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.