For the founders, providing a space for students to present rough ideas and early research findings was key.
“We didn’t want presentations that were completely polished,” said Holly Pope, PhD ’16, another SWAYWO co-founder and an assistant professor of elementary mathematics education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “We wanted people to feel comfortable sharing work that was half-baked. We wanted ideas that were in process.”
Tapping a network of peers
When Dan Schwartz took over as dean in the fall of 2015, he was so enthusiastic about SWAYWO that he established the GSE Students’ Collaborative Learning Fund to support the event and to encourage other student-led initiatives.
The circle of presenters is expanding this year due to an effort spearheaded by Rosa Chavez, a third-year doctoral student in mathematics education and director of this year's conference. Students at other universities were invited to submit proposals, and a portion of the sessions will feature research by graduate students from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Teachers College at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UCLA and the University of Michigan, as well as a group of undergraduates from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
By broadening the slate of presenters, the organizers hope to build on one of SWAYWO’s original goals of creating a space where students can tap into new perspectives.
“Good research arises at Stanford because there’s so much expertise, and a lot of that expertise is among students,” said Donovan. “Talking to other students is what enabled me to push my research forward. You have to talk to as many people as possible about your ideas.”
“We’re all learning as we go, and you don’t know about possible touchpoints unless you’re presenting your work like this,” said Busch. “It’s so important to leverage this network of peers that we have.”
So, What Are You Working On? (SWAYWO) takes place on Friday, May 24, from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend. All sessions will be held at the Center for Educational Research at Stanford (CERAS) at 520 Galvez Mall.