Already I begin to see the fluid nature of qualitative research. I originally proposed to study students who self-select into an Honors Scholars program - focusing on Kinesiology students, as they seemed to predominate in past cohorts of honors students.
Alas! I received the cohort data for this year and only one is an athletic training major! So, the study shifts to include all students in the program. However, my idea about the predominance of females in the program has proven to be true. I am still working through the information on ethnicity. Perhaps 2 out of 3? :)
What I am starting to learn is that I will have be much more flexible in my design and in my thinking about qualitative research vs. quantitative. There is something really attractive to me in trying to capture Story, and in using it to help to explain concepts, etc. But there is a temptation to revert to the more rigid, and in many ways easier, methodology of quant!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Reading Log - #1
Reading Log: Chapter 5
Summary:
Creswell uses articles as examples of the five approaches to Qualitative research that are outlined in the book. The reader is instructed to first read an article, then to refer back to the chapter text to make comparisons between reader impressions and the information of the author. This method provides me a chance to compare my expectations and understanding of the material with that of the expert, a device I really enjoyed. Providing examples of each approach also serves to underscore the more theoretical information given in the preceding chapters, and to ground each approach in a way that makes it understandable and meaningful to a novice researcher.
It is also helpful to have concrete examples of the style of writing, the concepts that best fit each type of design, and the way in which the flow of information should be presented. The articles are quite dissimilar in style and tone, and in the presentation of core information, yet all are derived from the same type of data: focus groups, interviews and observation.
Reflection:
Details from the reading stand out to me as indicators of the mental shift I must make in thinking and writing about qualitative research. For instance, sentences from Angrosino’s narrative study article: “I could form no clear sense of who or what Vonnie Lee thought he was.” - Not only does this give me a picture of what it might be like to talk with a mentally disabled person, it provides insight into the mind of the researcher, who will bring a sense of being into the story, a reading or judgment about what the life and existence of Vonnie Lee might mean to the world.
“[H]e completely lost the point (or what I assumed was the point).” Here Angrosino allows the reader to see something of the way an interviewer can impose his or her own reality upon the narrative of the subject. The point may well have been crystal clear to Vonnie Lee, but the expectations of the author have not been met, and so he questions whether there is a point. Including that line in his article shows that the author has already grappled with expectation and come to realize that what is most important is not whether the point has been made to his satisfaction, but what it means to Vonnie Lee to have told the story.
The subject matter of the articles – mental disability, sexual abuse, disease, and death - in chapter 5 illustrates the range of topics that might be used as the basis for qualitative research. The articles also serve as a reminder that some of what we may choose to look at is deeply personal and may be disturbing to hear and to write about.
I have begun to realize that rather than being outside the research - a reporter regarding the facts of the quantitative study I have originated - my stance must be that of both observer and participant in a way that will require some vulnerability on my part. This type of research and writing will also require me to think about boundaries, opinion, and bias in a way that I have heretofore been largely able to disregard. I cannot begin with a null hypothesis, working toward proving nothing more than whether certain variables relate to one another in a way that does or does not confirm that hypothesis. I will bring my history, hopes, and beliefs – like it or not – into my qualitative research. This realization tends to frighten me, even as it frees me to look deeply into a subject in a way that quantitative research may never offer. What a challenge this semester will be!
Summary:
Creswell uses articles as examples of the five approaches to Qualitative research that are outlined in the book. The reader is instructed to first read an article, then to refer back to the chapter text to make comparisons between reader impressions and the information of the author. This method provides me a chance to compare my expectations and understanding of the material with that of the expert, a device I really enjoyed. Providing examples of each approach also serves to underscore the more theoretical information given in the preceding chapters, and to ground each approach in a way that makes it understandable and meaningful to a novice researcher.
It is also helpful to have concrete examples of the style of writing, the concepts that best fit each type of design, and the way in which the flow of information should be presented. The articles are quite dissimilar in style and tone, and in the presentation of core information, yet all are derived from the same type of data: focus groups, interviews and observation.
Reflection:
Details from the reading stand out to me as indicators of the mental shift I must make in thinking and writing about qualitative research. For instance, sentences from Angrosino’s narrative study article: “I could form no clear sense of who or what Vonnie Lee thought he was.” - Not only does this give me a picture of what it might be like to talk with a mentally disabled person, it provides insight into the mind of the researcher, who will bring a sense of being into the story, a reading or judgment about what the life and existence of Vonnie Lee might mean to the world.
“[H]e completely lost the point (or what I assumed was the point).” Here Angrosino allows the reader to see something of the way an interviewer can impose his or her own reality upon the narrative of the subject. The point may well have been crystal clear to Vonnie Lee, but the expectations of the author have not been met, and so he questions whether there is a point. Including that line in his article shows that the author has already grappled with expectation and come to realize that what is most important is not whether the point has been made to his satisfaction, but what it means to Vonnie Lee to have told the story.
The subject matter of the articles – mental disability, sexual abuse, disease, and death - in chapter 5 illustrates the range of topics that might be used as the basis for qualitative research. The articles also serve as a reminder that some of what we may choose to look at is deeply personal and may be disturbing to hear and to write about.
I have begun to realize that rather than being outside the research - a reporter regarding the facts of the quantitative study I have originated - my stance must be that of both observer and participant in a way that will require some vulnerability on my part. This type of research and writing will also require me to think about boundaries, opinion, and bias in a way that I have heretofore been largely able to disregard. I cannot begin with a null hypothesis, working toward proving nothing more than whether certain variables relate to one another in a way that does or does not confirm that hypothesis. I will bring my history, hopes, and beliefs – like it or not – into my qualitative research. This realization tends to frighten me, even as it frees me to look deeply into a subject in a way that quantitative research may never offer. What a challenge this semester will be!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Research Journal - Methodological Memo/Faith Reflection
For the individual interivew assignment I have chosen to talk with Hadley Hesse Wood, a professor at PLNU who has a dramatic life story, and who brings to her classroom a unique way of seeing the world. I am excited about hearing her story, yet a bit anxious as well. In reading the article Creswell includes as an illustration of Grounded Theory, I have come to see that there is a line I may be unable or unwilling to cross in learning about Hadley's complex life. Stories of abuse hit close enough to home to fill me with dread and may keep me from probing as deeply as I should in order to get a complete picture of how it may have shaped Hadley as a person.
This type of research will require me to step away from my self enough to listen deeply, rather than simply hearing. In accepting the gift of Story from someone, I also accept the responsiblity to listen without hope of intervention or even interaction with certain elements of the story I may very much wish to mitigate for the person with whom I am speaking.
Interviews are attractive to someone with the Strength of Communication, but as an Activator I want to jump in and solve whatever I might perceive to be a problem. Empathy creates a situation where I am so in-tune to the emotions of the other that I cannot help but try to put into action some plan to improve things. Being a Christian seems to compound this dilemma, as I feel it is my job to offer that cup of water to someone in need.
There is a strange dichotomy that this course will require of me: to understand myself enough to recognize how my history and biases affect my work, and yet, to largely remove myself from the framework of the projects in order to get a true picture of the subjects with which I will be in contact.
This type of research will require me to step away from my self enough to listen deeply, rather than simply hearing. In accepting the gift of Story from someone, I also accept the responsiblity to listen without hope of intervention or even interaction with certain elements of the story I may very much wish to mitigate for the person with whom I am speaking.
Interviews are attractive to someone with the Strength of Communication, but as an Activator I want to jump in and solve whatever I might perceive to be a problem. Empathy creates a situation where I am so in-tune to the emotions of the other that I cannot help but try to put into action some plan to improve things. Being a Christian seems to compound this dilemma, as I feel it is my job to offer that cup of water to someone in need.
There is a strange dichotomy that this course will require of me: to understand myself enough to recognize how my history and biases affect my work, and yet, to largely remove myself from the framework of the projects in order to get a true picture of the subjects with which I will be in contact.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Testing, 1,2,3
Just setting up the blog, sitting here in class and wondering how I can keep up with the work and not exclude my other class. Excited about both, but as an Activator, I want to get started on the assignments for this class NOW.
Also, very frustrated that I cannot get the danged book by Creswell!
Also, very frustrated that I cannot get the danged book by Creswell!
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