IES offers internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in learning about the research grant making process and contributing to the work of the different centers. Internships are coordinated through the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Volunteer Unpaid Internship Program and are available throughout the year.
This summer, NCER was fortunate to have Christine White join us. Christine is a doctoral student in developmental psychology at Florida State University and an IES Pre-Doctoral Fellow working with the Florida Center for Reading Research. She worked with Elizabeth Albro, NCER commissioner, and Laura Namy, NCER associate commissioner for the Teaching and Learning Division, to co-design and complete an internship focused on public access implementation. In this blog, Christine shares her experiences and insights from her summer internship opportunity.
Why I Applied for the Internship
As I approached the end of the second year in my doctoral program, I realized that a career in academia does not align well with my goals and interests. I am much more interested in evaluating, communicating, and using research to inform practice and policy than in asking novel questions and designing studies. Around this time, I also began working as part of the LDbase data repository team at Florida State, where I learned how open practices, such as preregistration, sharing data, and making scholarly publications freely accessible, can enhance the credibility, reach, and efficiency of research. I developed a strong interest in understanding the landscape of barriers and incentives influencing educational researchers in the adoption of open practices.
When I attended the American Educational Research Association conference in spring 2023, my goal was to learn about internship opportunities in organizations outside of academia. When I stopped by the IES table, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Elizabeth Albro. It quickly became clear that a summer internship with NCER would be a great fit. I learned that IES had recently developed a new plan to increase public access to federally funded research, and that one of their upcoming goals was to identify barriers grantees may face in complying with revised requirements for making data and publications publicly accessible at the time of publication. Thus, the timing was perfect for me to join NCER as a public access implementation intern and contribute to this initiative.
My Internship Experience
I was able to intern remotely from Tallahassee, Florida. Under the mentorship of Drs. Namy and Albro, my role was to identify anticipated challenges that grantees might face in meeting the revised requirements under the new public access plan. I met with NCER and NCSER program officers to discuss unique considerations for data sharing across different awards and project types, co-led a Virtual Office Hour session where over 70 prospective applicants and grantees shared questions and concerns about the revised requirements and expectations, and attended NCER and inter-agency meetings to learn more about the federal government’s vision for and progress towards increasing public access to research.
Through these activities, I learned about the concerns education researchers have about sharing research data and publications, such as navigating restrictive data use agreements and journal policies, selecting an appropriate online repository for sharing data, and deciding how to curate and share research data that may be at particular risk for reidentification (for example, rich video or audio data, or data collected in small or rural schools). As part of my internship, I documented these observations and began to develop ideas for resources IES could develop that may help address common concerns, such as revising existing data sharing guides to contain more detailed information about deidentifying and curating data types beyond quantitative data and creating a list of vetted data repositories of interest to educational researchers.
What I Learned from the Internship
First, through attending NCER and inter-agency meetings, I learned a great deal about the grant-making process and how government agencies operate and collaborate to support research. It was fascinating to see how NCER functions and fits within the larger systems of IES and the Department of Education.
Second, I learned about the federal government’s initiatives to increase openness and transparency in research. It was inspiring to be able to contribute during this period of active transition towards more accessible research across agencies and to hear innovative ideas for enabling and incentivizing researcher engagement in open practices from individuals with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise. I greatly appreciated that leadership at NCER and other agencies acknowledged that achieving a culture of open and accessible research is not just about introducing requirements but developing infrastructure and resources to flexibly support the people who are making it happen.
Finally, connecting with applicants and grantees gave me new insight into the challenges researchers encounter when sharing data and publications and the types of supports they need or expect from their funding agency. This knowledge has been invaluable not only for directing my activities during the internship but for informing my own research on researcher engagement in open science practices.
What is next for me?
I recently defended my preliminary exams, and I will soon begin working on my dissertation. After completing my PhD, I plan to apply to post-doctoral fellowships and positions that reflect my interest in evaluating and applying educational research in non-academic contexts and thinking “big picture” about how research can support practice, policy, and ultimately, improve the lives of teachers and students.
This blog was written by Christine White, public access implementation intern, NCER.