Project Reflection
Project Description:
The objective for this project was to research a topic or our choosing pertaining to American history. We had to analyze a variety of sources about our topic, including creative writing pieces, films, articles, and firsthand accounts. The topic I chose to study was how Western stereotypes affected Middle Eastern gender equality movements and how education can be used as a tool to remedy those effects. I chose this topic because I had been reading about Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl who was targeted by the Taliban for getting an education, and I was interested in the response surrounding her story.
My initial research questions were:
Personal/Academic Growth:
This project was incredibly challenging for me as a student. It was different from a lot of other projects in that it was a lot more self-directed, which was hard for me to balance with all of its different components. I definitely did not handle this well, as I started the project with minimal time management and organization paired with lots of ideas and different directions in which I could go. I ended up panicking when I did not accomplish all that I had hoped for this project, and was really disappointed that it didn’t live up to how I’d pictured it. With that in mind, this project was definitely a huge learning experience for me. I think I will be much better equipped to tackle my senior project now that I’ve rooted out what works and what doesn’t work for an independent study project.
Refinement:
The first substantial revision I would make would be to go into my research with a narrower topic. I sacrificed being able to conduct effective research in order to study every single thing I wanted to, so if I had to do this project again I would definitely work on choosing a specific event rather than an abstract concept. Also, I would try to better organize the different components of my project, because while at the beginning it wasn’t anything to worry about, it made pulling the entire thing together at the end a lot harder. I had some of my written pieces typed up on my computer, while some were floating around on pieces of paper, and I ultimately just made a lot more work for myself in the end.
Advice for Future Students:
If I had any advice to give next year’s honors students, it would be to be to not have your heart set on a particular topic or perspective. Throughout the research process, a lot of times the best course of action for me was to revise my research questions and project direction, which I was initially resistant to. When you set an ideal project in your head, it makes it much more difficult to adapt it to time constraints and what you find in your research.
The objective for this project was to research a topic or our choosing pertaining to American history. We had to analyze a variety of sources about our topic, including creative writing pieces, films, articles, and firsthand accounts. The topic I chose to study was how Western stereotypes affected Middle Eastern gender equality movements and how education can be used as a tool to remedy those effects. I chose this topic because I had been reading about Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl who was targeted by the Taliban for getting an education, and I was interested in the response surrounding her story.
My initial research questions were:
- What motivated the actions of the Women’s Suffrage movement and how is that paralleled in modern day situations?
- Can education alone bring about women’s equality?
- How do other factors, such as technology, economic development, and religious freedom impact the education, and thus, the change?
- What can we do to obtain the goals of laws already put in place regarding women’s equality?
- How do gender norms vary between America and the Middle East in both culture and religion?
- What problems still exist in the United States with gender norms and should we impose our ideals onto the rest of the world in light of those problems?
Personal/Academic Growth:
This project was incredibly challenging for me as a student. It was different from a lot of other projects in that it was a lot more self-directed, which was hard for me to balance with all of its different components. I definitely did not handle this well, as I started the project with minimal time management and organization paired with lots of ideas and different directions in which I could go. I ended up panicking when I did not accomplish all that I had hoped for this project, and was really disappointed that it didn’t live up to how I’d pictured it. With that in mind, this project was definitely a huge learning experience for me. I think I will be much better equipped to tackle my senior project now that I’ve rooted out what works and what doesn’t work for an independent study project.
Refinement:
The first substantial revision I would make would be to go into my research with a narrower topic. I sacrificed being able to conduct effective research in order to study every single thing I wanted to, so if I had to do this project again I would definitely work on choosing a specific event rather than an abstract concept. Also, I would try to better organize the different components of my project, because while at the beginning it wasn’t anything to worry about, it made pulling the entire thing together at the end a lot harder. I had some of my written pieces typed up on my computer, while some were floating around on pieces of paper, and I ultimately just made a lot more work for myself in the end.
Advice for Future Students:
If I had any advice to give next year’s honors students, it would be to be to not have your heart set on a particular topic or perspective. Throughout the research process, a lot of times the best course of action for me was to revise my research questions and project direction, which I was initially resistant to. When you set an ideal project in your head, it makes it much more difficult to adapt it to time constraints and what you find in your research.