A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. -- I Corinthians 12:14, The Message
Imagine for a moment that you have been asked to write a reflection in which you detail the manner in which your right eye contributes to the ways in which you live your life. You might naturally write about vision, perhaps describing the process by which your eyes take in the beauty of creation, or allow you to read a compelling story, or to watch your children at play. Certainly, in writing about the eye, the author must address what is perceived visually. However, simply articulating what is known about vision would not be enough. The assignment is, after all to reflect on the RIGHT eye. What is it that your right eye alone perceives?
Imagine further that in writing about vision, you are successful in describing the function of just one eye. Has the topic been adequately covered? What about the contributions that eye makes to balance, to the ways in which the things around you are preceived - the depth and breadth of the world, the simple act of reaching out to touch an object - all would be changed by the loss of the right eye. It is possible to live without that eye, but the totality of the body is affected by the loss of any part.
For me, writing about my faith is comparable to writing about the functions of just one eye. My faith is connected to every part of my being, to the ways in which I move through the world. To consider my faith as a solitary element is impossible for me. As with the loss of one eye, I would continue to perceive the world, but my balance would be thrown, my ability to reach out and touch would be disturbed.
In fact, the integration of my faith is so ubiquitous that there is no part of me that does not incorporate and consider my relationship to Christ, so completely that I rarely notice its effects on my day to day actions. For this reason, I cannot say perceptible changes to my faith have occured as a result of taking a class in qualitative research. Conversely, I can say with certainty that my faith has informed the manner in which I perceived the content of the class - in ways that I may never fully understand or articulate.
Throughout the semester, I have seen glimpses of my faith at play in the research arena: The moment during an interview for another project, in which I was almost desperate because I could not reach out to a hurting person who had rejected all thought of the healing God whom she needed. The realization that Truth comes in many forms, and that even as I receive the gift of Story from participants, I must offer the gift of trust. The involuntary admission during an interview that I, too, serve the living God. Those moments clarify for me the differences between a researcher, and a Christian researcher.
My very nature craves and serves Story. Transmitting ideas, making word pictures, is an art I continually practice and admire. Skillful storytelling trumps reality for me. This makes the world of qualitative research a dangerous one. I have come to realize that I belong in this place, but that I must always be on guard against the temptation to embellish or to serve the art rather than the Story itself. For some, methods that ensure rigor are but the final touch on research design. For me, they will be the failsafe that catches me before accuracy is sacrificed to art.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Research Journal - Analytic Memo
Some changes in thought regarding the themes I anticipated revealing through my study on Honors Scholars: Challenge is a great motivator to these students and will be explored through the literature in the final writeup, while Hope Theory seems to be unrelated to the ways in which these students move through the world and articulate their thoughts about success and achieving. I am beginning to see that in order to need hope, a student must at some point either lack hope or experience the kind of setbacks that require the instilling of hopefullness. I will have to throw that part of my theorizing out and continue to mine the themes for other ties to literature.
I find this part of the study really difficult, as I feel I don't know enough to know even what it is that I don't know! This also helps me to understand the type of silo-ed expertise that tends to develop as good thinkers follow only one line of discovery - Carol Dweck looking at mindsets or Barbara Fredrickson examining the elements that undergird her Broaden and Buiild theory. Unless one becomes expert in one specific area there is just too much literature to grasp and synthesize in relation to new areas of exploration.
I find this part of the study really difficult, as I feel I don't know enough to know even what it is that I don't know! This also helps me to understand the type of silo-ed expertise that tends to develop as good thinkers follow only one line of discovery - Carol Dweck looking at mindsets or Barbara Fredrickson examining the elements that undergird her Broaden and Buiild theory. Unless one becomes expert in one specific area there is just too much literature to grasp and synthesize in relation to new areas of exploration.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Research Journal - Methodological Memo / Faith Reflection
It seems to me that there is a tacit agreement between researcher and subjects or participants in research that an effort will be made to tell, not only a truthful story, but a complete one. What a difficult task! The reading I have done this week tells me that even skilled, experienced researchers struggle with finding a balance between artfully writing a study and telling the complete story, including every nuance and detail.
One falls in love with the subjects as well, and it is difficult to know when to stop the process, when to declare the interviews at an end. Once that end has been reached, it feels like a betrayal of the gift of Story that has been received for the researcher not to include every last statement, every possible theme. How does one consolidate the wide spectrum of experience in an exemplary educator, for instance, into three or four overarching themes? What does one do with the MANY lovely statements the subject has offered that do not make the final writeup of the research?
I believe that all researchers must face this dilemma to a degree. But it seems that a Christian must struggle that much more diligently because we seek to reveal Truth and want to honor God with a job well done.
In the end, while the discovery is exciting, and the writing fullfilling in a way that quantitative research can never match, the daunting task of capturing, yet not over-reaching, with regard to telling the Story makes qualitative research one of the hardest things I have ever done!
One falls in love with the subjects as well, and it is difficult to know when to stop the process, when to declare the interviews at an end. Once that end has been reached, it feels like a betrayal of the gift of Story that has been received for the researcher not to include every last statement, every possible theme. How does one consolidate the wide spectrum of experience in an exemplary educator, for instance, into three or four overarching themes? What does one do with the MANY lovely statements the subject has offered that do not make the final writeup of the research?
I believe that all researchers must face this dilemma to a degree. But it seems that a Christian must struggle that much more diligently because we seek to reveal Truth and want to honor God with a job well done.
In the end, while the discovery is exciting, and the writing fullfilling in a way that quantitative research can never match, the daunting task of capturing, yet not over-reaching, with regard to telling the Story makes qualitative research one of the hardest things I have ever done!
Reading Log #5 - Part 2
Reading Log, Golden-Biddle & Locke, Introduction and Chap. 1
Summary:
The authors explain their philosophy regarding qualitative research and the manner in which it should be written via the introduction to the book. They believe that qual research must be thoroughly linked to existing research via connections with the literature, in order for qual research to be viewed as making a serious contribution to the thought in any discipline.
Using the example of a child's cartoon story of a melting snowman, Golden-Biddle and Locke introduce the idea of a "theorized storyline," or a way of writing that links field research with academic literature.
Chapter 1 concerns what the authors term "the writing enterprise in the context of our professional lives." (p. 10) They use the chapter to illustrate the tension that lies between the spare academic style of writing and the need for fuller, richer, more nuanced writing that conveys not just the facts but the perceptions of meaning as well.
Reflection:
As the authors state, "the practice of academic writing is neither plain nor simple." (p. 11)This struggling academic writer must shout AMEN SISTAHS! to that assertion. It is especially difficult, nigh unto schizophrenic,to write one minute for a class requiring the academic wriring associated with quantitative research, then to switch gears the next moment in order to write in the richly narrative style required for qualitative work. The importance of learning to write in both styles is not lost on me, yet there are days on which I would like to shout "Enough already! - pick a style and let me get on with it!" I do realize that this ultimately happens when one chooses a dissertation topic, research design, and hence a way of looking at and writing about data. Until then I would just ask the folks on both sides of the textual fence to understand the strain that straddling said fence can cause. Pun fully intended.
Side note: I take great umbrage at the statement characterizing the library as "that academically removed knowledge repository." (p. 10) It is precisely as a means to becoming less removed, more in tune, and open to the great conversations of Higher Education that this librarian chose to pursue a PhD, not in librarianship, but in Higher Ed! :) That said, I have to forgive any authors who reference my favorite book on the wriring process, their mention of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird absolves them of any anti-library offenses for which they may be guilty.
Summary:
The authors explain their philosophy regarding qualitative research and the manner in which it should be written via the introduction to the book. They believe that qual research must be thoroughly linked to existing research via connections with the literature, in order for qual research to be viewed as making a serious contribution to the thought in any discipline.
Using the example of a child's cartoon story of a melting snowman, Golden-Biddle and Locke introduce the idea of a "theorized storyline," or a way of writing that links field research with academic literature.
Chapter 1 concerns what the authors term "the writing enterprise in the context of our professional lives." (p. 10) They use the chapter to illustrate the tension that lies between the spare academic style of writing and the need for fuller, richer, more nuanced writing that conveys not just the facts but the perceptions of meaning as well.
Reflection:
As the authors state, "the practice of academic writing is neither plain nor simple." (p. 11)This struggling academic writer must shout AMEN SISTAHS! to that assertion. It is especially difficult, nigh unto schizophrenic,to write one minute for a class requiring the academic wriring associated with quantitative research, then to switch gears the next moment in order to write in the richly narrative style required for qualitative work. The importance of learning to write in both styles is not lost on me, yet there are days on which I would like to shout "Enough already! - pick a style and let me get on with it!" I do realize that this ultimately happens when one chooses a dissertation topic, research design, and hence a way of looking at and writing about data. Until then I would just ask the folks on both sides of the textual fence to understand the strain that straddling said fence can cause. Pun fully intended.
Side note: I take great umbrage at the statement characterizing the library as "that academically removed knowledge repository." (p. 10) It is precisely as a means to becoming less removed, more in tune, and open to the great conversations of Higher Education that this librarian chose to pursue a PhD, not in librarianship, but in Higher Ed! :) That said, I have to forgive any authors who reference my favorite book on the wriring process, their mention of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird absolves them of any anti-library offenses for which they may be guilty.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Reading Log #5 - Part 1
Reading Log, Creswell, Chap. 11
Summary:
Creswell begins the chapter with a diagram of three components of qualitative research: approach to inquiry; assumptions, worldviews, theories; and research design. He then "turns the story" by creating a short writeup of the example study called the gunman case for each of the different qualitative approaches offered in the book, illustrating how each approach differs and what would, and would not, be included in the narrative for each type of study.
In the conclusion, Creswell discusses the way that the approach to inquiry shapes the language that is used to write the study. Each facet of qualitative research depends upon the question being asked, and how the researcher plans to focus attention on answering that question. Finally, the interpretation of research is discussed, with emphasis on personal meaning and the way that the researcher speaks into his or her work, bringing our own beings into the study.
Reflection:
Chapter 11 offers what, for me, is the most important statement in the book, "Ultimately, our writing is an interpretation by us of events, people, and activities, and it is only our interpretation...Within this perspective, our writing can only be seen as a discourse, one with tentative conclusions, and one that will be contatntly changing and evolving."" (p. 231)
I believe the qualitative researcher has to give herself or himself the permission to understand that the conclusions drawn are theirs alone, that it is okay for the interpretation to be personal. Too often we try to do the same thing with qual. research that is done with quantitative researech - to prove something. When the researcher makes peace with the possibility of simply telling a story, of reflecting one possible way that reality can be seen, through the eyets of a specific researcher looking at a specific population or event, then a powerful story can be told. Stories that may not conclusively prove a theory, but can hekp to widen understanding and point to new ways of seeing. Viewed in this light, qual. research is pretty heady stuff!
Summary:
Creswell begins the chapter with a diagram of three components of qualitative research: approach to inquiry; assumptions, worldviews, theories; and research design. He then "turns the story" by creating a short writeup of the example study called the gunman case for each of the different qualitative approaches offered in the book, illustrating how each approach differs and what would, and would not, be included in the narrative for each type of study.
In the conclusion, Creswell discusses the way that the approach to inquiry shapes the language that is used to write the study. Each facet of qualitative research depends upon the question being asked, and how the researcher plans to focus attention on answering that question. Finally, the interpretation of research is discussed, with emphasis on personal meaning and the way that the researcher speaks into his or her work, bringing our own beings into the study.
Reflection:
Chapter 11 offers what, for me, is the most important statement in the book, "Ultimately, our writing is an interpretation by us of events, people, and activities, and it is only our interpretation...Within this perspective, our writing can only be seen as a discourse, one with tentative conclusions, and one that will be contatntly changing and evolving."" (p. 231)
I believe the qualitative researcher has to give herself or himself the permission to understand that the conclusions drawn are theirs alone, that it is okay for the interpretation to be personal. Too often we try to do the same thing with qual. research that is done with quantitative researech - to prove something. When the researcher makes peace with the possibility of simply telling a story, of reflecting one possible way that reality can be seen, through the eyets of a specific researcher looking at a specific population or event, then a powerful story can be told. Stories that may not conclusively prove a theory, but can hekp to widen understanding and point to new ways of seeing. Viewed in this light, qual. research is pretty heady stuff!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Reading Log #4 - Part 3
Reading Log, Creswell, Chap. 10
Summary:
Creswell is concerned with answering two questions in this chapter: Is the account valid, and by whose standards. He states that researchers have three audiences with which to validate their material as well, the researcher her or himself, the participants of the study, and the reader.
Table 10.1 offers a series of perspectives with regard to validation. These perspectives generally seek to parallel for qualitative research the means used to validate quantitative methodology, though often changing terminology in order to accommodate a more "naturalistic" research agenda.
Creswell himself summarizes his approach to validation as assessing the accuracy of the findings according to the researcher and participant descriptions. He also views validation as a "strength of qualitative research" because of the unique qualities inherent in the methodology, such as length of study, closeness of researcher to participant and the validation strategies employed in such studies.
Validation strategies include: building trust with participants through length of study, triangulation, peer review, negative case analysis, member checking, rich and thick description, and external audits. Creswell recommends that qual. researchers employ at least two of these strategies in any study.
Field notes, transcription, and various coding methods are included in Creswell's description of reliability perspectives. The author then goes on to detail three approaches to qual. evaluation - procedural, postmodern, and interpretive - as well as specific evaluative criteria for each of the five approaches recommended in the book.
Reflection:
As always, Creswell supplies a roadmap for research in each of the five discussed approaches. New researchers may choose a methodology and then use the text as a series of guidelines or steps to follow in creating a study. I find this extremely helpful, both in recognizing the different requirements of each research design, and in understanding the process. The result should be a qualitative study that is organized in a way that defines the study parameters and assures that the accuracy or validity of findings is maintained.
Summary:
Creswell is concerned with answering two questions in this chapter: Is the account valid, and by whose standards. He states that researchers have three audiences with which to validate their material as well, the researcher her or himself, the participants of the study, and the reader.
Table 10.1 offers a series of perspectives with regard to validation. These perspectives generally seek to parallel for qualitative research the means used to validate quantitative methodology, though often changing terminology in order to accommodate a more "naturalistic" research agenda.
Creswell himself summarizes his approach to validation as assessing the accuracy of the findings according to the researcher and participant descriptions. He also views validation as a "strength of qualitative research" because of the unique qualities inherent in the methodology, such as length of study, closeness of researcher to participant and the validation strategies employed in such studies.
Validation strategies include: building trust with participants through length of study, triangulation, peer review, negative case analysis, member checking, rich and thick description, and external audits. Creswell recommends that qual. researchers employ at least two of these strategies in any study.
Field notes, transcription, and various coding methods are included in Creswell's description of reliability perspectives. The author then goes on to detail three approaches to qual. evaluation - procedural, postmodern, and interpretive - as well as specific evaluative criteria for each of the five approaches recommended in the book.
Reflection:
As always, Creswell supplies a roadmap for research in each of the five discussed approaches. New researchers may choose a methodology and then use the text as a series of guidelines or steps to follow in creating a study. I find this extremely helpful, both in recognizing the different requirements of each research design, and in understanding the process. The result should be a qualitative study that is organized in a way that defines the study parameters and assures that the accuracy or validity of findings is maintained.
Reading Log #4 - Part 2
Reading Log, Nathan, Chap. 7
Summary:
Nathan begins this chapter by sharing the questions engendered by, and reactions to, her initial decision to re-enter college as a freshman in order to study undergraduate life, and her subsequent exit from the field at the end of her study. She is surprised, for instance, that three individuals let her know they see parallels between her study and the John Howard Griffin book entitled "Black Like Me."
Nathan reflects that the worlds of student and professor are bounded unto themselves, and hopes that her experiences serve as a means to look at each world from a perspective that considers both cultures and viewpoints.
Looking at the classroom as a teacher who recognizes the viewpoint of the student, Nathan attempts to organize her material, prioritize her teaching strategies and expectations in a way that more clearly addresses the realities of student life. She gives reading assignments as an example of the disconnect between faculty expectations and student time management decisions, showing a depth of understanding of both viewpoints that assists the reader in visualizing a clearer path toward integration of the two in the classroom. It is in this type of analysis that her book is most useful to practitioners of higher education. It also serves as an illustration of the benefits that can be realized from such a study, even when questions of ethics occur.
The author discusses the ways in which factions of the university, faculty and administrators on the one side, students on the other, impact one another. She then gives examples of the repercussions of cultural misunderstanding - from teacher burnout to student frustration with scheduling limitations. Within this framework, the idea of "liminality," or the place where normal rules of society are lifted, that should be the focus with regard to possible change within the university because it is in this state that creativity is allowed to flourish. As she states it, "college is at once an affirmation and a preparation for the world and a creative response and innovative challenge to that same world."
Chapter 7 concludes with descriptions of two freshman Welcome Week events, one designed to outline the ways in which education can inform the career goals of students, the other intended to foster academic pursuit and character formation. Nathan suggests that these diametrically opposed activities illustrate the extreme need for competing messages to be made known to stake holders on both sides of the academic divide in order to shape the modern univerity.
Reflections:
As always, I find Nathan more than a little deluded in her self-perceptions. She is amazed that colleagues would liken her study to Griffin's "Black Like Me." She states that such reactions serve to underscore the huge gap between the worlds of academicians and undergraduates. What she fails to consider is that the reactions may have far less to do with a perceived gap and much more to do with the notion of a deception perpetrated upon an entire population. Her colleagues rightly connect her masquerade as a freshman with that of Griffin's physical alteration in order to be accepted as a black man. It would seem that Nathan's ethical disconnect has gone so deep that she is often unable to see her actions as deceptive in any way!
On the other hand, she skillfully illustrates the need for more transparency between stakeholder groups within academe. Until these groups begin to understand one another's goals and necessities, the desired outcomes of academicians will stand in opposition to the culture of the student body. Though it might be flawed in many ways, Nathan's study serves well to illustrate the real cultural divide that exists within the academy, and the multiplicity of experience that is represented there.
Reading Log, Nathan, Afterword
Summary:
Nathan uses the afterword of her book to pose ethical questions for herself regarding her study, and then reveals her conclusions regarding relationships, privacy in conversation, disclosure of her identity, etc. She dismisses most concerns by admiting to revealing her identity in order to preserve relationships or avoid being openly dishonest. Rules for conduct, established by Nathan herself, appear to shift as she spends more time with students and is forced into situations where she must either disregard information or allow students to know she is a researcher.
Reflection:
Students in our class are clearly divided as to what constitutes harmful behavior with regard to student subjects. Nathan was not the person she portrayed to fellow students. She hid her credentials and her agenda. She listened to private conversations, that while she says she did not record or report, still inform her opinions regarding student life, priorities and behaviors. Nathan may reason that no one was harmed by this behavior. And, unlike many of my fellows, I would tend to agree for the most part. Random conversations regarding cutting classes or dorm room etiquette will not likely result in scar tissue.
It is Nathan's continual misinterpretation of her place within the student body, her willingness to accept as fact statements that cannot be verified or member-checked, and her increasing cloud of witnesses in the form of subjects to whom she has had to disclose her motives and identity that pose the most serious problems for me with regard to her study. How can the results not have been skewed when so many students actually knew they were being studied? Does she really believe that, having told one or two people in each situation, they would not share this information with others? If so, she learned very little about the truth of dorm life. If not, she has chosen to remain safely hidden behind false beliefs in order to maintain her ethical facade. Either way, the study is less valid than interesting, the results less credible than entertaining. I still regard the book as important and the study informative enough to be required reading.
Summary:
Nathan begins this chapter by sharing the questions engendered by, and reactions to, her initial decision to re-enter college as a freshman in order to study undergraduate life, and her subsequent exit from the field at the end of her study. She is surprised, for instance, that three individuals let her know they see parallels between her study and the John Howard Griffin book entitled "Black Like Me."
Nathan reflects that the worlds of student and professor are bounded unto themselves, and hopes that her experiences serve as a means to look at each world from a perspective that considers both cultures and viewpoints.
Looking at the classroom as a teacher who recognizes the viewpoint of the student, Nathan attempts to organize her material, prioritize her teaching strategies and expectations in a way that more clearly addresses the realities of student life. She gives reading assignments as an example of the disconnect between faculty expectations and student time management decisions, showing a depth of understanding of both viewpoints that assists the reader in visualizing a clearer path toward integration of the two in the classroom. It is in this type of analysis that her book is most useful to practitioners of higher education. It also serves as an illustration of the benefits that can be realized from such a study, even when questions of ethics occur.
The author discusses the ways in which factions of the university, faculty and administrators on the one side, students on the other, impact one another. She then gives examples of the repercussions of cultural misunderstanding - from teacher burnout to student frustration with scheduling limitations. Within this framework, the idea of "liminality," or the place where normal rules of society are lifted, that should be the focus with regard to possible change within the university because it is in this state that creativity is allowed to flourish. As she states it, "college is at once an affirmation and a preparation for the world and a creative response and innovative challenge to that same world."
Chapter 7 concludes with descriptions of two freshman Welcome Week events, one designed to outline the ways in which education can inform the career goals of students, the other intended to foster academic pursuit and character formation. Nathan suggests that these diametrically opposed activities illustrate the extreme need for competing messages to be made known to stake holders on both sides of the academic divide in order to shape the modern univerity.
Reflections:
As always, I find Nathan more than a little deluded in her self-perceptions. She is amazed that colleagues would liken her study to Griffin's "Black Like Me." She states that such reactions serve to underscore the huge gap between the worlds of academicians and undergraduates. What she fails to consider is that the reactions may have far less to do with a perceived gap and much more to do with the notion of a deception perpetrated upon an entire population. Her colleagues rightly connect her masquerade as a freshman with that of Griffin's physical alteration in order to be accepted as a black man. It would seem that Nathan's ethical disconnect has gone so deep that she is often unable to see her actions as deceptive in any way!
On the other hand, she skillfully illustrates the need for more transparency between stakeholder groups within academe. Until these groups begin to understand one another's goals and necessities, the desired outcomes of academicians will stand in opposition to the culture of the student body. Though it might be flawed in many ways, Nathan's study serves well to illustrate the real cultural divide that exists within the academy, and the multiplicity of experience that is represented there.
Reading Log, Nathan, Afterword
Summary:
Nathan uses the afterword of her book to pose ethical questions for herself regarding her study, and then reveals her conclusions regarding relationships, privacy in conversation, disclosure of her identity, etc. She dismisses most concerns by admiting to revealing her identity in order to preserve relationships or avoid being openly dishonest. Rules for conduct, established by Nathan herself, appear to shift as she spends more time with students and is forced into situations where she must either disregard information or allow students to know she is a researcher.
Reflection:
Students in our class are clearly divided as to what constitutes harmful behavior with regard to student subjects. Nathan was not the person she portrayed to fellow students. She hid her credentials and her agenda. She listened to private conversations, that while she says she did not record or report, still inform her opinions regarding student life, priorities and behaviors. Nathan may reason that no one was harmed by this behavior. And, unlike many of my fellows, I would tend to agree for the most part. Random conversations regarding cutting classes or dorm room etiquette will not likely result in scar tissue.
It is Nathan's continual misinterpretation of her place within the student body, her willingness to accept as fact statements that cannot be verified or member-checked, and her increasing cloud of witnesses in the form of subjects to whom she has had to disclose her motives and identity that pose the most serious problems for me with regard to her study. How can the results not have been skewed when so many students actually knew they were being studied? Does she really believe that, having told one or two people in each situation, they would not share this information with others? If so, she learned very little about the truth of dorm life. If not, she has chosen to remain safely hidden behind false beliefs in order to maintain her ethical facade. Either way, the study is less valid than interesting, the results less credible than entertaining. I still regard the book as important and the study informative enough to be required reading.
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