SOAR Profile - Brittany Wilczewski

Name: Brittany (Britt) Wilczewski 
Major/minor: English/Secondary Education 
Expected date of graduation: Spring 2014 
Hometown: Easton, Pa. 
Activities: Has served on the Residence Life Staff for three years, and was voted Resident Advisor of the semester in 2011. Also an active member of the Community Service Sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma and was inducted into the National English Honors Society, Sigma Tau Delta. 
Project title: How do Teachers Define their Values and Virtues? An Examination of Moravian University Teacher Action Research Studies 2003-2013 and Teachers’ Reflective Responses 
Project advisor: Joseph Shosh

Britt Wilczewski admits that entering her SOAR project she was starting at square one. “I had never heard of action research, but it seemed like a valuable teaching tool,” says the future English teacher.

As part of her project, Britt examined the ways in which action research does and does not help Moravian’s M.Ed. graduates in their careers. Through surveys and interviews with graduates, she was able to understand their thoughts and feelings regarding the use of action research both in Moravian’s program and in their classrooms.

“We also questioned them about the benefits and dilemmas of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation,” notes Wilczewski. “Every graduate who participated in our project gave us valuable insights regarding action research and NCLB.” Britt then shared her findings at the 3rd Annual International Conference on Value and Virtue in Practitioner Inquiry at York St. John University in England.

“My SOAR partner and I were able to discuss teaching methods and NCLB with teachers from all over the world, and I believe everyone involved took something valuable from that discourse,” Britt explains. Through this experience, she came to understand the value of action research and how it can be a driving force to combat the issues surrounding standardized testing.

Although the summer ended, Britt continued to distribute surveys and interview into the fall semester, hoping to finalize her data. “I definitely want to see this research through to the end, and am excited to see what we continue to find,” she concludes.