Gildersleeve studies 'less oppressive' research methods

April 1, 2008

Gildersleeve studies 'less oppressive' research methods

Ryan Gildersleeve is looking outside the normal bell curve to ensure that traditional research methodologies aren't inadvertently promoting opressive practices.

By Carrie Boyd, Student Journalist

"Together we are much stronger than when we try to work apart,” said Ryan Evely Gildersleeve, assistant professor in educational leadership and policy studies, who joined the faculty in 2007.

Gildersleeve’s main focus in research and teaching focus is critical qualitative methodology and educational opportunity. Specifically, he examines social research methods that may perpetuate some of society’s inequalities. Gildersleeve describes his focus as “a look at the world from an interpretive lens.”

“My research focuses on working towards developing anti-oppressive research methods,” Gildersleeve said.

“The issues of educational access and equity are foundations of democracy,” Gildersleeve said. “Who gets to participate? How? When? In a democracy, all of us matter.”

Gildersleeve is teaching “Critical Issues in Interpretive Research.” He has sub-titled the class “Anti-Oppressive Research Methods,” focusing on educational research subjects that fall outside the “normal bell curve” usually examined in educational studies.

Most of the students in Gildersleeve’s classes are teachers, principals and post-secondary administrators who “know education already and have experience,” Gildersleeve said.

Gildersleeve is involved with a group called Los Estudiantes Migrantes. The California-based project is an ongoing “grass roots research collaboration,” Gildersleeve said. The project revolves around a group of 12 Mexican students from first-generation migrant, farm-working families. The students interview peers, families and neighbors to find and record their experiences as immigrants, especially in relation to their educational opportunity.

The students have a vested interest in the answers and outcomes of their research, since it “speaks from their community [and] speaks to their experiences,” Gildersleeve said.

There are many opportunities in Iowa to inspect and research educational opportunities for Latino immigrants, Gildersleeve said, since the state is a “newly transitioning environment” with a recent increase in Latino immigrants.

Iowa “isn’t tainted with long histories” of community segregation, which can become cemented over time and history and inhibit the opportunities of minorities, Gildersleeve said.

Gildersleeve is working on a case study in Perry, where a “major demographic shift” is happening with an increase in the Latino population. The study is specifically focused on the “college-going culture for Latino immigrants,” Gildersleeve said.

In Marshalltown, Gildersleeve is working with Katherine Bruna, assistant professor in curriculum and instruction, and Kimberly Greder, associate professor in human development and family studies, to “look at the transnational talent and access needs for new immigrant families,” Gildersleeve said. Iowa State Extension is considering a specific educational intervention sponsored by the Mexican government in support of Marshalltown’s immigrant families based on the study’s results.

Gildersleeve graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles, which Gildersleeve describes as “the most diverse liberal arts college in the U.S.”

“I benefited from a lot of experiences [at Occidental] that challenged my world view and really shaped who I am as a researcher today,” Gildersleeve said.

Gildersleeve has a Ph.D. in education and a master’s degree in higher education and organizational change, both from University of California-Los Angeles.

Gildersleeve’s only complaints of coming to Ames from California are that “there are no palm trees. There’s no beach!”