Elisha Geerman

My project was about the academic performance of students from the ABC-islands who moved to the Netherlands to continue their education. I worked with Levende Talen Papiaments on this project. I wanted to do something for this community, and Levende Talen Papiaments (LTP) was doing that on organizational level. Together we made this project into something bigger and better for this community.

My project was essentially a research project. I discussed expectations and needs with my community partner at LTP, and I was free to mould the research project the way I deemed best. In my degree program, I learned about research methodologies and factors to keep in mind in research integrity. These all definitely came in handy in this project. In the field, I adapted what I learned to the needs of this project. I kept the research basics in the back of my mind for guidance. It was a valuable experience of applying and adapting what I had learned.

Once a week I would sit down with my partner and discuss the work done so far and I was able to do the work and get their input on it almost immediately.

I could make adjustments right away, which was a key aspect to staying on the same page and managing expectations on either side. Regular meetings also really helped me reflect on what I was doing, my knowledge, and how to morph my knowledge and abilities for this context. After finishing the research design, which included data collection consisting of two rounds of meetings with expert-groups, LTP introduced me to their contacts. I worked on the information letter and informed consent form, and from that point on I carried out the correspondence with participants. I found this fun to do -- it’s a side of research that you don’t always get to experience when writing research papers for classes.

I want to be flexible in my future day-to-day work and this project gave me a peek at what that might look like.

Because I am also from the ABC-islands, a personal takeaway for me was insight about my own code-switching behaviour. After three years of studying in English and living in a Dutch speaking community, I did not pay any mind to my code-switching in Papiamento. In this project I was surrounded by professionals, and especially my supervisor at LTP, who beautifully managed their multiple languages. This made me want to be more conscious of my multilingual language use, knowledge that I already possess and just had to put to good use. This was a challenge at the beginning of the project, but it became easier over time, and all my other languages also benefitted from my increased awareness.