Chapter 4: Creating Sustainable School Based Relationships

Schools have experiences with researchers and research projects that have yielded no perceived change to the problems being explored (Stensaker & Harvey, 2011). When this occurs, subsequent researchers may be viewed with skepticism and distrust (Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 1999; Louis, 2007). “You’re gone as soon as your project is done. I’m still here. The kids are still here. The problems are still here but they’ve [researchers] moved on to the next school.” This is a comment from a participant, Sabrina, that was made during a debriefing session at the conclusion of an 18-month research project related to college and career preparation. Sabrina is an administrator at Mission High School, a high school located in a major urban city on the East Coast that services a student population of about 1600 and 150 person staff, one of the largest within the Westing School District. Sabrina has participated in various research projects over the past four years through her role at Mission. Her comment speaks to a challenge that many researchers face as they seek to build relationships with and gain access to participants at schools that are potential research sites: building rapport and trust with reluctant participants who are skeptical of the intentions of researchers as well as the benefits of the research being conducted.