should prisons in the U.S offer incarcerated people educational opportunities?

PROPOSAL
This is a class about research, discovery, trial and error. Good research seeks to understand the
world around us. And that’s hard to do. The world is a confusing place (even if you’ve been
around awhile…). This is also a class about language and how it’s used in different contexts, by
different groups of people, for different reasons. An element of this course is to seek to
understand how language impacts/effects/exists in certain situations. Another element of this
course is to understand the role of rhetoric in research, including the ways we are entangled in
that research. As part of this course, you will develop a research project that attempts
to understand some part of the world around us in terms of language, rhetoricality, and
positionality.
ASSIGNMENT
You will compose a research proposal in which you state your research question, researcher
intentions and positionality, discuss and define research terms, and articulate the importance or
significance of conducting this research. )
Required Proposal Content
(The following is the information that you are required to have in your proposal.)
(Proposal Section 1) Context for Research
For this section you’ll tell your audience what your project is about, who it is about, and what it
will focus on. This is the section for you to give background information about the community (or
group/population) you are researching as well as any context/descriptions/examples as to why
your research question is valuable/worth researching at all.
Discuss the following in Section 1 of your Proposal:
What is your research question?
What group/population or community are you thinking of investigating? Why?
Why is this research question important for/to this group?
Who is your intended audience for this proposal; in other words, who are you writing this proposal for?
Who do you want to be able to read/engage with this research (other academics/researchers? community
leaders/local governments and politicians? a specific non-profit organization? etc.)? Why them?
What have other experts in the field said about your topic(s)? (Note: This is the part of Section 1 where
you’ll use sources to help you discuss what others have said/are saying about the stuff you want to
research. This part of Section 1 will be a mini-Literature Review.)
(Proposal Section 2) Researcher Intentions & Positionality
For this section you’ll tell your audience why this question is personally interesting to you and why you
would like to conduct this research this semester. What do you hope to find out and why does this matter
to you? Furthermore, you’ll also discuss what you want your intended audience to learn and subsequently
be able to do with whatever information you find out.
Next, you’ll discuss and reflect on how your positionality might influence the research that you propose
conducting. Researchers with similar questions won’t conduct exactly the same research because the
question will be approached from different positionalities/angles. Next, you’ll provide your audience with
relevant background information about who you are and what experiences have brought you to this
question. This is what we call a “Positionality Statement,” except it’s not just one sentence, more like a
few paragraphs.
“A good strong positionality statement will typically include a description of the researcher’s lenses (such
as their philosophical, personal, theoretical beliefs and perspective through which they view the research
process), potential influences on the research (such as age, political beliefs, social class, race, ethnicity,
gender, religious beliefs, previous career), the researcher’s chosen or pre-determined position about the
participants in the project (e.g., as an insider or an outsider), the research-project context and an
explanation as to how, where, when and in what way these might, may, or have, influenced the research
process (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Producing a good positionality statement takes time, considerable
thought, and critical reflection” (Holmes 4).
To do this, consider some of these questions:
• Who am I (and what is my positionality in relation to this proposed research project); in other words,
which identity markers (race, ethnicity, nationality, age, ability/disability, economic class, education
level, sexuality, gender, and/or religion) do I need to share with my audience so that they understand
who I am in relation to the topic(s) and population I want to investigate?
• Which personal experiences or stories do I need to share with my audience so that they understand
who I am and why I want to conduct this research?
(Proposal Section 3) Importance/Significance of Conducting this Research
And, finally (yeah, I know, *finally*), you’ll need to tell your audience why conducting this research is
important* to you, AND other potential groups of people such as UTRGV students or future students,
members of the community, or people who might eventually become members of the community
you’re researching, etc.). As a researcher participating in conversational inquiry, you’re contributing to
the conversation. We know this is important work, but how can we stress that importance to others?
In this section, I want you to work through the ways you believe your proposed research is important
or significant.
• Students will create an extensive proposal that includes Proposal Sections 1-3 and all the info
requested above therein.
• Their proposal will describe a research project they propose conducting research on and the
significance of that research.
• Proposals should include references to sources such as texts we’ve read in class so far and/or texts
that are connected to their research question. Students are required to include a minimum of 5
sources into their paper: 3 academic journal article sources and 2 non-academic, credible sources
(one of these can be a multimedia source such as a video or podcast episode).
• Incorporate content/info from your Research Side Quests (Project 1.5).
• Follow all formatting requirements listed below.
DELIVERABLES (A GOOD PROPOSAL WILL…)
• Final Draft Word Count Requirement: 1500-2000 words, minimum.
• Draft includes properly formatted in-text citations (direct and indirect quotations) in MLA format
and a Works Cited page.
PROJECT FORMATTING (Final Draft Requirements)
You’ll be putting this project together in stages, starting with a first draft; a final draft will be due at
the end of the semester (Aug. 19th).
The list of requirements below are meant to refer to what the absolute final version of your project
needs to look like/include. Your first draft may not accomplish all these objectives–and that’s
okay–the idea is that your final draft will, after some revision.