Michelle Bellino is one of five faculty honored with Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize
Bellino is recognized for her project, “From Welcoming to Belonging: Community-Engaged Research with Schools in Support of Newcomer Migrant Students.”
The Provost’s Teaching Innovative Prize is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Center for Research on Learning, and Teaching and the University Library. Chosen from 57 projects nominated by students, faculty and staff, The University Record reports on Bellino’s outstanding work.
“Traditionally, graduate students learn research methods through scholarly literature that renders invisible real-world methodological, ethical and relational dilemmas. Bellino wanted her graduate students to grapple with these important decisions, to engage in all the stages of research, and to experience a sense of shared ownership and agency with a research project.
She redesigned her EDUC 792: Qualitative Research Methods class around a community-engaged research project with Melvindale High School, where 14 student-researchers could investigate what makes a school welcoming and inclusive for newcomer students and families with diverse identities and experiences.
The team constructed the research inquiry collaboratively, focusing on issues of importance to MHS stakeholders, determined through dialogue about current challenges and priorities. Graduate students defined the driving research questions, developed instruments for data collection, and engaged in collaborative analysis. They co-authored a written research report and oral presentation to MHS staff.
In nominating the project for the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize, doctoral student Mara Johnson wrote, “This is one of the first times I have left a course feeling like I had a firm sense of theory, methods, and application in conjunction with each other as opposed to engaging with limited slices.”
Beyond Bellino’s qualitative methods course, the Educational Studies doctoral program is being reimagined to center educational justice and equity, and the project with MHS is serving as a model for an “educational equity lab” that supports students as they enter communities responsibly, develop meaningful relationships and provide substantive value to community partners.”
