Golden-Biddle & Locke, Ch. 1

After reading the intro and chapter one, I think that the Composing Qualitative Research book is going to be very helpful and educational in my learning how to write qualitatively. The authors main point in the intro was to give a framework for the book, being mostly that their purpose is to inform the reader on qualitative writing. While that sounds simple, I think the books purpose is to get qualitative writers to think differently about how they go about writing. Their intro also does a good job of citing other authors who have written on qualitative writing and how their insights contribute to the writings of this book. Within this literature review, the authors also convey how their ideas and suggestions differ in certain ways from previous qualitative writing studies. Further, the authors provide their opinions on what qualitative writing is and is not, being not writing that reports facts, but writing that connects and illuminates. In concluding the introductory chapter they draw an analogy of a "story" as how qualitative writing can be developed while also discussing how the books chapters are organized.

Chapter one begins the journey on what qualitative writing is and how it can be approached in regards to style and practice. It gives a blunt assessment of the profession of writing, basically stating that writing is the cornerstone or foundation for everything we as researchers do. They contextualize this claim by noting that even though quality writing is so important, it is largely ignored, dismissed, or oversimplified by most in the field.

They continue the chapter by debunking the myths that scholarly writing must be totally "scientific" and devoid of personal expression, stating that all writing, no matter how scientific, incorporates the authors personal influence, personality and emotional fingerprints. They counter that good writing uses personal rhetoric and influence to enhance the data, even arguing that the obtuse scientific style of writing discourages other audiences from engaging the findings. The remainder of the chapter is dedicated to answering the what, for whom, and under what terms porting of writing up the collected field data. The chapter concludes by giving light to how data and research becomes knowledge, basically saying that it is not knowledge until it is submitted for peer review, accepted into a journal in the relative field, and cited by other scholars in their writing.

In reflecting on the introductory chapter and chapter one of the book, I really liked the content and style in which they present their thoughts. The authors write in a simple, but complete, manner which makes it easy to read as well as informative. There were a number of points that stood out to me, a few being the idea that writing should be for a particular audience, that writing should be consistent with a good conversation, the manner in which qualitative research becomes knowledge, the usage of the "storyline" metaphor, the irony of claims that scientific writing is straightforward, and the breakdown of the injunction to "just write it up." Each of these helped illuminate the qualitative writing process and provided greater understanding of what it means to write. I am looking forward to getting in to the meat of this book.

telephone recordings

One lesson I have learned is the difficulty of recording and then transcribing and interview conducted over the phone. I recently conducted an interview with the director of the Shanghai international program, the subject of my project, using a skype internet connection. I then attempted to record the conversation with my digital recorder. Although I managed, the audio quality of the of the recording made it very difficult to transcribe. In the future, if I have to conduct an interview over the phone I will look into a device that plugs in to the phone in order to obtain a better recording.

Greasin' the wheels

I learned a valuable lesson this week while interviewing a professor for my project. He was very stand-offish and difficult to engage as I began to explain the project. He did not seem to trust me or understand what exactly I was doing. Before the interview began I realized that this was not going as planned, so instead of turning on the recorder and asking the first question, I began to ask him about his research and work and things like how he got to Pepperdine University, etc. Slowly, over a period of about 15 minutes, he began to warm up as we chatted. It was almost as if he was feeling me out to see if I had an agenda or something. Only after we began to chat about things not related to the project at all did he get to a point where he was willing to participate in the interview. The result was a great data set. He provided deep and meaningful information on my topic and the interview lasted longer than any others. In fact, when I closed the interview by asking if there was anything he wanted to add, he went on to provide amazing insight in areas I would have never thought to ask. We ended it by promising to keep in touch and a final offer of assistance as I move forward with the project. I truly believe that if I had sat down, explained the project, and started the interview right away that he would have been short with his answers and would have provided no meaningful data. My guess is that it would have lasted 10 minutes tops. Instead, I was able to get an amazing interview that lasted well over thirty minutes and contained wonderful data.

Rabbit trails

Rabbit trails are one of my favorite aspects of conducting qualitative interviews. As the researcher, I can’t help but formulate ideas about what information is going to result from my questions. Often I am accurate in my prejudgments, but occasionally I ask a question that opens up a door of data that I had not anticipated, but is full of rich and meaningful data. For instance, I asked an administrator about the history of the Shanghai program and how it began and he shared about the inauguration speech of the current university president. During this speech, over 12 years ago, the president projected a vision for making inroads to higher education in China. This foundational vision that was cast in his speech started a domino effect that over the course of more than a decade resulted in the foundation of the shanghai program. Here I was anticipating an answer to my question that I believed would center around a 3-5 year period, but I learn that it all started with a presidential inauguration address. These gems of information that are totally unanticipated are one of my favorite aspects of qualitative research.

interviewing

I’ve found that the interview phase of qualitative research is my favorite. People generally want to tell their story and if the right questions are asked, it is cool to see the energy that is created in the room. The interviews I've conducted with the participants and planners of the Shanghai international program have been great because it is something that the interviewees want to talk about. They get excited which in turn gets me excited. Every interview I've conducted thus far has been pleasant and each time the interviewee has been enthusiastic about participating in any future follow-up interviews.

Nathan 6 & 7 and Creswell 10

My freshman year - Ch. 6&7

What stood out to me at the beginning of chapter six was that Nathan kind of qualified her findings a bit. While this is a common practice in qualitative research, I was surprised that she held off on this aspect of her reporting until now. She mentions that some of her observations are nothing new and are "two centuries old." She also makes a point that not all college students could be categorized by her observations. While these facts are obvious, there would have been comfort in some of her reporting if she had stressed or embedded this point in in the earlier chapters. At times when I was reading the book I dismissed her findings because I mentally made the note that "well, I'm sure not all of the students in her school are like that. Why doesn't she report on some of the more positive aspects of what she is observing?" While it's obvious that this reality exists, I would have given her more credit if she had mentioned this along with her findings. Maybe this is just a personal preference.

Later in the chapter, I appreciated her discussion on the manner in which administrators and teachers over-stress the importance of time management skills. Her writing deign in reporting this portion of her findings made me feel like I was one of the students beginning the school year. Her vivid descriptions evoked emotions of my own personal experiences as a freshman. I think good qualitative research, which this obviously is, is exposed as such when an "insider" has an "AH HA!, YES" moment to what the researcher is describing. While I was not an insider at her particular institution, I was an undergraduate student during the time period of her study, and I related to what she was saying.

With chapter seven, I liked how she postured the chapter as an opportunity to conduct personal reflection and to also make some inferences from the data. Further, I liked how she put the book into context by stating that "I hold out my conclusions not as advice but rather as food for thought that students and teachers can share." Too often I think I get wrapped up in the need for research data to bring about change. After all, most quantitative research has a section devoted to application and changes, or "suggestions for practice." I love that such profound research can be done simply for the sake of starting conversations. After all, it is these conversations and the interrelations of people and campus leaders, that will lead to change measures and applications.

Creswell Ch. 10
"Is the account valid, and by whose standards?" So much is wrapped up in this questions posed by Creswell. I really enjoyed this chapter because it answered many of my curiosities that had emerged during the previous chapters. The discussions of validity and reliability, specifically in regards to the techniques used to enhance the quality of the research, were very informative. Having operationalized definitions for terms such as credibility, authenticity, and integrity was helpful for a beginning qualitative researcher. I almost think that this chapter could have been covered earlier in the book. Many of the terms described in chapter 10 have been used throughout. While the reader may have had a general understanding of their meanings, it would have been helpful to have a more thorough grasp of the terminology. Further, coming from a strategic point of view, the section on Validation Strategies would have been helpful earlier in the book as well. I think I would have been able to see what composes the skeleton of good qualitative research and been able to use that information to better understand the information.

Timelines

What I have been most surprised with about the research process this semester has been my lack of timeliness. I set a time-line for my big project with my proposals. I glanced at it this morning and chuckled. In my idealized world at the beginning of the semester I had it all planned out. Then life hit and things got pushed back again and again. Now I am glad that the first day of summer has begun and I can focus a bit more on my research. July will be here soon.