Blog post 3.20.13

Project Update:

            A quote from Watt’s journal summarizes where I am with the project… “This thing has taken over my life.  I’m unbalanced…”  Actually, I think the quote is better applied to my whole experience this semester, but the project is a big part of it!  I continue to spend a full day in the field each week (7:30-3:30).   While I am on site, I am participating in lessons with teachers and students, reflecting with my professor about how things are going, and taking extensive field notes.  I have fallen behind with writing up field notes (behind with yesterdays and 3.12)…into descriptive notes, but have blocked out the entire day tomorrow to catch up.  I also have a whole stack of artifacts to upload into my HU…finding the time to do those “management tasks” has been difficult, given everything else that is going on.  My goal is to get everything uploaded today, spend tomorrow morning typing up descriptive notes, and then do some reading and coding before class tomorrow.  I will also be going back to the site next Tuesday…as they are in session even though we have spring break.   I am looking forward to spring break and having time to really devote to this project.  I will submit my in progress data to you at the end of Spring Break, as well as my more formal project update.

           

Reading:

            In my intro to qual class last semester, we read the Watt article.  I reread the same copy from last semester…and it was interesting to notice what stood out to me this time as compared to last. Because I have had more experience with research now, I think I was more focused on how the writing actually helps her reflect on the process of conducting research.   The last time I read this, I was more about the quotes from the various gurus in the qualitative research field.

            The project update blog we are sending to you this semester is a type of reflexive journal.  However, I find myself editing some of what I am thinking about the project because of the public nature of the blog.  I am not recording those thoughts anywhere else and probably should be.  Though we are housing the data and information in ATLAS.ti, that doesn’t feel the appropriate place either …, I am thinking just an old Moleskin notebook would be the best place for me.  I think I need to record the conflicts I am feeling about some aspects of the project.  I will forget them if I don’t write them down now…and, part of why this project is good for me is because it is allowing me to think about things I want to avoid when I conduct a study of my own.

            I liked the quote by Richardson on p. 83.  He refers to writing as “a method of inquiry, a way of finding out about yourself and your topic.”   I think I often don’t know what I believe or think until I write.  Somehow, the act of writing lets me explore those things and I am often surprised by the things I end up writing.  The physical act of writing allows me to bypass some filters I have about what I should/should not be thinking and just be honest.  This is especially true for me in the early mornings (not sure why).  I remember Hatch talking about his writing routine in his book we read in Qual last semester.  He gets up, has breakfast, and walks the dog, then gets to writing.  I think a routine like this is really important, though I have found some difficulty this semester establishing one.  I took a non-credit course years ago called The Artist’s Way, based on the work of Julia Cameron.  She advocates using “morning pages” – writing 3 pages long hand uninterrupted and unedited every morning.  She encouraged artists to use this practice as a way to move past the filters they have internally that judge their work.   I can see how using this practice while involved in a research project would be really helpful.   Reading this article also made me think about using a Writer’s Notebook.  When I taught and was a reading coach, I kept a writer’s notebook along with the kids I taught.  We would write down our noticings, our ponderings, or snippets of dialogue from overhead conversations as a way to get “seed” ideas for a writing piece.  I still have many of those notebooks and from time to time leaf through them.  Those are experiences that have worked for me in the past, and I need to bring them into the research projects I am working on.  The notebook (Moleskin, black) could house the random thoughts, noticings, conflicts etc. that come up spontaneously.  In the morning pages, I could elaborate on those things (or not) and use those pages as a way to just get stuff down.  I have lots of thoughts in my head; I just need a routine/structure to get it down.  I know I am moving away from the article a bit, but it really made me think about how to get more reflective/reflexive writing done.  Those are two practices that have worked for me in the past, and I think could work for me now.  Since I will have time during Spring Break, maybe I can work to establish this routine and carry it through the rest of the semester.

            I liked the quote from Russell & Kelly on p. 84 – “Good research questions spring from [a researcher’s]…values, passions, and preoccupations”.   Keeping a research/writer’s notebook and jotting things down would help me better keep track of these things.   I love ATLAS.ti (way more than I thought I would), but it isn’t as flexible as a plain (Moleskin, black) notebook would be.  It is also less obtrusive – I don’t have to set up my computer to be able to jot something down in a memo.

            On page 88 of the article, Watt says, “I planned to do participant checks after analysis”.  She talked about how some consider these checks a “threat to validity”.  This reminded me of comments you made about my project and the professor’s intention to do validity checks with participants.  I understand what you were saying and what Stake was saying now that I have some more experience.  There are things that are happening, things that teachers are saying, that are “true” in the sense that they happened or were said…and if we do a participant check, a teacher may decide she wants that information removed from the notes.   How do you handle that as a researcher?  Can you just note that the participant didn’t agree or took issue with it?  If it is a true happening and part of what you observed or what was said, it seems important/ethical to include.

            In the next paragraph, Watt says, “carrying out observations would not be as straight forward as I had envisioned.”  This is so true.  I am so actively involved in the teaching of students and interacting with teachers, that I am not “observing” in the way I had imagined when I went into the project.   And, I realize that what is happening is being influenced by the fact that I am there.   The teachers work differently, the students act differently, and the climate is changed when “researchers” are present.

            In the data management section, Watt talked about arranging everything in a binder. I remember how satisfying that was when I worked on my intro to qual project.  Though I like Atlas, I miss that! 

            In the “some lessons learned” section, I was struck by her comment about how writing the narrative about reflexivity altered her sense of herself – her identity.  She saw herself as a researcher when she took the time to reflect on the process.   I found that somewhat surprising…

3.13.13 Blog post

Blog post for Advanced Qual

3.13.13

Readings

I read quite a few things for class this week.  I read the Hammersley article about transcription (very eye opening), the section in Creswell on Case study, and Bent Flyvbjerg’s Case Study from the 2011 Handbook of Qualitative Research.   I also finished reading a dissertation that was a train wreck…it was out of the University of Cincinnati and related to both case study and professional development.   I had high hopes, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it was a lesson in what NOT to do in a dissertation. 

                 As I read the Hammersley article and reflected upon the project I completed for my Intro to Qual class last semester, I saw the trail of decisions that were made along the way in regards to transcription.   Because I chose how to transcribe, how much to transcribe etc…I had to acknowledge the variability of transcription and that my ideas about how it is done are not the “given”.  The article made me think about how important it is to be transparent about the decisions made in transcription and the rationale behind those decisions.   For my project, I transcribed the conversation completely.  We were given the option to only do SOME, but I didn’t feel like I could make a good decision about what to transcribe or what not to transcribe.   I also attempted to record ums (pauses), laughter, and uh hmms (agreements).  I was really inconsistent with this...I found it REALLY hard to capture!   I didn’t think about silence or gestures or movements.  Though, I can see how that information might be useful.  As best I could, I tried to record interruptions, but I am sure I missed some.  I also made decisions about labeling the speakers (I believe I used an initial for the speaker and an initial for myself), but I wasn’t really conscious of this being a decision until I read this article.  I did it because it made sense to me…no other criteria.

                I liked the quote that said, “ There is a slippery slope from recognition that decisions and interpretations are necessarily involved in transcription to the conclusion that the data are created or constituted by the transcriber rather than representing more or less adequately ‘what occurred’.”  I thought this was important to keep in mind and summarized the dilemma well – yes, it is true that decisions are made about transcription and that there is no standard way that transcription is done, but that is a far cry from someone ‘fictionalizing’ the interaction.   I liked how the author distinguished between ‘strict transcription’ (the words spoken) and secondary aspects of transcription (which included aspects like dialect and pauses and laughter).

                The Creswell pages about Case study were pretty basic, and didn’t provide too much new information for me about case study.   I did like the idea on the last page about developing a ‘data matrix’ to anticipate the kind and quantity of data that would be collected.

                The Flyvbjerg article about Case Study was very interesting.  The author refuted 5 misunderstandings of case study research, offering a reframing of the misunderstanding as a positive assertion after his reasoning through the fallacy of the myth or misunderstanding.   Within his argument about case study and generalization, Flyvbjerg said, “Gailileo’s experimentalism did not involve a large random sample of trials of objects falling from a wide range of randomly selected heights under varying wind conditions, and so on….rather, it was a matter of a single experiment, that is, a case study, if any experiment was conducted at all… (p. 304).”  This really helped me think about how what is learned in case studies might be transferable from one situation to another, by the reader, of course…  On page 312 the author talked a great deal about “the reader”… the person who reads the case study gets to decide how the information is relatable, transferrable, or relevant to her situation and what learning she is taking away from the case study.  That section was the most important to me.  Have you read it?

Project Update

I continue to work with my professor at the research site doing observations, engaging with participants, and talking with her about what we are noticing at the site.   I did not go this Tuesday to do observations, because the system was on Spring Break.  I will devote all day tomorrow to typing up notes from last visit (3.5) and scanning collected artifacts to place in the HU I created.  I have begun to do some initial coding of the data I have in the HU and will do more tomorrow.  I plan to submit the HU to you prior to class, so that I can get some feedback.  I would like to devote a considerable amount of time during spring break to doing more analysis.  I will also schedule a session with Ann for after Spring Break so that she can guide me through aspects of Atlas.ti that I am still unsure about.    Last Tuesday when I was at the research site, I was able to show the professor I work with the documents I had uploaded and had begun to code.  It was interesting to be on the OTHER side of things with Atlas.ti.   I am far from an expert, but I do find it quite useful.  Will we cover more of Atlas.ti in Digital tools this summer?

3.6.13 Blog Post

Workshop:

                Last Thursday, I brought a rough draft of a conference proposal for my workshop mates to read and reflect on.  I have never written a proposal before, and was really looking forward to some feedback.  I wish I had been given more time on the front end so that I might have presented a more thought out draft, but it was the best I could offer given the brief amount of time I had to work on it.  I am not a last minute kind of worker or thinker, and this proposal was something I had to work on with very little notice.  I suppose it is actually good for me to do this sort of thing, but I can tell you I was rather irritated by the whole last minute nature of the proposal work.  In the end, what I submitted was decent (not great) and I just had to be okay with that.

                Hollie read the draft and gave me a few things to think about.  We talked mostly about the use of third/first person.  I had written in third person and Hollie thought it might be better to write in first person.  I ended up redrafting the proposal and writing it in first person, and I do believe it read better.   When Ann arrived, she told me she was a reviewer for this particular conference.  She gave me some insight into what reviewers look for and made some pretty substantial suggestions.  In the results section, I had included all 3 interview questions, but only results tied to the first, as this is an in-process project.   We talked about eliminating the 2 other questions for the purposes of this proposal, and in the end that is what I did.  She suggested I elaborate a bit more on my ‘interpretations’ of the data, so I radically altered that section.   The section I needed the most support around – perspective/theoretical framework, we really did not touch on as much.  I am thinking that was because I really just needed to spend more time thinking through the various perspectives that were relevant, and they really couldn’t support me in that.

                Overall, it was a positive experience.  I gained some great information about what reviewers look for, and I survived being given a deadline and not enough time to do what I would consider my best work.  I did the best I could given the various constraints of the proposal.  And, I feel like I will know more in the future about what this type of writing entails.  I think the experience could have been better if I had emailed them the piece and had them look it over before class.  That way, we could have spent time thinking about and talking about the suggestions more.  Note to self for next workshop session…

                This Thursday, I will be in Atlanta doing more interviews and observations related to the project I did in my Intro to Qual class last semester.  I let my workshop mates know last week that I would not be present.  I asked them to send me the writing they are preparing for this week so that I might be able to offer some feedback and comments.  I have also emailed them about this.  I hate to miss class, but need to for this project.  I am actually glad to be doing more interviews, especially in light of the reading for this week.  I will get to that when I talk about the reading later.

Project Update:

                I am continuing to visit the elementary school with my professor each Tuesday.  Yesterday was quite a whirlwind, as I ended up doing gobs of ‘running records’ (a reading assessment) on several students.   This was unanticipated, but came out of a conversation we were having with a teacher based on her concerns with her students and her anxiety about their performance in upcoming summative reading tests.   In my former life (pre-coming-back-to-school), I ran reading interventions for my school district- for both individuals and small groups of students.  I am very familiar with struggling readers and working with their teachers to provide support and differentiated instruction.  When the teacher asked for some resources, it felt really good to jump in and provide them.  I miss time with teachers and kids, and yesterday was great.  I also feel like my professor and I are doing more co-teaching and co-constructing of the session at the elementary school.  She has been wonderful about including me in the happenings of the school, and I think as time passes the teachers are growing in their comfort with my involvement.     I think they are seeing me less as the researcher in the corner scribbling notes and more as someone who is invested in helping them improve instruction and results for their students.

                I have done a good job of keeping up with my descriptive notes of the lessons (until yesterday).  I am leaving this afternoon for Atlanta before having them written up, but I will just have to be okay with this for now.  Hopefully tonight I will get some time to add write up the field notes, but I will most likely be interviewing for my other project…I will definitely have it done by this weekend.

                I have been thinking about what you said last week about sticking with one way and just going for it.  I think that I need to just go with Stake for now.  I had every intention of reading Yin (I am about mid way) and Merriam this semester, but just don’t think it will be possible given the extensive time in the field and other readings (which I am loving).  I will read the articles I have listed and take notes.  I will also continue with my Stake notes.  And, I am going to read the section on Case Study in Creswell.  I will be writing a methodology section on case study to present in workshop time.  This will also be one of my deliverables for you.  This summer, I am taking the case study class, so hopefully we will get into Yin and Merriam there.

                My other deliverable will be Atlas ti info on the elementary school project I am working on with the professor.  I have continued to put descriptive notes in the HU and I am uploading emails and artifacts in the HU as well.  I am coding the information using the 3 overarching questions of the study:

1)      What is going on?

2)      What is the experience of the participants?

3)      What language is used between pd provider and pd recipient? 

Actually, most of the coding I have done so far relates to the first question.  I am going to do more coding this weekend and will also schedule some time with Ann so that she can help me with the more complex aspects of the coding – families etc.   I would also like to begin to send you that HU instead of the practice bundle I worked with previously.   

Readings:

                Last semester in my intro to qual class, I had to design an interview protocol for my interviews with the Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders.  I came up with 9 questions that I asked during the 30 minute interviews with 3 participants.  I am looking forward to conducting more interviews over the next couple of days with the same group of Teacher Leaders (different interviewees this time), and having a more open –ended approach.   For this set of interviews, I want to say, “Tell me about your professional development experiences in Reading Recovery – both those you design and deliver for teachers and those that you participate in that are designed and delivered by Reading Recovery trainers.”  I am really curious to learn from doing interviews in this way rather than the more semi-structured way I conducted them before.   I also want to be more “present” in the interviews and really have a conversation.  I feel like I was more removed last time…  I don’t think I did my best genuine listening last semester because I was anticipating when to jump in with the asking.

                The article was really interesting – especially as I am getting ready to conduct more interviews.  When I transcribed interviews last semester, I did use line numbers and showed the back and forth conversational interactions.  I also tried to capture as many of the “hums”, “errs” and “oh yeas” as I could.  I am sure I came nowhere close to the Jeffersonian transcription techniques (where can that be learned?  Is there a class? ).    As I was reading this article/chapter, I reflected back on my interactions in the previous interviews.   How often did I offer acknowledgements of the “I hear you” sort and how often did my responses endorse and encourage what the interviewee was saying?   The difference is so subtle, but important!  I will certainly be more aware of those things as I engage in interviews this time and I am looking forward to rereading the previous transcripts and thinking that through.

                It is interesting to think about the overreliance on interview data in qualitative research.  In the project with my professor at the elementary school, we are not permitted to do interviews.  I am capturing in my field notes as many of the ‘natural interactions’ between teachers and professional developers as possible.   I am seeing spontaneous interactions, planned conversations, and email correspondence.  Will those data give me insight into the experiences of the participants?  And, how is that different from what I am doing with my Reading Recovery project, where I am doing interviews?   Are they really telling me their true experiences or are they playing the role of interviewee, and telling me what they think I want to hear, or what they think they need to say because of our “stake” in Reading Recovery?  It is interesting to think about. 

                In the reading, the authors talked about how we chose who we interview and why we interview who we do.  I have been thinking about this in light of the RR project.  Last semester, I sent out an email and asked for volunteers to be interviewed.  I interviewed the first 3 who responded to my email.  I had 2 others also volunteer.  I am going to approach them for this time to see if the offer still stands.   This morning, I got a phone call from a former Reading Recovery teacher leader who is a friend.  She is coming to Atlanta this session to say good bye to a Reading Recovery trainer who is retiring.  In the course of our conversation I told her about going to the session too and after she said, “I really miss Reading Recovery”.  Immediately after she said that, I asked if I could interview her too.  She agreed to participate.  Then, I started questioning what I had done.   I had no intention of interviewing her prior to her making that statement.  But, when she said that, I thought about how it might be interesting to get her perspective.  When I write this project up, I need to be sure to describe all of these events as they occurred.   Including her also made me think more broadly…about others who have left and gone on to other positions and how I might (or might not include them).  It really is an interesting process.