Doctoral research informs In4All about why people volunteer

In4All Executive Director, Elaine Charpentier Philippi, earned her Doctorate of Educational Leadership in June 2023.

This summer, the In4All Executive Director, Elaine Charpentier Philippi, earned her Doctorate of Educational Leadership from Lewis & Clark. Her research focused on what inspires participation and benefits of volunteering which will help In4All shape an experience that aims to break down barriers to education success for our students. I talked to Elaine about her experience and how she expects her work to inform the mission and programming of the organization.

Grant Kimball: Elaine, several years ago you decided to pursue your Ed.D. Tell us about what drove you to take on that challenge?

Elaine Charpentier Philippi: It actually came to me on the heels of presenting at an event focused on women and entrepreneurship. The keynote was a female tech CEO who said the real power of humanity lies in the learning that takes place along the way to a destination, and not so much in reaching the destination itself.

I found myself reflecting on the fact I had been trying to find people in higher education who would be interested in learning about the way we at In4All mobilize community and use civic capacity theory to bridge gaps in education. I had not been able to find anyone who was doing that research and publishing their ideas. That’s when I realized, shoot, I think I’m going to have to go back to school!

What gap did you see in the research that you wanted to fill?

When non-profits talk about their impact, it often defines outcomes in terms of simple numbers – such as the number of meals provided or the number of students that participate – as though the numbers alone tell the story. But we also have a responsibility to ensure we are doing no harm in the process. If an adult holds a harmful viewpoint or is unprepared to engage the community, that can negate any good we think we are doing, and we aren’t talking about that.

So, when we look at corporate social responsibility programming and volunteerism, we have to pay attention to the individuals’ motivations for involvement and the ways that their beliefs about social structures impact the viewpoint that they are bringing into the classroom. We recognize any reason a partner comes to work with us, but we see it as our responsibility to bring them along on our journey of learning a little more each year about the assets all students bring to school. We want the adults who participate in our programs to challenge the ways they have been acculturated to think of In4All students as needing help or lacking something in their lives in lieu of understanding the structural barriers that have been constructed for them and that they have to navigate.

So how did this shape your research focus for your doctorate?

As I dove into the literature, I discovered that nobody was putting a critical eye on the way industry shows up in educational spaces. There is a long history of business and education “partnering”, and often the business is coming in with a very specific set of objectives and priorities and doing something they think benefits everyone yet prioritizes their workforce and marketing needs and priorities. What they don’t realize is they can be doing more harm than good if their participation reinforces the systemic barriers faced by students who have been marginalized.

This got me thinking about the act of volunteering. What motivates business people to volunteer? Are they trying to be saviors, or do they see the innate talents in every student? Do they learn something from working with students who have been historically underserved that they can apply in their lives and in their workspace? Should we be focusing as much on their experience as we do the student experience?

That’s how I ended up with the direction for my research. I wanted to explore the perceptions volunteers hold about students and barriers to education success so that we can do the work, as an organization, to keep from perpetuating and reinforcing harmful ideologies through our school-business partnerships.

What did you learn in your research about the things that drive volunteerism?

In my research, I surveyed and then led focus groups comprised of the adults who participate in In4All programs to learn what inspires them to participate and understand how they perceive issues surrounding student success. I was able to group their inspirations into three main areas.

First, there is a desire to help and raise awareness of STEM professions. Many of our adults have benefitted from mentorship some time in their career and recognize they are in a position of privilege, so they see role-modeling as a way of giving back to the community.

Second, they see education as an equalizer in overcoming inequities in society. There is a belief that if we support students and show them the possibilities, they can be successful by working hard.

Third, adults see this as a way to increase their connectedness within their own organizations. If you work in a medium to large-sized company, it’s a chance to network with people from other parts of the organization and perhaps create new opportunities for your career.

Those all sound like very positive motivations, but is there anything that raises a red flag for you?

Yes. It’s one of those unintended consequences that we don’t want to talk about. Most people have been acculturated to believe the student is responsible for their own success – that it’s all about interest and effort. We call this bootstrap ideology. This is very reflective of our collective value of individualism above all else. Very few people understand and are prepared to talk about the structural barriers that prevent students from succeeding, no matter how capable they are and that our systems, by design, make it easier for white, affluent students to experience success.

So how does this shape the way you think about adult participation at In4All?

It is our regular practice to evaluate the experiences of the adults who participate in our programs at the end of the school year. We consistently receive input about how impressed people are with the students and how much they have learned about themselves. But recently, we have begun to look at how our programs can intentionally shape our adult’s experience to enhance the learning process for them – as much as for the students.

We see this manifest itself in two ways. The experience teaches adults that there are many factors affecting student success that our young human beings have no control over. Things like racism, poverty, identity, and other historically marginalizing factors. If a student is not engaging in an activity, you don’t just write them off. You work to reach this human and come to a place of empathy and realize that their pathway to success is not their responsibility alone - it belongs to all of us. We hope that the adults who participate go through a personal transformation in the way they think about the individual students and what impacts their success in the classroom.

We also know from my research data that some adults experience a change in the way they interact with their own communities. Participants have shared that they better understand the structural barriers that exist and know there are steps they can take to disrupt those barriers. We also learned that adults of color believe white co-learners show up differently in the work environment after participating in In4All programs with them. They report seeing an increase in empathy and understanding toward them and others.

How will In4All programming change its focus on the volunteer experience?

Knowing that language is important, we will be changing how we describe the adults who participate to reinforce the idea that they are “co-learners” who learn from the student experience just as the students learn from them. It’s a two-way exchange. We will encourage participants to look for what they are learning and, just as importantly, unlearning. What did I come into this thinking I already knew? What beliefs do I now need to reject? What did I learn about these amazing students and their communities?

We will also spend more time talking about the inequalities experienced by the students because of the structural barriers that marginalize the communities they belong to. We need to amplify the assets and reject the deficits that are present in a diverse classroom, or a diverse workforce, and learn to focus on creating an ability to readily identify the “cultural community wealth” to value attributes like resilience and familial capital. This is an important concept that was researched and published in 2005 by Dr. Tara J. Yosso of the University of California, Riverside.

We also hope to create a learning experience where the co-learner is prepared to enter the classroom with curiosity and then reflects on what they are learning. It could be they learn about a bias that exists because of the way they have been acculturated to use deficit language when describing In4All students. Or they learn that failing forward and iteration is just as valuable to adults as it is students. It’s about learning that we are all imperfect. We’re all learning. And we’re doing this together.

How do you see people applying this in their workplace or in their own communities?

By focusing more on the adults in our programs, our hope is they become more comfortable and agile in the way they think and engage in their communities. We want to plant the seeds of a collective mindset. When your behaviors are positive, and they are meant to bolster community, everyone benefits – including you.

So, now that you are done with your doctorate, what are you going to do with all of your spare time?

I have some writing to do. I need to publish some articles that stem from the research I did. I’m also curious about how corporate social responsibility programs could change the way they think, disrupt the language they use, and engage differently with the community. And I plan to stay involved with the Lewis & Clark community because we share the same views on social justice. There is lots of work to be done. The doctorate was just the beginning!