國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
3.10 Procedure of Selection of Schools in Taipei and New Delhi and Some Extraordinary Research Experiences
In the beginning of my fieldwork, I was a bit worried about finding the right school as well as the process of approaching the school and getting permission to conduct the study there. Luckily, the Taipei part was not a problem as I had spent a year and a half in an elementary school, learning Chinese with first and second graders. My apprehension that Taipei would be an unfamiliar territory and that it would be difficult to find a school for fieldwork was allayed. On the other hand, ND was my native place. I was rather over confident that I would be able to handle any problem in my own city. It was beyond my imagination that I would confront insurmountable problems in ND. In the case of Taipei, one of the five professors of the Ph.D. committee constituted to evaluate my proposal and dissertation extended a helping hand. She not only found the school but also introduced me to the administration. It was a smooth sailing.34 Right from the start I became part of the school community. They expressed their desire to know about Indian culture and education and asked me to make presentations. I immediately agreed and made three presentations. The whole experience of field work in Taipei was very pleasant and fulfilling.
Now it was the turn of ND. One day I met with a primary school Principal Mrs.
Arora. I spoke to her about my research and field work experiences in Taipei. She
34 All the members of the Committee helped me in different ways. Prof. Chen introduced me to the school where I conducted my fieldwork and Prof. Tang introduced me to one of her students who had done some excellent work on action research in HRE in Taiwan.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
introduced me to a school where there were some teachers who had got in-service training in environmental and HRE. One fine morning I went to the school to seek permission for conducting fieldwork. I humbly expressed my intention and purpose of the visit to the principal of the school. I was told to wait outside. After waiting patiently for about forty minutes I was allowed to see the principal. Upon hearing the purpose of my visit, the principal asked for a letter of permission from the Assistant Commissioner of District Education. Without wasting time I immediately rushed to the Commissioner’s office to get the letter. The Commissioner was not present in his office and the staff was totally unaware of his whereabouts. I was advised to wait. The four long hours of waiting seemed unending when with the mercury touching 48º Celsius. At last the Commissioner arrived and I regained hope. Suddenly a crowd of people came out of the blue to meet the Commissioner and everybody was given a tiny piece of paper with a number written on it.
I was number 16 in the waiting list. It took another one and a half hours to meet the Commissioner and present him with the application for permission to conduct fieldwork in one of the schools under his jurisdiction.
I was called in and asked about the purpose of coming. As I mentioned the purpose, the Commissioner asked for the application and identity proof. I produced the necessary documents and after seeing them the Commissioner enquired about my fieldwork in Taipei. I was finally granted the permission to go ahead with my work.
Armed with the permission letter and a lot of optimism I went back to the school. Once again I had to stand in front of the principal’s office in order to be seen. After an hour he
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
saw the permission letter and with an unfriendly gesture commented, “Oh! So you managed to get it”. He asked the vice-principal to give me a list of do’s and don’ts.
Having gone through the tedium of bureaucratic procedures I was naturally unable to establish an instant bond with the administration of the school in ND as I was able to do in Taipei. This episode made me ponder over the vast difference between the two administrative set ups. How can one explain it? One possible explanation could be the difference in the professional ethos of the two countries. There is a possibility that my status as a foreigner in Taipei and an Indian in ND might have affected the response I received. A third possibility could be that while Prof. Chen accompanied me to the school in Taipei, in India there was no such support.
During the data collection process interesting incidents or discoveries took place.
One day during an interaction with Taiwanese teachers, I asked about their in-service training experiences. This group of four teachers revealed that they felt a dire need for updating their concepts regarding creativity and innovation in education. The source of inspiration was a teacher-student (Internee) who was very creative and innovative not only in his lesson delivery but also in his interaction with students. For them, it was an eye opening experience. They were determined to bring in change in the realm of pedagogy too. They asked the internee if his teacher could come and conduct a workshop on “Creativity and Innovation in Education” for them. The internee arranged a meeting between these teachers and his teacher. The teacher came and convened a workshop which these teachers found very profitable for their teaching. I enquired about this
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
resource person and I was told that he was teaching in one of the private colleges of Taipei. I did not have any other clue about him but I was aware that interactions with that teacher would throw more light on the pedagogical skills and personalities of these teachers. These teachers had opened up to that teacher and he had accessed their inner world. All this information I thought would certainly be helpful in this research.
After a few weeks, on one afternoon I ran into one of my seniors from the department of education, NCCU. He and I have the same advisor and he knew about my research. The senior asked, “How was the research going on?” The question worked as a spark. I was already overwhelmed with my exciting research experiences and I was eager to share. During the conversation I mentioned the nagging feeling I had about not being able to trace the resource person and also explained how valuable the person could be for my research. The senior smiled and said, “Your search is over. I know the person very well.” I screamed, “Who is he? Where is he?” He said, “The person is standing in front of you.” I was astonished that my senior was the very resource person I was looking for all this while. I instantly fixed an appointment with him for an interview. The whole experience seemed surreal. I kept on thinking about this extraordinary incident and realized that the more one talks about or shares ones research experience with the people working in the same field or background the greater are the chances of discovering new things or resolving knotty problems.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學