Research Terms - Skype Session 12th February 2019
Skype 12th
February 2019
Research
Terms
During this
week’s skype call it became clear that it is crucial to use research throughout
the whole Module as opposed to solely in the literature review. For example,
implementing research into interviews. I watched an extremely interesting ted
talk by Brene Brown on ‘Vulnerability’ with the focus ‘if you can’t measure
it, it doesn’t exist’ I will link it below and am also writing a separate post
about this. I would highly recommend watching as it definitely changed my
thought process. After watching the ted talk, I was able to think about my
interviewees in much more depth; considering body language, wholeheartedness
and vulnerability all aspects that I may not have considered in as much detail
if I had not done prior research.
We
discussed six main research terms throughout the session; Artefact,
Triangulation, Ethnography, Reflexivity, Discourse and Paradigm. In this blog
post I have summarised the first four and will post another blog on Discourse
and Paradigm upon completion of further research.
Artefact
An artefact
does not have its own free will, it is a thing or an object similar to that of
the contents of a museum. An artefact has evidence of something for example, a
ballet shoe is an artefact of a classical ballet performance or class. It is
evidence that the ballet actually happened. It is something that people within
my profession would recognise; for example, a long romantic tutu would be
recognisable as a costume from Giselle by other ballet dancers / teachers
alike.
It aids
explanation of your inquiry to the people within your profession. A summary for
our fellow practitioners showing what we have done, what we have achieved and
how we have achieved it.
Triangulation
Triangulation
is the comparison of looking for the relationships between the data that I have
gathered, the voices of the literature regarding the overall inquiry topic and
my own experience in my professional practice and how the three link between
each other.
Looking at
the comparison of Literature Review + Data Collection + My Personal View =
Triangulation
As a word
triangulation means trying to take one idea from one source and see if other
sources have the same idea but different approaches to it and work out why
their approach is the way it is as well as how they have all come to the same
conclusion.
They have
all come to the same answer but it is about their approaches to the answer and
how that has come about over time.
With
Triangulation we are not looking for answer; there is no right or wrong. The
aim is to gather as many responses and understandings as we can in order to
make the best informed decision that you are able to once you have found out
all the facts from all of the different sources.
Adesola
used a fantastic baked beans analogy to clearly describe triangulation:
If you have
just tried one type of baked beans it does not necessarily mean you like baked
beans as a whole it just means you like the Morrisons ones for example.
But to get
a better understanding as to whether you like baked beans in general you should
try them from everywhere else and then you can make an informed decision about
your favourite type of bean.
Why
triangulation is important is because you need to have more than one
perspective you cannot just find one thing out and think “oh that’s true for
everything”.
Ethnography
Just by
being there doesn’t mean you understand what is going on. Now it is more about
the part where you are there and in the place, where it is happening. You’re
not looking at it from afar you are feeling the same things as them if it’s
raining on them it’s also raining on you so you get a sense as to what it is
like to be with them and apart of them. Because we are all insider researchers,
researching into our own practice we are already in there; it becomes a kind of
ethnography because you are writing about something you already know about. You
are a part of the community and you are going into the community to discover
more via interviews etc. It involves talking about what you are noticing and
feeling as well. In the past people have used what they are noticing and
feeling so strongly as opposed to what really is going on it is important that
ethnography is using reflexivity.
Reflexivity
Where you
don’t just think what you think it is about you start asking yourself questions
such as; am I understanding it to? I understand it is that way because of my
experiences and if I try to look at it through someone else’s perspective that
I met. Now I have met someone knowing them I can imagine they might think of it
this way or that way differently to me. You are really using your sensing
critical skills in the place that you are doing the inquiry to better
understand the situation that you’re looking at. For us ethnography is not
possible without reflexivity.
Also, why
triangulation is important is because you might notice something and then
notice something else and you realise that with those two things you are
getting a different impression of the same thing. Why is that? Am I noticing
that I am always thinking the same thing in all these different situations and
why is that? So, triangulation, ethnography, reflexivity are all elements of
this analysis; being aware that you are making analysis of your data that you
collect.
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