Proposal to Discuss in Class

So, time to present my idea (ready or not) in 15 minutes, so no better time than the present to summarize it. Wonder what my colleagues will think when they see my blog, especially with some of the outdated content? Perhaps they will not notice . . . I really need to focus on the task  at hand.

I have been processing the potential proposal idea for some time now, and here is where I am.

Interests and Context

I am interested in identity development and how people experience transformative experiences, especially when they struggle through troublesome knowledge. I am interested in how people share this online, through blogs or Twitter. I am interested in how people engage in this as a result of higher education, whether this involves online / distance education or through more traditional face-to-face studies. I am interested in how these experiences change their worldviews, or paradigms, for how they see and make sense of the world (ontological changes). I am interested in how people develop as researchers, how they experience this related to communities of practice, and how this can be expressed through autoethnographic inquiry. I am especially interested in exploring how these experiences affecttheir practice of education, especially with their own current and future students.

Research Questions:

What is the experience of developing researchers engaged in doctoral studies who experience troublesome knowledge and, as a result, experience perspective transformation? How do they express and make sense of this online? What effect does this have on their studies, research direction, and teaching?

Methodology:

I like the possibilities of narrative inquiry to tell an engaging story, but I think I should wait until I attend a workshop on grounded theory that I am scheduled to attend in late May before I really settle on the specific methodologies. The population I hope to study can be in any of the areas of the social sciences (education, technology-enhanced learning, nursing, sociology, and the like), and I will identify this population by requesting participants on email distribution lists and via direct email and Tweeted requests to friends and colleagues.

I am now looking for some feedback on this . . .

3 thoughts on “Proposal to Discuss in Class”

  1. This is really interesting…
    What I immediately thought about was: are people always conscious of the transformative experiences… I am just asking because sometimes I think I only become aware quite a while after they have happened…if at all!
    I am really interested in seeing how your research develops and how the personal stories take shape… Keep the blog posts coming! 🙂

    1. Cristina Costa-

      That is a great question, and thinking about it a bit, I am wondering how quickly one becomes aware of this.

      Taking this a bit further, in the Jack Mezirow perspective, which is primarily cognitive, there would seem to be a rather suddenness of this, so it the learning would not occur until the transformation already occurs. However, in teh Meyer and Land perspective of threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, there is less a focus on the cognitive element.

      Hmmm, I wonder if perhaps there may be another direction for my research . . .

      Thanks for asking this question, Cristina.

      Jeffrey

  2. I agree with Cristina Costa. Nowadays the clics are becoming easier. So sometimes things are done and we only become aware when we organize them for instance. I at all.
    So intuition takes an important role when using
    the web and the tools conveyed by it.

    Leonor Cristin@ Santos

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