Tag: Research

Autoethnography Research Informed Consent – for Review

I have never created an informed consent form on my own (that has always been a research partner’s role), so here is another new learning experience for me.

This is the informed consent form I created for my developing project. It may change, as I am still waiting for my tutor’s feedback on my revised proposal (which I will post on my blog once it is finalized).

Any thoughts on this?

Informed Consent to Participate in Research

Researcher: Jeffrey Keefer
Email: j [DOT] keefer [AT] lancaster [DOT] ac [DOT] uk
Title of Research: Educational Explorations of Autoethnographic Inquiry: A Tale of 2 Teachers

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study conducted by Jeffrey Keefer, studying in the Educational Research Department of Lancaster University. It will take place from May 1, 2009 to May 31, 2009.

Purpose
The purpose of this project is to understand the autoethnographic researcher’s learning goals for his or her readers and how the researcher’s own learning develops through the process of conducting the autoethnographic inquiry.

Procedures
The research involves my asking you several open-ended research questions, including:
1. Why did you choose to use autoethnographic inquiry? 
2. Who is your intended audience? 
3. What goals did you have for your readers or learners?
4. What role did technology play in your research? 
5. What did you learn in the process of this autoethnographic inquiry? 
6. If you were to conduct further autoethnographic inquiry, what would you do differently?

I will hand-record the responses and conversation, and I will send you a transcript of the discussion for your review. I will then code the discussion (for themes) and again send to you for your review (both times to confirm I captured what you said and / or intended). It is expected that the entire time commitment will be 60 minutes (30 minutes for the interview, and 15 minutes each for your review of my notes and coding).

Risks
There are no known risks for participating in this research.

I guarantee the following conditions will be met:
1. Your real name will not be used at any point of information collection, or in the written case report; instead, you and any other person and place names involved in your case will be given pseudonyms that will be used in all verbal and written records and reports.
2. Your participation in this research is voluntary; you have the right to withdraw at any point of the study, for any reason, and without any prejudice, and the information collected and records and reports written will be destroyed.
3. All research notes and communication will be maintained within my password-protected computer; nobody else will have access to them.
4. I will use this information to write a case study for my doctoral class and, based on feedback, consider submitting a revised version for research publication.
5. You will receive a copy of the final paper that is submitted to my instructor.
6. You are encouraged to ask any questions at any time about the nature of the study and the methods that I am using. Your suggestions and concerns are important to me; please contact me at any time at the address/phone number listed above.

Benefits
This research is important to me because I am interested in learning more about how autoethnography can be used as a method in online and distance education, particularly for its seeming relationship with reflective practice and transformative learning. I hope to better understand this to ultimately help improve the effectiveness of online teaching and learning practice.

Consent
I agree to the terms listed above:

Respondent ___________________________ Date _____________

I agree to the terms listed above:

Researcher ___________________________ Date _____________

Autoethnography Research Project Proposal ~ Feedback Requested

I have an assignment for my doctoral program that I want to share here and possibly (hopefully) generate some constructive feedback. We have a short period of time for this project / assignment, so I can not take the usual time to work out all the issues before I begin. As I am not accustomed to discussing this early in the process, some suggestions and possible direction for identifying potential participants will be most appreciated.

This project is a small-scale research project that is intended to:

  1. Get some experience doing what we have been studying, namely research itself
  2. Write about educational research methods after using some of them
  3. Set personal learning objectives and then reflect on how they were met

I have never publicly discussed this process before I have it completed, and as my program at Lancaster University in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning focuses on participatory and networked learning, I thought I will work with my tutor and colleagues in the cohort as well as share this experience here on my blog.

While this is intended to be an original piece of research, it is within the context of a class, so the (proposed) research headings are slightly different than a pure research paper. 

Working Title
Educational Explorations of Autoethnographic Inquiry: A Tale of 2 Teachers

Research Problem
Autoethnography is increasingly used as a research method, pushing the boundaries of qualitative inquiry by focusing on a phenomenon in the life of the researcher as the central aspect of study, and publishing the findings as a cultural critique. With online technologies making the entire research process more transparent and potentially interactive, the process and research intentions themselves may be explored more fully, as the steps can be studied as part of the process, rather than by looking only at the final, published product. Little is known about what the researcher learns and wants his or her readers to learn within the process of autoethnographic research.

Literature Review
This will focus on autoethnographic inquiry, what it is, why it is done, and what is learned through it. I am planning to focus around the work of Carolyn Ellis, Art Bochner, Deborah Reed-Danahay, and Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly.

Purpose & Research Design
The purpose of this case study is to understand the intentions and learnings of researchers who engage in autoethnographic inquiry. This will be a qualitative research design, with a constructivism philosophical worldview. The strategy of inquiry will be case study. The research methods will be interview.

There are no expected ethical issues in this research. Participants will remain anonymous, with fictitious names being used and the transcripts from the research secured in my password-protected computer.

This research is important to me because I am interested in learning more about how autoethnography can be used as a method in online and distance education, particularly for its seeming relationship with reflective practice and transformative learning. This is part of a large research interest of mine, which I am seeking to begin exploring in this smaller research project. I hope to better understand this to ultimately help improve the effectiveness of online teaching and learning practice.

Methods
As this is an exploratory case study, there will be 2 people interviewed for this research. I will reach out to my network of colleagues and distribution lists to locate 2 people who have published autoethnographic inquiries (I have not actively looked for potential participants yet). Interviews will be conducted over the phone. Open-ended interview questions will be used:

  1. Why did you choose to use autoethnographic inquiry?
  2.  Who is your intended audience?
  3. What intentions did you have for your readers?
  4. What role did technology play in your research?
  5. What did you learn in the process of this autoethnographic inquiry?
  6. If you were to conduct further autoethnographic inquiry, what would you do differently?

Interview results will be hand-transcribed and sent back to the participants for their review and approval.

Data Analysis
I will look for themes between the results; though need to develop this section more (for possible hand-coding?).

Findings and Next Steps
TBD

Personal Learnings
I will explore what I learned in doing this research project. I do need to develop personal learning objectives, though am not sure about the format for them and how many are realistic given the time and scope limitations.

References
Listed as used.

Autoethnography Listserv Discussion Heats Up

I have not been blogging much recently, as I have been slammed with the simultaneous wrapping-up of two classes I am teaching: Principles and Practices of Online Course Creation and Instructional Design and Research Process and Methodology. I do have a lot of material to share and reflectively work out on my blog, but for now I have been refining my lessons, correcting papers, and helping students with projects / research / practice.

One thing I have been reading with great interest in the last day or so has been the increasingly heated discussion on the Autoethnography Listserv. While autoethnography is a favorite qualitative research method of mine, I have never seen such an interesting discussion that revolves around some incidents that appeared to happen during the NCA conference in San Diego, held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt that has recently been embroiled in the Proposition 8 controversy in California.

The experience seems especially interesting, given the conference’s theme of “unCONVENTIONal.” This is well worth some attention in the wider community of scholar-practitioners.

Research Process and Methodology Class

I am teaching a graduate research class at New York University that begins tonight–Research Process and Methodology (Y51.1900.002.FA08). The course is an introduction to research, and is a required class in the Human Resource Management and Development MS degree program.

I am using 3 texts for this class:

  1. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  2. Locke, L. F., Silverman, S. J., & Spirduso, W. W. (2004). Reading and understanding research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  3. Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (2001).  (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

While I have more formal learning objectives than I can count, there are really only 3 things I am hoping to achieve in this class. I really want my students to:

  • understand that research can help inform and explain practice
  • know that there is not a single “right” way to engage in research
  • realize that research does not have to be scary

I suppose the main reason I am so excited to teach this class is because of my own three personal objectives for this class that I am finally articulating above. I suffered through numerous research courses, and when I finally learned those three points, research was suddenly very accessible and valuable to me. I only wish somebody would have told me and helped me understand those points earlier in my academic work. They would have saved me from much pain and suffering all on my own.

Trying on a New Tagline

This past week I raised the issue of rebranding my blog by updating my tagline. Thanks to all those wonderful colleagues who offered their comments on this, I am making an update and will “try it on” for a week or so. If I like it, I will keep it; if it still feels somehow incomplete or inaccurate, I will adjust it again.

So, I went from:

Reflective practice in organizational learning, educational technology, and postmodern society.

to

Fostering the practice of postmodern learning and research.

I believe this includes my passions:

  • reflective practice
  • learning paradigms
  • teaching and learning
  • postmodernism and post-structuralism
  • constructivism and critical theory
  • qualitative research
  • technology enhanced learning and educational technology
  • communities of practice

I wonder if those who know me (or those who may have only recently met me for the first time) think this “fits?”