Reflections for 2.28.13

Workshop reflection on 2.21.13

                Last Thursday during our workshop time, Hollie and I talked about the Compton-Lilly article I blogged about last week.  I think Hollie found it meaningful and related to her work.   Neither one of us had heard the term “reading capital” before the article, but we both saw the concept as a productive lens to view the experiences of some of the children we currently work with or have worked with in the past.   I wish Ann would have been present for the workshop too.  I am interested in knowing her ideas as they relate to the article.  Perhaps we will have some time this coming week to have her share some of her thinking.

                When we meet this Thursday, we are all bringing some writing related to our project.  Actually, I am bringing some writing that relates tangentially to my project for this class.  Last week, my chair asked me to write a conference proposal for LRA (it is due March 1^st) to discuss my project from my Intro to Qual class.  I have spent all day today trying to write that proposal and have felt so stuck.  When I cannot write, it is usually a sign to me that I do not have a clear line of thought to communicate.  Often, if I give the idea time to ruminate in my head and read more and ponder more, the ability to write will come.   Unfortunately, in this situation, I think the writing is not coming because I am not clear, and I am not sure I will be clear even with more time and reading.  I think the problem is related to some fundamental flaws in the project…

                The project I did for Intro to Qual was designed to meet assignment expectations and not to carry out official ‘research’.   For example, in the class, we had to develop a research protocol which contained a number of questions.  Had I been actually conducting the research, I would have chosen a more phenomenological route and asked a single question of the people I interviewed “What are your experiences of professional development sessions within Reading Recovery?”  So, as I am writing the proposal section about methodology I am at a loss.  I did 3 interviews and 3 observations because those were the course assignments, not because they were what I thought was needed to specifically address my research question(s).   Also, I didn’t write a theoretical framework or do a review of the literature as it relates to teacher professional development.  I know of SOME studies, but I don’t know if they are the ones most relevant to this project.  It just all feels pretty wobbly…and though the conference proposal is one to be conducted during a “round table” session, it seems pretty incongruent.    I feel the best about the results/conclusion section of the proposal but it is also on shaky ground.  Because I didn’t have a particular methodological lens, I did the coding as best I understood it, but it was such a fledgling attempt.  There really is no “logic of justification”… only that I did the project to meet course requirements and learn about interviewing and observing (which was wonderful and appropriate and yielded lots in terms of my understanding).  It feels odd only because I am going backwards and trying to wrap a research design around what I did for the class.    All this to say… on Thursday, I will most likely bring my proposal and get some feedback on it from Hollie and Ann.  Is this an intrinsic case study?  Do I call it a pilot project?  Is it acceptable to bring this kind of in-process, messy stuff to a conference and have people talk with me about it in a round table?    This is my first attempt at anything like this, and I feel pretty uncertain about this process.

                Interestingly, I scribbled the most meaningful writing about this project in the margins of the Kilbourn article.  I stopped pushing myself to write the proposal and decided to read the article and let go of the proposal writing. 

Project Update:

                I continue to do observations on site at the elementary school.  The visits are all day events, and I feel like I am getting to know the setting and the teachers more with every visit.  I am writing up descriptive notes of the visits.  I have some questions about these, actually.  I take notes as I am working with teachers and students.  I consider these notes to be “fact based”… EX: 10:25, the teacher passes out a worksheet to each of the students who are seated at their desks.   Later, I type from those “fact based” field notes and sometimes what I write it not so “factual” and contains some interpretation.  I think about some reading I did years ago from a book called Ethnographic Eyes by Carolyn Frank.  In the book, on pages 9-13, the author distinguishes between ‘note taking’ and ‘note making’.  I think of my typed notes as the ‘note making’ and the field notes as ‘note taking’.  Thoughts on this approach?

                I am continuing to read Yin…which means I am behind on my self-imposed schedule.    I think when I wrote out the readings for myself it was when I was thinking those would be the only readings I would do for the course.  I am struggling to juggle the readings we do for our “other time” with the readings I am doing for my “self” project/”workshop time”.  I am wondering if it is appropriate for me to scale back a bit?  I don’t want to do that until after Spring Break though.  I think having an entire week of not working, going to class, and fulfilling GTA responsibilities will allow me to do some good reading and reflecting.    Is it okay to do a revamped schedule after we submit our second project report, or can I submit my second project report later (after Spring Break)?  

Project Update

On Tuesday, I met with Alan Wallace about conducting some searches related to this project (professional development of teachers and case study methodology).  Alan was able to help me find a dissertation in the area of literacy professional development and used case study.  Sorry to say, it was not a quality document, but reading it has been interesting especially in light of the criteria outlined in our text.  This disseration did NOT meet the criteria by any stretch.    I also met with Ann this week to do some Atlas.ti. work.  She was very helpful and addressed all of the items I had jotted down for our conversation (families, network views, super coding, coding articles etc. ).  We weren't able to find a way to directly input emails into Atlas.  I have been cutting and pasting them into word documents and then uploading.  I have taken notes on Stake's Art of Case study and will upload them into the HU as well.   I also talked to the professor I am working with to narrow the research questions so that I will have an approach when I begin to code the observational data.  The questions to focus upon are: What is going on?  What are the experiences of the participants? and What is the language used between PD provider and PD participant?

Reflection on The complexities of reading capital in two Puerto Rican families

Blog post for 2.21.13 Class

Reading Reflection on The complexities of reading capital in two Puerto Rican families by Catherine Compton-Lilly

                I chose to read this article by Compton-Lilly because it was listed as an “exemplar” of quality case study research in Literacy Research Methodologies by Duke and Mallette (2011) and because Compton-Lilly is a Reading Recovery University Trainer.  Over the years, I have heard her speak at various conferences about issues of poverty, race, and literacy achievement but have never read any of her publications.   This article was really interesting in its own right, and it has given me ideas related to the work I am doing with my professor and possibilities for my dissertation.  I also think  my workshop mates, Hollie and Ann, would enjoy the piece as it connects to their own work (with ELL students and students in urban settings), is centered around literacy achievement, and examines concepts like “troubling” and “problematizing” that we briefly touched on last week.  I plan to email them both about the possibility of discussing this article during our workshop time.

                In this piece, Compton-Lilly masterfully addresses a conflict I have felt over my many years of work in education.  I grow so weary of listening to conversations of teachers minimizing the contributions of families to their student’s academic successes and lamenting the long list of deficits children bring with them to school.  I intentionally avoid teacher “workrooms” to avoid this sort of talk and (what I perceive to be) “bashing” of students and families.  I feel like most teachers do this sort of talking because of their own anxiety about teaching ‘difficult’ children.  In my opinion, it is sort of a ‘blame the victim’ kind of talk that absolves them from responsibility to teach ALL children.  They really don’t believe they (as teachers) have the necessary skills, so they blame the child for her shortcomings.  I get really frustrated by the teachers’ perceptions and talk and avoid, but Compton-Lilly faces it head on and addresses it with theory, stories of participants, and a call for more research in the area.

                From this article, I found many other text that I want/need to read.  From Dyson and Genishi (2005), Compton-Lilly quotes (in part)... “Everyday teaching and learning are complex social happenings, and understanding them as such is the grand purpose of qualitative case studies” (p.9).  This quote connects to the work I am currently doing with my professor at a local elementary school, and it also relates to what I am considering doing for my dissertation.  This book is one that I feel will help me learn more about case study, especially in the field of literacy.   Compton-Lilly describes her methodology as “intrinsic” in that she tried to learn about literacy within a particular community and with a specific population.  She differentiates this from what Stake refers to as “instrumental case study”.  Though I have read Stake, I need to more carefully read about both of these approaches.  Originally, I had thought my professor’s project was an ‘instrumental case study’, but now I am wondering if it is better described as an ‘intrinsic case study’.  

 Compton-Lilly describes the data she collected and I am struck by the depth of her data.  I imagine the transcripts of 4 hour long interviews with each of the 10 adult participants and 4 half-hour long interviews with the 10 child participants as well as observational data and documents over the course of a year in the field.  MASSIVE!  I am thinking that what the professor and I do this semester together will be nothing in comparison in terms of the amount of data we will collect.  I am also wondering about my dissertation and how much data and over what length of time I will collect it.    It seems so incredibly overwhelming!

In her data analysis section, Compton-Lilly talks about the constant comparative approach which I have heard and have a general understanding of, but need to read more about.  She also talks about ‘categorical analysis’ (Rose and Sullivan, 1996) – as a way to define relationships between codes and group or organize codes.  That sounds like a read I need, as well, though perhaps not for this class.  Isn’t there a case study course offered this summer?  Are you teaching it?

I like how Compton-Lilly addresses the idea of ‘voice’ with this quote….”In the case-study accounts that follow, I have used the words of participants extensively.  The cases attempt to tell the stories of participants, although I realize that my role as scribe and as the organizer of these stories cannot help but affect the stories that are told here.”  I think she explains that she wants to relay the stories of the participants and acknowledges that she is the one who is deciding what to say… in a very clear and matter-of-fact manner.   Further in that same paragraph on p.83, she talks about her decision to highlight the two stories of women who were very similar in terms of demographics but who have vastly different lives.  This section of the article reminded me of our conversations about ‘troubling’ and ‘problematizing’ in class last week.

On page 89, Compton-Lilly is talking about the overlap in what is valued, in terms of literacy, between school and communities.  She then goes on to talk about how what is valued can be different between the settings as well.  In the margin, I scribbled, ‘Kevin’, the name of my brother who spent many years in prison and who is still alive, I believe, because of his literacy skills.  Kevin is probably the most intelligent person I have ever met.  School was a breeze for him, and he was acknowledged over and over again for his ‘giftedness’.  In prison, he was acknowledged from his cell mates, because of his ability to read court documents and prepare appeals for friends.  Even in that setting, literacy skills were valued and were life saver.  I never really thought about this before. 

This was a great read…interesting, informative, and pointed me toward many more texts that focus on case-study research.

               

Case examples

Readings for 2.14.13

Case Examples p. 232-273

Readings

            As I read the case examples, I scribbled my reactions in the margins.  Wonderings about living with ambiguity, having an established criterion for quality interpretive research, and an emerging interest in narrative were among the scribbles.   

On page 262, in the Case Example #4 section, the authors say, “Resonating with the study entails a willingness to live with the uncertainty of having the phenomenon and context fade in and out of focus, catching a glimmer of a picture only to have it blur into the masses of raw text.”  My marginal comment was ‘scary’!  I agree with this idea and see the importance, but I also struggle in thinking about how that fits with established time lines for project completion, defense, graduation and possible job contingencies.   I am wondering how to allow myself the time to live with the uncertainty so that I produce a quality study and, at the same time, meet deadline requirements.  I am thinking about the ‘backwards planning’ that you discussed in class and am wondering if I build myself this sort of structure now if it will help me as I get closer to writing my dissertation.    I am also thinking that establishing a study group as I work on my dissertation might be helpful.  Constructive comments from others might help me not come to hasty conclusions for the sake of meeting deadlines.  

In our small group on Thursday, we had some discussion about the criteria for interpretive research that the authors outlined in the text.  I appreciated the criteria and felt it gave me various goals and ways to check the quality of what I will produce in the future.  I was surprised by my group members’ response to the criteria.  We had a great deal of discussion about arts based dissertations and how/if the criteria allowed for their inclusion in the research world.  I feel that the criteria do not inhibit this type of work, and that if done well, the arts based dissertation can meet the various criteria.  I wondered aloud to my group members, if not this criteria (posed in the text by the authors) then what criteria for qualitative research… Case Example number 5 helped me think more about this issue.  The conflict in this case study seemed to be that the author was a master of Reader’s Theater and that lack of ability compromised the integrity of what she was trying to produce.  Had she been fluent in the genre, there may not have been an issue with writing a dissertation in this way.  I think our conversation on Thursday fits with Jean’s ‘tension between what constitutes research and what constitutes art.’  

Reading the case examples that described narratives made me consider it more as an option for my dissertation.   We didn’t spend very much time discussing it in my intro class, and am drawn to it, as I have always been interested in writing and journaling and describing human experiences.   I would like to read narrative dissertations in their entirety to get a better sense of this genre and if it might be a real possibility for me.

Project Update

By class time on Thursday, I will have visited my research site 3 times for day long visits.  I have taken extensive field notes and typed them up into more descriptive notes.  I have also collected artifacts from the site (resources my professor has provided to the teachers, schedules etc.) and read numerous email exchanges between the teachers and the professor.   I have read Stake’s The Art of Case Study Research and have begun Yin’s book on Case Study Research and Methodology.  I have also reread the chapter on case studies from Barone’s Literacy Methodologies text.  I will be taking notes on these text and reflecting on them as a step toward writing 2 or 3 pages of “academic writing” for my first workshop session on the 21^st.  I will be attending the Atlas workshop on Monday night, and hope to use the time to upload all of my primary documents (field notes, artifacts, emails) into a new HU.    More details of my progress on my project will be outlined in the Project report that is due on Thursday before class.

               

Readings for 2.7.13 Chapters 13-15

Readings:

I think I will put this quote up in my office…

“The capacity to endure complete exhaustion, to reach deeper into some unsuspected reservoir of strength, and to persist to the finish contributes to the integrity, rigor, and intellectual vitality of the study” (p.187).  

After reading these chapters, I am better prepared and more appropriately anxious about what awaits.  I feel like I juggle so many roles right now – partner, parent, student, graduate associate, and school system employee – I am most definitely going to need to reprioritize my life  and inform those I am closest to about what is coming.  I think I have always known this would be a challenging experience, but I have a better understanding after reading this book.

On page 188, when the authors were describing the ‘manual’ tasks, I was thinking about how important those things are for me as I am mulling over an idea.  I like to read early in the morning (3am-6am are best for me) then spend time walking the dog, doing dishes, or vacuuming while I think over what I have read.  This time is important to me as I process information in reading or prepare for writing.   I was validated in seeing the authors talk about the role of these tasks as “essential aspects” of writing a qualitative dissertation.

I feel like I am making a similar transition to the one described on p. 189 – “… a movement from the particular to the general, from the concrete to the abstract, from the idiosyncratic to the universal, from the situational to the conceptual…”  Though the authors were speaking specifically about the dissertation, it fits for me now as I am shedding aspects of my ‘practitioner’ role and embracing more of a scholarly role.  This hasn’t been an easy transition, as the comfort and “accomplishment” of the practitioner role is safe.  I know who I am there, I am successful there, and I am drawn there.   I am less certain of the ‘rules’ and procedures of this new world, though reading this book while living the transition is helping.

The section about Owning the Study on page 190 seemed to echo what we discussed in class last week.   The interpretive researcher is putting forth her ideas about the meaning and message of her investigation.   She is not claiming to make generalizations to other contexts…rather, if done well, the study could be of use for others “who are struggling with the phenomenon in similar contexts”.    I thought what you said in class the other day was really important (to paraphrase)…if a qualitative research study is poorly done then the criticisms connect to the idea that qualitative research isn’t real research etc. but if a quantitative study is poorly done, then it is connected to the short comings of the researcher and not the research paradigm.  This idea is discussed more fully on 210 as well.  It feels even more of a responsibility of the qualitative researcher to produce a quality study…impressions go beyond the individual researcher but to the research paradigm as well.

I hope we have the opportunity in class tomorrow to further discuss the criteria for interpretive dissertations.  It also sounds like we will have the opportunity to hear you speak on particular aspects in some of our future classes.  I am especially interested in the idea of ‘utility’.

I have read and reread page 207.  I think I was the student in Intro to Qual who didn’t quite see the relationship between the dissertation and professional life.     I think I have evolved a bit, and am now in the place of practitioner who is struggling with how the dissertation can make a contribution to my field of practice.   I think about how many problems there are in the classrooms I visit.  Over and over the idea that teachers need more opportunity to reflect and continue to grow professionally is affirmed.    I want to study something related to professional learning so that I might make a contribution that means something to teachers.

Project Update

I visited the research site again this Tuesday with my professor.  These visits have been all day visits and usually last 30-45 minutes in each classroom. Similarly to last week, we observed in numerous classrooms and worked with both students and teachers.  I have taken many field notes as I am engaged in the classrooms, and as I am talking with my professor about her thinking around the observations.  I am in the process of typing up more descriptive notes from my raw field notes.  After each day’s visit with the teachers, my professor communicates via email with the teachers.   She includes me on these emails, and I am collecting them as part of this project.   For right now, I am simply collecting the data in folders and have not uploaded them into Atlas.  That will be my next step!

We learned yesterday that interviewing the teachers would not be a possibility.  The administrators in the building do not want to “put anything more on the teachers”.   I am wondering if an analysis of the emails and the observations would be enough data to work with and analyze.  What do you think?  It might also be possible for me to interview the administrators – principal, assistant principal, and curriculum coach about their perceptions of the professional development opportunities for the teachers.   I have finished reading Stake’s The Art of Case Study Research and am beginning Yin’s Case Study Research Design and Methods.