class 9: 11/11/13 field-based research

class 9: 11/11/13 field-based research

research is • going beyond what is known (Bruner) • making the inaccessible accessible • getting smarter about the world in order to make it a better place (Lee Shulman) • explaining links in a system (Bob Pianta)

all researchers must attend to funding • which funders are funding what journals • which journals are publishing what promotion • what kinds of research and other activities are valued in a given department, college, university

all researchers must attend to details

Becker 5:learning to write as a professional • point is that no one learns to write all at once, that learning, on the contrary, goes on for a professional lifetime and comes from a variety of experiences academia makes available (91) • I began to see that finishing a paper didn’t mean you were done with it (92) • “Stink! Stink! Stink!” (93) • knowing you are essentially right takes a lot of pressure off your writing (95)

I have spent relatively little time at the typewriter. I would begin what eventually became a paper by talking, to anyone who would listen, about the topic I was going to write about (101) • I added up my production frequently and announced to anyone who would listen that I had done 6 pages . . .2500 words (102) • after a second or third draft, I have something I can send to some friends (103)

. . . that the most important thing a photographer can do is photograph and that making thousands of bad photographs is no disgrace as long as you make a few good ones too and can tell the good from the bad (104)

field-based research • attitudes of a good fieldworker • all people are smart (about their world) • all people make sense (from their point of view) • all people want to have a good life (as it is defined in their world) (Ray McDermott)

characteristics • occurs in “natural” setting (but many settings, like school, not particularly “natural”). better: “ordinary daily life” • importance of understanding participants’ perspectives (emic view) • prolonged and repetitive: generally takes 6 months to a year or more in the field

focus on action rather than behavior • behavior: what people do • action: what people intend as they do • search is for meaning constructed in daily interactions • data record is constructed from the concrete particulars of everyday life

fieldwork cycle • desk > field >desk >field >desk >field >desk . . . • observation >interview >observation >interview. . . • field jottings > fieldnotes > data record > analysis > writing > field jottings > fieldnotes > data record > . . .

generating data • observing • interviewing • collecting artifacts

basic rules of fieldwork • write it down • write it down • write it down

rules cont. • observe carefully, systematically, with discipline, and creatively • keep interviews short: < 30” • construct fieldnotes immediately—same day • back data records up (keep back-ups in different place) • write early, write often • for every 1 hour in the field allot 3 hours at the desk

field jottings • notes taken in the field fieldnotes • constructed at the desk from field jottings, from memory, from “head notes,” reflection, etc • fieldnotes become part of the data record

coding • process of constructing categories from data records: • recurrences, patterns, salient events, threads • 2 kinds: top-down, bottom-up • taking large data record and turning it into something small enough and manageable enough to work on

example of using statistics in field work Jefferson and Madison Combined poor not poor total 2-year 24 34 58 1-year 6 65 71 total 30 99 129 chi-square: 19.4 (1 df) p < .0001

Jefferson and Madison Combined non-white white total 2-year 10 48 58 1-year 9 62 71 total 19 110 129 chi-square: .530 (1 df) p < .5

Interpretive Methods Frederick Erickson What is General Nature? is there such a Thing? What is General Knowledge? is there such a Thing? Strictly Speaking All Knowledge is Particular William Blake

a central research interest in human meaning in social life and its elucidation and exposition by the researcher (119) • basic validity criterion: the immediate and local meanings of actions, as defined from actor’s point of view (119) • research interpretive as a matter of substantive focus and intent, rather than procedures in data collection (119)

central substantive concerns • the nature of classrooms as socially and culturally organized environments for learning • the nature of teaching as one, but only one, aspect of the reflexive learning environment • the nature (and content) of the meaning-perspectives of teacher and learner as intrinsic to the educational process (120)

My work is an attempt to combine close analysis of fine details and behavior in everyday social interaction with analysis of the wider social context—the field of broader social influences—within which the face-to-face interaction takes place. In method, my work is an attempt to be empirical without being positivist; to be rigorous and systematic in investigating the slippery phenomena of everyday interaction and its connections, through the medium of subjective meaning, with the wider social world. (120)

fieldwork • intensive, long term participation in the field • careful recording of what happens in the setting • subsequent analytic reflection on the record and reporting using detailed description, vignettes, quotations, analytic charts, summary tables, and descriptive statistics (121)

interpretive methods useful to discover • specific structure of occurrences rather than general character and overall distribution • meaning-perspectives of particular actors • the location of naturally occurring points of contrast to be used as natural experiments • identification of specific causal linkages not identified by experimental methods, and development of new theories about patterns identified by surveys or experiments.

to answer the following questions • what is happening, specifically, in the social action in this setting • what do the actions mean to the actors at the moment they took place • how are happenings organized socially & culturally • how related to other system levels inside and outside the setting • how does organization of daily life here compare to other places and times (121)

why answers needed (121-122) • the invisibility of everyday life • need for specific understanding through documentation of concrete details of practice • need to consider local meanings • need for comparative understanding of different social settings • need for comparative understanding beyond the immediate circumstances of the local setting

actors’ perspectives often overlooked (124-125) • people who hold meaning-perspectives of interest often relatively powerless, e.g., teachers and students • meaning-perspectives often held outside conscious awareness by those who hold them, and not explicitly articulated • meaning-perspectives viewed as peripheral or irrelevant—needing to be eliminated in order for objective inquiry to be done

action and behavior • one cannot assume that the same behavior has the same meaning to different individuals. Thus the crucial analytic distinction is that between behavior, the physical act, and action, which is the physical behavior plus the meaning interpretations held by the actor and those with whom the actor interacts (126-127)

social action (127-128) • Weber: a social relationship exists when people reciprocally adjust their behavior to each other with respect to the meaning they give it, and when this reciprocal adjustment determines the form it takes. • standing is a behavior; standing in line is social action

meanings-in-action shared by group are local in two ways (128-129) • they are distinctive to a particular group who come to share certain specific local understandings and traditions—a microculture • they are local in the sense of the locality of moment-to-moment enactment of social action in real time (e.g., today’s enactment of breakfast differs from yesterdays)

meanings also non-local in origin • the influence of culture (learned and shared standards for perceiving, believing, acting, and evaluating the actions of others) • the perception that local members have interests or constraints beyond the local group goal: to discover how local and non-local forms of social organization relate to specific people interacting together (129)

The search is not for abstract universals . . . but for concrete universals, arrived at by studying a specific case in great detail and then comparing it with other cases studied in equally great detail. Some of what occurs is universal—across culture and time; some is specific to the historical and cultural circumstances of the situation. Each instance a unique system that nonetheless displays universal properties. (p. 130)

a central task for interpretive, participant-observational research is to enable researchers and practitioners to become much more specific in their understanding of the inherent variation from situation to situation. This means building better theory about the social and cognitive organization of particular forms of life as immediate environments for the actors involved. (p. 133)

writing lit review grading • 20: writing—clear, explicit, concise, grammatical • 20: APA—citations, references, headings, format • 20: organization—necessary parts, balanced • 40: content—critical, convincing, clear

general hints • do not write linearly, i.e., don’t start at page 1, then 2,3,… to 30 • write sections and subsections—when you get stuck, move to a different section • think of the process as putting together already written sections—like a puzzle • get an entire rough draft done before you start to do serious rewriting and editing

convince reader you have reviewed a literature • if part of a literature, specify parameters and explain why • if parts of different literatures, specify and explain why • not just a list of studies—organize studies and explain relationship of parts to whole • make the limitations of your search explicit— a beginning lit review, a preliminary version, a work in progress

citations in text (207-214) one work by one author • Chen (2000) found that . . . • Teachers reported that kids . . . reading levels (Chen, 2000). • do not repeat year within same paragraph unless multiple citations in paragraph: Chen (2000) found that. . . . Chen also reported . . . . • repeat full citation in new paragraph

one work by multiple authors • 2 authors: cite both names every time • 3, 4, or 5 authors: cite all names first time, after that, Chen et al. • 6 or more authors: Chen et al. always • exception, if two references would shorten to same, e.g., Chen et al. (2000) and Chen et al. (2000), include enough names to differentiate them, e.g., Chen, Martinez, et al. (2000), Chen, Zodiates, et al. (2000)

groups, organizations, acronyms • short name or unfamiliar abbreviation, cite in full each time • identifiable abbreviation, cite in full first time then abbreviation • (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2000), thereafter (NIMH, 2000)

authors with same surnames • include initials in all citations: J. C. Chen (2000) and L. Chen (1999) . . . . 2 or more works within same citation • same author: (Chen, 1995, 2000, in press) • different authors—alphabetical order separated by semi-colons: (Chen, 1995, 2000; Suzuki, 1995; Vasconcelos, 1999)

margins • 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins at the top, bottom, right, and left of every page • left justify only—ragged right

best getaways • state parks with lodges: hiking etc • Turkey Run (60 minutes east on I-74) • Starved Rock (2 hrs—north from Bloomington-Normal on I-39) • Brown County (3 hours—near Bloomington, IN) • Giant City State Park (3 hours, near Carbondale, IL • with kids • the children’s museum of Indianapolis (www.ChildrensMuseum.org)

day trips • Homer Lake (east of Urbana) (17 miles) • Allerton (southwest of Monticello) (30 miles) • Tuscola outlet mall (south I-57) (32 miles) • Arcola/Arthur: Amish country: shops, woodworking stores (south I-57) (41/47 miles) • Peoria River Front (east I-74) (92 miles)

Chicago • Art Institute • “Sears Tower” or John Hancock observation decks • walk Michigan Avenue from river to Oak Street beach and back • Watertower Place • Aquarium, Field Museum • Museum of Science and Industry • no-longer Marshall Fields (Christmas windows)

Lincoln Park Zoo • Lincoln Park • Navy Pier • walk Lake Front from Aquarium to Navy Pier (dress warm on windy cold day) • lunch at Billy Goat’s tavern (under Michigan avenue near Wrigley Building)

class 9: 11/11/13 field-based research