As I have generally received positive feedback for the “ambitious” direction I am headed (regarding the research project that I have been designing here over the past few weeks), I now want to think a bit about the method I am considering for this work, especially before I tighten up the problem and research question.

I was initially planning to use  phenomenography, though think that may not work due to the size limitations of the expected 3 participants, the limitations to the semi-structured interview questions I need to use (as phenomenography would require me to rigidly use the same questions with everybody–leading to the eventual categories), and given that I am not sure I will be able to categorize much as this is an exploratory study.

I am now thinking about using some form of ethnography, something that blends the ethnography of Wittel with that of Hines and Efimova, perhaps in a more Focused manner, similar to that detailed by Knoblauch. I expect to conduct interviews and possibly review blogs or other social media as examples of the participants’ work, as needed. I will get more specific here as a next step, after I (hopefully) get some feedback first.

Tags: Lancaster, Research, research design

I have been plugging away at this, and think it is finally in a condition to be shared. While undoubtedly still in need of tightening, I can no longer see it clearly as I have been wordsmithing it since Sunday. Thoughts and suggestions are really appreciated. How can I tighten this research project proposal for my class?

Research Problem
The ways people develop as researchers has been studied, though there is limited understanding of how this occurs through the use of social media. With the rise of virtual ethnography and content analysis, more of what is written and communicated online can be studied, though this often appears in final form, and does not necessarily help understand the steps and thresholds achieved during the course of study. Even through studying the blogs or microblogs of those who track and develop their research in process, it can be challenging to understand the moments when some transformational experience and its subsequent understanding occurs in the academic growth of those engaged in graduate or doctoral research studies. Educational researchers need to better understand the experiences of adult learners who recognize when they have made significant perspective or paradignmatic shifts in their academic thinking, as this may help in designing learning experiences to assist future learners who will continue to use social media in their academic work.

Research Question
What is the experience of adult learners who develop their academic research understanding through the use of social media, such as blogging or microblogging?

Purpose
The purpose of this research is to understand how adult learners navigate through their growth in understanding research through using social media as tools for reflectivity, self-expression, feedback, and collaboration. Using the frameworks of threshold concepts and transformative learning, I want to explore how they are processed by those who use engage in their work in a public space where identity development takes place in a more transparent manner than learning has done before.

Tags: Research, research design

Here is my (very rough) working (initial) research design. None of the elements are clear or tight enough yet; this is primarily shared here for proof of concept. I expect this to be refined and cleaned up / developed after initial feedback and my ongoing processing this week. Any feedback is appreciated.

Title (Working)
Public Transformations: Adult Learners Who Use Social Media to Express and Understand Their Experiences

Abstract
TBD

Introduction
With the rise of social media, more of what used to be learned, thought, and experienced in private is now engaged in publicly. As blogging and microblogging, to name only 2 of the countless forms of social media and social networking, increase, educators need to better understand how these are being used by learners, especially in regard to the more challenging content areas and concepts within the various social sciences.

Research Problem

Literature Review
Litertatures to be reviewed include threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (especially Meyer and Land), transformative learning (especially Mezirow, Brookfield, and Cranton), and how these may relate to blogging or social media.

Research Design

1. Describe an experience you had while engaging in your academic studies where you experienced a transformed way of understanding, interpreting, or viewing something.
2. How did you express or share this using social media?
3. Describe your experience and what you learned during this process.

Data Collection
Data will be collected via recorded phone interviews

Analysis and Interpretation
The interviews will be transcribed and coded to develop and categorize the experiences of the participants

Findings

• TBD

Next steps

• TBD

Conclusion / Learnings

• TBD

Tags: Lancaster University, research design

As I am nearing a proposal for my research project (which I hope to have later today for feedback), I am now turning some attention to one of the more anxiety-causing elements of a research project — the outline / headings used in the paper.

This is the organizational structure which is used as an outline, and into which I feed the specs for the project itself, and I find that my understanding of this skafolding and how it is used is developing, so I know there is not a single framework that will work in all cases for all projects. Nevertheless, this is what I have in mind now:

Abstract

Introduction

1. Research Problem

2. Aim / Significance

3. Purpose

Literature Review

Research Design

1. Philosophical Worldview

2. Theoretical Lens

3. Strategy of Inquiry

4. Research Method

5. Research Questions

Data Collection

Analysis and Interpretation

1. Reliability, Validity, and Generalizability

Findings

1. Next steps

Conclusion / Learnings

Any feedback on this outline will be appreciated.

Tags: research design

The fundamental ideas in my outline for my Autoethnographer Communities of Practice research design was approved yesterday from my faculty tutor at Lancaster University. Next steps for this week include:

1. Specifying the interview questions
2. Writing the consent form
3. Submitting them both (with a tweaked overview) for ethical approval (I was told this should be a quick process as my research design is low risk)

I am still excited about this research outline, as I have not seen much research in this area.

Tags: Autoethnography, Lancaster University, qualitative research, research design

Further developing my research idea, I now realize I did not quite list the population, or participants, I will seek to research and from whom I will gather my data.

I suppose they will be discussed in the Data Collection area of my research outline (which leads me to another question–is the outline I posted called a research outline, or is it referred to as something else?).

Given that we have 4 weeks for this (August 7-September 6), there is really no time to waste at all going down the wrong path, so I want to do something that is workable, doable, and also worth doing.

Given these limitations, I think interviewing 2 people may be sufficient. Given that I want to do a narrative inquiry of them, I will also read their autoethnographic work to see if there is any evidence to support or otherwise address my research questions. As a qualification for this research, it would seem that the 2 people should have completed and published their autoethnographic work, with publishing used in a broad sense to include presenting it at a conference, published in a journal or online location, or even published it as a paper submitted for a degree program.

I will try to locate participants by posting my request to a Yahoo Group that deals with autoethnography, as well as directly emailing some colleagues who work in this area to see if they know anybody who may be interested in this. I do not have any colleagues in mind to directly ask if they are willing to assist with this interview, which I expect will be about 30 minutes most likely via phone, though I will not be opposed to working with people who I already know (as I do not know much about the topic of this research). I am planning to record the interviews and transcribe them (I just bought a digital recorder and phone recording wire, and am about to purchase a USB pedal for the actual transcription).

Will appreciate some feedback on this, as I will use this as the basis for my ethical form that I need to complete and submit by the end of this week.

Tags: Autoethnography, Community of Practice (CoP), purposeful sample, research design