I am happy to share that I have completed data collection for my doctoral thesis research!
It has been four weeks filled with countless interviews, discussions, explanation about my research, national and international phone calls, Skype sessions, and more support than I ever dreamed of. Having engaged in research interviews several times during my course of study, I knew a little about what to expect in these interviews. What I did not expect was a consistent sense of well-wishes, encouragement, interest, and positive energy on behalf of my many participants during this period. In many ways I feel like I engaged in conversations, rather than data collection. What better way is there to think about our research, especially research that in one sense involves colleagues, however far and distant and heretofore unknown?
Thanks to so many people, I feel I have now passed over this step, and while transcription and sense-making await, I am very thankful that I have turned this corner in my work.
I look forward to now trying to make sense of everything I heard, and hope to continue to share and discuss this with my colleagues, old and new, over the next several months.