Junior Plan
All juniors who wish to enroll in the Educ 400 Senior Research Seminar next academic year MUST attend a meeting on Tuesday Feb 25th 2025 from 12:15-1:15 PM in the McCook 200 conference room. (If you are studying away, email Prof. Jack Dougherty to request the link to his Zoom room.)
Ed Studies faculty will describe steps you need to complete this spring in order to receive permission to enroll in Educ 400 next year. Read the materials below before our meeting and bring ideas about your potential research project to discuss.
After your Junior Plan is approved, the Ed Studies faculty will give you a PIN and assign you to one of the two sections of the Educ 400 Senior Research Seminar next year:
- Fall 2025 with Prof. Speciale on MW 10-11:15am
- Spring 2026 with Prof. Castillo on W 1:30-4:10pm
Submit your Junior Plan to receive permission to enroll in Educ 400:
1) Open the Junior Plan Google Document 2-page template, then go to File > Make a Copy, and write your responses.
2) Change your Google Doc settings to Share > Anyone with the link > can Comment. This allows any Ed Studies faculty member to write feedback on your Junior Plan.
3) Schedule a meeting with Prof. Jack Dougherty to discuss and clarify your ideas. We want to help you succeed! Also, we encourage you to consult with other Ed Studies faculty and Trinity staff who are willing to assist you,
4) Email the link to your SHARED Google Doc to Prof. Jack Dougherty by Wednesday March 26th 2025 by 4 PM (the week we come back from Spring Break). Professors Speciale and Castillo will review your Junior Plan before Advising Week, and either approve it (and send you a PIN) or require you to make revisions. If you are late or need substantial revisions, you may not receive your schedule preference.
Read additional resources to plan your thesis:
- Sample Junior Plans from prior years:
- Recent Senior Research Presentations:
- Ed Studies Senior Projects that students have voluntarily uploaded to the Trinity College Digital Repository
- Partnerships with local schools and organizations: If you wish to conduct a study involving a local school or organization, reach out to build a partnership that benefits everyone. Some examples:
- Build on an existing relationship you have with a teacher or school from your Educ 200 participant-observation experience. You might offer to explore a research question that matters to your school partners, or offer to volunteer some hours in exchange for more research access
- Expand on existing partnerships with local organizations through the Center for Hartford Engagement and Research (CHER). See CHER’s database of recent partnerships with over 100 organizations in the Hartford region.
- Explore opportunities for research through public meetings and records of educational organizations and agencies, such as public hearings for legislative committees at the Connecticut General Assembly, public meetings at boards of education for the Hartford Public Schools or CREC or suburban districts, and public journalism (such as CT Mirror) about different stakeholders seeking to influence the policy process.
- Think outside the box and create research partnerships with schools and organizations outside of the Hartford area.
- If your study involves a Hartford-area community partner, ask a faculty sponsor to support your application to become a Community-Learning Research Fellow (usually offered in the Fall semester). In addition to Educ 400, earn an additional 0.5 credit by enrolling in the CLRF one-hour-per-week seminar and receive access to modest research expense funds for projects conducted with a community partner.
- Apply for summer research funding through the Public Humanities Collaborative to work on a project for a participating faculty member and a participating community partner, and receive a stipend plus housing. If appropriate, use this opportunity to start your own Ed Studies thesis research on a related topic.
- Ask a faculty member if they are willing to submit your name to the Summer Research Program, to do research with them and receive a stipend plus housing. If appropriate, use this opportunity to start your own Ed Studies thesis research on a related topic.
- Coordinate with another student researcher: Some students may wish to coordinate their independent research with another Ed 400 student’s project. For example, two students could work on separate research studies, but pool together interview questions to collect data from the same population. Furthermore, some seniors may wish to coordinate their Ed 400 research project with a thesis in their other major, by conducting two distinct studies on a related topic. To propose a coordinated study, add a section that explains the relationship between your Ed 400 project and work by other students or for other classes.
- Coordinate with thesis in your second major: Students are double-majoring and doing a thesis in each major may wish to coordinate their research projects to concentrate their time and energy. For example, you could ask two different research questions about a similar topic, and write two different theses that may have overlapping literature reviews. Be sure to obtain written permission from your faculty supervisors in both majors.
