Educating through Storytelling: Shirley Liu and the SESP-Medill Education Collaborative
Shirley Liu is a student in Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Education and Social Policy Program, with a concentration in Educational Studies in the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP). Liu was one of three students who participated in the SESP-Medill Education Collaborative, which engages graduate-level students at SESP and the Medill School of Journalism as education reporters, translating complex ideas from academic research for a popular audience through evidence-based journalistic writing and reporting.
Why did you apply for the collaborative?
The Educational Studies concentration is very flexible, which I appreciate, because while my focus is education, I’m also interested in media studies. I majored in journalism and communication during my undergraduate studies in China, and I wanted to gain journalism experience in English. I was really lucky to get into the collaborative, and it’s been a transformative experience for me. As part of the program, we are coached by a professional journalist and mentored by SESP and Medill professors. We also take journalism classes during the winter quarter at Medill.
What pieces did you work on?
As part of the collaborative, I contributed to three published articles: two in The Hechinger Report and one in Chicago Health magazine. In The Hechinger Report, I was a contributing reporter to the article “What happens to reading comprehension when students focus on the main idea”, which explores the ongoing debate in reading education about which approach helps students understand what they read better: teaching them to find the main idea or helping them build background knowledge. Additionally, in my last article, “A researcher’s view on using AI to become a better writer”, I interviewed researcher Jennifer Meyer, who has conflicting perspectives regarding the use of AI in writing.
My story in Chicago Health magazine, “Life After the Cut”, is different from my other pieces. It covers the story of my classmate, Milan Afshar, who has a rare medical condition called Stiff Person Syndrome. Afshar was participating in a research study on this disease through Johns Hopkins, until cuts to the National Institutes of Health halted the study. I was grateful to report his story and illuminate the impact of policy on individuals’ lives.
What was the process of writing the article for Chicago Health?
After learning about Afshar’s experience, I connected it to the larger news stories about the funding cuts. It was very hard, because his story is so multilayered. I did a two-hour interview with him. I didn’t know where to start. My journalist coach, Jill Barshay, helped a lot; she taught me how to do the interview, how to sort out the main theme, and how to keep the story personal while connecting to the broader sociopolitical landscape. That was a major challenge for me. In my first draft, I connected to the national issue too fast, and did not give enough personal context, but my coach helped me expand the focus to Afshar’s personal story. She did lots of editing with me. I could not have been published without her support.
Why is it important for educators and journalists to work together and have this shared perspective?
Journalism translates social science research into accessible knowledge for broader audiences. I saw a gap between education research and actual education practice. Teachers are seeking effective practices and students are eager to know how they can learn better. Combining these two perspectives bridges this gap through justice-oriented practices such as storytelling.
How do you see this experience influencing your career?
My goal is to get a PhD focused on adolescents’ digital literacy. I am interested in what motivates young people to stay critical, seek additional information, and assess credibility. I completed my master’s project on this subject, and have been working with Professor and SESP alumnus Michael Spikes. As part of the research project, we interviewed twelve Illinois teachers about their perceptions and practices of Illinois’s media literacy policy. Teachers who incorporate media literacy into their classrooms recognize it as an important part of students’ literacy practices; students read online messages every day, just as they read books. For example, one important part of media literacy is fact-checking. If you read a message on a news source, you should look at another source to see if it is reported the same way. Then you can compare them and decide what to believe. This skill is essential in today's noisy information environments, and I hope my research will help find ways to cultivate such processing patterns among adolescents.