Research

Guest Speakers & Field Trips

If you are hoping to engage guest speakers and go on field trips, this step in the process is best approached as a whole class. If you are planning to engage individuals or organizations by phone or e-mail, this step can be accomplished in small groups.

  • Brainstorm a list of at least 8 people or organizations that you can contact to learn about social justice issues in your community. Ask teachers, parents, coaches and friends for ideas. Consider contacting an after-school program for low-income youth, homeless shelter or day center, food bank or soup kitchen, animal shelter, or a community organizer, international relief and/or refugee representative, or someone who has been on a mission trip. See the resource list below for more ideas.

  • Create a script to use for calling the organizations and individuals on your list. The script should include an introduction (who you are and the school you are representing), why you are calling (a brief overview of Project Justice and that you would like to take a field trip, host a guest speaker or schedule a conference call to learn more about the individual or organization) and a list of dates and times that your group or class is available. You should try to make at least 4 appointments.

  • Once the appointments are set, create a list of interview questions to ask. Remember, this will be the basis of your research for your project, so you will want to gather as much information about the justice issue that the individual or organization deals with. Some questions to consider: What issue or problem do you or your organization work on? What's the history of this issue? What are some root causes of the problem? What government policies or programs are in place that hurt or help with the issue? How can others help?

  • Be sure to write a thank you notes to everyone that you interviewed, had as a guest speaker or visited. You might also consider inviting them to the Project Justice presentations and sharing final projects with them online.

Wrap-up

Create a blog entry for each person or organization that you interviewed, had as a guest speaker or visited. Consider using one of the questions below as a starting point. Remember to keep it short, be polite, use appropriate language and do not include any personal information:

    • What do you understand to be the difference between justice & charity?

    • Have any of the stereotypes you had about those facing injustice changed because of your research?

    • What did you learn or experience through the research process that challenged you to think differently?

    • Have you found yourself really starting to care about a particular justice issue because of your research?

Resources

You can use this as starting point to locate individuals and organizations in your community that provide services to help those in need: