would take a paper on the
Negro Leagues and its historical lessons to education to task for
'gender diverity?'
The moral of the story:  qualitative researchers need to have a
thick skin and a high tolerance to smug stupidity.
gary shank
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