Category Archives: PhD
Q is for… Qualitative #AtoZChallenge
Q is for… Qualitative
Well, if you’ve been following my PhD posts, it will come as no surprise to you that I will be taking a qualitative approach to my research. I think this fits better with both my worldview and the topic I will be researching – creative writing (duh – words!).
This is not to say that I don’t value quantitative research – which is obviously extremely necessary. I can’t really see myself ever doing pure quantitative because I always want to explore the why.
But for this project it is all about the wordage.
The one thing I still don’t understand is the concept that qualitative research is second rate and not useful and I hope that I don’t have to spend too much time defending that aspect of my thesis – there are going to be enough other things to talk about surely.
Research is inherently biased, there is always a reason behind completing it, personal influences effect other aspects too; what methodology you use, what participants are chosen, what statistical tests are run etc etc.
With qualitative research all of those biases are shouted about and sometimes even embraced wholeheartedly. This isn’t always the case in write ups of quantitative research for journals – this automatically makes me a little suspicious.
Sadly, today in Wales, we have seen the first death following the measles outbreak – this is possibly related to an extremely poorly conducted piece of research into the MMR vaccine. This is not to forget that results when presented in the media are highly summarised and use sensationalised headlines. Oh look – there go words again and all their power.
So, what I’m suggesting is that whenever you see research reporting numbers ask, so what does that mean? What other things might influence that outcome? And when you see qualitative research ask how does this fit with my experience, what bits are useful to me and what bits don’t apply.
Always ask questions, just because something is written down doesn’t mean it is accurate or true – does truth even exist?
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P is for… Pratchett on Writing (A Slip of the Keyboard) (Book) and PHD Comics #AtoZChallenge
P is for… Pratchett on Writing (A Slip of the Keyboard) (Book) and PHD Comics
Well – ooops – didn’t read this properly. Saw this book on a publisher’s list and had been hoping to get a copy to review. It’s not actually published until the 24th October though but this is definitely on the must read list.
A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction is a collection of essays and other non-fiction from Terry Pratchett (info from amazon.co.uk).
A quote on writing by Terry:
‘…I have to write because if I don’t get something down then after a while I feel it’s going to bang the side of my head off.’ (Pratchett 2009 cited Preston 2009)
Preston, J., 2009. Sir Terry Pratchett interview for Unseen Academicals. Telegraph.co.uk. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6231337/SIr-Terry-Pratchett-interview.html [Accessed 9th March 2010).
Instead of reviewing this then, I’m going to tell you about the source of reassurance that comes from reading PHD Comics. It helps to know you aren’t alone.
Here are my top 2 comics.
The Allnighter
The Allnighter “Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham http://www.phdcomics.com
I am very much a procrastinator and identify with this so much.
Aura of Logical Distortion
Aura of Logical Distortion “Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham http://www.phdcomics.com
How exactly do they do this? If only they could bottle it.
What gives you reassurance you aren’t alone?
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O is for… Ontology, Epistemology and all that Jazz #AtoZChallenge
O is for… Ontology, Epistemology and all that Jazz
Two days ago I shared with you the image of me ‘Drowning in Words’. Not only did this relate to books and other reading material but all the new terminology too.
Two words I still haven’t fully integrated into my brain are Ontology and Epistemology – so I’m going to use today’s post to attempt that upload, along with a few others along the way.
Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Creswell (2007, quotes below from pp.16 − 18) looks at five philosophical assumptions in qualitative research.
Ontology is a ‘stance toward the nature of reality’ – ‘Reality is subjective and multiple.’
This links very much with a personal philosophy about difference – that is is OK to have different viewpoints. Yes there may be similarities in experience but there will be differences too. Also ‘reality’ changes over time, as we gain further insights and as we change, so there can be multiple realities for the same person too.
‘Epistemology’ is the stance regarding how the researcher knows what they know – ‘Researcher attempts to lessen distance between himself or herself and that being researched.’
I guess I’m lucky here because I will be researching something I already engage in – and what better excuse than to engage in it all even more. The worldview of social constructivism fits with my personal understanding of me coming to know what I do about my experience through interacting with other people (I think this also helps me understand why it has been hard to come up with my research question/s – I’m not sure I fully know until I’ve talked to the other people who will be involved). I’m going to be somewhere between the left of the qualitative continuum – artistic, impressionist and interpretative – and the middle-ground (further left though I think)(Ellingson, L.L. 2011).
‘Axiology’ is the stance regarding the role of values in the research – ‘Researcher acknowledges that research is value-laden and that biases are present.’
I am hugely biased – I’m a writer and I want to know more about my experience of writing. What it is going to be important to do is document the biases or ‘position myself’ (as discussing in the J post on Journalling and Reflexivity).
‘Rhetoric’ is the stance regarding the language of research – ‘Researcher writes in a literary, informal style using the personal voice and uses qualitative terms and limited definitions.’
Autoethnography encourages this kind of writing and that fits with my personal preference to write more creatively – links to the idea of narrative and story as discussed yesterday. I’m going to talk more about Rhetoric for my R post.
‘Methodology’ is the stance regarding the methods used in the process – ‘Researcher uses inductive logic, studies the topic within its context, and uses an emerging design.’
I haven’t even started yet and my ideas are constantly changing. My hope is to be quite fluid with the exploration. As I discussed in the E is for ethics post – I need to consider appropriate justification for this level of flexibility to get my research accepted by the ethics panel. Because I see myself learning from others all the time the last thing I would want is to list set ‘questions’ that I am bound by and can’t change in response to feedback and new insights. The worldview concept of pragmatism fits in here – doing what works best. As I’ve already mentioned the social constructivist worldview I was happy to read that it is not uncommon to use more than one, as long as they work together.
So just a few concepts/terms covered in one post – think that’s enough for today.
Creswell, J. W. (2007) Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Ellingson, L. L. (2011) Analysis and Representation Across the Continuum. In: Denzin, N.K. And Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds) (2011) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 595-610
Do you think you empathise with the perspectives above or are you more to the right of the continuum?
kirstyes 