Research – Page 6 – Silence and Voice

To the Literature . . . Get Thee to the Literature!

Borrowing a not-so-clever allusion to Hamlet from the Great Bard himself, yet without the anger and other baggage he brings (!!), I am now turning my attention to writing the draft chapter of my literature review and conceptual framework. I set myself another ambitious goal, this time to have this section drafted in two weeks. Hey, what better way to celebrate Leap Year than by planning a tangible deliverable for February 29!

I am coming off the efforts of submitting my chapter 1 draft to my supervisors very late last night (or early this morning, depending on how you see the time), so am on a high of diving into my writing with full gusto. While I am writing these sections now even though I am long-finished with my data collection may confuse some educationalists, but there is indeed a method to my process (though that is for a future discussion). Since starting seems to be the hardest part of a thesis, no reason to slow down at this point.

Suffice it to say I will now bridge the literature to my area of inquiry, and have something to submit for review in two weeks. Hey, I can do that!

Transcription Review is Complete!

I am happy to say that yesterday I FINALLY completed the transcription review and editing step in my doctoral thesis research by sending the transcripts to my interviewees for member checking. The entire transcription and checking / editing the final transcript by relistening to the interviews again and making corrections has been the single longest part of my research to date, and I was only able to accomplish it through using the Pomodoro technique.

Previous experience has shown me, upon reflection, that the transcription-related step has always been my biggest hurdle, after which I tend to make consistent and steady progress (knock wood). I am glad that my interviewees (I have the best interviewees anybody could ever ask for!) have already started to reply that they received it (with even a few corrections, edits, additions, and clarifications). I am thus hoping to begin my formal analysis in about a month.

I am very thankful for the support of my interviewees and my research network; while I cannot mention many of you by name, I do thank you for your support.

Quick, in 140 Characters, What Is #myResearch?

There have been a variety of memes over the years to summarize one’s own research, perhaps in 100 words or in haiku, though the newest meme for this seems to be started by Raul Pacheco-Vega here and here and here. While the #myResearch tag has been tried before, it seems to have caught on this time (reasons for it just may be some interesting research in itself!), due perhaps because the right people seeing it, researchers have free time on Saturday evenings, it is the beginning of the semester, the current moon phase is waning gibbous, or choose your own reason. It is not clear why it caught on now, but thankfully it did.

Whatever the case, I find it useful to clearly and concisely state what my research is about — it keeps me focused AND there are possibilities for identifying other people doing related work. This is what I said:

#myResearch explores the experiences of doctoral liminality by postgraduate students who study at a distance bit.ly/prxlp1 #phdchat

Try it if you haven’t yet, and be sure to link to the #myResearch tag.

By the way, the more difficult you find this opportunity to share, the more you just may need to do it as an exercise in communication.

Correlation Does Not Imply Causation & ANT

If this does not support an actor-network theory approach to organizational politics (or the challenges associated with applying quantitative methods to social behaviors), then the black boxes we create to compartmentalize and explain behaviors needs a swift review!

I Finished Data Collection!

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.