Featured Scholars : Joshua Smith

Assistant Professor, IU School of Education
Interim Director, Center for Urban and Multicultural Education (CUME)
jss2@iupui.edu

Joshua Smith's research focuses on evaluation of educational programs and student transition from middle to high school and high school to college. He approaches inquiry in a unique, collaborative way by intentionally meeting with stakeholders in schools and the community to understand the questions that are pressing to them. This approach pushes back against the researcher-driven approach where students and families are "subjects." Instead, schools and the participants themselves are viewed as partners in the development of research questions and the methods used to explore them.

What makes this type of inquiry practical and successful is that the process and summary outcomes are shared directly with school and community partners so that they can use the data to inform short- and long-term decision making. The formative results help to improve the quality of programming during the course of the research. This allows for modified implementation and increases the likelihood that interventions are successful.

Professor Smith's inclusion of students, families, and communities in collaborative inquiry is yet another way IUPUI faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.