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!