Category: Lancaster PhD

Proposal Clarifications, Again

I was up late last night thinking about my research proposal yet again, and have to discuss it later this afternoon. Each time I think I am ready for it, I get a new idea or, better yet, think about something that I thought was clear, but upon further reflection realize it is not as clear as it seemed.

It seems this is part of the natural process, and while I am focusing my attention on this being a learning experience, I am trying to not doubt my abilities, ideas, qualifications, or confidence. I fear lunch will be my opportunity for my final thrust.

Ready or not, 14.30 is coming quickly.

The Refining (Potential) Research Design

I have been thinking about issues in and around identity development so much in the past few days, that I fear I may begin to hear voices that are really there due to their speaking themselves into being!

Where am I right now? Mind you, this is something to present to my cohort colleagues and program tutors, and I am not bound to this for all eternity (or even for the week, as I do not need to actually declare this until next year).

Interests and Context:

I am interested in understanding how developing researchers  in the social sciences experience, process, and share troublesome knowledge via social media, and how it has led them to experience perspective transformation.

Methodology:

I am not sure about the methodology yet. I like the possibilities of narrative inquiry to tell an engaging stoy, 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 advertising on email distribution lists and several email blasts to friends and colleagues.

Let me consider this a little more in the morning.

Research Interests Thus Far

As I am sitting in one of the lounges in the airport, awaiting my trip to the university for the residential, I want to write a bit more about my research ideas thus far as we were asked to do for a discussion this coming week.

Let’s take the first round at this, and revise a bit more tomorrow while en route:

Interests and Context:

I am interested in issues of identity, and how people experience and process transformative (cf. Mezirow) changes in the learning. I am interested in when these things happen within the context of online communities (cf. Wenger), especially when navigating identity while engaged in adult or higher education. I am really interested in exploring threshold concepts (cf. Land). I am not  sure how I may work critical theory (cf. Brookfield, Marcuse, Gramsci) or Postmodernity / post-structuralism (cEdit Post ‹ Silence and Voice — WordPressf. Lyotard, Foucault) in, though I can envision this being the theoretical lens.

Methodology:

I know I need to firm up the above before I speak about methodological implications and possibilities, though after having enaged in case study, narrative inquiry, and ethnography over the past year in the 3 completed modules (with a heavy area of study being around autoethnography and how people experience it / reflective practice), I think the sky can be the limit (though action learning is probably not among the possiblities right now, since I am so interested in the experiences of individuals).

Oh, to have so many juicy options!

Research Interests for the Residential Next Week

researchI am traveling to England on Sunday for my residential at Lancaster University, and the focus this year is on the methodologies and ideas for the upcoming doctoral thesis (doctoral dissertation in the US) that we hope to begin after the next year of coursework.

One of the assignments we have for next week is a welcome one — we should consider our research interests and prepare a 5 minute presentation to discuss them, their context, and possible methodology. While none of this will be set in stone, it will be the first time we have discussed this together with our cohort.

I have been thinking about this, and believe I will develop this here on my blog over the next few days. I have some ideas, though need to reflect on to process them and determine how I can move forward . . .