When I Think of Research....

       Upon entering this course, my perception of research was very limited to the field and career that I was coming from in science.  In science, I was very limited to specific topics covering trace metal research which was limiting in itself.  I was also used to using the library at my job which made material that was not valid  not an option.  I guess I was very spoiled in that way.
       What I immediately found out entering the field of early education and performing research on topics that related to early childhood is that I was faced with unreliable and unvalidated sites such as wikipedia.com.  I was totally shocked to find out that anyone could alter that website at any time! Really?!  The only research sites that I had encountered in my previous career addressed studies that took place over years, method developments, charts, graphs, and other mathematical analysis that showed reproducibility among results.  This was very different to me.  What I have gained is a perspective on what research is valid and had the opportunity to research international childhood sites along with organizations such as the Children's Defense Fund and the NAEYC.  These sites were so informational and gave true life stories of how advocates and educators strived to make a difference in the lives of children.  I also realized how many fields were interelated and that with research with children and families that your initial goal or question, once researched, could not only bring forth answers but more questions.  I now have more of an appreciation of triangulation in all of it's forms and an appreciation for those researchers who make the attempt to recognize and are willing to collaborate with others for the benefit of children and families.
       My ideas on the nature of doing research has changed in the respect that I know now not to believe everything I read and the internet can be a scary place in so many respects.  What I did find though is that any idea that you might want to research, you can usually find information and in many cases for and against what your original hypothesis is.  I found that when I was researching ADD and ADHD that many articles discussed the benefits of children taking medicine to relieve symptoms while another article was completely against the medication. I am a lot more careful now about where I retrieve information from for research and am a lot less likely to search online versus using a reputable database such as the university library.
        In planning & designing research, I learned that it was much easier to design a study in my head than it was once I started researching it.  There is so much information out there that it makes it extremely easy to lose focus a waiver from the given path.  And the actual conducting the research study can be a lot more challenging than I had expected.  In some cases, finding participants for studies can be a challenge as well as conforming to the standards of ethics that are required in research as well as considering ethics and culture and being careful not to offend individuals in the process.
      Challenges that I encountered was trying to find research that fit into the time frame that I was searching for.  In my simulation, I was the relationship between more stingent curriculum and the amount of children diagnosed with ADHD in the last ten years.  I chose this time frame because I could easily find statistics on the increase in the number of children diagnosed with ADHD in comparable to 2000 but emerging common core standards and more stringent curriculum is a process that seems to be transpiring at different rates and different locations.  This has so far been a challenge to me but I would like to explore the topic further.
    My perceptions of the early childhood professional have been modified further in the respect that I realize that working in early childhood means a lot more than educating by implementing curriuculum and designing lesson plans.  It means taking the extra time to understand family dynamics, culture, diversity, as well as concerns, disabilities, and resources they may need.  I used to think that when I was leaving a career in scientific research that I was going to an easier career but what I have found is that in early childhood we have mutiple positions, requirements, and hats to fit every occasion; an educator, a caregiver, a friend, an informant and on some levels even a nurse. And I couldn't be happier!  See you next class!