Project Housekeeping

1. Project Housekeeping • Remember, no class next week. • Proposals due by email Friday night, September 28th • Start some informal ‘fieldwork’ as you finish your proposals: talk to friends @ the topic, start your journal, search the internet . . .

2. Considering Data Collection Project Topic/Purpose Research Questions Epistemology Choosing Method(s) of Data Collection

3. Various Qual Data Collection Options • Participant-Observation • Conducing Interviews • Conducting Focus Groups • Analysis of Existing Documents • Archival Data • Open-Ended Survey Instruments

4. Starting Some “Fieldwork” • Remember: search questions are revised, revisited as you proceed . . . • Getting started talking, observing, and/or reviewing documents can help you to hone your research question and/or choice of data collection methods.

5. Communication RQ Examples • What communication strategies do women mid-level managers in the financial industry use in salary negotiations? • How do young adults talk about the role social media plays in dating? • How do PR manager frame their use of social media in managing a crisis? • How do mid-career, professional Hispanic women viewing ‘Law & Order’ talk about the way that minorities are portrayed in the workplace?

6. How was the term ‘economic recession’ used in the business media between 2008-2009 to justify corporate downsizing? • How do temporary workers experience and describe working at client organizations? • How do young adults talk about the ethics of social media use/abuse in social situations? • How do single mothers make sense of the benefits and challenges they experience managing work and family?

7. What is ‘the field’? Originally conceived as literally a ‘physical location’ but . . . For us, its process and a place or your ‘field of vision’ for the project: • Community of connected individuals • Relationships which you negotiate to gain access • Sites where you’ll have conversations and observations • Public discourses that gather for analysis • Going into ‘the field’ means time spent listening and learning. • Key skills as observation, note taking, careful listening, and attention. • Note: Word ‘ethnography’ and ‘ethnographer’ = one who participates and observes another culture or others’ fields of vision.

8. Stop: Awareness Check Either the subway ride there tonight or this morning or when you were at lunch today: • Describe in as much detail as possible as many people, things, sounds, smells, and/or interactions you experienced or experienced.

9. What prevents us in daily life from engaged observation?

10. What can cause us to pay attention in the daily flow of our days?

11. Topic: Customer Service Interactions • RQ: What customer service strategies are used by employees in NYC fast-food restaurants, cafes or quick service establishments?

12. Take a Notebook, couple $$ (if you want) and a Partner • Go somewhere you can unobtrusively observe customer service interactions at food establishment for 20 minutes. • Stay within a few block radius . . . • Starbucks, Chipolte, Gregorys, Pinkberry, Dunkin, Pax, Bauch Coffee Shop, Pizza places, etc. • Come back to Baruch first, sit down for 10 minutes– write field notes, separate notes for each person.

13. What to pay attention to? • Initial impressions of the setting (especially if you’ve been there before – look again) • Customer service interactions: • Dialogue, common phrases or words used, unusual incidents, ‘easy interactions’, co-worker conversations, body language, physical space, vocal intonation, customer responses, sense of time or pace. • Notice when something ‘changes’ or when you see different types of customer service interaction – describe.

14. Goal = Create ‘descriptive field notes’ of this setting – not analytical. • Don’t judge, just document. You don’t know what will eventually be important for your analysis. • Watch, take ‘head notes’ – focus on remembering • Yes, you can make quick shorthand notes: jot down memorable phrases; try to avoid analyzing. • But observe don’t just write – experience. • Look, listen carefully – what sounds? What smells? • Catch ‘dialogue’ as best you can – what was said? • “Participate” if you can – get a soda, coffee, etc.

15. Go . . . Have fun! Observe for 20 minutes; Write up notes for 10. We’ll start class back up at:

16. Describe the Process of Observation . . .

17. Back to your projects: • What challenges might you experience in taking notes during an interview? • Participants’ notice when you write or don’t write. • Not listening, but only making notes. • Other distractions – phones, kids, etc. • What about challenges in taking notes during a focus group? • Audio recording and talk overs? Quality of audio? Video? • Your job = facilitating a conversation; difficult on its own. • Bring another student from class to also take notes; sit and listen.

18. Best Practices • Get a system for jotting down ‘memorable words’ or phrases during the interview. • Write everything – you don’t know what will eventually matter – construct your data first. • Tell participants up front that you’ll take a few notes, but recording so you can focus on the conversation. • Start a journal: set aside 15 minutes to take notes after every interview; if you remember something later on, add – don’t assume you’ll remember. • Write your reactions as you proceed, just try to note when its your reaction vs. a direct observation.

19. Have separate sections for your notes and for your ongoing ‘analysis’ – want to be able to tell the difference. • You’ll listen to audio to create full field notes for each interview – combination of journal notes and ‘transcription’ from audio. • Why do notes matter when you are already recording the interview or focus group?

20. Credibility: How do I begin to establish? • Why do you need to think about this now as you start your projects? • Steps to take to work toward credibility during the data collection stage. • Steps to take during the analysis to work toward credibility. • And, recognizing that data collection and analysis are interrelate processes in qual research.

21. Big Picture Criteria

22. During Data Collection • Detailed Field Notes. • Asking for clarification and listening checks. • Careful and detailed transcription. • Gathering multiple sources of information • Document data collection process and decisions. • Analysis • Careful documentation of analysis process. • Member checking (if follows your epistemology) • Evidence to illustrate claims. • Exploring data for counter examples. • Ethical portrayal of data. • Document analytic turns.

23. So much to do, such little time! I look forward to reading proposals starting after the 28th Email with questions, random thoughts, ideas, frustrations, etc. See you in two weeks.